History Insights
General Editor: Dr Martyn Housden
Professor of History, University of Bradford
TO PROPOSE A TITLE IN THIS SERIES PLEASE EMAIL v.m.housden@bradford.ac.uk
1. Titles Published or in Preparation
| The British Empire | Robert Johnson, University of Warwick |
| Oliver Cromwell | Graham Goodlad, St John’s College, Southsea |
| The Holocaust: Events, Motives, Legacy | Martyn Housden, University of Bradford |
| India and the British 1757-1947 | Sean Lang, Anglia Polytechnic University |
| The Italian Risorgimento | Tim Chapman, Wisbech Grammar School |
| Lenin's Revolution | Stuart Andrews, formerly head of Clifton College |
| Methodism and Society | Stuart Andrews, formerly head of Clifton College |
| The New Deal | Daniel Scroop, University of Sheffield |
| South Africa and Apartheid | Alan Cousins, College of St Mark & St John |
| World War II: the North Africa Campaign, 1940-43 | Michael Paris, University of Central Lancashire |
2. Proposals Invited
GENERAL TITLES
Historiography: Methods & Approaches, History & Medicine, The Methodology of Local History, History & Heritage, History & Environment, History & Film
BRITISH HISTORY
The Normans in England, The Wars of the Roses, Richard III, The English Reformation, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, The Tudors, The English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Parliamentary Reform, Chartism, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Asquith, David Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain (and Appeasement), Attlee, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, The Conservative Party, The Emergence of the Liberal Party. The Decline of the Liberal Party, The Labour Party/ A Century of Labour, Trade Unions, The Great War, The General Strike of 1926, Sport in Britain, Britishness, Patriotism in Britain, The Americanization of Britain, The Special Relationship (Britain and America), Feminism in Britain, Women’s Suffrage, Women in Politics, His(Her)story, The Welfare State
EUROPEAN HISTORY
The Romans, The Vikings, Medieval Empires, The Making of Christian Europe. The First Crusade, Monasteries, The 100 Years War, The Renaissance, The Reformation, Louis XIV’s France, The Dutch Golden Age, The French Revolution, Napoleon, The 1848 Revolutions, Italian Unification/Risorgimento, Imperialism, The Scramble for Africa, The Russian Revolutions, Fascist Italy, Mussolini, Nazi Germany, Spanish Civil War, Hitler, Holocaust, Second World War, European Unity
UNITED STATES HISTORY
British North America, The American Revolution, The Struggle for the US Constitution, The Antebellum Period, Slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, The American West: Myth and Reality, The Native Americans, The Lewis and Clark Expedition, Buffalo Bill and the making of the Wild West, Painting of the West, The Progressive Era, The New Deal, The Civil Rights Movement, The Melting Pot, American Cultures, Immigration, Women/ Feminism, The North Atlantic Pact, F. D. Roosevelt, The Red Scare, D. Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, From Isolation to Superpower, Vietnam
OTHER SUGGESTED TITLES
China 1911-1976: Fanshen, The Japanese Economic Miracle, Gandhi, Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries, Islam in Iberia, World Wars I & II, The Cold War, Decolonization, The Maoris, Africa and the Slave Trade
3. Guidelines
About History Insights
History Insights titles may fall into one or more of the following categories:
- First, they may be topics focusing on a specific area, theme, event or person, for example The Russian Revolutions, The American West or Hitler.
- Secondly, they may be broader surveys such as Europe 1789-1849 which might include specific sections on the ‘French Revolution 1789-1795’, 'Napoleon and Europe, 1799-1815’, 'Revolution and Repression in Europe, 1848’.
- Thirdly, some studies will be methodological texts, such as on the use of interpretation of documents, oral history, economic history and biography.
- Fourthly, others may be interdisciplinary studies, such as History and Literature, History and the Environment, History and Medicine, History and Philosophy. One or two case studies might be incorporated to complement an overview study of the whole field.. Alternatively, the title could take a single topic such as the Enlightenment and deal with it in an interdisciplinary way.
Each History Insights text will be about 25-30,000 words in length (about 80 to 100 pages) and is likely to include the following sections:
- First, there should be an outline or framework of the topic/period dealing with the historical background, events, people and movements. In other words, this should be about what occurred.
- Secondly, there may be a section, probably a small one, on the methodology of the subject, if appropriate, dealing with the problems of social history, or of using film and other visual sources.
- Thirdly, there should be a section on issues and debates. This is likely to be the central and weightiest section. It should examine concepts and factors, and challenge the readers to analyse particular problems of interpretation and discussion of evidence and theories. Thus, as well as providing an authoritative view it should ask questions for the readers to answer. The section should clarify complex issues, but without simplifying them, and it should stimulate readers to achieve a deeper understanding of the main themes and topics. It should act like a vortex bringing students into an ever greater understanding of the events.
- Fourthly, there should be no specific document or source analysis unless there is an absolutely pressing need to include one. Authors have to ensure that they have permission for using sources and permission fees, which they would have to pay, can become prohibitively expensive.
- Fifthly, there should be an Annotated Bibliography which should normally offer some critical comment on important books and source collections. It should normally not be longer than two pages and include no more than 25 key items. It is unlikely that the undergraduate and sixth-form market we are aiming at would require more.
In some cases they might be a chronological table at the start or as an appendix, and sometimes a biographical summary of ‘who’s who’ might be useful. Maps, tables and illustrations might be given when and where appropriate.
In writing for electronic publication, you have certain tools that can be of a great pedagogical value. Hyperlinks, for example, can be used for a coherent and extended note, relevant to the discussion, which would otherwise disrupt the energetic and forward flow of argument. However, the use of hyperlinks is not essential and if used should not be overused with links between one hyperlink and another. Illustrations can be helpful but they can present copyright problems. However, if you wish to use them then you must persuade the editor that they are necessary, and not just decorative, and you must ensure that, where necessary, you have obtained copyright clearance. It is not essential that each publication will be written in the four, or five, sections, indicated above. Each book title will dictate its own pattern, and so there will be flexibility, but for the good of the readers there ought to be at least three essential parts to the title – an outline of the main events, an examination of methodology, and an ‘issues and debates’ section. There should also be an annotated bibliography. In this way the reader knows what s/he is receiving from ebooks in this series.