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anterotesis.bsky.social
John Levin
@anterotesis.bsky.social
1.4K followers 420 following 350 posts
Digital History, Radical History, Social History.
Dadaists, Coin clippers, Escaping Debtors, Londoners.
Critics and Critiques of Political Economy.
Open Access, Public Domain, Hacking Around.
Editor of British History Online at the IHR.
Also Cats & Spain.
Posts Replies Media Videos
anterotesis.bsky.social
A thread of #PublicDomain books I've got Google Books to make fully and freely available this year.

Published by HMSO
A Brief Guide to Official Publications
London, HMSO, 1960.

books.google.co.uk/books?id=q20...
Published by HMSO
books.google.co.uk
January 3, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by John Levin
nkalamb.bsky.social
“I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company.

The driver sees $0 of it.”

www.reddit.com/r/confession...
I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it. I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. I’ve been sitting on this for about eight months, just watching the code getting pushed to production, and I can’t sleep at night knowing I helped build this machine. You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories. I’m a backend engineer. I sit in the weekly sprint planning meetings where Product Managers (PMs) discuss how to squeeze another 0.4% margin out of "human assets" (that’s literally what they call drivers in the database schemas). They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent. First off, the "Priority Delivery" is a total scam. It was pitched to us as a "psychological value add." Like I said in the title, when you pay that extra $2.99, it changes a boolean flag in the order JSON, but the dispatch logic literally ignores it. It does nothing to speed you up. We actually ran an A/B test last year where we didn't speed up the priority orders, we just purposefully delayed non-priority orders by 5 to 10 minutes to make the Priority ones "feel" faster by comparison. Management loved the results. We generated millions in pure profit just by making the standard service worse, not by making the premium service better. But the thing that actually makes me sick—and the main reason I’m quitting—is the "Desperation Score." We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior. If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as "High Desperati…
January 2, 2026 at 9:36 PM
anterotesis.bsky.social
Not a deep dive, but interesting glance at non-university-based history data sets:

‘The hidden engine room’: how amateur historians are powering genealogical research

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

#History
‘The hidden engine room’: how amateur historians are powering genealogical research
Wealth of datasets compiled as private passions are now a goldmine for those hunting for their ancestors
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by John Levin
statutes.bsky.social
#OTD in 1819: The Seditious Meetings Act is passed. One of the 'Six Acts' passed to suppress radical movements in the wake of Peterloo.

statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta...

#History
December 24, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by John Levin
boschbot.bsky.social
Garden of Earthly Delights
Garden of Earthly Delights
December 21, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by John Levin
judithflanders.co.uk
Excellent summary of the miserable mismanagement of the British Library: dosh for the execs, dregs for the workers. Oh, and a series of CEOs with no library background, and -- no chief librarian? Why yes! That sounds like a brilliant set of priorities. www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
The worst of times: Trouble at the British Library
Cyber chaos, striking staff and a crisis of leadership. Claudia Cockerell investigates a national treasure’s year of reckoning
www.standard.co.uk
December 20, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by John Levin
earlymodjustice.bsky.social
My forthcoming book—
For which I began research in 2006.
Is now posted on the website for Princeton University Press.

Cover will be added soon.

The King’s Slaves: The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery
The King's Slaves
A provocative account of how empire and absolutism institutionalized slavery in America
press.princeton.edu
December 18, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by John Levin
kiranmehta.bsky.social
A nice surprise this morning: my article on prison reform from below is out!

I believe it’s open access but let me know if you can’t get a copy and would like one.

academic.oup.com/histres/adva...
Prison reform from below: London, c.1780–1830*
Abstract. This article explores the history of the English prison reform movement from ‘below’ – that is, from the perspective of prison inmates. By highli
academic.oup.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by John Levin
pasttensehistories.bsky.social
150 years ago!
#OnThisDay in London's parklife: 1000s destroy enclosure fences, Hackney Downs, 1875, helping preserve the Downs as an open space
wp.me/p74yfw-q2

Read more about the campaign in our pamphlet
“Green Beneath the Skies”
Buy online here:
pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/gree...
Today in London’s parklife: 1000s destroy enclosure fences, Hackney Downs, 1875
On December 11th 1875, a crowd of several thousand people assembled on Hackney Downs, East London, to take part in the destruction of fences newly built around enclosures on what was traditionally …
wp.me
December 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by John Levin
dadaists.bsky.social
Forthcoming in 2026 and 2027:
Major #Duchamp retrospective at Moma, Philly, and Pompidou:

www.moma.org/calendar/exh...

