On this page you will find a range of resources relating to themes of monarchy, imperialism, colonalism and decolonisation. Where works are authored or edited by Research Hub members, their names are linked to their profile on our Members page.
This collection of resources is constantly curated. If you are aware of a resource that should be included on this page, please email Cindy McCreery.
Recent Books on the history of modern monarchy (published since 2020)
| Author(s) | Title | Publisher and Published Year |
|---|---|---|
| Artole, Andoni and Álvaro Paris, eds. | Royalism, War and Popular Politics in the Age of Revolutions, 1780s-1870s: In the Name of the King | Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. |
| Atkins, Harrison. | Conquering the Maharajas: India’s Princely States and the End of Empire, 1930-1950 | Manchester, 2023 |
| Aldrich, Richard J. and Rory Cormac. | The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown, from Victoria to Diana | Atlantic, 2021 |
| Ali, Omar, | et. al. African Rulers and Generals in India | n.p., 2021 |
| Altman, Dennis. | God Save the Queen: The Strange Persistence of Monarchies | Scribe Publications, 2021 |
| Armenteros, Carolina, Matthijs Lok and Iason Zarikos, | The Making of the Modern Atlantic Monarchies: 1770 to the Present Day | Bloomsbury, 2023 |
| Astarita, Mario. | Uno statista sul trono: Alfonso XIII e il decline della monarchia liberale spagnola (1902-1917 | (Il Pensiero, 2022) |
| Atwal, Priya | Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire ( | Hurst and OUP, 2020 |
| Baer, Marc David. | The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs | Basic Books, 2021 |
| Bakhash, Shaul. | The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder | Bloomsbury, 2022 |
| Balasubramanian, Uma | Sayajirao Gaekwad III: The Maharaja of Baroda | Rupa Publications, 2019 |
| Barich, Daniel. | Learning to Rule: Court Education and the Remaking of the Qing State, 1861-1912 | Columbia UP, 2022 |
| Becquet, Hélène (ed.). | L’Exil des monarques: Entre abdications et reconquêtes du pouvoir | Armand Colin, 2024 |
| Blili, Leila Temima. | The Deys and Beys of Tunis, 1666-1922 | American University of Cairo Press, 2025 |
| Bloks, Moniek | Hermine – An Empress in Exile: The Untold Story of the Kaiser’s Second Wife (Chronos, 2020). | Chronos, 2020 |
| Bolton, Betsy. | In the Kingdom of the Thudner Dragon: Happiness, History, and Environment in a Changing Bhutan | Lever Press, 2025 |
| Borman, Tracy | Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II | Hodder & Stoughton, 2021 |
| Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. | Les quatre sergents de La Rochelle: le dernier crime de la monarchie | Passés composés, 2021 |
| Braun, Bernd (ed.), | Es lebe die Republik: Der Erste Weltkrieg und das Ende der Monarchien in Deutschland und Europa | Vandenbroek & Ruprecht, 2021 |
| Castro-Woodhouse, Leslie | Woman between Two Kingdoms (Cornell, 2021). | Cornell, 2021 |
| Chachavalpongpun, Pavin | Love and Death of King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand | Palgrave Macmillan, 2021 |
| Chakrabongse, Narisa (ed.). | Turbulent Times: The Diaries of Prince Chakrabongse, 1916-1920 | River Books, 2025 |
| Clammer, Paul. | Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean’s Forgotten Kingdom | Hurst Publishers, 2023 |
| Clancy, Laura | Running the Family Firm: How the Monarchy Manages Its Image and Our Money | Manchester UP, 2021 |
| Connolly, Michael J. | Jacobitism in Britain and the United States, 1880-1910 | McGill-Queen’s UP, 2023 |
