In December 1680 there was a harmony of harping, and this has improved my day immeasurably

Liberal Worlds James Bryce (1838-1922) was a leading figure in Britain's Liberal Party and a distinguished historian, a versatile scholar-politician who moved seamlessly betwe

Half-price offer, time-limited
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Thrilled to find this in my favourite bookshop @blackwelloxford.bsky.social

Spirit in the Sky | Erin Maglaque, Chandler Fritz What do Italian astronomers, cloistered nuns, levitating saints, and the “sexy dreams” of desert church fathers have in common? In the pages of the

“Assumptions about the intrinsically ‘backward’ character of premodern religion not only leave the women of the past opaque to us but make the oppressions of our own time harder to see, too.” —an interview with Erin Maglaque

Congratulations!

April ye 2nd

Being reviewed by Stefan Collini is not for the faint-hearted, but I can hardly complain about this one drb.ie/article/havi...

#earlymodern

For the last day of #womenshistorymonth, a reminder that literary history, like other forms of history, has blind spots. Women - often “ordinary” women - wrote some of the most innovative works of the 17th century, including prophecies and visionary forms of prose. They’re worth reading! 📚

Gorgeous flourishes in a woman’s spiritual diary (late 17th century) - the letters seem to take off and dance across the page #earlymodern

In an altogether excellent list of imp names, Griezzell Greedigutt is a particular standout

Image from Hopkins, “The Discovery of Witches”, 1647 #earlymodern

Where did you find this??

This image is on the front of my book! How has it found its way onto a card? 👀

Such an important point

A great interview with @erinmaglaque.bsky.social where she draws attention to the incredible Anne Wentworth (one of the stars of Voices of Thunder)

A great interview with @erinmaglaque.bsky.social where she draws attention to the incredible Anne Wentworth (one of the stars of Voices of Thunder)

The Church of England may at last be recognising a female leader but it has taken far too long to do so - women were preaching as far back as the 1640s - and were vilified in the strongest terms within the established church #earlymodern

God’s Impertinent Prophets | Erin Maglaque A new history brings to light the dissenting women who wrote, preached, and testified during England’s tumultuous seventeenth century, claiming the standing to speak as excluded outsiders who had un u...

“Radical spiritual writing—prophecies, autobiographies, spiritual accounts—was a genre in which women [in the 17th-century] flourished: they wrote about childbirth, about raising and feeding children, about abusive marriages.” —@erinmaglaque.bsky.social

As the Church of England gets ready to install a female Archbishop of Canterbury, I’m thinking of all the women - going back 400 years and more - who were excluded, mocked and hounded for daring to preach. As this tract from 1641 shows, they were vilified as Satanic (as were “unqualified” men, too)

God’s Impertinent Prophets | Erin Maglaque A new history brings to light the dissenting women who wrote, preached, and testified during England’s tumultuous seventeenth century, claiming the standing to speak as excluded outsiders who had un u...

“When the Quaker women stood doused in blood at St. Paul’s, they made a sensational, ominous scene; but then, seventeenth-century Londoners were used to that.” — @erinmaglaque.bsky.social

Richard Roach, writing in 1725 about the great female authors and spiritual leaders of his era. He assumed that when the history books were written they would all be put on the public stage “with applause and admiration”. 300 yrs later and we’re only just learning their names #earlymodern

God’s Impertinent Prophets | Erin Maglaque A new history brings to light the dissenting women who wrote, preached, and testified during England’s tumultuous seventeenth century, claiming the standing to speak as excluded outsiders who had un u...

“Radical spiritual writing—prophecies, autobiographies, spiritual accounts—was a genre in which women [in the 17th-century] flourished: they wrote about childbirth, about raising and feeding children, about abusive marriages.” —@erinmaglaque.bsky.social

17th-century version of clickbait?!

Opening page of Ann Bathurst’s spiritual diary, late C17th #earlymodern

God’s Impertinent Prophets | Erin Maglaque A new history brings to light the dissenting women who wrote, preached, and testified during England’s tumultuous seventeenth century, claiming the standing to speak as excluded outsiders who had un u...

“When the Quaker women stood doused in blood at St. Paul’s, they made a sensational, ominous scene; but then, seventeenth-century Londoners were used to that.” — @erinmaglaque.bsky.social

Delighted with this review of Voices of Thunder in The New York Review of Books

Liberalism, Democracy and Public Opinion: Intellectual Histories | Events at The University of Manchester Discussant: Emily Jones (History, University of Manchester) – author of the forthcoming The Disraeli Myth: The Making of a Conservative Tradition (Princeton UP, 2026)

Manchester on Tuesday: please sign up if you can come events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:...

I write for ease & for strengthening of my memory, & it may be for future ages, when the law of love will be more naturalized among you ~ Ann Bathurst, 1694

I get goosebumps when C17th women directly address future readers! They hoped the future would be more open to them than was their present

The mystery is above the history.”

Ann Bathurst, giving the best ever definition of mysticism

The difference between engagement on X and BlueSky is huge! The pic on the left is from X and on the right is from BlueSky (I have more than twice as many followers on BlueSky). This is not a one-off! Is it just me or is it hard to get engagement on this platform?

Who Speaks for Us? | Marilynne Robinson The representatives of our two-party system have made it into a weapon that works against the people.

“It would seem grossly improbable that a billionaire—rich from birth and repeatedly bankrupt yet still a billionaire—could lead a movement of angry ‘populism.’ But here we are.” —Marilynne Robinson