Michael Rowe was promoted to Reader in European History in 2017, having joined King’s College London as a Lecturer in 2004. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast (1999-2004). He held a Prize Research Fellowship at Nuffield College Oxford (1996-1999), previously completing his PhD at Cambridge University (1993-1996), and did his first (BA) degree in Medieval and Modern History in King’s College London (1989-1992). Michael Rowe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2004.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Nationalism and Identity Politics in Europe, c.1750-1914
• French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
• Religion and the State in Europe, c.1750-1914
• French and German History, c.1750-1914
• History of Warfare, c.1700 onwards

Michael Rowe’s research is concentrated geographically on Europe, with particular expertise in the history of France and Germany. His publications to date mainly cover the era of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and the decades immediately before and after. In thematic terms, he is especially interested in the growth of the state in Europe and the rise of nationalism. More recently, this has developed into a focus on the role of religion in the politics of various European states in the period spanning the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to the emergence of nation states later in the nineteenth century.

For more details, please see his full research profile.

Selected Publications

• Alan Forrest, Karen Hagemann, Michael Rowe (2016) War, Demobilization and Memory: The Legacy of War in the Era of Atlantic Revolutions Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan [Edited book in print]
• Michael Rowe (2012) ‘Die Sichtbarkeit der Macht: Symbolische Repraesentation von Herrschaft im napoleonischen Kaiserreich’ HISTORISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT, 295 (2), p. 358-389. [Article in print Journal]
• Michael Rowe (2006) 'France, Prussia or Germany? The Napoleonic Wars and Shifting Allegiances in the Rhineland' CENTRAL EUROPEAN HISTORY, 39 (4), pp. 611-640. [Article in print Journal]
• Michael Rowe (2003) Collaboration and resistance in Napoleonic Europe: state formation in an age of upheaval, c. 1800-1815 Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan [Edited book in print]
• Michael Rowe (2003) From Reich to state: the Rhineland in the revolutionary age, 1780-1830 Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press [Authored Book in print]

Teaching

Michael Rowe teaches a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules. These include specialised modules focused on the history of warfare, on religion and politics, on Europe in the age of the French Revolution and Napoleon, and on the history of Germany in the long nineteenth century.

Expertise and public engagement

Michael Rowe is an active member of the German History Society, which furthers the study of German History in the UK and Ireland. He co-convenes the Modern German History seminar run at the Institute of Historical Research. He was also engaged in Waterloo200 events, aimed at advancing a wider public understanding of the Napoleonic Wars and the era of revolutions of which they were part.