Signing off for the holidays. Hope everyone has a good Christmas and holiday break. See you in the new year.

Caleb Williams (1794), William Godwin's timely exposé of fake news, dirty tricks, and all the truth-twisting deceptions by which authoritarian governments maintain power, is now trending on Bluesky. (Image from 19c. reprint)

Bursaries are available for our new short courses @ihr.bsky.social - have a browse over this festive season! We deliver high-quality training programmes and unique learning opportunities to a wide community of historians of all career stages & historical interests. www.history.ac.uk/study-traini...

Censuses of Ireland, 1766-1891. At end Nov. our total for names in VRTI CEN from 1766 religious census, 1798 census of Dublin City and censuses of Ireland 1813-1891 hit 98,000. On Tuesday we'll give the end Dec. total. Will we hit 100k? Tune in Tuesday for update. Any guesses?

Hard not to see this as some kind of tech driven return to aspects of a feudalist order. The tech lords assembling around their king. The difference is that it isn’t based on delusional beliefs in divine right and hereditary monarchy. It is built purely on corruption and greed for money and power.

Nice to see that Age of Atrocity, which I edited with David Edwards and Pádraig Lenihan, is being reprinted by Four Courts Press. It will be available just in time for Valentine's Day next year! www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archiv...

WMQ Spotlight: “Old Soldiours trained up in the Netherlands.” This early-17th-century phrase, tied to Richard Hakluyt’s 1609 counsel, shows how military training, persuasion, and coercion shaped early imperial thought. Read on Project MUSE: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55884 Image: Jacob de Gheyn II (CC0).

The Society offers following 3 funding calls with closing dates in January: bit.ly/4p6jcea > Workshop Grants, supporting project work by historians > PhD Fellowships, to support completion of a doctorate > Applied History Fellowships, for post-doc historians with @ihr.bsky.social and DC Thomson

What does independence mean today? Submit manuscripts to @pspolisci.bsky.social Special Issues on Rethinking the Global Legacies of 1776. Deadline: February 15, 2026 View submission details and submit: buff.ly/t5Ay1mm

📣DRI is seeking expressions of interest from DRI members to fill a vacancy which has arisen on the DRI Board. Any staff member from a full-member institution is eligible to nominate themselves for consideration for appointment. Apply by 16 Jan 2026. Find out more: dri.ie/news/call-fo...

Our most recent Current Debates essay is now out. In "The East India Company as Landowner" John Marriott considers the legal origins of British colonial rule in India. #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1080/0308... @jich.bsky.social

I wrote about Daniel O'Connell for the upcoming RTÉ documentary, airing sometime after Christmas. Biggest takeaway from all the time I've spent with O'Connell? Despite his many flaws the moral clarity of his politics is worthy of emulation, especially in our age of rightwing resurgence. 🗃️

@jayroszman.bsky.social on Daniel O'Connell as global icon - and beacon of beer drinking during prohibition!

@jlepler.bsky.social Canal Dreamers just out from @uncpress.bsky.social which connects the Altlantic World to the Pacific World … even tho her actors failed to do so. uncpress.org/978146969055...

A comparative, solutions-oriented legal & policy analysis of methods used to combat the impact of dis- & misinformation on democracy Disinformation, Misinformation, and Democracy eds. Ronald J. Krotoszynski, J., András Koltay & @charlottegarden.bsky.social #BookSky #LawSky cup.org/49FQqdY

Kacy Dowd Tillman explores how archival petitions by Black loyalists during the Revolution challenge objectification & assert authorship. Her article reinterprets bureaucratic records as a form of early life writing. Now open access: doi.org/10.1353/eam.... @projectmuse.bsky.social #EAS

If you missed Patrick Walsh's talk yesterday on 'A colonial sinew of power? Rethinking the 18th-century Irish state', a recording is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJr...

A nice surprise this morning: my article on prison reform from below is out! I believe it’s open access but let me know if you can’t get a copy and would like one. academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

Give my colleague @briangurrin.bsky.social a follow for all things census related. I don't think there is anyone that knows more about Irish censuses than Brian.

Maps showing 1766 religious census returns received at House of Lords, in response to their 15 March call for census details, and the surviving details from the census. 83% national coverage in 1766; 63% survival of details, in some form. Significant losses. Significant recovery.

🚨 Now Open Access 🚨 'How Not to Possess an #Island: #Pitcairn and the Legal Circuits of British Empire in the Pacific World' by Lauren Benton and Adam Clulow 👉 dx.doi.org/10.1017/ahss...

Tough result for the Hibernian Metropolis... www.remitly.com/gb/en/landin...

