Sean McMeekin
{{Short description|American historian (1974-)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sean McMeekin
| image =Sean McMeekin NYMAS.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Sean McMeekin
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|05|10}}
| birth_place = Nampa, Idaho
| nationality = American
| occupation = Historian
| alma_mater = Stanford University
| known_for =
| spouse = Nesrin Ersoy McMeekinFinally, there is Nesrin Ersoy, the love of my life, without whom I could not have written this book. In Acknowledgements. From the book The Berlin-Baghdad Express. Sean McMeekin. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674058538-012
}}
Sean McMeekin (born May 10, 1974) is an American historian, focused on European history of the early 20th century. His main research interests include modern German history, Russian history, communism, and the origins of the First and Second World Wars and the roles of Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
He has authored eight books, along with scholarly articles which have appeared in journals such as Contemporary European History, Common Knowledge, Current History, Historically Speaking, The World Today, and Communisme. He is currently Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College.
Early life and education
McMeekin grew up in Rochester, New York. He studied history at Stanford University (B.A. 1996) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A. 1998 and PhD 2001). He held a Henry Chauncey Jr. '57 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale and was a fellow of the Remarque Institute at New York University.{{cn|date=April 2025}}
Career
McMeekin taught in Turkey as an assistant professor in the Centre for Russian Studies at Bilkent University in Ankara,{{Cite web | title = Staff |url= http://crs.bilkent.edu.tr/staff1.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074623/http://crs.bilkent.edu.tr/staff1.html|archive-date=March 4, 2016 |access-date=February 28, 2021 |website=CRS |publisher=Bilkent University}} then in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Koç University in Istanbul. He is now Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College in New York state.
Reception of published works
McMeekin's 2011 book The Russian Origins of the First World War was initially praised by the popular press as an insightful revisionist study for its use of Tsarist documents.{{Cite news|last=Figes|first=Orlando|date=January 1, 2012|title=The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sam McMeekin |work=The Sunday Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/the-russian-origins-of-the-first-world-war-by-sam-mcmeekin-gwgwbhlc6jv|url-status=live|url-access=limited|access-date=2021-02-25|issn=0140-0460|archive-date=2021-05-31|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210531021830/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-russian-origins-of-the-first-world-war-by-sam-mcmeekin-gwgwbhlc6jv}} It was criticized by historians for its core theses, which advance a view of Russian involvement beyond what others have concluded.{{Cite journal|last=Bobroff|first=Ronald P.|date=2013-06-01|title=The Russian Origins of the First World War |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09546545.2013.780778 |journal=Revolutionary Russia |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=82–84 |doi=10.1080/09546545.2013.780778 |s2cid=143759175|issn=0954-6545|url-access=subscription|via=Taylor & Francis Online }}{{Cite journal |last=Rendle |first=Matthew |date=2014-09-02 |title=The Russian origins of the First World War |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19475020.2014.969896 |journal=First World War Studies |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=340–342 |doi=10.1080/19475020.2014.969896|s2cid=162211839|issn=1947-5020|url-access=subscription|via=Taylor & Francis Online}} Because McMeekin was the first historian to publish questionable documents from the Tsarist archives suggesting Russian support for Armenian groups inside the Ottoman empire during the war, his treatment of the Armenian genocide has also been criticized, with one scholar pointing out that "The mass slaughter of Armenian civilians was in no way justified by the haphazard Russian support for Armenian paramilitary groups in Eastern Anatolia."{{cite journal |last1=Sanborn |first1=Joshua |date=2012 |title=Sean McMeekin. The Russian Origins of the First World War |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/117/4/1329/32642?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=The American Historical Review |volume=117 |issue=4 |pages=1329–1330 |doi=10.1093/ahr/117.4.1329|url-access=subscription|via=Oxford Academic}} The Economist review noted, "if McMeekin's purpose was merely to exonerate all Ottoman behavior and play down Armenian suffering, he would not have included the observation of a Venezuelan soldier of fortune who saw on a mountainside 'thousands of half-nude and bleeding Armenian corpses, piled in heaps or interlaced in death's final embrace.'"{{Cite news|date=2015-10-29|title=All the world's a stage|newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2015/10/29/all-the-worlds-a-stage|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-25|issn=0013-0613 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210531021741/https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2015/10/29/all-the-worlds-a-stage|archive-date=2021-05-31}}
McMeekin's 2013 book, July 1914: Countdown to War and his 2015 study, The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East were both well-received by the popular press.{{Cite news|last=Evans|first=R. J. W. |date=February 6, 2014|title='The Greatest Catastrophe the World Has Seen' |work=The New York Review |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/02/06/greatest-catastrophe-world-has-seen/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-25|issn=0028-7504|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210508221758/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/02/06/greatest-catastrophe-world-has-seen/ |archive-date=2021-05-08|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite news|last=de Bellaigue|first=Christopher|date=December 18, 2015 |title=The Ottoman Endgame by Sean McMeekin review – the breakup of an empire|work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/18/ottoman-endgame-sean-mcmeekin-review |url-status=live |access-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=2021-05-31 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210531021636/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/18/ottoman-endgame-sean-mcmeekin-review}}
