We’re delighted to see Dan Edelstein's The Revolution to Come reviewed in the latest issue of @litreview.bsky.social! Learn more about the "impressive range and subtlety" of this book here, plus save 30% with code PUP30:

Publication day today in the US for Elites and Democracy!🎉 For once the @princetonupress.bsky.social marketing team had a good idea😜 press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

🚨 Applications are now open for the 2026–27 Koch History Centre Fellowships at Oxford! We are seeking 12 historians (9 junior, 3 senior) for a one-year fellowship at Wadham College & the Faculty of History. This year’s theme: “Scarcity and Abundance” Deadline: 17 Dec 2025 Please share widely!

imagine getting qt dunked by ed davey. unrecoverable. you’re furious and he is serenely going down a log flume in bognor regis.

Hey folks: For those who asked about the conversation sponsored by the Library of America on the importance of Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" in the present day, here you go: youtu.be/Anuh_fWV4hQ?...

Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this. I hope it endures.

A huge moment -- Melvyn Bragg steps down from In Our Time after over a quarter of a century. What a programme and what a legacy! Just a model for how to make great, clever, engaging radio, and a twenty-seven-year experiment that proves there's a huge global audience for smart, scholarly programming.

Just finished: “Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Hoard Power and Wealth - and What to Do About It,” coming early June 2026 [And you thought I was unpopular on this site before…]

Apparently Victor Hugo had back problems and so for the fifteen years he lived in Guernsey he wrote at this little standing desk, changing the slant from time to time to bring him relief from pain.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s bad idea is one that started out as satire and ended as a political slogan. David talks to historian of ideas Ben Jackson about meritocracy and its origins in Michael Young’s book The Rise of the Meritocracy published in 1958. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Richard Whatmore & Lasse Andersen, "John Pocock and the Jealousy of Trade" (2025) A fascinating essay on the impact of Istvan Hont on J. G. A. Pocock's work. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Heron posing for a photo (iPhone shot)

If you’re interested in inequality and the future of democracy, @drodrik.bsky.social on @ppfideas.bsky.social with David Runciman is essential listening.

📣 #BeyondNeoliberalism — updated site now live 📣 Check out the full schedule, speaker bios, and more. Join our mailing list for updates — and get on the waitlist for the plenary with Rana Foroohar @jayatighosh.bsky.social @hboushey.bsky.social and @drodrik.bsky.social. beyond-neoliberalism.org

Likewise, if someone brings a loudspeaker to a beauty spot they're essentially claiming control over the whole area. They're decreeing that no one else is allowed to enjoy it in peace. We might accept that now & then, but there's a point at which liberals can intervene to roll back power over others

Not necessarily. In essential shared public spaces - like buses or the tube - playing loud music is an exercise of power over others. It compels them to listen to it & means they're no longer free to sleep, relax or work. Liberal societies often limit one person's freedom to protect that of others.

100 years before Piketty, the aptly named economist and Liberal MP Leo Chiozza Money used newly available death duty data to map wealth inequality in the UK. Thought this visualisation was pretty striking Money, Riches and Poverty (1905)

Arbroath, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Pt. 2

Please join us on Tues 8 April @ 12pm EDT (at Harvard or via Zoom) when Maya Jasanoff (@europeatharvard.bsky.social) will speak about 'The Birth of the Family Tree'. Lunch will be served following the seminar! Click for further info, abstract and Zoom link: histecon.fas.harvard.edu/seminars/jas...

Arbroath, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

100 years before Piketty, the aptly named economist and Liberal MP Leo Chiozza Money used newly available death duty data to map wealth inequality in the UK. Thought this visualisation was pretty striking Money, Riches and Poverty (1905)

Robert Lighthizer, then USTR, is a good read for a Trump admin perspective on the talks. the tone of humouring an old friend with limited expectation of success

Bus stop outside St. Thomas' Hospital in London….Know your parasites!

Introducing the new fragrance: Peasants’ Revolt, 1381

It may be time to panic in the UK … perhaps !?

