Ian Kershaw

Sir Ian Kershaw is an English historian and author whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany.

He is regarded by many as one of the world’s leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is particularly noted for his biographies of Hitler.

In 1989 he took up the post of Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield where he remained until his retirement in 2008.

Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis, form a two volume biography, detailing Hitler’s origins as a failed artist in fin-de-siecle Vienna to the terrifying last days in his Berlin bunker.

Kershaw’s richly illustrated biography is a mesmerising portrait of how Hitler attained, exercised, and retained power.

Drawing on previously untapped resources, Kershaw examines how ‘the spoilt child turned into the would-be macho man’ and rose from bizarre misfit to the instigator of Europe’s darkest period of the 20th century.

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The collection currently consists of over 500 books.

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Throughout the last year we have been canvassing staff, students and alumni to garner nominations for books by our Sheffield Academics that have inspired, motivated or informed.

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