Here it is, the final regular #ScholarSunday thread of 2025, my 255th thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all!
This is the final regular thread because next Sunday I’ll be sharing instead our best-of-2025 year-end thread! There’s still time to add nominations, including (especially) your own work, so check out the call & email us with your suggestions please (which can include newly published or recent work of course)!
Articles:
As I’m thinking so much about my late Dad this holiday season, I have to start with Matt Seybold’s wonderful New Territory magazine essay on Mark Twain’s literary landscape of Elmira–& will also ask you to check out Dad’s Mark Twain in His Times website if you haven’t had the chance!
Tons of other great public scholarly articles this week to share, including Penelope J. Corfield for Yale University Press’s blog on how the Georgians celebrated Christmas.
Fascinating essay from Sam Scott in Stanford magazine on a long-lost revolutionary Chinese typewriter that was found in a Long Island storage unit.
The wonderful Contingent magazine series on monsters continues with Sam Moore’s deep-dive into monstrous fakes & hoaxes.
Sam Jones wrote for The Guardian on an illustrated adaptation of 16th-century Spanish author Beatriz Bernal’s groundbreaking knight’s tale.
Panashe Chigumadzi wrote for Boston Review on why making the fight against Apartheid a global model doesn’t always gibe with how Black liberationists thought about their cause.
Here’s Michael Schulman in The New Yorker on legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim’s fascination with crafting crossword puzzles & treasure hunts.
Speaking of Broadway, playwright Laura Wexler wrote for the New York Times Magazine (that’s a gift link) about her manuscript-in-progress on the 1920s Rhinelander v. Rhinelander scandal, racial passing, & America’s original sin.
Thoughtful & important work from Jack Rakove for Washington Monthly on what was left out of Ken Burns’s new The American Revolution documentary.
Henry D. Parrish Jr. wrote for the AHA’s Perspectives column on what he learned from the historic Chatillon’s balance scales his grandfather bequeathed to him.
& the folks at History Workshop kicked off their Celebrating HWJ 100 series (on the occasion of the journal’s 100th issue) with a piece from editor Barbara Taylor on a 1984 HWJ editors’ picnic.
Speaking of the History Workshop Journal, check out Rosa Campbell’s open-access article on how the history of a refuge for trans women can help us reconsider violence against women.
Also open-access is Paul Hutchinson in the Western Historical Quarterly on rabbit drives, the frequent spectacle of violence & masculinity in the turn of the century American West.
A trio of great columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Rachel Dickinson on Jane Austen’s 250th birthday.
The Post’s film reviewer Bill Newcott penned a holiday special column on little towns of Bethlehem found around the U.S. & beyond.
& for a holiday special installment of her Post Common Threads column, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox traced the history of the ugly Christmas sweater.
Finally, I’m very proud of my own new Considering History column for the Post, on how the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has embodied the spirit of Hanukkah & the best of American ideals for 150 years.
Current Events:
Lots of vital public scholarly writing on current events as we near the conclusion of this fraught & painful year, including Jacob Ware for Lawfare Media on a telling new category of terrorism, “nihilistic violent extremism.”
Speaking of domestic terrorism, Ryan Cooper wrote for The American Prospect on how RFK Jr.’s federal health policies are bringing back deadly contagious diseases.
Vital Inkstick Media essay from Patrick Strickland (with photos by Humberto Chávez) on the multi-century histories behind Trump’s “invasion” rhetoric about immigration.
On a parallel note, crucial essay from Jason Kuznicki in Liberal Currents on how chauvinistic nationalism sides with evildoers & never their victims, & teaches us to do the same.
Also in Liberal Currents, check out Victor Ray’s excellent critique of Matthew Yglesias & all the Critical Race Theory detractors who fail to engage with the actual scholarship.
Steven Levitsky, Lucan A. Way, & Daniel Ziblatt have a co-authored article in the new issue of Foreign Affairs on the price of American authoritarianism.
Speaking of foreign policy lessons we haven’t yet learned, Alan Allport wrote for Foreign Policy on how U.S. strategists keep perpetuating myths about the WWII Maginot Line.
Here’s Elizabeth Goodspeed in The Architect’s Newspaper on how the rebrand of the National Design Studio seeks to solve a nonexistent problem with government services.
Bilal Baydoun, Shahrzad Shams, & Victor Packardof the Roosevelt Institute offered a deep-dive into the political economy of the U.S. media system in our moment of crisis.
Speaking of media crises, here’s Matthew Jordan for The Conversation on how the WB sale reflects the return of entertainment oligopolies.
Lots of pieces this week on inspiring resistance to all these horrific trends, including Robert Ito for LAist magazine on a museum that’s standing up to Trump’s whitewashing of history.
I loved Julia Carrie Wong’s Guardian interview with a number of ordinary Americans who are fighting back against ICE’s fascist raids.
I agree with every word of Sonja Drimmer & Christopher J. Nygren’s Public Books article on a number of productive ways to resist AI in education.
& here’s Joseph Rezek for the New York Times Book Review (gift link) on how Thomas Paine’s Common Sense can still call us to action after 250 years.
