We light the first Hanukkah candle this evening, but we could all use some light right now, so here’s my super-sized 254th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & solidarity, all.
First, a reminder that we’re still accepting nominations of great work from throughout the year for our best-of-2025 thread. Check out the call here, & please submit work, including (especially) your own!
Articles:
Starting with two new essays in Contingent magazine’s series on monsters, including Victor Monnin on genre stories where humans are devouring dinosaurs instead of vice versa.
While Michael Eber wrote for Contingent on a compelling human depiction of a monstrous Christ in a 9th-century monastic manuscript.
& make sure to check out the wonderful essay that launched this Contingent series, Vaughn Joy on the many monsters in & around Frankenstein.
Turning to other favorite articles from the week, timely & fascinating work from Jessica van Horssen for the Network in Canadian History & Environment on artificial Christmas trees.
On the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest, her biographer Jeanne Theoharis wrote for The Guardian on what we get wrong about the Montgomery bus boycott.
Tons of great pieces for the Pittsburgh Review of Books this week as usual, including Richard Gazarik on Catholic Communist writer Phillip Bonosky’s fight for the working class.
& as we prepare for Hanukkah, check out Beth Kissileff’s PRoB conversation with Pamela Nadell about her new book on America’s history of Antisemitism.
Here’s Helen Barrett for Apollo magazine on why art history is too important to be simply the preserve of the privileged.
Moving piece from Joachim C. Häberlen for the AHA’s Perspectives blog on helping his German students find the charm of history.
Matt McManus wrote for ChristianSocialism.com’s The Bias blog on rediscovering R.H. Tawney’s early 20th century Christian Socialist ethics.
For her Missing in History column, my Saturday Evening Post colleague Nancy Rubin Stuart highlighted the controversial Revolutionary War camp wife Caty Littlefield Greene.
For the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama blog, Gaila Sims wrote about seeking Sally Hemings on a visit to Monticello.
Here’s Natali Moreira for The History Workshop on the groundbreaking 1975 World Congress for International Women’s Year in East Berlin.
Fascinating Legal History Miscellany guest post from Helen Rutherford on what we can learn about death & life from the Atlas of Victorian Coroners’ Districts.
I really enjoyed Molly Templeton’s essay in Reactor magazine on the things that keep us reading.
For an open-access article on similar topics, check out Neer Gupta, Daniella Maor, Karalee Harris, Emily Backstrom, Hongyuan Dong, & Melanie Walsh’s Anthology of Computers & the Humanities study of what library checkout data tells us about canonical authors in circulation.
Also open-access is Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Roisin Higgins, & Carole Holohan for Irish Historical Studies on modern Irish historiography, archives, & imagination in the 21st century.
Current Events:
Speaking of the 21C, lots of important current events public scholarship this week, including Michael Loria’s USA Today article contextualizing Trump’s attacks on Maduro & featuring the expertise of Christopher McKnight Nichols.
Speaking of those attacks, Gregory A. Daddis wrote for the AHA’s Perspectives on Cold War connections for today’s militaristic rhetoric about when “rules” no longer apply.
Immigration law professor Amanda Frost wrote an important guest essay for the New York Times (that’s a gift link) on why we must once again reject immigration restrictions based on national origin.
For The Guardian, Danielle Renwick interviewed critics from authoritarian regimes about what they wish they’d known sooner.
For the challenges facing a former such regime, check out Yassin al-Haj Saleh in New Lines magazine on the unruly history that weighs on the new Syria.
While for an example of our own increasingly authoritarian moment, here’s a Mother Jones interview with art historian Erin Thompson on the power play that is Trump’s White House makeover.
& for another, check out Jeb Lund for Truthdig on the effects of Trump’s increasingly unregulated & unchecked mental retrogression.
Also for Truthdig, Zeb Larson wrote about the inspiring folks fighting to keep AI data centers out of their communities.
That’s one of many great pieces about AI this week, including Drew Magary for his SFGate column on why it’s time to declare war on the technology.
Check out Chris Campbell’s open-access Transactions of the Royal Historical Society article on the work of the historian in the age of AI.
Bracing & important article from Matt Novak for Gizmodo on how AI is leading to accusations that librarians are hiding secret (read: nonexistent) books.
Even more bracing (& I don’t entirely agree but it’s a perspective we need to engage) is Ronald Purser for Current Affairs on how AI is destroying our universities.
Gonna end this section with a few more inspiring pieces, including Daniel A. Sabol for Education Week on why school libraries are now more than ever essential infrastructure.
For the National Council on Public History, Emma Wiley advocated for the vital role of reference projects in this time of erasure.
On a similar note, check out the mission statement of the newly reframed & rededicated Law & Political Economy (LPE) Project version 2.0.
