Tobias Harper
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Phone: 480-965-2429
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Mail code: 4302Campus: Tempe
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Toby Harper is a historian of modern Britain and the British Empire, with particular interests in animals, environments, politics, and society. He is currently working on the history of fishes, fishing, settler colonialism, and environmental change in the Southern Hemisphere colonies of the British Empire.
Toby's first book was From Servants of the Empire to Everyday Heroes, a history of the honours system in the twentieth century British Empire. He has published and consulted widely on honours as a social, cultural, and political system.
- Ph.D. Columbia University
- M.A. University of Auckland
Toby is currently working on the history of fish and fish acclimatization in the British Empire, tentatively titled "The Settler Fishes of the Southern Hemisphere". This work shows some of the strange entanglements between animal introductions and evolving settler culture and law in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. He has published about Victorian beliefs about fish pain and the history of fish introductions in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Toby's first book From Servants of the Empire to Everyday Heroes: The British Honours System and the People in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: OUP, 2020) shows how a seemingly “traditional”, even archaic-looking institution – the British honours system – expanded and modernized in the twentieth century to serve imperial and domestic political priorities. It argues that one major consequence of the persistence and growth of honors in Britain and the British Empire was a connection between the expansion of the state through imperial and social democratic institutions and the expansion – or democratization – of hierarchy. As new groups were granted status in established power structures they also became invested in distinguishing themselves in an elaborate status system. The expansion of the state popularized hierarchy more than egalitarianism. At the same time, in parts of the decolonizing former empire, especially Ireland and India, nationalist governments reacted against the honours system, making it a symbol of what was wrong with the empire. In both cases the honours system offered a powerful set of symbols in debates about the relationship between the empire, government, the monarchy and social order.
In other words, the more the British Crown ranked people, the more the people cared about rank.
"Fish Pain and Human Sport in Victorian Britain." Victorian Studies 65, no. 2 (2023): 247-273.
From Servants of the Empire to Everyday Heroes, OUP, 2020, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/from-servants-of-the-empire-to-…
"Harold Wilson’s ‘Lavender List’ Scandal and the Shifting Moral Economy of Honour", Twentieth Century British History, advance copy available: hwy048, https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwy048.
“The Order of the British Empire after the British Empire”, Canadian Journal of History, 52, 3 (December 2017), 509-32.
“Voluntary Service and State Honours in Twentieth-Century Britain”, The Historical Journal, 48, 2 (June 2015), 641-61.
"Philanthropy and Honours in the British Empire", New Global Studies, 12, 2 (August 2018), 257-76.
“‘Amen, Amen!’ Christianity, Society and Visions of the Future in 1920s New Zealand”, New Zealand Journal of History, 42, 2, (2008) 133-53.
Other historical writing:
“Charles III faces challenges at home, abroad – and even in defining what it means to be king”, The Conversation, 12 September 2022, online at: https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-faces-challenges-at-home-abroad-and-even-in-defining-what-it-means-to-be-king-190339
“How to get an OBE: the opaque process by which Britain chooses its honorees”, London School of Economics blog, 10 February 2020, online at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/how-to-get-an-obe/
“Harold Wilson’s resignation honours – why so controversial?”, OUP blog, 13 April 2019, online at: https://blog.oup.com/2019/04/harold-wilsons-resignation-honours-controversial/.
"The Shame of 'Sir': British honours and decolonization", Aeon, 29 October 2018, online at: https://aeon.co/essays/the-shame-of-sir-british-honours-and-decolonisation
“‘Going Native’ with Dune’s Paul Atreides”, Imperial and Global Forum, 26 June 2018, online at: https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2018/06/26/going-native-with-dunes-paul-atreides/
“A Two-tier System”, History and Policy Opinion Article, 2 July 2015, online at: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/two-tier-system
“The BBC’s ‘Alternative Honours List’”, History News Network, 20 February 2012, online at: http://hnn.us/articles/144615.html.
Courses
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 597 | Capstone |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 597 | Capstone |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 598 | Special Topics |
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 599 | Thesis |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 599 | Thesis |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 597 | Capstone |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 591 | Seminar |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 597 | Capstone |
| HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 101 | Global History Since 1500 |
| SGS 111 | Global History Since 1500 |
| HST 130 | The Historian's Craft |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 591 | Seminar |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 302 | Studies in History |
| HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 101 | Global History Since 1500 |
| SGS 111 | Global History Since 1500 |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
| HST 643 | Global History |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 591 | Seminar |
| HST 130 | The Historian's Craft |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 101 | Global History Since 1500 |
| SGS 111 | Global History Since 1500 |
| HST 302 | Studies in History |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
2021 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 591 | Seminar |
| HST 130 | The Historian's Craft |
| HST 599 | Thesis |
| HST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |
| HST 494 | Special Topics |