John Gilmour

Honorary Fellow

Qualifications

  • MA (Hons)
  • MBA
  • MSc (Second World War Studies)
  • MSc (Scandinavian Studies)

Undergraduate teaching

Scandinavian Civilization 'A'

Scandinavian Civilization 'B'

Research summary

The Second World War experience of the Scandinavian nations provides a fascinating microcosm of a global conflict where the reverberations of the Holocaust, resistance, collaboration, and moral ambiguity are rewarding areas of research. Additionally, the geopolitics of Scandinavia provided challenging Second World War policy options for Germany, Britain, Soviet Russia and the USA which reveal insights into their wider ambitions in the region.

The prose works of the 20th century Swedish proletarian writer, Harry Martinson, can be said to presage today's global society and environmental concerns. One of his present-day champions, the author and academic Björn Larsson, has also adopted a polemic style in his prose which ranges across current issues such as individual freedom in the information society, and radicalisation and anomie in modern western cultures.

Books: Authored and Edited

  • Gilmour, John and Stephenson, Jill., (Eds). Hitler's Scandinavian Legacy. (London, Bloomsbury. 2013.)
  • Gilmour, John. Sweden, the Swastika and Stalin. The Swedish Experience in the Second World War. (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 2010.)
  • Gilmour, John. Hitler, Stalin och Sverige : ett nytt perspektiv på den svenska erfarenheten av andra världskriget. (Stockholm, Santérus Förlag, 2016.)
  • Gilmour, John.  'Sweden's Ambiguous War: Contradiction and Controversy' in Stecher-Hansen, M. (ed.)  Nordic War Stories: World War Two as History, Fiction, Media, and Memory, (New York, Berghahn Books. 2020.)
  • Gilmour, John . 'Sweden - an ambiguous participant'  in Bartrop , P. (ed.) The Routledge History Of The Second World War, [Pre-publication.] 

Publications and Reviews

  • Gilmour, John  (2021) ‘Heil England!’ Reggie Sutton-Pratt, British Military Attaché in Stockholm 1939-1945, Journal of Intelligence History, DOI: 10.1080/16161262.2021.1884792
  • Review of  'Mysteriet Malcolm Munthe. Churchills Agent I Norden.’ (The mystery of Malcolm Munthe, Churchill’s Nordic agent), Journal of Intelligence History, 2021. DOI: 10.1080/16161262.2021.1883932
  • Review of The Hundred Day Winter War: Finland's Gallant Stand against the Soviet Army, Gordon F. Sander, University Press of Kansas, 2013.  ISBN: 9780700619108. War in History,  July 2014;  vol. 21, 3: pp. 388-389.
  • Review of När Finland var Sverige. (When Finland Was Sweden), Herman Lindqvist, Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2013. ISBN: 9789174332223. Swedish Book Review 2014:1
  • Review of Operation Norssken: om Stasi och Sverige under kalla kriget. (Operation Northern Lights: Sweden and the Stasi during the Cold War), Christoph Andersson, Norstedts,  2013. ISBN 91-1-304435-4.  Swedish Book Review 2013:2
  • Review of Mördaren i folkhemmet. (Murderer in the ‘Home of the People’), Lena Ebervall and Per E. Samuelson,  Pirat,  2012. ISBN: 9789164203984. Swedish Book Review 2013:1
  • Review of Finland's War of Choice - The Troubled German-Finnish Coalition in World War II , Henrik O. Lunde, Casemate, Newbury, 2011. ISBN 9781612002194. War in History,  November 2012;  vol. 19, 4: pp. 528-529.
  • Review of Swedes at War: Willing Warriors of a Neutral Nation, 1914-1945. Gyllenhaal, Lars & Westberg, Lennart, translation by Carl Gustav Finstrom. (Bedford, PA, Aberjona Press 2010.) The British Commission for Military History, Mars & Clio 30, 2012.
  • Gilmour, John. (2011) ‘A return ticket for the Shetland Bus? Scottish-Swedish air connections during the Second World War.’ Northern Studies 42, 76-94.
  • Review of Omvälvningarnas tid: Norden och Europa under revolutions- och Napoleonkrigen  (Times of Upheaval: The Nordic Countries and Europe in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars), Martin Hårdstedt,  Norstedts,  2010. ISBN: 9789113024387 , Swedish Book Review 2011:2
  • Review of Hitler’s Savage Canary: A History of the Danish Resistance in World War II, David Lampe, Frontline Books, Barnsley, 2010. The British Commission for Military History, Mars & Clio 29, 2011.