Impact case study database

Between 2014 and 2018, the UK marked the centenary of the First World War. As part of this significant anniversary, Stevenson's research has informed a range of initiatives that have commemorated the war dead, stimulated interest in the wider history of the conflict, and enhanced understanding of some of its lesser-known chapters and events. This work includes notable collaborations with the British Library on its pan-European educational initiatives, the Imperial War Museum on its award-winning First World War galleries, the BBC on one of its primetime television series, and other beneficiaries such as the British Army and National Theatre groups. These impacts were facilitated by Stevenson’s work in various expert advisory roles and are described in greater detail below.

Europeana: 1914-1918, British Library

In 2013-2014 Stevenson was consultant to 1914-1918, Europeana’s thematic collection on the First World War, which gathered untold stories and official histories of the conflict [A]. Europeana is a learning website which works with thousands of European archives, libraries, and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education, and research. The British Library led this project, liaising with 11 institutions from seven European countries and developing an English-language web resource for First World War teachers. The site provides access to nearly 500 items and exhibits, including photographs, postcards, correspondence, propaganda material, and news clippings, all supported by commissioned articles from leading experts.

While the project was under development, Stevenson advised on a number of editorial matters. Drawing on his experience of researching and writing [1], he advocated and obtained a change to the planned structure of the collection, rearranging the thematic sub-sections into which the material was divided. He suggested prospective article authors and also personally contributed articles [A] – firmly grounded in the underpinning research – on “Europe before 1914”, “Origins and Outbreak”, “Making and Breaking Nations”, “Neutrality and Intervention”, “Supply and Logistics”, “The War Effort at Home”, and “The Aftermath of WWI”. On Stevenson’s recommendation the collection increased its coverage of the second half of the war as part of its expansion in 2018, with Stevenson again called on to recommend authors and contribute another piece on “How the First World War Ended”. These articles drew on research featuring in [1] [2] and [3]. He also delivered a companion lecture for London schoolchildren at the British Library in October 2014.

The site’s associated resources include materials in several languages, tailored to school curricula in the UK and in Europe. It has been promoted by the School Library Association (Resources Blog, “WWI Resources from British Library”, 13 March 2014); the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (“Creative Learning in the Digital Age, Online Teaching Resources for World War One”); the BBC Schools WWI Secondary webpage; the North East War Memorials Project; the United States World War One Centennial Commission (under “WWI Education Resources for Teachers”); and the National World War I Museum and Memorial Education Resources section in Kansas City (this is the only public museum in the US dedicated to WWI). Europeana 1914-1918 was also featured in The Guardian Teacher Network’s (21 July 2014) “How to teach…the First World War” [B]. In a review of several WWI education resources for Reviews in History, Christopher Phillips wrote: “ the unique selling point for the British Library…is the impressive quality and depth of the [supporting] articles. Written by a combination of internationally renowned scholars such as David Stevenson…the articles offer readers an introduction to the conflict based not upon ‘myths’ and popular perceptions but upon the latest academic scholarship” [B]. As of November 2020, the website has received more than four million individual visits. Location data also shows that 37 countries have each visited the site at least 5,000 times, with visits from users from the United States alone amounting to in excess of 1.2 million [C].

Imperial War Museum

Stevenson served on the academic advisory committee for the Imperial War Museum’s First World War galleries, which opened in July 2014. Costing GBP40 million, the galleries formed a centrepiece of the UK’s centenary commemorations. Stevenson’s appointment arose directly from his publications [1] [3] and he provided input across a number of areas of preparation, offering detailed comment on the design company’s initial concept, on gallery layout (particularly on sequencing; i.e. the route intended to be taken by visitors), on content (of the different sections in the first part of the exhibition, on the outbreak of the war), and providing expert quality assurance for the entirety of the exhibits’ accompanying text and captions. He coached museum staff on the war’s outbreak, identified by market research as the topic on which visitors most desired information. Stevenson also contributed to the advisory committee’s discussions about how to present more sensitive subjects to feature in the galleries, such as events in Ireland and Armenia.

