Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
@tomaashby.bsky.social
14K followers 970 following 1.4K posts
Historian 思想史家 ∙ JSPS Fellow @utokyoofficial.bsky.social nominated @britishacademy.bsky.social ∙ Review Ed @global-ih.bsky.social ∙ Co-org @gpolthought.bsky.social ∙ PhD @eui-eu.bsky.social ∙ early modern English republicanism ∙ England & Sengoku/Edo Japan
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tomaashby.bsky.social
After months of back-and-forth drafting, & over 10,000 words of dialogue, I am delighted that this discussion article co-authored with Quentin Skinner (@qmul.bsky.social) is now published @global-ih.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
global-ih.bsky.social
1/2 Out now! "Independence, Globality, and the Battle of Ideas: A Dialogue on Liberty" by Quentin Skinner (@qmul.bsky.social) & @tomaashby.bsky.social (@utokyoofficial.bsky.social), a wide-ranging, scholarly, & full-length discussion article - the first at GIH! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The painting "La liberté" (c.1793-1794) by Nanine Vallain
tomaashby.bsky.social
This is astonishing – the entire US economy is currently propped up by AI – 40% of US GDP growth this year is AI, and AI companies account for 80% of gains in US stocks in 2025. Will it pop?
Text that includes these figures
tomaashby.bsky.social
To be fair, I do not think that is his point – or mine – also, Russell made an exception to his pacifism in the context of the Nazis.
tomaashby.bsky.social
Bertrand Russell's message from 1959 to future generations
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
global-ih.bsky.social
@edjonesc.bsky.social (@uneduniv.bsky.social) offers a review article on the work of Javier Fernández Sebastián, past & recent, "The Bilbao School of Intellectual History: Origins and Futures of the Largest Global Network of Conceptual Historians (Iberconceptos)" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
A portrait photo of JFS The Iberconceptos logo from its website
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
tomaashby.bsky.social
After months of back-and-forth drafting, & over 10,000 words of dialogue, I am delighted that this discussion article co-authored with Quentin Skinner (@qmul.bsky.social) is now published @global-ih.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
global-ih.bsky.social
1/2 Out now! "Independence, Globality, and the Battle of Ideas: A Dialogue on Liberty" by Quentin Skinner (@qmul.bsky.social) & @tomaashby.bsky.social (@utokyoofficial.bsky.social), a wide-ranging, scholarly, & full-length discussion article - the first at GIH! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The painting "La liberté" (c.1793-1794) by Nanine Vallain
tomaashby.bsky.social
I was just inside a busy Tokyo station. I observed 30,000¥ or so on the ground. So did 100 people across a minute or so. No one stole it, or went to do so. Two people picked it up and walked it to the station office. I have lived here months, and the norms and trust still amaze.
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
giuseppegrieco.bsky.social
So happy that "The Legacy of the Enlightenment", which I co-edited with colleagues in Turin and the wonderful Fondazione 1563, is now available open access. Inside, also my chapter on the Neapolitan Enlightenment's theory of rights and the making of liberalism.
en.olschki.it/libro/978882...
The Legacy of the Enlightenment: Rights, Constitutions, Equality
Recent historiography often portrays the Enlightenment as the intellectual source of modern evils and projects contemporary biases on Enlightenment thinkers. Discussions on the legacy of the Enlighten...
en.olschki.it
tomaashby.bsky.social
I was kindly introduced to Kamakura and Yokohama by three exceptional Japanese colleagues – a day of walking and talking, cafes and kissaten, temples and shrines, dining and discussion. Reflections on history, in history, and the perils and possibilities of our unfolding future across the world.
A giant Buddha statue made of bronze Japanese food
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
mbarcia24.bsky.social
@yalebooks.bsky.social have outdone themselves with the cover of my new book. Out in January for anyone interested.
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
mihjournal.bsky.social
Now on FirstView: Republican revivals? Anton Jäger reflects on the history of republicanism in his review essay of Quentin Skinner’s Liberty as Independence and Bruno Leipold’s @brunoleipold.com Citizen Marx
Republican Revivals | Modern Intellectual History | Cambridge Core
Republican Revivals
bit.ly
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
beccapalmer99.bsky.social
A wonderful workshop where I too contributed, this time on metaphors of the body politic in economic debates in colonial Virginia. Really enjoyed listening to the contributions of Tom, Rachel and others!
tomaashby.bsky.social
Last week I spoke on athleticism in seventeenth-century English political thought at "Republican Bodies" @imems.bsky.social (albeit online). This was a stimulating coming together (programme below!) including @beccapalmer99.bsky.social and @rhammersley99.bsky.social. I look forward to its future!
