Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all!
Articles:
Starting with a few great pieces that I saw thanks to folks sharing them, including Abigail Jablon for The Astorian on an important new Heritage Museum exhibit on race & place in the making of modern Astoria (h/t Kidada E. Williams).
Evie Shockey wrote for LitHub on Audre Lorde’s compelling autobiography Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (h/t Mark Anthony Neal).
Speaking of LitHub, also check out Sasha Senderovich & Harriet Murav on translating Holocaust literature in times of genocide.
Thanks to David Rotenstein for sharing a wonderful column from his Northern Kentucky Tribune colleague riverboat Captain Don Sanders on stories from his time on the Middle Ohio River.
& thanks to Lauren Coodley for sharing her latest piece for the Napa Historical Society, on the histories & stories of Rough Rider Manufacturing.
Turning to other great public scholarly writing from the week, Xinyi Wen wrote for The Warburg Institute on the fascinating turn-of-the-century connections between Aby Warburg & Japan’s Kyoto School.
Here’s Mark Hailwood for The Many-Headed Monster with a methodological ramble through the question of whether walking can also be research.
Eric Lehman wrote for the Pittsburgh Review of Books on Henry David Thoreau, Walden, & the enduring need for resilient microcultures.
Delightful essay from Francesco Dana for Hyperallergic on how glitter has been used in the visual arts to bring marginalized identities to our collective attention.
& I really enjoyed this unexpected New Yorker essay from Jill Lepore on her youthful experiences living in Tracy Chapman’s Cambridge house.
The Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama has launched a series of pieces on Ken Burns’s The American Revolution, starting with Molly Perry on Episode 1 and continuing with Helena Yoo-Roth on Episode 2.
Over at the Network in Canadian History & Environment, PearlAnn Reichwein wrote about politics & memories of Olympic Winter Games in the Canadian Rockies.
For Clio & the Contemporary, John R. Legg offered a vital history of indigenous-U.S. relations in Minnesota to contextualize the state’s current conflicts.
In a parallel vein, Jana K. Lipman wrote for New Lines magazine on how the use of unlawful imprisonment during the “War on Terror” set the stage for our moment.
A pair of excellent pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives to share this week, including Suzanne M. Litrel on teaching history in an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (I’ve loved my experiences with Brandeis’s OLLI), and Kimberly Alexander & Jessica M. Lepler on churning butter & promoting history at an elementary school’s STEAM Night.
A trio of open-access academic articles this week, including Ria Kapoor for Past & Present on air travel, statelessness, & the rights claims of Ugandan Asians in the early 1970s.
Also open-access is Woodrow Hartzog & Jessica M. Silbey’s vital article for the BU School of Law’s Review on how AI destroys institutions.
& I really appreciate Alexander Manshel’s open-access American Literary History article on high school English & the making of American readers.
Really enjoyed my Saturday Evening Post colleague Einav Rabinovitch-Fox’s latest Common Threads column, on Rosa Parks, fashion, & protest.
While for my own latest Considering History column for the Post, I connected Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show & its hemispheric vision of the U.S. to that of the great José Martí.
Current Events:
Speaking of Bad Bunny’s performance, I was fascinated to learn through the university newsletter about his work with University of Wisconsin History Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo.
Arturo Chang wrote for The History News Network’s newsletter on how the performance tapped into a 200-year old tradition of elevating hemisphere over nation.
Greg Grandin wrote for The Nation on how Bad Bunny’s internationalist, worker-centered vision was of America was a declaration of war against Trumpism.
While Greg Sargent wrote for his The New Republic column on how the reactions to the performance exposed a weakness in MAGA’s cultural views.
On a related note, Michael J. Bustamante wrote for the Journal of Democracy on the pressures on post-Maduro Cuba.
Turning to other current events, Andrea Pitzer’s newsletter is a must-read as ever, here on the warehouseification of detention & how we can stop it.
While I really appreciated this ProPublica article from Mica Rosenberg, Anna Donlan, Shoshana Gordon, & Cengiz Yar, sharing letters from the children detained at ICE’s Dilley facility.
Bracing & important work from Steven W. Thrasher & Afeef Nessouli for The Intercept on how Trump’s foreign aid cuts are fueling the spread of HIV in Uganda.
Nina C. Christie wrote for The Hill on how HHS’s new addiction recovery program won’t help as long as the department keeps undermining what works.
Jessica Valenti wrote for her newsletter on the Heritage Foundation’s 250-year roadmap to “save America” & the threats to women at its heart.
On a similar but much more inspiring note, Anna Moeslein & Erin Trieb contributed a special report to Glamour on the women holding Minneapolis together.
For broader contexts on that resistance, check out Nikole Hannah-Jones for the New York Times Magazine on white “race traitors” from the Civil Rights era to today.
& for a similarly inspiring space of resistance, here’s Jules Boykoff for Common Dreams on how U.S. Olympians are schooling Trump in what it means to be an American.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Jarvis Givens on the centennial of Black History Month.
