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
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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...
I get what he's doing here, but it is absurd to talk about a city founded on cotton grown by enslaved people in conditions of ecological devastation as being a place where multi-racial people "pulled together" "over centuries." No less historically illiterate than the crudest statement by Reform.
February 12, 2026 at 8:46 AM
I get what he's doing here, but it is absurd to talk about a city founded on cotton grown by enslaved people in conditions of ecological devastation as being a place where multi-racial people "pulled together" "over centuries." No less historically illiterate than the crudest statement by Reform.
Are we supposed to believe/pretend to believe there is a meaningful difference between this and the speech in which Starmer warned Britain was becoming "an island of strangers"? www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Starmer tells Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK ‘colonised’ by immigrants
PM calls comments by Man United co-owner, who also hit out at people on benefits, ‘offensive and wrong’
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Are we supposed to believe/pretend to believe there is a meaningful difference between this and the speech in which Starmer warned Britain was becoming "an island of strangers"? www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Peter Linebaugh is here continuing his extraordinary, commendable, life-long almost solo crusade to rescue the "English radical tradition" from a subdued, bordered, project of national development by relentlessly foregrounding its imperial, multi-racial, multitudinous hinterland.
This was such a special interview to conduct: the first in two episodes with historian Peter Linebaugh on the long histories of commons and commoning, connections between enclosures in Europe and imperial conquest abroad, and writing history from below. www.thedigradio.com/podcast/the-...
The Commons w/ Peter Linebaugh
Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the long histories of commons and commoning, connections between enclosures in Europe and imperial conquest abroad, and writing history from below.
www.thedigradio.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Peter Linebaugh is here continuing his extraordinary, commendable, life-long almost solo crusade to rescue the "English radical tradition" from a subdued, bordered, project of national development by relentlessly foregrounding its imperial, multi-racial, multitudinous hinterland.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'.
A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.
Details in poster below, please share.
A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.
Details in poster below, please share.
February 5, 2026 at 2:09 PM
CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'.
A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.
Details in poster below, please share.
A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.
Details in poster below, please share.
AI will simply never be as cool as the fully automated cast-iron Church pastor theorised by the early nineteenth century Jamaican abolitionist Robert Wedderburn called a "Technicatholicautomatoppantoppidon"
February 7, 2026 at 3:52 PM
AI will simply never be as cool as the fully automated cast-iron Church pastor theorised by the early nineteenth century Jamaican abolitionist Robert Wedderburn called a "Technicatholicautomatoppantoppidon"
Everything would be more clarifying if, instead of viewing Mandleson's appointment as an "error of judgement" we instead saw it as a gamble, sensible at the time, that Britain's elite eco-system, already familiar with his relationship with Eppstein, would never bother to hold him to account.
February 6, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Everything would be more clarifying if, instead of viewing Mandleson's appointment as an "error of judgement" we instead saw it as a gamble, sensible at the time, that Britain's elite eco-system, already familiar with his relationship with Eppstein, would never bother to hold him to account.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
Partygate was a classic newspaper stitchup: an attempt at evidence-disposal, a way of getting rid of the now very embarrassing Johnson in a controlled. relatively surgical manner, provided by Cummings (bringing together the party staff and the press who had put Johnson in power in the first place).
February 4, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Partygate was a classic newspaper stitchup: an attempt at evidence-disposal, a way of getting rid of the now very embarrassing Johnson in a controlled. relatively surgical manner, provided by Cummings (bringing together the party staff and the press who had put Johnson in power in the first place).
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
A new year means a fresh crop of books! I've compiled a list below of new and upcoming tiles I would love to get reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. If you want a copy of one of these in return for a review, let me know! Beginning with vol III of the awesome-looking Cambridge History of Europe!
January 30, 2026 at 1:16 PM
A new year means a fresh crop of books! I've compiled a list below of new and upcoming tiles I would love to get reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. If you want a copy of one of these in return for a review, let me know! Beginning with vol III of the awesome-looking Cambridge History of Europe!
