Impressive claims for Gemini 3. Transcription is a potentially field-shifting use case of LLMs for historians. Maybe some silver linings in the AI madness... newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

How might we today visualize the appearance of people who fled enslavement? We asked a modern artist, Adrienne Mayor, to imagine and sketch Jack, who took flight from slavery in Virginia in 1730. Read Billy Smith’s telling of Jack’s story: freedom-seekers.org/story/jack/

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/

So grateful to have received the Elise M. Boulding Prize from the Peace History Society for Pax Economica. What a tremendous honor! @princetonupress.bsky.social

JOB Assistant Professor in the History of Knowledge Pre-1400, University of Cambridge www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

This is heart breaking. Such a wonderful and generous chess teacher, absolutely loved his videos.

Very much looking forward to Polly Lowe @polly-lowe.bsky.social speaking this Wednesday on bound labour and Scottish miners in the 18th c. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social Everyone welcome - either in person or hybrid, but please register at www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Delighted to share that my first book The Experience of Work in Early Modern England (co-written with the fantastic @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, and Hannah Robb) has been published and is available free and Open Access! doi.org/10.1017/9781... #earlymodern #economic #history

What's in yer basement?

Who did what in early modern England? New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️ Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer scratched bullets with a Helldivers combo and a furry sex meme

What can petitions to magistrates from London apprentices tell us about gendered violence in #EarlyModern England? New addition from Hilary Taylor to the #PowerOfPetitioning annotated bibliography: petitioning.history.ac.uk/2019/05/13/p...

A clarifying summary of different ways of thinking about AI and culture > I hadn't come across the final 'role play' framing, which is very useful

Instead of regurgitating the bromide that LLMs are just "autocomplete on steroids" (even by people who know better), maybe we can actually engage in some public education. The problem with genAI is better expressed through a classic computer science concept, known as SYMBOL GROUNDING. 🧵

It is inherently absurd to proscribe a group as terrorists based on acts the public doesn't know about. Terrorism *by definition* involves violence intended to intimidate a civilian population. How can the target population be terrorised by acts they know nothing about? www.bbc.com/news/article...

I certainly share all the worries about students outsourcing their writing and thinking to generative AI models, but the core question for me is "Why do they see this as a good thing to do?" We have to meet the challenge of that question and the challenge dates back to long before ChatGPT showed up.

The revealing phrase here is "feels like", because what matters is how the product feels to its user, not it's actual capabilities "GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I highly recommend this free online course on AI, which neatly distils the most pressing cultural concerns and generally strikes the right note in terms of critical engagement thebullshitmachines.com

"OpenAI has come for education on all fronts, through the students, through the teachers, through the institutions, through the government.... OpenAI is now presenting itself as the saviour of the problems that it caused in the first place." leonfurze.com/2025/07/31/o...

Delighted that the print copies of my first book 'Birth, Death, and Domestic Religion in early modern London', just published with @universitypress.cambridge.org, have arrived! 📚📚📚

I don't know what the psychological impact will be of reading and marking endless textual equivalents of "glossy but with 13 fingers" will be, but it can't be good

I’m staring at the sentence about using “generative AI to produce a historical image.” What does the word “historical” mean in this sentence? Vibes?

***CALL FOR PROPOSALS*** Routledge Studies in #18thC Cultures & Societies (eds. @profelainechalus.bsky.social & Deborah Simonton) seeks proposals for book-length studies on aspects of British, European, or transnational culture and society c.1680-1850. Full details: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...

All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.

A tipping point has been reached. Gaza is now starving to death in front of the whole world. Those who facilitated and justified this abomination were given ample warning for 21 months. You have no excuses, and nowhere to hide: you will be held to account for what you've done.

Want to see OpenAI’s newly hyped “Agent” in action? Prepare to be amazed at all the things it can’t actually do. #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEducation #AIEdu #AIInEd #AIInEdu #EduSky leonfurze.com/2025/07/19/i...

Absolutely dystopian juxtaposition from the Guardian front page. Difficult to understand how anyone of decency and conscience can defend this government at this point. Just sheer moral degeneracy to arm a state that does this and arrest people for objecting. Wtf are we doing as a country?

“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” writes Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. “I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”

AI in the Writing Process: A Problem of Purpose When we value the product of writing more than the process, we’re bound to see students using GenAI to skip to the end. So, what are we going to do about it? #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEducation#AIEdu#AIEdu #AIInEd #AIInEdu #Writing #AIWriting

We can never know the lives, the beliefs, the hopes, and dreams of the enslaved people who dared to be free, but we can speculate, imagine, and research. If you've ever considered exploring these histories, Freedom Seekers is always accepting new submissions! freedom-seekers.org/upload-your-...

Are we framing the AI discussion wrong in history departments? I think we're too focused on student “cheating” while missing the bigger picture. I've been thinking about this for a while and decided to write it down. lucaspoy.substack.com/p/historians...

📖 I've got a new chapter out on accounting as a technique of labour management in C18th English capitalist agriculture In this volume of Farm Accounts @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social >>

📖 I've got a new chapter out on accounting as a technique of labour management in C18th English capitalist agriculture In this volume of Farm Accounts @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social >>

This is very much worth your time >>

The irony is that students are routinely shocked, just not in the ways desired by those driving this E.g. that supposedly traditional Western ideas of gender and race are not, in fact, fixed universals www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

thinking out loud memoriousblog.com/2025/06/18/w...

When you picture exploitative child labour in C18-19th century England, you might think of a sooty-faced chimney sweep, or a small boy or girl crawling between machines in a cotton mill. But the green and pleasant countryside was also populated by poor children working in oppressive conditions.

When you picture exploitative child labour in C18-19th century England, you might think of a sooty-faced chimney sweep, or a small boy or girl crawling between machines in a cotton mill. But the green and pleasant countryside was also populated by poor children working in oppressive conditions.

So what does this mean for the use of LLMs in history? I think these models interfere with our method at several points in crucial ways: 1) Source criticism: LLMs have already proven they aren’t capable of internal source crit., since they treat all text the same and can only produce coherence 9/

My 2nd article on the serfdom-like compulsory child labour schemes in C18th southwest England is now available (open access) doi.org/10.1017/S026... It was distinctive not merely as a type of unfree labour, but as a centralised method for allocating servants to farmers

In these scenarios, ChatGPT functions as a kind of Magic 8 Ball that can generate an infinite variety of bespoke messages

My 2nd article on the serfdom-like compulsory child labour schemes in C18th southwest England is now available (open access) doi.org/10.1017/S026... It was distinctive not merely as a type of unfree labour, but as a centralised method for allocating servants to farmers

Is Russian roulette safe despite its 'bullets' and risk of death?

The latest title in the Cambridge Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series is out today and FREE till June 23rd: Paul Fairfield, History and Hermeneutics. ‪@cambridgeup.bsky.social‬ doi.org/10.1017/9781...

📢AN EVENING OF STORIES & SONGS📢 📅Weds 18 June 📍Devon & #Exeter Institution Musician Chris Hoban & I are delighted to share the fruits of our collaborative exploration of #EarlyModern wills!🗃️📜🎵 Claim your free ticket www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening... @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk

📢 A Free 'Wills Project' event! 📢 Join us for an evening of stories & songs inspired by early modern wills, performed by Creative Fellow, musician Chris Hoban & project co-investigator, Laura Sangha. 📅 Wed 18 June 6.30pm, Devon & Exeter Institute Free tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening...

‘And what will you say? … When future generations learn that, for 19 months, we woke up every morning to videos of children being burned alive – bombed with weapons that the US taxpayer helped pay for and the western world helped justify – will you be able to say that you spoke up?’