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Andrew Roberts

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73-533: Andrew Roberts may refer to: Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia (born 1963), historian and Conservative Party life peer Andrew Roberts (Northamptonshire cricketer) (born 1971), English former cricketer Andrew D. Roberts (1937–2024), British historian of Africa Buckshot Roberts (c. 1831–1878), American frontiersman See also [ edit ] Andy Roberts (disambiguation) Robert Andrews (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

146-768: A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society . Although Roberts's 2006 work A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 won critical acclaim from some sections of the media, The Economist drew attention to some historical, geographical, and typographical errors, as well as presenting a generally scathing review of the book. The newspaper referred to the work as "a giant political pamphlet larded with its author's prejudices". More generally, Reba Soffer described him in 2009 as "devoted ... to public, polemical conservatism as well as to historical revisionism". One claim made by Roberts in A History of

219-627: A Hammersmith Society Conservation award plaque (2009) and has been included in tours in Architecture Week. Several of Hammersmith's pubs are listed buildings , including the Black Lion , The Dove , The George , The Hop Poles , the Hope and Anchor , the Salutation Inn and The Swan , as are Hammersmith's two parish churches , St Paul's (the town's original church, rebuilt in

292-523: A historical revisionism account of Lord Halifax, a one-time Viceroy of India and the Foreign Secretary in Chamberlain's government. Halifax has been charged with appeasement , along with Chamberlain, but Roberts argues that Halifax began to move his government away from that policy vis-à-vis Nazi Germany following the 1938 Munich Crisis . This work was followed in 1994 by Eminent Churchillians ,

365-503: A "highly successful prime minister". In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum , Roberts backed the "Leave" vote. Roberts supports a strong American military and has generally argued in favour of close relations between the Anglosphere nations. As an advocate for the general principle of democratic pluralism, he has argued that "[s]neered at for being 'simplistic' in his reaction to 9/11, Bush's visceral responses to

438-722: A Lehrman Institute Distinguished Lecturer in the New York Historical Society . He was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 2013 to 2021. Roberts' historical research has focused mostly on English-speaking nations, particularly those closely tied socially to the United Kingdom such as the United States. As an author, Roberts is well-known internationally for his 2009 non-fiction work The Storm of War , which covers socio-political factors of

511-729: A basketball court, a bowling lawn, a paddling pool, and playgrounds. Hammersmith is the historical home of the West London Penguin Swimming and Water Polo Club , formerly known as the Hammersmith Penguin Swimming Club . Hammersmith Chess Club has been active in the borough since it was formed in 1962. It was initially based in Westcott Lodge , later moving to St Paul's Church, then to Blythe House and now Lytton Hall, near West Kensington tube station . The area

584-514: A biography of Churchill entitled Churchill: Walking with Destiny . Dovetailing with Roberts' previous work on the Second World War and its related major figures, the book received praise from a number of publications. For the Financial Times , Toni Barber wrote: "Anecdotes sparkle like gems throughout Roberts’s book, an exhaustive but fluent text that draws on a wider range of sources than

657-715: A biography of the Victorian era politician and then Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury . Historian Michael Korda praised the work as "a masterpiece about one of the greatest and most able Tory political figures of the Victorian age". The book additionally won the Wolfson History Prize and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction. In September 2001, Napoleon and Wellington , an investigation into

730-545: A collection of essays about friends and enemies of Churchill. A large part of the book is an attack on Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma , and other prominent members of the elite . The title is an obvious allusion to the famous and similarly combative book of biographies Eminent Victorians . In 1995, Roberts published The Aachen Memorandum , a thriller novel based on Britain and its relationship with

803-558: A fictionalised European Union . In 1996, Roberts offered his "personal view" of the Suez crisis in an Open Media production for BBC TV. The Radio Times described the programme: "Forty years after Eden 's decision to deploy troops against the Egyptians, Andrew Roberts argues that the former prime minister should be congratulated, not chastised, for fighting to protect British assets." In 1999, Roberts published Salisbury: Victorian Titan ,

