About me

Dr Boyce’s main field of interest is the dynamic relationship between economics, politics and national mythologies shaping international affairs in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr Boyce studied at the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University and University College London before obtaining his PhD at the London School of Economics. He joined the Department of International History as a Lecturer in 1977. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, the Université Paris IV-Sorbonne and the Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris. He was also an adjunct professor at the Collège Universitaire de Sciences Po, Campus de Dijon, and a member of the Comité Scientifique of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Dijon until 2015.

Expertise Details

Historical International Political Economy; National Mythologies

Monographs

Britain’s Problem with Europe (London, forthcoming)
The Great Interwar Crisis and the Collapse of Globalization, revised paperback edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
The Great Interwar Crisis and the Collapse of Globalization (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009)
British Capitalism at the Crossroads, 1919-1932: A Study in Politics, Economics, and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)

Edited books and journals

with Sabine Jansen, Pierre Purseigle and Marie Scot (editors), ‘Historiographies étrangères de la Première Guerre Mondiale’, special issue of Histoire@Politique, no.22 (Jan-Apr 2014)
with Olivier Feiertag (editors), ‘France face au dollar’, special issue of Histoire@Politique, no.19 (Jan-Apr. 2013)
with Sabine Jansen (editors), ‘La culture économique des homes politiques à l’épreuve du pouvoir’, special issue of Histoire@Politique, no.16 (Jan-Apr. 2012)
with Clarisse Berthezène (editors), ‘Les mondes britanniques’, special issue of Histoire@Politique, no.11 (May-Aug. 2010)
with Joe Maiolo (editors), The Origins of World War Two: The Debate Continues (London: Palgrave, 2003)
(editor, translator, contributor) French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940: The Decline and Fall of a Great Power (London: Routledge, 1998)
(editor) The Communications Revolution at Work: Studies on the British and Canadian Experience, School of Policy Studies Papers (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998)
with E.M. Robertson (editors), Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War (Houndmills Basingstoke, 1989)
(contributing editor) The Royal Historical Society Annual Bibliography of British and Irish History, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 (London: Harvester, 1980-87)

