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Paul Corner (Goole, Yorkshire, 19 December 1944) is an English historian of twentieth century Europe, working principally on Italian Fascism and, in general, on totalitarian dictatorships. He studied Modern History at Cambridge and took his D.Phil. at Oxford in 1972. Between 1974 and 1987 he was Reader in Italian History at the University of Reading. Since 1987 he has been Professor of European History at the University of Siena in Italy and, since 2006, Director of the Centre for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes at the same university. In 2007 he was elected member of the Senior Common Room, St. Antony's College, Oxford.

In 1992 Corner founded, with Martin Rose of the British Council, the annual Pontignano Conference, which – chaired for the first ten years by Lord Ralf Dahrendorf - has become the principal point of contact between politicians, journalists and academics of Italy and Great Britain. The conference takes its name from its usual location - the Charterhouse of Pontignano, the monastery in the countryside outside Siena, property of the University.

Between 2011 and 2015 Corner was Decano of the University of Siena. He lives in Florence.

Known for his work on popular attitudes to fascism and dictatorship, and in particular for his critical approach to the question of a mass consensus for fascism, Corner's recent publications include:


 * Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes, Fascism, Nazism, Communism, Oxford University Press, 2009


 * The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy, Oxford University Press., 2012


 * with Valeria Galimi, Il fascismo in provincia. L'articolazione del potere sotto il regime, Viella, Rome, 2015


 * with Jie-Hyun Lim, The Palgrave Handbook of Mass Dictatorship, Palgrave, London 2016


 * La dittatura fascista, Carocci, Rome 2017