Erik Linstrum
@eriklinstrum.bsky.social
Historian of Britain, empire, and decolonization at the University of Virginia. Author of AGE OF EMERGENCY and RULING MINDS. Working on fascism and empire. Writing in Jacobin, New Republic, History Today, etc.
Pinned
My book, Age of Emergency, is out now. It’s about how colonial violence comes home and what it means to live with warfare that is simultaneously distant and present, unsettling and unstoppable, existential and futile.
👏
Some U.Va. Board Members Asked to Resign as a Democratic Governor Takes Power
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:34 PM
👏
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
"We seem to be entering an age of state control armed only with the delusional hope that if universities hide and say nothing about all of the obvious ways in which the nation is slouching toward the demise of democracy, they will avoid political retribution."
Opinion | Where’s the Outrage? Universities Need to Speak Up.
The lack of response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good is shameful.
www.chronicle.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:04 PM
"We seem to be entering an age of state control armed only with the delusional hope that if universities hide and say nothing about all of the obvious ways in which the nation is slouching toward the demise of democracy, they will avoid political retribution."
I love teaching this course
January 12, 2026 at 7:32 PM
I love teaching this course
The AHA rightly condemned the Iraq war in 2007 and the Ukraine invasion in 2022. Blocking a resolution, overwhelmingly supported by members, to express solidarity with Gaza is cowardly at best and special pleading at worst.
January 12, 2026 at 6:26 PM
The AHA rightly condemned the Iraq war in 2007 and the Ukraine invasion in 2022. Blocking a resolution, overwhelmingly supported by members, to express solidarity with Gaza is cowardly at best and special pleading at worst.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
Can’t believe the deliberative and professional search for a new president at UVA didn’t catch a CV loaded with misrepresentations augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find
Inside Higher Ed frames the controversy surrounding Scott C. Beardsley's appointment as the University of Virginia's president.
augustafreepress.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:06 AM
Can’t believe the deliberative and professional search for a new president at UVA didn’t catch a CV loaded with misrepresentations augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
Can’t believe the deliberative and professional search for a new president at UVA didn’t catch a CV loaded with misrepresentations augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find
Inside Higher Ed frames the controversy surrounding Scott C. Beardsley's appointment as the University of Virginia's president.
augustafreepress.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:06 AM
Can’t believe the deliberative and professional search for a new president at UVA didn’t catch a CV loaded with misrepresentations augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
This seems to strongly suggest that the incoming president of UVA doctored his CV to the edge of outright dishonesty, and that the most recent changes came months before Jim Ryan was forced, as if they were made in anticipation in Ryan’s removal. augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find
Inside Higher Ed frames the controversy surrounding Scott C. Beardsley's appointment as the University of Virginia's president.
augustafreepress.com
January 11, 2026 at 8:02 PM
This seems to strongly suggest that the incoming president of UVA doctored his CV to the edge of outright dishonesty, and that the most recent changes came months before Jim Ryan was forced, as if they were made in anticipation in Ryan’s removal. augustafreepress.com/news/vanishi...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
I've written a chapter, "Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence," for a volume on modern imperialism edited by Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis. French publication forthcoming. I'm sharing the English version here in the meantime papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence
<p><span>“Exterminate all the brutes!”: these words conclude a nominally humanitarian treatise in <i>Heart of Darkness</i>, the 1899 novella by<i> </i
papers.ssrn.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:21 PM
I've written a chapter, "Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence," for a volume on modern imperialism edited by Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis. French publication forthcoming. I'm sharing the English version here in the meantime papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I've written a chapter, "Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence," for a volume on modern imperialism edited by Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis. French publication forthcoming. I'm sharing the English version here in the meantime papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence
<p><span>“Exterminate all the brutes!”: these words conclude a nominally humanitarian treatise in <i>Heart of Darkness</i>, the 1899 novella by<i> </i
papers.ssrn.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:21 PM
I've written a chapter, "Hearts of Darkness: The Varieties of Imperial Violence," for a volume on modern imperialism edited by Nicolas Beaupré and Florian Louis. French publication forthcoming. I'm sharing the English version here in the meantime papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
If you take the job under these circumstances, I am afraid, you are unfit for the job.
A last-ditch power grab by a rogue and illegitimate board that has long since lost the confidence of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Also, a choice that perfectly illustrates this board’s contempt for the scholarly enterprise and those who practice it.
