Michael Reeve

I am a historian of modern Britain, with research interests related to the social and cultural history of war, consumption and empire. I am particularly interested in the endurance and resilience of civilians and service personnel in the context of war. This interest, in endurance and resilience among ordinary people, runs like a thread throughout my work in diverse areas of modern British and European History.

My research on smoking culture, tobacco consumption and provision has focused on British military and civilian contexts during the First World War, particularly the use of tobacco as a mild narcotic in situations of combat and war strain, as well as its symbolism in codes of martial masculinity and patriotism.

I have also published on Victorian and Edwardian urban culture and the ‘coastal-urban’ context during the First World War, focusing on the north-east coast of England and the civilian experience of naval and aerial bombardment. My first monograph, Bombardment, Public Safety and Resilience in English Coastal Communities during the First World War, was published in 2021 by Palgrave Macmillan.

My current research project focuses on the use of tobacco by military personnel and non-combatants in the context of modern wars involving Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the Crimean War, Second Boer War, and the First and Second World Wars.