John Tosh

Last updated

John A. Tosh FRHistS is a British historian and Professor Emeritus of History at Roehampton University. [1] He gained his BA at the University of Oxford and his MA at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded his PhD by the University of London in 1973; his thesis topic being "Political Authority among the Langi of Northern Uganda, circa 1800–1939". He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 1987–88 he held a visiting appointment at the University of California, Davis. [2] At Roehampton University he teaches History, specifically "Reading and Writing History". He served as Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society from 1999 to 2002. [3] He has also published several works on the history of masculinity in nineteenth-century Britain. [4] He is currently preparing a critical analysis of the social applications of historical perspective in contemporary Britain.

Contents

Tosh's claim to originality and notability rests largely on his work as a historian and historiographer. Since the turn of the millennium, he has taken a leading role as a public historian in developing the history of masculinity and ensuring it has become an important dimension of social and cultural history. [5] He has shown how domesticity, previously regarded as an aspect of women's history, also conditioned and influenced the lives of men and society. [6] As a historiographer he has updated the way we look at the study of history and how we construct our knowledge of the past, as well as providing insight into the works of other historians and their impact on the study of the subject. [7]

He is the father of philosopher Nick Tosh. [8]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historiography</span> Study of the methods of historians

Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic using particular sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches. Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of the United Kingdom, that of WWII, the British Empire, early Islam, and China—and different approaches and genres, such as political history and social history. Beginning in the nineteenth century, with the development of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties—such as to their nation state—remains a debated question.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian era</span> Period of British history from 1837 to 1901

In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of Continental Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masculinity</span> Attributes associated with boys and men

Masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors considered masculine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. To what extent masculinity is biologically or socially influenced is subject to debate. It is distinct from the definition of the biological male sex, as anyone can exhibit masculine traits. Standards of masculinity vary across different cultures and historical periods.

Gender history is a sub-field of history and gender studies, which looks at the past from the perspective of gender. It is in many ways, an outgrowth of women's history. The discipline considers in what ways historical events and periodization impact women differently from men. For instance, in an influential article in 1977, "Did Women have a Renaissance?", Joan Kelly questioned whether the notion of a Renaissance was relevant to women. Gender historians are also interested in how gender difference has been perceived and configured at different times and places, usually with the assumption that such differences are socially constructed. These social constructions of gender throughout time are also represented as changes in the expected norms of behavior for those labeled male or female. Those who study gender history note these changes in norms and those performing them over time and interpret what those changes say about the larger social/cultural/political climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History</span> Study of the past

History is the systematic study and documentation of human activity. The time period of events before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian masculinity</span>

During the long reign of Queen Victoria over the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901, there were certain social expectations that the separate genders were expected to adhere to. The study of Victorian masculinity is based on the assumption that "the construction of male consciousness must be seen as historically specific." The concept of Victorian masculinity is extremely diverse, since it was influenced by numerous aspects and factors such as domesticity, economy, gender roles, imperialism, manners, religion, sporting competition, and much more. Some of these aspects seem to be quite naturally related to one another, while others seem profoundly non-relational. For the males, this included a vast amount of pride in their work, a protectiveness over their wives, and an aptitude for good social behaviour. The concept of Victorian masculinity is a topic of interest in the context of Cultural Studies with a special emphasis on Gender studies. The topic is of much current interest in the areas of history, literary criticism, religious studies, and sociology. Those values that have survived to the present day are of special interest to critics for their role in sustaining the 'dominance of the Western male'.

Timothy Charles William Blanning is an English historian who served as Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Kitchen</span> British born historian of Germany

Martin Kitchen is a British-Canadian historian, who has specialized in modern European history, with an emphasis on Germany. He is internationally regarded as a key author for the study of contemporary history.

Karen Hagemann is a German-American historian. She holds the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on Modern German, European and Transatlantic history, the history of military and war and women’s and gender history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Lightman</span> Canadian historian (born 1950)

Bernard Vise Lightman, FRSC is a Canadian historian, and professor of humanities and science and technology studies at York University, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He specializes in the relationship between Victorian science and unbelief, the role of women in science, and the popularization of science.

Barbara Caine is an Australian feminist historian.

Mrinalini Sinha is the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor in the Department of History and Professor in the Departments of English and Women's Studies of the University of Michigan. She writes on various aspects of the political history of colonial India, with a focus on anti-colonialism and on gender. She was the president of the Association for Asian Studies, 2014–2015. She is the recipient of the 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. She has served, and continues to serve, on the editorial board of several academic journals, including the American Historical Review, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Gender and History, and Indian Economic and Social History Review, History of the Present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of women in the United Kingdom</span>

History of women in the United Kingdom covers the social, cultural and political roles of women in Britain over the last two millennia.

Martin Francis is a British-American academic historian. He was Henry R. Winkler Professor of Modern History at the University of Cincinnati from 2003 to 2015, when he was appointed Professor of War and History at the University of Sussex.

Philippa Judith Amanda Levine, FRAI, FRHistS, is a historian of the British Empire, gender, race, science and technology. She has spent most of her career in the United States and has been Mary Helen Thompson Centennial Professor in the Humanities (2010–17) and Walter Prescott Webb Professor in History and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin.

Susan Broomhall is an Australian historian and academic. She is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Professor of History at The University of Western Australia, and from 2018 Co-Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE). She was a Foundation Chief Investigator (CI) in the 'Shaping the Modern' Program of the Centre, before commencing her Australian Research Council Future Fellowship within CHE in October 2014, and the Acting Director in 2011. She is a specialist in gender history and the history of emotions.

Barry Reay, now retired, was formerly professor of history at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is a specialist in the history of sex and gender.

Christian manliness is a concept and movement that arose in Victorian Protestant England, characterised by the importance of the male body and physical health, family and romantic love, the notions of morality, theology and the love for nature and, the idea of healthy patriotism, with Jesus Christ as leader and example of truest manhood. The concept was first brought up in novels by the British Victorian writers Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes. Schoolmaster of the Rugby School, Thomas Arnold, was responsible for reforming the British public schooling system according to notions of biblical manhood. The Christian manliness movement can still be observed in the Anglosphere today, and although it shares a great deal with the notions and ideals originating from the Victorian era, it is distinct and shaped by the constraints and conditions of the modern post-industrial era. The American evangelical community places emphasis upon Christian manliness.

Andrew Mark Davies, FRHistS, FRSA is a British historian. A professor at the University of Liverpool, he specialises in the history of crime, policing and violence in modern Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Gaskill</span> English historian and professor (born 1967)

Malcolm John Gaskill FRHistS is an English academic historian and writer on crime, magic, witchcraft, spiritualism, and the supernatural. Gaskill was a professor in the history department of the University of East Anglia from 2011 until 2020, when he retired from teaching to give more time to writing.

References

  1. "John Tosh". York.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  2. John Tosh, The Pursuit of History (2nd edition, Longman 1991), p. ix.
  3. "Roehampton University – John Tosh". Roehampton.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  4. "John Tosh | Authors | Macmillan". Us.macmillan.com. 4 December 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  5. John Tosh (2005). Manliness And Masculinities In Nineteenth-Century Britain: Essays On Gender, Family, And Empire. Pearson Longman. ISBN   978-0-582-40449-6.
  6. John Tosh (March 2007). A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-12362-3 . Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  7. John Tosh (January 2006). The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods, And New Directions in the Study of Modern History. Pearson Longman. ISBN   978-1-4058-2351-7 . Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  8. "Philosophy". Nuigalway.ie. 29 January 2010. Archived from the original on 17 May 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2012.