British Library staff are on strike from the 8th to the 12th December 2025. Full solidarity with them, please don't cross the physical or digital picket lines. I wrote a little in my latest piece on the Library about how poor senior management has driven the staff to this position.

The world’s dumbest phishing attempt.

Check out Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery by PM Press on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3...

Happy May Day to all who celebrate! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd6c...

Time once again to visit with an old friend.

I appreciate the attempt to offer an alternative to the compulsive praise that usually dominates the discourse in the field, but not sure this angry jumble of bad-faith hate-reading, incisive criticism, and reactionary politics is a huge improvement.

Following Pitt faculty and staff, grad students just voted 97% in favor of unionizing. www.publicsource.org/pitt-graduat...

Very happy to share the call for papers for the inaugural Three Rivers Graduate History Conference, co-organized by Pitt and CMU grad students.

I have just discovered that my new book, The Fragile Juggernaut: Marx & Engels on Capitalism, Class Struggle and Crisis, all 573 pages of it, is now available as a FREE pdf download brill.com/downloadpdf/... - despite not yet being available in hard copy. 😀

We're doing a conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the publication of The Many-Headed Hydra next May! For the full CfP, please go to www.history.pitt.edu/news/many-he...

#OtD 12 May 1797 the crew of the Sandwich ship anchored at Nore in the Thames estuary mutinied. They demanded better conditions and an end to the war with France, then began blockading London.… https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8421/nore-mutiny?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

If you are in Pittsburgh on April 9, don't miss this amazing closing lecture of our series on "Slavery and Memorialization in the Atlantic World": Prof. Pepijn Brandon, VU, "After Apologies: The Troubled Road Towards Recognition of Slavery in the Dutch Empire". All welcome.

Come and be the next Amundson Professor of British History at Pitt! cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

🚨🚨🚨 The History and Political Economy Project (directed by me & @zeithistoriker.bsky.social) invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship, beginning July 1, 2024, to support our public engagement and scholarly programs. Apply here by 2/1: apply.interfolio.com/137868

This is so great. An article about an enslaved brother and sister in Louisiana who escaped their captivity 61 times - some of it as pre-pubescent children. (via Marcus Rediker on the other site)

Back to one of my happy places!