Michael Foot (historian)

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Michael Foot, 2011

Michael Richard Daniell Foot , short MRD Foot, (born December 14, 1919 , † February 18, 2012 ) was a British historian. His specialty was the political history of England in the 19th century and the Second World War, especially British covert operations like that of the SOE .

Foot came from a family of professional soldiers in both the British Army and the Royal Navy (he was related to Admiral Jacky Fisher ). He attended Winchester College and began his studies in Oxford when the Second World War broke out, in which he was with the Pioneers ( Royal Engineers ) and then as an intelligence officer with the SAS . In the course of the invasion he jumped over France, worked with the Resistance and was a prisoner of war in St. Nazaire for a while. On his third attempt to escape, he was beaten up by the son of the farmer with whom he was hiding and returned to England wounded in a prisoner exchange. At the end of the war he was a major and received the Croix de guerre . After the war he taught as a lecturer at the University of Oxford from 1953 to 1959 , then went to the Institute of Strategic Studies and was then Professor of Modern History at the University of Manchester . In 1973 he resigned from the professorship because, as he said, he thought looking after students as interesting as the work of a parking meter controller, was director of the European Discussion Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1975 and then devoted himself to writing.

He was the official historian of the SOE and published several books on its operations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was invited to do so in 1960, after it was dissatisfied with the allegations of inefficiency and callousness against its own agents in publications. In 1966 his story of the SOE was published, which, as with other books on the subject, led to controversial discussions and complaints from former members of the SOE. Nevertheless, his account was soon considered a standard work. He was the editor of the first three (of ten) volumes of William Ewart Gladstone's diaries .

In 2001 he became a CBE .

According to the obituary in the Daily Telegraph, he is one of the few people mentioned by his real name in one of John le Carré's spy novels.

He was very distantly related to the politician Michael Foot . He was married three times and had a second marriage son and daughter. His first marriage was to Philippa Foot .

Fonts

  • with John L. Hammond: Gladstone and Liberalism. English Universities Press, London 1952.
  • British Foreign Policy since 1898. Hutchinson, London 1956.
  • Men in uniform. Military Manpower in Modern Industrial Societies (= Studies in International Security. 3, ISSN  0081-8089 ). Weidenfeld and Nicolson for the Institute for Strategic Studies, London 1961.
  • SOE in France. An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France. 1940–1944 (= History of the Second World War. Special Vol. 2). Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1966.
  • as editor with Henry CG Matthew: The Gladstone Diaries. Volume 1-4. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1968-1974.
  • as editor: War and Society. Historical Essays in Honor and Memory of JR Western 1926–1971. Elek, London 1973.
  • Resistance. An Analysis of European Resistance to Nazism. 1940-1945. Methuen, London 1977, ISBN 0-413-34710-9 .
  • Six Faces of Courage. Methuen, London 1978, ISBN 0-413-39430-1 .
  • with James M. Langley MI9. The British Secret Service that fostered Escape and Evasion 1939-1945, and its American Counterpart. Bodley Head, London 1979, ISBN 0-370-30086-6 .
  • Foreword in: Antonia Hunt Little Resistance. A Teenage English Girl's Adventures in Occupied France. Cooper, London 1982, ISBN 0-436-20987-X .
  • SOE. An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive, 1940-1946. British Broadcasting Corporation, London 1984, ISBN 0-563-20193-2 .
  • Art and War. Twentieth Century Warfare as depicted by War Artists. Headline, London 1990, ISBN 0-7472-0286-9 .
  • Open and Secret War, 1938-1945. University of Texas at Austin - College of Liberal Arts - Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin TX 1991.
  • as editor with Ian CB Dear: The Oxford companion to the Second World War. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1995, ISBN 0-19-214168-6 .
  • Foreword in: Peter Wilkinson: Foreign Fields. The Story of an SOE Operative. Tauris, London et al. 1997, ISBN 1-86064-205-5 .
  • SOE in the Low Countries. St Ermin's Press, London 2001, ISBN 1-903608-04-X .
  • as editor: Secret Lives. Lifting the Lid on Worlds of Secret Intelligence. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2002, ISBN 0-19-860637-0 .
  • Foreword in: André Hue, Ewen Southby-Daily Tour: The Next Moon. The remarkable True Story of a British Agent behind the Lines in Wartime France. Viking, London 2004, ISBN 0-670-91478-9 .
  • Foreword in: Richard Brooks: Clandestine Sea Operations in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Adriatic. 1940-1944 (= Secret Flotillas. Vol. 2). 2nd edition. Whitehall History Publishing in association with Frank Cass, London et al. 2004, ISBN 0-7146-5314-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in the Daily Telegraph
personal data
SURNAME Foot, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Foot, MRD; Foot, Michael Richard Daniell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1919
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 2012