📖 EPISODE 230! 📖 In today’s episode, we discuss the book Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities by @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social (and published by @plutopress.bsky.social).

Next year we are co-hosting a celebration event with @rshc.bsky.social to mark the 100th issue of History Workshop Journal. 📍Birkbeck, University of London 🗓️Saturday 31 January 2026 ⏱️14:00-18:00 Everyone welcome! Please make sure to book via the link below.

This is tonight! 6pm! York! Come along if you're in the neighbourhood

On Wednesday at 6pm my two fantastic colleagues Purba Hossain and @lauracforster.bsky.social are having a joint book launch for their new monographs at Kings Manor in the centre of York. If you're interested you can sign up at the Eventbrite here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/labour-mov....

📢Call For Papers📢 Sociability & Political life Marc Jaffré & I are organising a conference! We're asking: can there be politics without sociability? How have friendship, intimacy, socialising & informal attachments been central to political projects & movements? Get your abstracts in by Feb 14th!

"Palestinians experience the displacement of the 2020s genocide not as a singular event, but as part of a repeated cycle." Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points

The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award! Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize

In the midst of political pessimism, this episode on friendship as transformative power gave me some hope.

Joel & I in conversation with the wonderful @marybethhamilton13.bsky.social - talking about friendship, forms of belonging, & revolutionary histories for @historyworkshop.org.uk

How might we reassess friendship as a transformative, even revolutionary, political resource? Laura Forster (@lauracforster.bsky.social) and Joel White (@joeljoel.bsky.social) join Marybeth Hamilton (@marybethhamilton13.bsky.social) to discuss the radical potential of friendship 🎙️🗃️

"You want a movement, I hear. We all do. But the question is never “will somebody do something?” They are. We are. Our job is to notice, and to ensure that none of our flames burn out." Also our job is to join in, where we can, how we can, with what we have. open.substack.com/pub/thewhite...

I can heartily recommend Laura's brilliant new article - innovative, creative and hopeful!

I’ve just added my voice to this consultation saying I don’t want a situation in which staff and fellow swimmers might scrutinise or judge my body, or anyone else’s, when I use the ponds. The current policy of trans inclusion works perfectly well. You can fill out the consultation linked below.

This will be great!!

I've got a new article out @historyworkshop.org.uk. It argues for history as a form of intergenerational friendship. History, like friendship, can be a politically powerful way of talking and thinking across time, and can connect past, present, and future struggle ✊ academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

Joel & I talking to Chris Browne about friendship, reimagining the world, & fighting the far right Radicals in Conversation 📻 open.spotify.com/episode/1gNi...

NEXT WEEK! Come and hear @samwetherell.bsky.social and me chat about radical pasts & radical futures💥

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Myself and the amazing @lauracforster.bsky.social are doing a joint event to launch our books in York. Come to learn about Liverpool, the aftershocks of the Paris Commune and the new kinds of histories our present crisis demands! www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/history/the-...

All historians should read this jaw dropping interview as a case study in moral and political decrepitude. Evidence if any more were needed that the accrual of massive amounts of evidence about the past does not automatically engender a critical reflection on the present.

The Paris Commune in Britain reviewed in the TLS by the wonderful @mauricejcasey.com

“A thoughtful, collaborative mediation on the often-thorny ways that friendship intersects with the political” @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social speak with @theskinnymag.bsky.social about Friends in Common: www.theskinny.co.uk/books/featur...

⚡️TODAY⚡️ @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social speak at Lighthouse for @edfringe.bsky.social 2025! 🗓️Wed, Aug 13 ⏰1 pm 📍@Lighthousebks lighthousebookshop.com/events/frien...

⚡️BOOK EVENT⚡️ @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social speak at Lighthouse for @edfringe.bsky.social 2025! 🗓️Wed, Aug 13 ⏰1 pm 📍@Lighthousebks lighthousebookshop.com/events/frien...

"When we do affinity politics, when we work non-hierarchically, it’s all about friendship" @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social discuss their book Friends in Common – out now on @plutopress.bsky.social

Palestinian statehood is not a bargaining chip. It is not a threat. It is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. Our demands on this shameful government remain the same: end all arms sales to Israel, impose widespread sanctions, and stop the genocide, now.

And at @lighthousebks.bsky.social on Wednesday 13th August lighthousebookshop.com/events/frien...

If you've missed us so far you can catch us at The NewBridge Project in Newcastle on Thursday 31st July: thenewbridgeproject.com/events/frien...

substack.com/home/post/p-... Friends in Common on tour! Thanks so much to the Lubberfiend, @thebookishtype.bsky.social, the CCA, @housmansbookshop.bsky.social, @1in12club.bsky.social, Nan Moor's, @junobooks.bsky.social & East Bristol Books for having us!

⚡️TODAY⚡️ Housmans welcomes @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social to the shop for a discussion of their wonderful, exhilarating book on the radical potential of friendship! 🗓️Tues, July 1 ⏰7 pm 📍Housmans Bookshop housmans.com/event/book-t...

💥TOMORROW💥 East Bristol Books will host @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social, presenting and discussing their new book Friends in Common 🗓️Fri, June 20 ⏰7 pm 📍East Bristol Books www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...

TONIGHT!

📚TOMORROW📚 Join @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social for the Leeds launch of their new book Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities 🗓️Thurs, June 26 ⏰7 pm 📍The Bookish Type thebookishtype.co.uk/collections/...

💥BOOK EVENT💥 East Bristol Books will host @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social, presenting and discussing their new book Friends in Common 🗓️Fri, June 20 ⏰7 pm 📍East Bristol Books www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/eas...

💥TOMORROW💥 Join @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social for the Glasgow Launch of their new book Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities 🗓️Fri, June 20 ⏰7 pm 📍Aye Aye Books www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/fr...

And Todmorden!!

We're going to Leeds!

Sheffield mates - come and see us on the 24th @junobooks.bsky.social!

⚡️BOOK EVENT⚡️ Friendship is full of revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system. Join @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social for this book event! 🗓️Tues, June 24 ⏰6:30 pm 📍Juno Books

💥BOOK EVENT💥 Join @lauracforster.bsky.social and @joeljoel.bsky.social for the Glasgow Launch of their new book Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities 🗓️Fri, June 20 ⏰7 pm 📍Aye Aye Books www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/fr...

New Friends in Common post is up! I'm in conversation with my friend Evelina Gambino - talking about friendship, solidarity, and the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway. Have a look! We've also finalised all the dates & details for our upcoming book tour 🤘

@samwetherell.bsky.social looking for reviewers for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. Get in touch!

📣 Call for participants 📣 Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice? We’d love to hear from you for the 100th issue of HWJ! Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.

You wait 10 years and then 2 come along at once 🚌

New blog post! On Strangers: Bradford, archives, & Starmer's Powellist turn.

#Skystorians #History get ready for this innovative, path-breaking new book from @lauracforster.bsky.social !