Sam Wetherell
@samwetherell.bsky.social
Historian of Britain and the World at the University of York. Interested in cities, art-making and the future. Liverpool and the Un-Making of Britain out now: www.samwetherell.com
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Sam Wetherell
@samwetherell.bsky.social
· Jan 28
Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell | Waterstones
Buy Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
On 27 Feb my book comes out. It’s about how Liverpool’s recent history should change the way we think about modern Britain. On this thread every few days till then, I will tweet an extraordinary fact about Liverpool’s twentieth-century. Pre-order here: www.waterstones.com/book/liverpo...
As always, the reference point for Britain's intensifying border violence is not elsewhere - Nazi Germany, ICE, Orban whatever. It is Britain's own history.
Wild how Britain can rampage across the world for much of the 20th century, incarcerating hundreds of thousands in concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya and then two generations later MPs like Stella Creasy can say that the arbitrary detention of refugee children is not "the British way forward."
November 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM
As always, the reference point for Britain's intensifying border violence is not elsewhere - Nazi Germany, ICE, Orban whatever. It is Britain's own history.
Wild how Britain can rampage across the world for much of the 20th century, incarcerating hundreds of thousands in concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya and then two generations later MPs like Stella Creasy can say that the arbitrary detention of refugee children is not "the British way forward."
November 18, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Wild how Britain can rampage across the world for much of the 20th century, incarcerating hundreds of thousands in concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya and then two generations later MPs like Stella Creasy can say that the arbitrary detention of refugee children is not "the British way forward."
You know the government are in serious trouble when even the Today Programme are defending the rights of refugee children.
November 18, 2025 at 8:19 AM
You know the government are in serious trouble when even the Today Programme are defending the rights of refugee children.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Plastic Planet | Venus Bivar
Stalled negotiations and accelerating accumulation in the global petrochemicals industry
www.phenomenalworld.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Well this is very lovely - Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain named a book of the year by the great @eriklinstrum.bsky.social for History Today!
November 17, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Well this is very lovely - Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain named a book of the year by the great @eriklinstrum.bsky.social for History Today!
Vote for the party that steals the watches and jewellery of refugees in order to keep the party that will steal the watches, jewellery and wedding rings of refugees out.
Govt minister Alex Norris is asked if the govt will take jewellery from people [fleeing war and persecution]. Norris says the govt won't be taking peoples wedding rings but they will seize assets.
November 17, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Vote for the party that steals the watches and jewellery of refugees in order to keep the party that will steal the watches, jewellery and wedding rings of refugees out.
Alex Norris knowingly speaking misleading incendiary nonsense. The UK spends 0.014% of its budget on refugees. This is aside from the net economic benefits of migration. Painting this in zero sum economic terms is absurd - the cruelty is the point and these people should be haunted forever by this.
November 17, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Alex Norris knowingly speaking misleading incendiary nonsense. The UK spends 0.014% of its budget on refugees. This is aside from the net economic benefits of migration. Painting this in zero sum economic terms is absurd - the cruelty is the point and these people should be haunted forever by this.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
You're a Labour MP in a Labour government and these are the policies Labour are pursuing. If you're opposed to it, put your name to it or piss off.
Just wilful performative cruelty that is entirely out of step with the majority of British people.
How many Labour MPs got into politics in order to vote for stealing jewellery off of people seeking refuge from war and persecution?
How many Labour MPs got into politics in order to vote for stealing jewellery off of people seeking refuge from war and persecution?
November 17, 2025 at 9:04 AM
You're a Labour MP in a Labour government and these are the policies Labour are pursuing. If you're opposed to it, put your name to it or piss off.
Sorry but the Troy Parott tweets are better in the other place.
November 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Sorry but the Troy Parott tweets are better in the other place.
Some of these have been taken, but there are lots still available! Grab them while you can!
Would you like a free up and coming urban history book for Christmas? Would you like to write a review for us at @urbanhistory.bsky.social? We have the books and you have the words! Browse the below list and get in touch if you want to write us a review:
November 14, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Some of these have been taken, but there are lots still available! Grab them while you can!
