Royal Historical Society
LightNews LightNews
banner
royalhistsoc.org
Royal Historical Society
@royalhistsoc.org
22K followers 1.1K following 690 posts
The Royal Historical Society is the UK's foremost society promoting the scholarly and professional study of the past. Our membership is an international community of historians: https://royalhistsoc.org/
Posts Replies Media Videos
royalhistsoc.org
This week the Society releases its new Strategy, 2026-2028 bit.ly/43A9tF4

The Strategy outlines five priorities for the Royal Historical Society over the next three years. It comes at a vital time for the health and future of our discipline and profession #Skystorians 1/2
Slide showing the 5 priorities for the Society's new STrategy for 2026-28 1. Champion, promote and celebrate historical research and expertise, to advance the creation of historical scholarship and the public understanding of history. 2. Advocate and campaign for the value of history, and the work of historians, wherever they are located. 3 Strengthen the profile and reach of the Royal Historical Society to support the historical discipline and its practice. 4 Enable our fellows and members to pursue historical research through a programme of publications, funding, training, events, networking and engagement. 5 Ensure a confident and sustainable future for the Royal Historical Society.
November 19, 2025 at 11:22 AM
royalhistsoc.org
We are delighted to receive today print copies of the three latest titles in our 'New Historical Perspectives' book series, published with @ihr.bsky.social and @uolpress.bsky.social

Each title is available in paperback print and free Open Access: further details bit.ly/4pl2gkA #Skystorians
Photograph of the following three titles: Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow, by Rachael Harkes Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales, by Andrew McTominey Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940, by Gareth Roddy
November 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
royalhistsoc.org
We look forward to meeting delegates and especially North American members this week. The Society is sponsoring panels, a reception, and we're also in the exhibitors' hall throughout #NACBS2025

Please do come and say hello and pick up one (or all three) of our new badges. 2/2
RHS postcard showing image of Jacobite commemorative tea pot, c.1760s, with caption 'The Royal Historical Society champions historical research and expertise, to advance historical scholarship and the public understanding of history'.
November 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
royalhistsoc.org
The Society is v. pleased to be in Montreal for #NACBS2025 which starts today.

President, Lucy Noakes @lucynoakes1.bsky.social and Director Philip Carter are attending, along with RHS Councillors @caitbeaumont.bsky.social and @kharveyhistory.bsky.social who are also giving papers #Skystorians 1/2
Royal Historical Society badges with the logos: 'Trust Me I'm a Historian', 'I Know the Value of History' and 'This is What a Historian looks Like'.
November 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
royalhistsoc.org
Today's Times Higher Education piece on the challenges faced by UK historians of Russia includes a contribution by Jamie Bryson.

Jamie's article on this topic, 'Russian History without Russia', was published last month in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4qMrTvU #Skystorians
Article text: Russian History without Russia: Archive Encounters in an Era of Restricted Access', by Jamie Bryson. Abstract: This comment is the personal reflection of an early career historian on the challenges of working on Russian history during a time of geopolitical change and declining access. As libraries and archives in the Russian Federation become increasingly difficult to use following the invasion of Ukraine, early-career and younger historians are being forced to adopt remote or indirect methods of research due to formal and informal barriers. I reflect on some of the ethical, practical and epistemological dilemmas of conducting historical investigations at a distance, drawing chiefly on my own experiences working on the tsarist secret police during the First World War. I argue that this is not a return to Cold War constraints, but a new era that demands fresh strategies and a redefinition of expertise.
November 6, 2025 at 11:33 AM
royalhistsoc.org
To accompany publication of her new book, Rachel writes for the RHS blog about the extent and importance of guilds in pre-Reformation society bit.ly/4oncsc1

'Forging Fraternity' is the 25th title in the NHP series, with all volumes available free Open Access bit.ly/47tUAq0 #Skystorians 2/2
Front cover of RHS blog post on Forging Fraternity. Full abstract: In this post, Rachael Harkes introduces her new book — ‘Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow’ — which is published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press. Using the Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow as a prism, Rachael considers the almost ubiquitous membership of religious guilds in both urban and rural society on the eve of the Reformation. With more than 18,000 members recorded in the guild’s massive extant archive, drawn from across the social spectrum and spread throughout Wales, England, Iberia, Ireland and France, the Palmers offer a unique opportunity to investigate the interplay between institutions and individuals in the Middle Ages. ‘Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society’ is the 25th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series for early career historians. Rachael’s book, and all other titles in the series are published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Published today: 'Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow', by Rachael Harkes bit.ly/49CIDzC

Rachael's new book is the latest title in the Society's New Historical Perspectives series. It's now available free Open Access & paperback print @uolpress.bsky.social 1/2
Book cover for: 'Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow', by Rachael Harkes
November 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Many thanks to Daniel Finkelstein for his excellent RHS Public History Lecture, delivered yesterday evening @greshamcollege.bsky.social: 'Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother'

Daniel's lecture, a study of the Belsen Trial of 1945, is now available to view bit.ly/4oo5oMi
Image of Daniel Finkelstein delivering the 2025 RHS Public History Lecture at Gresham College, 4 November 2025
November 5, 2025 at 10:27 AM
royalhistsoc.org
The enthusiasm for #History at this year's #HistDay25 is considerable and palpable.

History's popularity and appeal is an asset we must work with to better demonstrate the personal, professional, civic and social value of historical knowledge and understanding.

@ihr.bsky.social #Skystorians
November 4, 2025 at 2:48 PM
royalhistsoc.org
The Royal Historical Society is a membership organisation of more than 6500 historians in the UK & worldwide.

Applications to Join Us, as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member are welcome at any time. bit.ly/49zM3mM Next closing dates: 15 Dec 2025 and 9 March 2026 #Skystorians
RHS Flyer: Join US The Royal Historical Society is the UK’s leading membership organisation for anyone with a professional or personal interest in history. We welcome applications for Fellowship or Membership from historians worldwide. Benefits of Membership include: • Copies of the Society’s journal, Transactions • Online access to nearly 500 volumes of Society publications • Access to an extensive range of grants and funding to support research • Invitations to Society lectures and debates, with leading historians • Regular news and updates on history-related events • Discounts from selected publishers, and on subscriptions to History Today • Access to the Society's Directory of members, with opportunities to network with others. Find out more: royalhistsoc.org. The Royal Historical Society working for history and historians, since 1868
November 4, 2025 at 11:58 AM
royalhistsoc.org
We look forward to meeting all those attending #HistDay25 today: bit.ly/4nvfl9v We're one of 70 exhibitors making this an ideal opportunity to discover new resources and archives to support your research.

Thanks to @ihr.bsky.social & @senatehouselib.bsky.social for making this possible #Skystorians
Image of table at History Day with Royal Historical Society items.
November 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Dénes's article is available free Open Access, as is all content published in Transactions bit.ly/486BF5d

The journal's editors welcome submission of research articles and comment pieces, on historical practice and debate, from historians working within and outside education 2/2 #Skystorians
Cover of the latest volume of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
November 3, 2025 at 9:03 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Rachael's new book, as for all titles in the NHP series, is published Open Access and also available as a paperback print edition.

Rachael's volume is also the 25th book in a series offering monographs & edited collections. For a full listing from University of London Press see bit.ly/4qcEqbW 2/2
Image of 20 book covers from the Royal Historical Society's New Historical Perspectives book series for early career historians. ALT 15 October 2025 at 12:25 5 likes Write your reply Royal Historical Society ‪@royalhistsoc.org‬ Home Explore 16 Notifications Chat Feeds Lists Saved Profile Settings New Post Search Discover Following What's History 🗃️ More feeds Trending Dodgers World Series Blue Jays Louis Varland Fortnite Feedback • Privacy • Terms • Help Image of first 20 book covers from the Royal Historical Society's New Historical Perspectives book series for early career historians.
November 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
royalhistsoc.org
On Thursday we publish the next title in our New Historical Perspectives book series:

'Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society: The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow', by Rachael Harkes, is available from 6 November bit.ly/4ogSm2H

Full details from @uolpress.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2
Front cover of Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow, by Rachael Harkes
November 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
royalhistsoc.org
This coming week (Tuesday 4 November), we look forward to meeting all those attending #HistDay25 @ihr.bsky.social and @senatehouselib.bsky.social: bit.ly/4nvfl9v

We'll be bringing badges and our new set of postcards #Skystorians
Royal Historical Society badges with logos: This is what a historian looks like, Trust me, I'm a historian, and I know the value of history. Three postcard design from the Royal Historical Society.
November 2, 2025 at 1:16 PM
royalhistsoc.org
To accompany publication, Gareth also wrote for the RHS blog about his book and the ‘westward gaze’ which flourished in late-19th century Britain and Ireland - from Cornish cliffs and Welsh mountains to Hebridean islands and the Connemara highlands bit.ly/47rdnkA 2/2
Opening page of RHS blog post: full text: Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940: In this post, Gareth Roddy introduces his new book — Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880-1940 — which is published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press. Atlantic Isles examines the cultural and political prominence of the ‘westward gaze’ which flourished in late-nineteenth century Britain and Ireland. From Cornish cliffs and Welsh mountains to Hebridean islands and the Connemara highlands, the west was an imagined geography that transcended the national territories of these isles. Gareth’s book draws on wide-ranging contemporary sources, including works of geology, philology, ethnology, history, geography, archaeology, folklore, literature, sociology and an extensive collection of travel writing. The significance of western landscapes for national identities is well known but — as Atlantic Isles shows — the west was also central to debates about Britishness and to the bold attempt to construct a narrative of multinational union that claimed deep historical roots at a time when Home Rule dominated political debate. Atlantic Isles is the 24th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series for early career historians. Gareth’s book, and other titles in the series are published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.
November 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM
royalhistsoc.org
This week we published 'Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940', by Gareth Roddy bit.ly/4nwj9Y2

Gareth's is the latest title in the Society's 'New Historical Perspectives' book series. It's available Open Access and in paperback print #Skystorians 1/2
Book cover for "Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940", by Gareth Roddy
November 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM
royalhistsoc.org
To accompany publication, Gareth writes today on the RHS blog about the ‘westward gaze’ which flourished in late-19th century Britain and Ireland - from Cornish cliffs and Welsh mountains to Hebridean islands and the Connemara highlands bit.ly/47rdnkA 2/2
Opening page of RHS blog post: full text: Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940: In this post, Gareth Roddy introduces his new book — Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880-1940 — which is published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press. Atlantic Isles examines the cultural and political prominence of the ‘westward gaze’ which flourished in late-nineteenth century Britain and Ireland. From Cornish cliffs and Welsh mountains to Hebridean islands and the Connemara highlands, the west was an imagined geography that transcended the national territories of these isles. Gareth’s book draws on wide-ranging contemporary sources, including works of geology, philology, ethnology, history, geography, archaeology, folklore, literature, sociology and an extensive collection of travel writing. The significance of western landscapes for national identities is well known but — as Atlantic Isles shows — the west was also central to debates about Britishness and to the bold attempt to construct a narrative of multinational union that claimed deep historical roots at a time when Home Rule dominated political debate. Atlantic Isles is the 24th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series for early career historians. Gareth’s book, and other titles in the series are published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.
October 30, 2025 at 8:38 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Published today: 'Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940', by Gareth Roddy bit.ly/4nwj9Y2

Gareth's book is the latest title in the Society's New Historical Perspectives series @uolpress.bsky.social. Available Open Access and in paperback print #Skystorians 1/2
Book cover for "Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940", by Gareth Roddy
October 30, 2025 at 8:38 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Forthcoming publications from the Society (Oct & Nov): bit.ly/4qGZTdt

> 'Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940'
> 'Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow'
> A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803–1823'
Three book covers for the RHS publications: > 'Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British & Irish West, 1880–1940' > 'Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow' > A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803–1823'
October 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM
royalhistsoc.org
Julia's new article is available free Open Access, as is all content published in Transactions bit.ly/486BF5d

The journal's editors welcome submission of research articles and comment pieces, on historical practice and debate, from historians working within and outside education 2/2 #Skystorians
Cover of the latest volume of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
October 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
royalhistsoc.org
New in 'Transactions': 'Possible Maps: Newfoundland, 1763–1829' bit.ly/4oygf5V

@julialaite.bsky.social shows how overlapping maps highlight complexity of encounter with place over a coherence of colonial ideologies. What were peripheries of some people’s empires were centres of others' worlds 1/2
Opening page for the new Transactions article: 'Ppssible Maps: Newfoundland, 1763-1829'. Full abstract: "Islands have a disproportionate role – as strategic locations, as imaginative or symbolic locales, as extractive zones and as ecological bellwethers – in oceanic imperial histories. They were and are places of ‘great practical use and metaphorical power’. And yet Newfoundland was seen (and continues to be seen) as marginal and peripheral, even if the biomass that was pulled out of its ocean fed – quite literally – a global network of exploitation. This article uses four overlapping maps to tell four overlapping stories: James Cook’s circumnavigation of the island in 1763–8; Lt David Buchan’s trek into the interior to contact the Beothuk in 1811 and 1820; William Eppes Cormack and Joseph Sylvester’s trek across the island in 1822; and finally, a series of story-maps created by Shanawdithit, who is apocryphally known as ‘the last of the Beothuk’. In doing so, it draws in Indigenous ‘storywork’ and cartographic histories and makes a case for storytelling as powerful methodology for examining overlooked colonial histories. These maps and stories highlight the complexity of encounter with a place rather than a coherence of colonial ideologies. Through the stories these maps help me tell, I hope to show how the peripheries of some people’s empires were the centres of other people’s worlds." Extract from Julia Laite's new TRHS article with image of Clarence Brown's 'The Newfoundland Centred World' (1977), reproduced with permission from the Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.
October 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Today, the President and members of the Society's Council are visiting historians at the University of Suffolk to learn more about their work.

The visit includes sessions on working with heritage partners, bringing together historians, archivists and curators from across the region #Skystorians
Image of University of Suffolk
October 22, 2025 at 7:25 AM
royalhistsoc.org
Jake's new article is available free Open Access, as is all content published in Transactions bit.ly/486BF5d

The journal's editors welcome submission of research articles and comment pieces, on historical practice and debate, from historians working within and outside education 2/2 #Skystorians
Cover of the latest volume of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
October 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
royalhistsoc.org
New today in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society':

'"Avanias, EveryWaking Hour": Entanglement and
Othering in Ottoman-Venetian Trade Disputes' bit.ly/4hp3B76

Jake Dyble rethinks the harmony and mutuality of cross-cultural commerce in the early modern Mediterranean #Skystorians 1/2
Front page to new Transactions of the Royal Historical Society article: ‘Avanias, EveryWaking Hour’: Entanglement and Othering in Ottoman-Venetian Trade Disputes', by Jake Dyble. Full abstract: 'In the first decades of this century, historians emphasised cross-cultural commerce in the Mediterranean to refute both the ‘clash of civilisations’ account of Islamic–Christian relations and an equally binary Saidean reading of the early modern past. While such refutations may be sound, the connection between the ‘nuts and bolts of cross-cultural trade’ and the ‘flourishing (or not) of mutual cultural understanding’ often implicit therein remains oblique. Here I examine disputes arising in commercial settings as presented by the dispatches of the Venetian bailo in Constantinople in order to shed further light on this relationship. Specifically, I focus on the decision to describe certain types of (ostensibly) unfair conduct by non-Christians as ‘avanias’, contextualising these episodes using sources produced by Venetian and Ottoman institutions. The immediate purpose of this discursive convention was to delegitimise claims against Venetian subjects and obfuscate compromising details, but its use was shaped above all by idealised notions of Venetian political economy and by a patrician emotional regime of republican service. Despite the entanglement that emerges from the sources – indeed, often because of it – a discourse of religious difference could nevertheless thrive, encouraged by traders who instrumentalised these concerns even if they did not necessarily share them."
October 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM