Robert Paulett
@robertpaulett.bsky.social
Historian of early America and bits of Britain. Apostate southerner. Yells about maps, St. Louis, and higher ed.
Pinned
Quick intro for new followers: I teach broadly in the histories of early modern North America and the world. I study the visual and material underpinnings of imperial political systems in 18th-century Britain/North America. In general, the weirder the argument, the happier I am.
If you ever want to see me transform into a bald eagle meme, put me at a table full of Brits discussing higher education.
November 29, 2025 at 10:45 PM
If you ever want to see me transform into a bald eagle meme, put me at a table full of Brits discussing higher education.
RIP, Stoppard. When I say you were one of the biggest influences on me as a historian, I mean it equally as a joke and in all sincerity and that is my tribute.
November 29, 2025 at 9:59 PM
RIP, Stoppard. When I say you were one of the biggest influences on me as a historian, I mean it equally as a joke and in all sincerity and that is my tribute.
Is that really a proper trade, sir?
November 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Is that really a proper trade, sir?
Good handwriting is so rare on this site so let’s take a minute to appreciate this /#c18 clerk’s tiny, perfect script.
November 28, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Good handwriting is so rare on this site so let’s take a minute to appreciate this /#c18 clerk’s tiny, perfect script.
From Jim Axtell
November 26, 2025 at 10:26 PM
From Jim Axtell
The Soane Museum. Always a good reminder of the very thin line between historical interest and outright madness.
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
The Soane Museum. Always a good reminder of the very thin line between historical interest and outright madness.
Ran it like a business* no doubt.
*Pumped it full of debt to undertake capital improvements to spur urban real estate development and now all its assets will be sold off for a song to vulture capitalists.
*Pumped it full of debt to undertake capital improvements to spur urban real estate development and now all its assets will be sold off for a song to vulture capitalists.
MPs told collapse of UK higher education provider could happen by Christmas
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
MPs told collapse of UK provider could happen by Christmas - Research Professional News
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Ran it like a business* no doubt.
*Pumped it full of debt to undertake capital improvements to spur urban real estate development and now all its assets will be sold off for a song to vulture capitalists.
*Pumped it full of debt to undertake capital improvements to spur urban real estate development and now all its assets will be sold off for a song to vulture capitalists.
And US administrators, struggling with their own section-wide crises, actually look to the UK as a model and say “We want that for us.”
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.
per this morning's education committee.
per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 11:40 AM
And US administrators, struggling with their own section-wide crises, actually look to the UK as a model and say “We want that for us.”
Mostly I just wanted to spite my family.
November 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Mostly I just wanted to spite my family.
Many years ago Wonkette summed DC as “the city of the almost pretty and the almost famous” and nothing has continued to provide more insight.
November 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Many years ago Wonkette summed DC as “the city of the almost pretty and the almost famous” and nothing has continued to provide more insight.
This morning’s breakfast companion at the cafe. Ideal company.
November 22, 2025 at 9:44 AM
This morning’s breakfast companion at the cafe. Ideal company.
How’re you going to get all that product across the water?
November 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
How’re you going to get all that product across the water?
And they are also obsessed with those places. Morning, noon, and night on Facebook probing every rumor, commenting on every news story to make themselves mad again and again.
Yep, it’s funny when you travel and meet people, and somehow every state and region has a funny quirk of hating the place that has the most Black people nearby.
shit, speaking as a missiouri resident, if theres two places republicans despise in this state its Kansas City and St Louis
November 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
And they are also obsessed with those places. Morning, noon, and night on Facebook probing every rumor, commenting on every news story to make themselves mad again and again.
Always a special day in a nerd’s life when you get invited to the staff entrance at your favorite museum.
November 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Always a special day in a nerd’s life when you get invited to the staff entrance at your favorite museum.
Now it’s a real trip.
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Now it’s a real trip.
