Robert Tombs
Robert Tombs | |
|---|---|
Tombs in 2016 | |
| Born | Robert Paul Tombs 8 May 1949 England |
| Citizenship | British, French |
| Occupation(s) | Academic, historian |
| Spouse | Isabelle Tombs (née Bussy) |
| Awards | Ordre des Palmes académiques (2007) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
| Thesis | The Forces of Order and the Suppression of the Paris Insurrection of 1871 (1978) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | St. John's College, Cambridge |
| Main interests | Franco-British relations, political history of France (19th century) |
| Notable works | That Sweet Enemy (2006), The English and Their History (2014) |
Robert Paul Tombs (born 8 May 1949) is a British-French historian of France and Britain. He is professor emeritus of French history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. Prior to this, he was a reader in the subject until 2007. Tombs is the recipient of the Ordre des Palmes académiques awarded by the French government.
Tombs is known for his work on French history, particularly the Paris Commune, as well as Franco-British relations and, more recently, English history. He is the author of several books, including The War Against Paris, 1871 (1981), France 1814–1914 (1996), That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present (2006, co-authored with Isabelle Tombs), and The English and Their History (2014).
He is noted for his Francophile scholarship, as well as for his contributions to public debates on Brexit, British national identity, and historical memory.