Professor Phil Withington
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Professor in Social and Cultural History
+44 114 222 2614
Full contact details
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I’m a historian of the early modern period, committed both to understanding the past on its own terms and to bringing historical perspectives to bear on contemporary issues and problems. I was born in Yorkshire, trained as a historian in Cambridge, and have worked in Aberdeen, Leeds, and Cambridge. I joined Sheffield as Professor in Social and Cultural History in September 2012.
From September 2024 I will hold a three year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.
- Research interests
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My current research interests divide into three broad areas.
Since my first monograph, The politics of commonwealth. Citizens and freemen in early modern England (Cambridge, 2005), I’ve been interested in urbanism, urbanisation, and the structures, culture, and political possibilities of associational life. I wrote the chapter on ‘Urbanisation’ in the Cambridge Social history of England, 1450 to 1750 (2017) and most recently I’ve been asked to write the chapter on ‘The British Isles’ for the new Cambridge Urban History of Europe, 700–1850 (forthcoming).
A second area of interest is the dynamic relationship between ‘renaissance’ and popular culture – a relationship I like to approach through the methods of semantic history and the study of everyday practices. Society in early modern England. The vernacular origins of some powerful ideas (Cambridge, polity, 2010) was an early contribution in this area and has been followed by an ongoing series of articles and book chapters on the mutability of vernacular words, concepts, and practices. I am also writing a book for Princeton University Press on the social history of renaissance and co-editing with Cathy Shrank the Oxford Handbook of Thomas More’s Utopia.
Thanks to generous funding from the ESRC (https://www.intoxicantsproject.org/) and HERA (https://www.intoxicatingspaces.org/) I’ve been able to spend a good deal of time and energy helping to develop historical and social scientific interest in the study of intoxicants and intoxication. This resulted in a ‘Special Supplement’ for Past & Present on Cultures of intoxication in 2014 (co-edited with Angela McShane) plus recent articles in journals like the Economic History Review, The Historical Journal, The Lancet, and The Journal of Modern History. I am currently writing a large book on the world of intoxicants in early modern England, provisionally called Intoxicating Worlds: Empire, Tastes, and the Psychoactive Revolution.
- Publications
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Books
- The Politics of Commonwealth. Cambridge University Press.
- Society in Early Modern England. The Vernacular Origins of Some Powerful Ideas. Polity Press.
Edited books
- Past and Present Volume 222, Issue suppl_9. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and Alcohol. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Citizens and Soldiers in Britain, Ireland and the Wider World. Leiden: Brill.
- Communities in Early Modern England. Manchester: MUP.
Journal articles
- Journal of a plague year. The Lancet, 395(10239), 1754-1755. View this article in WRRO
- Public and Private Pleasures. HISTORY TODAY, 70(6), 16-18.
- Where was the coffee in early modern England?. The Journal of Modern History, 92(1), 40-75. View this article in WRRO
- Intoxicants and the invention of 'consumption'. Economic History Review. View this article in WRRO
- Taking to tobacco. LANCET, 392(10143), 206-207. View this article in WRRO
- The art of medicine: Utopia, health, and happiness. The Lancet, 387(10033), 2084-2085. View this article in WRRO
- The art of intoxication. LANCET, 383(9935), 2118-2119.
- Introduction: Cultures of intoxication. Past and Present, 222(SUPPLEMENT 9), 9-33.
- Introduction - Citizens and soldiers: The renaissance context. Journal of Early Modern History, 15(1-2), 3-30.
- Intoxicants and society in early modern England. Historical Journal, 54(3), 631-657.
- "Tumbled into the dirt" : Wit and incivility in early modern England. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 12(1-2), 156-177.
- Citizens, soldiers and urban culture in restoration England. English Historical Review, 123(502), 587-610.
- Company and sociability in early modern England. Social History, 32(3), 291-307.
- Public discourse, corporate citizenship, and state formation in early modern England. American Historical Review, 112(4), 1016-1038.
- Views from the bridge: Revolution and restoration in seventeenth-century York. PAST & PRESENT(170), 121-151.
- Two renaissances: urban political culture in post-Reformation England reconsidered.. Hist J, 44(1), 239-267.
Chapters
- The Invention of 'Happiness' In Innes J & Braddick M (Ed.), Suffering and Happiness in England 1550-1850: Narratives and Representations: A collection to honour Paul Slack Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- An 'Aristotelian moment': democracy in early modern England In Braddick M & Withington P (Ed.), Popular Culture and Political Agency in Early Modern England and Ireland: Essays in Honour of John Walter Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer.
- Urbanization In Wrightson K (Ed.), A Social History of England, 1500–1750 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Food and drink, The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England (pp. 149-162).
- Determinants of harmful substance use and harmful gambling, What Determines Harm from Addictive Substances and Behaviours? (pp. 77-112). Oxford University Press
- Determinants of transitions from harmful to low-risk substance use and gambling, What Determines Harm from Addictive Substances and Behaviours? (pp. 113-156). Oxford University Press
- Urban Citizens and England’s Civil Wars, The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution Oxford University Press
- Food and drink, The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England (pp. 149-162).
