Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー

@tomaashby

Historian 思想史家 ∙ JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow @utokyoofficial.bsky.social nominated @britishacademy.bsky.social ∙ Reviews Editor @global-ih.bsky.social ∙ Co-org @gpolthought.bsky.social ∙ early modern (English) republicanism ∙ England and Sengoku/Edo Japan

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Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir tomaashby.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 10h

Abstract!

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 13h

A long return

The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford with a blurred library card held up

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 13h

Proofs – The first of my articles on J.G.A. Pocock. This one is 30 pages and forthcoming open access in the "Australian Journal of Biography and History". It introduces and analyses systemically unknown or unpublished material (and WWII Pocock). Lots of historiography. More soon!

The first page of proofs entitled "Before the godwit and the owl: John Pocock's kiwi history"

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 12d

Last weekend I had a great time at the 20th Conference of the Japanese Society for Locke Studies at Chuo University. Fantastic talks by Kiyoshi Shimokawa on resistance, Shigeyuki Aoki on translations, and Jessica Gordon-Roth (keynote) on misreading Berkeley. Discussion resumed at the izakaya!

The cover of a prominent Japanese translation of Locke

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 16d

Writing in Nara, between temples and deer

A deer beside a pond backgrounded by a great temple

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 19d

Darkness falls upon a summer afternoon

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 19d

A return to writing, a summer storm

A photo of lightening visible over Asakusa in Tokyo

A laptop on a table overlooking the view of the city

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· 20d

Professorship! The European University Institute (my PhD alma mater) in Florence, Italy, is seeking a new Chair in Intellectual History, 1500–Present. Deadline: 10 September www.eui.eu/Documents/Se...

An cloistered courtyard with a tree centre and a tower to the right

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jul 6

This afternoon I gave a talk on Ming/Qing China within English republicanism @tobunken.bsky.social as part of a workshop on sources and methods. It was great to hear about various new projects and historiographical innovations – and to meet so many people. Appreciate the invite!

My title slide "Ming-Qing China and the English Republic"

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 28

1/2 On Thursday, 2 July, 17:00-18:30 (JST) we at PoETS @utokyoofficial.bsky.social will host a talk by Nana Someya (Keio University, Graduate School of Law) on "What is Sovereignty? Meiji Japan's Engagement with J.C. Bluntschli's Theory of the State (Staatswissenschaft)" - in person and online!

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 22

I am delighted that an issue I edited on @chloeireton.bsky.social's "Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic" is now online at GIH. Reading this pioneering work and editing these thoughtful papers was valuable, revelatory, and provoking www.tandfonline.com/journals/rgi...

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 21

I just returned from a phenomenal week in Shanghai – I saw and did so much, spoke to many, and learned an inestimable amount. Our conference @gpolthought.bsky.social was also a great success! I am grateful for all the comments, conversations, and the immense generosity of my hosts.

Historic buildings in Shanghai lit up at night

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 9

La meditazione, or melancholia

A painting of a pensive seventeen-century European woman at a desk with books, a skull, and a dog

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 5

1/2 On 11 June, @benwlm.bsky.social (Harvard University) will give a talk for us at PoETS, UTokyo, "On the Foundations of Modern Territory", introducing his forthcoming book; see abstract attached. This month we convene fully online, 09:30-11:00 JST. If you would like to join us, you are welcome.

On the Foundations of Modern Territory

Benjamin Mueser (Harvard University)

This talk is on my forthcoming book, The Foundations of Modern Territory: Building Statehood in the Early Modern Law of Nations (OUP, 2027). The talk discusses the larger themes and arguments of the book, pointing to its interventions in the history of modern political thought. How did we come into possession of the notion that the earth was necessarily divided into discrete coherent territories, each of which was the theater of a people’s self-determination? The book takes account of the intellectual foundations of this fundamental shift in the early modern law of nations literature, drawing attention to importance of territory in the architecture of modern political thought. The territory of the state constitutes the basis for the distinction between the inside and outside of the state, the domestic and the international, the citizen and the foreigner, and the limits of raison d’état. Despite its centrality, debates in political theory on territorial rights have reached an impasse, in which it is unclear how to address the territorial wrongs of settler colonialism without defaulting to nationalist assumptions of territorial rights. This book seeks to move past this impasse by re-examining the debates and stakes of territory in the period in which territorial statehood first emerged.

