New Books in British Studies
Episodes
Michelle P. Brown, "Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts" (Reaktion, 2025)
03 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The history of medieval Britain through twelve remarkable illuminated manuscripts. Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manu...
D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
02 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe.Virgil. Chaucer. ...
Charles W. A. Prior, "Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic" (U Nebraska Press, 2026)
01 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic (U Nebraska Press, 2026), Professor Charles W. A. Prior of...
Radio ReOrient 14:5: Racial Justice, Human Rights and Surveillance, with Alba Kapoor, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas
01 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by Alba Kapoor. Kapoor is the racial justice lead at Amnesty International UK and pre...
Rhea Rahman, "Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown, and White" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown and White (U Minnesota Press, 2026) is an ethnography of Islamic Relief (IR), the ...
David Womersley, "Thinking Through Shakespeare" (Princeton UP, 2026)
28 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above al...
The British General Election of 2024: A Conversation with Robert Ford and Paula Surridge
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why and how did Labour win the 2024 election? In The British General Election of 2024 Robert Ford, a Professor of Politics at the University of Man...
Tiffany Jo Werth, "The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton" (Oxford UP, 2024)
25 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Tiffany Jo Werth explores how stones, rocks, and the broader minera...
Vin Nardizzi, "Marvellous Vegetables in the English Renaissance" (U Toronto Press, 2025)
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
John Gerard’s natural history of plants, The Herball (1597), is considered a failure in the history of science. Despite this reputation, it has endu...
Radio ReOrient 14:4: The Coconut Trial with Marieha Hussain, hosted by Fatima Rajina and Stephen Lawrence Research Centre
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dr Fatima Rajina is joined by Marieha Hussain to talk about her experience of the Coconuts trial. A case that saw the political activ...
Penny Roberts, "Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge UP, 2025), Penny Robert's latest book, takes us into the world ...
Gwyneth Lonergan, "Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity Care in the UK" (Bristol UP, 2025)
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Using the analytical framework of reproductive justice, Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity...
Rory Naismith, "Offa: King of the Mercians" (Yale UP, 2026)
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Offa: King of the Mercians (Yale UP, 2026), Professor Rory Naismith presents an authoritative biography of Offa of Mercia, revealing his importan...
Donald Sassoon, "Revolutions: A New History" (Verso Books, 2025)
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Revolutions: A New History (Verso Books, 2025) is a sparkling account of political upheaval and the power of history. We think of revolutions in ter...
Paul Robichaud, "Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland and Brittany" (Reaktion, 2026)
13 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland and Brittany (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Paul Robichaud explores how ancient monuments –...
Kim Embrey, "Coca and the Victorians: From Botanical Curiosity to Regulated Drug, 1835–1912" (Transcript Publishing, 2025)
12 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The South American coca plant was established in 19th-century Britain as a medical product before it became a globally restricted drug. Drawing on bot...
Pavel Brunssen, "The Making of 'Jew Clubs': Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures" (Indiana UP, 2025)
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Pavel Brunssen, a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg Univers...
Christine Grandy, "Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
04 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What is the role of television in the history of the UK? In Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain (Cambridge UP, 2026) Chris...
Katherine Harvey, "The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living" (Reaktion, 2026)
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We often think of medieval medicine as strange, unhygienic and unscientific, but The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Kather...
Arthur W. Gullachsen, "The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend: Volume II: Operations Martlet, Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood 11 June-12 July 1944" (Casemate, 2026)
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Following the Normandy landings, Rommel rushed Heeresgruppe B reserves towards the coast in order to crush the bridgehead and drive the Allied forc...
Mark Pennington, "Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom" (Oxford UP, 2025)
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom by Mark Pennington This highly original and innovative book is the first to co...
Megan Peiser, "British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical" (JHU Press, 2026)
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At the turn of the nineteenth century, British women novelists were publishing more fiction than their male counterparts, yet their place in literary ...
John Kuhn, "Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest, John Kuhn, is the author of Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England (U Pennsylvania Pr...
Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, "Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections" (Neptune Publications, 2023)
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in early Photographs and Collections by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra (Neptune Publications, 2023) i...
Satya Shikha Chakraborty, "Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India (Cambridge UP, 2025) offers a compelling cultural and social ...
Alan McDougall, "Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s His...
Steffan Blayney, "Health and Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body" (Activist Studies of Science, 2022)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest today is Steffan Blayney, the author of Health & Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body. In H...
David Bather Woods, "Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist by David Bather Woods An engaging biography of one of the most influe...
Katharine Gerbner, "Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica" (Duke UP, 2025)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British coloni...
