The Hobsbawm roadshow continues in October in St Andrews, London and Edinburgh! Links below. * 1 October, 19:30, Topping's St Andrews * 12 October, 17:30, Institute of Historical Research, London * 13 October, 19:00, @housmansbookshop.bsky.social, London * 30 October at 19:00, Topping's Edinburgh

What an adventure! 20,000 kms, 5 flights, 4 train journeys, 8 book talks, and SO many interested, patient and lovely people at my events over the past 2ish weeks. I return home with fabulous new ideas and amazingly thoughtful criticisms. Thanks to everyone for showing me the best of our profession 🥰

The programme I run - the MSc in Contemporary History - will be axed, amongst so many others. We've also been told our undergrad courses will need to have a minimum of 20 students over a 3 year period. The bonfire of the universities has truly come for Edinburgh.

Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco@joshpizpom.bsky.social · last wk.

EXC: 90 programmes in Edinburgh University's College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are to be closed. The casualties, which include 48 language and literature programmes, will be 'taught out', w/ no admissions after 2027. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2655839...

My book in the wild - and in serious company! - @bookculture.com on 112th St, NYC. (And they now have 4 signed copies...)

Major life goal unlocked as Adam Tooze devotes *half* of one of his @onesandtooze.bsky.social podcasts to Hobsbawm and my book! Plus it's a really interesting and smart analysis. Do I just retire now..? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

Germany’s AFD

Podcast Episode · Ones and Tooze · September 11 · 1h 1m

podcasts.apple.com

NYC-bound for the next stop on what I'm now calling my "Ages Tour". I've had such wonderful feedback, comments, thoughts, and reactions so far. And today I'll return to Columbia, where I gave my very first paper on Hobsbawm in 2016...

So happy that this piece is out! It gradually turned into something like an intellectual history of the subfield of French immigration history, so it's a perfect introduction or primer for the uninitiated - and perhaps a little thought-provoking for those who know the field.

The Historical Journal@historicaljnl.bsky.social · 2w ago

📣Out now on #firstview! Emile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social, Angéline Escafré-Dublet (Université Lumière Lyon 2) and Daniel A. Gordon @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social on 'Insiders and Outsiders: The Historiography of Immigration in France' 👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The UK and European publication day is today! Rush to your favourite online or offline bookshop to find out why today's Hobsbawm Discourse (was he a good historian?, how could he be a communist?) is a debate that's played out many times before... www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Emile Chabal@emile-chabal.bsky.social · last mo.

Publication day! (For the US edition, at least - UK edition coming in a couple of weeks...) Thank you to everyone who helped along the way 😊 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

The peak of American civilization is the hotel breakfast waffle maker.

Now that's a combination!

Another "try before you buy" opportunity, with the publication online of this excerpt of my book on Hobsbawm and total history writing by @myhnn.bsky.social. www.hnn.us/article/the-...

The Art of Writing History

How Eric Hobsbawm brought revolution to a broad audience.

hnn.us

Do come! 😊

Quinn Slobodian@quinnslobodian.com · 4w ago

Mark your calendars for Emile Chabal presenting his new biography of Hobsbawm at @harvardbookstore.bsky.social if you're local. Sep 10. www.harvard.com/event/emile-...

Want to try before you buy..? Listen to this comprehensive and wide-ranging @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast, in which I outline some of the key arguments and ideas in the book, as well as the process of writing it. newbooksnetwork.com/the-age-of-h...

Really chuffed to have a double-page spread devoted to a review of my book in La Stampa. Italy, here I come!

The ultimate palette cleanser: spending almost three hours listening to a live performance of all of Bach's cello suites by Alisa Weilerstein at the Edinburgh Festival.

This essay still deservedly provoking thoughts on and in conversation with my book! Of course, as I point out, those metanarratives could only exist in a very specific intellectual ecosystem, governed by a kind of Marxist + European power and authority that has long since waned.

Kenan Malik@kenanmalik.bsky.social · last mo.

“The retreat to the small, and the jettisoning of grand metanarratives of the kind that Hobsbawm excelled at, has reduced our understanding of who we are.” @johnmerrick.bsky.social on @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm: unherd.com/2026/08/eric...

Publication day! (For the US edition, at least - UK edition coming in a couple of weeks...) Thank you to everyone who helped along the way 😊 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

A smart and thoughtful review! Thank you.

