Alan Schom

Alan Morris Cedric Strauss-Schom (born 9 May 1937 in Sterling, Illinois), known as Alan Schom and legally Alan Strauss-Schom is an American historian and biographer. Specialising in French History, his work on Napoleon saw him receive Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations.

Biography

Schom is originally from Illinois but later moved to California. His father Irving (died 1983)]. He had one sister, Faith Sharon Schom, who died in 2002.

Education

He attended Beverly Hills High School and received his A.B. in French/ European History from University of California, Berkeley in 1965. He continued his education at the School of Oriental Studies,Durham University, where he completed his doctoral research (including pne year course in Arabic]], where he was a member of the Hatfield College Middle Common Room and completed his PhD on the French soldier and administrator Hubert Lyautey, entitled A study of Marshal Lyautey's Protectorate administration of Morocco, 1912-1925, in relation to the administration of the country, in 1968.].

As Schom told Brian Lamb in a 1997 Booknotes interview on C-SPAN, he had intended to pursue his doctorate at Oxford or Cambridge, but they wanted him to work on a British colonial subject, whereas Schom's preference was French colonial history. Instead, Schom studied at Durham, who had a resident expert in Frank Bagley – a former Foreign Office Arabist – ready to act as Schom's thesis superviser.

Career

Strauss Schom was married in London to the Hon. Juliana Leslie Cotton Hill, in 1963. He taught French and Modern European History at Southern Connecticut State University and at the University of California, Riverside. He served as the President and Founder of the French Colonial Historical Society (1974–76), and founded its research journal, FCHS was officially affiliated with the Hoover Institution by Sr. Fellow Peter Duignan. <ref. Strauss Schom> The Hoover Institution also agreed to provide an annual research grant. French Colonial Studies. In 1977 he left academia to become a full-time writer and speaker, with guest lectures, e.g., at the University of California, Berkeley and Riverside, American Historical Association, Chicago, Dartmouth College, University of Georgia, Université de Québec, Durham University, SOAS, London and two guest all college lectures on French History at Oxford University (through Magdalen College), 1987. <ref.Strauss Schom> . In 1970 the University of California Press, Berkeley, published his doctoral thesis, "Lyautey in Morocco." This was followed by his three volume study of Napoleon Bonaparte. "Trafalgar, Countdown to Battle, 18003-1805 (Oxford University Press), ""One Hundred Days, Napoleon's Road to Waterloo," and "Napoleon Bonaparte, A Biography" (Harper Collins), which came in Second place in the L. A. Timmes Annual Book Awards, category: biograph. The President of Switzerland,Flavio Cotti denounced these findings, but of course the Schom reports were based entirely n official Swiss Government documents found in the Swiss Federal Archives, which did not stop him from attempting to have the Federal Archive then suppress them. <ref. Dr A M C Strauss-Schom>. Amid the controversy, Simon Wiesenthal also expressed his displeasure with the publication of these articles. In fact correspondents hounded him at this moment in old age when both he and is wife were very ill, with a 24-hour nurse in attendance. "I was personally in contact with him, explaining the situation. But after spending his entire life pursuing escaped Nazis, he was simply exhausted, and this new Swiss revelation was too much for him," Strauss Schom explained. <ref. Strauss-Schom> and pursuing escaped Nazis, he was simply worn out, and no longer strong enough to face another major campaign. I commiserated with him, but I felt it imperative that the historical record be corrected with this valuable new information," Schom said. This objective biography has received the praise of academic and general reviewers, and of course denounced the by the Napoleonic fan clubs. The books was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and the Critics' . Schom's history of the first two years of World War II, The Eagle and the Rising Sun: The Japanese-American War, 1941-1943: Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal' has received the highest praise from Academics, the public and the military alike including former First Sea Lord and Admiral of the Fllet, Sir Henry Leach (Falkland's War).

In 2018 the author published a biography of Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon I), 'The Shadow Emperor, the Life of Napoleon III,' by St Martin's Press. Strauss Schom is the only historian to have written biographies of both Napoleon I and Napoleon III.

The author is currently writing a battle history of the U S Navy during the Civil War based entirely on official U S naval records, another first.

Selected works

As Alan Schom

• Lyautey in Morocco, Protectorate Administration 1912-1925 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970)

As Alan Schom

• Emil Zola, A Biography (New York: Henry Holt, 1987)
• Trafalgar, Countdown to Battle, 1803-1805 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990 and London, Penguin Books)
• One Hundred Days, Napoleon's Road to Waterloo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 and London: Penguin Books)
• Napoleon Bonaparte, A Biography (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)
• The Eagle and the Rising Sun—The Japanese-American War, 1941-1943 (NY: WW Norton, 2005)

As Alan Strauss-Schom

• The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III (US edition: St. Martin's Press, 2018 / UK edition: Amberley, 2018)

Notes

Please denote incorrect and irrelevant note 2. Alan Morris SCHAM (INCORRECT). THANK YOU.

External links

• Booknotes interview with Schom on Napoleon Bonaparte, October 26, 1997.