So happy that "The Legacy of the Enlightenment", which I co-edited with colleagues in Turin and the wonderful Fondazione 1563, is now available open access. Inside, also my chapter on the Neapolitan Enlightenment's theory of rights and the making of liberalism. en.olschki.it/libro/978882...

I was kindly introduced to Kamakura and Yokohama by three exceptional Japanese colleagues – a day of walking and talking, cafes and kissaten, temples and shrines, dining and discussion. Reflections on history, in history, and the perils and possibilities of our unfolding future across the world.

@yalebooks.bsky.social have outdone themselves with the cover of my new book. Out in January for anyone interested.

Now on FirstView: Republican revivals? Anton Jäger reflects on the history of republicanism in his review essay of Quentin Skinner’s Liberty as Independence and Bruno Leipold’s @brunoleipold.com Citizen Marx

A wonderful workshop where I too contributed, this time on metaphors of the body politic in economic debates in colonial Virginia. Really enjoyed listening to the contributions of Tom, Rachel and others!

We were delighted to support this fascinating, interdisciplinary workshop last week. We look forward to seeing what the future holds!

Today on campus – writing on historiography

Last week I spoke on athleticism in seventeenth-century English political thought at "Republican Bodies" @imems.bsky.social (albeit online). This was a stimulating coming together (programme below!) including @beccapalmer99.bsky.social and @rhammersley99.bsky.social. I look forward to its future!

Excited to see this in print with Cambridge University Press. A fantastic new volume on Anticolonialism and Social thought (Ed’s): Julian Go and Anaheed Al-Hardan. My contribution includes an intellectual history of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan drawing from archival work and an oral history interview.

I keep returning to this by the late Helen De Cruz

Over the last two days, I attended the annual festival at Nezu-jinja – my local Shinto shrine. This festival has been continuously held since the Edo era. This evening, I watched a sanza-no-mai (三社舞) performance, a kagura dance only performed at this shrine and at this time.

A few more days to apply!

1/14 "... [for] their weal, not their woe". Today is the publication date of "Le Républicanisme d'Algernon Sidney" @classiquesgarnier.bsky.social, co-edited by myself and Christopher Hamel (@univrouen.bsky.social). This is the first ever volume on Sidney classiques-garnier.com/le-republica...

weary stare

The ongoing reversal (in the US and elsewhere) of many on the right and left on free speech reveals the superficiality of politics, but also the catastrophic, catalysing shortcomings of liberal-left rhetorical and political strategies in recent decades. Serious reflection needed.

Bellum [culturale] se ipsum alit - [Pseudo-]Cato

I have received full permission to publish -- so this is happening. Not just this one item either (I found a lot more, all interconnected), but an entire collection. Very important sources for the history of political thought. I will finish editing & submit the lot to the publisher ASAP.

I came across something remarkable today. It is a short, but consequential source for 20thC intellectual history & the history of political thought. I will edit & publish it ASAP (already found a publisher). I cannot say more; I will when I can. Astonished; excited to share.

Really enjoyed this interview with The Guardian's Philip Oltermann: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Just a thought: Cuts to war spending are easier to justify than cuts to defence spending

Newcomer! Georgios Varouxakis is now on here – historian of John Stuart Mill, liberalism, & recently "The West". Do share! @georgiosvarouxakis.bsky.social

Today I gave my first presentation solely on James Harrington – wonderful feedback!

Conferencing – first day of "Providence, Propaganda, and Profit in Early Modern England". Tomorrow morning I will deliver a talk on James Harrington's "The Commonwealth of Oceana" (1656) – esp. constitutional orders & offices, the agrarian law, public salaries, & state theatres.

Join us to rethink the transformations and afterlives of ideas! #CfP

I started a collective artwork this summer: L'Intelligence au travail Collecting all my failed funding applications from the past years, L’Intelligence au travail invites everyone to contribute to this growing artwork.

This evening I bought an English grammar book. Taking the fight to illiteracy, including my own. It might seem a forlorn hope in this age, but persist we must.

Today I am writing about athletics in early modern political thought – after a haircut

Night walk after a good writing day – visited the kitsune-san at Otome Inari-jinja

On 29 September there will be a colloquium on early modern communities & natural law in Europe at Christ Church @ox.ac.uk. Here is a list of speakers & the titles of presentations. If this research interests you, & you are able, do consider going! intellectualhistory.web.ox.ac.uk/event/natura...

I've heard some philosophy journals are struggling with AI-generated papers overcoming their workflow? Do we know how bad it is?

This is amazing. I always love thinking about the various crossovers in the 19th century. Victorian Britain, Abe Lincoln, the invention of the fax machine, and the Tokugawa shogunate. The Shogun could've faxed this book to Queen Victoria, asking if Lincoln would appreciate dragoons + samurai aid!

Working on Harrington this afternoon

Somewhere in Tokyo

jacked Franklin is now canon

Universities doubling down as public sentiment shifts away from dependence upon AI. This is the problem with the buy-in.

Wrote a short piece on why Japan’s surrender came so late. engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...

I also sketch Jefferson as a giant serpent from time to time.

So excited to share my new article in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social: "Colonial World-Making and Global Knowledges at the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope" (Open access) academic.oup.com/past/advance...

This one in particular is awesome as hell because there's a carriage there for the cannon and Franklin fuckin' picks it up and uses it like a fuckin' sawed-off shotgun anyway.

you see? Americaboo-ism IS as old as weebdom

This is the craziest thing I’ve seen in a while!

Out soon! classiques-garnier.com/new/ChlMS02

It began with a small idea and a few hunches. It grew through years of research in archives and libraries, reading the work of other great scholars, and seemingly endless writing and re-writing. Now it is finally published! Race and the Scottish Enlightenment: A Colonial History 1750-1820.

Publication Day! How was race taught to students during the Enlightenment? Our book traces how Edinburgh-trained students carried their education into colonial contexts and forged race as a central category of Enlightenment thought. #History #Enlightenment #Colonialism #YaleUniversityPress

Fellow historians, this story is *everything.*

I recently became acquainted with "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" 童絵解万国噺, a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861. The retelling of the revolutionary era is quite something. Here, for instance, is John Adams wielding a sword in mortal combat with a gigantic serpent.

I just bought a French book in a 2nd-hand Tokyo bookshop. The Japanese owner, assuming I was French, spoke to me French. I rolled with it & (silly accent shift) spoke French - oui monsieur, merci beaucoup, c'est une belle librairie, bonsoir monsieur, honhonhon. Momentarily, je suis devenu français.

The earliest European representation of a capybara from "A Relation of a voyage" (1698) - a reminder of my fellowship this summer @marshslibrary.bsky.social

I am finally an official member of the National Diet Library 国立国会図書館

Melancholia