Priya Satia @PriyaSatia Twitter profile

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Priya Satia

8 months

1/3 Empire apologists often argue that the British empire was no different from earlier empires. In @scroll_in , I explain what set modern European empire apart from the Mughals, Ottomans, Romans, etc, drawing on brilliant recent work by Nora Barakat, Gili

Priya Satia: How modern empire broke the empire mould

No previous imperial formation reshaped the world in such a way that has distorted our relations to the earth and one and another.

scroll.in

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

Thread 1/n: My kids and I were horrified at our recent visit to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History @AMNH . It was mindboggling, after the carefully curated exhibitions at the New-York Historical Society down the street. Is this a museum or a time-capsule? Why are

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

5 months

Canceled @nytimes subscription. After decades of shoddy reporting enabling the War on Terror. They now run frontpage genocide-enabling fake news by racist anti-journalists—the equivalent of Uncle WhatsApp forwards at this point. Dishonor to the entire enterprise of journalism.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

This is going to be good--out January 2022:

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

8 months

Universities have not suddenly become politicized, whatever wokephobics claim. Universities have never been neutral. Knowledge has never been neutral. Anyone who claims they once were or ever can be is speaking from ignorance, stupidity, dishonesty, or some mix of these. 1/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

5/n “the need to update” them. No indication of when this will happen; meanwhile, the gallery is a museum of a 1980 museum. The curator was (& evidently still is) an archaeologist who worked for Gen. MacArthur in Japan. No one, since 1980, thought his curation should be updated?

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

20/20 fact, such singular reconsideration of just one scene creates the impression that the rest are somehow tolerable & fine. What are they waiting for? Tickets for entry are expensive. They are raking it in, undeservedly, while neglecting the primary task of museums: curation.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

6/n Even the wall note explaining the inaccuracy of anthropologists’ assumptions of the simplicity of Asia’s “primitive cultures” doesn’t question that they are “primitive cultures." The note adorns a room showcasing, as though forever frozen in time, such “primitive” cultures.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

2/n thousands of people visiting as if it’s a serious place? This thread is to raise awareness of this embarrassing museum in one of the most important US cities, urge visitors to avoid this tourist trap, & insist that the museum make outrageously overdue curatorial updates.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

4/n Not sure that’s true, but yes there was a lot of orientalist and racist packaging of information, and there’s now more pushback in the US against racist depictions of Asians. The placard explains that the displays “reflect the thinking of different times,” and AMHS recognizes

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

3/n The placard at the entry to the Hall of Asian Peoples explains that the exhibit debuted in 1980. That there’s going to be something weird ahead is clear by the vague assurance that “most Americans had more limited access to information on Asian cultures than they do today."

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

My essay for @Slate on why the balance-sheet approach is not helpful for understanding the history of European imperialism (despite what the British government says). Hope teachers will find this a useful resource. Thanks @rebeccaonion for excellent edits.

One Tool of “Critical Thinking” That’s Done More Harm Than Good

You can’t write up “pros” and “cons” for imperial rule.

slate.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Gobsmacked to be quoted by the Pres. of Ireland @PresidentIRL . The whole 25 min address (see text link) is a stunning affirmation of the anticolonial work of humanists & historians--as the UK govt shallowly & harmfully dismisses calls to reckon with the past. Bless the Irish!❤️

President of Ireland

@PresidentIRL

3 years

Quote from the President’s speech at the second #Machnamh100 seminar. Watch the President’s address here: , or read the text via

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

14/n “Islamic civilization arose primarily out of Arab respect for Greek and Roman accomplishments.”

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

8/n The Hall of Asian Peoples weirdly echoes the Hall of Asian Mammals (opened in 1930, thanks to British colonial hunter/collector types).

