Erik Linstrum
@eriklinstrum.bsky.social
Historian of Britain, empire, and decolonization at the University of Virginia. Author of AGE OF EMERGENCY: LIVING WITH VIOLENCE AT THE END OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Spending the 2024-25 year at The Huntington Library in California.
Pinned
My book, Age of Emergency, is out now. It’s about how colonial violence comes home and what it means to live with warfare that is simultaneously distant and present, unsettling and unstoppable, existential and futile.
Christmas come early! My two picks for Books of the Year at History Today are out in print: Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell and What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala
November 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Christmas come early! My two picks for Books of the Year at History Today are out in print: Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell and What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
For those that missed this truly excellent review of my book.
‘In pursuing its goal of globalising the story of slavery, the Maritime Museum has inadvertently enabled some (white) Liverpudlians to reduce the city’s own role in transatlantic slavery to, as one resident put it, a “mere footnote”.’
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite · Holed below the Waterline: Liverpool’s Losses
Liverpool’s explosive growth followed the construction of a deep-water port in 1715. Soon it was a centre of the...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 3:10 PM
For those that missed this truly excellent review of my book.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...
Duncan Tanner Prize 2025
The Duncan Tanner Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. Entrants submit an article manuscript.
academic.oup.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 PM
the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
"Making the unvarnished and unbounded history of empire a part of British heritage — making it, in other words, a past that people recognize as their own — will not be easy."
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:19 PM
"Making the unvarnished and unbounded history of empire a part of British heritage — making it, in other words, a past that people recognize as their own — will not be easy."
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:23 PM
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.
How useful will AI be when it puts all reliable sources of information on the Web out of business?
October 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
How useful will AI be when it puts all reliable sources of information on the Web out of business?
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
In 2011 the British Government was forced to release tens of thousands of secretly held colonial documents from its archives. But 88,000 files on Britain's last colony remain withheld from the public.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Memory Exiled
Matthew Hurst explores the 'politics of forgetting' through the missing files of the Hong Kong colonial archive.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
October 21, 2025 at 6:01 AM
In 2011 the British Government was forced to release tens of thousands of secretly held colonial documents from its archives. But 88,000 files on Britain's last colony remain withheld from the public.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Their vandalism has graduated from the metaphorical to the literal
October 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Their vandalism has graduated from the metaphorical to the literal
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.
October 18, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
We are delighted to announce that MBS2026 will be held at the University of Birmingham, 3-5 June 2026!
Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.
For any questions please contact [email protected]
Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.
For any questions please contact [email protected]
Modern British Studies Conference 2026 - University of Birmingham
Conference information
www.birmingham.ac.uk
October 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
We are delighted to announce that MBS2026 will be held at the University of Birmingham, 3-5 June 2026!
Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.
For any questions please contact [email protected]
Papers may consider the opening day's theme of 'Polycrisis', but we also welcome all submissions related to modern British studies.
For any questions please contact [email protected]
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
BOOM!
After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,
UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!
✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾
M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️
This is People Power in Action.
#DefendHigherEd
After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,
UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!
✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾
M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️
This is People Power in Action.
#DefendHigherEd
October 17, 2025 at 9:19 PM
BOOM!
After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,
UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!
✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾
M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️
This is People Power in Action.
#DefendHigherEd
After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe,
UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH!
✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾
M.I.T. ☑️
BROWN ☑️
PENN ☑️
USC☑️
UVA ☑️
This is People Power in Action.
#DefendHigherEd
UVA says NO to the "compact"
October 17, 2025 at 8:50 PM
UVA says NO to the "compact"
Your turn, UVA
Penn joins MIT and Brown in saying “no” to Trump extortion move.
Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment
With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.
www.thedp.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Your turn, UVA
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
And now Brown University has rejected the Trump Loyalty Oath. Two down and seven to go! @aaup.org @aaupbrownchapter.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
Brown University Rejects White House Deal for Special Treatment
www.nytimes.com
October 15, 2025 at 7:49 PM
And now Brown University has rejected the Trump Loyalty Oath. Two down and seven to go! @aaup.org @aaupbrownchapter.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
Friday at noon, the day before the 🚫👑 protest, show up to encourage UVA to resist DOJ extortion of higher education.
October 14, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Friday at noon, the day before the 🚫👑 protest, show up to encourage UVA to resist DOJ extortion of higher education.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
Student government leaders of MIT, UVA, U of AZ, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, and Vanderbilt united in their opposition to the "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
October 13, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Student government leaders of MIT, UVA, U of AZ, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, and Vanderbilt united in their opposition to the "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
If anything is broken with academia, it might be allowing rich donors to run the place
October 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
If anything is broken with academia, it might be allowing rich donors to run the place
Your turn, UVA
MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart
orgchart.mit.edu
October 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Your turn, UVA
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
#JustIn: Democrats in the state Senate say "future budget considerations" could impact UVA if it signs onto the Trump administration's education compact.
State Senate Democrats tell UVA to not consider education compact
Democrats in the state Senate write that if UVA signs the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, “there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles.”
www.cbs19news.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:07 PM
#JustIn: Democrats in the state Senate say "future budget considerations" could impact UVA if it signs onto the Trump administration's education compact.
Some thoughts I've shared with the Board of Visitors at UVA
October 7, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Some thoughts I've shared with the Board of Visitors at UVA
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
"Any university leader who signs on to this compact would betray everything good and solid about the university and would do deep and permanent harm to the United States and the world." @sivav.bsky.social
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down
How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education
newrepublic.com
October 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
"Any university leader who signs on to this compact would betray everything good and solid about the university and would do deep and permanent harm to the United States and the world." @sivav.bsky.social
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...
ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”
ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...
www.acls.org
October 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...