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876-687: A four-part history series on BBC Two about the secrets of leadership which looked at the different leadership styles of Winston Churchill , Adolf Hitler , John F. Kennedy , and Martin Luther King Jr. Roberts is a Director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York City, a founder member of José Maria Aznar 's Friends of Israel Initiative, and chaired the Hessell-Tiltman Award for Non-Fiction in 2010. Roberts

949-490: A fully independent parish in 1631. In the early 1660s, Hammersmith's first parish church, which later became St Paul's , was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith. It contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur . In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there. The church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to

1022-403: A gigantic new French edition of Napoleon's letters, aiming to create a complete re-evaluation of the man. Like The Storm of War , Roberts's life of Napoleon received critical praise from a wide range of publications. In October 2014, journalist Jeremy Jennings wrote for Standpoint that "Napoleon could have had few biographers more dedicated to their subject." Jennings additionally labelled

1095-439: A human tragedy into a story". Support also came from figures such as American political commentator Peter Robinson and fellow English historian Paul Johnson . In the book, the author aims to paint a concise yet highly detailed picture of the conflict in which he argues that dictators Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler both took terrible actions due to their repressive ideologies , throwing thousands and thousands of lives away in

1168-482: A major centre of London's Polish community . It is a major transport hub for west London , with two London Underground stations and a bus and coach station at Hammersmith Broadway . Hammersmith may mean "(Place with) a hammer smithy or forge", although, in 1839, Thomas Faulkner proposed that the name derived from two 'Saxon' words: the initial Ham from ham and the remainder from hythe , alluding to Hammersmith's riverside location. In 1922, Gover proposed that

1241-536: A shopping centre, bus station, an Underground station and an office complex. Stretching about 750 m (820 yd) westwards from this centre is King Street , Hammersmith's main shopping street. Named after John King, Bishop of London , it contains a second shopping centre ( Livat Hammersmith ), many small shops, the town hall , the Lyric Theatre , a cinema, the Polish community centre and two hotels. King Street

1314-935: Is a judge on the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize . Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2001, he chaired the Conservative Party 's Advisory Panel on the Teaching of History in Schools in 2005. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute and an Honorary Member of the International Churchill Society . He is a Trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and of

1387-571: Is a monarchy". He has appeared on US television during royal funerals and weddings. He first came to prominence in the United States for his expert commentary on the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997, and he was later in a similar role during the CNN broadcast of the death of the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and on the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales , and Camilla Parker Bowles . In 2003, he presented The Secrets of Leadership ,

1460-620: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia , FRSL FRHistS (born 13 January 1963), 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

1533-632: Is on the main A4 trunk road heading west from central London towards the M4 motorway and Heathrow Airport . The A4, a busy commuter route, passes over the area's main road junction, Hammersmith Gyratory System, on a long viaduct, the Hammersmith Flyover . Hammersmith Bridge closed in August 2020 to pedestrians, cyclists and road traffic, severing the link with Barnes in the southwest. Its cast iron pedestals that hold

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1606-539: Is supplemented by other shops along Shepherds Bush Road to the north, Fulham Palace Road to the south and Hammersmith Road to the east. Hammersmith's office activity takes place mainly to the eastern side of its centre, along Hammersmith Road and in the Ark , an office complex to the south of the flyover which traverses the area. Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road is a large multi-disciplinary NHS hospital with accident & emergency and teaching departments run by

1679-659: Is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham , and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London . It is bordered by Shepherd's Bush to the north, Kensington to the east, Chiswick to the west, and Fulham to the south, all on the north bank of the River Thames . The area is one of west London's main commercial and employment centres, and has for some decades been

1752-458: The Guinness Book of Records listed as the smallest bar room in the world, in 2016 surviving as a small space on the right of the bar. The pub was frequented by Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene ; James Thomson lodged and likely wrote Rule Britannia here. The narrow alley in which it stands is the only remnant of the riverside village of Hammersmith, the bulk of which was demolished in

1825-505: The Battle of Stalingrad alone, Soviet forces killed the equivalent of two full divisions of their own personnel . In terms of more recent history, Roberts has whole-heartedly embraced Thatcherism . He has remained a staunch backer of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her socio-political legacy. In Roberts' opinion, Thatcher's insight to push the UK into a path in which it kept out of

