Andrew Roberts

Andrew Roberts is a British neoconservative millitary historian, biographer and political pundit. A notorious chickenhawk and a Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher fanboy, Roberts started as a Trotskyist,Andrew Roberts: The history man who loves to party but is today, according to himself "extremely right-wing".Johann Hari: The dark side of Andrew Roberts
Roberts has written many doorstop books that were (overall) well received, even if they had their dose of controversy. Despite writing informative, well-researched books that usually have more than 100 pages of references alone, Roberts doesn't even try to hide his fanboyism about some historical figures and events, and due to his partiality one should read them with a grain of salt.
==Historical books and research==
Roberts wrote many books, covering especially (but not only) military history. In 2008, The Economist gave him the title of the "title of Britain's finest contemporary military historian", only two years after an extra extra harsh critique over one of his books (more on that later), listing his Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led the West to Victory in World War II among the greatest books of that year.Pick of the pile 
In 2009, Roberts published his most known work, The Storm of War, which accounts for the whole history of the Second World War. Roberts's main interest was to find out the reasons why Nazi Germany lost the war, and if they could have won it. In his view, Germany had a clear advantage at the beginning of the War, but Corporal Hitler made many blunders, not only not in the strategic department, for example dismissing most of his generals. Hitler should have handled his allies differently. For instance, instead of declaring war against the United States (his greatest mistake along with according to Roberts), Hitler should have convinced Japan to declare war against the Soviet Union and invade Siberia. That would: 1/ drive most of the American effort out of the war; 2/ force the Russians to fight on two fronts, just as the Germans were fighting; 3/ grant Japan the natural resources they needed so much while denying the Russians the same resources if the invasion was successful. Hitler's racism and sexism also played a major role in his defeat: the resources Hitler spent on the Holocaust could be used where they were needed (ie. in the actual war), and the slave labor in the concentration camps simply didn't pay off. Some really smart Jews fled from Germany and helped the creation of the atomic bomb in the United States. If Hitler had nuclear weapons instead, he could get at least a stalemate even in 1944. Unlike the Allies, especially the Russians, who employed women as a major workforce during the war, Hitler decided to not recruit them. Roberts finishes his book with an ambiguous, laconic phrase answering whether Germany could have won:
===Biographies===
Roberts started his career as a writer with a biography. More recently, Roberts also published two hefty hagiographies biographies about Napoleon and Winston Churchill. His Napoleon's bio reaches almost one thousand pages, the Churchill one reaches 1,200. Both received lots of praise and won lots of prizes, with The New York Times and calling his Churchill bio the best single-volume biography of Churchill ever written.Is This the Best One-Volume Biography of Churchill Yet Written?Review: Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts — the best biography of Winston ever written In both books, Roberts also tries to debunk some popular theories: for instance, in Napoleon's case, Roberts dismisses the idea that he was actually poisoned with , and in Churchill's case, he argues that the British Prime Minister not only didn't have anything to do with the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 but also prevented an even worse outcome.
===A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900===
At least one of his books, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900, published in 2006, became especially controversial, to say the least. A spiritual sequel of Winston Churchill's , it was especially berated due to its claims that Imperialism was not so badEveryone's perfidious, bar Albion and America with The Economist calling it "less a history than a giant political pamphlet larded with its author's prejudices, with sneers at those who do not share them and with errors".Going out in the midday sun One of the most controversial passages in the book was the defense of the , which, according to Roberts, actually prevented deaths. Roberts also supported the concentration camps - which killed more than 30 thousand people - in South Africa during the for similar reasons.
Nonetheless, the book was praised by the conservative media.The case for defenceHappy is who speaks English
==Iraq War==
Despite writing many good books, Roberts' career as a political pundit is, however, less than stellar, with many polemics especially during the 2000's. He strongly endorsed the Iraq War in 2003 believing that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. When the invading forces failed to find these weapons, Roberts didn't change his mind, saying that "George Bush's (a fan of his) visceral responses to the attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones... Iraq has been a victory for the US-led coalition".Andrew Roberts: The history man who loves to party Roberts even suggested to Bush that he should adopt a "mass internment" of Iraqis during the warBeck Turns To The Fringe To Validate His “Crazy Conspiracy Theory”, suggesting that even the American ex-president holds more respect for the human rights than Roberts.
==Springbok Club controversy==
Roberts was once friends with the , a British racist pressure group of expatriated Apartheid supporters, celebrating his 36th birthday with them. According to him, he didn't know the Springbok Club was racist back then.Johann Hari: The dark side of Andrew Roberts
==Transforming a critical review in praise==
A relatively rare scathing review on his The Storm of War came from the British historian and his Cambridge fellow , who said that "This is not a new history of the Second World War in any meaningful sense of the word; it is not even an adequate history of the Second World War."Is Andrew Roberts really an inadequate historian?, also suggesting that Roberts should write a biography on Winston Churchill, something that he would do ten years later. Evans harsh criticism didn't prevent Roberts from adding the review on his site mentioning it as a favorable one.The Storm Of War
==See also==
Niall Ferguson, another conservative Briton.
==References==
Category:Chickenhawks
Category:Historians
Category:Imperialists
Category:Leftists who turned right with age
Category:Living people
Category:Neoconservatives