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Bill Jenkins

@billjenkins.bsky.social

140 followers 200 following 16 posts

Historian of science and ideas, with a special interest in Scottish history. Honorary research fellow at the School of History, University of St Andrews.

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Political science 39%

Philosophy 19%

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · 28d

Just finished reading @paulmalgrati.bsky.social 's masterly Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics. Full of fascinating insights into the way social, political and cultural factors mould historical memory. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-robert-...

Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics

edinburghuniversitypress.com

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Feb 11

If you like it, there's more of the same in my new book David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland!
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-david-b...

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Feb 11

@edinburghup.bsky.social have recently published my blog post on science and religion in 19th-century Scotland, so I thought I'd share it with you all.
euppublishingblog.com/2024/12/09/r...

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Paige Madison @fossilhistory.bsky.social · Feb 6

Charles Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man' dropped #OnThisDay in 1863, revealing that humans had a prehistoric past, alongside mammoths and other extinct creatures. The work even examined Neanderthal fossils - which Lyell thoroughly investigated...by licking them. 🦣 🧪 🏺

Title page of The Geological Evidences of The Antiquity of Man by Charles Lyell, 1863. Page next to title page contains sketch of a few homes on a coastline.

Older man seated for a portrait, wearing a coat with his legs crossed and hands clasped in front of him.

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Reposted by Nathalie Duclos, Bill Jenkins

UHI Institute for Northern Studies @insuhi.bsky.social · Jan 26

Dr Paul Malgrati, @thinkuhi.bsky.social INS Lecturer, BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends talks about his research and book on Robert Burns's political legacy.... Available on BBC Sounds Catch Up...
bit.ly/4gdHWMU

Loose Ends - Susie McCabe, Peat and Diesel, Carina Contini, Meredith Brook, Paul Malgrati - BBC Sounds

Clive Anderson and guests have their very own Burns Supper.

bit.ly

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Jan 15

This is my last day as a lecturer at
@standrewshist.bsky.social. In my time here I've published two books, gained two wonderful daughters and lost one kidney. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with so many congenial and inspiring colleagues and students. I'm truly sad to be leaving.

Reposted by Bill Jenkins

This Is My Glasgow @thisismyglasgow.bsky.social · Jan 14

In 1911, installed for the Scottish National Exhibition of that year, there was a dirigible gondola ride in Kelvingrove Park which would take you across the valley below to the far side of the River Kelvin. How fun does that look?

Cont./

#glasgow #glasgowhistory #kelvingrovepark

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Jan 13

Another illustration from David Brewster's wonderful Letters on Natural Magic (1832). What's going on here? (No prizes for correct answers!)

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Jan 8

Yes, it's the famous chess-playing automaton 'Turk' exhibited around Britain by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel in 1819/20. My source is David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic (1832). The illustrations in the Magazine of Science seem to have been copied from there.

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Jan 8

Any guesses as to where this picture comes from or what it shows?

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

🌈 Dr Ross Brooks @rossb-brighton.bsky.social · Jan 7

Just published, looks fab . . .

The Arrival of the Fittest: Biology's Imaginary Futures, 1900-1935 by Jim Endersby @uchicagopress.bsky.social.

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #histsci #histbio #STS #BookSky #X-Men 🗃️

Front cover of The Arrival of the Fittest: Biology's Imaginary Futures, 1900-1935 by Jim Endersby

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · Jan 6

Publication is drawing nearer for my book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860–1935. Among other things, it discusses magic mushrooms, camels from Atlantis, Moses's interest in Ichthyosaurus, creationist poetry, reincarnated cannibals, and Satan the pterodactyl.

Illustration of Captain Nemo gazing upon Atlantean ruins, in Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Seas.

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Mathew Nicolson @eyjarskeggi.bsky.social · Jan 5

A really well-made song and music video commemorating Marion Pardone (or Peebles), a Shetland woman who was executed for witchcraft in 1644 (and featuring my Mum as part of the village mob) www.shetland.org/blog/da-fate...

Da Fateful Tale o Marion Pardone: Witchcraft in Shetland | Shetland.org

Shetland fiddler and singer-songwriter Claire White launches a short film about Marion Pardone, a Shetland woman who was executed in 1644 under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.

www.shetland.org

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Scottish History @scottishhistory.org · Dec 28

On 28 December 1879, the Tay Rail Bridge collapsed during a windstorm just as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train travelling from Burntisland to Dundee was crossing over, resulting in the deaths of all aboard.

