My feeling is that we have a shifted from Remembrance - of those that died, those that fought, the horrors of war, the horrors that lead to war To Gratitude - saying thank you for the sacrifice - which naturalises the sacrifice, places it at the centre of our life, and prepares for the next war

Ahead of #RemembranceDay, some of our Railway Work, Life & Death blog posts touch upon the impact war had upon the railway industry & railway workers. We've posted about the impact of the First World War here: www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/tag/first-wo...

On 8.

Came to us via @signsthereading.bsky.social - much appreciated. Always interested in graves of railway staff accidentally killed, especially where the incident is mentioned on the headstone/grave site.

A narrow WW2 North Atlantic port entrance, protected by torpedo nets AND icebergs! We could only be in St John’s, Newfoundland. Here is a thread of intertwined St John’s coastal and naval history, with views of both the past and the present. #coastalhistory #navalhistory 🧵1/13

My kid just had an exam in school that involved being assigned some chapters, summarizing them, then having an open-book test on the details. The teacher encouraged them to use AI to prepare. This paragraph does a great job explaining why I found it so disturbing. www.ru.nl/en/research/...

My article on the loss of S.M.S. Yorck was just published in Topmasts, the free on-line magazine of The Society for Nautical Research: snr.org.uk/topmasts.../... Picture of Yorck courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command #germannavy #navalhistory #WW1

There has been lots of buzz lately about the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking. I'll be re-running my episode about the Fitz on Nov 10, but also I'll be interviewing John U. Bacon about his new book "Gales of November" for an early December episode release. #EdmundFitzgerald

Among various kinds of plastic pollution, I am most concerned about those that animals mistake for food.

Did some research today while alone in the museum. Gave myself a fright turning the corner on the way to the research room -- the lighting from the window was on the workhouse door while everything else was dimly lit. It made me shiver, especially that peephole. #SussexHistory

Basically a perfect late autumn afternoon here on the Sussex coast.

'More than 1,000 staff will be affected as Cardiff University undertakes a “massive” restructuring of its professional services team.' After all, it's a policy that is/has gone so very swimmingly well at every other university that's implemented it...

Time to learn some more old Sussex. ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ Have you ever heard the word 'bostal'? ⠀ ⠀ If you have, it was probably on a steep lane or path because that's exactly what it is: 'a small path leading to a hill.'⠀⠀ ⠀ 📷 Alex Holden 📍 Butser Hill

Look out for this later #histSTM (And on Franklin, about whom lots of myths are circulating today, read this: www.nature.com/articles/d41...)

At a time when we need more than ever to reinvigorate and innovate in our approach to teaching and learning in HE, this is an incredibly shortsighted decision from the University of Edinburgh. But those of us who love to teach and care for our students will fight on. #HEincrisis

a mental health crisis among British students whilst universities are pushing faculty to accept or even encourage students using generative AI is a catastrophe waiting to happen

am reminded of the old joke: what did James Watson discover? Rosalind Franklin’s notes.

A bit less glare-white sky, and a bit more realistic-looking cormorant. #Birds #Cormorant #Photography #Portishead

Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.

Sussex Wildlife Trust @sussexwildlife.bsky.social gains important legal victory over harmful dredging. Blog: markavery.info/2025/11/07/6... I just love the word 'quashed'. Well done SWT! I hope other WTs will take similar challenges. #marine #judicialreview #sussex #dredging #brighton #wildlife

Evening all. I'm running a study day on Sat 13 Dec at Highgate Lit & Sci about 19th/early 20th century mental health history. We'll explore various diagnoses/labels plus the administration of ‘lunacy’ law and the private and public asylums in the London area. Now booking hlsi.org.uk/courses/day-...

This is a place that's very important to me, and a vital part of Hastings seafront. I really hope it can be saved. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday. It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Beware of anyone who refers to delivering rather than teaching. #education

Looking forward to Saturday's @uophistory.bsky.social open day! I'll be on hand to deliver course talks for our excellent History, History & Politics, and English & History degree programmes, & talk to guests. Lovely that it coincides with the project exhibition - will direct people to it!

