First, a reminder that my wife & I will soon (imminently, in fact!) be launching our own website, which will host these threads, our public scholarship, & more, including opportunities for y’all for sure. Watch this space!

Starting with some favorites from the week as ever, including Jody DiPerna for As the Crow Flies on the wonderful tradition of the cookie table & baking as mutual aid:

https://as-the-crow-flies.pubpub.org/pub/diperna-cookie-table/release/1

Pablo Leon contributed a wonderful guest post for the School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox on how YA lit can help break through historical silences:

https://teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2025/09/18/breaking-through-the-historical-walls-of-silence-a-guest-post-by-pablo-leon/

Vital New Yorker essay from Beth Lew-Williams on the too-often frustrating ritual of civic apologies for anti-Chinese exclusion:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-ritual-of-civic-apology

Thanks to Kidada E. Williams for sharing Dan Freedman’s excellent Moment magazine article on the Black Press’s solidarity with Jews against the Nazis:

https://momentmag.com/black-press-stood-by-jews-against-the-nazis/

& check out this excellent report for the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site on Black history at the estate (created by Caitlin DeAngelis & colleagues):

https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/746169

Lots more great public scholarly writing this week, including Patrick Walsh for the Dublin Review of Books on Trinity College Dublin’s forgotten tenantry histories:

https://drb.ie/tcds-forgotten-tenantry/

Here’s Naomi Baker for The Conversation on Anne Wentworth, the groundbreaking 17^th-century English woman who wrote about surviving domestic abuse:

https://theconversation.com/the-17th-century-woman-who-wrote-about-surviving-domestic-abuse-260128?utm_medium=article_native_share

Compelling work as ever from Danny Robb for JSTOR Daily, this time on how cave exploration became complicit in problematic European nationalisms:

https://daily.jstor.org/underground-conquest-cave-exploration-and-nationalism/

A trio of great pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Hilary N. Green concluding their summer National Parks series with a piece on the frustratingly uncertain future of the great NPS Historic Resource Studies:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/research-for-the-parks/

The latest AHA Member Spotlight focuses on Br. Dr. Ken Homan SJ, a historian of religion, labor, racial justice, & more:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-member-spotlight-br-dr-ken-homan-sj/

& Elizabeth George wrote for Perspectives on an in-class assignment that can provide immediate feedback & learning for students:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/immediate-feedback-immediate-learning/

That’s one of a few pedagogy pieces this week as the new semester gets rolling, including Shannan Mason for The Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama blog on a lesson plan for teaching women in Revolutionary America:

https://thepanorama.shear.org/2025/09/08/lesson-plan-women-rev/

& David Trowbridge wrote for the History News Network on a pedagogical tool that doubles as a travel app to help get people hooked on history:

https://www.hnn.us/article/starting-with-a-question

A trio of pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Cable Neuhaus making the case for resisting our national emphases on “working hard”:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/much-ado-about-nothing/

Selina Alipour Tabrizi used the frustrating case of Millie Bobby Brown’s debut novel to consider whether ghostwriting is ethical:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/is-ghostwriting-ethical/

& for her Common Threads column, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox wrote about clothing labels’ role in the fights for unions & workers’ rights:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/common-threads-look-for-the-union-label/

Turning to current events, Vaughn Joy wrote a must-read piece for Clio and the Contemporary on the attacks on Hollywood & academia as examples of modern McCarthyism:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/09/17/modern-mccarthyism-in-america/

Speaking of Vaughn, also check out her excellent, complementary Bluesky thread on folks who came to regret “naming names” for HUAC:

Ta-Nehisi Coates is back with a banger of a Vanity Fair essay on how the Right have found a new Lost Cause in their whitewashing of Charlie Kirk’s legacy:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/charlie-kirk-ezra-klein-tanehisi-coates

Important 19^th News reporting from Jasmine Mithani on Cynthia Miller-Idriss’s new book & the need to address sexism if we’re going to stop political violence:

https://19thnews.org/2025/09/how-to-stop-political-violence-addressing-sexism-misogyny/?utm_campaign=19th-social&utm_content=gender_studies_scholars_a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Zeena Bany Hamdan wrote for Africa is a Country on how AI is contributing to the potential demise of curiosity & wonder:

https://africasacountry.com/2025/09/the-demise-of-curiosity

Great Bloomberg City Lab article from Jarrett Walker on why cutting public transportation has hidden costs for American communities:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-19/for-us-cities-cutting-public-transportation-has-hidden-costs

Hugely important conversation with five historians on what the Trump administration’s defunding of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars would mean:

https://www.shafr.org/assets/docs/Passport/passport-cwihp-09-2025.pdf

Vital ProPublica piece from Adriana Loureiro Fernández on what she has witnessed while photographing the disappearances & homecomings of her Venezuelan countrymen:

https://www.propublica.org/article/cecot-released-family-reunions-photos?utm_campaign=propublica-sprout&utm_content=1757856604&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

& I’ll end this section with two excellent new public scholarly resources, including Austin Kocher & the Deportation Data Project’s new Immigration Enforcement Dashboard:

Austin Kocher

New Immigration Enforcement Dashboard Makes ICE Arrest Data Accessible to More People

The Deportation Data Project (DDP) has raised the bar this year in what government transparency looks like. Their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and litigation have made more immigration data freely available to the public this year than ever before, ushering in a new era of open source data analysis and public accountability at precisely th…

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9 months ago · 25 likes · 12 comments · Austin Kocher

& thanks to Walter D. Greason for sharing the bracing & moving Visiting Room Project, a collection of first-person testimonials from folks sentenced to life in prison without parole in Louisiana:

https://www.visitingroomproject.org/

Speaking of Walter, he also shared this thread of videos, images, & ideas from the Future Waves conference:

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest Massachusetts Historical Society Historians & Their Histories, with guest host Megan Kate Nelson interviewing Manisha Sinha about her new book on Reconstruction & much more:

https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-18-Sinha

Speaking of Reconstruction, the latest episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee focuses on Black women’s community care work during that era:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/community-care-black-women-during-reconstruction/

Episode 130 of the Jewish Women’s Archive podcast features Emily Nussbaum on groundbreaking TV figure Getrude Berg & her character Molly Goldberg, America’s first TV mom:

https://jwa.org/podcasts/canwetalk/episode-130-molly-goldberg-americas-first-tv-mom

The latest episode of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History features Peter Mancall on the stories & legacies of the Mayflower:

For the long-awaited return of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast, he interviewed Erin McGlothlin on writing about Holocaust perpetrators:

For the third episode of their This Ain’t It podcast, Melissa & Matthew Teutsch discussed why & how words matter, from Scripture to social media:

Turning to current events conversations, check out Stephanie G. Wilson’s latest Freedom Over Fascism live video, a chat with Kevin M. Levin on the attempts to erase history:

Freedom Over Fascism

Erasing History with Kevin Levin

Listen now

9 months ago · 32 likes · 4 comments · Stephanie G Wilson, PhD and Kevin M. Levin

Here’s the final episode of Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s vital Democracy & Destiny podcast, featuring Public Citizen’s Lisa Gilbert:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed how Trump is turning Charlie Kirk’s murder into a weapon:

& check out Heather Cox Richardson’s latest vital American Conversation, a chat with former Senator Doug Jones on the 1963 Birmingham church bombing & its legacies & lessons for us today:

Two new pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan on the dark histories behind Trump’s war on “vagrancy”:

https://time.com/7315567/vagrancy-laws-history/

& Peter C. Kunze wrote for Made By History on The Golden Girls’ groundbreaking creator Susan Harris for the show’s 40^th anniversary:

https://time.com/7316328/susan-harris-golden-girls-history/

A couple of important new scholarly book publications to share this week, including Patty Krawec’s Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds from Broadleaf Books:

https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506499123/Bad-Indians-Book-Club

Also out this week is Michael D. Dwyer’s Tinsel & Rust: How Hollywood Manufactured the Rust Belt from Oxford University Press:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/tinsel-and-rust-9780197612798?cc=us&lang=en&

Out for a few weeks now but new to these threads is Jenifer L. Barclay & Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy’s edited collection Cripping the Archive: Disability, History, & Power from University of Illinois Press:

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088797

Forthcoming & available for pre-order from De Gruyter Brill (& now check out that snazzy cover!) is Vaughn Joy’s Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy:

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111624167/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOopA0DrTgisW1-BExjeJiTDpV702Z9g9he5D_PN7gvfkLlS4YZAo

Also forthcoming is Thomas Crow’s Murder in the Rue Marat: A Case of Art in Revolution from Princeton University Press:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691274430/murder-in-the-rue-marat

& for an excerpt from another forthcoming book, here’s Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado for the Bloomsbury blog from his Taco:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/discover/bloomsbury-academic/blog/featured/the-taco-from-working-class-staple-to-transnational-icon/

For Oxford American magazine, Christian Leus interviewed Rhiannon Giddens & Kristina Gaddy about their new book Go Back & Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle & Banjo from UNC Press:

https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/rhiannon-giddens-and-kristina-gaddy-go-back-and-fetch-it

While for Phenomenal World, Kim Phillips-Fein interviewed Daniel Wortel-London about his new book The Menace of Prosperity: New York City & the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865-1981 from University of Chicago Press:

https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/daniel-wortel-london/

For The Atlantic, Danielle Amir Jackson reviewed Lindsey Stewart’s new book The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, & 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/09/conjuring-of-america-lindsey-stewart-book-review/684098/?gift=NX91pXe_h9-jpMCTAKKndl4mFS5u6FhIt2LWON7swMg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

For the latest USIH book review, Fraser Livingston wrote about Joshua Nygren’s The State of Conservation: Rural America & the Conservation-Industrial Complex since 1920:

https://s-usih.org/2025/09/25825/

For more book recommendations, I really enjoyed Mark J. Ehlers for his blog on how fiction has helped him discover Appalachian stories & communities:

https://ehlersoneverything.blogspot.com/2025/09/discovering-appalachia-through-fiction.html

& for the latest installment of Jenn M. Jackson’s Black Feminist Book Club, she discussed Kali Nicole Gross’s Vengeance Feminism: The Power of Black Women’s Fury in Lawless Times:

Love Notes

Black Feminist Book Club #10: Vengeance Feminism by Kali Nicole Gross

In this critical book, Kali Nicole Gross centers the ways that Black women have engaged in “lawless” retribution to ensure that their dignity was intact. Vengeance Feminism is not about respectability politics nor is it an ode to the ways that white-coded institutions call Black women to bend and break for temporary success and access. Rather, this book outlines the contexts within which Black women have always found themselves vulnerable to the whims of men, police officers, and institutions of government despite the instantiation of laws meant to “serve and protect” everyone. Black women have rarely been protected by those policies and, instead, often find themselves fighting on their own terms…

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9 months ago · 7 likes · Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

Gonna end with lots of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Karen Attiah for The Golden Hour on her firing from the Washington Post & how her work continues:

The Golden Hour by Karen Attiah

The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.

Last week, the Washington Post fired me…

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9 months ago · 7465 likes · 1582 comments · Karen Attiah

For Public Notice, Noah Berlatsky wrote about how the Right’s response to the Charlie Kirk assassination is about repression, not free speech:

Public Notice

It's about repression, not free speech

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9 months ago · 463 likes · 29 comments · Noah Berlatsky

For his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin Kruse linked these current conversations to the ways in which White Citizens’ Councils were sanitized through the lens of “civility”:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/the-white-civility-council/

For his Rearview Mirror newsletter, Charles S. Maier contextualized this assassination through historical parallels to Weimar Germany & many other nations:

Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror

Charlie Kirk was a clean-cut, good-looking and evidently charismatic young man who had views about politics and society that hopefully most Americans still find misguided if not odious. According to the New York Times he accused Jews of controlling “not just the colleges — it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.” Allies of …

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9 months ago · 2 likes

& for his website, Philip Bump wrote about how the word “they” can serve as a vehicle for extremist propaganda:

https://www.pbump.net/o/what-they-have-done/

Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory is always a must-read, including this piece on how he learned to leave behind the “Noble Dream” of historical objectivity:

Civil War Memory

Bias in History: or How I Learned To Leave That "Noble Dream" Behind

I greatly enjoyed reading Evan Portman’s contribution to a series of posts over at Emerging Civil War on the many ethical questions surrounding the researching, writing, and consumption of history…

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9 months ago · 26 likes · 15 comments · Kevin M. Levin

Two great new pieces from Bram Hubbell for his Liberating Narratives site this week, including this one on teaching global feminism in World History classes:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/souls-are-neither-male-nor-female/

& Bram followed that up with a piece on teaching global feminism in the Age of Revolutions:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/you-will-never-stop-the-emancipation-of-women/

For his The Blog is Coming from INSIDE the HOUSE! newsletter, Christian Warren wrote about why “surveillance” is not a dirty word when it comes to effective public health:

The Blog is Coming from INSIDE the HOUSE!

Rickets Wants to be Reported!

About twenty-five years ago, rickets started getting a lot of press, mostly because of a flood of medical reports on children turning up in doctors’ offices and hospitals with softened or distorted bones due to vitamin D deficiency. Some of the most noteworthy reports came from the South. In Atlanta, pediatrician Norman F. Carvalho wrote about an infant…

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9 months ago · 1 like · Christian Warren

For her History in the Margins blog, here’s Pamela D. Toler on what she learned about Japanese American women’s contributions to WWII at the Fort Snelling historic site:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/16/learning-japanese-at-fort-snelling-during-world-war-ii/

Over at Ideas Roadshow they’re continuing their fascinating series on the groundbreaking 16^th-century painter Sofonisba Anguissola:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

Sofonisba's Chess Game - Sofonisba’s Style (2/9)

When you think of the artists you admire, chances are that the first things that springs to mind are the unique aspects of their style: the way they create their figures, or their use of light or colour, or their innovative choice of background landscapes, or somet…

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10 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Ideas Roadshow

For the Face Ache newsletter, here’s Adrian Teal on how 18^th-century cartoonists cashed in on a kinky crime wave:

Face Ache

The Bottom Line

After his trial in the December of 1790, there was much speculation as to whether the imprisonment of a man named Renwick Williams would quell the buttock-clenching fear that had lately gripped London’s female citizenry. The court case came after a series of bizarre assaults on women, and Williams had been identified as the perpetrator. But there were many doubts concerning the validity of his conviction…

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9 months ago · 1 like · Adrian Teal

& for his The Tenure Track newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote about how we can discover the threads of our essential scholarly identities:

The Tenure Track

The Scholar You Already Are

It’s 3 AM, and you’re staring at your laptop screen, the cursor blinking mockingly in an empty document titled “Faculty Bio - FINAL…

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9 months ago · 3 likes · Etienne Toussaint

Gonna conclude with vital cultural studies pieces as usual, including Maureen Ryan for her Something Mo site on Rolling Stone’s firing of the great TV critic Alan Sepinwall & how we must try to de-stupid the media:

https://www.moryan.com/on-the-firing-of-alan-sepinwall-the-scary-place-were-in-and-attempting-to-de-stupid-the-media/

For his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch wrote about EC Comics’ groundbreaking 1952 work “The Monsters”:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/ec-comics-the-monsters-causes-us-to-confront-ourselves-56163340b94d

For his Gravity is Gone blog, Dave Levitan wrote about Robert Redford’s environmentalism & why his 1970s The Solar Film is the most prescient movie ever:

https://www.gravityisgone.com/robert-redford-environmentalism-and-the-most-prescient-movie-ever-made/

Speaking of Redford, check out Vaughn Joy’s latest installment of her Review Roulette newsletter, a wonderful review of The Sting that’s also an impassioned plea for cultural studies in our moment:

Review Roulette

Newman's Own Combination Brothel Hut and Carousel

The Sting (1973) - Formalist…

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9 months ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Vaughn Joy

& Dion Georgiou shared his forthcoming Law and Humanities article on classical jurisprudence, politics, & patriarchy in the film A Family Affair:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/386244698_'Shall_James_K_Hardy_be_Renominated_for_District_Judge'_Classical_Jurisprudence_Politics_and_Patriarchy_in_A_Family_Affair

Speaking of Dion, if you need more awesome public scholarship (& who doesn’t these days?), check out the latest Stop, Look, & Listen compilation for his Academic Bubble newsletter:

The Academic Bubble

Stop, Look, and Listen #50

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

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9 months ago · 2 likes · Dion Georgiou

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

First, a reminder that my wife & I are finalizing a new public scholarly website (seriously, it’s getting close & thanks to her looks phenomenal!) that will host these threads & a lot more. Coming soon, so watch this space!

Starting with favorites from the week as usual, including the launch of a great new journal, the Pittsburgh Review of Books (founded & edited by my friend Ed Simon):

https://pghrev.com/

I loved these moving & beautiful poems from Eraldo Souza dos Santos, part of his complementary collections & works in progress inspired by his mother:

https://caribbeanphilosophy.org/blog/notes-for-an-autobiography-of-my-mother?fbclid=IwdGRjcAMr539jbGNrAyvnemV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEe8nNVAknw8Pdv3KH0RUhiW9hnVpkyxxyQJrC3J9e8EX5uOAmWgxY_bNoeNgg_aem_BQTqDhj22V2D8rxao-ma2w

Speaking of parental inspiration, Joan Wallach Scott wrote for Boston Review on lessons from her father’s struggles during the Red Scare:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-general-air-of-anxiety/

Laura Sangha wrote for the University of Exeter’s Material Culture of Wills project on what she & musician Chris Hoban did during their Arts and Culture Creative Fellowship:

https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/2025/09/09/history-and-art-history-as-art/

& here’s Benjamin Thomas White for the History Workshop on the Jesuit priest, aerial archaeology pioneer, & French spy in Syria Antoine Piodebard:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decolonisation/the-bombers-view-of-the-past/

From a few weeks back but new to these threads, here’s Timothy Messer-Kruse for HNN’s Newsletter on why conservatives are trying to replace “democracy” with “constitutional republic”:

https://www.hnn.us/article/a-republic-if-they-can-force-it

Two excellent posts for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Whitney E. Barringer on encountering primary sources during a road trip:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/insights-from-the-road/

& here’s the latest installment of AHA President Ben Vinson III’s conversations with historians, featuring N.D.B. Connolly on racial literacy & much more:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/a-literacy-beyond-the-page/

Lots of great pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Jennifer Mercieca on working with her students to replace doomscrolling with hopescrolling:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/the-toll-of-the-scroll/

For her Missing in History Post series, Nancy Rubin Stuart highlighted Toll House restaurant’s cookie queen Ruth Graves Wakefield:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/missing-in-history-cookie-queen-ruth-graves-wakefield/

While for her latest Women’s Work column, Tanya Roth traced the story of special education in American history:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/womens-work-fighting-for-a-place-in-the-classroom-the-story-of-special-education-in-america/

Moving Post column from Robert M. Edsel & Bret Witter on how Dutch families have honored American WWII casualties for 80 years:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/honoring-the-fallen/

& for the third installment in his Defining the Decades series, Post editor Troy Brownfield wrote about the 60s, 70s, & 80s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/defining-the-decades-part-3-1960s-1970s-and-1980s/

I also published my latest Considering History column this week & it’s one of my favorites yet, connecting a wonderful event on Treme & a very personal inscription in a book of mine to lessons we must learn from the 20^th anniversary of Katrina:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/considering-history-20-years-after-katrina-a-harbinger-of-the-best-and-worst-of-america/

Turning to current events, vital essay from Jenna M. Loyd in Public Books on how big tech is redefining “the border”:

https://www.publicbooks.org/with-big-tech-the-border-is-everywhere/

Ben Rothenberg wrote for his Bounces tennis newsletter on the U.S. Open’s ordering broadcasters to censor reactions to Trump at the Open:

Bounces

U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump

NEW YORK — Following up on the earlier news first reported by Bounces about Rolex’s invitation, I have further new information to report about the planning around presenting President Donald Trump’s appearance at the U.S. Open…

Read more

9 months ago · 104 likes · 27 comments · Ben Rothenberg

America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas shared an important statement on how Trump’s war on immigrants is morphing to a war on America:

https://americasvoice.org/press_releases/vanessa-cardenas-from-a-supposed-war-on-immigrants-to-a-war-on-america/

For The Guardian, Kojo Koram wrote about how the populist right in both the US & UK are trying to erase histories:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/washington-westminster-populist-right-smithsonian-nigel-farage?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

While Robert A. Strong wrote for The Conversation on how George Washington’s worries about dictatorship are coming true on this 250^th anniversary of the Revolution:

https://theconversation.com/george-washingtons-worries-are-coming-true-263240?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=bylineblueskybutton

Here’s one of Jamelle Bouie’s best New York Times columns yet (which is a high bar), on how Trump & company don’t want to live in Lincoln’s America:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/opinion/lincoln-schmitt-trump-vance-citizenship.html?unlocked_article_code=1.k08.4RU_.TkacC9YAxdAr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

I’ll end this with a couple more hopeful pieces, including Greg Sargent for The New Republic (featuring contributions from Leah Litman & Sherrilyn Ifill) on how Trump’s Tweet about firing Lisa Cook backfired:

https://newrepublic.com/article/200249/trump-lisa-cook-tweet-backfires-judge-ruling-fed

& I really enjoyed this piece from CBS News Philadelphia on how 45 organizations in the city are fighting Trump’s attempts to alter Independence Mall exhibits:

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/presidents-house-history-philadelphia-trump-burgum/

& speaking of hopeful, beautiful images & details from the Future Waves festival & conference, courtesy of presenter Walter D. Greason:

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Caitlin Reed Wiesner on Black women’s anti-rape activism:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Anti-Rape/

For episode 185 of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Claudia Rowe about her book Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care:

While Renata Keller joined Lillian Guerra’s Conversatorio Cubano to discuss her new book The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis & the Hemispheric Cold War:

https://cubanstudies.history.ufl.edu/conversatorio-cubano-2/conversatorio-cubano-with-dr-renata-keller/

Episode 420 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast featured Peter Kastor on his Creating a Federal Government, 1789-1829 digital project:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-420-peter-kastor-creating-the-u-s-federal-government/

For the latest episode of the Civics & Coffee podcast, host Alycia Asai discussed the vital American story of education during Reconstruction:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/talking-to-books-education-during-reconstruction/

For the latest episode of his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by the legendary Patricia Nelson Limerick to discuss the history of California:

Turning to current events podcasts, the latest episode of Sophia Smith Galer’s Universities Challenged highlights the catastrophic effects if a university closes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002j6xz

Episode 33 of the Clearer Than Truth podcast features Oona A. Hathaway on the development & significance of international law:

Here’s a recording of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s recent panel “Unreal Pasts, Playful Presents: History & Fantasy in Games & Media,” featuring Chris Kempshall & many others:

Over at The Art Angle podcast, Sonia Manalili & Kate Brown interviewed critic & theorist Mike Pepi on why we need new art institutions:

https://news.artnet.com/multimedia/why-we-need-new-art-institutions-2677298

Matthew & Melissa Teutsch have dropped the second episode of their new This Ain’t It podcast, focusing on faith, power, & the politics of exclusion:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed the Supreme Court’s disastrous green light for Trump’s ICE arrests:

For the latest installment of her American Conversations series, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed former Senator Sherrod Brown:

Two important conversations for Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast this week, including this one with the Giffords organization’s Executive Director Emma Brown:

