Allan Kennedy

Dr Allan Kennedy is Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Dundee. He is a historian of early modern Scotland, with a particular interest in the seventeenth century. His work explores the nature of social and political power, and he is especially interested in understanding how pre-modern societies established and maintained order. His books and articles, as a result, often focus on deviance, criminality, and the justice system. He is always on the look-out for ways to share interesting and arresting stories from Scotland’s rich history.

Allan had published numerous magazine and newspaper articles, and has also appeared on a range of podcasts, including Not Just the Tudors and BBC History Extra. He is the author of two academic monographs, Governing Gaeldom: The Scottish Highlands and the Restoration State, 1660-1688 (2014) and Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland (2025), as well the textbook Early Modern Scotland: Themes in Focus (2026). He is also editor or co-editor of Life at the Margins in Early Modern Scotland (2024), Deviance and Marginality in Early Modern Scotland (2025), and the forthcoming The Scottish Privy Council from Revolution to Union.

He is at work on his first book for the general-trade market, Godly Dreams: Scotland and the Century that Made Britain, 1603-1707, to be published by Profile Books in 2028.