Peter Gatrell
@pwgatrell.bsky.social
Historian - mainly researching refugee history in the 20c. … but it’s not just about refugees… oh, and still learning about what’s at stake then and now. Funded generously in the past by AHRC and Leverhulme Trust and enabled by UNHCR Records and Archives
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
I’ve written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Donald Trump’s attack on the BBC.
The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.
The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
I’ve written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Donald Trump’s attack on the BBC.
The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.
The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.
Hi Cath - I missed this first time round and I’m so pleased you reposted it. I have a friend who will also want to read it but who doesn’t do social media! Among your own striking way with words I also love the quote from Alison Light. Take care. Peter
For Remembrance Sunday, a short reflection on the life and death of my great grandfather in the twenty years after his return. botheringmiancestors.substack.com/p/the-trench...
The Trenches, the Tram and the Trolley Bus
A twentieth-century story
botheringmiancestors.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Hi Cath - I missed this first time round and I’m so pleased you reposted it. I have a friend who will also want to read it but who doesn’t do social media! Among your own striking way with words I also love the quote from Alison Light. Take care. Peter
I can relate to this!
Trying a new mantra as I edit down another 14000 word draft article:
Every article doesn’t need to include every archival nugget you have discovered on the topic
Every article doesn’t need to include every archival nugget you have discovered on the topic
Every article doesn’t need to include…
Every article doesn’t need to include every archival nugget you have discovered on the topic
Every article doesn’t need to include every archival nugget you have discovered on the topic
Every article doesn’t need to include…
November 5, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I can relate to this!
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
The value of public R&D
www.gov.uk
October 30, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Some of my reflections on and from Lampedusa
Lampedusa's ghosts: A political choice, not a crisis of numbers
Europe's decades-old policies have transformed the Italian island's irregular migration role into an invisible haunting.
www.aretenews.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Some of my reflections on and from Lampedusa
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Anand Menon has a rare gift: making the hardest political questions feel answerable.
As professor at King’s & director of UK in a Changing Europe, he’s done more than almost anyone to make British-EU relations intelligible.
👉🏽 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...
🧵
As professor at King’s & director of UK in a Changing Europe, he’s done more than almost anyone to make British-EU relations intelligible.
👉🏽 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...
🧵
Etched in Marble: Anand Menon on Clear Thinking, Public Writing, and the Joy of Being Useful
Writers on the Forces That Shape Us and the Writing That Endures
catherineeunicedevries.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Anand Menon has a rare gift: making the hardest political questions feel answerable.
As professor at King’s & director of UK in a Changing Europe, he’s done more than almost anyone to make British-EU relations intelligible.
👉🏽 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...
🧵
As professor at King’s & director of UK in a Changing Europe, he’s done more than almost anyone to make British-EU relations intelligible.
👉🏽 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...
🧵
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
📣 Call for participants 📣
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice?
We’d love to hear from you for the 100th issue of HWJ!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice?
We’d love to hear from you for the 100th issue of HWJ!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
October 17, 2025 at 4:21 PM
📣 Call for participants 📣
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice?
We’d love to hear from you for the 100th issue of HWJ!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice?
We’d love to hear from you for the 100th issue of HWJ!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Call for Application: Full Professor of Modern and Contemporary History @unibayreuth.bsky.social
October 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Call for Application: Full Professor of Modern and Contemporary History @unibayreuth.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research.
Reposts welcomed.
Reposts welcomed.
Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...
Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research
observer.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research.
Reposts welcomed.
Reposts welcomed.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Brown University rejects invite to join federal compact
October 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Brown University rejects invite to join federal compact
Great stuff but how about some history? Just for starters … Becky Taylor, Louise London, Tony Kushner and Katharine Knox, etc. etc.
Books I read while writing mine. If you're interested in small boats, migration, refugees, UK immigration and asylum, I'd recommend all of these. Anything to add?
September 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Great stuff but how about some history? Just for starters … Becky Taylor, Louise London, Tony Kushner and Katharine Knox, etc. etc.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
We bring together contributions on the European civil wars by Kimberly A. Lowe, @nathan-rousselot.bsky.social, Lia Brazil, Anna Lively, Alba Martínez, Mercedes Yusta, @panoskaragkounis.bsky.social, @elisabeth-piller.bsky.social @pwgatrell.bsky.social and John Horne. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Humanitarianism in an Age of Civil Wars: Europe, 1917-1949
Welcome to Cambridge Core
www.cambridge.org
September 16, 2025 at 3:35 PM
We bring together contributions on the European civil wars by Kimberly A. Lowe, @nathan-rousselot.bsky.social, Lia Brazil, Anna Lively, Alba Martínez, Mercedes Yusta, @panoskaragkounis.bsky.social, @elisabeth-piller.bsky.social @pwgatrell.bsky.social and John Horne. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Just catching up with his reminiscences from March 2024 on YouTube - then still going strong at the age of 92. A scholar of enormous range. I’ll always be indebted to Al for his advice and support.
RIP Al Rieber, professor and teacher extraordinaire at many places but latest at CEU. His biography is worthy of a book. His reputation as an Mensch is legendary among students and colleagues. He will be missed, not least because he represented a time when Russian history was a happier place.
September 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Just catching up with his reminiscences from March 2024 on YouTube - then still going strong at the age of 92. A scholar of enormous range. I’ll always be indebted to Al for his advice and support.
Joan Wallach Scott saying what needs to be said
Over the last year, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Joan Scott. It was clear how much the experience of her father -- victim of McCarthyism -- shaped her as a scholar and person. This essay is a powerful testament to that.
www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-g...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-g...