Freedom Over Fascism

88. Emma Brown, ED of Giffords on Hope and Action in Gun Reform

Today I talked with the ED of Giffords, the organization that Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly started to reduce death from gun violence. I wanted to have a different conversation that the usual gun violence conversation…My goal was to start talking about the America we want to build, and she agreed…

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9 months ago · 6 likes · Stephanie G Wilson, PhD

& Stephanie also talked with Walter Rhein & Will Fullwood about a number of subjects including Epstein, soft secession, & how we fight back:

Freedom Over Fascism

Epstein, Soft Secession, and the Structure of our Activism

I had the absolute honor of having a conversation with Walter Rhein and Will Fullwood where we talked about where we are in this moment, how scary it is, how long it might take to get past it and how we all have to taking actions of caring and hope in our own way…

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9 months ago · 9 likes · Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Walter Rhein, and Will Fullwood

Brian Harnetty has now completed all five episodes of his Sound is Magic podcast, exploring his new book Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives:

https://brianharnetty.substack.com/podcast

& I’ll end this section with a personal podcast, as I was honored to appear on Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck’s War of the Rebellion to discuss my book Of Thee I Sing (a second part of this conversation will air in November):

A trio of great new pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Lindsey Stewart on the powerful meaning of Black mermaids in American history:

https://time.com/7313994/mermaids-culture-history/

While Sam Collings-Wells wrote for Made By History on now Neil Postman’s 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death predicted today’s dystopian politics:

https://time.com/7313999/neil-postman-trump-prediction/

& Ansley Quiros & Allie R. Lopez wrote for Made By History on lessons from the battle for the Voting Rights Act:

https://time.com/7314300/voting-rights-act-history-struggle/

Elsewhere in Time, vital work from Marianne Cooper & Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman on why rising unemployment among Black women is a bad sign for the economy:

https://time.com/7315624/rising-unemployment-black-women-economy/

A number of new books to share this week, including the long-awaited release of The Nursing Clio Reader from Rutgers University Press:

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-nursing-clio-reader/9781978838598/

Also published this week is Laura Garbes’s Listeners Like Who?: Exclusion & Resistance in the Public Radio Industry from Princeton University Press:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691257426/listeners-like-who

Thanks to the folks at Universal Write Publications for sharing two new releases for the thread, including Lawson Bush, Edward C. Bush, & Amiri Mahnzili’s Sankofa (Re)search Model: (Re)membering, (Re)storing, & (Re)birthing Black Boys & Men:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/sankofa-a-research-methodology-for-remembering-restoring-and-rebirthing-black-boys-and-men/

Also out now from UWP is Molefi Kete Asante’s Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/indexicality-an-africological-method-of-inquiry/

I know I miss plenty of new releases, so I’m happy to share three recent publications this week as well, including Alexandra Freidus’s Unequal Lessons: School Diversity & Educational Inequality in New York City from NYU Press:

https://nyupress.org/9781479827817/unequal-lessons/

Recently out from Ohio State University Press is Reynaldo Anderson’s Afrofuturism & World Order (thanks to Walter D. Greason for sharing it!):

https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814215944.html

& also recently published was John G. Turner’s Joseph Smith: The Rise & Fall of an American Prophet from Yale University Press:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300255164/joseph-smith/

Two books forthcoming on Tuesday 9/23 to highlight, including Anne E. Marshall’s Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder & the Paradox of American Reform from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469690995/cassius-marcellus-clay/

Also out on 9/23 will be The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman: The Complete Annotated Edition, edited by John F. Marszalek for Harvard University Press:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674988354

& forthcoming in October & now available for pre-order through its publisher De Gruyter Brill is Vaughn Joy’s Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy:

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111624167/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOor6SaTwfaAEyAnOOsYvT0xDugGfzxZEmtVO3-ggRv7Tdkl8nCoX

For Contingent magazine, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell reviewed Sara Catterall’s new book Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon from Belt Publishing:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/09/09/dressed-for-reform/

While for the latest USIH review, Naida García-Crespo wrote about Beatrix Hoffman’s Borders of Care: Immigrants, Migrants, & the Fight for Healthcare in the United States from University of Chicago Press:

https://s-usih.org/2025/09/naida-garcia-crespo-on-beatrix-hoffmans-borders-of-care-immigrants-migrants-and-the-fight-for-healthcare-in-the-united-states/

I also enjoyed Pamela D. Toler’s latest History in the Margins Q&A, featuring Cathy Curtis on her new book Fearless: A Biography of Edna O’Brien:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/09/fearless-a-q-a-with-cathy-curtis/

Gonna end with lots of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Sherillyn Ifill’s latest on SCOTUS, ICE, & the matter of facts:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

SCOTUS, ICE Raids & The Matter of Facts

There is a lot one can say about today’s Supreme Court order lifting the stay issued by a federal district court in Noem v Vasquez Perdomo,[i]. This is the case that challenges the constitutionality of DHS immigration raids in California in which officers appear to rely on racial and language profiling to justify stops and arrests of suspected undocumen…

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9 months ago · 391 likes · 13 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

Neil H. Buchanan wrote for the Dorf on Law blog on what we must do when crossing the US border is perilous for international scholars:

https://www.dorfonlaw.org/2025/09/when-crossing-us-border-is-perilous-for.html

William Horne wrote for his In Case of Emergency newsletter on Charlie Kirk & why we pretend when the truth is unthinkable:

On the same subject, here’s Mona Eltahawy for her Feminist Giant newsletter on the need to speak truth of the dead:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: Speak Truth of the Dead

Turning Point USA Co-Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File…

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9 months ago · 285 likes · 8 comments · Mona Eltahawy

& Thomas Zimmer wrote for his Democracy Americana newsletter on how this assassination is becoming part of the Right’s desire for a Reichstag fire:

Democracy Americana

The Right Wants a Reichstag Fire

Quickly, before we get started: For the last time, I promise, I want to start with a sincere apology: I am very sorry about the prolonged silence of the past few weeks. I know I still owe you the third and final part of my series on how to situate our Trumpist moment in U.S. history, and that is …

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9 months ago · 179 likes · 20 comments · Thomas Zimmer

For his latest Rearview Mirror newsletter, Charles S. Meier connected our moment to 1914 to consider how Europe might be headed for war:

Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror

Ratcheting toward War? 1914 and 2025…

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9 months ago · 8 likes · Maier, Charles S.

Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter is always a must-read, including this piece on how assessing slavery at historic sites & in public memory has evolved over the last 25 years:

Civil War Memory

Assessing Slavery at Historic Sites and in Public Memory Over the Past Twenty-Five Years

I recently picked up a copy of Eric Foner’s new book, Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays, which brings together many of his book reviews and op-eds published over the past decades. In addition to offering insight into how one of the most prominent American historians thinks about his evolving field, it also places in historical perspective many of the changes…

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9 months ago · 36 likes · 30 comments · Kevin M. Levin

For his Liberating Narratives blog, Bram Hubbell argued that while the Haitian Revolution had many causes, the Enlightenment wasn’t one of them:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenment-haitian-revolution/

& Bram also wrote on his blog about two new books from Marlene Daut & Julia Gaffield & what they can offer teachers of World History classes:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/astonish-the-world/

For the latest installment of her wonderful Shy Museumgoer blog, Diane Tucker wrote about Toulouse-Lautrec at the Moulin Rouge’s blue cabaret:

https://theshymuseumgoer.com/2025/09/05/explore-empathy-in-toulouse-lautrec-paintings/

Over at her Siren newsletter, Mia Brett continued her series on the criminalization of motherhood with a piece focused on medications & drug use during pregnancy:

Siren

The Criminalization of Motherhood (Part 2)

This is the second installment of a series of pieces on the criminalization of motherhood. The criminalization of motherhood is done through abortion bans, prosecutions of miscarriages, charging pregnant people with child abuse for supposed drug use during pregnancy, treating stillborn deaths as infanticide, and even charging mothers with murder when th…

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9 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Mia Brett

While for his latest History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene connected Julia Roberts’s family history with MLK to her thoughtful reaction to a racist film junket interview:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

Julia Roberts' birth was paid for by MLK. Her reaction to the racist interview makes a lot of sense.

Last week, an Italian journalist at the Venice Film Festival delivered one of the most tone-deaf interview moments in recent memory. And Julia Roberts' response (as well as those of her co-stars) has gone viral…

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9 months ago · 2741 likes · 189 comments · Kahlil Greene

Gonna conclude with great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Matthew Teutsch for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on contaminated blood in EC Comics’ The Green Thing:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/contaminated-blood-in-ec-comics-the-green-thing-4e307bbfff8f

Wonderful piece for NPR’s All Things Considered on the 75^th birthday of Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby’s neighbor in Beverly Cleary’s books:

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5418029/henry-huggins-beverly-cleary-ramona-quimby

I’m really enjoying Etienne Toussaint’s poetic journey through Sinners over at his Freedom Papers newsletter (in collaboration with Robert Monson):

Freedom Papers

The Last Smoke

Last week, I began this series with a love poem set in the juke joint—a place of music, risk, and desire, where tenderness flickers even in the shadows of violence…

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9 months ago · 5 likes · 3 comments · Etienne Toussaint

Vern’s film reviews are always top-notch, but lately he’s been especially on fire when the films intersect with the complexities of our current moment, as in his latest review of Sovereign:

https://outlawvern.com/2025/09/11/sovereign/

Finally, for her latest Review Roulette newsletter Vaughn Joy used The Blues Brothers to argue beautifully for Chicago, Black music, & the best of America:

Review Roulette

This Bluesmobile Fights Fascists

The Blues Brothers (1980) - Apparatus…

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9 months ago · 4 likes · Vaughn Joy

& speaking of Vaughn, check out her vital Bluesky thread on historical contexts for the Trump administration’s propaganda & why we need to engage critically with such media manipulation:

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

First, a reminder that my wife & I are finalizing a public scholarly website that will host these threads & a lot more from both of us & hopefully y’all as well, so watch this space for updates!

Starting with a handful of great pieces for Labor Day 2025, including excerpts from FDR’s September 6, 1936 Fireside Chat courtesy of the folks at The Bulwark:

The Bulwark

Labor Day: How Political and Economic Freedom Are Linked

ON SEPTEMBER 6, 1936, THE EVE OF LABOR DAY, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his eighth “Fireside Chat.” Although his New Deal program h…

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10 months ago · 115 likes · 4 comments · Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Harold Meyerson wrote for The American Prospect on how Trump’s union busting plays a significant role in his war on democracy:

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-09-01-trump-celebrates-labor-day-as-most-anti-union-president/

On a similar note, Paul Waldman wrote for his Public Notice newsletter on how Trump 2.0 is a disaster for American workers:

Public Notice

Trump 2.0 is a disaster for workers

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10 months ago · 467 likes · 14 comments · Paul Waldman

& labor historian Erik Loomis contributed a guest essay to the New York Times wondering why American unions aren’t vocally resisting Trump’s attacks:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/trump-unions-labor.html

My latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column links Labor Day to another historic anniversary this week, Katrina’s 20^th, highlighting the throughlines between New Orleans & Detroit:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/considering-history-tracing-the-story-of-america-from-new-orleans-to-detroit/

For another great take on Katrina’s 20^th, here’s Lauren LeBlanc for Oxford American on John Updike, art & criticism, & the realities of the storm’s effects:

https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/what-john-updike-got-wrong-about-katrina

& for Current Affairs, author Sarah Fouts & activist Malik Rahim discussed how Katrina paved the way for our current fascist moment:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-katrina-paved-the-way-for-american-fascism

Also just a note that my next Saturday Evening Post Considering History column should drop this coming week & will likewise consider Katrina’s many legacies in 2025 America!

Two other excellent pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Will Mari on how analog music like cassette tapes is making a comeback:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/the-return-of-the-cassette-tape-how-analog-music-is-making-a-comeback/

& Post editor Troy Brownfield continued his series on defining 20^th century decades, focusing on the 30s, 40s, & 50s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/defining-the-decades-part-2-1930-1940-and-1950/

Turning to other great public scholarly writing from the week, David Rotenstein wrote for his Pittsburgh City Paper column on the city’s historic jitney cabs:

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/pittsburghs-jitneys-were-lyft-and-ubers-analog-ancestors-28614185

I really appreciate every entry in the New York Times’s “Overlooked No More” obituaries series, including the latest, Grace Linden on early 20C photographer Tina Modotti:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/obituaries/tina-modotti-overlooked.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jE8.O93b.lGDtCD2ZceDL&smid=url-share

For the AHA’s Perspectives blog, Laura Ansley interviewed the AHA’s new Executive Director Sarah Weicksel on how we must broaden our collective work:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/broadening-our-collective-work/

& Weicksel also shared her first Executive Director’s column for the blog, on staying calm & hopeful while we do that work in these fraught times:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/staying-calm-and-hopeful/

Finally in Perspectives, here’s the last installment of the AHA Summer Reads challenge, featuring lots of great book recommendations to check out:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-reads-2025-challenge-complete/

Turning to current events, vital op ed in the Des Moines Register from Linda K. Kerber & David B. Blight on what we’ll all use if Iowa succeeds in shutting down its state archives:

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2025/09/01/iowa-city-history-facility-shutdown-would-be-costly/85854013007/?sltsgmt=0154_D

On a similar note, Slate’s Lyanne Wang interviewed Don Romesburg on the attacks on LGBTQ-inclusive education at all levels:

https://slate.com/life/2025/09/lgbtq-history-school-curriculum-dei-trump-bans.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=facebook_share&fbclid=IwZnRzaAMmbbJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgWnMZ3uPHEowErxdcE-6zjHms_XdQ4-Pmx4kVgIm1Q8p3yeVan5Bci4CbH6_aem_e7Q7QDqC-w5AACOC_d0LTA#1grwuk56jq3qx1hxgiwrobomjchlflhf

Excellent op ed from Donald Earl Collins for Al Jazeera on why we can’t simply reduce global racism to personal prejudice or “hate”:

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/9/4/racism-is-not-hate

Crucial New York Times guest essay from nine past leaders of the CDC on what RFK Jr. is doing to the organization & every American’s health:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/cdc-leaders-kennedy.html

Over at Balls and Strikes, Jay Willis wrote about the telling ways that conservative media are coddling Justice Amy Coney Barrett as she launches her book tour:

https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/amy-coney-barrett-book-tour-conservative-media-free-press-bari-weiss/

While for Democracy Docket, Matt Cohen wrote about anti-voting attorney Cleta Mitchell’s alarming predictions about Trump taking control of elections:

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/cleta-mitchell-thinks-trump-will-use-emergency-powers-to-take-control-of-elections/

With the new semester & school year underway, two great pieces from student writers to share this week, including Josephine Riesman for the Harvard Independent on how the campus organization that bears her family’s name is letting down its cause:

https://harvardindependent.com/avoid-the-building-with-my-familys-name/

I really appreciated high schooler Ashanty Rosario’s essay in The Atlantic on how AI is destroying her & her peers’ education:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/high-school-student-ai-education/684088/

& for an excellent response to that frustrating trend, check out Lorna Bracewell for Clio and the Contemporary on how mid-2000s hip hop can help inspire students to trust their own voices instead:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/09/02/t-pain-against-the-machine/

Continuing with teaching tips & turning to new podcasts, the AHA’s History in Focus dropped four episodes on the “State of the Field for Busy Teachers,” including Jennifer Hart on African history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-african-history/

Here’s Ned Blackhawk for the History in Focus series on Native American history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-native-american-history/

While Don Romesburg is featured in the episode on LGBTQ+ history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-lgbtq-history/

& finally in that excellent History in Focus series, here’s Walter D. Greason on graphic history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-graphic-history/

Turning to other new podcast episodes from the week, the latest episode of the Avram Davidson Universe podcast features a guest host from The Wheel of Genre podcast & Virgil from Literally Books on Davidson’s story “The Caravan to Illiel”:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1310005/episodes/17764163

For the latest episode of the You’re Missing Out: A National Film Registry Podcast, Bella Zaydenberg joined to talk journalism, rom coms, weddings, & His Girl Friday:

https://youremissingout.simplecast.com/episodes/his-girl-friday

While the new episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast focuses on the Southern economy & landscape during Reconstruction:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/landscape-of-ruin-the-southern-economy-during-reconstruction/

Over at the Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast, here’s part two of the series on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-sinking-of-rms-lusitania-part-2/

For his America: A History podcast, host Liam Heffernan was joined by Sean Vanatta to discuss the history & role of the U.S. Treasury:

& Liam also shared a new episode of his “In the Making” current events series, focused on America’s descent into dictatorship:

Continuing with the current events podcasts, Hilde Lovdal Stephens joined hosts Kelly Baker & John Brooks on the Pod Only Knows podcast to discuss James Dobson:

The latest episode of Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s Democracy & Destiny podcast features Heather Cox Richardson on our moment & her public scholarly journey:

While the latest episode of Micah Sifry’s This Old Democracy podcast features Project Democracy Executive Director Ian Bassin on countering the authoritarian playbook:

The Ticket

Podcast with Ian Bassin: How Does Protect Democracy Counter the Authoritarian Playbook?

In a great new episode, This Old Democracy presents a sobering yet ultimately hopeful conversation. Micah Sifry’s guest is Ian Bassin, the executive director of Protect Democracy. Bassin lays out both the dire challenges facing American democracy and the pathways forward. He paints a picture of an authoritarian movement following a predictable playbook…

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10 months ago · 3 likes · Center for Ballot Freedom

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed legal challenges to Trump’s illegal use of the military:

& speaking of Fugelsang, Dean Obeidallah hosted him on his show to discuss Fugelsang’s new book Separation of Church & Hate:

& on that note of religion & politics, check out the first episode of an exciting new podcast, Matthew & Melissa Teutsch’s This Ain’t It on their journey away from the conservative Southern Baptist Church:

Time’s Made By History returned from hiatus with three excellent new pieces this week, including Robert Pee on how Trump is shattering the bipartisan legacy of promoting democracy abroad:

https://time.com/7294182/trump-democracy-promotion-history/

Here’s Heather McNamee for Made By History on how the history of school desegregation reveals that the job isn’t finished yet:

https://time.com/7314276/school-segregation-history-dei/

& Elizabeth R. Varon wrote for Made By History on the unseen danger of Trump’s campaign to restore Confederate names & statues:

https://time.com/7314031/trump-confederate-statue-names-danger/

A trio of important new scholarly book publications to share this week, including Daniela F. Melo & Paul Christopher Manuel’s edited collection After the Carnations: Social Movements in Portugal Since the 25 April 1974 Revolution from Liverpool University Press:

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836245315

Also out from Liverpool this week is Walda Katz-Fishman & Jerome Scott’s Motown & the Making of Working-Class Revolutions: The Story of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers:

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9780820374277

Out this week from Penguin is Anthony Delaney’s Queer Georgians: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, & Homemakers:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460692/queer-georgians-by-delaney-anthony/9781529927689

While newly out in paperback is Derrick E. White’s groundbreaking Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, & the History of Black College Football from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469692104/blood-sweat-and-tears/

Forthcoming this Tuesday from Rutgers University Press is the long-awaited The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, & Justice:

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-nursing-clio-reader/9781978838598/

While forthcoming the following Tuesday (9/16) is Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman’s The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged & Underpaid:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-double-tax-how-women-of-color-are-overcharged-and-underpaid-anna-gifty-opoku-agyeman/22146561?ean=9780593714256&next=t&affiliate=2186

Also forthcoming & available for pre-order is Ronald Angelo Johnson’s Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom & Atlantic Diplomacy During the American Revolution from Cornell University Press:

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501783715/entangled-alliances/#bookTabs=1

& likewise forthcoming in October is Renata Keller’s The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis & the Hemispheric Cold War from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469689432/the-fate-of-the-americas/

Check out Tracy Slater’s New Books Network interviewed on her newly published Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/tracy-slater-together-in-manzanar-the-true-story-of-a-japanese-jewish-family-in-an-american-concentration-camp-chicago-review-press-2025

While Pamela D. Toler’s History in the Margins site featured an interview with Eve Kahn on her new book Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/02/queen-of-bohemia-a-q-a-with-eve-kahn/

& for the latest USIH book review, Jason Shaffer wrote about Scott Gac’s Born in Blood: Violence & the Making of America:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/jason-shaffer-on-scott-gacs-born-in-blood-violence-and-the-making-of-america/

I’ll conclude with tons of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Joyce Vance’s always vital look at the political week ahead on her Civil Discourse newsletter:

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

The Week Ahead

Trump continues to pursue an imperial presidency…

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10 months ago · 1765 likes · 162 comments · Joyce Vance

For his Systematic Hatreds newsletter, Paul Musgrave wrote about our government losing the ability to make & implement policy, & how we can repair it:

Systematic Hatreds

Discontinuity of Government

Since the Cold War, senior federal officials have participated in “continuity of government” exercises. These drills are meant to create a form of bureaucratic muscle m…

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10 months ago · 29 likes · 2 comments · Paul Musgrave

For the Fight the Fire newsletter, Sam Bellamy highlighted the disgusting & destructive ICE arrest of immigrant firefighters & emergency responders:

Fight the Fire

Put down that firehose, you filthy alien!

By Sam Bellamy…

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10 months ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Fight the Fire

For her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote about how we must focus on challenging the premise of Trump’s power grabs:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

Emergency-Gate: Focus on Challenging the Premise of Trump’s Power

*neighborhood in southeast Baltimore…

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10 months ago · 477 likes · 17 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

Over at his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse traced the longstanding & evolving conservative crusade against CBS:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/the-conservative-crusade-against-cbs/

For The Argument, physician Rachael Bedard wrote about RFK Jr.’s erroneous & damaging ideas about mitochondrial issues in children:

The Argument

On RFK Jr.’s mitochondrial malaise

You can picture a mitochondrion, I suspect, based on how one was drawn for you in a high school textbook: It’s …

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10 months ago · 170 likes · 21 comments · Rachael Bedard, MD

While for his Need to Know newsletter, David Rothkopf highlighted the foreign policy ugliness that Trump is spreading:

Need to Know by David Rothkopf

Trump is the Ugliest American

I’m back from a brief break. So, we’ll resume more frequent posts from this site and continue our recently started weekly (or more frequent) “Need to Know” conversations with newsmakers (next one will come Friday.) But let’s dive right back in…

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10 months ago · 179 likes · 18 comments · David Rothkopf

Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter is always a must-read, including this piece on the Smithsonian & how much history of American slavery is “too much”:

Civil War Memory

How Much History of American Slavery is Too Much?

