This is great fun. (Nigel Biggar does not come out of it especially well.)

Listening to @andreloez.bsky.social @josephinequinn.bsky.social [Paroles d'histoire] 408. L'Antiquité au pluriel, avec Josephine Quinn (en anglais) #parolesDhistoire podcastaddict.com/paroles-d-hi... #history

On the train south, looking forward to talking about the World and the West at Southampton and catching up with @cazemiera.bsky.social

If we're to have forest towns between Oxford & Cambridge we should also have tapir, who are forest animals. Official advice on keeping tapir in N. Ireland is here--I don't think there is yet a similar leaflet for England, let alone the Oxford-Cambridge corridor: www.daera-ni.gov.uk/sites/defaul...

People who aren’t writers think writer’s block is at least as big and real a problem as I thought quicksand would be, as a child.

Now available in the US for all your weekend paperback needs... www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/736806...

I am excited about this

The amazing Paul Kosmin will deliver the Corbett Lecture at the Cambridge Classics Faculty on November 13 at 5pm on "The Rain of Kings". Reception to follow: all very welcome! www.classics.cam.ac.uk/seminars/spe...

Thanks @josephinequinn.bsky.social for the brilliant book that helped inform this: How the World Made the West. If you haven't read it, now's a great time to prepare your arguments against #CivilisationalThinking Full speech here: hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-1...

‘Alongside 44 historical buildings and seven archaeological sites, all three depositories of historical and archaeological material in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on an exhibition of Gazan antiquities: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Our 11/6 issue is now online, with Ben Lerner on the heart, Mark Lilla on MAGA nation, Cora Currier on the “war on terror,” @josephinequinn.bsky.social on St. Augustine, Nitin Ahuja on the science of death, Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin’s loves, and much more.

‘The message is clear: 20th-century colonialism created the conditions for a 21st-century tragedy.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on an exhibition of Gazan antiquities: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

How the World Made the West: A 4000-year History is a Kindle Daily Deal today - only! - for £2.99. Mixed feelings obvs, but that's less than 10p a century... www.amazon.co.uk/How-World-Ma...

The administration is aware of black bloc tactics, was vaguely aware of clown bloc tactics, but was completely unprepared for the advent of Animal Crossing bloc tactics.

At the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies we are offering 10 fellowships for scholars at any stage in their careers to stay with us for up to 6 months (PhD candidates and senior academics) or 12 months (postdocs) to complete a research project: www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/images/pdf-f...

Habsburgs in space!

‘The message is clear: 20th-century colonialism created the conditions for a 21st-century tragedy.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on an exhibition of Gazan antiquities: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Thanks to @empirepoduk.bsky.social for introducing me to How the World Made the West (2024) by @josephinequinn.bsky.social. It’s the perfect book for this moment.

‘The message is clear: 20th-century colonialism created the conditions for a 21st-century tragedy.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on an exhibition of Gazan antiquities: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘This show has excited controversy: should we even be talking about damage to antiquities in the context of so much killing?’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on an exhibition of Gazan antiquities: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Thanks to @jpnudell.bsky.social for this thoughtful and perceptive review @frontiere-s.bsky.social. Just one tiny amendment: I am an Irish historian...

Also in this issue: @jamesmeek.bsky.social on what AI wants Neal Ascherson on Asa Briggs @keeanga.bsky.social on Audre Lorde David Todd on Jean-Luc Mélenchon @josephinequinn.bsky.social on Gazan antiquities Stephen Mulhall on Charles Taylor Yun Sheng on Chinese youth culture...

📖 Et le monde créa l’Occident. Une nouvelle histoire des mondes anciens, de Josephine Quinn @editionsduseuil.bsky.social 📌 Retrouvez @josephinequinn.bsky.social à Blois à l’occasion des 28e Rendez-vous de l’histoire, le 11 octobre à 18h #rvh #rvh2025 #lecture #festivals #blois #salondulivre

I've been podcasting again! This time I spoke about how 'Plato: a civic life' provides the historical background to Plato's thought and helps to explain how his ideas developed - with Morteza Hajizadeh from New Books Network: newbooksnetwork.com/plato

Since they are suddenly back in the spotlight, here's a link to an old essay that Josephine & I wrote for the New Left Project (back when that was a thing) that touches on the unlikely combo of the 1880s Fabians and gay sex.

