About the Author
David Irving
Over fifty years of primary-source historical research. Thirty books built from original documents that no other historian has used.
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David Irving is a British historian who has spent over fifty years conducting primary-source research in archives across Europe, North America, and beyond. His work is distinguished by its reliance on original documents — private diaries, unpublished letters, government files, and firsthand interviews with participants — rather than derivative secondary sources.
His first book, The Destruction of Dresden (1963), established his reputation for meticulous archival research and compelling narrative. It was followed by major works on Hitler, Churchill, Rommel, Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler — each drawing on document collections unavailable to other historians.
Irving’s archives contain over 100,000 original documents, many obtained through personal interviews with the surviving participants of history’s most consequential events. His work on the Dresden bombing, the Third Reich leadership, and Churchill’s wartime decisions is considered groundbreaking primary-source history.
The Approach
The Method
Original Documents
Every claim traced to its source. Private diaries, unpublished letters, government files, signals intercepts, and Gestapo interrogation transcripts — the raw material of history, not the interpretations of other historians.
Firsthand Interviews
Decades spent interviewing the surviving participants — Hitler’s generals, private staff, secretaries, adjutants, and their families. Testimony gathered before it was lost to time, from people who were in the room when history happened.
Language Mastery
Irving taught himself German to read source material firsthand — diaries, letters, military orders, and diplomatic correspondence in the original language, without relying on translations or the interpretations of intermediaries.
“— David Irving
Critical Acclaim
What Critics Say
“Irving has ransacked the world’s archives; he is, at his best, a superb historical detective.”
“No praise can be too high for his indefatigable scholarly industry.”
“Irving knows more than anyone alive about the German side of the Second World War. His work is indispensable to anyone seeking to understand the war in the round.”
“One of the most original and controversial historians of the modern era.”
— The Times · London
Focal Point International
Focal Point International (FPP) was established in 1980 to preserve and disseminate Irving’s body of work. Today, Irving Books continues this mission, making these works available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
The FPP archive at fpp.co.uk contains over 8,000 original documents, letters, diaries, and photographs — freely accessible to researchers worldwide. The Irving Collection houses the complete primary source archive — original manuscripts, personal correspondence, and research materials spanning six decades.