Alan Bullock, 89; Wrote a Major Biography of Adolf Hitler

Alan Bullock, 89, an Oxford University historian who wrote an important biography of Adolf Hitler, died Monday in Oxford, England, of undisclosed causes.

The son of a gardener father and lady’s maid mother, Bullock won a scholarship to Oxford’s Wadham College and later was a founder of the university’s St. Catherine’s College, where he served as master from 1960 to 1980. During World War II, he was a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corp.

Bullock’s “Hitler: A Study in Tyranny” was published in 1952 and revised in 1964. The book sold more than 3 million copies and cemented Bullock’s reputation as a preeminent historian. Another well-known work was his three-volume biography of Ernest Bevin, a British union leader, politician and foreign secretary.

Bullock assisted Winston Churchill in writing “A History of the English Speaking Peoples” and later wrote such books as “Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives” published in 1992. He also edited several volumes.