Homepage

The steering group for REF2029 recently issued a call for individuals to nominate themselves as members of subject panels, including that for History.

While the RHS encourages its members to consider applying, and will be running an information event for potential nominees on Friday 7 March 2025, we — together with other organisations who have been asked to nominate potential participants in the past — have some serious concerns about the implications of the new self-nomination policy. 

Although we welcome REF’s strong statement on diversifying panels for 2029, and its appreciation of ‘the critical role that inclusive representation plays in ensuring the REF assessment process reflects the breadth and vitality of UK research’, we are concerned that the current funding crisis and extensive inequalities in working conditions seen across UK HE will mean that the greater number of panel members are drawn from an increasingly small number of institutions.

There is currently little detail from the REF steering group on how its new self-nomination model will work in practice, or on how gaps in panel membership will be addressed; and there is confusion about the time commitment panel membership will require. As many former History panellists confirm, membership is very rewarding in terms of learning about our discipline and its current practice. But being a panellist is also hugely time-consuming and will far exceed the ‘approximately 40 to 60 days of time over the course of the exercise’ currently stated on the REF2029 website. 

Colleagues in a growing number of HE institutions are unlikely to be able to access the kind of teaching and administrative relief identified as necessary by past panellists in order to participate fully in membership of a REF2029 panel. We are concerned that in the current environment it will prove difficult, if not impossible, for many aspirant panellists to convince their institutions of the merits of panel participation.

REF’s current ‘Build it and they will come’ approach sits awkwardly with the current realities and reduced opportunities of academic life, especially for those in the humanities. At best, it is a risky approach to fostering diversity of panel membership. Without further attention it may fail.

 Please see here to read our longer blog post on this subject.

 

The President, Officers and Council of the Royal Historical Society

February 2025

 

The Society’s annual lecture in global history, held in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London, was given on 21 January 2025 by Roland Wenzlhuemer, professor of modern history at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect.

Roland’s lecture — ‘Raise, Reuse, Recycle: Global History and Marine Salvage in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’ — is now available online. You can listen to it here:

 

Our thanks to Roland Wenzlhuemer for his lecture and to the German Historical Institute, London for their partnership.

.    .

 

 

 

The Society is very pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Paul Readman as the new co-editor of the Society’s journal, Transactions.

Paul is Professor of Modern British History at King’s College London and joins the journal’s current editor, Dr Jan Machielsen (Cardiff University) who is a specialist in the history of early modern Europe.

 

I’m delighted to be joining Jan Machielsen as co-editor of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.

Over the next few years, Jan and I hope to see Transactions further strengthen its position as a leading generalist journal. Our core mission is clear: the publication of stimulating and accessible articles by a diverse range of scholars on a diverse range of topics, covering all geographical areas and the whole span of history.

Beyond this, however, I am keen that we build on the tremendous success of the journal’s ‘Common Room’ section. Rapidly becoming an important space for provocative reflections on pedagogy, historiography, methodological trends and approaches, and topical issues facing historians across the world today, it is now one of the distinctive features of Transactions. We continue to welcome contributions for historians regardless of their career stage or background, so if you have an idea, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Paul Readman

 

Paul is a historian of British national identity and historical culture. His books include Storied Ground: Landscape and the Shaping of English National Identity (2018) and Land and Nation: Patriotism, National Identity and the Politics of Land (2008).

As a very experienced co-editor, his collections include Walking Histories, 1800–1914 (2016), Restaging the Past: Historical Pageants, Culture and Society in Modern Britain (2020), and – most recently – Culture, Thought and Belief in British Political Life since 1800: Essays in Honour of Jonathan Parry (2024). Paul previously served as a member of the Transactions’ UK editorial board, 2022-24.

 

Paul has been an invaluable member of our UK editorial board since its inception. I look forward to working alongside him for the remainder of my term as editor.

His appointment also marks a key moment in the development of the journal. Editors serve for two-year renewable terms. Paul’s appointment, a year after mine, sets up a phased system that will ensure a continuous editorial presence. The Society’s decision to appoint a co-editor therefore builds resilience and supports the Transactions on its exciting journey as an Open Access journal, welcoming submissions from across the historical discipline.

