On Friday, CEREES & the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social will be hosting former Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, to launch his book "Words of Defiance".

Join @philippesands.bsky.social @okhromeychuk.bsky.social & Bjorn Berge to explore the forms, prospects & importance of Ukrainian defiance

I spoke to Miranda Melcher of @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my new book ‘Fairies: A History’ 🧚📚🎤 newbooksnetwork.com/fairies

Postdoctoral Research Associate at Queen Mary University of London Explore an exciting academic career as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

Three year postdoc going at @qmulsse.bsky.social working with @karlpike.bsky.social on ‘Politics and mythmaking: disentangling myth from ideology’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Details here:

Cover illustration brings tech nostalgia for the digital age, trailering our upcoming special issue on 'Dirty data and new quantitative histories':

Ľordinateur outil de ľinformatique. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Audiovisuel, 8 MU-4100

The latest issue of French History is now published! 💾🖥️🖨️

Articles covering the 11th to the 20th centuries...

And a 🔥 series of decolonial reflections on historiography and curating via the landmark volume Colonisations: notre histoire and the Musée Carnavalet relaunch

@frenchhistory.bsky.social

Here's a clip of me discussing the centre right member vote this weekend www.france24.com/en/french-ri...

That's all a long winded way of saying... we'll see. All the polling says 80%+ of French people want primaries, but with a year to go, there remain a lot of candidates keen to keep their powder dry

Challenges too on the left, where any primary needs to be more 2012 than 2022, but mirrors the polarisation and egos on the centre right such that it will be tough to ensure all the big players engage with the process

The far right have taken the innovative step of conducting their primary through the criminal courts, so we'll find out for sure in July if Le Pen's embezzlement conviction sticks or if her dauphin has to forego smooching on the beach for the campaign trail

Big challenge about any primary on the centre & centre right is egos. Retailleau feels he is a champions league team and doesn't want to slum it in the europa league, so won't play unless Philippe is in. The latter may rightly feel he had his primary in Le Havre (but might worry he's Balladur)

Just been on @france24.com this morning talking about the centre right's prep for the Presidential, with Bruno Retailleau's endorsement by party members expected this weekend

Radical Histories - Manchester University Press The Radical Histories series encourages innovative and field-defining research in the history of individuals, groups, movements and ideas which challenged the political, social and cultural status quo...

I'm pleased to announce I'm a founding co-editor of the new @manchesterup.bsky.social book series, Radical Histories.

Do let me know if you have a proposal for a book that fits our inclusive remit on radical histories.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/radic...

I recorded a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview about my @manchesterup.bsky.social book 'Make Cheese Not War: Transnational resistance and the Larzac in Modern France'

Tune in for the book's main arguments & stories of globetrotting activists

🗃️ #skystorians

newbooksnetwork.com/make-cheese-...

I recorded a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social interview about my @manchesterup.bsky.social book 'Make Cheese Not War: Transnational resistance and the Larzac in Modern France'

Tune in for the book's main arguments & stories of globetrotting activists

🗃️ #skystorians

newbooksnetwork.com/make-cheese-...

Now or Never! On 1 March 1979, voters went to the polls in Scotland's first national referendum to decide whether to establish a Scottish Assembly, nearly three centuries aft…

@qmulsse.bsky.social's Tom Chidwick's forthcoming book on the 1 March 1979 Scottish devolution referendum is now listed on @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social's website!

Read the blurb and pre-order your copy of "Now or Never!", which reveals the full story of the referendum, now!

tinyurl.com/bw6sydbc

Manchester University Press - Make cheese not war Make cheese not war - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of Make cheese not war by Andrew W. M. Smith

For more on that 1975 link, see chapter 7 of my new book 'Make cheese not war'. A protest on 5th Ave in New York in November led to an invite to speak to farmers in Texas in December 1975

🗃️ #skystorians

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/978152617587...

Back in 1975, US farmers resisting the expansion of Fort Hood looked to the example of sheep farmers on the Larzac in SW France for examples of how to resist expropriation by the state. In 2026, they could do worse than look to French farmers for examples on how to put pressure on their government

Time to draft some LinkedIn posts about what the people of Pompeii have to teach us about productivity

I was v confused about all this. Getting to grips with English system, getting head round grammars, etc. We eventually decided not to (key factors: we tried tutoring & I abhorred it for her, spoke to parents who had put kids through system & regretted it, then gave P tools to make decision herself)

He's not finished, he's only 36! (with apologies, etc...)

On balance, I think it would be bad for my productivity

Cover of 'Henri Lefebvre on Space' by Lukasz Stanek. The cover is a series of square frame images in a 3 by 4 grid pattern

Love how the cover of this book on Lefebvre is like a French sociology captcha:

"Click all of the squares in which the nature of the space has been marked by the capitalist system"

Fox hat YouTube video by JZVQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb0k...

📢 Public Artwork Commission Opportunity!

We are looking for an east London based artist to design an original artwork to be displayed in a permanent outdoor public location on the Queen Mary Mile End Campus.

Submit an expression of interest by 5pm, Thurs 23 April.
www.qmul.ac.uk/publicengage...

Yes, but then you'd scry arcane knowledge from the cards and face the temptation to do unspeakable deeds (or acquire unspeakable cheeses)

QMUL is advertising an exciting opportunity: a fully funded PhD studentship, working on European politics, ideology, and political 'myths' with @karlpike.bsky.social and @timbale.bsky.social. Details below.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRB421/p...

If you're keen for me to discuss the book then please let me know, I'm very happy to do so. It's a story of ordinary people taking on the state & winning with a commitment to non-violence & an openness to working across borders

🗃️ #skystorians

bsky.app/profile/smid...

Make cheese not war: interview I was invited onto France24 this morning to talk about my new book ‘Make cheese not war: transnational resistance and the Larzac in modern France (Manchester University Press, 2026). In the b…

Looking forward to recording a New Books Network interview later on today for my @manchesterup.bsky.social book 'Make cheese not war: transnational resistance and the Larzac'

If you'd like to find out more, you can watch/read more here: awmsmith.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/m...

🗃️ #skystorians

a cartoon dog is carrying a box on a train track Alt: Gromit the dog laying train tracks ahead of a moving train

Some live footage of REF policy being strategically planned:

This (in QT) was an interesting paper, and this equivalent research reported in France seems a useful indication of a wider evidential trend in explaining political shifts (alongside media normalisation et al): www.france24.com/en/france/20...