Routledge Companion to Video Games and History

The Routledge Companion to Video Games and History explores the dynamic intersection between video games and historical scholarship.

This comprehensive handbook delves into the ways video games present, interpret, and engage with history, moving beyond questions of accuracy to examine their potential as tools for education, research, and cultural critique. With contributions from international experts, this volume provides a rich, interdisciplinary perspective on how video games shape our understanding of the past. Divided into three sections, the book covers a wide range of topics. The first section, Making History, investigates how video games construct historical narratives, from counterfactual storytelling to the representation of indigenous and postcolonial histories. The second section, Analysing History, examines the portrayal of historical themes such as gender, race, religion, and economics, as well as the unique ways video games engage with cultural memory and historiography. The final section, Playing History, explores the experiential aspects of historical games, including their use in education, fandom, and reflective game design, while also addressing their role in shaping political and cultural myths.

This companion is an essential resource for historians, game designers, educators, and researchers seeking to understand the evolving relationship between video games and history.

Robert Houghton is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Winchester. He has published extensively on engagement with the medieval period in games of all sorts, including most notably his 2024 monograph The Middle Ages in Computer Games: Ludic Approaches to the Medieval and Medievalism.

Kate Cook is currently a Lecturer in Greek Culture at King’s College London. Her research focuses on women in historical video games, and gender and language in Greek Tragedy. She has published on a range of topics related to gender in historical games, and was the co-editor of Women in Classical Video Games (2022).

Chris Kempshall is a public historian who specialises in transnational experiences of allied warfare and modern media representations of history. He is the author of numerous academic works on these subjects, including; The First World War in Computer Games (2015). He is currently the Historical Consultant for BlackMill Games. His book The History and Politics of Star Wars: Death Stars and Democracy was published by Routledge in August 2022.