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Dr David Cowan

@cowanda.bsky.social
126 followers 118 following 2 posts

Political historian | long 18th century | political economy, party systems, and geopolitics

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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
Engelsberg Ideas @engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
At the heart of John A. Macdonald’s vision for Canada was the realisation that national power depended on productive capacity, a lesson European leaders would do well to remember. Canada’s story and the art of middle-power politics | David Cowan engelsbergideas.com/essays/canad...
engelsbergideas.com
Canada's story and the art of middle-power politics
At the heart of John A. Macdonald’s vision for Canada was the realisation that national power depended on productive capacity, a lesson European leaders would do well to remember.
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Dr David Cowan @cowanda.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Great powers must protect the interests of small nations in order to hold sway. In the face of threats like China and Russia, Britain can craft a new grand strategy by leanining into this critical insight from George Canning. engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-c...
engelsbergideas.com
The Canningite tradition
As the world returns to 19th-century multipolarity, George Canning’s approach to British foreign policy offers timeless lessons. Great powers must protect the interests of small nations in order to ho...
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
Engelsberg Ideas @engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
The Canningite tradition | @cowanda.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-c...
engelsbergideas.com
The Canningite tradition
As the world returns to 19th-century multipolarity, George Canning’s approach to British foreign policy offers timeless lessons. Great powers must protect the interests of small nations in order to ho...
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
The Georgian Lords @georgianlords.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
(Sir) Robert Walpole, subsequently earl of Orford, was born #OnThisDay 1676. A member of a Norfolk parliamentary dynasty, he emerged as 'Prime Minister' in the 1720s and retained his place until 1742 when he was sent to the Lords. For many, Walpole sums up the best and worst of 18th-century politics
photos of a medal showing both sides - on one a round-faced man with short cropped hair in profile, on the other a stout figure in robes being given a coronet by a female deity
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
Engelsberg Ideas @engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
How the Georgians embraced energy abundance | @cowanda.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-t...
engelsbergideas.com
How the Georgians embraced energy abundance
Europe must rediscover the Georgian hunger for abundance and offer vigorous support to today’s equivalents of Arkwright, Hargreaves, Watt, Wedgwood, and Stephenson.
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
BSECS @bsecs.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
***CALL FOR PROPOSALS*** Routledge Studies in #18thC Cultures & Societies (eds. @profelainechalus.bsky.social & Deborah Simonton) seeks proposals for book-length studies on aspects of British, European, or transnational culture and society c.1680-1850. Full details: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...
bsecs.org.uk
New History Book Series Call for Proposals: Routledge Studies in Eighteenth- Century Cultures and Societies - BSECS
Series Editors: Elaine Chalus, University of Liverpool, UK and Deborah Simonton, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Routledge Editor: Max Novick The long eighteenth century sits as a pivotal poin...
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Dr David Cowan @cowanda.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
The world is increasingly volatile and dangerous, and great power rivalry is back. Follow the Centre for Geopolitics if you want to better understand the new global disorder.
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Born #OTD 1738, George III. He was eventually crowned alongside his new bride Queen Charlotte in the summer of 1761, which as Dr Robin Eagles explored, was not short of hiccups: historyofparliament.com/2023/05/04/c...
historyofparliament.com
'The buzz, the prattle, the crowds, the noise, the hurry': the Coronation of George III and Queen Charlotte - The History of Parliament
In the third of our series on 18th-century coronations, we turn to that of George III in the late summer of 1761, which proved no exception, as Dr Robin Eagles points out.
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
For the evening crowd.
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Reposted by Dr David Cowan
The Georgian Lords @georgianlords.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Born #OnThisDay 1759 William Pitt (the Younger). One of only two father and son combos to have both held the office of Prime Minister. #HistParl #skystorians
Portrait of a young man in 18th-century clothes leaning on a chair on which is draped an elaborate gold brocade robe. Behind him is a red drape and a stone pillar.
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