This conference, bringing together British and French historians at the Institute of Historical Research in London, will examine the so-called ‘peculiarities of British History’.

More than 20 historians from Britain and France will deliver papers over two days at the IHR, examining the course of British history in comparative perspective from the early medieval period to the 1960s. The primary focus will be on the comparative history of Britain and France, but there will be scope for wider discussion of other national histories and of developments on a pan-European scale.

Panels will look at the material culture of Anglo-Saxon England and Northern Gaul; London and Paris in the late-medieval period; the history of British and French families in the 18th century; the British context of the French Revolution; the development of socialism in Britain and France; the effects of the First World War in both nations; and at the history of the French and British counter-cultures in the 1960s and 1970s.

Speakers include: Elisabeth Lorans (University of Tours), Helena Hamerow (University of Oxford), Gabor Thomas (University of Reading), Matthew Davies (Institute of Historical Research), Hannah Skoda (University of Oxford), Pierre-Henri Guittonneau (Université Paris Sorbonne), François-Joseph Ruggiu (Paris IV), Naomi Tadmor (Lancaster University), Henry French (University of Exeter), Charles Walton (Warwick University), Elodie Duché (Warwick University), Michael Broers (University of Oxford), Stéphane Guy (Université de Cergy-Pontoise), James Thompson (Bristol University), Ben Jackson (University College Oxford), Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (University College London), Pierre Purseigle (Warwick University), William Philpott (King’s College London), Franziska Heimburger (Université Paris Sorbonne), Tess Little (University of Oxford) & John Davies (University of Oxford)

For a provisional programme please visit the online events listing