Founded over thirty years ago, HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS/REFLECTIONS HISTORIQUES has established a well-deserved reputation for publishing high-quality articles of wide-ranging interest. Interdisciplinary and innovative in character, the journal publishes works that explore the terrain of discourse and representation, and the history of religion, art, literature and the social sciences. This breadth of interest has allowed the journal to acquire a solid base of indexes in which its articles are listed: Abstracts of Popular Culture; Academic Abstracts; America: History and Life; Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Bibliographie annuelle de l'histoire de France; CARL UnCover; French Historical Studies; Historical Abstracts; International Medieval Bibliography; MLA Directory of Periodicals; Science of Religion; and Sociological Abstracts.

Originally established by Canadian scholars, HR/RH is now published in the United States. Its Canadian origins led to one of the journal's most distinguishing characteristics: a bilingual policy of publishing articles in either French or English. This in turn has allowed HR/RH to become a major publication vehicle in North America for articles on French history and for a field of study pioneered by French scholars: that of the history of mentalities. Another distinguishing feature is the journal's commitment to publishing special issues directed by guest editors and devoted to particular topics.