13 June 2023

History in UK Higher Education is in a state of unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty.

This turmoil takes several forms. Most conspicuous are those departments facing cuts to courses, dismissal of staff, and closure of History degrees. Currently, the universities of Brighton, East Anglia and Kent are consulting historians about voluntary and compulsory redundancies. UEA’s History department is being reduced from 40 FTE in 2021 to fewer than 30. Kent has already lost 10 FTE historians since 2020: a figure that does not include its current round of compulsory redundancies. At Brighton, all historians are presently at risk of redundancy as the university seeks to cut its 54-strong School of Humanities and Social Sciences by 21 members of staff.  

Situations like this have become only too familiar. Since 2020, History departments or degree programmes have been lost at Sunderland, Kingston and London South Bank. Compulsory redundancy programmes at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Roehampton in 2022 proved hugely demoralising to all involved, and have impaired the teaching and research capacity of those who remain. Elsewhere, whilst compulsory redundancies have been avoided, historians have been exposed to continuous cycles of voluntary severance, with staff leaving either because the prospect of remaining in post is intolerable, or to save the employment of younger colleagues.

Regardless of how historians depart, the result is loss of capacity and an increase in responsibilities for those who remain. Cuts and closures reduce specialist knowledge, and breadth of programmes. They mean a reduction of the research capacity that underpins popular forms of historical engagement. And they negatively impact students. Whether it is overcrowding in highly recruiting departments or loss of provision for those studying at their local institution, the current regime diminishes the range and quality of history teaching across the UK.

We believe these problems to be more pervasive than is generally recognised. In private, the Royal Historical Society holds frequent meetings with historians concerned about impending change: from closure of degree programmes and cuts to courses (sometimes mid-degree); to an end to optionality and the loss of disciplinary identity with the creation of catch-all humanities departments. Since 2021, historians from eleven universities have worked with the Society, while threats to a further nine institutions have been noted.

The profile of ‘at risk’ departments is also changing. Many of the departments we now work with are in universities with long-standing History departments noted for their achievements in recent REF exercises, yet this provides no guarantee of security. Kent and East Anglia headed the REF2021 rankings for History, and both have recently experienced extensive restructure and cuts. If those experiencing cuts and closures include the highest scoring in the REF, what—ultimately—is the purpose of assessment for those on the ground?

None of these problems can be explained by a decline in student numbers or interest in History, which remain strong. Instead we must look to political decisions to explain this troubling situation. UK universities now operate in a market economy. Institutions are placed in direct competition, with income generation via intake the principal measure of success. The lifting of the student cap in 2015 has established an environment of ‘feast and famine’ across the sector.

Cuts and closures are the starkest manifestation of this environment. But marketisation also brings turbulence and uncertainty to historians in ‘winning’ institutions, required at short notice to deal with sharp, and unpredictable, spikes in student numbers. Across the sector, uncertainty is exhausting, all-consuming, and impedes long-term thinking, planning and the delivery of high-quality teaching.

In the coming months, the Royal Historical Society is undertaking a project to assess the full extent of the losses, risks and concerns that now characterise History in UK Higher Education. We also seek to better understand the personal, institutional and disciplinary impact of change on academic staff, researchers, students and community partners. As is clear, the aftershocks of upheaval are long-lasting and have negative effects on the life of a department well after a programme of change has officially ended.

Present-day commentaries regularly propose that History, and the wider humanities, are ‘in crisis’. We do not agree. History as a subject and pursuit remains in good health. But what does appear to be in crisis—now as never before—are the structures that enable and sustain History in UK Higher Education. The implications of this are real and serious, and they require attention.

If you are a historian working in a UK university and would like to bring, in confidence, points to our attention, please get in touch: president@royalhistsoc.org. 

The President, Officers and Council Members of the Royal Historical Society

Founded in 1868, the Royal Historical Society (RHS) is a successful learned society, membership organisation and charity with a 150 year history. Today, the RHS is the UK’s foremost society working for historians and history.

In 2023 over 6,000 historians belong and contribute to the Society — as fellows and members active in the UK and worldwide. This makes the RHS the UK’s largest membership organisation for historians of all kinds, and from all walks of life — held in high regard by historians internationally, and a partner to many similar organisations overseas.

These national and international connections are led by the historians who make up the RHS Council (Trustees), and the small central team based at University College London, which is the home of the Society. Each year, the Society supports four PhD Fellows and other recipients of its Research funding programme.

The Society’s remit covers the following principal areas:

• policy work relating to academic research, education and teaching
• advocacy and intervention in debates about the study of history
• publishing of a journal, primary source collections, book series, online resources, and scholarly communications relating to the discipline
• academic events showcasing new research
• research & skills training and professional engagement, with a focus on early career historians
• a grants and fellowships programme, directed towards early career researchers
• prizes and awards, to recognise excellence in the discipline
• provision of a research Library and Archive, based at UCL, with particular strengths in the development of the modern historical profession in the UK.

