Each and every historian, as any other writer for that matter, has his or her own style and ‘political’ inclinations. These will be naturally expressed in their writing. Until recently, our contemporary academic world was dominated by its own academic factions that were inspired by the political divide of right and left. As a student, one is influenced by the views of one’s professors and political views. But as one grows up, like any other academic in the humanities, one begins to develop his or her own views. In my case, I express my ideas in a direct way. This forms part of my abrasive character.

I am not afraid to adopt an unconventional stance, even though sometimes this may convey the wrong impression that academically, I am on the “right side of the fence”. Normally and until recently, it was extremely ’cool’ for persons in the humanities to adopt a leftist approach in their writing and analysis. Historians are now passing through a process of revisionism and one is beginning to encounter more cases of excellent books which may appear conservative if not reactionary to some members of the public. The writings of Simon Schama, Niall Ferguson and Tristram Hunt are a case in point. But the adoption of this new approach goes beyond the political divide: Hunt, for example, is a member of the British Labour Party.

My work is primarily based on unedited research which I then publish either in the form of a book or as articles in scholarly books or highly specialized review journals. Idiosyncratically, I find no problem to write for local journals and the occasional feast-book programmes that are published by various local parish communities.

I have written a general book on the history of the Order of the Knights of St John in Malta and edited two books, one on Historical Mediterranean Arsenals and another on the Italian politician Francesco Crispi. But I do not wish to speak about my past publications. As a historian, I am not interested in the past but only in the future. I study the past to help people configure a better future. I am now working on my fourth book, this time in Maltese which will be published by PIN. It is the subject of my doctoral work and field of specialization; historical demography. For record purpose only, I have published over 35 papers in Malta and abroad. The latest publications appeared in Italy, Greece and the U.K.

In my case, I first seek to take a fresh approach to the history topic I am writing about, and in order to achieve this, I prefer to go to the original historical sources. I thoroughly research the archives and then publish my findings and thoughts on the subject. Normally, people rely on what they read in history books without being critical or analytical about what they are reading. But someone carrying out research work in archives is often faced with a totally different reality from the one that is sometimes depicted in books. Certain institutions are today under attack and often demonized. For example, let us take the Church. This is a case in point. I am currently researching its archives and minutely sifting through its documents, and in doing further in-depth analysis, I am unearthing a completely different picture and perhaps to the astonishment of some contemporary agitators, this institution was extremely beneficial to society. Obviously institutions evolve. Those that evolved with the times succeeded in surviving and continue to exist. Those that fail to read their times perish and experience a natural or untimely death.

But as a writer, I find reviewing books my biggest challenge particularly when asked to review books published by colleagues or my former professors. I always seek to strike a balance and try to be fair to the authors without hesitating to give my views but my conclusions are drawn from what has been written and published, whilst summarizing what I believe to be the book’s strengths.

Currently, I occupy the post of Director of the Mediterranean Institute at the University of Malta. This post has broadened my perspective on life and helped me to open an academic window on the world of music and the performing arts (dance and music) encouraging me to write academic papers on the history of Maltese music. Thanks to the current Rector, these areas of study have expanded and slowly, with the efforts of our dedicated staff, the University of Malta is becoming a world centre in this field of studies. Moreover, the Mediterranean Institute publishes the most important journal that is currently being published in Malta; The Journal of Mediterranean Studies. This is an internationally recognized journal that expresses the collective efforts of our professors, in particular Paul Clough and Carmelo Vassallo who, together with many others, dedicate time and energy so that our University has now a world class journal which is recognized by foreign academic reviewers.