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

Authored book

• Cohen, G. (2006). The Failure of a Dream: The Independent Labour Party from disaffiliation to World War II. I.B. Tauris
• Morgan, K., Cohen, G., & Flinn, A. (2005). Communists and British Society 1920-1991: People of a Special Mould. River Oram Press

Chapter in book

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

Edited book

• Morgan, K., Cohen, G., & Flinn, A. (Eds.). (2005). Agents of the Revolution: new biographical approaches to the history of International Communism in the age of Lenin and Stalin. Peter Lang

Journal Article

• Blaxill, L., Cohen, G., Hutchison, G., Kuhn, P. M., & Vivyan, N. (online). Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832–1914. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtae017
• Caldwell, D., Cohen, G., & Vivyan, N. (online). Long-Run Trends in Partisan Polarization of Climate Policy-Relevant Attitudes Across Countries. Environmental Politics, https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2024.2403957
• Bischof, D., Cohen, G., Cohen, S., Foos, F., Kuhn, P. M., Nanou, K., Visalvanich, N., & Vivyan, N. (2022). Advantages, Challenges and Limitations of Audit Experiments with Constituents. Political Studies Review, 20(2), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211037865
• Cohen, G., & Cohen, S. (2021). Depolarization, Repolarization and Redistributive Ideological Change in Britain, 1983-2016. British Journal of Political Science, 51(3), 1181-1202. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123419000486
• Cohen, G., & Morgan, K. (2015). For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond). Political Studies Review, 13(4), 506-509. https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12033
• Cohen, G., & Mates, L. (2013). Grassroots Conservatism in Post-War Britain: A view from the bottom up. History, 98(330), 202-225. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.12004
• Cohen, G., Mates, L., & Flinn, A. (2012). Capture-Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 43(2), 247-274. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_00381
• Cohen, G. (2010). Political Religion and British Communism. Twentieth Century Communism, 2, 197-214
• Cohen, G., Flinn, A., & Mates, L. (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, G. (2005). 'Propensity-Score Methods and the Lenin School'. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 36(2), 209-232. https://doi.org/10.1162/0022195054741262
• Flinn, A., & Cohen, G. (2005). The Abyssinian Crisis, British labour and the fracturing of the anti-war movement. Socialist History, 28, 37-59
• Flinn, A., Cohen, G., & Mates, L. (2005). National politicians and local political parties: Herbert Morrison and the South Lewisham Labour Party
• Cohen, G., & Morgan, K. (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. https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/15.1.77
• Cohen, G., & Morgan, K. (2002). Stalin's Sausage Machine: British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37. Twentieth Century British History, 13(4), 327-355. https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/13.4.327
• Cohen, G. (2002). 'Missing, Biased and Unrepresentative: The quantitative analysis of multisource biographical data'. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 35(4), 166-176
• Cohen, G. (2001). The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders. History, 86(282), 180-199. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.00186

Report

• Bakonyi, J., Cohen, G., & Bedard, P.-O. (2015). An Evaluation of Hogaan iyo Nabad: A Community Driven Governance Programme in Somalia/Somaliland. [No known commissioning body]