This week Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced that he is forming an internal review committee to assess the exhibits and programs of the eight museums that have been targeted by the Trump administration. It’s an impossible position for Bunch and his team because nothing they do will ultimate…

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10 months ago · 34 likes · 32 comments · Kevin M. Levin

Speaking of teaching our histories, two great new pieces for Bram Hubbell’s Liberating Narratives blog this week, including how we can revisit enslaved African resistance:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-huge-contingent-of-armed-africans/

& Bram also wrote about how we can teach African women’s influences on the Portuguese slave trade in 16^th-century West Africa:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-single-black-woman/

Over at Ideas Roadshow they’ve launched a nine-part in-depth analysis of Sofonisba Anguissola’s fascinating Renaissance painting The Game of Chess (complementing an upcoming film on the painting):

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

Sofonisba's Chess Game - Choosing Sofonisba (1/9)

This month we’ll be releasing Sofonisba’s Chess Game (the general release is mid-September, while a sneak preview in four installments starts this Friday September 5th for our paid subscribers). This will be the third film in our Renaissance Masterpieces Series…

Read more

10 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Ideas Roadshow

For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler wrote about the fascinating 19^th century story of Black Buffalo Soldiers on bicycles:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/05/buffalo-soldiers-on-bicycles/

For her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson wrote about tennis star Taylor Townsend & why Black women don’t owe us “grace”:

Love Notes

Black women do not owe you "grace"

As I sit here recovering from open-heart surgery, I can’t help but reflect on the ways that Black women continue to be disrespected in public often for merely existing. One such event recently pinged my attention…

Read more

10 months ago · 360 likes · 2 comments · Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

While for her Feminist Giant newsletter, here’s Mona Eltahawy on unbecoming, unlearning, & menopause:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: Menopause is Shit, Menopause is Amazing

Photos: Robert E. Rutledge…

Read more

10 months ago · 19 likes · Mona Eltahawy

Benjamin Dreyer continued to write wittily & importantly about AI & writing with this newsletter on a controversy over accusations of AI authorship:

A Word About...

Only shifters pad.

Well, this is certainly the feel-good story of the week…

Read more

10 months ago · 113 likes · 21 comments · Benjamin Dreyer

Gonna end with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as ever, including Matthew Teutsch for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on Rick Remender & Daniel Acuña’s graphic novel Escape:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/the-cost-of-war-in-rick-remender-and-daniel-acu%C3%B1as-escape-1-eeda45ed19c5

For his Matt’s Historical Ephemera newsletter, Matt Eaton wrote about an endangered British Army entertainment ship during WWII:

Matt’s Historical Ephemera

The Day the Show Almost Stopped

On 21 October 1943, the British Army urgently requested entertainment for troops in Sicily and Italy, whilst similar calls were heard from India and the Middle East. Basil Dean, Director of E.N.S.A., was one step ahead and had already planned to send the largest contingent of entertainers the organisation had sent overseas so far. They would be leavin…

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10 months ago · 2 likes · Matt Eaton

Over at her Wondrous Reading newsletter, Luella D’Amico wrote about sharing the Nancy Drew mysteries with her daughter:

Wondrous Reading

Tiny Wonders: The Case of the Mother–Daughter Mystery

Part of the Tiny Wonders series: short reflections on children’s books, faith, and everyday holiness…

Read more

10 months ago · 1 like · 2 comments · LuElla D'Amico

For his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou wrote a fascinating piece on the evolution of the theme songs for British children’s TV shows:

The Academic Bubble

Changing the Tune

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

9 months ago · 2 likes · Dion Georgiou

For RogerEbert.com, Omer M. Mozaffar highlighted the South Asian epic film Sholay on its 50^th anniversary:

https://www.rogerebert.com/features/50-years-later-sholay-remains-a-captivating-south-asian-epic

While Travis Woods wrote for Bright Wall/Dark Room about Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild ahead of its 40^th anniversary next year:

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/09/04/undressing-demme-something-wild/

Finally, check out Vaughn Joy’s latest wonderful Review Roulette newsletter, a funny & feminist perspective on Working Girl:

Review Roulette

"You Work on Wall Street?" "What, Like It's Hard?"

Working Girl (1988) - Feminist…

Read more

10 months ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Vaughn Joy

& speaking of Vaughn, remember that her forthcoming must-read book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is now available for pre-order:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/selling-out-santa-vaughn-joy/1147556052

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially your own) below! Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

First, a reminder that my wife & are I working on a public scholarly website that will soon host these threads, our various writing & work, & hopefully y’all too. Watch this space for more!

Starting this week’s thread with some favorites from the week as usual, including Prisonculture on their pilgrimage to Chicago’s memorial to the legendary Ida B. Wells:

Prisons, Prose & Protest

A Monumental Effort: The Struggle to Honor Ida B. Wells-Barnett in Chicago

I finally visited the “Light of Truth: Ida B. Wells National Monument” in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Richard Hunt designed and installed the sculpture in 2021. I missed that celebration because I wasn’t traveling at the height of COVID. I sent my remarks via…

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10 months ago · 58 likes · 2 comments · Prisonculture

Wonderful essay from Ashley Steenson in Contingent magazine on her research trip to NYC’s iconic Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/08/26/postcard-from-a-southerner-in-harlem/

Rana Banks wrote for the Texas Observer about her experiences growing up & facing subtle everyday prejudice in a small town:

https://www.texasobserver.org/racism-wrapped-rural-warmth/

& I really enjoyed this Southern Cultures interview with & excerpt from Kalamu ya Salaam for its special issue “Katrina’s America”:

https://www.southerncultures.org/article/another-kind-of-city/

Lots of other great public scholarly writing this week as well, including Ryan Reft for the UHA’s Metropole blog on the 55^th anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium Anti-Vietnam War March:

https://themetropole.blog/2025/08/27/the-national-chicano-moratorium-and-ruben-salazar-inquest-55-years-later/

Solveig Marie Wang wrote for The History Workshop on reclaiming the medieval Saami past from white supremacist visions of the Middle Ages:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/indigenous-history/reclaiming-the-medieval-saami-past/

Fun piece from Sam Franz for the Consortium for History of Science, Technology, & Medicine on the political economy of universities & the rise of computing:

https://www.chstm.org/news/computing-centers-computer-science-political-economy-us-universities-and-rise-computing-1930

Speaking of universities, a trio of great pedagogy pieces for the start of the new semester, including Alexandra Garrett for the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama blog on using SNL’s George Washington skit in the survey classroom:

https://thepanorama.shear.org/2025/08/22/how-to-use-snls-washingtons-dream-2023-skit-in-the-early-american-history-survey/

Natalie Mendoza wrote for Teaching Military History on teaching students to complicate textbook narratives of WWII:

https://teachingmilitaryhistory.com/pedagogicalessays/eh8kyjy4jqd8iysnrkeu0ywurdff63#_msocom_4

While Andrew Joseph Pegoda wrote for his Medium column on resisting challenges & turning education from nonperformative to performative:

https://medium.com/thenextclassroom/is-education-a-nonperformative-cde83db7b888

Two excellent pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Jose Luis Castro on Catholics in LA’s Mexican American civil rights struggle:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/los-angeles-fights-back/

& I enjoyed the latest Perspectives AHA Member Spotlight, on public historian & independent scholar Lori Rogers Stokes:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-member-spotlight-lori-rogers-stokes/

Six new columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues this week (ahead of my new column which drops Monday), including Robert Annis on how we can give back to America’s National Parks:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/giving-back-to-our-parks/

While for her travel Post column, Teresa Bitler profiled Mary E.J. Colter, the architect behind the distinctive National Park architecture:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/the-architect-behind-parkitecture/

For the latest installment in her Commons Threads Post column, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox wrote about the history of avoiding wearing white after Labor Day:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/common-threads-wearing-white-after-labor-day/

While Selina Alipour Tabrizi wrote for the Post on the history of dangerous beauty tools:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/dying-to-look-good-dangerous-beauty-tools-throughout-history/

Ryan Reft wrote for the Post on how the death of a Mexican American journalist 55 years ago empowered the Chicano Movement:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/50-years-ago-a-journalists-death-empowers-the-chicano-movement/

Finally, I enjoyed the first installment in Post editor Troy Brownfield’s new series on defining moments across the 20^th century, this one focused on the 1900s, 10s, & 20s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/defining-each-decade-since-1900-part-1-1900-1910-and-1920/

Turning to current events, vital essay from Daniel Ziblatt in Foreign Affairs on lessons from Weimar Germany in why bargaining with authoritarians fails:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitler-warnings-weimar-democracy-daniel-ziblatt

Bobbi-Jeanne Misick wrote for Verite News on the 20^th anniversary of Katrina & how immigrants who helped in the recovery might be forced to leave by Trump’s policies:

https://veritenews.org/2025/08/29/new-orleans-immigrants-katrina-recovery/

Speaking of Trump’s policies, Isa Farfan wrote for Hyperallergic on some of the lowlights from his bulleted memo of Smithsonian Institution targets:

https://hyperallergic.com/1036180/trump-targets-lgbtq-history-migrants-and-more-in-chilling-smithsonian-hit-list/

While Clint Smith wrote for The Atlantic on how those attacks on the Smithsonian are an attempt to erase Black history (gift link below):

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-attack-smithsonian-slavery/683969/?gift=JORs3BlPb0E7W_6BAebCaJN1Mh7EJKQaGGCyaAfRDYI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

& here are Kimberlé Crenshaw & Jason Stanley for The Guardian on why these attacks on the Smithsonian matter so much:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/why-trumps-attack-on-the-smithsonian-matters?CMP=share_btn_url

Speaking of The Guardian, Katherine Kelaidis wrote there about how these battles over history reveals a key flaw in our education system:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-history-trump-education-liberal-arts?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Here’s Kate Wagner for The Nation on why Trump’s doomed proposal for a new White House ballroom offers a revealing glimpse into his state of mind:

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/white-house-ballroom-mccrery-postmodernism/

For Nursing Clio, Alycia Asai (host of the Civics & Coffee podcast) wrote about the hidden casualties of legislation such as the “Big Beautiful Bill”:

https://nursingclio.org/2025/08/27/hidden-casualties/

A handful of pieces this week on AI, including Derek Slater & Aram Sinnreich for Lawfare on what history can teach us about copyright & “market floods”:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-history-can-teach-us-about-copyright--ai--and--market-floods

While Ketan Joshi wrote for his blog on how Big Tech’s selective disclosure masks AI’s real climate impacts:

https://ketanjoshi.co/2025/08/23/big-techs-selective-disclosure-masks-ais-real-climate-impact/

Despite my own deep misgivings, I don’t want to share only negative pieces on AI, so I’ll add this New Yorker essay from Dan Rockmore on brainstorming with a chatbot:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-its-like-to-brainstorm-with-a-bot

But I very much agree with Ragini Tharoor Srinivisan for the Columbia University Press blog that AI could never have written his book Overdetermined:

https://cupblog.org/2025/08/22/why-ai-could-not-have-written-overdetermined-ragini-tharoor-srinivasan/

& we can’t separate AI from stories like this Observer piece from The Art Daddy on the death of the full-time art critic:

https://observer.com/2025/08/arts-opinion-death-of-the-full-time-critic-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-art-writing/

Gonna end this section with a couple inspiring stories about libraries, including Anna Trammell for the Internet Archive’s blog on public librarians preserving local digital heritage:

https://blog.archive.org/2025/08/27/public-librarians-partner-with-internet-archive-to-preserve-local-digital-heritage/

& really fun stuff from Liz Susman Karp for Civil Eats on how libraries are creating community through food programs:

https://civileats.com/2025/08/27/how-libraries-are-creating-community-through-food/

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Julia Rose Kraut on the history of ideological exclusion & deportation:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/IdeologicalExclusion/

For the latest episode of SSN’s No Jargon podcast, Michael S. Latner discussed gerrymandering & how maps decide elections:

https://scholars.org/podcast/how-maps-decide-elections

Over at Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club podcast, Sam Kelly joined to talk about his book Human History on Drugs:

While for the latest episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Jonathan Mahler about his book The Gods of New York:

For his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by John Cox to discuss the life & legacy of Harry Houdini:

While the Sport in History podcast shared Matthew Brown’s conference keynote lecture on sports history in South America:

https://shows.acast.com/sport-in-history-podcast/episodes/68ac393a352b565deb97c33a

A trio of podcast episodes on the Revolutionary War this week, including episode 18 of Jim Ambuske’s groundbreaking World’s Turned Upside Down:

https://www.r2studios.org/show/worlds-turned-upside-down/episode-18-the-resurrection/

While for episode 419 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast, she was joined by Nathan Schultz to discuss the North Carolina Regulator Movement:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-419-nathan-schultz-the-north-carolina-regulator-movement/

& episode 334 of the Hub History podcast focused on the siege of Boston & other developments in the summer of 1775:

https://www.hubhistory.com/episodes/hot-siege-summer-episode-334/

Moving forward a bit in time, the latest episode of the War of the Rebellion podcast (on which I’ll be a guest soon!) featured Thomas Helling on his book Sickly Vapors: Disease & Doctoring in the Old South:

& for an important post-Civil War history, check out the latest Civics & Coffee episode on broken promises to Mexican Americans during the Reconstruction period:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/reconstruction-beyond-the-south-the-broken-promises-to-mexican-americans/

A few decades later still, here’s part 1 of a two-part Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs episode on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-sinking-of-rms-lusitania-part-1/

& a few decades after that, here’s the folks from The Cold War Channel on the origins of the First Indochina War:

Turning to current events conversations, musician & author Rhett Miller joined Ana Marie Cox & Open Mike Eagle’s Past Due podcast to discuss staying creative in the 21^st century:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked Trump’s dictatorial dreams:

While for the latest episode of her Freedom Over Fascism podcast, Stephanie G. Wilson interviewed investigative journalist Ellie Leonard:

Freedom Over Fascism

86. Ellie Leonard: Investigative Journalism, Jeffrey Epstein, and Deconstructing Past Truths

Yesterday I spoke with Ellie Leonard about being a writer, becoming an investigator, her experience with MAGA friends and family, and deconstructing the evangelical tenets she grew up with…

Listen now

10 months ago · 11 likes · Stephanie G Wilson, PhD and Ellie Leonard

Longtime podcast partners Heather Cox Richardson & Joanne Freeman joined forces once more for a “What the Heck Just Happened?” conversation about current politics:

& for Chris Hayes’s Why Is This Happening? podcast, vital climate scientist & activist Bill McKibben joined to discuss the push for zero emissions:

A number of important new books out this week, including Brian Harnetty’s Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469691343/noisy-memory/

Also out this week from UNC Press is Jessica M. Lepler’s Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic & Pacific in the Age of Revolutions:

https://uncpress.org/9781469690551/canal-dreamers/

Out now from the new We Here Press is its flagship publication, Dorothy Berry’s The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities:

https://www.weherepress.org/

& also published this week was editor Robert Shail & Sheldon Hall’s Film Critics & British Film Culture: New Shots in the Dark from Edinburgh University Press:

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-film-critics-and-british-film-culture.html

While out this week in paperback is Pamela D. Toler’s The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany from Penguin Random House:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739146/the-dragon-from-chicago-by-pamela-d-toler/

Two forthcoming books now available for pre-order, including Tim Galsworthy’s The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, & the Transformation of the GOP from the University of South Carolina Press:

https://uscpress.com/The-Republican-House-Divided

Also forthcoming from Duke University Press is Katherine Gerbner’s Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion & Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irruptions

Over at the MIT Press Reader blog, Shohini Ghose excerpted her book Her Space, Her Time with a piece on the history of women in physics:

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-forgotten-half-life-of-women-in-physics/

While for Quill & Quire, Cassandra Drudi interviewed author Alison Li about her new biography of transgender medical pioneer Harry Benjamin:

https://quillandquire.com/authors/alison-li-on-her-biography-of-transgender-medical-pioneer-harry-benjamin/

For Women in Translation Month, the folks at the Mid Theory Collective asked critics, scholars, & translators for their favorite works written and/or translated by women:

https://mid-theory.com/2025/08/29/mixtape-7-happy-women-in-translation-month-2025/

Over at LitHub, Polly Atkin wrote about Raynor Winn’s controversial fabricated memoir & the dangers of publishers endorsing medical quackery:

https://lithub.com/nature-is-not-going-to-cure-you-on-raynor-winns-fabricated-memoir/

& for the Boston Review, Jake Grumbach interviewed Osita Nwanevu about his new book The Right of the People & the keys to defeating authoritarianism:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/democracy-v-the-constitution/

Speaking of that battle against fascism, gonna start this final section with a number of newsletters on the subject, including Garrett Graff for his Doomsday Scenario on the tipping point:

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-tips-into-fascism-f51000e08e03254d

On a similar note, Don Moynihan wrote for his Can We Still Govern? newsletter on ticking off the items on the authoritarian checklist:b

While Tina Vasquez wrote for The Flytrap on Kristi Noem’s transformation into “ICE Barbie” & our slide into fascism:

https://the-flytrap.ghost.io/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-american-fascism/

& Adam Kinzinger wrote for his newsletter on the 2^nd Amendment debate that can help us reframe who controls the National Guard:

Adam Kinzinger

Who Really Controls the National Guard? The Second Amendment Debate We’ve Ignored

(Author’s note. As a retired Guardsman, I’m very passionate about this. The Guard needs to be war ready, but the President CANNOT be allowed to turn the Guard against its own people. Please watch my just released Youtube video about this CLICK HERE…

Read more

10 months ago · 1394 likes · 142 comments · Adam Kinzinger

On that same subject, Heather Cox Richardson’s vital August 27^th installment of Letters from an American focused on the occupation of DC:

& for his Tusk newsletter, Seth Masket argued that these troop deployments represent Confederate payback:

Tusk

Confederate Payback

There is a standing army in the nation’s capital. The President deployed troops to Los Angeles earlier this year, and he’s now threatening to deploy some to Chicago, among other cities. People are struggling with the right way to think about this; I tend to view this as the ideological descendants of the Confederacy seeking payback against the Union…

Read more

10 months ago · 27 likes · 12 comments · Seth Masket

For his One First newsletter, Steve Vladeck wrote about Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch’s unconstitutional attacks on lower courts:

One First

174. Justice Gorsuch's Attack on Lower Courts

Welcome back to “One First,” a weekly newsletter that aims to make the U.S. Supreme Court more accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike. I’m grateful to all of you for your continued support, and I hope that you’ll consider sharing some of what we’re doing with your networks…

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10 months ago · 311 likes · 56 comments · Steve Vladeck

Over at his Ehlers on Everything blog, Mark Ehlers contrasted our moment with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society on the latter’s 60^th anniversary:

https://ehlersoneverything.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-age-of-optimism-lyndon-johnson-and.html

Speaking of 1965, Marc Hudson wrote for the All Our Yesterdays blog on a 1965 commencement speech about climate change that should have rocked the world:

https://allouryesterdays.info/2025/08/25/climatic-change-appears-to-be-underway-in-fact-the-1965-commencement-speech-that-should-have-rocked-the-world/

Powerful piece from Sonya Rose Hartfield on her newsletter on “trad wife” lessons she learned from James Dobson on the occasion of his death:

Family Values: Living Liminally

Wooden Spoons and Wedding Days: Lessons I Learned from James Dobson

I feared the crack of the wooden spoon across my bare skin, but that was not the worst part of spanking…

Read more

10 months ago · 23 likes · 6 comments · Sonya Rose Hartfield

While Mona Eltahawy wrote for her Feminist Giant newsletter on hatred of women as a key element of Trump’s policies:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: Hatred of Women as Policy

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 22, 2025. Photo: Andrew Harnik…

Read more

10 months ago · 111 likes · 2 comments · Mona Eltahawy

Two excellent new pieces this week from Bram Hubbell for his Liberating Narratives blog, including this one on teaching Brazil & the transatlantic slave system:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/the-horrors-of-the-cruel-system-of-slavery-revisiting-the-transatlantic-slave-system/

& Bram also wrote about teaching 19^th-century East Africa & Zanzibar in World History courses:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/everything-is-found-in-zanzibar/

Over at his A Word About… newsletter, Benjamin Dreyer wrote about AI, creativity, & what humans can do with words:

A Word About...

Words, words, words, I'm so sick of words.

“The best art is going to be made by talented creatives who use AI as a force multiplier” is a thing I just read. An accidentally wondrous thing about people who fall all over themselves to demean language, I find, and in that group I include people who use the word “creative” as a noun, is that in doing so they’re letting you know precisely who they ar…

Read more

10 months ago · 104 likes · 38 comments · Benjamin Dreyer

While Matthew Teutsch wrote for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on how both our students & we should be reading more:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/i-wish-i-read-more-eeb8377a63ae

I really enjoyed this Walter D. Greason Bluesky thread on some of the many public scholarly, artistic, educational, & civic reasons to visit the Twin Cities:

Two excellent pieces from Etienne Toussaint this week, including for his The Tenure Track newsletter on how to create productive law review articles:

The Tenure Track

Stop Wasting Months on Law Review Articles That Go Nowhere

I still remember the frustration…

Read more

10 months ago · 4 likes · Etienne Toussaint

& I really enjoyed Part 1 of Toussaint’s poetic journey through Ryan Coogler’s Sinners over at his Freedom Papers newsletter:

Freedom Papers

I Met Her At the Juke Joint

Over the next five weeks, I’ll be sharing something different here on Freedom Papers. Robert Monson—a brilliant writer and Black theopoeticist—and I are collaborating on a poetry series inspired by Ryan Coogler’s award-wining film Sinners…

Read more

10 months ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Etienne Toussaint

Speaking of Sinners, gonna end with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as usual, including Rebecca Stone Gordon for Nightmare magazine on archaeology in horror fiction:

https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/plumbing-the-depths-archaeology-in-horror-fiction/

For his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou wrote about how TV interviews for the film Beautiful Girls capture 1990s gender dynamics:

The Academic Bubble

‛...But Who Do You Consider ‛A Ten’?’

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

10 months ago · Dion Georgiou

This Boss fan really loved Kirk Curnutt’s Clio & the Contemporary post on Born to Run’s 1970s contexts & most underrated song on the album’s 50^th anniversary:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/08/26/born-to-run-turns-50/

Wonderful essay from Collin Souter for RogerEbert.com on spending his summer vacation at the drive-in movie theater:

https://www.rogerebert.com/features/how-i-spent-my-summer-vacation-at-the-drive-in

& for her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy penned a fun & thoughtful take on Clue, Communism, & much more:

Review Roulette

Communism Is, Was, and Will Always Be A Red Herring

Clue (1985) - Contextual History…

Read more

10 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Vaughn Joy

Speaking of Vaughn, check out this thread on her must-read forthcoming book about Hollywood Christmas films in the age of McCarthy--& then pre-order your copy:

Finally, for Labor Day I wanted to share two of my past Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns, including this 2022 one on including slavery in how we remember labor histories:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/09/considering-history-no-history-of-american-labor-should-exclude-slavery/

& in 2023 I wrote about the foundational & ongoing fight for labor unions in American history:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/09/considering-history-the-foundational-fight-for-american-labor-unions/

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may it be a restful & radical holiday, all!

A reminder that my wife & I are finalizing a new public scholarly website to which we plan to move these threads soon. In the meantime, I hope all this free, great work balances Substack’s undeniable issues (a main reason for our move).