Alex Powell, "Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration" (Bristol UP, 2026)
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Utilizing critical legal methodologies, Alex Powell's Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration (Bristol UP, 2026) gives...
Christopher Munn, "Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Who bore the burdens of empire? Christopher Munn's Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong (Hong Kong UP, 2025) explores ho...
Alistair Moffat, "Edinburgh: A New History" (Birlinn, 2024)
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From prehistory to the present day, the story of Edinburgh is packed with incident and drama. As Scotland’s capital since 1437, the city has witness...
E. and H. Heron, "Flaxman Low: Occult Detective" (MIT Press, 2026)
15 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Flaxman Low, literature’s first professional, full-time “occult detective”—that is, an intrepid investigator who deploys the scientific method...
Tristan J. Rogers, "Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction" (Routledge, 2025)
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 2025), Tristan J. Rogers argues that philosophical conservati...
Marianna Dudley, "Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley" (Manchester UP, 2025)
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley (Manchester University Press, 2025) is a cutting-edge history of wind power in...
Wendy Brown, "States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity" (Princeton UP, 2025)
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A sympathetic critique that attempts to free Left politics from its own snares, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton Un...
Jon Stobart, "Life in the Georgian Parsonage: Morals, Material Goods and the English Clergy" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
An innovative approach in the field of material culture and consumption studies, Life in the Georgian Parsonage: Morals, Material Goods and the Engli...
Michael Bycroft, "Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution" (U Chicago Press, 2026)
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution (U Chicago Press, 2026), Dr. Michael Bycroft argues that gems were connec...
Mattie Armstrong-Price, "Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways" (U California Press, 2026)
07 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways (U California Press, 2026) by Dr. Mattie Armstrong-Pri...
Lucy Lavers et al.," Adventurous Vents: A Journey through the Ventilation Shafts of Britain" (Penguin, 2025)
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of the modern world lie ventilation shafts. We may not notice them, but wherever there are tunnels, sewers, mines, car parks and energy s...
The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The role of a resident vet in the remote islands of the Falklands, St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha encompasses many wonderful complexities...
Eleanor Gordon et al., "Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939" (Oxford UP, 2025)
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939 (Oxford UP, 2025) by Professor Eleanor Gordon, Professor Katie Barclay, and D...
Lorraine Grimes, "Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain: Pregnancy, Migration and Institutionalization" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the twentieth century, many women in Ireland and Britain endured shame and institutionalisation for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. ...
Richard Vinen, "The Last Titians: How Churchill and De Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World" (Simon & Schuster, 2026)
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A compelling dual biography of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle that shines new light on two of the greatest figures of the 20th century.Winsto...
Leah Astbury, "Making Babies in Early Modern England" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Leah Astbury's new book, Making Babies in Early Modern England (Cambridge UP, 2025), explores the ideals and realities that governed generation ...
Lynda Nead, "British Blonde: Women, Desire and the Image in Post-War Britain" (Yale UP, 2025)
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1950s, American glamour swept into a war-torn Britain as part of a broader transatlantic exchange of culture and commodities. But in this proce...
Ray Yep, "Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2024)
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong (Hong Kong UP, 2024), Ray Yep explores the latest available archival mater...
Sara Pennell & Jon Stobart, "Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England (Bloomsbury, 2026) by Dr. Sara Pennell & Professor Jon Stobart provides the fir...
Lynneth Miller Renberg, "Women, Dance and Parish Religion in England, 1300-1640: Negotiating the Steps of Faith" (Boydell & Brewer, 2022)
14 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Women, Dance and Parish Religion in England, 1300-1640: Negotiating the Steps of Faith (Boydell & Brewer, 2022) Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg pre...
Bridget Salmon and Andrew Godley, "The Making of the Modern Supermarket: Self-Service Adoption in British Food Retailing, 1950-1975" (Oxford UP, 2025)
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What seems mundane today—walking into a supermarket, picking up goods, and paying at a checkout—was once a radical experiment. In our latest New B...
Manchán Magan, "Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape" (Chelsea Green, 2026)
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Most people associate Britain and Ireland with the English language, a vast, sprawling linguistic tree with roots in Latin, French, and German, and br...
Claire Nicolas, "Une si longue course: Sport, genre, et citoyenneté au Ghana et en Côte d’Ivoire (années 1900-1970)" (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2024)
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Claire Nicolas, a chercheuse du Fonds National Suisse at Basel University, a holder of a prestigious Ambizione Research Grant, ...
Tom Bolton, "Atomic Albion: Journeys Around Britain’s Nuclear Power Stations" (Strange Attractor, 2025)
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The United Kingdom has sixteen nuclear power stations. Most go under the radar, but their presence is enormous, both physically and culturally. They d...
