David Welch studied for his doctorate at the London School of Economics under James Joll. After temporary appointments at the LSE and the American University College London, he joined the University of Westminster where he became Director of the BA Social Science Degree. In 1992, he was appointed Professor of Modern European History (later changed to Modern History) at the University of Kent. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society, which he set up at Kent in 1995.

His main research interest is in twentieth century political propaganda. His work previous to this has been in the area of late nineteenth and twentieth century German history, focusing on the relationship between public opinion, politics, and propaganda in German society. His publications include Germany: Propaganda & Total War 1914-18 (Rutgers University Press, 2000), The Third Reich: Politics, and Propaganda (Routledge, revised second edition, 2002), Hitler: Profile of a Dictator (Routledge, 2001), Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945 (I.B.Tauris, 2001), and Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia from 1500 to the Present [with D. Culbert and N. Cull] (ABC Clio, 2003), Justifying War: Propaganda, Politics and the Modern Age [with Jo Fox] (Palgrave, 2012).

He is currently writing a major history of propaganda in the twentieth century and (together with his colleague Ulf Schmidt) a Holocaust Reader. He is General Editor of Routledge's Sources in History series. David Welch is interested in supervising research students who wish to work in any area of propaganda.

At undergraduate level he has taught courses on nineteenth and twentieth century Europe, cinema and society, life in the Third Reich and the Cold War. He also convenes and teaches a course on war and the media on the taught MA programme ‘War, Media and Modernity’.

David Welch is an enthusiastic Spurs supporter and it is his ambition to see Tottenham win a trophy. David is the eternal optimist!

Books

• [ed.] Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From the First World War to WikiLeaks (I.B.Tauris, forthcoming 2013)
• [ed. with Jo Fox] Justifying War: Propaganda, Politics and War in the Modern Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
• [ed. with Roel Vande Winkel] Cinema and the Swastika: The International Expansion of the Third Reich Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Winner of the Willy Haas Prize [Hamburg] for best book on the history of German film industry (2008)
• [ed. with M. Connelly] War and the Media: The Changing Context of Reportage and Propaganda, 1900-2003, (I.B.Tauris, 2005)
• [with D. Culbert and N. Cull] Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia from 1500 to the Present, (ABC Clio, 2003)
• The Third Reich: Politics, and Propaganda, (Routledge, revised second edition, 2002)
• Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945, (I.B.Tauris, 2001)
• The Hitler Conspiracies, Allan/Brasseys, 2001.
• Hitler: Profile of a Dictator, (Routledge, 2001)
• Germany: Propaganda & Total War 1914-18, (Rutgers University Press, 2000) - ISBN 0-485-00407-0, 355pp
• Modern European History 1871-2000, (Routledge, 2000) - ISBN 0-415-21582, pp. 263

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• Co-organising (with Ulf Schmidt and James Peto) War of Nerves. Medicine During the Cold War (Public Exhibition and catalogue funded by the Wellcome Trust, and to be exhibit at the Wellcome Institute 2012)
• Series Consultant: CBC (Canada) Love, Hate and Propaganda: The Cold War (4 one hour television programmes broadcast in March/April 2011)
• Series Consultant: CBC (Canada) Love, Hate and Propaganda: Selling World War II (6 one hour television programmes broadcast in March/April 2010)
• Founder member of ECOWAST (European Cooperation on Contemporary War Studies, 2009)
• Consultant historian for the United States Holocaust Museum (Washington, D.C.) exhibition on ‘Propaganda in the 20th Century and the Holocaust’ (2009)
• Consultant Historian:  Discovery Channel (USA) Hitler’s Blood Oath (2009)
• Consultant Historian: BBC4 Edwardians in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Khan (2007)
• Consultant Historian: Channel 4 Anatomy of Disgust (2000)

Professor Welch is on research leave for the duration of the 2012-2013 academic year.