I am convinced that nobody, from Liz Kendall, to the companies that will profit from this to the people on the ground who are the objects of this intervention think this will actually make anyone’s lives better. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Barnsley rebranded UK’s first ‘tech town’ as US giants join AI push
Minister announces Microsoft, Cisco and Adobe to help apply AI to local schools, hospitals, GPs and businesses
www.theguardian.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:06 AM
I am convinced that nobody, from Liz Kendall, to the companies that will profit from this to the people on the ground who are the objects of this intervention think this will actually make anyone’s lives better. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
*drum roll*
Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!
I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...
Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!
I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...
February 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM
*drum roll*
Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!
I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...
Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!
I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...
I have now been on hold to my GP for more than twice as long as I was on hold to HMRC when I had to call them the day before the self assessment deadline.
February 2, 2026 at 9:05 AM
I have now been on hold to my GP for more than twice as long as I was on hold to HMRC when I had to call them the day before the self assessment deadline.
Mandleson, of course, is by all account still a member of the Labour Party. Worth remembering Neal Lawson, the head of compass, was almost expelled from the party for retweeting someone who called for tactical voting in a local election. www.ft.com/content/1728...
Jeffrey Epstein sent Peter Mandelson $75,000, documents show
Newly released files include three payments from disgraced financier’s JPMorgan account to former UK power broker
www.ft.com
February 1, 2026 at 8:17 AM
Mandleson, of course, is by all account still a member of the Labour Party. Worth remembering Neal Lawson, the head of compass, was almost expelled from the party for retweeting someone who called for tactical voting in a local election. www.ft.com/content/1728...
Truly excellent interview with Nikhil Pal Singh here - a wide ranging discussion of the ways that the Trump project has collapsed the distinction between the US's domestic and international projects - drawing from, and re-working decades of policy in both of these arenas.
"Obama helped to put what was still in some ways a fledgling agency (ICE) and built it up into the institutional node that it is now. Obama is extremely important as a fulcrum between the origins of Homeland Security... and its hypertrophy and abuse in Trump." - Nikhil Pal Singh
January 30, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Truly excellent interview with Nikhil Pal Singh here - a wide ranging discussion of the ways that the Trump project has collapsed the distinction between the US's domestic and international projects - drawing from, and re-working decades of policy in both of these arenas.
A new year means a fresh crop of books! I've compiled a list below of new and upcoming tiles I would love to get reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. If you want a copy of one of these in return for a review, let me know! Beginning with vol III of the awesome-looking Cambridge History of Europe!
January 30, 2026 at 1:16 PM
A new year means a fresh crop of books! I've compiled a list below of new and upcoming tiles I would love to get reviewed for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. If you want a copy of one of these in return for a review, let me know! Beginning with vol III of the awesome-looking Cambridge History of Europe!
Magnitogorsk was famously a 15 minute city.
January 30, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Magnitogorsk was famously a 15 minute city.
I would have thought that keeping half the population trapped in a cycle of debt repayment for a generation during the longest period of stagnant wage growth since the Napoleonic War might not be a great medium to long term plan, but hey, I’m no economist.
Rachel Reeves, "It is not right that people who don't go to uni are having to bear all the costs for others to do so"
Oli Dugmore, "If Reeves wants to make the argument that you shouldn't be paying for things that you don't use, there will be a lot of pensioners who don't get a pension"
Oli Dugmore, "If Reeves wants to make the argument that you shouldn't be paying for things that you don't use, there will be a lot of pensioners who don't get a pension"
January 29, 2026 at 9:00 AM
I would have thought that keeping half the population trapped in a cycle of debt repayment for a generation during the longest period of stagnant wage growth since the Napoleonic War might not be a great medium to long term plan, but hey, I’m no economist.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
"Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week". The West's normalisation of the mass death of black Africans (because that is predominantly who these people are) will never be less than devastating.
