Jonathan Boff

Prof

  • Professor of Military History, History

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I am keen to supervise projects on Economic Statecraft, past and present, the military history of the two world wars, British strategy from Gladstone to Churchill, and morale and combat motivation. I am particularly keen to encourage projects with a comparative/international dimension.

Past PhD students include Dr Aimee Fox-Godden, 'Inter-Theatre Learning in the British Army during the First World War' and Dr Andrew Duncan, 'The Training and Ethos of British Officers before the First World War'

Current projects include 'Photographic Reconnaissance and Data Management in the First World War' (Nicole Chicarelli) and 'Pilot Training in the Luftwaffe before and during the Second World War' (Frank Gerards)

20092024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

I joined the University of Birmingham in September 2011 after completing my PhD at King’s College London. Before returning to academia in 2005 I spent twenty years working in the private sector, much of the time in Asia.

Research interests

My research centres on Applied History and the use of the past to provide empirical evidence for, and shed light, on the dilemmas of the present.

My current research focusses on Economic Statecraft and the use of money as a weapon of war. This brings together This brings together my previous empirical work with my earlier twenty-year career in the City. Funded by an AHRC Fellowship in Research Leadership (2020-23), this project has already spun off articles in important edited collections and academic journals and will inform a monograph to be published by Oxford University Press in 2025: 'The Age of Mammon and Mars: Money and War in the Modern World'.

I have written two prize-winning books on the First World War, Haig's Enemy (OUP, 2018) and Winning and Losing on the Western Front (CUP, 2012) as well as over a dozen peer-reviewed articles. 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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