The marble statue of Lord Dudley’s beloved Bashaw is a personal favorite collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9638/b...

This looks great on missionaries and horticulture in early colonial Bengal link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

CFP: Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2026 Workshop: Monday 15 June 2026, at UCL (London) #Skystorians

Starmer says he’s ‘fed up’ with Trump and Putin’s actions pushing up energy bills for Britons – UK politics live

"[The U.S.] now looks to many Gulf leaders like an unreliable and very expensive security provider...where the Gulf often pays heavily and still bears the retaliation risk. The bases will stay, but they now look less like shields and more like tripwires.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Trita Parsi: "Tehran is likely to leverage [the Strait of Hormuz] to rebuild economic ties with Asian and European partners—countries that once traded extensively with Iran but were driven out of its market over the past 15 years by U.S. sanctions." tritaparsi.substack.com/p/what-on-ea...

On consideration, I think if the deal stands along the lines that have been reported, with Iran continuing to extract its tolls and without making any other concessions, I'd say this is probably the worst the United States has ever lost a war. Truly a shocking outcome, if it holds.

Trump went from making insane genocidal threats this morning to hyping the “golden age” of Iran hours later, and he received no concessions in between. He’s an absolute basket case who needs to be removed from power before he follows through on one of his mass murder fantasies.

The world not screeching to a halt when the US killed more than 100 little school girls on the very first day of this "liberating war" led us exactly to this moment

Can't tell you how many members of Congress who *at best* had nothing to say when I asked about the Minab girls school attack. There is a profanely cold detachment inside Capitol Hill, a mode completely unrecognizable to common human decency I wish I could properly convey to you.

Just a caveat: I once heard a U.S. anthropologist theorize that American empire is fundamentally different from European imperialism because it isn’t “about 19th-century battles and ships or whatever.” I realized how behind the curve Americanists are in their understanding of imperial history.

American and Israeli missiles hit Sharif University in Tehran tonight. Often called #Iran’s MIT, the institution has been home to some of the country’s best and brightest minds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics since 1966. 1/2

Easter weekend in Warwick

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

Every single person who allows this late-stage dementia-addled man to continue in office for a single additional minute belongs in The Hague.

Visited the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness this week. ‘Tis a wonderful archive with a nature walk along River Ness to boot.

Strikes damage or destroy Iran’s tallest bridge and a century-old medical research centre fighting diseases.

It is the 305th anniversary of Walpole becoming the first Prime Minister & the longest serving, for two decades

Joe Mansueto is founder and majority owner of Morningstar, a financial services company, and this is how corporations co-opt university resources for R&D while also infusing the culture with ideas that support their economic interests and objectives.

They could have bailed out the Division of the Humanities. But no. news.uchicago.edu/story/50-mil...

We’re celebrating the 200th volume In the Studies in Imperialism series and over 40 years of publishing cutting-edge research with the launch of the book itself and a panel discussion of imperialism & imperial history, past & present, on 26 May. Do join us? www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

I’ll say it again: a “research” university that cuts majors because of “low enrollment” should have to relinquish its claim to be a “research“ university.

Red States: We're going to cut all the programs that don't support our theology Blue States: We're going to cut the same programs, but because they don't support the business school

Rachman is not wrong in this analysis. But I might caveat it by saying that Israel is unbothered by the collapse of the U.S. world system and this explains their maximalist goal to turn Iran into an apocalyptic wasteland enabling Israeli hegemony in the region. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

What might THE PITT for higher education look like? Two new shows are definitely *not* interested in finding out! I wrote about ROOSTER and VLADIMIR and the problem of college caricature for @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/2081...

‘Own the libs’ degenerate politics combined with the weaponization of oil as a nationalist symbol

Although the reception was not always warm, the English #EastIndiaCompany made several attempts to trade in Japan in the 17th century. 🔓 This new History Matters is free for 7 days www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...

