Richard Carr

Richard has most recently authored a political biography of Charlie Chaplin for Routledge. This book explores Chaplin's controversial relationships with women, communism and fascism, and how his celebrity status was viewed in the interwar period.

Before joining Anglia Ruskin in 2013, Richard taught at the University of East Anglia and worked at the think tank Localis and for the political campaign Stamp Out Poverty. He is a member of our Labour History Research Unit. His historical work has primarily focused on the impact of the First World War on interwar British politics.

Richard has published widely on twentieth century British politics. In 2013 he published the monograph Veteran MPs and Conservative Politics in the Aftermath of the Great War, which surveyed the post-conflict careers of the 448 men who fought between 1914 and 1918 and subsequently became Tory MPs. This was followed in 2014 by the book One Nation Britain, which analysed various contemporary policies in the run up to the 2015 General Election. With Bradley W. Hart he has edited a volume on the modern Conservative Party and published a survey book of The Global 1920s.

Away from academia, he engages with public policy in several ways. In 2012 he published the report Credit Where Credit's Due for the think tank Localis, which looked at infrastructure finance and received praise from across the political spectrum. This was followed in 2015 by two reports – The Next LEPs and Commercial Councils – which looked at various future facing aspects of local economic growth. He has carried out a variety of snapshot surveys on the views of the Labour Party grassroots, to significant media coverage.

Elsewhere in 2010 Richard was a By-Fellow at the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, where he was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Grant. He has previously served as a commissioning editor to the blog Left Foot Forward.