Visiting Fellow
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Professional Background
Robin Prior was born in rural South Australia and has been a farmer, shopkeeper, librarian and an academic. He was educated at Kapunda High School and at the University of Adelaide where he obtained a degree in 1972, an honours degree in 1974 and a PhD in 1979 (all in Arts/History).
Robin was a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide from 1979 to 1982 and an Australian Research Council fellow from 1983 to 1985. In 1986, he took up a position as lecturer in history at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA). Robin was promoted to Associate Professor and Head of the School of History in 1998. The disciplines of History, English, Indonesian and Politics were amalgamated to become the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2003 and Robin was appointed the School’s inaugural Head of School. Robin was promoted to Professor in 2005.
Research
Robin has been published by Oxford University Press in Australia and in Britain, Yale University Press in Britain and the United States, Blackwell in Britain and other specialist publishers such as Pen and Sword and Regina Press. The status of his main publishers, Oxford University Press and Yale University Press, speak for themselves. These are two of the most prestigious publishing houses in the world.
Robin can also claim to have been published by some of the most prestigious journals in his field. His work has appeared in the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Journal of Contemporary History, the International History Review and War & Society. In addition, he has written major articles (over 5,000 words) for such prestigious publications as the New Dictionary of National Biography.
Publications
Books
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, The Somme (London/New Haven: Yale U P, 2005). This book was launched by General Peter Cosgrove in 2005 and also reprinted in Danish later in the same year.
–––––, The First World War (London: Cassell, 1999). Reprinted 2000, 2003, and reprinted again 2005 in this series, Smithsonian History of Warfare. (Paperback edition of the 1999 edition with a new bibliography.) La Premiere Guerre mondiale 1914-1918 (Paris: Autremont, 2001). The French edition of the above book.
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, Passchendaele: The Untold Story (London/New Haven: Yale U P, 1996). (Notre Bene edition with a new introduction, London/New Haven: Yale U P, 2002; Australian edition Melbourne: Scribe, 2003.)
P Dennis, J Grey, E Morris, R Prior, The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (Melbourne: Oxford U P, 1995).
–––––, Command on the Western Front: The Military Career of General Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914-1918 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992). (Reprinted Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2004)
Robin Prior, Churchill’s ‘World Crisis’ as History (London: Croon Helm, 1983).
Chapters in Books
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, ‘Eastern Front and Western Front 1916-1917’ in Huw Strachan (ed), The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War, (Oxford: Oxford U P, 2000), 179-90. A reprint of the 1997 edition.
Robin Prior, ‘Losing the War: Ludendorff and German Strategy in 1918’, in John A Moses and Christopher Pugsley (eds), The German Empire and Britain’s Pacific Dominions 1917-1919 (Claremont: Regina, 2000), 129-40.
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, ‘Eastern Front and Western Front 1916-1917’ in Huw Strachan (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of The First World War (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1997).
–––––, ‘British Decision Making 1917: Lloyd George, Sir Douglas Haig and the Passchendaele Campaign’, in H Cecil & P Liddle (eds) Facing Armageddon (London: Leo Cooper, 1996).
–––––, ‘Was Britain’s Sacrifice Necessary?’ In Craig Wilcox (ed.), The Great War: Gains and Losses – Anzac and Empire (Canberra: Australian War Memorial and Australian National University, 1995).
Articles
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, ‘Lessor Powers among the Big Powers: Eastern Europe, Switzerland and the Second World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol 37, no 3, July 2002, 479-88.
–––––, ‘Lord Kitchener and Winston Churchill’, London Review of Books, vol 24, no 2, 24 January 2002, 17-18.
–––––, ‘Conflict, Technology and the Impact of Industrialisation: The Great War 1914-1918’, Journal of Strategic Studies, vol 24, no 3, September 2001, 128-57.
–––––, ‘Reassessments of Winston Churchill’, International History Review, vol 18, no 1, February 1996, 113-26.
–––––, ‘The Churchill Industry, Quadrant, vol 38, no 11, November 1994, 63-80.
