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Reposted by Laura C Forster

Wolfson History Prize @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Our #ShortlistSpotlight series continues with 'Liverpool: A Story of Britain' by @samwetherell.bsky.social, another remarkable work shortlisted for the 2026 #WolfsonHistoryPrize. Congratulations to Sam Wetherell and @headofzeus.bsky.social 🎊

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Next Wednesday in York come hear me and my wonderful friend and brilliant colleague @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social talk about each other’s new books.

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Such a great opening piece by @marralsham.bsky.social, including discussion of Doreen Massey's wonderful 1995 HWJ article on places & their pasts 🧡 Really looking forward to reading the rest of the series

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Ewan Gibbs @ewangibbs.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I’m looking forward to doing a sneak preview talk on my new book, An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class, for @historylabplus.bsky.social on 10 September. The full programme looks great too, especially the Radical Glasgow walking tour led by @kamack.bsky.social.

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Congratulations Ole! Really looking forward to reading 🙌

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 13/08/2026

How can historians use institutional archives to recover the lived experiences of disabled people? @lucyanne.bsky.social explores technological collaboration and disabled expertise in the General Post Office in early twentieth-century Britain.

historyworkshop.org.uk

A Tale of Two Signals

Lucy Jameson explores technological collaboration and disabled expertise in the General Post Office in early twentieth-century Britain.

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 06/08/2026

Final call! We are hiring a new Editorial Fellow who specialises in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe 🌍 👉 this 2-year fellowship runs from October 2026 - September 2028 👉 this role is paid and part-time (3 hours per week) 👉 the application deadline is tomorrow, Friday 7 August

historyworkshop.org.uk

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowship at History Workshop, 2026

History Workshop is seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow in 2026, with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe.

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Thanks so much for coming, Emrys! I loved it!

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

'...the book is a complete success, and it should become a staple of reading lists on international political-ideological interactions' Thanks to Alex Middleton for this generous & thoughtful review!

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 26/06/2026

📣 Call for Applications 📣 History Workshop is seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow in 2026, with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe. This is a part-time, paid role. Application deadline: 7 August 2026. Please share widely!

historyworkshop.org.uk

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowship at History Workshop, 2026

History Workshop is seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow in 2026, with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe.

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Hi Jerry! Unfortunately the talk wasn't recorded, but I'm happy to send you a pdf version of the book. What's your email address?

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Don't at all! It was lovely - a really nice crowd

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

In Paris and at a loose end this afternoon? Come for some Commune chat @sorbonnenouvelle.bsky.social, 4pm 🙌

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

My German is crap but from what I can gather this is a lovely and thoughtful review of 'The Paris Commune in Britain'! Thank you @christopherwimmer.bsky.social 🙌

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

and it analyses how the state polices friendship, from Haussmann's destruction of Parisian Street life in the nineteenth century, to aggressive gang policing, and the SpyCops of modern Britain (8/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

it considers intergenerational friendship, the intimate anonymity of the pub or the caf, and what it means to befriend the dead through archives & letters (7/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

it traces how friendship has historically enabled radical ideas to travel - through nineteenth-century lecture tours, punk zine circuits, and networks of friends-of-friends (6/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

it looks at how work colonises social life, from trade union histories to emotional labour & the ‘ambient friendship’ of social media platforms (5/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

The book is structured around a series of interlocking themes. It examines friendship's relationship to family abolition, arguing that friendship already offers practical alternatives to the nuclear family as an organising unit of care (4/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

BUT we argue that friendship can & has been a site of everyday resistance, prefiguring other ways of living and organising (3/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

The book shows how capitalism co-opts, conditions & polices friendship - encouraging only the kinds of intimacy that reproduce nuclear family units, pliant workers & consumptive leisure - while suppressing forms of friendship that threaten it (2/8)

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

HAPPY MAY DAY✊🟥 For Radical May, 'Friends in Common' is half price! Treat yourself! It's a book about friendship & radical struggle, historically & today. It argues that friendship has revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system (1/8)

plutobooks.com

Friends in Common - Pluto Press

Friendship is potent and full of possibilities for social change

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Oskar Jensen @oskarjensen.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Jobs! Three jobs! I am hiring three full-time, three-year postdocs to research the long history of song at Newcastle, from any disciplinary background (within reason), starting 1 October 2026. Spread the news far and wide – all details in the link below... jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

jobs.ncl.ac.uk

Research Assistant/Associate: Mainstream Song, Class, and Culture 1520-2020

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

New article! It considers how travelling activists - lecturers, wandering outsiders & Clarion caravanners - figured in the landscape of socialist organising in the late 19thC & argues that experiences of intimacy, friendship, & frustration were key in generating socialist ideas & making socialists

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Brilliant! Congratulations Stuart!

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19/03/2026

‘In its short life, the Commune could fulfil little of its programme. But it transformed Paris into a network of elected democracies, cancelled rent arrears and abolished religious education.’ Neal Ascherson on the Paris Commune in Britain. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Neal Ascherson · Soup at La Marmite: Communards in Exile

Solidarity with Commune veterans on the part of British working-class movements was usually more symbolic than active....

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Googled my favourite Matilda quote to find a clip of the relevant scene and the auto AI overview that I can't seem to turn off came through with something accurate for once

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 16/03/2026

‘Once, the men and women waiting for soup in Newman Passage had believed that everything was possible. Now they knew it wasn’t.’ Neal Ascherson on the Paris Commune’s refugees in Britain. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Neal Ascherson · Soup at La Marmite: Communards in Exile

Solidarity with Commune veterans on the part of British working-class movements was usually more symbolic than active....

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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Hey everyone, a collective I'm part of is starting a radical bookshop and community space in Newcastle, a city where the last radical bookshop closed around 40 years ago. We've just launched our crowdfunder. Please take a look a share widely! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...

crowdfunder.co.uk

Books from Below: A Radical Bookshop for Newcastle

Opening new radical bookshop, coffee shop, and community space in Newcastle UK!

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Yes of course! laura.forster@york.ac.uk

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Don't buy it - it's a rip off! Very happy to send over a pdf if you'd like!

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Sam Wetherell @samwetherell.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Hey look - a lovely review in the @lrb.co.uk of @lauracforster.bsky.social's magnificent book about the exiles of the Paris commune! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Neal Ascherson · Soup at La Marmite: Communards in Exile

Solidarity with Commune veterans on the part of British working-class movements was usually more symbolic than active....

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 17/03/2026

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

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Raphael Samuel History Centre @rshc.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Call for Papers New Left Histories and Historiographies: Mapping a Renewed Research Field Workshop to assess the current state of research on the New Left. Cfp for an event to be held in November at QMUL. Info here www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event... @bbkhistorical.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social

bbk.ac.uk

Call for Papers. New Left Histories and Historiographies: Mapping a Renewed Research Field

Call for papers.

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Laura C Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

'...a lively, scholarly account, full of bold personalities and surprising connections' Thanks to Neal Ascherson for this generous review of 'The Paris Commune in Britain' in the @lrb.co.uk today Particularly pleased to read that the book took Neal to the Newman Arms in search of the Communards 🍻

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