1898-685: The Hammersmith Ghost murder case , it set a unique standard in English legal history. In 1868, Hammersmith was the name of a parish, and of a suburban district, within the hundred of Ossulstone , in the county of Middlesex . Major industrial sites included the Osram lamp factory at Brook Green , the J. Lyons factory (which at one time employed 30,000 people). During both World Wars , Waring & Gillow 's furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove , became

1971-505: The Imperial College School of Medicine . "The Ark" office building , designed by British architect Ralph Erskine and completed in 1992, has some resemblance to the hull of a sailing ship. Hammersmith Bridge Road Surgery was designed by Guy Greenfield. 22 St Peter's Square , the former Royal Chiswick Laundry and Island Records HQ, has been converted to architects' studios and offices by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands . It has

2044-574: The Jallianwala Bagh massacre , the Second Boer War concentration camps for Afrikaners during the Second Boer War , and mass internment in Northern Ireland ( Operation Demetrius ). Hari also wrote that Roberts made a speech at the expatriate South African Springbok Club , which flies the apartheid-era flag of South Africa and calls for "the re-establishment of civilised rule throughout

2117-902: The Second World War such as Adolf Hitler 's rise to power and the administrative organisation of Nazi Germany . The work received the British Army Military Book of the Year Award for 2010 as well. It achieved commercial success, reaching the No. 2 slot on The Sunday Times best-seller list. Much of Roberts' later work, including his 2014 and 2018 biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte and of Winston Churchill , has been widely praised. Roberts' public commentary has additionally appeared in several UK-based publications such as The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator , with his support for Atlanticist views in terms of international relations . Roberts

2190-607: The Solicitor General of the time. The Foreign Secretary William Hague subsequently announced compensation for the first round of victims with statements that the British government "recognises that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment" and "sincerely regrets that these abuses took place" during the Kenya Emergency . Journalist Johann Hari has stated that Roberts' writings defended acts such as

2263-730: The euro currency concept , while still having strong ties to various European economies and otherwise engaging in international trade , has been validated by the Eurozone crisis in the aftermath of the Great Recession . After the British Prime Minister Tony Blair of the Labour Party resigned, Roberts assessed him as an "exemplary war leader" with his "vigorous prosecution of the War against Terror ", which would leave him regarded as

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2336-588: The 1890s) and St Peter's , built in the 1820s. Riverside Studios is a cinema, performance space, bar and cafe. Originally film studios, Riverside Studios were used by the BBC from 1954 to 1975 for television productions. The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is just off King Street. Hammersmith Apollo concert hall and theatre (formerly the Carling Hammersmith Apollo, the Hammersmith Odeon, and before that

2409-462: The 1930s. Furnivall Gardens , which lies to the east, covers the site of Hammersmith Creek and the High Bridge. Leisure activity also takes place along Hammersmith's pedestrianised riverside, home to the pubs of Lower Mall, rowing clubs and the riverside park of Furnival Gardens . Hammersmith has a municipal park, Ravenscourt Park , to the west of the centre. Its facilities include tennis courts,

2482-604: The 20 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station redundant. It closed in 1965; in its final year of operation it delivered 5,462 MWh of electricity to the borough. Hammersmith is located at the confluence of one of the arterial routes out of central London (the A4 ) with several local feeder roads and a bridge over the Thames. The focal point of the district is the commercial centre (the Broadway Centre) located at this confluence, which houses

2555-513: The African continent". Roberts claims that he did not realise the Springbok Club was racist when he took on the speaking engagement, despite the apartheid era flag, and the fact that the event was a commemoration of the 36th anniversary of UDI . Roberts is divorced from his first wife, Camilla Henderson, with whom he had two children. Roberts is married to businesswoman Susan Gilchrist, CEO of

2628-690: The BBC's support of his work and their unwillingness to cut corners when it came to exploring history in detail, quipping as well about the group's wardrobe policy, "Courtesy of this programme, I now have two Armani suits upstairs." Also in 2003, Roberts became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts . In 2004, he edited What Might Have Been , a collection of twelve " What If? " essays written by historians and journalists, including Robert Cowley , Antonia Fraser , Norman Stone , Amanda Foreman , Simon Sebag Montefiore , Conrad Black , and Anne Somerset . In 2005, Roberts published Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble , which

