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School of Arts, Histories and Cultures

Professor Peter Gatrell

Contact details
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (History)
University of Manchester, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Telephone: 44-161 275 3097

Peter.gatrell@manchester.ac.uk

Room N.2.1, Humanities, Lime Grove

Profile

I have spent most of my academic career at the University of Manchester, with short spells teaching part-time at the University of Liverpool and at the London School of Economics. My first teaching post was at the University of East Anglia (1976). My undergraduate and PhD degrees are from the University of Cambridge. Between 1997 and 2002 I was Head of the School of History and Classics, which now forms part of the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures.

Research

My research and teaching interests fall into two broad categories: population displacement in world history and the history of modern Europe. These twin interests are also brought together in my commitment to the cultural history of modern war. I would welcome enquiries from prospective graduate students in these fields. Please see below for a list of my recent and current graduate students.

My interests in population displacement derive in the first place from research I carried out into the mass movements of civilians in the Russian empire during the First World War. This research has been funded by the British Academy, which awarded me a Research Readership in 1995-1997, enabling me to research and to write A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War 1 (Indiana University Press, 1999; paperback, 2005) http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/books/0-253-21346-0.shtml as well as several related articles and conference papers. My book won the Wayne S. Vucinich Prize, 2000, awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies for 'outstanding work in Russian, East European or Eurasian studies in any branch of the humanities or social sciences', and the Alec Nove Prize, 2001, awarded by British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies, for an 'outstanding monograph in Russian and East European Studies'. In 1999 I received a large research grant from the AHRB (as it then was) to explore the aftermath of World War 1 in Eastern Europe. This collaborative project resulted in a book of essays (co-edited with Nick Baron, now at the University of Nottingham) on the aftermath of World War 1 in Eastern Europe, entitled Homelands: War, Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia, 1918-1924 (Anthem Press, 2004) as well as other publications. For details see http://www.art.man.ac.uk/HISTORY/ahrbproj/details.htm. Currently, Nick Baron and I hold a major research grant from the AHRC on 'Population displacement, state practice and social experience in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1930-1950s'. This collaborative research project runs from 2004 to 2008. It employs two post-doctoral research fellows (Dr Rosaria Franco and Dr Tomas Balkelis) and supports two PhD students (Jenny Carson at Manchester and Siobhan Peeling at Nottingham). For details please see http://popdis.org or contact me directly. We cooperate with other scholars in and beyond the UK who are working on the same or similar topics. Work in progress has been disseminated in a number of international conferences and seminars including in Washington DC, Berlin, Amsterdam and Sigtuna (Sweden).

My current writing plans include a book entitled 'The Making of the Modern Refugee' as well as a collaborative volume arising from the current AHRC project. I am also writing two articles on World Refugee Year, 1959-1960, based on original research in London, Geneva and North America.

The second main element of my research and teaching is modern European history, and especially the economic and social history of modern Russia. I began my career as an economic historian with a particular interest in the defence industry of late imperial Russia. I published a monograph on this subject, Government, Industry and Rearmament in Russia, 1900-1914: The Last Argument of Tsarism (CUP, 1994), as well as several specialist articles. I also developed an interest in the broader economic history of Russia, which led to the publication of The Tsarist Economy, 1850-1917 (Batsford, 1986) and articles on the long-run economic history of Russia. My article on 'Reconceptualising the Russian industrial revolution' will shortly appear in a book for MIT Press on the industrial revolution in world history. More recently I have written a chapter on 'Russia's Age of Economic Extremes' for the new Cambridge History of Russia (2006) as well as a number of review articles. My most recent book is Russia's First World War: An Economic and Social History (Pearson, 2005), which draws heavily on my own research in Russian archives and libraries http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000005005.

I have also contributed to a collective book from CUP on the economic performance of the main belligerents during the war http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521852129. I have written an article on taxation and the fiscal state in Russia before 1917. In the longer term I plan to write a book on the impact of industrialisation in modern Europe.

