"They took everything from my great-grandfather Silvestre Indias Carvajal and left us with nothing but his story, which was buried at the bottom of a 30-metre-deep well in south-west Spain for 87 years." www.theguardian.com/artanddesign... #HistoricalMemory

Harpo speaks! www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma... #Marxism

Not before time: France overturns law classing people as property – 178 years after it abolished slavery National assembly votes to repeal Code Noir under which enslaved people were beaten, raped and killed www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m... #LegalHistory #EnslavedHistory

As a contributor to the #Wikipedia family of sites (mainly wikisource atm) I have signed this petition, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped... supporting the Wiki Workers United union, and against the recent sackings of Community Tech Team workers.

Hal Foster in the @lrb.co.uk, on #Duchamp at the MOMA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... #Dada

Precisely why I started the Statutes Project: to make legislation discoverable, useable and citable. Whilst there's some very bad citation practices by historians, it is also needlessly difficult, and the infrastructure is lacking.

Published last year, but I've only come across it now, an #OpenAccess book on prisons in the ancient world: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration www.luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1... #CarceralHistory

Thank god that’s over. Arsenal you really put us through it. But: Champions!

The persistence of Fascist icons (sometimes bizarrely kitsch) despite the Ley de Memoria Democrática: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #HistoricalMemory #Spain

This is a startling account of monetary collapse: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m... #Money

Two ballads on Captain Francis Winter, executed for defending the liberties of Whitefriars, aka Alsatia: alsatia.org.uk/site/2010/06... alsatia.org.uk/site/2015/02... #History

#OnThisDay in London's indebted history: the ‘Amazons ‘ of the Southwark Mint sanctuary repulse the bailiffs wp.me/p74yfw-ui

In addition, Family Search frequently utilizes prison labor to digitize materials they make available so it's just a turducken of exploitation activehistory.ca/blog/2026/04...

200 years ago the handloom weavers of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire engaged in a 10-day rising, destroying over 1,100 power looms. To learn more check out our interactive StoryMap: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9a84... #19thCentury #skystorians @sslh.bsky.social @esriuk.bsky.social

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Really can't wait to read this: Imprisonment in Early Modern England Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society by @richardbell.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/books/i... (But am going to have to til October.) h/t @onslies.bsky.social #History #DebtHistory #CarceralHistory

As I was saying... MED is the kind of thing that's a major resource in its own field but virtually unknown anywhere else, and its future will be dependent on the health of one retired academic. A lot of early 21st-century digital resources are or soon will be in that bracket.

Guess the password for www.wesforleader.com !

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

The sun is shining, the University of London is rid of its VC, the Office (supposedly) for Students got taken down in court. A good day.

'Wendy Thomson has resigned as vice-chancellor of the University of London, 11 months after she was suspended from the post.' She is taking UoL to employment tribunal for constructive dismissal (re 'whistleblowing disclosures'). Resignation effective today.

Arif Ahmed should be dismissed and his post abolished. Phillipson, the responsible minister, should then resign. This fine was politically motivated and a fundamental breach of academic freedom, which can never be defined or 'policed' by the state.

Interesting article on "Jail Liberties" around a New York Debtors' Prison: www.adirondackexplorer.org/communities/... Similar to the 'Rules' of some English Prisons, like the Fleet and King's Bench #DebtHistory #CarceralHistory

New #OpenAccess #History book: Histories of Madness, by David Wright www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Trump is expanding the Afrikaaner refugee program, which is based on the "white genocide" conspiracy that Black South Africans are trying to take land from Whites You can't understand this story if you don't know 1 of the greatest stories in all of history A thread www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Good piece on one aspect of the enshittification of the web: "Now Unwelcome: Why I Left OzBargain & The Link-Hostile Nature of Internet Discourse" goughlui.com/2026/04/22/n...

Exhibition starting 21st May, In London: Francis Picabia, Expanding Horizons www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth... #dada

Russia's Communist Party leader is warning Putin about the dangers of... revolution. "We cannot let another 1917 happen." Congratulations to the Russian Communists on completing their ideological journey: from storming the Winter Palace to guarding it. www.reuters.com/world/leader...

Reform promising to enforce fraudulent #BadHistory upon us: Reform UK will tell Welsh museums how to present history, manifesto says www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On now at the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, until May 17: Suzanne Perrottet. After Dada, After Dance www.cabaretvoltaire.ch#node-126634-en One of many women so central to Zurich Dada, yet so disregarded. Recovering their lives and works is essential. #Dada

This looks a very interesting online seminar: John Satia and the 1731 Ban on Black Apprenticeship kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the... #c18th #BlackHistory

In any case. I am not a librarian by training, my colleagues are very nice to me about this, and it is funny to me how much we missed the mark in digital humanities land by making DH = Tools and Websites = Success

First Nations Mayflower hero was sold into slavery, files in Malaga Archives reveal www.thetimes.com/article/1306...

Erm, they're called palaeontologists, actually.

Coming soon from Wakefield Press @wakefieldpress.bsky.social : Bar Nicanor: Collected Writings, by Clément Pansaers wakefieldpress.com/products/bar... #Dada

William #Kentridge exhibition in Prague: The Battle between Yes and No: www.kunsthallepraha.org/en/events/wi...

Not going to get into the cross-confessional history of theological justifications of tyrannicide in the early modern period here but ... the guys who killed the English monarch weren't Catholics.

This is an interesting use case for AI translation of an ancient language. I'm less interested in discussing the ethics of it than I am interested in exploring the economy that fosters a project like this. I've shared some thoughts below, I'd be glad to hear your thoughts:

New #RadicalHistory event: “Not a thing was moving”: the 1926 General Strike in Hackney and beyond Sat 9 May 2026 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Hackney Archives, Dalston Square, E8 3BQ. radicalhistoryfaction.wordpress.com/2026/03/08/e... #History

I have a joke about Reviewer 2, but it's poorly researched, wretchedly written, and doesn't cite their book.

Lovely interview with Tim Sherratt @wragge.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy on hacking, history and generosity. lab.slv.vic.gov.au/experiments/... #DigitalHistory

'a great project of photographic ethnography, intended to classify and categorise their subjects.' www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

a refugee and genocide survivor is about to start her Master's at Goldsmith and this is the response from a senior politician. what a disgrace.

‘These connections are overlooked’: how British companies profited from slavery in Brazil long after abolition Britons learn about the country’s involvement ‘almost as a self-congratulatory narrative’, says historian Joseph Mulhern www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m... #History #EnslavedHistory

Hostile (website) architecture: The 49MB Web Page thatshubham.com/blog/news-au... Adblockers are mandatory self defence now.

#OtD 15 Mar 1908 "Women anarchists have become the terror of world's police," ran a headline of the Rochester, NY Sunday paper denouncing anarchist women stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8699...

Shout-out to the Internet Archive for uploading the DOGE videos. These people carelessly wrecked the government and the hard work of thousands of people. They should be held accountable for their actions. archive.org/details/Doge...

Videos of DOGE depositions taken down: www.404media.co/doge-deposit... But are available via torrent. Magnet link here: www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarde... Transcripts: www.acls.org/acls-aha-mla...

Exhibition of these photos on at Four Corners til next Saturday: www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/joy... #RadHist #Squatting