You’re killing me .

A change of register for me, with a really compelling day discussing research potential, as well as shortcomings in possible collaborations between Romanian researchers in the UK and at home. Many thanks to Romanian Embassy in London and to Her Excellency Laura Popescu for the initiative.

Colourised lantern slide showing a woman dressed in 'peasant' clothing, including headscarf, holding a bowl which contains a small amount of food. Her face is lined with age and she looks gaunt.

Colourised lantern slide showing a Russian street scene. A man in a fur hat is sitting on the pavement. The lower part of his legs have been amputated and he is using a four wheeled trolley to move. The crowd also includes soldiers, children and a well-dressed woman who is looking down on the amputee.

Colourised lantern slide showing bundles of pro-Bolshevik leaflets or other publications being unloaded from a decorated propaganda train.

Colourised lantern slide showing the vast head of a statue of Alexander III, upside down and removed from the rest of the Moscow statue. Two men are adjusting the ropes that have been used to lower it.

Scenes of a revolution

These tinted slides show Russia at a time of revolutions and civil war

Produced in the USA by the Victor Animatograph Company, they were used for Henry Sara's UK lantern lecture tours

See more Sara slides at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

#Archive30 #ColourfulArchives

Opposition leader Péter Magyar at a rally.

Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise.

He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media.

The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.

Hungarians showing how to win big in an unfair election: organize AND protest AND vote AND demand profound change.

A photo I took 14 years ago at an anti-Orbán/Fidesz demonstration in Budapest... It is finally done!

The upcoming anticorruption campaign will be hard. A constitutional majority goes a long way, but entrenched corrupt networks fight back and sabotage, they don't give up easily. Just ask Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, etc.

“Ruszkik haza!” on the Budapest metro after the vote!

Orbán concedes and focuses on Hungarians voting from neighboring countries (and supporting Fidesz overwhelmingly) as his team looks on shellshocked.

The man on the far left, János Lázár (in a political sense actually far right) will be angling for the party. Mark my words.

What becomes of the Budapest hub of nationalist thinkers and institutions after Orbán’s downfall? Does it stay put and seek to incubate a Fidesz comeback? Decamp to Bratislava / Belgrade / Prague / Washington DC? Or disperse across the continent ahead of the major election years of 2027 and 2029?

Open-ended teaching-and-research history jobs in a great department? In this economy?! Way to go Warwick!

We’re hiring more at Warwick! Assistant Professors in History of Capitalism: warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/mobile-1/... & History of Iberian Empires: warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/mobile-1/... Happy to answer any questions for anyone interested!

Here's something good for early career scholars in history and area studies! Submissions close in a week! Tell your frens!
#academicsky 🗃 #histsci #earlymodern #ancient #medieval

It is the wound in Time. The century’s tides, chanting their bitter psalms, cannot heal it. Not the war to end all wars; death’s birthing place; the earth nursing its ticking metal eggs, hatching new carnage. But how could you know, brave as belief as you boarded the boats, singing? The end of God in the poisonous, shrapnelled air. Poetry gargling its own blood. We sense it was love you gave your world for; the town squares silent, awaiting their cenotaphs. What happened next? War. And after that? War. And now? War. War. History might as well be water, chastising this shore; for we learn nothing from your endless sacrifice. Your faces drowning in the pages of the sea. Carol Ann Duffy, ‘The Wound in Time’ (2018)

War. And after that? War. And now? War. War.
History might as well be water, chastising this shore.

-Carol Ann Duffy, The Wound in Time, written on the occasion of the centenary of the first World War.
#everynightapoem

When presidents order war crimes, threaten genocide, wage war without Congressional approval, and act with impunity of international law, it erodes democracy and human rights, and causes innumerable consequences.

But historians and other experts are being fired for teaching the truth.

I’ve had worse early morning walks.

Event plug: looking forward to this book event this coming Thursday ( 2 April, 5 pm) in Leipzig at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO). @michalfrankl.bsky.social , Maren Hachmeister, and yours truly in conversation with Katja Castryck-Naumann.

Wonderful news!!!!

So pleased to see my book put in conversation with scholars and studies I've long admired. And so wonderful to see such a careful and nuanced reading of it (and others). Many thanks to Meghan Riley for this fantastic review essay! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Very excited to finally be in a proper archive after a bit of time focused on teaching, article writing, idea testing, library hopping. Some form of book is loading though and here we are. Adventures in Prague. ❤️

Old but ever so relevant… aeon.co/essays/for-h...

In a transit centre in Pavlohrad the horror of war is written on pensioners' faces Sian Norris reports from the Donbas on the devastating situation facing internally displaced people fleeing the frontline

htsf.substack.com/p/in-a-trans...

Gisèle Pelicot and the language of rape culture In her memoir, Pelicot examines the vocabulary of sex and violence in the bedroom, the chatroom and the courtroom. She insists that the way men talk about women matters

If you read something today... observer.co.uk/style/featur...

Call for applications for fellowships in Prague! www.leibniz-gwzo.de/en/institute...

Farage's claims here are straightforward lies (and it's about time the media/press said so)

The correct figures are 160K (0.3%) and 900K (1.5%)

www.gbnews.com/news/video-n...

A sales banner with the following elements: On the lefthand side is an illustration of a woman and a man, the woman is giving the man a copy of Vol. 9 of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche with a red gift bow on top of the book. She is saying: "Behold, man! Volume 9 of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche." He replies: " Ecce Homo AND Twilight of the Idols! Honey, you spoil me." On the righthand side of the banner is the following text: Have a heart, give books this Valentine's Day. 30% off sitewide, 2/11 - 2/18, Only titles currently in stock, no backorders, Valid for US and CAN Orders only, Some exceptions apply; click for details

SUP is having a Valentine's Day sale! It's easy to fall for a brilliant argument. In our annual sale, discover captivating titles you can truly commit to. Enjoy 30% off all in-stock print & ebooks site-wide*

Browse books: www.sup.org

*Some exceptions apply, for details: www.sup.org/valentines-d...

Maybe, just maybe, people should start to understand that there is no such thing as non punitive detention. And so the entire premise of immigration law— that this is civil and isn’t meant to punish or coerce— is a tremendous lie

We're hiring! warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Bucking a Global Trend, Spain Offers Undocumented Migrants a Legal Way to Stay

This is capitalism by the way... www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/w...

It sure will get you clicks there, The Guardian!