Name Richard Bessel | ||
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Books Germany 1945: From War to Pe, Nazism and War, Violence: A Modern Obsession, Germany after the First Worl, Political violence and the ri | ||
Richard Bessel is professor of twentieth century history at the University of York and a member of the editorial boards of German History and History Today. Bessel is a specialist in the social and political history of modern Germany, the aftermath of the two world wars and the history of policing.
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Bessel earned his BA at Antioch and his DPhil at the University of Oxford. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Bessel is a fellow of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies.
Reviews
Bessel's Germany 1945: From War to Peace (2009), dealing with the transition from German defeat at the end of the Second World War to peace, was positively reviewed by Jeffry Diefendorf in H-Net with the reviewer noting its relevance to modern debates about failed states and nation building. Brian Ladd, in The New York Times, noted Bessel's "sober" treatment of the topic and his preference for understatement over pathos.
In Violence - A Modern Obsession (2015), Bessel gave a history of violence in the twentieth century that The Guardian's reviewer saw as a warning. Ian Bell, in The Herald, noted the denseness of the material and the hellishness of the twentieth century outlined by Bessel, but also that the work was thoughtful rather than being a polemic against violence.