Sam Wetherell
@samwetherell.bsky.social
Historian of Britain and the World at the University of York. Interested in cities, art-making and the future. Liverpool and the Un-Making of Britain out now: www.samwetherell.com
Pinned
Sam Wetherell
@samwetherell.bsky.social
· Jan 28
Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell | Waterstones
Buy Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain by Sam Wetherell from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
On 27 Feb my book comes out. It’s about how Liverpool’s recent history should change the way we think about modern Britain. On this thread every few days till then, I will tweet an extraordinary fact about Liverpool’s twentieth-century. Pre-order here: www.waterstones.com/book/liverpo...
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust
NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.
Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
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.
I am in the Rowntree Memorial Park cafe which has a gigantic poppy on its outer wall with my two year old. There are like 15 other toddlers here. We are 22 minutes away from the minute of silence. I’m on the edge of my seat to see what happens.
November 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I am in the Rowntree Memorial Park cafe which has a gigantic poppy on its outer wall with my two year old. There are like 15 other toddlers here. We are 22 minutes away from the minute of silence. I’m on the edge of my seat to see what happens.
Perhaps the dumbest take in the last few days has been British people, including people on the left, loudly proclaiming we are too vicariously interested in New York local politics.
November 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Perhaps the dumbest take in the last few days has been British people, including people on the left, loudly proclaiming we are too vicariously interested in New York local politics.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Its worth noting that in Britain, Mamdani would have thrown out of the Labour Party by a small room full LinkIn weirdos and then replaced by a former private healthcare lobbyist who would go on to lose by 5,000 votes to a Reform candidate who was a convinced sex offender.
June 25, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Its worth noting that in Britain, Mamdani would have thrown out of the Labour Party by a small room full LinkIn weirdos and then replaced by a former private healthcare lobbyist who would go on to lose by 5,000 votes to a Reform candidate who was a convinced sex offender.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Congratulations to Andrew Cuomo for his forthcoming permanent slot as a representative of the left on the Rest is Politics.
June 25, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Congratulations to Andrew Cuomo for his forthcoming permanent slot as a representative of the left on the Rest is Politics.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Review of @samwetherell.bsky.social’s terrific new history of Liverpool, a definitive study of the city‘s 20th century with clear lessons for the 21st.
‘As early as 1971, a Toxteth councillor, Margaret Simey, predicted that the police would provoke a “civil war” in the city. In 1981, her prediction proved accurate.’
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on how and why Liverpool got left behind.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite on how and why Liverpool got left behind.
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 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Review of @samwetherell.bsky.social’s terrific new history of Liverpool, a definitive study of the city‘s 20th century with clear lessons for the 21st.
This feels about right.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
This feels about right.
That Britain has a king, that the king's brother has been involved in serious instances of sexual abuse, that the consequence is for him to be stripped of a handful of abstruse feudal titles and that Britain's elite think this is a fitting punishment, is the mark of a truly fucking weird country.
October 31, 2025 at 9:30 AM
That Britain has a king, that the king's brother has been involved in serious instances of sexual abuse, that the consequence is for him to be stripped of a handful of abstruse feudal titles and that Britain's elite think this is a fitting punishment, is the mark of a truly fucking weird country.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
This looks incredible and is *long* overdue.
Delighted to be at the proofs stage with this. Out in April with CUP!
October 31, 2025 at 9:01 AM
This looks incredible and is *long* overdue.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
brilliant, both book and review!
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
October 30, 2025 at 11:23 AM
brilliant, both book and review!
Thanks to the Nazi billionaire for providing phone service in rural Shropshire. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Virgin Media O2 seals deal with Elon Musk firm to boost UK rural mobile coverage
Service scheduled to launch in 2026 will be first in Britain to use Starlink’s satellites to connect to handsets
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Thanks to the Nazi billionaire for providing phone service in rural Shropshire. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Such an honour to see a wonderful, long and thoughtful review of my book in the latest @lrb.co.uk - by the excellent Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite. It captures how each of my books were products of their specific political moments. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
BBC news this morning setting the tone for our coming century. Stories about apocalyptic climate-change led disaster and mass displacement in the post colonial global south evenly spaced with hysterical meltdowns about the onshore temporary housing of refugees.
October 29, 2025 at 7:46 AM
BBC news this morning setting the tone for our coming century. Stories about apocalyptic climate-change led disaster and mass displacement in the post colonial global south evenly spaced with hysterical meltdowns about the onshore temporary housing of refugees.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Dutch friends! Come to the Amsterdam launch of Liverpool and the Unmaking if Britain next month at the Amsterdam Centre for Urban Studies with some amazing speakers. spui25.nl/programma/do...
Docks after Dockwork
This is the Amsterdam book launch of Sam Wetherell’s award-winning book, Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain (Bloomsbury, 2025). The book explores deindustrialization, racial divides, decolonisatio...
spui25.nl
October 26, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Dutch friends! Come to the Amsterdam launch of Liverpool and the Unmaking if Britain next month at the Amsterdam Centre for Urban Studies with some amazing speakers. spui25.nl/programma/do...