In late 2021 the Society also revised and extended its membership categories to engage with a wider membership from sectors beyond beyond higher education. Researchers and those working in history are welcome to join the RHS as Fellows and Members, with applications welcome at anytime.

How the Royal Historical Society works

The Society is predominantly a voluntary organisation with a revolving Council whose members offer dedicated service ensuring the smooth-running and development of the organisation. Council comprises a body of  Fellows each of whom serves a four-year term working on our various committees and working parties. Each year, the Fellowship elects three new members of Council using a preferential voting system.

Council in turn elects our Officers — including the President, Secretary and Treasurer — who each serve a four-year term. In addition, we have four Vice Pre

sidents (all members of Council) who act as Chairs of our various committees and undertake other activities for the Society. The President, Officers and Councillors work closely with the RHS central office team, based at UCL, who are responsible for the running and management of the Society.

In areas such as policy formation, training and events, the RHS also works with other national bodies: the Historical Association, which leads on history in schools; the Institute of Historical Research, a national centre for research resources; and History UK (HE) a council of representatives of UK university history departments.

RHS By-Laws

The RHS is governed by its By-Laws. Revisions to the By-Laws are made, on approval, at the Society’s Annual General Meeting, held each November. The most recent update to the By-Laws was implemented in November 2021

If you have any queries about the Royal Historical Society, its work, or website, please contact the RHS Office: administration@royalhistsoc.org

The Society has a small but important archive collection which charts the membership and rise of the historical profession, in the UK, over the 19th and 20th centuries. The archive is divided into four collections, each of which has its own catalogue:

• George W. Prothero Papers: relating to the life and work of the historian G.W. Prothero (1848-1922)
• Camden Society Papers: relating to the Camden Society prior to merging with the Royal Historical Society (1838-1897)
• Royal Historical Society Papers: relating to the administration, activities, projects and events of the Society, c.1868-2010s
• Geoffrey Elton Papers: relating the literary papers of the historian Geoffrey Elton (1921-1994)

Each of these collections are housed in the RHS offices at University College London, and are available for consultation by prior arrangement; priority is given to members of the Society at busy times. For enquiries about the collections, please contact: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Papers from the Society’s George W. Prothero collection.

1. George W. Prothero Papers

The archive’s principal collection relates to the historian, editor and government adviser, George W. Prothero (1848-1922), who was Professor of History at Edinburgh, from 1894, and President of the Royal Historical Society between 1901 and 1905.

In January 2022, the RHS published a new 250-page catalogue to its Prothero collection, which includes personal and professional correspondence, working papers and manuscripts covering the 1860s to the early 1920s. A selection of images from the collection is also available.

EXTENT: 20 boxes

The Prothero Papers catalogue is arranged in 7 series, each covering a different aspect of G.W. Prothero’s life and work:

• Series 1, PP/1: Personal correspondence, 1886-1922.
• Series 2, PP/2: Subject files, 1866-1921, including papers relating to Prothero’s early academic career and publications; among them his papers relating to the British Academy and Presidency of the Royal Historical Society.
• Series 3, PP/3: Correspondence relating to the First World War and its aftermath, 1914-1922, with British, European and American correspondents.
• Series 4, PP/4: Papers relating to historical studies c.1871-1914, including undergraduate and other notebooks, notes for his Creighton Lectures on Napoleon III, and manuscripts on contemporary international relations.
• Series 5, PP/5: Papers relating to the Bibliography of Modern British History including correspondence, notes on British and foreign libraries and archives.
• Series 6, PP/6: Printed papers including newspaper cuttings, scrapbook and articles.
• Series 7, PP/7: Papers relating to the deposit of the Prothero collection with the Royal Historical Society.

You can read more about recent work to re-catalogue and conserve Prothero’s papers, as well as view a selection of images from the seven series.

2. Camden Society Papers, 1838-1897

In June 2022, the RHS published a new 97-page catalogue to its Camden Society Papers collection, which includes administrative papers relating to the management of the Camden Society’s publishing programme of primary historical sources. The collection covers the period to the Camden Society’s merger with the Royal Historical Society, after which the RHS took on responsibility for publishing the Camden Series of scholarly editions.

EXTENT: 5 boxes

The Camden Society catalogue is arranged in 4 series, covering a different aspect of the Society’s work:

• Ref: CS/1: Papers relating to minute books.
• Ref: CS/2: Administrative papers.
• Ref: CS/3: Correspondence.
• Ref: CS/4: Miscellaneous research materials.

3. Royal Historical Society Papers, 1868-2010s

In October 2022, the RHS published a new 165-page catalogue to its Royal Historical Society Collection Papers, which includes items relating to administration, governance, committee structure, financing, membership, events and activities of the Society from its foundation in 1868 to the 2010s.

