Departmental homepageProfessor McCarthy is a historian of modern Britain and an author of three books, including Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (Bloomsbury, 2020), which was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. Before joining the Faculty of History at Cambridge in September 2018, she taught at Queen Mary University of London for nine years. Recent and forthcoming publications include essays on the life-writing of Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb, everyday life in Britain during Covid 19 and a Special Issue of Contemporary British History on British society, politics and culture in the 1990s (co-edited with David Geiringer). Professor McCarthy's current book project is a social and cultural history of retirement since 1945, to be published by Penguin (Allen Lane).
Professor McCarthy teaches across all parts of the Historical Tripos and on the MPhil in Modern British History.
Professor McCarthy's expertise covers the social, political and cultural history of Britain since the late 19th century, with particular interests in histories of gender, work, non-governmental activism, ageing and retirement.
Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (Bloomsbury, 2020) – shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, and longlisted for the Historical Writers Association Non-Fiction Crown Award
Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat (Bloomsbury, 2014) – winner of Best International Affairs Book at the Political Book Awards 2015
The British People and the League of Nations: Democracy, Citizenship and Internationalism, c.1918-1945 (Manchester 2011)
