I’m so thankful for the chance to compile & share #ScholarSunday threads of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. So let’s end the holiday weekend with my 252nd! Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all!
First, a reminder that we’re collecting best-of-2025 public scholarship for a special year-end thread, so please check out the call & submit your nominations (including your own work of course), by email or in direct responses to this thread if you prefer!
Articles:
Starting with a wonderful piece I missed a few weeks back, Sarah Bochicchio for The Paris Review on Virginia Woolf’s postcards.
Lots of great public scholarly writing this past week as well, including Johanna Winant for Boston Review on why close reading remains a radical & vital methodology & pedagogy.
Speaking of reading pedagogies, Will Pooley wrote for History UK’s History in Practice about why & how we can keep our students reading.
& speaking of literary studies, I really enjoyed Martha Anne Toll for the Pittsburgh Review of Books on mother-daughter conversations through memoirs.
Fascinating LitHub piece from Kate Eichhorn on the Supreme Court decision that led to censorship of high school yearbooks, an excerpt from her new book School Yearbook.
Owen Hatherley wrote for The Quietus on a new boxset that highlights the “rubble films”of post-war East Germany.
Here’s Adrian Horton for The Guardian on a controversial new documentary about the controversy over who took the famous “Napalm Girl” photo.
For the final entry in the Urban History Association’s Metropole blog’s Metropolitan Consumption series, Emi Higashiyama wrote about Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu & the hunger for modernity.
For the Network in Canadian History & Environment’s Land, Memory, & Schooling series, Taylor Galvin wrote about storytelling, science, & indigenous futures.
For his latest NextPittsburgh column, David S. Rotenstein traced the legacy of showboat’s in the city’s entertainment history.
Two thoughtful pieces for the Institute of Historical Research’s On History magazine this week, including Christopher Tinmouth on the value of encouraging neurodivergent participation in community research initiatives.
& IHR Director Claire Langhamer wrote for On History about how we can advocate for history by doing history.
Two important open-access articles to share this week, including Christina J. Thomas in Gender & History on early childhood education pioneer Geraldine L. Wilson’s coming of age in Jim Crow Philadelphia.
Also open-access is Milo C. Watson in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature & Environment on the genre of the Field Guide in the face of ecological catastrophe.
Three columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Einav Rabinovitch-Fox’s timely latest Common Threads column on the origins of Black Friday.
Speaking of Black Friday, Jeff Nilsson used historic Post ads to trace how vacuum cleaners were marketed to homemakers & their husbands.
& finally for the Post, I enjoyed this piece compiling historic covers & illustrations about football on Thanksgiving.
Current Events:
Turning to current events public scholarly writing, Royce Kurmelovs wrote for Drilled on the frustrating failures of COP30 & global climate governance.
Thoughtful & important essay from Matthew McManus in Liberal Currents on Cass Sunstein’s new book & the need to rejuvenate the liberal imagination.
I appreciate the distinguished historian Gordon S. Wood’s Wall Street Journal op ed (that’s a gift link) on why America is defined by creed, not ethnicity.
& I’ll end this section with a great piece I missed a couple weeks back, Rebecca Solnit in The Guardian on how resistance to Trump is everywhere a year after the 2024 election.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the 4th annual Civics & Coffee Friendsgiving spectacular featuring host Alycia Asai & the hosts of Abridged Presidential Histories, Plodding Through the Presidencies, & The Presidencies of the United States.
& for the latest regular episode of Civics & Coffee, Asai focused on the controversial & crucial presidential election of 1876.
Episode 76 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past features Karin Wulf on archival work & how she keeps research & writing alive amidst a very busy schedule.
For the latest episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Matthew Davis about his new book A Biography of a Mountain: The Making & Meaning of Mt. Rushmore.
For the New Books Network’s Latin American Studies channel, Rachel Newman interviewed Renata Keller about her new book The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis & the Hemispheric Cold War.
For Primary Source Media’s Revolutions in Retrospect podcast, Rebecca Brannon joined to discuss how the Founders never intended a gerontocracy.
Speaking of the Revolution, episode 21 of Jim Ambuske’s Worlds Turned Upside Down has dropped, focusing on a 1774 massacre & the role of vengeance in the build-up to the Revolution.
The latest episode of the History on Film podcast features Brian David-Marshall on the history & fandom of Magic: The Gathering.
Speaking of magic, Jill Peterfeso joined the Tea for Teaching podcast to discuss how Disney can hook students & provide opportunities for critical thinking.
For the latest episode of Christina Gessler’s The Academic Life podcast, James Cheshire joined to discuss the fascinating library of lost maps.
Equally fascinating is the latest episode of Whiplash with Maxwell Kuzma, featuring Alicia Spencer-Hall & Blake Gutt on medieval trans & genderqueer saints.
While for Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast, he was joined by Kathleen Cummings & Pope Leo’s childhood friend John Doughney to discuss this new, American Pope.
Turning to current events conversations, Liam also shared the latest installment of his In the Making series, focusing on the Epstein scandal.
Over at the Know Your Enemy podcast, Laura K. Field joined to discuss her new book Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right.