EXTENT: 29 boxes, 142 bound volumes, 36 framed photographs and drawings

The RHS Collection catalogue is arranged in 14 series, each covering a different aspect of the Society’s organisation and work:

• Ref: RHS/1: Minutes, agenda and attendance books of Council and various Committee meetings.
• Ref: RHS/2: Financial and administrative records.Ref: RHS/3. Correspondence and related papers.
• Ref: RHS/3: Correspondence and related papers.
• Ref: RHS/4: Research materials and deposited manuscripts.
• Ref: RHS/5: Fellowship, Associate and membership records.
• Ref: RHS/6: British National Committee papers.
• Ref: RHS/7: Invitations, lecture cards, meeting cards, Session cards, By-law booklets, prospectuses and other printed material.
• Ref: RHS/8: Printed circular notices and information booklets issued by the Society.
• Ref: RHS/9: Newsletters and Letters from the President.
• Reg: RHS/10: Offprints and photocopies of reviews of Studies in History articles.
• Ref: RHS/11: Drawings and photographs.
• Ref: RHS/12: Card index of Royal Historical Officers.
• Ref: RHS/13: Maps and plans.
• Ref: RHS/14: Signage.

In addition, application records are available for RHS Fellows from 1887, providing biographical details and insights into professional associations of historians elected to the Society in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Other records relating to the Society are included in the papers of Charles Rogers (1825-1890), who founded the RHS in 1868 and served (controversially) as its secretary until forced to resign in 1881.

4. Geoffrey Elton Papers, and other named collections

In August 2022, the RHS published a new 63-page catalogue to its Geoffrey Elton collection, which includes personal and professional correspondence, relating to the literary works and estate of Geoffrey Elton (1922-1994), historian and President of the Society (1973-77).

EXTENT: 18 boxes

The Geoffrey Elton catalogue is arranged in 4 series:

• ELT/1: Correspondence with the Royal Historical Society
• ELT/2: Correspondence and other papers concerning published works written or edited by G. R. Elton
• ELT/3: Correspondence and other papers relating to articles and reviews
• ELT/4: Concerning publications written or edited by G. R. Elton

Other smaller named collections held by the Society include:

• Papers of Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1829-1902), historian: transcripts of publications and some personal correspondence
• Papers of Frederick Solly Flood (1801-1888), diplomat: unpublished manuscripts
• Records of the British National Committee of the International Committee of Historical Sciences: correspondence etc, 1972-1993

1977
K.D. Brown, John Burns (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1977)

1978
Marie Axton, The Queen’s Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1978)

1979
Patricia Crawford, Denzil Holles, 1598-1680: A study of his Political Career (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1980
D. L. Rydz, The Parliamentary Agents: A History (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1981
Scott M. Harrison, The Pilgrimage of Grace in the Lake Counties, 1536-7 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1981)

1982
Norman L. Jones, Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion, 1559 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1982)

1983
Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A social history, 1200-1830 (Longman, 1983)

1984
David Hempton, Methodism and Politics in British Society, 1750-1850 (Hutchinson, 1984)

1985
K.D.M. Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor (Cambridge University Press, 1985)

1986
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors: Politics and Religion in an English County,1500- 1600 (Clarendon Press, 1986)

1987
Kevin M. Sharpe, Criticism and Compliment: The politics of literature in the England of Charles I (Cambridge University Press, 1987)

1988
J.H. Davis, Reforming London, the London Government Problem, 1855-1900 (Clarendon Press, 1988)

1989
A.G. Rosser, Medieval Westminster, 1200-1540 (Clarendon Press, 1989)

1990
Duncan M. Tanner, Political change and the Labour party, 1900-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 1990)

1991
Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

1992
Christine Carpenter, Locality and Polity: A Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401 -1499 (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

1993
Jeanette M. Neeson, Commoners: common right; enclosure and social change in England,1700- 1820 (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

1994
V.A.C. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English people, 1770-1868 (Oxford University Press, 1994)

1995
Kathleen Wilson, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

1996
Paul D. Griffiths, Youth and Authority: Formative Experience in England, 1560-1640 (Clarendon Press, 1996)

1997
Christopher Tolley, Domestic Biography: the legacy of evangelicalism in four nineteenth century families (Clarendon Press, 1997)

1998
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (Yale University Press, 1998)

1999
John Walter, Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers (Past and Present Publications, 1999)

2000
Adam Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700 (Clarendon Press, 2000)

2001
John Goodall, God’s House at Ewelme: Life, Devotion and Architecture in a Fifteenth Century Almshouse (Routledge, 2001)
and
Frank Salmon, Building on Ruins: The Rediscovery of Rome and English Architecture (Ashgate, 2001)

