Dr Vic Clarke
@vjctorianist.bsky.social
By day: literary historian and editor for hire. By night: historian and enthusiast of Chartism, 19thC British writing and politics, sausage rolls, and women's, workers', queer and trans rights ✊ she/her, views own
drvicclarke.co.uk
drvicclarke.co.uk
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Yesterday I had the honour and privilege of helping unveil the newest @leedscivictrust.bsky.social blue plaque for the Northern Star, published on Market Street, Leeds from 1837-1844. The NS was the leading newspaper of the Chartist movement, campaigning for working people's political rights.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
November 25, 2025 at 7:46 PM
This week's cold snap marks an unfortunate time to be moving into our new house, which has holes in the walls and minimal insulation.
November 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
This week's cold snap marks an unfortunate time to be moving into our new house, which has holes in the walls and minimal insulation.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
This is the bit on seizing jewellery. Perhaps shave their heads as well, could get good money for all that hair? But again, this is likely to create lots of bureaucracy yet have little real-world effect because it is so hard to do in practice.
November 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
This is the bit on seizing jewellery. Perhaps shave their heads as well, could get good money for all that hair? But again, this is likely to create lots of bureaucracy yet have little real-world effect because it is so hard to do in practice.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
Welcome to the UK, where a government less popular than a woman who crashed the economy and saw the death of the Queen is relying on fear of a racist grifter rather than policies that would help literally anyone.
November 14, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Welcome to the UK, where a government less popular than a woman who crashed the economy and saw the death of the Queen is relying on fear of a racist grifter rather than policies that would help literally anyone.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
See also, past activist movements which eventually achieved at least some of their aims are Part Of Our Great Heritage (anti-slavery, the suffrage movement, etc etc), unlike these horrible modern Wokes (who may even point out the oppressions and injustices they were fighting against, shock horror).
November 12, 2025 at 10:37 AM
See also, past activist movements which eventually achieved at least some of their aims are Part Of Our Great Heritage (anti-slavery, the suffrage movement, etc etc), unlike these horrible modern Wokes (who may even point out the oppressions and injustices they were fighting against, shock horror).
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
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This past year, the situation facing intersex people in the UK (and some other parts of the world) has grown worse because of politically-inspired efforts to erase the biologically complex nature of sex. This has real world effects on people's lives; it is social anxiety enacted on intersex bodies.
November 8, 2025 at 12:25 PM
🧵
Student presentations done for the mid-term assessment, now for reading week! If you are considering running a freelance business, teaching part time, AND renovating an old house to move into concurrently, I recommend that you don't.
November 7, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Student presentations done for the mid-term assessment, now for reading week! If you are considering running a freelance business, teaching part time, AND renovating an old house to move into concurrently, I recommend that you don't.
If anyone from outside the UK wants to understand the political system and how British people consistently vote against their own interests, any series of The Traitors will explain it.
November 6, 2025 at 10:23 PM
If anyone from outside the UK wants to understand the political system and how British people consistently vote against their own interests, any series of The Traitors will explain it.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
Alan Carr pulling the least action movie face possible in the face of an explosion <3 #CelebrityTraitors
November 6, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Alan Carr pulling the least action movie face possible in the face of an explosion <3 #CelebrityTraitors
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
Good lord. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/raise-the-co...
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
www.glasgowbell.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Good lord. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/raise-the-co...
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
If you've just heard me on BBC Radio 5 Live, here's the link to nominate a brilliant history teacher in the UK for the Inspiring History Teaching Awards - they can be primary/secondary/SEN etc, and don't have to be history specialists. The awards are run by HRP www.hrp.org.uk/schools/insp...
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...
www.hrp.org.uk
November 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM
If you've just heard me on BBC Radio 5 Live, here's the link to nominate a brilliant history teacher in the UK for the Inspiring History Teaching Awards - they can be primary/secondary/SEN etc, and don't have to be history specialists. The awards are run by HRP www.hrp.org.uk/schools/insp...
Happy Halloween! I found a 30 year old newspaper buried in our new house which showed how much things used to cost and experienced true horror at the world around me!
October 31, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Happy Halloween! I found a 30 year old newspaper buried in our new house which showed how much things used to cost and experienced true horror at the world around me!
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
Enough is enough - good to see #ReclaimTheNight featured in today's Yorkshire Evening Post.
October 29, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Enough is enough - good to see #ReclaimTheNight featured in today's Yorkshire Evening Post.
Had an amazing day supporting English studies agrégation students in Bordeaux today - what a delight to talk about British social movements and think about their importance's in pedagogical practice. If only we did more of this on the other side of the channel!
October 24, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Had an amazing day supporting English studies agrégation students in Bordeaux today - what a delight to talk about British social movements and think about their importance's in pedagogical practice. If only we did more of this on the other side of the channel!
It was Berthold's Political Handkerchief (1831)! It wasn't an extremely specific and nerdy dream!
@rs4vp.org and periodicals folks: I'm trying to find an example of unstamped newspaper publishers evading paper duty. I am quite sure I've seen pamphlets/flyers/news printed on cloth before, but a Google search is only trying to sell me handkerchiefs.
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
October 22, 2025 at 10:15 AM
It was Berthold's Political Handkerchief (1831)! It wasn't an extremely specific and nerdy dream!
@rs4vp.org and periodicals folks: I'm trying to find an example of unstamped newspaper publishers evading paper duty. I am quite sure I've seen pamphlets/flyers/news printed on cloth before, but a Google search is only trying to sell me handkerchiefs.
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
October 21, 2025 at 3:47 PM
@rs4vp.org and periodicals folks: I'm trying to find an example of unstamped newspaper publishers evading paper duty. I am quite sure I've seen pamphlets/flyers/news printed on cloth before, but a Google search is only trying to sell me handkerchiefs.
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
Did these exist or have I gone insane?
If anyone thinks they're getting a bargain buying a house that was a student rental for 30 years, I implore you to consider the cost of paint stripper and sandpaper needed to remove 30 years of magnolia gloss paint for every conceivable surface.
October 19, 2025 at 6:05 PM
If anyone thinks they're getting a bargain buying a house that was a student rental for 30 years, I implore you to consider the cost of paint stripper and sandpaper needed to remove 30 years of magnolia gloss paint for every conceivable surface.
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
Celebrity Traitors is doing more for the peace of the nation than any government could
October 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Celebrity Traitors is doing more for the peace of the nation than any government could
A fab BHM lecture from @oliviawyatt1999.bsky.social on the Chapeltown Bonfire night incident of 1975. Wyatt situates elder Black women's activism on behalf of the Black youths on trial as part of caregiving in the community. More non-London Black history!!!
October 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
A fab BHM lecture from @oliviawyatt1999.bsky.social on the Chapeltown Bonfire night incident of 1975. Wyatt situates elder Black women's activism on behalf of the Black youths on trial as part of caregiving in the community. More non-London Black history!!!
Reposted by Dr Vic Clarke
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.
Week two of home ownership: for when a flagpole in the garden isn't enough
October 13, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Week two of home ownership: for when a flagpole in the garden isn't enough
Spent this morning's seminars talking to my first years about close reading and figurative language, and thought I'd do a bit about semiotics and theory. Ended up talking A LOT about traffic lights. Perhaps driving theory next term?
October 10, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Spent this morning's seminars talking to my first years about close reading and figurative language, and thought I'd do a bit about semiotics and theory. Ended up talking A LOT about traffic lights. Perhaps driving theory next term?