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Rebecca Anne Barr

@rabarr.bsky.social

880 followers 800 following 130 posts

Reading, writing, thinking about the long 18th Century at the Faculty of English @cam.ac.uk‬. Irish woman baffled by the fens and the English middle classes. Emotional support/ emotional manipulation provided by a terrier.

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · Nov 25

Here's our magnificent cover: a little-known illustration of Richardson's 'Pamela' by Francis Hayman. 'The Elopement' decorated one of the original #Pamela supper-boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Thanks to @nationaltrust.bsky.social who hold the original at Sizergh Castle, Cumbria. #18thcentury

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 16h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Carcanet Press @carcanet.bsky.social · 26d

Congratulations to Anthony Vahni Capildeo, whose collection Polkadot Wounds has been longlisted for the 2025 Scotland National Book Awards!

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bobby @bobbylewis.bsky.social · 2d

thinking for absolutely no reason of britain’s king charles ii, who exhumed the corpse of oliver cromwell, tried it for murdering his father, posthumously executed the body, and displayed the severed head on the roof of westminster palace for no less than 23 years

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Alexa Ray Corriea @alexaray.bsky.social · 2d

It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 6d

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 8d

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

British Politics' Midlife Crisis

Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

benansell.substack.com

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Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 11d

For anyone who is #teaching #18thcentury politics and/or electoral culture, or is doing #localhistory or #familyhistory, do check out our ECPPEC web resource : it's chock-full of short informative essays, polling data, and artefacts #skystorians ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture

18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.

ecppec.ncl.ac.uk

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Matthew Sweet @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social · 10d

Read this if you’re awake.

Josh Spero @joshspero.ft.com · 10d

Nice review of a show about the history of sleep from @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social on.ft.com/3Wbqotf

Did the ancients get better sleep than us?

[FREE TO READ] An exhibition in Paris uses art to argue that our unwaking lives are as valuable as our waking ones

on.ft.com

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 12d

British politics was doomed from the day that Gordon Brown was forced by the media to apologize for calling a bigoted woman a bigot *in private*.

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The Anne Lister Society @annelistersociety.bsky.social · 19d

It’s here!! 🎉 The CfP for the FIFTH ANNE-VERSARY Anne Lister Soc’y Mtg, 3-4 Apr 2026 in Halifax! We seek proposals from scholars & researchers across the Listerverse, on any topic from Anne’s life & times to her afterlives. Due 1 Nov. For more details ➡️ english.northwestern.edu/about/anne-lis…

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Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 16d

Out today!💀 (advance access, open access) my little note entitled 'Hamlet’s Garbage', Notes & Queries par excellence, and a small preview of the sorts of things that I explore in my forthcoming Textile Shakespeare: academic.oup.com/nq/article/d...

Hamlet’s Garbage

In Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, the prince Nanki-Poo, disguised as a wandering minstrel, terms himself ‘a thing of shreds and patches’, adapting and

academic.oup.com

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Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · Aug 29

TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE has a COVER👀

(this is a late C16 embroidered coif - never in fact assembled - in the V&A. All the crazy scale with added big cats, like an acid trip As You Like It. I love that it is a bit stained and messy.)

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

The cover of a book. Text reads Textile Shakespeare. The lower part of the image is embroidery, black on white, with flowers, fruit, insects, and animals. it is discoloured with age.

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 12d

sorry to miss you this time! hope you find some good caffeine

Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 12d

they are seriously swanky rooms! hope you're enjoying the stay. I'm in Warsaw atm: how long are you in Cam?

Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 12d

Try Bould brothers or Kerb collective. but yes, it is a shocker...

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 14d

'Even when women were mentioned, the report found they were more often victims than protagonists, with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the second world war 1/2

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds

Campaigners say key stage 3 curriculum plays to misogny and teaches a ‘false version of the past’

www.theguardian.com

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Pumpkintrash 🎃 @malkintrash.bsky.social · 15d

Do YOU have a family that needs sedating? Then get on down to the Cosmetic and Family Sedation Surgery in Tottenham. Hurry, don't delay. Ask about our multi-family "Jim Jones" package deals

Large building on the corner of a large junction. The hoarding over the ground level outlet says "COSMETIC AND FAMILY SEDATION SURGERY".

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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 19d

You can currently pre-order @leannecalvert.bsky.social's Pious and Promiscuous: Life, Love, and Family in Presbyterian Ulster from the @ria.ie for 20% off shop.ria.ie/en-us/produc...

Pious and promiscuous

Pious and promiscuous – Life, love and family in Presbyterian Ulster will be published on 15 October 2025. Pre-orders will be sent out the week of publication. Step into the intimate worlds of Presby...

shop.ria.ie

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 22d

WOW. Just looked through the table of contents. This is impressively international. Serious work (especial respect to those anonymous authors, too. I can imagine why...).

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Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 22d

Been meaning to share this for a while: BROKEN RECORD: GENDERED ABUSE IN ACADEMIA ft 40+ contributors & THE Sara Ahmed from @sunypress.bsky.social.

Because higher ed is not a bastion of the radical left. It's A WORKPLACE where abuses happen all the time & it's NOT OK. sunypress.edu/Books/B/Brok...

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Nick Daly @nickdaly.bsky.social · 22d

I hope the European Research Council is paying attention

Eurovision: Spain becomes third country to confirm it will withdraw if Israel stays in contest

The EBU says contest organisers are now assessing the “potential impacts and consequences of either decision”.

www.thejournal.ie

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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 22d

man rolling rock up hill
how it started how its going

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 24d

Hello, it's from an interview he gave about his book 'Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945' (Penguin, 2005): here's the link www.bu.edu/historic/hs/...

The Historical Society, Boston University

www.bu.edu

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 24d

"Famines are wars over the right to existence."

—Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World

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Rebecca Anne Barr @rabarr.bsky.social · 24d

Historians must 'tell...an uncomfortable story & explain why the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well and live properly. A well-organised society is one in which we know the truth about ourselves collectively, not one in which we tell pleasant lies about ourselves.'Tony Judt

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