This is a great piece of local journalism - about all those flags going up in Brum. Some interesting details.

Many thanks to @zarakesterton.bsky.social for a very generous review of Shoes and the Georgian Man in the new issue of Selvedge. Much appreciated! www.selvedge.org/products/iss...

New Absolute Units is live! Join us and @katrinanavickas.bsky.social as we explore resistance to enclosure in the modern era: from riots, to raves, to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Listen below, or search 'Absolute Units' wherever you get your podcasts! merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

An easy headline, but brass instruments are great for health and wellbeing. Holst took up the trombone to help with his asthma. www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...

"Of all the seasons autumn is the most unhealthy, because the perspirable fluid is both obstructed and apt to grow putrid; but it cannot hurt him whom the coldness of that season shall find well cloathed, and who uses a proper diet"...

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Alien: Earth was OK. The best thing about it by a MILE was the eyeball monster. Give it more screen time, or its own show

History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public. Starting this week:

If you listen to streamed music while you work, I can recommend Haydn's complete symphonies. It's very uplifting and lasts for weeks

If you're starting a postgraduate course in History this autumn, please do consider joining the Royal Historical Society bit.ly/41mTuck Postgraduate Membership brings access to research funding, events, publications and networks. You'll join an international community of more than 6500 historians.

Today marks the 350th anniversary of the great fire of Northampton. There is a special light show at All Saints this weekend

At Northampton Museum for the launch of "A history of Northamptonshire in 100 objects"

Very niche question that I think is unlikely to get a positive response but does anybody have access to William Henry Tripp's 1938 book '"There Goes Flukes" The Story of New Bedford's Last Whaler' and who could scan or send images of the pages around 33-35 (I think)?

Reminder Fellows of @royalhistsoc.org have til 26 September to vote in upcoming Council elections! 🗳️ There's lots of great candidates & all committed to the field. Obvs ideally I'd like to be your choice 😜 But vital to vote for who you feel will represent you & profession #skystorians #academicsky

So the 5th episode of Alien: Earth was basically... Alien

Stuart Hall Essay Prize. Please disseminate: www.stuarthallfoundation.org/foundation/s...

Our British History in the Long 18th Century seminar resumes on 24 September. It's hybrid, in London at the IHR and online. Daniel Gosling (TNA) on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield's "Judgment" on the Sex of the Chevalier d'Eon'. Register to attend (below). TikTok trailer is in 2/2. 1/2

Today should have been the deadline for #BSECS2026, but we are extending it by a WHOLE EXTRA WEEK! Share your research with us @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social, 7-9 January 2026 by sending us your proposals before MONDAY 22 SEPTEMBER #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

***CFP DEADLINE EXTENSION TO 22 SEPTEMBER 2025*** Due to some members experiencing issues with our submission site, we have decided to extend the #BSECS2026 #CFP deadline by a whole week. Get scribbling #skystorians! #18thC 🗃️

***The #CFP for the #BSECS2026 conference closes on the 15 September 2025*** Submissions are welcome on any aspect of #18thC history, culture, and literature, but particularly on our conference theme 'Big and Small'. @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social, 7-9 January 2026 www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Big news for fans of David Bowie and the eighteenth century! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

British Academy/Leverhulme Trust small grants scheme is open. Up to £10k for up to 2 years. For postdoctoral researchers in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, including independent researchers. Applications that meet the quality threshold are allocated through partial randomisation. 5 Nov deadline.

A perfect storm of uncanny-valley AI, right-wing politics and eighteenth-century history news.artnet.com/art-world/wh...

The first talk in the Northampton HA series for 2025-26 is by Andy Chapman, who will be talking about excavations at St James's Abbey. Online at 6pm on Tuesday 9 September. Free to attend, all welcome! @histassoc.bsky.social #skystorians www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/excavation...

