Whether you’re most excited for the Super Bowl, the Puppy Bowl, or the Superb Owl, start tailgating early with my 262nd #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, team!
First, a reminder to check out our website’s Announcements page for more opportunities to share your work, such as at the upcoming Jane Austen Summer Program that this year will connect to the 250th of the Declaration of Independence!
Articles:
Starting this week with a few particularly fun pieces because we could all use that energy, including the legendary Nell Irvin Painter for the New York Review of Books on what a lifetime of travel has helped her see about race, community, & more.
For the Yale University Press blog, Eamon Duffy excerpted his book The Stripping of the Altars with a piece on the history of Candlemas, the last festival of Christmas.
While for his Northern Kentucky Tribune column, David Rotenstein wrote about a Covington ghost hiding in plain sight. But Rotenstein added a second column this week on a far more serious topic, how the state’s Open Records Act is actually blocking access to public records.
For Commonplace journal, Benjamin Ray traced the mysterious but crucial story of William Griggs, the doctor who triggered the Salem Witch Trials.
Over at Contingent magazine, Daniel Kovacs wrote about the American Legion’s fraught histories in both Europe & the Red Scare U.S. during & after the First World War.
For NiCHE Canada, Heather Green & Kaley MacMullin of the Mining Dangers Project shared their research into memory & place at the Springhill Mine.
A new month at the Urban History Association’s Metropole kicked off with Dan Holland on Pittsburgh’s mid-20th century fight for fair housing.
Really important essay from Eric Porter for Public Books on the past & present histories of deportation flights.
Also check out the ongoing Public Books roundtable on university “keywords” & defending the possibilities of higher ed, commissioned by Dennis Hogan & Andy Hines.
Over at the AHA’s Perspectives blog, a vital series on the value of learning history kicked off with two great pieces, including Kelly Schrum on teaching the histories of higher education to future professionals in the field and Kylie M. Smith on teaching nurses historical fluency for health equity.
For a fascinating open-access academic article, here’s Kate Bond for Astronomy & Geophysics on the story of Richard C. Carrington, the astronomer who recorded the first observed solar flare.
Finally, for my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column I was honored to trace some of the impressive & inspiring figures from Minnesota’s foundational & enduring Black histories, in conversation with an article from my friend & colleague Walter D. Greason (SAGE GRAY).
Current Events:
Turning to current events, for Mother Jones Dan Friedman & Amanda Moore highlighted how Trump’s America250 task force represents an attempt to control the future by bulldozing the past
On a similar note, Jack Rakove wrote for Washington Monthly on how he has to play the Grinch at America’s 250th birthday party in the age of Trump.
While here’s Alan Elrod for Liberal Currents on how the Kennedy Center’s destruction reflects MAGA’s hollow views of art & humanity.
Over at the Madness newsletter, Thor Benson interviewed Radley Balko on how ICE went from its problematic starting points to its low point today.
For Salon, Chauncey DeVega argued that the fascist violence in Minnesota should be a wake-up call for white Americans.
While Madiba K. Dennie wrote for Balls & Strikes on the arrests of journalists Don Lemon & Georgia Fort & the Trump administration’s attacks on the First Amendment.
For her New York Times column (that’s a gift link), Tressie McMillan Cottom traced ICE’s surveillance of protesters–& us all.
Powerful essay for the National Catholic Reporter from Sunita Viswanath on how the “theology of showing up” is making Minneapolis a holy place.
On a parallel but broader note, vital Boston Review essay from Adam Bonica & Jake Grumbach (& featuring responses from many others including Eric Rauchway) on how moderation cannot defeat authoritarianism.
While Samantha Hancox-Li argued in Liberal Currents that both confrontational resistance & exercising state power will be necessary to achieve our goals.
For an inspiring example of such resistance, check out Andrew Lapin’s story for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Jewish seniors helping hide their Haitian caregivers.
& I’ll end this section with a Super Bowl piece, James Baratta for The American Prospect on Bad Bunny’s halftime show & Puerto Rican culture.
Podcasts:
I’ll start this section with a bunch of great podcast conversations to kick off Black History Month, including episode 3 of Reunion featuring Blair L.M. Kelley & Kellie Carter Jackson discussing writing your own family’s histories (thanks to Mark Anthony Neal for sharing this one!).
