Alfred Gollin

Alfred M. Gollin (February 6, 1926 – October 30, 2005) was an American scholar of European history.

Early life and education Born on February 6, 1926, in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Gollin enlisted in the US Army in 1943 (immediately after his 17th birthday). He served in the field artillery in the European theater. After the war ended in Europe, Gollin was selected to attend New College, Oxford for a term as part of a program to send outstanding American soldiers to English universities. He returned to the US and earned his B.S. at City College of New York. William L. Langer (Harvard University) and Sir John Myers (Oxford University) encouraged him to return to Oxford for his B.A. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He was a classroom lecturer who started each term's lecture with “Let me begin my story,” then continued each subsequent lecture with “Let me continue my story,” and prefaced the term's last lecture with “Let me end my story.” He also had an array of jokes throughout each class such as his “three rules of history” (“The British are always right,” “The Germans are always wrong,” and “Always kick a man when he is down”). He earned teaching accolades such as “Professor of the Year” at UCLA in 1960 and the Distinguished Teaching Award at UCSB in 1991.

Selected publications