New Historical Perspectives (NHP) is the Society’s book series for early career scholars (within ten years of their doctorate), commissioned and edited by the Royal Historical Society, in association with University of London Press and the Institute of Historical Research.

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What’s distinctive about New Historical Perspectives?

The NHP series provides extensive support and feedback for authors, many of whom are writing their first monograph having recently completed a History PhD.

Each author in the series receives substantial reports from peer reviewers and series editors; is assigned a contact and ‘mentor’ from the editorial board; and takes part in an Author Workshop to discuss a near complete book with invited specialists. Author Workshops are opportunities to discuss and develop a manuscript with expert readers before submission to the publisher.

Second, all NHP titles are published as free Open Access (OA) editions, eBooks, and in hard and paperback formats by University of London Press. Digital editions of each book increase discoverability and readership. The cost of publishing NHP volumes as Open Access is covered by the series partners, not the author or an author’s academic institution.

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New and forthcoming titles in the series

 

Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750-2020 (November 2023), edited by Hannah Parker and Josh Doble constitutes a timely intervention into contemporary debates on emotions, gender, race and power. This collection considers how emotional expectations are established as gendered, racialised and class-based notions.

The volume explores the ways these expectations have been generated, stratified and maintained by institutions, societies, media and those with access to power.

 

 

Designed for Play: Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010, by Jon Winder (published in July 2024) is the first empirically grounded historical account of the modern playground, drawing on the archival materials of social reformers, park superintendents, equipment manufacturers and architects in Britain and beyond to chart the playground’s journey from marginal obscurity to popular ubiquity.

Children’s playgrounds are commonly understood as the obvious place for children to play: safe, natural and out of the way. But these expectations hide a convoluted and overlooked history of children’s place in public space

 

 

Mapping the State. English Boundaries and the 1832 Reform Act, by Martin Spychal (September 2024), rethinks the 1832 Reform Act by demonstrating how boundary reform and the reconstruction of England’s electoral map by the 1831–32 boundary commission underpinned this turning point in the development of the British political nation.

Drawing from a significant new archival discovery­­—the working papers of the boundary commission—Mapping the State reassesses why and how the 1832 Reform Act passed, and its significance to the expansion of the modern British state (Published online and in print, Summer 2024).

 

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Recent titles in the Series

• Charlotte Berry, The Margins of Late Medieval London, 1430-1540 (February 2022)
• Sarah Fox, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England (April 2022)
• Leo Shipp, The Poets Laureate of the Long Eighteenth Century, 1668–1813 (September 2022)
• Stephen Mullen, The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775-1838 (November 2022)
• Matthew Gerth, Anti-Communism in Britain During the Cold War. A Very British Witch Hunt (April 2023)

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Edited collections in the Series

In addition to monographs, the series also publishes edited collections. NHP collections are collaborations between historians: edited and including chapters by early career scholars, along with essays from more senior historians.

• Antonia Fitzpatrick and John Sabapathy eds., Individuals, Institutions and Medieval Scholasticism (May 2020)
• Fiona McCall ed., Church and People in Interregnum Britain (August 2021)
• Heidi Egginton and Zoe Thomas eds., Precarious Professionals. Gender, Identity and Social Change in Modern Britain (September 2021)
• Alexandra Hughes-Johnson and Lyndsey Jenkins eds., The Politics of Women’s Suffrage. Local, National and international Perspectives (November 2021)
• Peter Collinge and Louise Falcini eds., Providing for the Poor. The Old Poor Law, 1750–1834 (August 2022)

New Historical Perspectives began publishing in late 2019 and a full listing of titles in the series is available from the University of London Press and via JSTOR Open Access Books.

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Submitting a proposal

The Series Editors and Editorial Board welcome proposals for new NHP titles via the NHP book proposal form. Proposals may include full-size monographs and edited collections of up to 100,000 words. The NHP series also publishes shorter monographs (50-60,000 words) where this is an appropriate length for a topic. Completed proposal forms should be submitted to the University of London Press Publisher, Dr Emma Gallon: emma.gallon@sas.ac.uk.

