At the @britishlibrary.bsky.social for the first time in years. Can confirm little has changed - but the wifi does appear to be better!

📣Out now on #firstview! Kit Kowol @kitkowol.bsky.social and Richard Toye @richardtoye.bsky.social on 'The Management of British MPs’ Postbags and Politician-Voter Relations in the Democratic Age' #Politics #Letters #Communication 20thc 🗃️ 👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I am over the moon to announce that I have just inked the deal with @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social Allen Lane for my next book, “Warrior Britain: A Nation in Arms, 1945-1960”. It will be a social, cultural, and environmental history of Cold War British militarism.

I really enjoyed reviewing @kitkowol.bsky.social's "Blue Jerusalem" - an excellent new study of WW2-era British Conservatism, highlighting both its intellectual vitality and its practical political impact

History: The Journal of the Historical Association@hisjournalha.bsky.social · 6mo ago

#Skystorians New review drop! @dmk1793.bsky.social on Kit Kowol's Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War (OUP, 2024), doi.org/10.1111/1468...

when you realize that the American unipolar global order was suppressing long-forgotten levels of public Frenchness

That feeling when you have been reviewed in the @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social but don’t have access so can’t see what Ferdinand Mount wrote…

NAAFI apparently ran holiday camps for servicemen and their families between 1950 and 1980 - like an (even) more militarised version of bulletins I guess. Anyone here ever heard of stayed in one?

Had great fun writing this. How a spiritualist vegetarian who believed he had found the Holy Grail convinced Churchill and 5 million Brits to pray for peace and freedom during WWII. gethistory.co.uk/articles/20t...

The Silent Minute

What do you do when your army has retreated, your ally has capitulated, and you face invasion? You pray.

gethistory.co.uk

I see that my book made it into @adamtooze.bsky.social “Chartbook”. If you like long discussions of the political ramifications of British wartime food policy it’s the book for you!

The speaker line-up is out! Come see @kitkowol.bsky.social speak about his @oxfordacademic.bsky.social book “Blue Jerusalem” at We Have Ways Fest this September. wehavewaysfest.co.uk/line-up/

SPEAKERS

We Have Ways Fest is the UK’s number one, Second World War festival. Tanks, talks and tankards … experts, enthusiasts, authors, historians. Blackpit Farm, 8th – 10th September. WN…

wehavewaysfest.co.uk

Brexit ideology was shaped in the 1990s, when great power conflict was largely over, European security was no longer at issue & the US underpinned a global free-trading system. It was applied in a world more like the '70s, defined by great power conflict, resurgent protectionism & an unreliable US.

Ulrike Franke@rikefranke.bsky.social · last yr.

@anandmenon.bsky.social has a point here. I used to think that Covid actually helped the Brexiteers as Brexit consequences got hidden in pandemic consequences. But in hindsight, Brexit really was terribly timed. Article: on.ft.com/4mvoRtW

“Absorbing and original” Geoffrey Wheatcroft reviews @kitkowol.bsky.social’s “Blue Jerusalem” for @lrb.co.uk @oxfordacademic.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft · New Deal at Dunkirk: Wartime Tories

Even if they had been appeasers, most Conservatives accepted the patriotic necessity of the war, but had many different...

lrb.co.uk

Knowing I was being reviewed in the @lrb.co.uk may have given me a few sleepless nights… So chuffed to see the book described as“absorbing and original”!

Very good to see @kitkowol.bsky.social brilliant book reviewed in the LRB! New Deal at Dunkirk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

80 years ago a bus strike meant many people had to walk to central London for #VEDay. A potent marker of how Churchill had fought a Tory War but the peace would belong to Labour. Read more in my book: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

I think I might have found the world’s best Wikipedia article. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_h...

Guide horse - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Maybe we're asking the wrong questions about gender part #3578

Laura Serra@lauraserra.bsky.social · last yr.

