Through debates about inequality in the global economy, reparations for slavery, or the organisation of public memory, we are colonial histories matter. But what tools should we be using to research them?

This book equips social science researchers with those tools, letting them carry out research projects that take the histories of colonialism seriously – from theoretical reflections, to research methods and analysis. It sets out rigorous social-scientific and historiographic methods to analyse the impact, changes and continuities of European colonialism and imperialism. By drawing together innovations in the fields of historical sociology, postcolonial theory and critical historiography, it provides researchers and students with practical, step-by-step advice on how to design an empirical research project. This includes overcoming the three main challenges in doing this form of research: timespans that can reach into centuries; vast geographical extents, and reaching past cultural discourse to engage with physical, material archives.

Lucy Mayblin is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Co-Director of the Migration Research Group at the University of Sheffield, UK

Joe Turner is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of York, UK