2701-422: The British Army Military Book of the Year Award for 2010. In terms of critical response, The Storm of War has also received a wide variety of praise in publications such as The Daily Beast , where historian Michael Korda lauded it as written "superbly well" and stated that Roberts' "scholarship is superb", and The Wall Street Journal , where historian Jonathan W. Jordan said that Roberts "splendidly weaves

2774-486: The English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 was that Harvard historian Caroline Elkins had committed "blood-libels" in her Pulitzer Prize -winning book Imperial Reckoning on British actions during the Kenya Emergency . Elkins was subsequently vindicated when files released by the UK's National Archives showed that abuses were described as "distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia" by

2847-480: The Gaumont Cinema) is just south of the gyratory. The former Hammersmith Palais nightclub has been demolished and the site reused as student accommodation. The Polish Social and Cultural Association is on King Street. It contains a theatre, an art gallery and several restaurants. Its library has one of the largest collections of Polish-language books outside Poland. The Dove is a riverside pub with what

2920-517: The Roberts Foundation. During the autumn of 2013, Roberts served as the inaugural Merrill Family Visiting Professor in history at Cornell University . He taught a course entitled "Great European Leaders of the 19th and 20th Centuries and their Influence on History." He has additionally spoken in many other American universities such as the University of Montana . In 2016, Roberts was elected

2993-561: The attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones" in the long run. In many writings, he has come out in support of neo-conservative influenced socio-political viewpoints. During the buildup to the Iraq War , Roberts supported the proposed invasion, arguing that anything less would be tantamount to appeasement, comparing Tony Blair to Winston Churchill in his "astonishing leadership". He additionally argued that acting against Saddam Hussein

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3066-432: The attractiveness of his personality, even to his enemies. The book argues against many long-held historical opinions, including the myth of a great romance with Joséphine de Beauharnais . She took a lover immediately after their marriage, as Roberts shows, and Napoleon in fact had three times as many mistresses as he acknowledged. Roberts goes through fifty-three of Napoleon's sixty battlefields, and he additionally evaluates

3139-489: The book a "richly detailed and sure-footed reappraisal of the man, his achievements—and failures—and the extraordinary times in which he lived". The book earned the Prix du Jury des Grands Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for 2014, an award given by the historical organisation Fondation Napoléon . Praise additionally came from fellow historian Jay Winik : "With his customary flair and keen historical eye, Andrew Roberts has delivered

3212-513: The book was "widely praised as the best single-volume biography of Winston Churchill ever written", and added that Roberts "draws on previously unavailable journals and notes for the robust, engrossing, and nuanced history of the great British leader." Roberts has created short works on a variety of subjects, his published columns appearing in popular periodicals such as The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator , amongst others. Since 2014 he has featured in several short lecture videos published by

3285-465: The conservative advocacy group PragerU . Since 1990, Roberts has addressed hundreds of institutional and academic audiences in many countries, including a lecture to former US president George W. Bush at the White House . A monarchist , Roberts described Prince Philip upon his death as "undoubtedly... one of the reasons that the overwhelming majority of Britons today feel blessed that their country

3358-583: The context of the First World War , Roberts determines that the treaty obligations imposed on the German Empire should have been significantly tougher. He has specifically proclaimed that the victorious powers of the Entente alliance should have broken up Germany into component sub-national territories akin to the disorganised situation prior to the unification of Germany in the mid-1800s. Ultranationalism

3431-450: The corporate communications firm Brunswick Group LLP and chairman of the South Bank Centre . Lord and Lady Roberts live in London. Roberts has worked with think tank organisations such as the Centre for Policy Studies and the Centre for Social Cohesion . He has additionally maintained personal friendships with several British political and social figures such as David Cameron , Michael Gove , and Oliver Letwin . In February 2016, he

3504-427: The country would likely have forgone a costly direct invasion of Soviet territory , which occurred through Operation Barbarossa , and instead would have swept through Mediterranean territories before trying to seal off British-controlled Middle East areas. Roberts has concluded that the likely morale-building victories against the comparatively weak forces to the southeast could have allowed Hitler to essentially win

