Introduction to Cambridge Histories Online

In November 1902, the first volume of The Cambridge Modern History was published. It was reprinted within a month and established the genre of collaborative scholarly reference uniquely associated with Cambridge. The original twelve volumes of the Cambridge Modern History were swiftly followed by the Cambridge History of English Literature, the Cambridge Medieval History, the Cambridge Ancient History and the Histories of India and the British Empire. A further wave of commissioning from the 1950s to the 1980s initiated the Cambridge Histories of China, Japan, Africa, Latin America, Islam, Iran, various Cambridge Economic Histories, and the revision and renewal of some of the original Histories. During the last decade further expansion has taken place, with Cambridge Histories of political thought, of literature and of philosophy all coming to fruition.