However, in the middle and later twentieth century the RHS took on a more active role in representing the discipline and profession of history.

The society exists to promote historical research in the United Kingdom and worldwide, representing historians of all kinds.

It provides a varied programme of lectures and one-day and two-day conferences and symposia covering diverse historical topics.

[5] Fellowships are awarded to those who have made an original contribution to historical scholarship, typically through the authorship of a book, a body of scholarly work similar in scale and impact to a book, the organisation of exhibitions and conferences, the editing of journals, and other works of diffusion and dissemination grounded in historical research.

[6] The society's publications include its monographic series Studies in History (1975–2020) and New Historical Perspectives (2016–),[7] its annual Transactions[8] (first published as Transactions of the Historical Society, 1872),[9] and the Camden Series of editions and translations of texts; as well as digital publications, such as the Bibliography of British and Irish History.