Speaking of moving Kyle into Michigan, on my blog this week I AmericanStudied histories & figures from that university’s long & storied past:

https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2025/08/august-18-2025-university-of-michigan.html

Starting this week with a handful of great pieces shared by other folks, including Kaitlyn Greenidge on DC’s Black history (h/t Tressie McMillan Cottom):

Here’s Garrett Schumann for NPR on the 150^th birthday of the groundbreaking Black classical composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (h/t Mark Anthony Neal):

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5496512/samuel-coleridge-taylor-150-avril-black-british-classical

Amelia Mavis Christnot wrote for The Big Picture on the Mohawk Skywalkers who built America’s skyscrapers (h/t George Takei):

The Big Picture

Mohawk Skywalkers: The History Stephen Miller Whitewashed

Attempting to emphasize that only real “Americans” built the United States’ …

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10 months ago · 578 likes · 86 comments · The Big Picture and Amelia Mavis Christnot

Vital reporting from Shayla Martin for Condé Nast Traveler on museums at the sites of Indian boarding schools (h/t Kevin M. Levin):

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/museums-at-indian-boarding-schools-are-shining-light-on-their-survivors?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

& thanks to Bluesky user @purpletiger for sharing this excellent Eddie Smith thread on how Major League Baseball became racially segregated:

Turning to other great public scholarly writing from these two weeks, here’s S. Deborah Kang for the Journal of American Constitutional History on anti-Mexican racism & the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act:

https://jach.law.wisc.edu/anti-mexican-racism-and-the-mccarren-walter-act/

Laura Madokoro wrote for The Conversation on Central American refugees & the 1980s birth of sanctuary cities:

https://theconversation.com/sanctuary-cities-in-the-us-were-born-in-the-1980s-as-central-american-refugees-fled-civil-wars-257718?utm_content=buffer36ecb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Bracing & important work for George Washington’s National Security Archive on the 20^th anniversary of the Guatemalan Historical Archive of the National Police:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/guatemala/2025-08-20/invisible-silenced-and-all-abandoned-guatemalan-historical-archive

Danny Robb wrote for JSTOR Daily on the 50^th anniversary of Benoit Mandelbrot’s coining of the influential term “fractal”:

https://daily.jstor.org/fifty-years-of-fractals/

For his Historian4Hire blog, David O. Rotenstein celebrated the life & legacy of Pittsburgh Black historian Charlotte Coffield:

https://blog.historian4hire.net/2025/08/12/charlotte-coffield-remembered/

While for the Guild of Medievalist Makers blog, Mary Flannery introduced herself & her work:

https://www.guildmedmak.com/blog/maryflannery

Four great pieces to share from the AHA’s Perspectives blog, including Mark Fiege on Yellowstone’s deep histories:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/a-larger-older-richer-greater-yellowstone/

Mike Matejka wrote for Perspectives on how a very different park, Pullman National Historical Park, preserves that company town’s histories:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/a-company-town-preserved/

While Mary F. Casey offered the second installment in her series on her pedagogy as a playwright & theater historian:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/plays-are-good-to-think-with/

& finally for Perspectives, here’s Alisa Kuzmina on what her archival research taught her about positionality:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-emotional-textures-of-the-archive/

& speaking of archives, check out the latest iteration of a vital digital resource, SlaveVoyages 3.0:

https://www.slavevoyages.org/blog/slavevoyages-30/192

Half-a-dozen pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Donald Liebenson on the new Americana podcast Fun for All Ages!:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/a-new-podcast-celebrates-amazing-colossal-americana/

Selina Alipour Tabrizi wrote for the Post on Katharine Brush, one of the Jazz Age’s most fascinating literary voices:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/katharine-brush-the-forgotten-literary-influence-of-the-jazz-age/

Speaking of literary giants, here’s Rich Warren for the Post on the 100^th anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s birth:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/remembering-flannery-oconnor-in-the-100th-year-of-her-birth/

Here’s Jill Robbins for the Post on three Texas sites where Bonnie & Clyde’s legacy lives on:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/texas-still-remembers-bonnie-and-clyde/

While Jeff Nilsson wrote for the Post’s Rockwell Files column on a fascinating March 1949 Norman Rockwell cover painting:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/rockwell-files-trying-on-the-future/

& I really enjoyed this item from the Post’s archives, a 1966 column on the Grand Ole Opry & country music in the age of rock:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/the-grand-ole-opry-and-the-nashville-sound-in-1966/

Turning to current events, WBUR’s Here & Now’s Robin Young interviewed AHA Executive Director Sarah Weicksel on the White House’s attacks on the Smithsonian:

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/08/13/white-house-smithsonian

While for his New York Times column, Jamelle Bouie offered a vital take on what Trump is really up to in DC (gift link below):

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/opinion/trump-washington-national-guard.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fk8.H_R-.lAYebK0CIVmI&smid=url-share

Crucial essay from Jen Manion for The New Republic on how learning history is a righteous form of resistance to these attacks:

https://newrepublic.com/article/198373/learning-history-righteous-form-resistance

Equally inspiring is Eric Foner for The Nation on what his own historical education can teach us about our fragile freedoms:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/eric-foner-our-fragile-freedom-essay/#

Great piece from Gretchen Goldman & Erica Chenoweth for Science magazine on scientists’ role in defending democracy:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea9328

While for The Editorial Board, Lindsay Beyerstein pushed back on Evan Morris’s op ed claiming that the humanities are a threat to science in higher ed:

https://www.editorialboard.com/the-humanities-dont-threaten-science-trump-does/

& check out Colin J. Carlson & Sean Kennedy in Stat News on why the recent CDC shooting was public health’s January 6^th:

https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/cdc-shooting-january-6th-for-public-health/

Lots of great new podcast episodes over these two weeks, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Karin Wulf on genealogy in early America:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Genealogy/

For episode 418 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World, Randy Browne joined to discuss his book The Driver’s Story: Labor & Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-418-the-slave-drivers-story/

Two new episodes of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast to share, including John Lumea on the 19^th century “Emperor Norton of the USA”:

& Liam was also joined by Stephen Tuffnell to discuss the history of the California Gold Rush:

For 19^th century histories interconnected with the Gold Rush, check out this Civics & Coffee episode on the discriminatory 1875 Page Act:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/the-page-act-how-america-banned-chinese-women/

& the latest Civics & Coffee episode tells the story of Gilded Age financier Jay Gould:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/jay-gould-titan-or-tyrant/

The latest episode of the Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast highlights the tragic story of the Exxon Valdez oil spill:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-exxon-valdez-disaster/

While the latest episode of The Ivory Attic podcast features Chris Kempshall on Star Wars, WW1, video games, & more:

For episode two of his Sound is Magic podcast, Brian Harnetty dives deeper into his forthcoming book (out Tuesday!) Noisy Memory:

Sound Is Magic

Episode 2: Noisy Memory - Silent City

Here is the second episode of the Sound Is Magic podcast, based on my new book, Noisy Memory (on August 26 with the University of North Carolina Press). If you haven’t listened to the first episode yet, don’t worry—you can still enjoy this one by itself! But if you are curious…

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10 months ago · 1 like · Brian Harnetty

While for the new episode of You’re Missing Out: A National Film Registry podcast, Josh Shepperd joined to discuss the 1930s newsreel series The March of Time:

& speaking of WWII histories, the latest episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today features Iain MacGregor on his book The Hiroshima Men:

Turning to current events, Matthew Facciani joined the New Books in Public Policy podcast to discuss his book Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, & What To Do about It:

Episode 282 of SSN’s No Jargon podcast features Farhana Sultana on the unequal costs of climate change:

https://scholars.org/podcast/unequal-costs-climate-change

Over at Brad Onishi’s Straight White American Jesus podcast, Leah Litman joined to discuss the grievance & conspiracy theories that run SCOTUS:

While for the latest episode of their It Could Happen Here podcast, Steven Moancelli & Michael Phillips discussed Elon Musk & the rebirth of company towns:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/elon-musk-and-the-rebirth-of-290033118/

Two new episodes of John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast to share, including last week’s on Trump’s hard coup:

& this week John & Corey discussed Trump’s whitewashing attacks on the Smithsonian & American history:

While Annette Gordon-Reed joined Democracy Now! to discuss those attacks:

The latest episode of Mark Anthony Neal’s Left of Black features Meredith D. Clark on Black Twitter & the future of Black journalism:

& for her American Conversations YouTube series, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed Colorado Representative Jason Crow:

Finally, check out a special Civics & Coffee conversation with Zaakir Tameez on his new book Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/exploring-conscience-of-a-nation-zaakir-tameez-on-charles-sumners-fight-for-justice/

Speaking of new books, out last week from Oxford UP is Gregory A. Daddis’s Faith & Fear: America’s Relationship with War since 1945:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/faith-and-fear-9780197804223?q=faith%20and%20fear&lang=en&cc=us

While the UNC Press blog shared two new releases, Amanda Laury Kleintop’s Counting the Cost of Freedom: The Fight Over Compensated Emancipation after the Civil War & Mila Burns’s Dictatorship Across Borders: Brazil, Chile, & the South American Cold War:

https://uncpressblog.com/2025/08/19/new-this-week-august-19th/

Forthcoming this Tuesday from UNC Press is Brian Harnetty’s aforementioned Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives:

https://uncpress.org/9781469691343/noisy-memory/

Also forthcoming from Princeton UP is Julia R. Azari’s Backlash Presidents: From Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691246956/backlash-presidents?srsltid=AfmBOopnvi3_fS-Hph47rXKqlV_I9m1qYdKxH5OzSzjbFGGszvEfmLUK

& I’m really excited for Jelani Cobb’s forthcoming collection Three or More is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here from Penguin Random House:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/779593/three-or-more-is-a-riot-by-jelani-cobb/

For a fascinating conversation about another forthcoming book, check out Pamela D. Toler’s interview with Tim Brady on his A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark’s Incredible Rescue of Their Jewish Citizens During WWII:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/08/12/a-light-in-the-northern-sea-a-q-a-with-tim-brady/

Three new USIH book reviews to share this week, including Jonathan Sperber on Andrew Hartman’s Karl Marx in America:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/jonathan-sperber-on-andrew-hartmans-karl-marx-in-america/

Also for USIH, Alex Sayf Cummings reviewed Dana Simmons’s On Hunger: Violence & Craving in America, from Starvation to Ozempic:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/i-govy-you-govy-we-all-govy-for-wegovy-dana-simmons-on-the-dark-history-of-hunger-in-america-alex-sayf-cummings-on-simmonss-on-hunger/

Finally for USIH, Robin Marie Averbeck reviewed Kevil Schultz’s Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals):

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/robin-marie-averbeck-on-kevin-schultzs-why-everyone-hates-white-liberals-including-white-liberals/

Over at Contingent magazine, Marc Reyes reviewed Paul M. McGarr’s Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, & India’s Secret Cold War:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/08/12/the-search-for-intelligence/

While for Public Books, Noah Cohan reviewed Nathan Kalman-Lamb & Derek Silva’s The End of College Football:

https://www.publicbooks.org/what-future-for-college-football/

For her Beyond Curie newsletter, Olivia Campbell shared for recent & forthcoming books about women & science:

Beyond Curie

4 Books I'm Looking Forward to About Women + Science

I’m always interested in writing that advocates for destigmatizing harm reduction and substance abuse. Mother of Methadone: A Doctor's Quest, a Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis by Melody Glenn packs a double-whammy of women in science, having been written by a woman emergency physician about a woman psychiatrist…

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10 months ago · 11 likes · 2 comments · Olivia Campbell

& for the latest installment of her Black Feminist Book Club, Jenn M. Jackson wrote about Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother:

Love Notes

Black Feminist Book Club #9: Lose Your Mother by Saidiya Hartman

Lose Your Mother. By Saidiya Hartman…

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10 months ago · 10 likes

Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including the return of Pasts Imperfect at its new Ghost host:

https://pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperfect-8-14-25/

For the Work in Progress segment on his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse continued to dive into the history of 1960s battles for voting rights:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/work-in-progress-registered/

While Lindsay M. Chervinsky also wrote about the 60^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act for her Imperfect Union newsletter:

Imperfect Union

The Voting Rights Act, 60 Years Later

Before I get down to business, I wanted to share some fun news. If you follow me on social media, you probably saw this announcement, but if not: my next book is coming…

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10 months ago · 25 likes · 2 comments · Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Over at his One First newsletter, Steve Vladeck wrote about Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh’s destructive inconsistencies:

One First

173. Justice Kavanaugh and the Equities

Welcome back to “One First,” a weekly newsletter that aims to make the U.S. Supreme Court more accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike. I’m grateful to all of you for your continued support, and I hope that you’ll consider sharing some of what we’re doing with your networks…

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10 months ago · 226 likes · 26 comments · Steve Vladeck

For his Democracy Americana newsletter, Thomas Zimmer traced why & how extremists took over the American Right:

Democracy Americana

Why the Extremists Took Over on the Right

This is Part II of a broader reflection on how to situate our Trumpist moment in U.S. history – sparked by a question I have been getting constantly in recent months: “Why is America suddenly so divided…

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10 months ago · 345 likes · 59 comments · Thomas Zimmer

For her latest newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote about Washington DC & the summer of our discontent:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

Summer of Our Discontent

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress…

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10 months ago · 368 likes · 41 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

For her Organizing My Thoughts blog, here’s Kelly Hayes on why we must protect anyone chased by these fascists:

https://organizingmythoughts.org/you-must-protect-anyone-chased-by-the-fascists/

For his Public Notice newsletter, here’s Noah Berlatsky on America’s slide toward “competitive authoritarianism”:

Public Notice

"Competitive authoritarianism" and America's slide toward it

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10 months ago · 335 likes · 24 comments · Noah Berlatsky

While Kevin M. Levin wrote for his Civil War Memory newsletter on Trump’s whitewashing review of the Smithsonian:

Civil War Memory

Trump Administration to Conduct Review of Smithsonian Ahead of America's 250th Anniversary

UPDATE: Here is the White House letter that was sent to the Smithsonian Institution…

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10 months ago · 38 likes · 16 comments · Kevin M. Levin

For an antidote to these current trends, check out this Ideas Roadshow interview with the late historian John Elliott:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

The Antidote

Still riding the emotional high of having resurfaced from my prolonged foray into America’s disastrous descent, I’m delighted to announce the next stage of Ideas Roadshow Behind the Lens. From now on, every Friday we’ll release an edited, filmed conversation with a captivating and stimulating…

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10 months ago · 4 likes · Ideas Roadshow

Over at his blog, Daniel Laurison wrote thoughtfully about the state of sociology in August 2025:

https://daniellaurison.com/519-2/

Looking forward to Mona Eltahawy’s upcoming online course on her book The Seven Necessary Sins for Women & Girls:

FEMINIST GIANT

Upcoming Course

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls will soon be an online course…

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10 months ago · 22 likes · 5 comments · Mona Eltahawy

Three newsletters from Etienne Toussaint to share this week, including for his Freedom Papers on embracing the challenges that shape us:

Freedom Papers

You Asked for This

You Asked for This…

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10 months ago · 17 likes · 11 comments · Etienne Toussaint

& two pieces for Toussaint’s Tenure Track newsletter, including five strategies for navigating student demands:

The Tenure Track

Navigating Student Demands

Once again, the quiet hum of slow summer research gives way to the familiar symphony of a new semester. Packed inboxes, scheduling requests, and the gentle chaos of students returning to campus with …

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10 months ago · 4 likes · Etienne Toussaint

& for his latest Tenure Track newsletter, Toussaint wrote about how stress can sabotage productivity & mental health:

The Tenure Track

Your Brain Is Hijacking Your Career

You know the feeling…

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10 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Etienne Toussaint

Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler wrote about Lucile, AKA Lady Duff Gordon, on her groundbreaking fashion designs:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/08/15/lady-duff-gordon-aka-lucile/

For his Looking Through the Past newsletter, George Dillard wrote about the 18^th century gin craze & the birth of the modern moral panic:

Looking Through the Past

The Birth of the Modern Moral Panic

There was a new intoxicant loose on the streets of the big city. It was stronger than anything people had seen before — and cheap, too, which meant it was suddenly everywhere. It was so new and so readily available that leaders had no idea what to do about the wave of addiction that swept the country…

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10 months ago · 16 likes · 4 comments · George Dillard

While for his History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene traced the story of the enslaved African who saved Boston from smallpox:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

How Onesimus, an Enslaved African, Saved Boston from Smallpox—And Got Erased from History

As vaccine misinformation spreads across social media and medical distrust reaches new heights, we're witnessing a modern echo of an age-old American problem: dismissing life-saving knowledge when it comes from the "wrong" people. Three centuries ago, an enslaved African man possessed medical knowledge that would save hundreds of lives during Boston's w…

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10 months ago · 208 likes · 30 comments · Kahlil Greene

I always enjoy Heather Cox Richardson’s pieces on Frances Perkins, including her August 13^th installment of Letters from an American:

For his newsletter, my FSU colleague Steve Edwards penned a beautiful snapshot on his father & himself:

The Big Quiet

A deeper lake

My dad has a history of almost dying…

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10 months ago · 55 likes · 24 comments · Steve Edwards

While for his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch wondered how we can move beyond our “little postage stamp of native soil”:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/how-do-we-move-beyond-our-little-postage-stamp-of-native-soil-9e6494b58d35

Gonna end with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as usual, including Liza Donnelly’s latest profile of a woman New Yorker cartoonist featured in her documentary:

Seeing Things

The Cartoons Of Bishakh Som

Next in my series of short profiles is Bishakh Som. Bishakh is an Indian-American trans-femme cartoonist and graphic novelist based in Brooklyn. Born in Ethiopia, she moved to the city with her family at a young age and grew up in New York City…

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10 months ago · 167 likes · 4 comments · Liza Donnelly

For Women’s Wear Daily Julia Teti wrote about women’s Gilded Age fashions, featuring contributions from Einav Rabinovitch-Fox:

https://wwd.com/pop-culture/culture-news/feature/gilded-age-sashes-ribbons-fabric-status-1238035476/

Fascinating essay from Ben Schwartz in The Nation on Billy Wilder’s battles with the legacies of the Holocaust & the paradoxes of Zionism:

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/billy-wilder-hollywood-zionism-holocaust/

For Bright Wall/Dark Room, Frank Falisi wrote about Dog Day Afternoon on its 50^th anniversary:

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2023/08/26/and-when-it-rains-the-rain-falls-down/

Speaking of 50^th anniversaries, here’s Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica on The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/08/celebrating-50-years-of-the-rocky-horror-picture-show/

Two new pieces for Vaughn Joy’s Review Roulette to share this week, including a wonderful take on the new Naked Gun to wrap up her series on that series:

Review Roulette

Nielsen's New Son Neeson Nails It

The Naked Gun (2025) - A Thought on the Franchise…

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10 months ago · 4 likes · Vaughn Joy

& Joy’s new column is a back-to-school compilation of a number of her great reviews:

Review Roulette

Back to School Retrospective

Dear lovelies…

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10 months ago · 3 likes · Vaughn Joy

Finally, three posts from Dion Georgiou for his Academic Bubble newsletter, including this one on the BBC’s re-adaptation of Postman Pat:

The Academic Bubble

Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service (2008–2017)

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

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10 months ago · 4 likes · Dion Georgiou

Georgiou also offered a thoughtful review of the new Superman:

The Academic Bubble

Superman

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

10 months ago · 2 comments · Dion Georgiou

& if you need even more public scholarly goodness, check out the 49^th installment of Georgiou’s Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter:

The Academic Bubble

Stop, Look, and Listen #49

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

10 months ago · Dion Georgiou

PS. I’m sure I missed even more than usual over these two weeks, so please add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below! Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

Starting with a few favorites from the week as usual, including Chinese immigrant Penn Shao’s observations for the USIH blog on the American journey from Puritan orthodoxy to liberal religion:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/penn-shao-a-chinese-observer-traces-a-journey-from-puritan-orthodoxy-to-liberal-religion-in-americas-heartland/

For his Next Pittsburgh column, David Rotenstein traced the evolution & disappearance of the city’s riverfront Franklin Street Bathing Beach:

https://nextpittsburgh.com/city-design/what-happened-to-pittsburghs-riverfront-beach/

Cira Pallí-Asperó wrote for Clio & the Contemporary on the coloniality of method in post-colonial historical commissions:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/08/04/making-new-history/

For the AHA’s Perspectives blog, Kate Masur & Gregory P. Downs shared their experiences collaborating with the National Park Service on Reconstruction commemorations:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/collaborating-with-the-park-service/

Also check out part two of Cecilia Slane’s Perspectives series, this one on gardening as a strategy for getting through graduate school:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/weeding-and-writing-history/

Maisie Jepson wrote for The History Workshop on motherhood & banner-making at the 1980s Greenham Women’s Peace Camp:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/material-culture/motherhood-and-banners/

For JSTOR Daily, Danny Robb traced the fascinating history of 1920s Soviet propaganda designed to help convince peasants to fly:

https://daily.jstor.org/convincing-peasants-to-fly-in-the-soviet-union/

For his Medium column, Matthew Teutsch wrote about how education becomes indoctrination in Anna Segher’s 1940s short story “A Man Becomes a Nazi”:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/the-role-of-education-in-idoctrination-in-anna-seghers-a-man-b-980c8ad91b73?sk=5b40f655a6151120ea3b2c56633464aa

While over at his Lincoln Conspirators site, Dave Taylor told the fascinating story of the recruitment of John Wilkes Booth at Boston’s Parker House Hotel:

https://lincolnconspirators.com/2025/08/07/john-wilkes-booth-at-the-parker-house-hotel/

Speaking of fascinating stories, check out Tiffanie Turnbull for the BBC on the finally-solved mystery of Winston Churchill’s dead platypus:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cglzl1ez283o

Vital essay from Luke Kemp in Aeon on why we need to challenge the myth of collapsing empires as necessarily a bad thing:

https://aeon.co/essays/the-great-myth-of-empire-collapse

& for an important new historical resource, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives has processed the papers of Nancy Reagan’s White House astrologer:

https://www.hoover.org/news/hoover-makes-available-newly-processed-papers-nancys-reagans-white-house-astrologer

Tons of great columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues this week, including Selina Alipour Tabrizi on the quandary of posthumous publishing:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/words-left-behind-the-quandary-of-posthumous-publishing/

Will Mari wrote for the Post on the challenge of selling the first personal computers:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/the-challenge-of-selling-the-first-personal-computers/

Here’s Jackie Mansky for the Post on the late 19^th-century athletic fad of pedestrianism, competitive walking:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/walk-of-life/

For her Post travel column, Teresa Bitler traced the diverse Revolutionary-era sites & voices in Virginia’s Historic Triangle:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/revolutionary-roots-in-virginias-historic-triangle/

& for part 2 of her Women’s Work column series on suffrage histories, here’s Tanya Roth on battles beyond the 19^th Amendment:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/womens-work-votes-won-rights-denied-the-long-fight-for-womens-suffrage-part-2/

Finally, for my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column I highlighted how the U.S.S. Indianapolis & Jaws help us remember the human horrors of war:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/considering-history-the-u-s-s-indianapolis-jaws-and-the-human-horrors-of-war/

& speaking of the Indianapolis, important piece from George Dillard for his Looking Through the Past newsletter on what happened in Hiroshima after the bomb:

Looking Through the Past

After the Bomb

You almost certainly know about the mushroom cloud, the shock waves, and the flames, but did you know about the black rain that fell an hour after the atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima…

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10 months ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · George Dillard

Turning to current events, Julia Lurie wrote for Mother Jones on the Nigerian American who escaped Boko Haram, built an award-winning restaurant, & now faces deportation:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/suya-joint-boston-paul-dama-ice-detainee-deport/

Crucial New Republic column from Perry Bacon on why so many key institutions have folded to Trump’s authoritarian demands in his second term:

https://newrepublic.com/article/198787/media-universities-businesses-trump-pressure-institutions

Also for The New Republic, check out David W. Blight & colleagues on the many ways Trump is changing our sense of who we are:

https://newrepublic.com/series/67/trump-history-authoritarianism

For an inspiring alternative to those trends, check out Ella Fassler for Truthout on Black-led, progressive homeschool networks:

https://truthout.org/articles/black-led-progressive-homeschool-networks-rise-amid-book-bans-attacks-on-dei/

