Ashley Jackson

Professor of Imperial and Military History at King’s College London

Ashley Jackson is Professor of Imperial and Military History at King’s College London. He joined King’s Defence Studies Department in 2004 after eight years as a Research Fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford, and a brief spell as Lecturer in Imperial and Commonwealth History at Oxford Brookes University. He completed his master’s and doctorate at New College, Oxford. His research concentrates on aspects of British imperial and military history, with regional expertise relating to sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean region.

Jackson is the author of numerous articles and books on aspects of British imperial history, including: Botswana 1939-45: An African Country at War (1999), War and Empire in Mauritius and the Indian Ocean (2001), The British Empire and the Second World War (2006), Mad Dogs and Englishmen: A Grand Tour of the British Empire at its Height (2009), Distant Drums: The Role of Colonies in British Imperial Warfare (2010), (with David Tomkins) Illustrating Empire: A Visual History of British Imperialism (2011), Churchill (2011). His current book projects include Buildings of Empire; Ocean Victory: Britain’s War from Suez to Sumatra (Harvard UP); and The British Empire for OUP’s ‘Very Short Introduction’ series. He is also preparing chapters for the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Second World War and a Companion volume to the Oxford History of the British Empire series.