Ruth Davidson
@ruthdav.bsky.social
Historian of women, welfare and activism. Currently researching working class women’s welfare campaign’s in twentieth century Britain. IHR Fellow 2024/25
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Delighted to publish Colm and Patrick's eminently sensible pre-budget intervention:
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Delighted to publish Colm and Patrick's eminently sensible pre-budget intervention:
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award!
Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize
Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize
The Curriers’ Prize
The Worshipful Company of Curriers, has established an essay prize on the history of London, in association with The London Journal Trust and the IHR.
www.history.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 12:12 PM
The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award!
Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize
Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
All set for this evening’s seminar for @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social with Dr Katerina Papakonstantinou. Looking forward to hearing her fascinating paper, & thanks to our fab Chair Prof Pat Thane & Term programme organiser @helenglew.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 5:35 PM
All set for this evening’s seminar for @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social with Dr Katerina Papakonstantinou. Looking forward to hearing her fascinating paper, & thanks to our fab Chair Prof Pat Thane & Term programme organiser @helenglew.bsky.social
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
What are the origins of devolution? What can we learn from the '70s? How long should we wait between referendums?
In @dodspolintel.bsky.social's latest collaboration with @qmulsse.bsky.social, @drjoshwells.bsky.social talks to Tom Chidwick about his forthcoming book, Now or Never!
shorturl.at/93ISv
In @dodspolintel.bsky.social's latest collaboration with @qmulsse.bsky.social, @drjoshwells.bsky.social talks to Tom Chidwick about his forthcoming book, Now or Never!
shorturl.at/93ISv
“A Motorway Without an Exit”: In conversation with Tom Chidwick on devolution, division and the future of British politics | Dods Political Intelligence
In this wide-ranging conversation, Tom Chidwick, the political historian and Manager of the Mile End Institute, speaks with Josh Wells about the unfinished story of British devolution and the constitu...
www.dodspoliticalintelligence.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:51 AM
What are the origins of devolution? What can we learn from the '70s? How long should we wait between referendums?
In @dodspolintel.bsky.social's latest collaboration with @qmulsse.bsky.social, @drjoshwells.bsky.social talks to Tom Chidwick about his forthcoming book, Now or Never!
shorturl.at/93ISv
In @dodspolintel.bsky.social's latest collaboration with @qmulsse.bsky.social, @drjoshwells.bsky.social talks to Tom Chidwick about his forthcoming book, Now or Never!
shorturl.at/93ISv
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
IHR Director Professor Claire Langhamer @clairelanghamer.bsky.social has written about today’s History Day #histday25 here at Senate House, and how it reflects the crucial work of @ihr.bsky.social in supporting historical research in all its forms. Read more here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Making History Together
History Day
www.history.ac.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:35 AM
IHR Director Professor Claire Langhamer @clairelanghamer.bsky.social has written about today’s History Day #histday25 here at Senate House, and how it reflects the crucial work of @ihr.bsky.social in supporting historical research in all its forms. Read more here! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
I had a lovely and very informative time at History Day at @ihr.bsky.social and came home with brochures, books and badges - this one may be my favourite.
November 4, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I had a lovely and very informative time at History Day at @ihr.bsky.social and came home with brochures, books and badges - this one may be my favourite.
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Our third event is a panel of bite-sized talks on literary and historic representations of motherhood, in partnership with @gmmedicalmuseum.bsky.social.
📍George Marshall Medical Museum (WR5 1DD)
🗓️ Thursday 13 November
⏱️ 18:00-20:00
(4/4)
📍George Marshall Medical Museum (WR5 1DD)
🗓️ Thursday 13 November
⏱️ 18:00-20:00
(4/4)
Mum's the Word
Come along and learn about aspects of motherhood in this series of 'bite-sized' talks, and explore the George Marshall Medical Museum after hours!The short talks will explore representations of being,...
www.beinghumanfestival.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Our third event is a panel of bite-sized talks on literary and historic representations of motherhood, in partnership with @gmmedicalmuseum.bsky.social.
📍George Marshall Medical Museum (WR5 1DD)
🗓️ Thursday 13 November
⏱️ 18:00-20:00
(4/4)
📍George Marshall Medical Museum (WR5 1DD)
🗓️ Thursday 13 November
⏱️ 18:00-20:00
(4/4)
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Our second event is a drop-in pop up exploring past and present experiences of choosing to be childfree.
📍The Kiln (WR1 2HB)
🗓️ Saturday 8 November
⏱️10:00-13:00
(3/4)
📍The Kiln (WR1 2HB)
🗓️ Saturday 8 November
⏱️10:00-13:00
(3/4)
Love not Lack: Conversations on Being Childfree by Choice
Join us to engage with a 'hidden history' of parenting - the choice not to be a parent - to learn something new, meet others in the same position, and build communities.
www.beinghumanfestival.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Our second event is a drop-in pop up exploring past and present experiences of choosing to be childfree.
📍The Kiln (WR1 2HB)
🗓️ Saturday 8 November
⏱️10:00-13:00
(3/4)
📍The Kiln (WR1 2HB)
🗓️ Saturday 8 November
⏱️10:00-13:00
(3/4)
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Exciting news! 🎉👀
We are running a series of events in and around the city of Worcester as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival @beinghumanfest.bsky.social
The theme is "Marginalised Motherhoods" and our aim is to capture critical and creative responses to motherhood and its absence.
(1/4)
We are running a series of events in and around the city of Worcester as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival @beinghumanfest.bsky.social
The theme is "Marginalised Motherhoods" and our aim is to capture critical and creative responses to motherhood and its absence.
(1/4)
Marginalised Motherhoods
Led by the University of Worcester
www.beinghumanfestival.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Exciting news! 🎉👀
We are running a series of events in and around the city of Worcester as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival @beinghumanfest.bsky.social
The theme is "Marginalised Motherhoods" and our aim is to capture critical and creative responses to motherhood and its absence.
(1/4)
We are running a series of events in and around the city of Worcester as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival @beinghumanfest.bsky.social
The theme is "Marginalised Motherhoods" and our aim is to capture critical and creative responses to motherhood and its absence.
(1/4)
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
On Tuesday we also look forward to hosting this year's RHS Public History Lecture @greshamcollege.bsky.social
'Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother', with Daniel Finkelstein bit.ly/4op6Wpd
6-7pm, Tuesday 4 November: in person and online #Skystorians
'Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother', with Daniel Finkelstein bit.ly/4op6Wpd
6-7pm, Tuesday 4 November: in person and online #Skystorians
Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother
This is the annual Royal Historical Society Lecture. In April 1945, British forces liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and arrested its commandant, Josef Kramer. What followed was the first...
bit.ly
November 2, 2025 at 2:24 PM
On Tuesday we also look forward to hosting this year's RHS Public History Lecture @greshamcollege.bsky.social
'Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother', with Daniel Finkelstein bit.ly/4op6Wpd
6-7pm, Tuesday 4 November: in person and online #Skystorians
'Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother', with Daniel Finkelstein bit.ly/4op6Wpd
6-7pm, Tuesday 4 November: in person and online #Skystorians
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
This week we also announced plans for a new Applied History Fellowship for postdoc historians, with @ihr.bsky.social and publisher DC Thomson bit.ly/4ofWArN
Fellowships will develop historical skills for use in workplaces beyond higher education. Launch event: 2.30pm, 19 Nov, online #Skystorians
Fellowships will develop historical skills for use in workplaces beyond higher education. Launch event: 2.30pm, 19 Nov, online #Skystorians
New programme of 'Applied History Fellowships': launch and introductory event - RHS
In 2025-26 the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), Royal Historical Society and DC Thomson will launch a new Applied History Fellowship partnership. Join us at this online session -- 2.30pm on Wed...
bit.ly
November 1, 2025 at 11:34 AM
This week we also announced plans for a new Applied History Fellowship for postdoc historians, with @ihr.bsky.social and publisher DC Thomson bit.ly/4ofWArN
Fellowships will develop historical skills for use in workplaces beyond higher education. Launch event: 2.30pm, 19 Nov, online #Skystorians
Fellowships will develop historical skills for use in workplaces beyond higher education. Launch event: 2.30pm, 19 Nov, online #Skystorians
Congratulations Katrina and really looking forward to reading this. And it is a lovely cover.
Thanks to @reaktionbooks.bsky.social for making my history of protest in England's public spaces into a beautiful, well produced book with a fab cover.
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...
October 25, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Congratulations Katrina and really looking forward to reading this. And it is a lovely cover.
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
📅 Save the Date!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!
🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London
Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com
More info coming soon!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!
🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London
Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com
More info coming soon!
October 22, 2025 at 8:27 AM
📅 Save the Date!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!
🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London
Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com
More info coming soon!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!
🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London
Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com
More info coming soon!
