iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Emile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Love this review of the book in @jacobinmag.bsky.social by @eriklinstrum.bsky.social, which opens out onto larger questions about "demystification", Eurocentrism, and what is left of Hobsbawm in 2026. Can't wait to continue these conversations! jacobin.com/2026/10/hobs...

jacobin.com

Eric Hobsbawm Owed His Success to Mass Culture

Eric Hobsbawm was a master of what he self-deprecatingly called haute vulgarisation, Oxbridge-inflected confident generalization based on selectively chosen data. He combined this elite education with...

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Literary Review @litreview.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Out now! Literary Review's October 2026 issue, featuring Nicholas Dames on the novel @jfb1066.bsky.social on Napoleon’s marshals John Adamson on the Glorious Revolution @eriklinstrum.bsky.social on confiscation @janetanderson.bsky.social on small dogs and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

When did fascism begin? A colorful and loathsome fin-de-siècle character provides the answer in Sergio Luzzatto’s book, which I reviewed for The New Republic newrepublic.com/article/2134...

newrepublic.com

Was a French Aristocrat the First Fascist?

A new book argues that the Marquis de Morès was a forerunner of Hitler and Mussolini, even though they emerged from very different political moments.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

A highly lucid primer on modern imperialisms from Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis on the occasion of their edited volume legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/08/2...

legrandcontinent.eu

Le monde est-il vraiment redevenu impérial ? | Le Grand Continent

Deux siècles d’histoire mondiale pour comprendre le désir et le déni d’empire.

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Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Beginning my research seminar, as always, with Lynn Hunt's essay How Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around). Should be mandatory reading in light of the impact of AI. www.historians.org/perspectives...

Writing is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words, whether I am writing an essay like this one, a book chapter, a letter of recommendation, or an email message to a friend. Writing is time-consuming. It’s a great way to pass the time on a long airplane flight because you lose track of the passage of time altogether. It’s even better, from that point of view exclusively, than watching an episode of Mad Men on your laptop. Writing means many different things to me but one thing it is not: writing is not the transcription of thoughts already consciously present in my mind. Writing is a magical and mysterious process that makes it possible to think differently.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

When did fascism begin? A colorful and loathsome fin-de-siècle character provides the answer in Sergio Luzzatto’s book, which I reviewed for The New Republic newrepublic.com/article/2134...

newrepublic.com

Was a French Aristocrat the First Fascist?

A new book argues that the Marquis de Morès was a forerunner of Hitler and Mussolini, even though they emerged from very different political moments.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The H-Diplo Roundtable on Age of Emergency is out with a dream team of a reviewing lineup: Amanda Behm, Susan Carruthers, David Clayton, and Karuna Mantena, plus an introduction from Brian Drohan and a response from me. Extremely grateful to them and to Lindsay Acqui and Diane Labrosse as well.

issforum.org

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

issforum.org

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Ravi d'avoir contribué un chapitre à cet ouvrage monumental de 1 404 pages! Félicitations Nicolas Beaupré et Florian Louis

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

An all-star lineup plus me talking about decolonization at Harvard next Thursday history.fas.harvard.edu/event/decolo...

history.fas.harvard.edu

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation and looking forward to to the year ahead #guggfellows2026 www.gf.org/stories/anno...

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Something of mine forthcoming in Histoire mondiale des impérialismes, ed. Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

inquiring minds want to know more about this "Nuremberg 2.0"

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

the kind of thing that gets played at a war crimes trial

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

For Literary Review, I wrote about Asante gold, Victorian-era colonial war, and complications with the restitution of loot literaryreview.co.uk/gilded-rage

literaryreview.co.uk

Erik Linstrum - Gilded Rage

Erik Linstrum: Gilded Rage - The African Kingdom of Gold: Britain and the Asante Treasure by Barnaby Phillips

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Can’t believe a professional, apolitical, and unhurried search process didn’t catch this

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Matthew Gillikin @mtgillikin.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Upon further review by experts, it turns out Scott Beardsley’s doctorate is basically a drive through diploma, which isn’t the sort of thing that gives a top tier university credibility or stability. augustafreepress.com/news/james-f...

augustafreepress.com

The president's doctorate doesn't match the institution's mission

Scott Beardsley became the 10th president at the University of Virginia in January. He is, by all accounts, a man of accomplishment.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The timeless elegance of a CUP proof

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 22/02/2026

BLEAK. Bleak. I’d been paying attention to Columbia selling out its governance to the Trump admin, not so much its stance on AI. www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2026...

Last month, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin approved a proposal to establish a College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence funded by private corporations and philanthropy.
Mnookin said the move was a response to the inevitable creep of artificial intelligence into all disciplines of academia. Rather than reject AI, she envisioned a university that capitalized on this change by making artificial intelligence a "hub" connecting the humanities to computer science.

