‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

Last evening was truly special, meeting with dear friends and colleagues to celebrate the launch of @edmond-smith.bsky.social new book, ‘Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power’

Excited to be launching @edmond-smith.bsky.social’s wonderful RUTHLESS (@yalebooks.bsky.social) in @dauntbooks.bsky.social! 🥂 Get your copy here: yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300... #SkyStorians

I’m excited and humbled that my new book Ruthless is finally out in the world 🎉 It explores how exploitation, innovation, and empire shaped the birth of the Britain's industrial revolution. 📖 It’s out now (and £12.50 this month in Yale's November sale): yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

I had a great time speaking with Miranda Melcher @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about by new book #Ruthless. The podcast is available here: newbooksnetwork.com/ruthless

Join @edmond-smith.bsky.social and Jake Richards discussing their books Ruthless: A New History of Britain’s Rise to Wealth and Power, 1660-1800 and The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade 6.30pm, 11th Nov, Waterstones Gower Street www.waterstones.com/events/ruthl...

Looking forward to spending an evening with the brilliant Jake Subryan Richards on 11 November at Waterstones on Gower Street to talk about our new books! www.waterstones.com/events/ruthl...

I'm hosting a celebration to launch my new book #Ruthless on 6 November at Daunt Books on Cheapside. There are still some spaces left and if anyone would like an invite please drop me a message and I will add you to the guest list! Wine, books and history - what better way to spend an evening!

"This is a must read for anyone interested in the birth of the modern economy." Who am I to disagree with that! Thank you @unseenhistories.com for the recommendation 👍

Day 1 of the visit (Weds 17th) concludes with a guest lecture, at 5.30pm, at the Linklater Rooms, University of Aberdeen, by Prof. Matthew J. Smith (UCL), Director of the Centre for the Legacies of British Slavery. Places to attend in person are available and all welcome bit.ly/3IjbMVj 2/2

Thrilled to share early endorsements for #Ruthless! Huge thanks to @sathnam.bsky.social, Emma Griffin, @antonhowes.bsky.social, William Pettigrew, and Nicholas Radburn for their generous words. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Just a few days to go before the deadline - 25 August. There's huge scope within the project to develop work related to trade, cross-cultural encounter and empire in the early modern world, in geographies stretching across Africa and Asia. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Working in the John Rylands this week with a restored check-cotton sample book. These are two microscopic images of dyed and bleached cotton with origins in American plantations used in designs which were likely destined for African markets.

With proofing and indexing now done (a fun week...), #Ruthless is starting to feel very real!

Research Associate in Early Modern Global History, University of Manchester: memorients.com/news/researc...

One of my RAs landed a permanent job in Madrid (which is awesome!) so I'm now advertising for a new one! It's to work on my INTRECCI project on global histories of capitalism. Please share with anyone interested and happy to answer questions. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

It's always a great feeling to unpack author copies, but bittersweet for this book I "co-authored" with Richard Smith at the request of his widow after he sadly passed. Hopefully it will serve as a worthy finale and inspire students today as much as his work inspired me during my UG studies.

Done my butterfly count for the year! Dunno if it's just weather or three years of building a pollinator paradise, but twice as many and four times as many varieties this year over 2024 🦋🐝 bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org

Very happy to see Desiree Baptiste's important work picked up by Reuters today. www.reuters.com/world/uk/new...

We've had great opportunities to visit some incredible collections during the first year of the INTRECCI project. Safya Morshed has written up some thoughts about linking economic systems through material objects made and consumed across early modern Eurasia. intrecci-project.org/understandin...

Want to read an “erudite, ambitious & richly global” book that “sets a new standard in economic history”? Then my forthcoming book #Economica is for you. If you’re in the UK, for tonight only you can get 25% off if you preorder @waterstones.bsky.social: www.waterstones.com/book/economi... #SUMMER25

CfP is out! Sign up, share, come visit, very excited about this. Let's get some great female case-studies!

Great to see coverage of work by some of Manchester's most engaged students in the Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju... For the full essays by Destinie Reynolds, Beth Carson, Moleka Newman, Aimee Eggington and Aashe Singh: www.royalexchange.co.uk/visit-eat-dr...

That the incredible cognitive power of the human brain and body takes only 2000 calories a day to fuel, and occupies quite considerably less than the space of Manhattan, suggests there is something catastrophically wrong with the design of AI.

It's been a while since I've been in the EIC's earliest letters. A good start with Nicholas Downton's miserable account and 'swarms of perplexed thoughts' about the shocking failure of his first voyage to the Red Sea and India. Mainly the 'Turks', Portuguese and Mughal officials to blame, obv.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to run a workshop with some brilliant colleagues at CHAM in Lisbon on "Cross Cultural Exchanges in the EM IOW". Mariana has written up a very nice review of the event: intrecci-project.org/cross-cultur...

Be the beaver! Save the world! 🦫🌎 I've been doing a little volunteering with Slow the Flow over the past couple of months (my wife is a trustee) and they've produced this excellent little video about the 5 top reasons for supporting nature-based solutions to flooding. youtu.be/TRYb2HqlnTc?...

Last year I had a great experience contributing my research (and voiceover skills, such as they are) to a film by artist and director Jenn Nkiru called "The Great North". The final release is still a little while away, but I'm excited to share the trailer. More soon! vimeo.com/1028107702

Love’s Labour Launches with a roar! Thanks to many roarsome people I’ve gone from peasant to PhD, to Professor, and Penguin author with Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction out today. 🐅 Pls share, read, and help create a worthwhile world. #WorldEnvironmentDay #BookSky #HPS #Skystorians 🗃️

A great pleasure last week to hold the first workshop of my INTRECCI project - took the opportunity to bring some ludicrously brilliant ECRs to Manchester! I co-hosted with a visiting PhD student @ideesdupasse.bsky.social who has written up a little review: intrecci-project.org/institutions...

Our book began years ago in Edinburgh, but took shape over subsequent years between Brisbane, Växjö, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Uppsala, Paris, and London, but mostly Edinburgh. Now it has a cover, and pre-orders are available. @lindaaburnett.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Outside work I look after an old cottage and little wood in Yorkshire, with these magnificent bastards for company!

I've also been kicking off a new project INTRECCI (kindly funded by the ERC) that aims to change how we understand globalisation by tracing institutional transformation from 1400 onwards in West Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and South East Asia. intrecci-project.org

The *big thing* I've been finishing is my next book Ruthless, which is coming out in October. It connects the exploitation of land and people across Britain and its empire with scientific and technological innovation to offer a new history of capitalist development. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

A tad behind the times - I've been busy writing my next book Ruthless and kicking off a new project INTRECCI. Kinda forgot social media existed! Gather that this place is meant to offer more than a constant stream of crap, so let's see...