Sam Grinsell
@samgrinsell.bsky.social
Historian trying to help build better worlds 🇵🇸🌈✊🏳️⚧️
Blog here https://samgrinsell.hcommons.org/writing/
Buy me a brew https://ko-fi.com/samgrinsell
Blog here https://samgrinsell.hcommons.org/writing/
Buy me a brew https://ko-fi.com/samgrinsell
Pinned
Sam Grinsell
@samgrinsell.bsky.social
· Sep 25
Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity | Urban History | Cambridge Core
Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity
doi.org
Very pleased that my piece 'Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity' has been published in @urbanhistory.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S096...
Many thanks to @mctom.bsky.social for organising the roundtable that got these thoughts going back in 2023! #UrbanHist #EnvHums
Many thanks to @mctom.bsky.social for organising the roundtable that got these thoughts going back in 2023! #UrbanHist #EnvHums
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Nothing can prepare your soul for the first image ever transmitted onto a television
January 26, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Nothing can prepare your soul for the first image ever transmitted onto a television
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Help elect Manchester's first Green MP! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/jWr7J55...
Help Elect Manchester's First Green MP
We need your help on the Green Party’s path to electing it’s first Green MP and help us hit the key milestones leading up to it!
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
January 25, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Help elect Manchester's first Green MP! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/jWr7J55...
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
`for one of my wonderful dissertation students, who is writing about banlieue music, do you know of any work on fashion, especially bourgeois anxieties surrounding tracksuits and hijabs? I know of work in a UK context, but anything France-specific?
January 26, 2026 at 9:53 AM
`for one of my wonderful dissertation students, who is writing about banlieue music, do you know of any work on fashion, especially bourgeois anxieties surrounding tracksuits and hijabs? I know of work in a UK context, but anything France-specific?
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Nine years to the day since Graham Linehan foresaw his own fate.
January 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Nine years to the day since Graham Linehan foresaw his own fate.
Help elect Manchester's first Green MP! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/jWr7J55...
Help Elect Manchester's First Green MP
We need your help on the Green Party’s path to electing it’s first Green MP and help us hit the key milestones leading up to it!
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
January 25, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Help elect Manchester's first Green MP! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/jWr7J55...
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Help Elect Manchester's First Green MP
Kier Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham for running for Labour. Time for Gorton & Denton to have an MP on the left that actually listens to their community! 💚
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-elect...
Kier Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham for running for Labour. Time for Gorton & Denton to have an MP on the left that actually listens to their community! 💚
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-elect...
Help Elect Manchester's First Green MP
We need your help on the Green Party’s path to electing it’s first Green MP and help us hit the key milestones leading up to it!
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
January 25, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Help Elect Manchester's First Green MP
Kier Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham for running for Labour. Time for Gorton & Denton to have an MP on the left that actually listens to their community! 💚
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-elect...
Kier Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham for running for Labour. Time for Gorton & Denton to have an MP on the left that actually listens to their community! 💚
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-elect...
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
I love Starmerism, it's like "Uh no this guy can't be an MP because people like him. Only people everyone hates can be in Labour." It is so cool and smart.
NEW: Andy Burnham *blocked* from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Of nine voting members on NEC group was 8-1 against him.
January 25, 2026 at 12:02 PM
I love Starmerism, it's like "Uh no this guy can't be an MP because people like him. Only people everyone hates can be in Labour." It is so cool and smart.
"Two songs from Hamilton, Kemi? Two??? That's insane"
January 25, 2026 at 11:31 AM
"Two songs from Hamilton, Kemi? Two??? That's insane"
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
💯. People can live under intolerable circumstances for centuries. Life is not a movie. It promises no resolution.
Every moment of justice won requires tireless effort, and every win requires vigilance and defense for eternity. Look at the backsliding on rights we were assured wwre settled law.
Every moment of justice won requires tireless effort, and every win requires vigilance and defense for eternity. Look at the backsliding on rights we were assured wwre settled law.
January 24, 2026 at 5:00 PM
💯. People can live under intolerable circumstances for centuries. Life is not a movie. It promises no resolution.
