Dominic Sandbrook | |
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 Sandbrook in 2021 | |
| Born | 2 October 1974 Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Catherine Morley (m. 2007) |
| Website | dominicsandbrook |
Dominic Christopher Sandbrook, FRHistS (born 2 October 1974) is a British historian, author, columnist and television presenter. [1] [2] He co-hosts The Rest is History podcast with author Tom Holland.
Sandbrook was born on 2 October 1974 in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. [3] [4] He was educated at Malvern College, then an all-boys independent school in Worcestershire. [5] [6] He studied history and French at Balliol College, Oxford. He then studied for a Master of Letters (MLitt) degree in history at the University of St Andrews and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at Jesus College, Cambridge. [7] [8] His doctoral thesis was titled "The political career of Senator Eugene McCarthy" and was completed in 2002. [9]
Previously a lecturer in history at the University of Sheffield, he has been a senior fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University and a member of its history faculty. Sandbrook was a visiting professor at King's College London, [10] and a freelance writer and newspaper columnist. In 2007 he was named one of Waterstone's 25 Authors for the Future. In July 2021, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS). [8]
Sandbrook's first book, a biography of the US presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, proved controversial on its publication in the United States in 2004. Writing for H-Net, a forum for scholars in the humanities and social sciences, David Stebenne said it "describes McCarthy's life and work with outstanding grace and clarity", and was "a very fine study of a significant figure that serious students of American postwar history will want to consult." [11] McCarthy himself called the book "almost libellous". [12]
In 2005, Sandbrook published Never Had It So Good, a history of Britain from the Suez Crisis to the Beatles, 1956–63. It was described as a "rich treasure chest of a book" by Anthony Howard in The Daily Telegraph , who wrote of his "respect for the sweep and scope of the author's knowledge". [13] Nick Cohen wrote in The Observer that it was "a tribute to Sandbrook's literary skill that his scholarship is never oppressive. Alternately delightful and enlightening, he has produced a book which must have been an enormous labour to write but is a treat to read". [14] [15] Richard Gott was more sparing in his praise: "Sandbrook does his best, but he lacks the literary talent to cover such a wide canvas and keep the reader awake." [16]
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. "Sandbrook's book could hardly be more impressive in its scope", wrote Leo McKinstry in The Times . "He writes with authority and an eye for telling detail." [17] In November 2009, it was named by the Telegraph as "one of the books that defined the Noughties". [18] James Buchan observed, "For all the charm of Dominic Sandbrook's book, with its minute anatomy of social forms and brilliant parade of charlatans and fools, it is hard not to feel that somehow time has not been well used." [19] Unlike some historians of the 1960s, Sandbrook argues it was marked by conservatism and conformity. His books attempt to debunk what he sees as 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. Charles Shaar Murray, writing in The Independent , called Sandbrook "the Hoodie Historian" and imagined him "slouching into shot while throwing whatever passes for gang signs in the history department of the University of Sheffield, and announcing to Arthur Marwick, Jonathon Green et al. that 'You is all mi bitches nuh.'" [20]
Sandbrook continued the history of postwar Britain with State of Emergency (2010), covering the period 1970–74, [21] and Seasons in the Sun, which took the story up to the election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in 1979. A fifth volume, Who Dares Wins, covering the period 1979–1982, was published in October 2019. [22] Anthony Quinn, reviewing for The Observer, described it as a "long, painstaking and pretty enjoyable haul through Britain in the first three years of the Thatcher government ... ungratifyingly even-handed in his portrait of [Thatcher], alive to the flaws in her character and sharp in confounding the popular myths." [23] For The Sunday Times , Piers Brendon said it was "a rich mixture of political narrative and social reportage ... scholarly, accessible, well written, witty and incisive." [24]
In 2011, before he had finished his book series about Britain, Sandbrook published a Mad as Hell about American populism in the 1970s, discussing cultural influences such as disco, the Ford and Carter presidencies, Bruce Springsteen, and the Dallas Cowboys. [25] In The Wall Street Journal, Michael C. Moynihan identified several sentences fragments that had been closely paraphrased from sources which he considered plagiarism. [26] Moynihan later said he was surprised Sandbrook had not suffered serious career repercussions. [27] [28] Sandbrook rejected the allegations and maintained that he "footnoted his sources, and if popular history books sometimes sound familiar that is because there are only so many ways to say things." [28]
Sandbrook has written articles and reviews for the Daily Mail , The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph , The Observer and The Daily Telegraph and has appeared on BBC radio and television. His Radio Four series SlapDash Britain, charting the rise and fall of British governance since the Second World War, was described by the radio critic Miranda Sawyer as "very brilliant". [29]
| Year | Title | Broadcaster | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Archive on 4 : "The Anniversary Anniversary" | Radio 4 | An examination of people's obsessions with anniversaries [30] |
| 2009 | Archive on 4 : "Pinter On Air" | Radio 4 | Discussing the role of television and radio dramas in establishing Harold Pinter's reputation [30] |
| 2010 | SlapDash Britain | Radio 4 | A 2-part series examining bureaucracy and incompetence in British government since the 1950s [31] |
| 2010 | Archive on 4 : "A Working-class Tory Is Something To Be" | Radio 4 | With David Davis. An exploration of the history of British working-class Conservatives [30] |
| 2011 | Archive on 4 : "Mind Your PMQs" | Radio 4 | The history and role of Prime Minister's Questions [30] |
| 2011 | The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office | Radio 4 | A 15-part series examining the history of the Royal Mail [32] |
| 2012 | Archive on 4 : "Tuning in" | Radio 4 | The history of British radio entertainment [30] |