–––––, ‘Paul Fussell at War’, War in History, vol 1, no 1, 1994, 38-42.
–––––, ‘Haig’s Command: a reassessment’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, no 23, October 1993, 54-7.
–––––, ‘Summing up the Somme, History Today’, vol 41, November 1991, 37-43.
–––––, ‘Categorising Wars: The Conflict of 1914-1918 and Some Others’, Cambridge Review, vol. 112, October 1991, 125-30.
–––––, ’15 September 1916: The Dawn of the Tank’, RUSI Journal, vol 136, 1991, 61-5.
–––––,‘What Manner of Victory? Reflections on the Termination of the First World War’ Revue Internationale d’Histoire Militaire, no 72, 1990, 80-96.
–––––, Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, ‘The First World War’ Journal of Contemporary History, vol 35, April 2000, 319-28.
Conference Proceedings
Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, ‘Le Commandemment sur la Somme’ in ‘La Bataille De La Somme Dans La Grande Guerre’, Colloque du80eme Anniversaire (Peronne: Historial de la Grande Guerre, 2000), 247-69.
–––––, ‘Winning the War’ in 1918 – Defining Victory, Proceedings of the Chief of Army’s History Conference, 1998, P Dennis and J Grey (eds), 33-48.
Other
Entries on Lloyd George, Lord Kitchener, Asquith and an article on the Dardanelles campaign for an Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Europe edited by Jay Winter (forthcoming).
Robin Prior, The Strategy behind Gallipoli: Strategic decision-making in the Dardanelles, ASPI Strategic Insights no 1, April 2005, 1-9.
Various unpublished reports for DSTO on Propaganda (2003).
Entries with Trevor Wilson in the New Dictionary of National Biography on Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Douglas Haig, Sir Frederick Maurice and General Chauvel (Oxford: Oxford U P, 2004).
Entries with Trevor Wilson on the battles of the Somme, Passchendaele and Gallipoli for the Encyclopaedia of Twentieth Century Britain edited by Fred Lowenthal (New York: Garland, 1996).
A series of unpublished reports for the Australian War Crimes Tribunal.
Work in Progress
Robin is presently working on a book on Gallipoli commissioned from him by Yale University Press and a book on Britain in 1940 for which he received a Gold Star award from the University of New South Wales of $30,000. He is also writing several articles for the Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Europe and revising several of his major pieces in the Oxford Companion to Australian Military History.
Since his commencement with UNSW@ADFA, he has taught the following courses:
| 1987 |
War, Society and the State |
| 1988 | War, Society and the State |
| 1989 |
History 1 – Great Powers in European History 1789-1945 Gallipoli |
| 1990 |
History 1 – Great Powers in European History 1789-1945 Gallipoli |
| 1991 |
History 1 – Great Powers in European History 1789-1945 Honours – Britain 1919-39 |
| 1992 | History 1 – Great Powers in European History 1789-1945 |
| 1993 |
History 1 – Second World War Honours – Gallipoli |
| 1994 |
History 1 – Second World War |
| 1995 | History 1 – Second World War |
| 1996 |
Europe 1870-1914 The First World War – Image and Reality |
| 1997 |
Great War Europe 1870-1914 First World War – Image and Reality Honours – Interwar Britian |
| 1998 | Second World War |
| 1999 |
History 1 – Second World War Making of Contemporary Society |
| 2000 |
History 1A – Making of the 20th Century Histrory 1B – Making of Contemporary World Making of Contemporary Society Second World War |
| 2001 |
Second World War |
| 2002 |
Strategic Studies History 1A – Conflicts in Context History 1B – Conflicts in Context Making of Contemporary Society Women Warriors Conduct of War – Master of Defence Studies Strategy and Tactics of First World War – Master of Defence Studies |
| 2003 |
Second World War History 1A – Conflicts in Context History 1B – Conflicts in Context Introduction to Strategic Studies Conduct of War |
| 2004 |
History 1A – Conflicts in Context |
| 2005 |
History 1A – Conflicts in Context Film and Literature Origins of First World War |
| 2006 | Case Studies of War |