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Power & Publishing, a THREAD 1/n: Warm thanks to those who have helped share this essay. Its appearance marks the end of a 4.5 month struggle, which I share here, though perhaps risky—but we’re at a point where this is what needs to be said (conscious of

Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present | Los Angeles Review of Books

Priya Satia on how the fascism analogy may help reveal what fascism always owed to Americanness and to empire.

lareviewofbooks.org

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

Like many historians of Britain, I have been inundated with media requests the last few days. Instead of trying to field them all, grateful for the opportunity to convey my views in @TIME & help explain how/why the monarchy came to have such meaning:

The British Monarchy Helped Mortgage Our Collective Future

Queen Elizabeth II's death should bring about a reckoning in understanding how the British Empire helped destroy the planet

time.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Many remembered British India's partition in 1947 last weekend without realizing how it was shaping the events just then unfolding in Afghanistan. I explain the connection in this essay @ForeignPolicy :

Why We Need to Reckon With Afghanistan's Colonial Past

From Kabul to Kolkata, South Asian heirs of partition can draw inspiration from their history to chart a sustainable future.

foreignpolicy.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

13/n The entry to this side of the gallery could be the cover of Said’s Orientalism: “The Lure of Asia,” accompanied by twangy exotic-erotic music (always in minor keys in such settings).

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

16/n This must be pretty recent, going by the QR codes. Is it possible that no one in the 2000s or the 2010s ever thought to update this gallery? Is this placeholder promising rethinking now a permanent part of the gallery? What’s stopping them from removing these horrors?

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

15/n Finally, deep within the gallery, you stumble on this wall questioning the horrible mannequins. It acknowledges that “most museums” don’t follow this insulting practice because it “freeze[s] cultures in time.” “We” too are “rethinking” mannequins, it affirms.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

11/n A depiction of the “Indian Cycle of Life” suggests India is an exclusively Hindu society, with a single, heteronormative vision of life.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

12/n Does this diorama of Arab culture need commentary? Can you hear the score from the David Lean movie in the background? Look at his eyes.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

17/n The Hall of African Peoples, founded in 1968, curated by another British colonial type. Another disclaimer about a need to update.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

9/n Anyway, back to the Hall of Asian Peoples: Another room showcases a timeless “Indian village” marriage diorama (of course, emphasizing caste)...

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

Fellow academics, can we please go back to just saying “how” instead of “the ways in which,” at least sometimes?

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

Paperback! The North America paperback edition of Time’s Monster is out! It looks beautiful—thank you @Harvard_Press @_sen_sharmila

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Essential new book by Ian Sanjay Patel. Have you been taught that Britain’s minorities were immigrants in the era of decolonization? Patel shows that neither “immigration” nor “decolonization” captures what was going on & recounts the history of racist gatekeeping of the planet

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

My essay in @aeonmag on how Indian ties and anticolonial concerns shaped E.P. Thompson's commitments to "history from below" and his focus on England – with thanks to @samhaselby for wise editorial insight

What shaped E P Thompson, historian and champion of working people? | Aeon Essays

What shaped the thought of E P Thompson, the great historian of ordinary working people and champion of their significance?

aeon.co

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

19/n violence of colonialism. The museum acknowledges the “ongoing impact of colonialism” & “urgent need to reconceive how diverse peoples and cultures are represented in the Museum.” But this one reconsidered scene is not enough; the process needs to be much wider & faster. In

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

10/n...a camel gun symbolizing “The Pathans,” and other orientalist tropes.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

18/n The slow correction is especially weird, given that there’s a whole display in the main Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall “reconsidering” a 1939 diorama depicting a 1660 encounter between Dutch & Lenape leaders because of its “stereotypical representations” & ignorance of the

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

8 months

My essay in the Journal of Social History's forum on the 20th anniv of Walter Johnson's classic essay "On Agency." I write about the original stakes of the turn to agency, its ties to postwar struggles to remake the academy, selfhood, & popular politics.

