Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
Title	Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
Discipline	History
Language	English
Abbreviation	J. Imp. Commonw. Hist.
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
Country	United Kingdom
History	1972–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Issn	0308-6534
Eissn	1477-2263

Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History is a peer-reviewed scholarly periodical focusing on the histories of empires, colonial polities, and postcolonial states across the globe. The journal publishes research on British imperialism, settler colonies, decolonization, and Commonwealth relations, attracting contributions that engage with archival sources from London, Delhi, Canberra, Ottawa, and Nairobi and dialogue with historiographies centered on Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, and Rome. It serves as a forum connecting scholarship on South Africa, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia with comparative studies involving the Ottoman Empire, Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, and Iberian empires.

History

Established in 1972, the journal emerged during a period shaped by debates following the Suez Crisis, the Windrush generation controversies, and the aftermath of the Mau Mau Uprising, responding to renewed scholarly attention to decolonization led by historians influenced by the works of Eric Hobsbawm, C. L. R. James, and A. J. P. Taylor. Early contributors included figures connected to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Royal Historical Society, while archives such as the Public Record Office, the National Archives (UK), the British Library, the India Office Records, the Bodleian Library, and the National Archives of Australia provided source material. The journal has documented debates around the Statute of Westminster, Indian Independence Act, Government of India Act, Dominion status discussions, and the transition from Empire to Commonwealth during the administrations of Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Harold Macmillan, and Margaret Thatcher, as well as scholarly responses to events like the Amritsar massacre, the Easter Rising, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, and the Anglo-Afghan Wars.

Scope and Aims

The journal aims to publish original research on imperial governance, colonial societies, settler colonialism, metropole–colony relations, and postcolonial legacies, encouraging comparative and transnational perspectives that link case studies from Bengal, Punjab, Madras, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Rhodesia, South Africa, Egypt, Sudan, and Tanganyika to broader conversations involving the Qing, Tokugawa, Habsburg, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and French imperial experiences. It promotes work that draws on sources from the British Museum, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the League of Nations archives, the United Nations Archives, the International African Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, and university collections at Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne, University of Cape Town, and the University of Delhi. The journal encourages contributions addressing themes connected to the Indian National Congress, the All-India Muslim League, the African National Congress, the Mau Mau, the Kuomintang, the Communist Party of China, the Indian National Army, the Irish Republican Army, the Wafd Party, and anti-colonial movements across Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

The editorial board typically comprises scholars affiliated with institutions such as the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, University College London, McGill University, the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, Stellenbosch University, and the University of the West Indies. Editors have included historians with research interests in figures and events like Rudyard Kipling, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Curzon, Cecil Rhodes, Jan Smuts, Louis Mountbatten, Metcalfe, and Clive of India. Peer review is double-blind or single-blind depending on editorial policy and engages external referees with expertise in fields relating to the Crimean War, the Boer Wars, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the Berlin Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, and the Cold War-era interventions in Iran, Guatemala, Egypt, and Indonesia.

Publication and Access

Published quarterly by Taylor & Francis, the journal issues research articles, review essays, historiographical surveys, and archive-based reports. Libraries and consortia such as the British Library, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Australia, the National Library of South Africa, the Bodleian Libraries, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Archivo General de Indias, and university libraries in Delhi, Karachi, Lahore, Colombo, and Accra subscribe to print and electronic formats. The journal is available on platforms that host Taylor & Francis content and is accessible to scholars working with collections at the British Museum, the India Office Records, the National Archives (UK), the Archives Nationales (France), and the Archivo Histórico Nacional (Spain).

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major services used by historians and social scientists, appearing in databases including Scopus, Web of Science, Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, the British Humanities Index, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, JSTOR (backfiles), and Sociological Abstracts. Its inclusion in these services facilitates citation tracking alongside monographs and edited volumes published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Princeton University Press, Harvard University Press, and Yale University Press.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Notable articles have addressed topics such as settler constitutionalism in Australia and Canada, intimate histories of the Bengal Famine, economic aspects of the Atlantic slave trade, the Sykes–Picot negotiations, partition studies on 1947 India and 1960s Cyprus, and maritime dimensions involving the Suez Canal, the Cape route, and the Strait of Malacca. Special issues have concentrated on themes including the Indian Ocean world, the Caribbean diaspora, settler colonialism in New Zealand, imperial policing in Hong Kong, decolonization in Africa, the politics of memorialization in postcolonial societies, and comparative studies linking the Spanish American wars of independence, the Haitian Revolution, the Mexican–American War, and Latin American independence movements.

Reception and Impact

The journal is regarded as a central venue for scholars researching British imperial and Commonwealth histories and for comparative imperial studies that engage with work on the French Empire, the Dutch East Indies, the Portuguese Empire, the Russian Empire, and Ottoman studies. Its articles are cited in monographs and syllabi alongside works by authors such as Linda Colley, Niall Ferguson, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Jürgen Osterhammel, Benedict Anderson, Ania Loomba, Ranajit Guha, and Edward Said, and it has influenced debates on settler nationalism, transitional justice in postcolonial states, archival restitution, and heritage policy in contexts like Delhi, London, Cape Town, Kingston, Canberra, and Wellington.

Category:History journals