Articles, book chapters and reports

‘The Bank of England in the First World War and its Aftermath: The Price of Victory’, in O. Feiertag and M. Margairaz (eds.), Les banques centrales pendant la Grande Guerre/Central Banks in the Great War (Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2020), pp. 225-48
‘Le trilemme de Dani Rodrik et la grande crise de l’entre-deux-guerres’, in Danièle Fraboulet et Philippe Verheyde (eds.), Pour une histoire sociale et politique de l’économie. Hommages à Michel Margairaz (Paris, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2019), pp. 423-46
‘Tentatives de modernisation libérale et conservatrice en Grande Bretagne 1925 – 1935’, in Alya Aglan, Michel Margairaz et Philippe Verheyde (eds.), De la croissance à la crise (1925 – 1935) Le moment Tannery (Paris, 2014)
with Sabine Jansen et Pierre Purseigle, ‘Historiographies étrangères de la Première Guerre mondiale. Introduction’, Histoire@Politique. Politique, culture, société, no.22, janvier-avril 2014
with Olivier Feiertag, ‘La France face au dollar: les chemins de la mondialisation au XXe siècle. Introduction’, Histoire@Politique. Politique, culture, société, no.19, janvier-avril 2013
‘When “Uncle Sam” became “Uncle Shylock”: sources and strength of French anti-Americanism, 1919-1932’, Histoire@Politique, 18 (Jan-Apr 2013)
‘Aristide Briand: défendre la République par des accommodements économiques’, Histoire@Politique, 16 (January – April 2012)
'The Persistence of Anglo-Saxonism in Britain and the origins of Britain’s appeasement policy towards Germany', Histoire@Politique, 15 (September - December 2011)
‘The significance of 1931 for British imperial and international history’ Histoire@Politique, no.11 (May-August 2010)
‘The Origins of Cable and Wireless Limited, 1918-1939: capitalism, imperialism and technical change’, in Bernard Finn and Daqing Yang (eds.) Communications Under the Seas: A Twice-Rejuvenated 19th-Century Technology and its Social Implications (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2008)
‘Money and International Politics’, in Gordon Martel (ed.), The Companion to International History, 1900 – 2001 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
‘Le rôle d’Aristide Briand en Europe: quelques autres oublies de l’histoire de l’entre-deux-guerres’, in Jacques Bariéty (dir.), Aristide Briand, la Société des Nations et l’Europe, 1919-1932 (Bruxelles et Berne: Peter Lang, 2007)
‘Behind the façade of the Entente cordiale after the Great War’, in Antoine Capet (ed.), Britain, France and the Entente Cordiale since 1004 (London: Palgrave, 2006)
‘La position du Foreign Office face à l’Europe, de 1919 à 1931: entre professionalisme et préjugés’ in Laurence Badel, Stanislas Jeannesson et Piers Ludlow (dirs.), Les administrations nationales face aux défis européens au XXème siècle (Berne: Peter Lang, 2005)
‘Grande-Bretagne/États-Unis: une “relation spéciale” à sens unique?’, in Jacques Leruez (ed.), Londres et le Monde: stratèges et stratégies britanniques (Paris: Autrement, 2005), pp.39-80
‘The Government, the City of London and the subversive impact of the gold standard, 1925-1931’, in Ranald Michie and Phillip Williamson (eds.), The Power to Influence: The British Government and the City of London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
‘In Search of the Special Relationship in the Economic and Financial Spheres’. In Antoine Capet et Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu (dirs.), The ‘Special Relationship’: La ‘relation spéciale’ entre le Royaume-Uni et les Etats-Unis (Rouen: Publications de l’Université de Rouen, 2003), pp.67-88 [ISBN 2-87775-341-7]
‘The trial of Maurice Papon for crimes against humanity and the concept of bureaucratic crime’, In R. A. Melikan (ed.), The Trial in History, Vol.II: Domestic and International Trials, 1700-2000 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp.157-78 [ISBN 0-7190-6486-4]
‘La Banque de France et la Banque d'Angleterre dans l'entre-deux-guerres: origines et conséquences d'un conflit', in Olivier Feiertag et Michel Margairaz (dirs.), Politiques et pratiques des banques d'émission en Europe (XVIIe - XXe siècle) Paris: Albin Michel, 2003)
‘Economics’, in R. Boyce and J. Maiolo (eds.), The Origins of World War Two: The Debate Continues (London: Palgrave, 2003), pp.249-72
'Sir Ralph Hawtrey', 'Montagu Norman', 'Gold Standard', 'Import Duties Act (1932)', 'Wall Street Crash, 1929', in John Ramsden (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century British Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp.271, 291, 322, 475, 673
‘”Breaking the Banque”: The Great Crisis in Franco-British Central Bank Relations between the Wars'. In Philippe Chassaigne et Michael Dockrill (dirs.), Anglo-French Relations, 1898-1998: From Fashoda to Jospin (London: Palgrave, 2002), pp.80-93 [ISBN 0-333-91261-6]
‘The Rise of Poverty in Britain during the Monetarist Experiment, 1979-87: Unintended Consequence?’ in Antoine Capet, Philippe Romanski and Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu (dirs.), Pauvreté et Inégalités en Grande-Bretagne 1942-1990 (Rouen: CELCLA, Université de Rouen, 2001), pp.121-36
‘The Collapse of Globalisation in the Inter-War Period: Some Implications for Twentieth-Century History’, in Gabriele Clemens (ed.), Nation und Europa: Studien zum internationalen Staatensystem im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Festschrift für Peter Krüger zum 65. Geburtstag (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001), pp.121-32
'Imperial dreams and national realities: Britain, Canada and the struggle for a Pacific telegraph cable, 1879-1902', The English Historical Review, Vol.CXV, No.460 (January 2000), pp.39-70
‘Wall Street and the spectre of the "Money Power" in small-town America before and after the Crash of 1929', in Philippe Romanski (ed.), Etats de New York (Rouen: Publications de l'Université de Rouen, 2000), pp.19-31
