Norman Stone

Norman Stone (born 8 March 1941) is a Scottish academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara. He is a former Professor at the University of Oxford, Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He is a board member of the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVIM). He denies the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.

Stone attended Glasgow Academy on a scholarship for the children of deceased servicemen – his father having been killed in World War II – and graduated with First Class Honours in History from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1959–1962). Following his undergraduate degree, Stone

did research in Central European history in Vienna and Budapest (1962–65).

Cambridge

Upon completion of his doctorate, Stone was offered a research fellowship by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he later became an Assistant Lecturer in Russian and German History (1967), and a full Lecturer (1973). In 1971 he had transferred from Caius to Jesus College. In 1983 Stone criticized the recently deceased E. H. Carr in the London Review of Books. Some of his critics argued that his obituary bordered on the defamatory.

Oxford

Stone was subsequently accepted in 1984 as a Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, England. Stone's tenure at Oxford was not without controversy. Petronella Wyatt wrote that Stone "loathed the place as petty and provincial, and for its adherence to the Marxist-determinist view of history." He published a column in the Sunday Times between 1987 and 1992, and was also employed by the BBC, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Wall Street Journal. Stone became Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy advisor on Europe, as well as her speech writer.

Turkey

In 1997, Stone accepted retirement from Oxford and left to teach at the department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara.

In 2005 Stone transferred to Koç University, Istanbul. He later returned to Bilkent University, Ankara, to teach for the 2007-2008 academic year. He guest lectures at Bogazici University, Istanbul. Since moving to Turkey, Stone has been a frequent contributor to Cornucopia, a magazine about the history and culture of Turkey. In 2010, Stone published a book on Turkish history, from the 11th century to the present day, Turkey: A Short History.

Views

Stone's reputation was affected by an obituary he wrote in 1983 for the London Review of Books of E. H. Carr, and which some felt bordered on defamatory.

Stone's second wife, Christine, was a leading member of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, a conservative contrarian organization not affiliated with Helsinki Watch.

Stone denies that the Armenian Genocide took place. In 2004, he took part in a notable letter exchange on the pages of the Times Literary Supplement, where he strongly criticized Peter Balakian's 2003 book The Burning Tigris, saying that Balakian "should stick to the poems." Stone has praised Guenter Lewy, Bernard Lewis and France-based scholar Gilles Veinstein, all of whom do not believe a genocide took place, either.

In 2009, he argued: "The myth of Winston Churchill is dangerous. Was it a sensible strategy in 1944 and 1945 to bomb Germany to bits? It was very bad realpolitik, whatever its moral purpose."

Writing

Stone's books of greatest note are The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (1975) which won the Wolfson History Prize. He also wrote Hitler (1980), Europe Transformed 1878-1919 (1983), which won the Fontana History of Europe Prize, and World War I: A Short History (2007). He mostly writes about historical events in the past century and specifically is an expert on both World Wars. His short histories have been especially popular and successful.

While in Vienna in the 1960s, Stone met his first wife Nicole, the niece of the finance minister in "Papa Doc" Duvalier's Haiti government. Their son Nick Stone is a thriller writer. Stone keeps a house in the Galata neighbourhood of Istanbul, and divides his time between Turkey and England.

• The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 (1975); ISBN 0-340-12874-7
• Hitler (1980); ISBN 0-340-24980-3 (Coronet Publ.)
• Europe Transformed, 1878-1919 (1983), ISBN 0-00-634262-0; 2nd ed. (1999); ISBN 0-631-21507-7
• Czechoslovakia: Crossroads and Crises, 1918-88 (1989); ISBN 0-333-48507-6
• The Times Atlas of World History (1989); ISBN 0-7230-0304-1 (ed.)
• The Other Russia (1990); ISBN 0-571-13574-9 (with Michael Glenny)
• Turkey in the Russian Mirror, in Ljubica Erickson and Mark Erickson (ed.), Russia: War, Peace and Diplomacy. Essays in Honour of John Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, pp. 86–100.
• Islam in Turkey, in Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha (ed.), Europa in der Welt – die Welt in Europa (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 1), Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006, pp. 139–145.; ISBN 978-3-8329-1934-4
• World War One: A Short History (2007); ISBN 1-84614-013-7 Penguin Press
• The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War (2010); ISBN 978-1-84614-275-8 Allen Lane
• Turkey: A Short History (2010), ISBN 0-500-25175-4; Thames & Hudson
• World War Two: a Short History (2013), Allen Lane/Basic Books