What a great few days at MBS 2026 at the University of Birmingham. It was a delight to meet authors and editors, both new and familiar, set against the backdrop of three days of brilliant scholarship and conversation. Shop the reading list at 30% off manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/05...

OTD in 2020 the statue of Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol as part of the Black Lives Matter protests. From the HW archives Madge Dresser revisits the statue's particular history. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/slavery/cols...

Thanks Christian, great to meet and present alongside you!

Back home after the #MBS2026 🇬🇧 Thanks to fellow panelists @benjamin-bland.bsky.social, @liamliburd.bsky.social and Jessica White for making it one of the best panel experiences, and to @saimanasar.bsky.social for chairing. Thanks to @drsarahlkenny.bsky.social for being a wonderful host.

Born digital sources panel #mbs2026 is quite pessimistic in tone, despite riches of 'digital heap' of two decades of uk state digital sources held by the National Archives. Digital records management broadly means deletion. Rot or obsolescence affects sources. And ethical parameters unclear.

Ten years on from the Brexit vote: a new @yougov.co.uk poll finds that 77% of the British public have trust in the expertise of historians bit.ly/49I9NV7 It's heartening to hear that so many value, and certainly haven't had enough of, the historian as expert. #Skystorians 1/4

If you’re at MBS in Birmingham this week, come stop by the @royalhistsoc.org booth and say hello to myself and @charlottecull.bsky.social 👋

First up, our first panel of the day: Capital and Capitalism Featuring: Erika Rappaport (UC Santa Barbara); @tsasson.bsky.social (Tehila Sasson, Oxford); @kevinkosullivan.bsky.social (Kevin O’Sullivan, Galway); Jonathan Saha (Durham); Matthew Hilton (QMUL) #MBS2026

Ready for the Modern British Studies Conference 2026 in Birmingham on “The Polycrisis? Historical Roots and Critical Perspectives in Modern Studies” 🌱 This event also marks the official launch of the new Modern British Studies Association 🇬🇧 #mbs2026 #empiressdu

We have a rare and exciting opportunity to join our team as Director of Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College. Application deadline is 9am on 29th June 2026. Please share this with people you think would be interested.

The latest issue of @jich.bsky.social (54/3, 2026) has been published. Featuring ten new peer-reviewed articles of original research, two commentary pieces and six book reviews. www.tandfonline.com/toc/fich20/5...

The Catholic Church was the biggest single actor in the trans Atlantic slave trade. Born in Blackness. apnews.com/article/pope...

Reposting my latest article from my recent @leverhulme.ac.uk project, which has now been republished Open Access. In it I try to draw out some of the threads between imperial knowledge-making and mid-20c musical criticism in Britain. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

✍️ My take on why Britain’s two-party system has collapsed in the LSE British Politics blog 👇

'Protecting what matters': a new government policy paper identifies history as central to social cohesion. At the same time, history teaching and research, in our schools and universities, is at risk as never before. To ensure cohesion, we must protect what matters: bit.ly/3QyZQCO #skystorians

JICH has returned to Q1 for 2025, according to latest ScimagoJR rankings. Well done to our dedicated team, and looking forward to maintaining this through 2026 and beyond! @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social @yiannicart.bsky.social @evansmithhist.bsky.social @jonasgjerso.bsky.social

Today we also open the call for applications to our 2026-27 Master's Scholarships programme: bit.ly/4dTHmXe Scholarships of £5000 are for students from groups currently underrepresented in academic history to study for an MA in history or a related subject. Closing date: Friday 5 June #Skystorians

'Guillon de Prince said on Saturday that other French families must confront their historical allegiances to slavery and the state should go beyond symbolic gestures to address the past, including through reparations.'

Registration for MBS2026 is now open! Registration link and the conference programme can be found here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

Congratulations to Mads Ortving Lindholmer on being named in the prestigious “Talent100” list published annually by Berlingske. Mads is a postdoctoral researcher specialising in the history of the Roman Empire and is currently writing a new book about Julius Caesar. 📸Photo by Jonas Vester Legarth

Fascinating stuff.

Deeply gratified to see this rich and surpassingly engaging essay/review of my The Second Emancipation, by the estmable Adom Getachew. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

‘The Polycrisis? Historical Roots & Critical Perspectives in Modern British Studies' programme is looking very exciting; we'll be writing to speakers next week, & launching the lineup soon. Huge thanks to @britishacademy.bsky.social for supporting #MBS2026 www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

It took me all day, but I've synthesised all of the resources we used on the Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives research project. Huge list of useful info about #Glasgow #EmpireExhibition 1938: gamebasedlearninginhe.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/a...

Chap 4 of the book I'm currently working on is on the National Front. There's still so little historical research on the NF! There's contemporary journalism & sociology/political science stuff or stuff on anti-fascism but little on a movement that loomed large in the politics of race in 70s Britain.

"The historical record reveals a more complicated figure: a strategist who believed in strength, certainly, but also in diplomacy, alliances and the careful management of great-power rivalries" - @richardtoye.bsky.social on #Trump and #Churchill theconversation.com/what-would-w...

