Subfield · History
Most cited papers in History
What are the most cited papers in History?
The most cited paper in History is "Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism" (Anthony J. S. Reid, 1985), with 26,020 citations. Next come "Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body." (5,047) and "Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation." (4,995).
Showing 50 of 99 papers. Every paper with more than 712 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism Anthony J. S. Reid · Pacific Affairs | Sep 1985 | 26,020 |
| 2 | Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Mimi Nichter, Susan Bordo · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews | 1995 | 5,047 |
| 3 | Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Moira Ferguson, Mary Louise Pratt · Eighteenth-Century Studies | 1993 | 4,995 |
| 4 | Chapman and Hall Anne Lohrli · Notes and Queries | Sep 1985 | 4,367 |
| 5 | TIME, WORK-DISCIPLINE, AND INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM E. P. Thompson · Past & Present | 1967 | 3,783 |
| 6 | Ameliorating physical and chemical properties of highly weathered soils in the tropics with charcoal - a review Bruno Glaser, Johannes C. Lehmann, Wolfgang Zech · Biology and Fertility of Soils | Jun 2002 | 2,893 |
| 7 | Routes: Travel and Translation In the Late Twentieth Century Richard Handler · American Ethnologist | Feb 1998 | 2,330 |
| 8 | Gender and the Development of Welfare Regimes Jane Lewis · Journal of European Social Policy | Aug 1992 | 2,303 |
| 9 | Black Carbon Increases Cation Exchange Capacity in Soils Biqing Liang, Johannes C. Lehmann, Dawit Solomon et al. · Soil Science Society of America Journal | 22 Aug 2006 | 2,211 |
| 10 | What is an emotion? William T. James III | 10 May 2005 | 2,204 |
| 11 | Third world women and the politics of feminism Godwin Ohiwerei · Women s Studies International Forum | Sep 1992 | 2,039 |
| 12 | Social Memory Studies: From “Collective Memory” to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices Jeffrey K. Olick, Joyce Robbins · Annual Review of Sociology | Aug 1998 | 1,951 |
| 13 | 9. The Generation Of Postmemory Marianne Hirsch · Poetics Today | Mar 2008 | 1,930 |
| 14 | Nutrient availability and leaching in an archaeological Anthrosol and a Ferralsol of the Central Amazon basin: fertilizer, manure and charcoal amendments Johannes C. Lehmann, José Pereira da Silva, Christoph Steiner et al. · Plant and Soil | Feb 2003 | 1,907 |
| 15 | Medicalization and Social Control Peter Conrad · Annual Review of Sociology | Aug 1992 | 1,745 |
| 16 | THE LIMITS OF THE SOVEREIGN STATE: Strategies of Crime Control in Contemporary Society Diana S. Richmond Garland · The British Journal of Criminology | 1996 | 1,709 |
| 17 | Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics David G. Skidmore · Political Science Quarterly | 1999 | 1,647 |
| 18 | A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations, by Amitai Etzioni Peter H. Fricke · Political Science Quarterly | 1976 | 1,630 |
| 19 | Faithfulness and Reduplicative Identity John J. McCarthy, Alan Prince · Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) | 1995 | 1,620 |
| 20 | Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850 Janet Wolff, Leonore Davidoff, Catherine Hall · Feminist Review | 1987 | 1,509 |
| 21 | Neorealism and its critics Barry G. Buzan · International Affairs | 1986 | 1,502 |
| 22 | The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492 William M. Denevan · Annals of the Association of American Geographers | Sep 1992 | 1,468 |
| 23 | The Origins of Human Rights Regimes: Democratic Delegation in Postwar Europe Andrew M. Moravcsik · International Organization | 2000 | 1,445 |
| 24 | Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The Paradox of Empty Promises Emilie Marie Hafner-Burton, Kiyoteru Tsutsui · American Journal of Sociology | Mar 2005 | 1,425 |
