Feeling unwholesomely pleased with myself after submitting a co-authored article only about two months later than planned.

ICYMI yesterday afternoon a fantastic new digital resource pulling together data on the Roman road network has just launched. Explore at:

The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award! Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize

A question for #EarlyModern #skystorians: What does 'exped' mean as a response to a petition, in this case to the 17th-century House of Lords? I'd assumed 'expedite', but that doesn't quite make sense in some contexts. 🗃️ Examples here: www.british-history.ac.uk/petitions/ho...

240,000 pages of manuscript and printed sources at your fingertips, now with much improved usability! 🗃️📜

I'm so proud of what we're building! www.bbk.ac.uk/news/meet-th...

In my first-year #EarlyModern class this week at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social, we did primary source analysis focused on the age-old problems of sex, drugs and rock n roll (comic adultery, disorderly alehouses, and unlicenced musicians). Still buzzing from such an engaged group of students! 🗃️

“If the point is that we need to restore these human stories, why frame them within law's stories first?” Some thoughts on history, law, storytelling and Mrs Burns williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/h... 🗃️

County boundaries weren't always as neat as we'd like them to be. The area around Meppershall in Bedfordshire was particularly complicated giving rise to this cartographical equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders: HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE The Limits uncertain #MappyMonday

I rashly promised to bring in a "fun" primary source for our optional extra class on my first-year Early Modern World module tomorrow. I've got a couple ideas but what's your favorite #EarlyModern source to throw at first-years? Max 1-2 pages. Any topic! 🗃️

To mark #Halloween & publication of 'The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England', (now available in print & free online), this blogpost revisits the magiconomy. 🧙🎃 Highlights include a magical service paid for with bacon and pigeons. 🥓🪶 #history ludicrushistories.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/t...

A quick reminder that Dr Emily Vine @emilymayvine.bsky.social will be speaking TODAY on 'Birth, Death and Domestic Religion in Early Modern London' from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm in the Wolfson Room (NB02 at the IHR) and online, via Zoom! ✨ www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

New #EarlyModern hearth tax transcriptions for Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Norwich published #OpenAccess online! In Offley 1663, Sir Brocket Spencer, baronet, had 24 hearths, while Widow Pilgrim was ‘poore and not able to pay’. 🗃️ Explore 370,406 others here: gams.uni-graz.at/archive/obje...

Just your periodic reminder that there is an early modern pub night once a month for PhDs and ECRs and anyone else who'd like to join in London. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list please DM me.

A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

I’m old enough to remember when everybody agreed that higher education was a “market” and offering “choice” was how the universities were meant to grow on.ft.com/3WTwBue

Birth! Death!! Domestic Religion!!! Come along (or join online) to hear @emilymayvine.bsky.social's talk at the @ihr.bsky.social next Thursday.

Braudel for the win

Thank you @lflannigan17.bsky.social for this really thoughtful review of our #PowerOfPetitioning book! doi.org/10.1093/ehr/... She's right that 16th-century petitions don't get enough attention here, but you can read the 'ambitious' book for yourself to find out more: uclpress.co.uk/book/the-pow...

my thoughts on generative AI in the classroom memoriousblog.com/2025/10/18/w...

Final post in my series on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England'. It focuses on the heartbeat of the premodern economy.... the harvest. manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/16/t...

'the importance of petitioning as a prosaic, everyday feature of early modern governance' Don't have time to read this new article by @allankennedy.bsky.social right now but keen to learn more about the #PowerOfPetitioning in early modern Scotland! 🗃️ #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1080/0260...

As the agricultural cycle starts to wind down for the winter, my next post on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' looks forward to its resumption in the new year, when... ‘Ploughmen go whistling to their toils’ manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/14/t...

one of the astonishing things about working in a UK uni in the last decade is complete DISCONNECT between (on one hand) hostile media stories, ill informed govt policy, end of unis as we know them and (on the other) the joyful work of actually talking w/students and discovering new things together

Final reminder about Lyndal Roper's talk on Thursday at the @ihrscb.bsky.social on 'Turbulence and the German Peasants' War of 1524-6'. Register here for in-person or online attendance: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

Did you know they burned witches in medieval times? Right, now I've got your attention, here's some *actual* medieval witching - and it is entirely adorable, if slightly smutty. lucyallengoss.substack.com/p/what-the-w...

