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. His most recent work is on the social, political and cultural history of the modern British honours system. He is currently researching the history of freshwater fish and angling in the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth century, including the acclimatization of fish, beliefs about fish behavior, the expansion of recreational angling, and the interaction between angling culture and practice.
- Ph.D. Columbia University 2014
- M.A. University of Auckland, New Zealand 2007
Toby is currently working on the history of fish and fish acclimatization in the British Empire.
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.
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:
"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
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
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HST 599 | Thesis |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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HST 599 | Thesis |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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HST 599 | Thesis |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
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HST 591 | Seminar |
HST 599 | Thesis |
HST 367 | Modern Britain |
HST 494 | Special Topics |
HST 494 | Special Topics |
2019 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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HST 302 | Studies in History |
HST 599 | Thesis |
HST 303 | Studies in Asian History |