Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Matthew developed an interest in British history as an undergraduate at York and as postgraduate and ESRC postdoctoral fellow at Manchester. His PhD on the idea of ‘independence’ in Georgian England started out as a study in political culture, but increasingly became focused on issues of gender as he tried to understand the role of masculinity in debates about citizenship.
Matthew arrived in Northampton in 2004 and is now Professor of History and Head of the Graduate School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy. He is currently Vice President of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Research Interests
Matthew built on his doctoral work by focusing upon the wider relationships between politics, war and masculinity in modern Britain. His first book, The Independent Man, explored the ways in which political and personal freedom were conceived of in terms of ‘manly independence’, particularly in relation to the vote. He examined this further in a textbook, Citizenship and Gender in Britain, 1688-1928.
Matthew has also worked on the social and cultural history of the military in the long eighteenth century. He explored the themes of gender and citizen soldiering in Embodying the Militia in Georgian England. More recently, he has focused on material culture, thinking about shoes in relation to masculinity and the body.
He edited Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies (2015-20) and sits on the Council of the Northamptonshire Record Society.
Supervision
Ruth Barton; History
Comfort in the country house
Kerry Love; History
Political literature in Georgian Britain
Kathrina Perry; History
Philanthropy in the Northampton boot and shoe industry
Martyn Green; History
Motivations of Volunteers in Napoleonic Britain
Teaching Interests
Matthew teaches on a range of modules relating to his research on British history:
- Themes and Perspectives in History
- Citizenship and Gender in Britain, 1760-1918
- Narrating the Nation: Rethinking Modern British History
- MA History Research Methods
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Innovations in teaching the eighteenth century
20/12/19 → 26/06/20
Project: Research › Charitable Funding
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Buckles
McCormack, M., 23 Mar 2022, DIGIT.EN.S: The Digital Encyclopedia of British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century.Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Entry for Dictionary/Encyclopedia › peer-review
Open Access -
Power dressing: clothing and masculinity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
McCormack, M., 1 Sept 2022, Modern History Review, 25, 1, p. 18-21.Research output: Contribution to Specialist Publication › Article
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Shoes
McCormack, M., 24 Nov 2022, DIGIT.EN.S: The Digital Encyclopedia of British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century.Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Entry for Dictionary/Encyclopedia › peer-review
Open Access -
Manliness in Britain 1760–1900: bodies, emotion and material culture: by Joanne Begiato, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2020, xii + 225 pp., £80.00 (hardback)
McCormack, M., 2 Jan 2021, In: Social History. 46, 1, p. 99-101 3 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book Review
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Smell in eighteenth-century England: a social sense
McCormack, M., 15 Feb 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Cultural and Social History. p. 1-2 2 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book Review
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The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century, by Renaud Morieux
McCormack, M., 17 Jun 2021, In: The English Historical Review. 136, 579, p. 435-437 3 p., ceab006.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book Review
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Wooden shoes and wellington boots: the politics of footwear in Georgian Britain
McCormack, M., 11 Jun 2021, Everyday Political Objects: From the Middle Ages to the Contemporary World. Fletcher, C. (ed.). Abingdon: Routledge, p. 104-119 16 p.Research output: Contribution to Book/Report › Chapter › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Captain Supple's Order Books of 1778 and 1780
McCormack, M., 31 Dec 2020, In: Northamptonshire Past and Present. 73, p. 63 9 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article
Activities
- 1 Seminar/Workshop
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Numbering the fighting men: population, bodies and the Militia lists of the eighteenth century
Matthew McCormack (Speaker)
19 Nov 2013Activity: Academic Talks or Presentations › Seminar/Workshop › Research
Press/Media
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Students praise Postgraduate Research Support at Northampton
26/08/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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A delivery robot creates a poetic moment in the woods of England
20/05/22 → 22/05/22
14 items of Media coverage
Press/Media
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A delivery robot creates a poetic moment in the woods of England | WFAE 90.7 & More News Here
21/05/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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A delivery robot creates a poetic moment in the woods of England & More News Here
20/05/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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If a delivery robot wanders the woods, is it lost? : NPR & More News Here
20/05/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media