The Last Princesses of Punjab exhibition open today at Kensington Palace. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Another day, another violation of academic freedom in Texas. This time a university is firing a philosophy professor owing to complaints about an off-campus talk he gave on the Israeli-Palestine conflict...

With the Iran war exciting nationalist feeling & talk of peace negotiations, Ute Frevert’s work on honor, shame, & the emotional economy of nationalism feels timely. Peace terms reveal how national honor & shame are constructed and experienced. Open access. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Congratulations to Mehdi Berriah and Arjan Post for a fascinating collection of new studies on Ibn Taymiyya and his legacy. Available in hardcopy or open access (next post) lup.be/book/ibn-tay...

We know that people in the past felt, but not what, how, or why. Is #emotionalhistory recoverable? ⌛️ Last chance to read the latest archive article for free www.historytoday.com/archive/head...

Denmark's experiment with nativist social democracy results in worst electoral performance since 1903. Labour's similar experiment - modelled on the Danes - will too unless it changes course drastically. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

FT Exclusive: Traders made bets worth half a billion dollars in the oil market about 15 minutes before Donald Trump’s post touting 'productive' talks with Iran sent the price of crude tumbling ft.trib.al/SVLeLoM

The Black Cultural Archives in Brixton are holding an open day next Sunday blackculturalarchives.org/events/open-...

A few weeks ago, the FT published a profile piece of Rachida Dati, the right-wing challenger, who ran on a continuation of Hidalgo's green urbanism because of how popular it is with Parisians.

despite being concentrated in ameria’s largest cities, america’s media is terminally car-brained

This week we released a select listing of 100 national history societies active in the UK & Ireland bit.ly/4rANJ52. These subject specialist societies enable research and promote the value of historical knowledge. Many are membership organisations and invite historians to join them #Skystorians

'“The demand is tremendous for arts education both from Asia and in Singapore,” said [Venka] Purushothaman. “The landscape has changed tremendously compared with 10 years ago.”' 1/3

Iran war analysts fall into two camps. The first stresses Iran’s resilience, mosaic defense, & asymmetric warfare; fr the outset they predicted the Strait of Hormuz debacle & US strategic defeat. The second cannot see past the regime’s Syrian war-era sectarianism & proxy network collapse, 2023–2025.

Alice Coltrane was a true musical pioneer. Journey to Satchidananda is a simply incredible album, especially if you want relax or refocus. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

Spain's renewables build-out has structurally decoupled its electricity prices from gas markets. Gas now sets the price in only 15% of hours, compared to 90% in Italy. Countries that invested early in clean power are far less exposed to fossil fuel price shocks. Those that didn't now pay the price.

Goldman Sachs has published a paper suggesting oil could stay above $100 for years edition.cnn.com/2026/03/20/e...

The moral voice of Europe www.politico.eu/article/spai...

I’m running a 2 hour online workshop for teachers, heritage professionals, journalists & anyone who wants to be able to discuss the British Empire and its afterlives with nuance and concision. It’s on 1st June. Do sign up if interested? onlineshop.sussex.ac.uk/product-cata...

The post-Cold War era of a US-led sanctions regime is coming to end. "Instead of averting military action, sanctions are now just as frequently paving the way to violent escalation. A world of persistent economic wars will, sooner or later, spiral into actual warfare." www.ft.com/content/ae45...

A great essay : “This war, if it continues, may produce the first truly collective Gulf memory: national and transnational at once, the kind that does not ask for a passport before it admits you to its grief.”

NTRODUCING EQUATOR SEMINARS! The 2026 Men's World Cup is set to be the most political tournament in history. @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social, one of the world's foremost writers on football and society, breaks it all down in our first ever online seminar. Sign up: equator.org/courses/worl...

We go live to the AFCON final

"And as it was in 1973, the people who absorb the worst of [the oil crisis] will not be the ones with the hedges and the trading desks. They will be in Cairo buying cooking oil, or in Karachi watching the price of flour move out of reach." unherd.com/2026/03/the-...