Alex Mayhew

Thank you Nicoletta Gullace for this close - and positive - review of my book.

'... it adds greatly to the military history of morale during the First World War, offering new insights into Englishness, subjecthood and ... belief systems ...'

Available online now for £29.99, or £26-28 on Amazon!

Thank you to Justin for introducing another batch of our students to some of the fascinating materials in the National Army Museum archive!

It’s become an annual feature of our first year module Historical Approaches to the Modern World.

What oral histories can teach us about effective environmental research - LSE Impact What can oral histories tell us about the tacit knowledge required for successful collaborative environmental and sustainability research.

What oral histories can teach us about effective environmental research – @angecass.bsky.social & Paul Merchant for @lseimpactblog.bsky.social

@renewbiodiversity.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social

A brilliant piece documentary film making.

York History Department - Academic Jobs Uncover the past to define the future. We are seeking research-led historians to join our world-class, collaborative community. Discover career-defining opportunities within one of the UK’s most disti...

We are advertising 4 jobs at York for historians (1 year medieval, 2 years modern Britain and public history, 3 years modern China, and open ended modern Middle Eastern) features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/

Alongside Dr Leo Shipp, our first-year undergraduates visited the LSE Archives as part of their module HY120: Historical Approaches to the Modern World. Dr Gillian Murphy introduced them to some of the jewels from the LSE collections. #students #fieldtrip #history #lse

I wish I had the confidence to write the introduction to Alex Watson’s Morale in the First World War: Comparative Perspectives all the way back in 2014!

A student of mine recently reference a chapter by me that I never authored in a book that doesn’t exist…

Thank you, Andrew!

Congratulations, David. As a lover of all things microhistory I cannot wait to read this.

Thank you Mark for this generous review. It is a relief to know that somebody has read it cover-to-cover!

If anybody wants to buy it - or even better add it to their course's reading list - you can find it @universitypress.cambridge.org and online.

#HistoryBooks #MilitaryHistory #FirstWorldWar

This looks like a fascinating article.

I have a whole chapter on how hopes for - and visions of - peace sustained soldiers during the First World War.

See below if the Clarke et al. piece sparks your interest in how perceptions of the future inflect the experience of conflict.

bit.ly/3MAHZJY

Officers in particular brought a huge amount of cultural baggage to Mesopotamia (and elsewhere): their reading of the classics, portrayals of the Orient in literature, and their imperial identities.

Working class soldiers interpreted the world differently.

What article have you just read?

Thanks for the question, Paul!

Primarily using a mixture of ego-documents (so: letters, diaries, but also postcards, soldiers' guidebooks, memoirs, notebooks) and cross referencing this with institutional documents (unit diaries, for instance).

There was certainly some with internal colonialism.

It's pretty boring, but I have a new article out on the first British attempt to collect and classify the languages of South Asia: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Sensemaking and Violence in Britain’s Mesopotamia Campaign during the First World War

On 26 March, I am speaking at my second IHR seminar of the academic year - this time at @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social.

It is only the second time I will be presenting something from one of my new projects so please do come along as I am desperate for feedback, ideas, suggestions, and thoughts!

London’s murder rate drops to lowest in more than a decade Sadiq Khan says ‘public health’ approach has made the capital one of the safest cities in the western world

The gap between gloom-ridden public perception and reality in the UK has now opened up like a Grand Canyon-style chasm. I personally don't see any way of bridging it.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Very much enjoying my planned reading on this snowy (fortunately in my case non-working) Friday.

My first academic read of the year is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a long time. I'm a chapter in, and @alexmayhew.bsky.social's "Making Sense of the...

#HistBookChat #Skystorians

Thanks Mark!

Whilst I don’t set the price - and would rather it was much cheaper - it’s now £27.59 on Amazon, which is much better than the hardback. Alas this is what one suffers when with an academic press.

Either way, I hope you find some way to read it at some stage, Roger - even if it is second hand!

Looking forward to your thoughts!

I got the birthday present I really wanted. Thanks, Lili and Mark!
@alexmayhew.bsky.social

Quite a forward curatorial instruction in a Portuguese archaeological museum.

We drew on the collection of @historians.org essays analysing the film by Santanu Das, Susan Grayzel, @thehistorygirl1.bsky.social, and Catherine Robson.

Students were drawn to the soundscape and narrative but queried the silences and omissions.

All agreed it was an impressive piece of cinema!

YouTube video by London Museum The Silvertown explosion of 1917

(This amazing auto correct was part of an otherwise excellent idea for a project, but I assume any further research will be sadly lacking in space goats).

If you want to find out more on the Silvertown Explosion the Museum of London produced an excellent short video about the event.

This week our First Years are thinking about how to build microhistories of the Silvertown Explosion in 1917.

I am excited about this one: '... the Germans become a convenient, politically motivated space goat - linking to broader political trends of state and elite aversion of responsibility.'

🐐🐐

Thanks José!

This is incredibly sad.

I met Tim for the first and only time over the summer whilst doing research at the Canadian War Museum.

For someone so senior (and busy) he was incredibly generous with his time: took me for a coffee, discussed his research, and enquired about mine.

A real loss.

A row of books on the shelves at Foyles bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London. there are six copies of Matt Houlbrook's latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London on the top shelf.

Here's the first sighting of Songs of Seven Dials in a real life actual bookshop - Foyles in Charing Cross Road.

My anxiety levels just went up a notch. At this rate I'll be a complete wreck by tomorrow.

#London #history #20s30s

Cover image of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) Diary, December 21-30, 1972. A purple and green poster-style image featuring text and a leafy plant design.

New online: The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) collection is now available on LSE Digital Library! We’ve digitised and published the GLF Diaries and the GLF newspaper Come Together. Further series from the archives will be added as digitisation continues.
1/2
digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/...