One for #GenHour - a brilliant archive catalogue for CIÉ (Ireland's transport provider), covering the 1830s-1970s, railways & more, with more being added. Well worth exploring - not least as they've included a specific section for genealogy! #FamilyHistory #Ireland

Wow! 😮🤩 There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓 itiner-e.org We might have to have a lie-down.

Exactly a year ago, Ellen Wohl, @parriblue.bsky.social and I spent two days in Providence thinking about #rivers and how we conceptualize them & live with them. Here’s the result of history and fluvial geomorphology teaming up. #envhist doi.org/10.1371/jour...

No words for how much I enjoyed the Arctic extravaganza with brdemuth.bsky.social, lalinepaull.bsky.social, ymalhi.bsky.social, klausdodds.bsky.social, clairewarrior.bsky.social, mendelight.bsky.social, and other brilliant people not on BlueSky. Bjorn, the polar bear puppet was pure joy.

The last light of the day. I'm amazed my camera picked it up. We took a very slow walk to the cliffs in our attempt to gradually gain strength after our bouts of Covid.

This is why you don't follow those "animal pic every hour" "old historical photos" "on this day" "earth pics" accounts. Scrapers, bots, bad faith actors, misinformation hose.

📣Out now on #firstview! David Andress (@uophistory.bsky.social) on 'The Language of confiance and the French cahiers de doléances of 1789' #Revolution #Emotion #Trust #Agency #France #Digital 18thc 🗃️📜 👉Open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Huge tidal range between low and high tides.....that's large amount of water coming in quickly.... check tide times if you're walking along the coast...... there's a high risk of being cut off!

This entire thread is exactly what's happening in UK universities. It's like they're being run by people who have no idea what university lecturers or even universities actually do. We're not teachers with a fixed syllabus. We're researchers and educators.

The special issue of Eighteenth Century Studies on Coasts is now out - glad to be part of it with some thoughts about coasts and gardens in c18 Ireland #BlueHumanities #CoastalHistory #CoastalStudies 🌊 muse.jhu.edu/issue/55889

For Native American Heritage Month, Indigenous authors, scholars, and historians recommend five books that center Native voices and experiences. Find the reading list on our blog:

The special issue of Eighteenth Century Studies on coasts is now out! If you click on the link and scroll down a bit, the very eclectic table of contents is visible. Pleased to be a part of this. #CoastalHistory #CoastalStudies 🗃️ muse.jhu.edu/issue/55889

Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.

A great day at #AHTV today, on getting humanities research on television. Nice to meet up with Amber Regis again (pictured here talking about her Brontes documentary).

Grateful to spend two days on the Klamath watching chinook, liberated by dam removal, return to streams from which they’d been precluded since the Titanic sank. Fish are everywhere, in numbers that stagger the mind & locations that biologists figured would take years to repopulate. Too beautiful.

Nothing to see here, just one of half a million Giant Redwoods in Britain Of course it’s still a long trek to visit them in the wild, even in the Kingdom of Kent. This one is 20 yards off Tonbridge High Street 🥵🌲

I can't cover up the blasts from the fireworks when they're going off over our house quite loudly. Our poor dogs! (and me). 🎆😡

During the 1964 earthquake, the Denali Theatre on 4th Ave in Anchorage dropped, with the marquee hitting the ground. The glass in the box office windows didn't break. It reopened in Spenard, now the Bear Tooth. More on Anchorage movie theaters this Friday in my latest free talk!

Note from my notebook (2016)

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

Wouldn’t have anything to do with a pandemic of a novel, disabling virus that began during this time? No? No, I thought not. Silly me.

Bonfire Night can be very unnerving for both our pets (and folk suffering with PTSD/CPTSD). Classic FM will be helping us out with their annual ‘Pet Classics.’ Soothing music to help ease their minds away from all the scary stuff. Tune in from 5pm to 9pm. www.classicfm.com/music-news/p...

Today’s #AutumnArrivalSpotlight shines on the Starling! Forget fireworks...Autumn’s skies come alive with magnificent murmurations: vast, swirling clouds of Starlings dancing at dusk. One of nature's greatest spectacles. 😍