Tim Blanning's research interests are focused on the history of continental Europe in the period 1660-1914. His early work concentrated on the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy during the eighteenth century and he retains a strong interest in this area. During the 1980s and 1990s his focus moved westwards to France during the Revolution, especially to its foreign policy and its interaction with the rest of Europe. A particular interest has been the reaction the revolutionaries' missionising campaigns to convert the rest of Europe to the principles of liberty, fraternity and equality. Most recently, he has concentrated on the high culture of Europe and its relationship to state power, which resulted in his prize-winning study The culture of power and power of culture 1660-1789. He is currently working on why music progressed from subordinate status in the early modern period to its present position of supremacy among the creative arts. He is also planning a fundamental revision of the way in which Richard Wagner and his works relate to the politics and culture of nineteenth century Europe. He is also the general editor of The Oxford History of Modern Europe and of The Short Oxford History of Europe, editing personally the volumes on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the latter series. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1990.

Homepage: http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/academic_staff/further_details/blanning.html