Tessera
Folgen

Duncan Money

@mininghistory.bsky.social

Historian and consultant. I work on mining, labour, migration and Southern Africa. More on https://duncan.money Contact: duncanmoneyhistory@proton.me

2286 Posts7830 Follower677 Folgt
Independent Historians Network (UK)@indyhistnetwork.bsky.social · yesterday

UK history is at a crisis point in academia. More & more people are going freelance on a part time basis, or as a whole new form of employment. IHN is creating support network for all historians who work independently. We aim to bring people together, promote your work, and be a hub of information.

Lucy Delap@lucydelap.bsky.social · yesterday

Great discussion at the 'crisis in UK history' meeting hosted by @ihr.bsky.social, @royalhistsoc.org, @histassoc.bsky.social and History UK. Horror stories of closures and redundancies, balanced by new resources. Check out for ex. the new Independent Historians Network independenthistorians.org

Hurst Publishers@hurstpublishers.bsky.social · yesterday

To sample 'A History of South Africa' by Thula Simpson, read here ➡️ tinyurl.com/yvz868ej

Sample of "History of South Africa" by Thula Simpson

Peek inside this book and discover another great read.

tinyurl.com

The English Historical Review@enghistrev.bsky.social · yesterday

History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present, by Thula Simpson @hurstpublishers.bsky.social; Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid, by Evan Lieberman @evlieb.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social;

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · yesterday

Good new article on cultural change in British mining communities: "as well as being bearers of a mythologised industrial past, mining communities were also symbolic of affluence and modernity in the changing cultural landscape of Britain" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Relics of the past and symbols of modernity: the cultural practices of coal mining communities in post-war Britain

This article challenges popular representations of post-war British coal mining communities. Such localities are often imagined as displaying cultural practices belonging to a previous age that wer...

tandfonline.com

will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · yesterday

“a detail is itself a kind of argument” cracking piece from @joemoransblog.bsky.social on detail in history writing 🗃️

...... a detail is itself a kind of argument and thus, since beauty and elegance in writing derive from economy, a way of making a point without belabouring it. Through the selection and arrangement of detail, you can redirect the reader's attention, which is naturally drawn to the eye-catching or the obviously consequential. You can make something that seemed peripheral seem suddenly important.
Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · 5d ago

"Details, in their singularity and idiosyncrasy, point to the capaciousness of human experience." New today in the Society's journal 'Transactions': Joe Moran 'On Detail in Historical Writing': bit.ly/44UMi8C Now available OA @joemoransblog.bsky.social @massobsarchive.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Opening page of the Transactions article 'On Detail in Historical Writing' by Joe Moran. Full abstract: "This Comment considers the role of detail in historical writing, inflected through my own experience of writing ‘trade’ books for a general rather than specialist readership. I argue for the value of the detail that is slightly recalcitrant, that is more than just flesh on the bones of an argument or evidence marshalled to make a point. Detail is itself a kind of argument and thus, since beauty and elegance in writing derive from economy, a way of making a point without belabouring it. The gratuitous fact can be seductive, suggesting that the world has a randomness and overabundance that can't easily be rounded up into a dataset. Details, in their singularity and idiosyncrasy, point to the capaciousness of human experience. They correct our tendency to fixate on one story, to focus on the eventful at the expense of the marginal, and to invent a false unity of experience that erases social differences. With their obdurate specificity, they can shatter our presumptions about the past. I explore these ideas with reference to modern literature (Flaubert, Chekhov), the Mass-Observation archive and examples from my own work in contemporary cultural history and family history."
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 2d ago

Pre-colonial African terms for "whites"/Europeans were never about the colour white Western scholars can be confused by this because most European terms for Africans mean "black" Be skeptical of interpretations of African traditions or artwork that equate "white" with Europeans.

Bild
Isaac Samuel@rhaplord.bsky.social · 3d ago

Ethnographers often assume that in Africa the colour white was interchangeable with the Western racial concept of “whiteness” But such inferences are based on an uncritical interpretation of historical data and project modern racial concepts into the past www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-white-...

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · 5d ago

A bland description in a report on Konkola Mine about what must have been a terrifying situation: A sudden power cut knocked out the pumps in a shaft where hundreds of people were at work and the water level rose by 85 metres before the emergency pumps kicked in.