The Forgotten Dreams of History-from-Below

Abstract. In his 2003 essay, “On Agency,” Walter Johnson faulted the way scholars’ focus on agency presumed a “unidirectional trade between past and presen

academic.oup.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

5 years

Excited to share that my new book "Time's Monster: History, Conscience, and Empire" will be out 2020 (Harvard UP; Penguin UK). The role of historians & the historical discipline in the British imperial past, & reflection on what role historians might have in public debate today.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

“British control...led to relatively honest and efficient government that...operated to the benefit of the average Indian.” My 9th grader’s totally racist history lesson this week, followed by a class debate on...guess what...the pros and cons of empire. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

1/n Unfortunately, the academy (& twitter) often reward scholars who sacrifice integrity & moral responsibility for the sake of attention-grabbing "edgy" arguments. The need to be at the center of discussion drives such people, who may start out as brilliant, generous, and

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

My response & @MalcolmBFoley ‘s in AHA Perspectives to James Sweet’s column on “presentism.” I drafted this right after the column appeared, but it’s just gone live today. Hope it’s helpful to the conversation 🙏

American Historical Review - AHA

Current Issue June 2024 Vol 129 | Issue 2 Check out the AHR's June issue, with articles that rethink approaches to global, environmental, and intellectual history, History Lab pieces that focus on...

www.historians.org

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

This is about my son

Monica Campbell

@monica_campbell

3 years

Kabir was 3 when airport officials took him aside, patted him down, searched his Spiderman backpack. His family is still unsure why. Perhaps it was his name, its Arabic root. He now has a redress number from DHS. This is also a legacy of 9/11. @TheWorld

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

5 months

1/n The criticisms of this essay have been helpful—especially of its lack of engagement with Palestinian thinkers apart from Said. But I think the essay remains important for the light it sheds on 1) the long history of Jewish, and especially Shoah survivor, horror at Israeli

Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

5 months

Excellent: Pankaj Mishra on how we got here & all that is at stake: “Only those jolted into consciousness by the calamity of Gaza can rescue the Shoah from Netanyahu, Biden, Scholz & Sunak and…can be trusted to restore…the equilibrium of world morality.”

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

Great work of history: Bhattacharya’s The Great Agrarian Conquest (2020) —essential for anyone trying to understand Punjab, but with profound insights into agrarian/colonial/environmental history and history of science that apply well beyond Punjab

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

My essay in the @LAReviewofBooks explaining how Sam Moyn's well-meaning book, Humane, misunderstands both Tolstoy and how drones thwart antiwar sentiment: It's not that they make war humane, but that they make it invisible:

Not Humane, Just Invisible: A Counternarrative to Samuel Moyn’s “Humane” | Los Angeles Review of...

Priya Satia reviews Samuel Moyn’s latest book, “Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War.”

lareviewofbooks.org

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

1/4: This book is a masterpiece, but that’s beside its point, which is to generously help us change how we act & think by showing us the irrepressible human capacity to regenerate modes of cooperation with one another & the world we inhabit. It is at once teeming with life &

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Today (Oct. 20) is the official publication day for TIME'S MONSTER! US edition (Belknap @Harvard_Press ) available in North America UK edition ( @PenguinUKBooks Allen Lane) (pictured) everywhere else--& available at ₹ rates in India THANK YOU to all who made this possible🙏

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

This documentary on the Partition of 1947 that created the states of India and Pakistan airs *today* in the UK at 9 pm (first of 2 parts). I did an interview for it along with an array of amazing scholars. Haven't seen it but excited to see how it's turned out...

Channel 4 Press

@C4Press

2 years

Ahead of the 75th anniversary of Partition, this Sunday at 9pm @Channel4 airs India 1947: Partition in Colour which looks at one of the 20th century’s greatest catastrophes. It tells the story of the personal rivalries between the key players at the centre of partition.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Really happy to see this essay out at long last. UK friends, please help me get this to British audiences🙏! "Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present" via @lareviewofbooks

Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present | Los Angeles Review of Books

Priya Satia on how the fascism analogy may help reveal what fascism always owed to Americanness and to empire.

lareviewofbooks.org

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

My essay in @ForeignPolicy on the problem with framing climate activism as sacrifice for future generations (rather than a chance to stop sacrificing)—via the story of John Rae, the Scottish/Canadian economist who gave us the idea of time-discounting.

