Society launches new book series: ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’

22 January 2025

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)