“There is more gold to be gotten from men than from rivers.” Bertolt Brecht, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Any suggestions for fun short (4-6pp) piece on any aspect of Early Modern European history suitable for non-major 1st yr exercise in discerning embedded narratives (ie. declension) in popular history? I have some things gathered from Smithsonian, but they’re not exactly fun or quirky. #EarlyModern

McMaster University in Hamilton, an hour-ish west of Toronto, is hiring in History and Medicine! I taught in that department for two years out of PhD - good students, good support, nice environs for living local or in Niagara region nearby.

Any suggestions for fun short (4-6pp) piece on any aspect of Early Modern European history suitable for non-major 1st yr exercise in discerning embedded narratives (ie. declension) in popular history? I have some things gathered from Smithsonian, but they’re not exactly fun or quirky. #EarlyModern

Friday night at the Curling Canada Brier, watching Newfoundland v Ontario. Spousal Unit gets good invites. #SuiteLife

Elders have long argued there was export of enslaved Bermudians between 1807-1834. I've looked for clear archival evidence for several years without success. Today's research: Slave Patrol captain in Bermuda lays out the method and reports on impending voyages to be interdicted. #SlaveryArchive

Elders have long argued there was export of enslaved Bermudians between 1807-1834. I've looked for clear archival evidence for several years without success. Today's research: Slave Patrol captain in Bermuda lays out the method and reports on impending voyages to be interdicted. #SlaveryArchive

Explore our job opportunities focused on the Medieval and Early Modern periods (thread 🧵): 1. Assistant Professor in Early Modern British History, University of Warwick memorients.com/news/assista...

“War crimes don’t hide sex crimes” Highway sign in Boston. How can we make this slogan viral?

Delighted to announce a new H-Environment Roundtable Review! This one features Sureshkumar Muthukumaran's *The Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovation in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean.* It's the first work of ancient #envhist reviewed in this forum! networks.h-net.org/sites/defaul...

👀 Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the terrific triumvirate @spparkle.bsky.social, @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social & Hannah Yip to set up “Sonance: A Journal of Early Modern Sound Studies”, a diamond open access journal dedicated to historic sounds in all their wondrous & eclectic forms.

*French Historical Studies* curated collection in homage to Pierre Nora, organized by Avner Ben-Amos. Some good stuff in here, including a 2003 article by @allthebeset.bsky.social 🗃️ read.dukeupress.edu/french-histo...

I'm super happy to say my latest article on Caribbean sinew populations has been published with the International Review of Social History. It is available (open access!) here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Charles de Rochefort, a Protestant refugee, imagined a Native American utopia called Apalache. Stanwood uncovers the networks of knowledge, rumor, and storytelling that produced this fantastic--but not entirely fictional--place. #earlymodern #hlq

Martin Freeman is in town, filming “Come, Thou Tortoise”. Nice plum for our university grad to get her book turned into a film. #CelebritySightings

Amanda Herbert and Kevin Dawson debut a new HLQ article category called Early/Modern Connections: original #earlymodern research in service of the public good. The article and cover feature art by Ebony Iman Dallas. Open access: muse.jhu.edu/article/983132

Ginny Reinburg's essay changes how we think about--and teach--Menocchio's story (and more). She shows that the conflict originated in, and was shaped by, clerical sexual abuse, institutional protections for abusers, and a broad struggle to resist. #earlymodern @vreinburg.bsky.social

@drleonj.bsky.social Have you seen the new UK travel rules coming into place tomorrow? Forced recognition of dual-citizenship essentially. I can't fly into UK on CAN passport anymore, and neither can my spouse or my kids, need to use UK passport (long expired so new apply). Nuts. Poorly announced.

Two reactions to the latest snowstorm. #DogsofBluesky

Cool fact : the American star goalie Hellebuyck started his professional career in Newfoundland — during 2014–15 season with the Jets' American Hockey League affiliate, the St. John's IceCaps.

Peaceable kingdom. Rare moment of acceptance from tiny Astrid of Morgan the Menace. #CatsofBluesky

I’m honored that The New Yorker has published a feature on my book by @samknightwrites.bsky.social examining the monarchy’s historical entanglement with slavery — and how patterns of exploitation and institutional silence echo into the present. Read here: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Lovely mild winter’s day downtown, for lunch out. Harbour quite full, shelter from the late winds. Undergrad student of mine waitressing at Terre saw us and surprised us with Valentine’s dessert. Very kind. Guess my class can’t be that awful.

www.coursera.org/learn/black-... Black Canadians: History, Presence, and Anti-Racist Futures | Coursera

A friend hosted a book party for me last night and I mixed a themed cocktail—The Bitter Truth—🍸 that captures the essence of THE CROWN’S SILENCE. 📚 @nmkennedy.bsky.social

On 2nd March at 17:00 (GMT)/12:00 (EST) we will discuss a pre-circulated paper titled “La Negrita”: A History of African Girlhood in the Spanish Caribbean Slave Trade” by Dr. Elise Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell will introduce the paper for discussion. kingsearlymodern.co.uk/race-and-the...

