Norman Stone

Norman Stone (born 8 March 1941, in Glasgow, Scotland) is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara. He is a former Professor at the University of Oxford, Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Early life and education

Stone attended Glasgow Academy on a scholarship for the children of dead servicemen – his father having been killed in the war^[2] – and graduated with First Class Honours in History from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, England (1959–1962). Following his undergraduate degree, Stone did research in Central European History in Vienna and Budapest (1962–1965).

Career

Cambridge

Upon completion of his secondary degree, Stone was offered a research fellowship by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he later became an Assistant Lecturer in Russian and German History (1967), and a full Lecturer (1973).

In 1971 he had transferred from Caius to Jesus College where, as director of studies in history, he combined a reputation for academic brilliance with an engaging angle on college politics.

In 1983 Stone launched an attack on the recently deceased E. H. Carr via the London Review of Books. Stone wrote of Carr's History of Soviet Russia series that:

"Much of the book concerns economics, a subject on which Carr was hardly an expert. The lack of definitive point in the book...makes it dull and unrevealing. Like Carr himself it peters out...Carr's History is not a history of the Soviet Union, but effectively of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Even then, much of it is the kind of unreconstructed Stalinist version that could not now see the light of day in Russia itself...I am nearly tempted to exclaim that no more useless set of volumes has ever masqueraded as a classic. Carr's real talent lay in mathematics...From the mathematical spirit he took a quality not so much of abstraction as of autism which was carried over into his historical work. The result is a trail of devastation"^[3]

Oxford

Stone was subsequently accepted in 1984 as a Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, England.^[4]

Turkey

In 1997, Stone accepted retirement from Oxford and left to teach at the department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara.^[5]

In 2005 Stone transferred to Koc University, Istanbul. However, currently Stone is returning to Bilkent University, Ankara, to teach for the 2007-2008 academic year. Stone also guest lectures at Bogazici University, Istanbul. Since moving to Turkey Stone has become a frequent contributor to Cornucopia, a magazine about the history and culture of Turkey.

In 2011, Stone published a book on Turkish history, from the 11th century to the present day, "Turkey: A Short History".^{[6] [7]}

Views

Stone's tenure at Oxford was not without incident, largely based around his political views, which were considered to be highly conservative, in the left wing climate of Oxford. He published a regular column in the Sunday Times between 1987 and 1992, and helped comment for many news services, including the BBC, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Wall Street Journal.^[8]

During this same time Stone also became Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy advisor on Europe,^[4] as well as her speech writer.^[9]

Stone's wife was a leading member of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, a conservative contrarian organization not affiliated with Helsinki Watch.^[10]

He is also known for denying the 1915 Armenian Genocide: for example, in 2004 he wrote from Ankara to the Times Literary Supplement to report "Armenian nationalist claims that a 'genocide' as classically defined had taken place".^[11]

In 2009, he argued for the proposition that "Churchill was more a liability than an asset to the free world" along with Pat Buchanan and Nigel Knight.^[12][13]

Writing

Stone's books of greatest note are The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (1975) which won the Wolfson History Prize.^[14] Also Hitler (1980), and Europe Transformed 1878-1919 (1983) which won the Fontana History of Europe Prize.^[4]

He is nearing the completion of his recent work on a general history of the U.S., Russia, and Europe, post-1945.

Personal life

While in Vienna in the 1960s, Stone met his first wife Nicole, the niece of the finance minister in "Papa Doc" Duvalier's Haiti government. Their son Nick Stone is a thriller writer.^[14]

Stone keeps a house in the Galata neighborhood of Istanbul,^[15] and spends his time between Turkey and England.

Published works

• The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 (1975), ISBN 0-340-12874-7
• Hitler (1980), ISBN 0-340-24980-3 Coronet
• Europe Transformed, 1878-1919 (1983), ISBN 0-00-634262-0; 2nd ed. (1999), ISBN 0-631-21507-7
• Czechoslovakia: Crossroads and Crises, 1918-88 (1989), ISBN 0-333-48507-6
• The Times Atlas of World History (1989), ISBN 0-7230-0304-1 (ed.)
• The Other Russia (1990), ISBN 0-571-13574-9, with Michael Glenny
• World War One: A Short History (2007), ISBN 1-84614-013-7 Allan Lane
• The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War (2010), ISBN 978-1-84614-275-8 Allan Lane
• Turkey: A Short History (2011), ISBN 0-500-25175-4 Thames & Hudson

References

External links

• Russia - Getting Too Strong for Germany
• Interview with Stone on "New Books in History"