On the first day of my economics elective this spring, my professor said we would be expected to use NotebookLM to pass his class. He had lengthened the coding assignments so that they would be doable only with the help of AI. The reading assignments were longer, too: ten 40-page papers per week, which he asked us to feed into AI for a summary rather than read ourselves. When it came to lectures, he told us to simply upload the slides to AI and ask it to teach us whatever he failed to explain properly in class.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Something is awry in higher education. Indiana University agrees to pay the football coach more than $100 million, shortly after cutting hundreds of academic programs. www.espn.com/college-foot...

espn.com

Source: Cignetti's salary now averages $13.2M through 2033

After leading Indiana to the national title, coach Curt Cignetti has finalized a contract with the school that will pay him an average of $13.2 million through the 2033 season, a source confirmed to E...

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AAUP @aaup.org · 14/01/2026

"We seem to be entering an age of state control armed only with the delusional hope that if universities hide and say nothing about all of the obvious ways in which the nation is slouching toward the demise of democracy, they will avoid political retribution."

chronicle.com

Opinion | Where’s the Outrage? Universities Need to Speak Up.

The lack of response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good is shameful.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

The AHA rightly condemned the Iraq war in 2007 and the Ukraine invasion in 2022. Blocking a resolution, overwhelmingly supported by members, to express solidarity with Gaza is cowardly at best and special pleading at worst.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Can’t believe the deliberative and professional search for a new president at UVA didn’t catch a CV loaded with misrepresentations augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...

augustafreepress.com

How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find

Inside Higher Ed frames the controversy surrounding Scott C. Beardsley's appointment as the University of Virginia's president.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11/01/2026

This seems to strongly suggest that the incoming president of UVA doctored his CV to the edge of outright dishonesty, and that the most recent changes came months before Jim Ryan was forced, as if they were made in anticipation in Ryan’s removal. augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...

augustafreepress.com

How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find

Inside Higher Ed frames the controversy surrounding Scott C. Beardsley's appointment as the University of Virginia's president.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I've written a chapter, "Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence," for a volume on modern imperialism edited by Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis. French publication forthcoming. I'm sharing the English version here in the meantime papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence

“Exterminate all the brutes!”: these words conclude a nominally humanitarian treatise in Heart of Darkness, the 1899 novella by </i

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

papers.ssrn.com

Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence

“Exterminate all the brutes!”: these words conclude a nominally humanitarian treatise in Heart of Darkness, the 1899 novella by </i

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

If you take the job under these circumstances, I am afraid, you are unfit for the job.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

A last-ditch power grab by a rogue and illegitimate board that has long since lost the confidence of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Also, a choice that perfectly illustrates this board’s contempt for the scholarly enterprise and those who practice it.

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Centre for Modern British Studies @mbsbirmingham.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

We are delighted to be co-sponsoring this event alongside @ihr.bsky.social and @royalhistsoc.org. Details and sign-up information is below!

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History Today @historytoday.com · 28/11/2025

Peasants and popes, free speech and fashion, sentimentality and special forces: the first 10 of 20 historians choose their favourite new #history books of 2025. www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...

historytoday.com

Books of the Year 2025: Part 1

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Christmas come early! My two picks for Books of the Year at History Today are out in print: Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell and What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/11/2025

my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia

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Sam Wetherell @samwetherell.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

For those that missed this truly excellent review of my book.

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Emily Baughan @emilybaughan.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...

academic.oup.com

Duncan Tanner Prize 2025

The Duncan Tanner Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. Entrants submit an article manuscript.

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mappingmuc.bsky.social @mappingmuc.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

"Making the unvarnished and unbounded history of empire a part of British heritage — making it, in other words, a past that people recognize as their own — will not be easy."

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Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

How useful will AI be when it puts all reliable sources of information on the Web out of business?

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 21/10/2025

In 2011 the British Government was forced to release tens of thousands of secretly held colonial documents from its archives. But 88,000 files on Britain's last colony remain withheld from the public. Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.

historyworkshop.org.uk

Memory Exiled

Matthew Hurst explores the 'politics of forgetting' through the missing files of the Hong Kong colonial archive.

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Erik Linstrum @eriklinstrum.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Their vandalism has graduated from the metaphorical to the literal

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Jeremy Littau @jeremylittau.com · 18/10/2025

Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.

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Centre for Modern British Studies @mbsbirmingham.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

We are delighted to announce that MBS2026 will be held at the University of Birmingham, 3-5 June 2026! Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies. For any questions please contact mbs2026@contacts.bham.ac.uk

birmingham.ac.uk

Modern British Studies Conference 2026 - University of Birmingham

Conference information

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AAUP @aaup.org · 17/10/2025

BOOM! After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe, UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH! ✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾 M.I.T. ☑️ BROWN ☑️ PENN ☑️ USC☑️ UVA ☑️ This is People Power in Action. #DefendHigherEd

Big crowd with signs reading “Don’t Fold”

“Don’t Surrender”

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