Very short notice (deadline 18 August) but we're advertising a 0.5fte lectureship in public history for next year. Covers my 3rd year undergraduate course on public history of Rome (ancient to modern) plus some MA public history teaching.

The past few years have been an explicit test of two theories of how to win back AfD voters: first, the CDU just needed to pivot to the hard right under Merz and second that the Linke as a party was too woke and needed to turn to workerist anti-migrant nationalism via BSW. Both failed.

Marcel Dirsus@marceldirsus.com · yesterday

The latest poll for Saxony-Anhalt has the far-right at 41%. If some of the smaller parties (SPD, Greens, BSW) don't clear the threshold to enter parliament, the far-right may gain an absolute majority in September.

The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime and it has nothing to do with AI, crypto, metaverse, robots or any of the other massively hyped "tech" the media always talks about instead

Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d ago

Absolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West

Anyway, everyone should read this: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Between nationalism and civilizationism: the European populist moment in comparative perspective

This paper argues that the national populisms of Northern and Western Europe form a distinctive cluster within the wider north Atlantic and pan-European populist conjuncture. They are distinctive i...

tandfonline.com

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2d ago

From a historical perspective it's a genuinely strange state of affairs that the Church of England turns out to be too woke for much of the modern right. But really it just feels like: having a consistent moral code that demands taking Lessers and Outgroup seriously is impossible for populist right.

Ein sehr gutes Interview: "Fast 10.000 Hitzetote, Waldbrände und Trockenheit interessieren die Bundesregierung nicht. Kanzler Merz übernahm im Wahlkampf das Anti-Klima-Narrativ der AfD, sagt Soziologe Fritz Reusswig. Dabei sichere Klimaschutz unsere Lebensgrundlagen."

Warum verkennt die Politik, dass viele Menschen, sogar in der CDU, sich echten Klimaschutz wünschen?

Waldbrände, Hitzetote, Trockenheit: Soziologe Fritz Reusswig fordert beim Thema Klimawandel ein Umdenken - auch bei Kanzler Merz.

deutschlandfunkkultur.de

I see some people are reading this post as being about Exeter but it’s referring to the University of Hertfordshire. And that’s Owen’s point. Less coverage about the axe falling there but it’s equally sad.

Owen Davies@odavies9.bsky.social · 4d ago

So a whole lot of my talented Humanities colleagues are now unemployed as of today. A lot of understandable concern over Exeter. But for over two decades my Hums colleagues were in the top quartile for their research contribution to society. History top 10. Now gone with only a national whisper.

The truly stunning part of this story is that no one at Google was willing to say this was a bad idea *before* it got released into the world. The backlash was so quick and so intense because the inevitable bad outcomes were SO obvious.

NPR@npr.org · 5d ago

Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the move: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one. n.pr/4c7L91d

The sequel discourse to: "but they can't really be a neo-Nazi; they wear a designer suit!?!"

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 5d ago

This is from the editor of the "Economist," and with all due respect, I do not think this is a surprising conflict at all. It's just typical fascist reactionary modernism, going back to Marinetti and the Italian Futurists.

Jetzt wird die Sarrazin-Geschichte offenbar neu geschrieben: Zum neueren Rechtsruck/Zur Faschisierung gehört, dass ihre vormaligen (und ja immer nur zur Hälfte) diskreditierten "Vordenker" rehabilitiert und rückwirkend anerkannt werden, damit es in der Gegenwart ideologisch auch wieder passt.

Roland Meyer@bildoperationen.bsky.social · 6d ago

Die ZEIT entschuldigt sich bei Thilo Sarrazin, dass sie damals seine eugenischen Auslassungen kritisch kommentiert hat, sowas komme nicht wieder vor, schliesslich seien die Erkenntnisse der Rassenhygiene ja jetzt der allgemein anerkannte Forschungsstand, sorry nochmal #Faschisierung

Germany alone is now close to 10.000 deaths as a result of heat / lack of airconditioning this year.

DIE ZEIT@zeit.de · 6d ago

Bundesweit sind in diesem jahr 9.800 Menschen wegen hoher Temperaturen gestorben. Das übersteigt die Zahl jedes Gesamtjahrs seit 2016.

‘Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.’

Eli Valley@elivalley.bsky.social · 7d ago

Dystopia www.news.com.au/technology/o...

*Trojan historian watching as the Achaeans break down the gates* Wow, my civilization is undergoing a complex transformation from a heavily centralized and stratified administrative society to a more socially-fragmented modality of living in which material culture is dispersed amidst smaller sites.

And this in *spite* of the current goverment which is devoted to supporting the fossil fuel status quo by rolling back measures from the Greens in the past govt.

Simon Evans@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · last wk.

