The Guardian view on defence spending: should the UK’s security rest with Donald Trump? | Editorial Editorial: A former Nato chief demands more cash while fixing Britain’s global role. Before billions are spent, ministers must define the purpose of its military

Very happy to see my analysis of British defence policy from 1998 quoted here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Worse than limited opening hours, it's the withdrawal of 2/3 of the archive for curiosity-driven research that is the real scandal for what is supposed to be a public-service organization.

📌 Coming up in our seminar series next week!

Jieluan Huang, 'Medical Diasporas: Chinese Medicine in London and a Family Case Study'
🗓️ Wednesday 25 March
🕰️ 15.30-17.00
📍8th floor, Strand building

www.kingschostm.com/seminar-series

#histmed #histsci #histtech #histstm

@kingshistory.bsky.social

This assumes, as does most commentary, that the Starmer Party leadership does roughly share the values of the Greens rather than Reform. Why assume this, and not the reverse? Why not take them at their word, even if it leads them to electoral oblivion?

The Face What’s in a face? The face is the only part of the body where all the senses come together and, over the course of human history, has come to represent who we are as individuals. We unlock our phones...

Congratulations to @fayboundalberti.bsky.social for the publication of “The Face: A cultural history” today!

You can now get it from your preferred bookshop in the UK!
tinyurl.com/the-face-fba

@kingshistory.bsky.social @kingsartshums.bsky.social @ctb-kcl.bsky.social

#histmed #histtech #body

The Face What’s in a face? The face is the only part of the body where all the senses come together and, over the course of human history, has come to represent who we are as individuals. We unlock our phones...

Published today! The new book by our colleague @fayboundalberti.bsky.social 'The Face: A cultural History' www.penguin.co.uk/books/459227...

Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’ He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, b...

Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn was one of the inspirations for my Shock of the Old. His new book on Maintenance (prefigured in How Buildings Learn) tells some fascinating stories. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

🔔 Coming up in our seminar:

New Book Party!
Smart: A history of intelligence by David Brydan (with comments by Professor @fayboundalberti.bsky.social and Professor Federico Turkheimer)

🗓️ Tues 3 March, 18.00-19.30
📍 8th floor, Strand building

Register in Eventbrite ➡️ tinyurl.com/smart-brydan

Hans Rausing Scholarship 2026/2027 | KingsCHoSTM Funding Opportunities within King's CHoSTM

💡 Call for applications to our Hans Rausing scholarship is open until 17 April. Contact a prospective supervisor before applying to one of @kingshistory.bsky.social programmes.

🛎️ First round of applications to the MAs closes 9 March!

www.kingschostm.com/funding-oppo...

#histsci #histtech #histstm

📊Metode SSJ, Vol. 15 No. 8 (2025): «Science without a conscience. Technology at war’s service»

«The British sciences and the Great War: Myths and histories»

By @davidedgerton.bsky.social (@kingschostm.bsky.social)

DOI: doi.org/10.7203/meto...

Anthony Barnett: “The Sixties were a catastrophic failure” The writer and campaigner on nationalism, the rise of the new right and how a fractured left can organise in response

Late to this warm and engaging portrait of the remarkable Anthony Barnett, a great interpreter of our times. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Hans Rausing Doctoral Scholarship: PhD in the History of Science and Technology (Home/EU/Overseas) at King's College London Explore a Hans Rausing Doctoral Scholarship: PhD in the History of Science and Technology (Home/EU/Overseas) on jobs.ac.uk. Discover more PhD opportunities and apply today!

[STUDY] Our Hans Rausing Scholarship fully funds Home and International students to study the history of science and technology at MA and PhD level.

Contact a prospective supervisor ➡️ tinyurl.com/4ftpvrcj

tinyurl.com/m4u52ech
@kingshistory.bsky.social
#histsci #histtech #histstm

Remarkable admission from Keir Starmer that he was not in charge of his party: 'It’s been an honour working with Morgan McSweeney for many years. He turned our party around ...'