3577-474: The emperor... an extraordinary, gifted military commander and a mesmeric leader whose private life was littered with disappointments and betrayals." The series has had mixed reviews. The Daily Telegraph declared it "unconvincing", saying that "there was no getting away from Roberts's regular lapses into hero-worship", and "Roberts's remarks on the refreshing qualities of dictatorship made me wonder if he had taken leave of his senses". In 2018, Roberts produced

3650-545: The evidence to give a brilliant portrait of the man. The book, as it needs to be, is massive, yet the pace is brisk and it's never overwhelmed by the scholarly research, which was plainly immense ... Roberts suggests looking at Europe for the Emperor's monument, but this magnificent biography is not a bad place to start." In announcing in 2013 that it would present a three-part television series based on Roberts's analysis of Napoleon's life and legacy, BBC Two declared in its press release that "Roberts sets out to shed new light on

3723-407: The general editorship of Roberts. The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War came out in August 2009. A detailed look at the history of events behind the Second World War and various key elements within it such as the nature of Nazi Germany 's rule, the book received large popular success and reached number two in The Sunday Times bestseller list. The book additionally earned

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3796-421: The goods again. This could well be the best single volume biography of Napoleon in English for the last four decades. A tour de force that belongs on every history-lover's bookshelf!" as well as from Donald Adamson in Napoleon at Elba . Author of historical fiction Bernard Cornwell has described the book as "[s]imply dynamite. ... [Napoleon was] a mass of contradictions and Roberts's book encompasses all

3869-421: The home of the Pocket family. Pip resides with the Pockets in their house by the river and goes boating on the river. William Morris 's utopian novel News from Nowhere (1890) describes a journey up the river from Hammersmith towards Oxford . In 1930, Gustav Holst composed Hammersmith , a work for military band (later rewritten for orchestra), reflecting his impressions of the area, having lived across

3942-468: The invasion for larger strategic reasons, while arguing that his past views were based on credible assessments from intelligence services as well as other sources. Roberts endorsed Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election . The first of Roberts' books was the biography of the Earl of Halifax , Foreign Secretary to Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill , entitled The Holy Fox , and published in 1991. Roberts provides

4015-483: The junction of Queen Caroline Street and King Street in the west to the junction of Hammersmith Road and Butterwick in the east. It forms the north side of the gyratory system also known as Hammersmith Roundabout. The Broadway Shopping Centre includes a major bus station. The length of King Street places the westernmost shops and offices closest to Ravenscourt Park Underground station on the District line , one stop west of Hammersmith itself. The first Hammersmith Bridge

4088-450: The mistakes, delusions, and exaggerated self-confidence complexes that the fascist government fostered proved its undoing. Roberts has additionally stated that he views Joseph Stalin 's control of the Soviet Armed Forces as having been disastrous to the allied efforts against the Axis powers . He has commented that Stalin's obsessive tactics of killing his own men for ideological reasons cost him thousands upon thousands of troops. In

4161-401: The new church. In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy , established the Vineyard Nursery , over six acres devoted to landscaping plants. During the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree . 1804 saw the trial of Francis Smith for the murder of Thomas Millwood in Beaver Lane, Hammersmith. Called

4234-417: The prefix was a personal name, Heahmaer or Hæmar, and stating that the suffix must be Anglo-Saxon from -myðe, meaning the junction of two rivers, as Hammersmith Creek merged with the Thames here. The earliest spelling is Hamersmyth in 1294, with alternative spellings of Hameresmithe in 1312, Hamyrsmyth in 1535, and Hammersmith 1675. The district was a chapelry of the ancient parish of Fulham , but became

4307-458: The process, yet the eventual defeat of the Axis powers constituted a moral triumph of democratic pluralism over authoritarianism that led the way to a better future. In 2014, Roberts wrote Napoleon the Great (the American edition is titled Napoleon: A Life ), which was awarded the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best biography. In this biography, Roberts seeks to evoke Napoleon's tremendous energy, both physical and intellectual, and

4380-680: The relationship between the two generals, was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson , and was the subject of the lead review in all but one of Britain's national newspapers. January 2003 saw the publication of Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership . In the book, which addresses the leadership techniques of Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill , he delivered a rebuttal to many of the assertions made by Clive Ponting and Christopher Hitchens concerning Churchill. An accompanying television series based around Roberts' Hitler and Churchill ran on BBC2 , with its first episode being broadcast on 7 March 2013. Roberts remarked that he felt grateful for

