Duncan Money
@mininghistory.bsky.social
7.2K followers 590 following 1.5K posts
Historian and consultant. I work on mining, labour, migration and Southern Africa. More on https://duncan.money Contact: [email protected]
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Duncan Money
scarcerc.bsky.social
🌟 Join us for the first talk of this semester's colloquium series! 🌟Hailian Chen is presenting "Mining Knowledge from Field to University: The Rise of Engineering Education in Late Imperial China"
📅 Date: October 20, 2025
⏰ Time: 3:00–4:30 PM CET
Registration and more info: bit.ly/47mN3sS
#histSci
Mining Knowledge from Field to University: The Rise of Engineering Education in Late Imperial China
SCARCE Colloquium Speaker: Hailian Chen (Ruhr-Universität, Bochum) University of Vienna Hybrid Event
bit.ly
mininghistory.bsky.social
I did some research for a client about diamond mining last year and have subsequently had more media requests about diamonds than everything else put together.
mininghistory.bsky.social
Recorded an interview this morning for the German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk about the recent history of the diamond industry.
Reposted by Duncan Money
royalhistsoc.org
Jamie's is the second article in a new, occasional series on 'Archive Encounters' for Transactions.

Earlier this year, we heard from Sauda Nabukenya on 'Rethinking Law through Vernacular Records: Archive Encounters and the Recovery of Native Court Records in Uganda': bit.ly/47nHzhB #Skystorians 2/2
Opening page of the TRHS article: 'Rethinking Law through Vernacular Records: Archive Encounters and the Recovery of Native Court Records in Uganda' by Sauda Nabukenya. 

Full abstract: "This article reflects on my experience recovering and organising two judicial archives in Uganda — the High Court and Mengo Court archives — which had long been neglected due to bureaucratic disinterest and legal hierarchies inherited from the colonial period. Together, these archives contained over 150,000 uncatalogued case files documenting how ordinary Ugandans used both native and colonial British courts to contest injustice and claim rights. Their exclusion from formal archives was not incidental; it reflected a legal order that considered British colonial statutes, appellate decisions and English-language records as authoritative expression of law, while dismissing native court records, as informal without precedential value and unworthy of preservation. Drawing on critical scholarship and my own archival experience, I argue that the archive of law should not be seen merely as a collection of sources or as sites of power and knowledge, but as a space where legal authority and legitimacy are produced, preserved, and erased. The recovery of these records not only unearthed a neglected legal history shaped by ordinary people but also challenges dominant narratives of legal authority in Africa. This work also exposed the omissions in the archival collections, the influence of colonial memory, and the importance of vernacular legal records for both historical research and contemporary legal practice."
Reposted by Duncan Money
royalhistsoc.org
New in Transactions: 'Russian History without Russia: Archive Encounters in an Era of Restricted Access', by Jamie Bryson bit.ly/3IUFMr5

What's the experience of an independent early career historian of Russia today? What are the challenges since 2022 of conducting research at distance? 1/2
Opening page of Russian History without Russia: Archive Encounters in an Era of Restricted Access by Jamie Bryson. Full abstract: 'This comment is the personal reflection of an early career historian on the challenges of working on Russian history during a time of geopolitical change and declining access. As libraries and archives in the Russian Federation become increasingly difficult to use following the invasion of Ukraine, early-career and younger historians are being forced to adopt remote or indirect methods of research due to formal and informal barriers. I reflect on some of the ethical, practical and epistemological dilemmas of conducting historical investigations at a distance, drawing chiefly on my own experiences working on the tsarist secret police during the First World War. I argue that this is not a return to Cold War constraints, but a new era that demands fresh strategies and a redefinition of expertise.'
mininghistory.bsky.social
Thanks! Hope it's useful.
mininghistory.bsky.social
Thanks to George Bishi, Jeremy Krikler and Karen Harris for their close engagement with my work and for raising questions I don't have ready answers to.
mininghistory.bsky.social
I argue that migration linked individual regions more than nation states. Accordingly, imperial connections mattered much more in some places than others.

Some places across empire were closely connected, and others were not.
mininghistory.bsky.social
Historians are forever discovering 'vanished worlds' and I've found another one: Cumberland miners on South Africa's Rand.

Very happy that my article on the topic has been published alongside responses from three historians who I greatly respect:

upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/hi...
View of Perspectives: The Place of Regions in Transnational Connections
upjournals.up.ac.za
Reposted by Duncan Money
samwetherell.bsky.social
This new piece by @hornseyhq.bsky.social in Modern British Studies looks fascinating: Factory tourism in inter-war Britain: the spectacular construction of social-democratic mass production.
mininghistory.bsky.social
Great news Alex, well done.
Reposted by Duncan Money
workingclasshistory.com
#OtD 11 Oct 1884 one of the longest-burning fires in the world began when striking miners set fire to the New Straitsville mine in Ohio. Miners walked out in Jun and were replaced by scabs, so strikers set mines on fire. It is still burning today stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1107...
Reposted by Duncan Money
mininglandscapes.bsky.social
#MiningLandscapes #Ecomuseum has added a new blog to it’s collection 👉 www.mining-landscapes.org/blog an engaging read by former miner David Higgins describing his work at the mine and life in a pit village (Part II out early Nov) #Ayrshire #MiningHistory
mininghistory.bsky.social
This is a good example of changing perceptions of old age and gerontocracy. Andropov was 69 when he died.
mininghistory.bsky.social
The physical archive has also been fully catalogued, organised and re-boxed for preservation, thanks to support from @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social
mininghistory.bsky.social
Our project to digitise the Zambia Congress of Trade Union archives has now been scanning documents for a year. Over 80,000 pages scanned so far, despite severe power shortages in Zambia!
Photo of a two-storey building with cars parked next to it. On the wall of the building is a sign reading "ZCTU HQ Solidarity House"
Underneath the sign is a red banner reading "Zambia Congress of Trade Unions #Solidarityforever"
mininghistory.bsky.social
It's a real historical irony. Maybe he felt some guilt on his deathbed...
mininghistory.bsky.social
The rest are but the Peace Prize is administered in Norway for some reason.
Reposted by Duncan Money
jonpiccini.bsky.social
So I submitted the complete manuscript of my new book to the publisher. Hope it'll be out in the world late next year. It's about why Australia's role as an overseas coloniser was strikingly obvious to all and sundry till the 1970s, then was abruptly (and conveniently) forgotten.
Reposted by Duncan Money
70sbachchan.bsky.social
how many times did you see a Hamas war-room or Iran's underground bunker?
+972 magazine investigates IDF videos: "serious spatial inaccuracies or prefabricated assets—sourced not from classified intelligence but rather from commercial libraries, content creators..."
www.972mag.com/israeli-army...
How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda
An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.
www.972mag.com
Reposted by Duncan Money
africaneconhist.bsky.social
We are pleased to announce our new Special Issue 53.1 which is #OpenAccess thanks to support from Kanazawa University Our guest editors @gareth-austin.bsky.social and @toyomumasaki.bsky.social on Currency Transitions in West Africa. We will be highlighting articles from it in the coming days!
Reposted by Duncan Money
tomwestland.bsky.social
CALL FOR PAPERS
A workshop at LSE next April on 'Uses and Abuses of the Murdock Atlas in Social Science Research'. We're looking for cross-disciplinary engagement to think critically about what this widely used source means, what it can & can't tell us. Submit by Nov 14
www.lse.ac.uk/economic-his...
Uses and abuses of the Murdock Atlas in social science research
www.lse.ac.uk
Reposted by Duncan Money
rhaplord.bsky.social
We don't get a lot of books on African economic history, but the few we have are all gems

This one on “Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola” begins with a scathing critique of theories of land abundance
(the claim that land wasn't considered property in pre-colonial Africa)
Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola: A History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality
by
Mariana P. Candido