| Cooper, Andrew Scott. | The Five Crowns: Royals in War and Revolution from Athens to Tehran | Public Affairs, 2023 |
| Corley, J. Susan. | Leveraging Sovereignty: Kalakaua’s Global Strategy for the Hawaiian Monarchy, 1825-1854. | University of Hawai’i Press, 2022 |
| Dauga, Pierre | Charles X: Le Naufrage de la monarchie française | Édiitions de l’Ouest, 2020 |
| David, Ian G. | Champassak Royalty and Sovereignty: Within and Between Nation-States in Mainland Southeast Asia | University of Wisconsin Press, 2024 |
| Davidson, Christopher M. | From Sheiks to Sultanism: Statecraft and Authority in Saudi Arabia and the UAE | Hurst, 2022 |
| Davis, Edward Hilary. | The British Bonapartes: Napoleon’s Family in Britain | Pen and Sword, 2022 |
| Decharneux, Baudouin and Alice Toma, | Royauté(s): Entre historicité et imaginaire | EME, 2021 |
| Dedieu, Jean-Pierre. | Après le roi: essai sur l’effondrement de la monarchie espagnole | Casa de Velázquez, 2021 |
| De Lorenzo, Renata and Lloret, Rosa Ana Gutiérrez (eds). | La Monarquías de la Europa meriodional ante el desafio de la modernidad (siglos XIX y XX) | Prensas de la Universidad |
| De Meyer, Marteen and Sibille de Cartier d’Yves (eds), | Belgians on the Nile: A History of Royal Visits, Entrepreneurship and Archaeological Exploration in Egypt | Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2020 |
| Domeier, Norman and Mühling, Christian (eds) | , Homosexualität am Hof: Pratiken und Diskurse von Mittelalter bis Heute | Campus, 2020 |
| Doyle, William. | Napoleon at Peace: how to End a Revolution | Reaktion Books, 2022 |
| Dyt, Kathryn. | The Nature of Kingship: The Weather-World in Nineteenth-Century Vietnam. | University of Hawai’i Press, 2024 |
| Escribano Roca, Rodrigo and Rebeca Viñuela Pérez (eds), | Transatlantic Monarchisms in the Americas and Europe, 1812-1868. | Palgrave Macmillan, 2025 |
| Fitzmaurice, Andrew | King Leopold’s Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century | Princeton UP, 2021 |
| Fitzpatrick, Matthew P. | The Kaiser and the Colonies: Monarchy in the Age of | OUP,. 2022 |
| Francis, Martin. | Empire, Celebrity and Excess: King Farouk of Egypt and British Culture, 1936-1965 | Bloomsbury Academic, 2022 |
| Franconie, Grégoire. | Le Lys et la cocarde: royauté et nation à l’âge romantique (1830-1848) | PUF, 2021 |
| Fromherz, Allen James and Abdulrahman al-Salimi (eds), | Sultan Qaboos and Modern Oman, 1970-2020 | Edinburgh University Press, 2022 |
| Ganjanakhundee, Supalak. | A Soldier King: Monarchy and Military in the Thailand of Rama X | ISEAS, 2022 |
| Geraghty, Anthony. | The Empress Eugénie in England: Art, Architecture, Collecting | Paul Holberton, 2022 |
| Gibney, John | Ireland and the Monarchy | Pen and the Sword, 2020 |
| Goldstone, Nancy | In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie-Antoinette and Her Daughters | Little Brown, 2021 |
| Gralha, Julio (ed.). | Os diarios de D. Pedro II no Egito. | LVN Editora, 2022 |
| Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. | The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs | Basic Books, 2024 |
| Hazell, Robert and Bob Morris (eds). | The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy: European Monarchies Compared | Hart, 2022 |
| Heath, Sean. | Sacral Kingship in Bourbon France: The Cult of Saint Louis, 1589-1830 | Bloomsbury, 2022 |
| Heavens, Andrew. | The Prince and the Plunder: How Britain Took One Small Boy and Hundreds of Treasures from Ethiopia | The History Press, 2022 |
| Hein-Kircher, Heidi and Frederik Frank Sterkenburgh (eds). | Modernizing Europe’s Imperial Monarchies: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Nineteenth Century | Palgrave Macmillan, 2025 |
