Enjoyable debate at University of Exeter last night, narrowly winning the vote for ‘This house believes decolonisation ended Empire in name only’. In case of interest, my referenced notes for the proposition available here. Thanks for the invitation!

alanlester.co.uk/blog/this-ho...

@yalebooks.bsky.social have outdone themselves with the cover of my new book. Out in January for anyone interested.

I've just submitted An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class to my publisher, Verso.

My book explores how a British working class which was powerfully grounded in politics, the economy and culture has been unmade since the 1960s. An Injury to All is due for publication next year!

Tonight I finished a complete redraft of my book, An Injury To All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class.

There's only formatting and a last proof read to go!

Attention #Scottish #History folks - a wonderful new publication from @sallytuckett.bsky.social! Transatlantic Threads published by @edinburghup.bsky.social

The Welsh university 'regulator' is 100%, 180 degrees wrong here. Hacking away at Welsh universities like this will *not* secure 'longer term sustainability': it will hasten their decline.

This was an upsetting meeting on so many levels. Spare a thought please for my colleagues and me. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The James A. Rawley Prize of @historians.org in the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century -
"Traders in Men" by Nicholas Radburn
#slaveryhistory #atlantichistory

There is an incredible amount of misinformation out there about the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of slavery that spans the political spectrum. One side castigates Lincoln and his proclamation while the other side argues that it changed nothing. 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/the-emanci...

1/7 This is the key development in the culture war over the history of Empire that I’d anticipate in 2025:

The cast: a director of the Bank of England / Cuban copper mine promoter-cum-enslaver; an Anglican priest / Royal Naval chaplain on anti-slavery patrol in the Mozambique Channel; an on-the-run swindler in France, Morocco, and Argentina / Confederate secret agent.

Locations: Sierra Leone in the 1810s, Cuba in the 1830s, The Cape in the 1840s, Kentucky in the 1860s.

First draft complete! “Slavery’s Long Goodbye: Capitalism, Nationalism and Christianity in the Age of British Emancipation”. All 140,000 words of it. Rather more than the Press is bargaining on.

First draft complete! “Slavery’s Long Goodbye: Capitalism, Nationalism and Christianity in the Age of British Emancipation”. All 140,000 words of it. Rather more than the Press is bargaining on.

Thank you to mi amiga Julie for this gift from Mexico. Blast furnace biography is a genre I’d like to see more of.