Political science has obsessed over polarization while largely neglecting extremism, and with few exceptions has been inattentive to the roots of it all—power, structures, and identities. Too many elites are just as unprepared. Thus, their takes are empty, trite, and naive.

Theres a more specific term for this - “white victimhood”.

#OtD 17 Sep 1963 Raghbir Singh, a Sikh man, became the first person of colour to work on a bus in Bristol, England after a mass campaign forced the dropping of the "colour bar" by bosses and the TGWU union the previous month stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8946...

Let me elaborate my disagreement with @zackpolanski.bsky.social in a 🧵. The scenes on our streets are not "the consequences of decades of austerity" but of centuries of racism propagated by the British ruling classes to rationalise the social order they have constructed at home and abroad.

I'm genuinely grateful for the solidarity, irrespective of how rare this is from a politician. But fascism can't be reduced to displaced economic concerns. It doesn't stand up analytically, it won't help politically or strategically, and I really wish the left (of which I'm part) wouldn't do this.

KPOW! ZAP! BLAM! WHAMF! In 1979 the Anti-Nazi League published 'Action Pact', a comic showing schoolchildren Mike & Vince battling NF fascist lies together as the Justice Brothers National & local ephemera, photos & more feature in the archives of the Leamington Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Committee

British fascism has always struggled with this, as a movement with a mostly English membership and "point of view". They've repeatedly tried to foster links with other parts of the UK (especially NI) but these always felt more like satellites instigated from the centre than organic mobilisations.

"Police on the wrong side of history for 100+ years"

Having decided I want my public scholarship to be properly public, rather than behind a paywall, I've decided to make everything I've written for my newsletter - going back over two years - free to read for the foreseeable future.

🚨JOB Alert🚨 We are looking for another postdoctoral researcher to cover the history of veterans in the British colonies of Southern and/or East Africa in the interwar period. 24 month contract, deadline October 03. Please share widely. universityvacancies.com/maynooth-uni...

Since the issue of appropriating national flags is a bit 'live', to revisit my favourite artistic exploration of the British flag: Eddie Chambers' 1978 'Destruction of the National Front'. I really like the piece of art because what it saying, as I see it, is that the appropriation of the... (1/)

🎬 Film. 🌈 Pride. ✊ Solidarity. 5 Sept 2025 | Redhills, Durham 🎟 Tickets redhillsdurham.org/event/we-are... #DurhamEvents #DurhamPride #PrideTheMovie

Myself and the amazing @lauracforster.bsky.social are doing a joint event to launch our books in York. Come to learn about Liverpool, the aftershocks of the Paris Commune and the new kinds of histories our present crisis demands! www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

“I should think that is a manifestation of the popular feeling. I would not condemn anyone who said that. I would say that is how people see the situation in Smethwick. I fully understand the feelings of the people who say it. I would say it is exasperation, not fascism.” (Peter Griffiths, 1964)

Years of dealing with racists has taught me that all racists are also misogynists, so when they say “protect our women and girls”, they are only speaking half the sentence out loud. The full sentence is “protect our women and girls because they are OUR prey”.

“If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some mini-roundabout on the outskirts of a disappointing town That is for ever England.”

Hey, let’s do a quick check on how the totally patriotic, community spirited, open-minded flag guys are affecting York. (This was the Dragon House Chinese takeaway in Acomb yesterday. Everyone who could should order from them this week).

The fruits of a relative’s Facebook profile. So patriotic you can’t remember the design of the flag you’re obsessed with.

Did it ever? Even back in the 1970s when that line had more purchase it was most effective at keeping fascist political parties out of office, not fascistic racism out of politics. If it had worked, we wouldn’t be here now.

Was in UK state secondary school 2004-2009, did Nazi Germany 3 times (Weimar Republic and rise to power, Second World War, and a more historiography-focused unit on the Holocaust); I loved it and it ignited an interest in history & politics. Also did American slavery (and civil rights, but in RE!).

Shameful proof, if more was needed, of the extent to which all this is just plain old racism and nothing to do with the safety of women and girls. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Seen some St George’s Fiery Crosses on my morning run. This is not innocent - there’s no historical precedent of displaying the Cross or the Union Flag outside of sporting events, royal stuff, and maybe govt buildings except by fascists. Fascist involvement in founding this campaign no coincidence.

#OtD 22 Aug 1943 the Statesman published this photo of the Bengal famine, which killed up to 4 million after British authorities under Winston Churchill, who "hate[d]" "beastly" Indians, destroyed and diverted food from the area and restricted imports. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9450...

