Evan

Tottenham and Geelong losing in one day is giving me so much joy

The Radical Left and the Movement in Australia against the First Gulf War, 1990–91: Anti-Imperialism at the End of the Cold War Evan Smith The Gulf War in 1990–91 came at the end of the Cold War and at a time when the Left across the globe was reassessing itself as the Soviet Bloc collapsed. In this period of flux, the Australian Radical Left had also experienced a series of debates about its configuration, with several different attempts at unity, as well as reconsiderations about the relationship between the extra-parliamentary Left, the trade unions and the Australian Labor Party. After Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and several Western powers, led by the USA and Britain, sought to intervene, Bob Hawke’s Labor government supported the coalition against Iraq. A movement against Western intervention in the Gulf and Australia’s involvement in the coalition was built, including sections of the Labor Left, the trade unions, the peace movement, students and the organisations of the Far Left. Most looked back to the decade-long movement against the Vietnam War for the framework for the anti-war campaign, but the Left, in all its guises, had faded in influence since the 1970s. This article will look at how the movement against the First Gulf War developed between August 1990 and March 1991 and how it reflected a fractured and weakened Left in Australia in the dying days of the Cold War.

It is 35 years since the end of the First Gulf War in 1991. I wrote this article for Labour History in 2024 about the anti-war movement in Australia in 1990-91 and its relationship with the radical left.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

www.academia.edu/164969896/Th...

The Global Spread of Football from the 1860s to the 1880s Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access.

Matthew L. McDowell reviews "The Global Spread of Football from the 1860s to the 1880s" by Thomas Adam (Anthem Press, 2025)

@anthempress.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access.

Ryan Hall reviews 'Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States' by Emilie Connolly (Princeton University Press, 2025): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Happy birthday to Betty Boo. Here's a reminder of the time she rapped with Public Enemy in the McDonalds at Shepherd's Bush back in 1987 (look out for the unimpressed manager!)

Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000 Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access.

Felipe Souza Melo reviews 'Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000', edited by Carlos Marichal & David Pretel (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024): doi.org/10.1080/0308...

radical online collections and archives I am very interested in the growing amount of radical literature from around the world that is being scanned and digitised. As there are so many and from many different places, I thought it would b…

Interested in radical history?

Nearly 10,000 online and open access collections of historical documents relating to radical, labour and anti-colonial history are listed here.

Collections from around the world and in many languages!

#historians #archives

hatfulofhistory.com/radical-onli...

Lost Recipes | Defector In 1991, Spin magazine took the Compton rap collective N.W.A out to eat for a profile at the Russian Tea Room in Manhattan. The white author presents gangsta rap as a cynical enterprise, no different ...

I wrote about old rap magazines, the fight for the future of hip hop’s past, and the impact the digital age has had on history, for @defector.com
defector.com/lost-recipes

Fires and floods: records, archives management and destruction in Zimbabwe since the colonial period - Archival Science This article investigates the systemic vulnerabilities of Zimbabwe’s records and archives management systems through a historical analysis of archival destruction spanning the colonial era to the pres...

On the latter, see George Bishi's recent article on fire, floods and archives in Zimbabwe:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Facebook memory: I had a dream that I applied for a research fellowship at a university but you only found it if you were successful when you lined up at the front gate, like people seeing if they'd get let into a night club.

From my Facebook memories

Redskins - 'Levi Stubbs Tears' YouTube video by Redskins001

Redskins version of Levi Stubbs Tears. Heard this live a few times. 40 years ago now... They were never impressed with the beard btw
youtu.be/Sqf6fyZxevU

The perpetual historian’s problem

What athlete's expression will stay with you the rest of your life?

Lucas Neill at the 2006 World Cup

Some of it is too earnest or over the top, and susceptible to LinkedIn-ese, but overall it is broadly fine and useful!

I have to admit that LinkedIn is becoming a tolerable place to visit in recent times, particularly travelling in humanities and social science academic circles

Love a reference to V/Vm in the wild in 2026!

The research and the writing is the fun bit.

Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000 Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access by @jich.bsky.social

Felipe Souza Melo reviews 'Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000', edited by Carlos Marichal and David Pretel

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Got a new article out today in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's about the ways in which the music press constructed race in late 20c Britain. Open access so do share it around!

Thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk and @uniofreading.bsky.social for supporting the research.

doi.org/10.1017/jbr....

Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000 Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access by @jich.bsky.social

Felipe Souza Melo reviews 'Colours, Commodities and the Birth of Globalization: A History of the Natural Dyes of the Americas, 1500-2000', edited by Carlos Marichal and David Pretel

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Extending this out to historical studies in other countries, particularly UK, Canada and New Zealand. Any which use submissions to inquiries as their primary source base

Extending this out to historical studies in other countries, particularly UK, Canada and New Zealand. Any which use submissions to inquiries as their primary source base

Discreetly looking up the right meaning of the word to make sure my definition is discrete.

Always need to look up which version of ‘discrete’ or ‘discreet’ is the right one to use. It’s almost always the former.

It’s some band they call ‘The Smiths’. The Queen is dead, T. And it’s so freaking lonely on a limb…

Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access by @jich.bsky.social

Ryan Hall reviews 'Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States' by Emilie Connolly

@princetonupress.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New book review published advance access by @jich.bsky.social

Ryan Hall reviews 'Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States' by Emilie Connolly

@princetonupress.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mainly songs from Different Class, three from His n Hers, one from This is Hardcore (from memory)