The study of Contemporary British History goes back to the 1960s, and was consolidated with the establishment of the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1985 by (Sir) Anthony Seldon and (Lord) Peter Hennessy. The Institute moved to King’s College London in 2010, and the new King’s Contemporary British History builds on this by creating a larger and more diverse enterprise, building on that distinguished tradition.
Our board members are: Andrew Blick, Ruth Craggs, David Edgerton, Aimée Fox, Christina Goulter, George Legg, Joe Maiolo, Richard Vinen, Patrick Wright FBA.
For more information on our members, please see the people tab below.
People
Teaching Fellow
Professor of Strategic Studies
Professor in History and Foreign Policy
Professor of Politics and Contemporary History
Reader in Political and Historical Geography
Director of the Strand Group
Activities
King's Contemporary British History: New publications
Some of the new books from KCBH members out recently and in the near future.
King's Contemporary British History 2021: Majorities and Minorities in Contemporary Britain
This is the fourth annual conference of King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH). This year our theme is Majorities and Minorities—the ways in which they have been formed, contested, changed, understood and characterised. Our expectation is that a discussion of minorities and majorities—intellectual, political, religious and military as well as social, sexual, and racial—and the way in which they have interacted with each other will open up new possibilities for thinking about contemporary British history as well as our practices as contemporary British historians. The Conference is also being held alongside the Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture which this year is being given by Kennetta Hammond Perry at 15.00 7July. Those who register for the KCBH conference will also be automatically registered for the Pimlott lecture.
The UK through Comparative and Transnational Perspectives: KCBH Conference 2018
This is the second annual conference of King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH). We ran a new kind of conference – designed to generate engaged discussion. Our aim was to examine the United Kingdom in a comparative and transnational perspective and question the place of the nation in the wider world as we prepare to leave the European Union.
Contemporary British History Now: KCBH Conference 2017
What is Contemporary British History Now? This conference launched King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH), a cross-departmental interdisciplinary research initiative at King’s College London, which will seek to set new agendas in the field.
New publication: The Referendum in Britain: a history
Andrew Blick, L. Atkinson and M. Qvortrup, The Referendum in Britain: a history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), A study of the idea and use of this direct democratic device in the UK since the late nineteenth century. The European Union referendum of 23 June 2016 proved to be the trigger for the most prolonged period of political turbulence in the peacetime history of the UK; leading to major policy changes and realignments in the party-political system. This book considers from an historical perspective the democratic device that provided the focus for this upheaval. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, it discusses how the idea of using referendums to resolve major political disputes first came onto the agenda, and why. It considers who advocated it, and in what circumstances. The book describes how referendums eventually came into use from the 1970s onwards, and the different patterns in their deployment in the decades that have followed.
Study
Contemporary British History MA
Our MA in Contemporary British History offers you the chance to study twentieth-century British history at an advanced level in an outstanding research environment, located in central London. You can choose from a breadth of options taught by well-known experts in the field. Our course is wide-ranging and includes British economic, social, cultural, political, military, imperial, and diplomatic history, as well as the history of British science, technology and medicine.
For more information about the MA:
- contact Professor David Edgerton at david.edgerton@kcl.ac.uk
- see our online prospectus for Contemporary British History MA
Doctoral Study
There are many opportunities for doctoral study in Contemporary and Modern British History at King’s. There are multiple supervisors with a wide range of expertise.
For more information about Doctoral study:
- contact Professor David Edgerton at david.edgerton@kcl.ac.uk
- see our online prospectus for History Research
Provisional List of Current PhDs:
- Josef Butler - Polskość in Britain: How did the experience of exile reshape identity in the Polish exile community in Great Britain, 1940-1974?
- Jen-Chieh Lin - Decolonising an 'Empire of the Silent Dead': the Commonwealth (Imperial) War Graves Commission and the end of the British empire, 1950-1980,
- Charlotte Cull - The Freedom Defence Committee: Anarchism and Libertarian Thinking in British Thought from 1940 - 1960
- Paul Finer - A Revolutionary Business? The finances and organisation of the Communist Party of Great Britain 1940-1991
- John Griffith-Jones, ‘Postal Services under Colonial Rule: A Case Study of East Africa, 1875-1963’
- Andrew Harrison, British foreign policy and Tito's Yugoslavia in an age of détente and non-alignment, 1968-1980.
- Sophy Higgins - 'Gender, Culture and Class Structure: The influence of women on the RAF's development in the early 20th century.'
- Ellie Kramer-Taylor - The duties of exile: nationalism, decolonisation and the Caribbean Left in Britain, 1945-1974
- Sarah Limb - The experiences of colonial and Commonwealth students at King’s during the era of decolonisation
- Katherine Milliken - 'Making lawyer-like waves': socially and politically engaged lawyers in 1970s Britain
- Honor Morris - Slicing through working-class womanhood: An intergenerational exploration of working-class womanhood in the long 1970s
- Shankar Nair Unorganised Industrial Production in Late Colonial India,1860-1940.
