The Economic History Review

• 1. Introduction

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  The Economic History Review has been asking hard questions about money, markets, and human welfare since 1927. Its founder was Eileen Power, a historian whose decision to launch a dedicated peer-reviewed journal gave economic history a home of its own. Who were the editors who shaped it? What does a journal's ranking among nearly three thousand rivals tell us about its place in academic life? And how does a quarterly publication, now spanning 75 volumes, stay relevant across a century of changing scholarly priorities? The answers run through some of the most distinguished names in the field.

• 2. Eileen Power's Creation

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  Eileen Power established the journal in 1927, at a moment when economic history was still finding its footing as a discipline separate from both economics and political history. The first editors she appointed were E. Lipson and R. H. Tawney, two figures whose work helped define what the field could accomplish. Tawney in particular was known for connecting economic conditions to social and moral questions, a sensibility that shaped the journal's early character. The founding act of naming those first editors, rather than serving as a sole editor herself, suggested Power wanted the journal to be a shared scholarly enterprise from the start. That instinct toward collective stewardship has carried forward: today Sara Horrell, Jaime Reis, and Patrick Wallis share editorial leadership.

• 3. A Century of Editors

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  M. M. Postan took on the editorship after the journal's early years, followed by H. J. Habbakuk and then Max Hartwell, who held the role from 1960 to 1968. The list of those who have guided the journal reads like a roster of the discipline's leading scholars: Christopher Dyer, Nicholas Crafts, John Hatcher, Richard Smith, Jane Humphries, Steve Hindle, and Phillipp Schofield have all served. Jane Humphries appears in both the list of past editors and on the current editorial board, now affiliated with the University of Oxford. The current editorial board counts 21 editors beyond the lead team, drawing on scholars from institutions including the London School of Economics, where Sara Horrell, Max-Stephan Schulze, and Patrick Wallis are based. The lead editors as of the most recent information are John Turner, Giovanni Federico, and Tirthankar Roy.

• 4. Standing Among Rivals

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  RePEc, a database that tracks economics research, has ranked the journal 383rd out of 2,982 economics journals. That places it well within the top fifteen percent of a crowded field. Its 2021 impact factor was 2.487, a measure of how frequently articles in the journal are cited by other researchers. The journal is grouped by scholars alongside the Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, and the European Review of Economic History as among the best in the specialty. Published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Economic History Society, it has now produced 75 volumes, each typically composed of four annual issues. That output, sustained since 1927, points to a durable infrastructure behind the journal's century of scholarship.