Similarly inspiring is Carmen Rios’s Ms. magazine interview with Dolores Huerta about the ongoing fight for a feminist future:

https://msmagazine.com/2025/08/04/dolores-huerta-podcast/

Fascinating essay from Marianne Dhenin for Noēma magazine on the Gulf world that air conditioning has created:

https://www.noemamag.com/the-gulf-world-that-air-conditioning-wrought/

While for Fast Company, Max Ufberg highlighted the 30^th anniversary of the frustrating closing of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment:

https://www.fastcompany.com/91378299/office-of-technology-assessment-closed-thirty-years-ago?mvgt=YXjs26zrpEeX

Tons of great new podcast episodes to share this week, including Episode 17 of Jim Ambuske’s Worlds Turning Upside Down featuring Benjamin Carp, James Fichter, & Mary Beth Norton:

https://www.r2studios.org/show/worlds-turned-upside-down/episode-17-the-tyranny/

For episode 15 of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Historians & Their Histories podcast, Adam Laats joined to talk the history of the American public school system:

https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-15-Laats

While episode 9 of the Civil War Monitor’s Civil War Curious podcast featured Kevin M. Levin on the myths & realities of Black Confederates:

https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/podcast/episode-9-black-confederates/

For a complementary conversation, check out Karen Cox on Reckoning with Jason Herbert talking the history of Confederate monuments:

The latest episode of the Civics & Coffee podcast tells the complex story of the WCTU & the fight for temperance:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/axes-activism-and-abstinence-the-wctu-and-the-fight-for-temperance/

While the latest episode of the Working Class History podcast is part 1 of a two-part series on women in the 1984-85 great miners’ strike:

https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e108-women-in-the-miners-strike/

The new episode of the American Prestige podcast features Michael Albertus talking about his book Land Power:

While over at WUNC’s Due South podcast, Karen Benjamin joined to talk about her book Good Parents, Better Homes, & Great Schools:

https://www.wunc.org/show/due-south/2025-08-06/new-book-explores-history-school-residential-segregation-ear-hustle-podcast-san-quentin-prx

& check out this Garden Café & Reform Dallas author conversation with Michael Phillips & Betsy Friauf on their book The Purifying Knife:

While for the latest episode of his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by Iwan Morgan to talk about the anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation:

Turning to the current administration, for Crooked Media’s Strict Scrutiny Mark Joseph Stern & Leah Litman talked Trump’s judicial nominees, & then Jessica Calarco joined to talk about her book Holding It Together:

https://www.crooked.com/podcast/stacking-the-bench-with-creeps-kooks/

For the latest episode of their Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed attacks on labor numbers & voting rights:

& for the This Old Democracy podcast, Micah Sifry interviewed Bill Kristol on the state of American democracy:

Gonna end this section with three fascinating panel discussions, including the latest episode of Matt Seybold’s The American Vandal, on Fredric Jameson & featuring Caleb Smith, Anna Kornbluh, & more:

The American Vandal

The Jameson Tapes, Side B

Apple Podcasts | Spotify…

Listen now

10 months ago · 2 likes · Matt Seybold

For the National Women’s Studies Association’s Feminist Frequencies series, Aria S. Halliday, Dominique C. Hill, & Kaila Adia Story joined host Heidi R. Lewis to talk about Black women’s writing:

& for the Pauli Murray Center, Erika W. Wilson, Serena Sebring, & Stormie Daie joined host Antonia Randolph to talk about Murray’s radical progressive legacy:

Four great posts for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Gary Scales on the history of how car seats overcame controversy to make kids safer:

https://time.com/7306364/history-car-seat-made-kids-safer/

Michael L. Rosino wrote for Made By History on what history can teach modern activists about coalition building:

https://time.com/7307042/history-coalition-building/

Here’s Kelsy Burke for Made By History on how religious opposition to trans healthcare is a relatively new phenomenon:

https://time.com/7303210/religious-opposition-trans-healthcare-new/

& finally for Made By History, Michael E. Neagle highlighted the history of demonizing words used against immigrant Americans:

https://time.com/7303350/demonizing-words-used-against-immigrants/

Lots of important book publications this week, including Daniel B. Thorp’s Seeking Justice: The Extraordinary Freedom Suits of an Enslaved Virginia Family for UVA Press:

https://upress.virginia.edu/title/10101/

Out this week from LSU Press is J. Mark Souther’s Sandhill Cities: Metropolitan Ambitions in Augusta, Columbus, & Macon, Georgia:

https://lsupress.org/9780807184899/sandhill-cities/

Also out this week is Ann Beebe’s Anne Bradstreet in Context: The Life & Work of a Colonial American Poet from McFarland:

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/anne-bradstreet-in-context/?srsltid=AfmBOooLMj3OULXGHJjGF5OgK_ImbGLX__H0xUCSigWHisEm27LVOvTs

Now available from Cambridge University Press is Emily Vine’s Birth, Death, & Domestic Religion in Early Modern London:

https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/british-history-after-1450/birth-death-and-domestic-religion-early-modern-london?format=HB&isbn=9781009457231

Two new releases from UWP Books to share this week, including Aaron X. Smith’s Afrocentricity: Generations of Theory in Practice:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/afrocentricity-generations-of-theory-in-practice/

Also out now from UWP is Sherice Janaye Nelson’s Visibly Invisible: The Black Women on the Congressional Black Caucus:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/visibly-invisible-the-black-women-of-the-congressional-black-caucus/

& speaking of UWP Books, check out founder Ayo Sekai on why established Black scholars should name the discipline’s new voices:

https://uwpbooks.com/black-voices/black-emerging-scholars/

One more new release to share this week, the latest from the prolific Brandy Schillace, The Dead Come to Stay: A Jo Jones Mystery, Book 2:

https://drusbookmusing.com/jo-jones/

Forthcoming & now available for pre-order from Princeton University Press is Julia R. Azari’s Backlash Presidents: From Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691246956/backlash-presidents?srsltid=AfmBOorT71kaYSExRsY8K4U1OKFkdxmjno6dNFB3XaLYxIvximTfzHoY

I really enjoyed Paul Henry Rosenberg’s Liberal Currents interview with Julia Gaffield about her new book I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines & Haiti’s Fight for Freedom:

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/desallines-a-maligned-hero-gets-his-due/

For the latest USIH book review, Nikita Shepard wrote about Josh L. Davis’s A Little Queer Natural History:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/on-the-queerness-of-natural-history-then-and-now-nikita-shepard-on-josh-l-daviss-a-little-queer-natural-history/

& check out Christian Warren’s H-Net Reviews piece on Deborah Kuhn McGregor & Robert Kuhn McGregor’s Rickets, Race, & Reproduction: Contracted Pelvis & the American Way of Birth:

The Blog is Coming from INSIDE the HOUSE!

This Town IS Big Enough for the Both of Us!

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing a book on the history of rickets for H-Net Reviews, an essential resource for readers of history since 1993. That’s right, with Rickets, Race and Reproduction: Contracted Pelvis and the American Way of Birth, by Deborah Kuhn McGregor and Robert Kuhn McGregor, you have your choice of two full-length monographs on …

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a year ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Christian Warren

Gonna end with lots of great new blog posts & newsletters as usual, including Kevin M. Kruse’s latest Work in Progress newsletter, on the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/work-in-progress-the-voting-rights-act/

Speaking of voting rights, bracing & crucial work as always from Sherrilyn Ifill, this time on the Supreme Court & our redistricting mess:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

How Did We Arrive at this Redistricting Mess? The Supreme Court, Of Course

“Is This How American Democracy is Supposed to Work…

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10 months ago · 258 likes · 5 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

For the Public Notice newsletter, Noah Berlatsky wrote about the July jobs report & the looming Trumpcession:

Public Notice

The looming Trumpcession

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10 months ago · 525 likes · 19 comments · Noah Berlatsky

For her The American Pamphleteer newsletter, Lady Libertie wrote about why the Cold Civil War is here--& how we win it:

The American Pamphleteer

The Cold Civil War Is Here

This isn't 1861, but don't let the lack of cannon fire fool you. America is in a civil war right now—a Cold Civil War, where the weapons are redistricting maps, federal raids, constitutional brinkmanship, and the slow suffocation of democratic norms. The difference? The battlegrounds aren’t muddy fields. They’re courtrooms, capitol buildings, and city …

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10 months ago · 189 likes · 13 comments · Lady Libertie

On that last point, for his The Long View newsletter Julian Zelizer made the case for how Democrats should & shouldn’t respond to the Texas redistricting fight:

The Long View

No More Pillow Fights

History shows us that the party that wins the White House tends to lose seats in the midterm elections. President Donald Trump, however, might have found a way to defy that trend and maintain the Republicans’ slim majority in the House in 2026…

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10 months ago · 24 likes · 2 comments · Julian Zelizer

Similarly, for his blog Philip Bump wrote about 2025 as a historical inflection point & how we respond to it:

https://www.pbump.net/o/blurred-world/?s

The Ideas Roadshow newsletter featured the final two posts in its America’s Descent series, including this one on progressive headgear:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

America's Descent: Capping the Hate (14/15)

Here we are, exactly one month later, finally nearing the conclusion of my rather long-winded Descent-induced analysis of how the United States of America rapidly transformed itself into a den of moral and political turpitude…

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10 months ago · 2 likes · Ideas Roadshow

& the series concluded with a critically optimistic post on where we go from here:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

America's Descent: Resurfacing (15/15)

After a couple of months of plunging full bore into the hateful miasma of contemporary American life with a documentary followed by a month-long series of substack posts, it’s hard to convey the full extent of my relief at finally being able to raise my head out of the mire and refocus on higher things (i.e. pretty much anything…

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10 months ago · 2 likes · Ideas Roadshow

Speaking of where we go from here, important piece from Paul Musgrave for his Systematic Hatreds newsletter on the end of summer & the start of the Fall semester:

Systematic Hatreds

Prepping

I’m prepping my courses for the fall term. It’s challenging. U.S. Foreign Policy, my bread-and-butter course, needs to be thoroughly revised to account for the breakdown of the processes and intere…

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10 months ago · 32 likes · 9 comments · Paul Musgrave

& for one place I very much don’t want to go, check out Sarah Kendzior for her newsletter on AI-created podcasts:

Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter

Soul Stripping

“An AI created a podcast of your paper,” the email said. I blinked and read it again…

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10 months ago · 570 likes · 171 comments · Sarah Kendzior

Lots of great work from Kevin M. Levin for his Civil War Memory newsletter this week, including this piece on how Confederate monuments came down in the Summer of 2020 & why it matters:

Civil War Memory

How Confederate Monuments Came Down in the Summer of 2020 and Why It Matters

The Albert Pike statue, that President Trump has ordered to be returned to its pedestal in Washington, DC after being pulled down in the summer of 20202, honors a man, who served briefly in the Confederate army. It would be a mistake, however, to describe it a…

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10 months ago · 28 likes · 4 comments · Kevin M. Levin

I really enjoyed Brendan Davey for his Half-Baked History newsletter on Minneapolis’ Riverside Plaza & the battle over the city’s history:

Half-Baked History

Brutally Beautiful

Historic preservation, like everything in America, is a business. Despite the stated noble goal of preserving culturally significant buildings and places, it operates primarily as an industry generating hundreds of billions of dollars. This is reflect…

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10 months ago · Brendan Davey

For his History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene shared the story of how Black Americans sought to fight Mussolini’s fascism in Ethiopia:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

Black Americans Rushed to Fight Fascism in Ethiopia, but the U.S. Government Stopped Them

In the summer of 1935, long lines of Black Americans stretched around registration tables on street corners in Harlem, volunteering to cross an ocean and take up arms against fascist Italy. These people were ready to risk everything to defend Ethiopia, Africa's last uncolonized nation, from Benito Mussolini's brutal invasion. More than 20,000 protesters…

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10 months ago · 139 likes · 11 comments · Kahlil Greene

While for his Doomsday Scenario site, Garret Graff wrote about why its no coincidence that the US is sliding into fascism 80 years after the end of WWII:

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/what-we-lost-when-we-lost-the-greatest-generation-ef639d4f8848ed02

For his Matt’s Historical Ephemera newsletter, Matt Eaton wrote about Canadian vs. British organized troop entertainment during WWII:

Matt’s Historical Ephemera

Keeping it Clean and Avoiding ENSA's 'Rank and Filth'

Continuing my exploration of Canadian Army welfare during the Second World War, I look at how morale-boosting troop entertainment was organised and compare it to the British approach. I delve into the 1st Canadian Army Show HQ war diary to find simmering tensions with Drury Lane’s ENSA and some excellent video footage of shows during 1944 and 1945…

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10 months ago · 3 likes · Matt Eaton

Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler explored the history & evolution of the word “muckrakers”:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/08/05/word-with-a-past-muckrackers/

I really enjoyed this Urban History Association Metropole blog walking interview with Guillermo Guajardo on railway infrastructure & memory erasure in Mexico City:

https://themetropole.blog/2025/07/23/railway-infrastructure-and-memory-erasure-in-mexico-city-a-walking-interview-with-guillermo-guajardo/

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American is always a must-read, but never more so than on occasions like the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act:

Speaking of Richardson, check out Liza Donnelly’s newsletter on her experience seeing Richardson, Yo-Yo Ma, & Emanuel Ax at Tanglewood:

Seeing Things

I Saw These People Today

I saw Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Heather Cox Richardson and live drew them! They were in-conversation at Tanglewood music venue in Massachusetts, and they talked about Beethoven, as well as what it was like in the US at the time he was composing. At its heart, the discussion was about politics and art, the influences between Europe and the new America. It…

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10 months ago · 387 likes · 21 comments · Liza Donnelly

Two great new posts from Etienne Toussaint this week, including for his Freedom Papers newsletter on Toni Morrison & writing without apology:

Freedom Papers

Beyond the Gaze

Toni Morrison once said…

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10 months ago · 4 likes · Etienne Toussaint

& over at his The Tenure Track newsletter, Toussaint offered a guide for non-traditional scholars who want to break into legal academia:

The Tenure Track

Breaking Into Legal Academia

Let me start with something I wish someone had told me earlier in my career…

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10 months ago · 3 likes · Etienne Toussaint

Gonna end with a bunch of great cultural studies posts, including Benjamin Dreyer for his A Word About… newsletter on Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch, & “yassification”:

A Word About...

Yass[ification], Queen

A good twenty years ago—as much as it pains me to begin a sentence “A good twenty years ago” and not follow that phrase with “when I was in kindergarten”—I, then in my latish forties and, perhaps owing to the very state of being in my latish forties, in search of some new type of modish self-adornment, inquired of a friend, then in his latish twenties, …

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10 months ago · 85 likes · 29 comments · Benjamin Dreyer

Fascinating piece from Talia Levin for her The Sword & the Sandwich newsletter on queer historical yearning:

https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich/archive/a-queer-shoulder-to-the-wheel/

Important guest post from Jason Scott for the Internet Archive’s Vanishing Culture series on why we should preserve Flash:

https://blog.archive.org/2025/08/06/vanishing-culture-why-preserve-flash/

Danai Christopoulou wrote for Khoreo magazine on the upcoming Odyssey film, the Elgin marbles, & the classical in the 21^st century:

https://www.khoreomag.com/non-fiction/these-marbles-were-never-white/

Fascinating Vanity Fair excerpt from Nicholas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story on James Baldwin’s fraught Hollywood journey with Malcolm X’s autobiography:

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/they-will-try-to-kill-you-james-baldwins-fraught-hollywood-journey

For The New Yorker, Inkoo Kang wrote about Hollywood’s conservative pivot as complicated context for the revival of King of the Hill:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/king-of-the-hill-tv-review-hulu

While over at her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy continued her Naked Gun reviews with a fascinating genre analysis of the second film’s surprisingly pointed politics:

Review Roulette

Frank Drebin and a Lion Save the Planet from Robert Goulet

The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991) - Genre (Kinda…

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10 months ago · 1 like · Vaughn Joy

& speaking of Joy, her must-read upcoming book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is now available for pre-order:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/selling-out-santa-vaughn-joy/1147556052

If you need more public scholarly goodness, Dion Georgiou has given us not one but two installments of his Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter, the 47^th:

The Academic Bubble

Stop, Look, and Listen #47

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Dion Georgiou

& the 48^th:

The Academic Bubble

Stop, Look, and Listen #48

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

10 months ago · Dion Georgiou

& for some inside baseball on these #ScholarSunday threads, my evolving public scholarly career, & much much more, check out my conversation with the great Walter D. Greason for his The Long View podcast:

PS. No thread next weekend as I’ll be celebrating my birthday in Virginia, so make sure to keep sharing all the writing, podcasts, books, & more, & I’ll see you back here in two weeks from tomorrow!

Note: I know well Substack’s ongoing & deepening issues, & my wife & I are working to create an alternative, non-corporate public scholarly website that should launch this fall. For now, I hope these free collections of amazing work represent the best of this space & our communities.

Starting with a few favorites from the week as usual, including Meg Pillow for LitHub unpacking the archetype of the “promising young woman” with her own story & much more:

https://lithub.com/on-promising-young-women-and-the-nameless-men-who-get-in-their-way/

For his PGH City Paper column, David Rotenstein told the fascinating story of the building that once housed Pittsburgh’s most notorious madam:

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/the-bacchus-house-with-its-odd-facade-was-once-home-to-pittsburghs-most-notorious-madam-28422616

For History Workshop, Sabine Hanke highlighted histories of indigenous performance & resistance in the early 20^th century:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/indigenous-history/performing-the-exotic-and-lakota-resistance/

While for Contingent magazine, A’liya Spinner wrote about an example of the vital scientific & archival work that is threatened by current cuts:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/07/28/the-losses-of-archives-and-arthropods/

& for a vital new archival resource, check out Miranda Spieler, Meredith Martin, & Hannah Williams’ Slaves in Paris Digital Mapping Project:

https://slavesinparis.org/

I really enjoyed this University of Vermont History in Action conversation with Felicia Kornbluh about her public scholarly work:

https://www.uvm.edu/cas/news/history-action-conversation-professor-felicia-kornbluh

Three pieces from the AHA’s Perspectives blog to share this week, including an update on the second month of the AHA Reads campaign:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-reads-2025-second-month-complete/

Also for Perspectives, NPS Park Ranger Ashley Whitehead Luskey contributed a moving & powerful piece on her work at the Richmond National Battlefield Park:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-future-of-our-nations-past/

& check out Jessica Ramos for Perspectives on the power of counter-narratives in elementary social studies to teach girls that they belong:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/teaching-girls-they-belong/

On a similar note, check out Selina Alipour Tabrizi for the Saturday Evening Post on some of the vital women behind famous male writers:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/behind-many-a-great-male-writer-is-a-woman-holding-a-pen/

That’s one of four columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, also including Nancy Rubin Stuart on silent film star Billie Burke’s relationship to Florenz Ziegfeld:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/missing-in-history-billie-burkes-tumultuous-relationship-with-florenz-ziegfeld/

Derek Mong wrote for the Post on how a small town in Texas & the 4^th of July saved his faith in the American road trip:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/saving-the-great-american-road-trip/

& I really enjoyed Post film reviewer Bill Newcott on Shoshana, a historical epic with a lot of complex present-day connections:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/review-shoshana-movies-for-the-rest-of-us-with-bill-newcott/

Turning to such current events, vital work from Julia Rose Kraut & Tyler McBrien for Lawfare on Trump’s embrace of ideological exclusion & deportation:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-trump-admin-s-embrace-of-ideological-exclusion-and-deportation

For resistance to such policies, check out Jennifer Stavros for the Los Angeles Public Press on LA therapists’ “whisper networks” to help immigrants:

https://lapublicpress.org/2025/07/therapists-creating-whisper-networks-to-help-immigrants/

Brant Bingamon wrote for The Austin Chronicle on how right-wing crackdowns on higher ed are driving academics away from the University of Texas:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2025-07-25/right-wing-crackdowns-drive-academics-away-from-ut-and-the-u-s/

Here’s Joseph Stieb for Liberal Currents on how the “restraint movement” in foreign policy lost its way through its attachment to Trump:

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/how-the-restraint-movement-lost-its-way/#/portal/signup

Great love letter to the lost pleasure of newspaper & magazine local music listings from Gabriel Kahane in The Atlantic (gift link below):

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/death-of-local-music-listings/683669/?gift=F2XcJGWxro5VL-sCQ2djtqlnrhkLI9I1OeHAIHOsj6s&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

& I really enjoyed Monique Welch-Rutherford in Capital B news on what Katrina survivors have contributed to a renaissance in Houston:

https://capitalbnews.org/houston-katrina-survivors-20-years-later/

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest of Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History featuring Susan Juster on Catholicism in the pre-Revolutionary colonies:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Catholics/

Speaking of pre-Revolutionary religion, episode 417 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World features the editors of Reading Roger Williams: Rogue Puritans, Indigenous Nations, & the Founding of America, Linford Fisher, Sheila McIntyre, & Julie Fisher:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-417-roger-williams-rogue-puritan/

While for the new episode of Ian Saxine & Tiffany Link’s Mainely History, the organizers of the November 2024 Descendants Walk joined to talk about that event & the 1724 massacre at Norridgewock:

https://mainelyhistory.podbean.com/e/descendantswalk/

Episode 182 of Axelbank Reports History & Today features Evan’s interview with James Bradley about his book Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician:

For the latest episode of the Shipwrecks & Seadogs podcast, John Noonan & John Bricker joined to talk about the rediscovered Civil War-era ship the Adriatic:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-adriatic-a-civil-war-era-ship-uncovered/

The latest episode of Kamran Javadizadeh’s Close Readings features Siobhan Phillips on the great Marianne Moore:

For a fascinating new episode of the Oh What a Lovely podcast, the hosts turned the mic over to nine young readers to talk about the YA historical novel The Boy I Loved:

https://ohwhatalovelypodcast.co.uk/podcast/the-boy-i-loved/

Episode 60 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast features Alette Smeulers on studying perpetrators of mass violence:

Two new episodes of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast this week, including linguist Valerie Fridland on American dialects & accents :

& for the latest in his In the Making current events series, Liam compared the Epstein Files to Nixon’s Watergate tapes:

Speaking of current events conversations, for SSN’s No Jargon podcast Taryn Morrissey joined to discus devastating cuts to our safety nets:

https://scholars.org/podcast/when-safety-net-shrinks

For the This Old Democracy podcast, host Micah Sifry was joined by journalist Perry Bacon to discuss the deepening crisis of American democracy:

While for the new episode of John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast the hosts discussed South Park’s satirical resistance to Trump & Paramount:

& for the latest episode of Mark Anthony Neal’s Left of Black podcast, Sam C. Tenorio joined to talk Black anarchism’s resistance to anti-Blackness:

Finally, two special episodes to share this week, including possibly the final episode of the Reimagining the Internet podcast featuring the great Alondra Nelson:

https://publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/117-alondra-nelson/

& for the Civics & Coffee podcast, host Alycia Asai reflected on five years of podcasting & discussed the show’s rebranding & future:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/five-years-of-civics-coffee-welcome-to-the-new-era/

