Rate My Professor Brett Holman

Holman’s research centers on the integration of aviation into British society and culture during the first half of the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on airmindedness—the public fascination with aircraft—and the pervasive fear of strategic bombing, including the anticipated 'knock-out blow from the air' and responses to actual raids by German Zeppelins and Gothas in World War I. Key themes in his work include aerial theatre, exemplified by interwar air displays like the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon; air panics such as mystery aeroplanes and phantom airships; and airpower doctrines like reprisal bombing and the convertibility of airliners. He has authored peer-reviewed articles on the militarisation of air displays, secret Zeppelin bases, and conspiracy theories surrounding air raids. Holman received a University of New England Research Seed Grant and served as a partner investigator on the ARC Linkage Project LP160101232, ‘Heritage of the Air: How Aviation Transformed Australia’. His contributions extend to public history in outlets including BBC History Magazine, Wartime, Fortean Times, and Flightpath. Holman is currently authoring Home Fires Burning: Britain’s First War from the Air, contracted to Cambridge University Press.