What’s new in BBIH?  

The October 2024 update to the Bibliography of British and Irish History adds 4,622 new publications. The new update includes books, journal articles, book chapters and edited collections covering all areas of British and Irish history, from 55 BCE to the present day.  

These updates bring the total number of BBIH records to 663,192.  

The October 2024 update include:  

  • 4,099 titles that were published in 2014-2024
  • 477 publications relating to Scottish history  
  • 1,788 publication about the histories of England and Wales, including 124 publications about the history of Wales and 1704 publications focusing on England
  • 773 publications focusing on Irish history, including 87 publications focusing on Northern Ireland  
  • 649 new records for ‘Imperial and Commonwealth’, of which 282 records discuss the colonial histories of Asia and 118 records refer to histories of the colonial Australasia

In memorandum: Professor Trevor Burnard 

In July 2024, BBIH received the sad news of the death of Professor Trevor Burnard. From 2003-2022, Trevor was the BBIH section editor for Imperial, Colonial and Indigenous histories before 1783. You can learn more about Trevor’s time with BBIH and the changing historiography of the British Empire in their piece for the IHR’s blog On History

New BBIH section editors 

The IHR, Royal Historical Society (RHS), and Brepols would like to welcome: 

  • Dr Jayne Gifford as the new section editor for Imperial, Colonial, Commonwealth, and Indigenous histories since 1783. Jayne succeeds Dr Esme Cleall. 
  • Dr Stuart Aveyard as the new section editor for Britain since 1960. Stuart succeeds Dr Andrew McTominey. 

The IHR, RHS and Brepols would like to thank Esme and Andrew for their work on BBIH, and welcome Jayne and Stuart in their new roles.  

New BBIH editorial board members 

The IHR, RHS, and Brepols would also like to welcome to the BBIH editorial board: 

  • Dr Richard Ansell (Birkbeck, University of London) 

The IHR, RHS, and Brepols would like to thank Professor Joanne Begiato, Professor Emma Griffin, and Professor Laura Stewart for their contributions to the editorial board, and welcome Waseem, Richard, Catherine, and Tess to their roles. 

BBIH and indigenous histories 

In August 2024, the Bibliography’s editors and Brepols published a new online reading list focusing on indigenous histories. This reading list contains 228 publications and can be found, along with all of BBIH’s online reading lists from Online reading lists from BBIH on the IHR’s website. 

The Bibliography contains over 950 resources about indigenous histories, including 31 new publications added in the October 2024 update.  

Using BBIH to research Black British histories 

October was Black History Month in the UK. The Bibliography lists over 8,700 resources for ethnicity, including Black history in Britain and in the British empire, with the October 2024 update containing 192 new publications.   

You can learn more by: 

Get the most out of using BBIH 

With the new academic year in full swing, you can learn more about using BBIH in your research or teaching by visiting our page of online tutorials. Our short video tutorials include: 

  • The basics of searching, including how to use the subject tree  
  • How to use your results  
  • How to keep up-to-date with the latest published research in your field or manage your reference lists or bibliographies  
  • Behind-the-scenes guide to how BBIH is compiled

There are also short video guides designed for:  

  • New undergraduates and those planning and researching a final year dissertation  
  • MA and PhD students for whom BBIH is essential for writing a literature review and studying secondary fields of interest

Lecturers, teachers and librarians will find it helpful that the Bibliography’s online tutorials can all be embedded in a virtual learning environment (VLE). Presentations are also available to promote the Bibliography to your students and staff.   

  

About the Bibliography of British and Irish History  

The Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) is the largest and most comprehensive guide available to what’s been written about British and Irish history, from the early 1900s to the present day. 

It’s an essential resource for research and teaching, providing up-to-date information (and links) on over 660,000 history books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses. New records are added in three annual updates. These records are searchable by a wide range of facets including: title, author, chronology, date and form of publication, historical topic and geographical region.  

The Bibliography is a research project of the UK’s Institute of Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society, and is published by Brepols. BBIH is a subscription service and is available remotely via university and research libraries worldwide. 

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