'Historical Analysis and Fallacies in Interpreting Historical Data', in Martin W. Bauer and George Gaskell (eds.), Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook (London: Sage Publications, 2000), pp.318-35
'American or Anglo-Saxon challenge for Europe in the 1920s?' Marchands, banquiers et hommes d'affaires dans l'espace européen, Actes des conférences et séminaires de la Chaire Glaverbel de Sociétés et Civilisations européennes (Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut d'études européennes, UCL, 1999), pp.79-102
'The British Drinks Trade and Britain's Accession to the EEC, 1957-1970', in Eric Bussière et Michel Dumoulin (dirs.), Milieux économiques et Intégration européenne en Europe occidentale au XXe siècle (Arras: Artois Presses Université, 1998), pp.149-59
'Canada and the Pacific Cable Controversy, 1923-1928: Forgotten Source of Imperial Alienation', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol.26, No.1 (January, 1998), pp.72-92
'The Briand Plan and the Crisis of British Liberalism', in Antoine Fleury (ed.), Le Plan Briand d'Union fédérale européenne (Berne: Peter Lang, 1998), pp.121-44
'1940 as End and Beginning in French Inter-War History and Historiography', in Robert Boyce (ed.), French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940 (London: Routledge, 1998), pp.1-9
'Business as Usual: The Limits of French Economic Diplomacy, 1926-1933', in Robert Boyce (ed.), French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940 (London: Routledge, 1998), pp.107-31
'Britain's changing corporate structure and the crisis of central bank control in the 1920s, in Philip Cottrell and Alice Teichova (eds.), Finance in the Age of the Corporate Economy (Aldershot Hants: Ashgate Publishing, 1997), pp.142-63
'Economics and the crisis of British foreign policy management, 1914-45', in Dick Richardson and Glyn Stone (eds.), Decisions and Diplomacy: Essays in Twentieth-Century International History (London: Routledge, 1995), pp.9-41
'The Origins of French Support for European Monetary Union', in David Currie and John D. Whitley (eds.), EMU after Maastricht: Transition or Revaluation? (London: Lothian Foundation Press, 1995), pp.69-86
'Submarine Cables as a Factor in Britain's Ascendancy as a World Power, 1850-1914', in Michael North (ed.), Kommunikationsrevolutionen: Die neuen Medien des 16. und 19. Jahrhunderts (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 1995), pp.81-100
'Was there a "British" alternative to the Briand Plan?', in P. Catteral and C.J. Morris (eds.), Britain and the Threat to Stability in Europe, 1918-1945 (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1993), pp.17-34
'France, Maastricht and the Anglo-Saxon Powers: An Historian's View', Centre for International Studies, Toronto, Occasional Papers (1993)
'Thatcher, Major, Mitterrand and the Prospects for European Union', Centre for International Studies, Toronto, Occasional Papers (1993)
'The City of London in the British Economy and British Politics in the Twentieth Century', in Clemens A. Wurm (ed.), Wege nach Europa: Wirtschaft und Aussenpolitik Grossbritanniens im 20. Jahrhundert (Bochum: Universitäts Brockmeyer, 1992), pp.41-70
'Sir Alfred Mond' and 'Sir Arthur Salter' in Thierry Grosbois et Yves Stelandre (eds.), Les Cercles économiques et l'Europe au XXe siècle, receuil de texts (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1992)
'British Capitalism and Idea of European Unity Between the Wars', in P.M.R. Stirk (ed.), European Unity in Context: The Interwar Period (London, 1989), pp.65-83.
'World Depression, World War: Some Economic Origins of the Second World War' in Robert Boyce and E. M. Robertson (eds.), Paths to War (1989), pp.55-95
'Insects and International Relations: Canada, France, and British Agricultural Sanitary Restrictions between the Wars,' International History Review, vol.ix, no.1 (February 1987), pp.1-30
'Creating the Myth of Consensus: Public Opinion and Britain's Return to the Gold Standard in 1925,' in P.L. Cottrell and D.E. Moggridge (eds.), Money and Power: Essays in Honour of L.S. Pressnell (London: Macmillan, 1987), pp.173-98
'Before the Last Great Depression: Lessons from the 1920s,' Canada House Lectures, no.34 (London, 1987)
'British Leadership in the International Economic System 1925-31,' in Gustav Schmidt (ed.), Konstellationen International Politik: politische und wirtschaftliche Faktoren in den Beziehungen zwischen Westeuropa und den Vereinigten Staaten (Bochum: Studienverlag Dr N. Brockmeyer, 1983), pp.317-29
'Coming to Terms with Nationalism: Some Recent Literature on the National Question in Europe,' European Studies Review, vol.xii, no.1 (1982), pp.373-84
'Britain's first "No" to Europe: Britain and the Briand Plan, 1929-30', European Studies Review, vol.x, no.1(1980), pp.17-45
'America, Europe and the Triumph of Imperial Protectionism in Britain, 1929-30,' Millennium, vol.iii, no.1(1974), pp.53-70

	The Great Interwar Crisis and the Collapse of Globalization (2012) [revised paperback edition]
	The Origins of World War Two: The Debate Continues (2003) [edited with Joe Maiolo]
	French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940: The Decline and Fall of a Great Power (1998) [editor, translator, contributor]
	The Communications Revolution at Work: Studies on the British and Canadian Experience, School of Policy Studies Papers (1998) [editor]
	Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War (1989) [edited with E.M. Robertson]
	British Capitalism at the Crossroads, 1919-1932: A Study in Politics, Economics, and International Relations (1987)
	The Royal Historical Society Annual Bibliography of British and Irish History, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 (1980-87) [contributing editor]