Stephen Hague
I teach a broad range of European history courses in the History Department at Rowan University, with a particular emphasis on Modern British and imperial history. Previously, I was the SAHGB Ernest Cook Trust Research Student at Linacre College, Oxford, where I completed my doctorate.
My first book, The Gentleman's House in the British Atlantic World, 1680-1780 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) explored the intersection of architecture, objects, and social status in the eighteenth-century British world. Taking a material culture approach, it offered a social and cultural reading of under-studied small classical houses and their associated families in order to investigate social mobility. I argued that these 'gentlemen's houses' are key to understanding the permeability of the governing class and were physical representations of the combination of dynamism and stasis that characterized Britain in the long eighteenth-century.
More broadly, I am interested in Britain and the British Empire in global perspective. Although my previous work focused primarily on Britain, the topic developed from research on architecture and social status in the British Atlantic. This transatlantic starting point has prompted me to think about the politics of cultural transmission and the interaction of Britain with the world in the modern period. My current book project explores the cultural underpinnings of Britain’s imperial network by examining buildings, objects, design, and collecting in the late-nineteenth and twentieth century Anglo-world.
As a former museum director, I am also interested in the fields of public history and museum management and have published, presented, and consulted on topics such as historic buildings and community, interpretive and strategic planning, the gentry house in the Atlantic World, and Neo-Georgian architecture.
My first book, The Gentleman's House in the British Atlantic World, 1680-1780 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) explored the intersection of architecture, objects, and social status in the eighteenth-century British world. Taking a material culture approach, it offered a social and cultural reading of under-studied small classical houses and their associated families in order to investigate social mobility. I argued that these 'gentlemen's houses' are key to understanding the permeability of the governing class and were physical representations of the combination of dynamism and stasis that characterized Britain in the long eighteenth-century.
More broadly, I am interested in Britain and the British Empire in global perspective. Although my previous work focused primarily on Britain, the topic developed from research on architecture and social status in the British Atlantic. This transatlantic starting point has prompted me to think about the politics of cultural transmission and the interaction of Britain with the world in the modern period. My current book project explores the cultural underpinnings of Britain’s imperial network by examining buildings, objects, design, and collecting in the late-nineteenth and twentieth century Anglo-world.
As a former museum director, I am also interested in the fields of public history and museum management and have published, presented, and consulted on topics such as historic buildings and community, interpretive and strategic planning, the gentry house in the Atlantic World, and Neo-Georgian architecture.
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Books by Stephen Hague
The Gentleman's House in the British Atlantic World analyses the evolution of these houses and owners to tell a story about incremental social change. It challenges accounts of the newly wealthy overspending on houses and material goods. Instead, The Gentleman’s House offers a new interpretation of social mobility characterized by measured growth and demonstrates that colonial Americans and provincial Britons made similar house building and furnishing choices.
Book Chapters by Stephen Hague
The Gentleman's House in the British Atlantic World analyses the evolution of these houses and owners to tell a story about incremental social change. It challenges accounts of the newly wealthy overspending on houses and material goods. Instead, The Gentleman’s House offers a new interpretation of social mobility characterized by measured growth and demonstrates that colonial Americans and provincial Britons made similar house building and furnishing choices.