December 19, 2025 at 9:30 PM
If you take the job under these circumstances, I am afraid, you are unfit for the job.
A last-ditch power grab by a rogue and illegitimate board that has long since lost the confidence of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Also, a choice that perfectly illustrates this board’s contempt for the scholarly enterprise and those who practice it.
December 19, 2025 at 8:46 PM
A last-ditch power grab by a rogue and illegitimate board that has long since lost the confidence of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Also, a choice that perfectly illustrates this board’s contempt for the scholarly enterprise and those who practice it.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
We are delighted to be co-sponsoring this event alongside @ihr.bsky.social and @royalhistsoc.org. Details and sign-up information is below!
📢Upcoming Event!
💻JBS Listening Session for UK-based Scholars
📅January 8
⏰4pm GMT/ 11am EST/ 9am MST/ 8am PST
Info and RSVP here: www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
💻JBS Listening Session for UK-based Scholars
📅January 8
⏰4pm GMT/ 11am EST/ 9am MST/ 8am PST
Info and RSVP here: www.nacbs.org/event-detail...
JBS Listening Session for UK-based scholars | NACBS
The Journal of British Studies will host a listening session for UK-based scholars of British Studies on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 4pm GMT.
www.nacbs.org
December 19, 2025 at 3:46 PM
We are delighted to be co-sponsoring this event alongside @ihr.bsky.social and @royalhistsoc.org. Details and sign-up information is below!
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
Peasants and popes, free speech and fashion, sentimentality and special forces: the first 10 of 20 historians choose their favourite new #history books of 2025.
www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...
www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...
Books of the Year 2025: Part 1
www.historytoday.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Peasants and popes, free speech and fashion, sentimentality and special forces: the first 10 of 20 historians choose their favourite new #history books of 2025.
www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...
www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...
Christmas come early! My two picks for Books of the Year at History Today are out in print: Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell and What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala
November 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Christmas come early! My two picks for Books of the Year at History Today are out in print: Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell and What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ.
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
It's a surreal--and troubling--read.
drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...
November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM
my takeaway from this letter is that glenn youngkin, rector sheridan and their flunkies on the board are deeply dishonest people who are engaged, with the trump administration, in a mob-style shakedown against the university of virginia
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
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.
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...
Duncan Tanner Prize 2025
The Duncan Tanner Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. Entrants submit an article manuscript.
academic.oup.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 PM
the Duncan Tanner prize not only showcases the very best of early career scholarship in modern British history year after year, but the committee also give every entrant considered and generous feedback on their scholarship. it's win/win - do enter your work! academic.oup.com/tcbh/pages/e...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
"Making the unvarnished and unbounded history of empire a part of British heritage — making it, in other words, a past that people recognize as their own — will not be easy."
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:19 PM
"Making the unvarnished and unbounded history of empire a part of British heritage — making it, in other words, a past that people recognize as their own — will not be easy."
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:23 PM
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reckoning With Empire at Britain’s Imperial War Museum
An exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum offers a welcome corrective to the nostalgia for empire common among Britain’s elites.
jacobin.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
What happens when nationalist history meets the horrors of empire? For @jacobinmag.bsky.social, I reviewed a new exhibition on British counterinsurgency at the Imperial War Museum jacobin.com/2025/11/brit...
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
I’ll say it straight: It is unbecoming, undignified, cowardly, and shameful for a institution as revered and respected as the University of Virginia to grant an audience in 2025 to those who are committed to destroying science, free thought, human rights, and the rule of law.
How useful will AI be when it puts all reliable sources of information on the Web out of business?
October 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
How useful will AI be when it puts all reliable sources of information on the Web out of business?
Reposted by Erik Linstrum
In 2011 the British Government was forced to release tens of thousands of secretly held colonial documents from its archives. But 88,000 files on Britain's last colony remain withheld from the public.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Memory Exiled
Matthew Hurst explores the 'politics of forgetting' through the missing files of the Hong Kong colonial archive.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
October 21, 2025 at 6:01 AM
In 2011 the British Government was forced to release tens of thousands of secretly held colonial documents from its archives. But 88,000 files on Britain's last colony remain withheld from the public.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Matthew Hurst (@mrmhurst.bsky.social) on Hong Kong's colonial archive.
Their vandalism has graduated from the metaphorical to the literal
October 20, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Their vandalism has graduated from the metaphorical to the literal