Despise the notion dominant among education policy-makers that post-16 academic education can't *and shouldn't* be for working class people. Educating children into their social destiny, rather than on the basis of their individual potential or inclinations, will never be progressive. Dream bigger.

"If, then, we “full-time” intellectuals restrict our knowledge to those who have been fortunate enough to get full-time education and to work in universities, we are simply reproducing ... the unequal distribution of knowledge and education in our societies." www.bostonreview.net/articles/whe...

When We Are All Enemies of the State

A recently discovered 1974 speech by Stuart Hall on Walter Rodney—and why fascists fear ideas.

bostonreview.net

Really proud to be in this and glad it’s out in paperback!

Hurst Publishers@hurstpublishers.bsky.social · 2w ago

PB edition of the critically acclaimed ‘The Truth About Empire’ edited by @alanlester.bsky.social w/foreword by @sathnam.bsky.social out now! ‘Book of the Year’ @historyextra.bsky.social Extracted in @theguardian.com Sample 👉 tinyurl.com/38u2ndw3 & use code TRUTH20 for a 20% off in buy link.

This comment on Ramsay MacDonald reminds me of someone: "He liked being Prime Minister… But behind lies the riddle I cannot solve. Take the most important question: in what did he, ultimately, believe? I do not know.” (From Mary Agnes Hamilton's Remembering My Good Friends)

Richly-deserved prize for an excellent early-career historian.

Durham History@durhamhistory.bsky.social · 2w ago

Congratulations to Lucy Jameson who has won the Singer Prize from the British Society for the History of Science for an essay based on a chapter of her PhD – ‘Pass the Parcel: Disabled Expertise, Prosthetics of Productivity, and Scientific Management in the British Post Office, 1918–1921’

In fairness, I pass people in the street who remark in an oddly upbeat way about the hot weather as well. It’s loony.

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · last mo.

Watching BBC News and they just did 5 minutes with a doctor about how this heatwave is life threatening and the interviewer closed it with "well, it's just an opportunity to have ice cream for breakfast!!". Amazing clip of how the BBC seems just blissfully unaware of what is happening

Very proud of this one: Incarcerated: Contemporary Photography from the Victorian Prison It's been a delight to work with @andyaitchison.bsky.social, Dominique Moran, Yvonne Jewkes, & Jennifer Turner. Seeing Andy's wonderful work in print is quite something. insidetime.org/newsround/in...

‘Incarcerated’: Photographer Andy Aitchison launches book on Victorian prisons

Andy Aitchison has been taking photographs inside the UK’s prisons for over 20 years. His interest started in 2004, when the Big Issue asked him to photograph inside Victorian-built HMP Wandsworth.…

insidetime.org

Matt Houlbrook@tricksterprince.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Coming soon: #Incarcerated bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/inca...

We have two new 12-month postdoctoral fellowship opportunities at the British Library! Applications open soon to co-design projects in the following areas: - Colonial Deposit and our Newspaper Collection - Local Large Language Models and Personal Born-Digital Archives www.bl.uk/services/res...

My new short article is now out in no. 3-4, vol. 59 of @pop-jrnl.bsky.social. In the piece, I reflect on the experience of designing & delivering what was *probably* the first module on whiteness in modern British history in a UK university history department. The module is running again in 2026-27.

Working out whiteness in modern British history

Liburd’s Commentary considers the place of whiteness in the teaching and research of modern British history. It does so through a reflection on the experience of designing and delivering ‘The White...

tandfonline.com

Looking at this and the revelations yesterday about the team behind the Keir Starmer arson attacks and far right pay ops around them, and it's hard not to notice the establishment would rather just not do anything systematic about the threat.

Ian Duhig@ianduhig.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today is the tenth anniversary of Jo Cox's murder by a white supremacist on her way to a surgery in Birstall in her constituency whose ethnic diversity she praised in her maiden speech to the Commons. Her murderer shouted "Britain first" as he shot and stabbed her to death.

Was at the National Library of Scotland last week looking at the Police Federation's journal from the late 60s & 70s. Their reportage and commentary on demonstrations like Red Lion Square was strikingly uninterested in the fascists and absolutely venomous towards "lefty student demonstrators".

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 2mo ago

#OtD 15 Jun 1974 Kevin Gately, a 20-year-old university student, was killed at a protest against the fascist National Front in Red Lion Square, London. Most probably he was killed from a blow from a police baton, possibly by a mounted officer stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8694...

I have a piece in today’s Irish Times about the atrocities of last week in Belfast. The ethno-nationalist machine is tried and tested. How come the authorities are apparently so powerless to stop it? www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

And yet some will still debate whether fascism is an appropriate term for what we're seeing... In fact, some mainstream elite are still hesitant to use far right which tells you everything you need to know about why we are where we are

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 2mo ago

THERE IS AN ACTIVE POGROM IN NORTHERN IRELAND. FASCISTS IN SKULL MASKS ARE GOING DOOR TO DOOR PULLING MIGRANTS OUT OF THEIR HOMES AND SETTING THEM ON FIRE.

Rioters "momentarily enjoying the arbitrary power of both the traffic warden and the border official" (as Richard Seymour wrote of similar checkpoints in Middlesborough during the 2024 riots) illustrates alignment of "street" & "state" racism; this is explicit extraparliamentary border enforcement.

