Helen McCarthy
@historianhelen.bsky.social
Cambridge Historian, London-dweller, author of Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood, now writing the social history of retirement for Penguin/Allen Lane. https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/prof-helen-mccarthy
Pinned
New article (OA): Helen McCarthy @historianhelen.bsky.social on 'Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain'
academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain*
Abstract. This article explores how Britons envisaged and planned for the end of working life across the second half of the twentieth century. It shows how
academic.oup.com
Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
How to finance old age has been a problem since the inception of Britain’s welfare state. Why is #pensionreform so difficult?
🔓 Chris Renwick’s new Behind the Times is free for 7 days
www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...
🔓 Chris Renwick’s new Behind the Times is free for 7 days
www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...
The Problem with Britain’s Pensions
www.historytoday.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:40 PM
How to finance old age has been a problem since the inception of Britain’s welfare state. Why is #pensionreform so difficult?
🔓 Chris Renwick’s new Behind the Times is free for 7 days
www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...
🔓 Chris Renwick’s new Behind the Times is free for 7 days
www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...
Asked a question about beer-poking yesterday. Bluesky delivered👇
Reading about an old lady, early 20th century, who celebrated collecting her weekly pension by sending a niece to fetch half a pint of stout from the beer-shop. 'She had the poker in the fire,' the niece recalls, 'they used to put it into the stout.'
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
November 20, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Asked a question about beer-poking yesterday. Bluesky delivered👇
Reading about an old lady, early 20th century, who celebrated collecting her weekly pension by sending a niece to fetch half a pint of stout from the beer-shop. 'She had the poker in the fire,' the niece recalls, 'they used to put it into the stout.'
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
November 19, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reading about an old lady, early 20th century, who celebrated collecting her weekly pension by sending a niece to fetch half a pint of stout from the beer-shop. 'She had the poker in the fire,' the niece recalls, 'they used to put it into the stout.'
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
Help me: WHY WOULD YOU PUT A HOT POKER IN BEER?
How do I stop Outlook cutely animating the word ‘congratulations’ every time I use it in an email? It’s channelling Trolls glitter scrapbooking vibes which is doing nothing for my scholarly gravitas.
November 18, 2025 at 12:54 PM
How do I stop Outlook cutely animating the word ‘congratulations’ every time I use it in an email? It’s channelling Trolls glitter scrapbooking vibes which is doing nothing for my scholarly gravitas.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
NEWS: In a moving and poignant case study for modern heritage, the government has announced that the National Covid Memorial Wall in Lambeth will be permanently preserved, less than five years after its creation. Detailed feasibility studies will determine the best methods of ongoing conservation.
November 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
NEWS: In a moving and poignant case study for modern heritage, the government has announced that the National Covid Memorial Wall in Lambeth will be permanently preserved, less than five years after its creation. Detailed feasibility studies will determine the best methods of ongoing conservation.
Yes, I thought this. Weird to resign rather than sacking the people who were, you know, actually responsible for the dodgy Panorama edit.
Davie's resignation statement suggests he'd just had enough rather than feeling he had to resign over this particular issue.
November 9, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Yes, I thought this. Weird to resign rather than sacking the people who were, you know, actually responsible for the dodgy Panorama edit.
Commuting is such sweet spectatorship. I glory as the white-haired man clutching the pink Royal Academy of Arts carrier bag barrels on at Hammersmith within a whisker of the carriage doors sliding shut.
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Commuting is such sweet spectatorship. I glory as the white-haired man clutching the pink Royal Academy of Arts carrier bag barrels on at Hammersmith within a whisker of the carriage doors sliding shut.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001?
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
October 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001?
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Were there a banter test I surely would fail it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Prince Harry says 'banter' is what he loves about Britishness
The Duke of Sussex says humour and self-deprecation are what he loves about Britain, in an essay for Remembrance.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Were there a banter test I surely would fail it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
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...
An evening on Southbank with the peerless Zadie Smith. She talked about needing love - as opposed to critical attention and good faith - from readers as antithetical to honest writing, but we loved her anyway.