The Way We Talk About Climate Change Is Wrong

The language of “sacrifice” reveals we’re stuck in a colonial mindset.

foreignpolicy.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

My comment on @davidfrum 's poor reading of Time's Monster in this unhelpful essay. My book does not describe a "trend" of rejecting "ideals of detachment in favor of a passionate new engagement." Rather it traces a LONG history of damaging political engagement by historians 1/n

Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

@daniel_dsj2110 It is irritating (& poor reading) that he quotes Time's Monster on historians' roles in reparations debates as if such engagement is new, when (per the quote's first half), the book is ABOUT how earlier historians, often claiming "detachment," served repressive political agendas

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

White male colleagues who will lift a quote you cite in your article/book but won't cite your article/book itself as that would imply an intellectual debt [to a woman of color]. Laugh or cry...

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

7 months

Those disputing that it’s genocide, are you saying you’re fine with mass innocent death so long as it isn’t genocide? All manner of destruction & violence is morally tolerable short of genocide? The bar for questioning violence is genocide? You’ll go along with anything else?

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Oh the sweet relief and wonder of seeing you as a thing in the world! You are beautiful (thank you ⁦ @_sen_sharmila ⁩ ⁦ @birdmaddgirl ⁩ ⁦ @Harvard_Press ⁩ !). Now go out there and see if you can do a bit of good.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

My essay in @ForeignPolicy on the democratic practices lost as "democracy" came to be defined narrowly in terms of elections (in the UK, US, South Asia, & beyond). Shoutouts to @James11Vernon @priyaatwal @rgay & more. Thanks @Hadavas for brilliant edits

Democracy Isn’t Just About Voting

Precolonial kingdoms challenge our beliefs about people power and monarchies.

foreignpolicy.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Cover & title for the UK & South Asia edition of my forthcoming book, TIME'S MONSTER--on the history of empire & the public role of historians, out in October with Penguin (Allen Lane) @lecyberflaneur

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Some historical perspective on this moment in the Democratic Party that I put together for TIME in time for Kamala Harris's speech tonight: We can't tell Kamala Harris' story without the British empire—but we can't tell America's without it either

We Can’t Tell Kamala Harris’ Story Without the British Empire. We Can’t Tell America’s Without It...

Kamala Harris can be seen not just as a quintessentially American politician but also as part of a global history

time.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

1/n Why historians should acknowledge when they have changed their views: In an empirical discipline, thinking evolves as new knowledge comes to light. It's only a good thing when scholars update their thinking. However, it is more than simply a lapse in personal integrity when

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

What does conflict over the Rhodes statue in the UK have to do with Israel’s violence against Gaza? I explain in this essay in @AJEnglish

The myths of British imperial benevolence and Palestine

Israel’s violence in Gaza is not merely self-defence but part of a longer story of settler colonialism.

www.aljazeera.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

WHEN TO SPEAK, 1/6: Is there a way to politely explain to brilliant, brave, well-meaning white scholars of South Asia that though you are 100% right abt the dangers of Hindutva & the hateful threats you endure, it might nevertheless be better *for the anti-Hindutva cause* if you

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

5 years

So happy to share that "Empire of Guns" has won the American Historical Association's 2019 Jerry Bentley Prize for best book in world history! @AHAhistorians @Stanford @HumanAtStanford Very many thanks to @StanfordHistory @NEHgov @ACLS1919 @penguinpress .