- Oliver Randall - The Authors Cricket Club: A Literary and Cultural History of the Gatekeepers of Englishness amid the Decline of Empire (1895-1968)
- Iqbal Singh - The British state, racism and subjecthood in the late colonial period.
- Jasper Williams - 'Generational Revolt?: Confronting the Mythologisation of the Punk Subculture
List of Recent PhDs:
- Amelia Allsop - A Borrowed Place: Jewish Refugees in Hong Kong, 1938 - 1949
- Mads Bomholt-Nielsen - ‘As Bad as the Congo’? – British Perceptions of Colonial Rule and Violence in Anglo-German Southern Africa, 1896-1918
- Thomas Bottelier - Associated Powers: Britain, France, the United States and the Defence of World Order, 1931-1943
- Michelle Clement, ‘Reforming Britain’s Public Services: An Analysis of Sir Michael Barber’s Tenure of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, 2001-2005’
- Pete Docking, Dialogues at the end of empire: the role of conferences and commissions in the decolonisation of British imperial Africa, c.1960-1964
- George Evans, Imperial Identities and the British Empire: The Remarkable Case of Self-Identified Irish Officers in the British and Indian Armies, 1900-1945
- Jacob Fairless Nicholson, A Cultural And Historical Geography Of Black Education Spaces In London 1968-1987
- Richard Farrimond, 'Birdie' - not just the 'Soul of Anzac': An Assessment of the Military Career of Field Marshal Lord Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes (1865-1951)
- Esther Harper, Fast Horses: The Racehorse in Health, Disease and Afterlife, 1800 - 1920
- John Ingram, 'No Haussmanns or Emperors Here': Reforming the Anglo-American City Philadelphia and London, 1870-1925
- Tom Kelsey, Picking Losers: Concorde, nuclear power, and their opponents in Britain, 1954-1995
- Naomi Lloyd-Jones, A New British History of the Home Rule Crisis: Public Opinion, Representation and Organisation
- Barnaby Moores, Militancy, initiative and support the conduct of the 1972 miners’ strike
- Mitya Pearson, Explaining the emergence of the Green party in the United Kingdom, 1973-79
- James W.E. Smith, Deconstructing the Seapower State: Britain, America and Defence Unification
- Ted Young, Building Engines for War: A Comparative Study of British and American Production of Air-Cooled Radial Aero Engines During World War II
- Viswanathan Venkataraman - Infrastructures and the Politics of Knowledge in Colonial India: Sanitary Engineering in Madras City, 1870-1940
People
Teaching Fellow
Professor of Strategic Studies
Professor in History and Foreign Policy
Professor of Politics and Contemporary History
Reader in Political and Historical Geography
Director of the Strand Group
Activities
King's Contemporary British History: New publications
Some of the new books from KCBH members out recently and in the near future.
King's Contemporary British History 2021: Majorities and Minorities in Contemporary Britain
This is the fourth annual conference of King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH). This year our theme is Majorities and Minorities—the ways in which they have been formed, contested, changed, understood and characterised. Our expectation is that a discussion of minorities and majorities—intellectual, political, religious and military as well as social, sexual, and racial—and the way in which they have interacted with each other will open up new possibilities for thinking about contemporary British history as well as our practices as contemporary British historians. The Conference is also being held alongside the Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture which this year is being given by Kennetta Hammond Perry at 15.00 7July. Those who register for the KCBH conference will also be automatically registered for the Pimlott lecture.
The UK through Comparative and Transnational Perspectives: KCBH Conference 2018
This is the second annual conference of King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH). We ran a new kind of conference – designed to generate engaged discussion. Our aim was to examine the United Kingdom in a comparative and transnational perspective and question the place of the nation in the wider world as we prepare to leave the European Union.
Contemporary British History Now: KCBH Conference 2017
What is Contemporary British History Now? This conference launched King’s Contemporary British History (KCBH), a cross-departmental interdisciplinary research initiative at King’s College London, which will seek to set new agendas in the field.
New publication: The Referendum in Britain: a history
Andrew Blick, L. Atkinson and M. Qvortrup, The Referendum in Britain: a history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), A study of the idea and use of this direct democratic device in the UK since the late nineteenth century. The European Union referendum of 23 June 2016 proved to be the trigger for the most prolonged period of political turbulence in the peacetime history of the UK; leading to major policy changes and realignments in the party-political system. This book considers from an historical perspective the democratic device that provided the focus for this upheaval. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, it discusses how the idea of using referendums to resolve major political disputes first came onto the agenda, and why. It considers who advocated it, and in what circumstances. The book describes how referendums eventually came into use from the 1970s onwards, and the different patterns in their deployment in the decades that have followed.
