📖 Forthcoming this month, a new book from our colleague, Dr Gareth Roddy (@grod.bsky.social), "Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880-1940." Pre-order your copy now from @uolpress.bsky.social! uolpress.co.uk/book/atlanti...

Starmer is a puzzle but here’s a take. Someone of immense abilities but a useless politician, not flawed-they all are-but useless. His talents, his legal mind, are just not of use. He doesn’t have the language, the discourse, the ideas, to lead a renewal of social democracy. A fundamental lack.

A must-read for environmental historians, labour historians, & historians of embodiment, trade, Britain, the Thames, and more. Conceptually ambitious & a really good story with an unexpected & dramatic denouement. #envhist

Responses kinda fascinating. Does this land differently if rather than coded as Tory, the question is what do you love that’s coded as Conservative?

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

The week in which one of my former dissertation students runs to be deputy prime minister and another resigns from Starmer‘s No 10 team.

Right now, this is an extreme minority magnified by a social media that sends extremes viral. If nobody has the courage to say that’s what it is - & that normal people, even if worried about immigration, spend their Saturdays in Tesco or taking the kids to football - it won’t stay extreme for long.

Polyester Patriots

Absolutely astounded that the UCU and Unison branches at Kent and Greenwich were not consulted, and that staff only found out about the merger this morning via BBC news and Kent Online. Solidarity to all colleagues.

Its contribution is one of the things we’re looking at currently. This by Stephen Cushion an early finding theconversation.com/bbc-verify-l...

Paradoxically, the frustration with Mason is heartening. BBC news really matters. What’s disheartening is how much BBC news ‘talent’ left the Corporation for the self-marginalising allure of podcasting’s weaker editorial guidelines (& greater earning potential).

It’s worse than you thought. Read the first part of this on Enhanced Oil Recovery, now a massive exercise in state-subsidised greenwashing. 🤯

Great North Run is a major event in the portaloo calendar

Six weeks from publication! Forgive a little book promo. I’ve got some talks lined up this autumn if you want to hear more about Electric Wind. Feel free to message me for more details.

Packaging. Product. Thanks Apple.

Scene from the epilogue to The King and Conqueror.

Aw. If there’s one thing I love, it’s a ginger moggy. Ours was Bugsy. He still pops up in my dreams. And on waking, for a moment, he’s still with us, 30 years on.

Signifiers of empire, colonialism, national self-defence, squaddies, officers, food systems, timber security, deep time, & risk to the walker…

First article on our Rural Racism reports, released this morning @jayrayner1.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

3 project reports now available for our Leverhulme-funded Rural Racism project. A film below reflecs just 3 of our 135 in-depth interviews. These supplement statistics, gaining insights into the human experience of racism in the countryside, where only 4% of the population is from a minoritised gp

So I've written a book! Waterscapes is about how impactful our need for water is on the environment and people. It's also about the ways in which infrastructure projects can impact place for good or bad.

We look forward to publication, on Thursday, of the next in the Society's New Historical Perspectives book series: 'Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales' by Andrew McTominey bit.ly/4lIwoE8 Available free Open Access and paperback print from 28 August 1/2

excited to share the call for the workshop EXTRACTIVE NATURES / NATURES OF EXTRACTION happening at @uobrisceh.bsky.social on 6-7 Nov 2025, 
made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social deadline: 10 September! full call below ⤵ #envhist #envhum

Mad August hares boxing on campus #ESEH2025

Good morning #eseh2025. First view of Uppsala in daylight!

Important work! Coniferisation one of the big undertold ecological stories of C20th Britain. Saw rapid destruction of habitat, especially when existing woodland ‘dedicated’ for forestry. As damaging to biodiversity, perhaps more so, as ploughing upland grazing land for the same.

Do you need a hotel room for @eseh.bsky.social Uppsala conference? I’ve an extra room booked in error. Give me a shout!

Just seen Close Encounters at the cinema. Fascinating to see the rookie Spielberg practising his tricks while showing his influences. Welles✔️Hitchcock✔️70s supernatural horror✔️Fellini’s 81/2 maybe, a Bond baddie’s lair surely… childhood innocence, yes, …

I was excited to find out that my book is available for pre-order! One for anyone interested in energy, climate, and the history of Britain. Thanks to MUP for making it pretty and affordable 🫶 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

Comms infrastructure 1975. Neat insight into range of public & private users of communications infrastructure. Positioning on the tower reflected political priorities.

Come for the new history of 1920s and 1930s London, stay for the discount... Waterstones are offering 25% off pre-orders Songs of Seven Dials this week: just enter SUMMER25 at checkout. Book is out on 21 Oct – in time for autumnal nights & Christmas gifts. www.waterstones.com/book/songs-o...

Prog rock album cover or image of rural dilapidation from the CPRE Annual Report 1970?

So, you can hire a bike at Pentewan beach and follow the disused railway up the St Austell to…

NO NO NO www.canterbury.ac.uk/blogs/2024/a...

New article written with Emily Wakild and Claudia Leal: "Porous Conservation: The Complex History of Residents in National Parks in Latin America” Published in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, you can access it on the link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ASVKY...

I'm thrilled to have been published in Past & Present. Diving into the fractious politics of rich-country macroeconomics after 1973, I use the neglected case of protectionist Keynesians to rethink what happened, and why. I highlight statecraft, geopolitics, and Maier's 'territoriality'. (1/2)

Terrific review article by current @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social fellows on ‘immobility’, challenging dominant historical narratives about mobility & globalisation. Also looks at how immobility shapes academic careers & who a leading history journal publishes… academic.oup.com/past/advance...

Polish exit poll. Not ideal. 🤞

Thing is, the southwest has these ‘hippie shit’ subcultures and they’re not even that subcultural…

Much to say, but for now: hurrah! Congratulations to the relentless campaigners that made this happen and to Dartmoor National Park Authority for pursuing the case. A rare victory for people over property. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The death of the cat meant the return of the birds. Breeding pairs of doves, blackbirds, blue and black tits and the occasional wren in our garden.

Look what has just arrived in the post. In slight disbelief that I can finally hold it. Not long till publication day now. Out on the 29th of April! Eeek… #EnvHist #energyhist shorturl.at/xlMad

Old Crockern, rising up to defend Dartmoor… we’ll be hearing from some fascinating speakers at the Dartmoor Tors Festival including @guyshrubsole.bsky.social from @righttoroam.bsky.social , @campaignerkate.bsky.social , @lewis-winks.bsky.social @matthewjkelly.bsky.social -24/5/25 see link in bio

From the Author’s Note to Nussaibah Younis, ‘Fundamentally’. Ha ha!

It exists! My new book is out later this year with Reaktion Books. If you are famous and/or a public intellectual and want to review it/provide a pull quote, DM. #ProtestHistory #Commons reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...

In response to @tonydartmoor.bsky.social’s blog about the ecological issues raised by swaling on Dartmoor, here’s a brief clip of freshly burnt moor on Hameldown, above Widecombe.

Excited to be speaking at the new Dartmoor Tors Festival this May alongside @campaignerkate.bsky.social @guyshrubsole.bsky.social and @matthewjkelly.bsky.social in Ashburton -- loads of great events across the weekend. Come and join ! dartmoortorsfestival.co.uk/dartmoor-ope...

Very excited to have my first article published! It's about why British mountaineers travelled to Norway in the nineteenth century and the transnational networks they formed. Open access in Studies in Travel Writing here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🏔️