Come and listen to me talk about MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN at Sheffield’s Off the Sheff festival alongside @johnsiddique.bsky.social and others this autumn. 25 October at 7pm. Get your tickets here 👇 offtheshelf.org.uk/events/diver...

Summer rerun time: Elizabeth Frood, John Taylor and I say very sensible things about Tutankhamun. I think I startled Lord Bragg at one point, but we survived. 🏺🗃️ Also nice timing in that I #amwriting today what I hope will be my last ever article on this theme…

🚨 JOB ALERT🚨 We are looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Histories of the Islamicate World (Medieval/Early Modern). This Grade 8 open-ended position has an application deadline of 28/09/2025. Click below to learn more and apply. Please share widely! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOJ050/a...

British racism back to the old days of 'You Wouldn't Let Your Daughter Marry One'. Behold the "legitimate concerns" of the lynch mob just as much now as they were in Nottingham or Notting Hill in 1958 or the American South during much of the 20thC - in no way about the safety of women or girls.

Please somebody write something about the way that post-imperial English nationalism has become so symbolically and tonally similar to Ulster Unionism: the flags, the misplaced sense of victimhood, the empty militarism, the insecurity-fuelled eagerness for violent pre-emotive strikes…

as a historian of crime, things i wish were more mainstream about “crime is down but concerns about crime are up” 1.crime rates are irredeemably inaccurate. argue all you like about this/that but statistics have always had more to do with policing and reporting than any underlying “crime rate” 🗃️

Having watched UK HE try to diversify and decolonise, any suggestion that the solution to the things outlined in this article is 'class & accent bias training', and not addressing the underlying material inequalities and associated disparities in terms of cultural/social capital, is a waste of time.

One of my RAs landed a permanent job in Madrid (which is awesome!) so I'm now advertising for a new one! It's to work on my INTRECCI project on global histories of capitalism. Please share with anyone interested and happy to answer questions. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

An episode rendered invisible by the ‘Lest We Forget’ fixation on the Second World War in Britain. In that telling, veterans are quasi-mythical heroes, not real people with politics, nor is class really allowed to enter into it beyond a teleological narrative about the founding of the welfare state.

Research Associate (Gesius) The University of Manchester - Humanities - Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology & Egyptology - School of Arts, Languages and Cultures #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOH232/r...

As I return to my teenage interest in anarchism & as my research turns towards the criminological, worlds collide in an issue of Anarchy I picked up in Skoob Books. Features contributions by Jock Young - later ‘Left Realist’ and one of Gilroy’s adversaries in There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack.

Job in British history 1500-1900! www.christs.cam.ac.uk/college-lect...

JOB ALERT: amazing 4-year post in postwar British history and refugee studies at @uniofreading.bsky.social Humanities! A post perfectly suited for someone working on political and social histories of race and migration in late 20c. Deadline 5 September. jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Available from Past Tense: The Story of William Cuffay In 1848, Black tailor William Cuffay, a leader of the Chartists, the first mass political movement of the British working class, was convicted of plotting revolution … Buy online here: pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/the-...

If only people had pointed this out decades ago... oh, wait a minute... www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... (my article one of many on this theme, named in ref to a 1976 report that made similar arguments to this new report and which was ultimately largely ignored, as I suspect new one will be)

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University - 1 in 4 people will be made redundant But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action? Please read 👇 Sign the petition 👇 chng.it/7F52bThYqn

God, the number of people who were willing to believe that the South Yorkshire police were too woke to prosecute sexual abuse cases, when in fact the police force was itself an instrument of patriarchal sexual violence. It’s like a case study in the worst excesses of the British press.

As Powell ventriloquised in ‘68: “I have 3 children, all of them been through grammar school and 2 of them married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man."

Missed this from a few days ago. Shows how seamlessly and rapidly things move from racist speculation by Reform politicians to potentially racially violent situations.

YouTube threw this up in my recommended videos quite unexpectedly. If you’re teaching about Powell and decolonisation, he gives a really clear distillation of his views here.

2 year teaching role in c20 British history www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/teachi...

The positive framing of the right to protest in the statements in this article is so striking when you compare it to the way pro-Palestine protests have been regularly spoke about by politicians and police representatives.

The Diane Abbott row shows how impoverished Britain’s conversations about race have become | Jason Okundaye

IT'S ALIVE!!!!! I had the best time working with Annemarie to edit our fabulous contributions - huge thanks to our authors for sharing their research, and for being polite when I suggested revisions. Huge thanks also to VPR ed Kathy Malone for her patience and making the editorial process so smooth.