Will Clement
@historywill.bsky.social
Historian of Modern Europe
| poverty & inequality, centre & periphery, health & housing in c19 France🏠🏚️🇫🇷 | Tired dad | posts represent my views | He/him
https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/will-clement
| poverty & inequality, centre & periphery, health & housing in c19 France🏠🏚️🇫🇷 | Tired dad | posts represent my views | He/him
https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/will-clement
Pinned
Will Clement
@historywill.bsky.social
· Aug 28
Publication day for "State-Making in an Age of Revolution, 1830-1880"!
The full book - including my chapter "‘A Dead Letter in the Hands of Local Authorities’? Implementing Public Health Legislation in French Provincial Cities, 1850–60" - is here www.jstor.org/stable/jj.31...
The full book - including my chapter "‘A Dead Letter in the Hands of Local Authorities’? Implementing Public Health Legislation in French Provincial Cities, 1850–60" - is here www.jstor.org/stable/jj.31...
Reposted by Will Clement
Without wanting to stick my oar in too far:
It's possible to recognise that we have a higher standard of living now than in the past and *also* to believe that inequitable distribution is wrong and that widespread precarity for everyone but the very rich should be fought tooth and nail.
It's possible to recognise that we have a higher standard of living now than in the past and *also* to believe that inequitable distribution is wrong and that widespread precarity for everyone but the very rich should be fought tooth and nail.
November 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Without wanting to stick my oar in too far:
It's possible to recognise that we have a higher standard of living now than in the past and *also* to believe that inequitable distribution is wrong and that widespread precarity for everyone but the very rich should be fought tooth and nail.
It's possible to recognise that we have a higher standard of living now than in the past and *also* to believe that inequitable distribution is wrong and that widespread precarity for everyone but the very rich should be fought tooth and nail.
Reposted by Will Clement
Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001?
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
October 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Did you take part in a mock election at your UK school or college between 1983 and 2001?
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Share your memories for a research project on young people and democracy in modern Britain!
Write to us about your experiences here: forms.office.com/e/FNAwjfFR7f
Reposted by Will Clement
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Reposted by Will Clement
“The researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.” Yes!
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 2, 2025 at 8:07 AM
“The researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.” Yes!
Reposted by Will Clement
In Jan 1875, a young servant asked for and was given a Friday night off.
She went home to see her boyfriend, who had five days leave, and he said... you should have more time off.
Harriet, the servant, agreed. She wrote to her employer and said "I will be back on Monday"
She went home to see her boyfriend, who had five days leave, and he said... you should have more time off.
Harriet, the servant, agreed. She wrote to her employer and said "I will be back on Monday"
November 1, 2025 at 5:24 PM
In Jan 1875, a young servant asked for and was given a Friday night off.
She went home to see her boyfriend, who had five days leave, and he said... you should have more time off.
Harriet, the servant, agreed. She wrote to her employer and said "I will be back on Monday"
She went home to see her boyfriend, who had five days leave, and he said... you should have more time off.
Harriet, the servant, agreed. She wrote to her employer and said "I will be back on Monday"
Reposted by Will Clement
Today is David Harvey's 90th birthday! To celebrate, preorder his upcoming book The Story of Capital and take 30% off all of his previously published works
David Harvey: Radical Marxist Intellectual
October 31st is David Harvey's 90th birthday. To celebrate, preorder his upcoming book The Story of Capital and take 30% off all of his previously published works. Be sure to check out David Harvey at...
www.versobooks.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Today is David Harvey's 90th birthday! To celebrate, preorder his upcoming book The Story of Capital and take 30% off all of his previously published works
Reposted by Will Clement
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
![[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS]
1
NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]:
Hello there
2
[A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk].
DAD:
Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids?
3
NT EMPLOYEE:
Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail!
4
MUM:
That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids?
5
NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]:
Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot!
6
NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]:
Listen - that's their call
[Calls emanating from the landscape]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
7
NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]:
They are extremely sensitive and fragile...
But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery.
8
KIDS [pointing]:
There they are!
[Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure].
[Little people noises]:
woke-woke
tut-tut
woke-woke
9
[Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]:
Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house.
[Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]:
tut-tut
woke-woke
10
MUM [pointing]:
What's that one doing there?
NT EMPLOYEE:
Oh, that's so sweet…
11
[We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away].
NT EMPLOYEE:
I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph…
12
[We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]:
Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE?
