Dominic Sandbrook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dominic Sandbrook (born 1974) is a British historian and writer. Born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, he was educated at Malvern College and studied at Balliol College, Oxford, the University of St Andrews and Jesus College, Cambridge. From 2001 he taught history at the University of Sheffield before leaving in 2004 to become a freelance writer. He is currently a member of the History Faculty and fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University.
Dr Sandbrook's first book, a biography of the American politician and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, proved extremely controversial on its release in the United States in 2004. Although the book was described by Louis Menand in The New Yorker as "intelligent and well written" and praised in other publications, it was also, as Menand put it, "unremittingly unsympathetic" toward its subject. McCarthy himself called the book "almost libellous", but most newspaper critics and academic reviewers agreed with Sandbrook's conclusions.
In 2005, Sandbrook published Never Had It So Good, a history of Britain from the Suez Crisis to the Beatles, 1956-63. It covers British politics, culture and society during the first half of the 1960s and attracted glowing reviews, being nominated as a Book of the Year in The Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday and The Spectator.
The sequel, White Heat, covering the years 1964-70 and the rise and fall of Harold Wilson's Labour government, was published in August 2006. It won similar plaudits, being described as "a triumph" by the Daily Telegraph and "awesome ... could hardly be more impressive" by The Times. The veteran political commentator Anthony Howard compared Sandbrook with "a medieval chronicler" in his fondness for detailed narrative, but concluded that his book "represents an outstanding feat". "It is the real deal: social history at its finest", agreed Joseph Connolly in the Daily Mail. "I cannot conceive of it ever being bettered or superseded."
Unlike previous historians of the 1960s, Sandbrook argues that the period was marked by strong conservatism and conformity. His books debunk many of the myths associated with the period, from the sexual revolution to student protest, and he challenges the "cultural revolution" thesis associated with historians like Arthur Marwick. This approach has not always endeared him to professional veterans of the period. The rock critic Charles Shaar Murray, for example, rather bizarrely called him "the Hoodie historian ... throwing whatever passes for gang signs in the history department of the University of Sheffield."
In the preface to White Heat, Sandbrook disclosed that he is working on a further book, provisionally entitled Seasons of Discontent, that will cover the 1970s, and which will include chapters on the rise of Scottish and Welsh nationalism. A fourth and final book in the series will cover the era of Margaret Thatcher.
Sandbrook's numerous articles and reviews have appeared in the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and The Daily Telegraph, and he has appeared on BBC radio and television, most notably as a critic of John Lennon. Since January 2006 he has also written a weekly column on history and current affairs for the Evening Standard.
[edit] Bibliography
- Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism, Dominic Sandbrook, Publ. Alfred A. Knopf (2004) ISBN 1-4000-4105-8
- Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, Dominic Sandbrook, Publ. Little, Brown (2005) ISBN 0-316-86083-2
- White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties, Dominic Sandbrook, Publ. Little, Brown (2006) ISBN 0-316-72452-1