Jan Machielsen

 

---

Submitting an article to Transactions 

 

The journal’s co-editors and editorial board welcome submission of research articles and commentaries for review. Transactions publishes new research on a wide range of historical subject areas, chronologies and geographies, and invites comment and opinion essays on approaches to historical study, within and beyond higher education.

We welcome submissions from historians at all career stages of academia and those working historically in related sectors, such as museums, heritage, archives and public history.

Since August 2024, all articles accepted for publication are published Open Access, with no charge to the author. and therefore accessible to the widest possible readership. TRHS editors offer a prompt, efficient and friendly review process, with all accepted content appearing initially online, via CUP’s FirstView, and then in annual online and print volumes.

For more on the Transactions, and how to submit an article for consideration, please see here. Articles for review may be submitted here to the co-editors and editorial board.

 

The Society’s annual lecture in global history, held in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London, was given yesterday by Roland Wenzlhuemer, professor of modern history at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a director of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect.

Roland’s lecture — ‘Raise, Reuse, Recycle: Global History and Marine Salvage in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’ — considered the history of maritime salvage as an act of material reclamation, entrepreneurship, memorialisation and national gesture, as seen in the gifting by Britain in 1880 of the ‘Resolute desk’, made from the timber of HMS Resolute, to the US President, Rutherford B. Hayes.

In turn, Roland discussed salvage as a means to consider the purpose, value and current state of global history today. Wrecks represent a breakdown of networks and infrastructures, and are examples of the disruptions and lost connections integral to a study of the global past. Lost ships point to the limitations of global interconnection, while salvage promotes alternative connections, material, cultural and memorial over time.

An audio recording of Roland Wenzlhuemer’s lecture is available here (via the GHIL podcast).

Our thanks to Roland Wenzlhuemer for his lecture and to the German Historical Institute, London for their partnership.

 

The Royal Historical Society is very pleased to launch its new publishing series: ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ and to invite proposals for forthcoming titles.

‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ explores the value, use, discourse, and impact of history in contemporary society and culture. It draws attention to the roles played by a variety of institutions and individuals in the making and use of historical knowledge.

The series is part of Cambridge Elements, a set of short monographs (20,000 to 30,000 words max), published online and in hard and paperback print editions by Cambridge University Press.

‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ is edited for the RHS by Richard Toye (University of Exeter) and Vivienne Xiangwei Guo (King’s College London). Its first commissioned title is by Catriona Pennell on the Anxiety of Forgetting.

The series editors now welcome proposals for future titles in the series. Proposals may be submitted via this form and sent to rhs.elements@royalhistsoc.org.

---

About the series

‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ covers a wide range of topics across geographical regions and historical periods, while addressing the following four principal themes:

• Uses of the past in contemporary politics, ideology, or public policy
• Contemporary institutions of historical knowledge
• New technologies and historical knowledge
• Memory, mass culture, and public opinion

Contributions to the series address questions of the use, understanding and value of history in contemporary society, and are open to discussion in any culture or region worldwide.

Similarly, the Series Editors also encourage contributions from those working in sectors beyond Higher Education (including heritage, public policy, politics, teaching, the media, and community history), where discussions of the value and application of historical knowledge are especially prominent.

Each book in this new Elements Series will be published free, Open Access on Cambridge Core, with no charge to the author. All costs for Open Access publication are covered by the Royal Historical Society.

To submit an application, please use the Author Proposal Form for ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society‘.

---

I’m excited to be co-editing the Royal Historical Society’s new series, ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’. We hope that by addressing how historical knowledge is created, disseminated, and applied in contemporary society, books in the series will achieve influence across the discipline as well as of being useful to policy makers.

The Society’s commitment to Open Access will ensure that our authors’ insights are accessible to all, amplifying the impact of historical scholarship in addressing today’s pressing challenges.

Professor Richard Toye (Series Editor)

 

As Editors, we believe this new series will serve as a platform where the profession and practice of historical writing meet the most dynamic and pressing issues that concern our society and life today.

‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ will also provide a channel for historians, academics, policy makers, cultural specialists, artists—and, indeed, people from all walks of life—to exchange opinions regarding what the past means for our future.

