Sam Wetherell

thehistoryfactory.substack.comThe History Factory 1: York Dungeon and the Junkyard Past“The living need the dead more than the dead need the living” Thomas Laqueur

24 Aug

On the eve of my paternity leave, I have made a Substack for intermittent reflections on the strange new work that history is being made to do in Britain. The first essay is about York Dungeon, carnivalesque violence and the past as a scrapheap. thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/the-histor...

This is disgusting language, yes, but we should mobilise that revulsion against a system in which asylum seekers in Britain are *already* housed in these conditions. Many refugees are as we speak concentrated in hastily constructed overcrowded prisons! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Almost a hundred years since WEB DuBois referred to the mass rebellion of enslaved people in the US South during the Civil War as the biggest general strike in world history, we are left with "ordinary people" humbly effecting "social change." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cannot wait to read and teach this by Michael Romyn

For @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social I selected some of the historical and theoretical works that I love and which have been most influential on my thinking.

Wolfson History Prize@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

From electricity's transformation of modern life to a thought-provoking collection of essays exploring the alternative worlds imagined by anti-colonial thinkers, these are the history books that have inspired @samwetherell.bsky.social.

@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

Me reading an extract from my book in front of the Liver Building, if that’s your thing.

Wolfson History Prize@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

"One of the tasks of the historian is to comb through the historical darkness” Listen to an extract of 'Liverpool: A Story of Britain' by @samwetherell.bsky.social and discover why it is a #WolfsonHistoryPrize shortlisted book! @headofzeus.bsky.social 🎧 bit.ly/4h7RaOE

Sam Wetherell reposted

Wolfson History Prize

"Humane, distressing, and yet curiously optimistic" In the words of the #WolfsonHistoryPrize judges: what makes 'Liverpool: A Story of Britain' by @samwetherell.bsky.social an outstanding work of history. @headofzeus.bsky.social 🏢

Sam Wetherell reposted

Wolfson History Prize

@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

Our #ShortlistSpotlight series continues with 'Liverpool: A Story of Britain' by @samwetherell.bsky.social, another remarkable work shortlisted for the 2026 #WolfsonHistoryPrize. Congratulations to Sam Wetherell and @headofzeus.bsky.social 🎊

RIP Chris Wickham. Unlike so many historians who emphasise particularities and contingencies, he was the master of constructing grand, coherent, beautifully rendered worlds out of his evidence. This, from his 2021 Past and Present essay, is a masterpiece of historical writing.

academic.oup.comHow did the Feudal Economy Work? the Economic Logic of Medieval SocietiesAbstract. This article aims to create a model for the underlying economic logic of the feudal economy, which can then be contrasted with the much better-kn

From How did the Feudal Economy Work? The Economic Logic of Medieval Societies: academic.oup.com/past/article...

Sam Wetherell reposted

Chika Tonooka

@chikatonooka.bsky.social

Just set up Bluesky... because my book is now out in the US and as an e-book. (Coming to the UK on 1 December!) 30% discount code P329 at press.princeton.edu. @princetonupress.bsky.social

press.princeton.eduRival CivilisationsHow British intellectuals of the twentieth century reckoned with the emergence of an Asian power

Fiction only, for obvious reasons.

A predictable reflection of my historically specific formation

FREE BOOKS* *if you write a review for @urbanhistory.bsky.social

Sam Wetherell@samwetherell.bsky.social

The leaves are turning, terms are starting and I am once again looking for people interested in reviewing some wonderful looking books for @urbanhistory.bsky.social - if any of these take your fancy, get in touch. Beginning with Flora Wilson's fabulous looking Operatic Infrastructures.

Sam Wetherell reposted

thehistoryfactory.substack.comJohn Berger, Liverpool and the “Creative Economy”“Socrates’ dictum that beauty is the useful has at last been ironically fulfilled.” Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno

I wrote about the art critic John Berger and the strange thing we call the "creative economy" thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/john-berge...

Cindy Anh Nguyen, Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam

Caroline Rose Peyton, Radioactive Dixie: A Nuclear History of the American South

Paul Knox, Lost London

Eva Payne, Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution

Ann Elias, The Underharbour: Submerged Histories of Sydney

Ching Kwan Lee, Forever Hong Kong: A Global City's Decolonisation Struggle

Emilio de Antuñano, The Politics of Informality: Housing and Planning in Mexico City

Ruby Oram, Home Work: Gender, Child Labor, and Education for Girls in Urban America, 1870–1930

Judith Farquhar and Qicheng Zhang, Ten Thousand Things: Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing

David E. Barclay Cold War City: A History of West Berlin

Joshua Specht, Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner

I wrote about the art critic John Berger and the strange thing we call the "creative economy" thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/john-berge...

