Pilgrimage is an old tradition that resonates with moderns. You've heard of St. Thomas Becket in England. Our Lady of Walsingham of Norfolk was a new one for me. @joesaunders1.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social explains the tradition in a new How-to History. how-to-history.com/2026/07/29/p...

Pilgrimage

Joe Saunders During the medieval period in Europe pilgrimage was a key feature of religious life. Many people went on pilgrimage at least once in their lives.[1] These were visits to locations of s…

how-to-history.com

I’ve charted American hegemony during the Iranian campaign

Saturday evening! Talking to @melaniedgkaplan.bsky.social at The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore about her book, Lab Dog, describing animal experiments for medical research and her investigation into the background of her adopted lab beagle. Come hear the talk & buy books! www.facebook.com/events/20091...

Financing roads has always been a challenge for communities & governments. In the 1600s the English started putting up barriers -- turnpikes -- and charging fees. @genejean.bsky.social and @howtoreadthisch.art tell all. N.E. USA still calls toll roads turnpikes. how-to-history.com/2026/05/27/t...

Turnpike Roads

Pam Smith Turnpike roads were a system of road management used in England. They were first established in the seventeenth century but not used extensively until the eighteenth. The first turnpike w…

how-to-history.com

"Gentlemen, you can't report in here! This is the press office!"

Scott Nover@scottnover.bsky.social · 2mo ago

SCOOP: The Pentagon has banned journalists from its press office, designating it a classified space. The change creates a new barrier between journalists and the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Thought I knew something about English history but I never heard of Church Courts, which enforced local morality and registered wills. Great resource for genealogists and social historians, as @joesaunders1.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social explain. how-to-history.com/2026/04/29/c...

Church Court Jurisdictions

Joe Saunders In medieval and early modern England the Church, initially the Catholic Church and then Church of England, operated a system of ecclesiastical courts. Such courts, famously called the …

how-to-history.com

Exactly

(Dr) Rena Maguire@justrena.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The point here is missed by those pompous anti religion folks. The pope is using what he can to fire at Trump, Netanyahu et al. Hes a statesman. He cant turn round and call them effers. So he uses his playing field to take them down. Doesnt matter if you believe or not. Hes fighting his way

Photography is art mediated/ assisted by technology. So why aren't AI novels art?

Suburbs weren't always fashionable leafy neighborhoods for the well-off. @joesaunders1.bsky.social tells all, including the etymology of "extramural" @howtohistory.bsky.social how-to-history.com/2026/02/25/s...

lol @mchinn.bsky.social finds EJ Antonini & the Heritage Foundation creating excellent econometrics teaching material by making many stupid mistakes that beginners should avoid. econbrowser.com/archives/202...

Antiquaries like to potter around cool stuff left by people from the past! Long on observation and short on theory, they get looked down on by academic historians. @joesaunders1.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social gives them their due. how-to-history.com/2026/01/28/a...

Antiquarianism

Joe Saunders Antiquarianism is the investigation of the past through its material remains. Antiquarians have served an important part in the study of history over the last few hundred years, and th…

how-to-history.com

"You were given the choice between endorsing the quack RFKjr and losing your seat. You chose the quack. And you will lose your seat."

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist@princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Guess who got screwed over. Bill Cassidy royally screwed up. He reportedly endorsed RFK Jr because he was afraid of losing support. Trump endorsed his GOP opponent yesterday. 🧪 The leopard eats all faces. He’s got some explaining to do.

Before insurance companies & government welfare, people set up "friendly societies" to assist each other when hard times hit. They kept careful records, @howtohistory.bsky.social & Joe Saunders write, which increasingly furnish data to historians. how-to-history.com/2025/12/31/f...

Friendly Societies

Joe Saunders Prior to the development of government and employer health insurance and financial services, friendly or ‘benevolent’ societies were an important part of many people’s lives. These soc…

how-to-history.com

A surprise gift at the end of 2025: This review from @jayhancock.bsky.social in @wirobooks.bsky.social. Thank you! 📚💙 #booksky, #animals, #dogs

Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research | Washington Independent Review of Books

The Independent is an important voice in the community of readers and writers dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books.

washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 11mo ago

here's Eric Trump saying "they" at least 10 times in under 30 seconds

I want to know what @robin-f.bsky.social thinks about this! Seems sketchy -- certainly the Cambridge PR headline "Britain's economy boomed..." archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

News - Britain's Economy Remained Surprisingly Robust After Roman Collapse - Archaeology Magazine

ALDBOROUGH, ENGLAND—When the Romans conquered Britain in the first century a.d., they transformed the island […]

archaeology.org

If you were hoping to see a teenage Ben Affleck* talking to Dr Peter Reynolds @butserancientfarm.co.uk before the weekend, then don't worry: we've got you covered. 👍 www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeJj...

Ben Affleck visits Butser Ancient Farm (Archive Clip)

YouTube video by Butser Ancient Farm

youtube.com

Britain is crosshatched with lyke ways -- paths for transporting the newly dead toward burial & eternity. Famous, hikeable ones in Dartmoor and York Moors. @annacusack.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social tell all about them. howtohistory.substack.com/p/corpse-roads

Corpse Roads

Britain

howtohistory.substack.com

My piece in the @wirobooks.bsky.social. The new oral culture and the end of reading & writing.(!) www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/its...

Newsmax to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting over 2020 election coverage By @maddylauria.bsky.social for NPR News www.npr.org/2025/08/18/n...

Build your own newspaper/ magazine! Escape email newsletter hell! RSS has been a primary news source for me every day for 15 years. Now it's making a comeback & @molly.wiki tells you how to do it. Yay! www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...

Curate your own newspaper with RSS

Escape newsletter inbox chaos and algorithmic surveillance by building your own enshittification-proof newspaper from the writers you already read

citationneeded.news

Like @lucyanne.bsky.social I am posting my ancestors' smallpox vaccination credentials. Why aren't the rest of you?

Lucy Jameson@lucyanne.bsky.social · last yr.

A point of interest for #hstm scholars - my grandad’s smallpox vaccination certificate. Received in 1973! My #histmed #histsci brain is buzzing! (All of these documents of course posted with permission)

One hundred years ago today my great-grandparents, Irene & Eb, got vaccinated, helping to wipe smallpox from the planet. Thank you for your service!

We want to thank reviewer #2 for the very constructive comments. We were able to incorporate all of them. The manuscript is now much more clear.

You do not have to say “pro vaccine groups.” You can say the vast majority of doctors and scientists and the American Medical Association.

After taking a somewhat longer-than-expected hiatus from social media (motivated by divisive and mentally draining rhetoric on other platforms), I think it's about time to re-emerge. To re-introduce myself - hi! I'm Ron, and I'm a gerontologist interested in elder and LGBTQIA+ equity and advocacy.

Scholars following facts regardless of ideology get bigger audiences. Good! They "not only attract a new... audience for their recent work, this new audience also engages with... the author's previous... papers, thereby helping to break down echo chambers." www.anderson.ucla.edu/sites/defaul...

Humans: the same everywhere. "Most participants tolerated inequality when it benefited them but were intolerant of inequality when it benefited others." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie Hexadecapussy

A few years ago Baltimore, Md., merchants launched Bnotes -- currency for buying from local shops and restaurants. @howtohistory.bsky.social @annacusack.bsky.social show how local trade tokens have substituted for sovereign currency for a long time. howtohistory.substack.com/p/trade-tokens

Trade Tokens

England

howtohistory.substack.com