Dr Vivienne Xiangwei Guo (Series Editor)

 

Ever since I was a student of History and Politics, I’ve championed the need to think about the two disciplines in dialogue. Doing so allows us to think about the relationship of past, present, and future and to understand them not as a fixed set of facts (moving in a linear, ever improving, direction) but as a problem to approach with curiosity and criticality.

The Royal Historical Society’s new series will shine a spotlight on some of the uses (and abuses) of history in contemporary society.

Professor Catriona Pennell (author of the forthcoming title, Anxiety of Forgetting)

 

On Wednesday 15 January the Society was delighted to take part in a day conference — ‘Humanities Now! Teaching and Research in Post-92 Universities’ — held at York St John University. The event was funded by an RHS Workshop Grant, for 2024-25, and brought together historians and other humanities scholars to share their experience of teaching, research and engagement in this distinctive and highly creative sector of UK higher education.

The Society also took part in the discussion, providing a survey of the current environment for historians at Post-92 institutions based on data from the recent RHS briefing, The Value of History in UK Higher Education and Society (October 2024).

Speakers addressed the many threats currently felt, with particular force, by humanities academics in the Post-92 sector. But greater attention was given to the distinctive achievements, contributions and value of Post-92 departments as a key element of UK higher education.

The day’s keynote lecture — ‘”No, I work at the other university”: Reflections on five years in Post-92 higher education’ — was given by the early modern historian, Professor Catherine Fletcher, of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Panels discussed innovative teaching, preparation for careers and life after graduation, new directions for history and humanities research, departments’ close relations with local employers, and the history PhD in Post-92 institutions.

Panellists included historians from Bath Spa, Birmingham Newman, Bournemouth, Manchester Metropolitan, Northampton, Teeside, West of England, and York St John.

Our great thanks to Dr Elizabeth Goodwin and Dr Anne-Marie Evans of York St John University for organising and hosting this event.

---

Yesterday’s event was one of six projects funded by RHS Workshop Grants awarded in 2024:

• Arunima Datta (University of North Texas) for ‘Inter-community Dialogues in Britain’
• Helen Glew (University of Westminster) for ‘Pat Thane: Reflections on History, Policy and Action’
• Elizabeth Goodwin (York St John University) for a ‘Humanities Now! Network Building Symposium for Historians in Post 92 Institutions’
• Claire Kennan (King’s College, London) for ‘A Workshop in Ruins’
• Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (Kent) for ‘Mobilising Imperial History: Crime, Policing and Control in the British Empire’
• Jamie Wood and Graham Barrett (University of Lincoln) for ‘Present and Precedent in the Church Councils of Late Antique Iberia’

The current call for RHS Workshop Grants, 2025, is open and runs to Friday 24 January 2025.

 

The latest volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is now available in online and print editions.

The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640–1649 — edited by Stewart Beale, Andrew Hopper and Ann Hughes — makes available the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649.

To accompany publication, the volume’s Introduction is free to read online while the editors provide a brief guide to the collection and its value in a new post for the Society’s blog.

---

Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, was a prominent figure amongst the opposition to Charles I, a religious radical and intellectual who emerged as a successful popular leader in the early months of the English Civil War. Brooke was killed in action in 1643 and survived by his wife, Katherine. The Long Parliament exalted Brooke as a Godly martyr for their cause and were determined that their treatment of his bereaved widow should be seen to be generous and exemplary.

This new volume publishes the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649. These texts have scarcely been studied by historians. They are an illuminating source for Brooke’s capacious intellectual, religious, and political networks, and for his mobilisation of support for Parliament in 1642. They also uncover the administration of his estates and households in London, Warwickshire, and the Midlands before and after his premature death.

The accounts are also crucial sources for political, economic, and military historians, and equally important for social and cultural historians interested in the history of the family, childhood, and widowhood, as well as consumption and material culture.

---

The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640–1649 are available online and in print from Cambridge University Press.

Fellows and Members of the Society receive full free access to the collection and to all 380 volumes of primary sources in the Camden Series. RHS members may also purchase print copies of the volume (605 pp) at the discounted rate of £16 per volume. To order a copy of the volume, please email administration@royalhistsoc.org, marking your email ‘Camden’.

---

About the Camden Series of scholarly primary editions

The Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is one of the most prestigious and important collections of primary source material relating to British History, including the British empire and Britons’ influence overseas.

The RHS (and its predecessor, the Camden Society) has since 1838 published scholarly editions of sources — making important, previously unpublished, texts available to researchers. Each volume is edited by a specialist historian who provides an expert introduction and commentary.

Today the Society publishes two new Camden volumes each year in association with Cambridge University Press. The complete Camden Series now comprises over 380 volumes of primary source material, ranging from the early medieval to late-twentieth century Britain.

The Society publishes new volumes in the Camden Series each year. Volumes in 2025 (from June) include Michael Taylor, ed., The Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral George Grey, 1809-1833; Helen Newsome, ed., Holograph Correspondence of Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots, 1489-1541; and Mark Philp, Aysuda Aykan and Curtis Leung eds. A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823.

 

 

The Royal Historical Society is very pleased to learn that the UK Ministry of Justice has abandoned a proposal, made by the previous government, to destroy print copies of post-1858 wills following their digitisation.

The decision is contained in a government response, published on 8 January 2025. This follows a consultation in Spring 2024 in which the Society — along with more than 100 organisations and 1,500 individuals — took part.

The original proposal (December 2023) concerned the future retention of wills as present-day and historical documents. Currently, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) holds the original paper version of wills proved since 1858, following the Court of Probate Act (1857). The HMCTS also creates digital copies of wills granted probate in or after 2021.

The proposal would have seen: i. a timescale of 25 years for the retention of the paper copies of wills digitised since 2021; and ii. digitisation of all wills dating from 1858, and the corresponding destruction of the original paper versions of these documents upon digitisation. Exceptions to the wholesale destruction of the post-1858 archive were proposed for wills of selected ‘famous people’ (with Charles Darwin given as an example). The context for this proposal was the size and cost of the will storage service, estimated at £4.5 million per annum.

The Ministry’s report on the consultation, published on 8 January, notes ‘the large number of responses and the very heartfelt nature of those responses’ on an issue ‘which engaged high levels of public interest and concern. There was strong opposition to any destruction of original wills or other documents. This was for a variety of reasons in terms of both a national historical resource and also for individual legal challenges.’ As a result:

The Government accepts the compelling case that has been made by respondents … and has therefore determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills and supporting documents currently designated for permanent preservation.

The January document summarises responses to each of the questions raised, including the viability — or otherwise — of retaining paper copies of wills for ‘famous people’ of ‘historic interest’. This provoked extensive criticism, leading the Ministry to conclude that ‘the responses to this question illustrated the difficulties in any attempt to distinguish between people, and some strong points were made on recognising the historic record of all wills that the Government acknowledges.’

While yesterday’s response removes the threat of destruction of print copies of wills, the Ministry closes with a comment on the enduring costs of document storage. Future actions, it notes, may include a review of charges to access print copies of wills, and the inability to extend systematic digitisation to wills proved before 2021.

---

 

Header Image: iStock, Credit: Nelli Okhrimenko

 

 

The Royal Historical Society is very pleased to announce its lecturers and lecture programme for 2025. The Society will host seven main lectures in the coming year, including several co-presented with partners.

Details of the Society’s 2025 lecture programme are available here.

---

The Society begins 2025 with its annual lecture in global history, co-hosted with the German Historical Institute, London (GHIL). The event takes place at 5.30pm on Tuesday 21 January when Roland Wenzlhuemer (LMU Munich) will present ‘Raise, Reuse, Recycle: Global History and Marine Salvage in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’.

This is followed, at 6.30pm on Friday 7 February, with the first RHS Lecture of the year: ‘Dangerous Journeys: Framing Women’s Movement in the Medieval World’, with Natasha Hodgson (Nottingham Trent University).

These opening lectures take place at the GHIL and Mary Ward House, London, respectively, and online attendance is available for both. Booking is now open for these first two lectures via the links above.

---

New initiatives for the coming year include the RHS Anniversary Lecture, held in November, on or close to the anniversary of the Society’s foundation date (26 November 1868). Anniversary Lecturers are chosen by the Society’s President: the first lecturer in this new series is Jane Ohlmeyer (Trinity College Dublin) who will be speak on ‘The Lived Experiences of Non-Elite Women in Early Modern Ireland’ on Friday 21 November 2025.

---

Other events in 2025 include the Society’s annual ‘History and Archives in Practice’ (HAP) day conference, organised jointly with The National Archives and Institute of Historical Research, University of London. This year’s event takes place at the IHR, on Wednesday 5 March, with the theme of ‘Working with Memory: History, Storytelling and Practices of Remembrance’.

The programme, and booking details, for HAP25 will be released early in the new year. Further Society events will be announced from the start of 2025.

We look forward to welcoming you to one or more of the Society’s lectures in 2025, either in-person or online.

If you would like to revisit any of our lectures from 2024 — given by, among others, Clare Anderson, Levi Roach, Corinne Fowler, Julia Laite, Caroline Dodds Pennock, Janina Ramirez, and the Society’s President Lucy Noakes — please see our Events Archive which provides video and audio recordings. The Events Archive also includes recordings from the Society’s other training workshops and panel discussions held in 2024.

---

HEADER IMAGE: iStock, TheMountBirdStudio

 

This year’s volume of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, the Society’s academic journal, is now available from Cambridge University Press.

The volume (Seventh Series, Volume 2) was published online on 6 December and is available to read Open Access online. The print edition of Transactions will be posted to Fellows and Members of the Society, who choose to receive hard copies, in January.* The volume opens with a Welcome by the editor, Jan Machielsen.

The 2024 volume contains fourteen Research Articles. These have been organised roughly chronologically, stretching from Krisztina Ilko’s study of the presence of non-elite Christian women in 14th-century China, to James Baker’s survey of the impact of computerisation for museology and museum working practices in the 1960s-80s.

Other articles demonstrate our field’s geographic and thematic diversity, ranging from late imperial Russia (Sarah Badcock) via early modern Wales (Sarah Ward Clavier) to 1930s India (Abhimanyu Arni), and from the history of sport (Ollie Randall) to that of internationalism (Su Lin Lewis).

We are also very pleased to publish eight contributions to the journal’s Common Room. As part of CUP’s transition of the journal to full Open Access, submissions to the Common Room accepted after January 2024 are labelled or introduced as Comments or Brief Comments (rather than ‘common room’).

This year’s discussions within the Common Room include John Sanders’ reflections on his experience as a ‘latecomer historian’, David Stack on the intersection of wellbeing and history teaching, and early career work in Black British history, from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, by Kristy Warren, Annabelle Gilmore and Montaz Marché.

---

Submitting an article to Transactions 

The journal’s editor and editorial board welcome submission of research articles and commentaries for review. Transactions publishes new research on a wide range of historical subject areas, chronologies and geographies, and invites comment and opinion essays on approaches to historical study, within and beyond higher education.

We welcome submissions from historians at all career stages of academia and those working historically in related sectors, such as museums, heritage, archives and public history.

Since August 2024, all articles accepted for publication are published Open Access, with no charge to the author. and therefore accessible to the widest possible readership. TRHS editors offer a prompt, efficient and friendly review process, with all accepted content appearing initially online, via CUP’s FirstView, and then in annual online and print volumes.

For more on the Transactions, and how to submit an article for consideration, please see here. Articles for review may be submitted here to the editor and editorial board.

---

*This year’s posting of the print edition of Transactions is delayed by 4-6 weeks following a significant cyber attack experienced by our publisher, Cambridge University Press, in 2024, which affected all journal publishing.

The Society is very grateful to CUP who have worked very hard and efficiently to restore their systems, with the final phase of this recovery being the despatch of journal print copies.

---

The cover image for the 2024 volume of Transactions is ‘Angels transporting St Catherine’s body’, The Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry, 1405–1408/1409, Tempera, gold, and ink on vellum, 23.8 × 17 cm. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 54.1.1a, b, fo. 20r. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access.). This image is further discussed in Krisztina Ilko’s article ‘Yangzhou, 1342: Caterina Vilioni’s Passport to the Afterlife’.