& for some accounts of teaching & learning in this fraught moment, here’s the start of my weeklong blog series on Fall 2025 semester reflections.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including a pair featuring my wife Vaughn Joy on her new book & Christmas film histories: this one for Kelly J. Baker & John Brooks’s Pod Only Knows; & this one on Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) for You’re Missing Out with Mike Natale & Tom Lorenzo.
Also make sure to check out Vaughn’s contributions to Christopher Klein’s excellent History Channel article on the FBI’s investigations into It’s a Wonderful Life.
Lots of other new podcast episodes on recent scholarly books, including Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past conversation with Ed Watts on The Romans: A 2,000-Year History.
The folks at The Race & Regency Pod talked with Kim Hall about her book The Sweet Taste of Empire: Sugar, Mastery, & Pleasure in the Anglo Caribbean.
For the John Carter Brown Library’s 2025 Reads series, host Karin Wulf interviewed Casey Schmitt about her The Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking & Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean.
For episode 428 of Ben Franklin’s World, host Liz Covart interviewed Jessica Lepler on her Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic & Pacific in the Age of Revolutions.
For the latest episode of her Civics & Coffee podcast, Alycia Asai interviewed Ronald Angelo Johnson on his Entangled Alliances: The Global Roots of American Freedom.
While for the Midwestern History Association podcast, hosts Josh Kluever & Kevin Mason interviewed Daniel Clark on his Listening to Workers: Oral Histories of Metro Detroit Autoworkers in the 1950s.
For the New Books Network’s Women’s History channel, host Leah Cargin interviewed Sarah Handley-Cousins, Laura Ansley, & Ayah Nuriddin, the editors of The Nursing Clio Reader.
While over at the Of Poetry podcast, Frances Klein joined to talk about the Alaskan rural & the emotional intensity of writing labor.
Turning to other historical conversations, the latest episode of the Presidencies of the United States podcast is part one of a series on John C. Calhoun.
For episode 6 of his new American Medieval podcast, Matt Gabriele was joined by his co-author David M. Perry to discuss their book on Carolingian Oathbreakers.
Speaking of Gabriele & Perry, here’s their latest Modern Medieval newsletter, on whether a volcano caused the Black Death.
For episode 5 of his new Past Lives podcast, Patrick Wyman discussed Sosias, silver mining, & the wealth of Classical Athens.
While for episode 649 of 99 Percent Invisible, journalist Anna Kodé joined to discuss her investigation into how & why Sesame Street’s iconic set was built (also featuring design historian Alexandra Lange).
For the latest episode of The History on Film podcast, Paul T. Klein returned to talk about Goldeneye & the James Bond franchise.
Two new episodes of the CineHistorians podcast dropped this week, including this one on Portrait of a Lady on Fire & filmmaker Céline Sciamma, & this one on Goodfellas & Martin Scorsese.
Turning to current events conversations, for the latest episode of his Straight White American Jesus podcast host Brad Onishi was joined by Alan Elrod to discuss Olivia Nuzzi, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, & the death of democracy.
Historian Michael Neagle joined the History as It Happens podcast to discuss how the U.S. government uses language to define enemies, from “bandits” to “narco-terrorists.”
For the latest episode of her Freedom Over Fascism podcast, Stephanie G. Wilson was joined by Debra Shushan to talk about the American Jewish community.
While for the new episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by Leah Litman to discuss Trump’s Supreme Court power grab.
Two important new installments of Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations this week, including this one with voting rights lawyer Marc Elias & this one with economic & pundit Paul Krugman.
Matt McManus joined the Embrace the Void podcast to discuss his new book & why Liberal Socialism is essential if we are to move toward a flourishing society.
A couple weeks past but new to these threads is this episode of the Bad Art podcast featuring Nick Sturm on the reactionary politics of the Best American Poetry anthologies.
& I’ll end this section with an inspiring conversation, the debut of the “I Am…” series for Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast featuring Nobel laureate Jody Williams.
Made By History and Black Perspectives:
Two excellent new pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff on the World Cup & why the U.S. needs a better strategy for sports diplomacy.
While the Made By History editors interviewed three historians who contributed to Ken Burns’s new American Revolution documentary: Christopher Brown, Kathleen DuVal, & Jane Kamensky.
Over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog, the editors shared their nominees for the best Black history books from 2025.
Books:
Speaking of important new scholarly books, out now from Harper Collins is Alex Wellerstein’s The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman & the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age.
Likewise out this week is Brian D. Behnken’s Brown & Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, & Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025, from UNC Press.
For a recent UNC Press publication that I had missed, check out Antwain K. Hunter’s A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, & Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865.
Two new open-access publications to share as well, including the 5th edition of Joe R. Feagin & Kimberley Ducey’s Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, & Future Reparations from Taylor & Francis.
