Malcolm Crook

Biography

I retired in the summer of 2014, after spending the entirety of my career in the History Department at Keele. It was a thoroughly rewarding experience, from the wider campus environment, to supportive colleagues and lively students. I am, therefore, delighted to have retained an affiliation to Keele as an emeritus professor. Naturally, I am continuing my research into French history, not simply that of the Revolution and Napoleon, but on a broader basis too, with a recently published book, entitled How the French Learned to Vote. A History of Electoral Practice in France (Oxford University Press, 2021). In collaboration with my son, Tom, who is a History lecturer at Oxford Brookes, I have also been studying the wider history of voting. We hope to write a book about the global history of the vote in the near future.

Research and scholarship

I have recently published a major study, entitled How the French Learned to Vote. A History of Electoral Practice in France. It is not concerned with who was elected, but how voters behaved at the polls. Across the Channel universal male suffrage was established in 1848 (though women had to wait for another century), along with a series of different electoral systems and frequent elections, so France constitutes a crucial case study in the development of democracy. I have also been working on a global history of the secret ballot with Tom Crook and on elections in authoritarian regimes with John Dunne. I have just stepped down as editor of the journal French History, but I remain on the editorial board.

Publications

My major publications are:

Toulon in War and Revolution, from the Ancien Regime to the Restoration, 1750-1820 (Manchester UP, 1991)

Elections in the French Revolution, 1789-1799: An Apprenticeship in Democracy (CUP, 1996 and 2002)

Napoleon Comes to Power: Democracy and Dictatorship in Revolutionary France, 1795-1804 (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1998)

(ed.) Revolutionary France 1788-1880 (OUP, 2002).

Professor Malcolm Crook

Biography

Research and scholarship

Publications