John Merrick@johnmerrick.bsky.social · last mo.

Here’s my review of @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s brilliant new intellectual biography of Eric Hobsbawm @harvardpress.bsky.social unherd.com/2026/08/eric...

The first truly global biography of a revolutionary thinker. How well do you know Eric Hobsbawm? Discover our conversation with biographer and historian Emile Chabal: bit.ly/3RZrUjK Coming August 18.

It's here! After so many years! I wasn't entirely sure this book would really happen, until I opened the box. Now, perhaps, it's time to let go of it and see what others think..? Thanks to @harvardpress.bsky.social and everyone else who followed me in this journey.

All the feels... 😍

Harvard University Press@harvardpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The first truly global biography of a revolutionary thinker. How well do you know Eric Hobsbawm? Discover our conversation with biographer and historian Emile Chabal: bit.ly/3RZrUjK Coming August 18.

"Britain risks losing language skills to understand its enemies" The Times quotes @pjdelacour.bsky.social and @emile-chabal.bsky.social, directors of Scottish Council on Global Affairs www.thetimes.com/article/5df4...

Britain risks losing language skills to understand its enemies

Experts have warned Britain’s defence drive is overlooking the language and regional expertise needed to understand adversaries including Russia, China and Iran

thetimes.com

I found it impossible not to write something about the fetishisation of the ballot box and the fabulous Le Pen-Farage crossover of recent days. theconversation.com/let-the-peop...

‘Let the people judge me’: how Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage learned a potent populist tactic from Donald Trump

It’s a gamble for both leaders. But the US president showed how effective this tactic can be.

theconversation.com

📣 CEH's third digest is out now, featuring journal news, blog updates, prizewinners, and more! And our editors have again chosen an article from the last six months on which they've enjoyed working - read on to see their selections! [1/7] www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

Contemporary European History digest, no. 3, January to June 2026 « News# « Cambridge Core Blog

In our third digest, we present our new managing editor; we highlight two recently published prize-winning articles on nude activists in communist Poland and the politics of transnational banking in t...

cambridge.org

This is a wonderful article on left-wing visions of austerity in the 1970s - anyone with an interest in the subject should read it.

Contemporary European History@conteurohistory.bsky.social · 3mo ago

@emile-chabal.bsky.social chose 'The Left Wing Case for Austerity' by @micdido.bsky.social - a 'forgotten history [which] sets out an alternative future in which ideas such as ‘restraint’ or ‘austerity’ might have progressive outcomes' www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

To be taken so seriously - and to be given such praise - by a scholar whose work I admire and cite is quite an honour. I will be cherishing this review for a long time!

Adam Shatz@adamshatz.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Perhaps Hobsbawm’s canonization—his “myth,” to borrow Chabal’s term—was a Western tribute to a great historian who had erected a monument to Europe at the time of its decline." Enzo Traverso on Emile Chabal's intellectual biography of Eric Hobsbawm: www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-ce...

If you're in Berlin, come say hello! I'll be talking identity politics, democracy, and the future of political mobilization in Europe (and running a workshop on the same themes the next day).

Christian Jacobs@christianjacobs.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I am very much looking forward to the workshop "Towards a global history of identity politics, c.1970-present" at FU Berlin next week. Do join us for the keynote by @emile-chabal.bsky.social. Check out the full program here: www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/frankreichze....

This is a terrific article, one of the best I've edited in my time on the journal!

Helen McCarthy@historianhelen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Ever dreamed of a sun-soaked retirement overseas? Plenty of older Britons chased that fantasy in the late 20th century as my new article in @conteurohistory.bsky.social reveals. But retirement migration was also a space of racialisation and postcolonial anxieties. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The outsourcing of visa processing to VFS has long been a scandal in plain sight. One of many, sure, but one that brutally intervenes in the lives of "weak" passport holders when they are most vulnerable: asking a foreign state for the right to travel there. www.politico.eu/article/how-...

How a company turned visas to Europe into big business

Investigation prompts European Commission to launch “comprehensive study” into outsourcing of visa processing.

politico.eu

I edited this article; it's very good.

Michele Di Donato@micdido.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New article out on @conteurohistory.bsky.social: "The Left-Wing Case for Austerity: Planning and Consumption Restraint in 1970s Europe" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...