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Fraser Raeburn

@fraserraeburn.bsky.social

4.2K followers 840 following 310 posts

Historian interested in foreign fighters, transnational solidarities, emotion, anti-fascism and the Spanish Civil War. Currently based at @uvahumanities.bsky.social. Author 'Scots and the Spanish Civil War' (EUP, 2020). He/him.

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Reposted by Fraser Raeburn

Samuël Kruizinga @samuelkruizinga.bsky.social · 6d

See the full vacancy text here: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Vacancy — PhD position - Benign Blockades? Blockades and sanctions, 1919-1939

The Amsterdam School for Historical Studies (ASH) invites applications for a fully funded PhD position (4 years, 1.0ft). This position is part of the ERC Synergy-funded research programme BLOCKADE, wh...

werkenbij.uva.nl

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · 4d

By all means celebrate the moment and the role of Irish and other immigrants in it of course. The real story is good enough!

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · 4d

Kind of bizarre to see an Irish outlet engage in such an uncritical repetition of British historical mythmaking about Cable Street. This was not Mosley's March on Rome moment.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/heri...

Battle of Cable Street: when the Irish helped beat back the fascists

A survivor of the legendary London street battle recalls a dramatic day in the East End

www.irishtimes.com

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · 22d

Not my field but damn that's a lot of hmmmm

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · 25d

Civil debate is not what you're doing if you are telling people that they have no right to exist or are inherently inferior to others.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 30

It would of course be equally Death of Stalin if the best thing anyone still working at the White House could come up with was for Vance to reassure people of his competency.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 30

It'd be very Death of Stalin if Trump was actually perfectly alive, saw the shitposting and then had a rage-induced heart attack. Just saying.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 30

Which way, historians.

The illusion of free choice:

Whether we choose to be invested in unfounded rumours of Trump's death, or a recently released paper by epidemiologists on the French Revolution, the endpoint is still going to be disease-related disappointment.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 21

Arbitrarily chosen free show in the basement of a pub at lunchtime let's gooooo

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 21

In Edinburgh for a couple of days and experiencing the Fringe again for the first time since the pandemic. Everything feels so familiar, except that the comedians now all have their neurodivergences diagnosed.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 18

"Can you at least use the train without the broken bathrooms"

"lmao"

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 18

Train service: sorry we need to cancel half the trains for reasons

Traveller: can you at least keep the half with more than the minimum number of carriages to compensate for the increased crowding

Train services: lol no

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 14

"Some will claim that scientists’ hands are not clean, that we endorse rampant DEI, that we misuse science funding for bizarre investigations. But such instances are a few fleas on the fur of a noble hound."

Literally impossible not to read this in this guy's voice.

a man with a wig on his head and a bow tie

Alt: Gif from Community of Cornelius Hawthorne, noted savant of racism.

media.tenor.com

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 14

Setting the hypocrisy aside briefly, the prose makes me think that the author was marked down in a humanities course as an undergraduate for something like 'your style is giving 1850s plantation owner' and rather than taking the advice they nurtured a lifelong resentment.

bsky.app/profile/matt...

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · Aug 13

In which a Yale prof calls for jettisoning humanities to make way for science-only universities.

“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”

Unyoke the Sciences From the Humanities

Arts and sciences typically cohabitate. Should they?

thedispatch.com

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 14

What a week for senior US academics going mask-off about how much they despise any traditional or principled notion of what a university should be.

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Reposted by Fraser Raeburn

Thiago Krause @thiagokrause.bsky.social · Aug 14

As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview.
cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 12

I suppose the policy would be better stated as fresh, clean water for everyone, but with an especial eye on the sadists who design and run airports.

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 12

When it's my turn to be world dictator my platform will definitely include all airports being forced to provide numerous sources of fresh, clean water past security.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 8

Even without the typo, this slogan is somehow less meaningful and more word salad-y than the first one. We need to be prepared for the next iteration to bend the rules and logic of language use in hitherto unimagined ways.

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · Aug 8

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere.

But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

A banner advert for the University of Warwick, which says "Beyond ignores curiousity". This is a spelling error.

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 1

Classlessly.

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 1

Thanks to the Telegraph, the paper of record.

Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 1

Just having flashbacks to the tutorial on class as a historical category that @badsocialism.bsky.social kindly reminded me of a couple of weeks back.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 1

My apologies their high actually peaked later

"Want to know how middle class your street is? Our new interactive tool can tell you."

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Aug 1

Just imagining some genius management consultant howling at the moon after their all-nighter managed to distill the brand down to its purest essence

Daily Telegraph ad:

How posh is your street?

Find out what the data says about your area's social status - and see how you compare to other neighbourhoods.

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Fraser Raeburn @fraserraeburn.bsky.social · Jul 25

I've been putting off opening some much dreaded tax letters for the last few weeks. Just girded my loins and actually opened them, to find that news of a decent-sized refund.

The lesson: nasty letters become nice letters if you leave them alone long enough.