Dr. Perry Biddiscombe
Position
Contact
Credentials
BA, MA (UNB), PhD (LSE)
Area of expertise
Modern European History, Political, Social, and Military History
Office Hours
Fall 2024: Tuesday + Wednesday 12:30 - 1:30
Bio
I was born and brought up in the Maritime Provinces and I did my BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick. My Ph.D. was completed in 1991 at the University of London (London School of Economics). Since that time, I have been teaching at UVic, initially as a sessional appointment and then full time since 1992. My main research interests are in the fields of ideology, guerrilla warfare and political symbolism.
Selected publications
Books:
The Denazification of Germany: A History, 1945-1950 (2007).
The SS Hunter Battalions (2006).
The Last Nazis (2000); 2nd ed. 2004; pbk. 2006. Translated into Spanish, Hungarian and Polish.
Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946 (1998); 2nd ed. 2011; published as an e-book in 2008.
Selected Titles:
"Branding the United Nations: The Adoption of the UN Insignia and Flag, 1941-1950," International History Review 42, no. 1 (Jan. 2020), pp. 19-41 (published online, 9 Jan. 2019).
"The Mufti's Men: Haj Amin al-Husayni and SS Parachute Expeditions to Palestine and Iraq, 1944-1945," Journal of Military History 82 (July 2018), pp. 783-815.“Into the Maelstrom: German Women in Combat, 1944/45,” War & Society 30, no. 1 (March 2011).
“The ‘Z’ Effect: The History of 150 Years of Analytical Writing about Nationalism,” The International Journal of the Humanities 2, no. 3 (2005).
“Donald and Me: The Iraq War and the ‘Werwolf’ Analogy,” International Journal 59 (Summer 2004).
“Freies Deutschland Partisans in East Prussia: A Contribution to the History of the German Resistance,” German Studies Review 22 (Feb. 2004).
Republished in Gary Sheffield, ed., War Studies Reader: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day and Beyond (2011).
“The Last White Terror: The White Maquis and Its Impact in Liberated France, 1944-1945,” The Journal of Modern History 73 (2001).
“Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948,” Journal of Social History 34, no. 3 (Spring 2001).
“Minutemen of the Third Reich,” History Today 50 (Oct. 2000).“Unternehmen Zeppelin: The Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union, 1942-1945,” Europe-Asia Studies 52 (2000).
“The Problem with Glass Houses: The Soviet Recruitment and Deployment of SS Men as Spies and Saboteurs,” Intelligence and National Security 15 (Autumn 2000).
“The End of the Freebooter Tradition: The Forgotten Freikorps Movement of 1944/45,” Central European History 32 (1999).
“The French Résistance and the Chambery Incident of June 1945,” French History 11, no. 4 (Dec. 1997).
“Operation Selection Board: The Growth and Suppression of the Neo-Nazi ‘Deutsche Revolution,’ 1945-1947,” Intelligence and National Security 11, no. 1 (Jan. 1996).
“’The Enemy of Our Enemy’: A View of the Edelweiss Piraten from the British and American Archives,” Journal of Contemporary History 30, no. 1 (Jan. 1995).
“Prodding the Russian Bear: Pro-German Resistance in Romania, 1944-1945,” European History Quarterly 23, no. 2 (April 1993).
“Le tricolour et l’étoile: The Origin of the Acadian National Flag, 1867-1912,” Acadiensis 20, no. 1 (1990). Republished in P.A. Buckner, Gail Campbell, David Frank, eds., The Acadiensis Reader: Atlantic Canada after Confederation (1999).
Courses
| HSTR 112A | World History, 1900 - present |
| HSTR 344B | Europe Between Two World Wars |
| HSTR 344C | The Second World War and the Recovery of Western Europe |
| HSTR 440 | Seminar in European History |
| HSTR 504B | Field in European History II |
Topics include:
Nationalism, European Historiography
Grad students
Cameron Loveless, MA—"Nazi Ideology, the German Christian Movement and British Military Government Action against the Christian Movement after 1945" (2010)
Dale Montgomery, MA—"'No Fascism Here': Ireland, 1932-1985"(2005)
Valerie Deacon, MA (co-supervision with R. Alexander)—"The Art of Secrecy and Subversion: The Cagoule and French Politics in the 1930s"(2005)
Lance Schmidt, MA—"The Folly of Youth: The Continuing Influence of the Hitler Youth in Postwar Germany" (2003)
Jason Ferguson, MA—"Reflections: American Opinions of Germans in the American Occupation Zone, 1944-1949" (2002)
Chris Wojtan, MA—"The Polish War Effort in the British and American, Polish, German and Soviet Historiographies" (2000)
Shawn Crawford, MA—"The Mouse that Roared? Pro-Nazi Resistance in U.S. Occupied Germany, 1945-1949: A View from the American Archives" (1997)
Gordon Argyle, MA—"Banishing the Past: An American Perspective of 'Renazification' in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949" (1996)
Chris Madsen, Ph.D. (co-supervision with D. Zimmerman)—"The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947" (1996) Later published as The Royal Navy and German Naval Disarmament, 1942-1947 (1998).