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Elsbeth

@historecluse.bsky.social
546 followers 1.3K following 624 posts

Historian of epidemics, exhibitions, hospital medicine, the state, taxes, civilization and, currently, US economic thought.

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Reposted by Elsbeth
Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 02/10/2026
Excellent piece by @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social on the weak Left vision for public education. This extends to higher ed; beyond free tuition and full employment, the Left doesn’t have a program of what content people are supposed to get out of college. educationwars.substack.com/p/whats-left...
educationwars.substack.com
What’s Left for Public Education?
The left has no vision for public schools - and that’s a big problem
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Richard Bell @richardbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My new book, Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society, is (sort of) out now! Currently available online for anyone with institutional access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
Book cover of Richard Thomas Bell, Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society
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Jonathon Booth @jboothhistory.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
jfc
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Congratulations!!!
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The HPS Podcast @hpspodcast.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"But on the night sky, it's like seeing an atom held at arm's length..." This week on the podcast, Peter Galison joins Sophie Ritson to discuss what it took to make the first image of the black hole — and what it means to say we saw it. linktr.ee/thehpspodcast
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Also Anton Jager thesis.
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Brad Hansen @bradhansen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
@arielron.bsky.social Congratulations. Well-deserved. www.macfound.org/fellows/clas...
macfound.org
Ariel Ron
Uncovering the role of Northern agriculture in economic growth and the expansion of federal power in nineteenth-century America.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Reclaiming civilization, interesting concept!
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Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In this quiet painting, young domestic servant in wealthy household has interrupted her dusting duties & stands engrossed in reading a book. On the elegant tabletop is a still-life of a stationery box, Asian vases & a porcelain figure (William McGregor Paxton, The House Maid, 1910, NGA, Washington)
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Yes. But I’ve been rereading Drezner on The Ideas Industry, asking why economics was ousting politics. Economics made itself much more intellectually accessible but that was no objection. Qua historian, I like that Drezner finds historians more trusted, but still less consulted and influential.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I have been working on Smoot Hawley. Academics hated it, populist politicians shat on them for hating it. It definitely predates McCarthy though I think you are right that McCarthy amplified it.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
But why so badly misunderstood when scholars do have a tool or two with which to engineer wider understanding? It feels like some historical background is needed. When did the public understanding go off or was it always off? Genuinely curious. I have thoughts but no serious explanation.
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Nils Gilman @nilsgilman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
RealClearPolitics reports that as of September 2026, about 57% of Americans have an “unfavorable” view of Donald Trump. For perspective, that’s a higher negative rate than those Americans who report a “cold” view of China (54%). A remarkable achievement! www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Veblen’s argument about the wasteful consuming the useful is also evergreen here. Essential not just to endlessly follow preferences but also to flag them as preferences rather than as necessity by making them as ostentatious or “conspicuous” as possible.
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ActiveHistory.ca @activehist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Karen Dubinsky, Professor Emerita of History and Global Development Studies at Queen’s U, passed away on 4 Sept. 2026 after a brief illness. Karen was a longtime supporter of—and contributor to—Active History. We mourn her loss, even as we celebrate her life. Post by Susan Lord and Scott Rutherford
activehistory.ca
Remembering Karen Dubinsky (1957-2026)
Karen Dubinsky, Professor Emerita of History and Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, brilliant scholar and generous friend to so many, passed away on 4 September 2026 after a br…
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Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke @kevinhorourke.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026
This is a great rant and indicates the degree of alarm felt by journal editors who do not have the resources at present to deal with industrial scale fraud: www.markkoyama.com/p/the-new-ag...
markkoyama.com
The New Age of Academic Fraud
Or the Ottoman Election that Never was
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Armor on “Leo Strauss Between Weimar and America” p 95 has Strauss admitting ignorance of economics to Cropsey and adopting Cropsey’s interpretation.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Super interesting. Strauss was weak on economics till he met Cropsey in Chicago, no?
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Adele Perry @adeleperry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
thank you for this @jamieparis.bsky.social! universityaffairs.ca/opinion/mand...
universityaffairs.ca
Mandatory retirement: the case in favour - University Affairs
Jamie Paris argues that guaranteed employment for life skews the age balance of the professorate while enabling the exploitation of early- and mid-career scholars.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Agreed. But it does mean they aren’t just saying “let me teach you how to run things” (budgetary control, for J.O. McKinsey) but also “let me explain what knowledge is.” And winning the case in the one place they should not.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My (non-UK) Faculty of Arts administrators also think courses teaching student skills are insufficiently generic and are doing a blenderizer reform. I wonder where they found the playbook. Too similar to be generic.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Superb papers by many different experts, none more so than Maxime Gohier. Brilliant reading of the politics and diplomacy of 1701.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Two great historians meditating the changes to university life, a wonderful piece. I am reminded what a life-changing experience it was to spend three postdoctoral years in English academe (and studying English academe) and with what relief I left it.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
They bombed a school. Government rests on public opinion and American public opinion wasn’t outraged enough to stop them in their tracks. What, precisely stops the US from bombing our schools? Not this year, not next year, but the slope looks slippery from Montreal, invaded once before.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Keynote of an amazing conference to mark 325 years since the Great Peace of Montreal.
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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Oof.
Cartoon in the New Yorker by Guy Richards Smit.
3 senior professors (2 women & 1 man, all white appearing?) sit at a table in a grand room with fireplace & bookshelves on one wall. There are papers, files, & books on the table in front of them. Facing them & from behind is a man sitting in a chair looking awkward. The professor in the middle says to him, "Not only are we denying you tenure--we're closing your department and setting the entire university on fire just to be safe."
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Jake Nelson @jakenelson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Someone performed the music on that butt a while back. One person suggested the title "Eine Kleine Arschmusik" youtu.be/OnrICy3Bc2U?...
youtu.be
Hieronymus Bosch Butt Music
YouTube video by Jim Spalink
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EUI Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre @eui-adgcentre.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Day 2 of the ADG Annual Conference on History of European Integration is underway‼️ Get a glimpse of today’s programme 👀
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Joel Herman @joelherman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Here is an image of the seminar schedule for easy viewing. Please do join us. All welcome.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Grand Prix cyclist race in a pack past my neighbourhood
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
History: the discipline that studies how they were nobbled before. There is a lot of precedent.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Far more about actual politics than any other except Coriolanus, for my taste. Both plays/films have star billing in my Law&Society syllabus. (Hollow Crown and National Theatre versions.)
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
David Edgerton on decline. Every iota of economic progress made by the poorest country seen as UK loss according to comparative statistics, going way back.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Female who had CRC here, who published pretty substantially over the last decade, including two monographs and a third now in press, won some decent prizes, ie Canada Prize and a GG. But if shitty men think they have nothing to learn from me, don’t read or cite it, then I must be lowering standards.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Gutted. A very dear friend. www.cleocremation.com/obituaries/J...
cleocremation.com
Obituary of Jasper Fyson (1992–2026) | Cleo
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Jasper Fyson on August 24, 2026. He was a beloved husband, son, brother, friend, and so much…
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
And that has been true for centuries. Invaded twice, both times US soldiers were too reluctant and conquest had to be called off. We were always a lesson to the US on its limits as a hegemon. (That is quite apart from the Canadian economists in FDR’s Washington building multilateralism. New book!)
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Rick Crawford @rickcrawf.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Stephen Pinker should be the mortal enemy of Nathan Cofnas. Instead I read that he had signed a petition in defence of his "academic freedom". This undermines Pinker's stated views on race and human genetics. I will summarise what I thought those views were until yesterday.
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Trump just imposed 50% tariffs on Americans who buy a range of Canadian goods. Here's what's going on, and why it matters: newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/why-trumps...
newsletter.platypuseconomics.com
Why Trump’s New Tariff Is Bigger Than Canada
Trump just hit Canada with a new set of 50% tariffs.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Seconding this. And not just education but the process of thinking. The way people think about history is like the way jurors think through evidence about a case. (I did PhD work on analytic philosophy of history making that point. E.H.Carr and W.H. Dray.) Don’t let history sound too academic here.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Was asked to come up with a description of analytic political philosophy for philosophy students who hadn’t encountered it before. Here was my reply:

