[1] Born on February 6, 1926, in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Gollin enlisted in the US Army in 1943 (immediately after his 17th birthday).
After the war ended in Europe, Gollin was selected to attend New College, Oxford for a term as part of a program to send outstanding American soldiers to English universities.
[2] He was appointed to an Extraordinary Lectureship in History at Oxford University and also served as official historian for The Observer for seven years.
[3] Gollin taught from 1959 to 1961 at the University of California, Los Angeles,[3] and then returned to conduct further research in Great Britain.
[2] He was called to the growing History Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1966 where he joined Leonard Marsak, C. Warren Hollister, and Joachim Remak in building a strong European history program.