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James Fisher

@jamdanfish.bsky.social

1.5K followers 453 following 92 posts

Historian of work, knowledge and capitalism (C16-18th) | Lecturer at Uni of Exeter | Author of THE ENCLOSURE OF KNOWLEDGE (CUP, 2022)

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The highly satisfying mark of Ann Cross, Somerset 1748 @markhailwood.bsky.social

a "cross" to mark the name of Ann Cross, in lieu of a signature

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Excited to see Sonia Tycko's book rethinking early modern consent and contract labour is now available. This is an important intervention for histories of coerced labour. 'Captured Consent: Contract Labor in English Charity, Colonization, and War, 1600–1700'

Front cover for book titled 'Captured Consent: Contract Labor in English Charity, Colonization, and War, 1600–1700' by Sonia Tycko, with an image of an indenture

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

📖 I've got a new chapter out on accounting as a technique of labour management in C18th English capitalist agriculture In this volume of Farm Accounts @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social >>

Front cover of book: title Farm Accounts in Rural Europe c.1700-1914

First page of chapter 2 by James D Fisher titled Accounting for Labour on Capitalist Farms in Eighteenth-Century England

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

When we imagine rural England on the cusp of industrialisation, therefore, we should include the thousands of poor youth who lived and worked on farms as unfree servants - they did not choose their master, and they could not choose to leave until adulthood.

Painting by Gainsborough, 1778: Hilly landscape with peasant family at a Cottage Door, Children playing and Woodcutter returning

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

When you picture exploitative child labour in C18-19th century England, you might think of a sooty-faced chimney sweep, or a small boy or girl crawling between machines in a cotton mill. But the green and pleasant countryside was also populated by poor children working in oppressive conditions.

An 1876 illustration of children working in a British textile factory

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

This focuses on a case study of Awliscombe, Devon, in which a relatively small group of yeomen used their powers under the poor law to systematically bind poor children to each other as servants (rather than provide relief to parents).

Screenshot of introductory paragraph to journal article 'Bound to the Soil Part II', which tells the story of 7-year-old Rebecca Hayman bound into a complex local labour system.

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

My new article on pauper apprenticeship is online and open access! Bound to the soil (Part I): the origins of compulsory apprenticeship schemes in South-West rural England c.1670–1750 doi.org/10.1017/S026...

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

In the post today: a little article on the history of enclosure I wrote for an A-Level history magazine

Magazine article double spread, title "The enclosure of common land in Britain"

Front cover of A Level magazine Modern History Review, April 2025.

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

A very helpful look at "Deep Research" apps and a sober conclusion: leonfurze.com/2025/02/15/h...

Screenshot of text: The only conclusion I could arrive at is that it is an application for businesses and individuals whose job it is to produce lengthy, seemingly accurate reports that no one will actually read. Anyone whose role includes the kind of research destined to end up in a PowerPoint. It is designed to produce the appearance of research, without any actual research happening along the way.

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Thanks to AI, we now know what the real Ned Ludd looked like

Screenshot of youtube video on Luddites showing obscene AI generated muscular man

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

In an ironic twist that will surprise nobody, the history of the Luddites is now the subject of mass produced AI videos on youtube

Five screenshots of Youtube Shorts, showing AI videos on the history of the Luddites

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James Fisher @jamdanfish.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

In the world of Blinkist, billionaires acquire their wealth by developing a regular habit of reading synopses

A Blinkist advert from Twitter with caption 'Billionaires Read As Many As 50 Books Per Year: Here's How', with an image of a white man with glasses, wearing black polo neck.

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