That “sustainable” age (for me the 1990s) did have deep, buried costs we need to reckon with, though.
the world that was stolen from us is difficult to even imagine, for folks living now
the cheapness of rent, the ability to support yrself and yr ambitions, or to go to school, on a single low wage job
the sustainability of life that we haven't had in generations
the cheapness of rent, the ability to support yrself and yr ambitions, or to go to school, on a single low wage job
the sustainability of life that we haven't had in generations
there were periods where you could have a part time service job that covered college classes and rent! so often i'd read about artists in the 60s and 70s who also paid for studio spaces they could stock with supplies, who had the leisure time to party and create their great works. robbed, i tell ya!
November 19, 2025 at 10:43 AM
That “sustainable” age (for me the 1990s) did have deep, buried costs we need to reckon with, though.
Back on some bullshit.
November 18, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Back on some bullshit.
I should really log off Bluesky before I get this ETA revoked by the Home Office.
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I should really log off Bluesky before I get this ETA revoked by the Home Office.
Historiographically speaking, one of the most convenient outcomes of the American Revolution was it allowed each nation to blame the other for this great human crime.
holy shit: “Among the 2,000 UK adults surveyed, 85% were unaware that Britain forcibly transported more than 3 million Africans to the Caribbean, 89% did not know that Britain enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Caribbean reparations leaders in ‘historic’ first UK visit to press for justice
CRC mission will seek to deepen public understanding of Britain’s colonial legacy and its lasting impact
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Historiographically speaking, one of the most convenient outcomes of the American Revolution was it allowed each nation to blame the other for this great human crime.
When you’ve spent a lifetime internalizing 3rd Way’s core proposition that “leadership sometimes requires cruelty” it makes sense you come to believe its reciprocal that “being cruel means you sometimes get to be leader.”
The Sun has been told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will on Monday propose confiscating jewellery, watches, necklaces from asylum seekers to meet asylum costs
This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
November 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
When you’ve spent a lifetime internalizing 3rd Way’s core proposition that “leadership sometimes requires cruelty” it makes sense you come to believe its reciprocal that “being cruel means you sometimes get to be leader.”
I for one could never follow a nepo baby of the bourgeois elite. I’d rather follow a true revolutionary like a Lenin, a Guevara, a Castro, a Robespierre, or at the very least an FD Roosevelt.
downwardly mobile educated alienated elite-adjacents clearly are a large part of the contemporary american left's constituency, but it's such a stupid thing to have a complex about or considering particularly damming. read like any history book ever about who starts political movements.
November 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I for one could never follow a nepo baby of the bourgeois elite. I’d rather follow a true revolutionary like a Lenin, a Guevara, a Castro, a Robespierre, or at the very least an FD Roosevelt.
What all this has made clear is that we need not just more democracy-friendly media in general but more democracy-friendly tabloids, in particular.
November 13, 2025 at 5:47 PM
What all this has made clear is that we need not just more democracy-friendly media in general but more democracy-friendly tabloids, in particular.
So not so much “woke went too far” as “woke got too close.”
November 13, 2025 at 11:59 AM
So not so much “woke went too far” as “woke got too close.”
My god, after today of all days, why would you not want to look to the sky and see something rare and beautiful and worth remembering?
Please don't drag anyone for posting even not-great photos of the Northern Lights. I'm stuck inside at work tonight and wish I could see them. I'm loving these photos.
November 13, 2025 at 4:35 AM
My god, after today of all days, why would you not want to look to the sky and see something rare and beautiful and worth remembering?
Sorry to all my friends who’ve ever been associated with them, but the Ivy League has to go, too.
I have to tell you what really happened to the plums...
Elise New seems to have offered them to Woody Allen in exchange for his involvement with her edX MOOC.
One creepy slimey scammy thing after another in those files.
(via splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app)
Elise New seems to have offered them to Woody Allen in exchange for his involvement with her edX MOOC.
One creepy slimey scammy thing after another in those files.
(via splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app)
November 13, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Sorry to all my friends who’ve ever been associated with them, but the Ivy League has to go, too.