Emile Chabal
@emile-chabal.bsky.social
Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Edinburgh. Historian of 20thC France/Europe (especially politics & ideas), intellectual history, Marxism, Hobsbawm. Editor of Contemporary European History.
More about me: https://emilechabal.com/
More about me: https://emilechabal.com/
Pinned
Emile Chabal
@emile-chabal.bsky.social
· Aug 26
Even after all these years, holding a real book you've written never, ever gets old. Especially if it's your first book in French. Feeling très emu...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
I wrote something with the wonderful @mcslaven.bsky.social about how the immigration debate in the UK has becoming so mind-bogglingly radicalised.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...
foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...
Britain Is Having the World’s Most Extreme Immigration Debate
The British discourse makes even the Trump administration look moderate.
foreignpolicy.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I wrote something with the wonderful @mcslaven.bsky.social about how the immigration debate in the UK has becoming so mind-bogglingly radicalised.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...
foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...
It seems unreal after so many years in preparation, but my Hobsbawm book is almost there! It now has a front cover and a place on the publisher's website. Publication is due in August.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
The Age of Hobsbawm — Harvard University Press
An intellectual biography of Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was one of the foremost European intellectuals of the twentieth cent...
www.hup.harvard.edu
November 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
It seems unreal after so many years in preparation, but my Hobsbawm book is almost there! It now has a front cover and a place on the publisher's website. Publication is due in August.
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
We don't bite and we publish good stuff. Nuff said.
Contemporary European History is looking to hire a new managing editor — come work with us! 🌟 Deadline is November 30.
@conteurohistory.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
@conteurohistory.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Managing Editor – Call for Applications
Welcome to Cambridge Core
www.cambridge.org
November 3, 2025 at 1:48 PM
We don't bite and we publish good stuff. Nuff said.
Reposted by Emile Chabal
Job Opportunity!
Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History
University of Leeds - Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures - School of History
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPF977/t...
Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History
University of Leeds - Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures - School of History
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPF977/t...
Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History at University of Leeds
Discover Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.
www.jobs.ac.uk
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Job Opportunity!
Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History
University of Leeds - Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures - School of History
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPF977/t...
Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History
University of Leeds - Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures - School of History
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPF977/t...
Just returned from this wonderful workshop we organised as a project team. Such a pleasure to hear amazing young & established researchers speaking about their research. Hooray for academic collaboration!
For more info on our @britishacademy.bsky.social-funded project: hca.ed.ac.uk/history/rese...
For more info on our @britishacademy.bsky.social-funded project: hca.ed.ac.uk/history/rese...
October 29, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Just returned from this wonderful workshop we organised as a project team. Such a pleasure to hear amazing young & established researchers speaking about their research. Hooray for academic collaboration!
For more info on our @britishacademy.bsky.social-funded project: hca.ed.ac.uk/history/rese...
For more info on our @britishacademy.bsky.social-funded project: hca.ed.ac.uk/history/rese...
This is now out in the world - get your copy now! 🙂
Even after all these years, holding a real book you've written never, ever gets old. Especially if it's your first book in French. Feeling très emu...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
October 23, 2025 at 12:32 PM
This is now out in the world - get your copy now! 🙂
I guess France is doing OK if someone has agreed to interview me... 😄
www.lexpress.fr/idees-et-deb...
www.lexpress.fr/idees-et-deb...
"La France ne va pas si mal que ça !" : les paradoxes français analysés par l’historien britannique Emile Chabal
Alors que notre pays est plongé dans une crise politique inédite, le professeur à l’Université d’Edimbourg analyse les contradictions françaises, entre anticapitalisme de façade, réthorique révolution...
www.lexpress.fr
October 13, 2025 at 5:23 PM
I guess France is doing OK if someone has agreed to interview me... 😄
www.lexpress.fr/idees-et-deb...
www.lexpress.fr/idees-et-deb...
Vous voulez comprendre les racines profondes de la crise politique actuelle en France? Quoi de mieux que mon petit livre qui va paraître le 23 octobre et qui traite notamment de la désintégration du paysage politique français!
A commander en librairie ou sur Amazon: www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
A commander en librairie ou sur Amazon: www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
Le paradoxe français: Une nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine
Le paradoxe français: Une nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine : Chabal, Emile: Amazon.fr: Books
www.amazon.fr
October 7, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Vous voulez comprendre les racines profondes de la crise politique actuelle en France? Quoi de mieux que mon petit livre qui va paraître le 23 octobre et qui traite notamment de la désintégration du paysage politique français!
A commander en librairie ou sur Amazon: www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
A commander en librairie ou sur Amazon: www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
I'm not sure what to say about French politics anymore. First as tragedy, then as farce, then as some Czech surrealist movie, then as Sébastien Lecornu..?