Analytic political philosophy pays a great deal of attention to the analysis of political concepts, such as the state, liberty, equality, and justice and so on. It often presents theories relating to these
concepts, most notably theories of justice.
It prioritises reason and argument, although it does also often appeal to moral intuitions. It is common for theorists to use abstract examples to illustrate cases, and for opponents of a theory to devise counter-examples.
Debate often proceeds by: theory, objection, reply, objection, etc with objections in the form of counter-examples, claims of logical error, or some other philosophical mistake.
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Ethan Lou @ethanlou.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The end of USMCA would have a surprisingly small impact on the Canadian economy The latest from the Globe's business commentary, by Tony Keller: www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
theglobeandmail.com
Opinion: The end of USMCA would have a surprisingly small impact on the Canadian economy
Free trade with the U.S. has benefited Canada, but the scale of the benefit – and the size of the loss in the event of its disappearance – is limited
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I was also thinking of an interesting repudiation of mentorship from academic elders (including someone I taught) www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
In wilderness, in community: mentorship, academia, and ‘emerging’ as a scholar in settler colonial institutions
We ground the emergence of the Northeast North American university on the stolen territories of Indigenous nations in the Puritan historical context of their origins. In particular, we examine the ...
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Sorry, wronged you in making a mental leap to the Atlantic articles.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
White academic elder telling junior Black scholar that his five years in academe don’t let him draw reasonable conclusions seems like a weak take. Disagree on specifics would be better.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
And be sure to get your book into the Cundill prize for next year.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Very much want. Yan P. Lin Centre should be enthusiastic.
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
When Canadians forced responsible government on Westminster in the 1840s, one of their first acts was to nationalize the Anglican college in Toronto to create the University of Toronto. Time for a little left-originalism!
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Very cool to hear @benbradleyca.bsky.social on CBC radio Vancouver
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Elsbeth @historecluse.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Long flight, good chance to do some reading/research. Hopefully the people squeezed in beside me won’t be looking over my shoulder.
Opening page of Mein Kampf.
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