Shirin Hirsch
@shirinhirsch.bsky.social
Anti racist historian. Views my own
I'm looking for some extra work this summer so if anyone has anything - e.g. remote research (especially London archives or Cambridge area), transcription, editing, proofing, etc, or knows of anyone looking, then feel free to let me know!
Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed
Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · last mo.This misses the point. Self-education has become more accessible in the last 20 years than at any point in history, though not through ‘amateur reading’. The problem isn’t access to information but learning how to evaluate it critically - and that brings us back to universities (and Humanities)
15 billion just pulled out of thin air for ‘defence’ suddenly. No votes, no debate, just a speech made by a resigned PM. 15 billion.
For those of us who see Palestinians as human beings, this was Starmer's defining moment. It is not sustainable to behave in this way while leading the nominally progressive party in a two party system. Starmer's unpopularity is not one of life's great mysteries. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8_s...
Keir Starmer denies saying Israel 'has the right' to withhold water and power from citizens in Gaza
YouTube video by LBC
youtube.com
Just been reading about the Levenshulme land grabbers of 1906, a brilliant piece of historical digging by my great museum colleague Bob burnagelocalhistorychampions.home.blog/2021/02/18/l...
Lockdown Diary 18: The Levenshulme Landgrabbers of 1906
The Levenshulme landgrabbers at work on the cabbage field – the houses in the background are probably on Manor Road (Illustrated London News, July 28th, 1906) For a few weeks in the hot summe…
burnagelocalhistorychampions.home.blog
Kenneth Goodman was a African American 'distinguished organist' who comes up a lot in the newspapers in the 1950s as he tours Europe to great acclaim including huge shows in Birmingham in 1954. But I can't find any recordings of him online - any ideas?
WIN! This month we're giving you the chance to win a copy of 'Multicultural Britain: A People’s History' by @kieranconnell.bsky.social! 📚 To enter: Follow us Like and reshare this post Entries close 11/06/2026 10AM GMT. UK only.
Very pleased to be funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk to write a book on Britain’s colour bar 1900-1965 www.flipsnack.com/leverhulmetr...
Leverhulme Trust Newsletter – June 2026
Flipsnack is a digital catalog maker that makes it easy to create, publish and share html5 flipbooks. Upload a PDF or design from scratch flyers, magazines, books and more.
flipsnack.com
New 1926 General Strike map online! Using early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, the online resource shows strike events (through archive sources) in their contemporary landscape. Explore the map, digitised sources and more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
@newcastleuni.bsky.social will be hosting the British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research conference on 7-8 May. Tickets (no charge) for the event go live today at 9am. We have an excellent programme of speakers. Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk @sslh.bsky.social @ialhi.bsky.social
Ameen Hadi is a brilliant youth worker, anti racist and trade unionist. He was defending newly elected MP Hannah Spencer from violent far right transphobes and for that he has been suspended from Salford Council. Please sign and share the petition here actionnetwork.org/petitions/de...
New article in English Historical Review (@enghistrev.bsky.social) on 'Thatcherism & the Picket Line'. Looks at relationship between picketing & Conservatives esp. in 1980s, but also the legacy into the 1990s. Of relevance, I think, to upcoming Orgreave inquiry. academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
Any recommendations for a general and good introduction to the origins and early history of Apartheid in South Africa?
Reading the work of George Padmore for the first time. What searing, powerful and relentless writing exposing the horrors of colonialism and still so relevant today.
Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
Fam shared photo of German Jewish great aunt Lotte (Lucie) Guttmann. Ancestry dig we find her son Wilhelm Simon Guttmann revolutionary, friend of Walter Benjamin,early visitor to Soviet Russia,pioneer of photojournalism. Escaping Germany,he settled in UK worked on Picture Post before founding Report
We send our support to Alex Pretti's family and loved ones, and the global nursing community which has lost a devoted member. No matter where they are in the world, they - and the people they serve - deserve to be safe, both at work and in their communities.
400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close. This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it. 📍 Southend rally | 5 February
let's check in on that 'ceasefire'
Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill 11, Including Three Journalists
nytimes.com
CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research, 7-8 May 2026 @newcastleuni.bsky.social Deadline: 6 February 2026 More details: @sslh.bsky.social sslh.org.uk/2025/10/13/c... sslh.org.uk/wp-content/u... Kindly supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk #GeneralStrike1926 #GeneralStrike100
CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research
To commemorate the centenary of the British General Strike and miners’ lock-out, Newcastle University’s Labour & Society Research Group (LSRG) is organising a conference that revisits the…
sslh.org.uk
Jimmy Cliff was touring the clubs of Wolverhampton in the year Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech. 50 years later artists Anand Chhabra, Jagdish Patel and Vanley Burke responded with the exhibition Many Rivers to Cross, the title of Cliff's 1969 track. RIP www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9Q...
Many rivers to cross - Jimmy Cliff
YouTube video by TheSunAnge
youtube.com
I was reading about Elspeth King in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things - she features in the introduction. What a wonderful life www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Elspeth King obituary
Museum director and curator of the People’s Palace in Glasgow who reshaped it into a living record of the city’s social history
theguardian.com
Sunday afternoon watching Up - what a great film 🎈 ❤️
I’m in this piece talking about the Manchester links with the fifth Pan African Congress…
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 9mo ago‘A sense of freedom’: 80 years on from the Pan-African Congress in Manchester
‘Would you let your daughter marry Enoch Powell?’ 😝 🥰
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick@mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 10mo agoIn 1968, against the backdrop of the Race Relations Act and Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech, local Birmingham groups campaigned against racism and in support of civil rights The archives of activist Margaret Stanton capture some of the grassroots activities mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/MSP/...
This should be a great lecture @phm.org.uk to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress with the wonderful Gary Younge. Tickets going fast here phm.org.uk/events_new/w...
What Peace? Whose Freedom? with Gary Younge - People's History Museum
phm.org.uk
A brilliant first published journal article by Mohammed Khan, on an Indian Seamen’s Home in 1940s Liverpool - well worth a read! www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
tandfonline.com