Dr Phil McCluskey

B.A. (York), M.A. (Durham), Ph.D. (St Andrews), FRHistS

Lecturer in the History of Early Modern Europe

Office Hours: Autumn 2013-14 - Mondays 10-11am and Wednesdays 10-11am

p.mccluskey@sheffield.ac.uk
 

+44 (0)114 22 22616
 

Jessop West 2.11

Major Publications

Biography

Phil McCluskey joined the History Department in 2012. He did his undergraduate degree at the University of York, followed by a M.A. at Durham and then a Ph.D. north of the border in St Andrews. He has worked as a Lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway and more recently at the University of Manchester.

Membership of Professional Bodies

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. 

Member, Society for French Historical Studies.

Research

Current Research

My current project, ‘Louis XIV’s Crusade Against Islam’, examines French relations with the Ottoman world in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. My research on this topic so far has looked at the first decade of Louis XIV’s personal rule, the 1660s, which witnessed a series of military confrontations between French and Islamic forces. This study will look at the changing perceptions of Islam in French society, and will assess how far French government policy was working alongside or against public opinion; this includes charting the attitudes of certain groups in French society who came into contact with the Ottoman world: nobles involved in military campaigns against the Ottomans and the Barbary pirates; merchants who depended on trade with the Levant; and the growing number of orientalist scholars who provided political and economic memoranda for the government.

Research Interests

My research interests concern the expansion of early modern France, both within Europe and overseas. I am also interested in government, society and international relations in western Europe from c.1550-1750, particularly with regard to France, Savoy-Piedmont and Lorraine. I recently completed a book on France’s eastern frontiers, Absolute Monarchy on the Frontiers: Louis XIV’s Military Occupations of Lorraine and Savoy, published by Manchester University Press. The book focuses on the issues of absolute monarchy, identity and allegiance in early modern frontier regions, and the development of the concept of military occupation.

Public Engagement and Impact

To Follow.

Research Supervision and Teaching

Phil McCluskey welcomes postgraduate students working on any project related to the political and social history of early modern France, Lorraine or Savoy-Piedmont, as well as students interested in European involvement with the Ottoman world (16th to 18th centuries).

Current PhD Students

To Follow.

Administrative Roles and Responsibilities

• Level 2 Tutor
• Dissertations Co-ordinator

Selected Publications

Books

- Absolute Monarchy on the Frontiers: Louis XIV’s Military Occupations of Lorraine and Savoy (MUP, 2013).

Articles and Essays

- ‘Louis XIV, Duke Leopold I and the neutrality of Lorraine, 1702-1714’ in European History Quarterly (forthcoming).

- ‘From Regime Change to Réunion: Louis XIV’s Quest for Legitimacy in Lorraine, 1670-97’ in the English Historical Review 126 (2011), pp. 1386-1407.

- ‘Commerce Before Crusade? France, the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary Pirates, 1661-1669’ in French History 23 (2009), pp. 1-21.