Who held the power during an arrest in early modern England? @lucyjsclarke.bsky.social explores how bystanders could uphold or undermine the power of the state.

What can pills advertised to women in nineteenth century London tell us about the history of at-home abortion? Julia Porter Burke reveals the story of Lady Montrose.

📣 Call for Applications 📣 History Workshop is seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow in 2026, with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe. This is a part-time, paid role. Application deadline: 7 August 2026. Please share widely!

How can academics write with compassion and ethical clarity about issues of sexual violence? How can they craft analysis that is sensitive to the fraught emotions this subject so often provokes? @ruthbeecher.bsky.social and Julie Wheelwright discuss the challenge of writing difficult subjects 🎙️

What can we learn about queer lives and queer history from the call logs of the UK's first LGBTQ+ helpline? @tashwalker.bsky.social and @adamzmith.bsky.social discuss their award-winning podcast The Log Books with @marybethhamilton13.bsky.social 🎙️

'Theoretically, their objective was to collect information on public order - but the vast majority of their reports were personal information about people attending meetings. It's worth highlighting just how gross and intrusive this was.' Chris Brian on the Spycops scandal.

The Spycops scandal revealed a shocking history of police abuse, from monitoring activists to forming sexual relationships under false identities. Marybeth Hamilton speaks to Jessica, who unknowingly had a relationship with an undercover officer, and researcher Chris Brian.

"Genocide. I keep turning the word over. It always seems to arrive too late. By the time it reaches us, by the time it becomes part of our soundwaves, our background ambience, countless lives have already gone." suzan meryem rosita on the vocabulary of genocide and war.

In August 2025, our editorial collective spent an afternoon exploring the contents of the History Workshop archive held @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social 🗃️ Marybeth Hamilton, Elly Robson, Mary Katherine Newman, Marral Shamshiri, Vivien Chan and Beckie Rutherford reflect on their radical findings.

The idea of making amends for slavery has a long genealogy in Britain. Catherine Hall (@cslbs.bsky.social) examines this history alongside vital questions of race and repair for our present moment.

"We have a challenge here in the face of appalling things happening around the world not to give in to a politics of despair because that's exactly what the people in power want us to do." Laura C. Forster, Julia Laite, Laura Schwartz, Anne Irfan and Jo Kelcey on doing history in turbulent times.

For the last few years I've been working on a book on Valerie Solanas, the politics of madness, and the boundaries of feminist history. You can get a glimpse of it in this piece just out in History Workshop's digital magazine (which links to a longer article in History Workshop Journal 100).

“Solitude is not unitary but plural, a field of experience lived in multiple registers.” Barbara Taylor considers the varying nature of solitude within the iconic adventure novel, Robinson Crusoe.

How has the History Workshop Journal collective sustained its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years? Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻

"It is easy to forget the fact that those who first popularised the term ‘culture war’ to describe the convulsions of late 20th century American cultural politics did so in such explicit dialogue with 19th century Germany." Robert D. Priest on the origins of culture wars.

The new issue of History Workshop Journal is out: issue 100, marking 50 years of the journal's existence. It's more necessary than ever. academic.oup.com/hwj/issue/10...

"What kinds of histories and stories might be useful for radical social movements and political struggles today, to overcome the enormous challenges that we face?" Current and former History Workshop editors reflect on the 50th anniversary of the History Workshop collective.

It was exciting to be invited to help celebrate @historyworkshop.org.uk’s anniversary, especially as it gave me yet another reason to rave about teaching with Michaela Kalcher’s work on trauma, the Terror, and an incredible diary doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...

This year, History Workshop Journal will celebrate two milestones: its 50th anniversary and its 100th issue. To mark the occasion, eleven historians share how they've used the journal in their own teaching.

It's that time of year again... the History Workshop team present our "Radical Reads" for 2025! www.historyworkshop.... Image source: Openverse.

HWJ is 50 years old next year and we're about to launch a fab new series of articles and podcasts all in celebration of the 100th issue! Come along in January and wish us a Happy Birthday 🥳

History Workshop Journal’s 100th Issue: a celebration 31 Jan 2026, 2.00pm, Bloomsbury, London Speakers include former and newer editors, and friends of the journal. To join us, book here HWJ100.eventbrite.co.uk @bbkhistorical.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social

Have just discovered that my article on Valerie Solanas, art, madness, and feminism (in HWJ issue 100) can also be accessed outside the paywall here: eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/56...

I've got a new article on Valerie Solanas and her place in feminist history, part of the 100th issue of History Workshop Journal. academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

Another Velvet Underground cover

Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27. Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team. www.historyworkshop....

A Penguin editor looking around their office this morning.

RIP David Johansen youtu.be/GvmvMFXWzc8?...

trump: I’m going to protect women women: no thank you trump: I’m gonna do it women: please don’t trump: I have kicked those 7 trans girls off the jv volleyball team women: what trump: and brought back andrew tate women: why trump: YOU’RE WELCOME WOMEN also you can’t vote anymore

The New Left "was an avowedly socialist endeavour which... sought to operate largely outside conventional political parties and electoral politics" Andrew Whitehead brings together 50 years of writing on the New Left, in a free-access issue of History Workshop Journal. www.historyworkshop....

We are likely about to see a mass purging of archival documents and restricted access to researchers. This will be part of the regime’s effort to rewrite history itself.

The first of the series is out! Odila's piece on Beijing peddler calls and how heritagisation takes street life to a different place... can you really capture a sound mark? What gets lost in the end when you try?

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States — theonion.com/fbi-uncovers...

If I study anxiety via threat-biased attention, the word "biased" gets me flagged. You can't design a study of humans without using at least one of the terms on the banned list, which means that biomedical, brain, social science research is now on ice in the USA

The word "systemic" is on the banned list, so if I study systemic inflammation & health, flagged. If I study political science, flagged. If I study trauma, flagged. Keep in mind that the largest mental health provider in the country is the Veteran's Administration, but we can't study trauma now?

These keywords could show up in the text of ANY grant involving human participants. If you say you're going to study men and women, you get flagged. If you say you're going to control for socioeconomic status - totally standard practice - you get flagged. Disability? Flagged.

Decision tree that has been sent to Program Officers at NSF

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Please no www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

#EmbarrassmentInChief 🤮