Also out & open-access is the edited collection What’s Old is New Again?: The French Extreme Right from Dreyfus to Vichy & the Contemporary Authoritarian Impulse from Duke University Press.
Forthcoming tomorrow (Monday 12/15) from Cornell University Press is Nathan K. Finney’s Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War.
While forthcoming Tuesday (12/16) from UNC Press is Lauren Duval’s The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, & the Making of American Independence.
Forthcoming in January & available for pre-order from University of Georgia Press is Alexander D. Hyres’s Protest & Pedagogy: Charlottesville’s Black Freedom Struggle & the Making of the American High School.
While forthcoming in February from Duke University Press is Juan Carlos Mezo González’s Gay Print Culture: A Transnational History of North America.
& thanks to Walter D. Greason for sharing another important forthcoming book, andré carrington’s Audiofuturism: Science Fiction Radio Drama & the Black Fantastic Imagination from Fordham University Press.
Over at the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Aakanksha Agarwal talked with the great Gish Jen about her hybrid new book Bad Bad Girl.
For the latest USIH book review, Vyta Pivo wrote about Aaron Cayer’s Incorporating Architects: How American Architecture Became a Practice of Empire.
While for the Urban History Association’s Metropole blog, Sarah Frenking reviewed Matthew Guariglia’s Police & the Empire City: Race & the Origins of Modern Policing.
For lots more great texts of all kinds, check out Felicia Kornbluh for Ms. magazine offering a feminist historian’s year-end reading & viewing guide.
& for an inside perspective on the industry, here’s Maris Kreizman for LitHub on what it was like to publish a book in 2025.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as ever, including Christian Warren for his The Blog is Coming from INSIDE the HOUSE! on the slow violence of vitamin deficiency.
For his Takes & Typos newsletter, Nate Bowling argued that when it comes to affordability, the current math ain’t mathing.
Over at his On Data & Democracy newsletter, Adam Bonica argued that money doesn’t buy elections, but does something much worse.
While for her Featuring Dalits newsletter, Yashica Dutt wrote about the Trump-supporting comedian Zarna Garg & the myth of the Indian American monolith.
For his The Sense of an Ending newsletter, Arthur Goldhammer used the new National Security Strategy to discuss the descent of “civilization.”
For The Bulwark, Will Saletan argued that Trump’s attack on Somali Americans is both vile fascism & a test of our collective tolerance for ethnic persecution.
Over at his How Things Work newsletter, Hamilton Nolan highlighted the more inspiring story of how New Orleans is fighting back against ICE.
While for her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill argued that it’s not too late for such resistance, but we must understand the nature of the battle.
For her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson wrote about Brené Brown, courage culture, & the co-opting of Black women’s intellectual labor.
Turning to more historical subjects, for his Campaign Trails newsletter Kevin M. Kruse highlighted what we get wrong about an infamous 1980s Lee Atwater quote, & why it matters.
Over at his Civil War Memory newsletter, Kevin M. Levin argued that we should never apologize for studying the Confederate soldier experience.
While for her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler highlighted a number of important 1925 histories.
Moving piece from Sarah Kendzior for her newsletter on wandering a historic cemetery to escape our technological ghosts.
Over at his A Word About… newsletter, Benjamin Dreyer used the centennial of the Marx Brothers’ musical The Cocoanuts to discuss the history of “factoid.”
Two new posts from Etienne Toussaint this week, including part 2 of his The Tenure Track newsletter series on building the foundations of thought leadership in academia.
While over at his Freedom Papers newsletter, Toussaint argued that cultural expression is legal speech.
Gonna conclude with a ton of great cultural studies work as usual, including the Metropole blog editors’ year-end lists of their choices for the best TV & music from 2025.
For his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch analyzed themes of language & power in N.K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell’s comic Far Sector.
For her newsletter, Martha Anne Toll wrote about an inspiring visit to the National Gallery’s exhibition on Australian aboriginal art.
For I Have That on Vinyl’s Liner Notes series, Michele Catalano wrote about her youthful & lifelong experiences with The Doors.
I really enjoyed Winston Black’s essay for Arthuriana on plague medievalisms for the Covid era in Netflix’s adaptation of The Decameron.
For The Playlist, Gregory Ellwood interviewed filmmaker Rian Johnson on how his religious upbringing inspired Wake Up Dead Man.
Over at his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou reviewed the disappointing new Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere.
For his Adventures in the Archive newsletter, here’s Chris Yogerst on the Warner Bros. sale & a new history class on the studio.
Vaughn Joy continued her Review Roulette holiday month series with a delightful dualist take on The Year Without a Santa Claus & the Santa mythos.
& I’ll end with a fascinating new digital as well as in-person exhibition on the limits of predicting the future in cultural works, Imagining Tomorrow.
PS. Super-sized as this thread is, I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may it continue to be a restful & reflective holiday season, all!
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