Simon Kitson

Simon Kitson is a British historian.

Born in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, Kitson was educated in Bath, doing his undergraduate studies at the University of Ulster and his post-graduate studies at the University of Sussex, under the supervision of Professor Roderick Kedward. His doctoral thesis on the Marseille Police, examined by Professors Mark Mazower and Clive Emsley, was given an award by the Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Sécurité Intérieure- the first work of non-French origin to receive such an accolade. The thesis examined how the attitude of ordinary police officers evolved- their involvement in Resistance, Collaboration and the rounding-up of Jews to be deported for the Holocaust.

Kitson is a specialist on Vichy France on which he published "Vichy et la Chasse aux Espions Nazis" with Autrement of Paris in 2005 and "The Hunt for Nazi Spies" with the University of Chicago Press in 2008. He underlined the complexity of Vichy's policy of collaboration with the Nazi occupier. While Vichy collaborated significantly, rounding up Jews and forced labourers and cracking down on the Resistance, Kitson showed that simutaneously the regime was arresting intelligence agents working for the Nazis. The author attributed this to a desire to preserve sovereignty- in other words to be able to collaborate from a position of strength.

Kitson has worked for the Université de Paris-XII (Val de Marne) and the Open University. Between 1997 and 2008 he lectured in French Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is currently Director of Research at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is well known for the important web resource on Vichy France that he set up.

Publications

* "The Hunt for Nazi Spies", Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2008
* "Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis", Paris, Autrement, 2005
* (with Hanna Diamond) "Vichy, Resistance, Liberation" (essays in honour of Rod Kedward), Oxford, Berg, 2005
* 'The Marseille Police in their context from Popular Front to Liberation', "D Phil thesis", University of Sussex, 1995

* [http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/vichy/ Vichy web-page]

External links

* [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/bowles.html Review: Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis, 1940-1942: complexités de la politique de collaboration]
* [http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Thomas-KitsonRoundtable.pdf H-Diplo Roundtable- Thomas (introduction) to Kitson roundtable] retrieved 2008-05-14
* [http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Jackson-KitsonRoundtable.pdf H-Diplo Roundtable- Jackson on Kitson roundtable] retrieved 2008-05-14
* [http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Kennedy-KitsonRoundtable.pdf H-Diplo Roundtable- Kennedy on Kitson roundtable] retrieved 2008-05-14
* [http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Munholland-KitsonRoundtable.pdf H-Diplo Roundtable- Munholland on Kitson roundtable] retrieved 2008-05-14
* [http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Porch-KitsonRoundtable.pdf H-Diplo Roundtable- Porch on Kitson roundtable] retrieved 2008-05-14
* [http://h-france.net/vol5reviews/biddiscombe.html H-France Reviews]
* [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/bowles.html Review: Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis, 1940-1942: complexités de la politique de collaboration] Review: Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis, 1940-1942: complexités de la politique de collaboration]
* [http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=948747]
* [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21061 Vichy vs. the Nazis - The New York Review of Books]
* [http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/451401/jealous-neighbourhood-watch.thtml The Hunt for Nazi Spies | Simon Kitson, translated by Catherine Tihanyi | Review by The Spectator]
* [http://www.nysun.com/article/68759?page_no=1 Spy Vs. Spy - January 2, 2008 - The New York Sun]
* [http://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2008/02/ The Chicago Blog: February 2008 Archives]
*Anklin, Michael, [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=311861145896462 Book review: "Vichy et la chasse aux espions nazis, 1940–1942: complexités de la politique de collaboration" by Simon Kitson] , H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, retrieved 2008-05-16
* [http://www.letemps.ch/disques/critique.asp?Genre=2&Objet=3393 Le Temps - Disques]
*Review in "French History" [http://fh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/22/2/247]
* [http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/images/4_98588.pdf Microsoft Word - Modern History Review Final Report.doc]

ources

* [http://www.french.bham.ac.uk/staff/kitson.htm Dr Simon Kitson]