Gorton and Denton by-election result: GRN: 40.7% (+27.5) REF: 28.7% (+14.7) LAB: 25.4% (-25.3) CON: 1.9% (-6.0) LDEM: 1.8% (-2.1) Green GAIN from Labour.

Happy publication day to @uobrishistory.bsky.social’s Professor Sumita Mukherjee!

This research is the latest instalment in our series on UK culture wars, investigating the drivers and features of cultural division in the UK 🗓️ Tonight we're discussing new findings from this series with The Rt Hon Lisa Nandy & expert panelists 📺 Livestream: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/are-cultur...

History Workshop Journal just published its 100th issue—a landmark celebration of critical, community-driven history! From archival recoveries to new interpretations of protest, gender, & empire, HWJ reshapes how we think about the past: oxford.ly/46iUcd2 @historyworkshop.org.uk

Vil du bidrage til at skabe en mere oplyst, kritisk og engageret offentlighed med din forskning? Så kan du lige nu søge støtte via Carlsberg Mindelegat til formidling af din egen forskning. Søg op til 200.000 kr. Frist 1.3.2026 👉 bit.ly/49KemPF #dkforsk

Er Starmer færdig? Få seneste input i DR Deadline: Keir Starmers overlevelseskamp | DRTV www.dr.dk/drtv/episode...

Er Starmer færdig? Få seneste input i DR Deadline: Keir Starmers overlevelseskamp | DRTV www.dr.dk/drtv/episode...

Artikel ude om “Imperiets Lange Skygger i Britisk Historie” #empiressdu #politiskhistoriesdu #historiesdu #sdudk #sdu #DetBritiskeImperium #imperier #kulturkamp #kampenomhistorien #kolonihistorie #historiefejde #historie

Congratulations to Rasmus Glenthøj on winning the Anthony D Smith Article Prize 2025, awarded for an outstanding article published in Nations and Nationalism Read more 👇 #nationalism #realpolitik #history #empiressdu #sdu #sdudk #NationsAndNationalism #prize #historiesdu #politiskhistoriesdu

Stemningsbilleder fra årsmøde om “Humanistiske forsvarsstudier - nye perspektiver på samtidshistorien” i regi af Selskabet for Samtidshistorisk Forskning. Tak til alle deltagere!

Stemningsbilleder fra årsmøde om “Humanistiske forsvarsstudier - nye perspektiver på samtidshistorien” i regi af Selskabet for Samtidshistorisk Forskning. Tak til alle deltagere!

IN THE SAME SEA's PI Gunvor Simonsen contributed to a piece in New York Times about the links between the Danish Caribbean and Greenland. Read it here: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/w...

Fremtiden er lys for det samtidshistoriske forskningsfelt 🚀 Det kan konkluderes på baggrund af ph.d.-kurset i samtidshistorie i sidste uge, hvor ph.d.-forskere fra Danmark, Norge og Sverige var samlet for bl.a. at diskutere samtidshistoriens fortid, nutid og fremtid.

Fremtiden er lys for det samtidshistoriske forskningsfelt 🚀 Det kan konkluderes på baggrund af ph.d.-kurset i samtidshistorie i sidste uge, hvor ph.d.-forskere fra Danmark, Norge og Sverige var samlet for bl.a. at diskutere samtidshistoriens fortid, nutid og fremtid.

CfA: 2026 Doctoral Summer School in the History of Knowledge We invite applications for the seventh annual Doctoral Summer School in the History of Knowledge: Lund University, 17–20 August, 2026. Deadline for applications: 15 March. More information: newhistoryofknowledge.com/2026/02/03/c...

Astute analysis of right wing fury and denial of reparative justice claims: King Charles’ guilty secret medium.com/@evansd66/ki...

1/10. Tory peer Daniel Hannan has posted a potted history of slavery that demonstrates how historical understanding is being twisted by politicians. I’ll examine it in light of historians’ research.

Out today: THE CROWN'S SILENCE I'm delighted to share that my new book is officially out! It traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery over hundreds of years. Please buy a copy, tell your library, & spread the word. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Just a reminder of one of Suella Braverman's greatest ethnonationalist hits: "I will never be truly English: here is why", Telegraph, 26 February 2025 (Source: www.suellabraverman.co.uk/news/i-will-...)

Pleased to see the written evidence I co-produced with members of the Historians of Cultural Diplomacy research network (sites.google.com/ucm.es/hcd) has been published as part of the government enquiry Soft power: a strategy for UK success? committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

New year, new paperbacks and what's more they're 40% off! Until 31st January, we're discounting all of our titles at MUP. Find out more about our Imperialism NIPS: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/01...

Donald Trump is turning back the clock to a mid-nineteenth century view of the world and America’s place in it, Vivian Salama writes.

The Prime Minister of Belgium speaks:

I am the book reviews editor for @jich.bsky.social and always looking for new review pitches. If you’d like to review a recently published book on imperial, colonial or Commonwealth history (broadly defined), please get in touch: evan dot smith at adelaide dot edu dot au. Authors, get in touch too!