Staff profile

Barbara specialises in British social and cultural history, with a particular interest in age relations and how experiences of age were enmeshed with perceptions of gender, rank, and place. Her research is rooted in north-eastern English society, and her work seeks to decentre adult male metropolitan voices so as to better understand the rhizomic social and cultural contexts in which the processes of historical change operate. Her first monograph adopted a macro perspective on generational change in later eighteenth-century England, exploring how age relations influenced attitudes towards concepts of authenticity, nationhood, patriarchy, domesticity, and progress. She is currently working on a complementary project that adopts a micro perspective on the same period, with the working title Entangled Masculinity: the life cycle of Ralph Jackson 1749-1791. This book traces the experiences of one man as he navigates the various stages of the life course, presenting a captivating, and in the end rather melancholy, story of a relatively well-to-do entrepreneur who spent much of his adult life striving to construct an ideal home as the ultimate performance of his masculine identity. In doing so the book questions conventional assumptions about the importance of independence to successful masculinity, demonstrating the entangled nature of both cultural identities and processes of historical change.

Barbara also has a longstanding interest in the early-modern print trade. Here her work looks beyond the men from London who have dominated this history, and includes an article in progress on female producers and consumers of eighteenth-century newspapers. She also recently supervised Beth Debold’s thesis ‘Corporate Bodies: the Lives and Networks of Apprenticeship in the English Book Trade, 1660-1750’ along with colleagues at Newcastle University and the London Stationers’ Company, (funded through a Northern Bridge Collaborative Doctoral Award).  

• Age relations, life cycle, youth transition
• Gender and Sexuality
• Household and family
• Print culture, education, geo-social relations, popular politics

Authored book

• Age Relations and Cultural Change in Eighteenth-Century England
  
  Crosbie, B. (2020). Age Relations and Cultural Change in Eighteenth-Century England. Boydell & Brewer.

Chapter in book

• Lord Crewe’s Charity, from Private Bequest to State-Regulated Charity
  
  Crosbie, B., & Sweet, R. (in press). Lord Crewe’s Charity, from Private Bequest to State-Regulated Charity. In B. Crosbie & R. Sweet (Eds.), Lord Crewe and his Charity: Philanthropy in North-East England, 1674–1896. IMEMS PRESS and Boydell.
• ‘A Grant towards a School’: Lord Crewe’s Charity and Educational Provision in the Eighteenth Century
  
  Crosbie, B. (in press). ‘A Grant towards a School’: Lord Crewe’s Charity and Educational Provision in the Eighteenth Century. In B. Crosbie & R. Sweet (Eds.), Lord Crewe and his Charity: Philanthropy in North-East England, 1674–1896. IMEMS PRESS and Boydell.
• Anne Fisher (1719-1778): Not Simply a Printer’s Wife
  
  Crosbie, B. (2025). Anne Fisher (1719-1778): Not Simply a Printer’s Wife. In The People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009629461
• The Rising Generation and the Fogram: Locating Adulthood in Eighteenth-Century England
  
  Crosbie, B. (2024). The Rising Generation and the Fogram: Locating Adulthood in Eighteenth-Century England. In M. Cannon & L. Tisdall (Eds.), Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z. London University Press.
• Between the Broadside Ballad and the Folksong: Print and Popular Songs in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne
  
  Crosbie, B. (2020). Between the Broadside Ballad and the Folksong: Print and Popular Songs in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne. In S. Carter, K. Gibson, & R. Southey (Eds.), Music in North East England, 1500-1800. Boydell.
• Beyond Coal and Class: Culture and the Economy
  
  Green, A., & Crosbie, B. (2019). Beyond Coal and Class: Culture and the Economy. In B. Crosbie & A. Green (Eds.), The Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500-1800 (pp. 1-20). Boydell Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787441729
• Provincial Purveyors of Culture: the Print Trade in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne
  
  Crosbie, B. (2018). Provincial Purveyors of Culture: the Print Trade in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne. In B. Crosbie & A. Green (Eds.), Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500-1800. Boydell & Brewer.

Edited book

• Lord Crewe and his Charity: Philanthropy in North-East England, 1674–1896
  
  Crosbie, B., & Sweet, R. (Eds.). (in press). Lord Crewe and his Charity: Philanthropy in North-East England, 1674–1896. IMEMS Press and Boydell.
• The Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500-1800
  
  Crosbie, B., & Green, A. (Eds.). (2018). The Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500-1800. Boydell Press.

Journal Article

• Anne Fisher: Gender and Print in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne
  
  Crosbie, B. (2023). Anne Fisher: Gender and Print in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle upon Tyne. Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 6, vol. 2, 307-319. https://doi.org/10.5284/1125938
• Anne Fisher's New Grammar: Textbooks and Teaching in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle Upon Tyne
  
  Crosbie, B. (2014). Anne Fisher’s New Grammar: Textbooks and Teaching in Eighteenth-Century Newcastle Upon Tyne. Publishing History, LXXIV, 49-65.
• Half-Penny Ballads and the Soundscape of Eighteenth-Century Electioneering
  
  Crosbie, B. (2013). Half-Penny Ballads and the Soundscape of Eighteenth-Century Electioneering. Publishing History, LXX, 9-31.