October 6, 2025 at 8:39 AM
I'm not sure what to say about French politics anymore. First as tragedy, then as farce, then as some Czech surrealist movie, then as Sébastien Lecornu..?
Reposted by Emile Chabal
🦋 With Bluesky's membership growing, here's a reminder that we've put together not one but TWO starter packs of people, journals and institutions working and publishing in our field.
Follow one contemporary European historian, get 149 free!
go.bsky.app/SU3jCJb
Follow one contemporary European historian, get 149 free!
go.bsky.app/SU3jCJb
October 2, 2025 at 9:45 AM
🦋 With Bluesky's membership growing, here's a reminder that we've put together not one but TWO starter packs of people, journals and institutions working and publishing in our field.
Follow one contemporary European historian, get 149 free!
go.bsky.app/SU3jCJb
Follow one contemporary European historian, get 149 free!
go.bsky.app/SU3jCJb
Reposted by Emile Chabal
Dear Immigrant. When you’ve finished your night shift at A&E, please spend a couple of hours picking litter in the park or we’ll kick you out. Yours, the Labour Party
September 28, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Dear Immigrant. When you’ve finished your night shift at A&E, please spend a couple of hours picking litter in the park or we’ll kick you out. Yours, the Labour Party
I really did love this article I edited! (To see more editorial recommendations, check out the Contemporary European History editorial digest here: tinyurl.com/38p3yxky)
@emile-chabal.bsky.social selected Keely Stauter-Halsted's 'Negotiated Filtration', describing it as a "beautifully written examination of civil servants" in postimperial Poland, "this terrific article tells us an awful lot about how states change (and how they don’t).” [2/7]
tinyurl.com/2sft4fe5
tinyurl.com/2sft4fe5
Negotiated Filtration: The Surprising Fate of Poland's Postimperial Civil Servants | Contemporary European History | Cambridge Core
Negotiated Filtration: The Surprising Fate of Poland's Postimperial Civil Servants
tinyurl.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I really did love this article I edited! (To see more editorial recommendations, check out the Contemporary European History editorial digest here: tinyurl.com/38p3yxky)
Reposted by Emile Chabal
Honestly, there has been enough of UK governments playing political games with immigrants' status. That's what paved the way to the Windrush Scandal. For a Labour government, having pledged to learn the lessons of Windrush, to be doing the same is really bad www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...
September 29, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Honestly, there has been enough of UK governments playing political games with immigrants' status. That's what paved the way to the Windrush Scandal. For a Labour government, having pledged to learn the lessons of Windrush, to be doing the same is really bad www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...
Our collaborative book couldn't be more topical in the light of the recent announcement about digital ID cards. Mike's work on the UK is particularly relevant in thinking about why the UK doesn't have ID cards and what could happen if it tries to implement them.
If you want to know what a new UK digital ID for immigration would mean, read "States of Ignorance" a book that came out of an ESRC project comparing the development of UK control with two countries with ID. From this research, I think it's a dangerous idea 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...
States of Ignorance
Cambridge Core - Twentieth Century European History - States of Ignorance
www.cambridge.org
September 27, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Our collaborative book couldn't be more topical in the light of the recent announcement about digital ID cards. Mike's work on the UK is particularly relevant in thinking about why the UK doesn't have ID cards and what could happen if it tries to implement them.
Sarkozy will actually go to jail? Bloody hell, things are *happening* in French politics. Never a dull moment!
PS. It's OK, I can't follow Sarko's dozens of corruption scandals either.
PS. It's OK, I can't follow Sarko's dozens of corruption scandals either.
September 25, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Sarkozy will actually go to jail? Bloody hell, things are *happening* in French politics. Never a dull moment!
PS. It's OK, I can't follow Sarko's dozens of corruption scandals either.
PS. It's OK, I can't follow Sarko's dozens of corruption scandals either.
Sébastien Lecornu? What a yawnfest. Somehow this end-of-reign Macron regime is managing to be totally unexpected and totally boring all at once.
September 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Sébastien Lecornu? What a yawnfest. Somehow this end-of-reign Macron regime is managing to be totally unexpected and totally boring all at once.
Reposted by Emile Chabal
If you want to reduce small boat crossings, find ways to support the arrival of family members of refugees in the UK so they won't cross irregularly (like existed for family already in the EU pre-Brexit, via the Dublin system). Instead the government is doing something that will worsen the problem
BREAKING: Yvette Cooper says she is suspending all applications to bring family members to the UK under the asylum system.
