Rob Priest

Rob Priest

@rdpriest.bsky.social

Historian of Europe, mostly. My latest book is called Oberammergau: https://tinyurl.com/5d7vubck When I have time, thinking and writing about culture wars. First thoughts: https://tinyurl.com/yhjbssct Here to read.

127 followers189 following115 posts

Rob Priest reposted

Alex White
@alexjwhite.bsky.social

This is such a great piece on Blackness and belonging, based around the extraordinary friendships between American and Congolese Baptists. It's so interesting to see the emergence of a form of racial solidarity, even when it's entangled with the violence of the Congo Free State.

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk

In the late nineteenth century, Black American missionaries began to work within King Leopold's Congo. For Black History month, Adrita Mitra explores how women like Nora Gordon navigated the tensions between emancipation and colonial rule.

historyworkshop.org.ukOn the Butterfly Trail: Care, Curiosities, and Colonial Counter-ArchivesIn the late nineteenth century, Black American missionaries began to work within King Leopold's Congo. Adrita Mitra explores how women like Nora Gordon navigated the tensions between emancipation and colonial rule.

Rob Priest reposted

Rob Ford
@robfordmancs.bsky.social

Replying to @robfordmancs.bsky.social

Am loving the "No, everything is still awful or soon will be" replies here, the day after two right wing authoritarians lose decisively...take the win guys. Feel happy and optimistic for one day at least. Plenty of opportunities to be miserable!

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Also, selfishly, feeling relieved as I brought back my French module this year, we are currently deep into the National Assembly, and I seem to be on the right page (i.e. Rebecca's).

Rob Priest reposted

Tom Hamilton
@tombhamilton.bsky.social

At French History we're appointing a new Co-Editor and a new Associate Editor in the history of France and/or the Francophone world in the post-1789 period. Deadline 16 Nov. Do get in touch if you have any questions! Links posted below. 🧐📚📖👋✉️💾✍️🖥️🇫🇷 @frenchhistory.bsky.social academic.oup.com/fh

academic.oup.comFrench History | Oxford AcademicThe official journal of the Society for the Study of French History. Publishes contemporary debates from an international range of scholars, covering the entire chronological range of French history f...

Rob Priest reposted

Rebecca Spang
@rlspang.bsky.social

Since I did a thread yesterday about prize-winning history books, I want to add another for your consideration. Winner of the prize for the best book in 19-20C German history, awarded by the German Studies Association @rdpriest.bsky.social's Oberammergau global.oup.com/academic/pro...

global.oup.comglobal.oup.com
Rebecca Spang@rlspang.bsky.social

Full list here. I pulled out a number of the prize-winning books by historians of France, but they actually aren't the only ones www.historians.org/perspectives...

historians.orgAmerican Historical Association Announces 2026 Prize Winners – AHAThe American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2026 prizes.
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

I have actually managed to break lots of academic bad habits over the years but 'logging in to ManuscriptCentral pretty much every day to see if the status of my submission has changed' is definitely not one of them. Posting this here to shame myself into it!

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Alternative solution: fully gamify ManuscriptCentral and reward authors for 'streaks' of anxious refreshes with badges in the NYT Games app.

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Royal Holloway History klaxon going off at Senate House next week.

John Sabapathy@jwwsabapathy.bsky.social

'Where next for #crusading history?' @ihr.bsky.social's 'European History 1150-1550 Seminar' 22/10/26, 17.30 GMT. Pollard room + online 17.30 GMT Registration essential 👇 With Jonathan Phillips, Andrew Jotischky, Cecilia Gaposchkin & Suleiman Mourad All welcome, drinks after. #crusades #medieval

history.ac.ukEuropean History 1150-1550Seminar

Rob Priest reposted

John-Erik Hansson
@johnerik-h.bsky.social

Le RN propose, dans un calme olympien, de couper les vivres à la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de dissoudre le Campus Condorcet. Le tout dans le cadre d'un amendement au projet de loi de finances. Esquisse de la politique de l'ESR sous un gouvernement d'extrême-droite.

Rob Priest reposted

Ned Richardson-Little
@historyned.bsky.social

I have thoughts about the election of the AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt and how an election steeped in symbolism of the GDR is not actually a problem of re-litigating German reunification.