| Hocking, Jenny. | The Palace Letters: The Queen, the Governor-General, and the Plot to Dismiss Gough Whitlam | Scribe, 2020 |
| Hofmeister, Ulrich and Florian Riedler (eds), | Imperial Cities in the Tsarist, the Habsburg, and the Ottoman Empires | Routledge, 2024 |
| Innes, Lyn. | The Last Prince of Bengal: A Family’s Journey from an Indian Palace to the Australian Outback | Westbourne Press, 2021 |
| Jackson, D. Michael and Christopher McCreery. | A Resilient Crown: Canada’s Monarchy at the Platinum Jubilee | Dundurn Press, 2022 |
| Jones, Heather. | For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War | Cambridge UP, 2021 |
| Jordan, Christina and Imke Polland (eds). | Realms of Royalty: New Directions in Researching Contemporary European Monarchies ). | Transcript Verlag, 2020 |
| Kamrava, Mehra. | A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis | CUP, 2022 |
| Kimizuka, Naotaka. | Constitutional Monarchy of the Twenty-First Century | Springer, 2024 |
| Koch, Jeroen, Dik van der Meulen and Jeroen van Zanten. | The House of Orange in Revolution and War: A European History, 1772-1890 | Reaktion Books, 2022 |
| Köhler, Thomas Walter, Christian Mertens and Anton Pelinka (eds), | Ultimo: Österreichs letzer Kaiser im Übergang von der Monarchie zur Republik | Braumüller, 2022 |
| Kroll, Franz Lothar, | Fürsten ohne Throne: Schicksale deutschen Herrscherhäuser im 20. Jahrhundert. BeBra Verlag, 2022. | BeBra Verlag, 2022 |
| Kruger, Rayne. | The Devil’s Discus: The Death of Ananda, King of Siam | DMP Publications, 2021 |
| Lamotte, Stéphane. | The Worlds of a Prince: Albert 1st of Monaco | Harry N. Abrams, 2022 |
| Landy, Simon. | The King and the Consul: A Tragedy of Old Siam | River Books, 2022 |
| Larman, Alexander. | The Windsors at War: The Nazi Threat to the Crown | Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2023 |
| Larman, Alexander. | Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty | St Martin’s Press, 2024 |
| Legoy, Corinne and Olivier Tort (eds). | Monarchies censitaires | Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2020 |
| Lentz, Thierry. | Napoléon III: la modernité inachevée | Perrin/Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2022 |
| Lieven, Dominic | In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History (Viking, 2022). | Viking, 2022 |
| Lloyd, Abbas. | Bahalwapur: The Kingdom that Vanished | Vintage Books, 2020 |
| Low, Valentine. | Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown | Headline, 2022 |
| Lowrie, Andrew. | Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor | Blink, 2021 |
| Mail, Asbol bin Haji. | Traditional Malay Monarchy. | Routledge, 2024. |
| Malinowski, Stephan, | The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis: A History of Collaboration | Allen Lane, 2025 |
| Malinowski, Stephan, | Nazis and Nobles: The History of a Misalliance | OUP, 2020 |
| Marchi, Maria Christina. | The Heirs to the Savoia Throne and the Construction of ‘Italianità’, 1860-1900 | Palgrave Macmillan, 2022 |
| Marsland, Kim. | Queen Victoria’s Wooden Dolls: Stories of a Royal Childhood | Unicorn, 2023 |
| Martin, Russell E | The Tsar’s Happy Occasion: Ritual and Dynasty in the Weddings of Russia’s Rulers, 1495-1745 (Cornell UP, 2021). | Cornell UP, 2021 |
| Mérieau, Eugénie. | Constitutional Bricolage: Thailand’s Sacred Monarchy vs the Rule of Law | Hart, 2021 |
| Mestyan, Adam. | Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East | Princeton, 2023 |