A General Air of Anxiety - Boston Review
The Red Scare targeted my father. He taught me the meaning of resistance.
www.bostonreview.net
September 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Joan Wallach Scott saying what needs to be said
Great topic, great scholar too!
📢New ESRC project
HCRI's Dr Antoine Burgard will lead “Who is a child? Determining age in British & French border policing, 1918–present” (2025–28).
The project explores how age shapes migration laws, policies & experiences.
HCRI's Dr Antoine Burgard will lead “Who is a child? Determining age in British & French border policing, 1918–present” (2025–28).
The project explores how age shapes migration laws, policies & experiences.
Who is a child? Determining age in British and French border policing, 1918 to the present | Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute | The University of Manchester
www.hcri.manchester.ac.uk
September 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Great topic, great scholar too!
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
From spy planes to satellites, archaeology has long shared a sky with empire. What does that mean for the knowledge it produces?
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.
The Bomber's View of the Past
Discover the influence of Antoine Poidebard on aerial archaeology and his complex role in French colonial history.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
September 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
From spy planes to satellites, archaeology has long shared a sky with empire. What does that mean for the knowledge it produces?
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
Check out Peter Gatrell, John Horne and my (I know, I know, how did that happen?) article on European civil wars and the dialectic of humanitarianism 1914-1949, + the entire special issue edited by @gwendalpiegais.bsky.social and Robert Gerwarth www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Civil Wars and the Dialectic of Humanitarianism, 1914–1949 | Contemporary European History | Cambridge Core
Civil Wars and the Dialectic of Humanitarianism, 1914–1949
www.cambridge.org
September 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Check out Peter Gatrell, John Horne and my (I know, I know, how did that happen?) article on European civil wars and the dialectic of humanitarianism 1914-1949, + the entire special issue edited by @gwendalpiegais.bsky.social and Robert Gerwarth www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
As a previous recipient of a BA small grant, I'd encourage eligible people to apply. It's possible to get a lot of research value in <£10K. (In my case experimentation with different digital skills pedagogy through hosting a number of open workshops, which influenced a bunch of publications.)
Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...
British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants
The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 months, are provi...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
September 6, 2025 at 12:12 PM
As a previous recipient of a BA small grant, I'd encourage eligible people to apply. It's possible to get a lot of research value in <£10K. (In my case experimentation with different digital skills pedagogy through hosting a number of open workshops, which influenced a bunch of publications.)
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
The special section from our 50th anniversary issue, The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide, is now online.
Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.
Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.
The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide - Boston Review
Speaking the truth and exposing lies is not enough.
www.bostonreview.net
September 2, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The special section from our 50th anniversary issue, The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide, is now online.
Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.
Robin D. G. Kelley revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic argument, with @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social, Jennifer Zacharia, and @martinoneill.bsky.social.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
📣 Call for participants 📣
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice? If so, we would love to hear from you!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice? If so, we would love to hear from you!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
August 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
📣 Call for participants 📣
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice? If so, we would love to hear from you!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Have you ever used any History Workshop Journal articles in your teaching practice? If so, we would love to hear from you!
Please let us know by sending an email or feel free to DM.
Gorgeous Navajo rugs on display at the American Museum in Bath
August 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Gorgeous Navajo rugs on display at the American Museum in Bath
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
If only our media talked about the negative effects on society of tax avoidance
@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
@bbcbreaking-bot.bsky.social
@channel4news.bsky.social
@itvnews.bsky.social
@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
@bbcbreaking-bot.bsky.social
@channel4news.bsky.social
@itvnews.bsky.social
August 31, 2025 at 1:56 PM
If only our media talked about the negative effects on society of tax avoidance
@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
@bbcbreaking-bot.bsky.social
@channel4news.bsky.social
@itvnews.bsky.social
@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
@bbcbreaking-bot.bsky.social
@channel4news.bsky.social
@itvnews.bsky.social
“Five (others) were detected and sent back on the vessel, another five were still at large”. A reminder perhaps to question the oft-asserted line about the UK’s “proud tradition of welcome” to refugees…
August 31, 2025 at 12:55 PM
“Five (others) were detected and sent back on the vessel, another five were still at large”. A reminder perhaps to question the oft-asserted line about the UK’s “proud tradition of welcome” to refugees…
“Refugees are pouring into this country in this way” said a prosecutor who secured a conviction for five Dutch seamen “for aiding and abetting a Viennese refugee to land from a motor vessel”. The judge said “it is common knowledge that this practice has become rife”. The Guardian, 24 July 1939.
August 31, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“Refugees are pouring into this country in this way” said a prosecutor who secured a conviction for five Dutch seamen “for aiding and abetting a Viennese refugee to land from a motor vessel”. The judge said “it is common knowledge that this practice has become rife”. The Guardian, 24 July 1939.
Reposted by Peter Gatrell
‘In the final months of the Sunak government, the number of crossings continued to increase. But not because the “hostile environment” was insufficiently hostile.’
Georgie Newson on why the UK’s latest ‘one in, one out’ policy won’t work, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/au...
Georgie Newson on why the UK’s latest ‘one in, one out’ policy won’t work, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/au...
Georgie Newson | ‘One in, one out’
When it was revealed earlier this month that the number of people who had reached the UK on small boats since Labour...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 28, 2025 at 8:10 AM
‘In the final months of the Sunak government, the number of crossings continued to increase. But not because the “hostile environment” was insufficiently hostile.’
Georgie Newson on why the UK’s latest ‘one in, one out’ policy won’t work, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/au...
Georgie Newson on why the UK’s latest ‘one in, one out’ policy won’t work, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/au...