Owenite socialist, Chartist land plan smallholder, Northern Star reporter and mutual insurance pioneer Thomas Martin Wheeler died #OnThisDay Monday 16 February 1862. His story is told in Chartist Lives www.amazon.co.uk/Chartist-Liv...

If you're in the UK I'm going to be on Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow (Tues 17 Feb) afternoon - talking about gentrification in Detroit and London with the wonderful Laurie Taylor and @sjccorn.bsky.social. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19

My brother Garry has dementia and is currently lost somewhere in the Chester area. If anyone should spot him please call the police on 999. We'd appreciate reposts. @shitchester.bsky.social

Diving back into this ahead of tomorrow’s new piece in @rottingleafmag.bsky.social

Rebellion's very handsome reprint of Action comics stories from almost exactly 50 years ago, ACTION: BEFORE THE BAN. The cover image feels highly appropriate for 2026, too

Rebellion's very handsome reprint of Action comics stories from almost exactly 50 years ago, ACTION: BEFORE THE BAN. The cover image feels highly appropriate for 2026, too

READ ALL ABOUT IT @georgeclarke.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk The 'latest offer' from management @northumbriauni.bsky.social @andylong6.bsky.social offers no protections for hard-working staff: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Congratulations to our 2026 RIA Gold Medal recipients. @ybuckley.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social has been awarded the Gold Medal in the Environmental Sciences, Geography and Geosciences, and Christopher McCrudden @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social has received the Gold Medal in the Social Sciences.

My new book, An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class, is now listed in Verso's trade catalogue for 2026. You can find it here: versobooks.com/en-gb/pages/...

Jim Ratcliffe is best known as the unpopular Manchester United owner and today he has been in the news for saying that 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants'. We need to understand Ratcliffe's as an energy billionaire who made his power and money by closing workplaces and opposing unions 🧵

Why did charity become the outlet for global compassion? Join us for the launch of 'Charity After Empire' by Matthew Hilton 24/3/26, QMUL, London E1 Book here eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-charity-after-empire-tickets-1981162909594 @qmul.bsky.social

Our new paper in Urban Geography led by Phil Boland on the frontier politics of BIDs vis a vis Drug Consumption Rooms in Belfast.

The 2nd chapter of my book Solidarity and Pressure, on the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, has been made free to read. Looks at overlaps with the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, trade unions, and the efforts of John Hume, Seán MacBride, & the Belfast branch academic.oup.com/book/61377/c...

there's a new found footage doc about J. G. Ballard out this month by B.J.A. Samuel, and it's free to watch on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj0V...

I've recorded an hour long interview talking about Atomic Albion for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. Listen here! newbooksnetwork.com/atomic-albion

So I was under the impression, from conversations I've had with a few historians, that London did not have a university until the early ninetheenth century because the work that universities did was already being done elsewhere - for example in the Inns of Court?

FINALLY sitting down this evening with @leannecalvert.bsky.social's 2024 article on trans* histories of the family in 18th C Ireland and its absolutely 👌🌟 Also picking up more than a few further reading suggestions! doi.org/10.1080/1081...

This week, university staff Manchester Met and Bristol University are striking to demand a pay rise that acknowledges their work and dedication. After years of real-terms pay cuts, a further pay cut is simply not good enough. University staff deserve better. #fundourfuture #fundourpay

#CFP: 'Call for Contributions: Histories of Weather & Weathering' Deadline for abstract: 4 September 2026 Link: teleskopos.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/c... #envhist #envhum #ecocriticism #ecopoetics #ecolit #histsci #hstm #sts #sciencestudies

Tomorrow at the IHR, we welcome Margot Rashba for a paper on Viviennne Westwood. Booking link below. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

I urge you to fill in this consultation if you can - with this very helpful support from Amnesty International - although AND because ! it is heart-breaking that this country has sunk so low that Amnesty suggest in a number of cases to provide no answer as the terms of the question are so evil

In our latest blog, Jem Roberts and Dr Peter Rice unpack the panic about pub closures - and show why much of it is misleading 🍺 What’s actually happening? ⬇️ Pub numbers have fallen for over a century - this isn’t new ⬆️ Employment in pubs has stayed stable... www.ias.org.uk/2026/02/10/i...

I'm hearing that my institution is recruiting a special 'Toilet Squad' - no word yet if this is a tribute to Edwin 'Stinker' Chadwick, or a punishment detail for staff more when we have it

The special issue of Cultural and Social History on “Researching Student Lives: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives” (co-ed. w Georgina Brewis & Jodi Burkett) is live - yay! Several articles are OA :) Huge thanks to our contributors & the journal editors! www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfcs20/2...