| Michael, Nigusie Kassaye W. | Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia | Lexington Books, 2023 |
| Michelet, Maxime | L’Impératrice Eugénie – une vie politique | Éditions du Cerf, 2020 |
| Moin, A. Azfar and Alan Strathern, | Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immancence and Transcendence | Columbia UP, 2022 |
| Moreno Luzon, Javier. | El rey patriota: Alfonso XIII y la nación | Galaxia Gutenberg, 2023 |
| Müller, Frank Lorenz and Heidi Mehrkens (eds). | Royal Heirs and the Uses of Soft Power in Nineteenth-Century Europe | Palgrave, 2020 |
| Müller, Frank Lorenz. | Royal Heirs: Succession and the Future of Monarchy in the Nineteenth Century | Cambridge UP, 2022 |
| Norrie, Aidan | et. al Hanoverian to Windsor Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty. | Palgrave Macmillan, 2023 |
| Ochonu, Moses E | Ochonu, Moses E. Emirs in London: Subaltern Travel and Nigeria’s Modernity | Indiana University Press, 2022 |
| Olechnowicz, A.J. | Monarchy, Magic and Democracy: The Royal Family and Modern Britain | Continuum, 2022 |
| Owens, Ed. | After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Survive? | Bloomsbury, 2023 |
| Palmer, Dean | Tea with Hitler: The Secret History of the Royal Family and the Third Reich | History Press, 2021 |
| Parker, John (ed.), | Great Kingdoms of Africa | California, 2023 |
| Peat, Rachel Peat (ed.). | Japan: Courts and Culture | Royal Collections Trust, 2020 |
| Peng, Ying-chen. | Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi’s Image Making | Yale University Press, 2023 |
| Perrier, Antoine. | Monarchies du Maghreb: L’État au Maroc et en Tunisie sous protectorat (1881-1956) | Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2023 |
| Persson, Fabian. | Survival and Revival in Sweden’s Court and Monarchy, 1718-1930 | Palgrave, 2020 |
| Philipps, Adrian. | The First Royal Media War: Edward VIII, the Abdication and the Press | Pen and Sword History, 2023 |
| Pillai, Manu S. | False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma | Juggernaut, 2021 |
| Prescott, Craig. | Modern Monarchy. | Agenda Publishing, 2025 |
| Protschky, Susie. | Photographic Subjects: Monarchy and Visual Culture in Colonial Indonesia | Manchester UP, 2021 |
| Purcell, Jennifer J., Fiona Courage and Benjamin Jones (eds). | Reflections on British Royalty: Mass-Observation and the Monarchy, 1937-2022 | Bloomsbury, 2024 |
| Rappaport, Helen | After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Epoque through Revolution and War | Macmillan, 2022 |
| Ridley, Jane | George V: Never a Dull Moment | Chatto & Windus, 2021 |
| Roberts, Andrew | Roberts, Andrew. George III: The Life and Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch (Penguin, 2021). | Penguin, 2021 |
| Rulof, Bernard. | Popular Legitimism and the Monarchy in France: Mass Politics without Parties, 1830-1880 | Palgrave, 2020 |
| Ruoff, Kenneth J. | Japan’s Imperial House in the Postwar Era, 1945-2019 (Harvard UP, 2020). | Harvard UP, 2020 |
| Sagar, Rahul (ed.). | The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government | Hurst, 2022 |
| Sambuy, Livia Manera. | In Search of Amrit Kaur: An Indian Princess in Wartime Pris | Chatto & Windus, 2023 |
| San Narciso, David, Margarita Barral Martínez and Carolina Armenteros (eds). | Monarchy and Liberalism in Spain: The Building of the Nation State, 1780-1931 | Routledge, 2020 |
| Schley, Daniel F. (ed.), | Japans moderne Monarchie: Beiträge japanologischer Forschung zur Wahrnehmung und Geschichte der Tenno | LIT Verlag, 2022 |