This two-day workshop will explore several questions. How can environmental history complement or offer alternatives to existing historiographical narratives and periodisations in British history? What new actors, events, or phenomena might come to the fore? How should it foster engagements with places beyond its national borders or with other disciplines? Is environmental history different from longstanding traditions of ‘landscape’ or ‘urban’ histories of Britain? What contributions can historians make to environmental advocacy and policymaking? And how might a focus on the environment reshape teaching in British history? To take part, participants should submit a 300 word proposal for a short ‘position paper’ (approx. 2500 words) that will be pre-circulated at the workshop. These position papers will address the place of environmental approaches and themes within modern British history (1800 to the present) from the perspective of the participant’s own research. Participants will orally summarise their papers at the workshop. The event is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. Submissions are welcomed across a range of perspectives and topics, including but not limited to: energy, extraction, non-human actors, pollution, toxicity, rural and urban landscapes, everyday environmental histories (including how they are shaped by class, gender, and race), imperialism and decolonisation, ‘green’ policy, activism, and the political economy of the natural world. Please send proposals and a one-paragraph biography in a single PDF to andrew.seaton@manchester.ac.uk by 15 May 2026. Please also direct enquiries to this address. This event is organised by Dr. Max Long (Oxford) and Dr. Andrew Seaton (Manchester).

CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'.

A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.

Details in poster below, please share.

Congratulations to our PhD Francisca Valenzuela for passing her viva this Wednesday for her thesis "A comparative history of land telegraphy in nineteenth century South America." And many thanks to her examiners, Richard Noakes and Ana María Otero.

Congratulations to David Bryan in this exciting new book!

So true.

A great event with revelatory papers on British anarchism and communism! @kingshistory.bsky.social

Hope is not a policy, nor is “innovation” a magic trick. As our podcast of the week argues, the idea that climate salvation will come through breakthrough technologies is a myth that serves as an alibi for inaction.

With @davidedgerton.bsky.social on @the-breakdown.bsky.social

buff.ly/Z0I6utI

Viswanathan Venkataraman looks at the evolution of water filtration methods, arguing that tech change requires to consider alternatives at a global scale. 20thC Madras shows that available knowledge, politics and economics mediated the adoption of specific methods over time.
➡️ tinyurl.com/2s395c59

Loved listening to this episode. Includes some really poignant commentary on the “impoverished position” of projecting all our hopes onto AI as a viable future-making technology.

Poster advertising the for applications to Hans Rausing Scholarship 2026/2027 at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at King’s College London. Indicates the call closes by 17 April 2026.

Applications are open until 17 April to our Hans Rausing Scholarship to enter an MA+PhD or PhD-only to study the history of science and/or technology
from October 2026.
Contact a prospective supervisor and find out more about the schemes here: tinyurl.com/mw84w7py

Beyond Techno-Optimism w/ David Edgerton

ICYMI: here's my interview with David Edgerton, the historian of technology and of modern Britain, about the politics of technology and the climate crisis, the rise of China, AI, and much more
open.spotify.com/episode/4tGI...

I'm delighted that we can share the termcard of the IHR Britain at Home and Abroad since 1800 seminar.

First up, @robertsaunders.bsky.social on 29 January to present on the history of UK democracy (specifically, the neglected Third Reform Act). Sign up in the link below!

"It's a morbid symptom, Anglo-futurism, and that's where British politics is, it is stuck with the fantasies of world leadership and renewal through deregulation. I mean, it's tragic. That's where we are."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSxc...

Really enjoyed this broad ranging discussion of everything from climate policy to declinism and revivalism with @johnmerrick.bsky.social. Includes a preview of my forthcoming book ... @kingschostm.bsky.social @kingshistory.bsky.social

📢 Call for Papers 📢
2026 Commodities of Empire workshop: “Locating Knowledge: Science and Technology in Commodity Frontiers.”
📍 Madrid, 2–3 September 2026
⏳ Submission deadline: 14 February 2026
👉 CFP: commoditiesofempire.org.uk/events/
@davidedgerton.bsky.social @samuelcoghe.bsky.social

Great opportunities for fully-funded PhDs in history of science and/or technology in London, for candidates from anywhere in the world.

BBC Radio 4 - What Happened to Progress?, Forward Thinking From technology to the climate to the global order, has human progress gone into reverse?

Its hard to talk sense about progress - with many others I had a go .... @kingschostm.bsky.social @kingshistory.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I enjoyed writing about British science in the Great War and late and how scientific intellectuals and historians of science systematically misrepresented the relations of science and war. @kingschostm.bsky.social @kingshistory.bsky.social turia.uv.es/index.php/Me...