Ashley D. Farmer joined the Millennials are Killing Capitalism podcast to discuss Queen Mother Audley Moore, the midwife of Black Revolutionary Nationalism.
Over at the Writing Westward podcast, host Brenden W. Rensink interviewed Sara Gallagher about their new book Black Wests: Reshaping Race & Place in Popular Culture.
For the AHA’s History in Focus podcast, host Daniel J. Story revisited Elizabeth Hinton’s exploration of Du Bois’s magisterial Black Reconstruction, featuring the expertise of Eric Foner, Chad Williams, Sue Mobley, & Kendra Field.
While for her Civics & Coffee podcast, host Alycia Asai interviewed Marion Orr about his book on the influential Black Congressman Charles C. Diggs. & for her weekly Saturday episode, Asai turned her attention to the late 19th century Nez Perce War.
Speaking of indigenous histories, check out the latest episode of Reckoning with Jason Herbert, featuring Julie L. Reed on her new book Land, Language, & Women: A Cherokee & American Educational History.
& for the 200th anniversary of Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans, Liam Heffernan’s America: The Story of the USA podcast explored the novel & its legacies with guest Thomas Ruys Smith. I also wrote about Cooper’s novel in Wednesday’s post in my weeklong blog post on the author, leading up to a special weekend tribute post on my late Dad’s book on Cooper!
For episode 86 of her Drafting the Past podcast, Kate Carpenter interviewed Heather Ann Thompson on her latest book & the art of bringing gripping accounts of historical events to life.
The latest episode of the In Film We Trust podcast features journalist & boxing historian Andrew Rihn on Humphrey Bogart’s final film, The Harder They Fall.
While over at the You’re Missing Out podcast, hosts Mike Natale & Tom Lorenzo dove into the 2025 National Film Registry inductees.
Check out a fun new episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast, featuring Isabel J. Kim & Amanda Silberling on medieval memes.
For the latest episode of the Presidencies Podcast, PR consultant Edward Segel joined to discuss leadership lessons from presidential crisis management.
While for episode V of their Historias podcast, hosts Renata Keller & Dustin Walcher have finally reached their central subject, the Cuban Missile Crisis, which they discuss with a host of fellow experts.
& for episode 71 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman W. Beorn interviewed Anna Hájková about her work in queering the Holocaust.
Turning to current events conversations, Academic Life podcast host Christina Gessler interviewed Mara Casey Tieken about her new book Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges–& What It Costs Them.
Speaking of higher ed challenges, over at Group Threat Victor Ray interviewed FIU professor & sociologist Zachary Levenson on Florida’s censorship efforts.
For Laura K. Field’s Ideology Unbound podcast, guest host Aaron Irion interviewed Matt McManus about lessons from his new book on liberal socialism.
For their This Ain’t It podcast, Melissa & Matthew Teutsch discussed the MAHA movement & what happens when pseudoscience runs public health.
While for the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast, Menzie Chinn talked about what happens when the effects of tariffs hit home.
For episode 10 of the We Don’t Have to Choose podcast, host Mary Moriarty interviewed Jessica Pishko about the oversized power of sheriffs in contemporary America.
A pair of important conversations at Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast this week, including with Rachel Maron on fighting an epistemic war against MAGA & with Marlon Weems on the vital role of community if we’re going to win that fight.
Also a pair of thoughtful conversations for Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations series this week, including with American Promise CEO Jeff Clements on Citizens United & campaign spending reform, & with Congressman Joe Neguse on his work on multiple House Committees.
I’m excited to share the debut episode of a new podcast from my colleague & friend Kisha Tracy, the Accessible Medievalist!
& I’ll end this section with a Super Bowl-inspired conversation, History on Film podcast host Ross Lennon talking with Dave Rappoccio on NFL fandom & more.
Books:
I’ll start this section with a book published in December that I missed here (& thanks to its author for sending it my way, as folks should always do!), Angela Frederick’s Disabled Power: A Storm, A Grid, & Embodied Harm in the Age of Disaster, which you can get 30% off at that NYU Press link using discount code NYUAU30.
Out this week from LSU Press is Kenneth W. Noe’s Abraham Lincoln & the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander in Chief.
While out in paperback this week is Andrew M. Wehrman’s wonderful The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution from Johns Hopkins University Press.
