A Note from the Editors

Abstract

In August 2022 we handed over the editorship of French Historical Studies to its ninth team in its sixty-five-year history. Christine Haynes (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) and Jennifer Heuer (University of Massachusetts Amherst) have taken the helm, bringing new expertise and energy to FHS. They will benefit from the experience of our managing editor, Laura Foxworth, and from the excellent staff at Duke University Press, especially the head of journals publishing, Rob Dilworth. FHS, then, is in good hands.When we started in this role in 2014, we anticipated some of the priorities that have shaped FHS's last eight years. In our first editors' note, we wrote that we looked forward to expanding the “parameters of what it means to do ‘French’ history.”1 Certainly, FHS now has a more global orientation than it once did. Our tables of contents reflect a growing interest in la France mondiale. Our authors, peer reviewers, readers, and board members are an increasingly international group. Scholars who submit manuscripts should expect to receive peer reviews in both French and English. Our authors are based in a growing list of countries well beyond our North American and French core.Our initial program didn't include a new look for the journal, but redesigning FHS was a rewarding experience that made our scholarship more readable across platforms and more easily searchable in its digital form. It is also, we think, a more attractive journal, and choosing a new cover image is a highlight of the editorial year. Duke University Press's design team, especially Sue Hall, was a pleasure to work with, and their efforts—from the fonts and page layouts to the striking color blocks on the cover—give FHS a distinctive and functional look for a twenty-first-century academic journal.Of course, in 2014 we didn't know that one challenge waiting for us was publishing during a pandemic, and we're pleased that FHS has continued to produce four issues a year, full of the exciting, innovative research that readers expect of us. That achievement is testimony to the outstanding, hardworking collaborators who volunteer their time and expertise for this journal. The community of historians of France has found creative ways to be scholars despite pandemic restrictions. Colleagues shouldering the burden of virtual teaching—of their students and of their own children—have generously agreed to evaluate research and have written thoughtful, critical appraisals of their colleagues' submissions. Keeping FHS going through the COVID years is a collective accomplishment to be proud of.An engaged and effective editorial board is key to the success of any journal, and we've been fortunate to work with sixty editorial board members, to whom we extend our thanks. Although serving on the board is a significant commitment of time, no one has ever turned us down when we asked them to join.This year also sees the last “Recent Articles in French History” bibliography by Jean-Pierre Hérubel. In 1992 Jean-Pierre proposed to the editors at that time, James Farr and John Contreni, that FHS should publish a list of articles to complement the books and dissertations bibliography, and for thirty years he has compiled that list twice a year. As newly minted PhDs reading FHS, we flipped immediately to the back of the issue, pencil in hand, to make sure that we knew about the latest work in the field. We were hardly the only people to rely on Jean-Pierre to keep us up-to-date, and thirty years of FHS readers owe him a debt of gratitude. Now that scholars set alerts to notify them as new work appears, we have decided to discontinue the articles bibliography, although Sarah Sussman will continue to produce the twice-yearly list of recent books and dissertations.The past eight years have been fun and rewarding for us—an opportunity to survey the field and to shepherd a lot of work by both emerging and seasoned scholars into print. We have—we hope—many good years left as scholars of France and as members of the Society for French Historical Studies, so we look forward to reading many more issues of FHS. Christine, Jennifer, and Laura are fortunate to be able to call on the academic excellence and the generosity of our colleagues in French history, and we wish them all the very best.