Daily IWM visitor numbers in the first few months following the opening of the galleries were more than double the average prior to that time (up to 8,000 per day from 3,000) [D]. Visitor numbers remained consistently high throughout the centenary and even in the last couple of years: 2014-2015, 796,000 (70% attending WWI galleries); 2015-16, 709,000 (75%); 2016-17, 741,000 (75%); 2017-18, 678,000 (72%); 2018-19, 187,000 (75%); 2018-19, 221,000 (83%). Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Alastair Sooke celebrated the galleries’ “ fascinating, and frequently heartbreaking, exhibits” [D], while the New York Times’ Edward Rothstein praised the “ powerful presentations” as “ worth paying attention to, not only for what they say about World War I, but also for what they say about contemporary approaches to history” [D]. The museum’s First World War galleries also received industry acclaim, winning Best Permanent Exhibition at the 2015 Museum + Heritage Awards, and also being chosen as the winner in the Exhibition Design Category of the Design Week Awards 2015 [E].

In October 2014, the Head of First World War Gallery Content Team wrote to Stevenson to express his gratitude for his contributions, and those of his academic advisory board colleagues: “ It has been a fantastic experience for us all and we are hugely in your debt for your expertise, your goodwill and for helping us to craft galleries which our visitors are finding so enthralling and which have won so much praise” [F].

LSE public festivals and exhibitions

Stevenson has worked closely with the LSE on public engagement initiatives to commemorate WWI, which drew heavily from the School’s own archives. He was consultant to the online 2014 exhibition, WWI@LSE: a Common Cause, associated with the 2014 LSE Literary Festival, advising on which items to include (such as photographs, minute books, and excerpts from the Clare Market Review – the student magazine) and providing the accompanying commentaries. Subsequently this material was also used as the basis of an International History Department podcast (downloaded more than 2,300 times [G] since becoming available in October 2019). With the Library he prepared an online exhibition for Google Arts & Culture, “The LSE’s War, 1914-1918”, selecting themes, texts, and images, and writing the narrative. He was consultant to a 2019 exhibition, “Giving Peace a Chance: from the League of Nations to Greenham Common” (linked to the 2019 LSE Festival), advising on design, again selecting items from the LSE archives and providing the accompanying commentaries, as well as delivering a public lecture. The exhibition had 8,600 visitors [G]. Stevenson’s 2011 book [3] and his research on the British Left in the war [5] directly informed this work.

BBC documentary series

Stevenson was consultant for the BBC series, Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo, produced by Boundless Productions. He was chosen for his knowledge of railways and WWI logistics, particularly as featured in [3]. He viewed first cuts of every episode, corrected inaccuracies, and copy-edited the associated book, Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo, by Colette Hooper (Bantam Press, 2014). For example, he identified one of the proposed illustrations as actually dating from the Second World War. Portillo interviewed him on how railway superiority assisted the Allies’ victory and how the disintegration of Germany’s logistical system contributed to its defeat. The BBC has broadcast this series three times, the first showing garnering an average audience of 1.1 million viewers (6.4% share), outperforming BBC2’s access prime average audience by 14% for total viewers [H].

British Army and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical Branch

Stevenson was consulted by the British Army as part of Operation Reflect, which as well as forming part of the nation’s commemorations also sought to identify contemporary lessons from the history of the war, in particular from the conduct of the British Army’s continental campaigns. Stevenson delivered lectures at the Royal United Services Institution in 2014 and at Sandhurst in 2017, particularly emphasising the importance of logistical factors as described in [3]. He also joined a “staff ride” to Cambrai in 2014, lecturing cadets about the battle that took place there in 1917. He worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical Branch in organising two public conferences: one on the outbreak of the war (2014) and one (with the National Archives and other stakeholders) on the Treaty of Versailles (2019). Both conferences attracted attendances of over 100, including journalists, diplomats, academics, students, and members of the general public.