My interest in the cultural history of modern war originates from trying to understand the dynamics of World War 1 in Russia, particularly its impact on population displacement and the emergence of the category of the refugee. I collaborate with other members of the research centre on the cultural history of war and I am organising a conference on 'War in our world', scheduled for summer 2007. http://www.currentstaff.arts.manchester.ac.uk/research/sahceventspage.php?eventid=374

I have contributed articles on this subject to Immigration and Asylum from 1900 to the Present (ABC-Clio, 2005), and to the Columbia Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Europe , edited by Jay Winter and John Merriman. I have completed an article on 'War after the war: conflicts 1919-1923' for the Blackwell Companion to the First World War, edited by John Horne. For information on other colleagues' activities in the Centre for the Cultural History of War go to http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/research/cchw/

Teaching

My research interests inform my Level 3 course unit entitled 'Refugees in Modern World History' which, like the research projects mentioned above, is informed by a broad range of social and cultural theory. The course unit addresses a series of case-studies in twentieth-century European and non-European history and explores such issues as how one can write 'refugee history'. My students work in small groups to produce posters and discussion logs on relevant topics. Many of my students have also written dissertations arising from this course unit; their research has taken them to libraries and archives in Geneva, Paris, New York, Dublin and Tel Aviv, as well as in the UK.

My teaching interests in modern Russian history take the form of two advanced undergraduate course units, in Russian economic history ('Transforming Russia: economic and social history c.1880 to the present day') and in the social and cultural history of the Russian revolution ('Revolution in Russian society, 1900-1921'). I also offer lectures at Level 2 on the economic history of Russia and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century.

At MA level I contribute to the MA in Modern European History. I offer two Level 4 course units. One is on 'Social and cultural upheaval in war and peace: Russia, 1890-1950', which provides an opportunity to discuss the exciting work that has been produced in the last two decades in modern Russian history. The other is on 'Issues in migration history', co-taught with Laurence Brown. These units are available to all MA students.

For information on the MA in Modern European History go to http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/postgraduatestudy/mamoderneuro/

For information on the MA in Economic and Social History go to http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/postgraduatestudy/masocial/

For information on the MA in Cultural History go to http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/postgraduatestudy/maculturalhistory/

Research students, in alphabetical order

Carson, Jennifer, 'Displaced persons from Russia and Eastern Europe, 1945-1955, with particular reference to UK relief efforts'. AHRC funded, commenced September 2005.

Franco, Rosaria, 'Social Order and Social Policies toward Displaced Children: The Soviet Case (1917-1953)'. ESRC funded, awarded December 2006.

Kocho-Williams, Alistair, 'The Culture of Soviet Diplomacy, 1900-1939' (co-supervised with Dr Nick Baron). SAHC funded, awarded April 2006.

Lash, Chris, 'Moving West: The 1944-46 Displacement of Eastern Poles to Post-Yalta Poland, Urban Reconstruction and Historical Memory', AHRC funded, commenced September 2006.

Laycock, Joanne, 'Armenian Refugees and the European Imagination, late 19th-early 20th centuries' (co-supervised with Dr Sian Jones, Art History & Archaeology). AHRC funded, awarded November 2005.

Moser, Nat, 'The Russian Oil Industry 1890-2000: A Comparative Economic Systems Approach'. ESRC funded, commenced September 2005.

Rubio, Laura, 'Contested Space, Territoriality and Refugeedom: The Construction of Ethnic and National Identities in Tibetan Refugee Communities, 1959-2000'. ORS funded, awarded May 2004.

Takiguchi, Junya, 'The Communist Party Congress: A Political and Cultural History, 1918-1927'. Commenced September 2005.

Other information

I serve on the following panels:

I am a member of the University of Manchester Hallsworth Research Fellowships Committee for research in political economy. I am happy to advise prospective candidates on the application procedure. See http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/simonhallsworth/

I am on the editorial board of the new MUP series on the cultural history of war http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/information_areas/subjects/history/chmw.htm

I am a member of the editorial board of Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (University of Maryland, see http://www.slavica.com), of Istoricheskie zapiski (Russian Academy of Sciences), and of Ab Imperio (Kazan). I am on the advisory board of European Review of History.

I am a member of the Economic History Society http://www.ehs.org.uk/, the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies http://www.basees.org.uk/ and the Russian Revolution Study Group http://www.basees.org.uk/sgrusrev.html

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