Dr Norman LaPorte

BA, PhD (Stirling)

I teach the following modules:
Approaches to History (BA)
The Russian Revolutions and the Soviet Union, 1917-1953
Espionage and Oppression in the Cold War World, 1945-1991
Approaches to History (MA)
I’m also Head of the Research Unit in History

Head of theHistory Research Unit

Select Publications
Monographs

The German Communist Party (KPD) in Saxony, 1924-33: Factionalism, Fratricide and Political Failure (Peter Lang: Bern, 2003), Pp. 399 [IBSN: 3 906768 45 7]

Friendly Enemies: Britain and the German Democratic Republic, 1949-90 (Berghahn, 2010) (with Stefan Berger)

Edited Volumes

The Other Germany. Perceptions and Influences in British-East German Relations, 1945-1990 (Wißner, 2005) (with Stefan Berger).

Towards a Comparative History of Coalfield Societies (Ashgate, 2005) (with Stefan Berger and Andy Croll)

Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern. Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53 (with Kevin Morgan and Matthew Worley)

Chapters in Edited Volumes

‘Presenting a Crisis as an Opportunity: The German Communist Party in the “Third Period”’, in Mathew Worley (ed.), In Search of Revolution. International Communist Parties in the Third Period ( I B Taurus, 2004), pp. 38-64

‘Official Anti-Communism and What Lay Beneath: The British Trade Unions and the ‘Other’ Germany, 1949-1989’, in: Stefan Berger/Norman LaPorte (eds) The Other Germany, pp. 141-58.

‘Kings among the subjects’? Ernst Thälmann, Harry Pollitt and the Leadership Cult as Stalinization’, in: Norman LaPorte, Kevin Morgan and Matthew Worley (eds.) Stalinisation and Beyond (Palgrave, 2008), pp. 124-145.

‘Great Britain: Between Avoiding the Cold War and Supporting Free Trade Unionism’, in I. Goddeeris (ed), Solidarity? Western European Trade Unions and the Polish Crisis 1980-1982 (Lexington Books, 2010), pp. 129-58.

‘Between East German Marxism-Leninism and the British Road to Soc¬¬ialism: Relations between the SED and CPGB, 1968-89’, in A. Bauerkämper (ed.), SED und Westkontakte (Philo: Berlin, in press)

Journal Articles

‘“Stalinization” and its limits in the Saxon KPD, 1925-8’, European History Quarterly 31 (4) (2001), pp. 549-90

‘ “Social Fascism”, “Stalinisation” and the Case of the Saxon Communist Party, 1928-29’, in Labour History Review 67 (1) (2002), pp. 65-81

‘Britische Parliamentarierkontakte nach Osteuropa 1945-1989. Zwischen fellow travelling und ostpolitischer Erneuerung’, in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte (2005), pp. 3-42 (with Stefan Berger)

‘Ostpolitik before Ostpolitik: The British Labour Party and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), 1955 – 1964’, in: European History Quarterly vol. 36, no. 3 (forthcoming: autumn 2006) (with Stefan Berger)

‘Being Friendly with the ‘other’ Germany: Dorothy Diamond and British Support for the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1961’, in: Socialist History (forthcoming: autumn, 2006) (with Stefan Berger)

‘Ein zweiter Kalter Krieg? Die Beziehungen zwischen der DDR und Großbritannien, 1979-1989’, in: P. Barker, M.-D. Ohse and D. Tate (eds.), Views from Abroad. Die DDR aus britischer Perspektive (Bertelsmann, 2007), pp. 163-173 (with Stefan Berger)

‘Communists against the Weimar Republic: New Perspective in the Post-Cold War World’, in: History Teaching Review Yearbook vol. 21 (2007), pp.39-49.

‘Towards a Comparative History of Communism: A Survey of the British and German Communist parties to 1933’, in: Contemporary British History, 22: 2 (2008), pp. 227-55 (with Matthew Worley)

‘In Search of Antifascism: The British Left’s Response to the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War’, in: German History 26:4 (2008), pp. 536-52 (with Stefan Berger)

‘Die Macht des Faktischen: britische Labourabgeordnete und der Mauerbau 1961’ [The Power of Realism: British Labour MPs and the Building of the Berlin Wall in 1916], Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung (2011) (with Stefan Berger), pp.177-193

‘The Labour Party in Wales and the Cold War’, in Llafur (Special Issue), (October 2011), pp.58-76.

Socialist History

International Advisory Board of Jahrbuch fuer Historische Kommunismusforschung.
Co-editor of Twentieth Century Communism.

My research interests include:

Communism in Germany and comparative communisms
Relations between Britain and the German Democratic Republic, 1949-90 (with Stefan Berger)
The Cold War

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