Just finished reading @paulmalgrati.bsky.social 's masterly Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics. Full of fascinating insights into the way social, political and cultural factors mould historical memory. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-robert-...
If you like it, there's more of the same in my new book David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-david-b...
@edinburghup.bsky.social have recently published my blog post on science and religion in 19th-century Scotland, so I thought I'd share it with you all.
euppublishingblog.com/2024/12/09/r...
Title page of The Geological Evidences of The Antiquity of Man by Charles Lyell, 1863. Page next to title page contains sketch of a few homes on a coastline.
Older man seated for a portrait, wearing a coat with his legs crossed and hands clasped in front of him.
Charles Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' dropped #OnThisDay in 1863, revealing that humans had a prehistoric past, alongside mammoths and other extinct creatures. The work even examined Neanderthal fossils - which Lyell thoroughly investigated...by licking them. 🦣 🧪 🏺
Dr Paul Malgrati, @thinkuhi.bsky.social INS Lecturer, BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends talks about his research and book on Robert Burns's political legacy.... Available on BBC Sounds Catch Up...
bit.ly/4gdHWMU
This is my last day as a lecturer at
@standrewshist.bsky.social. In my time here I've published two books, gained two wonderful daughters and lost one kidney. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with so many congenial and inspiring colleagues and students. I'm truly sad to be leaving.
In 1911, installed for the Scottish National Exhibition of that year, there was a dirigible gondola ride in Kelvingrove Park which would take you across the valley below to the far side of the River Kelvin. How fun does that look?
Cont./
#glasgow #glasgowhistory #kelvingrovepark
Another illustration from David Brewster's wonderful Letters on Natural Magic (1832). What's going on here? (No prizes for correct answers!)
Yes, it's the famous chess-playing automaton 'Turk' exhibited around Britain by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel in 1819/20. My source is David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic (1832). The illustrations in the Magazine of Science seem to have been copied from there.
Any guesses as to where this picture comes from or what it shows?
Front cover of The Arrival of the Fittest: Biology's Imaginary Futures, 1900-1935 by Jim Endersby
Just published, looks fab . . .
The Arrival of the Fittest: Biology's Imaginary Futures, 1900-1935 by Jim Endersby @uchicagopress.bsky.social.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #histsci #histbio #STS #BookSky #X-Men 🗃️
Illustration of Captain Nemo gazing upon Atlantean ruins, in Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Seas.
Publication is drawing nearer for my book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860–1935. Among other things, it discusses magic mushrooms, camels from Atlantis, Moses's interest in Ichthyosaurus, creationist poetry, reincarnated cannibals, and Satan the pterodactyl.
A really well-made song and music video commemorating Marion Pardone (or Peebles), a Shetland woman who was executed for witchcraft in 1644 (and featuring my Mum as part of the village mob) www.shetland.org/blog/da-fate...
On 28 December 1879, the Tay Rail Bridge collapsed during a windstorm just as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train travelling from Burntisland to Dundee was crossing over, resulting in the deaths of all aboard.
I'm not sure why I do. But then everybody loves a bit of Hitler trivia.
Although apparently 'Adolf Hitlers Lieblingsblume ist das schlichte Edelweiß' (Harry Steier, 1933). I can only imagine Rogers and Hammerstein didn't know that when they wrote their own song about 'Edelweiss' for the pivotal scene in the film.
Robert Owen (1771–1858) on 'great men' and morality in history (from Charles Gibbon's Life of George Combe (1878)). Perhaps this is a catechism that we can still learn from.
Big thanks to Dundee Burns Club for this thoughtful gift: a very rare 1984 poster marking the 10th anniversary of the Scottish-Soviet Burns Celebration. 🏴🚩
‘It’s coming yet for a’ that
That man to man
The world o’er
Shall brothers be
For a’ that’
Charles Withers, Professor Emeritus University of Edinburgh and Geographer Royal for Scotland reading from a letter to Charles Darwin by Charles Lyell discussing the domestication of the dog. #LyellProject www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex3g...
Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, who translated Principia into French, was born 17 December 1706 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/a...
Good decision. I'm doing the same. I haven't been able to bring myself to post much on 'X' recently in any case.
Yes, they did! They asked me how to spell it in the interview. Luckily I got it right that time.
I once made exactly that mistake in an application for an editorial post. Not good. I still got the job, though!
This is a very sad day for me, my last day teaching at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social before the end of my contract. I'll greatly miss exchanging ideas with all our wonderful students here at @standrewshist.bsky.social. But it's not quite all over, as I still have plenty of marking to do!
In case you're wondering what my banner is, it's an illustration of a Brocken spectre from David Brewster's wonderful Letters on Natural Magic (1832).
My new book, David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland, 1793-1843, comes out this month from Edinburgh University Press. Thanks to everyone at EUP and all my colleagues on the 'After the Enlightenment' project at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-david-b...
Dipping into my back catalogue for Bluesky. This @jofvictculture.bsky.social article from last year looked at how the literary languages of C19th palaeontology shaped the thinking and experiences of those who claimed they could transcend time through psychic means: academic.oup.com/jvc/article/...
Image of book cover of seance with hands around a table with candles and figure in cloak
VERY exciting news! I’m joining the @britishlibrary.bsky.social #TalesOfTheWeird series this December with ‘Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil’!👻
Join hands around the séance table for 14 classics & lost gems of fiction inspired by the spiritualism movement🕯️
18 November 1870: The first seven female undergraduates studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh were confronted by a large crowd of students who were attempting to prevent them from going in to sit their exams in what became known as the "Surgeons' Hall Riot".
My book, ‘Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics (1914-3014)’ is just out as paperback with @edinburghup.bsky.social
£21 instead of the £80 hardback!
From unionism to nationalism: the first study of Burns’s political afterlife in 20c Scotland 🏴
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-robert-...