Three great pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Chipo Dendere & Kellie Carter-Jackson on what history tells us about the dangers of Trump’s brain drain:

https://time.com/7298847/history-dangers-trumps-brain-drain/

Here’s Sejal Patel-Tolksdorf for Made By History on how bureaucracy & budgets have always shaped American medical research:

https://time.com/7302294/bureaucracy-reshaped-american-medical-research/

& finally for Made By History, Kate L. Flach traced what the 1990s internet boom can tell us about the current AI craze:

https://time.com/7302216/internet-history-ai/

Over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog, Ashley Everson interviewed Crystal R. Sanders about her book A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregated Scholarships, & the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs:

https://www.aaihs.org/a-forgotten-migration-an-interview-with-crystal-r-sanders/

Speaking of important scholarly books, out this week from UNC Press is Alaina M. Morgan’s Atlantic Crescent: Building Geographies of Black & Muslim Liberation in the African Diaspora:

https://uncpressblog.com/2025/07/29/new-this-week-july-29/

While now out in paperback from Routledge is Gregory Rupik’s Remapping Biology with Goethe, Schelling, & Herder: Romanticizing Evolution:

https://www.routledge.com/Remapping-Biology-with-Goethe-Schelling-and-Herder-Romanticizing-Evolution/Rupik/p/book/9781032582986?srsltid=AfmBOopF1AUtJViFgyLnNB0IcqPBQBIfpI3o1KUZkKgsBC6FUb1xs3MQ

Finally available for pre-order from Princeton University Press is Dan Sinykin & Johanna Winant’s much-anticipated collection Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691265704/close-reading-for-the-twenty-first-century?srsltid=AfmBOor7ed7W_d6blUJGHGg-RHlSXupV6cj8qWfp8OXqj_PLtqkCimL6

For an excerpt from an important recent publication, here’s Anders Stephanson in Jacobin from his American Imperatives: The Cold War & Other Matters:

https://jacobin.com/2025/07/cold-war-ussr-china-history/

For the latest USIH book review, Michelle Christian wrote about Alexander D. Barder’s Global Race War: International Politics & Racial Hierarchy:

https://s-usih.org/2025/07/michelle-christian-on-alexander-d-barders-global-race-war-international-politics-and-racial-hierarchy/

& behind a paywall but well worth if it you can track it down is David S. Reynolds’s New York Review of Books essay on Edward Larson’s American Inheritance: Liberty & Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795:

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/08/21/the-contradictory-revolution-american-inheritance-larson/

Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as ever, including the latest in the Ideas Roadshow America’s Descent series, this one on how the news became entertainment:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

America's Descent: The Death of Objectivity (11/15)

We’ve seen how a time-honoured tactic of would-be authoritarian leaders is to present themselves as living “solutions” of a fractured political climate, explicitly tapping into the prevailing sense of anger amongst large tranches of the general populace who feel let down and generally ignored by their official representatives…

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a year ago · 2 likes · Ideas Roadshow

For his The Good Society newsletter, Michael Albertus interviewed senior January 6^th prosecutor Sonia Mittal on the gap between the law & democratic erosion:

The Good Society

Q&A With Senior January 6th Prosecutor Sonia Mittal

This post is an interview with Sonia Mittal, who worked as a senior January 6 prosecutor and now co-leads a rule of law clinic at Yale Law School. Sonia was also a classmate of mine at Stanford University, where we both studied political science (and for a time shared an office). She pursued a JD as well, uniquely positioning her to understand the overl…

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a year ago · Michael Albertus

Two interconnected pieces for Steve Vladeck’s One First newsletter, this one on the DOJ’s misconduct complaint against Judge Boasberg:

One First

170. DOJ's (Ridiculous) Misconduct Complaint Against Chief Judge Boasberg

Welcome back to “One First,” an (increasingly frequent) newsletter that aims to make the U.S. Supreme Court more accessible to all of us. If you’re not already a subscriber, I hope you’ll consider becoming one (and, if you already are, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription if your circumstances permit…

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a year ago · 371 likes · 74 comments · Steve Vladeck

& this important follow-up piece responding to law professor Jonathan Adler’s defense of the DOJ:

One First

Bonus 170: Whose Judicial Overreach?

Welcome back to the weekly bonus content for “One First.” Although Monday’s regular newsletter (and unscheduled issues like Tuesday’s on DOJ’s misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Boasberg) will remain free for as long as I’m able to do this, I put much of the weekly bonus issue behind a paywall as an added incentive for those who are willing and able to support the work that goes into putting this newsletter together every week. I’m grateful to those of you who are already paid subscribers, and I hope that those of you who aren’t will consider a paid subscription if and when your circumstances permit…

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a year ago · 130 likes · 23 comments · Steve Vladeck

For her Medium column, Allison Wiltz wrote about the frustrating current flirtation with a return to racial segregation:

https://allyfromnola.medium.com/whites-only-is-no-longer-a-past-problem-its-a-present-one-455852311fee

While Thomas Zimmer wrote for his Democracy Americana newsletter on white supremacy & the enduring debate over what & for whom is America:

Democracy Americana

What Is America, and for Whom?

Before we get into a broader reflection on how to situate the Trumpist moment in U.S. history: Democracy Americana is back…

Read more

a year ago · 241 likes · 48 comments · Thomas Zimmer

Seth Masket wrote for the Tusk newsletter on the Trump administration’s multilayered assault on higher education:

Tusk

Murdering higher education, 1-2-3

Much of Donald Trump’s governing approach in his second term is to take conservative bogeymen — long used for fundraising and for riling up base voters — and actually use the power of the government to attack them. We’ve seen that with foreign aid, food stamps, health care, and more, but one of the most aggressive areas has been in higher education. Cov…

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a year ago · 18 likes · 4 comments · Seth Masket

Two parallel pieces for Kahlil Greene’s History Can’t Hide newsletter this week, including this one on a Massachusetts town’s resistance to an ICE arrest:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

ICE Arrested an Honor Student on His Way to Volleyball Practice, but His Town Fought Back

On a Saturday morning in late May, Marcelo Gomes da Silva thought someone was following him. The 18-year-old honor student noticed a white Ford Explorer trailing his car as he drove to volleyball practice in Milford, Massachusetts. When he pulled into his friend's driveway, an ICE agent walked up, knocked on his window, and asked for his documents. Minu…

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a year ago · 214 likes · 6 comments · Kahlil Greene

& Greene also wrote about the erased history of Grace Wisher, the free Black girl in early 19C Baltimore who helped stitch the flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

She Helped Create America's Flag at 13. History Erased Her Name.

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, politicians lectured about respecting the flag and honoring those who made our sacred symbols possible. Conservative pundits invoked "real Americans" and founding values when discussing proper flag etiquette. They spoke of reverence for the flag as if they knew its complete history…

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a year ago · 140 likes · 6 comments · Kahlil Greene

Speaking of flags, Liz Jackson & Rua M. Williams wrote for Thank You for Your Feedback Loop on the fraught Disability Pride Flag:

https://buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/unraveling-the-disability-pride-flag/

For his blog, William G. Pooley wrote about the term “glazing” & what it can tell us about AI in 2025:

https://williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/glazed-and-confused/

For bracing historical parallels to our current moment, check out Garret Graff for his Doomsday Scenario newsletter on the stories of people fleeing 1930s fascism:

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/fleeing-one-step-ahead-of-fascism-fbcf5ac4661dca77

I really loved Kevin M. Levin for his Civil War Memory newsletter on what he’d argue was the most important moment during Reconstruction:

Civil War Memory

The Most Important Moment During Reconstruction

As part of a roundtable discussion with three other historians, on the final day of this past week’s teacher development program in Washington, DC, a participant asked us to identify the most important moment during Reconstruction to teach to students. My explanation for my choice, however, will be framed for a broader audie…

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a year ago · 39 likes · 8 comments · Kevin M. Levin

For a new installment of his Liberating Narratives blog, Bram Hubbell wrote about teaching East Africa in world history, c.1000 to the present:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-mixed-population-of-muslims-and-zanj/

For his A Necessitous Blog, Eric Rauchway highlighted the fascinating story & data behind New Deal-era relief to U.S. territories:

https://erauchway.github.io/posts/relief_pc/relief_st_terr.html

Two new posts at Pamela D. Toler’s History in the Margins blog this week, including this one on corsets’ contributions to the WWI home front:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/07/29/corsets-for-victory/

& Toler followed up a reader question with this post on the great journalist & creative writer Rebecca Harding Davis:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/08/01/rebecca-harding-davis-making-things-real/

For his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussiant shared with Zora Neale Hurston can tell us about writing with curiosity & purpose:

Freedom Papers

On Writing with Curiosity and Purpose

Zora Neale Hurston once said…

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a year ago · 9 likes · 4 comments · Etienne Toussaint

For her Feminist Giant newsletter, Mona Eltahawy offered some birthday reflections on lifting, strength, & continued growth:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: Lifting Heavy Shit

Photo: Robert E. Rutledge…

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a year ago · 68 likes · 4 comments · Mona Eltahawy

While for her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson penned an ode to platonic love between Black women:

Love Notes

A Love Letter To Kris: An Ode To Platonic Love Between Black Women

I'm not a trusting person. I have good reason, too…

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a year ago · 38 likes · Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

Gonna end with great cultural studies pieces as I often do, including Liza Donnelly for her substack on groundbreaking New Yorker cartoonist Mary Petty:

Seeing Things

The Cartoons Of Mary Petty

Next up in my series of short profiles of the women cartoonists of The New Yorker is Mary Petty! Petty sold her first drawing to The New Yorker in 1927…

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a year ago · 227 likes · 19 comments · Liza Donnelly

For his Adventures in the Archive newsletter, Chris Yogerst reminded us of the first reactions to South Park back in 1997:

Adventures in the Archive with Chris Yogerst

First Reactions to South Park in 1997

Shortly after the pilot aired, Variety’s Ray Richmond described South Park as “Peanuts meets A Clockwork Orange.” The show’s “gloriously subversive art” landed television’s first TV-M rating. South Park was released during a period of peaking parental fear over the influence of television on children. Like…

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a year ago · 1 like · Chris Yogerst

Another great essay for Bright Wall/Dark Room, this time Veronica Fitzpatrick on The Silence of the Lambs:

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/07/29/where-to-look-silence-of-the-lambs/

& Vaughn Joy offered a wonderful installment of her Review Roulette newsletter, a formalist take on the original Naked Gun & the best of film comedy:

Review Roulette

Ferris Bueller Didn't Kill OJ Simpson, but Frank Drebin Did Save the Queen

The Naked Gun (1988) - Formalist…

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a year ago · 5 likes · Vaughn Joy

Also check out this introductory post for what should be a fascinating new material culture newsletter, Grave Concerns:

Grave Concerns

An Introduction to Grave Concerns

Grave Concerns: Histories of Death for the Modern Day…

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a year ago · 1 like · Abby (Grave Concerns)

& if you can’t get enough public scholarly goodness (me neither!), check out Dion Georgiou’s 46^th Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter:

The Academic Bubble

Stop, Look, and Listen #46

Please support my work by becoming a free or a paid subscriber to the newsletter. Paid subscribers can access my full archive of posts at any time, and are vital to me being able to continue producing and expanding this newsletter…

Read more

a year ago · 3 likes · Dion Georgiou

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

Starting this week with a bunch of great open-access public scholarly articles, including Liz Hallgren & Sarah J. Jackson in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly on the radical humanism of prison journalism:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10776990251357300

Also open-access is Marnie Howlett & Lauren C. Konken in PS: Political Science & Politics on breaking down the “home-field” dichotomy:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/finding-the-field-in-our-homes-and-our-homes-in-the-field-a-critique-of-the-homefield-dichotomy/BFC0348F25383372CF8E5B26769E48F4

Likewise open-access is Michael Brown & Joanne Begiato for Historical Research on the Royal Military Exhibition of 1890 & militarism in Victorian Britain:

https://academic.oup.com/histres/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hisres/htaf018/8206438?searchresult=1&login=false

& for a very timely open-access article, check out Evan D. Bernick, Paul Gowder, & Anthony Michael Kreis’s latest in the Cornell Law Review on birthright citizenship:

https://publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/2025/07/23/birthright-citizenship-and-the-dunning-school-of-unoriginal-meanings/

Thanks to Walter D Greason for sharing a pair of compelling pieces, including this crucial New Jersey court ruling that reinforces the state AG’s takeover of Paterson’s racist police department:

https://www.njcourts.gov/system/files/court-opinions/2025/a_30_24.pdf

& thanks to Walter as well for sharing this Nature essay from Ananyo Bhattacharya on how we’re getting closer to a grand unified theory of mathematics:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02197-3

Speaking of breakthrough science, here’s Asher Elbein for National Geographic on an interesting & important newly rediscovered prehistoric reptile:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/crested-triassic-reptile

Melanie A. Kiechle wrote for Nursing Clio on the all-too-timely question of what it was like to die before the introduction of germ theory & preventative medicine:

https://nursingclio.org/2025/07/21/dying-before-germ-theory/

Peder Anker argued in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that it was General Groves, not Oppenheimer, who really invented the atomic bomb:

https://thebulletin.org/2025/07/general-groves-invented-the-atomic-bomb-not-oppenheimer/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=BlueskyPost072025&utm_content=NuclearRisk_GeneralGroves_07212025

& here’s Nicole Donawho for JSTOR Daily on questions instructors can ask ourselves when it comes to choosing assigned readings:

https://daily.jstor.org/assigned-readings-questions-to-ask-yourself/

Three great pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Allison Isham on how working for the National Parks Service brought her to public history:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/from-passion-to-practice/

Also for Perspectives, here’s Alisa Kuzmina on what archival research taught her about loving across borders:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/divided-lives-connected-in-the-archive/

& finally for Perspectives, here’s the latest AHA Member Spotlight, featuring University of Kentucky Emeritus historian Jeremy Popkin:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-member-spotlight-jeremy-popkin/

Two Saturday Evening Post columns to share this week, including Joel Haas on how whisky distilleries defiled dairy milk in the mid-1800s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/swill-milk-when-distilleries-defiled-dairy/

While for my own latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, I wrote for the US postal system’s 250^th anniversary on Ben Franklin, the mail, & founding American ideals:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/considering-history-ben-franklin-the-u-s-postal-system-and-founding-american-ideals/

Speaking of founding ideals but turning to current events, important piece from Brendon Bordwine in the University of Virginia Cavalier Daily featuring historians Annette Gordon-Reed & Alan Taylor on President Ryan’s resignation & the university’s Jeffersonian origins:

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/07/was-ryan-anti-jeffersonian-historians-weigh-in-after-his-resignation

For more on campuses, free speech, & political realities, check out Nicole Hemmer’s vital contribution to the Boston Review’s ongoing Forum:

https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-right-to-be-hostile/the-actual-politics-of-free-speech-is-fueled-by-a-right-wing-political-strategy/

For an effect of these right-wing repressions of speech, here’s Olivia Hebert for SFGate on the erasure of history at Muir Woods National Monument:

https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/muir-woods-national-monument-history-erased-20781301.php?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=688046db04821f00011576a9&utm_campaign=trueanthem%2B3984&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Vital work from Jamelle Bouie for his New York Times column on how J.D. Vance is claiming one of our worst historical legacies as his own (gift link below):

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/jd-vance-claremont-american-citizen.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Yk8.klbn.qJ7gbDecGo1x&smid=url-share

Joseph Stieb wrote for Liberal Currents on how a recent Harper’s review reflects a muddled analysis of the Ukraine war, one shaped by Russian propaganda:

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/moyns-muddle-on-ukraine/#/portal/signup

Two bracing & important reports this week, including this one from the Union of Concerned Scientists on the first six months of the Trump administration’s attacks on science & democracy:

https://www.ucs.org/resources/science-and-democracy-under-siege

& also check out this American Immigration Council special report on the administration’s mass deportation regime:

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/report/mass-deportation-trump-democracy/

I’ll end this section with three more hopeful pieces, including Tashi McQueen for Afro News on how Black museums guard our histories (h/t Kidada E. Williams):

https://afro.com/black-museums-preserve-african-american-history/

Moving reporting from Meghan Holohan for Today on how Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Cosby Show character helped kids with learning disabilities feel seen:

https://www.today.com/health/news/malcolm-jamal-warner-cosby-show-dyslexia-rcna220260

& fun essay from Jennifer Stavros for Travel Host on where you can visit Pee-wee Herman’s classic bicycle:

https://travelhost.com/news/heres-where-you-can-visit-pee-wee-hermans-classic-bike

Tons of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Mark Anthony Neal’s Left of Black featuring Kali Nicole Gross on Black women’s rage as a means toward justice:

For episode three of the Hollywood or History podcast, host Scott Roberts was joined by Nancy Sardone to discuss Pocohontas:

The latest episode of Dan Show’s History Hit podcast features A. Brad Schwartz on Orson Welles’ alien invasion hoax:

https://shows.acast.com/dansnowshistoryhit/episodes/the-war-of-the-worlds-the-great-alien-invasion-hoax

Brandy Schillace joined host Neil Denny at the Little Atoms podcast to discuss her new book The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story:

https://shows.acast.com/b5fe8d16-7518-4208-861b-e1ec5ce88192/episodes/687f6f3cfd9acfeba474045a?

While over at the Civics & Coffee podcast, Amy Brady joined to discuss her new book Ice: A Cool History of a Hot Commodity:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/ice-the-hidden-history-of-a-hot-commodity-with-dr-amy-brady/

For the latest episode of Mainely History, hosts Ian Saxine & Tiffany Link welcomed Seppala sled dog musher & historian Jonathan Hayes:

https://mainelyhistory.podbean.com/e/seppala/

While episode 47 of the Never Mind the Dambusters…It’s the Bomber Command podcast features Paul Woodage on the bombing war in Normandy:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2327200/episodes/17373803-episode-47-remembering-the-bombing-war-in-normandy-with-paul-woodadge

Three episodes of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast this week, including guest Marco Tabellini on the Chinese Exclusion Act:

Liam also shared two new episodes of his In the Making current events conversations, including this one on Elon Musk:

& check out this In the Making conversation on why we must protect universities from government interference:

Continuing with current events podcasts, veteran journalist Mike Sacks joined John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast:

The latest episode of Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet focuses on North Korea & Russia’s cyberattacks on the U.S. in the aftermath of the comedy film The Interview:

For the latest episode of Jennifer van Alstyne’s The Social Academic podcast, Ruth C. White joined to talk about why female academics are experiencing burnout:

& three new episodes of Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations dropped this week, including one with Kate Barr & Justice Anita Earls on voter suppression:

Heather also talked with Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow on the whys & hows of getting involved in politics:

& finally, here’s Heather’s conversation with Liza Donnelly on her new documentary Women Laughing about female cartoonists at The New Yorker:

A trio of great new pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Andrew Morris on the New York Socialist mayor who came 100 years before Mamdani:

https://time.com/7301483/socialist-mayor-before-zohran-mamdani/

Bruce W. Dearstyne argued for Made By History that Democrats need a modern John F. Kennedy moment:

https://time.com/7291890/democrats-john-f-kennedy-moment/

& finally for Made By History, here’s Joseph P. Slaughter on the 200-year history of American virtue capitalism:

https://time.com/7293089/history-of-american-virtue-capitalism/

Three excellent author interviews over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog this week, including Robert Greene II talking with Martha S. Jones about her book The Trouble of Color:

https://www.aaihs.org/the-trouble-of-color-an-interview-with-martha-s-jones/

Ashley Everson interviewed Joseph Williams about his Global Black Thought article on Black women’s intellectual activism:

https://www.aaihs.org/joseph-williams-on-black-womens-intellectual-activism/

& Ashley also interviewed Christy Garrison Harrison about her Global Black Thought article on Black feminist geographies:

https://www.aaihs.org/christy-garrison-harrison-on-black-feminist-geographies/

Speaking of authors, some important new books to highlight this week, including Stacie Brensilver Berman & Robert Cohen’s Teaching LGBTQ+ History in High Schools: Practical Strategies & Voices of Experience from Routledge:

https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-LGBTQ-History-in-High-Schools-Practical-Strategies-and-Voices-of-Experience/BrensilverBerman-Cohen/p/book/9781032689647

Also out this week is Joseph Lee’s Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, & the Search for Indigenous Identity from Simon & Schuster:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Nothing-More-of-This-Land/Joseph-Lee/9781668087251

& a recent book that I missed in these threads is Joseph Darda’s Gift & Grit: Race, Sports, & the Construction of Social Debt from Cambridge UP:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/gift-and-grit/2542BF88E2475A72C71FDF8F863E1997

Forthcoming in August is Jessica M. Lepler’s Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic & Pacific in the Age of Revolutions from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469690551/canal-dreamers/

Check out this NPR Morning Edition interview with Tracy Slater about her new book Together in Manzanar:

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/22/nx-s1-5444029/ww2-family-history-book-together-in-manzanar-tracy-slater

While for Orion magazine, Tajja Isen interviewed Maris Kreizman about her new essay collection I Want to Burn This Place Down:

https://orionmagazine.org/article/after-we-burn-it-all-down/

Over at his History Respawned site, Robert Whitaker offered an importantly & constructively critical review of Tore Olsson’s Red Dead’s History:

https://www.historyrespawned.com/home/2025/7/21/reviewer-2s-review-of-red-deads-history

While for The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot reviewed Sarah Gold McBride’s Whiskerology: The Culture of Hair in Nineteenth-Century America:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/whiskerology-the-culture-of-hair-in-nineteenth-century-america-sarah-gold-mcbride-book-review

& for the latest USIH book review, here’s DJ Polite on Michael K. Brown’s Unjust Restitution: A Century of Black Struggle for Equality:

https://s-usih.org/2025/07/dj-polite-on-michael-k-browns-unjust-restitution-a-century-of-black-struggle-for-equality/

Speaking of the Society for U.S. Intellectual History, check out the full program for their upcoming 2025 conference in Detroit:

https://s-usih.org/conference/s-usih-2025-conference-detroit/

& for tons more book recommendations, here are contributors to Engelsberg Ideas with summer reading recommendations:

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-summer-of-reading/

Over at their Modern Medieval newsletter, David M. Perry & Matt Gabriele wrote about the new essay collection The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition:

https://buttondown.com/ModernMedieval/archive/the-devil-in-history/

Gonna end with a ton of other great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Matthew Teutsch’s latest Interminable Rambling post on what our founding documents tell us about ourselves:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/what-do-our-founding-documents-tell-us-about-ourselves-23b89a6020ab

Kevin M. Levin wrote for his Civil War Memory newsletter on how Trump’s assault on the NPS is an attack on history itself:

Civil War Memory

Trump's Assault on the NPS is Not a Disagreement Over History. It is an Attack on History Itself

We need to stop framing this ongoing “review,” ordered by the Trump administration of the National Park Service’s interpretive assets, as a disagreement over history. Only one side in this story is engaged in the interpretation of American history and it is not the Trump administration…

Read more

a year ago · 51 likes · 32 comments · Kevin M. Levin

The Ideas Roadshow newsletter shared highlights from their conversation with political theorist John Dunn on democracy, American-style:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

Democracy, American Style

How many times have you heard angry opponents of the current president refer to him as “a threat to our democracy”? How many times have you heard that the key motivation of the Founding Fathers was to firmly establish the United States of America as a democracy? How many times ha…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Ideas Roadshow

For The Contrarian, Jennifer Rubin wrote about how that democracy is on life support but there is a path to recovery:

