Maurice J. Casey
@mauricejcasey.com
Historian of intimacy and revolution in 1920s-40s Europe. New project: anti-Nazi vegetarians.
Author of Irish Book Awards shortlisted HOTEL LUX — about a hotel in 1920s Moscow — and radical history newsletter Archive Rats:
archiverats.substack.com
Author of Irish Book Awards shortlisted HOTEL LUX — about a hotel in 1920s Moscow — and radical history newsletter Archive Rats:
archiverats.substack.com
It’s a thematic module focusing on grassroots experiences of ordinary activists. Each week is organised under themes including Fighting, Loving, Conspiring and Dying.
I’ll be unleashing a decade worth of primary sources from 30+ archives on the students.
I’ll be unleashing a decade worth of primary sources from 30+ archives on the students.
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
It’s a thematic module focusing on grassroots experiences of ordinary activists. Each week is organised under themes including Fighting, Loving, Conspiring and Dying.
I’ll be unleashing a decade worth of primary sources from 30+ archives on the students.
I’ll be unleashing a decade worth of primary sources from 30+ archives on the students.
Congrats to Mitchell Abidor on publishing this fascinating and revealing biography of Victor Serge. An honour to have my words featured on the cover!
November 24, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Congrats to Mitchell Abidor on publishing this fascinating and revealing biography of Victor Serge. An honour to have my words featured on the cover!
Visited an important address from Hotel Lux: Edo Fimmen’s Amsterdam office - reception point for reports from the German underground, coded telegrams from the Spanish Republic and fortnightly issues of the Alpenpost.
November 20, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Visited an important address from Hotel Lux: Edo Fimmen’s Amsterdam office - reception point for reports from the German underground, coded telegrams from the Spanish Republic and fortnightly issues of the Alpenpost.
A really thrilling day working on an upcoming documentary for BBC Radio 4: the story of a family history of anti-Nazi resistance.
Thanks to the IISH Amsterdam for hosting and sharing some of its vast riches!
Thanks to the IISH Amsterdam for hosting and sharing some of its vast riches!
November 19, 2025 at 4:39 PM
A really thrilling day working on an upcoming documentary for BBC Radio 4: the story of a family history of anti-Nazi resistance.
Thanks to the IISH Amsterdam for hosting and sharing some of its vast riches!
Thanks to the IISH Amsterdam for hosting and sharing some of its vast riches!
1937: Show your solidarity! Send international brigade volunteers a solidarity postcard in Esperanto. Three pence per card.
November 19, 2025 at 1:08 PM
1937: Show your solidarity! Send international brigade volunteers a solidarity postcard in Esperanto. Three pence per card.
I’m in an archive where the rooms are named after Mensheviks and a “Toilet Gazette” updates patrons on collection highlights.
The International Institute of Social History is quickly becoming an all time favourite.
The International Institute of Social History is quickly becoming an all time favourite.
November 19, 2025 at 12:42 PM
I’m in an archive where the rooms are named after Mensheviks and a “Toilet Gazette” updates patrons on collection highlights.
The International Institute of Social History is quickly becoming an all time favourite.
The International Institute of Social History is quickly becoming an all time favourite.
Maynooth! Join me for the story of a training school for revolutionaries, a bestselling recipe book and a vegetarian cook who parachuted from a Lancaster bomber into Nazi Germany in 1944.
November 11, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Maynooth! Join me for the story of a training school for revolutionaries, a bestselling recipe book and a vegetarian cook who parachuted from a Lancaster bomber into Nazi Germany in 1944.
When I talk about how the history of progressive/radical movements is tied to a history of intimacy this is what I mean.
Socialism is always both a theory of economic redistribution and a chance to hang out!!
Socialism is always both a theory of economic redistribution and a chance to hang out!!
November 6, 2025 at 9:37 AM
When I talk about how the history of progressive/radical movements is tied to a history of intimacy this is what I mean.
Socialism is always both a theory of economic redistribution and a chance to hang out!!
Socialism is always both a theory of economic redistribution and a chance to hang out!!
In 1917 a foreign-born socialist ran for Mayor of New York City.
Morris Hillquit, born in Latvia, stood on a platform that included opposition to war, economic redistribution and support for a burning global issue: Irish freedom.
Morris Hillquit, born in Latvia, stood on a platform that included opposition to war, economic redistribution and support for a burning global issue: Irish freedom.
November 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
In 1917 a foreign-born socialist ran for Mayor of New York City.
Morris Hillquit, born in Latvia, stood on a platform that included opposition to war, economic redistribution and support for a burning global issue: Irish freedom.
Morris Hillquit, born in Latvia, stood on a platform that included opposition to war, economic redistribution and support for a burning global issue: Irish freedom.
A truly wild time.
October 30, 2025 at 1:49 PM
A truly wild time.
