Dr Steve Morewood

Department of History
Associate Professor in International History

Contact details

Address
Arts Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I specialise in the impact of Great Power intervention in the Balkans and Middle East in terms of diplomacy and conflict, predominantly from a British perspective. My teaching reflects these interests and more broader interests such as the origins of the two world wars and the Cold War. Modules taught include ‘Conflict in the Modern Middle East’, ‘Facing the Fuhrer, the Duce and the Emperor: British Defence and Diplomacy, 1931-42’, ‘The Eye of the Storm: Europe 1930-1960’ (team taught) and ‘America at War: From the Civil War to the War on Terror.’

Qualifications

  • PhD
  • Fellow Royal Historical Society

Teaching

  • Great Power Rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean, 10 credits
  • Problems of World History in the Twentieth Century, 10 credits
  • End of Empire (1st year), 10 credits
  • Empire to Nation State: Greece and Turkey, 40 credits
  • Conflict in the Modern Middle East, 20 credits
  • America as a World Power, 20  credits
  • War and Peace in the Modern World, 20 credits
  • Dissertations (3rd years) covering the above themes

Postgraduate supervision

Steve Morewood's research interests include the military, political and strategic history of the modern East Mediterranean region (late19th and 20th centuries). He has supervised several PhDs to a successful conclusion with some students going on to publish their dissertations in book form. Topics have included the Greek press during the Greco-Turkish War of 1920-22, Turkey and the Straits in the early Cold War period and the Greek-Cypriot perspective in the 1974 war over Cyprus. At Masters level, supervised topics have included the Italian Front in the First World War, the Suez Crisis (such as the role of the Manchester Guardian) and various aspects of the Desert War (such as Operation Compass, the role of General Auchinleck, the role of air power, and morale). One thesis, on the role of weather and how it affected air operations, won a national thesis prize.


Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Political, strategic, military, and economic history of the modern East Mediterranean region (19th & 20th centuries). More broadly, I am interested in the origins of the Second World War (especially from the British perspective) and the early part of the Second World War, particularly in relation to the North African campaign. I am completing the first of two volumes on Operation Compass, the opening offensive, which saw the British Western Desert Force obliterate the Italian Tenth Army. In parallel timewise, I am researching and writing another book called Defending Greece against Nazi Germany: Diplomacy, Strategy and the Eden-Dill Mission. Several book chapters have been published including one on Britain and the Italo-Abyssinian Crisis for G.B. Strang ed., Clash of Empires: International Responses to the Italian Invasion of Abyssinia (Ashgate) and, most recently, ‘When Two Worlds Collide: Britain, Italy and the Suez Canal in the fascist Era’ in a book on the Italian connection to Suez, arising from a conference in Turin in 2019.

In 2022 my chapter, 'When Two Worlds Collide: Britain, Italy and Suez in the Fascist Era' was published in Barbara Curli (ed.), Italy and the Suez Canal from the mid nineteenth century to the Cold War A Mediterranean History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). This arose from a conference in Turin in June 2019 on the Suez Canal's history.

In November 2021 I was interviewed, alongside my colleague Simon Jackson, by the Australian production company, Wildbear Entertainment in London, for their series The World War (Sky History network).

I am currently working on a two-volume history of Operation Compass to be published by Pen & Sword.

Other activities

I am a committee member of the British International History Group, a member of the Royal United Services Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Currently I am external examiner for the History department at the University of Hull. Contributor to History Today.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Morewood, S 2013, Defending Greece Against Nazi Germany: Diplomacy, Strategy and the Eden Dill Mission in World War Two. I.B. Tauris.

Article

Morewood, S & Mallett, R 2015, 'The Political and Strategic Dynamics of the Italo-Ethiopian Crisis, 1932-1936: Part I: Origins and Perspectives', Global War Studies.

Morewood, S & Stephens, E 2009, ''The Cultural Turn in the US - Israeli Relationship'', Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication - 06.03, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 13-32.

Morewood, S 2008, ''Eden's Balkan Odyssey'', History Today, vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 34-51.

Morewood, S 2006, 'Mikhael Gorbachev and the Collapse of the Soviet Union', History Teaching Yearbook, vol. 20, pp. 61-68.

Morewood, S 2006, 'Suez: The Canal before the Crisis', History Today, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 38-50.

Chapter

Morewood, S 2013, This Silly African Business: An Anatomy of the Baldwin Government's Muted response towards Italian Aggression. in WB Strang (ed.), International Dimensions of the Italo-Abyssinian Crisis. Ashgate.

Morewood, S & Smith, SC (ed.) 2008, Prelude to the Suez Crisis: The Rise and Fall of British Dominance over the Suez Canal 1869-1956. in Reassessing Suez 1956: New Perspectives on the Crisis and Its Aftermath. Ashgate, pp. 13-34.

Morewood, S & Smith, SC 2008, Reassessing Suez 1956. in 'Prelude to the Suez Crisis: The Rise and Fall of British Dominance over the Suez Canal 1869-1956'.

Morewood, S, Atkin, N (ed.) & Biddiss, MI (ed.) 2008, The Origins of the Second World War in Europe. in Themes in Modern European History 1890-1945. Routledge, pp. 273-312.

Morewood, S, Atkin, N & Biddis, M 2008, Themes in Modern European History 1890-1945. in 'The origins of World War Two in Europe'.

Morewood, S, Oliver, MJ & Oldcroft, DH 2007, The Demise of the Command Economies in the Soviet Union and its Outer Empire. in Economic Disasters of the 20th Century.

Book/Film/Article review

Morewood, S 2010, 'The United States & the Making of Modern Greece. History & Power, 1950-1974', Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 116-116.

Morewood, S 2008, 'Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post-War Greece, 1945-1967', Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 243-245.

Morewood, S 2008, 'US Policy towards Israel: The Role of Political Culture in Defining the "Special Relationship"', Journal of American Studies, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 609-610. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875808005811

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