- Honestas, Early Modern Theatricality (pp. 516-533). Oxford: OUP.
- Renaissance Drinking Cultures and Popular Print, Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and Alcohol (pp. 135-152). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Starting the Conversation In Herring J, Regan C, Weinberg D & Withington P (Ed.), Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and Alcohol (pp. 1-33). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Plantation and civil society In O' Ciardha E & O Siochru M (Ed.), The Plantation of Ulster: Ideology and Practice (pp. 55-77). Manchester: MUP.
- Intoxicants and the early modern city, Remaking English Society Social Relations and Social Change in Early Modern England (pp. 135-164).
- Andrew Marvell’s citizenship, The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell (pp. 102-121). Cambridge University Press
- ‘For This is True or Els i do Lye’ Oxford University Press
- Introduction: Communities in Early Modern England In Shepard A & Withington P (Ed.), Communities in Early Modern England Networks, Place, Rhetoric (pp. 1-18). Manchester University Press
- Citizens, Community and Political Culture In Shepard A & Withington P (Ed.), Communities in Early Modern England Networks, Place, Rhetoric (pp. 134-156). Manchester University Press
- Putting the city into Shakespeare's city comedy, Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (pp. 197-216). Cambridge University Press
- The Politics of Commonwealth. Cambridge University Press.
- Research group
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Research supervision
I supervise masters and postgraduate research students on most areas of early modern history as well as the broader history of cities, intoxicants, language, and popular culture.
- Current Students
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- Completed Students
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- Jamie Graves - Emotions, language and social practice in early modern England
- Mabel Winter - Finance, commerce, and politics in seventeenth-century England: The case of Thompson and Company 1671-1678
- Apurba Chatterjee - Images of Empire: A Study of Visual Representations in Early British India c.1757-1820.
- Alex Taylor - Venting Smoke: The Trade and consumption of Tobacco in Early Modern England and Wales c 1625-1685.
- Jose Cree - The Invention of Addiction in Early Modern England.
- Ryo Yokoe - Medical understandings of alcohol and the liver in twentieth-century Britain.
- Harriet Smart (second supervisor) - Choreography, Flexibility and Conformity in Postclassic Nahua Rituals.
- Kate Davison - Ned Ward and a Social History of Humour in Early Eighteenth-Century England.
- Jennifer Bishop (Cambridge, AHRC, 2011–15) - Alchemy, metallurgy, and the coinage as features of ‘commonwealth’ discourse and practice in mid-sixteenth century England and Ireland.
- John Gallagher (Cambridge, AHRC, 2011–15) - The linguistic encounters of English speakers in the early modern world, c. 1483-1730.
- Kristen Klebba (Cambridge, self-funded, 2011–15) - Early modern Moorfields.
- Teaching activities
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Undergraduate
- HST31026 - The World of Intoxicants in Early Modern England
Postgraduate
- HST61018 - Language and Society in Early Modern England
- HST6602 - Early Modernities
- Professional activities and memberships
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- The Historical Journal – co-editor 2013 to 2018 and Advisory Board Member from 2018
- Cultural and Social History – co-editor 2011 to 2013 and Editorial Board Member from 2013
- Urban History – Editorial Board Member from 2009
I am a peer reviewer for the ESRC, AHRC, and Wellcome and have reviewed or sat on selection panels for national funding bodies in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland and well as the European Science Foundation.
I am a referee and reader for leading academic journals and publishers and have advised on large collaborative projects in Australia and Sweden.
In Sheffield I have served as departmental Director of Research and Innovation (2012 to 2015), Head of Department (2015 to 2018), and member of the university’s Human Resources Committee (2017 to 2019).
- Public engagement
Public engagement
I regularly contribute to The Lancet and the BBC History Magazine as well as The London Review of Books and History Today. I appeared as lead historian on BBC Radio 4’s The Long View (on a programme about snuff) and a two-hour programme dedicated to the problem of addiction with Evan Davis, and I’ve given public lectures at locations as diverse as the British Library and Kew Gardens. I was historical advisor to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health in 2008-9.
For my most recent media activities see https://www.intoxicatingspaces.org/outputs/
In the media
- Alcohol consumption in Historical Perspective, The National Archives podcast
- Speaker at 'What is Addiction?', Battle of Ideas debate, 19 October 2013
- The Long View, electronic cigarettes and snuff, BBC Radio 4
- ‘Shakespeare’s Psyche’, BBC History, April 2016
- ‘Utopia, Health and Happiness’, The Lancet, June 2016
- ‘The Art of Intoxication’, The Lancet 483 (2014): 2118–9
- ‘Modernity’s Bodyguard’, London Review of Books, 35, 1, 3 January 2013, 15-16
- ‘Past v Present’, London Review of Books, 34, 9, May 2012, 19-21
- 'The Elizabethan Big Society', BBC History Magazine, 12, 4, 2011