American Historical Association

@AHAhistorians

5 years

The AHA is pleased to announce the winners of our 2019 publication and professional prizes:

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

The horror, the horror The @nytimes is irredeemable

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 months

On the 60th anniversary of Nehru’s death, my essay on his legacies and limits in @thewire_in : Nehru’s Other Indias

Nehru’s Other Indias

Had Nehru’s commitments to federalism, internationalism, socialism, and secularism been purely principled rather than partly tactical, had they offered a vision of what it meant to be free or to be...

m.thewire.in

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Out Fall 2020! With ⁦ @Harvard_Press ⁩ in the US, thanks to ⁦ @_sen_sharmila ⁩

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

1/n I am 50 today. I owe the life I've had to Dr. Aldo Castaneda, the father of pediatric cardiac surgery, who happened to land at Boston Children's Hospital in 1972, the same year my parents moved to Boston. In 1974 I was Dr. Castaneda's 99th patient. I'm in awe as a human being

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

The complaint in the Harvard case is deeply upsetting. Solidarity with all young scholars affected; I cannot imagine what these 3 bright young women have suffered & am in awe of their bravery. I was not surprised at some of the 38 who signed. Many have now retracted their 1/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

1/3 Fascinating to learn that Cort not only relied on govt military contracts to develop the process that revolutionized British iron production (as I describe in Empire of Guns) but also, through military contacts, *copied* the process from black Jamaican

Industrial Revolution iron method ‘was taken from Jamaica by Briton’

Wrought iron process that drove UK success was appropriated from black metallurgists, records suggest

www.theguardian.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 months

Amitav Ghosh’s new book is excellent. Lyrical prose, with characteristic flashes of revelatory analysis, masterful weaving of times and places on a grand scale with the striking and intimate details on a human scale. The historical and social bonds forged by opium and empire…

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

29 days

1/4 I finally read Faruqi Sahab’s masterpiece, Kai Chand The Sar e Aasmaan (English title: “The Mirror of Beauty”). It took me a few months, but I encourage anyone descended in any way from this world to read it. The story casts a spell, resurrecting a world of lost worlds. It

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

"The Distraction of Clio": A personal essay on how I became a historian. Honored to write this for @HDiplo -- and a little nervous :-) Hope it's helpful to someone out there!

H-Diplo Essay 352- Priya Satia on Learning the Scholar’s Craft

Agency is what we seek to understand as historians: the demiurge of that disciplinary holy grail, causality. Who or what stirs the cauldron of change? When and how? When we reflect on our own lives…

issforum.org

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@PriyaSatia

2 years

Jane Smiley in today’s NYT Book Review 😳. Every desi just died a little

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@PriyaSatia

3 years

What do you say when one of your literary heroes writes about...your own work?!? Honored by and grateful for this wonderful essay 🙏

Amitav Ghosh

@GhoshAmitav

3 years

My thoughts on @PriyaSatia 's important and urgently relevant new book 'Time's Monster: How History Makes History'.

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Priya Satia

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1 year

My essay in @ForeignPolicy on how a narrow focus on voting blinds us to "other, more robust forms of democratic expression practiced even in some monarchies in the past." Touching on the history of UK, US, Jamaica, Iran, Iraq, Punjab, Kashmir, & beyond.

Democracy Isn’t Just About Voting

Precolonial kingdoms challenge our beliefs about people power and monarchies.

foreignpolicy.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

Please read this clear & cogent essay by my brilliant former student @RaviHVJ on the urgent need to invest in research on treating Long Covid. Please, let's not let this life-destroying illness take over his & so many others' lives. Govts must invest:

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

“There is no shortage…of people who confuse traveling with having a personality.”— @Sathnam Haa! Perfect👌👌👌 The untold damage the planet-as-hobby mindset continues to cause…

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Priya Satia

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3 years

Protestors shut down the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems factory in Leicester (key site of drone production in the UK). They plan to stay on the roof indefinitely. Firefighters refused to help the police remove the protestors.

