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pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
Past and Present
@pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
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The Past and Present Society: making cutting edge social history accessible since 1952. Our journal Past & Present is published by Oxford University Press.

https://academic.oup.com/past
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pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
Past and Present @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social · Nov 24
Past & Present No. 269 (November 2025) is now published

All articles in the issue can be accessed here: academic.oup.com/past/issue/2... via our publisher @oxfordacademic.bsky.social

Or by scrolling down the thread👇
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
New on advance access: "Secrecy and sovereignty in the Age of Revolutions"

by Katlyn Marie Carter (‪@notredame.bsky.social‬)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Secrecy and sovereignty in the Age of Revolutions*
Abstract. Transparency, or publicity as it was then called, became a fundamental value linked to popular sovereignty in the late eighteenth century. Those
doi.org
February 5, 2026 at 8:12 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "Fossil Energy and the Ecology of Everyday Life in the Low Countries during the Long Eighteenth Century"

by Wout Saelens (University of Antwerp/VUB-University of Brussels)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Fossil Energy and the Ecology of Everyday Life in the Low Countries during the Long Eighteenth Century*
Abstract. Why did early modern households bring the polluting energy of fossil fuels into their homes? For a long time, peat and coal were considered infer
doi.org
February 4, 2026 at 1:52 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "Canoes in the Early English Caribbean: The Role of an Indigenous Technology in Making Mercantilism Work"

by Nuala Zahedieh (‪@camhistory.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Canoes in the Early English Caribbean: The Role of an Indigenous Technology in Making Mercantilism Work*
Abstract. The Caribbean, with its focus on cash crop production, played a major role in the rise of England’s Atlantic trading system and the making of mod
doi.org
February 3, 2026 at 4:59 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
New on advance access: "Papyrus Economies and the Experience of Early Medieval Papal Documents"

by Catherine Goodson (@camhistory.bsky.social) and Benjamin Savill (@freieuniversitaet.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Papyrus Economies and the Experience of Early Medieval Papal Documents*
Abstract. The medium of papyrus, a ubiquitous, state-sponsored product in the Roman world, was turned by the empire’s loss of Egypt in the 630s–640s into a
doi.org
February 2, 2026 at 10:04 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: Viewpoint: “Secularizing Strategies in the Early Middle Ages and the History of Pre-Modern Religion”

by Conor O'Brien (@oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Secularizing Strategies in the Early Middle Ages and the History of Pre-Modern Religion*
Abstract. Many historians and social scientists argue that religion and the secular were invented in Western Europe in the early modern period because it w
doi.org
January 30, 2026 at 3:53 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “The Cult of Gay Relics and Queer Medievalism in 1980s Sydney”

by Miles Pattenden (@oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social) and Michael Barbezat (Australian Catholic University)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
The Cult of Gay Relics and Queer Medievalism in 1980s Sydney*
Abstract. This article explains how the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of radical queer nuns, created gay ‘religious relics’ in San Francisco and
doi.org
January 29, 2026 at 8:38 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Religious Tension and Ethnic Consciousness in the Later Russian Empire”

by Thomas Marsden (@stir.ac.uk)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Religious Tension and Ethnic Consciousness in the Later Russian Empire*
Abstract. The Russian Empire collapsed because it failed to assimilate non-Russian minorities, and did not provide a coherent national narrative to unite t
doi.org
January 28, 2026 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Past and Present
alanlester.bsky.social
Salutary reading for those who persist in claiming that Britain did more than any other nation to free Africans from slavery. 1. Most “Liberated Africans” - 700,000 - were forced into state-supervised indenture. 2. Portugal & France “freed” more Africans in this way than Britain.
January 27, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Past and Present
davidandress.bsky.social
When the British Empire proudly "liberated" enslaved people in the 19th century, it did not in fact "liberate" hundreds of thousands of them. It bound them into forced labour, to serve its purposes, and chose not to call it slavery.
January 27, 2026 at 8:00 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Conceptualizing ‘Liberated Africans’ and Slave Trade Abolition: Government Schemes to Indenture Enslaved People Captured from Slavery, 1800–1920”

by Henry B. Lovejoy (@colorado.edu)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Conceptualizing ‘Liberated Africans’ and Slave Trade Abolition: Government Schemes to Indenture Enslaved People Captured from Slavery, 1800–1920*
Abstract. A new survey of ‘Liberated Africans’ exposes how global calculations of involuntary African indentured labour after 1800 have been significantly
doi.org
January 27, 2026 at 7:57 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
Former Past & Present Co-Editor Matthew Hilton's (@qmcbs.bsky.social) new book "Charity After Empire: British Humanitarianism, Decolonisation and Development" is out now through @universitypress.cambridge.org CORE and formally published next month

doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Charity After Empire
Cambridge Core - Global History - Charity After Empire
doi.org
January 26, 2026 at 6:03 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “The Atmosphere in Spatial History: Digital Evidence and Visual Argument”

by @lscholz.bsky.social (@manchester.ac.uk)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
The Atmosphere in Spatial History: Digital Evidence and Visual Argument*
Abstract. Taking its cue from the weather wars that unfolded around the Alps in the eighteenth century — conflicts between neighbouring towns and polities
doi.org
January 26, 2026 at 2:28 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Failure to Drain: Expert Resistance and Environmental Thought in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic”

by @annalunapost.bsky.social (@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Failure to Drain: Expert Resistance and Environmental Thought in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic*
Abstract. Historical scholarship has long highlighted the extensive landscape interventions initiated by state agents, early capitalists and experts in the
doi.org
January 23, 2026 at 7:43 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Needed but Deplored: Spinners and Singlewomen in Industrial Coventry, c.1490–1525”

by Judith M. Bennett (@usc.edu)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Validate User
doi.org
January 22, 2026 at 8:11 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Plague Correspondence, Trust, and Mistrust in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon”

by Abigail Agresta (George Washington University)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Plague Correspondence, Rumour, and Mistrust in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon*
Abstract. Starting in the fifteenth century, European city governments began to respond to the threat of plague by introducing quarantine measures, which p
doi.org
January 21, 2026 at 8:10 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "The Revolutions that Consolidated Empire: A Reconsideration of 1830"

by @beatricedegraaf.bsky.social and Erik de Lange (‪‬@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
The Revolutions that Consolidated Empire: A Reconsideration of 1830*
Abstract. There is a world of imperial connections and consequences of the revolutions of 1830 that historians hardly ever mention. The relationship betwee
doi.org
January 20, 2026 at 8:14 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope"

by @gianamar97.bsky.social (@uvahumanities.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope*
Abstract. As the Cape of Good Hope was integrated into early modern colonial world-making projects, it came to be regarded as ‘the western part of the East
doi.org
January 19, 2026 at 12:50 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: Viewpoint: “Secularizing Strategies in the Early Middle Ages and the History of Pre-Modern Religion”

by Conor O'Brien (@oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Validate User
doi.org
January 16, 2026 at 5:18 PM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "The Making and Unmaking of Religious Toleration in Spanish Manila, 1571-1755"

by Adrian Masters (University of Trier)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:52 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “The Cult of Gay Relics and Queer Medievalism in 1980s Sydney”

by Miles Pattenden (@oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social) and Michael Barbezat (Australian Catholic University)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
The Cult of Gay Relics and Queer Medievalism in 1980s Sydney*
Abstract. This article explains how the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of radical queer nuns, created gay ‘religious relics’ in San Francisco and
doi.org
January 14, 2026 at 8:10 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
New on advance access: "Protecting Soviet Muslims: Muhajir Activism and the Minority Treaties, 1917–1934"

by Roy Bar Sadeh (@uomhistdept.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Protecting Soviet Muslims: Muhajir Activism and the Minority Treaties, 1917–1934∗
Abstract. It is a historiographical convention to view interwar debates over the protection of vulnerable populations through the prism of ‘minority rights
doi.org
January 13, 2026 at 9:49 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Religious Tension and Ethnic Consciousness in the Later Russian Empire”

by Thomas Marsden (@stir.ac.uk)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Religious Tension and Ethnic Consciousness in the Later Russian Empire*
Abstract. The Russian Empire collapsed because it failed to assimilate non-Russian minorities, and did not provide a coherent national narrative to unite t
doi.org
January 12, 2026 at 8:39 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
New on advance access: "Rumour, Public Opinion and Print in Istanbul, 1780s–1830s"

by Avner Wishnitzer (Tel Aviv University)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Rumour, Public Opinion and Print in Istanbul, 1780s–1830s*
Abstract. Drawing on Ottoman official correspondence, an informer’s report, and palace-sponsored tracts and chronicles, this article challenges the widely-
doi.org
January 9, 2026 at 10:29 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "Housing and the Peripheralisation of Race Politics in Britain, 1948-1977"

by @chrhilli.bsky.social (@sydney.edu.au)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org
January 7, 2026 at 8:55 AM
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
On advance access: "The purposeful workhouse of England's Old Poor Law"

by Susannah Ottaway (Carleton College)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
The purposeful workhouse of England’s Old Poor Law*
Abstract. It has long been recognized that the English workhouses of the Old Poor Law era (1601-1834) were important precursors to institutions of the mode
doi.org
January 6, 2026 at 3:22 PM