John Roberts (historian)

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John Morris Roberts (April 14, 1928 - 30 May 2003) was a British historian, with significant published works, well known also as the author and presenter of the BBC TV series The Triumph of the West (1985).

Roberts was born at Bath, and educated at Taunton School. He won a scholarship to Keble College, Oxford, and took a First in Modern History in 1948. After National Service, he was elected a Prize Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he completed a doctoral thesis on the Italian republic set up during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1953 he was elected a Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Merton College, Oxford, and in the same year went as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow to Princeton and Yale, where his interests broadened beyond European history. He returned to America three times as a visiting professor in the 1960s. From 1979 to 1985 he was vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. In 1985 he wrote and presented the thirteen-part BBC series The Triumph of the West, and was later historical advisor to the series People's Century. From 1984 to 1994 he returned as Warden of Merton College, Oxford until his retirement, whereupon he returned to his native Somerset.

In 1996, Roberts was appointed CBE for his 'services to education and history'.

Roberts died in 2003, shortly after completing the fourth revised edition of his History of the World.

The John Roberts Memorial Fund was established in his honour at Merton College in 2003, with the aim of increasing the financial support available to undergraduate and graduate students. The college hopes that in the first instance the Memorial Fund will support a history graduate student.

[edit] Selected Bibliography

Roberts' principal works include:

  • History of the World (1976)
  • A History of Europe (1996)
  • The Penguin History of the Twentieth Century (1999)
  • A Short History of the World (1993)

[edit] External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Rex Richards		 Warden of Merton College, Oxford
1984–1994		 Succeeded by
Jessica Rawson