2002
Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

2003
Christine Peters, Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2004
M.J.D. Roberts, Making English Morals: Voluntary Association and Moral reform in England,1787-1886 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2005
Matt Houlbrooke, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

2006
Kate Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918-1960 (Oxford University Press, 2006)

2007
Stephen Baxter, The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2007)
and
Duncan Bell, The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, 2007)

2008
Stephen M. Lee, George Canning and Liberal Toryism, 1801-1827 (RHS/Boydell & Brewer:2008)
and
Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford University Press: 2008)

2009
Nicholas Draper, The Price of Emancipation: Slave-ownership, Compensation and British Society at the end of Slavery (Cambridge University Press: 2009)

2010
Arnold Hunt, The Art of Hearing: English Preachers and their Audiences, 1590-1640 (Cambridge University Press: 2010)

2011
Jaqueline Rose, Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy,1660-1688, (Cambridge University Press: 2011)

2012
Ben Griffin, The Politics of Gender in Victorian Britain. Masculinity, Political Culture and the Struggle for Women’s Rights, (Cambridge University Press: 2012)

2013
Scott Sowerby, Making Toleration: The Repealers and The Glorious Revolution (Harvard University Press: 2013)

From this point the prize is awarded for and presented in the year following publication.

2015
John Sabapathy, Officers and Accountability in Medieval England 1170-1300 (Oxford University Press, 2014)

2016
Aysha Pollnitz, Princely Education in Early Modern Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

2017
William M. Cavert, The Smoke of London: Energy and Environment in the Early Modern City (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
and
Alice Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290 (Oxford University Press, 2016)

2018
Brian N Hall, Communications and British Operations on the Western Front, 1914-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

2019
Ryan Hanley, Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

2020
Niamh Gallagher, Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (Bloomsbury, 2019)

2021
Jackson Armstrong, England’s Northern Frountier: Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
and
Lauren Working, The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

2022
Kristin D. Hussey for Imperial Bodies in London. Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

2023
Síobhra Aiken for Spiritual Wounds. Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022)

1997
Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: the idea of witchcraft in early modern Europe

1998
Patrick Major, The Death of the KPD: Communism and Anti-Communism in West Germany, 1945-1956

1999
Frances Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War

2000
Matthew Innes, State and Society in the Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000

2001
Nora Berend, At the Gate of Christendom. Jews, Muslims and ‘Pagans’ in Medieval Hungary, c.1000-c.1300

2002
David Hopkin, Soldier and Peasant in French Popular Culture, 1766-1870

Guy Rowlands, The Dynastic State and the Army Under Louis XIV [JOINT WINNERS]

2003
Norbert Peabody, Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India and Michael Rowe, From Reich to State: the Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780-1830

2004
Nikolaus Wachsmann, Hitler’s Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany

2005
Robert Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1850

2006
James E. Shaw, The Justice of Venice. Authorities and Liberties in the Urban Economy, 1550- 1700

2007
Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan
Filippo De Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice (RUNNER UP)

2008
Caroline Dodds-Pennock, Bonds of Blood: Gender, Lifecycle and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture (Palgrave MacMillan: 2008)

2009
Alice Rio, Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages. Frankish Formulae, c.500-1000 (Cambridge University Press: 2009)

2010
Natalie A. Zacek, Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, c. 1670-1776 (Cambridge University Press: 2010)

2011
Wendy Ugolini, Experiencing War as the ‘Enemy Other’: Italian Scottish Experience in World War II, (Manchester University Press: 2011)

2012
Joel Isaac, Working Knowledge: Making the Human Sciences from Parsons to Kuhn, (Harvard University Press: 2012)

2013
Sean A Eddie, Freedom’s Price: Serfdom, Subjection, & Reform in Prussia, 1648-1848 (Oxford University Press: 2013)

From this point the prize is awarded for and presented in the year following publication.

2015
Andrew Arsan, Interlopers of Empire: The Lebanese Diaspora in Colonial French West Africa (Hurst, 2014)
JOINTLY WITH
Lucie Ryzova, The Age of the Efendiyya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt (Oxford University Press, 2014).

2016
Emma Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

2017
Claire Eldridge, From Empire to Exile: History and Memory within the pied-noir and harki communities, 1962-2012 (Manchester University Press, 2016)

2018
Matthew S Champion, The Fullness of Time. Temporalities of the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

2019
Duncan Hardy, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521 (Oxford University Press: 2018).

2020
Caillan Davenport for A History of the Roman Equestrian Order  (Cambridge University Press: 2019).

2021
Tom Stammers for The Purchase of the Past: Collecting Culture in Post-Revolutionary Paris, c.1790-1890 (Cambridge University Press: 2020).

2022
Emily Bridger for Young Women Against Apartheid. Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation Struggle (Boydell & Brewer, 2021)

2023
Jennifer Keating for On Arid Ground: Political Ecologies of Empire in Russian Central Asia (Oxford University Press, 2022)