Jane@localnotail.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Orchestrated racist far-right terrorism in Northern Ireland again in response to an attack in Belfast, gleefully reported by RTC

I’m really pleased to see my article on “The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign” in the @jbritishstudies.bsky.social Many thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding this research. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

For those looking for some longer historical context about white supremacist politics in Northern Ireland, I heartily recommend Daniel Geary’s chapter in this fantastic edited collection: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526147073/

Manchester University Press - Global white nationalism

Global white nationalism - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Global white nationalism by Daniel Geary

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

55 years after the Home Office became aware of staff in carceral institutions wearing fascist insignia, the problem remains. I’ve got an article coming out soon about the history of this in English prisons. ”Institutionalised fascism” remains difficult to separate from the “street variety”.

Staff at immigration detention centre wore England flags, report finds

Chair of prisons and detention watchdog concerned about intimidating effect as wide-ranging and damning review published

theguardian.com

Permanent lectureship in Modern British History at the University of Manchester. FT, £42-58k, closing date 30 June 26, starting Sept 26 onwards. For international people, this is equivalent to a tenure-track Assistant Lectureship. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... #SkyStorians

Lecturer in Modern British History (post-1800):Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Easy: England has become Ulster.

David Veevers@davidveevers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Ground to a halt in school run traffic and happened to glance lazily out of the window. … … … What the fuck is wrong with this country.

Had such a good time at #MBS2026 both with our panel and also in the general conference atmosphere; it all went by too quickly!

Christian Damm Pedersen@christiandp.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Back home after the #MBS2026 🇬🇧 Thanks to fellow panelists @benjamin-bland.bsky.social, @liamliburd.bsky.social and Jessica White for making it one of the best panel experiences, and to @saimanasar.bsky.social for chairing. Thanks to @drsarahlkenny.bsky.social for being a wonderful host.

I know this is a very historian thing to say but a lot of journalists have extremely short memories. It should not be possible to cover accusations of “two-tier policing” without gesturing to the long history of white racists appropriating the injuries inflicted on people of colour by white racism.

Fifty years on, Gurdip will always be remembered. On the night of 4 June 1976, Gurdip Singh Chaggar was out with his friends when he was killed in an unprovoked racist attack.

It’s striking that MPs and the media are focused on how how “accusations of racism informed police thinking” rather than on how a “structural disregard for human suffering” shaped their response. Instead of interrogating institutional culture, their failures are conveniently blamed on EDI. #r4today

Made me think of a quote from Angela Davis: “Fascism is a process, its growth and development are cancerous in nature. While today, the threat of fascism may be primarily restricted to the use of the law-enforcement-judicial-penal apparatus to arrest the overt and latent-revolutionary trends…”

Liam J. Liburd@liamliburd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

An absolutely essential point from a BLM UK post on Instagram about the new tragic murder case currently being used by racists to be racist.

Our archive collections include materials relating to activism supporting the black academic, activist and feminist Angela Davis. In the 1970s the Angela Davis Defence Committee was set up in the UK to bring attention to the imprisonment of Davis in America. Visit www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org

Going to miss the panel featuring my fantastic colleague, Jonathan Saha, this morning, but if you’re in town, go along!

Modern British Studies Association@modbritstud.bsky.social · 2mo ago

First up, our first panel of the day: Capital and Capitalism Featuring: Erika Rappaport (UC Santa Barbara); @tsasson.bsky.social (Tehila Sasson, Oxford); @kevinkosullivan.bsky.social (Kevin O’Sullivan, Galway); Jonathan Saha (Durham); Matthew Hilton (QMUL) #MBS2026

After nursery drop-off and a brisk walk to the station, I’m now off on my way down from Newcastle to Birmingham for the @modbritstud.bsky.social/@mbsbirmingham.bsky.social 2026 conference. I’m on Friday morning, please come check out our panel on letter-writing and the politics of whiteness.

Modern British Studies Association@modbritstud.bsky.social · 5mo ago

‘The Polycrisis? Historical Roots & Critical Perspectives in Modern British Studies' programme is looking very exciting; we'll be writing to speakers next week, & launching the lineup soon. Huge thanks to @britishacademy.bsky.social for supporting #MBS2026 www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...

On my way down to Birmingham for a conference so will miss this but please check it out if you can!

Christina Riggs@christinajriggs.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Come hear writers Damian Le Bas and John Henry Phillips in conversation @dulib.bsky.social with Alex Barber @durhamhistory.bsky.social and Becky Taylor (UEA) - all about GRT History Month. Plus a screening of 'A Basket Full of Eggs' - about finding Romani heritage in the archive. 🗃️📜 Details in ALT.

An absolutely essential point from a BLM UK post on Instagram about the new tragic murder case currently being used by racists to be racist.

Honoured to have served as the internal examiner of Hasaam’s thesis. The fellowship is richly deserved!

Durham History@durhamhistory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Congratulations to Hasaam Latif who has been awarded a Pearsall Fellowship in Naval and Maritime History by the Royal Historical Society! You can read more about Hasaam's research into Lascars, Homelands and the twentieth-century British Empire here: culturesofdisability.mmu.ac.uk/lascars-desc...