Excerpt from a type-written report. Text reads: "NO. 3 SHAFT GENERAL On January 16, 1975 an electrical fault .ccurred which resulted in the power supply to the 1540 level and 1940 level pump stations being cut off. All controllable water was closed off and the watertight doors in the 1480 level Haulage and Drain Drive were closed. However, 85 metres of No. 3 Shaft was flooded until an emergency pumping system was operational. Three days production was lost and all electrical equipment below the 1940 level required rehabilitation."
Nanjala@nanjala.bsky.social · 6d ago

Stop making me download apps for conferences. It’s annoying. You can just print one A3 poster size schedule and put it at the entrance if you don’t want to print multiple but stop making me download weird niche apps.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy.bsky.social · 6d ago

Been following this recently out of curiosity. For a fraction of the price of "natural" you can buy a huge, honkin' lab grown diamond that can only be distinguished as lab-grown with specialized equipment. Giant diamond engagement rings are now becoming popular. $10,000 vs $150,000 for a big one.

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · 6d ago

Spotted in an upmarket mall in Joburg last month: half-price on lab-grown diamonds. Not a positive sign for the viability of diamond mining.

Royal Historical Society@royalhistsoc.org · last wk.

We have the following 3 calls for research funding for RHS Fellows & Members: bit.ly/4wwSMGu > 'Open Research Grants', for mid & later career historians > 'Early Career Fellowship Grants', for postdocs > Martin Lynn Scholarship', for PhD research in African history Closing 4 September #Skystorians

Calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: September 2026 deadlines - RHS

The Society invites applications for the following three schemes — open to historians at a range of career stages — with closing dates of 4 September 2026. Early Career Fellowship Grants, 2026-27* off...

bit.ly

Hannah Sparwasser Soroka@hannah-historian.bsky.social · last wk.

The fundamental, delicious paradox of studying history is that: 1. These people are radically different from me, and I may never properly understand them. 2. These people are exactly like me.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · last wk.

one tendency that comes out about period films is the insistence that XYZ moral thought would not have occurred to anyone in the ancient world. to be sure there are moral innovations and changes but the existence of thorough dissatisfaction with the present moral order is not a modern phenomenon

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · last wk.

Wonderful example from an interview this month about unexpected problems with new technology: Card readers to track workers entering and leaving a coal mine in 1980s South Africa kept breaking because they got porridge stuck in them.

Mark Walters@mark-walters.bsky.social · last wk.

The impressive early opencast lead mine remains at Craig y Mwyn high in the Berwyn mountain range. This is the best example of hydraulic mining or ‘hushing’ in Powys with dams set around the rim to send water down the opencast & reveal mineral. It is Roman, Medieval & Post Medieval in date

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · last wk.

I had a teacher who had first trained as a ship's navigator shortly before GPS was introduced and then re-trained as a colliery engineer and his working life was always a useful lesson in career expectations and planning.

Chris Dillow@chrisdillow.bsky.social · last wk.

If this had been policy in the 70s (as it partly was), towns would have produced lots of mining engineers & metallurgists just before pits & steelworks closed. As the yanks say, you should skate to where the puck's going, not to where it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm enjoying Petina Gappah's 'Rotten Row' but this a real howler in the introduction: "Southern Rhodesia... the only colony in Africa to be founded by a private company" What about the other one north of the Zambezi!

Page from a book. Text reads: "In London, Rotten Row is a wide, untarred road that begins at Hyde Park Corner and ends at the Serpentine Road. Established in the time of William and Mary to provide access to the new palace at Kensington, the name is a corruption of 'Route de Roi', French for King's Road. In Salisbury, the capital of the Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia, initially administered from London - and the only colony in Africa to be founded by a private company, Cecil John Rhodes' British South Africa Company - the name Rotten Row was given to the road that was created to begin at the intersection of Prince Edward Street and Jameson Avenue. As the city grew, Rotten Row expanded to become a busy thoroughfare linking the city centre to those of Rhodesia's famed industries that were based in Salisbury, and to Harari Township, the city's first black township, home for the men who provided the cheap labour that powered those industries.