Nicholas Guyatt
@nicholasguyatt.bsky.social
I teach American history at Cambridge. Views/opinions strictly personal. Content 40% political, 30% historical, 30% cat photos but ratio under constant review
Just to clarify this postdoc was advertised last year and limited to 20th century historians, but we actually just gave a permanent job to the incumbent (congratulations, Caroline!) and this time there's *no period or field restriction* - vast early Americanists (and everyone else) welcome!
February 10, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Just to clarify this postdoc was advertised last year and limited to 20th century historians, but we actually just gave a permanent job to the incumbent (congratulations, Caroline!) and this time there's *no period or field restriction* - vast early Americanists (and everyone else) welcome!
Friends, can I ask you to spread the word that we have a THREE-YEAR postdoc in American history at Cambridge up for grabs - ANY field, but applications are due March 1 so don't delay - apply, apply, apply! networks.h-net.org/jobs/69790/u...
February 10, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Friends, can I ask you to spread the word that we have a THREE-YEAR postdoc in American history at Cambridge up for grabs - ANY field, but applications are due March 1 so don't delay - apply, apply, apply! networks.h-net.org/jobs/69790/u...
Ever since the Financial Times reported in 2023 that Peter Mandelson had stayed in Epstein's mansion while Epstein was serving time for child sex crimes, many of us over here have watched with horror as Starmer first made Mandelson his election guru and then his US ambassador x.com/NicholasGuya...
February 5, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Ever since the Financial Times reported in 2023 that Peter Mandelson had stayed in Epstein's mansion while Epstein was serving time for child sex crimes, many of us over here have watched with horror as Starmer first made Mandelson his election guru and then his US ambassador x.com/NicholasGuya...
Probably no bandwidth in the US media right now for international news, even before we factor in the mass firing of journalists, but the latest Epstein document dump really might bring down the UK prime minister before the week is out
February 5, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Probably no bandwidth in the US media right now for international news, even before we factor in the mass firing of journalists, but the latest Epstein document dump really might bring down the UK prime minister before the week is out
"Keir Starmer's government will last for six more weeks!"
February 4, 2026 at 10:50 PM
"Keir Starmer's government will last for six more weeks!"
From last night's 'emergency' podcast, genuinely don't know which of them is supposed to be speaking
February 4, 2026 at 10:39 PM
From last night's 'emergency' podcast, genuinely don't know which of them is supposed to be speaking
Even in the 'unipolar' years of the 1990s, US presidents were exasperated by their inability to control the United Nations; the idea of replacing the unruly Security Council with a pliant 'Board of Peace' is really a sign of US decline in the world, not of Trump's strength
January 18, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Even in the 'unipolar' years of the 1990s, US presidents were exasperated by their inability to control the United Nations; the idea of replacing the unruly Security Council with a pliant 'Board of Peace' is really a sign of US decline in the world, not of Trump's strength
Madness for the UK government to get involved in the increasingly unhinged and dangerous foreign policy of the Trump administration, but Keir Starmer seems determined to outdo Tony Blair in becoming lickspittle-in-chief to a rogue U.S. president
January 7, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Madness for the UK government to get involved in the increasingly unhinged and dangerous foreign policy of the Trump administration, but Keir Starmer seems determined to outdo Tony Blair in becoming lickspittle-in-chief to a rogue U.S. president
Pure cowardice on the part of every European leader who refuses to call out the Trump administration for what it is: a criminal and utterly lawless extortion racket which poses a grave danger to the security of the entire world
January 6, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Pure cowardice on the part of every European leader who refuses to call out the Trump administration for what it is: a criminal and utterly lawless extortion racket which poses a grave danger to the security of the entire world
I often think about this Guardian piece from 2011 insisting that we shouldn't equate the Daily Mail of the 1930s - "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!" and all that - with the Daily Mail of today. And I'm afraid I think today's paper is at least as bad, and maybe worse
January 5, 2026 at 6:53 PM
I often think about this Guardian piece from 2011 insisting that we shouldn't equate the Daily Mail of the 1930s - "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!" and all that - with the Daily Mail of today. And I'm afraid I think today's paper is at least as bad, and maybe worse
In the upside down world of the Daily Mail, If you're opposed to the US invading another country, kidnapping its president and then telling the world of its plan to "run" that country indefinitely, you're a "Maduro apologist"
January 5, 2026 at 6:49 PM
In the upside down world of the Daily Mail, If you're opposed to the US invading another country, kidnapping its president and then telling the world of its plan to "run" that country indefinitely, you're a "Maduro apologist"
A gangster regime, with cheap dialogue to match
January 3, 2026 at 5:33 PM
A gangster regime, with cheap dialogue to match
So many lies in Trump's rambling speech, but his easy segue from the illegal use of the military overseas to the illegal use of the military in US cities is really chilling
January 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
So many lies in Trump's rambling speech, but his easy segue from the illegal use of the military overseas to the illegal use of the military in US cities is really chilling
Feels as if there's a real gap in the market right now for a peace prize for people who actually promote peace
January 3, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Feels as if there's a real gap in the market right now for a peace prize for people who actually promote peace
The media reaction to Trump's plainly illegal invasion/abduction this morning has been mostly shock, but Venezuelan opposition figures with "close ties to the US security establishment" have been boasting about this outcome for months (this from the FT in October)
January 3, 2026 at 1:20 PM
The media reaction to Trump's plainly illegal invasion/abduction this morning has been mostly shock, but Venezuelan opposition figures with "close ties to the US security establishment" have been boasting about this outcome for months (this from the FT in October)
Happy new year, everyone! Seeing in the new year by burying our 2025 lemon pig with full honours, helluva year to be a lemon pig
January 1, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Happy new year, everyone! Seeing in the new year by burying our 2025 lemon pig with full honours, helluva year to be a lemon pig
The madness of our civilisation, in which the super-rich are throwing money at AI which the rest of us don't want, and are meeting the ridiculous power demands of data centres mostly by burning gas and cooking our planet
December 16, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The madness of our civilisation, in which the super-rich are throwing money at AI which the rest of us don't want, and are meeting the ridiculous power demands of data centres mostly by burning gas and cooking our planet
Incredibly grateful to the amazing contributors who have hit every chapter out of the park. Even if the Sculpture Garden of American Heroes doesn't come together, the Oxford Illustrated History of the United States will make next summer one to remember!
