Hilary Bernstein
· ProfessorVerifiedUniversity of California, Santa Barbara · History
Active 1992–2025
About
Hilary Bernstein is a Professor in the Department of History at UC Santa Barbara, with a Ph.D. from Princeton University obtained in 1996. Her research focuses on early modern France, particularly on erudition, family memory, and the urban culture of French provincial cities from the sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. Bernstein's work explores the political culture of mid-sized provincial capitals, local history writing, genealogical culture, and the social, cultural, intellectual, and political conditions of the early modern period. She has authored books such as 'Between Crown and Community' and 'Historical Communities,' which examine local history, networks of erudite scholars, and the construction of urban and national identities in France. Currently, she is working on a book project about family memory and genealogical culture in France, connecting archival and literary sources to understand how families constructed their trajectories and histories. Bernstein also co-edited 'Constructing European Historical Narratives in the Early Modern World' and continues to pursue research on local memory, the Wars of Religion, and urban warfare in France during the religious wars.
Research topics
- History
- Art
- Humanities
- Classics
- Sociology
- Aesthetics
- Political Science
- Law
- Geography
- Genealogy
- Anthropology
- Literature
- Art history
Selected publications
:<i>The French Monarchical Commonwealth, 1356–1560</i>
Sixteenth Century Journal · 2025-06-01
article1st authorCorresponding: <i>A Peddler’s Tale: Religious Exile and Community in Early Modern Switzerland</i>
Renaissance Quarterly · 2025-09-01
article1st authorCorrespondingFamily History and Academic Community
Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History · 2025-12-01
article1st authorCorrespondingActivité historienne et appartenance urbaine
Histoire urbaine · 2023-01-26
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingCet article porte sur un genre manuscrit d’histoire urbaine à la ville de Poitiers au xvii e siècle : les listes des maires de la ville, accompagnées de courts textes expliquant les évènements les plus importants de leurs mandats. Ces annales offraient un espace écrit privilégié pour essayer d’établir une mémoire urbaine particulière tout en interrogeant ce que cette histoire voulait dire pour la communauté et les factions politiques et sociales qui la composaient. Certaines d’entre elles ont été incorporées aux archives officielles de l’Hôtel de Ville tandis que d’autres sont restées dans les collections privées. Au travers d’un processus d’écriture, de réécriture et d’emprunt s’étalant sur plusieurs générations, de multiples auteurs insistèrent sur l’importance de leurs familles notables, tout en essayant d’imposer leurs vues sur les divisions religieuses et politiques du passé, en particulier les guerres de Religion et les révoltes des princes du début du xvii e siècle.
Ceremonial Splendor: Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France
French History · 2023 · 2 citations
1st authorCorresponding- History
- Classics
- Art history
Journal Article Ceremonial Splendor: Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France Get access Ceremonial Splendor: Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France By Joy PalaciosPhiladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2022. 288 pp. £49. ISBN 9781512822786. Hilary J Bernstein Hilary J Bernstein University of California, Santa Barbara, USA bernstein@history.ucsb.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6530-5134 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French History, crad019, https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crad019 Published: 13 May 2023
French Cities in the Sixteenth Century
2022-10-31
reference-entry1st authorCorrespondingFrench cities in the sixteenth century were important centers of intellectual culture and local identity. Local elites, including judges and lawyers, wrote legal and historical works that conceptualized their cities as unique communities and projected these specific identities back in historical time. Religious processions also helped to define local communities in spatial and religious terms. Over the course of the century, many French cities experienced an increasing tendency toward oligarchy and a growing social and political role for royal judicial and financial officials. There was a growing tendency in many cities to limit the number of city counselors, and a comparative reduction in the possibilities for popular participation in municipal affairs, such as attendance at general assemblies. The French Crown did attempt to limit the role that judicial and financial officials could play in municipal government through a royal edict of 1547, but these efforts generally proved unsuccessful. Furthermore, even if urban governments found themselves in competition with royal judicial courts in exercising political authority within cities, the prestige of these courts often led municipal officials to work toward having new ones established in their communities. Despite these trends in the growing influence of royal officials and other social elites, however, French cities retained their focus on local rights. French cities played a significant role within the wider political landscape of the French kingdom, and the French kings relied on local elites to keep order. With the rise of Protestant belief by the 1550s, French cities began to experience a considerable amount of religious conflict. During the French Wars of Religion, many cities were occupied by Protestant troops and numerous churches and religious accoutrements were destroyed. Massacres of both Protestants and Catholics took place, including the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris and other cities in 1572 and the Michelade massacre in Nîmes in 1567. With the development of the Catholic League in 1585, French cities again found themselves divided. Ardent Catholics in many cities criticized King Henry III for his alliance with the Protestant Henry of Navarre and, following the assassination of Henry III in 1589, refused to recognize Henry IV's claim to the French throne. The French Wars of Religion had a strong impact on the lives of people who lived in French cities in the sixteenth century, and scholars are only now beginning to realise that the effects of these conflicts continued to have an impact on the generations that followed.
Emma Claussen. <i>Politics and ‘Politiques’ in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History</i>.
The American Historical Review · 2022-02-24
article1st authorCorrespondingJournal Article Emma Claussen. Politics and ‘Politiques’ in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History. Get access Emma Claussen. Politics and ‘Politiques’ in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. 320. Cloth $99.99. Hilary J. Bernstein Hilary J. Bernstein University of California, Santa Barbara Email: bernstein@history.ucsb.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 127, Issue 1, March 2022, Pages 547–548, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhac119 Published: 26 April 2022
2021-01-16
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingMunicipal History and Urban Privileges
2021-01-16
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2021-01-16
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 34 shared
Hao‐Jie Zhu
Jiangxi Agricultural University
- 34 shared
John S. Markowitz
University of Florida
- 30 shared
Kennerly S. Patrick
- 21 shared
Owen T. Reeves
University of Florida
- 21 shared
Robert Malcolm
Medical University of South Carolina
- 21 shared
Arthur B. Straughn
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
- 18 shared
Kenneth D. Chavin
Case Western Reserve University
- 18 shared
Bryan J. Brinda
Education
- 1996
PhD, History
Princeton University
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