Our history

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1843

Daniel MacmillanAlexander MacmillanThe Three QuestionsInterior Spread

The founders of Macmillan Publishers, brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, started trading at 57 Aldersgate St., London and published their first two books: The Philosophy of Training by A R Craig and The Three Questions: What am I? Whence Came I? Whither do I Go? by William Haig Miller. They then moved the business to Cambridge where they were based until 1863.

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July 1861

Macmillan published The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs & Lyrical Poems in the English Language edited by Palgrave Macmillan namesake Francis Turner Palgrave, which became one of the best loved poetry anthologies of all time.

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20th January 1864

The first edition of The Statesman's Yearbook, a one-volume reference book providing information on the countries of the world, was published in 1864. The Yearbook has just celebrated its 150th anniversary.

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1869

Macmillan began to expand internationally, opening an office in New York, initially in Bleecker St, and growing from there.

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1899

Completion of Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy by R. H. Inglis Palgrave (brother of Francis Turner Palgrave), the definitive scholarly reference work for generations of economists.

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1916

From 1916 Macmillan published all of W. B. Yeats’ work, as well as countless works of criticism and biography, some of which are still in print today.

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1936

Palgrave Macmillan published The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes. The book is widely considered to have created the terminology and shape of modern macroeconomics.

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1968

Launch of the Casebook series brought together the best in modern criticism on classic of English Literature.

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1970

First publication of the ever-popular textbook Engineering Mathematics by KA Stroud (now in its 7th edition). Stroud's unique methodology revolutionised how engineering mathematics was taught, and helped to build the skills and confidence of thousands of students worldwide.

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1972

The first edition of Thirlwall's Growth and Development was published in 1972.

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1982

Launch of the highly successful Master / Mastering Series catering for the needs of students and self-educators across the world. Each book in this series is a self-contained course, providing support for every student from first principles to examination level.

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1989

BASW Practical Social Work series launched, edited by Jo Campling. This series has been a key landmark in social work publishing for well over 20 years, featuring innovative thinking and trustworthy guidance. It has rooted itself in teaching and practice for generations of social work students and professionals.

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1990

Publication of Michael Porter's The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Spanning economics, international political economy and business, the core ideas remain very relevant today.

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1992

Macmillan published their first books with CDs: Breakthrough French, Breakthrough German, and Breakthrough Spanish. This new CD format helped those on adult education courses and self-educators to learn languages in a more authentic, lively, and conversational way.

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1994


First publication of Human Resource Management by Bratton & Gold. Now in its 5th edition, this popular book continues to help professionals and students to understand the context of the ever-changing contemporary workplace and the importance of human resource management within it.

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12th August 1999

First publication of the best-selling title The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell. This book has helped many thousands of students to succeed in their studies through the discovery and development of their own personal learning styles. It is the UK's bestselling textbook in any subject.

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1st September 2000

Palgrave, Macmillan's global academic publishing brand launched in 2000. This new division was created through the integration of Macmillan Press and St Martin's Press Scholarly and Reference. The name Palgrave is derived from the Palgrave family, who had a long association with publishing and with the highest levels of achievement in humanities and the social sciences. The name changed to Palgrave Macmillan in 2002, fully representing the rich heritage of the company.

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2000

An electronic sampler, the Palgrave eReader was launched in September 2000. This offered sample chapters from a range of new and forthcoming books.

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2000

In 2000 we launched Palgrave Journals which continues to publish journals in the business, humanities and social sciences, from the Journal of the Operational Research Society to Feminist Review.

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2001

Palgrave published its first eBook which was Knowledge Unplugged, McKinsey & Company's global survey on knowledge management. It was made available on Palm Pilot in August 2001.

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November 2001

Production of 1000th Print on Demand title: Volume 1 of Socialism in One Country by E. H. Carr

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2005

Launch of the popular science series, Macmillan Science, featuring books such as Climate Change Begins at Home (a global wake-up call) and Lonesome George (the story of a conservation icon). Macmillan Science brings together the best science writers in the world to showcase groundbreaking research and take on some of the biggest ideas and subjects in popular science today.

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April 2007

A new edition of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, was launched to critical acclaim. By the end of 2007, this book had sold 50,000 copies and won the British Book Design and Production Award (2007).

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2008

Launch of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, now in print and online versions for a whole new generation of economists.

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2008

Palgrave Macmillan and the British Film institute (BFI) enter into a partnership to publish BFI titles.

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April 2009

Launch of Palgrave Connect, our ebook platform. Palgrave Connect offers libraries a flexible approach to building an ebook collection. By 2014, there are over 12,500 titles in the humanities, the social sciences and business available.

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March 2010

Palgrave Macmillan launch Skills 4 Study Campus (S4SC) based on the work of study skills expert Stella Cottrell, international bestselling author of The Study Skills Handbook. S4SC is an innovative e-learning resource provided by universities and colleges to help their students build the skills they need for higher level learning and study success.

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March 2012

Palgrave Macmillan, along with four other academic publishers, starts supplying electronic textbooks on the CourseSmart website. CourseSmart is the world's largest provider of digital course materials and offers lecturers and their students an easy way to find and access eTextbooks and digital course material via web, tablet or mobile anytime and anywhere.

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30th October 2012

Launch of Palgrave Pivot, a boundary-breaking new format for scholarly research. Palgrave Pivot offers authors the flexibility of publishing at lengths between the journal article and the conventional monograph (typically 25-50,000 words).

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January 2013

Palgrave Macmillan launched an open access option for monographs and Pivot publications. Open access journal articles had been available since 2011. Later in 2013, we published our first open access monograph, funded by The Wellcome Trust: Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States 1850-2000, by Dr Aya Homei and Professor Michael Worboys.

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2014

Palgrave Macmillan moved from Basingstoke to its new London Campus in Kings Cross. Our new London Campus houses all the divisions of Macmillan Science and Education, giving staff the opportunity to collaborate, share ideas and innovate across our businesses.

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2015

A Palgrave Macmillan book, Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason was voted one of the top five Academic Books Which Changed the World.

In 2015 Palgrave Macmillan also became part of the newly merged company Springer Nature. Springer Nature is the world’s largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world’s highest impact journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.