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
October 20, 2025 at 9:37 AM
There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
One of my favourite responses to my book so far, from a wise and insightful friend. I love it when someone else's reading of your work helps you understand it in new ways...
#AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
#AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
October 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
One of my favourite responses to my book so far, from a wise and insightful friend. I love it when someone else's reading of your work helps you understand it in new ways...
#AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
#AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
@ihrlifecycles.bsky.social strikes again with another rising star! Huge congrats to @berrypillot.bsky.social for winning the 2025 @ihr.bsky.social Pollard Prize for: 'No Place to be a Child? The Persistence and Peculiarities of Children’s Play during the Second World War in London and Liverpool.'🏆🙌🎉
October 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM
@ihrlifecycles.bsky.social strikes again with another rising star! Huge congrats to @berrypillot.bsky.social for winning the 2025 @ihr.bsky.social Pollard Prize for: 'No Place to be a Child? The Persistence and Peculiarities of Children’s Play during the Second World War in London and Liverpool.'🏆🙌🎉
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
I'm very pleased to have received my copy of Ned Newitt's thoroughly researched and finely illustrated history of social housing in Leicester. I recommend it not just to locals but to anyone interested in our housing history. waterstones.com/book/housing...
October 17, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I'm very pleased to have received my copy of Ned Newitt's thoroughly researched and finely illustrated history of social housing in Leicester. I recommend it not just to locals but to anyone interested in our housing history. waterstones.com/book/housing...
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
Modern British Studies Conference 2026 - University of Birmingham
Conference information
www.birmingham.ac.uk
October 16, 2025 at 8:47 PM
We're excited to announce the call for papers for #MBS26, the next Modern British Studies conference, at Birmingham in June 2026. We'll be launching the #MBS Association at this event, to support further regular conferences in Modern British Studies.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/moder...
Congratulations Charlotte
👀 👀
The AHA is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes, which honor exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Congratulations to the 2025 awardees! #AHAPerspectives🗃️
October 16, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Congratulations Charlotte
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Bravo, many many congratulations on this well-deserved accolade!
October 16, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Bravo, many many congratulations on this well-deserved accolade!
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.
New article (OA): Helen McCarthy @historianhelen.bsky.social on 'Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain'
academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...
Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain*
Abstract. This article explores how Britons envisaged and planned for the end of working life across the second half of the twentieth century. It shows how
academic.oup.com
October 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
The prequel, of sorts: academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...
Moral Panic in the Industrial Town: Teenage ‘Deviancy’ and Religious Crisis in Central Scotland c. 1968–9
Abstract. This article argues that Falkirk—a medium-sized industrial town in Central Scotland—became the scene of a localized, yet typical moral panic abou
academic.oup.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The prequel, of sorts: academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
Delighted that latest article from forthcoming Special Issue of @genderandhistory.bsky.social is now available, co-edited by @writinghelena.bsky.social, Lisa Hellman, Rachel Jean-Baptiste & me! Elisabetta Iob explores purdah & resistance in 1950s Pakistan 🌟
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Girls Are in Town: Purdah, Emotions and Everyday Resistance in Urban Pakistan
Pakistan, mid-1950s. Many upper-class women had already left or were about to leave purdah (or its remnants). This article investigates how these women challenged seclusion, redefining relations of p...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Delighted that latest article from forthcoming Special Issue of @genderandhistory.bsky.social is now available, co-edited by @writinghelena.bsky.social, Lisa Hellman, Rachel Jean-Baptiste & me! Elisabetta Iob explores purdah & resistance in 1950s Pakistan 🌟
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
See the fantastic work of our colleague Alana Harris @dralanagharris.bsky.social on the history of Horton cemetery #Epsom #London
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#WorldMentalHealthDay
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#WorldMentalHealthDay
'Grandad is one of 9,000 buried in Epsom's derelict Horton Cemetery'
The Friends of Horton Cemetery wants the site to be a memorial to those buried there.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 10, 2025 at 8:35 AM
See the fantastic work of our colleague Alana Harris @dralanagharris.bsky.social on the history of Horton cemetery #Epsom #London
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#WorldMentalHealthDay
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#WorldMentalHealthDay
Reposted by Ruth Davidson
With the publication of our book 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956' next month, @manchesterup.bsky.social are offering a 30% discount using the discount code below!
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/
October 9, 2025 at 1:29 PM
With the publication of our book 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956' next month, @manchesterup.bsky.social are offering a 30% discount using the discount code below!
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/