Study
Contemporary British History MA
Our MA in Contemporary British History offers you the chance to study twentieth-century British history at an advanced level in an outstanding research environment, located in central London. You can choose from a breadth of options taught by well-known experts in the field. Our course is wide-ranging and includes British economic, social, cultural, political, military, imperial, and diplomatic history, as well as the history of British science, technology and medicine.
For more information about the MA:
- contact Professor David Edgerton at david.edgerton@kcl.ac.uk
- see our online prospectus for Contemporary British History MA
Doctoral Study
There are many opportunities for doctoral study in Contemporary and Modern British History at King’s. There are multiple supervisors with a wide range of expertise.
For more information about Doctoral study:
- contact Professor David Edgerton at david.edgerton@kcl.ac.uk
- see our online prospectus for History Research
Provisional List of Current PhDs:
- Josef Butler - Polskość in Britain: How did the experience of exile reshape identity in the Polish exile community in Great Britain, 1940-1974?
- Jen-Chieh Lin - Decolonising an 'Empire of the Silent Dead': the Commonwealth (Imperial) War Graves Commission and the end of the British empire, 1950-1980,
- Charlotte Cull - The Freedom Defence Committee: Anarchism and Libertarian Thinking in British Thought from 1940 - 1960
- Paul Finer - A Revolutionary Business? The finances and organisation of the Communist Party of Great Britain 1940-1991
- John Griffith-Jones, ‘Postal Services under Colonial Rule: A Case Study of East Africa, 1875-1963’
- Andrew Harrison, British foreign policy and Tito's Yugoslavia in an age of détente and non-alignment, 1968-1980.
- Sophy Higgins - 'Gender, Culture and Class Structure: The influence of women on the RAF's development in the early 20th century.'
- Ellie Kramer-Taylor - The duties of exile: nationalism, decolonisation and the Caribbean Left in Britain, 1945-1974
- Sarah Limb - The experiences of colonial and Commonwealth students at King’s during the era of decolonisation
- Katherine Milliken - 'Making lawyer-like waves': socially and politically engaged lawyers in 1970s Britain
- Honor Morris - Slicing through working-class womanhood: An intergenerational exploration of working-class womanhood in the long 1970s
- Shankar Nair Unorganised Industrial Production in Late Colonial India,1860-1940.
- Oliver Randall - The Authors Cricket Club: A Literary and Cultural History of the Gatekeepers of Englishness amid the Decline of Empire (1895-1968)
- Iqbal Singh - The British state, racism and subjecthood in the late colonial period.
- Jasper Williams - 'Generational Revolt?: Confronting the Mythologisation of the Punk Subculture
List of Recent PhDs:
- Amelia Allsop - A Borrowed Place: Jewish Refugees in Hong Kong, 1938 - 1949
- Mads Bomholt-Nielsen - ‘As Bad as the Congo’? – British Perceptions of Colonial Rule and Violence in Anglo-German Southern Africa, 1896-1918
- Thomas Bottelier - Associated Powers: Britain, France, the United States and the Defence of World Order, 1931-1943
- Michelle Clement, ‘Reforming Britain’s Public Services: An Analysis of Sir Michael Barber’s Tenure of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, 2001-2005’
- Pete Docking, Dialogues at the end of empire: the role of conferences and commissions in the decolonisation of British imperial Africa, c.1960-1964
- George Evans, Imperial Identities and the British Empire: The Remarkable Case of Self-Identified Irish Officers in the British and Indian Armies, 1900-1945
- Jacob Fairless Nicholson, A Cultural And Historical Geography Of Black Education Spaces In London 1968-1987
- Richard Farrimond, 'Birdie' - not just the 'Soul of Anzac': An Assessment of the Military Career of Field Marshal Lord Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes (1865-1951)
- Esther Harper, Fast Horses: The Racehorse in Health, Disease and Afterlife, 1800 - 1920
- John Ingram, 'No Haussmanns or Emperors Here': Reforming the Anglo-American City Philadelphia and London, 1870-1925
- Tom Kelsey, Picking Losers: Concorde, nuclear power, and their opponents in Britain, 1954-1995
- Naomi Lloyd-Jones, A New British History of the Home Rule Crisis: Public Opinion, Representation and Organisation
- Barnaby Moores, Militancy, initiative and support the conduct of the 1972 miners’ strike
- Mitya Pearson, Explaining the emergence of the Green party in the United Kingdom, 1973-79
- James W.E. Smith, Deconstructing the Seapower State: Britain, America and Defence Unification
- Ted Young, Building Engines for War: A Comparative Study of British and American Production of Air-Cooled Radial Aero Engines During World War II
- Viswanathan Venkataraman - Infrastructures and the Politics of Knowledge in Colonial India: Sanitary Engineering in Madras City, 1870-1940