Also check out this Indy Week excerpt from another new book, Sylvester Allen Jr. & Belle Boggs’s The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction through Black Lives Matter from UNC Press.
Out this coming Friday, February 20, is Chris Edelson’s timely Above the Law? The Evolution of Emergency Presidential Power from Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Forthcoming in March & available for pre-order from Oxford University Press is Anna O. Law’s long-awaited Migration & the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, & Immigrants.
While forthcoming in June & available for pre-order from Beacon Press is the latest graphic novel collaboration between David Lester, Marcus Rediker, & Paul Buhle, The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad.
For the new USIH book review, Amy Kittelstrom wrote about Nicholas Boggs’s Baldwin: A Love Story.
I’ll end this section with two thoughtful Black History Month reading lists, including this one from the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses and this one from the folks at Publisher’s Weekly.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
I’ll start this section with a pair of vital newsletters on ICE & resistance in Ohio, including Timothy Snyder for his Thinking About… on the threat of ethnic cleansing.
While Hamilton Nolan wrote for his How Things Work newsletter on how America’s most famous Haitian community are waiting & pushing back.
For his Democracy Americana newsletter, Thomas Zimmer wrote about resisting & refuting the white supremacist worldview in Minnesota & beyond.
While for her Civics & Coffee newsletter, Alycia Asai traced the vital work of bearing witness to such outrages, past & present.
Over at the First Draft blog, Peter Adrastos Athas highlighted the bracing & moving Congressional testimony of Renée Good’s brothers Luke & Brent Ganger.
For her History Teaches… newsletter this week, Felicia Kornbluh offered a pair of posts contextualizing our present moment, including this one on why mainstream institutions caved so easily to Trump & this one using Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat to discuss how democracies can fall.
While for the OAH’s Harping on History newsletter, Eileen Boris highlighted the profoundly frustrating removal of labor movement histories from the Lowell National Historical Park.
On a similar note, for Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect newsletter Cord J. Whitaker analyzed & challenged the removal of enslaved voices from Philadelphia’s President’s House site.
Turning to more historical subjects, for his Civil War Memory newsletter Kevin M. Levin analyzed what an official program can tell us about the Grand Army of the Republic & the Civil War.
For her newsletter, Crystal Good offered a fascinating examination of Black women, glamour, & the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler followed up a prior post on the “First Lady of Parachuting” Tiny Broadwick with more details about Broadwick’s daughter.
Speaking of Toler, for his Ehlers on Everything blog Mark Ehlers used Toler’s book The Dragon from Chicago to highlight the story of groundbreaking journalist Sigrid Schultz.
Over at her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky reshared & amplified a compelling 2021 post on 9/11 histories, declassified documents, & why it takes time to get the full picture.
A pair of important pieces for Bram Hubbell’s Liberating Narratives blog this week, including this one on teaching British justification for imperialism in Southeast Asia & this one on using Ottoman primary sources to teach histories of total war.
Speaking of pedagogical posts, for his American Medieval newsletter Matt Gabriele shared details & readings for his Fall 2024 course “Hope”—to which I would add my fourth book, History & Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism (2016).
I also really enjoyed Christina Riggs’s second installment in her Teaching Notes blog series, on using & teaching material culture.
A pair of posts from Etienne Toussaint this week, including this one for his The Tenure Track newsletter concluding his series on reconnecting your work to what matters & this one for his Freedom Papers newsletter on Howard Thurman & the discipline of trust.
While for the The Literary Underground blog, Litsa Dremousis shared a bracing & powerful new poem, “But Don’t You Need That?”
Gonna end with a handful of excellent cultural studies pieces as ever, including Elizabeth A. Harris for the New York Times Books section (gift link) on the disappearance of mass market paperbacks.
On a more inspiring note, here’s Charlie Jane for their Happy Dancing newsletter on the death & rebirth of the queer bookstore.
Chris Yogerst wrote for his Adventures in the Archive newsletter on William Mann’s Black Dahlia & the woman behind the myths.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s Best of 2025 series, Hannah Kim wrote about Rental Family & the labor & pretense we live by.
& for her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered an appropriately witty tribute to the iconic Catherine O’Hara & other comedy legends through a contemporary history analysis of Waiting for Guffman.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may all your snacks be tasty & your bunnies bad, my friends!
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