New Historical Perspectives | RHS (original) (raw)

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, and supported by a subvention from the Economic History Society.

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.

New titles in the series

Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z, edited by Maria Cannon and Laura Tisdall (published in November 2024).

This volume explores how concepts of adulthood have changed over time. Adulthood has a history, just as other age-categories such as childhood, adolescence and old age have been shaped by cultural and social contexts.

Collectively, the authors explore four key ideas: adulthood as both burden and benefit; adulthood as a relational category; collective versus individual definitions of adulthood; and adulthood as a static definition.

Mapping the State. English Boundaries and the 1832 Reform Act, by Martin Spychal (published in September 2024), rethinks the 1832 Reform Act by demonstrating how boundary reform and the reconstruction of England’s electoral map b

y 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.

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.

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)
• Hannah Parker and Josh Doble eds., Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750-2020 (November 2023)

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)
• Hannah Parker and Josh Doble eds., Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750-2020 (November 2023)

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.

Submitting a proposal

The Series Editors and Editorial Board welcome proposals for new NHP titles via the NHP book proposal form. Applications are invited authors, within 10 years of completing their PhD from a UK or Irish university and who are looking to publish their first book.

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.

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).