I'm doing a side project linked to the cultural history of video games in 1980s Ireland and I'm finding exactly what I expected to find
October 30, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I'm doing a side project linked to the cultural history of video games in 1980s Ireland and I'm finding exactly what I expected to find
Irish-American organiser Elizabeth Gurley Flynn speaks on "The Fascisti and the Klan" - June 1924
October 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Irish-American organiser Elizabeth Gurley Flynn speaks on "The Fascisti and the Klan" - June 1924
October 21, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Today was my first official day working on my AHRC catalyst project — the story of a vegetarian, Esperanto-speaking, anti-fascist organisation.
Grateful for the opportunity to spend three years down these historical rabbit holes
Grateful for the opportunity to spend three years down these historical rabbit holes
October 1, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Today was my first official day working on my AHRC catalyst project — the story of a vegetarian, Esperanto-speaking, anti-fascist organisation.
Grateful for the opportunity to spend three years down these historical rabbit holes
Grateful for the opportunity to spend three years down these historical rabbit holes
Finished up a fascinating and surprising few days of research in the wonderful @wienerlibrary.bsky.social - I went down all kinds of unexpected anti-Nazi rabbit holes.
September 3, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Finished up a fascinating and surprising few days of research in the wonderful @wienerlibrary.bsky.social - I went down all kinds of unexpected anti-Nazi rabbit holes.
back at it*
*sitting in the British Library Newsroom reading obscure left wing pamphlets
*sitting in the British Library Newsroom reading obscure left wing pamphlets
August 28, 2025 at 12:14 PM
back at it*
*sitting in the British Library Newsroom reading obscure left wing pamphlets
*sitting in the British Library Newsroom reading obscure left wing pamphlets
So great to see Hotel Lux in the window of Hodges Figgis today as Non-Fiction Book of the Month — and in the bestseller chart too.
August 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
So great to see Hotel Lux in the window of Hodges Figgis today as Non-Fiction Book of the Month — and in the bestseller chart too.
Thank you to readers and booksellers for the continued support even a year after publication. I am still always amazed.
August 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Thank you to readers and booksellers for the continued support even a year after publication. I am still always amazed.
This photograph from 1919 sums up the dangerous choices facing the museum director.
A photograph of Lenin at the founding congress of the Comintern? How could you not feature it.
Well, on either side of Lenin is Hugo Eberlein (left) and Fritz Platten (right).
A photograph of Lenin at the founding congress of the Comintern? How could you not feature it.
Well, on either side of Lenin is Hugo Eberlein (left) and Fritz Platten (right).
August 8, 2025 at 8:44 AM
This photograph from 1919 sums up the dangerous choices facing the museum director.
A photograph of Lenin at the founding congress of the Comintern? How could you not feature it.
Well, on either side of Lenin is Hugo Eberlein (left) and Fritz Platten (right).
A photograph of Lenin at the founding congress of the Comintern? How could you not feature it.
Well, on either side of Lenin is Hugo Eberlein (left) and Fritz Platten (right).
Some months previously the NKVD arrived at Platten's apartment and arrested his wife. He wrote to a Party Commission that same evening to ask why his partner of 13 years was arrested.
August 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Some months previously the NKVD arrived at Platten's apartment and arrested his wife. He wrote to a Party Commission that same evening to ask why his partner of 13 years was arrested.
The second individual named, Fritz Platten, was a Swiss Communist living in Moscow. The blue pencil marker appears unsure of Platten's status.
August 8, 2025 at 8:40 AM
The second individual named, Fritz Platten, was a Swiss Communist living in Moscow. The blue pencil marker appears unsure of Platten's status.
Someone has written "Arrest" in blue pencil under the name of Hugo Eberlein, founding member of the German Communist Party.
Eberlein was arrested in the summer of 1937 and sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag. Shot by firing squad in 1941.
Eberlein was arrested in the summer of 1937 and sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag. Shot by firing squad in 1941.
August 8, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Someone has written "Arrest" in blue pencil under the name of Hugo Eberlein, founding member of the German Communist Party.
Eberlein was arrested in the summer of 1937 and sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag. Shot by firing squad in 1941.
Eberlein was arrested in the summer of 1937 and sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag. Shot by firing squad in 1941.
The dangers of museum curation in the Stalin era - 1937
A museum director in Belarus is organising an exhibition about the first Comintern Congress. He writes to the Comintern to ascertain the fates of two individuals who feature in a group photograph from the Congress.
A museum director in Belarus is organising an exhibition about the first Comintern Congress. He writes to the Comintern to ascertain the fates of two individuals who feature in a group photograph from the Congress.
August 8, 2025 at 8:31 AM
The dangers of museum curation in the Stalin era - 1937
A museum director in Belarus is organising an exhibition about the first Comintern Congress. He writes to the Comintern to ascertain the fates of two individuals who feature in a group photograph from the Congress.
A museum director in Belarus is organising an exhibition about the first Comintern Congress. He writes to the Comintern to ascertain the fates of two individuals who feature in a group photograph from the Congress.
In another GREAT reputational win for the taste of Irish booksellers, Hotel Lux is also an Eason's Book of the Month for August!
August 7, 2025 at 12:10 PM
In another GREAT reputational win for the taste of Irish booksellers, Hotel Lux is also an Eason's Book of the Month for August!