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Dec 27

I'm not sure why I do. But then everybody loves a bit of Hitler trivia.

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Dec 27

Although apparently 'Adolf Hitlers Lieblingsblume ist das schlichte Edelweiß' (Harry Steier, 1933). I can only imagine Rogers and Hammerstein didn't know that when they wrote their own song about 'Edelweiss' for the pivotal scene in the film.

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Dec 27

Robert Owen (1771–1858) on 'great men' and morality in history (from Charles Gibbon's Life of George Combe (1878)). Perhaps this is a catechism that we can still learn from.

Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Paul Malgrati @paulmalgrati.bsky.social · Dec 26

Big thanks to Dundee Burns Club for this thoughtful gift: a very rare 1984 poster marking the 10th anniversary of the Scottish-Soviet Burns Celebration. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🚩

‘It’s coming yet for a’ that
That man to man
The world o’er
Shall brothers be
For a’ that’

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

John Tweedie @johntweedie.bsky.social · Dec 21

Charles Withers, Professor Emeritus University of Edinburgh and Geographer Royal for Scotland reading from a letter to Charles Darwin by Charles Lyell discussing the domestication of the dog. #LyellProject www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex3g...

Two Hundred and Ninety Four Note Books One Thousand One Hundred Donors.

YouTube video by DIGITAL IMAGING UNIT University of Edinburgh

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Thony Christie @rmathematicus.bsky.social · Dec 17

Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, who translated Principia into French, was born 17 December 1706 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/a...

A feminist Newtonian

Any major new scientific theory experiences a period of reception after publication in which it is examined, questioned, subject to criticism and put to the test. During this period, which can and …

thonyc.wordpress.com

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Dec 7

Good decision. I'm doing the same. I haven't been able to bring myself to post much on 'X' recently in any case.

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Nov 29

Yes, they did! They asked me how to spell it in the interview. Luckily I got it right that time.

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Nov 29

I once made exactly that mistake in an application for an editorial post. Not good. I still got the job, though!

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Nov 29

This is a very sad day for me, my last day teaching at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social before the end of my contract. I'll greatly miss exchanging ideas with all our wonderful students here at @standrewshist.bsky.social. But it's not quite all over, as I still have plenty of marking to do!

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Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Nov 23

In case you're wondering what my banner is, it's an illustration of a Brocken spectre from David Brewster's wonderful Letters on Natural Magic (1832).

Bill Jenkins @billjenkins.bsky.social · Nov 22

My new book, David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland, 1793-1843, comes out this month from Edinburgh University Press. Thanks to everyone at EUP and all my colleagues on the 'After the Enlightenment' project at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-david-b...

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Scottish History @scottishhistory.org · Nov 18

18 November 1870: The first seven female undergraduates studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh were confronted by a large crowd of students who were attempting to prevent them from going in to sit their exams in what became known as the "Surgeons' Hall Riot".

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Dr Emily Vincent @dremilyvincent.bsky.social · Nov 18

VERY exciting news! I’m joining the @britishlibrary.bsky.social #TalesOfTheWeird series this December with ‘Summoned to the Séance: Spirit Tales from Beyond the Veil’!👻
Join hands around the séance table for 14 classics & lost gems of fiction inspired by the spiritualism movement🕯️

Image of book cover of seance with hands around a table with candles and figure in cloak

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Reposted by Máiréad Nic Craith, Bill Jenkins

Paul Malgrati @paulmalgrati.bsky.social · Nov 17

My book, ‘Robert Burns and Scottish Cultural Politics (1914-3014)’ is just out as paperback with @edinburghup.bsky.social

£21 instead of the £80 hardback!

From unionism to nationalism: the first study of Burns’s political afterlife in 20c Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-robert-...

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Reposted by Bill Jenkins

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · Oct 21

Dipping into my back catalogue for Bluesky. This @jofvictculture.bsky.social article from last year looked at how the literary languages of C19th palaeontology shaped the thinking and experiences of those who claimed they could transcend time through psychic means: academic.oup.com/jvc/article/...

Seen through Deep Time: Occult Clairvoyance and Palaeoscientific Imagination

Abstract. Dating from the middle of the nineteenth century, prominent paranormal researchers in Britain and the United States began to claim that they coul

academic.oup.com

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