Julian T. Jackson

For other people named Julian Jackson, see Julian Jackson (disambiguation).

Julian Timothy Jackson (born 10 April 1954) is a prominent British historian. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London Julian Jackson is one of the leading authorities on twentieth-century France.

He was educated at the University of Cambridge where he obtained his doctorate in 1982, having been supervised by Professor Christopher Andrew. After many years spent at the University of Wales, Swansea, he joined Queen Mary History Department in 2003.

Professor Jackson’s first two books were notable contributions about the crisis in France during the 1930s. The Politics of Depression France 1932–1936 (Cambridge University Press, 1985), was a study of economic policy-making in France during the Depression, and more generally of the impact of the depression on French politics. The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy 1934–1938 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), was a history of the French Popular Front encompassing its political, social and cultural dimensions.

In more recent years Professor Jackson’s research interests have moved on to the period after 1940. In 2001 he published an extensive synthesis of France under the Occupation entitled France: the Dark Years 1940–1944 (Oxford University Press: 2001). This was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times History Book Prize and translated into French in 2003. The French translation was commended by the judges of the Prix Philippe Viannay-Défense de la France.

Jackson’s most recent books include, The Fall of France (2003) and De Gaulle (2003), and he edited The Short Oxford History of Europe 1900–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). The Fall of France was one of the winners of the Wolfson History Prize for 2004. At present Professor Jackson is working on a study of homosexual politics in France after 1945 to be published by University of Chicago Press.