High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Nigel Gildea (born 1952) is professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and is the author of several influential books on 20th century French history. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, before attending St Antony`s for a D.Phil under the supervision of Theodore Zeldin. His D.Phil research was in French provincial education. Before being appointed Fellow in Modern History at Merton in 1979, he was a lecturer at King`s College, London.