A taster of my new book - coming soon! open.substack.com/pub/timcress...

Marking, and trying not to be this person

Saved by a stranger: The 100-year-old Irish man in London www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

Join us on Wednesday for Philippa Hellawell (The National Archives), 'The Ship Bedford: Atlantic and Archival Crossings in the Long Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade', at the Institute of Historical Research, London and on Zoom, 11 February, 5:30 pm. Free and open to the public. Booking link below.

Sharing again this thread on the potentially harmful approach to research ethics - impacting all forms of research - proposed by report 2 of the Sullivan Review doi.org/10.1111/tran.70057

Here's a thread which follows my last book - Historic Building Mythbusting. Its a look at the stories we tell about ancient buildings, a debunking of some of those tales, and what we can learn about ourselves through folklore... the stories behind the stories 1/12🧵

Oxford University's Handling of Sexual Harassment Allegations under scrutiny Investigation of serious matters of sexual harassment, bullying & whistleblowing needs to be taken out of hands of universities Their inclination is to cover up & do nothing poetsandquants.com/2026/02/02/o...

ICYMI our @ehunineteen.bsky.social PGRs are hosting a conference - check out our poster - please reskeet - share with your PGRs - and do come along and join us in June!

Wow - @manchestermill.bsky.social catches Reform UK sending fake letters to residents without saying they’re from Matt Goodwin’s campaign, a glaring breach of electoral law.

Checking my email on Bandcamp Friday

Imagine you're an Egyptian mummy dug up and sold to a British tourist in like 1825 and you think Aha I'm going somewhere where people aren't so goddam dramatic about dead bodies but no, no no no, noooooooooo omg no.

Our brilliant PhD students have organised a conference - Placing the Nineteenth Century - and you’re all invited! Friday 26th June CFP deadline: Friday 1st May We’re all excited for our keynote speaker, @drclaireocall.bsky.social 🤩 Please share - and send us an abstract!

'A Queer Scrapbook' is a treasure trove of LGBTIQ+ histories from across Britain and Ireland. Packed with material, the book explores urban, rural and regional queer life since 1945. Meet two of the editors at @queerbritain.bsky.social on March 11th, tickets here: www.outsavvy.com/event/32181/...

Epstein managed different networks. The UK media has rightly centred the powerful pedophile ring. It has maintained an uncanny silence about the global, anti-democratic, far right political network. Farage is up to his neck in it. If it weren’t for unprecedented double standards it’d be career over.

NEW BOOK! I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line academic.oup.com/book/62279

If you'd like the crib notes on Eva Gore-Booth's extraordinary life, EPIC have a post on her here: blog.epicchq.com/eva-gore-boo... and you can read her full biography next month when @sonjatiernan.bsky.social's excellent book is republished by @manchesterup.bsky.social

POV I'm stuck in a Philip K Dick short story

Full time AHRC doctoral studentships now available in Arts & Humanities at University of Hertfordshire for October 2026 start - please do share widely!! This includes both History & Heritage Studies among other subjects 🌟😀 www.herts.ac.uk/research/res...

A PhD opportunity at CCCU in History/Archaeology/Heritage. Preference is for a modernist, but proposals in other areas will be considered. Dr @davehitchcock.bsky.social is the point of contact. www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f... #skystorians #medievalsky #archaeology

going to talk by Emily Gee about her book Hostel House and Chambers: Accommodating the Victoriana nd edwardian Workling Woman on Thursday at London Archives, 6-8pm. Se. some #ArchitecturalHistory and #housing people there maybe. Book is of interest to feminism, suffrage and modernism researchers too

We didn’t have Magdalene Laundries in the UK. But we DID lock away young women–for life–as well as many boys, too. I’ve just recorded this episode of Travels Through Time with host Peter Moore, on my work on the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 travelsthroughtime.podbean.com/e/sarah-wise...

For anyone interested in our 18-month post in British Studies please follow the link below. @ihr.bsky.social www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

We've launched our new migration masters @uclgeography.bsky.social – Migration, Politics and Society Full of creative and critical approaches, and taught by really good people. Please pass on to students who might be interested! www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Any subscriber quitting on Dave over this can't have been reading his stuff too closely...but you should! Beer has *always* been political. If you don't see that, it's probably because the politics was designed around your comfort. Dave just helps us make sense of that reality.