I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy telling him it’s not true he has become more right-wing… it is me who has become more left-wing 🫠

The indefatigable Patrick Porter and I have a piece in The Critic on flaws in the Chagos deal, progressive realism, and how a superior version of the latter - that could yet dodge the pitfalls of the former - is still there for the taking. thecritic.co.uk/has-the-chag...

Has the Chagos Islands deal killed progressive realism? | David Blagden and Patrick Porter | The Critic Magazine

Whatever happened to progressive realism? As you may recall, that was the foreign policy doctrine declared by the incoming Labour government’s foreign secretary, David Lammy. The short answer is that…

thecritic.co.uk

Does anyone know if it is possible to look at back issues of the now defunct “Right Now!” magazine - @evansmithhist.bsky.social I wonder?

Probably not the most popular first foray on here, but - under the urgings of people I respect - here's something done elsewhere... The Left-Wing Case Against the Chagos Deal 🧵

100% the content / shade I am here for.

John Bull@garius.bsky.social · last yr.

During WW2 the US army needed over 750,000 typewriters to keep things functioning across all theatres. The need was so great they requisitioned civilian typewriters and created a national shortage. Typewriter repair units were seen as critical army personel. I'll do a thread on it at some point.

For all the talk of a deal with the UK, Tories need to recover their skepticism about America. As imperialists in WW2 like Beaverbrook and Amery knew America seeks its own “economic lebensraum” at the expense of others they are not “friends”.

And the book exists online! Available in July this year manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526140128/

Manchester University Press - Unhappy mothers

Unhappy mothers - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of Unhappy mothers by Sarah Crook

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

Now all Boston needs is a giant milk explosion and they will be halfway to making a decent cup of tea.

Dan Snow@thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Today in 1919 a 90-foot wide cast iron tank with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses exploded in Boston. A 15 ft wall of viscous molasses roared through the streets at 35mph killing 21 and injuring 150.

Well worth a read - it's free and to-the-point - of you want to get an insight into the prosaic social democratic historical 'vision' (dread word) of Keir Starmer.

Nick Garland@npjgarland.bsky.social · 2y ago

My piece for the new @renewaljournal.bsky.social on how Labour talks about its history, how it's kind of remarkably unremarkable, and what that says about the party's ideological orientation. A qualified defence of Plain Old Labour. journals.lwbooks.co.uk/renewal/vol-...

Honoured to be reviewed by Richard Evans (and to be called a young historian!). I’m glad he found it enjoyable and that it “provides a stimulating and thought-provoking reassessment of Tory thinking in the war years.” Some of the critiques are fair but I want to push back against the main one (1)

The New Statesman@newstatesman1913.bsky.social · 2y ago

Richard J Evans asks: Did the Tories create modern Britain? A revisionist history claims the postwar consensus was shaped by Conservative visions. www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Had a great chat on the New Books Network podcast about Blue Jerusalem talking everything 1945 General Election, appeasement, Lord Beaverbrook, conservative realism, liberal militarism and why WWII was as much the “Tories war” as a “People’s War” podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/n...

Kit Kowol,

Podcast Episode · New Books in Military History · 28/12/2024 · 40m

podcasts.apple.com

Another session battling the hedge while listening to We Have Ways pod and another shoutout from @almurray.bsky.social for Blue Jerusalem. I should garden more often!

Come to my book launch! Its on 28 February at the University of Liverpool with a fantastic all star line up featuring Patrick Joyce, Abi O'Connor (@abioconnor_ ), Janaya Pickett and Elsa Devienne. Free wine and discussion! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/liverpool-...

I did not have the space to include it, but @kitkowol.bsky.social's Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War shows that British Conservatives had ideas about what post-Second World War Britain should look like, and they were spectacular. A call to action.

This is a smashing set of articles and it’s great to be among the writers. Many thanks to @pjsloman.bsky.social and @colmpm.bsky.social for inviting me to contribute.

Colm Murphy@colmpm.bsky.social · 2y ago

It's gratifying to see the first few articles of @politicalquarterly.bsky.social's forthcoming special collection on the 2024 general election trickle out online - and in open access form! Available to read right now are... 🧵