A fantastic opportunity to work with Dr Niamh Gallagher, one of my colleagues at St Catharine's College

Very much enjoyed talking to @polphilpod.bsky.social about Plato’s figure of the tyrant in the Republic. Plato like all ancient Athenians worried endlessly about how democracy slides into tyranny & his psychological account of tyranny is deeply insightful.

This was his best interview yet by miles - highly recommend! m.youtube.com/watch?v=0quh...

Welfare Vs Warfare? Rubbish! How Keynes can help us avoid a poisonous choice. (And this is NOT the free-spending Keynes you think you know) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...

People on benefits are already in deep poverty. The Labour Party should exist to help them to have better lives. Instead it’s determined to make their suffering worse.

The New Liberal political theorist L. T. Hobhouse predicted the early 20th c. rise of suburbia and hostility of its middle class inhabitants towards substantive tax or social reform would become politically ‘a greater burden than the slum.’ Democracy and Reaction (1904)

#academicsky #philsci British Academy looking for clever stuff

Our short-term fellowship applications are due by this Sat., 1 Mar. Apply today to compete for fellowships that support research in a variety of fields. Most fellowships carry a stipend of $3,000 for 4-weeks of research at the MHS. Learn more: www.masshist.org/research/fel...

in 8-10 years someone from Silicon Valley is going to invent the university, genuinely unaware that it's been done before

John Maynard Keynes at work - from the Radical Modernity exhibition in London (paintings by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell)

Keynes on the corrosive effects of the hereditary principle upon society, whether aristocratic or capitalist

Check out my partner’s sculptural installation, made with ‘found materials’ as she rushed to work this morning: ‘Untitled,’ mixed media (2025)

‘Those politicians lamenting falling birth rates might worry less about the erosion of Judeo-Christian ethics and more about why young couples are struggling to buy a home or afford to have children.‘ 👏 www.ft.com/content/344e...

Important intervention by Piketty on Trump and Europe - and a much needed alternative to the doom loop of the European press

They’re currently accepting abstract submissions for this excellent ‘Multidisciplinary Mill(s)’ conference at Somerville College, Oxford on 20th May, abstract deadline is 28th Feb. library.some.ox.ac.uk/multidiscipl...

State of British housing update: Rogue greedy landlords are building a dodgy construction next to our garden for an extra few pounds of passive / unearned income and now there are rats kicking about outside our door m.youtube.com/watch?v=yxgN...

They’re currently accepting abstract submissions for this excellent ‘Multidisciplinary Mill(s)’ conference at Somerville College, Oxford on 20th May, abstract deadline is 28th Feb. library.some.ox.ac.uk/multidiscipl...

Alright everyone, it’s been a very tough decision to make, but I’ve decided I won’t be buying that Tesla Cybertruck as a selfless gesture of solidarity with our friends over the pond

Egret in the mist (and up a tree for some reason)

‘Asset price inflation continues to destroy the social fabric of this country.’ There, I fixed the headline for you FT.

Political theory/philosophy job! Here is the third postdoc (36 months) on our Gerda Henkel Foundation project on anti-oligarchy. This one will be based at TU München, and supervised by my co-PI Manon Westphal. www.hfp.tum.de/hfp/aktuelle...

We're hiring! The Bodleian are looking for a Public Engagement Officer. This is an exciting role based in the Weston Library, with the opportunity to make a real impact on visitors and the community, working with the Bodleian’s historic collections. For more information: tinyurl.com/48uuw625.

Applications for our 2025-27 ECR Fellowships @ihr.bsky.social close on 31 Jan 2025 For full details and how to apply see below: www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/...

New job alert! 2-year post-doc on the history of property inequalities (renewable up to 4 years) at LISER, Luxembourg. HIST_PROP, funded by @csllux.bsky.social, will analyse land and property ownership data in Luxembourg (1824-1938). Happy to answer questions! jobs.liser.lu/job/Esch-sur...