of Victoria
BA, MA (UNB), PhD (LSE)
Modern European History, Political, Social, and Military History
Summer 2024: No office hours
I was born and brought up in the Maritime Provinces and I did my BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick. My Ph.D. was completed in 1991 at the University of London (London School of Economics). Since that time, I have been teaching at UVic, initially as a sessional appointment and then full time since 1992. My main research interests are in the fields of ideology, guerrilla warfare and political symbolism.
Books:
The Denazification of Germany: A History, 1945-1950 (2007).
The SS Hunter Battalions (2006).
The Last Nazis (2000); 2nd ed. 2004; pbk. 2006. Translated into Spanish, Hungarian and Polish.
Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946 (1998); 2nd ed. 2011; published as an e-book in 2008.
Selected Titles:
"Branding the United Nations: The Adoption of the UN Insignia and Flag, 1941-1950," International History Review 42, no. 1 (Jan. 2020), pp. 19-41 (published online, 9 Jan. 2019).
"The Mufti's Men: Haj Amin al-Husayni and SS Parachute Expeditions to Palestine and Iraq, 1944-1945," Journal of Military History 82 (July 2018), pp. 783-815.“Into the Maelstrom: German Women in Combat, 1944/45,” War & Society 30, no. 1 (March 2011).
“The ‘Z’ Effect: The History of 150 Years of Analytical Writing about Nationalism,” The International Journal of the Humanities 2, no. 3 (2005).
“Donald and Me: The Iraq War and the ‘Werwolf’ Analogy,” International Journal 59 (Summer 2004).
“Freies Deutschland Partisans in East Prussia: A Contribution to the History of the German Resistance,” German Studies Review 22 (Feb. 2004).
Republished in Gary Sheffield, ed., War Studies Reader: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day and Beyond (2011).
“The Last White Terror: The White Maquis and Its Impact in Liberated France, 1944-1945,” The Journal of Modern History 73 (2001).
“Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948,” Journal of Social History 34, no. 3 (Spring 2001).
“Minutemen of the Third Reich,” History Today 50 (Oct. 2000).“Unternehmen Zeppelin: The Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union, 1942-1945,” Europe-Asia Studies 52 (2000).
“The Problem with Glass Houses: The Soviet Recruitment and Deployment of SS Men as Spies and Saboteurs,” Intelligence and National Security 15 (Autumn 2000).
“The End of the Freebooter Tradition: The Forgotten Freikorps Movement of 1944/45,” Central European History 32 (1999).
“The French Résistance and the Chambery Incident of June 1945,” French History 11, no. 4 (Dec. 1997).
“Operation Selection Board: The Growth and Suppression of the Neo-Nazi ‘Deutsche Revolution,’ 1945-1947,” Intelligence and National Security 11, no. 1 (Jan. 1996).
“’The Enemy of Our Enemy’: A View of the Edelweiss Piraten from the British and American Archives,” Journal of Contemporary History 30, no. 1 (Jan. 1995).
“Prodding the Russian Bear: Pro-German Resistance in Romania, 1944-1945,” European History Quarterly 23, no. 2 (April 1993).
“Le tricolour et l’étoile: The Origin of the Acadian National Flag, 1867-1912,” Acadiensis 20, no. 1 (1990). Republished in P.A. Buckner, Gail Campbell, David Frank, eds., The Acadiensis Reader: Atlantic Canada after Confederation (1999).
Nationalism, European Historiography
Cameron Loveless, MA—"Nazi Ideology, the German Christian Movement and British Military Government Action against the Christian Movement after 1945" (2010)
Dale Montgomery, MA—"'No Fascism Here': Ireland, 1932-1985"(2005)
Valerie Deacon, MA (co-supervision with R. Alexander)—"The Art of Secrecy and Subversion: The Cagoule and French Politics in the 1930s"(2005)
Lance Schmidt, MA—"The Folly of Youth: The Continuing Influence of the Hitler Youth in Postwar Germany" (2003)
Jason Ferguson, MA—"Reflections: American Opinions of Germans in the American Occupation Zone, 1944-1949" (2002)
Chris Wojtan, MA—"The Polish War Effort in the British and American, Polish, German and Soviet Historiographies" (2000)
Shawn Crawford, MA—"The Mouse that Roared? Pro-Nazi Resistance in U.S. Occupied Germany, 1945-1949: A View from the American Archives" (1997)
Gordon Argyle, MA—"Banishing the Past: An American Perspective of 'Renazification' in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949" (1996)
Chris Madsen, Ph.D. (co-supervision with D. Zimmerman)—"The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947" (1996) Later published as The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947 (1998).