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Robert Suits

@robertsuits.bsky.social
1.3K followers 918 following 753 posts

Asst Prof/Lecturer in environmental history at University College London. Researching climate, energy, capitalism, and labo(u)r; author of The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants (Princeton University Press, 2026). Also novelist, musician.

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Reposted by Robert Suits
Henry Snow @henrys.now · 25/09/2026
I once told two friends of mine who aren't in academia how little money we'd need to properly fund and run a humanities department and both were stunned at how miserly public universities are
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Emily Webster, PhD, MSc @emilywebz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Would anyone fancy joining @robertsuits.bsky.social and I for a quantitative data in environmental history panel for #ESEH2027?
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It is a real delight to see my book mentioned alongside some all-time great cover designs -- I deserve no credit for mine whatsoever!
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Drafting the Past @draftingthepast.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We picked some of our favorite nonfiction history book covers in recent memory. See what made our list and why, and tell us what you would add! www.draftingthepast.com/12-history-b... #booksky
draftingthepast.com
12 History Book Covers We Love
The covers of history books don't always stand out for their design, but these do.
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Ben Bowsher @benbowsher.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Opening this Sunday, things are manic but hopefully will have a peaceful yet vibrant space for people to buy books and printed goods, sit down for a coffee, and start to build coherent leftwing community. Please drop by or give this a share.
Flyer with an Image of the books from below shop front, which is green and emblazoned with the logo and text saying “radical books, printed goods, coffee and teas.”

Text of the flyer says “Big News! We are opening this Sunday, 27.09.26. Opening hours: Wednesday - Friday 09:00 - 17:00, Saturday 10:00 - 17:00, Sunday 10:00 - 16:00
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
to put this in perspective, a 14 point edge would put states like Tennessee, Utah, Louisiana, and Mississippi in play. Another way to say this is if all states swung 14 points towards the Democrats from 2024, counting independents, Dems would gain a filibuster-proof 60-40 Senate majority.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
anyone know academic indexers interested in work coming up imminently (it’s a multi authored handbook style publication)? self promo welcome!
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Call for Papers – A World of a Thousand Cuts: Forests, Wood, and Industrialisation Across the Globe in the 19th and 20th Centuries 6-8 July, 2027, hosted by the University of Turin Proposal Deadline: 30 November 2026 niche-canada.org/2026/09/17/c... #envhist #foresthistory #globalhistory
niche-canada.org
Call for Papers - A World of a Thousand Cuts: Forests, Wood, and Industrialisation Across the Globe in the 19th and 20th Centuries
This 2027 University of Turin conference re-examines 19th-20th-century global industrialisation by exploring how timber's ongoing role reshaped world forests.
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
100% -- I would gladly do this!
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Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A few weekends ago I went to Miami and attended 9 open houses in extremely high-risk flood areas to see what agents are telling prospective buyers about them. Here is my journey
heated.world
The open houses at the edge of disaster
What are buyers being told about climate risk in Miami? I posed as one to find out.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Publication day for my new book, Property Values! Get it while you can. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Picture of Property Values by Joshua Specht
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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A pattern i've noticed since working on opening a radical bookshop: Troskyites get in touch to donate books while Stalinists get in touch to sell you books.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026
Once you understand the corporate culture of AI hyperscalers is everyone cooking their brains by locking themselves in the bathroom, holding flashlights under their chins, and saying "Aaaaaaaaaay Eyeeeeeee" until they wet themselves in terror, things snap into focus: pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/a...
A cutaway view of a stone tower containing an elaborate water-powered medieval geared machine. Rising out of the machine is a rainbow-tinted, pixelated God with the robes, beard and all. To one side of this scene is a cluster of tiny people in Jesus-era robes, falling about themselves in religious ecstasy all over a stone staircase, atop of which stands a robed priest with his hands upraised. The background is a set of shining golden rays, emanating from pixel-God.
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The UK is a strange place to live sometimes. (This is a slug, hanging out on the rubber mat where we keep our dog's water bowl. This is... nowhere near the outside world, and we don't tend to keep doors or windows open.)
A slug, speckled two shades of brown, just chilling on a gray rubber mat, in an indoor space.
