Biography
Before arriving at St Hilda’s in 2006, Hannah Smith studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, taught at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and was an RCUK Academic Fellow at the University of Hull. She was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2008.
Hannah Smith works on the history of political culture and the history of gender in Britain in the period 1660 to 1760. Her first book explored the politics and culture of the early Georgian monarchy, and she continues to work on eighteenth-century court culture (co-editing a new edition of Lord Hervey’s Memoirs of the Reign of King George II and his Correspondence). Her interest in gender history is reflected in her work on the early eighteenth-century writer Susanna Centlivre, and research on eighteenth-century libertinism. Her most recent book, Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660 to 1750 (Oxford University Press, 2021), argued that armies had a profound impact on the major political events of late seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century Britain. She is currently writing a book on the development of equestrianism in twentieth-century Britain.
‘War, the State and Local Office-Holders in Britain, 1689-1750’, English Historical Review CXXXIX 600 (2024), 1117-1142
Armies and Political Change in Britain, 1660-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2021)
‘Court Culture and Godly Monarchy: Henry Purcell and Charles Sedley’s 1692 Birthday Ode for Mary II’, in: Politics, Religion and Ideas in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Mark Goldie ed. Justin Champion, John Coffey, Tim Harris and John Marshall (Boydell, 2019), 219-237
‘The Hanoverian Succession and the Politicisation of the British Army’, in: The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture ed. Andreas Gestrich and Michael Schaich (Ashgate, 2015), 207-226
‘Susanna Centlivre, ‘Our Church’s Safety’ and ‘Whig Feminism’’, in: Religion and Women in Britain, 1660-1760 ed. Sarah Apetrei and Hannah Smith (Ashgate, 2014), 145-161
Religion and Women in Britain, 1660-1760 co-edited with Sarah Apetrei (Ashgate, 2014)
Civilians and War in Europe, 1618-1815 co-edited with Erica Charters and Eve Rosenhaft (Liverpool University Press, 2012)
‘Politics, Patriotism, and Gender: the Standing Army Debate on the English Stage, circa 1689-1720’, Journal of British Studies 50 (2011), 48-75
‘Hephaestion and Alexander’: Lord Hervey, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the Royal Favourite in England in the 1730s’, with Stephen Taylor, English Historical Review 124 (2009), 283-312
‘‘Last of All the Heavenly Birth’: Queen Anne and Sacral Queenship’, Parliamentary History 28 (2009), 137-149
'Mary Astell, 'A Serious Proposal to the Ladies' (1694) and the Anglican Reformation of Manners in Late-Seventeenth-Century England', in: Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith ed. Michal Michelson and William Kolbrener (Ashgate, 2007), 31-47
Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
'The Idea of a Protestant Monarchy in Britain, 1714-1760', Past and Present, 185 (2004), 91-118
'English 'Feminist' Writings and Judith Drake's 'An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex' (1696)', Historical Journal, 44 (2001), 727-747
Positions
- Tutorial Fellow in History
- Vice-Principal 2023-2026
- Associate Professor in Early Modern History, History Faculty
Subjects
- History
- Ancient and Modern History