His 2021 book, Stalin’s War, received positive reviews from National Review,{{Cite web|date=2021-05-27 |title=The War Stalin Wanted |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2021/06/14/the-war-stalin-wanted/ |access-date=2021-12-16 |website=National Review |language=en-US}} The Times,{{Cite news |last=Aaronovitch |first=David |title=Stalin's War by Sean McMeekin review — the Second World War was caused by Stalin. Discuss |newspaper=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/stalins-war-by-sean-mcmeekin-review-3vtq5ndz6|access-date=2021-12-16|issn=0140-0460}} and The Financial Times.{{Cite news |last=MacMillan |first=Margaret |date=2021-03-24 |title=Stalin's War by Sean McMeekin — alternative perspectives |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/e42fdee5-afa9-4c9f-a2fb-c808a4b6a354 |access-date=2021-12-16}} Historian Serhii Plokhy called it "...a revisionist take on the second world war".{{Cite news|date=2021-04-06|title=Stalin's War by Sean McMeekin review – a revisionist take on the second world war|first=Serhii |last=Plokhy|newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/06/stalins-war-by-sean-mcmeekin-review-a-revisionist-take-on-the-second-world-war/}} It also received positive reviews from historians Simon Sebag Montefiore, Geoffrey Wawro, and Antony Beevor who called it "...both original and refreshing, written as it is with a wonderful clarity."{{Cite book| isbn=978-1541672796 | title=Stalin's War: A New History of World War II | last1=McMeekin | first1=Sean | date=December 30, 2023 | publisher=Basic Books }} The book got negative reviews from Lawrence Freedman in Foreign Affairs and others for being revisionist and even "distorted".{{Cite news |last=Freedman |first=Lawrence D. |date=2021-08-24|title=Stalin's War: A New History of World War II |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2021-08-24/stalins-war-new-history-world-war-ii|access-date=2021-12-16|issn=0015-7120|work=Foreign Affairs}}{{Cite news|title=Stalin's War: Distorted history of a complex second World War |url= https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/stalin-s-war-disorted-history-of-a-complex-second-world-war-1.4551057 |access-date=2021-07-16 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=8 May 2021 |first=Geoffrey |last= Roberts}} Similarly, historian Mark Edele noted that the book misquotes Stalin's speeches, and included sources refuted decades beforehand, or long ago shown to be fraudulent. Edele concluded:
"A gifted writer and a talented polemicist, he has lowered the historian’s craft to the level of propaganda. The result is a lamentable step back in our understanding of Stalin and his second world war."{{Cite web|date=2021-05-25|title=Better to lose Australia|first=Mark |last= Edele |url= https://insidestory.org.au/better-to-lose-australia/ |access-date=2021-05-26 |website=Inside Story |archive-date=2021-05-31 |url-status= live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210531021244/https://insidestory.org.au/better-to-lose-australia/}}
Nina L. Khrushcheva observed that "weighing in at some 800 pages, Stalin’s War compiles an impressive amount of historical information. But, given McMeekin’s procrustean framework, it comes across as cluelessly arrogant."{{Cite web|last=Khrushcheva|first=Nina L.|date=2021-05-07|title=Stalin's War and Peace |url= https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/stalin-putin-russia-relations-book-review-by-nina-l-khrushcheva-2021-05|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Project Syndicate}}
Prizes
- 2010: Barbara Jelavich Book Prize for The Berlin-Baghdad Express
- 2011: Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. Book Prize for The Russian Origins of the First World War
- 2015: Arthur Goodzeit Book Award for The Ottoman Endgame
- 2016: Historian's Prize of the Erich-und-Erna-Kronauer-Stiftung
Selected works
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2003|isbn= 978-0-300-09847-1|location=New Haven|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=History's Greatest Heist: The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-300-13558-9|location=New Haven|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power|publisher=Belknap Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-674-05739-5|location=Cambridge|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=The Russian Origins of the First World War|publisher=Belknap Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-674-07233-6|location=Cambridge|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=July 1914: Countdown to War|publisher=Icon Books|year=2013|isbn=978-1-84831-593-8|location= London|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908–1923 |publisher=Penguin Press|year=2015|isbn= 978-1-59420-532-3 |location=London|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=The Russian Revolution: A New History|publisher=Basic Books|year=2017|isbn= 978-0-465-03990-6|location=New York|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=Stalin's War: A New History of World War II|publisher=Basic Books|year=2021|isbn= 978-1-5416-7279-6|location=New York|author-mask=1}}
- {{Cite book|last=McMeekin|first=Sean|title=To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism|publisher=Basic Books|year=2024|isbn= 978-1-5416-0196-3|location=New York|author-mask=1}}
References
External links
- [https://www.c-span.org/person/?seanmcmeekin Sean McMeekin] on C-SPAN.
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Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:Historians from Idaho
Category:Stanford University alumni