Every moment of justice won requires tireless effort, and every win requires vigilance and defense for eternity. Look at the backsliding on rights we were assured wwre settled law.
Every moment of justice won requires tireless effort, and every win requires vigilance and defense for eternity. Look at the backsliding on rights we were assured wwre settled law.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
"I really like the ideas of Jeremy Bentham."
"The ones about maximising pleasure and treating everyone equally?"
"Not those ones, no."
"Animal welfare? Decriminalising consensual sexual acts? Expanding democratic accountability?"
"Not exactly."
"Which ones then?"
"Oh, you know the ones..."
"The ones about maximising pleasure and treating everyone equally?"
"Not those ones, no."
"Animal welfare? Decriminalising consensual sexual acts? Expanding democratic accountability?"
"Not exactly."
"Which ones then?"
"Oh, you know the ones..."
Shabana Mahmood here, whose “ultimate vision” is to turn the world into a prison
January 23, 2026 at 3:59 PM
"I really like the ideas of Jeremy Bentham."
"The ones about maximising pleasure and treating everyone equally?"
"Not those ones, no."
"Animal welfare? Decriminalising consensual sexual acts? Expanding democratic accountability?"
"Not exactly."
"Which ones then?"
"Oh, you know the ones..."
"The ones about maximising pleasure and treating everyone equally?"
"Not those ones, no."
"Animal welfare? Decriminalising consensual sexual acts? Expanding democratic accountability?"
"Not exactly."
"Which ones then?"
"Oh, you know the ones..."
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Part of the current trend to see everything in summary is the lack of awareness that great writing tends to already be in its simplest, most accessible form. It may simply take 800 pages to state the simplest version of some ideas.
January 23, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Part of the current trend to see everything in summary is the lack of awareness that great writing tends to already be in its simplest, most accessible form. It may simply take 800 pages to state the simplest version of some ideas.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
“it just reworks classically liberal metapolitics into the neoliberal “empire of intensities”…affect theory is another front of 90s privatization, like the Telecom Act and the Welfare Reform Act, but operating at the level of epistemology and aesthetics.”
www.its-her-factory.com/2026/01/i-fi...
www.its-her-factory.com/2026/01/i-fi...
I finally figured out what bothers me about affect theory
www.its-her-factory.com
January 21, 2026 at 9:58 PM
“it just reworks classically liberal metapolitics into the neoliberal “empire of intensities”…affect theory is another front of 90s privatization, like the Telecom Act and the Welfare Reform Act, but operating at the level of epistemology and aesthetics.”
www.its-her-factory.com/2026/01/i-fi...
www.its-her-factory.com/2026/01/i-fi...
This is the future, all bow before the notes app screenshot
Today’s the first time I received an essay submitted to the VLE as multiple JPG screenshots of a phone note-taking app. Anyone else?
January 23, 2026 at 3:25 PM
This is the future, all bow before the notes app screenshot
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
"Hans, are we on the board of peace?"
January 22, 2026 at 10:20 PM
"Hans, are we on the board of peace?"
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
This is one of the most compelling 'party political broadcasts' I've seen in decades. No wonder Labour is petrified about being eclipsed by the Green Party. There is an alternative to the politics of austerity and the weaponisation of prejudice and xenophobia and yes finally a glimmer of hope.
Help us make hope normal again.
Join the Green Party now.
Join the Green Party now.
January 23, 2026 at 8:41 AM
This is one of the most compelling 'party political broadcasts' I've seen in decades. No wonder Labour is petrified about being eclipsed by the Green Party. There is an alternative to the politics of austerity and the weaponisation of prejudice and xenophobia and yes finally a glimmer of hope.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Help us make hope normal again.
Join the Green Party now.
Join the Green Party now.
January 22, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Help us make hope normal again.
Join the Green Party now.
Join the Green Party now.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
What a gracious response to this Alt text prompt, which in turn has prompted a follow.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we apologise that we hadn’t been using alt text previously. We’ve now added alt text to all of our scheduled posts and will be including it on all posts going forward. We really appreciate you highlighting this for inclusivity — thank you.