Many NHP authors are publishing their first book, and editorial mentoring and Author Workshops are designed to help with the transition from PhD to monograph. Equally, the Series Editors welcome proposals for second books from authors within 10 years of completing their doctorates.

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Enquiries about the series

For general enquiries, please email Dr Emma Gallon, Publisher, at University of London Press: emma.gallon@sas.ac.uk.

If you wish to contact the Series’ co-editors directly, please email Professor Elizabeth Hurren (eh140@leicester.ac.uk) or Dr Sarah Longair (slongair@lincoln.ac.uk).

 

Mary Vincent writes:

A history PhD establishes expertise. The focus is on knowledge, interpreting that knowledge and situating it within a published literature. This is careful, detailed work, referenced with full scholarly apparatus. But none of that knowledge actually matters if it stays locked up inside the researcher’s own head. Presenting your work is about communicating that knowledge, often to different audiences.This is a skill in its own right and, ironically, the scholarly skills learnt over the course of a PhD are poor preparation for it.

Historians in our own field or subfield are in some ways the least intimidating audience. They understand and appreciate the detail and subtle debates you are engaging with and will need far less in the way of context or introduction. But such audiences are rare. Even at an academic conference you are likely to be speaking to people with different specialist interests, whether of period, place or theme.  Making what you are saying accessible and intelligible is key.

Preparing and presenting a seminar paper

There is a lot of advice available on the internet; some of it is extremely detailed and not all of it is good.  UK and US university websites are a reliable source of sensible advice but this can be prescriptive, and not all of it will work for you.  READ MORE

Preparing and presenting a conference paper

Conference papers are shorter than seminar papers—commonly twenty minutes—and run more tightly to time.  You will present as part of a panel, and you should determine the kind of audience you are speaking to—whether specialist or general, historical or interdisciplinary—and be clear as to how long you have to speak. READ MORE

Intervening in academic discussion

Questions after a seminar or conference paper provide an important opportunity to participate in academic debate.  This can be nerve-racking.  Some university cultures have a robust style of questioning, which can lead to a critique, for example from the panel chair, to which you are expected to reply. In others, questions are much longer than the repartee style of question and answer than is common in Britain.  Try to find out as much as you can in advance about what to expect. READ MORE

What happens in a viva?

A PhD viva is a unique opportunity to discuss your research with two experts. They will have read every word of your thesis and all their attention will be on you and your work.  Though any examination is nerve-racking, you should try to enjoy the viva; this detailed, thoughtful consideration of your work doesn’t happen very often. READ MORE

Further information can be found at these useful websites:

• http://www.cgu.edu/pages/864.asp
• http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2008/conference-rules-everything-you-need-to-know-about-presenting-a-scholarly-paper-in-public

 

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How to get the most accessible experience from this website

This website can be viewed on a range of different screen sizes and the size of text can be changed to suit different people. It also includes a search facility to help people find information more easily.

Changing settings

Using your web browser, you can change the size of text on this website. You can also make other helpful changes in your browser, as well as within your computer generally.

To find out what else you can do, visit My Web My Way (opens in new window).

Accessibility limitations

At the time of launch, this website is not known to have any limitations which will make it difficult to access for any group of users.

Contacting us

If there is information you think should be included on this page, or if you experience any problem accessing the site then please contact us at administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Please note: for advice on what information to include when you contact the web team, it is recommended that you read Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites (opens in new window).

Accessibility guidelines

All pages of this website conform to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These guidelines are the internationally recognized benchmark for building accessible websites.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines explain how to make websites more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformity to these guidelines also makes websites more user friendly for all people.

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In addition this website uses JavaScript and occasionally links to third-party documents in the PDF format.

Conformance date

This accessibility statement was issued on 16 October 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Making a Difference’

2018 Royal Historical Society Public History Symposium

Friday 16th March, 9.30am-6.00pm

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham

Inaugurated in 2015 and offered in partnership with the Historical Association and the Institute of Historical Research’s Public History Seminar, the RHS Public History Prize celebrates work in Museums & Exhibitions, Film & TV, Radio & Podcasts, Online Resources, Public Debate & Policy, as well as work undertaken by students. The results of the RHS Public History Prize were announced on Friday 26 January 2018 and details of the winners can be viewed here.

This symposium, co-organized with the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, showcases work from all categories and includes provocations from award winners. The afternoon will feature a workshop with Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery curators around their new gallery, ‘The Past is Now: Birmingham and the British Empire’, which has been co-curated with activists and explores the challenges of depicting the past of empire in contemporary Britain.

Schedule for the day:

9.30 Coffee and registration

10.00-10.20 Welcome: Margot Finn, President of the RHS and Ellen McAdam, Director of Birmingham Museums Trust

10.20-10.50 Jackie Keily: Crossrail (Museums category winner)

10.50 -11.50 Claire Alexander and Sundeep Lidher: Our Migration Story (Online category winner) and Cherish Watton: Women’s Land Army (Undergraduate category winner)

11.50-12.10 Comfort break

12.10-12.40 Adrian Bingham: Historicising ‘Historical’ Child Sexual Abuse (Policy and Public Debate category winner)

12.40-1.30 lunch

1.30-2.10 Keynote. Kavita Puri: Partition Voices (Radio & Podcasts category and Overall winner)

2.10-3.10 David Olusoga: Black and British (Film & TV category winner) and Joe Hopkinson: Immigrant children in Huddersfield (Postgraduate category winner)

3.10-3.45 Coffee break and curator’s tour of ‘The Past is Now’ gallery [tour leaves 3.20]: Rebecca Bridgman

3.45-4.15 Curator’s talk about designing ‘The Past is Now’ gallery: Rebecca Bridgman

4.15-5.00 Final panel: 3 responses to the gallery; concluding discussion ‘making a difference’ in Public History

 

This event was organised by Melanie Ransom who was then a staff-member of the RHS.

 

1898 F. Hermia Durharn, ‘The relations of the Crown to trade under James I’.

1899 W.F. Lord, BA, ‘The development of political parties during the reign of Queen Anne’.

1900 No award.

1901 Laura M. Roberts, ‘The Peace of Luneville’.

1902 V.B. Redstone, ‘The social condition of England during the Wars of the Roses’.

1903 Rose Graham, ‘The intellectual influence of English monasticism between the tenth and the twelfth centuries’.

1904 Enid W.G. Routh, ‘The balance of power in the seventeenth century’.

1905 WAP. Mason, MA ‘The beginnings of the Cistercian Order’.

1906 Rachel R. Reid, MA ‘The Rebellion of the Earls, 1569’.

1907 No award.

1908 Kate Hotblack ‘The Peace of Paris, 1763’.

1909 Nellie Nield, MA ‘The social and economic condition of the unfree classes in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’. (Not published in Transactions).

1910 No award.

1911 No award

1912 H.G. Richardson ‘The parish clergy of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’.

1913 – 1916 No award.

1917 Isobel D. Thornley, BA ‘The treason legislation of 1531 – 1534’.

1918 T.F.T. Plucknolt, BA ‘The place of the Council in the fifteenth century’.

1919 Edna F. White, MA ‘The jurisdiction of the Privy Council under the Tudors’. (Not published in Transactions).

1920 J.E. Neale, MA ‘The Commons Journals of the Tudor Period’.

1921 No award.

1922 Eveline C. A Martin, ‘The English establishments on the Cold Coast in the second half of the eighteenth century’.

1923 E.W. Hensman, MA, ‘The Civil War of 1648 in the east midlands’.

1924 Grace Stretton, BA, ‘Some aspects of mediaeval travel’.

1925 F.A. Mace, .MA, ‘Devonshire ports in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries’.

1926 Marian J. Tooley, MA, ‘The authorship of “Defensor Pacis”‘.

1927 W.A. Pantin, BA, ‘Chapters of the English Black Monks, 1215-1540’.

1928 Gladys A. Thornton, BA, PhD, ‘A study in the history of Clare, Suffolk, with special reference to its development as a borough’.

1929 F.S. Rodkey, AM, PhD, ‘Lord Palmerston’s policy for the rejuvenation of Turkey, 1839- 1847’.

1930 A. Ettinger, DPhil, ‘The proposed Anglo-Franco-American Treaty of 1852 to guarantee Cubato Spain’.

1931 Kathleen A. Walpole, MA, ‘The humanitarian movement of the early nineteenth century to remedy abuses on emigrant vessels to America’.

1932 Dorothy M. Brodie, BA,, ‘Edmund Dudley, minister of Henry VII’.

1933 R.W. Southern, BA, ‘Ranulf Flambard and early Anglo-Norman administration’.

1934 S.B. Chrimes, MA, PhD, ‘Sir John Fortescue and his theory of dominion’.

1935 S.T. Bindoff, MA, ‘The unreformed diplomatic service, 1812-1860’.

1936 Rosamund J. Mitchell, MA, Blitt, ‘English students at Padua, 1460- 1475’.

1937 C.H. Philips, BA, ‘The East India Company “Interest, and the English Government of 1783-1784’.

1938 H.E.I. Phillips, BA, ‘The last years of the Court of Star Chamber, 1630- 1641’.

1939 Hilda P. Grieve, BA, ‘The deprived married clergy in Essex, 1553- 1561 ‘.

1940 R. Somerville, MA, ‘The Duchy of Lancaster Council and Court of Duchy Chamber’.

1941 R.A.L. Smith, MA, PhD, ‘The “Regimen Scaccarii” in English monasteries’.

1942 F.L. Carsten, DPhil, ‘Medieval democracy in the Brandenburg towns and its defeat in the fifteenth century’.

1943 No submissions made and no award.

1944 Rev. E.W. Kemp, BD, ‘Pope Alexander III and the canonization of saints’.

1945 Helen Suggett, BLitt, ‘The use of French in England in the later middle ages’.

1946 No award.

1947 June Milne, BA, ‘The diplomacy of John Robinson at the court of Charles II of Sweden, 1697-1709’.

1948 No award.

1949 Ethel Drus, MA, ‘The attitude of the Colonial Office to the annexation of Fiji’.

1950 Doreen J. Milne, MA, PhD, ‘The results of the Rye House Plot, and their influence upon the Revolution of 1688’

1951 K.G. Davles, BA, The origins of the commission system in the West India trade’.

1952 G.W.S. Barrow, BLitt, ‘Scottish rulers ant the religious orders, 1070-1153’.

1953 W.E. Minchinton, BSc(Econ), ‘Bristol – metropolis of the west in the eighteenth century’.

1954 Rev. L Boyle, OP, ‘The “Oculus Sacerdotis” and some other works of William of Pagula’.

1955 G.F.E. Rude, MA, PhD, ‘The Gordon riots: a study of the rioters and their victims’.

1956 No award.

1957 R F. Hunnisett, MA, DPhil, ‘The origins of the office of Coroner’.

1958 Thomas G. Barnes, AB, DPhil, ‘County politics and a puritan “cause celebre”: Somerset churchales, 1633’.

1959 Alan Harding, BLitt, ‘The origins and early history of the Keeper of the Peace’.

1960 Gwyn A. Wllliams, MA, PhD, ‘London and Edward I’.

1961 M.H. Keen, BA, ‘Treason trials under the law of arms’.

1962 G.W. Monger, MA, PhD, ‘The end of isolation: Britain, Germany and Japan, 1900-1092’.

1963 J.S. Moore, BA, ‘The Domesday teamland: a reconsideration’.

1964 M. Kelly, PhD, The submission of the clergy’.

1965 J.J.N. Palmer, BLitt, ‘Anglo-French negotiations, 1390-1396’.

1966 M.T. Clanchy, MA, PhD, ‘The Franchise of Return of Writs’.

