Staff Profile:Professor Patrick Major
- Name:
- Professor Patrick Major
- Job Title:
- Professor
- Responsibilities:
I am chair of exams and teach two optional courses on 'Warrior Nation: Prussia and Germany, 1740-1945' and 'Cold War Berlin: Politics and Culture in a Divided City'.
I would be glad to supervise any research student with an interest in the history of modern Germany, the world wars, the Cold War, film history and popular cultural history.
- Areas of Interest:
My research interests are primarily the political, social and cultural history of divided Germany in the Cold War. I have recently completed a large project on the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. I am currently undertaking a project on Anglo-American and German film depictions of 'bad Nazis' and 'good Germans', which has been funded by the British Academy.
- Research groups / Centres:
Research groups / Centres: I am an associate of the East German Studies Archive at Reading.
- Publications:
-
YNumber of items: 21.
2020
- Major, P. (2020) 'Just another Kraut'?: The Wehrmacht Traitor as ‘Good German’ in Hollywood’s Decision before Dawn (1951). In: Purse, L. and Woelfel, U. (eds.) Mediating War and Identity: Figures of Transgression in 20th- and 21st-century War Representation. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. ISBN 9781474446266
2019
- Major, P. (2019) Shooting Rommel: the Desert Fox (1951) and Hollywood’s public-private diplomacy. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39 (2). pp. 209-232. ISSN 0143-9685 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2018.1522791
2018
- Scott, C. J. and Major, P. (2018) The ionospheric response over the UK to major bombing raids during World War II. Annales Geophysicae, 36 (5). pp. 1243-1254. ISSN 0992-7689 doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-1243-2018
2012
- Major, P. (2012) Listening behind the Curtain: BBC broadcasting to East Germany and its Cold War echo. Cold War History, 13 (2). pp. 255-275. ISSN 1743-7962 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2012.746840
2011
- Major, P. (2011) Walled in: ordinary East Germans' responses to 13 August 1961. German Politics and Society, 29 (2). pp. 8-22. ISSN 1558-5441 doi: https://doi.org/10.3167/gps.2011.290202
2010
- Major, P. (2010) Unusual censor readings: G.D.R. science fiction and the Ministry of Culture. In: Hochscherf, T., Laucht, C. and Plowman, A. (eds.) Divided, but not disconnected: German experiences of the Cold War. Berghan Books, New York and Oxford, pp. 204-219. ISBN 9781845457518
2009
- Major, P. (2009) Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the frontiers of power. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp336. ISBN 9780199243280
- Major, P. and Moran, C., eds. (2009) Spooked: Britain, empire and intelligence since 1945. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, pp164. ISBN 9781443813129
2008
- Major, P. (2008) Our friend Rommel: the Wehrmacht as "worthy enemy" in postwar British popular culture. German History, 26 (4). pp. 520-35. ISSN 1477-089X doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghn049
2006
- Major, P. (2006) "Smut and trash": Germany's culture wars against pulp fiction. In: Führer, K.-C. and Ross, C. (eds.) Mass Media, Culture and Society in Twentieth-Century Germany. New Perspectives in German Political Studies. Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 234-250. ISBN 9780230008380
- Major, P. and Mitter, R. (2006) Culture. In: Dockrill, S. and Hughes, G. (eds.) Palgrave Advances in Cold War History. Palgrave Advances. Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 240-262. ISBN 9781403934475
2004
- Major, P. and Mitter, R., eds. (2004) Across the Blocs: exploring comparative Cold War cultural and social history. Cold War History. Cass, London, pp160. ISBN 9780714684642
- Major, P. (2004) Future perfect?: Communist science fiction in the Cold War. In: Major, P. and Mitter, R. (eds.) Across the Blocs: exploring comparative Cold War cultural and social history. Cold War History. Cass, London, pp. 56-74. ISBN 9780714684642
2002
- Major, P. (2002) Going West: the open border and the problems of Republikflucht. In: Major, P. and Osmond, J. (eds.) The workers' and peasants' state: communism and society in East Germany under Ulbricht, 1945-71. Manchester University Press, Mancheseter, pp. 190-209. ISBN 9780719062896
- Major, P. and Osmond, J., eds. (2002) The workers' and peasants' state: communism and society in East Germany under Ulbricht, 1945-71. Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp320. ISBN 9780719062896
- Major, P. (2002) Coming in from the cold: the GDR in the British spy thriller. In: Bauerkämper, A. (ed.) Britain and the GDR: relations and perceptions in a divided world. Philo, Vienna, pp. 339-352. ISBN 9783825702960
- Major, P. (2002) Innenpolitische Aspekte der zweiten Berlinkrise (1958-1961). In: Hertle, H.-H., Jarausch, K. and Kleßmann, C. (eds.) Mauerbau und Mauerfall: Ursachen, Verlauf, Auswirkungen. Ch. Links, Berlin, pp. 97-110. ISBN 9783861532644
2000
- Major, P. (2000) Symptom der zweiten Berlinkrise. In: Ciesla, B., Lemke, M. and Lindenberger, T. (eds.) Sterben für Berlin?: Die Berliner Krisen 1948: 1958. Metropol, Berlin, pp. 221-243. ISBN 9783932482274
- Major, P. (2000) 'Torschlußpanik und Mauerbau: "Republikfluht". In: Ciesla, B., Lemke, M. and Lindenberger, T. (eds.) Sterben für Berlin? Die Berliner Krisen 1948: 1958. Metropol, Berlin, pp. 221-243. ISBN 9783932482274
1999
- Major, P. (1999) Vor und nach dem 13. August 1961: Reaktionen der DDR-Bevölkerung auf den Bau der Berliner Mauer. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 39. pp. 325-354. ISSN 0066-6506
1998
- Major, P. (1998) The death of the KPD: communism and anti-communism in West Germany 1945-1956. Oxford Historical Monographs. OUP, Oxford, pp370. ISBN 9780198206934