| 2012 | The 70s | BBC Two | A 4-part history of Britain during the 1970s [33] |
| 2013 | Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us | BBC Two | The ascendence of the post-war automotive industry in Germany [34] |
| 2013 | Strange Days: Cold War Britain | BBC Two | A history of Britain during the Cold War [35] |
| 2014 | Learning to Listen | Radio 4 | The development of radio listening habits through the 1920s and 1930s [36] |
| 2014 | Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction | BBC Two | A 4-part history of science fiction [37] |
| 2014 | Archive on 4 : "The Eccentric Entrepreneur" | Radio 4 | The life of Captain Leonard Plugge [30] |
| 2015 | Let Us Entertain You | BBC Two | A 4-part history of British post-war culture [38] |
| 2015 | Archive on 4 : "The Future of the BBC: A History" | Radio 4 | A history of the BBC and how it may need to change to survive [30] |
| 2016 | The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook | BBC Two | A 3-part history of Britain during the 1980s [39] |
| 2016 | Future Tense – The Story of H.G. Wells | BBC One | Examines how H. G. Wells's lower-middle class upbringing in the suburban counties of South East England influenced his early science fiction writing. [40] |
Since 2020, Sandbrook has co-presented a podcast with historian Tom Holland called The Rest is History . [41]
Sandbrook lives in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, with his wife Catherine and their son. [42]
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, popular historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, was a British politician and journalist. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament for Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983 and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries.
Constance Mary Whitehouse was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education.
The February 1974 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 28 February 1974. The Labour Party, led by Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, gained 14 seats but was seventeen short of an overall majority. The Conservative Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Edward Heath, lost 28 seats. That resulted in a hung parliament, the first since 1929. Heath sought a coalition with the Liberals, but the two parties failed to come to an agreement and so Wilson became prime minister for a second time, his first with a minority government. Wilson called another early election in September, which was held in October and resulted in a Labour majority. The February election was also the first general election to be held with the United Kingdom as a member state of the European Communities (EC), which was widely known as the "Common Market".
The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, music and fashion, and was symbolised by the city's "pop and fashion exports", such as the Beatles, as the multimedia leaders of the British Invasion of musical acts; the mod and psychedelic subcultures; Mary Quant's miniskirt designs; popular fashion models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton; the iconic status of popular shopping areas such as London's King's Road, Kensington and Carnaby Street; the political activism of the anti-nuclear movement; and the sexual liberation movement.
Andrew Ferguson Neil is a British journalist and broadcaster. He was editor of The Sunday Times from 1983 to 1994. He has presented various political programmes on the BBC and on Channel 4. Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Neil attended Paisley Grammar School, before studying at the University of Glasgow. He entered journalism in 1973 as a correspondent for The Economist.
Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia,, is an English popular historian, journalist and member of the House of Lords. He is the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow in the Hoover Institution in Stanford University and a Lehrman Institute Distinguished Lecturer in the New York Historical Society. He was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 2013 to 2021.
Jacqueline Pearce was a British film and television actress. She was best known for her portrayal of the principal villain Servalan in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7 (1978–1981), a performance which her obituarist in The Times wrote produced "a sexual awakening for a generation of sci-fi fans".
Colin Berkeley Moynihan, 4th Baron Moynihan, 4th Baronet, is a British Olympic silver medalist, politician, businessman and sports administrator. Lord Moynihan served as the Chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA) from 2005 to 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, he was as a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Lewisham East from 1983 to 1992, and was the Minister for Sport from 1987 to 1990. He became a member of the House of Lords in 1997.
Sir Peregrine Gerard Worsthorne was a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He spent the largest part of his career at the Telegraph newspaper titles, eventually becoming editor of The Sunday Telegraph for several years. He left the newspaper in 1997.
Thomas Holland is an English author and popular historian who has published best-selling books on topics including classical and medieval history, and the origins of Islam.
Cathy McGowan is a British broadcaster and journalist, best known as presenter of the 1960s pop music television show Ready Steady Go!
Con Coughlin is a British journalist and author, currently The Daily Telegraph defence editor.
Michael Christopher Moynihan is an American journalist, former National Correspondent for Vice News and co-host of The Fifth Column podcast. He was previously the cultural news editor for The Daily Beast, the managing editor of Vice magazine, and a senior editor of the libertarian magazine Reason. He currently (2024) produces content for The Free Press.
Amanda Jane Vickery is an English historian, writer, radio and television presenter, and professor of early modern history at Queen Mary, University of London.
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Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England is a 2010 book by British lawyer Anthony Julius. The book details the role played by antisemitism in the history of the United Kingdom. The book argues that British anti-Zionism developed out of antisemitism in the United Kingdom and utilizes many of the same antisemitic tropes in its arguments.
The Rest Is History is a history podcast hosted by historian and author Dominic Sandbrook and popular historian Tom Holland.
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