#Dada
Marcel Duchamp | MoMA
Exhibition. Apr 12–Aug 22, 2026. “Why is this art?” is a question often asked by viewers of contemporary art. It is virtually impossible to answer it without referring to the work of Marcel Duchamp (1...
www.moma.org
December 9, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by John Levin
nanjala.bsky.social
Alongside the word of the year we should have “the word that has lost the most of its meaning this year”. I nominate “ceasefire”.
December 8, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by John Levin
thewiremagazine.bsky.social
The London based MayDay Rooms’ anarcho-punk archive is a valuable resource for radical cultures and politics today, writes Seth Wheeler in The Wire 503/4

Read the full article online:

www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/c...
Against The Grain: Archiving anarcho-punk - The Wire
The London based MayDay Rooms’ anarcho-punk archive is a valuable resource for radical cultures and politics today, writes Seth Wheeler in The Wire 503/4
www.thewire.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by John Levin
ceebarnacles.bsky.social
Today, I did an interview on the picket line with a reporter from the the ‘Evening Standard’. I prefaced it with the fact that I left the ES (I worked in the cuttings archive and did research for the journos) 20 years ago to join the British Library: I *still* earn *much* less now than I did then.
December 8, 2025 at 4:17 PM
anterotesis.bsky.social
Solidarity with the staff at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social, the people who actually make the place work, in the face of wretched management.
britishlibrary.bsky.social British Library @britishlibrary.bsky.social · 27d
Due to ongoing strike action, all St Pancras Reading Rooms will be closed today (8 December). We are also likely to have to close our Reading Rooms for the rest of the week and will update if this is the case. Please make sure you check our service updates before you visit: bit.ly/StrikeAction...
Planned strike action in St Pancras
We have been notified of planned strike action taking place between Monday 8 and Friday 12 December 2025.
bit.ly
December 8, 2025 at 10:57 AM
anterotesis.bsky.social
The far right campaign to excuse or support slavery continues to make hash of historical research. Important thread:

#BadHistory
sarahebond.bsky.social Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 29d
A new report on dietary findings in a select area of Pompeii likely inhabited by enslaved people came out in Scavi di Pompei. Many newspapers are now running w/a headline about Roman slaves “eating better” than free Romans. pompeiisites.org/e-journal-de... Let’s discuss why this is problematic
thetimes.com 三 THEy TIMES Log in Subscribe Home UK World Comment Money Life & Style Roman slaves were better fed than many citizens, Pompeii reveals
December 6, 2025 at 5:20 PM
anterotesis.bsky.social
This was a really great talk, impressive on so many levels.

#History #BlackHistory
December 5, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by John Levin
timhitchcock.bsky.social
Great to see Helen Wilson's talk on Black participation in Georgain politics available online (it starts 30 seconds in - my fault) @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social : www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Black and Political: Reconstructing Black Participation in British Politics, 1750-1850
British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar
www.history.ac.uk
December 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by John Levin
alanlester.bsky.social
This is the first History Reclaimed attack on @davidolusoga.bsky.social’s BBC Empire series, in The Spectator. The thread on its recycled Telegraph version shows how criticisms of the representation of Mike Mountain Horse and the invasion of Ijebu are based on untruths. But else do they argue?
December 3, 2025 at 8:06 AM
anterotesis.bsky.social
Solidarity with the staff of the British Library.

A great and important institution being wrecked by both its management and an ignorant government.
December 2, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by John Levin
resprofnews.bsky.social
Breaking: Second wave of strikes at British Library announced

Union says lack of stable leadership after chief executive’s departure has “undoubtedly undermined staff confidence”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
Second wave of strikes at British Library announced - Research Professional News
Union says lack of stable leadership after chief executive’s departure has “undoubtedly undermined staff confidence”
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
anterotesis.bsky.social
I feel deeply inadequate, mucking around with a mere c.70,000 imprisoned debtors over a slightly longer timespan.

#History
adamchapman.bsky.social Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · Dec 2
A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database.

An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals
We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.
theconversation.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by John Levin
davehitchcock.bsky.social
Unfortunately the HE 2025 ballot failed at 39% turnout. I have written about why and about what desperately needs to change in UCU's national structures off the back of this result. Some HEC members need to chi up and understand their role in all this, and how disconnected they are from members.
The HE Ballot failed, now what?
If you’re reading this it is because today the UCU’s 2025 national ballot over pay and conditions in universities has failed. The last time…
hitchcockian.medium.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:22 PM
anterotesis.bsky.social
This is a startling piece on the economy of internet scamming, that touches on workers' conditions:

Age of the ‘scam state’: how an illicit, multibillion-dollar industry has taken root in south-east Asia

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Age of the ‘scam state’: how an illicit, multibillion-dollar industry has taken root in south-east Asia
Like the narco-state, a ‘scam state’ refers to countries where an illicit industry has dug its tentacles deep into institutions and transformed the economy
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by John Levin
lukemcgee.bsky.social
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by John Levin
dadaists.bsky.social
#Surrealism and anti-fascism anthology reviewed:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Hal Foster · Tightrope of Hope: Surrealism v. Fascism
The Surrealists saw colonialism and imperialism as intrinsic to fascism, and from start to finish they campaigned...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:42 AM