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreib7lt736b6rmzinml5s7kxjdaapo2a36xp4d4lssypimx3taqicdm@jpeg)
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
Reposted by Will Clement
I am pleased to unleash upon the world my latest attempt to persuade people that the French Revolution was a very complex set of events that happened to a very complex society in ways it's best to try to understand as such.
The Language of confiance and the French cahiers de doléances of 1789 | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core
The Language of confiance and the French cahiers de doléances of 1789
www.cambridge.org
October 28, 2025 at 11:19 AM
I am pleased to unleash upon the world my latest attempt to persuade people that the French Revolution was a very complex set of events that happened to a very complex society in ways it's best to try to understand as such.
Reposted by Will Clement
Politico: "MPs should consider deleting X, according to a committee led by Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle...
"On social media, the report said MPs should feel “empowered to step away from platforms that pose more harm than benefit.”
Absolutely. Please get on with it.
"On social media, the report said MPs should feel “empowered to step away from platforms that pose more harm than benefit.”
Absolutely. Please get on with it.
October 27, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Politico: "MPs should consider deleting X, according to a committee led by Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle...
"On social media, the report said MPs should feel “empowered to step away from platforms that pose more harm than benefit.”
Absolutely. Please get on with it.
"On social media, the report said MPs should feel “empowered to step away from platforms that pose more harm than benefit.”
Absolutely. Please get on with it.
This came through the door agents yesterday from two local estate agents. I’m going to keep it and set it as a primary source on the History of Housing/Tenancy module I’ll design one day. Easy 1,500 word assessment on the context, authorship, intended audience, symbolism of this.
October 28, 2025 at 7:56 AM
This came through the door agents yesterday from two local estate agents. I’m going to keep it and set it as a primary source on the History of Housing/Tenancy module I’ll design one day. Easy 1,500 word assessment on the context, authorship, intended audience, symbolism of this.
"In 2023, 3.8 million dwellings failed to meet this ["decent"] standard. Private rented dwellings were most likely to be classed as non-decent - in all 21% were."
Over one in five privately rented dwellings as 'non-decent'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Over one in five privately rented dwellings as 'non-decent'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Awaab’s Law: Why so many UK homes still have a mould problem
Despite outcry over a British toddler’s death, mould remains a problem in many homes - so are new law changes enough?
www.bbc.co.uk
October 27, 2025 at 8:55 AM
"In 2023, 3.8 million dwellings failed to meet this ["decent"] standard. Private rented dwellings were most likely to be classed as non-decent - in all 21% were."
Over one in five privately rented dwellings as 'non-decent'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Over one in five privately rented dwellings as 'non-decent'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Will Clement
As I considered Hegel’s remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice, I couldn’t help but think that he forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
October 24, 2025 at 11:13 AM
As I considered Hegel’s remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice, I couldn’t help but think that he forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
Reposted by Will Clement
2/ ... which houses one quarter of the city's population:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/m...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/m...
Municipal Housing in Zurich
If you think of Switzerland (beyond cowbells and cuckoo clocks), you probably think of it as one of the richest countries in the world – correctly so given that one in fifteen of its citizens are m…
municipaldreams.wordpress.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:09 AM
2/ ... which houses one quarter of the city's population:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/m...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/m...
Reposted by Will Clement
1/ Interesting piece by @PeteApps on cooperative housing in Zurich. Switzerland is a country which shows how well high quality public housing serves a mixed community. See also the next tweet in which I write about Zurich's municipal housing ...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Could Zurich’s housing cooperatives be the solution to the rest of Europe’s housing crisis? | Peter Apps
One in every five citizens in the city has bought a share in the company that built and owns their apartment block, says Inside Housing’s Peter Apps
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 8:09 AM
1/ Interesting piece by @PeteApps on cooperative housing in Zurich. Switzerland is a country which shows how well high quality public housing serves a mixed community. See also the next tweet in which I write about Zurich's municipal housing ...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The students *loved* it. One said it was the best thing they've read at university. It is extremely teachable, especially alongside/against some of the more traditional Terror primary/secondary stuff.
Very excited to teach the Terror next week to my Level 3 students, using Michaela Kalcher's brilliant @historyworkshop.org.uk article as key reading
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
October 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
The students *loved* it. One said it was the best thing they've read at university. It is extremely teachable, especially alongside/against some of the more traditional Terror primary/secondary stuff.
