Francis van Berkel

Francis van Berkel

@fvanberkel.bsky.social

PhD Candidate. Researching India’s contribution to the First World War and its after-effects in the 1920s and 1930s.

103 Followers 189 Following 19 Posts Joined Nov 2024
2 weeks ago

Flying out to India on Sunday. Two weeks in Delhi, followed by two weeks in Lucknow, and then a brief holiday somewhere else. Still deciding on that final stop, but any recommendations for the whole trip - academic, leisure, or otherwise - are very welcome!

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3 weeks ago

Sounds fascinating. I've been reading quite a few records on recruitment in UP recently, would have been great hearing how it relates to your research.

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1 month ago
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‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….

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2 months ago
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Two new walking trails in England explore WW2 history Exercise and education in one!

Delighted to see this - some of the brilliant @uophistory.bsky.social undergrad students' work, with Liberation Route Europe, featured in Time Out!

😃👏👍

Congrats to Sadie, Frankie, Jack & Elliott, & thanks to @robtjames.bsky.social for supporting their work!

www.timeout.com/uk/news/two-...

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2 months ago

“Should we target Reform voters or ‘left’ voters?” - this is babytalk. Do your job!

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3 months ago
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Colonial Veterans and Citizenship in the French Empire Presenting research from the project, Ex-Soldiers of Empire; Towards a Comparative History of Colonial Veterancy in the Interwar Period.

Looking forward ward to travelling to London tomorrow to present some tentative research from the COLVET project on how veterans in the interwar French Empire shifting the contours of citizenship. Come one, come all. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/colonial-v...

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4 months ago

Interestingly, the Esher Committee called for this specific policy to end on moral grounds in 1920. I'm still not quite sure what this all meant for mourning communities yet.

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4 months ago

The Indian Army held a similar view on "material consequences". The argument was that "the connection of the Indian family with the land, and its corporate organisation and system of mutual support" meant an English-style "widow's pension" was neither suitable nor necessary.

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4 months ago
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ONLINE: Allenby’s Sepoys: The Indian Army and the EEF in 1918 | The Western Front Association

You can now register for my upcoming WFA webinar
Allenby’s Sepoys: The Indian Army and the EEF in 1918
#fwwhist #ww1 #greatwar

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4 months ago

Not my field but the work of Robert Saunders might be useful, at least as a jumping-off point.

Try:

"Parliament and People: The British Constitution in the Long Nineteenth Century" (2008)

"Doubtful democrats: Democracy in Britain since 1800" (2019)

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4 months ago
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This is a bit like reading LOTR and thinking that the Shire Folk missed a trick by not giving the Ring to Boromir after all.

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5 months ago
Dr Nicola Camilleri, ‘Former Eritrean Soldiers in the Italian Colonial Army: Fragments of Life and Documentation’. | Colvet.eu

A great new post on researching the history of former Ascari in Eritrea by our own @camilleriana.bsky.social. colvet.eu/338-2/

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5 months ago

Always enjoy articles from Himal, but found this one on language politics in Bihar especially interesting.

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5 months ago
Login • Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

Are you on Instagram? I'm trying to expand The Siècle's social media reach there — a like on the latest reel would be a great way to help boost us in the algorithm: www.instagram.com/p/DPJ9dzpCb2W/

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5 months ago

Oblivion Remastered if you want a single player open world.
Hell Let Loose if you want an online FPS.

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5 months ago
Five things we can learn about current English ‘flag wars’ from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s

HISTORY MATTERS
 
This is the first in a new occasional series of articles on the RHS blog which show how history can help us to understand our present times. In this first article, Nadine Rossol (University of Essex) explores the power of flags as political symbols in Weimar Germany. As Nadine argues, contests over the use and display of flags have long histories and are significant. Flag conflicts are about emotions, agency and identity. They are typically blunt and intense, going to the heart of citizen politics. Historical examples, as in the case of 1920s Germany, provide us with context for and perspective on present-day manifestations.