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In Property Values, @joshspecht.bsky.social reveals why housing affordability has posed significant challenges to the nation’s politics & promise since the founding, & why the American story has always been one about land. Available Sept 15 (10 Nov UK pub). Read a free preview: buff.ly/QOksg52
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht. A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
ok seriously the risk isn’t superintelligent AI, it’s that the cost of seriously incapacitating hacks is decreasing on a daily basis. entire critical infrastructure is built on things we *know* to have multiple zero day exploits, single points of failure etc, and these technologies are like locusts
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Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
If you've been reading a lot about climate change and insurance and you were curious what insurance companies were up to *before* everything felt like a crisis, check out our new paper! Edoardo di Vincenzo and I trace how the American insurance industry planned for climate change starting in 2012.
osf.io
OSF
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daniela russ @ueberdruss.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
you can find me talking about this in the following places: Sep 21, CHESS, Yale University, 4-6pm Sep 23, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 6-8pm Oct 19, IfS Frankfurt, 6-8pm Oct 21, HIS Hamburg (with Dietmar Dath), 6-8pm Nov 5-8, HM London Nov 17, KTH Anthropocene History Institute, 1-3pm
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Does anyone have a piece they love that explains/explores the idea of a "historical method?" Or related matters, like "what do historians do that is distinctive to our field?" (Self-promotion welcome!) #skystorians
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I'm uncomfortable with self-promotion, but I'm sure some folks have missed it, so here goes: Are you interested in a history of migrants workers battling climate disasters and navigating energy transitions? Or perhaps in a gripping story of turn-of-the-20th-century America? Get my book!
press.princeton.edu
The Hobo
A panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Does anyone have a piece they love that explains/explores the idea of a "historical method?" Or related matters, like "what do historians do that is distinctive to our field?" (Self-promotion welcome!) #skystorians
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Becky Hammer @beckyhammer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've been tasked to cover data center issues at work recently and I've learned some interesting things about data centers' environmental impacts that I thought I'd share Some really unexpected stuff beyond the energy/water stuff most people know about at this point
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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It's a fantastic month for climate history! Matt Shutzer and @robertsuits.bsky.social have each done some fantastically inventive and insightful work here, bringing historical analysis to bear on very different aspects of the climate crisis - get your copies while they're hot!
Copies of Matt Shutzer's Until the Last Ton and Robert Suits' The Hobo sitting on a table
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
first of all, how dare you?
Text from a word doc, "...in a copse of trees?", with "copse" underlined in red as a possible mispelling
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Robert Heinze @rheinze.myatproto.social · 24/08/2026
Can any historian help out? 🗃️
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Ben Miller @benwritesthings.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
academic freedom isn’t a standard that sometimes gets broached: for most scholars under 50, it’s fundamentally nonexistent in the west right now
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Ben Bowsher @benbowsher.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Books From Below, Newcastle’s upcoming radical bookstore just found itself a home. Give me a message if you are able to help in any of the ways listed below! If you can’t help, no worries just give this post a like and repost it, thank you!
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis. @joshspecht.bsky.social's new book, Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner, arrives September 15 (10 November UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
some publishing VP really is trying to hit me up with their personal email which happens to be "theirname.hackettpublishing.forreal@gmail.com" and they're so confused why it's not working
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JD Roberts @jdroberts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Maybe I'm just underslept from working nights at my non-history job, but the question of whether AI can do historical research (it can't) seems a bit secondary to me when so few trained historians are doing history because there's no jobs in it
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Molly Warsh @mwarsh.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Iberianists, job alert! Hong Kong University’s History Department is hiring a specialist in early modern global Iberian Empires. Check it out below. #earlymodern #iberianists #globalhistory #skystorians
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Martin D.B. Brown @martindbbrown.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Bodies, Tides, Timber, and the Global History of London’s Docks, 1860–1928* academic.oup.com/past/article...
academic.oup.com
Bodies, Tides, Timber, and the Global History of London’s Docks, 1860–1928*
Abstract. This article examines changes in the bodies and environment of labourers carrying timber imported into London’s docks in the 1860s to the 1920s t
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Somewhere there really is someone running an online book club with tens of thousands of active users looking to host authors, and they can't get anyone to read their emails.
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Today is the first day I saw my own book in the wild!!!
Me, pointing to a copy of The Hobo on a shelf. Hey, while you're here, why not buy a copy? I did the alt text for the images in the book myself, too!!! https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691284668/the-hobo
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The Hobo by @robertsuits.bsky.social is a panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants. Now available worldwide! Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #History
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants by Robert Suits
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
If you are in the UK, you can get my book, The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants, TOMORROW! This one snuck up on me during a busy summer, but very excited to potentially bump into it in the wild. Order it to your local bookstore or library! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
The Hobo
A panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
If you are in the UK, you can get my book, The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants, TOMORROW! This one snuck up on me during a busy summer, but very excited to potentially bump into it in the wild. Order it to your local bookstore or library! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
The Hobo
A panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants
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Emily Webster, PhD, MSc @emilywebz.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Fancy spending some time with a wide range of rare documents in a lovely cathedral city? Check out Durham’s collections fellowships! durhamcollections.org.uk
durhamcollections.org.uk
Durham Collections Fellowships
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 30/07/2026
The major problem with this breezily depoliticised headspace is that it is specifically the speed, scale and geographic concentration of data centre demand growth that tends to make it specifically consume fossil fuels over renewable energy
O • Sd
For those worried about the climate impacts
of data centers and Al. how that electricity is
generated arguably matters more than how
much it uses.
