Dr Peter Catterall
Lecturer in History
Location: Arts Two 4.11email: p.p.catterall@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7882 8347
After a first degree in History at Robinson College, Cambridge Dr Catterall undertook doctoral research in London on the relationship between the Free Churches and the Labour party in inter-war Britain. Appointed as a research fellow at the Institute of Contemporary British History he produced the award-winning British History 1945-1987: An Annotated Bibliography (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), before going on to serve as the Institute’s director from 1989-2000. In 1999-2000 he was also Fulbright-Robertson Professor of British history at Westminster College, Missouri. In addition to teaching in Queen Mary's History and (at postgraduate level) Politics departments he also runs the Chevening Scholars ‘Democracy and Public Policy’ programme at the Hansard Society.
Research interests:
Dr Catterall’s prime research interest has always been the historical and contemporary intersection between ideology (broadly understood to include theology), politics and culture, how these influences shape policy and the outcomes policy produces. One manifestation of this interest is his work as founding editor of the journal National Identities, reflecting a concern to explore the relationship between political institutions and identities, rather than simply the field of nationalism. He also edited Contemporary British History 1991-2003 and continues to serve on its editorial board.
His major current work at present is the editorship of Harold Macmillan's diaries. The second and final volume, covering the years during and after Macmillan’s premiership appears in May 2011. Other work in progress ranges from the history and operation of Cabinet committees, through urban mission in nineteenth century Britain to the relationship between globalisation, democratisation and national identity. When these projects are completed he hopes to return to earlier research interests in the fields of constitutional and church history.
An interest in local history is also reflected in his involvement in Eastside Community Heritage's Heritage Lottery Fund-funded oral history project on 'Working Lives of the Thames Gateway' and in his appointment in 2010 as Heritage Champion for the London Borough of Bexley and to the London Historic Environments Forum.
Postgraduate supervision:
Dr Catterall is currently supervising PhD students studying: the scandalous career of William Long-Wellesley; carnivals in London c1900-14; parliamentary management under Neville Chamberlain 1937-40; the politics of the Festival of Britain; the business of football in England since 1970; liberal Conservatism in twentieth century Britain; women’s cricket since 1945; British appreciations of the Soviet nuclear threat 1949-62; Macmillan and Adenauer 1958-61; and liberal economic thought and the Thatcher governments. He is particularly interested in research projects which combine political, social and cultural approaches to history.
Publications:
Select Publications
The Macmillan Diaries: Prime Minister and After 1957-66 (editor) (London: Macmillan, 2011)
‘The Distinctiveness of British Socialism? Religion and the Labour Party c1900-1939’ in Matthew Worley (ed) The Foundations of the Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives 1900-39 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009) pp.131-52
‘Identity and Integration: Macmillan, “Britishness” and the Turn towards Europe’ in Gilbert Millat (ed) Angleterre ou Albion, entre fascination et répulsion (Lille: Université Lille 3-Charles de Gaulle, 2006) pp.161-78
‘The Singularity of Suez in Anglo-French Relations 1951-64: Une Entente mal Entendue’ in Antoine Capet (ed) The Entente Cordiale 1904-2004 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006), pp.124-42.
‘25 Years of Promoting Free Markets: A History of Economic Affairs’ Economic Affairs 24/4, 2005, pp.48-54
The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years 1950-1957 (editor) (London: Macmillan, 2003)
‘Harold Macmillan and Europe 1950-56: The Cold War, the American Context and the British approach to European integration’, Cercles 5 2002, pp.93-108
‘Contemporary British History: A Personal View’ Contemporary British History, 16/1 2002, pp.1-10
Northcliffe’s Legacy: Aspects of the British Popular Press 1896-1996, (co-editor) (Basingstoke: Macmillan 2000)
Reforming the Constitution: Debates in Twentieth Century Britain, (co-editor) (London: Cass, 2000), including chapters on ‘‘“Efficiency with Freedom”? Debates about the British Constitution in the Twentieth Century’ (pp.1-42) and ‘The Politics of Electoral Reform since 1885’ (pp.129-57)
(with Chris Brady) ‘The Development and Role of Cabinet Committees in Britain’ in R A W Rhodes (ed) Tranforming British Government: Vol 1 Changing Institutions (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000), pp.156-75
‘Foreign and Commonwealth Policy in Opposition: The Labour Party’, in Wolfram Kaiser and Gillian Staerck (eds), British Foreign Policy 1955-64: Contracting Options, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), pp.89-109
‘The British Electoral System 1885-1970’, Historical Research, 73/181, 2000, pp.156-74
‘Management and engineering education in the 1950s and 1960s’, Contemporary British History, 13/3, 1999, pp.10-22
The Making of Channel 4 (editor) (London: Cass, 1999)
The Northern Ireland Question in British Politics, (co-editor) (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996)
Understanding Post-war British Society, (co-editor) (London: Routledge, 1994)
‘The Party and Religion’, in A Seldon and S Ball (eds), Conservative Century: The Conservative Party in the Twentieth Century, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp.637-70
‘Morality and Politics: The Free Churches and the Labour Party between the Wars’, Historical Journal, 36/3, 1993, pp.667-85
‘Church Decline, Secularisation and Ecumenism’, Contemporary Record, 5/2, 1991, pp.276-90
Undergraduate teaching:
Empire State? The Transformation of Britain 1760-1900 (Level 1)
"I Heard It On The Grapevine": Oral Sources in History (Level 2)
Outcast London? The East End from 1800 (Level 2)
Concepts of Europe (Level 3)
Winston Churchill: Statesman and Writer (Level 3)