William Woodruff (1916-2008) was a world historian whose fame was based more on his autobiographical writings than on his studies of the global forces that have shaped the modern world.

 

William was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England into a family of cotton weavers just as the once prosperous textile town was facing the cotton industry's collapse. The Road to Nab End chronicals the joys and sorrows of his family's struggles to avoid being crushed by fate after they lost their jobs and faced destitution.

 

William left school at thirteen. At sixteen he ran away to London, where he worked for two years as a 'sand rat' in an iron foundry. He enrolled in night school and discovered a love of learning.  In 1936, with the aid of a London County Council Scholarship, he entered Oxford University. This he describes in Beyond Nab End, a story that abruptly ended with the outbreak of the Second World War.

 

During six years of war he fought with the 24th Guards Brigade of the British Army in North Africa and the Mediterranean region. From the crucible of battle emerged his great war story: Vessel of Sadness.

 

World history became the focus of his research and teaching after the war. He taught for forty years, and condensed that knowledge at the end of his academic career in A Concise History of the Modern World.

 

In his eighties William Woodruff retired from academia, sat at his desk, and wrote his two volumes of autobiography. He was surprised when his books became best sellers.