For the latest episode of John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office, they discussed the latest Constitutional abuses & what they mean for the rule of law.
Thanks to Jennifer Gunter for sharing the recording of her live conversation with Eric Topol about the state of women’s health in late 2025.
Episode 5 of Dana R. Fisher’s COPOut podcast features Amy Westervelt & Katharine Hayhoe offering an early postmortem on COP30.
Over at Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s What if We Get It Right podcast, Dave Herring joined to discuss the current politics of food & farming.
While episode 100 of Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast features Chris Armitage on the role of small, sustained, continued actions in resistance.
Finally, really important conversation with Kimberlé Crenshaw on Right Now with Perry Bacon about how anti-Blackness is at the heart of Trump’s politics.
Made By History:
Two excellent pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Douglas Boin on how patriarchy undermined the Roman Republic.
While Aaron S. Brown wrote for Made By History on the 1989 invasion of Panama as a context for Trump’s war with Venezuela.
Books:
A trio of newly published books to share this week, including Natan Last’s Across the Universe: The Past, Present, & Future of the Crossword Puzzle from Penguin Random House.
Also out this week from Verso Books is the latest from the legendary Hazel V. Carby, Racial Fictions.
& likewise newly published is Kate Eichhorn’s aforementioned School Yearbook: The Untold Story of a Cringey Tradition & Its Digital Afterlife from University of Chicago Press.
Two books out this coming Tuesday 12/2 to share, including Aaron G. Fountain Jr.’s High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, & FBI Surveillance in Postwar America from UNC Press.
Also out Tuesday from MIT Press is W. Patrick McCray’s README: A Bookish History of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines.
Forthcoming Monday 12/15 & available for pre-order is Nathan K. Finney’s Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War from Cornell University Press.
While forthcoming the following day & likewise available for pre-order is Lauren Duval’s The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, & the Making of American Independence from UNC Press.
For the latest USIH book review, Priscila Dorella wrote about A.K. Sandoval-Strausz’s Metropolitan Latinidad: Transforming American Urban History.
With his own new book out on the American Revolution, Richard Bell highlighted for Shepherd.com five of the best books about the Revolution as a world war.
I’m going to take that opportunity to reshare my own Shepherd.com list, on five great books for folks who are frustrated by but still love America.
& over at the Author’s Corner for John Fea’s The Way of Improvement Leaves Home blog, he interviewed Tim Galsworthy about his new book The Republican House Divided.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Benjamin Dreyer’s A Word About… interview with Elizabeth McCracken about her new book A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction.
At her Love Notes newsletter Jenn M. Jackson featured her 12th Black Feminist Book Club, this time on Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, & Beth Richie’s Abolition. Feminism. Now.
For his Foreign Office newsletter, Michael Weiss traced how a Russian operative used the American media to force the new “peace deal” into existence.
For his The Long View newsletter, Julian Zelizer used history to highlight the fragility of Trump’s MAGA coalition.
While for their Prisons, Prose, & Protest newsletter, Prisonculture offered a 2024 election anniversary piece on how uncertain & evolving the future still is.
Fascinating piece from Dan Cohen for Humane Ingenuity on one of the only positive scholarly uses of AI I’ve seen, solving the longstanding problem of handwriting recognition.
Turning to historical newsletters & posts, Mark J. Ehlers wrote for his blog on how we can understand the complexities & contradictions of the American Revolution.
The wonderful Boroughs of the Dead newsletter offered a spooky tale for November 25th, the anniversary of the Revolution’s Evacuation Day.
The November installment of Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect features Kristen Leer on Ancient Egypt & “Egyptomania” in horror movies.
For the continuing Fairy Tales series at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler highlighted Antoine Galland’s translation of The Arabian Nights.
For Stone Soup’s Love Letters feature, Amal El-Mohtar shared a wonderful piece on why she & we all need the birds.
Two great pieces from Kevin M. Levin for his Civil War Memory newsletter to share this week, including this one on Frederick Douglass & the problem of AI when it comes to the integrity of the past.
& Kevin also used a striking scene from the new Death by Lightning series to trace the histories of Black Civil War veterans & the Grand Army of the Republic.
Gonna conclude with a few other great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Lauren Daley for Boston.com on the 60th anniversary of Arlo Guthrie’s 1965 arrest.
Ryan Kailath wrote for Gothamist about how Pieces of April, the perfect Thanksgiving NYC indie film, almost didn’t get made.
Speaking of Thanksgiving films, for her latest Review Roulette newsletter my wife Vaughn Joy offered a witty but wise takedown of gender in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Also, Vaughn has published a wonderful new essay on Frankenstein & its many film adaptations, kicking off Contingent magazine’s new series on monsters in history & popular culture.
& finally, check out two recent conversations where Vaughn shared ideas from & around her new book, Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy, including this one with the Syosset Public Library’s Turn the Page podcast and this one with the Christmas Past podcast.
& if you can’t get enough public scholarly goodness (me neither!), check out installment 52 of Dion Georgiou’s Stop, Look, & Listen for his Academic Bubble newsletter.
PS. I’m sure I (and even Dion) missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & know that I’m very thankful for you all!
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