Cool marketplace listing of the day

Also due on the 15 September are proposals for 'Terraqueous Globe: Land and Sea in the Age of Sterne' #cfp #skystorians #18thC #BSECS 🗃️ Full details at the link below: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...

The deadline for submitting proposals for #BSECS2026 is only two weeks away. Get scribbling! #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ This year's theme is 'Big and Small', 7-9 January, Pembroke College, Oxford. www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

My review of The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain by Max Skjönsberg is now out in JMH: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

I can

🚨JOB KLAXON🚨 @kingsmusic.bsky.social is delighted to offer a permanent Lectureship/Senior Lectureship, starting ASAP, in the history of opera and/or music theatre (any timeframe) OR historically European music c. 1780 to1900. SHORT DEADLINE – 31 AUGUST APPLY HERE: tinyurl.com/2t34j665 SHARE!!!

We are very sorry to hear of Frank O'Gorman's death. His work made a huge contribution to the history of elections and he was kind enough to support our House of Commons, 1832-68 project by writing some articles for us.

Very sorry to hear about the death of Frank O'Gorman. His work made a huge impact on 18th-century political history and was required reading. He was also, as it happens, extremely kind and supportive and will be remembered with affection by many attendees of @bsecs.bsky.social conferences.

RIP Frank O'Gorman. He was a lovely man and a brilliant historian, and I was very fortunate that he was my PhD supervisor. I will miss him. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

"What isn't at the V&A?" — new from me in @artreview.bsky.social on enduring colonialism, art-washing working class heritage, and a museum without labels artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

Excited that the eighteenth century made an appearance in the second episode of Alien: Earth! I have written before about how the Alien films have a strong sense of history historyatnorthampton.com/2024/09/09/a...

I tested AI chatbots with history facts. They spewed a lot of bullshit.

At Sixfields to watch Northampton v Southampton. I last saw this fixture with @frandod.bsky.social 21 years ago, on the day I moved here to work at UON. I now support both teams, and am going with my son, who does too

Please help me share the CFP for this Literature Compass Special Issue dedicated to the work of Simon J James and covering key Victorian and Edwardian writers like H. G. Wells, George Gissing, Dickens, Wilde, George Du Maurier, and Conan-Doyle on behalf of Hadas Elber-Aviram.

Likely a long shot, but might any #earlymodern musicologists be able to identify these bars? There are numerous settings by Campion, Morley, Gautier in this Scottish ms, so I wondered if it was recognisable as any of theirs, or indeed someone else’s. As a lit historian, it’s beyond me, sadly.

This LLM has been reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Or: prestigious institutions are taking on loads of extra students out of financial desperation, meaning other institutions will be starved of funds. And academics are being sacked everywhere www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Call for interested parties in a panel for @bsecs.bsky.social January 2026! Theme this year is Big/Small. My paper will focus on small comforts + large discomforts in 18th c. letter writing. Let me know if you are interested #18c @cecs-york.bsky.social @long18thsem.bsky.social

📢 CALL FOR NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS! 📢 History Lab warmly invites applications for its 2025-2026 Committee. History Lab is the national body, hosted at the @ihr.bsky.social, which represents over 1,500 graduate students of history across the UK. Keep on reading for the available roles and deadline!

I've got Disney+ for a few months. Any recommendations?

Wonder if the conditions were conducive to preserving leather, and whether they'll find any shoes www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Visited the Roman fort at Vindolanda today, and saw their impressive collection of footwear!

Queued for an hour to get into Beamish living history museum today. Hundreds of families were paying upwards of 60 quid to go. Don't tell me that history isn't popular, relevant or economically important

Pleased to announce that my first book, British 'Spy Fever' in the First World War, will be published in September with @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social. Pre-order a copy here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/british-s...

***CALL FOR PROPOSALS*** Routledge Studies in #18thC Cultures & Societies (eds. @profelainechalus.bsky.social & Deborah Simonton) seeks proposals for book-length studies on aspects of British, European, or transnational culture and society c.1680-1850. Full details: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...