The Contrarian

Democracy is on Life Support

Donald Trump went politically underwater at an historically early point in his second term. His positive approval rating vanished in February, and his polling has drifted downward since then. Rising inflation; draconian cuts to everything from healthcare to public broadcasting; lies and erratic reversals in foreign policy (e.g., exaggerating the results…

Read more

a year ago · 1279 likes · 243 comments · Jennifer Rubin

Over at his Fool’s Gold newsletter, Donald Earl Collins continued his series on mythbusting detention camps, past & present:

Fool's Gold: Confessions From An Educated Fool

Mythbusting, Detention Camps, and Spinning Sage's Gold, II

The audio recording is my continuation of my read from Spinning Sage’s Gold about my allegorical essay about mythbusting, the US and the West, and the debate over the efficacy of detention camps for malignant and deadly narcissists in a possible post-Western world…

Listen now

a year ago · Donald Earl Collins

For her Degenerate Art newsletter, Andrea Pitzer wrote about listening to the voices of those who have been saved from vanishing:

https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/the-voices-of-the-returned

While for his History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene highlighted Netanyahu’s propaganda tour with ignorant influencers:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

ICC War Criminal Gets McDonald's Interview While Real Journalists Get Silenced

Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with the Nelk Boys this week for an hour-long interview that should make every thinking person sick. While hundreds of thousands of women and children suffer from severe malnutrition in Gaza, the man orchestrating their starvation got asked about his favorite McDonald's order…

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a year ago · 98 likes · 7 comments · Kahlil Greene

Wonderful essay from Mona Eltahawy for her Feminist Giant newsletter on Mamdani & being Muslim in New York:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: New York Muslim State of Mind

(L) Me wearing a t-shirt that says I love Harlem in Arabic; (R) Bill Keller, speaking to his camera crew in front of Park 51, shortly before he yelled at me “You are your husband’s property!” Sept. 2…

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a year ago · 48 likes · Mona Eltahawy

Over at her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson traced the intersections of disability, gender, & Blackness that comprise ableist misogynoir:

Love Notes

Ableist Misogynoir: The Intersections of Disability, Gender, and Blackness

July is Disability Pride Month. It marks the anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was passed on July 26th, 1990. That means that, until the late 20th century, there were no concrete federal protections for disabled people in the United States. Disabled folks had no avenues for pursui…

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a year ago · 27 likes · Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

While for Wonkette, Robyn Pennacchia wrote about the not-shocking news that working class is actually fond of left-wing economic policies:

Wonkette

Shocking: Working Class Actually Quite Fond Of Left-Wing Economic Policies

If there is one thing that Republicans and Democratic consultants can agree on, it is that the working class of America loves racism and sexism and hates socialism. Alas, not only does this ignore the rather glaring fact that people of color make up…

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a year ago · 119 likes · 241 comments · Robyn Pennacchia

I really enjoyed Helen Choi for The Important Work on why she’s making her students read Karen Hao’s Empire of AI:

The Important Work

I'm making my students read a book

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a year ago · 41 likes · 12 comments · Helen Choi

On a similar note, Armand D’Angour wrote for his newletter on the use of writing in ancient Athens & in the age of AI:

Armand’s Substack: Little Latin and More Greek

On the Use of Writing

What is the point of writing in a world where AI can do it faster and better? Those of us who write a lot know that writing is central to organising and articulating our thoughts. Worryingly, the use of handwriting specifically is said to engage memory and to support thinking and creativity in ways that typed writing does not…

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a year ago · 20 likes · 7 comments · Armand D'Angour

For his A Word About… newsletter, Benjamin Dreyer wrote about the nonbinary pronoun “they” & not taking the bait of hostile responses:

A Word About...

'Tis a gift

The other day someone asked me—nicely, as I like to be asked things—to weigh in on the subject of the singular “they,” and as I’d already weighed in on it at length I was happy to point them toward that lengthy weight in essay form…

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a year ago · 81 likes · 29 comments · Benjamin Dreyer

Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler highlighted the journalist-adventurer Richard Harding Davis:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/07/22/richard-harding-davis-journalist-adventurer/

Two new newsletters from Etienne Toussaint this week, including the conclusion of his Freedom Papers series on moving from guidance to partnership:

Freedom Papers

Beyond the Shepherd

What does it mean to offer guidance in public…

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a year ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Etienne Toussaint

While over at his The Tenure Track newsletter, Etienne concluded another series, this one on outlining a law review article:

The Tenure Track

Transforming Outlines into Enduring Scholarship

The most brilliant legal insights remain trapped in academic isolation when scholars cannot bridge the gap between the article outline and the finished product…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Etienne Toussaint

Gonna end with a trio of great cultural studies pieces, including KM Nelson for Heat Death on whether the antagonist in Nope was really a monster:

https://heat-death.ghost.io/alien-minds/

For Slant magazine, Marshall Shaffer interviewed Charles Burnett on the long, complicated, vital history of Killer of Sheep:

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/charles-burnett-interview-killer-of-sheep/

& for a special Christmas in July installment of her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy wrote about three adaptations of A Christmas Carol:

Review Roulette

The Original Scared Straight

A Christmas Carol (1984), Scrooged (1988), and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Contemporary History…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Vaughn Joy

& speaking of our best Christmas- & Film Studier, Vaughn’s forthcoming book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is available for pre-order from Indie Pubs:

https://indiepubs.com/products/selling-out-santa

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially yours) below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

Starting with a few pieces inspired by the ongoing 250^th anniversary of the Revolution, including James Poniewozik for the New York Times’s Critic’s Notebook on 1970s “Bicentennial Minutes” (gift link below):

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/arts/television/bicentennial-minutes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU8.3t08.t1h2bk2vXzjO

Over at the AHA’s Perspectives blog, they shared an adapted version of Johann Neem’s recent James M. Banner Jr. Lecture on the State of the Discipline of History:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/bringing-american-history-back-home-for-the-250th/

While for his The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog, John Fea both shared & added his thoughts to Neem’s remarks & especially his types of American historians:

https://thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/07/15/johann-neem-on-three-types-of-american-historians-post-american-hyper-american-and-mainstream/

Neem’s categories of historians are in compelling conversation with the four types of American patriotism that I trace in my book Of Thee I Sing:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/of-thee-i-sing-9781538199916/

Three other great pieces for the Perspectives blog this week as well, including Adam Laats on the Scopes trial, the recent Mahmoud decision, & school opt-outs:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/mahmoud-v-scopes/

Wendy Rouse wrote for Perspectives on lessons from her experience having work she contributed to the National Park Service taken down by the Trump administration:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/confronting-the-rainbow-panic/

While in the first part of a two-part pedagogy column for Perspectives, Mary F. Casey wrote about searching for intrinsic rewards in the academic essay:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/learning-the-changes/

Continuing the pedagogy theme, Nicole Donawho wrote for JSTOR Daily on how she teaches students to evaluate historical materials:

https://daily.jstor.org/lies-damn-lies-andprimary-sources/

Beautiful essay for Commonplace journal from Lisa Roney on how such archival materials have informed her own poetic writing:

https://commonplace.online/article/hot-tennessee-sun/

Karin Wulf wrote for Smithsonian magazine on how 18^th century Americans were just as obsessed with genealogy as we are:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-18th-century-americans-were-just-as-obsessed-with-their-genealogy-as-we-are-today-180986958/?no-cache

For the History News Network’s newsletter, Elizabeth R. Varon highlighted what J.D. Vance gets wrong about Civil War history & the Declaration of Independence:

https://mailchi.mp/historynewsnetwork/what-jd-vance-gets-wrong-about-the-civil-war

Turning to great cultural studies writing from the week, LitHub shared Ekow Eshun’s essay on Black Panther & Black futurist emancipation:

https://lithub.com/other-worlds-other-futures-on-black-panther-and-the-dream-of-escapist-emancipation/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01JZWMFB93CY27620V892DWTVS&_kx=Jq2UoK02peIYQgfrnj_3-W6TRywIBLzjvpBpsC9iDPA.U5D8ER

Noah Berlatsky wrote for Dame magazine on M3GAN 2.0 & the trend of even AI robots refusing to submit to the patriarchy:

https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/07/17/even-ai-robots-dont-want-to-submit-to-the-patriarchy/

Great BBC piece on the realities behind 70 years of Disneyland myths, featuring contributions from Sabrina Mittermeier:

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0lqjz6q/the-truth-behind-70-years-of-wild-disneyland-myths

Check out this open-access Journal 18 roundtable on the complex historical figure behind Sir Joshua Reynolds’ 18^th-century painting Portrait of Mal:

https://www.journal18.org/nq/reflections-on-mai-joshua-reynolds-and-eighteenth-century-art-a-roundtable/

Also open-access are most of the articles in the latest issue of Enterprise & Society (thanks to Walter D. Greason for sharing it):

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/latest-issue

Two excellent pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Jill K. Robinson on how South Carolina quiltmaker Cookie Washington keeps Gullah Geechee art alive:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/telling-stories-with-textiles/

While Post editor & columnist Troy Brownfield offered a thoughtful review of the wonderful new Superman movie:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/superman-truth-justice-and-a-really-good-movie/

Turning to current events, for Christianity Today Daniel Silliman wrote an obituary for John MacArthur, who sought to explain the Bible to millions:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/died-john-macarthur-study-bible-expository-preaching-controversy/

Frustrating & important article from Hope Hodge Seek in Military Times on how the base named for inspiring Civil War Medal of Honor winner Mary E. Walker is being renamed:

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/06/20/her-medal-of-honor-was-once-revoked-now-her-base-is-being-renamed/

For Wired’s The Big Story, Henry Farrell & Abraham L. Newman traced how the worst tendencies of Big Tech are being translated to American statecraft under Trump:

https://www.wired.com/story/enshittification-of-american-power/

For The Atlantic, Aziz Huq argued that the ongoing dissent from Supreme Court Justices Kagan, Jackson, & Sotomayor are offering us vital lessons (gift link below):

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/liberal-justice-dissent-opinions/683543/?gift=NX91pXe_h9-jpMCTAKKndqHePf1DtlgTQIT0L131c4c&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

For TechPolicy.press, in collaboration with Data & Society, Emile P. Torres wrote about digital eugenics & the potential extinction of humanity:

https://www.techpolicy.press/digital-eugenics-and-the-extinction-of-humanity/

Speaking of apocalyptic crises, vital reporting from Logan Jaffe & the folks at ProPublica on how oral histories reveal the realities behind propaganda about the Texas floods:

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-floods-oral-histories?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-bsky&utm_content=7-16

For a crucial new resource on the climate crisis, check out Mark Sample’s No Time to Discourse atlas of climate disasters:

https://notime.now/

I’ll end this section with a couple more hopeful pieces, including Rishita Nandagiri, Leigh Senderowicz, & Wendy Sigle’s open-access Feminist Economics article on global reproductive justice:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545701.2025.2462667#d1e169

While Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote for the American Immigration Council blog on an important proposed immigration reform bill:

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/legislators-immigration-reform-reintroduced-dignidad-act/

Tons of great new podcast episodes this week, including Unsung History’s long-awaited return from hiatus with an episode featuring Elizabeth DeWolfe on the 1890s sex scandal that brought down a Congressman:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Pollard/

The latest Civics & Coffee podcast episode focused on the horrific white supremacist massacre in 1873 Colfax (Louisiana):

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/riot-or-massacre-reclaiming-the-history-of-colfax-1873/

For his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan talked with Rebecca Brenner Graham about her new book on Frances Perkins:

While for the latest Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed J. Randy Taraborrelli about his JFK: Public, Private, Secret:

At Craig Gill’s New Books Network Sports podcast, he talked with Julia Brock about her book Closed Seasons: The Transformation of Hunting in the Modern South:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/closed-seasons

For The History Workshop’s podcast, host Marybeth Hamilton talked with David Archibald about his historically-minded rock band The Tenementals:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/can-a-rock-band-make-history/

While for episode 59 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman W. Beorn interviewed Dominic Williams about the group of Auschwitz prisoners known as the Sonderkommando:

Turning to current events podcasts, the Daily Blast with Greg Sargent featured Nicole Hemmer on Tucker Carlson & MAGA’s anti-Trump fury:

https://newrepublic.com/article/197947/tucker-carlson-harsh-new-takedown-trump-ignites-fresh-maga-fury

For their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez to talk about the ongoing birthright citizenship showdown:

For the latest episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast, Daniel C. Semenza talked about lessons from Camden’s dramatic drop in gun violence:

https://scholars.org/podcast/drop-gun-violence-risk

& check out Kahlil Green’s History Can’t Hide podcast conversation with Jemar Tisby on the work of Black history creators:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

Substack Top Black History Creators

Listen now

a year ago · 87 likes · 8 comments · Kahlil Greene and Jemar Tisby, PhD

Finally, two links to share for the great Ben Franklin’s World podcast, including a conversation with Karin Wulf about her new book on genealogy in early America:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-416-karin-wulf-lineage-genealogy-in-early-america/

& check out this post from the podcast’s founder & host Liz Covart on its new home & how we can support its continued gwork:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/support-ben-franklins-world/

Four great pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including birthright citizenship expert Anna O. Law on why it’s so important:

https://time.com/7300066/why-birthright-citizenship-is-important/

Jayita Sarkar wrote for Made By History on what history tells us might happen when Big Tech goes nuclear:

https://time.com/7297314/big-tech-goes-nuclear/

Also for Made By History, check out Nancy C. Unger on legacies & lessons from Robert La Follette’s progressive vision:

https://time.com/7293419/robert-la-follettes-progressive-vision/

Finally for Made By History, check out Antonio Ramirez on the dark history that pre-dates Trump’s Florida concentration camp:

https://time.com/7302799/dark-history-trump-alligator-alcatraz/

Over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog, they featured a weeklong roundtable on Françoise N. Hamlin & Charles W. McKinney Jr.’s From Rights to Lives, starting with Wesley Hogan on how Black history is freedom history:

https://www.aaihs.org/black-history-is-freedom-history/

Marcia Chatelain wrote for the Black Perspectives roundtable on the notion of progress in Black social movements:

https://www.aaihs.org/the-notion-of-progress-in-black-social-movements/

Shannon King continued the Black Perspectives roundtable with a piece on how we can confront the complexities of Black social movements:

https://www.aaihs.org/confronting-the-complexities-of-black-social-movements/

While Brett Gadsden concluded the Black Perspectives roundtable with a piece on change & continuity in Black freedom struggles:

https://www.aaihs.org/change-and-continuity-in-black-freedom-struggles/

Finally, Hamlin & McKinney responded to the roundtable with their own piece, a powerful argument for why these histories matter now more than ever:

https://www.aaihs.org/history-matters-now-more-than-ever/

Turning to new scholarly book publications, I have to start with a vital one I missed last week, Tracy Slater’s Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp from Chicago Review Press:

https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/together-in-manzanar-products-9780913705704.php

Slater also wrote two complementary pieces to accompany the book’s publication, including this one for the Densho Project on the mixed marriage policy:

https://densho.org/catalyst/racial-obsession-family-separation-and-the-mixed-marriage-policy-of-americas-wwii-concentration-camps/

And here’s Slater for LitHub on the tale of Elaine Yoneda, a Jewish woman in a Japanese American concentration camp:

https://lithub.com/the-tale-of-elaine-yoneda-a-jewish-woman-in-a-japanese-american-concentration-camp/

Three new books to share this week, including Jessamyn Neuhaus’s much-anticipated Snafu Edu: Teaching & Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom from the University of Oklahoma Press:

https://www.oupress.com/9780806195469/snafu-edu/

Also out this week from UNC Press is Karen Benjamin’s Good Parents, Better Homes, & Great Schools: Selling Segregation Before the New Deal:

https://uncpressblog.com/2025/07/15/new-this-week-july-15th/

Likewise published this week is editors Lydia Moland & Aliston Stone’s Oxford Handbook of American & British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-american-and-british-women-philosophers-in-the-nineteenth-century-9780197558898?cc=us&lang=en

Forthcoming & now available for pre-order is Katrina Navickas’s Contested Commons: A History of Protest & Public Space in England from Reaktion Books:

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contested-commons

Likewise forthcoming is Casey Schmitt’s The Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking & Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean from Penn Press:

https://www.pennpress.org/9781512828146/the-predatory-sea/

One more forthcoming book to share, Lewis Raven Wallace’s Radical Unlearning: The Art & Science of Creating Change from Within from Penguin Random:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790550/radical-unlearning-by-lewis-raven-wallace/

For an excerpt from a vital recent book, check out Brittany Friedman for Inquest from her Carceral Apartheid: How Lies & White Supremacists Run Our Prisons:

https://inquest.org/united-in-hate/

Check out the latest USIH book review, Natalie Lira on Lina-Maria Murillo’s Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, & Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands:

https://s-usih.org/2025/07/natalie-lira-on-lina-maria-murillos-fighting-for-control-power-reproductive-care-and-race-in-the-us-mexico-borderlands/

While for Contingent magazine, Kathryn Carpenter reviewed Kate Conger & Ryan Mac’s Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/07/14/the-golden-ticket/

& for lots more great book recommendations, check out Chris Yogerst for his newsletter on books that can help us make sense of the (dis)information age:

Chris Yogerst

Books to Help Us Make Sense of the (Dis)Information Age

“Freedom of opinion is a farce unless factual information is guaranteed and the facts themselves are not in dispute,” wrote philosopher Hannah Arendt in her 1954 essay “Truth and Politics.” This line has been ringing in my head for some time and its relevancy grows daily. Facts are in constant dispute and freedom of opinion is waning as universities, li…

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a year ago · 8 likes · Chris Yogerst

Speaking of newsletters, gonna end with a ton of great ones & blog posts as usual, including Jenn M. Jackson for her Love Notes with her latest Black Feminist Book Club, on Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s How We Get Free:

Love Notes

Black Feminist Book Club #8: How We Get Free by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2017. 191 pages, $15.95 paperback. ISBN-13: 978-1608468683…

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a year ago · 9 likes · Jenn M. Jackson, PhD

A number of inspiring newsletters to share this week, including Kerry Dexter for her Along the Music Road with a Sunday Sessions piece on the sounds of saltwater:

Along the Music Road

Sunday Sessions: Saltwater

Saltwater…

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a year ago · Kerry Dexter

My Fitchburg State colleague & friend Steve Edwards wrote for his newsletter on how we must learn that we are all we have:

The Big Quiet

We are all we have

It’s a flaw in our design. We see something often enough and stop seeing it altogether. Like the robins in my backyard. Most mornings they elicit from me…nothing. There they are. Robins. A pair of them. Sometimes half a dozen. These are creatures who can, you know…

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a year ago · 61 likes · 27 comments · Steve Edwards

Over at her Feminist Giant newsletter, Mona Eltahawy wrote about the need to exhale & refocus for the fight ahead:

FEMINIST GIANT

Essay: Exhaling

Photograph: Robert E. Rutledge…

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a year ago · 27 likes · 4 comments · Mona Eltahawy

While the latest Ideas Roadshow newsletter focuses on trying to understand where we are in 2025 America with both the head & the heart:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

The Head And The Heart

This is my sixth post in less than two weeks, and almost all of them are focused on my desperate attempts to understand how the United States of America has suddenly become the appalling political and social disaster zone that it now is. The very fact that I’m doing this, as mentioned at the beginning of my first article…

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a year ago · 1 like · Ideas Roadshow

For the third part of a four-part series for his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote about the need to avoid perfect clarity as a goal:

Freedom Papers

The Precision Paradox

What if, in our pursuit of clarity, we end up silencing ourselves…

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a year ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Etienne Toussaint

Over at her blog, Rachel E. Moss offered the third part in an ongoing series on academia, conferences, & kicking down the doors of the Ivory Tower:

https://rachelemoss.com/2025/07/15/if-i-go-theres-just-no-telling-how-far-ill-go-part-3/

While for his Systematic Hatreds newsletter, Paul Musgrave shared some notes from the working end of academia during the assault:

Systematic Hatreds

At the Coalface

One of the idioms I picked up during my time in Ireland, now more than twenty years ago, was the expression “at the coalface”. If memory serves, I learned it from a presentation about the process of touting Irish bonds to investors by civil servants at the Department of Finance, which is somewhat incongruous given that the expression hails from the expe…

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a year ago · 108 likes · 3 comments · Paul Musgrave

Speaking of those assaults, three newsletters on the Supreme Court to share, including Steve Vladeck for his One First on the DOE decision:

One First

167. The Inconsistent Court Strikes Again

Welcome back to “One First,” an (increasingly frequent) newsletter that aims to make the U.S. Supreme Court more accessible to all of us. If you’re not already a subscriber, I hope you’ll consider becoming one (and, if you already are, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription if your circumstances permit…

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a year ago · 318 likes · 91 comments · Steve Vladeck

Sherrilyn Ifill wrote for her newsletter about how we must face the realities of this Court if we are to challenge them:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

Facing this Court

“None of this means that I am conceding defeat at this point. To the contrary. Even if, as I now believe, the conservative majority would be likely to rule in the President’s favor in Trump v. Casa if the merits were before them today, does not mean that the Court will in fact, ultimately rule in his favor. There’s still time. But it does mean that we m…

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a year ago · 460 likes · 10 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

While Felicia Kornbluh wrote for her History Teaches… newsletter about how Ketanji Brown Jackson is meeting this moment:

History Teaches . . .

History Teaches . . . Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Alone?, Meets the Moment

My theory about why the writings and speakings of junior-most Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson have recently been so pointed is rooted in history as well as intellectual training and inclination: Brown Jackson came of age in the law surrounded by people who called themselves “originalists…

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a year ago

Over at her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky wrote about the origins & evolution of the president’s war powers:

Imperfect Union

The President's Awesome War Powers

We often talk about the presidency being the most powerful office in the world, and it has only gotten stronger in the last century. War powers are one of the most expansive elements of the presidency. War powers have been in the news lately thanks to the strike on Iran, but this topic is actually evergreen. In the last several decades, both parties hav…

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a year ago · 21 likes · 3 comments · Lindsay M. Chervinsky

While for his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse traced the ongoing Red State reckoning with Trump’s policies:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/red-state-reckoning/

Turning to a trio of inspiring responses to these crises, here’s Kevin M. Levin for his Civil War Memory newsletter on history, historians, & democracy in the Age of Trump:

Civil War Memory

History, Historians, and Democracy in the Age of Trump

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dr. Johann Neem’s essay on the importance of history as our nation celebrates its 250th birthday, which appeared this week on the American Historical Association’s website. The post is an edited version of a lecture that Neem delivered at the last meeting of the AHA…

Read more

a year ago · 20 likes · 6 comments · Kevin M. Levin

For the July 17^th installment of her Letters from an American newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson wrote about lessons on the anniversary of John Lewis’s death:

& over at her The Golden Hour newsletter, Karen Attiah shared the official opening of her Resistance Summer School:

The Golden Hour by Karen Attiah

Resistance Summer School is officially in Session!

Finally. The day has come! My Rogue Radical Professor Era begins…

Read more

a year ago · 56 likes · 3 comments · Karen Attiah

Gonna end with a bunch of great cultural studies newsletters & posts, including Matt Eaton for his Matt’s Historical Ephemera on a dictatorial WWII military entertainment director:

Matt’s Historical Ephemera

'Bastard’ Basil: Drury Lane’s Dictator?

