Richard Clogg, Professor and Fellow Emeritus, From a THS Interview

From THS, June 14, 2018:

Interview with Richard Clogg: the leading historian of the Balkans discusses a fortuitous meeting with his future wife, secrecy in higher education, and why postgraduates should dedicate their theses to their mothers

June 14, 2018, Matthew Reisz


Two excerpts:

What have been the most gratifying responses to your two major overviews of modern Greek history?

[The fact that they] have been adopted as textbooks in Greek universities, although they were not written with Greek university students in mind, but rather non-Greek readers for whom no knowledge of Greek history could be taken for granted. If I had any reader particularly in mind it would be a second-, third- or fourth-generation member of the Greek diaspora who wished to learn something of the country from which their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents had emigrated.

What advice did you give your students?

Towards the end of my career I was supervising only postgraduates. My advice to them was to be circumspect in dedicating their theses to current boy- or girlfriends, or even spouses. I would point out that it was only safe to dedicate the thesis to your mother as, at that time, you could have only one of these.


Greek to Me: A Memoir of Academic Life, Richard Clogg (2017)

Publisher's description:

"The 1960s was a tumultuous period in the history of Greece, as its democracy fell under the forced establishment of a military dictatorship. The regime of the colonels was the culmination of national division and hostility between communist forces and right wing militants. It was in these extraordinary times that British historian Richard Clogg witnessed the 1967 coup, while living in Athens and researching modern Greek history. Following his abrupt immersion in Greek politics and political activism, Clogg went on to a joint appointment at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) and King's College, London. At SSEES, he uncovered the contested history of nationalist funding in academia and postings. After publishing his controversial book Politics and the Academy, Clogg moved to St Antony's College, Oxford. Greek to Me: A Memoir of Academic Life is an engrossing tale of academic and political intrigue, spanning Clogg's time in Greece and in the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King's College London. Through extensive personal archives of his fascinating adventures, Clogg exposes the secretive fields of academia and university politics as well as providing unique eyewitness accounts of modern Greek history".


A British historian's battle against the junta, eKathimerini