Pro-Palestinian drone factory protest enters second day

A number of demonstrations have also been held outside the factory supporting the group's actions.

www.bbc.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

Dream come true: paperback of Time’s Monster, with the iconic orange spine and little penguin. With warm thanks to my wonderful editor ⁦⁦⁦ @lecyberflaneur ⁩ and the whole team at Penguin Allen Lane. Out April 28! Pre-order at:

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@PriyaSatia

4 years

Stunningly incisive review of Judith Butler's new book on nonviolence by Faisal Devji

The Virtue in Violence | Los Angeles Review of Books

What to make of "The Force of Nonviolence"? Faisal Devji reviews Judith Butler's latest book.

lareviewofbooks.org

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

Such a deeply thoughtful & humane work. I loved the company of Dr. Atwal’s analytical & narrative voice so much that I was sad the book ended! Gripping; beautifully & movingly written. Thank you @priyaatwal 🙏Must read for historians of Punjab & British colonialism in South Asia.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

8 months

3/3 This is a companion piece to my earlier essay on the problem with the "balance-sheet" approach to empire. Hope teachers will find these useful resources.

One Tool of “Critical Thinking” That’s Done More Harm Than Good

You can’t write up “pros” and “cons” for imperial rule.

slate.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

write about, my (lack of) “networking” skills. But, it is *also* a function of the fact that my networks simply can’t be as strong as those of the white boys’ clubs of the Right & Left, which allow even those with recent PhDs to publish essays in the NYT print edition. 13/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

@daniel_dsj2110 Thanks Danny. When he asked for an interview, I advised that he let this unnecessary controversy go &, if he really wanted to illuminate the struggles of historians, focus on the laws some states are passing that are making it hard for us to educate coming generations. Oh well.

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

It was a pleasure and honor to consult on this groundbreaking series @msmarvel , made with love and sensitivity by an amazing team. Releasing tomorrow (Wed. June 8) on @disneyplus --a huge milestone for South Asian & Muslim representation. Watch with your kids!

sana amanat

@MiniB622

2 years

To my brown & Muslim community: Didn’t think we would get here, did we? For over two years we have worked tirelessly for YOU. This is our moment. So stand up & stand tall and stand WITH us cuz we need to be together. TOMORROW @msmarvel is here on @disneyplus . Then Ima take a nap

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

to which race & gender shape what gets said: What I earlier might have put down to a difference in rank or credentials, I can now more certainly diagnose as rooted in those power dynamics. Yes, the struggle to place essays may say something about me, how I write, what I 12/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

For Hindustan, wherever it may be, on #SahirLudhianvi ‘s centenary, March 8, 2021 #SahirCentenary , in solidarity with the #FarmersProtest

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Gatekeeping networks of patronage also shape media book review assignments. My book TIME'S MONSTER, which criticizes British nostalgia of empire, has repeatedly been given for review to South Asian men known to be center-right. Why? The LRB did commission a review from a 14/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

My essay in @TIME today on the problem with counting on the judgment of history

We All Think History Will Be on Our Side. Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Rely on That Assumption

The hope for historical vindication is loud now but not new

time.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Been trying all week to find a publisher for a short essay on how celebration of the British empire is connected to last week's violence in Gaza. Still trying...

Kim A. Wagner

@KimAtiWagner

3 years

If anyone is interested in trying to understand the politics behind the current celebration of the British Empire, I wrote a review of @PriyaSatia 's book, which explains why this is not simply 'nostalgia' but rather a continuation of an imperialist worldview 1/

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

1 year

My 11th grader's choices for her final project on The Great Gatsby are: a group project, art, or a performance. Great!, but then don't be surprised when these kids graduate high school without confidence in their writing & turn to ChatGTP. In the weeks since this thing has 1/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

I truly enjoyed this (pre-recorded) conversation on colonialism & South Asian history with the wonderful @sepoy and Sunil Amrith for the @JaipurLitFest . Airs Monday, Feb. 22 at 1:30 pm IST/ 12 am PST/ 3 am EST/ 8 am UK. Watch/register here: .