January 27, 2026 at 11:19 AM
"Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week". The West's normalisation of the mass death of black Africans (because that is predominantly who these people are) will never be less than devastating.
If anyone noticed any typos in my book, now’s the time to tell me.
January 27, 2026 at 3:06 PM
If anyone noticed any typos in my book, now’s the time to tell me.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
It is endlessly frustrating that this needs to be said, but to believe this is to believe that cold blooded mass murder of civilians is acceptable in Gaza, but not in Minneapolis. A politics that is imaginatively stunted and racially circumscribed.
January 26, 2026 at 9:06 AM
It is endlessly frustrating that this needs to be said, but to believe this is to believe that cold blooded mass murder of civilians is acceptable in Gaza, but not in Minneapolis. A politics that is imaginatively stunted and racially circumscribed.
It is endlessly frustrating that this needs to be said, but to believe this is to believe that cold blooded mass murder of civilians is acceptable in Gaza, but not in Minneapolis. A politics that is imaginatively stunted and racially circumscribed.
January 26, 2026 at 9:06 AM
It is endlessly frustrating that this needs to be said, but to believe this is to believe that cold blooded mass murder of civilians is acceptable in Gaza, but not in Minneapolis. A politics that is imaginatively stunted and racially circumscribed.
What a time to be in Boston for 36 hours.
January 24, 2026 at 1:08 PM
What a time to be in Boston for 36 hours.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
I see we’ve moved from “Only hateful extremist lunatics say Britain is cravenly obedient to the White House” to “Of course we have been cravenly obedient to the White House, now we must focus on the future and not ask questions about whose fault this was”, somehow without anyone having been wrong.
January 21, 2026 at 8:24 AM
I see we’ve moved from “Only hateful extremist lunatics say Britain is cravenly obedient to the White House” to “Of course we have been cravenly obedient to the White House, now we must focus on the future and not ask questions about whose fault this was”, somehow without anyone having been wrong.
Reposted by Sam Wetherell
📢 NEW EPISODE 📢 - @sarahljaffe.bsky.social on the murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE and the history of organising and protest in Minnesota (and the centrality of the Somali community to those efforts). We also talked about the entwinement of the tech industry with ICE and the surveillance state:
ICE, resistance, and 'capitalism without humans' w/ Sarah Jaffe
Podcast Episode · Politics Theory Other · 01/20/2026 · 59m
podcasts.apple.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:32 AM
📢 NEW EPISODE 📢 - @sarahljaffe.bsky.social on the murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE and the history of organising and protest in Minnesota (and the centrality of the Somali community to those efforts). We also talked about the entwinement of the tech industry with ICE and the surveillance state:
Liverpool friends - if anyone is at a loose end I'm going to be speaking about the history of Race and the management of surplus populations in modern Britain at the 120th anniversary conference Liverpool University's Sociology Department on Thursday at 1.30pm. www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event...
Pasts-Presents-Futures of Social Science: Marking 120 Years
Social Science Pasts-Presents-Futures: Marking 120 Years of The Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology
Hybrid Event
What responsibilities does social science carry in a world of dee...
www.liverpool.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Liverpool friends - if anyone is at a loose end I'm going to be speaking about the history of Race and the management of surplus populations in modern Britain at the 120th anniversary conference Liverpool University's Sociology Department on Thursday at 1.30pm. www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event...
Me: laughing derisively at a student email asking whether the words "word count" count for the word count.
Me: A little later, looking my draft journal article that is 10,002 words long and pausing for a moment on my hubris.
Me: A little later, looking my draft journal article that is 10,002 words long and pausing for a moment on my hubris.
January 13, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Me: laughing derisively at a student email asking whether the words "word count" count for the word count.
Me: A little later, looking my draft journal article that is 10,002 words long and pausing for a moment on my hubris.
Me: A little later, looking my draft journal article that is 10,002 words long and pausing for a moment on my hubris.