Time magazine university rankings 2026 is as ludicrous an exercise as usual. Apart from the bit where we substantially beat Dalhousie. That’s just facts. 🤪👌👍🔥🥸

Violent Waters: Environmental Politics in Early Modern England is out now with Cambridge University Press: www.cambridge.org/core/books/v... This watery, riotous book has been more than a decade in the making, and I'm delighted to see it out in the world to live its own life!

Re-reading this horrific account of Cecil Rhodes' violent legacy reminds how pivotal the backlash against Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford was. It set the tone for the rehabilitation of racist, dehumanising language even before the reaction against Black Lives Matter. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Wait, so THIS troubled detective, w brassy sidekick, SWIMS but does NOT JOG?!?!? That’s the kind of original programming we can get behind here at Netflix! Angry boss who would like to be RID of him? Mind blown!! Troubled due to loss of NEPHEW, not a SON??? Genius! How DO you come up w this stuff!?!

Wait, so THIS troubled detective, w brassy sidekick, SWIMS but does NOT JOG?!?!? That’s the kind of original programming we can get behind here at Netflix! Angry boss who would like to be RID of him? Mind blown!! Troubled due to loss of NEPHEW, not a SON??? Genius! How DO you come up w this stuff!?!

@drleonj.bsky.social Big Yoda was at the groomer today. For a few lovely days afterward his usual giant hairy Dr Suess flippers are transformed into cute thick toes. I love it. #Dogs

Greg Curnoe’s mural in Montreal airport was in place for only 2 wks when the RCMP seized several panels. Shortly later the dept of transportation removed the rest and sent it to the National Gallery for storage. Odd that the offence was that it was anti-American. Hardly a criminal matter in 1968.

Talking to some old boys, your usual Newfoundland chat. The owners of Flyers Club at the famous Gander International Airport were cash short, so announced that Dean Martin was going to perform, and sold tickets. When the financial crisis passed, they announced that Dean couldn’t make it and refunded

Weiß jemand, wo man so ein Eichhörnchen zum Schneeräumen engagieren kann?

CFP: Colonial Hinter-Seas: A Conference on Subaquatic Resources and Waterside Lives from the Early Modern to the Contemporary, August 2026, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

Artist De Strandharker, a Dutch creator known for large-scale beach rake drawings, give remarkable tribute to the victims of Trump's ICE (Renée Good and Alex Pretti) 🫶

Pretty as a picture. I’m being framed! Etc etc. #Cats

@drleonj.bsky.social Birthday boy does his own frosting. Forgot to say he turned four on Wednesday. #Dogs

@brookenewman.bsky.social #maritimehistory #earlymodern

I, a grown adult, fell completely out of bed last night. Right onto the floor. Sigh. It was a cold windy night so both giant dogs and both cats were taking up most of the bed’s surface, in hairy repose.

If you’re in the London area, please join me for the UK launch of my new book THE CROWN’S SILENCE at @waterstones.bsky.social Gower St on 1/30 at 6:30pm. I’ll be in conversation with MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy @bellribeiroaddy.bsky.social & look forward to seeing you there! #booksky 📚 #slaveryarchive

Purple trouser day.

@drleonj.bsky.social While we’re in Toronto our neighbour relieved our house-sitter of Yoda-walking duties today and sent this photo. He looks happy. #Dogs

Winter snow storm in Toronto this morning, for my father’s funeral, at the internment the thick heavy snow a stark quiet blanket over the land, cinematic in a way, my sister’s grave a few feet away shrouded in white.

Holidays are over, and I'm motivating myself through the marking and emails by sharing the cover for Claiming Land, Claiming Water: Borders and the People Who Crossed Them in the Early Modern Atlantic with @pennpress.bsky.social. Please indulge me! www.pennpress.org/978151282925... #skystorians

Save the Date: the New Netherland Institute's 2026 Annual Conference, New Netherland and the World, will be in Albany, New York at the New York State Museum on November 7-8, 2026. We'll have a Call for Papers out in the next couple of weeks! Travel funding will be available for presenters.

Reading an obit of a famed Canadian archaeologist and seeing them praised as a “figurehead” in the field. Words no longer have meaning.

@julialaite.bsky.social Moosapalooza 2.0 includes this year an eleven layer birthday cake! Guest of honour remains, however, an 8-pt, 800lb buck. Not too chatty as a guest but delicious. #Moose #Newfoundland