Aaron Ackerley
Modern British History. Press and Media. Empire. Economics. Knowledge and Power.
Lecturer in British Studies, University of Oslo
- Word of the day is ‘arsle’ (19th century): to have a distinct sense of going backwards.
- Growing Up and Going Out is released with @manchesterup.bsky.social TODAY! If you're interested in histories of youth, leisure, drinking, urban space, and oral history then please do consider ordering a copy for your libraries. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526152640/
- From 21 February @royalhistsoc.bsky.social will be closing and archiving its X account. From this date all updates from the Society - and its promotion of work by fellow organisations for #history and the humanities - will be via BlueSky. Please encourage colleagues to join us here #skystorians
- My book, Fiction on the Page in Nineteenth-Century Magazines, is out now with Oxford University Press! academic.oup.com/book/58989 It’s a book about page fillers, product placement, and strange hybrid fiction. It asks how the page of the magazine became a spur for new, odd genres.
- Trickle update…
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- I agree that this is incredibly dangerous and, with the far right pull of the incoming US government, it’s getting worse. Britain is not immune to the reactionary mania that is taking over much of politics worldwide. Our media landscape is primed to amplify that, not challenge it.
- Absolutely delighted to see the Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry being used to help define the scope of this excellent new conference. And it looks a great event to submit a paper to! 'Propaganda and Influence: New Historiographical Perspectives' calenda.org/1217954?lang...
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[Not loaded yet]- ONE MILLION ASYLUM SEEKERS I see Nick Timothy is now at the stage of simply making up numbers... archive.ph/xk7fK
- a classic sign of a helpful, qualitatively beneficial innovation in knowledge is that it is implemented by production managers without even telling any of the people whose research and reputations it messes up
- If you tried to write an anti-Gospel perfectly inverting the original message, this is what it would sound like. “Give all you own to the already-wealthy, and you shall have treasure here on earth. Truly I tell you, the rich will have a super easy time entering the Kingdom of heaven.”
- All of Trump’s most loyal evangelical backers push prosperity gospel messages, including the folks I wrote about here. They often encourage people — including poor people — to donate money to their ministries based on the promise that God will bless them for it. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
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- Most cursed headline in history of journalism
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- At the core of GOP conservatism since the 1930s has been the desire to roll back the New Deal. For all its putative “populism,” Trumpism is, on balance, more a part of this tradition than a diversion from it.
- Another grey day cheered by the warmth, humour & spirit of my Observer & Guardian friends & colleagues on the picket line. Bravo to everyone who has worked so hard to organise these 4 days of action, especially @sarahdonaldson.bsky.social & @carolecadwalla.bsky.social #savetheobserver 💪🏼🪧
- We are looking for relatively short (1-2,000 words) opinion pieces on issues pertaining to imperial history, historiography, colonialism or the legacies of empire. Please do not hesitate to get in touch (jonas.f.gjerso@uis.no)!
- @jich.bsky.social We have launched a new 'Current Debates' section, edited by Dr Jonas Fossli Gjersø @jonasgjerso.bsky.social! If you are interested in contributing, please see the CfP for more information, and please share with your networks: networks.h-net.org/group/announ...
- imagine being in 2019. some of the biggest shocks to higher education might have seemed fantastical to anyone but specialists (genAI, pandemic, wars) but actually the things wreaking the most havoc now were entirely foreseeable: student fees, infinite growth, debt and any rise in interest rates
- It’s been great to revive the book reviews section of @jich.bsky.social and we currently have over 40 book reviews commissioned for 2025. If you want to review a recently published book on British imperial or Commonwealth history, do get in touch! evan dot smith at adelaide dot edu dot au
- Dr Evan Smith @evansmithhist.bsky.social has recently taken up the role as book reviews editor. If you are interested in reviewing a recently published book on British colonial and imperial history (broadly defined), please contact him at evan dot smith at adelaide dot edu dot au.
- Bashar al-Assad’s biggest mistake? Not going on Joe Rogan.
- Calling all social scientists whose work touches on offshore finance! Please submit your work to the special issue of the journal Socio-Economic Review that I'll be guest editing with my fellow sociologist Kimberly Kay Hoang & historian Vanessa Ogle. Due date:15 May. academic.oup.com/ser/pages/cf...
- Delighted to share our call for papers for the 2025 Women in the History of Political Thought conference. We welcome papers related to women's contributions to political thought. We look forward to receiving your submissions! womeninhpt.com
- Today is the Observer’s 233rd birthday. And the first of 4 strike days. I grew up in South Wales in the shadow of the miners’ strike. Extraordinary to be joining a picket line outside what I believed was my liberal progressive news org all these years later. We’re so grateful for your support & ✊
- The New York Times is back to laundering right-wing propagandists as though they aren't engaging in a concerted political project.
- Looking forward to reading @richardtoye.bsky.social ‘s new book The Age of Hope about the Attlee governments, especially as it is particularly relevant to current affairs. Here’s an interview with the man himself that offers a taster
- This is getting traction again for some reason. It runs the full josh gambit of the historical role of social theory in media, what it means to commit to large scale public-facing research, and why we should study forms of media infrastructures with alternative logics than free markets.
- In this episode, @joshshepperd.bsky.social joins Money on the Left to discuss the research and activism that hastened the rise of public media in the United States.
- #OTD 1942. The Beveridge Report published. His plan is to tackle the five giants of idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want through welfare state. The Daily Mail say it will "create a world sensation" and demonstrates Britain's "capacity for leadership" despite the war.
- Historians of bsky... I'm looking forward to helping put together this exciting new conference at the new Queen Mary Centre for British Studies. Call for papers deadline is 24th January! ⌛
- Quick reminder about our conference, 'British History Today, 1-2 May 2025. Further details will appear on projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/qmcbs/. Deadline for papers is 24 January 2025. There have been many great ideas for panels, papers and novel formats already
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- It's out! After many years in the making, you can read the @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social special issue on the 1990s here. Huge thanks to @historianhelen.bsky.social & @davidgeiringer.bsky.social for masterminding this special issue and including my work in it. www.tandfonline.com/toc/fcbh20/3...
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- Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵
- The great historian Marc Bloch will enter the Panthéon; his family asks that the far right not be present in any way 🗃️
- For every noble or gentleman who did the 'Grand Tour', there was one or more servants who did it with them, but these men and women have been mostly invisible and unheard. @richardjansell.bsky.social's new edition finally gives us access to their perspectives and their #WrittenWorlds!
- My edition of four travel journals by 18th-c servants is out now, including accounts of France, Italy, the Low Countries, Germany and the Ottoman Empire by three valets and a maid – the majority of people who went on the 'Grand Tour' #skystorians #18thc #c18th global.oup.com/academic/pro...