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Would you like a free up and coming urban history book for Christmas? Would you like to write a review for us at @urbanhistory.bsky.social? We have the books and you have the words! Browse the below list and get in touch if you want to write us a review:
November 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Would you like a free up and coming urban history book for Christmas? Would you like to write a review for us at @urbanhistory.bsky.social? We have the books and you have the words! Browse the below list and get in touch if you want to write us a review:
Would you like a free up and coming urban history book for Christmas? Would you like to write a review for us at @urbanhistory.bsky.social? We have the books and you have the words! Browse the below list and get in touch if you want to write us a review:
November 13, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Would you like a free up and coming urban history book for Christmas? Would you like to write a review for us at @urbanhistory.bsky.social? We have the books and you have the words! Browse the below list and get in touch if you want to write us a review:
Only an institution in irreparable, terminal decline can think that Wes Streeting might be a solution to its problems. Real death cult stuff now.
November 12, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Only an institution in irreparable, terminal decline can think that Wes Streeting might be a solution to its problems. Real death cult stuff now.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust
NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.
Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
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.
I am in the Rowntree Memorial Park cafe which has a gigantic poppy on its outer wall with my two year old. There are like 15 other toddlers here. We are 22 minutes away from the minute of silence. I’m on the edge of my seat to see what happens.
November 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I am in the Rowntree Memorial Park cafe which has a gigantic poppy on its outer wall with my two year old. There are like 15 other toddlers here. We are 22 minutes away from the minute of silence. I’m on the edge of my seat to see what happens.
Perhaps the dumbest take in the last few days has been British people, including people on the left, loudly proclaiming we are too vicariously interested in New York local politics.
November 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Perhaps the dumbest take in the last few days has been British people, including people on the left, loudly proclaiming we are too vicariously interested in New York local politics.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Its worth noting that in Britain, Mamdani would have thrown out of the Labour Party by a small room full LinkIn weirdos and then replaced by a former private healthcare lobbyist who would go on to lose by 5,000 votes to a Reform candidate who was a convinced sex offender.
June 25, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Its worth noting that in Britain, Mamdani would have thrown out of the Labour Party by a small room full LinkIn weirdos and then replaced by a former private healthcare lobbyist who would go on to lose by 5,000 votes to a Reform candidate who was a convinced sex offender.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Congratulations to Andrew Cuomo for his forthcoming permanent slot as a representative of the left on the Rest is Politics.
June 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Congratulations to Andrew Cuomo for his forthcoming permanent slot as a representative of the left on the Rest is Politics.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Review of @samwetherell.bsky.social’s terrific new history of Liverpool, a definitive study of the city‘s 20th century with clear lessons for the 21st.
‘As early as 1971, a Toxteth councillor, Margaret Simey, predicted that the police would provoke a “civil war” in the city. In 1981, her prediction proved accurate.’
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on how and why Liverpool got left behind.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on how and why Liverpool got left behind.
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 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Review of @samwetherell.bsky.social’s terrific new history of Liverpool, a definitive study of the city‘s 20th century with clear lessons for the 21st.
This feels about right.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
This feels about right.
That Britain has a king, that the king's brother has been involved in serious instances of sexual abuse, that the consequence is for him to be stripped of a handful of abstruse feudal titles and that Britain's elite think this is a fitting punishment, is the mark of a truly fucking weird country.
October 31, 2025 at 9:30 AM
That Britain has a king, that the king's brother has been involved in serious instances of sexual abuse, that the consequence is for him to be stripped of a handful of abstruse feudal titles and that Britain's elite think this is a fitting punishment, is the mark of a truly fucking weird country.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
This looks incredible and is *long* overdue.
Delighted to be at the proofs stage with this. Out in April with CUP!
October 31, 2025 at 9:01 AM
This looks incredible and is *long* overdue.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
brilliant, both book and review!
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
October 30, 2025 at 11:23 AM
brilliant, both book and review!
Thanks to the Nazi billionaire for providing phone service in rural Shropshire. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Virgin Media O2 seals deal with Elon Musk firm to boost UK rural mobile coverage
Service scheduled to launch in 2026 will be first in Britain to use Starlink’s satellites to connect to handsets
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Thanks to the Nazi billionaire for providing phone service in rural Shropshire. www.theguardian.com/business/202...