This volume publishes texts from the British Academy's 2014 and 2015 lecture programmes, which were posted to the online Journal of the British Academy in 2015.

The subjects covered include: Europe's rebuilding after the Second World War by Ian Kershaw; Scotland's emergence as a nation by Dauvit Broun; poverty and statistics by Ruth Lister; time-keeping in Shakespeare's plays by Tiffany Stern; the novel as therapy by Patricia Waugh.

The editors are Professors Janet Carsten and Simon Frith, who are both Fellows of the British Academy. The authors are all recognised experts in their fields within the humanities and social sciences and the texts published here have been rigorously peer-reviewed.