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Seems a good time to reshare this essay touching on the legitimating role of the Rome analogy in British imperialism:

Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present | Los Angeles Review of Books

Priya Satia on how the fascism analogy may help reveal what fascism always owed to Americanness and to empire.

lareviewofbooks.org

Dan Hicks

@profdanhicks

3 years

WTAF “When the Roman Empire fell, it was largely as a result of uncontrolled immigration. The empire could no longer control its borders, people came in…and Europe went into a dark ages that lasted a very long time. The point is that it can happen again”

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

struggle to publish this essay drove home the importance of a thriving media environment. As much as I prioritized getting it out in the UK, I found fewer options there. Perhaps it's time for a new British politics & lit magazine? #Birmingham Review of Books? 25/25

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

In the wake of last week's news of Churchill College's disbanding of the working group on "Churchill, Race, and Empire," happy to share this piece I wrote for @NoemaMag on Churchill's central place in efforts to defend Britain's imperial past.

A Man Of His Time, And Ours | NOEMA

Winston Churchill’s views were typical of his place as a member of Britain’s ruling upper class, which, then and now, views dominance as a birthright.

www.noemamag.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

BRIDGERTON #2 , 1/n: Haven't felt the need to comment as I've been learning from those with greater expertise on media/literary representation, & because historical fiction doesn’t have to be historically accurate. BUT, a few conversations w/ journalists

Sunny Singh

@ProfSunnySingh

2 years

Unpopular opinion: just saw the #Bridgerton trailer and sorry but casting people of colour to play stereotypical roles created for white people is NOT representation. It *may* work in some cases and when handled carefully but doesn’t for most part Short 🧵

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 months

Today is May 4th, the anniversary of the massacre of students at Kent State. Important, and chilling, to remember these young lives cut short, as our students face militarized policing of their brave voices today.

Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

MEMORIALIZATION, Thread, 1/n: I had the opportunity to visit the extremely moving May 4th site at Kent State University, thanks to @OldBlueatKSU . Where the National Guard opened fire on an antiwar protest on May 4, 1970. A group of lightposts marks where each of the four young

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

an elite institution for 18 years. I have an endowed chair. I have an agent & 12 years of experience doing public writing. About as powerful & secure a position a scholar can have. And the better my seat at the publishing table has become, the more clearly I see the extent 11/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

Grateful to @dirkmoses for the opportunity to put the British govt's attack on scholarly history in historical perspective, in the amazing company of this @JournalGenocide special issue on "patriotic history." Pls DM me if you have trouble accessing.

Britain’s Culture War: Disguising Imperial Politics as Historical Debate about Empire

Published in Journal of Genocide Research (Vol. 24, No. 2, 2022)

www.tandfonline.com

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

3 years

vocal anticolonial historian, Kim Wagner, but then refused to print his rave review (fortunately available on Medium & (also for those curious to assess the merit of that rejection)). My impression from recent months is that the very few pieces by 15/n

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

@daniel_dsj2110 It is irritating (& poor reading) that he quotes Time's Monster on historians' roles in reparations debates as if such engagement is new, when (per the quote's first half), the book is ABOUT how earlier historians, often claiming "detachment," served repressive political agendas

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

2 years

This is such an important book. It’s our collective story—the historical forces (and foods) that have led to our current planetary crisis. But for students of British, imperial, economic, environmental, health, and food history, especially, a must read:

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 years

Some liberals who hysterically liken Trumpism to European fascism may indeed be blind to the longer reactionary political trajectories that led to Trump, as the "it's not fascism" intellectuals worry. But those intellectuals miss fascism's own historical roots in colonialism 1/4

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

4 months

Please join our British Studies event on May 16 @StanfordHistory : A talk by Philip Stern on his new book, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism, 4:30 pm, online & in person. Open to the public!

Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that Built British Colonialism | Department of History

Philip Stern (Duke University) will give a talk titled Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that Built British Colonialism.

history.stanford.edu

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Priya Satia

@PriyaSatia

8 months

“Columbia Suspended Pro-Palestine Student Groups. The Faculty Revolted. Like other universities, the school has cracked down on activism among students, citing fears of antisemitism. Some professors think it’s gone too far.”

Columbia Suspended Pro-Palestine Student Groups. The Faculty Revolted

Like other universities, the school has cracked down on activism among students, citing fears of antisemitism. Some professors think it’s gone too far.

www.newyorker.com

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