Historical approaches to the study of world politics have always been a major part of the academic discipline of International Relations, and there has recently been a resurgence of scholarly interest in this area. This Oxford Handbook examines the past and present of the intersection between history and IR, and looks to the future by laying out new questions and directions for research.

Seeking to transcend well-worn disciplinary debates between historians and IR scholars, the Handbook asks authors from both fields to engage with the central themes of 'modernity' and 'granularity'. Modernity is one of the basic organising categories of speculation about continuity and discontinuity in the history of world politics, but one that is increasingly questioned for privileging one kind of experience and marginalizing others. The theme of granularity highlights the importance of how decisions about the scale and scope of historical research in IR shape what can be seen, and how one sees it. Together, these themes provide points of affinity across the wide range of topics and approaches presented here.

The Handbook is organized into four parts. The first, 'Readings', gives a state-of-the-art analysis of numerous aspects of the disciplinary encounter between historians and IR theorists. Thereafter, sections on 'Practices', 'Locales', and 'Moments' offer a wide variety of perspectives, from the longue durée to the ephemeral individual moment, and challenge many conventional ways of defining the contexts of historical enquiry about international relations. Contributors come from a range of academic backgrounds, and present a diverse array of methodological and philosophical ideas, as well as their various historical interests.

The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations.

The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Queensland and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal's original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.

Mlada Bukovansky, Professor and Chair of Government, Smith College,Edward Keene, Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford,Christian Reus-Smit, Professor of International Relations, University of Queensland,Maja Spanu, Head of Philanthropy and International Affairs, Fondation de France

Mlada Bukovansky is Professor of Government at Smith College, Northampton Massachusetts.


Edward Keene is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and Official Student of Politics at Christ Church.


Christian Reus-Smit is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.


Maja Spanu is Affiliated Lecturer at University of Cambridge and Head of Philanthropy and International Affairs, Fondation de France.

Part I. Introduction
1. Modernity and Granularity in History and International Relations, Mlada Bukovansky and Edward Keene
Part II. Readings
2. Origins, Histories, and the Modern International, R. B. J. Walker
3. Historical Realism, Michael C. Williams
4. Liberal Progressivism and International History, Lucian M. Ashworth
5. Historical Sociology in International Relations, Maïa Pal
6. Global History and International Relations, George Lawson and Jeppe Mulich
7. International Relations and Intellectual History, Duncan Bell
8. Gender, History, and International Relations, Laura Sjoberg
9. Postcolonial Histories of International Relations, Zeynep Gulsah Capan
10. International Relations Theory and the Practice of International History, Peter Jackson and Talbot Imlay
11. Global Sources of International Thought, Chen Yudan
Part III. Practices
12. State, Territoriality, and Sovereignty, Jordan Branch and Jan Stockbruegger
13. Diplomacy, Linda S. Frey and Marsha L. Frey
14. Empire, Martin J. Bayly
15. Barbarism and Civilization, Yongjin Zhang
16. Race and Racism, Nivi Manchanda
17. Religion, History, and International Relations, Cecelia Lynch
18. Rights, Andrea Paras
19. The Diplomacy of Genocide, A. Dirk Moses
20. War and History in World Politics, Tarak Barkawi
21. Nationalism, James Mayall
22. Interpolity Law, Lauren Benton
23. Regulating Commerce, Eric Helleiner
24. Development, Corinna R. Unger
25. Governing Finance, Kevin L. Young and Signe Predmore
26. Revolution, Eric Selbin
Part IV. Locales (Spatial, Temporal, Cultural)
27. The 'Premodern' World, Julia Costa Lopez
28. Modernity and Modernities in International Relations, Ayse Zarakol
29. The 'West' in International Relations, Jacinta O'Hagan
30. The Eighteenth Century, Daniel Gordon
31. The Long Nineteenth Century, Quentin Bruneau
32. The Pre-Colonial African State System, John Anthony Pella, Jr.
33. The 'Americas' in the History of International Relations, Michael Gobat
34. 'Asia' in the History of International Relations, David C. Kang
35. The 'International' and the 'Global' in International History, Or Rosenboim
Part V. Moment
36. The Fall of Constantinople, Jonathan Harris
37. The Peace of Westphalia, Andrew Phillips
38. The Seven Years War, Karl W. Schweizer
39. The Haitian Revolution, Musab Younis
40. The Congress of Vienna, Jennifer Mitzen and Jeff Rogg
41. The Revolutions of 1848, Daniel M. Green
42. The Indian 'Mutiny', Alexander E. Davis
43. The Berlin and Hague Conferences, Claire Vergerio
44. World War One and Versailles, Duncan Kelly
45. Sykes-Picot, Megan Donaldson
46. World War Two and San Francisco, Daniel Gorman
47. The Bandung Conference, Christopher J. Lee
48. Facing Nuclear War: Luck, Learning, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Richard Ned Lebow and Benoît Pelopidas
Part V. Conclusion
49. History and the International: Time, Space, Agency, and Language, Maja Spanu and Christian Reus-Smit