I was recently invited on the Not Just the Tudors podcast to talk about the Babington Plot: shows.acast.com/not-just-the.... Thank you to Suzannah Lipscomb for a great conversation. Free Spotify link here: open.spotify.com/episode/06AR....
My thanks to the brilliant @drwillgreen.bsky.social for having me form part of his exciting special issue on Shakespeare and Middleton, and for his superb editorial work.
Just published in Notes & Queries: new evidence concerning the famous rape accusation against Thomas Culpeper. academic.oup.com/nq/advance-a...
The Historical Writers' Association has just announced the shortlist for the 2025 HWA Non-fiction Crown - I was one of the judges. So many great books here! ๐
Herbert Butterfieldโs The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) is universally received as sceptical of โwhigโ teleology in historical accounts and, therefore, of politically charged narratives of history. This view stands in need of a basic correction. Butterfieldโs work targets teleological accounts which involve a determinate conception of progress such as would arm a partisan politics. He calls this the politics of the โgeneral propositionโ. Nevertheless, he does defend a conception of progress involving an indeterminate concept. The historian finds, intimated in the detail of the past, that progress is the fruit of interactions between opposing parties. The imperative for the statesman in the present, then, is to facilitate such interactions. In short, The Whig Interpretation of History is a positive work of political thought. Looked at this way, Butterfieldโs later, controversial work, The Englishman & His History, does not appear to be in contradiction with the earlier book so much as a polemical expression of it. The two books together present what may be called Butterfieldโs politics of historiography. Histories which present progress as a straight line, to be co-opted by one party, encourage precisely the political action which impedes progress. Butterfield, in short, is still a kind of โwhigโ.
๐ฃOut now on #firstview!
Jack Haughton (@camhistory.bsky.social) on 'Dispelling โdas Herbert Butterfieldproblemโ: A Rereading of The Whig Interpretation of History'
#IntellectualHistory #Progress #Positive 20thc ๐๏ธ
๐Read online here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Very exciting to see THE COLLECTED WORKS OF THOMAS KYD: VOLUME 2, for which I am the Associate Editor, now listed on the Boydell & Brewer website.
The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd - Boydell and Brewer share.google/Lg1i9VkrMyzD...
Ah, Oxford, how I miss you.
Exciting times as we await imminent proofs for 'The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd: Volume 2'.
Seven years in the making, I can't wait to see the full edition out in the world.
Been there. It's the hardest time to see any merit in one's own work. I wonder how many books are lost at this stage because the author loses courage at the last minute?
Cover proofs for new book, coming out in December!
And an excellent job you did too!
I've just completed the index for @jonathanmcgovern.bsky.social's book 'The Early Parliaments of Henry VIII - an important and very comprehensive work of parliamentary history, coming soon from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social boydellandbrewer.com/book/the-ear...
Looks excellent, despite the relatively low salary for London. Would be an ideal job for me actually, if I wasn't already spoken for. Good luck with the search!
Closing date for this Early Modern Parliamentary Records Specialist role at The National Archives is this Sunday (31 August). Details via the link in the original post.
The poverty of scholars, as described in Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion (1598), sometimes described as the Chinese Romeo and Juliet.
I've never seen a video fo Geoffrey Elton before. Amazing that this footage survives and has been made available.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayeg...
A pen on top of a proofing manuscript.
Proofs!
A passage from Ortho-epia Gallica (1593).
An Elizabethan French lesson. "Sblood! Swoundes! Yeeld thy purse: quicke, quicke, dispatch, yeeld, alight, or I will shoote this bullet into thy belly."
Yes, great to reconnect. I wondered where everyone had gone. Now I know!