Gonna end this section with tributes to three individuals who recently passed & offer us continued inspiration, including Tea Troutman & Da’Shaun Harrison in Scalawag magazine on the Black Muslim leader Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin.
Soleil Ho wrote for Coyote media on what we can learn from the life & legacy of author & disability justice advocate Alice Wong.
& I really loved Stephen King’s New York Times tribute (gift link) to his artistic collaborator, the legendary director, activist, & all-around mensch Rob Reiner.
Podcasts:
I have to start this week’s Podcasts section with the six (6!) episodes that dropped this week featuring my amazing wife Vaughn Joy on all things HolidayStudying & her new book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy, which include:
- Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast, talking Hollywood histories & holidays in the early Cold War period;
- Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, talking the book’s close readings of the shift in Hollywood Christmas films between 1946 and 1961;
- Steven Nelson’s DIY Democracy, talking Frank Capra’s tragic, inspiring, very American career;
- Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast, talking the cultural & political work of films, & the need for media literacy;
- Liam Heffernan’s America: A History, alongside Thomas Ruys Smith on the question of why Santa is so American;
- & the Lincoln Cottage’s delightful Q & Abe podcast, alongside Ken Turino, Penne Restad, & Jeff Larry on why a youthful visitor would ask which chimney Santa came down.
Vaughn also published this week a wonderful post on the book & its contexts for her publisher De Gruyter Brill’s De Gruyter Conversations blog.
Couple other holiday podcast episodes to share as well, including for Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval featuring Rutger Kramer on the history of St. Nicholas.
& Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club podcast brought on the performer The Lady Aye to discuss her book When We Spoke to the Dead & Christmas ghosts.
Turning to other podcast discussions of new books, the latest episode of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past features Alex Wellerstein on his The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman & the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age.
For the new episode of her Civics & Coffee podcast, Alycia Asai interviewed Nicole Nehrig on With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories.
For the New Books Network’s Media & Communications channel, host Pete Kunze interviewed J. Finley about Sass: Black Women’s Humor & Humanity.
The latest episode of Evan Axelbank’s Axelbank Reports History & Today features Charles Ferguson on Presidential Seclusion: The Power of Camp David.
While for the A Chicken In Every Pot podcast, hosts Clodagh Harrington & Alex Waddan were joined by Tim Galsworthy to discuss The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, & the Transformation of the GOP.
For their War of the Rebellion podcast, hosts Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Robert E. May about Debunking the Yule Log Myth: The Disturbing History of a Plantation Legend.
While for Reckoning with Jason Herbert, Matthew Davis joined to discuss A Biography of a Mountain: The Making & Meaning of Mount Rushmore.
Lots of other historically-focused podcast conversations this week, including part two of the Presidencies of the United States podcast’s series on John C. Calhoun.
Ian Sanders of the Cold War Conversations podcast brought on Keith Longstreth to discuss his iconic life & career, from Cold War kid to Space Age engineer.
Over at You’re Missing Out hosts Mike Natale & Tom Lorenzo interviewed filmmaker & editor Maureen Gosling on the 1976 documentary Chulas Fronteras.
For the latest episode of The Sociology of Everything podcast, Eric Hsu & Louis Everuss discussed Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis & Mental Life.
While for the newest episode of Claire E. Aubin’s This Guy Sucked, she returned to Napoleon Bonaparte with the help of Marlene Daut.
& for episode 68 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast, he was joined by Shay Pilnik to discuss the history & memory of the 1941 Babi Yar massacre.
Turning to current events conversations, the latest episode of John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office is a raw & powerful one, featuring Corey’s perspective on the Brown mass shooting as a professor at the university.
The new episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast features Dyana P. Mason on what happens when nonprofits can’t count on Washington.
Over at the Center for Ballot Freedom’s This Old Democracy podcast, host Micah Sifry was joined by Michigan GOP strategiest Jeff Timmer to discuss the state as an example of democratic backsliding.
For episode 1 of the new Making [Blank] Accessible podcast, Equal Access Public Media founding editor Stacy Kess joined to discuss making news accessible.
& for the latest episode of Christina Gessler’s The Academic Life podcast, she interviewed Lara Schwartz on her book Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms & Life.
Finally, thanks to moderator Hidetaka Hirota for sharing the recording of this April Berkeley Talks panel conversation about the 1875 Page Act & the making of racialized U.S. immigration control.
Made By History:
Three excellent pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Oscar Winberg on All in the Family, Rob Reiner, & how comedy can criticize the powerful.
Here’s Wanling Su for Made By History on the Supreme Court’s opportunity to reinstate the foundational requirement for 12-person jurors.
& finally for Made By History, Zachary W. Schulz traced the century of debates over individual & communal health shaping the debate over GLP-1s.
Books:
A handful of important new scholarly books published this week, including Nathan K. Finney’s Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War from Cornell University Press.
Two new UNC Press books out this week, including Lauren Duval’s The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, & the Making of American Independence.
Also out now from UNC Press is folk & bluegrass legend Alice Gerrard’s memoir Custom Made Woman: A Life in Traditional Music.