Five things we can learn about current English ‘flag wars’ from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.

New article by Prof Nadine Rossol @universityofessex.bsky.social for the Society's blog: bit.ly/4pqGZqv.

Nadine's is the first in a new occasional RHS blog series on 'History Matters' #Skystorians

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6 months ago

Have spent this morning reading @johnsiblon25.bsky.social's wonderful thesis: 'War memory and the construction of hierarchy: representations of African and Caribbean colonial service personnel in the aftermath of the FWW'. It's fascinating and opens for interesting comparisons with other empires.

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6 months ago
Headline: BBC under pressure to pull Sally Rooney dramas over vow to fund Palestine Action Headline: Tory minister Robert Jenrick pictured with former Nazi terror chief at far right protest.

Perhaps, one day, schoolkids will study this squalid little chapter in British terror-panic history. When they do, I hope these two headlines from today are printed side by side, with clear annotation of which individual faced more outrage and condemnation.

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7 months ago
"“There’s a Life Here”: Hurricane Katrina’s Southern Biopolitics", a chapter in Christopher Lloyd's monograph Rooting Memory, Rooting Place: Regionalism in the Twenty-First-Century American South.

I was reading around Judith Butler recently and came across this. Lloyd is a professor of literature, so this isn't strictly cultural history, but it looks interesting and is no doubt a good example of the interdisciplinary nature of memory studies.

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8 months ago
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@sshmedicine.bsky.social @sochistorywar.bsky.social @vahs.bsky.social @aahmhistmed.bsky.social @eahnursing.bsky.social

Members and Followers, be sure to follow the #milwelfhist tag over the next three days to stay up to date with the wonderful goings-on @uni-graz.at for the 2026 MWHN conference

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8 months ago
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Holidaying in Marseille for the week and really pleased I got to start the trip with a visit to Mazargues War Cemetery. Just under 1,000 of those commemorated here were recruited from India, many of them serving in non-combatant roles.

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8 months ago
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Shaking Hands and the Politics of Touch in Early Modern England* ABSTRACT. Drawing on work in the social sciences on the handshake, this article examines the role of the handshake as a form of gestural communication and

From the current issue: “Shaking Hands and the Politics of Touch in Early Modern England”

by John Walter (@phaisessex.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...

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9 months ago

Fittingly, I was just reading some service notes on Rajput Regiments when I saw that this article by @donalh.bsky.social was published today.

The 8th Rajputs fought within India's NWFP in 1915, during the Mesopotamian Campaign in 1916, and took part in the suppression of the Iraqi Revolt in 1920.

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9 months ago
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Study in black and white, or, how to make a cleansed church the most fascinating thing on earth. Bavokerk in Haarlem by Saenredam, whose day has been today.

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9 months ago
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Delighted to share details of the upcoming hybrid workshop 'The Colonial Veteran in the Archive' to be held in Maynooth on June 25. This is part of the COLVET project funded by @erc.europa.eu You will find a draft schedule and details for registration here. Please join us on the day and share widely

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9 months ago

Looks like a fascinating day, Dónal! I'm just sad I won't be able to catch all of it.

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10 months ago
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There’s only one problem with Labour’s immigration plans: they’re completely untethered from reality | Jonathan Portes The government’s new policy will take us back to an uglier, more dangerous place – and it’s not even supported by the data, says professor of public policy Jonathan Portes

"The government's argument sounds plausible. There's just one problem. It doesn't fit the facts. And the government knows it."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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10 months ago

Great! Happy to help. Just send me a DM whenever you're ready.

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10 months ago

Hi Chris, I should be heading there at the end of next week if that counts as "soon"?

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11 months ago
Graphic for RHS article in History Workshop, 'Making the Case for History: A View from the Royal Historical Society'.

'Making the Case for History: A View from the Royal Historical Society': bit.ly/4cRjK37

The Society's President, Lucy Noakes, writes today on the profession and discipline @historywo.bsky.social

#skystorians

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