The anthropologist Anna Tsing on cooking fish.

yorkpress.co.ukUniversity of York academic in running for prestigious history awardDr Sam Wetherell, senior lecturer at the University of York, has been shortlisted for the 2026 Wolfson History Prize for Liverpool: A Story of…

21 Sept

All the news that’s fit to print! www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/2656231...

heraldscotland.comFear and anger as university set to announce 'massive course and programme closures'Asked to respond, a university spokesperson said that staff and students were recently informed of changes to “our future academic offering across…

18 Sept

It’s true, the second baby is easier. And you have all the skills stored up from first time around. Like how to make a pretty decent negroni with one hand.

Sam Wetherell reposted

Charlotte Lydia Riley

@lottelydia.bsky.social

18 Sept

“Don’t bring a union rep” is one of those sentences that always means your employer is going you treat you with respect and dignity

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social

'The University and College Union (UCU)’s Edinburgh branch said staff had been called into “informal meetings at less than 24 hours' notice” and told not to bring union representatives.'

Sam Wetherell reposted

17 Sept

Some incredibly exciting news! My book about how Liverpool's history makes us think differently about Britain's past, present and future has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize!

Wolfson History Prize@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

We're thrilled to announce the 2026 #WolfsonHistoryPrize shortlist, showcasing six exceptional books that explore how societies navigate periods of seismic change. Congratulations to all the authors! 👏📚 bit.ly/4yCLe5T

17 Sept

Some incredibly exciting news! My book about how Liverpool's history makes us think differently about Britain's past, present and future has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize!

Wolfson History Prize@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

17 Sept

I'm hugely grateful to the judges and honoured to be on such a distinguished shortlist of historians.

11 Sept

Great day to remember that Michel de Certeau’s most famous essay, ‘Walking in the City’, was inspired by the observation tower at the top of the World Trade Center.

Sam Wetherell reposted

thehistoryfactory.substack.comThe History Factory 2: The Deindustrialisation of the UniversityA few years ago, my employer, the University of York, commissioned a civil engineering firm named Tilbury Douglas to build a new nursery for the children of its employees and students.

7 Sept

My latest post: On the deindustrialisation of the university. And on being "in defence of history" at a time of extinction. thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/the-histor...

7 Sept

My latest post: On the deindustrialisation of the university. And on being "in defence of history" at a time of extinction. thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/the-histor...

bbc.co.ukBBC Sounds - Rethink, Rethink... the future of citiesCould charter cities be the key to urban prosperity and opportunity?

7 Sept

Tonight!

Sam Wetherell@samwetherell.bsky.social

I’ll be on Radio 4 next week talking about the stupidity of charter cities and the barbarism of libertarian world making www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

4 Sept

I am once again the parent of a newborn. Which means, among a million other things big and small, that I am in the market for absorbing television, disaster movies, intellectually interesting horror movies.

1 Sept

Happy September 1 from Bruno Schulz

bbc.co.ukBBC Sounds - Rethink, Rethink... the future of citiesCould charter cities be the key to urban prosperity and opportunity?

31 Aug

I’ll be on Radio 4 next week talking about the stupidity of charter cities and the barbarism of libertarian world making www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

26 Aug

Liverpool Waterstones ❤️

Liverpool University Press

23 Aug

I think this is what Gramsci meant by “morbid symptoms”

Sam Wetherell reposted

@livunipress.bsky.social

20 Aug

We're pleased to share the details of Professor Stephen Small's upcoming UK and Ireland book tour for his new book Black Liverpool, 'The real thing': West African, West Indian and Afro-American culture at the end of the twentieth century.

Sam Wetherell reposted

the-tls.comThis just inMy students often ask me how old something has to be to be considered history. They are usually searching for an agreed cut-off point between the surface-level churn of present events and a past that ...

19 Aug

I reviewed Brian Harrison's Yesterday: Britain from Thatcher to Covid for the Times Literary Supplement. I found it rich and useful but it also an attempt to contain and diffuse rather than to critically interrogate the the history of the last forty years. www.the-tls.com/history/twen...

19 Aug