Marc Mierowsky, "A Spy Amongst Us: Daniel Defoe's Secret Service and the Plot to End Scottish Independence" (Yale UP, 2026)
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the en...
Ian Smith, "Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Ian Smith urges readers of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, ...
Leslie James, "The Moving Word: How the West African and Caribbean Press Shaped Black Political Thought, 1935-1960" (Harvard UP, 2025)
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed...
Jacqueline Riding, "Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London" (Profile Books, 2025)
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the hard streets: working-class London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charl...
David McCrone, "Changing Scotland: Society, Politics and Identity" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Scotland is a nation that has undergone significant changes over the last 50 years or so. This is, of course, true of much of the Western world but, a...
Tom Menger, "The Colonial Way of War: Violence and Colonial Warfare in the British, German and Dutch Empires, c. 1890-1914" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The violence of colonial wars between 1890 and 1914 is often thought to have been uniquely shaped by the nature of each of the European empires. The ...
Iain Jackson et. al., "Architecture, Empire, and Trade: The United Africa Company" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Architecture, Empire, and Trade: The United Africa Company (Bloomsbury, 2025) pieces together a new architectural history of West Africa from the...
Olivia Weisser, "The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, venereal disease, or the 'pox,' was a dreaded diagnosis throughout Europe. Its ghastly marks, along with ...
Jeremy Black, "Britain's Imperial Histories (St. Augustine's Press, 2025)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Military historian Jeremy Black continues his review of the global context of martial conflict and spatial conquest into the modern era (16th-20th cen...
Karin Wulf, "Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America" (Oxford UP, 2025)
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In eighteenth-century America, genealogy was more than a simple record of family ties—it was a powerful force that shaped society. Lineage: Genealo...
Gershom Gorenberg, "War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East" (Public Affairs, 2021)
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942...
Simon Devereaux, "Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
25 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge UP, 2023) by Dr. Simon Devereaux provides the first comprehensive account of executio...
Kellen Hoxworth, "Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance" (Northwestern UP, 2024)
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance (Northwestern UP, 2024) Dr. Kellen Hoxworth presents a sweeping history of racialized performan...
Duncan Kelly, "Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025) by Duncan Kelly is a new intellectu...
Catherine Clarke, "A History of England in 25 Poems" (Penguin, 2025)
17 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, whi...
Reena Goldthree, "Democracy’s Foot Soldiers: World War I and the Politics of Empire in the Greater Caribbean" (Princeton UP, 2025)
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Following the outbreak of World War I, tens of thousands of men from the British Caribbean volunteered as soldiers to fight on behalf of the British E...
Zoë McGee, "Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel" (Manchester UP, 2025)
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think. Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sha...
Sam Fullerton, "Sexual Politics in Revolutionary England" (Manchester UP, 2026)
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Fullerton joins Jana Byars to talk about Sexual Politics in Revolutionary England (Manchester UP 2024) to celebrate its paperback release. I...
John Samuel Harpham, "Intellectual Origins of American Slavery: English Ideas in the Early Modern Atlantic World" (Harvard UP, 2025)
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The period from 1550 to 1700 was critical in the development of slavery across the English Atlantic world. During this time, English discourse about s...
Sheiba Kian Kaufman, "Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama" (Oxford UP, 2025)
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama examines the concept of early modern globality and the development of European toleration discourse t...
Jessica Kelly and Neal Shasore, "Reconstruction: Architecture, Society and the Aftermath of the First World War" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Reconstruction explores the impact of the First World War on the built environment - examining the immediate effects and aftermath of the Great War o...
Stuart Carroll, "Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stuart Carroll's Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2023) transforms our understanding of Europe between 1500 ...
Philip J. Stern, "Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism" (Harvard UP, 2023)
04 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Stern places the corporation―more than the Crown―at the heart of British colonialism, arguing that companies built and governed global empi...
D. J. Taylor, "Orwell: The New Life" (Pegasus Books, 2023)
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A fascinating exploration of George Orwell--and his body of work--by an award-winning Orwellian biographer and scholar, presenting the author anew to ...
J. Barton Scott, "Slandering the Sacred: Blasphemy Law and Religious Affect in Colonial India" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why is religion today so often associated with giving and taking offense? To answer this question, Slandering the Sacred: Blasphemy Law and Religious...
Kerry Brown, "The Great Reversal: Britain, China and the 400-Year Contest for Power" (Yale UP, 2024)
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I tried to send several letters to her Chinese counterpart, the Wan Li Emperor. The letters tried to ask the...
