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Philip Dwyer

Historian specialising in Global History and the History of Violence

About

I am Professor Emeritus of History and the founding Director of the Centre for the History of Violence at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I am the prize-winning author of six books, 12 anthologies, as well as over 50 book chapters and articles in academic journals. I spent ten years writing a three-volume biography of Napoleon published by Bloomsbury and Yale University Press. I have been a Senior Research Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of European History, a Senior Fulbright Scholar, and a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. I am currently writing a book called The Savage Heart: A Global History of Human Violence. My books have been translated into Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. 

“Exemplary scholarship ... A book of meticulous research and beautifully detailed descriptions of Napoleon's military adventures, brings home the full horrific cost of the march on Russia” –  Praise for 'Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799-1815', New Statesman

“Remarkable ... a satisfying, psychologically convincing account ... Even-handed and authoritative, this fascinating and highly enjoyable book will be an eye opener even to those who think they know the subject well”– Praise for 'Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-1799', Sunday Times

"Dwyer tells the story of Napoleon’s exile with consummate skill, drawing on a vast array of sources to provide us with a detailed but vivid description of the rituals and tedium of detention..." – Peter McPhee, Australian Book Review

Darker Angels is not just an efficient and revealing demolition of Pinker’s scholarship and argument, but a valuable contribution in itself to a debate about violence in history, and what we can know about it. It reveals that a more nuanced understanding is possible of how and why violence arises in societies, and why its rate might rise and fall.” Dominic Alexander, Counterfire

Press

Current Projects

The Savage Heart: A Global History of Human Violence
Empires of Violence: Massacre in a Revolutionary Age
Destroying the Past: A History of Iconoclasm
Aftermaths of War
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