Wind and solar have just overtaken fossil-fuel power in Germany www.carbonbrief.org/...

Stephen Miller said just the other day that all asylum claims are "fake." A couple deported from the U.S. to Guatemala were gagged, bound, and shot dead. Their 14-month old found crying next to their mother's body. People like Miller don't care though because this is the point: ethnic cleansing.

Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations

The couple’s 14-month-old daughter was found crying beside her mother’s body in a sugarcane field last week, according to Guatemalan authorities and media.

stlpr.org

“AI has become a blunt instrument in the enterprise to impose precisely this form of sanctioned ignorance about America’s past...Taken together, [Trump’s & Musk’s] plans amount to a one-two punch, history in the hands of the corporate state.” My latest on AI & history: www.salon.com/2026/07/28/t...

Trump and Musk both want to control America's history

The frenemies' strange obsession with historical "accuracy" has disturbing connections to big AI

salon.com

Between the opioid crisis and now the endemic gambling addicting sweeping the US and UK, a lot of the historical narratives that position anti-vice prohibition activism as merely reactionary conservatism are being revised.

Wajahat Ali@wajali.bsky.social · last wk.

The self-destruction of America. fortune.com/2026/07/26/g...

"zero kids" & "traitor to the west" are demands for white people's fealty to whiteness above all else my latest with @gregsargent.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2135...

The Real Reason Elon Musk Keeps Insisting DOGE Cuts Killed “Zero” Kids

In his explosive interview with The Economist, the SpaceX billionaire inadvertently revealed something darker about his true vision for the future—and about his affinities with global fascism.

newrepublic.com

The Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence on Nationalism Research (where I will be 👩‍💻-ing from December onwards) is looking for Panels/Papers for its first Conference in May '27. Apply and spend some Nightless Nights (and days) in lovely Tampere 🇫🇮 www.finlit.fi/en/research-...

The Everyday in the History of Nationhood and Nationalisms

Nationalism Research in the Humanities (NARS) Research Council of Finland Centre of Excellence, Tampere University subproject, organises the first NARS Conference May 12-14, 2027 in Tampere, Finland.

finlit.fi

Modern narcotics control as a migration regime. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

67 boat strikes. 221 dead. The cocaine hasn’t slowed, officials report.

The president says Operation Southern Spear has virtually ended drug trafficking by sea. Pentagon and DEA analysts have concluded otherwise.

washingtonpost.com

Floating by Adolph Gottlieb, 1945 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137942

Being queer means being the target of violence. Every queer person knows this. It's deeply engraved in who we are. We live with it every day of our lives. Not because of terrorism but because it is structurally enshrined in our "free" societies. Violence against queer people is not an exception ...

Wegen des „Verdachts eines Anschlags“ beim Christopher Street Day wurde der 21-jährige Abdul B. zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben. Die Polizei warnt davor, den Mann anzusprechen. Bei der Tat wurde eine Frau getötet und 16 weitere Personen verletzt.

Tote bei Angriff auf CSD in Berlin: Fahndung nach Verdächtigem läuft

diepresse.com

Credibility and trust going

Marc Hudson@marchudson.bsky.social · 2w ago

From the LinkedIn of an academic I have a lot of respect for.

'So being a historian is about a deep understanding of what it means to be human, having empathy, seeing different perspectives, connecting with the past. In the digital present and AI future understanding what it means to be human, being a historian, is now more important than ever.' 6/

Musk not caring that there are Nazis in the AfD is bad, but the editor of The Economist describing its leader Alice Weidel as a "perfectly thoughtful person" speaks to the much wider normalization of the far right.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2w ago

At one point she notes that AfD, the German political party that Musk supports, has "real neo-Nazis." Musk literally just shrugs.

📑The new WZB Discussion Paper "Resisting the Far Right. A Systematic Analysis of Civil Society Strategies" by @chjncke.bsky.social, @hajogu.bsky.social, @tevoelker.bsky.social & @swenhutter.bsky.social is out! ➡️PDF for download: bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/2026/zz2...

Alexander Berkman was an incompetent assassin but he was the first person to publicise the existence of the Soviet (proto-)Gulag system in the West in 1925 with "Letters from Russian Prisons," decades before the work of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.

Erik Loomis@erikloomis.bsky.social · 2w ago

This Day in Labor History: July 23, 1892. The anarchist Alexander Berkman tries and completely fails to assassinate an unarmed Henry Clay Frick after that capitalist scum busted the Homestead Strike. This moment is a good time to discuss violence in the Gilded Age labor movement.

Clärchens Ballhaus www.slowtravelberlin.com/happy-100th-...

Once you understand that this is a model of science written by non-scientists who hate universities but love venture capital and redirecting money to political allies, everything makes a lot more sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

nytimes.com