4453-408: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrew_Roberts&oldid=1251960097 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

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4526-401: The site of aircraft manufacture. Hammersmith Borough Council had provided the borough with electricity since the early twentieth century from Hammersmith power station . Upon nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the British Electricity Authority and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board . Electricity connections to the national grid rendered

4599-438: The suspension system in place had become unsafe. The centre of Hammersmith is served by two London Underground stations named Hammersmith: one is served by the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines and the other is served by the Piccadilly and District lines. The latter station is part of a larger office, retail and transport development, locally known as "The Broadway Centre". Hammersmith Broadway stretches from

4672-470: The typical Churchill biography." In The Observer , Andrew Rawnsley included the book among the 'Books of the Year' and said that "Roberts triumphed over my scepticism with his riveting account of the extraordinary life of the most remarkable individual to have lived at No 10." For The New York Times , Richard Aldous commented: "All told, it must surely be the best single-volume biography of Churchill yet written." The National Book Review said that

4745-418: The war. According to Roberts, the other key strategic mistake was the German declaration of war against the United States , which was announced only four days after the Pearl Harbor attacks despite the fact that the Nazi regime had no legal obligation to take such an action. Roberts has stated that, after the declaration, Germany could not keep the U.S. war-making economic machine at bay. Thus, in his view,

4818-421: Was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association . He graduated with a first class honours BA degree and took a PhD in modern history . Roberts began his career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. , where he worked from 1985 to 1988. He published his first historical book in 1991. Defunct In

4891-474: Was appointed President of the Cambridge University Conservative Association . It was announced on 14 October 2022 in Boris Johnson's 2022 Political Honours that Roberts would be raised to the peerage as a life baron . On 1 November 2022, he was created Baron Roberts of Belgravia , of Belgravia in the City of Westminster . Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London , England, 4.3 miles (6.9 km) southwest of Charing Cross . It

4964-586: Was born in Hammersmith , London, the son of Kathleen ( née  Hillery-Collings ) and business executive Simon Roberts. Simon Roberts, from Cobham, Surrey , inherited the Job's Dairy milk business and also owned the United Kingdom franchise of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets . A prolific reader as a child, Andrew Roberts soon gained a passion for history, particularly for dramatic works relating to "battles, wars, assassinations and death". Roberts attended Cranleigh School in Surrey and read modern history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge , where he

5037-484: Was designed by William Tierney Clark and opened in 1827 and was the first suspension bridge crossing the River Thames . It was redesigned by Joseph Bazalgette , and reopened in 1887. In August 2020, it closed to pedestrians, cyclists and road traffic as the cast iron pedestals that hold the suspension system in place became unsafe. Work began to improve the structural integrity of the bridge in 2022. Hammersmith features in Charles Dickens ' Great Expectations as

5110-404: Was eventually "burned out of the German soul", in Roberts' opinion, at a truly devastating cost. Roberts' analysis of the Second World War has convinced him that the Nazi German government had significant advantages in military organisation and economic power early in the war. He has argued that, if someone other than the dictator Adolf Hitler had control of the nation's military strategy,

5183-458: Was in line with the "Pax Americana realpolitik that has kept the Great Powers at peace since the Second World War, despite the collapse of Communism". In 2003, Roberts wrote: "For Churchill, apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair , it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam's henchmen." When such weapons were not found , Roberts still defended

5256-712: Was published in America as Waterloo: The Battle for Modern Europe . His A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 , a sequel to the four-volume work of Churchill's biography, was published in September 2006, and won the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Book Award. Masters and Commanders describes how four figures shaped the strategy of the West during the Second World War. It

5329-614: Was published in November 2008 and won the International Churchill Society Book Award and was shortlisted for two other military history book prizes. The Art of War is a two-volume chronological survey of the greatest military commanders in history. It was compiled by a team of historians, including Robin Lane Fox , Tom Holland , John Julius Norwich , Jonathan Sumption , and Felipe Fernández-Armesto , working under

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