Dr Peter Catterall
Lecturer in History
email: p.p.catterall@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7882 8347
Office: Arts 2.18
Peter Catterall will be on sabbatical in 09-10.
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. Since 2000 he has been a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, London, a visiting lecturer in European business policy at Cass Business School, as well as running 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 and the practical outcome of these influences in the form of policy. One manifestation of this interest is his work as founding editor of the journal National Identities. He also edited Contemporary British History 1991-2003 and continues to serve on its editorial board.
Recent work ranges from the history of Christian Socialism to the politics of temperance in early twentieth century Britain. Having published the first volume in 2003, he is at present working on the second volume of Harold Macmillan’s diaries, covering the years during and after Macmillan’s premiership, 1957-66. Dr Catterall’s other current research undertaking is a two volume analysis of the history and operation of Cabinet committees in Britain, and when these are completed he hopes to return to earlier research interests in the fields of constitutional and church history.
Postgraduate supervision:
Dr Catterall is currently supervising PhD students studying: Confederate and Union propaganda during the US Civil War; fairs and carnivals in London c1900-39; labour camps in 1930s Britain; natural childbirth in postwar Britain; the business of football in England since 1970; constitutional reform debates in Britain since Kilbrandon; 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 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
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)
(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)
The End of the Ancien Regime? British history 1760-1880 (Level 1)
"I Heard It On The Grapevine": Oral Sources in History (Level 2)
The Great War: British Experience, Literature and Myth (Level 2)
Concepts of Europe (Level 3)
Winston Churchill: Statesman and Writer (Level 3)
Postgraduate teaching:
Comparative Welfare States (MA – not available in 2009-10)
Case Studies in British Policymaking (MSc, in Queen Mary’s Politics Department, as well as guest lecturing on the MSc in Migration Studies) [not available in 2009-10]