One of the (many) silver linings of Starmer being ousted is that there will be a moratorium on interviews being described as ‘surprisingly personal’ when it’s just him lying and repeating the same soundbites ad nauseam.

Actually I can’t let this drop - there must be so much self-loathing among history grads in government. Phillipson obviously feels she got nothing from her undergraduate degree - from Oxford no less - or else she’d be helping other poor kids from Gateshead have the opportunities she had.

A great day at the annual King’s History Teacher’s Network conference yesterday. Thanks to @jamescrossland.bsky.social (@ljmuimpact.bsky.social) for his keynote, and to all the other speakers! @kingshistory.bsky.social

Discussing the most influential (and arguably worst) president of the nineteenth century. Give it a listen!

I've been organising the @kingshistory.bsky.social annual History Teacher's Network conference, which will be next week! Excited to hear talks from teachers, academics and assessment specialists on how we enthuse students to continue studying history.

⭐⭐ It's publication day for 'I Felt All This': Enslaved People's Emotional Lives in the Antebellum US South' published by @universitypress.cambridge.org! You can now buy it here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i... ⭐⭐

Inspiring stuff from the minister who is technically responsible for Higher Education. Universities may be crumbling but at least we'll be able to discuss it with an AI chatbot.

My review for Andrew Isenberg's 'The Age of the Borderlands' is now available in Slavery & Abolition - a great contribution to scholarship on US empire! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.   Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us.

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

Ah, but I remember Very Sensible people saying that Mike Tapp was an important Labour voice? Can it be…?

Reading people! I'll be speaking at the University of Reading's history seminar series on the 13th of May (4-6pm), with a talk entitled “The Cradle of Manifest Destiny: US Imperialism in the Florida Borderlands, 1783-1837". Come along and hear about some sickly Floridian newspaper editors!

I have a lot of time for @kateosbornemp.bsky.social; she is a true ally. However, no explanation of the rise of discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people in the UK makes sense without acknolwedging the complicitly and encouragement of the Labour government. 1/

Editing the final chapter of my book today, which analyses the actions of Osceola in the lead-up to the Second Seminole War. Osceola marshalled the Seminole confederacy to resist removal and personally killed a duplicitous Indian agent, sparking the conflict. Yet, he would become a settler icon. 🗃️

Today, I became a REAL historian of the US (lost my sanity filing a US tax return).

Pity the haters of the 19th century. With no means of posting scathing online reviews of books they detested, they were reduced to scrawling hateful comments in the front of the book.

🗞️ Show Me two Postdoctoral Fellowships (1 in history, 1 in political science) from the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri!!

My most recent piece on the @lrb.co.uk blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Good morning!

Thanks to @jamescrossland.bsky.social for having me on to discuss this grifter. Particularly enjoyed our discussion of the most bonkers confederate statue ever erected and what it tells us about southern memory. Give it a watch!

📢 New episode of HISTORY'S DEVILS drops this Thursday - Nathan Bedford Forrest and the origins of the Ku Klux Klan. Spoiler: they were a shitshow. Links to podcast in bio 🎧 @edwardmair.bsky.social #history #america

CONFERENCE - 'Sociability & Political Life', University of York, 3rd/4th July 2026 Get your abstracts in by 14th Feb!

Any UK secondary school History teachers who may follow me on here: I will be organising the annual KCL History Teachers' Network conference that will take place this Summer. Get in touch if you want to be looped in! #EduSky

This. This is what it means to close ‘regional’ universities.

When we already knew about Mandelson's links to Epstein, he was given: a cushy Times Radio show, influence over Starmer's Labour Party, the ambassadorship to the US - to name a few things. People who pointed out his links to Epsten were labelled as 'cranks', until it became inconvenient.

Hello and welcome to the Sky News Shit-Hot Political Accountability Hour with me, literally Peter Mandelson’s best friend. Sadly there was nobody less obviously compromised who could host a current affairs show

Our department seeks to appoint a Lecturer in Early Medieval History. You will be expected to undertake teaching and research in early medieval history (600–1150 CE) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH751/l...

I’m organising a graduate conference in July on Early America! Please see the CfP and circulate wherever you can 🥳

Perhaps the only thing that can save UK universities: protect jobs or risk more weirdo academics running in by-elections.

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

Sounds like a wonderful four-volume collection of documents and commentary that will be of great interest to the BrANCH community and beyond! Cheers to @alysbeverton.bsky.social, @edwardmair.bsky.social, @Adam Burns & @alex-bryne.bsky.social

Three years of work is all worth it for the excitement of getting your book in the post.

I can say with absolute certainty* that this was the best play on American history I’ve ever seen. *I’ve still not seen Hamilton.

I remember seeing some self-described progressives amplifying this MP as an important voice. You'll be surprised to hear that all of them are silent on this.

My review of Kathleen Brown's 'Undoing Slavery' is available in the latest issue of Early American Literature (Spoiler: it's good)! muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/artic...

Excited to see my book, 'I Felt All This': Enslaved People's Emotional Lives in the Antebellum US South, is up on CUP's website - coming out in July 2026! www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Never thought I’d live to see a winning candidate in a major election open their victory speech with a shout out to this guy.

1) At last! Having submitted last April, the gears of academic publishing have finally ground round and my article on Twilight: 2000 in the Journal of American Studies is now available! And it's open access, so anyone can engage with it! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Now with a cover!

“Their place in history is settled.” These dipshits have absolutely no idea how history works. (And the vast majority of ‘history’, as @karl-jacoby.bsky.social explains here, has been pretty clear-eyes that Wounded Knee was a massacre anyway.)

We have two jobs at KCL History! 16-month post in Modern Irish and/or British History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU178/l... And 5-year post in Early Modern Europe & The World: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU182/l... (both to start in January 2026)

A *permanent* US history job! Goes without saying that this will be highly competitive, but the US history faculty at Cambridge are some of the most supportive colleagues you can ask for. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOT902/a...

Evergreen. theonion.com/left-wing-gr...

In 2014, I wrote an article about the Scourged Back photo for @anchistjournal.bsky.social which has generated more public interest than nearly anything I've written. The erasure of this image, which remains as powerful today and when it was taken, horrifies me. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Both happy and relieved to say I’ll be lecturing at @kingshistory.bsky.social for the next academic year!

We’re advertising for a 30 month postdoc position in US Politics (very broadly construed). The role is mainly research, but allows the holder to gain experience teaching UK and US undergraduates. Happy to answer any and all questions. Application deadline 27/10. (Start date early 2026.)

A Peter Mandelson humiliation is the exact thing this fractured and beleaguered nation needed.

Myself and the amazing @lauracforster.bsky.social are doing a joint event to launch our books in York. Come to learn about Liverpool, the aftershocks of the Paris Commune and the new kinds of histories our present crisis demands! www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

On my last few days in Cambridge. I’ll miss my college and faculty colleagues and all the great students I’ve taught. I will not miss the militant cyclists and the perpetual anxiety of wondering if I should be wearing a gown.