Yesterday was such a great start to #MBS2026. Looking forward to what's on tap today and our panel on digital sources at 3:30. I'll be talking about spam and email!

Why yes, I will read a shed load of screen-capped Whatsapp messages amongst government officials and call that British history people.

You've heard about (or read) the titanic clash between Blair and Starmer over the future of the nation. Now we have the Hillman/Collini clash over the future of higher education. (The Collini LRB piece is: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... ).

We are stronger, and better historians, together. Historical societies abound in the UK, and we've listed 150 with BlueSky accounts in this updated Starter Pack. go.bsky.app/AZaYQDd Other societies appear on a new listing of subject societies on the RHS website bit.ly/4ebwP9r #Skystorians

Everyone read the end of it: "Governments in Scotland and Wales have finally realised that a viable, meaningful higher education sector needs greater oversight and control, and cannot be left wholly to the market. Now Westminster needs to wake up to this need for joined-up thinking"

Labour's processes for changing leader are hopelessly, catastrophically unsuited to government. More than half of all prime ministers since 1945 have taken over between general elections. This is not an unusual procedure. So it really matters when parties screw this system up... 🧵

Ideas for episode titles for a new six-part drama series about the modern university: 1. The ‘business case’ 2. ‘No decision has been made’ 3. The 'listening exercise' 4. The counter-proposal 5. ‘We’re not doing this lightly’ 6. Your email account will be deleted at midnight.

One of the hidden disasters of UK politics over recent decades was the growing pool of "non-voters", who largely disengaged from democratic politics. The challenge for progressive parties is to match the success of Reform/the Leave campaign in drawing those people back into the electoral process.

An excellent examination of AI on campuses: 'What Does AI Do? University management and technologies of crisis'

“It’s the third round of restructuring since 2019, and....each restructure brings with it not only loss of staff, but also loss of functionality. This is the same template that’s being used across the sector, and it doesn’t work anywhere.” (Catherine Rottenberg, Goldsmith's academic) 2/2

'The south-east London university, known for its teaching of the creative arts, has announced plans to cut a further £22 million from its budget, the third major restructure since 2019.' Student numbers have dropped by more than 25% in the past 5 years. Great work external consultants! 1/2

I've been reflecting on the challenges of maintaining a blog that's preserved long-term. Balancing the cumbersome process of digital preservation with the ease of instant publishing is tricky, but it's worth ensuring my work persists. eve.gd/2026/04/19/t...

and listening from @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social, @azohra.bsky.social & @nasiahadjigeorgiou.bsky.social on Called to the Bar; @drdaveobrien.bsky.social & @christinegrandy.bsky.social on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social...

My latest weekly roundup of reading and listening recommendations, taking in militarism and conflict in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, new reactionary modes of governance, and institutional racism in Britain, among other themes. 🧵

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Fantastic PhD studentship opportunity - Spitting Image: political satire in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries. Working across @exeter.ac.uk and @theul.bsky.social in partnership with the @camglamresearch.bsky.social and drawing on the Roger Law archive. #PhDsky

Very kind words from Dave and a lovely discussion of the book!

This is an amazing book. That everyone should read!

Very much looking forward to reading this!

The social media consultation is live www.gov.uk/government/n... Not read the whole thing yet, but I'm *very interested* in the fact that it is positioned as a public consultation, not just a policy one

Congratulations to @christinegrandy.bsky.social for the publication of Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain, the latest title in our Cambridge Modern British Histories series. Paperback a snip at £28. #Skystorians

The book is out! Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth Century Britain is on the shelves. Get yourself a 20% discount and use code GRANDY26 at www.cambridge.org/9781009650939

Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001? Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain! Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f

#jobfairy this is an intriguing one - 18 month research fellowship for an object-focused historian, museums studies person or similar at Chatsworth House! £48k + £11k travel, outreach etc #skystorians www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQK358/d...

Goals.

Did I mention the article was open access?!

There's gotta be a name for this many academics outside in the pouring rain during a fire alarm at the BL.

'If modern-day abusers of both animals and women seek inspiration in a nostalgic longing [...] they might be reminded that those men to whom they look were themselves looking backwards'. Hannah Skoda on depictions of domestic abuse through history. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/gender/nosta...

Pre-compliance with a regime that is watching you anyway and will punish you no matter what. "In the private sector, more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations rewrote their mission statements last year to remove any language believed to be adjacent to DEI..." www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...

A new role at the IHR, supporting the 2027 NACBS conference to be held in Senate House. It looks like a great position. www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

The research guide on Environmental History that I wrote for The National Archives, UK is now live! Includes research advice and resources on colonial environments, pollution, agriculture, and animal histories. Available here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yo... #envhist #envhum

New visualization of Joseph Banks network focused on his work to use Indian resources to solve the oak bark crisis in England. jburnford.github.io/JosephBanksK...

Just now on R4 Today @lizforleicester.bsky.social re-announcing the AI Skills programme ( www.gov.uk/government/n... ) that led to a 70 signature open letter back in July on developing a more inclusive, independent and collective approach to AI literacy: connectedbydata.org/blog/2025/07...

After announcing it in the summer, today the UK government launched free training courses to AI upskill workers. It's free because it's funded by big-tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others, and not by local organisations in the UK who have been working with communities->

Thanks to the many who showed up to the first - the second on Thursday 29 January at 5pm in the Examination Schools is about 'Media' - how did people learn a language of social science and how do we know what they learned?

This is the way to go.

Don't miss my picks for environmental history worth reading from December!! niche-canada.org/2026/01/13/e... #envhist #envhum

For a fortifying shot in the arm of sharp historical thinking about neoliberalism, read this (and get your students to read it) from @quinnslobodian.com @tsasson.bsky.social Priya Lal & Gary Gerstle www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

Happening tomorrow! Join us for a discussion of The Overseer State with Sascha Auerbach.

Call For Papers: #CFP #Film ‘Stars and Screen’ #Cinema and #Media #History Virtual #Symposium, May 16, 2026 Proposals Due: February 1, 2026 starsandscreen.blogspot.com/2025/10/call... #CinemaStudies #MediaStudies #FilmStudies #conference #CallForPapers #CinemaHistory #MediaHistory #FilmHistory

Historians since 2016

If anyone remembers that list which said historians were second in line to be replaced by AI, I've had some thoughts about it... and how it relates to some aspects of public history and the current climate facing historians. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Brits overestimate the amount of Muslims in the UK by 350%.

"[U]sable pasts can create elegiac narratives, calls to arms and empathetic dramas, but they can also lead to historical orthodoxies that marginalise the hidden, the silenced and the inarticulate." A rich review essay on the 1984/5 miners' strike by Keith Gildart. doi.org/10.1093/ehr/...

What does it mean to write the history of a place as it is being destroyed before our very eyes? Anne Irfan on the stakes of studying, researching and writing the history of Gaza.

As historians, we depend on libraries and library staff, and we owe it to our library colleagues to show up for them. It would be great to see more historians sign!

I'm glad to have signed this statement in support of queer and trans staff at the National Library of Scotland, who by the sounds of it are going through an awful time at the moment: docs.google.com/document/d/e...

This looks great and is open access. Amelia Acker, Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms

My first lot of marking has arrived but so has the cover of the book!