The video of my book talk on Humans: A Monstrous History at @linneansociety.bsky.social is now available online!
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9N...
UK folks: now that the paperback is out, the gorgeous hardback of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is on sale at Waterstones for 10 GBP - down from 25 GBP!
Spinoff essays and excerpts are linked in the thread.
🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
Ten-day countdown to paperback #PubDay for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, @ucpress.bsky.social! Here's a thread of book excerpts. Get 30% off by ordering from the press w/code discount code UCPSAVE30.
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
Me in a blue and yellow sweater and blue jeans, holding a copy of HUMANS, standing against a white wall with silvery lettering spelling out "University of California Press", looking dazed. - At the UC Press head office.
The PAPERBACK of Humans: A Monstrous History from @ucpress.bsky.social, a history *through* monsters from antiquity to the present, is available to preorder! Here's a 🧵 of excerpts from the book.
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
The red and silver English edition of HUMANS next to the smaller Chinese edition in a pale gray cover, both sitting on a circular wooden table (top and bottom cropped) on a wooden floor. The English cover is a dramatic red with yellow lettering. A large, silvery, oval mirror sits in the centre, with a black decorative border with fictional monsters on it. The Chinese cover has a human hand and a robotic hand reaching towards each other.
Humans: A Monstrous History is a year old today! Here’s a 🧵 of some spinoff writings and interviews.
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
A pale grey softcover book on a red and blue striped book chair on a circular wooden coffee table, with bookcases in the background. The book cover: black text in complex Chinese characters of various font sizes. In smaller font in Latin characters are "A Monstrous History" and "Surekha Davies". At the top left and bottom right are two large, outstretched hands, human (top) and silvery-grey robot with some exposed machinery (bottom), reminiscent of the hands of God and Adam on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Chinese edition (traditional characters) of HUMANS: A Monstrous History now in my hands! Link to book (all editions and languages in bio), from Gusa Press (Taiwan):
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💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
A painting detail with a genderqueer cyborg demon: tonsured hair, beard, and the pipes of musical instruments sticking out of breasts. Said demon is force-feeding a coin into the mouth of a victim who looks faint with horror.
Newsletter (link in bio) subscriber gift: an essay on the story *behind* my Smithsonian Magazine essay.
Existing subscribers: check your inboxes!
Not yet a subscriber? Subscribe for free to receive the essay.
🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #HAMH
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this...
Can an archive make a monster of a historian? But of course! I wrote about this for @contingent-mag.bsky.social, and the essay is now both free to read online and available as an audio read by me!
The audio version:
💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH #maps #cartography
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CORRECTION: My lecture in London is on the evening of Thursday 5th March! Sorry, folks. 'Twas my first day doing any work after the break. 😭
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
....And I see that you've figured out that #HAMH will surface a lot of my threads about the book. 😀
London book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY!
I'll be speaking on Thursday 5th May, 6pm, at @linneansociety.bsky.social
More info and registration below. A free exhibition, "Wonder" is now on and ends the next day.
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💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
A pale grey book cover with black text in complex Chinese characters of various font sizes. In smaller font in Latin characters are "A Monstrous History" and "Surekha Davies". At the top left and bottom right are two large, outstretched hands, human (top) and silvery-grey robot with some exposed machinery (bottom), reminiscent of the hands of God and Adam on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Happy #PubDay for the Complex/Traditional Chinese translation of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY from Gusa Publishing House, Taiwan!
Available: World excluding Mainland China.
More translations coming!
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH #worldhistory #politics
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I wrote in @contingent-mag.bsky.social about how a chance encounter with monsters in the archives led to my two books on monsters, science, exploration, maps, and culture.
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH #archives #libraries #arthistory
A pale grey book cover with black text in complex Chinese characters of various font sizes. In smaller font in Latin characters are "A Monstrous History" and "Surekha Davies". At the top left and bottom right are two large, outstretched hands, human (top) and silvery-grey robot with some exposed machinery (bottom), reminiscent of the hands of God and Adam on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, Complex/Traditional Chinese, Jan 7 from Gusa Publishing House (Taiwan)!
Available: World excluding Mainland China.
Loving Michelangelo meets Murderbot. Entirely reflects the content and range of the book!
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
My book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is now available on the Linda Hall Library's YouTube channel.
Come take a tour through monsters and monster-making, from earth to outer space!
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH #politics
www.youtube.com/watch?v=81KT...
Book on book chair open to first page of Introduction. Opening lines: “I spent my childhood watching too much Star Trek and have been searching for monsters and aliens ever since. They led me through grad school. They sustained me through adventures on the road: being locked into a vault in the Vatican Library and balancing on a ladder in a Parisian basement while wrangling giant maps and directing the beam of a hot lamp, trying not to burn anything. Monsters climbed into my syllabi when I…”
Bright red book cover showing: an oval, silver-coloured mirror with a black frame comprised of sci-fi and fantasy monsters, with yellow lettering for the title, “HUMANS”, around the top of the mirror, in a stylized font with details that resemble whale-tails and bats’ wings. Subtitle just inside the mirror: A Monstrous History. Inside the bottom curve of the mirror: Surekha Davies. Along the left-hand edge of the cover crawls a xenomorph: a humanoid creature with an insect-like head and a long, sinuous, menacing, pointy tail.
Gift-shopping for a nerd with a conscience? HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY (@ucpress.bsky.social) blends centuries of history, science, literature, pop culture & social justice, from earth to outer space.
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🧪💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
Today! Free book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, hosted by the Linda Hall Library:
7-8pm CST (8-9pm EST)
Register to get the Zoom link.