In addition to the impacts achieved working with these core beneficiaries, Stevenson’s research has also underpinned several other public-facing initiatives. He wrote the text for two items (on the blockade of Germany and the Battle of Verdun) in the BBC iWonder series, which sought to make the most of the corporation’s vast archives of video, audio, text, and graphics, presented by historians and experts. Stevenson provided further expert quality assurance for the BBC by fact-checking videos and essays for inclusion in its “Bitesize” feature on the 1918 armistice [I]. Drawing on his 2011 book [3], he was consultant to Hotham Productions’ “Countdown to Peace, March to November 1918”, a 2018 audio dramatisation of With Our Backs to the Wall, that retold the history of the road to the 1918 Armistice. He wrote the historical programme notes for Sean O’Casey’s play, The Silver Tassie, revived at the National Theatre in 2014, and in July 2016 briefed c.100 participants as part of Project Octagon, a modern memorial to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and organised by 14-18 Now!, the body responsible for art commissions commemorating the war, and the National Theatre. Photos and reactions to the project, which unfolded without advance publicity, soon spread across social media under the #WeAreHere hashtag and garnered national media coverage [I]. Contributions to other educational initiatives include reviewing articles prior to publication in the Germany-based project 1914-1918 Online: International Encyclopaedia of the First World War, supported by the Freie Universität Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Beyond these examples, Stevenson’s research and publications led to many appearances before non-academic audiences throughout the centenary. He gave invited keynotes at literary festivals in Toronto, Edinburgh, Malta, and Great Malvern, at the National Defence College in Tokyo, at the Liberty War Memorial, Kansas City, and to the Western Front Association. In all he gave some 40 public lectures, including two recorded talks at Gresham College. A 2014 Gresham lecture providing an overview of the war’s military history had received 54,438 views by October 2018.

Following the death of General Franco in 1975, Spain’s political elites agreed to el pacto del olvido (“the pact of forgetting”), a conscious decision not to address the legacy of Francoism as a way of smoothening the transition to democracy. While this pact served a useful purpose at the time, conversation surrounding the Civil War and the regime subsequently became inhibited, preventing Spain and its people from confronting and accepting its past. It is in this context that Preston’s research, particularly the monographs described above, has made significant contributions to processes of reconciliation and commemoration in Spain. Findings from Preston’s work have challenged previous national understandings of events and personalities, correcting misapprehensions and outright falsehoods, while his research has also informed an award-winning educational initiative in Catalonia. Internationally, his work has improved understanding and informed discussion of Spain’s recent history, and been used to design an innovative professional development initiative for British Army staff.

Contributions to reconciliation and commemoration in Spain

During the current REF assessment period, Preston has been recognised not only for the rigour and authority of his research on the Spanish Civil War and modern Spanish history, but also for his influence beyond academia. This is evidenced by a succession of honours and awards.

In 2019, Preston was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad de Cantabria. Endorsing the decision to bestow this award, Professor Julián Casanova of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, paid tribute to Preston’s wider cultural and social impact: “ your labour is also outstanding for your contribution to the construction of a critical and democratic consciousness that has guided the actions of numerous politicians, disciples, academic colleagues and the tens of thousands of readers of your extensive oeuvre. Your work had academic consequences and a social and human influence that is very rare among university teachers” [A].

Indeed, as outlined above, Preston’s research has been particularly important in its contributions to a nation which had previously struggled to confront its difficult past. Citing A People Betrayed [1] specifically, Antoni Bassas Onieva, the Catalan broadcaster and a recipient of the National Prize for Journalism, has attested to how “ the works of Sir Paul Preston have succeeded in breaking the so-called 'pact of forgetting'” [B], while economist and historian Ángel Viñas celebrates the book [1] for having “ opened up new ways of exploring the Spanish past” [C]. On the same theme but this time citing The Spanish Holocaust [4] and its charting of Francoists’ distortions of history, Viñas says Preston’s research has gone “ some way towards filling the gap left by the failure of successive governments to initiate a truth and reconciliation process” [C]. About the same book [4], former Spanish Ambassador to the UK (2008-12), Carles Casajuana has described it as “ a key instrument for all Spaniards wishing to come to terms with one of the darkest aspects of our history” [D].