Dutch friends! Come to the Amsterdam launch of Liverpool and the Unmaking if Britain next month at the Amsterdam Centre for Urban Studies with some amazing speakers. spui25.nl/programma/do...
Docks after Dockwork
This is the Amsterdam book launch of Sam Wetherell’s award-winning book, Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain (Bloomsbury, 2025). The book explores deindustrialization, racial divides, decolonisatio...
spui25.nl
October 26, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Dutch friends! Come to the Amsterdam launch of Liverpool and the Unmaking if Britain next month at the Amsterdam Centre for Urban Studies with some amazing speakers. spui25.nl/programma/do...
Today, after more than 15 years of living on and off in the US, I had the strange experience of becoming a US citizen.
October 23, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Today, after more than 15 years of living on and off in the US, I had the strange experience of becoming a US citizen.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Olive Morris's former squat and centre for the Brixton Ad-Hoc Committee against Police Repression.
£1.4m
themodernhouse.com/sales-list/t...
www.decolonisingthearchive.com/remembering-...
£1.4m
themodernhouse.com/sales-list/t...
www.decolonisingthearchive.com/remembering-...
October 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Olive Morris's former squat and centre for the Brixton Ad-Hoc Committee against Police Repression.
£1.4m
themodernhouse.com/sales-list/t...
www.decolonisingthearchive.com/remembering-...
£1.4m
themodernhouse.com/sales-list/t...
www.decolonisingthearchive.com/remembering-...
"These proposals would mean deporting greater numbers and a greater proportion of the population than former Ugandan President Idi Amin's deportation of Ugandan Asians."
Stephen Bush on the extraordinary draft legislation which Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Matt Vickers, Katie Lam and backbench colleagues have proposed in parliament
It is a proposal that would seek to deport around 5% of the resident population, including over a quarter of a million with ILR
It is a proposal that would seek to deport around 5% of the resident population, including over a quarter of a million with ILR
October 23, 2025 at 12:23 PM
"These proposals would mean deporting greater numbers and a greater proportion of the population than former Ugandan President Idi Amin's deportation of Ugandan Asians."
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
I mean this isn’t what I’m saying. I don’t think we should even discuss reducing migration because a) I think migration is a good thing and b) nobody has ever been able to show me evidence that reducing it would have a positive effect on anything
This whole debate has become absurd. Obviously forced deportation of settled residents is deeply unjust and completely unnecessary. But the idea promoted on this site that one cannot even discuss reducing immigration lest it helps fascists is irrational and counterproductive. /1
I sat in the British Library reading League of Empire Loyalists, BNP & National Front literature for my book and even they claimed to promote *voluntary* repatriation. Forcible deportation was always the ghost behind those ideas, but it’s amazing that UK politicians don’t even bother to hide it.
October 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I mean this isn’t what I’m saying. I don’t think we should even discuss reducing migration because a) I think migration is a good thing and b) nobody has ever been able to show me evidence that reducing it would have a positive effect on anything
Update: train has now been broken down for almost an hour in a field in Sussex.
Nothing like travelling solo on the train from York to Sussex with a two year old and two large bags to remind you of the decrepitude of British infrastructure and the kindness of strangers.
October 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Update: train has now been broken down for almost an hour in a field in Sussex.
Nothing like travelling solo on the train from York to Sussex with a two year old and two large bags to remind you of the decrepitude of British infrastructure and the kindness of strangers.
October 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Nothing like travelling solo on the train from York to Sussex with a two year old and two large bags to remind you of the decrepitude of British infrastructure and the kindness of strangers.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
New article out in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's gestation began in late 2021, shortly before I started my current job teaching Black British history. It's the product of my frustrations with the way that the histories of racism & fascism in Britain are written about.
doi.org/10.1017/jbr....
doi.org/10.1017/jbr....
The Lost Pillar of British Political Culture: Black Constructions of British Fascism, 1930s–1970s | Journal of British Studies | Cambridge Core
The Lost Pillar of British Political Culture: Black Constructions of British Fascism, 1930s–1970s - Volume 64
doi.org
October 15, 2025 at 12:36 PM
New article out in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's gestation began in late 2021, shortly before I started my current job teaching Black British history. It's the product of my frustrations with the way that the histories of racism & fascism in Britain are written about.
doi.org/10.1017/jbr....
doi.org/10.1017/jbr....
My students usually enjoy my lectures, but I think they particularly enjoyed yesterday’s, when two random twelve year olds stormed the stage, called me a specky twat, then were chased away by two frantic security officers.
October 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
My students usually enjoy my lectures, but I think they particularly enjoyed yesterday’s, when two random twelve year olds stormed the stage, called me a specky twat, then were chased away by two frantic security officers.