Dr Hannah Smith
Tutorial Fellow and Associate Professor in Early Modern British History
St Hilda's College
Research Interests
Before arriving at St. Hilda’s in 2006, I studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, taught at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and was an RCUK Academic Fellow at the University of Hull. I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2008. I work on Britain in the period 1660 to 1760 and, in particular, politics, culture and gender. I have recently completed a book about politics and the British army from 1660 to 1750 and I have co-edited Civilians and War in Europe 1618-1815 (Liverpool University Press, 2012, paperback edition 2014), with Erica Charters and Eve Rosenhaft. My first book was Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760 (Cambridge University Press, 2006, paperback edition 2009), and I continue to research eighteenth-century court culture through co-editing a new edition of Lord Hervey's Memoirs of the Reign of King George II for Oxford University Press. My interest in gender history is reflected in my work on early modern writers Mary Astell, Judith Drake and Susanna Centlivre, a volume of essays, Religion and Women in Britain, 1660 to 1760 (Ashgate, 2014), co-edited with Sarah Apetrei, and research on eighteenth-century aristocratic libertinism. I am currently working on a project about equestrianism in Britain between circa 1880 and 1960.
Publications
Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660-1750
Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660 -1750 argues that armies had a profound impact on the major political events of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Britain. Beginning with the controversial creation of a permanent army to protect the restored Stuart monarchy, this original and important study examines how armies defended or destroyed regimes during the Exclusion Crisis, Monmouth's Rebellion, the Revolution of 1688-1689, and the Jacobite rebellions and plots of the post-1714 period, including the '15 and '45.
DPhil Students
I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding British political, cultural, gender and miltary history, circa 1660-1760.