Alan Schom


Alan Morris Strauss-Schom, known as Alan Schom and occasionally Alan Strauss-Schom is an American historian and biographer. Specialising in French History, his work on Napoleon saw him receive Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations.

Biography

Schom is originally from Illinois but later moved to California. His father Irving was an active freemason, part of Ionic Composite Lodge No. 520 in Carthay, Los Angeles. He had one sister, Faith Sharon Scham, who died in 2002.

Education

He attended Beverly Hills High School and received his A.B. in French/ European History from University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He continued his education at Durham University, where he was a member of the Hatfield College Middle Common Room and completed his PhD on the French soldier and administrator Hubert Lyautey, entitled A study of Lyautey's administration of Morocco, in relation to indigenous and Islamic institutions, in 1968.

Career

Schom taught French and Modern European History at Southern Connecticut State University and at the University of California, Riverside. He served as the President and Founder of the French Colonial Historical Society, and founded its research journal, French Colonial Studies. In 1977 he left academia to become a full-time writer and speaker.
In 1997 Schom prepared the first of two reports for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on the policies of the Swiss Government toward Jewish refugees during World War II that argued Switzerland furthered the goals of neighbouring Nazi Germany despite a professed stance of neutrality. The reports – actually prepared by Schom and several scholars, including Marvin Hier, but authored by Schom only – were criticised by a Swiss diplomat in the United States, Thomas G. Borer, who accused Schom of 'shoddy scholarship' in a letter sent to the Los Angeles Times shortly after release of the second report in June 1998. In Switzerland itself reaction was also highly negative, with President Flavio Cotti denouncing the conclusions of the reports.
Amid the controversy, Simon Wiesenthal expressed displeasure at the organisation bearing his name for issuing the first report and disputed Schom's qualifications and conclusions. He also called on the center to distance itself from Schom and not use him for research again. Schom, for his part, defended the contents of the reports when challenged by reporters at an emotionally-charged press conference in New York, as did Hier, who stated that anti-semitism was an 'official state policy' in Switzerland.

Napoleon

Schom has been highly critical of Napoleon. His 1997 single volume biography, Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life, argued the subjects military reputation is overrated and instead identifies his genius as political, with Napoleon's mastery of political spin pinpointed as a major factor in his continued advancement. The work saw Schom accused in some quarters of failing to prevent an objective view of Napoleon's career, though he stood by the book and suggested the views of many non-academic defenders of Napoleon were bordering on hero worship. Schom has also highlighted what he regards as the malign influence of the Napoleonic Code and its rejection of the presumption of innocence.

Selected works

As Alan Scham
As Alan Schom
As Alan Strauss-Schom