Dissent Magazine@dissentmag.bsky.social

For the first time since the Second World War, the far right will form a government in Germany. But the rot in Saxony-Anhalt stems from decades of neglect. dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

dissentmagazine.orgThe Far Right Breaks Through in Germany - Dissent MagazineFor the first time since the Second World War, the far right will form a government in Germany. But the rot in Saxony-Anhalt stems from decades of neglect.
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Listened to this on my commute this morning and feel duly mind-expanded. Off to buy one ox and a boxwood comb...

Charles West@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social

Looking for a podcast to start your week? Here's me talking to Miranda Melcher on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about "Europe in the Eleventh Century": newbooksnetwork.com/europe-in-th...

newbooksnetwork.comEurope in the Eleventh Century: Beyond Revolution and Reform with Charles West (Oxford UP, 2025) - New Books Network
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Highly recommend exploring all that Beckie has done for the HW digital magazine!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk

After three brilliant years, @beckierutherford.bsky.social's fellowship is coming to an end. A historian of health, gender, and activism in modern Britain, Beckie has edited a selection of incredible articles focused on the experiences and ideas of disabled people.

historyworkshop.org.ukRadical Object: The Radar KeyThe Radar Key is a small but crucial part of the history of disabled people demanding rights and independence in modern Britain. Kirstie Stage explores the little-known history of this radical object.
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Shout out to other members of my microgeneration who had to study the Jenkins Report in A-Level Government and Politics.

Steven Fielding@polprofsteve2024.bsky.social

Burnham isn't the 'first modern prime minister to advocate scrapping FPTP'. In 97 Labour committed (sic) itself to a referendum on a proportional alternative & in 2010 it committed itself to one on AV. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.comGet used to multi-party politics, it’s here to stayThe prime minister’s promise on electoral reform could entrench the complex fights between five, even six parties

Rob Priest reposted

Pauline Stafford
@pstafford.bsky.social

There will be many appreciations of Chris Wickham - as a historian and as a human being. This is a good starting place. www.medievalists.net/2026/10/chri...

medievalists.netChris Wickham, Leading Historian of Medieval Europe, Passes Away - Medievalists.netChris Wickham, one of the most influential historians of medieval Europe, has passed away. His research transformed how scholars understand the transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, whi...
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

As I look ahead to Parsifal at the RBO this evening, I will take the opportunity to alert people interested in such things that my book _Oberammergau_ has a chapter on the interconnections between the passion play, Wagner and nationalist projects of cultural revival. academic.oup.com/book/61376/c...

academic.oup.comChristus contra ParsifalAbstract. This chapter situates the late-nineteenth-century passion play in the context of contemporary theatrical aesthetics, most notably the historicist
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Credit where it's due, I first came across it here (though cannot claim to have listened) bsky.app/profile/econ...

The Economist@economist.com

Today on “The Intelligence”: why the protests in France are about far more than schools, the shoddy law behind the “Cornell 7” case, and the surprising role of astrology in Indian finance

bit.lyGilets jeunes? France’s school protestsAlso on the daily podcast: the shoddy law behind the “Cornell 7” case and the big role of astrology in Indian finance
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

"In Paris hardly anyone reads any work that has more than two volumes. ... Our worthy forebears read novels in sixteen volumes and still they were not too long for their evenings. ... As for us, soon we will only be reading from screens." Louis-Sébastien Mercier, 1783 (He meant fire screens, but!)

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Jean-Claude Bonnet reflects: "One may legitimately dream with this phrase far beyond its literal meaning, for Mercier ... does announce that there is now something to be read on screens, and that the image is displacing the written word." (1995)

Rob Priest reposted

David Klemperer
@dmk1793.bsky.social

If you are around central London on Monday evening, I’ll be speaking at the IHR French History Seminar in Senate House about once-democratic socialists who saw progressive potential in Nazism. Do come along!

