Ian Campbell

Educated at the Universities of Leicester and Brunel, Ian Campbell is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an international development consultant. His career as a historian, which began in the 1960s with undergraduate studies of the Economic History of Japan, has since 1988 been focused on research into the ancient empire of Ethiopia. In collaboration with Professor Richard Pankhurst, he has authored many scholarly papers on various aspects of Ethiopian cultural history from the medieval period to modern times, covering subjects as diverse as medieval saints, architecture, Orthodox iconography and traditional drinking vessels.

In recent years his focus has been on the Italian military occupation of Ethiopia (1936-41), a subject on which he is regarded as a leading authority. Tracking down survivors of the occupation over more than two decades culminated in a ground-breaking and richly illustrated trilogy reconstructing in detail life and death in Italian-occupied Ethiopia, the world's first sovereign state to fall victim to Fascist invasion.

The first of the trilogy is the best seller, 'The Plot to Kill Graziani: The Attempted Assassination of Mussolini's Viceroy' (Addis Ababa University Press, 2010, reprinted 2015, and published in Amharic in 2022). It available on Amazon.co.uk and Abebooks.com, and is currently being developed by Gobez Media (Canada) as a docufilm. Nominated as Ethiopia's Book of the Year (2011), 'The Plot to Kill Graziani' is featured in Eland's acclaimed travel series, 'Ethiopia Through Writers' Eyes', alongside excerpts from authors such as Edward Gibbon, Richard Burton, Arthur Rimbaud and Thomas Pakenham.

- "Reading Campbell's book is like watching an action movie" (Ityopis, Mekelle University).

The second is 'The Massacre of Debre Libanos: The Story of One of Fascism's Most Shocking Atrocities' (Addis Ababa University Press, 2014, available on Amazon.co.uk), revealing for the first time the truth about one of the world's greatest massacres of Christian clergy and pilgrims. The book inspired the stunning docufilm 'Debre Libanos' by the Catholic Church television channel tv2000, and the findings were featured in the award-winning documentary 'If Only I Were That Warrior'.

Rounding off the trilogy is the Amazon best seller, 'The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame' (Hurst, London & Oxford University Press, New York, 2017), a Financial Times Best History Book of the Year. This magisterial account uncovers numerous previously unpublished details of one of Fascism's greatest yet little known atrocities, which took the lives of around 20% of the population of Ethiopia's capital city. 'The Addis Ababa Massacre', which is also available in Italian translation (Rizzoli, Milan, 2017), was the subject of a BBC World Service broadcast, and is featured in Oxford Scholarship Online.

- "... meticulous work" (The Economist);

- "... a horrific tale, told with verve and a sense of moral passion, but also with the meticulous skill of a detective and a historian" (Times Literary Supplement);

- "A masterly history" (The National, UAE).

In November 2021 from Hurst, and in June 2022 from OUP New York, came another blockbuster and Amazon best seller: 'Holy War - The Untold Story of Catholic Italy's Crusade Against the Ethiopian Orthodox Church'. This highly original tale of two Churches was named a Book of the Month (December 2021) by Le Grand Continent, a Book of the Month (January 2022) by the American Society of Church History, a Best Book of 2022 by the US Council on Foreign Relations publication, Foreign Affairs, and was featured in the London Review of Books and History Today. Campbell reveals that Pope Pius XI turned a blind eye while bishops of the Italian Catholic Church facilitated the Invasion of Ethiopia by sanctifying it as a crusade against the venerable Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which they denounced as heretical and schismatic. The author exposes the consequent martyrdom of thousands of Ethiopian clerics and the extensive burning and looting of hundreds of monasteries and churches of the world's second-oldest national Church.

- " Holy War is a long, carefully researched book about a little-known period of recent history, and should be read along with David Kertzer's 'The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism'" (ColdType, Canada).

- "In 1935, Pope Pius XI openly supported the invasion of Ethiopia as a crusade against a country of heretics, schismatics, pagans and infidels ... Eloquent and based on authoritative archival research in both Ethiopia and Italy, Campbell's book sheds new light on a key episode in African history" (Foreign Affairs, USA).

- "Holy War is one of the most significant - and most chilling - books you are likely to read on global Christian history." (Philip Jenkins, The Christian Century).

- "Exhaustively researched and eloquently written, Campbell’s Holy War is a hugely important contribution to our understanding of the violence involved in the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s. It is moving, shocking and scholarly in equal measure." (Richard Reid, Professor of African History, University of Oxford).

- "This is mainly new material for English-speaking readers who have become familiar with Cardinal Pacelli as a man whose complex silence could be confounding during other times when Christians murdered in the name of their God. One hundred pages of appendices with facsimiles of telegrams about explicitly Catholic atrocities against Orthodox victims makes for upsetting reading even at a remove of almost 90 years" (Medium.com).

- "Ian Campbell's Holy War: The Untold Story of Catholic Italy's Crusade Against the Ethiopian Church ably recounts the ruthless and vicious acts that must never be forgotten." (Church History).

- "'Holy War' stands out as one of the most important recent contributions to the history of Italian colonialism, fascism, and their relationship with the Catholic Church. The book is an invaluable testament that preserves the voices of Ethiopian survivors of Italian colonial violence in the historical record" (Professor Angelo Caglioti, Modern Italy).

In 2022 Ian Campbell was awarded a medal by the Ethiopian Association of Patriots, for Outstanding Contributions to the Knowledge of Resistance to the Italian Occupation.

Ian Campbell divides his time between Kenya and Ethiopia.