A more illustrative and intimate example is in the 2019 letter Preston received from a Spanish psychologist and psychotherapist. This letter described a family whose grandfather had been murdered by Francoist forces during the Civil War. After reading The Spanish Holocaust [4], his granddaughter persuaded the family to break its silence, discuss the murder, and commemorate the victim. The letter goes on to note " the beneficial effect that reading [4] had in a Spanish family that, like so many others, suffered the effects of the collective trauma constituted by the war. Thank you for your extraordinary work in helping to illuminate the complex history of Spain" [E].

Challenges to conventional wisdom and changing popular perception of historical figures

A feature of Preston’s research on Spanish modern history and the Civil War is how it has challenged conventional national understandings, prompting debate amongst the people of Spain. Casajuana says that in The Last Days of the Spanish Republic [2], Preston “ has shed light on essential aspects of our recent past and rectified long-held assumptions” [D]. Similarly, the rigour and novelty of the Preston research [6] has led to a reappraisal of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, the most-sold and most-read book on the Civil War. As covered by Carles Geli in Spanish daily newspaper El País, the research finds Orwell’s account to be deeply flawed as a historical record, influenced by his acceptance of the partisan views of anarchist and POUM comrades as well as his ignorance of the wider context [F]. Biographies of Santiago Carrillo [3] and King Juan Carlos I (2004) have proven similarly instrumental in correcting long-held misinformation about their subjects, as attested to by Vinas: “[ these biographies] have significantly altered popular perception of those figures” [C].

Contributions to Catalan culture

Preston’s research has had particularly notable cultural impacts in Catalonia. Bassas Onieva has observed how his influence extends beyond the (Castilian) Spanish-speaking population, “ but also to that expressed in the country's other official languages, such as Catalan, the language of Gaudi, Miro, Dali and which Picasso also spoke” [B]. In 2016, as part of the City of Barcelona Awards of 2015, Preston was awarded the Premi de Projecció Internacional de la Ciutat de Barcelona - the City of Barcelona Prize for International Projection. Reporting on this award for El País, Blanca Cia paid tribute to Preston’s “ commitment [to] the recovery of the historical memory [of] the city" [G]. In the same year, Preston was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Barcelona. Reporting for Catalan newspaper El Nacional, Albert Acín hailed the importance of recognising Preston in this way “ because he has always been characterised by the defence of Catalonia and its language and culture”, also citing his support for Catalonia’s right to self-determination [H].

Contributions to educational initiatives

In 2016, Preston collaborated with best-selling Spanish cartoonist José Pablo García to adapt The Spanish Civil War [5] into a graphic novel for publication in Spain. The objective of García's illustrative history was to offer new generations, or those who have no idea about or previously had much interest in it, an accurate portrait of what happened during the Civil War years [I]. Preston reviewed the proofs ahead of publication to ensure their accuracy and advised on minor corrections. The graphic history was published in 2016, rising to number three in the Spanish bestseller list. More than 15,000 copies have been sold and an eighth edition is in preparation [J]. Copies have been distributed to every library in the Valencia province to which children have access, while the book has received a communal library award and was also featured in an exhibition of the Provincial Historical Archive of Alicante, entitled “Images of democratic memory: the comic as a teaching resource”. Público paid tribute to García's work as “ a common account of the tragedy that serves to preserve the true memory of those days” [K].

In 2017, Preston and García renewed their collaboration on The Destruction of Guernica ( La Muerte de Guernica), also adapted from [5] and again with the intention of raising children’s historical awareness. Preston contributed additional new passages and original material from his research [L]. In 2019, Preston was one of three historians to receive the prestigious Guernica Award for Peace and Reconciliation, “ for their work to bring to light the truth of the bombing of Guernica” [M].