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #ancient #medieval #renaissance #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH #politics
Thrilled that HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY is one of @brdemuth.bsky.social's best books of 2025 in @historytoday.com!
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH #politics
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A deep green square with white writing announcing date, time, title and speaker of an event. In the top left corner is the Linda Hall Library logo. In the background, in shaded greens, is a detail from a painting with alarming details of the punishments in hell.
Free book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, hosted by the Linda Hall Library:
Thurs Dec 4th, 7-8pm CST (8-9pm EST)
Register at link below.
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💙📚 🧪 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
events.lindahall.org/humansamonst...
Podcast icon in mauve, with dark lettering: How to Write the Future: Tips for fiction writers. With Beth Barany.
I talked with @bethbarany.bsky.social about how curating an exhibition got me into monsters; on what makes a good #SFF monster; #StarTrek’s Borg Collective; and lessons from Monsters, Inc. Listen wherever you get your podcasts! 1/
💙📚 🗃 #histsci #politics #HAMH
writersfunzone.com/blog/2025/11...
Happy Halloween! Here's a thread of some of my monstery essays, and a link to register for my next book talk, hosted by the Linda Hall Library:
Thurs Dec 4th, 7-8pm CST (8-9pm EST)
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💙📚 🧪 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
events.lindahall.org/humansamonst...
Halloween special on the @prospectmagazine.co.uk #podcast!
I chatted with editors @aloner.bsky.social & @ellenhalliday.bsky.social about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, and "monstrification":
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💙📚 🗃 #politics #monsters #monstertober #spookyseason #HAMH
Delighted that HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY was featured in @neilmackay.bsky.social's Long Read column in @heraldscotland.bsky.social!
It was a pleasure to chat with Neil. 1/2
#monsters #politics #sociology #psychology #folklore 💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #HAMH
Natalie Lawrence (ENCHANTED CREATURES) and I (HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY) were interviewed by @kensycoop.bsky.social on the @manymindspod.bsky.social #podcast! Some monster-making egs we explored:
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💙📚 🧪🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #psychology #HAMH 🧵
Square podcast logo: blue background, yellow, neon-light-style unfilled letters, “5AM”, across the top, with StoryTalk in white just below; bottom half of logo is a black mug with steam rising from it.
Screenshot from a newsletter page titled “5AM StoryTalk.” Three-quarter-angled headshot of a woman with dark hair, smiling, and a headshot of Sir Patrick Stewart as Locutus of Borg: deathly pale, almost greenish skin, and a prosthetic across the right-hand side of his face with a glowing red light in the middle. Text beneath: Bonus episode: Surekha Davies talks Star Trek: TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds.” Subtitle: The historian and “Humans: A Monstrous History” author discusses a seminal piece of art from her life – two of the greatest “Star Trek” episodes…
I spoke with screenwriter and novelist @colehaddon.bsky.social about the links between politics and pop culture, the entangled history of humans and monsters, and (in a second episode) an iconic double episode of #StarTrek #TNG. 1/
💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #politics #HAMH 🧵
"It's up to us whether to worry about whether we're monsters or to celebrate uniqueness. And in the monster there is beauty."
I got to chat with host Alexis Pedrick in the studio for the Distillations podcast at @sciencehistory.org. Listen now:
💙📚 🧪 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #HAMH
ICYMI: Book talks from @histfest.bsky.social at @britishlibrary.bsky.social are on the British Library's YouTube channel! Here's the link to my conversation with @k8lister.bsky.social about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY. 💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thC #politics #HAMH
Three women on a stage. Left to right, they are wearing: a red and patterned trouser; suit and cream sandals; a pale shirt and trousers, bright red shoes, and a black face mask; black top, white robe, and black and white patterened skirt, boots, and a headwrap. In the background is a pale purple screen with “Edinburgh International Book Festival” on the right, and the corner of a printed pamphlet and part of the auto-captioning visible at the top left.
Two women (one in pale shirt, other in red and patterned trouser suit), one masked, in front of a blue screen. Projected on screen is a medieval world map and a zoomed-in detail of said map, partly overlaying the map.
Dark-haired woman in a black face mask is engrossed in signing a pile of copies of a bright red book with a silvery mirror and black frame, entitled “Humans: A Monstrous History.” She sits at a desk covered in a black cloth. On the left is a brass-coloured desk lamp with a triangular shade.
Dark-haired woman in a black face mask looks up quizzically while signing a pile of copies of “Humans: A Monstrous History.” She sits at a desk covered in a black cloth. On the left is a brass-coloured desk lamp with a triangular shade.
Thrilling panel at @edbookfest.bsky.social with @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social! @yassmin.bsky.social was our chair & interlocutor.
For a 30% discount on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY from @ucpress.bsky.social, 1/
💙📚 🗃 #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #politics #HAMH #edbookfest
It was a pleasure to chat with @sixteenthcgirl.bsky.social on Not Just The Tudors about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, a history of the idea of "human" from antiquity to the present. 🧵
💙📚 🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
podfollow.com/not-just-the...
A humanlike figure viewed from behind wears a skin and looks over his shoulder. The caption, in an angular, jazz-age-like font, reads, “Caliban Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration.”
Time for another 🧵 on #monsters in British history and culture! And if you’re anywhere near #Edinburgh, come over to the #EdBookFest on Friday 15 Aug, 1:30-2:30pm, to chat with me and @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social! 1/🧵
Today: an eg of #Shakespeare’s #monsters
#earlymodern #politics #HAMH 💙📚 🗃
