Historian Paul Addison, who "examined many aspects of military and civilian war experience, and became a leading international scholar of Winston Churchill," died January 21, the Guardian reported. He was 76. When he "embarked on studying the politics of the second world war, there were few scholarly studies to draw on and sources were thin on the ground."
Addison's best-known book, The Road to 1945 (1975), was "a landmark in the writing of contemporary history and had a huge impact on that field," the Guardian wrote, adding that the book "became a focal point for discussion and debate about the political history of wartime and postwar Britain. It remains an essential title on student reading lists."
His other titles include Now the War Is Over (1985); No Turning Back (2010); "and a long list of edited volumes dealing with different aspects of the British military and civilian war experience," the Guardian noted, adding that the most recent of these volumes, The Spirit of the Blitz, is due to be published later this year.
In addition, Addison became a leading international scholar of Winston Churchill, having worked in the late 1960s as a research assistant for Churchill's son, Randolph, who was compiling his father's official biography. Among Addison's works in this field are Churchill on the Home Front (1992) and Churchill: The Unexpected Hero (2005).