Josh Smith

YouTube video by Leighton Library Dunblane Leighton Library 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture by Dr Josh Smith

Newly available, here’s recording on Leighton Library YouTube channel of Leighton Library 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith on Sat 15 Nov

▶️ youtu.be/rFYkUOsluyw

Want to learn more about Scots in the British Army in North America? #HATM

Matthew P. Dziennik
Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier in British America

Nicola Martin, The British Army in Scotland and North America 1745-1775: militarisation on the fringes of the empire,

View the programme on our website here. So many fun and important papers, really demonstrating the quality and originality of research happening at this critical moment in the field.

www.rrrjournal.com/_files/ugd/d...

Registration for @rrrjournal.bsky.social's annual conference is now open! Please join us for what will be an intellectually stimulating and rewarding day for PGRs, ECRs, and academics to connect and discuss 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century'!

www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-in-the...

Come visit our excellent Archives & Special Collections! Especially strong in eighteenth-century and Romantic-period books due to the copyright privilege. Awards cover costs up to £2500.

This Saturday! Do come along if you're about in Dunblane!

It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3

I don't know anything about fantasy and sci-fi as genres - is there crossover?

I feel like they share a lot of similar traits and I'm wondering if time travel narratives can be classed as fantasy 🤔 (does it depend on if the method is magical or scientific?)

Any recommended reading?

All welcome on Sat 15 Nov at 10.30am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to free 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at the Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith

www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...

Any transcription help, please, lovely bluesky? My language skills don't extend beyond the place and date 🙏

Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project.

Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about the fascinating historic library, as Dr Josh h shares findings from his project completed at @stir.ac.uk

A date for your diary! All welcome, Sat 15 Nov at 10am in Dunblane Cathedral Hall, to 2025 Geraldine Goddard Memorial Lecture, “Enlightenment & Conspiracy at Leighton Library, 1780-1832’ presented by Dr Josh Smith, Leighton Library Volunteer Guide
www.leightonlibrary.org.uk/calendar/202...
…/👇

Here’s something to look forward to!
In celebration of the publication of Medieval Manuscripts in Bristol Collections: A Descriptive Catalogue / Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social & Melek Karataş - 📚 Bristol Central Library are having an exhibition!
🗓️ 4-18 December

BBC Parliament - House of Commons, Education Questions Coverage of questions to Bridget Phillipson on Monday 20 October.

And we're away. Bridget Phillipson is introducing the Post-16 Education and Skills paper. 1/x

Great news! Congrats, Cleo. 🎉

On the edge My week in the NHS

I’d rather Sam did not do so much participant observation in hospitals but when he does he gets more insights into the problems of the NHS (this post is free). samf.substack.com/p/on-the-edg...?

Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture 18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.

For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

Why Charli XCX might be Gen Z’s answer to the Romantic poets Her lyrics are full of nods to the Romantics and share many of the same concerns.

Could Charli XCX be Gen Z's answer to Lord Byron?

Read my first @theconversation.com article to find out!!

theconversation.com/why-charli-x...

Falsifying Heritage: The Denial and Disavowal of Glasgow’s Links with Atlantic Slavery By Stephen Mullen In a recent article in The Times, (‘Scottish Taxpayers should not have to pay the price for Slavery, 7 June 2025), Professor Nigel Biggar misrepresented an exhibition in Glasgow’s…

Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com

alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...

Events Stay up to date with the upcoming events organised or hosted by the Institute of Historical Research

History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public.

Starting this week:

Title and abstract for the linked article

New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView

Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory'

doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory

5 days left to submit your abstract!

We had such a great response to our History teachers webinar on teaching 'Migration and Empire' that we're offering another one! Come and find out about brand new resources co-created by teachers and academics: 4pm, Monday 29 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...

The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis [FREE TO READ] How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration

FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system

on.ft.com/47HEE46

Norman Gash: Political Historian This article commemorates the 40th anniversary of the publication of Lord Liverpool by Norman Gash (1912–2009). It considers Gash as a historian who both wrote about 19th-century politics and express....

"One does not have to be a theologian to be aware of the frailties and errors inseparable from the use of power in the conduct of human affairs; it is sufficient to be a political historian".

Great quote from Norman Gash, in Richard Gaunt's excellent article.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Edinburgh connection to London's tax-evading gift shops Plus: A chat with the Transport for London boss running the tube strike negotiations — and how the "hardworking businessman" putting up flags in south London tried to scam an insurer.

Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

📢 Just a few weeks left to submit your abstracts for our exciting conference at the University of Stirling in January!

🗓 Deadline: 22 Sept
📩 Email: rrr@soton.ac.uk

We appear to have come up with a blank on the identity of the author of the unpublished Philip Francis biography.
However, channeling our inner Bagpuss, we will be taking the draft with us to our new offices and we hope may one day find a lost owner...