SHREVEPORT – LSUS history professor Dr. Alexander Mikaberidze joins the editorial team of an internationally acclaimed series designed to expand the academic scope of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.
The series “War, Culture, and Society, 1750-1850” is recognized as the international thought leader about this historical period.
Launched in 2008, the series has published more than 50 volumes, establishing a multi-disciplinary approach to the analysis of military and war by combining political, social, cultural, art and gender history with military history.
“I’m delighted to join this team because the material they publish is as good at it comes,” Mikaberidze said. “It’s great recognition and a great honor to give back to the field in this way.
“When this series was created, I was excited about it and wanted to publish with them. Though I’ve never published a book with this series, I’ve helped review manuscripts in the past.”
Mikaberidze joins professional giants in the field Dr. Rafe Blaufarb (Florida State), Dr. Alan Forest (University of York) and Dr. Karen Hagemann (North Carolina-Chapel Hill) on the editorial team.
“These are the top scholars in our field,” Mikaberidze said. “And the publisher Palgrave Macmillan is one of the top academic publishers in the world, it has a massive presence.
“To be associated with these scholars and this publisher and be selected as an editor by them is truly an honor.”
Editors solicit manuscript ideas and assist authors in the research and development of that idea.
One of Mikaberidze’s specialties is to widen the lens of Imperial France’s and Napoleon’s impact beyond Europe and consider the global effects of this period.
“Essentially what you do as an editor is you’re supervising a growing body of knowledge, curating it,” Mikaberidze said. “You push it in directions that you think will benefit the field as a whole.
“The idea is to work as a part of this team to produce something that will have a lasting legacy.”
Mikaberidze is already working with a Romanian historian who is exploring the Napoleonic Wars’ impact on the Balkan Peninsula, especially Romania and Bulgaria.
“It’s an obscure subject in many respects as it’s not been written about much, but it’s absolutely important to the core of the Napoleonic Era story,” Mikaberidze said. “Looking at the international impact of this time period is critical.
“Many of the existing works are largely centered on Europe, but it’s time that we look at the broader perspective and see the impact these events had on Latin America, the Caribbean, the Balkans, and the Islamic World. That will take time as we look for individual scholars who are interested and committed to these topics.”
Mikaberidze values local historians studying the areas impacted because of their knowledge with the local historiography and context, the local language and the local archive systems.
