Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.

A new comic: A brief history of History at the University of Leicester. You can download the originals and find links to further reading on my blog: incurablearchaeologist.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/l... #skystorians 🏛️🏺🗃️ Individual panels are threaded below:

Happy birthday to the only two women with elements named after them on the periodic table: #MarieCurie & #LiseMeitner. As I do every year, I will once again repeat my proposal that November 7 should be International #WomenInSTEM Day! #histSTM #chemistry #physics #OnThisDay #OTD #PeriodicTable👩‍🔬🗃️📜

📣 Object now to stop the demolition of Clive Lodge, one of the earliest homes in this leafy part of Ealing! 🧵 Object here to planning application Ref: 253085FUL bit.ly/3Lo8EZH

the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...

Defections since Local Elections in May this year (to 31st Oct): LAB: 153↘ ↗11 (-142) CON: 147↘ ↗17 (-130) IND: 61↘ ↗278 (+217) LOC: 38↘ ↗21 (-17) RFM: 27↘ ↗94 (+67) LDM: 20↘ ↗14 (-6) GRN: 8↘ ↗22 (+14) SNP: 3↘ ↗0 (-3)

New Jersey municipalities that are 60%+ Hispanic where we currently have results:

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time. I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.

The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History for the Period 2026-2028 University of Oxford - Worcester College HR - Research Fellows www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPH476/t... #skystorians 🗃️

Sheffield Hallam apologises after halting academic’s China research. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

I’m at the British Textile Biennial, with exhibits and events in Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn etc. Theme this time is invention and innovation, so plenty of #histsci and #histech among the new fibres and Lancashire looms. Some of the things I’ve seen…

If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight. Use the Quick Vote option. Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...

There is a legal case for King Charles III to resume his status as monarch of the Americas—but it is strewn with obstacles

NEW from me: Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent. That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀

If I told 14 year old me this had happened hed say "time to cut back on the beer old man."

Over 40% of international students who arrived in the UK in 2022 had switched to a work visa by 2024 (mostly the Graduate visa designed for that purpose), Migration Observatory analysis shows migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

Join us for a roundtable on 'The Modern British City' in January at Senate House, London, with Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna, Owen Hatherley, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, followed by wine! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

In 2024, the UK had the lowest taxes on an average employee of any G7 country. UK taxes for lower earners were also the lowest in the G7. But the UK's position might change in 2025. Read more 👉 buff.ly/4ppe7Q8

Elon Musk: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die" 29th October 2025. 2 million views in its first hour.

My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!

"Let's not forget, when we remember the service and the sacrifice with this poppy, that the people who bled and died for our democracy and our freedom, weren't just my grandfather who looked like me & worshipped the same God, but people across Empire & Commonwealth, who were Muslim, Sikh & Hindu'

Govt should withdraw its guidance which prevents civil servants from speaking at public or stakeholder events as this will reduce the quality of policymaking. I’m a co-signatory of this letter in The Times coordinated by @instituteforgovernment.org.uk a asking for this guidance to be reconsidered

New in 'Transactions': 'Possible Maps: Newfoundland, 1763–1829' bit.ly/4oygf5V @julialaite.bsky.social shows how overlapping maps highlight complexity of encounter with place over a coherence of colonial ideologies. What were peripheries of some people’s empires were centres of others' worlds 1/2

Stephen Bush on the extraordinary draft legislation which Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Matt Vickers, Katie Lam and backbench colleagues have proposed in parliament It is a proposal that would seek to deport around 5% of the resident population, including over a quarter of a million with ILR

Probably a good thing, but few people were 'forced' to choose between A-levels and other qualifications as many, many 18 year olds left with some combination of A-levels and BTECs.

What a self-report. Editor at the NYT admits to reading the world through the lense of his X feed, which makes sense of so much that comes from the NYT and other legacy media outlets (where I assume this is also a problem).

In which Nick Hillman tells some home truths to the 'Battle of Ideas' about HE myths and the alleged 'alternatives': in fact we need more education, not less.

the media has made a huge deal about Neutrality and Not Editorializing and it all falls apart when you realize they are too afraid to publish a factual description of the video Trump posted

Couldn’t agree more. Same for literary texts. 👇

The beloved BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time has been awarded the 2025 British Academy President’s Medal! Professor Susan J Smith, President of the British Academy, praised the programme for bringing rigorous yet accessible discussion of complex ideas to millions of listeners: buff.ly/1bn63FD

We’re making fun of her, but it really is beyond the pale at the White House press secretary would say this in public and it would not be a scandal.

Old enough to remember when kids being anti-semitic was the basis for a federal government assault on higher education

A rare chance to hear from Dipesh Chakrabarty from Chicago in London (or online) on 28 October as part of our Living with the Planet season www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/livin...

For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research. Reposts welcomed.

Fantastic piece by Kate Murphy responding to the devastating change of policy at the @BBC Written Archives Centre, which will make it impossible to undertake new independent research using the collection. cstonline.net/defending-th... #mediahistory

From Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans: Oliver Twist is translated into Chinese as Orphan in the Capital of Fog

The closure of the Iowa State Historical Society archive in Iowa City is a travesty. And part of a now-decades-long campaign of resentment and retaliation by state government against Iowa City and the University of Iowa 🗃️

Jenrick is absurdly incoherent on principles of free expression because he wants immediate arrests for "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) while turning up to court to defend shouting "Fuck Islam" while burning a Quran www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

Today is World Mental Health Day. Through the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), you can research the history of mental health. BBIH’s free reading list on the history of emotions highlights some recent scholarship on the history of mental health in the UK and Ireland buff.ly/OK5HSbu

Bit of a coup for Switzerland, and worrying signs for the US, as married Nobel prize-winning economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, currently full-time professors at MIT, join the University of Zurich www.timeshighereducation.com/news/married... via @patrickjack.bsky.social

'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'

Join us for a roundtable on 'The Modern British City' in January at Senate House, London, with Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna, Owen Hatherley, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, followed by wine! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Plus everyone (including the Tory party leader) has forgotten that the Conservatives *designed* the current funding system to subsidize degrees with the RAB charge: it was a feature then, not a bug, and now it is a 'rip off'.

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

Delighted to be admitted as a research fellow at Lise Jardine’s (and Raymond Williams’) college today, in excellent company @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social

The RHS is a membership organisation of 6500+ historians. We welcome applications to join us at any time. Our next closing dates are 13 October and 15 December. We offer categories for all kinds of historians and at all stages of research, from Postgraduate to Fellow: bit.ly/46V8WOQ #Skystorians

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government.... On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames time.com/7323442/sout...

I might have solved the mystery of Sarah Lewis, author of *Woman's Mission*, key text of Victorian separate spheres ideology. The ODNB states nothing is known about her, but I have evidence to suggest she was Sarah Lewis (1807-1878), headmistress of a girls' boarding school in Putney in the 1840/50s

oh wow. this finally happened to me. a piece I wrote lifted wholesale by the Daily Mail, lightly rewritten and without any links back to my original piece of writing. most amazingly, a weird use of the word 'pacing' suggests to me that they did it with ChatGPT. archive.ph/LFmzR