A query sewed by a data center on a coal-
dominated grid will have a much larger impact
than one running on a renewables- or nuclear-
heavy one.
How the growth of Al affects emissions
depends not just on its energy efficiency and
demand. but also on how clean the grids are
that supply it
— nannah Ritchie
-4 Read in article:
L*ed by 2.23:S
O What dæs the data say üut Al
i_æ?— more
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Sarah Wieten @sarahwieten.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
My English History isn't always what it could be- did any authors of "An Agreement of the People" (thought to be Walwyn and Wildman perhaps among others) at the Putney Debates advocate for giving women the vote as well? Can you share to help me find the right historians on here?
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AskHistorians @askhistorians.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Its #AMA time #Skystorians! @robertsuits.bsky.social, author of The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants, joins us! This is your chance to ask questions about migrant work, climate, or the environment in the United States at the turn of the 20th cent! old.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
old.reddit.com
I'm a historian of hobos. AMA
Hey everyone! I'm Robert Suits, environmental historian and author of the new book, [The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate...
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Dan Howlett @dhowlett1692.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Today @robertsuits.bsky.social joins us on @askhistorians.bsky.social to discuss The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants. Come check it out! www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
reddit.com
From the AskHistorians community on Reddit: I'm a historian of hobos. AMA
Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community
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daniela russ @ueberdruss.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Wrote a review essay of four new-ish books on Soviet energy and resource history for @kritikajournal.bsky.social. They're different in terms of scope, archival depth, and the extent to which they take the materiality of resources into account – but I enjoyed them all! muse.jhu.edu/pub/28/artic...
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Martin Knoll @mknoll.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
www.eseh2027.at Call is out now! See you in #Salzburg ! @eseh.bsky.social @esehnextgate.bsky.social #EnvHist #EnvHum
Photography of Salzburg University Unipark campus, c Martin Knoll
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
This morning in 1979 at 5:30 AM MDT, at Church Rock, New Mexico, a 50-foot earthen dam containing the radioactive and toxic byproducts of a United Nuclear Corporation uranium mine failed, resulting in the largest single unintentional release of radioactive materials in the United States.
A color photograph of Church Rock, New Mexico, showing a weathered mountaintop resembling a church.A color photograph showing the large breach in the earthen dam, through which 94 million gallons of radioactive and highly acidic water flowed into the Rio Puerco and across Navajo lands as far as 50 miles downstream.
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UCL History @uclhistory.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
How have trade, migration, religion, and empire shaped the western Indian Ocean? 🌍🌊 Dr Fabian Krautwald brought together scholars at the University of Dar es Salaam to explore these questions and strengthen research links between UDSM and UCL 💬 shorturl.at/QKeJv
shorturl.at
Between Dhows and Dukas: Racial Capitalism, Religion, and Belonging
On 9–10 July 2026, Dr Fabian Krautwald convened a British Academy-funded workshop at the University of Dar es Salaam on East Africa's historic ties to the western Indian Ocean.
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Robert Suits @robertsuits.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
A free preview of the introduction of my book is available from the press, if you want to try a sample!
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
"The Hobo achieves the very best of history, providing not only new information about an old story, but new concepts to understand it.”—Todd DePastino, author of Citizen Hobo The Hobo by @robertsuits.bsky.social is out now (11 Aug UK pub)! Read a free preview: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants by Robert Suits. A panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants.
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Jack Swab @jswab.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Currently working on a book about Sanborn maps and their history. The company was the largest employer of cartographers until the 1940s, and provided employment for hundreds of women too! www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
Beyond ‘Clerical Cartography’: Gender and the (Re)Production of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Building on recent scholarship, this paper examines the gendered divisions of labour in the production of fire insurance maps for the Sanborn Map Company. As a major producer of map titles in the U...
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Katherine Arnold @arnoldke.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🚨 JOB KLAXON #skystorians #envhist #envhums Cover for some of my teaching next year - 0.5 FTE at University of Liverpool. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSE899/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching & Scholarship) (0.5 FTE)- Grade 7 at University of Liverpool
Apply now for the Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching & Scholarship) (0.5 FTE)- Grade 7 role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
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