CfP Empires and War, UCD Sept.2026 www.ucd.ie/warstudies/t...

it's happening www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804714...

My second Kant and my first Bentham paper, "Federalism and the Unity of Early Liberalism: Bentham’s and Kant’s Reception of Adam Smith’s “New Imperialism.”" *Social Philosophy and Policy.* 2025;42(2):474-494 (Link in first comment)

When did discussions of “the economy” begin, and why? In our latest blog post @williamcavert.bsky.social takes us to 18th-century England to explore the "improvement" literature of the time👇

The Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society has a new website that is well-worth checking out for details of the annual conference, journal, and news of the inaugural ECR bursary, which was awarded to @mzukovs.bsky.social. The next bursary will be announced shortly. www.ecis.ie/news-events/

Hooray! The British Library has just released a beta version of its rebuilt Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue: searcharchives.bl.uk 2,619 hits for 'petition' in Western Manuscripts, texts in English, in case you're curious. 🗃️

The second, 'Ireland, 1485-1798: colonial laboratory?' (featuring @nejohnst.bsky.social) examined how Ireland was used as a colonial laboratory by the English Crown and its servants. youtu.be/EY3nimRylms?...

The third, 'Ireland’s undiscovered past: the 1800s' (featuring @gillianobrien.bsky.social) delved into the VRTI in search of lesser-known men and women to reveal new interpretations of Ireland’s recent past. youtu.be/dsuWzs00AXM?...

Submit a proposal to speak at the Social History Society conference in 2026! 🗃️

So delighted to see my first book up online with @oxfordunipress.bsky.social! Huge thanks to @anzamems.bsky.social @memorients.bsky.social @earlymoderncircle.bsky.social. DM or email me for a review copy request form, and ask your uni librarian to buy the book!! global.oup.com/academic/pro...

#TNAConnections The Home Office (Ireland) Correspondence held at @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy — also known as the HO 100 series — letters written by high-ranking officials in Dublin Castle, addressed to the central administration in London. Jump in here: virtualtreasury.ie/curated-coll...

Looking forward to presenting this paper on my current book project @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social on Monday.

Planning a monograph or collection essays on some aspect of #C18th #history & culture? If so, get in touch with @deborahsimonton.bsky.social or me about publishing in our series, Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Societies. #skystorians 🗃️www.routledge.com/Routledge-St...

Congratulations to Antwain K. Hunter, whose book A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715–1865 was published by UNC Press last month! uncpress.org/978146968989...

We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social 'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.

My final manuscript in! And now I give you..... COVER REVEAL (US cover, UK is sooooo different but it's not public yet)

Great to see the programme for the @long18thsem.bsky.social for next term @ihrlibrary.bsky.social . You can register to attend either in person or online here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Just a few more days for abstracts if you are interested in the 'Women, Power and Money' conference at Warwick in June this year! warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cla...

Interesting-looking new book from OUP by a former colleague of mine: #earlymodern #bookhistory academic.oup.com/book/60681

On Thursday 12 Feb. we will be sponsoring a conference on THE ULSTER PLANTATION, linked to the 'People of Plantation Ulster' database project (QUB/Maynooth). This is a free event open to all, held at PRONI (11-4). Registration and programme is at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conference...

Come spend an academic year with us at UConn as a visiting Humanities Institute fellow! humanities.uconn.edu/fellowships/...

Coming soon (June 2026) as the next book in the Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series @nyupress.bsky.social @gihnyu.bsky.social A powerful reinterpretation of global Irish nationalism by @patrickjmahone1.bsky.social nyupress.org/search-resul...

We are delighted to announce that we'll be hosting the SSNCI conference in Maynooth next June. Call for papers attached. Please spread far and wide!

#CfP Call for Papers Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick: Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026 Submit to [email protected]

📣Latest Content in English 'Knowledge from #Experience: The Making of #Fisheries Policy (France, 1680–1860)' by Romain Grancher (@cnrsshs.bsky.social) 👉 dx.doi.org/10.1017/ahss... #fisheries #expertise #knowledge

New calls for research funding: bit.ly/44d2mTb Today we open calls for the Society's next rounds of 'Early Career Fellowship Grants' and 'Open Research Grants'. These schemes offer support for post-doc and later career historians to pursue research. Closing dates: 6 March 2026 #Skystorians 1/2

Forthcoming: Seven hitherto unpublished papers by István Hont in "Political Economy from Pufendorf to Marx: Culture, Needs, and Property Rights" (@universitypress.cambridge.org), ed. Lasse S. Andersen with Béla Kapoussy and Richard Whatmore @standrewsiih.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/books/p...