Andrew WM Smith@smidbob.bsky.social

Looking forward to welcoming @dmk1793.bsky.social to the @ihr.bsky.social Modern French History seminar this Monday 5 October at 17h30. David will be giving a paper on 'Collaborationist Socialism in Nazi-Occupied France.' Please do join us or sign up online: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... 🗃️

history.ac.ukCollaborationist Socialism in Nazi-Occupied FranceIHR Modern French History
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

In an essay I was just skimming, Pamela Pilbeam writes that Alfred Cobban was "known in North America from his visits to universities and conferences, such as that of the Society for French Historical Studies, where he gave one of the eight papers at its first conference in 1958." Eight!

Rob Priest reposted

Katherine McDonald
@katherinemcdon.bsky.social

Work on the assumption that your institutional website will either (a) delete you without trace the day you leave or (b) somehow keep implying you work there forever, give people a non-functional email address to contact you on, and never update your achievements past 2015.

samuel mehr@mehr.nz

early-career academics, if you don't have a website, make yourself one. yes it's annoying but just do it it can be plain text on a white background, or google sites, or even a free Wix one with ads. nobody cares we just need to be able to look you up, quickly, bc there's like 100 other apps here

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

A frontal engagement with the politics of who gets to label what as 'culture', 'cultural issues' and 'culture wars', why, and with what effects.

Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social

"Economic issues not cultural wars' produces a party that both loses elections and abandons moral causes and vulnerable people. That’s not a theoretical argument—it’s the story of the Democratic Party of my entire adulthood." newrepublic.com/article/2159...

newrepublic.comWhy Democrats Should Stop Using the Phrase “Culture Wars”Texas’s Gina Hinojosa and others slamming the party for focusing too much on so-called cultural issues are pushing a flawed electoral and policy strategy.
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

I am trying to keep to constructive posting which is hard with this subject. Please respect that I withheld all of my hot takes on the many, many, oh god so many bad articles on Ed Sheeran and culture wars last week.

Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

Some generative critiques here, e.g. "It gives us a phenomenology of contemporary politics, but not a logic. A book that did that couldn’t be so short or so sexy: it would have to look in great detail at why there is this uneven and combined development of civil society."

John Ganz @lioneltrolling.bsky.social

My, quite late, review of Anton Jäger's Hyperpolitics. www.unpopularfront.news/p/a-grin-wit...

unpopularfront.newsA Grin Without a StatA review of Anton Jäger’s “Hyperpolitics”

Rob Priest reposted

Euan Huey
@euan-huey.bsky.social

I'm really happy to share that my article is now out in the Journal of Early Modern History and is open access!

Iberian History at Oxford@iberiahistoryox.bsky.social

🎉 Congratulations to our very own @euanhuey.bsky.social on his new article ‘Global Diplomacy in Exile’ in @earlymodhistory.bsky.social It’s a fascinating piece and it's open access. Don't miss it! brill.com/view/journal...

brill.comGlobal Diplomacy in Exile: Sultan Saïd Berkat’s Court and Epistolary Practice in Seventeenth-Century ManilaAbstract The present article focuses on the little-known case of Sultan Saïd Berkat’s exiled court in Manila and the critical, albeit largely neglected, place of exilic diplomacy in early modern globa...
Rob Priest
@rdpriest.bsky.social

An underappreciated book I always mention in my lecture on recent European history. A lot of writers on 'European integration' are either inside baseball, very zoomed-in, and/or operate with a postwar or at best twentieth-century frame of reference. Zielonka not the only wider view but a useful one.

James Butler@piercepenniless.bsky.social

Both VdL & Carney would shy away from it, but the rhetoric from both sides reminds me of Jan Zielonka's mid-'00s work on European empire (i.e. an emerging polycentric formation vs Westphalian super-state). I think he's become more pessimistic since, but interesting book - academic.oup.com/book/1631

academic.oup.comEurope as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European UnionAbstract. This book seeks to comprehend the evolving nature of the European Union following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of the European Con

Rob Priest reposted

Charles West
@pseudo-isidore.bsky.social

Fascinating comparative graphic here: shows the UK's emphasis on early modern history especially. (no, I am not clear on the methodology)

Julia Hillner@writinghelena.bsky.social

Very interesting study on the state of the Humanities in Germany (in German). German universities lost more Humanities students than UK universities since 2013, especially in German studies and European languages. Also, German Humanities professors are really old :)