Andy Cowan, "B-Side: A Flipsided History of Pop" (Headpress, 2023)
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book B-Sides: A Flipsided History of Pop (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop music would be a diffe...
Alastair McClure, "Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
27 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922 (Cambridge UP, 2024) offers the first legal histo...
Jonathan Sumption, "The Challenges of Democracy: And the Rule of Law" (Profile Books, 2026)
26 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the globe, democracy is in crisis - in the UK alone, it has been rocked by Brexit, the pandemic and successive attempts by governments to bypas...
Tracey Norman and Mark Norman, "Devon's Forgotten Witches: 1860–1910" (The History Press, 2025)
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Witchcraft and witches throughout history have long captured the imagination, yet hidden away in archives are records of long forgotten cases. Many of...
Riley Linebaugh, "Curating the Colonial Past: The 'Migrated Archives' and the Struggle for Kenya's History" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1960s, British colonial administrations in East Africa organized the systematic destruction and removal of secret documents from colonies...
Patrick C. Fleming, "Animating the Victorians: Disney's Literary History" (UP of Mississippi, 2025)
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many Disney films adapt works from the Victorian period, which is often called the Golden Age of children’s literature. Animating the Victorians: D...
Hilary Davidson, "A Guide to Regency Dress: from Corsets and Breeches to Bonnets and Muslins" (Yale UP 2025)
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In A Guide to Regency Dress: from Corsets and Breeches to Bonnets and Muslins (Yale UP 2025), celebrated dress historian Dr. Hilary Davidson brings ...
Radio ReOrient 13.11: Refugees and Sanctuary, with Rosie Tapsfield, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Saeed Khan
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Claudia Radiven and Saeed Khan were in conversation with Rosie Tapsfield, Director of Operations at City of Sanctuary UK. Rosie has b...
Judith Jesch, "The Saga of the Earls of Orkney" (Birlinn, 2025)
21 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In The Saga of the Earls of Orkney (Birlinn, 2025), Professor Judith Jesch presents a fascinating history of the Earldom of Orkney, which was establ...
Arthur Bahr, "Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript: Speculation, Shapes, Delight" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
20 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A unique study of the only physical manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as both a material and literary object.In this book, Arthu...
Terry Kirby, "The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
20 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Newsmongers unfolds the seedy history of tabloid journalism, from the first printed ‘Strange Newes’ sheets of the sixteenth century to the se...
Radio ReOrient 13.10: Countering Islamophobia with the Runnymede Trust, with Shabna Begum, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat Daas
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Amina Easat Daas and Claudia Radiven were in conversation with Shabna Begum to discuss her work with the Runnymede Trust, a British r...
Thomas Gidney, "An International Anomaly: Colonial Accession to the League of Nations" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It is often assumed that only sovereign states can join the United Nations. But this was not always the case. At the founding of the United Nations, a...
Maddalena Alvi, "The European Art Market and the First World War: Art, Capital, and the Decline of the Collecting Class, 1910–1925" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The outbreak of the First World War shattered the established European art market. Amidst fighting, looting, confiscations, expropriation fears and po...
Katrina Navickas, "Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England" (Reaktion, 2025)
14 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A radical history of England, Contested Commons: A History of Protest and Public Space in England (Reaktion, 2025) by Dr. Katrina Navickas is a grip...
Colm Murphy, "Futures of Socialism: ‘Modernisation', the Labour Party, and the British Left, 1973–1997" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
13 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The transformation of the Labour Party by 1997 is among the most consequential political developments in modern British history. Futures of Socialism ...
Radio ReOrient 13.9: “Everyday Islamophobia,” with Peter Hopkins, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat Daas
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Amina Easat Daas and Claudia Radiven were in conversation with Peter Hopkins to discuss his work and most recent book, Everyday Islam...
Charlotte Macdonald, "Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire" (Bridget Williams Books, 2025)
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The pivotal year of 1870 brought down the curtain on the redcoat garrison world at both the metropolitan and colonial ends of the empire . . . In fewe...
Michael Staunton, "Thomas Becket and His World" (Reaktion Books, 2025)
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Becket and His World (Reaktion Books, 2025) explores the turbulent life and violent death of Thomas Becket, one of the most controversial ...
Beau Cleland, "Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy" (U Georgia Press, 2025)
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy (U Georgia Press, 2025) by Dr. Beau Clel...
Melanie McDonagh, "Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century" (Yale UP, 2025)
06 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The twentieth century is understood as an era of growing, inexorable secularism, yet in Britain between the 1890s and the 1960s there was a marked tur...