Search
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/steelf.jpg?itok=B9eYXKjN)
In Ocean Under Steam Frances Steel explores the impact of the 19th-century sea transport revolution in one of the extremities of the British Empire, the South Pacific Ocean. Published as part of the Manchester University Press ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series, under the general editorship of John MacKenzie, this is a self-consciously ‘de-centred’ imperial history.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/helen.jpg?itok=mK3WZGxN)
As a field, diplomatic history is not generally known for its conceptual adventurousness. To resort to stereotypes, if representatives of the historical profession were invited to a party, the diplomatic historian would be the stiff, bespectacled man in a suit examining his host’s bookshelves in the corner while the cultural historians smoked weed in the kitchen.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/jacksonw1_0.jpg?itok=qf5dLXyX)
In the autumn of 2011 the near-simultaneous publication of a number of books on the British Empire promised to add fresh momentum to the debate, if debate is the word, on the memories – or lack of them – that the British people currently carry for their empire.(1) Jeremy Paxman, with Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British, promised a robust, ‘clear-e
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/cousins.jpg?itok=iR2JToK8)
Mel Cousins’ Poor Relief in Ireland, 1851–1914 is an addition to the developing historiographical field of poor relief in not just Irish history writing but at an international level.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/Homepage_-_History_of_Parliament_Online.jpg?itok=GjdtTEWW)
The History of Parliament is widely recognised as a monumental scholarly achievement. Since its origins in the dreams of Josiah Wedgwood in the early part of the 20th century, and then its establishment as a charitable trust in 1940 (with government funding from 1951), it has produced a voluminous output.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/hbbsa.jpg?itok=KTQBgM21)
This impressive book brings together two strands of media history to create a new narrative, attempting to explain how and why newspaper journalism in Britain and the United States was transformed between the 1830s and the first decades of the 20th century, establishing the popular style of journalism we know today.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/chatterjee.jpg?itok=WQok-U61)
Popular references to Calcutta (now Kolkata) – once the gleaming capital of British India – in Anglo-American contexts often conjure images of poverty, crowded city streets, unbearable traffic, smog, and residents that require a savior.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/brookes.jpg?itok=b47GQfez)
In the past 40 years the history of sexuality has gone from being an insurgent force, questioning the very nature of what can be studied as history, to an established part of the field. This book underlines that point, for it is rare today to find such a traditional political history.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/xl.jpeg?itok=3fPrBquY)
Magic is difficult to historicize. There are many reasons for this. To begin with, it has long been scorned by both rationalists and the religious, so that people are often reluctant to confess to believing in it. Indeed in the period of this study many of its forms were illegal, at least as soon as they were used to make money.
![](https://reviews.history.ac.uk/sites/reviews/files/styles/thumbnail/public/images/gault.jpg?itok=DImnqG5t)
Old historians, like old soldiers, don’t die; they simply fade away. A paradox of the historical profession is the widespread disregard shown towards ancestors. We all aspire to write groundbreaking work that will pass the test of time, but the sad truth is a given monograph will have a short shelf life and quickly join what G. M.