Staff profile

Gidon studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Hugh's College, Oxford and completed an MA in Political Philosophy (the idea of toleration) and a DPhil under the supervision of Professor David Howell at the University of York. He then worked at the University of Manchester on an ESRC funded project examining the biographies of activists in the Communist Party of Great Britain and held teaching and research positions at the universities of Salford and Northumbria. He joined Durham University in September 2005.

Gidon's researches British political development using qualitative and quantitative methods. He is the director of the Centre for Institutions and Political Behaviour. He is currently co-investigator on a joint ESRC/AHRC funded project 'Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence: Evidence from England and Wales, 1832-1914'.

• Ideology
• Quantitative Methods
• Political Activism
• Party Membership and Organisation
• British Political History

• Institutions and Political Behaviour

• Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence: Evidence from England and Wales, 1832-1914 in

• 2018: Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence: Evidence from England and Wales 1832-1914 (£504,077 from the ESRC/AHRC). Patrick Kuhn (PI), Gidon Cohen and Nick Vivyan.
• 2006: PARTY MEMBERSHIP AND ACTIVISM(£97570.00 from Arts & Humanities Research Board)

Available for media contact about:

• History & Archaeology: British Politics
• Modern History: Britain & Ireland: British Politics
• Politics & Society: British Politics

Authored book

• Cohen, Gidon (2007). The Failure of a Dream: The Independent Labour Party from disaffiliation to World War II. London: Tauris Academic Studies.
• Morgan, Kevin,, Cohen, Gidon, & Flinn, Andrew (2007). Communists and British Society 1920-1991: People of a Special Mould. London: Rivers Oram Press.

Chapter in book

• Cohen, Gidon. (2009). Myth, History and the Independent Labour Party. In The foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900-39. Worley, Matthew Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. 95-112.
• Cohen, Gidon., Flinn, Andrew. & Morgan, Kevin. (2008). 'Towards a Mixed Method Social History: Combining Quantatitve and Qualitative Methods in the Study of Collective Biography'. In A Guide to Prosopography. Keats-Roahn, K.B.S.
• Cohen, Gidon (2005). 'Happy Hunting Ground of the Crank'? The Independent Labour Party and Local Labour Politics in Glasgow and Norwich, 1932-45. In Labour's Grass Roots: Essays on the activities of Local Labour Parties and Members, 1918-45. Worley, Matthew Aldershot: Ashgate. 54-78.
• Cohen, Gidon & Flinn, Andrew (2005). 'Locating the Typical British Communist'. In Agents of the Revolution: new biographical approaches to the history of international communism in the age of Lenin and Stalin. Morgan, Kevin, Cohen, Gidon & Flinn, Andrew Oxford: Peter Lang.
• Morgan, Kevin & Cohen, Gidon (2003). ' Rose Cohen'. In Dictionary of Labour Biography. Gildart, Keith, Howell, David & Kirk, Neville London: Palgrave Macmillan. XI.
• Catterall, Steve & Cohen, Gidon (2003). 'Elijah Sandham'. In Dictionary of Labour Biography. Gildart, Keith, Howell, David & Kirk, Neville London: Palgrave Macmillan. XI.
• Gildart, Keith & Cohen, Gidon (2003). 'Tom Stephenson'. In Dictionary of Labour Biography. Gildart, Keith, Howell, David & Kirk, Neville London: Palgrave Macmillan. XI.
• Cohen, Gidon (2003). The Independent Socialist Party. In Dictionary of Labour Biography. Gildart, Keith, Howell, David & Kirk, Neville London: Palgrave Macmillan. XI.
• Cohen, Gidon (2001). From 'insufferable petty bourgeios' to loyal communist: Jack Gaster the RPC and the Communist Party. In Party People, Communist Lives. McIlroy, John, Morgan, Kevin & Campbell, Alan London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Edited book

• Morgan, Kevin, Cohen, Gidon & Flinn, Andrew (2005). Agents of the Revolution: new biographical approaches to the history of International Communism in the age of Lenin and Stalin. Oxford: Peter Lang.

Journal Article

• Cohen, Gidon & Cohen, Sarah (2021). Depolarization, Repolarization and Redistributive Ideological Change in Britain, 1983-2016. British Journal of Political Science 51(3): 1181-1202.
• Cohen, Gidon & Morgan, Kevin (2015). For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond). Political Studies Review 13(4): 506-509.
• Cohen, Gidon & Mates, Lewis (2013). Grassroots Conservatism in Post-War Britain: A view from the bottom up. History 98(330): 202-225.
• Cohen, Gidon, Mates, Lewis & Flinn, Andrew (2012). Capture-Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 43(2): 247-274.
• Cohen, Gidon. (2010). Political Religion and British Communism. Twentieth Century Communism 2: 197-214.
• Cohen, Gidon, Flinn, Andrew & Mates, Lewis (2008). Political Culture and the Post-War Labour Party: Values, Practices and Activism in South Lewisham Labour Party, 1948-71. Socialist History 32: 59-83.
• Cohen, Gidon (2005). 'Propensity-Score Methods and the Lenin School'. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36(2): 209-232.
• Flinn, Andrew & Cohen, Gidon (2005). The Abyssinian Crisis, British labour and the fracturing of the anti-war movement. Socialist History 28: 37-59.
• Flinn, Andrew, Cohen, Gidon & Mates, Lewis (2005). National politicians and local political parties: Herbert Morrison and the South Lewisham Labour Party. Lewisham History Journal 13: 29-60.
• Cohen, Gidon & Morgan, Kevin (2004). British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37: A reaffirmation of methods results and conclusions. Twentieth Century British History 15(1): 77-107.
• Cohen, Gidon & Morgan, Kevin (2002). 'Stalin's Sausage Machine: British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37'. Twentieth Century British History 13(4): 327-355.
• Cohen, Gidon (2002). 'Missing, Biased and Unrepresentative: The quantitative analysis of multisource biographical data'. Historical Methods 35(4): 166-176.
• Cohen, Gidon (2001). 'The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders'. History 86(282): 180-199.