Michael Burleigh, Master of His Time

Last month the historian Michael Burleigh was awarded the prestigious 2012 Nonino Master of his Time Prize at a ceremony in Italy. The prize was presented to Burleigh by the Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul.

The citation praised Burleigh’s ‘deep historical analysis’. His book, The Third Reich: A New History (Pan Macmillan, 2000), which won the 2001 Samuel Johnson Prize, was described as ‘masterly’. One can only agree. I have long held the opinion that it is simply the finest single-volume study of Nazi Germany ever written and urge anyone who has not read it to do so as soon as possible.

In fact, that goes for all Burleigh’s work. A scholar of considerable bravery and integrity, he has ploughed a lonely furrow, at some distance from the academic establishment, but producing an oeuvre of historical studies that is distinctive and brilliant.