B.A. (Keele); B.A. (Leeds); D.Phil. (Oxford); F.R.Hist.S
Tel: (65) 6516 6058
Office: AS1 05 - 33
I have had enormous pleasure in teaching Modern British and European History to a vast range of students at NUS for nearly thirty years. In the 2008-9 academic year I shall be teaching four courses: I am offering a variation on the AJP Taylor theme of the Struggle for Mastery in Europe to our second-year students. My version is called ‘Upheaval in Europe: 1848-1914.’ I teach another second year module that reviews the 20th century - rather pointedly called ‘Why History? My third year module looks at the Cold War in the European context; and my fourth year Honours programme deals with Political Leadership and the Fate of Modern Britain: From Attlee to Brown (I945-2008).
My teaching philosophy is very simple: I want my students to have fun, work hard and question everything. I encourage the use of empathy, imagination, role-playing and debates in class and try to make my examinations something other than merely yet another rote-learning exercise. My aim is to get our students to delve deeper into a subject that I believe is endlessly fascinating. I shall continue to expect my students to pursue individual and group projects in their various classes since this develops their research skills and helps to teach them academic discipline.
My research interests are wide and disparate. Despite having published widely on the theme of how governments use the naval and maritime power at their disposal to further their foreign and defence policy interests, I also remain deeply interested in the socio-economic-military impact on Singapore of the British withdrawal in the early 1970s. After teaching modern British political history for a decade, I have promised myself a crack at Tony Blair and the Special Relationship. Its unlikely to be very complimentary to all those involved!
I love virtually all sports, except darts and snooker, and am a double international, having represented Singapore at both cricket and hockey. An Oxford Blue, I was also the coach of the Singapore International under-18 soccer team for four years(1999-2003).
TEACHING AREAS:
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British and European History
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CURRENT RESEARCH:
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Anglo-American
Naval Relations, 1918-1991 |
| - |
Britain's
Military Relations with Singapore in the 19th-20th
centuries |
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British
and European History, 1750-2003 - Political
and Diplomatic aspects |
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British
Naval Power in China, 1637-1949 |
| - |
Military
Power and its Limitations |
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Naval
Warfare & International Relations in the
Twentieth Century |
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The First Sea Lords and their Impact on British
Naval Policy in the 19th and 20th Centuries
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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
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Fool-Proof
Relations: The Search for Anglo-American Naval
Cooperation During the Chamberlain Years,
1937-1940 (Singapore University Press, 1984) |
| - |
Hostage
on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst
Crisis of 1949 (Naval Institute Press, 1991) |
| - |
In
Jeopardy: The Royal Navy and British Far Eastern
Defence Policy 1945-1951 (South-East Asian
Historical Monographs)
Oxford University Press; (April 1995) |
| - |
Naval Warfare 1919-1945: An Operational History of the Volatile War at Sea (Routledge, 2008) |
| - |
The
First Sea Lords: From Fisher to Mountbatten
(ed) Praeger, 1995) |
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 |
"I have had enormous pleasure in teaching
Modern British and European History to a vast
range of students at NUS for the past twenty
years ...I love virtually all sports, except
darts and snooker..."
|
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