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Ashley Jackson (born 24 June 1971) is a professor of imperial and military history in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London and a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. Jackson is a specialist in the history of the British Empire. He was featured on the BBC mockumentary Cunk on Earth.
Ashley Jackson was born in Bristol, England on 24 June 1971. He attended the University of Greenwich, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1992, and Oxford University, from which he received a Master of Studies degree in 1993 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1996.[1] His dissertation was about the history of World War II and British imperial Botswana (then formally known as the Bechuanaland Protectorate).[2]
Academia
Jackson is Professor of Imperial and Military History at King's College London.[3] He specializes in studying the global military strategy of the British Empire.[4] His first book, Botswana, 1939–1945: An African Country at War, published in 1999, was adapted from his dissertation; it covers the recruitment and demobilization of the African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps as well as the wartime Botswanan home front experience.[2] The Times Literary Supplement called it a "fascinating study".[1] His second book, published in 2001 and considered thematically similar to his first by the Journal of Southern African Studies, was War and Empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean and analyzed British Mauritius during World War II.[5] According to African Affairs, Botswana, 1939–1945 and War and Empire were "two useful, excellent books".[6] His third book was published in 2006 as The British Empire and the Second World War, taking on "the whole of the British Empire in the war years" in what African Affairs called "an important book" and "an accurate account of the contributions made by dominions and colonies".[6] In 2016, Jackson told The Independent that he believed the British public needed "better education" in a "warts and all understanding" of British imperial history that acknowledged the exploitative dimensions of the British Empire.[7]
Television
Jackson appears as himself in Cunk on Earth, a 2022 mockumentary about human history created by the BBC.[8] "[O]ne of the most sobering moments in the show", according to the Arthur, happens when Jackson informs the interviewer character Philomena Cunk (played by Diane Morgan) that nuclear weapons still exist in the present.[9] Learning this makes the usually unflappable Cunk distraught, and she says she wants to change the subject to a happier topic and asks Jackson if he likes ABBA.[10] He replies, "I love ABBA"[11] and tells Cunk that his favourite song is "Dancing Queen", and the interaction "helps re-calibrate the seriousness of the tone and break the tension" in the scene, the Arthur states.[9]
Jackson has published several books, including:
- Botswana, 1939–1945: An African Country at War (1999)
- War and Empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean (2001)
- The British Empire and the Second World War (2006)
- Mad Dogs and Englishmen: A Grand Tour of the British Empire at Its Height (2009)
- Distant Drums: The Role of Colonies in British Imperial Warfare (February 2010)
- Churchill (2011).
- Illustrating Empire: A Visual History of British Imperialism (with David Tomkins)
- The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction (2013)
- Buildings of Empire (2013)
- Persian Gulf Command: A History of The Second World War in Iran and Iraq (2018)
- Of Islands, Ports and Sea Lanes: Africa and the Indian Ocean in the Second World War (2018)
His articles include:
- Jackson, Ashley. "Governing empire: colonial memoirs and the history of HM overseas civil service". African Affairs Vol. 103, No. 412 (Jul., 2004), pp. 471–491. online
- Jackson, Ashley. "Empire and beyond: the pursuit of overseas national interests in the late twentieth century". English Historical Review 122.499 (2007): 1350–1366.
- Jackson, Ashley. "New Research on the British Empire and the Second World War: Part II". Global War Studies 7.2 (2010): 157–184. online
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