Longworth, Philip 1933–

PERSONAL:

Born February 17, 1933, in London, England. Education: Balliol College, Oxford, B.A., 1956, M.A., 1960. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Agent—A.M. Heath & Co., Ltd., St. Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4AA, England. E-mail—info@philiplongworth.com.

CAREER:

Historian and writer. Central Asian Research Centre, London, England, researcher, 1962-65; Commonwealth War Graves Commission, London, historian, 1965-67; University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, lecturer in Russian history, 1970; University of London, London, visiting fellow at School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1973-74; McGill University, Montreal, Canada, professor of history, 1984-2003. Military service: British Army, 1951-53.

WRITINGS:

(Translator) M. Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time, New English Library (London, England), 1962, New American Library (New York, NY), 1964.

The Art of Victory, Constable (London, England), 1964, Holt (New York, NY), 1966.

The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 1917-1967, Constable (London, England), 1967, reprinted, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1985, revised and updated edition published as The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, introduction by Edmund Blunden, Leo Cooper (Barnsley, England), 2003.

The Cossacks, Constable (London, England), 1969, Holt (New York, NY), 1970.

The Three Empresses: Catherine I, Anne, and Elizabeth of Russia, Constable (London, England), 1972, Holt (New York, NY), 1973.

The Rise and Fall of Venice, Constable (London, England), 1974.

Alexis: Tsar of All the Russias, Secker & Warburg (London, England), 1984, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1985.

The Making of Eastern Europe: From Prehistory to Postcommunism, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1992, 2nd revised and enlarged edition, 1997.

Russia: The Once and Future Empire from Pre-History to Putin, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Rural Protest, edited by H.A. Landsberger, Macmillan, 1975; Great Britain and Russia in the Eighteenth Century, edited by A.G. Cross, Oriental Research Partners, 1979; War and Society in East Central Europe, edited by B. Kiraly and G. Rothenberg, Brooklyn College Press, 1979; and Social Science Monographs, edited by Rothenberg Kiraly and P. Sugar, Boulder Book Co., 1982; also contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Contributor to journals, including Past and Present, Russia (Milan, Italy), Slavonic and East European Review, Race, and the Times Literary Supplement.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian Philip Longworth is the author of several books focusing on Eastern Europe and Russia, including The Making of Eastern Europe: From Prehistory to Postcommunism. Noting that the author "tells the story backward," Robert Legvold, writing in Foreign Affairs, also wrote that "more than the book's architecture is original." The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, tells the history of the commission established in 1917 to honor the British Commonwealth soldiers killed in the first two world wars. The history was called an "excellent book" by a contributor to the Tom Morgan's Hellfire Corner Web site.

In Russia: The Once and Future Empire from Pre-History to Putin, Longworth covers the long expanse of Russian history, noting along the way such topics as the role of Orthodox Christianity, the Mongolian invasion in the thirteenth century, and the numerous Russian rulers who built the former Russian empire. Noting that the idea of Russia as an Empire was not something many younger Russians thought about after the 1990-91 collapse, a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to write: "But, as Longworth observes at the close of this useful survey, ‘nothing is immutable,’ and if history is a guide, Russia's empire will rise again." Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, called Russia "a highly qualified candidate for the library's national-history shelf."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of Russia: The Once and Future Empire from Pre-History to Putin, p. 13.

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 1994, Robert Legvold, review of The Making of Eastern Europe: From Prehistory to Postcommunism.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Russia, p. 1058.

Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1985, Charles Solomon, review of Alexis: Tsar of All the Russias, p. 18.

Times Literary Supplement, December 7, 1984, review of Alexis, p. 1421.

ONLINE

McGill Reporter,http://www.reporter-archive.mcgill.ca/ (February 12, 1998), Daniel McCabe, "Hard Road ahead for Eastern Europe," interview with author.

Tom Morgan's Hellfire Corner, http://www.hellfirecorner.demon.co.uk/ (August 5, 2007), review of The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.