1/7 A thread on the Xinchou Treaty and Li Hongzhang. Beijing, 1900. The Eight-Nation Alliance crushed the Boxer Rebellion. The Qing court had no leverage left. What followed was not negotiation, but damage control under pressure. (Photo: Allied troops inside the Imperial Palace)

What did Australian Federation look like through the eyes of a young Chinese revolutionary? Liang Qichao 梁啟超 visited Australia 1900. Here I revive the cosmopolitan spirit of Federation, one in which Asian AND European political thought shaped utopian dreams for a brave new Australian world. link👇

Reading list on Chinese philosophy used by Chinese Australians in Sydney in 1934

Unidentified group of soldiers during Federation celebrations in Sydney in 1901

Two unidentified Chinese dignitaries being carried in a sedan chair. Sydney 1930s.

I guess the countdown to publication day has well and truly begun ...

Are you using #maps in research? Want to learn about their history and use as sources? In London in late January? Sign up for @ihr.bsky.social short course, Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place! #maphistory #skystorians 🗃️

Matthew Ryan reviews @hannahforsyth.bsky.social 's Virtue Capitalists: The Rise and Fall of the Professional Class in the Anglophone World, 1870–2008 @universitypress.cambridge.org tinyurl.com/2pyxhch5 🧵4/5

Pretty exciting to have @hannahforsyth.bsky.social at usyd today talking about Economics and History. Students were over the moon

Ever since I heard Craig A. Smith talk about Yao-Chang's work in 2023, I've been fascinated by his use of historical archives to recreate violent Qing colonial frontiers in Taiwan. I know the translators have worked hard to bring this work to us in English. www.cambriapress.com/pub.cfm?bid=...

Here’s a typical bundle of file papers from the Boston Municipal Court archives. It probably hasn’t been unwrapped since it was docketed in 1822. The organization of the sub-layers is significant, & I always photograph bundles so that I can put them back together as I found them. I love this work! 🗃️

"Considering the rightward trend of country music through the last half-century, it sounds odd to hear a mainstream country singer endorsing communal economic programs. In Cash’s youth, however, country musicians were behind the New Deal." (We've always known Johnny Cash was cool.)

Tempted

Hot off the press & #OpenAccess, check out 'Amendments to Non-European Naturalisation Policy, 1956–1957: Differentiating Between Intention and Effect' by Nathan Gardner Molina: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

So I submitted the complete manuscript of my new book to the publisher. Hope it'll be out in the world late next year. It's about why Australia's role as an overseas coloniser was strikingly obvious to all and sundry till the 1970s, then was abruptly (and conveniently) forgotten.

no words

A fantastic photo essay about photographing the vanishing Third Front factories of China.

I spent the day looking at applications for licenses to deal second hand goods, which were required in Boston in 1839, and was struck by how many were on blue paper. Made from coarse rags dyed with indigo, they form a sort of class-based material vernacular. No rich person used paper this color 🗃️

Indigenous Australian flag goes hard

“We have survived” At the Bicentenary 1988, as a recreation of the 1788 white invasion of Australia came into view on La Perouse headland in Sydney, indigenous Australians watched the tall European ships approach, and quietly, furiously protested from the shore :

History Workshop students learning about Sydney’s indigenous history with Aunty Maxine today , proud Dharawal elder born at the La Perouse mission

Delighted to endorse this exciting new book from Bolin Hu. Sydney University Press is publishing so much new Chinese Australian history. So happy and proud. Have a look at our growing 'China and the West in the Modern World' series. sydneyuniversitypress.com/products/978...

There will be business school case studies written about this period of ‘reform’ across our university sector.

Just delighted that Geraldine Fela won in the history category. Her postdoc ends next year. Hire this historian people!!! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

🚨 Historian Geraldine Fela has been working on producing this podcast about the 1998 waterfront dispute in Australia. Here’s the promo. Series will be a must listen for anyone who cares about unions/industrial history/politics in Australia! www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

✨Deeply honoured to deliver this year's Annual Digital Lecture at The National Archives! Drawing on our @erc.europa.eu Data Loss project, I'll explore how preservation creates loss in the digital age and what that means for the politics of archives. Nov 20 6pm at Senate House, London. Do join us!

To celebrate the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah from prison, the ebook edition of YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN DEFEATED, tr. an anonymous collective, is available to download for free for the next week via all ebook platforms, including Kindle and Apple Books, until 30 September.

FBI directors who were crooks.

***Attention Historians*** Tenure-track job postings in History and History-adjacent fields for September 2025. A thread. I will update the thread over the course of the month. 1/

Every day I think - I get to wake up safely. I get to raise my children and feed my children and care for my children in safety. In Gaza an Australian doctor describes abattoir-like conditions for the Palestinian people. A tough but essential read: www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

The fabulous Rachel Franks on Crime and History at The University of Sydney on this sunny Tuesday . A real treat for HSTY1001 students

A new op-ed from me on China's WWII! @asianstudies.org www.asianstudies.org/why-does-chi...

It’s really Spring !!

This looks great. How tourism promotion conflicted with decolonisation in PNG www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I just voted for @mrkocnnll.bsky.social's A Thread of Violence top100books.abc.net.au Great book, no favouritism here. And yes, I hit 'Submit' before adding nine more :/ Who've you got? Paging @usyd-sace.bsky.social @sophieloywilson.bsky.social @sea-greeny.bsky.social @freyagrace.bsky.social

The brilliant Zoe Smith from ANU at usyd this week lecturing our students on Feminism and History. Honoured to have her

Have you noticed how films about the end of the world are more thoughtful than they used to be? Me on a new genre: the "apocalypse, maybe" movie

www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats... On today at lunch in rainy Sydney

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

‬⁩@davidpocock.bsky.social says there’s ‘no faith’ in leadership of Genevieve Bell or Julie Bishop. Time for a leadership renew. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Super excited to have Peter Hobbins back at usyd today: “Cold War in the Cockpit.” Brilliant lecture in HSTY1001 looking at airplane black boxes as an archive of the global Cold War

This writing, my god. Kate Holden 🔥

Very sad to see another Australian journal go down the drain. I hope the upswell of sentiment this decision has brought about can lead to a rethink by MUP.

Vale Meanjin. Reading the marvelous @jonpiccini.bsky.social on this magazine as I stare into the void ('stare into the vacuum of his eyes,' as Dylan put it) and mourn the loss of a beautiful thing Emperors in Lilliput as a title has to be up there with the Best Eva in Oz hist. tinyurl.com/532rkzvs

Our 8th 'Studies in North Queensland History' retrospective for @austhistassoc.bsky.social #AHA2025 @jcucase.bsky.social @jcuofficial.bsky.social is @sophieloywilson.bsky.social on "Topsawyers: The Chinese in Cairns 1870-1920", by Cathie R. May: jculibrarynews.blogspot.com/2025/09/tops...

Rather buried in here is the extraordinary-in-the-context statement: “The publication recently secured a $2m grant from Creative Australia to fund its next two years of operation”. The plot doth thicken... #Meanjin www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...