New from @EmpirePodUK The History of Gaza Episode Three Byzantine Gaza: The Rise of Christianity @anitaanand.bsky.social &I are joined by the great Professor Peter Sarris to discuss Byzantine Gaza podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...

Hello! 👋🌍 You can now listen worldwide to our very funny episode of BBC YOU’RE DEAD TO ME about Hannibal of Carthage My guests are the fantastic comedian Darren Harriott and the brilliant ancient historian Professor @josephinequinn.bsky.social — listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Delighted to find myself in the superb Pasts Imperfect newsletter, along with @willdalrymple.bsky.social and monstrous births. Thanks @sarahebond.bsky.social!

Our Gaza series continues... ANCIENT GAZA: FROM THE ASSYRIANS TO THE ROMANS @willdalrymple.bsky.social and @anitaanand.bsky.social are joined by @josephinequinn.bsky.social to discuss the 5 ancient empires that conquered Gaza...

It was such an honour to be part of this

Geweldig interview met @josephinequinn.bsky.social, hoogleraar Oude Geschiedenis aan Cambridge. Naar aanleiding van haar boek over 4000 jaar geschiedenis van het Westen. Over broederschap, beschavingsdenken en Brexit. Nu wil ik die pil op mijn nachtkastje… www.volkskrant.nl/boeken/de-we...

I seem to have found myself with @chrisbrooke.bsky.social at the Train Bleu again, en route for Italy.

Jo was interviewed by de Volkskrant, who asked about Ptolemy. www.volkskrant.nl/boeken/de-we...

I was so honoured to talk to @empirepoduk.bsky.social about Gaza. Nothing else to say: please listen.

Gondoliers don’t work in the rain

‘Even if the coastline we know is young – its features only relatively stable for the last five or six thousand years – mental traces of earlier configurations survive.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Sailors gathered on mid-sea islands like Socotra, three hundred kilometres south of the Arabian coast, where graffiti dating from the second century BCE to the second century CE cover the deep Cave of Hoq with a blizzard of names.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I'm on Radio 4 at 10am with @gregjenner.bsky.social and Darren Herriott, who makes Hannibal of Carthage very funny indeed. (Longer version on the @bbcsounds.bsky.social site in the UK, just in case you don't have the radio on.)

A little video teaser of what to expect from our new BBC You’re Dead To Me episode about Hannibal of Carthage, who - as Darren discovered - found incredibly inventive ways to turn animals into weapons! With Professor @josephinequinn.bsky.social

Well this is the highlight of my life so far, thankyou @gregjenner.bsky.social

Just out on my latest Substack, reflections on @josephinequinn.bsky.social 's brilliant How the World Made the West. Profoundly trashing, in best possible way, with mountains of evidence, claims of “Western civilisation”. Or any distinct civilisation nataliebennett.substack.com/p/change-eve...

A good bit of "blue humanities" for the dads here from @josephinequinn.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘However much it suited coastal polities to criminalise them, pirates were “fully integrated into ancient economies”, from serving Mediterranean states as mercenaries to stocking the slave markets that kept them going.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I am very pleased to share the conversation I had with the brilliant @moudhy.bsky.social We talk all about ancient Mesopotamia, ancient texts, and much more. Hope everyone enjoys! open.substack.com/pub/convergi...

‘Entrances to the underworld were usually located on the coast, while the highest and lowest of men were buried there, from local heroes to dead fisherfolk.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Oh oh www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

‘Blue Humanities has taken over large parts of the academy in the last decade, bringing the human relationship with oceans, rivers, lakes and seas to the top of the scholarly agenda just as those waters gather to end humanity for good.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Seas are repetitive creatures, working in cycles of tides, migration and climate change, which is normally to say the waxing and waning of the Ice Age. It is the coast that creates the past. The ancients knew this.’ @josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...