author
Hugh Roberts
A sharp, deeply informed historian of North Africa, he wrote with unusual clarity about Algeria, Egypt, and the wider Arab world. His work combines serious scholarship with a close attention to politics on the ground, making complex events feel human and understandable.
1 Audiobook
![Roberts' Chester Guide [1858]](https://listenly.io/api/img/6638c79a972dc5c80ef76f34/cover.jpg)
Roberts' Chester Guide [1858]
by Hugh Roberts
About the author
Born in Hull in 1950 and raised in Middlesex, Hugh Roberts became a leading specialist on North Africa, especially Algeria. He taught at Tufts University as the Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History and also held roles at the London School of Economics.
He carried out extensive fieldwork and was known for careful, independent analysis of political life in Algeria and across the region. He also led the International Crisis Group’s North Africa Project while living in Cairo, bringing academic depth to urgent contemporary questions.
His books include Berber Government: The Kabyle Polity in Pre-colonial Algeria, The Battlefield: Algeria 1988–2002, and Loved Egyptian Night: The Meaning of the Arab Spring. He died in 2025, leaving behind a body of work valued for its historical depth, political insight, and refusal to settle for easy explanations.