James Gregory (historian)

James Richard Thomas Elliott Gregory is a British historian and academic. He specialises in Victorian history, cultural history, social history, and print culture. He is Associate Professor of Modern British History at the University of Plymouth, where he also leads the MA History programme. Gregory is known for his book Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century Britain (2007). His research focuses on nineteenth-century British reform movements, popular entertainment, political discourse, the history of publishing, and historical vegetarianism, as well as Franco-British cultural relations and cultural responses to war.

Gregory studied modern history at the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA. He subsequently earned a MA in historical studies at the University of Cambridge, and later completed his PhD in history at the University of Southampton.^[2] His thesis was titled The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections and was supervised by John Rule.^[1]

Gregory was previously employed at the University of Bradford as a lecturer in Modern British History.^[3] He is currently Associate Professor of Modern British History and programme leader for MA History at the University of Plymouth.^[4]

His research covers reform movements, popular entertainment, political discourse, eccentricity, and biography, as well as print culture, the history of publishing, and the cultural history of mercy, satire, and political change across the long nineteenth century. He has also written on historical vegetarianism, the representation of Napoleon in British culture, Franco-British cultural relations, decolonisation, and cultural responses to war from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.^[5]

His books include Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century Britain (2007), Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian Britain (2010), Victorians Against the Gallows (2011), The Poetry and the Politics: Radical Reform in Victorian England (2014), Libraries, Books and Collectors of Texts, 1600–1900 (2018), The Royal Throne of Mercy and British Culture in the Victorian Age (2020), Mercy and British Culture, 1760–1960 (2021), and Napoleon in British Culture (2025).^[5]

He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.^[6]

• Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century Britain (2007)
• Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-Temples and High Politics in Victorian Britain (2010)
• Victorians Against the Gallows (2011)
• The Poetry and the Politics: Radical Reform in Victorian England (2014)
• Libraries, Books and Collectors of Texts, 1600–1900 (as editor, with Annika Bautz; 2018)
• The Royal Throne of Mercy and British Culture in the Victorian Age (2020)
• Mercy and British Culture, 1760–1960 (2021)
• Napoleon in British Culture (2025)

• James Gregory publications on Academia.edu
• James Gregory at Bloomsbury Publishing
• James Gregory talks about researching the history of mercy in British culture on YouTube
• Annie Gray interviews James Gregory on the history of vegetarianism on BBC Radio 4