September 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
If you want to reduce small boat crossings, find ways to support the arrival of family members of refugees in the UK so they won't cross irregularly (like existed for family already in the EU pre-Brexit, via the Dublin system). Instead the government is doing something that will worsen the problem
There's no other way to say it: Macron boxed himself entirely into a corner by calling snap elections in 2024. Sure, there are structural conditions at work, but the responsibility here to a remarkable degree lies with him alone.
www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
Avec la chute annoncée de François Bayrou, Emmanuel Macron face au risque d’un mandat déstabilisé
Bien qu’il ait repoussé le scénario d’une dissolution – qu’une partie de son camp juge inéluctable – et celui de sa démission, la pression des oppositions, le spectre d’un mouvement social d’ampleur e...
www.lemonde.fr
August 30, 2025 at 9:06 AM
There's no other way to say it: Macron boxed himself entirely into a corner by calling snap elections in 2024. Sure, there are structural conditions at work, but the responsibility here to a remarkable degree lies with him alone.
www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
Even after all these years, holding a real book you've written never, ever gets old. Especially if it's your first book in French. Feeling très emu...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
August 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Even after all these years, holding a real book you've written never, ever gets old. Especially if it's your first book in French. Feeling très emu...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
PS. The book is coming out in a few weeks - order from Amazon or anywhere else you get your Francophone books! www.amazon.fr/paradoxe-fra...
I wrote something for the @thetls.bsky.social about the most famous wind in France - the mistral - and an excellent little book that tries to tell a "windswept" history of modern France. www.the-tls.com/world/travel...
Icy blasts from the north have inspired French artists, writers and scientists
For holidaymakers, the Mediterranean evokes sun, sea and sand. But, for those who live there, these clichés are tempered by a climatic phenomenon rarely
www.the-tls.com
August 5, 2025 at 7:01 AM
I wrote something for the @thetls.bsky.social about the most famous wind in France - the mistral - and an excellent little book that tries to tell a "windswept" history of modern France. www.the-tls.com/world/travel...
We're very proud of this - and we hope it'll help people find out more about the really cool things we publish!
You can now keep up with the latest CEH news through our new series of digest blogs! The first edition includes:
🥇 CEH's move to Gold #OpenAccess
📖 Highlighted articles from each of our editors
💻 News about our move to digital-only publication
And more! ⬇️⬇️⬇️
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
🥇 CEH's move to Gold #OpenAccess
📖 Highlighted articles from each of our editors
💻 News about our move to digital-only publication
And more! ⬇️⬇️⬇️
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
Contemporary European History digest, no. 1, January to July 2025 « News# « Cambridge Core Blog
As we - like many other journals - transition towards digital-only publication, we have become acutely aware of how difficult it can be to find out what is happening with Contemporary European History...
www.cambridge.org
July 31, 2025 at 4:26 PM
We're very proud of this - and we hope it'll help people find out more about the really cool things we publish!
Just in time for the new paperback edition of the book!
Thanks to @nandosigona.bsky.social for a very thoughtful review in @migrationjrnl.bsky.social of "States of Ignorance", the book of the "Seeing 'Illegal' Immigrants" project I was proud to work on with @emile-chabal.bsky.social, @christinaboswell.bsky.social & others academic.oup.com/migration/ar...
From ignorance to irregularization: notes on States of Ignorance: Governing Irregular Migrants in Western Europe edited by Christina Boswell and Emile Chabal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20...
States of Ignorance, edited by Christina Boswell and Emil Chabal (Cambridge University Press), offers a compelling theory of “state ignorance” that sheds n
academic.oup.com
July 31, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Just in time for the new paperback edition of the book!
I had the privilege of leaning heavily on Dónal to produce this piece - it's brilliant, go read it!
My first article for the @erc.europa.eu funded COLVET
project has been published Open Access in @conteurohistory.bsky.social. It explores how the Greater War concept might facilitate better engagement with colonial experiences of conflict in the early 20th century www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
project has been published Open Access in @conteurohistory.bsky.social. It explores how the Greater War concept might facilitate better engagement with colonial experiences of conflict in the early 20th century www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Rethinking the Colonial in the Greater War | Contemporary European History | Cambridge Core
Rethinking the Colonial in the Greater War
www.cambridge.org
June 13, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I had the privilege of leaning heavily on Dónal to produce this piece - it's brilliant, go read it!
Excerpt from an article Eric Hobsbawm wrote in 'New Society' upon his return from a stint as visiting professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank in 1983. Some of the anecdotes he recounted in the piece came directly from his rough field notes.
June 3, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Excerpt from an article Eric Hobsbawm wrote in 'New Society' upon his return from a stint as visiting professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank in 1983. Some of the anecdotes he recounted in the piece came directly from his rough field notes.