1967 R. Lovatt, MA, DPhil, PhD, ‘The “Imitation of Christ” in late medieval England’.

1968 M.G.A Vale, MA, DPhil, ‘The last years of English Gascony, 1451-1453’.

1969 No award.

1970 Mrs. Margaret Bowker, MA, BLitt, ‘The Commons Supplication against the Ordinaries in the light of some Archidiaconal Acta’.

1971 C. Thompson, MA, ‘The origins of the politics of the Parliamentary middle groups, 1625-1629’.

1972 I. d’Alton, BA, ‘Southern Irish Unionism: A study of Cork City and County Unionists, 1884-1914’.

1973 C.J. Kitching, BA, PhD, ‘The quest for concealed lands in the reign of Elizabeth I’.

1974 H. Tomlinson, BA, ‘Place and Profit: an Examination of the Ordnance Office, 1660-1714’.

1975 No award made for this year.

1976 B. Bradshaw, MA, BD, ‘Cromwellian reform’

1977 No award.

1978 C.J. Ford, BA, ‘Piracy or Policy: The Crisis in the Channel, 1400-1403’.

1979 P. Dewey, BA, PhD, ‘Food Production and Policy in the United Kingdom, 1914-1918’.

1980 Ann L. Hughes, BA, PhD, ‘Militancy and Localism: Warwickshire Politics and Westminster Politics, 1643- 1647’.

1981 C.J. Tyerman, MA, ‘Marino Sanudo Torsello and the Lost Crusade. Lobbying in the Fourteenth Century’.

1982 E. Powell, BA, DPhil, ‘Arbitration and the Law in England in the Late Middle Ages’.

1983 A.G. Rosser, MA, ‘The essence Of medieval urban communities: the vill of Westminster,1200- lS40’.

1984 N.L. Ramsay, MA, LLB, ‘Retained legal Counsel, c.1275-1475’.

1985 George S. Garnett, MA, ‘Coronation and Propaganda: Some Implications of the Norman Claim to the Throne Of England in 1066’.

1986 C.J. Given-Wilson, ‘The King and the Gentry in Fourteenth Century England’.

1987 No award.

1988 R.A.W. Rex, .NIA, ‘The English Campaign against Luther in the 1520s’.

1989 J.S.A. Adamson, BA, PhD, ‘The Baronial Context of the English Civil War’.

1990 Shelley C. Lockwood, BA, ‘Marsilius of Padua and the Case for the Royal Ecclesiastical Supremacy’.

1991 David L. Smith, MA, PhD, ‘Catholic, Anglican or Puritan? Edward Sacksville, Fourth Earl of Dorset and the Ambiguities of Religion in Early Stuart England.’

1992 Giles Worsley, MA, PhD, ‘The Origins of the Gothic Revival: A Reappraisal’.

1993 Clifford J. Rogers, BA, MA, PhD, ‘Edward III and the Dialects of Strategy’.

1994 Joseph Charles Heim, BA, MA, PhD, ‘Liberalism and the Establishment of Collective Security in British Foreign Policy’.

1995 Rachel Gibbons, BA, ‘Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France: the creation of an historical villainess’.

1996 No award.

1997 Steve Hindle, MA, MA, PhD, ‘The Problem of Pauper Marriage in Seventeenth Century England’.

1998 Neil W. Hitchin, BA, MA, ‘The Politics of English Bible Translation in Georgian Britain’.

1999 Magnus Ryan, BA, MA, PhD, ‘Bartolus of Sassoferrato and Free Cities’.

2000 Helen Berry, BA, PhD, ‘Rethinking Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England: Moll King’s Coffee House and the Significance of Flash Talk’.