Detail from a medieval illustration of physical training. Various figures train in various ways.
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
imems.bsky.social
We were delighted to support this fascinating, interdisciplinary workshop last week. We look forward to seeing what the future holds!
tomaashby.bsky.social
Last week I spoke on athleticism in seventeenth-century English political thought at "Republican Bodies" @imems.bsky.social (albeit online). This was a stimulating coming together (programme below!) including @beccapalmer99.bsky.social and @rhammersley99.bsky.social. I look forward to its future!
Detail from a medieval illustration of physical training. Various figures train in various ways.
tomaashby.bsky.social
Today on campus – writing on historiography
A stone archway with a wooden door A sports building with an East Asian style roof
tomaashby.bsky.social
Last week I spoke on athleticism in seventeenth-century English political thought at "Republican Bodies" @imems.bsky.social (albeit online). This was a stimulating coming together (programme below!) including @beccapalmer99.bsky.social and @rhammersley99.bsky.social. I look forward to its future!
Detail from a medieval illustration of physical training. Various figures train in various ways.
Reposted by Tom Ashbyトム ∙ アシュビー
ayeshaomardr.bsky.social
Excited to see this in print with Cambridge University Press. A fantastic new volume on Anticolonialism and Social thought (Ed’s): Julian Go and Anaheed Al-Hardan. My contribution includes an intellectual history of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan drawing from archival work and an oral history interview.
tomaashby.bsky.social
I keep returning to this by the late Helen De Cruz
helendecruz.net
In the Poetic Edda you've got Odin who knows Ragnarok is coming, who knows the gods and the world as we know it will be obliterated, but he just keeps on going and doing what he's doing anyway, and I feel this is the energy we need for the 2020s.
tomaashby.bsky.social
14/14 This was an educational baptism by fire into book editing. Many thanks to my co-editor, Christopher, and all our contributors for their work. I am also grateful to @laurelinm.bsky.social, Selçukhan Ünekbaş, @rosariolopez.bsky.social, Ann Thomson, among others, for their friendship and counsel.
tomaashby.bsky.social
13/14 The volume ends turning to early modern German lands with @thehistorywoman.bsky.social (@newcastleuni.bsky.social) tracing "The Reception of Algernon Sidney in the German Enlightenment", including editions of "Discourses" by Christian Daniel Erhard (pictured) and Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob.
A portrait image of Erhard The German edition of Sidney's Discourses: "Algernon Sidneys Betrachtungen über die Regierungsformen"
tomaashby.bsky.social
12/14 In the penultimate chapter, Christopher Hamel (@univrouen.bsky.social) looks at how Sidney and Locke informed the political thought of Richard Price, "'Locke and all the writers on civil liberty': Locke, Sidney et la pensée politique de Richard Price".
The title page of Price's "Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution" A painting of Richard Price
tomaashby.bsky.social
11/14 Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq (@uparisnanterre.bsky.social) looks more broadly, and comparatively, at the reception of Sidney and James Harrington in eighteenth-century France in: "Les œuvres politiques de Harrington et de Sidney et leur réception dans la France des Lumières et de la Révolution".
A print portrait of Sidney from his "Discours" (1702) Detail from the title page of the French edition of Harrington's "Aphorismes"
tomaashby.bsky.social
10/14 Following this, Jean Terrel (@ubmontaigne.bsky.social) undertakes an analysis of references in "L’Esprit des lois" (1748) by Montesquieu to Sidney's "Discourses" (1698), a text that was first translated into French in 1702.
Detail from the title page of the French edition of Sidney Portrait of Montesquieu
tomaashby.bsky.social
9/14 In her chapter "Experiencing Political Texts", @rhammersley99.bsky.social (@newcastleuni.bsky.social) addresses the role of genre in shaping the arguments of Sidney's works as well as the importance of taking materiality seriously and what this reveals about his editors and printers.
Detail from the title page of "Discourses"