Geoffrey Alderman

Geoffrey Alderman (born 10 Feb 1944 in Middlesex, England) is a British historian, especially of the Jewish community in England in the 19th and 20th centuries, and also an academic and political adviser.

Life

Geoffrey Alderman studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1962, gaining his B.A. in 1965 and an M.A. and D.Phil. in 1969. After short academic contracts at University College London, and the universities of Swansea and Reading he joined Royal Holloway College (University of London) in 1972, lecturing in politics and contemporary history. He was made Professor of Politics and Contemporary History in 1988.

From 1989 to 1994 he held senior administrative posts in the University of London and from 1994 to 1999 in Middlesex University. From 1999 he has worked in the private educational sector, in the U.S. (Touro College) and, from 2002 to 2006, at the American Intercontinental University, London, where he was Academic Dean and Senior Vice-President. On 1 June 2007 Professor Alderman joined the University of Buckingham.

In 1971 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 1991 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

In 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Oxford for his important work on Anglo-Jewish history.

Naomi Alderman, Geoffrey Alderman's daughter, was the author of the winning novel of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers with "Disobedience".

Works

Of his dozen or so books, the best-known is "Modern British Jewry" (2n ed 1998, OUP). He also writes for the "New Dictionary of National Biography", with special responsibility for post-1800 Jewish entries, and for The Guardian and the Jewish Chronicle.

Principal publications

"As author":
*The History of Hackney Downs School (London, 1971)
*The Railway Interest (Leicester University. Press, 1973) (Reprinted by Gregg Revivals, 1993)
*British Elections: Myth and Reality (B.T.Batsford, 1978)
*The Jewish Community in British Politics (Oxford University. Press, 1983)
*Pressure Groups and Government in Great Britain (Longman, 1984; 2nd impression 1987)
*Modern Britain 1700-1983: A Domestic History (Croom Helm 1986; reprinted 1987)
*The Federation of Synagogues, 1887-1987 (Federation of Synagogues, 1987)
*London Jewry and London Politics 1889-1986 (Routledge, 1989)
*Britain: A One-Party State? (Christopher Helm, 1989)
*Modern British Jewry (Oxford University Press, 1992; 2nd edn 1998)

"as editor":
*Governments, Ethnic Groups and Political Representation (editor and contributor) (European Science Foundation and Dartmouth Publishing, Aldershot, 1993)
*Outsiders and Outcasts: Essays in Honour of William J. Fishman (joint editor with C. Holmes, and contributor) (Duckworth, London, 1993) "other works":
*The History of the Hendon Synagogue 1928-1978 (London, 1978)
*The Jewish Vote in Great Britain since 1945 (University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 72, 1980)
*The Jewish Shops Panel: A Guide for Jewish Market Traders (written with G. Hudes, Scott Markets Ltd., 1981)
*Anglo-Jewry: A Suitable Case For Treatment (privately published, 1990) [Inaugural Lecture delivered 17 Oct. 1989]
*Academic Duty and Communal Obligation: Some Thoughts on the writing of Anglo-Jewish History (Centre for Jewish Studies, University of London, 1994)
*The Holocaust: Why Did Anglo-Jewry Stand Idly By? (Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Touro College, New York, 2001)

Controversies

Alderman's comments in an article published in the Jewish Chronicle, drew criticism from some civil rights groups as Alderman accused Islam of being founded on an "explicit anti-Jewish discourse." [ [http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m12s32s34&SecId=34&AId=54356&ATypeId=1 The Jewish Chronicle ] ] .

In the summer of 2008, following his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Buckingham, an urgent parliamentary inquiry was ordered into his allegations (made in the lecture) concerning the decline of academic standards in British higher education. [ [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/lecturers-pressed-to-boost-degree-results-848481.html Lecturers 'pressed to boost degree results' - Education News, Education - The Independent ] ] . [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4158426.ece A grotesque bidding game is undermining university standards | Geoffrey Alderman - Times Online ] ] At that inquiry (17 July 2008) the chairman of the House of Commons’ Select Committee on Universities condemned the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education as ‘a toothless old dog’ and declared that the British degree classification system had ‘descended into farce.’ [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2305795/University-degree-system-'is-a-farce'.html University degree system 'is a farce' - Telegraph ] ]

References

* [http://www.geoffreyalderman.com/ Prof Alderman's website]