| 25 | Neotropical secondary forest succession: changes in structural and functional characteristics Manuel R. Guariguata, Rebecca Ostertag · Forest Ecology and Management | Jul 2001 | 1,390 |
| 26 | The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art Brian Steensland, Lynn D. Robinson, W. Bradford Wilcox et al. · Social Forces | Sep 2000 | 1,375 |
| 27 | Management control systems and strategy: A critical review Kim Langfield‐Smith · Accounting Organizations and Society | Feb 1997 | 1,370 |
| 28 | Introduction: Inventing Traditions Eric Hobsbawm · Cambridge University Press eBooks | 26 Mar 2012 | 1,369 |
| 29 | Long term effects of manure, charcoal and mineral fertilization on crop production and fertility on a highly weathered Central Amazonian upland soil Christoph Steiner, Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira, Johannes C. Lehmann et al. · Plant and Soil | Feb 2007 | 1,323 |
| 30 | FEVER OF UNEXPLAINED ORIGIN: REPORT ON 100 CASES Robert G. Petersdorf, Paul B. Beeson · Medicine | Feb 1961 | 1,315 |
| 31 | The navigation of feeling a framework for the history of emotions William M. Reddy | 2001 | 1,301 |
| 32 | Worldmaking after empire: the rise and fall of self-determination Lennart Riebe · International Affairs | Sep 2020 | 1,290 |
| 33 | Can there be a feminist ethnography? Judith Stacey · Women s Studies International Forum | 1988 | 1,269 |
| 34 | Miller's Anesthesia Ronald D. Miller | 2005 | 1,241 |
| 35 | The Importance of Land-Use Legacies to Ecology and Conservation David R. Foster, Frederick J. Swanson, John D. Aber et al. · BioScience | 2003 | 1,213 |
| 36 | Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in light of the new cultural geography Wilbert M. Gesler · Social Science & Medicine | Apr 1992 | 1,207 |
| 37 | ARE EMOTIONS A KIND OF PRACTICE (AND IS THAT WHAT MAKES THEM HAVE A HISTORY)? A BOURDIEUIAN APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING EMOTION Monique Scheer · History and Theory | May 2012 | 1,164 |
| 38 | The “Mainstreaming” of America: Violence Profile No. 11 George Gerbner, Larry P. Gross, Michael Morgan et al. · Journal of Communication | Sep 1980 | 1,163 |
| 39 | Elections Under Authoritarianism Jennifer Gandhi, Ellen Lust · Annual Review of Political Science | 11 May 2009 | 1,142 |
| 40 | Credible Power-Sharing and the Longevity of Authoritarian Rule Beatriz Magaloni · Comparative Political Studies | 31 Jan 2008 | 1,136 |
| 41 | A critical assessment of the “sterile womb” and “in utero colonization” hypotheses: implications for research on the pioneer infant microbiome María Elisa Pérez-Muñoz, Marie‐Claire Arrieta, Amanda E. Ramer‐Tait et al. · Microbiome | 28 Apr 2017 | 1,134 |
| 42 | Art and Agency An Anthropological Theory Stephanie Takaragawa · Visual Anthropology Review | Sep 1998 | 1,119 |
| 43 | The 'Terra Preta' phenomenon: a model for sustainable agriculture in the humid tropics Bruno Glaser, Ludwig Haumaier, Georg Guggenberger et al. · Die Naturwissenschaften | 2001 | 1,112 |
| 44 | The gentle civilizer of nations the rise and fall of international law, 1870 - 1960 Martti Koskenniemi | 2002 | 1,096 |
| 45 | IMPERIAL DEBRIS: Reflections on Ruins and Ruination Ann Laura Stoler · Cultural Anthropology | May 2008 | 1,088 |
| 46 | The rise of surveillance medicine David Armstrong · Sociology of Health & Illness | Jun 1995 | 1,080 |
| 47 | The Image of Objectivity Lorraine Daston, Peter Galison · Representations | 1992 | 1,075 |
| 48 | In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity Charles E. Rosenberg, Daniel J. Kevles · Journal of American History | Jun 1986 | 1,072 |
| 49 | The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage James N. Gilbert, Todd Gitlin · Journal of American History | Mar 1989 | 1,071 |
| 50 | The Dynamics of Informational Cascades: The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany, 1989–91 Susanne Lohmann · World Politics | Oct 1994 | 1,058 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.