Alan Bullock (1914–2004,) born Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, was a British historian, academic, and biographer known for his studies on Adolf Hitler and modern European history. His works shaped historical scholarship and political analysis, earning international recognition.
Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Bullock studied classics and modern history at Wadham College-Oxford, graduating in 1938. He worked as a research assistant for Winston Churchill, contributing to A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956.) During World War II, he served in the European Service of the BBC before returning to Oxford as a history fellow at New College.
His most influential work, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952,) was the first comprehensive biography of Hitler, portraying him as an opportunistic power-seeker. Later, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (1991) compared both dictatorships, offering a dual analysis of totalitarianism.
Bullock was the founding master of St Catherine’s College-Oxford (1962–81) and served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1969–73.) Other notable works include The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (1977,) which explores key intellectual concepts, and Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945–51 (1983,) a biography of the British statesman.
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Spending a weekend with Hitler would have been boring in the extreme, although you would have had a greater certainty in coming back alive.
—Alan Bullock
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