One week to go until Lyndal Roper's talk at @ihr.bsky.social! Register for the hybrid event here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... And check out our other talks by @emilymayvine.bsky.social and @nailyas.bsky.social here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Another post on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' - a reminder that work in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was very much a family affair... manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/09/t...

As you dig out your chunky knitwear from the back of the draw, I know you are wondering: 'How did people prepare for winter 400 years ago?' Read today's post to find out (and whet your appetite for our new book The Experience of Work in Early Modern England) manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/07/t...

How has paperwork served as a tool of empowerment for people who often find power elusive? In our latest podcast, a group of historians, archivists, and activists met at the Raphael Samuel History Centre (@rshc.bsky.social) to discuss the hidden history of paperwork 🗃️🎙️

The world is falling apart and UK higher education is a bin fire, but I've got two first-year BA modules this year at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and the enthusiasm and curiosity of new Birkbeck students give me life. They just want to learn about new stuff! And I get to help them do that!

If anyone needs a freelance researcher in London (or across the UK), I'm your person! I've reasonable rates, lots of archive experience & great recommendations from academics globally. I'm only teaching 1 module this term, as the job market is what it is. Therefore, I'm open to all work. DM me!

I just received the first copies of my book and I have to say it’s looking gorgeous! 😍 Thank you @reaktionbooks.bsky.social for making such a beautiful book #earlymodern

Who did what in early modern England? New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️ Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Goodnight from Meek’s Ironmongery in Barwell, where the resident poltergeist is hammering nails into the walls to spell out some deeply rude words. Goodnight from David Moody, hearing the crow that lives in his stomach caw at the approach of the Wicker King. Goodnight from Hookland.

📣Reminder that the deadline is coming soon!

Teaching starts this week, so may need to incorporate this into my intro slides. Students need to be ready to have their minds blown by the late age for first marriages in pre-industrial northwest Europe. 🤯

On the other site, I once quipped that one of the best public outreach activities that historians could do was accurately maintaining Wikipedia pages. This might be more prescient nowadays…

We've got a stellar set of speakers this term at @ihr.bsky.social. Come along an immerse yourself in the latest early modern history research! #EarlyModern 🗃️

For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

📢 The Social History Society Book Prize 2026 is now open for nominations! Now in its 8th year, the prize celebrates the best books in social history & cultural history✨ More information here: socialhistory.org.uk/2025/09/24/b...

it’s friday evening and now is as good a time as any to remind you all to JOIN A UNION

I finally transferred to ad-free version of Wordpress, so that people had easier to my site, especially my list of radical online collections & archives (nearly 1000 collections listed). It'd be great if people clicked on the link to see if it is all working! hatfulofhistory.com/radical-onli...

Concerned by this #UKHE -wide drive. It clearly is a way of removing representation from governance structures (a Department has a voice, committees, & governance structure, a 'subject area' does not), however much consultants/HR deny it is. Would be good to know how people protect representation.

Google translate suggests this new German review by Andreas Gestrich of our #PowerOfPetitioning book is fairly positive, but can anyone who's not a machine confirm? www.sehepunkte.de/2025/09/3993...

Term is coming up, time to decorate those office doors

What can petitions to magistrates from London apprentices tell us about gendered violence in #EarlyModern England? New addition from Hilary Taylor to the #PowerOfPetitioning annotated bibliography: petitioning.history.ac.uk/2019/05/13/p...

#REQciting news for fans of the Court of Requests. As of this morning, over 20,000 new online item descriptions have been added to the catalogue for REQ 2/16-265 since Feb 2024. Captain Nemo eat your heart out. discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C...