November 2, 2025 at 9:31 PM
An evening on Southbank with the peerless Zadie Smith. She talked about needing love - as opposed to critical attention and good faith - from readers as antithetical to honest writing, but we loved her anyway.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
Matt Goodwin attributes a crime that he now knows appears to have been committed by people born in Britain in the early 1990s to "mass uncontrolled immigration"
November 2, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Matt Goodwin attributes a crime that he now knows appears to have been committed by people born in Britain in the early 1990s to "mass uncontrolled immigration"
Interesting conversation with a colleague about integrating elements of fiction into scholarly writing. My view: historians can deploy novelistic devices to tell the story, set the scene, make the actors vivid etc, but I don't actually want them to make stuff up (even if they say they're doing it)
October 30, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Interesting conversation with a colleague about integrating elements of fiction into scholarly writing. My view: historians can deploy novelistic devices to tell the story, set the scene, make the actors vivid etc, but I don't actually want them to make stuff up (even if they say they're doing it)
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
🚨We’re hiring a Junior Research Fellow in Economic History (Sept 2026–Aug 2029) at Wadham College, University of Oxford. It’s a genuinely supportive place to work. Happy to answer any questions. Spread the word!
www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about/the-da...
www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about/the-da...
The David Richards Junior Research Fellowship in Economic History
Wadham College invites applications for a fixed-term Junior Research Fellowship in Economic History, named the David Richards Fellowship, September 2026 – August 2029.
www.wadham.ox.ac.uk
October 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
🚨We’re hiring a Junior Research Fellow in Economic History (Sept 2026–Aug 2029) at Wadham College, University of Oxford. It’s a genuinely supportive place to work. Happy to answer any questions. Spread the word!
www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about/the-da...
www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/about/the-da...
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
If the model here is that you let a private company conquer a country, co-opt local elites to exploit it for profit and govern it by force, while providing no public services and never worrying about elections, then, yes - this is a really good analogy, Mr Kruger.
October 29, 2025 at 9:51 AM
If the model here is that you let a private company conquer a country, co-opt local elites to exploit it for profit and govern it by force, while providing no public services and never worrying about elections, then, yes - this is a really good analogy, Mr Kruger.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!
October 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
🎉We are pleased to announce new Applied History Fellowships in partnership with @royalhistsoc.org & @findmypast.bsky.social.
Join us on the 19 November at our launch event to find out more about the Fellowships and how to apply:
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Join us on the 19 November at our launch event to find out more about the Fellowships and how to apply:
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
October 27, 2025 at 9:38 AM
🎉We are pleased to announce new Applied History Fellowships in partnership with @royalhistsoc.org & @findmypast.bsky.social.
Join us on the 19 November at our launch event to find out more about the Fellowships and how to apply:
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Join us on the 19 November at our launch event to find out more about the Fellowships and how to apply:
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Am belatedly reading Intermezzo and I’d forgotten, Sally Rooney really doesn’t like sentences, does she? (Or plot.)
October 26, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Am belatedly reading Intermezzo and I’d forgotten, Sally Rooney really doesn’t like sentences, does she? (Or plot.)
The foyer at the National Archives is currently home to a Slow Horses/Netflix tie-in MI5-themed display, but honestly there aren’t sufficient numbers of empty whiskey bottles or discarded takeaway containers to be truly convincing.
October 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The foyer at the National Archives is currently home to a Slow Horses/Netflix tie-in MI5-themed display, but honestly there aren’t sufficient numbers of empty whiskey bottles or discarded takeaway containers to be truly convincing.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
In my post for Imperial & Global Forum (@exeter.ac.uk), I compare how different colonial governments handled records towards the end of the British Empire imperialglobalexeter.com/2025/10/16/d...
Based on my paper in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (OA) doi.org/10.1080/0308...
Based on my paper in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (OA) doi.org/10.1080/0308...
October 16, 2025 at 8:58 AM
In my post for Imperial & Global Forum (@exeter.ac.uk), I compare how different colonial governments handled records towards the end of the British Empire imperialglobalexeter.com/2025/10/16/d...
Based on my paper in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (OA) doi.org/10.1080/0308...
Based on my paper in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (OA) doi.org/10.1080/0308...
Using generative AI to access practical information is a bit like asking a distracted teenager what time their school concert starts, or when their homework is due. The answer *might* be right, but you feel as though you probably ought to check just in case.
October 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Using generative AI to access practical information is a bit like asking a distracted teenager what time their school concert starts, or when their homework is due. The answer *might* be right, but you feel as though you probably ought to check just in case.
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
Modern British Studies Conference 2026 - University of Birmingham
Conference information
www.birmingham.ac.uk
October 16, 2025 at 8:47 PM
We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
Reposted by Helen McCarthy
“Critical” skills shortages : ‘authors, writers, translators ‘ …
Authors, writers and translators are expected to be protected from a crackdown on UK working visas after being identified as occupations suffering from “critical” skills shortages 👇
Authors, writers and translators 'exempt' from crackdown on working visas
ebx.sh
October 10, 2025 at 8:47 PM
“Critical” skills shortages : ‘authors, writers, translators ‘ …