2001 No award.

2002 Quintin Colville, BA, MA, ‘Jack Tar and the gentleman officer: the role of uniform in shaping class- and gender- related identities of British naval personnel, 1930-1939’.

2003 No award.

2004 Ian Mortimer, BA, MA, RMSA, FRHistS, ‘The Triumph of the Doctors: Medical Assistance to the Dying c.1570-1720’

2005 No award.

2006 Sethina Watson, ‘The Origins of the English Hospital’

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

2007 Alice Rio, ‘Freedom and Unfreedom in Early medieval Francia: the Evidence of the LegalFormulae’ in Past and Present 193 (2006)

2008 Mary Partridge, ‘Thomas Hoby’s English Translation of Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier’ in The Historical Journal, 50 (2007), pp. 769-786

2009 No award.

2010 George Molyneaux, ‘The Old English Bede: English Ideology or Christian Instruction?’ in English Historical Review, 124 (2009), pp. 1289–1323

2011 Richard Huzzey, ‘Free trade, free labour, and slave sugar in Victorian Britain’ in Historical Journal, 53, 2 (2010)

2012 Levi Roach, ‘Public Rites and Public Wrongs: Ritual Aspects of Diplomas in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century England’, in Early Medieval Europe, vol. 19, (2011).

2013 Jasper Heinzen, ‘Transnational Affinities and Invented Traditions: The Napoleonic Wars in British and Hanoverian Memory, 1815-1915’ in English Historical Review, vol. 27, no. 529 (2012)

2013 David Veevers, ‘”The Company as their Lords and the Deputy as a Great Rajah”: Imperial Expansion and the English East India Company on the West Coast of Sumatra, 1685-1740’ in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 41, 5 (2013), pp. 687-709

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

2015 Ryan Hanley, ‘Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw’, Slavery & Abolition 35:1 (2015) (published online Sep 2014).

2016 Mary Cox, ‘Hunger Games: Or how the Allied Blockade in World War I Deprived German Children of Nutrition, and Allied Food Aid Subsequently Saved them’, Economic History Review, 68: 2, (2015), 600-31.

2017 Stephanie Mawson, ‘Convicts or Conquistadores?: Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth Century Pacific’, Past and Present, 232:1 (2016), 87-125.

2018 Marcus Colla, ‘Prussian Palimpsests: Architecture and Urban Spaces in East Germany, 1945-1961,’ Central European History, 50 (2017), 184-217.

2019 Jake Richards, ‘Anti-Slave-Trade Law, “Liberated Africans” and the State in the South Atlantic World, c. 1839-1852’, Past and Present, 241 (2018), 170-219.

2020 Meira Gold, ‘Ancient Egypt and the Geological Antiquity of Man, 1847-1863’, History of Science, 57:2 (2019), 194-230.

2021 Matthew Birchall, ‘History, Sovereignty, Capital: Company Colonisation in South Australia and New Zealand‘, Journal of Global History, 16 (2020), 141-57.

2022 Tamara Fernando, ‘“Seeing Like the Sea”: A Multispecies History of the Ceylon Pearl Fishery, 1800-1925’, Past and Present (February 2021), 127-60

and

Anna McKay, ‘”Allowed to Die?” Prison Hulks, Convict Corpses and the Enquiry of 1847’, Cultural and Social History (May 2021), 163-81.

2023 Jake Dyble, ‘General Average, Human Jettison, and the Status of Slaves in Early Modern Europe’, Historical Journal, 65 (2022), 1197-1220.

and

Roseanna Webster, ‘Women and the Fight for Urban Change in Late Francoist Spain’, Past & Present (October 2022)

 

 

The Royal Historical Society is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity number: 206888) and was established by Royal Charter in 1889.

