We're especially looking for books that aim to shape the field, on under-represented places, peoples and sources. Early career scholars welcome.

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...

Chart showing earnings gap 10 years after graduation, associated with having been in deep poverty at age 16, adjusted for demographic and university characteristics, and further adjusted for work characteristics: England

Child poverty isn't just bad, it results in an enduring earnings gap.

The pay gap between graduates who grew up in poverty and those who didn't persists even between when they go to the same university, get the same degree and work for the same firm ⤵️

buff.ly/5VfX2Fi

My six year old’s portrayal of when bedtime needs to be frequently Collides with Reality

A headline like this is incitement to racial hatred.

Uhoo uhoo

HELP NEEDED IN UPDATING Bibliography of the 1926 General Strike In 2006, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (HSIR) 21 published ‘The General Strike and Mining Lockout of 1926: A Select Bibliography’, compiled by John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, …

Are you a historian of the 1926 General Strike? If so, we need your help updating the strike's bibliography to mark its centenary. sslh.org.uk/2026/04/02/h...

OK, fellow early modernists, this I'm teaching the grad seminar on early modern Europe for the first time in 5 years. What monographs in English, preferably in paperbook/ebook formats, can you recommend that work well in seminar instruction? And thanks! #earlymodern 🗃️

New paper out in @thejop.bsky.social : "Immigration, Public Housing, and Support for the French National Front."

How does expanding public housing affect far-right support? The answer depends heavily on local conditions, and specifically on local immigrant shares.

Paper: doi.org/10.1086/736361

This sounds brilliant — straight to my “to read” pile! I work on local housing issues in France pre HBM/HLM so I’d be interested to see if there are parallels

1926 General Strike Centenary Open Day The People’s History Museum in Manchester is hosting a special open day to mark the centenary of the 1926 General Strike on the 9 May 2026. The event will delve into the strike’s contin…

The People's History Museum is hosting a special open day on the 9 May to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike. We are delighted to support this event! sslh.org.uk/2026/04/13/1...

In that spirit: I’m marking my first-year students’ History of Capitalism work and have seen more than a couple of citations of your work used to good effect!

These were always exploitative jobs when there was a “career” to develop onto, let alone now there are no permanent jobs.

I’m just disappointed that, with all this talk of supposedly “liberal” popes getting involved in major political events, I’ve already finished my teaching on 1848 for the year

Songs of Seven Dials 'is a triumph: a new benchmark for how academic urban historians can write for much larger audiences and evidence of the rich rewards when they do.'

Huge thanks to @tomhulme.bsky.social for this wonderfully generous review.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Very flat whites this morning, presumably.

The Pope is weak on crime, lol, wtf does he think the pope is

#EHS100 London, Oxford, Cambridge … and Utrecht … but it doesn’t feel like that this weekend. Almost 400 economic historians from all over ! Doing EH 😍

Bebonuts

We had a flurry of Welsh/Scottish/Irish/French/Italian flags join the English/Union flags near us during the six nations. I got the impression here at least that it was someone piss-taking the others

Have a great trip!

This guide is a little old now but good for overview frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/110/

Adding to the chorus of pack your own lunch too, though the outdoor seating is lovely and the workspaces themselves are great

Headline: Ex-BBC boss says Blair is a philistine

The government's promise of extra money for the arts is "a charade to mask its utter philistinism", a former controller of Radio 3 claimed in an outspoken tirade last night. Sir John Drummond, who also ran the Proms and the Edinburgh Festival, said that despite the vow of £100m increase in arts spending after the next election, Tony Blair was a "puritan" who believed "these vagabonds must he kept on short rations''. He said that the government "know nothing about culture and they don't really care. You can tell what kind of a man the prime minister is by his choice on Desert Island Discs. Rock bands that have disappeared, Rule Britannia and Ivanhoe - I suppose that was the last book he read."

It attracted a remarkable amount of negative media attention. Not only was his selection routinely interpreted as evidence of hollow vote-chasing, it was also lambasted for demonstrating his lack of cultural capital, including in a widely reported diatribe by former Radio 3 controller John Drummond.

US forces to remain in the Gulf until Iran agrees that Trump’s daddy loved him and didn’t think he was a pathetic loser who needed to be bailed out in his failed casino business.

Attention historians of medicine and/or France: according to the @hfrancewebsite.bsky.social email list, moves are underway to dismantle the incredible Medica-Histoire de la santé digital collection (BIU Santé Médicine). Oppose this move by filling out the "Enquête de satisfaction" at the link🗃️

Always exciting to see the Avignon Papacy in the news

Landlords evicting tenants before law to prevent practice comes into force in England No-fault evictions made up one in three reports made to renters’ union Acorn in January

Cruel last minute evictions before the Renters' Rights Act comes into force - tenants kicked out of their homes without warning or reason - show just how badly these reforms are needed in the first place.

1 May can't come soon enough.
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Will keep my fingers crossed for you on that side of things. Congrats again on the Accept!

Oh excellent -- I look forward to reading it. I often have undergraduates wanting to write on British reactions to the French Revolution via the press, so any more work on late 1780s-90s era British political press is right up my street!

Congratulations James! What's the piece about?