Robert Tombs


Robert P. Tombs is a British historian of France, and is Professor Emeritus of French history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St John's College. Prior to this, he was a Reader in the subject until 2007.
Tombs' specialty is nineteenth-century France, particularly the Paris Commune. His work focused on the political culture of the working classes, and led him to revise a number of myths associated with the history of the Commune. His first book, The War Against Paris, 1871, analyzed the role of the French army in the suppression of the Paris Commune.
In 2006, with his wife, Isabelle Tombs, he wrote That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present, a history of the relationship between Britain and France. His wife, Isabelle Tombs, was born in France and is in charge of French training at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In 2014, Tombs published The English and Their History, which was widely reviewed.
Tombs' retirement was announced in August 2016, after which he became Professor Emeritus. He is currently co-editor of Briefings for Brexit, a consortium of academics and educators who support Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.

Major books and articles