The Royal Historical Society remains the foremost society in the United Kingdom promoting and defending the scholarly study of the past. It promotes discussion of history by means of a full programme of public lectures and conferences and disseminates the results of historical research and debate through its publications and various online communication channels. It represents the interest of historical scholarship to various official bodies. It speaks for the interests of history and historians for the benefit of the public.

The Society’s business, activities, and fellowship/membership is governed by its By-Laws. To ensure their continued relevance, amendments to the By-Laws are made from time-to-time and are reviewed, approved and adopted by the Fellows of the Society at an Anniversary Meeting (Annual General Meeting, AGM). The most recent update to the By-Laws was implemented in November 2021. Additional policies underpinning the By-Laws are available upon request from the details below.

The By-Laws of the Royal Historical Society (as of November 2021) 

The Royal Historical Society is an academic learned society, but is not a professional body regulating the activities of those working within history or associated disciplines. The Society seeks to advocate for best practice both in academic practice and community engagement, but it does not arbitrate in matters of academic discourse, behaviour or conduct.

The RHS supports academic freedom of speech and writing. We promote high professional and ethical standards, not just in publications and institutions but also in the conduct of individual historians and in the teaching of the discipline. All fellows and members should avoid personal and professional misconduct that might bring the Society or the reputation of the profession into disrepute.

Concerns about professional standards should be dealt with by and between institutions and individuals. Any complaint that involves a potential criminal offence or violation of a set of professional standards required by another body will be reported to the appropriate authority. Legal action that reflects on an individual’s suitability to operate in the discipline of history may be regarded as misconduct by the Society. The Society’s trustees have a duty to report allegations about certain serious incidents to the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

If you are concerned about the conduct of an RHS fellow or member, you may request a copy of our Disciplinary Procedures from governance@royalhistsoc.org.

 

The principles outlined in this Statement of Good Practice for Historians are aligned with the Society’s charitable objectives.

All members should be aware of the ethical, legal and professional responsibilities incumbent to the specific community in which they work. All individuals should avoid personal and professional misconduct that might bring the Society or the reputation of the profession into disrepute.

The maintenance of high professional standards includes:

• being acquainted with best practice in the use and evaluation of evidence;
• understanding and following intellectual property laws;
• taking particular care when research concerns those still living and when the anonymity of individuals is required;
• observing the ethical and legal requirements of the repositories and collections being used;
• avoiding plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and deception in proposing, carrying out and reporting the results of research;
• following robust procedures for the citation of sources.

The maintenance of high ethical standards includes:

• declaring any interests, including financial ones, that bear on professional life;
• reporting any conflict of interest;
• observing fairness and equity in the conduct of research, teaching and administration, and representing credentials accurately and honestly;
• behaving and acting with integrity where summarising, interpreting or translating material for publication or communication so as not to misrepresent the historical record.

 

Other statements of good practice

You may also wish to consult the American Historical Association’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct; the European Commission’s guide to Ethics in Social Science and Humanities; and the RESPECT Code of Practice for Socio-Economic Research.

The Society echoes the encouragement within the AHA statement for ‘all historians to uphold and defend their professional responsibilities with the utmost seriousness, and to advocate for integrity, and fairness and high standards throughout the historical profession.’

 

Selected further reading

There are many valuable studies of historical practice, of which the following is a small selection:

• Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft (1954, Manchester reprint 2015, with an introduction by Peter Burke)
• James M. Banner, Being a Historian: an Introduction to the Professional World of History (Cambridge, 2012)
• Peter Claus and John Marriott, History: an Introduction to Theory, Method and Practice (London, 2017)
• Penelope J. Corfield and Tim Hitchcock, Becoming a Historian. An Informal Guide (London, 2022)
• Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice (London, 2000, third edition 2019)
• Tracey Loughran ed. A Practical Guide to Studying History. Skills and Approaches (London, 2017)
• John Tosh, The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History (London, 1984, sixth edition 2006)