| Schulz, Joy. | When Women Ruled the Pacific: Power and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Tahiti and Hawai’i. | University of Hawai’i Press, 2023 |
| Sellin, Volker. | European Monarchies from 1814 to 1906: A Century of Restoration | De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2017 |
| Shakibi, Zhand | Pahlavi Iran and the Politics of Occidentalism: The Shah and the Rastakhiz Party | I.B. Tauris, 2021 |
| Shawcross, Edward. | The Last King of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World | Basic Books, 2021 |
| Sheikh, Mohamed. | Emperor of the Five Rivers: the Life and Times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh | Bloomsbury, 2021 |
| Shore, Chris, Sally Raudon and David V. Williams. | The Crown and Constitutional Reform | Routledge, 2024 |
| Simon II of Bulgaria | A Unique Destiny: The Memoirs of the Last Tsar of Bulgaria, from Monarchy to Democracy | Stackpole, 2021 |
| Sivonen, Jaakko. | Monarchy, Nation and the Common Good: Patriotism in Prussia, 1756-1806 | Brill, 2024 |
| Smith, David E., Christopher McCreery and Jonathan Shanks (eds). | Canada’s Deep Crown: Beyond Elizabeth III, the Crowns’ Continuing Canadian Complexion | University of Toronto, 2022 |
| Solnon, Jean-François | Le Goût des rois | Perrin, 2020 |
| Spangler, Jonathan. | Monsieur: Second Sons in the Monarchy of France, 1550-1800 | Routledge, 2021 |
| Sterkenburgh, Frederik Frank. | William I as German Emperor: Staging the Kaiser | Palgrave Macmillan, 2025 |
| Stove, Robert James. | Kings, Queens and Fallen Monarchies: Royal Dynasties in Interwar Europe | Pen & Sword, 2024 |
| Raanui Daunassans-Pomare. | Marau Taaroa, dernière reine de Tahiti: Souvenirs recueillis par sa fille, la princesse Ariimanihinihi Takau Pomare-Vedel | Au Vent des îles, 2024 |
| Takeyh, Ray. | The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlevi | Yale UP, 2022 |
| Temime, Leila. | The Deys and Beys of Tunis, 1666-1922: From Military Power to Monarchy | American University of Cairo Press, 2024 |
| Turner, Barry. | Thorns in the Crown: The Story of the Coronation and what it meant for Britain (The History Press, 2022). | The History Press, 2022 |
| Ulfert, Gert-Dieter and Sebastian Dohe (eds), | Nach der Monarchie: Das Ressidenzschloss in Weimar, 1918-2018 | Weimarer Verlagsgesellschaft, 2022 |
| Unchanam, Puangchon. | Royal Capitalism: Wealth, Class, and Monarchy in Thailand | Wisconsin, 2022 |
| Van Gelder, Klaas. (ed.). | Mere Spectacle: Coronations and Inaugurations in the Habsburg Monarchy during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century (Berghahn, 2021). | Berghahn, 2021 |
| Vial, Charles-Éloi. | Le Siècle des chutes: abdications et déchéances en France, 1814-1870 | Perrin, 2022 |
| De Vienne, Marie-Sybille | Thailand’s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Power, Influence and Rites | Routledge, 2023 |
| Watanabe-O’Kelly, Helen. | Projecting Imperial Power: New Nineteenth-Century Emperors and the Public Sphere | OUP, 2021 |
| Willner, Samuel E. | Preserving the Saudi Monarchy: Political Pragmatism in Saudi Arabia, c. 1973-1979 | Pagrave Macmillan, 2023 |
| Winkelhofer, Martina. | Sisis Welt: Zwsiches Protokoll und Privatleben – Kaiserin Elisabeths Alltag | Piper, 2022 |
| Wolff, Larry. | The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy | Stanford UP, 2023 |
| Woodacre, Elena, et. al. (eds). | The Routledge History of Monarchy | Routledge, 2021 |
| Zubrzycki, John. | Dethroned: The Downfall of India’s Princely States | Hurst & Company, 2024 |
| Zubrzycki, John. | The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India’s Most Glamorous Royal Family | Juggernaut, 2020 |