The research made further contributions to teaching when, in 2018, an interview with Preston about Catalonia was included in a new distance-learning module on Modern Political Ideas developed by the Open University. This module will run from 2019 to 2029, with 181 and 229 students having enrolled over its first two years. The Preston interview will also appear on the Open University’s public learning platform, Open Learn.

Contributions to continuing professional development – the British Army

This research has also been used to inform military training programmes. In 2017, the British Army commissioned Preston to prepare historical background briefs ahead of the Headquarters Army Recruitment and Training Division (ARTD) strategic Battlefield Training Study to the Ebro and Barcelona. This study was to form part of a “staff ride”, a common ARTD exercise, in which officers visited the terrain of the 1938 Battle of the Ebro, the largest of the Spanish conflict. Drawing on his history of the Civil War [5], Preston met with representatives of the ARTD and provided briefings on the political context, the military strategy of both sides, and the international dimension. Major Caroline Way, writing on behalf of the ARTD, noted how Preston’s “ expert guidance [and] recommendations” helped her to design the study and were “ essential to set the context for the historical outcomes of the Spanish Civil War” [N]. All resources and advice provided by Preston were captured in a post-exercise report, which has been shared across the Army, with Way further commenting that “ this will therefore be of benefit to many more British Army personnel in the future” [N].

Contributions to public discourse in Spain

Preston’s research is well-known to the Spanish public, having been cited in newspapers of all political persuasions and across the country’s different regions and languages. Since 2014, Google data shows it has been mentioned in the media more than 1,500 times overall, including 140+ times in El País, 150+ times in La Vanguardia, 60+ times in ABC, and 40+ times in El Mundo. His contributions are notable for having been solicited by both the Madrid-leaning and the Catalonia-leaning press, and this acceptance as a non-partisan voice has ensured his interventions are viewed as trusted and authoritative, as noted by Bassas Onieva: “ the fact of not being Spanish has given Preston's thesis a distinctive, fresh distance, necessary and appreciated when treating the most painful and recent chapters of the country's history” [B].

Notable contributions to the public discourse since 2013 include his interviews discussing the abdication of King Juan Carlos I; the renewed public focus on former dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, prompted by publication of [1]; and the contentious debate over the exhumation of General Franco, which was brough into sharper focus by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s 2018 announcement that Franco’s remains would be exhumed from the Valle de los Caídos. Interviews with Preston - in which he supported the case for removing Franco’s remains from the mausoleum and drew an equivalence of having a monument to Hitler in Berlin – were featured in El Diario, El Nacional, and El Confidencial, publicising his mooted solution that Franco be buried at sea [O]. A further interview was published in El País following the order by Spain’s High Court to halt the exhumation in 2019 [O].

Contributions to international understanding of Spanish history

Internationally, Preston is regularly sought for comment on Spanish affairs. In the UK, he was chosen by the BBC to explain Franco’s long legacy in post-transition Spain and its continuing influence on modern Spanish politics. Amidst the backdrop of the debate over Catalan independence, including the 2017 referendum and subsequent declaration of independence, he wrote explainers on the issue for The Times and again appeared on the BBC, discussing its historical origins and context and drawing on research for [1]. More widely, contributions emanating from his research have featured in Le Monde (France), discussing Catalan independence; in La Tercera (Chile), the Irish Times, and the New York Times, and also in broadcasts by ZDF (Germany) and Belarussian television, discussing the continuing legacy of Franco, including the possible exhumation; in Diario de Notícias (Portugal), on Santiago Carillo; and in Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil), discussing the abdication of King Juan Carlos I [P].

Services to UK-Spanish relations

Lastly, in 2018, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Preston was awarded a Knighthood, being recognised in the diplomatic service and overseas list for his services to UK/Spain relations [Q].