Reposted by Will Clement
Thrilled to say I'm a judge for the first ever Inspiring History Teaching Awards, in association with Historic Royal Palaces. Do you know a great history teacher in the UK who deserves to go down in history? Nominate them here bit.ly/42yhGZP
Inspiring History Teaching Awards
Created by Historic Royal Palaces, these awards celebrate teachers who make history exciting, inclusive and meaningful. We want to recognise the impact that great teachers can make by bringing the pas...
bit.ly
October 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Thrilled to say I'm a judge for the first ever Inspiring History Teaching Awards, in association with Historic Royal Palaces. Do you know a great history teacher in the UK who deserves to go down in history? Nominate them here bit.ly/42yhGZP
Reposted by Will Clement
Really cool work here… returning to a time and place that was a foundational moment not just for urbanising Britain but also for the discipline of urban history and using new techniques to challenge a deeply embedded viewpoint!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
October 21, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Really cool work here… returning to a time and place that was a foundational moment not just for urbanising Britain but also for the discipline of urban history and using new techniques to challenge a deeply embedded viewpoint!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Will Clement
Cofio Aberfan 🖤
We will never forget those that tragically lost their lives on October 21, 1966.
We will never forget those that tragically lost their lives on October 21, 1966.
October 21, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Cofio Aberfan 🖤
We will never forget those that tragically lost their lives on October 21, 1966.
We will never forget those that tragically lost their lives on October 21, 1966.
Congrats @emvchung.bsky.social for this guardian coverage of your new @historicaljnl.bsky.social article. Can’t wait to set it for first-year historians at @manchester.ac.uk to read alongside Engels on our course on capitalism
'Chung’s research...finds that more than 60% of buildings housing the wealthiest classes also housed unskilled labourers. In Manchester’s “slums”, more than 10% of the population was from the better-off, employed classes.'
Friedrich Engels ‘took creative liberties’ with descriptions of class divides in Manchester
Cambridge historian Emily Chung finds philosopher’s blistering depictions of segregation may have been exaggerated
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Congrats @emvchung.bsky.social for this guardian coverage of your new @historicaljnl.bsky.social article. Can’t wait to set it for first-year historians at @manchester.ac.uk to read alongside Engels on our course on capitalism
It might be a stretch for 41-year-old Adam Driver to play a 26-year-old, but I'm surely not the only one who thinks he would be a perfect casting for Saint-Just, right??
October 20, 2025 at 7:31 AM
It might be a stretch for 41-year-old Adam Driver to play a 26-year-old, but I'm surely not the only one who thinks he would be a perfect casting for Saint-Just, right??
Reposted by Will Clement
My intellectual and emotional response to reading this is that I want to get a hammer and physically destroy every AI machine on the face of the planet. It is a fundamentally anti-human device and its purveyors are as great a danger to our shared future as any gang of criminals or terrorists
How generative AI could change how we think and speak
Over-reliance on chatbots could be eroding our language and critical thinking skills.
theconversation.com
October 17, 2025 at 12:21 PM
My intellectual and emotional response to reading this is that I want to get a hammer and physically destroy every AI machine on the face of the planet. It is a fundamentally anti-human device and its purveyors are as great a danger to our shared future as any gang of criminals or terrorists
Very excited to teach the Terror next week to my Level 3 students, using Michaela Kalcher's brilliant @historyworkshop.org.uk article as key reading
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
October 17, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Very excited to teach the Terror next week to my Level 3 students, using Michaela Kalcher's brilliant @historyworkshop.org.uk article as key reading
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
doi.org/10.1093/hwj/...
Reposted by Will Clement
It's Electric Wind publication day!💨
Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.
Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.
Electric Wind is out now💡
Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.
Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.
Electric Wind is out now💡
October 14, 2025 at 10:42 AM
It's Electric Wind publication day!💨
Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.
Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.
Electric Wind is out now💡
Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.
Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.
Electric Wind is out now💡
Reposted by Will Clement
Whenever I see academics say this stuff, I physically wince knowing the environmental, ethical, and moral impact generative AI has. Academics using LLMs essentially validate the theft of colleagues’ work, condone its disastrous energy usage, and undermine the benchmark for academic integrity.
October 14, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Whenever I see academics say this stuff, I physically wince knowing the environmental, ethical, and moral impact generative AI has. Academics using LLMs essentially validate the theft of colleagues’ work, condone its disastrous energy usage, and undermine the benchmark for academic integrity.
Reposted by Will Clement
At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!
October 14, 2025 at 8:53 AM
At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!