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Jun 3

The latest by @sylvana-tomaselli.bsky.social - at a minimum do read this elegant and introspective prefatory paragraph (and let it hook you)

The first paragraph and the first lines of the second paragraph

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 30

My lecture at Keio went well (pic, the fit). Last weekend I also had a great time at the annual Japanese Conference for the Study of Political Thought (JCSPT; 政治思想学会) at Seikei University in Kichijōji, Tokyo. Many talks (Japanese; practice!), many meetings, much learnt!

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 29

Matsumoto today – this is one of the oldest castles in Japan, with the wooden keep dating from the mid-1590s

A photo of a historic Japanese castle on a sunny day foregrounded by water

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 19

On the 21st I will visit Keio Faculty of Law where I have been invited to give a one-hour lecture (my longest yet), "On the Life and Death of Republics: The Political Thought of Algernon Sidney and Some Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the United States". I look forward to it!

A photo of a portrait painting of a younger Sidney (1659)

Detail from Trumbull's painting of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 12

Il Giardino delle Rose a Firenze – four years ago! Taken during a meeting with my advisor, we often met at Piazza di Santa Croce and walked and talked our way up to the Giardino for advisory meetings

A photo of historic Florence, Duomo centre, from the rose garden, roses in foreground

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 9

Algernon Sidney referencing Qing China in a manuscript uncovered from the sands of time. It is quite something to be the first person, in all likelihood, to seriously read this writing in over three centuries (I have already composed a full translation, too, into Sidneian English.)

Detail of the text with the word "Chine" visible; it is written in French

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 6

Tomorrow at PoETS @utokyoofficial.bsky.social we hear Rachael Chan 陳淑慧 (University of Oxford) deliver a talk on inter-imperial polyphony and ideas of the "South" in East Asia and Europe from the 1800s. Email us via the contact details here for the online link: politicaleconomyseminar.wordpress.com

An historic map of East and South East Asia

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· May 6

This academic year (April to March), myself and Shoya Fugetsu are co-convening the Political Economy Tokyo Seminar (PoETS) @utokyoofficial.bsky.social. In our inaugural seminar, @juhahaavisto.bsky.social (@utu.fi) spoke on Sir William Temple (1628-1699) on commerce, nature, and political economy.

An image of a painting of William Temple

The cover of "Economics, Politics and Prosperity in Restoration England: An Intellectual History of the Works of Sir William Temple" by Haavisto

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 30

Forthcoming by Jamie Gianoutsos: "In Rome's Long Shadow: How The Classical Tradition Shaped the Modern World" - a book on liberty, virtue, and corruption, the rise and fall of republics, and the republican tradition, its legacies, and continued value. See more here: www.ucpress.edu/books/in-rom...

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 25

Day and night

A large wisteria tree in daytime, it is flowering

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 25

Yesterday I submitted an article, today I visited Ashikaga's great wisteria trees, circa 160 years old

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 22

A view of Fuji and a lake from within the pink blossoming branches of a tree

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 21

Solo retreat – two days thinking, reading, and writing about the history of liberty and more beside a sea of nemophila flowers

A photo of Mount Fuji foregrounded by flowers and backgrounded by a blue sky

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 17

Nagoya-jō this afternoon. I also visited Atsuta-jinja––home to the legendary sword, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi—where this camphor tree is a millennium old.

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 16

Now online and open access! An autobiographical essay by John Dunn (Cambridge) entitled "The History of Political Thought as Window on the World" @global-ih.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

An image of the first page of Dunn's article available via the link

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー@tomaashby· Apr 9

I attended the 152nd Miyako Odori in Kyoto, a spring dance with the city's sakura trees in full, sun-luminous bloom – it was incredible

Tom Ashbyトム アシュビー

Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー