Robert Nigel Gildea is professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and is the author of several influential books on 20th century French history. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, before attending St Antony's for a D.Phil under the supervision of Theodore Zeldin. His D.Phil research was in French provincial education. Before being appointed Fellow in Modern History at Merton in 1979, he was a lecturer at King's College, London. For his 2002 book Marianne in Chains, a study of life in provincial France during the German occupation, Gildea won the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. The book, however, outraged members of the French academic elite through its documented claims that life in France had not been as adversely affected by the Nazi occupation because many French people had co-operated with the German invaders ? far more so than previously believed. Gildea lives in Oxford with his wife, Lucy-Jean, and four children. He was elevated to the position of Professor of Modern History from being Professor of Modern French History in September 2006, and is currently a Fellow of Worcester College. 

December 9th, 1952 in (Age 71)