Out this week from Brill is The Asiento System & the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans (circa 1580-1750), edited by Manuel Herrero Sánchez, Jonatán Orozco Cruz, & Pedro Cardim.
& out now as an e-book (& forthcoming in print in 2026) is Julia F. Irwin’s Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction from Oxford University Press.
Two forthcoming UNC Press books now available for pre-order, including Kylie M. Smith’s Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry & Civil Rights in the American South (out in January) & Tisa Wenger’s Spirits of Empire: How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion (out in March).
For the latest USIH book review, Christopher B. Bean wrote about Fay A. Yarbrough’s Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country.
For a review featuring a book giveaway as well, check out Beau Underwood for his A Public Witness newsletter on William Schultz’s Jesus Springs: Evangelical Capitalism & the Fate of an American City.
For Commonweal magazine, Matt McManus reviewed Laura Field’s Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right.
While for Science News, Aimee Cunningham reviewed Judith Weisenfeld’s Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race & Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake.
For lots more book recommendations, check out Contingent magazine’s annual list of Literary Studies books & journal articles from contingent scholars.
& check out Kevin M. Levin’s list for his Civil War Memory newsletter on his favorite history books from 2025.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Speaking of newsletters, gonna end with a bunch of great ones & blog posts as usual, including Charlotte Clymer on Rob Reiner.
While Alan Sepinwall offered his own reflections on Reiner free for all readers (but we should all subscribe to Alan’s site).
For his The Biblioracle Recommends newsletter, John Warner wrote about why the much-hyped American Canto was a publishing flop.
Over at his The Reliable Narrator blog, P.L. Thomas traced the seemingly eternal history of educational myths about “kids today.”
While for her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky wrote about the unexpected 2025 return of the Monroe Doctrine.
Turning to more historical subjects, Heather Cox Richardson’s December 18 Letters from an American on Thomas Paine’s The Crisis was a beautiful must-read.
For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler wrote about a fascinating 1915 suffrage fundraising event called the hopperie.
The Ideas Roadshow Behind the Lens series highlighted the groundbreaking digital art history initiative Florence As It Was.
Also some powerfully personal posts this week, including my FSU colleague Steve Edwards on the inspiration of eating lobster at the library.
For her Group Hug! newsletter, Elise Granata wrote about how flyering has become a spiritual practice for her.
Thoughtful & moving work from always from Mona Eltahawy for Feminist Giant, this time an essay on why her choice to be childless has helped her birth the best version of herself.
While Jenn M. Jackson wrote for her Love Notes newsletter on straightness & other deeply familiar things she’s never known.
& Robert Kingett wrote for his Sightless Scribbles blog on the colonization of confidence for himself & other creative writers.
Gonna end with a bunch of great cultural studies work as usual, including two year-end pieces: The Urban History Association’s Metropole blog editors on revisiting great past works in 2025; & the editors of RogerEbert.com highlighted their favorite film performances of the year.
For their African Skies blog, Foluke Ifejola Adebisi wrote about the dwelling in the intersections between Afrofuturism & Africanfuturism in “Black African Science Fiction.”
For his website, Sean Guynes revisited Thomas Burnett Swann’s 1974 fantasy novel How Are the Mighty Fallen.
For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler highlighted the career & legacy of the forgotten pre-Disney short film animator Louis Glackens.
For his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch discussed how Kaila Yu’s Fetishized portrays the fetishization of Asian women in pop culture.
Here’s Geoffrey Macnab for The Guardian on a new documentary that explores how Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking books offered a purposeful antithesis to Nazism.
For his Looking Through the Past newsletter, George Dillard wrote about a 1903 film that set the stage for grossout cinema.
For his newsletter Maxwell Kuzma thoughtfully contextualized Wake Up Dead Man with the world of Catholic far-right grift.
& speaking of the newest Knives Out film, check out Aftermath’s Isaiah Colbert & Riley MacLeod on the film’s religious saving grace.
For his Matt’s Historical Ephemera newsletter, Matt Eaton offered the first part of a series on the British armed forces’s “festive sack” in 1944 Italy.
While for his A Word About… newsletter, Benjamin Dreyer shared his annual holiday cerebrations on A Christmas Carol’s spiritual ambiguities.
& for the next installment in her Review Roulette holiday series, Vaughn Joy wrote about the delightful The Shop Around the Corner from a gender studies lens.
In case you’re still finalizing your holiday shopping, I’ll end with a few gift suggestions, including Matt Gabriele & David Perry’s late medievalist gift guide at their Modern Medieval newsletter.
While over at Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect newsletter, Tori Lee shared an ancient world gift guide.
& for the sci fi & fantasy fans in your life, copies of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction are now available digitally (h/t Sheree Renee Thomas & Walter D. Greason for passing that great news along!).
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books, gift guides, & holiday goodness of all kinds below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & ho ho hope it’ll be a restful rest of the season, my friends!
PPS. & before we reach the New Year, make sure to share your nominations for our best-of-2025 year-end thread!
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