January 23, 2026 at 9:11 AM
What a gracious response to this Alt text prompt, which in turn has prompted a follow.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
The first paperback copy of my book Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology just arrived! Available on the 15th March from @cornellupress.bsky.social: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
January 21, 2026 at 11:34 AM
The first paperback copy of my book Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, and the Recolonization of Archaeology just arrived! Available on the 15th March from @cornellupress.bsky.social: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
If you were thinking of writing a review of Bregman's recent Reith Lectures where would you pitch it?
January 20, 2026 at 5:38 PM
If you were thinking of writing a review of Bregman's recent Reith Lectures where would you pitch it?
what are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?
["can" is quite a low bar for me, take this as "with any level of expertise"]
British Empire (especially Egypt and Sudan)
Infrastructural history
The Anthropocene
Cites and the environment
Pink Floyd
["can" is quite a low bar for me, take this as "with any level of expertise"]
British Empire (especially Egypt and Sudan)
Infrastructural history
The Anthropocene
Cites and the environment
Pink Floyd
what are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?
Queer Art
WWE
Trans+ history
Westminster politics
Musical theatre
Queer Art
WWE
Trans+ history
Westminster politics
Musical theatre
what are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?
1. Journalism
2. Christianity
3. Painters
4. My hometown
5. Graphic design
1. Journalism
2. Christianity
3. Painters
4. My hometown
5. Graphic design
January 20, 2026 at 12:16 AM
what are 5 topics you can talk about unprepared for 5 minutes?
["can" is quite a low bar for me, take this as "with any level of expertise"]
British Empire (especially Egypt and Sudan)
Infrastructural history
The Anthropocene
Cites and the environment
Pink Floyd
["can" is quite a low bar for me, take this as "with any level of expertise"]
British Empire (especially Egypt and Sudan)
Infrastructural history
The Anthropocene
Cites and the environment
Pink Floyd
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Roger Sterling's response to MLK's assassination on MAD MEN sorta sums up the entire series, and acts as a grim reminder of where we still are in America
Roger Sterling's response to MLK's assassination on MAD MEN sorta sums up the entire series, and acts as a grim reminder of where we still are in America
January 19, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Roger Sterling's response to MLK's assassination on MAD MEN sorta sums up the entire series, and acts as a grim reminder of where we still are in America
Roger Sterling's response to MLK's assassination on MAD MEN sorta sums up the entire series, and acts as a grim reminder of where we still are in America
genuinely fascinated by this and wondering how it relates to the history of television, where a human talking straight to the camera is considered a quite old-fashioned look. Does the vertical, phone-friendly video suit this better than a TV aspect ratio does?
I don't understand how as a society we agreed it was OK to dodge & swerve street preachers, chuggers and that one guy at the pub with the weird conspiracy theory & yet we accept the horror of straight-to-camera videos from total strangers. No thank you. Who are you? Why are you talking to me? Yikes.
January 19, 2026 at 10:45 AM
genuinely fascinated by this and wondering how it relates to the history of television, where a human talking straight to the camera is considered a quite old-fashioned look. Does the vertical, phone-friendly video suit this better than a TV aspect ratio does?
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
This is a little bit of a long shot, but won’t hurt to ask - does anyone know of any books / articles about the planning / logistics of polar exploration, Heroic Age or a little later. What foods, what allowance for loss/spoilage, what weight on a sledge, distances per day, etc.
January 18, 2026 at 11:00 AM
This is a little bit of a long shot, but won’t hurt to ask - does anyone know of any books / articles about the planning / logistics of polar exploration, Heroic Age or a little later. What foods, what allowance for loss/spoilage, what weight on a sledge, distances per day, etc.
Reposted by Sam Grinsell
For your holiday weekend reading & reflection, here’s my 259th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & solidarity, all! 🗃️
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 259 (1/18/26) – Black and White and Read All Over
For your holiday weekend reading & reflection, here’s my 259th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as w...
blackwhiteandread.com
January 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM
For your holiday weekend reading & reflection, here’s my 259th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & solidarity, all! 🗃️
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...