At the end of the war, Basil Dean (1888-1978), the Director of Entertainment National Services Association (ENSA), was accused of being a dictator and, more damagingly, of wasting public money. What was he like and what qualities allowed him to mobilise 80% of Britain’s entertainment industry for the best part of seven years…

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a year ago · 5 likes · Matt Eaton

Diane Tucker wrote for her Shy Museumgoer blog on wartime influences on René Magritte’s thoughts & paintings:

https://theshymuseumgoer.com/2025/07/15/magritte-surrealist-paintings-analysis/

While Pamela D. Toler wrote for her History in the Margins blog on the secret behind the Gibson Girl’s famous shape:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/07/15/the-secret-behind-the-gibson-girls-shape/

For his History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene analyzed how Superman has always been a Nazi-fighting immigrant:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

Superman Was Always an Immigrant: How America's Superheroes Became Culture War Targets

This week, “Superman” director James Gunn called the Man of Steel an "immigrant" and suggested his story centers on "basic human kindness." Within hours, conservative pundits were branding the new film "Superwoke," with Jesse Watters joking that Superman's cape now reads "MS-13" and Kellyanne Conway taking cheap shots at star David Corenswet's "Russian …

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a year ago · 105 likes · 6 comments · Kahlil Greene

Speaking of Comics Studies, check out AbuQadim Haqq’s reflections from the 2025 Comics Studies Society Conference:

https://artistabuqadimhaqq.com/blog/?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLjm7tleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABpwPCEbcJr8Cohs4ZbNR2piFD4Usq0g9uhjLwBSGoDY-7zd5-v9av0d38oQug_aem_LaORtHUoJqcMXm-Xm8t2iw

I really enjoyed Will Cox’s essay in The Guardian on how Step Brothers embodies the platonic ideal of Obama-era comedy:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/16/in-defence-of-step-brothers-will-ferrell-john-c-reilly-obama-era-comedy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

& for her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy shared a reception approach to some of the countless legacies of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest:

Review Roulette

From Hitchcock With Love

[Contains some spoilers of North by Northwest and Mission: Impossible II…

Read more

a year ago · 7 likes · 2 comments · Vaughn Joy

Finally, I’ll end with my own film studying, a weeklong blog series on AmericanStudies contexts for the amazing film Sinners:

https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2025/07/july-14-2025-americanstudying-sinners.html

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially yours!) below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!

PPS. For the next week, & honestly much of the rest of the summer, I’ll be traveling a good bit. I’m still planning to do threads each week, but really could use y’all’s help—so please share any & all writing, podcasts, books, public scholarship of all kinds whenever you see it!

Starting with a handful of great pieces that build on last week’s 4^th of July content, including Lincoln Caplan for The American Scholar on the origins of “America the Beautiful”:

https://theamericanscholar.org/america-the-beautiful/

On that note, I have to add that in the Intro to my book Of Thee I Sing, I use the four verses of “America the Beautiful” to lay out my four categories of American patriotism (& I’ve got an e-copy of the book I’m happy to email to anyone who’s interested):

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/of-thee-i-sing-9781538199916/

For her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote bracingly & movingly about Frederick Douglass, Fannie Lou Hamer, & her own perspective on this 4^th:

Sherrilyn’s Newsletter

I Question America.

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass spoke in Rochester, New York at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It became one of Douglass’ most famous speeches: ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’[i] It was a powerful message in its unsparing condemnation of our nation’s ongoing embrace of chattel slavery – a condition …

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a year ago · 736 likes · 21 comments · Sherrilyn Ifill

Great piece from Sarah Kendzior at her newsletter on how we can separate the best of America from its worst, on the 4^th & always:

Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter

Guns or Fireworks

It was a nasty, low-down week so I bought myself a 38 Special. I got it from a peddler down by the river. “Look to the sky before you buy,” the peddler warned. “No refunds…

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a year ago · 523 likes · 140 comments · Sarah Kendzior

On a more powerfully pessimistic note, Julie Setele compiled this zine featuring tons of voices & contributions on the theme Fuck the Fourth:

https://juliesetele.com/2025/07/07/fuck-the-fourth/

While Stephen R. Hausmann wrote for the AHA’s Perspectives blog on Mount Rushmore & storytelling at America’s National Parks:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/on-myths-and-monuments/

Also for the Perspectives blog, I really enjoyed Cecilia Slane’s piece on historical practice in a community garden:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/get-your-hands-dirty/

Also two AHA member spotlights to share this week, including this Perspectives interview with military & Black historian Le’Trice Donaldson:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-member-spotlight-letrice-donaldson/

& AHA member Maureen Elgersman Lee was featured in the New York Times & Washington Post for her work on the Williamsburg Bray School:

https://www.historians.org/news/aha-member-featured-in-new-york-times-and-washington-post-for-work-on-historic-williamsburg-bray-school/

Speaking of the Times & turning to other great public scholarly writing from the week, great essay from Colin Dickey on how AI Griefbots represent our latest attempt to talk to the dead:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/style/00death-spiritualism-talking-to-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

For JSTOR Daily, Ann Foster shared the complex story of the Filles du roi, the founding mothers of New France:

https://daily.jstor.org/filles-du-roi-the-founding-mothers-of-new-france/

Over at the Voltaire Foundation’s collaborative blog, Morgan Golf-French wrote about the interconnected histories of Transatlantic slavery & the German Enlightenment:

https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2025/06/27/transatlantic-slavery-and-the-german-enlightenment/

Speaking of Transatlantic slavery, vital reporting from Chris Osuh in The Guardian on a rediscovered slave ship advertisement from 1805:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/11/liverpool-black-history-researchers-unearth-slaver-ship-advert-1805

Elsewhere in English history, check out Katrina Navickas’s open-access Historical Research article on attempts to police the right to march in London between 1780 and 1915:

https://academic.oup.com/histres/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hisres/htaf016/8178582?login=false

& I’m really excited to follow the latest awesome initiative from the folks at Contingent magazine, the interdisciplinary face off:

https://contingentmagazine.org/face-off/

A trio of great columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Nancy Rubin Stuart on forgotten 19^th century magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/missing-in-history-sarah-josepha-hale-the-most-influential-magazine-editor-in-america/

For her latest Women’s Work column for the Post, Tanya Roth shared part 1 of a two-part series on the long fight for women’s suffrage:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/womens-work-more-than-seneca-falls-the-long-fight-for-womens-suffrage-part-1/

While Saturday Evening Post boxing columnist Andrew Rihn analyzed Friday’s historic third fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/the-trilogy-redefining-womens-boxing/

I’m also really proud of my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, on how the 100^th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial helps us contextualize today’s attacks on educators:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/07/considering-history-the-scopes-monkey-trial-and-the-history-of-attacks-on-educators/

Speaking of those attacks & turning to current events, Johann Neem wrote for EdWeek on how the Supreme Court is trying to make public education unconstitutional:

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-how-the-supreme-court-is-making-public-education-itself-unconstitutional/2025/07

Really great reporting from Grace Little & other student journalists at the Cavalier Daily on the political affiliations of UVA’s Board of Visitors:

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/07/a-dive-into-the-board-of-visitors-political-donations?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

& one of this week’s must-reads is Ellen Schrecker for VQR (based on photos from Nina Berman) on the McCarthyism unfolding at Columbia:

https://www.vqronline.org/spring-2025/portfolios/hallowed-place-where-theres-only-darkness

Turning to other current events writing, for the Mississippi Free Press Sophie Bates interviewed Medgar Evers’s daughter Reena Evers-Everette on today’s political violence:

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/daughter-of-slain-civil-rights-leader-medgar-evers-sees-painful-echoes-of-political-violence-in-america/?utm_content=buffer725ce&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bufferapp.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Important essay from Asher Elbein in Defector on the Florida concentration camp & the long history of fascist fantasies about alligators:

https://defector.com/why-do-fascists-dream-of-alligators?giftLink=522668b73cafd4e4afacdfa988b3a52f

for Balls and Strikes, Jay Willis wrote about why Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissents represents vital truth-telling about the Supreme Court:

https://ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/ketanji-brown-jackson-dissents-term-recap/

While Lisa Needham argued for Public Notice that John Roberts has now become the worst Chief Justice of all time:

Public Notice

The worst chief justice of all time

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a year ago · 5203 likes · 42 comments · Lisa Needham

For Nursing Clio, Marin Hart made a provocative case that family abolition is a key to surviving disasters like our ever-more-destructive hurricanes:

https://nursingclio.org/2025/06/11/family-abolition-how-we-survive-the-disasters-to-come/

Amy Ta of KCRW interviewed Brian Goldstone about what his new book helps us understand about homelessness in America’s past & present:

https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/trump-gop-homeless/there-is-no-place-for-us

For The Guardian, Nathan Kalman-Lamb & Derek Silva wrote about FSU’s oppressive new revenue-sharing deal & the exploitation of college football players:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jul/09/how-oppressive-fsu-revenue-sharing-deals-show-continued-exploitation-of-college-football-players

& for Status news, Oliver Darcy interviewed Onion editor Ben Collins on why human-created satire matters more than ever right now:

https://www.status.news/p/the-onion-ben-collins-interview

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including one more for the 4^th of July, Emily Sneff joining Ben Franklin’s World to talk about the many versions of the Declaration of Independence:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-415-emily-sneff-the-many-declarations-of-independence/

Over at Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast, White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin joined to talk about that symbolic site’s histories:

For episode 5 of the Civil War Monitor’s Civil War Curious podcast, Eric Michael Burke joined to talk about soldiering & weaponry:

https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/podcast/episode-5-soldiering-and-weaponry/

While Kevin M. Levin joined the History As It Happens podcast to talk about Trump’s National Park Service EO & the new battle for Gettysburg:

https://historyasithappens.libsyn.com/the-new-battle-for-gettysburg

For Strange Horizons’ Critical Friends podcast, Rachel Cordasco & Will McMahon joined host Dan Hartland to talk about science fiction in translation:

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/podcasts/critical-friends-episode-13-sff-in-translation/

Two great episodes of the New Books Network podcast to share this week, including Louis P. Masur joining Caleb Zakarin’s In Conversation to talk about his A Journey North: Jefferson, Madison, & the Forging of a Friendship from Oxford UP:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-journey-north

While Michael Amoruso joined Reighan Gillam’s Anthropology podcast to talk about his Moved by the Dead: Haunting & Devotion in São Paulo, Brazil from UNC Press:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/moved-by-the-dead

The latest episode of the Civics & Coffee podcast features Hilary Green discussing her latest book, Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War from Fordham UP:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/unforgettable-sacrifice-with-dr-hilary-green/

A trio of YouTube conversations to share this week as well, including Francis Young joining Michelle Franklin’s Legends & Lectures to talk about the history of Paganism:

CLA Research Fellow Thomas Lecaque the Congregational Library & Archives podcast to talk about how European Holy War rhetoric came to America:

The latest episode of Mark Anthony Neal’s Left of Black podcast features Celeste Winston Black Maroons & a world beyond policing:

Now available in full on YouTube is Hal Jacobs’s excellent documentary Lillian Smith: Breaking the Silence (thanks to Matthew Teutsch & Walter D. Greason for sharing it!):

For the 21^st episode of Liberal Currents’ Half the Answer podcast, Rebecca Sear joined hosts Caitlin M. Green & Trent R. Nelson to talk about racist pseudoscience in academic & beyond:

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/halftheanswer/half-the-answer-21-racist-pseudoscience-in-academia-and-beyond/

While for The New Republic’s Daily Blast with Greg Sargent, FWD.us President Todd Schulte joined to talk about Stephen Miller & the realities behind mass deportations:

https://newrepublic.com/article/197846/transcript-stephen-miller-rages-low-arrests-and-wrecks-maga-scam

& over at John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast, they analyzed Trump’s ongoing “self-coup”:

Finally, Jennifer Gonnerman joined The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast for a must-listen episode on lessons from Kalief Browder a decade after his suicide:

https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/kalief-browder-a-decade-later

Four great new pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Daniel Mandell on what the Founders knew about wealth inequality:

https://time.com/7297269/founders-wealth-inequality-could-destroy/

Zara Anishanslin wrote for Made By History on why those American Revolutionaries fought to protect habeas corpus:

https://time.com/7288973/american-revolutionaries-protect-habeas-corpus/

Also for Made By History, John A. Ragosta wrote about why those Founders fought for the separation of church & state:

https://time.com/7297290/founders-separation-church-and-state/

& finally for Made By History, here’s Charlotte M. Canning on how theater helps us remember the Scopes Monkey Trial on its 100^th anniversary:

https://time.com/7294045/theater-scopes-monkey-trial-100-years/

Two great pieces for the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog this week, including Ashley Everson’s interview with Sabrina Evans about Mary Church Terrell’s situational resistance:

https://www.aaihs.org/sabrina-evans-on-mary-church-terrells-situational-resistance/

& here Keisha N. Blain with an excerpt from her vital new book on Black women & the making of human rights:

https://www.aaihs.org/black-women-and-the-making-of-human-rights/

Speaking of new books, three published this week to highlight, including Joshua Page & Joe Soss’s Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice from University of Chicago Press:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo249657890.html

Also out this week from Columbia UP is Ragina Tharoor Srinivasan’s Overdetermined: How Indian English Literature Becomes Ethnic, Postcolonial, & Anglophone:

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/overdetermined/9780231218863/

& out this week from Cambridge UP, & available free online until Tuesday, is Sebastian Sobecki’s The Invention of Colonialism: Richard Hakluyt & Medieval Travel Writing:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/invention-of-colonialism/DDD256FD9AD4E365F9DF7C7A30862786

Three forthcoming books now available for pre-order to share as well, including Leanna Renee Hieber & Andrea Janes’s America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger than Fiction from Penguin Random:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/781356/americas-most-gothic-by-leanna-renee-hieber-andrea-janes/

Also available for pre-order is the much-anticipated Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, & Justice:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-nursing-clio-reader-the-nursing-clio-editorial-collective/22063630?ean=9781978838598&next=t&affiliate=18818

& forthcoming in August from UNC Press is Brian Harnetty’s Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469691343/noisy-memory/

Speaking of UNC Press, over at their blog Torren L. Gatson guest posted on his co-edited Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople & the Pursuit of Independence:

https://uncpressblog.com/2025/07/08/beyond-the-fire-reclaiming-black-craftsmanship-from-the-ruins-of-nottoway/

While for The Irish Times, Kevin Kenny & Maddalena Marinari shared an excerpt from their co-edited Rituals of Migration: Italians & Irish on the Move:

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2025/07/07/love-charms-frog-bread-letters-and-wakes-how-the-irish-and-italians-handled-emigration-to-the-us/

Check out this British Journal for the History of Science open-access interview with Lorraine Daston, winner of the 2024 Balzan Prize for History of Modern & Contemporary Science:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/for-a-history-of-human-rationality-an-interview-with-lorraine-daston-2024-balzan-prize-for-history-of-modern-and-contemporary-science/C64246826DCD904052DC22ED9DC15FED

& on Bluesky, Surekha Davies built on her book Humans: A Monstrous History with a great thread on how “race” & “nation” invent monsters:

For the latest USIH book review, James Cobb wrote about Tavia Nyong’O’s Black Apocalypse: Afrofuturism at the End of the World:

https://s-usih.org/2025/07/25756/

& check out John K. Young’s open-access American Periodicals review of Adam McKible’s Circulating Jim Crow: The Saturday Evening Post and the War against Black Modernity:

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/article/962108?utm_content=bufferca260&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bufferapp.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including three wonderful pairs of pieces, starting with the Ideas Roadshow’s Behind the Lens on the need to safeguard history:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

Safeguarding History

Of the many significant problems one faces in dealing with a pathological liar, sometimes the most dangerous is that the ground shifts so often, in so many different ways, that most reasonable people naturally find themselves simply walking away entirely, rather than draining all of their energy in the pointless task of trying to bring the fabricator to…

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a year ago · 4 likes · Ideas Roadshow

& also for the Behind the Lens newsletter, check out this follow-up to their new film Descent: How America Lost Its Mind, Soul, & Moral Compass:

Ideas Roadshow Behind The Lens

Academic Irrelevance

Several people have now pointed out to me that in our recently-released film Descent: How America Lost Its Mind, Soul & Moral Compass, many of the most egregious aspects of America’s current lurch towards an authoritarian dystopia were only briefly touched upon, and several weren’t mentioned at all…

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a year ago · 2 likes · Ideas Roadshow

Also a pair of newsletters from Etienne Toussaint this week, including part two of his four-part Freedom Papers series on recognizing life as movement & becoming:

Freedom Papers

We Are Movement Itself

A few weeks ago, a reader’s insight about “breath” in the comments of an essay (Embrace the Confusion) led to an unexpected revelation. Movement and stillness aren’t opposites; they are intimate dance partners in the ballroom of life…

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a year ago · 5 likes · 7 comments · Etienne Toussaint

While for his The Tenure Track newsletter, Etienne shared part five of his six-part series on outlining a law review article:

The Tenure Track

Crafting Solutions and Compelling Conclusions

Arguments without actionable solutions remain academic exercises…

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a year ago · 2 likes · Etienne Toussaint

Likewise a pair of great pieces from Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter to share this week, including on the 10^th anniversary of the lowering of South Carolina’s Confederate flag:

Civil War Memory

The Confederate Flag Was Lowered in South Carolina On This Day in 2015

On this day ten years ago, the Confederate flag, located on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in Columbia, was lowered and furled for good…

Read more

a year ago · 35 likes · 17 comments · Kevin M. Levin

& a wonderful & vital piece from Kevin on J.D. Vance, birthright citizenship, & Civil War memory:

Civil War Memory

JD Vance, Birthright Citizenship, and Civil War Memory

History is vitally important to the Trump administration, specifically how it is taught in the classroom and at historical sites and how it is remembered by the nation as a whole. This has been the case for practically every administration, but it is hard to remember a time when we’ve seen such a direct and concerted attempt to shap…

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a year ago · 54 likes · 17 comments · Kevin M. Levin

Over at her Du Mez CONNECTIONS newsletter, Kristin Du Mez wrote about how ICE fits into the worst patterns of history:

Du Mez CONNECTIONS

ICE and the patterns of history

Jemar Tisby’s post today hit me hard. Because I see exactly what he sees. Of all the concerning and even frightening things in Trump’s new budget, the allocation for ICE feels like the most foreboding…

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a year ago · 237 likes · 49 comments · Kristin Du Mez

While for his Dispatches from a Collapsing State newsletter, Jared Yates Sexton highlighted the need to fight ICE’s authoritarianism:

Dispatches From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

We Know What This Is: ICE and a War Against the People

This article is free for educational and organizing purposes. Dispatches From A Collapsing State depends on your support, so please become a paid subscriber today.Unfortunately corporate media does not support actual critiques of power or capitalism. Become a paid subscriber to support Dispatches From A Collapsing State…

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a year ago · 127 likes · 9 comments · Jared Yates Sexton

For his History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene highlighted how Florida’s concentration camp exposes 200 years of indigenous erasure:

History Can't Hide from Kahlil Greene

How 'Alligator Alcatraz' Exposes 200 Years of Indigenous Erasure

In just eight days, Florida transformed a concrete slab in the Everglades into a sprawling detention center for thousands of migrants. Governor Ron DeSantis bragged about the "blistering pace" of construction, while his attorney general dubbed it "Alligator Alcatraz" with gleeful cruelty. But as protesters gathered at the gates and Indigenous leaders sp…

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a year ago · 144 likes · 3 comments · Kahlil Greene

While for his Doomsday Scenario newsletter, Garrett Graff analyzed what Stephen Miller & Bridge Colby tell us about who is actually the President:

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/who-actually-is-the-president-of-the-united-states-right-now-b1fb8ac61d82c4ce

For the Abortion, Every Day newsletter, Jessica Valenti & Kylie Cheung highlighted a number of fronts in the ongoing development of a reproductive police state:

Abortion, Every Day

Here's What a Reproductive Police State Looks Like

Click to skip ahead: Policing Pregnancy takes a look at Indiana’s bureaucratic reproductive police state. In the States, more news from Indiana, along with stories from South Carolina, Wisconsin, Missouri, and more. Attacks on Planned Parenthood has the latest on the attempts to defund the organization and some (temporary) good news…

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a year ago · 166 likes · 29 comments · Jessica Valenti and Kylie Cheung

Impassioned & must-read thoughts from Charlotte Clymer for their Charlotte’s Web Thoughts newsletter on “God’s plan” & the Texas floods:

Charlotte's Web Thoughts

Do Not Put This On God

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a year ago · 583 likes · 30 comments · Charlotte Clymer

On a similar note, Donald Earl Collins wrote for his Fool’s Gold newsletter on bad religion & the post-Western world:

Fool's Gold: Confessions From An Educated Fool

Bad Religion and the Post-Western World

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a year ago · Donald Earl Collins

For how not to fight such trends, see Toby Buckle in The Bulwark’s newsletter on when moderation becomes appeasement:

The Bulwark

When Moderation Becomes Appeasement

IN LIGHT OF DEMOCRATS’ LOSS to Donald Trump last fall, many commentators (and some politicians) have urged t…

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a year ago · 141 likes · Toby Buckle

While Kevin M. Kruse wrote for his Campaign Trails newsletter on why Elon Musk’s proposed third party is no answer either:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/third-party-in-the-usa/

For a lesson in how we can challenge our worst trends, check out Felicia Kornbluh on how History Teaches… that we can fight & defeat poverty:

History Teaches . . .

History Teaches . . . We Can Fight Poverty - and Defeat It

This past week, the biggest U.S. news was the passage by the Senate, by 1 vote (despite a faux anguished Senator Lisa Murkowski, a faux old-fashioned Republican with faux values and a long history of faux courage in the face of party and presidential pressure), of the omnibus bill largely designed and richly desired by the Trump administration. The bill…

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a year ago · 1 like

& I loved the July 9^th installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American newsletter on the anniversary of the 14^th Amendment’s ratification:

Gonna end with five wonderful cultural studies pieces, including Alex Omenye for Culture Custodian on the bold new African video game Relooted:

https://culturecustodian.com/relooted-the-african-game-turning-artifact-repatriation-into-a-bold-heist/

Simon Strantzas wrote for Weird Horror #11 on the four types of horror story:

https://www.weirdhorrormagazine.com/on-horror-11

Great stuff from Nicholas Grossman for Arc Digital on why MAGA hates Superman:

Arc Digital

Why MAGA Hates Superman

Fox News is mad about Superman. Ahead of the new movie’s release this week, multiple Fox shows denounced it as “woke,” with former Trump White House communications advisor Kellyanne Conway complaining, “We don't go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology on to us…

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a year ago · 32 likes · 4 comments · Nicholas Grossman

Wonderful essay from Sarah Welch-Larson for Bright Wall/Dark Room’s Double Features series on Eephus & Everybody Wants Some!!:

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/07/08/sisyphus-baseball-everybody-wants-some-eephus/

& for her latest must-read Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered a thoughtful genre analysis of the one & only Grease:

Review Roulette

Hopelessly Devoted to Review

Grease (1978) - Genre…

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a year ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Vaughn Joy

I’ll end with a very sweet piece, a guide for undergraduate students presenting at their first academic conference, compiled by students for Clio and the Contemporary:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/07/12/first-conference/

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially yours!) below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!