Viewpoint: Peasant Productivity and Welfare in The Middle Ages and Beyond

Driven by the quality of sources rather than their representativeness, the history of English agriculture has been written primarily from the perspective of well-documented large farms to the neglect of smallholders and cottagers who for centuries cultivated the greater part of the nation’s farmland but left scant records...

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Viewpoint: Believing in Belief: Gibbon, Latour and the Social History of Religion

While in recent decades historians have engaged with anthropological debates over the nature of ‘religion’, they have tended still to take the key term ‘belief’ somewhat for granted. This article suggests that we have inherited an Enlightenment legacy of thought on ‘belief’ that tends to treat it as credulity when applied to the general masses...

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Viewpoints

Past & Present's Viewpoints seek to provoke or advance debate, open up new questions, define the state or direction of a particular field, or shape trends in historiography at a more general level — always in a way that is comprehensible to non-specialists.

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Languages of History Virtual Issue

This virtual issue of Past & Present brings together work on the history of language from the journal’s archives, showing how viewing language as an object of historical enquiry can lead to new insights into a variety of historical questions and debates.

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Flows of History Virtual Issue

What does it mean to write the history of water? In this virtual issue we set out to explore how articles published in Past & Present have addressed the topic of water through time.

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Celebrating Issue 250: Special Virtual Issue

Celebrate the release of Past & Present's 250th issue by reading the special virtual issue to mark this important milestone.

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The Past & Present Virtual Issue Archive

To continue Past & Present's initiative to highlight its extensive back catalogue, the journal publishes regular thematic virtual issues grouping together articles which are made freely available for a limited period.

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Supplement 16: Beyond Truth: Fiction and Disinformation in Early Modern Europe

Over the last few years, the phrase ‘fake news’ has become ubiquitous. Scholars and commentators alike have raised alarm over the spread of disinformation. Yet despite what this bleak picture may suggest, fake news is nothing new. Today’s versions may be culturally and technologically specific, but hoaxes, lies and fabrications have been around for as long as people have exchanged information in any shape or form, told stories, and generally talked and written to each other.

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The Past & Present Book Series

Past & Present has a long history of publishing books and collections of essays reflective of the broad themes and ethos of the journal itself. Transcending chronological and geographical boundaries, the purpose of the series is to publish high-quality, cutting-edge work that has an appeal outside the specialist area of the author.

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