December 10, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Incredibly grateful to the amazing contributors who have hit every chapter out of the park. Even if the Sculpture Garden of American Heroes doesn't come together, the Oxford Illustrated History of the United States will make next summer one to remember!
I know I have been promising this forever but the Oxford Illustrated History of the United States will finally be out in June of next year, just in time to help unite the nation around the 250th
December 10, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I know I have been promising this forever but the Oxford Illustrated History of the United States will finally be out in June of next year, just in time to help unite the nation around the 250th
From a Guardian piece just after last year's election victory - you can make the case that a supposedly left-leaning government ought to coddle the press barons to get elected, but at least have the honesty to admit that that's what happened here
December 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM
From a Guardian piece just after last year's election victory - you can make the case that a supposedly left-leaning government ought to coddle the press barons to get elected, but at least have the honesty to admit that that's what happened here
I wish the BBC would simply ask Lisa Nandy directly to confirm the widely-reported story that Keir Starmer dropped Labour's support for the crucial second phase of the Leveson enquiry into press corruption in return for Murdoch's backing in the general election
December 10, 2025 at 1:09 PM
I wish the BBC would simply ask Lisa Nandy directly to confirm the widely-reported story that Keir Starmer dropped Labour's support for the crucial second phase of the Leveson enquiry into press corruption in return for Murdoch's backing in the general election
After Trump I don't know how you go back to the presidency being even vaguely dignified and not perpetually batshit-crazy
November 20, 2025 at 9:47 PM
After Trump I don't know how you go back to the presidency being even vaguely dignified and not perpetually batshit-crazy
Trump was impeached in January 2021 for attempting to incite an insurrection; the Senate was too cowardly to convict him, which would have barred him from running again & spared us the current nightmare, but the claim that the BBC misreported his intention to steal the 2020 election is *fake news*
November 12, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Trump was impeached in January 2021 for attempting to incite an insurrection; the Senate was too cowardly to convict him, which would have barred him from running again & spared us the current nightmare, but the claim that the BBC misreported his intention to steal the 2020 election is *fake news*
Who will pick up Trump's papers if we Brits ditch Keir Starmer as prime minister?! We need to rally behind Sir Keir
November 11, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Who will pick up Trump's papers if we Brits ditch Keir Starmer as prime minister?! We need to rally behind Sir Keir
Truly hilarious that Starmer's best argument for saving his own skin is that ditching him as prime minister would threaten the UK's close relationship with....Donald Trump
![The prime minister's supporters are telling Labour MPs they should be careful
what they wish for. They argue a leadership contest would plunge the party into the chaos associated with the final years of the Conservative Party's stint in office which came to an end last year, and install a leader who does not have their own
mandate from the country. They are trying to convince their colleagues that a contest could destabilise the international markets too, and would jeopardise the good relationship the
prime minister has established with President Trump. But others, including some ministers, fret about what they perceive to be the
desperate position the government is in. "It's terrible. He [Starmer] is hated out there. It is worse than it got under
Corbyn. I don't see how this is sustainable until May," one minister said. Opinion polls suggest Sir Keir is deeply unpopular, perhaps even the most
unpopular British prime minister in the history of modern opinion polling. Polls also suggest the Labour Party has commanded the support of no more
than a fifth of the electorate in recent months.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ubpa7xyv7bwtkm5jnru3dksl/bafkreiamyncczhit7si4kknk7nxby56fdobxrfrb4ojycl2aog437lnkpa@jpeg)
November 11, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Truly hilarious that Starmer's best argument for saving his own skin is that ditching him as prime minister would threaten the UK's close relationship with....Donald Trump