Over at Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast, he was joined by Sage Gray & Tim Fielder to discuss their vital Graphic History of Hip Hop.
While Episode 433 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World features Ronald Angelo Johnson on the entangled Revolutions in Haiti & the United States.
For the latest episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan intereviewed Heather Ann Thompson about her new book Fear & Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, & the Rebirth of White Rage.
Over at the War of the Rebellion podcast, hosts Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Court Carney about his book Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth & Memory.
For his Civil War Memory podcast, Kevin M. Levin interviewed Matthew Pinsker about his new book Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln.
The latest episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee focuses on the Reconstruction-era origins & continued relevance of the Posse Comitatus Act.
While for the American History Hit podcast, Christopher McKnight Nichols joined to discuss the equally relevant Monroe Doctrine.
Over at the Warwick History Hour podcast, Pierre Purseigle joined to discuss his research & teaching into urban catastrophes from the early 20th century to the present.
The latest episode of Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club podcast features Eileen G’Sell on her new book & the histories of lipstick.
For Liam Heffernan’s America: The Story of the USA podcast, he was joined by Nicholas Grant to discuss the life & legacies of Paul Robeson. Liam also featured two installments of his In the Making current events conversations, this one with Clodagh Harrington on Epstein & Sanam Naraghi Anderlini on Iran & this one with Ira Chaleff on resisting tyranny & Abre’ Conner on the NAACP & the climate crisis.
Continuing with current events conversations, for the New Books Network & her Academic Life podcast, Christina Gessler interviewed Laura Tedesco about lessons for resistance in Minneapolis & the U.S. from her book on Argentina’s Madres de la Plaza de Mayo & political disappearances.
Over at the Emerging Civil War podcast, Chris Mackowski interviewed Tim Galsworthy about his new book & how the GOP became the party of the Confederacy.
For the Straight White American Jesus podcast, Annika Brockschmidt interviewed Seth Cotlar about how “blood & soil” nationalism went mainstream.
While for their Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by Preet Bharara to discuss the DOJ’s payback politics.
For her latest American Conversation, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed Senator Ron Wyden.
Over at the This Ain’t It podcast, hosts Melissa & Matthew Teutsch discussed this year’s especially extreme National Prayer Breakfast.
While for his Whiplash podcast, Maxwell Kuzma used the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching to discuss how we can resist narratives of power & exploitation.
& over at Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, he interviewed Claudia Rowe about her new book Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care.
Gonna end this section with a couple of particularly inspiring conversations, including a live episode of Matt Seybold’s American Vandal featuring Dan Sinykin, Johanna Winant, & friends on their anthology Close Reading for the 21st Century.
& over at her Drafting the Past podcast, Kate Carpenter shared & updated one of her early episodes, a conversation with Isabela Morales.
Finally, for the History Behind the Headlines podcast, sports historian Martin Polley discussed whether this is really the centenary Winter Olympics.
Black Perspectives:
For the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives, the editors of Global Black Thought interviewed Jennifer L. Morgan about her work on power, slavery, & capital.
& speaking of Global Black Thought, check out the Call for Papers for its special issue on Transnational Black Feminist Thought, edited by Rachel Afi Quinn.
Books:
Gotta start this section with a recent book I missed, Jarvis R. Givens’s I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month from Harper Collins.
Out this week from WW Norton is Matthew Pinsker’s aforementioned Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Also published this week by Lynne Rienner Publishers was Chris Edelson’s Above the Law? The Evolution of Emergency Presidential Power.
Likewise out this week is David J. Silverman’s The Chosen & the Damned: Native Americans & the Making of Race in the United States from Bloomsbury, which Silverman excerpted for the Pittsburgh Review of Books.
One more new publication to highlight, Laura Maudlin’s In Sickness & in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America’s Caregiving Crisis from Harper Collins, which Maudlin discussed in this Mother Jones interview with Julia Métraux.
Now available open-access is Victor Navarro-Remesal’s Zen & Slow Games from MIT Press.
While now out in paperback with new material is Timothy J. Lombardo’s Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia & Populist Politics from Penn Press.
Check out Anna O. Law’s new website for her vital forthcoming book Migrations & the Origins of American Citizenship.
For the latest USIH book review, Jason Shaffer wrote about Andrew Burstein’s Longing for Connection: Entangled Memories & Emotional Loss in Early America.
Over at the New York Times book review (that’s a gift link), Brent Staples wrote about Wil Haygood’s The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam & at Home (h/t Howard O. French).
While for Idrotts Forum, Katie Taylor reviewed Peter Radford’s They Run with Surprising Swiftness: The Women Athletes of Early Modern Britain (h/t John Edwin Mason).
& for the Urban History Association’s Metropole, David J. Goodwin reviewed a pair of books on writers & their cities, Lee Jackson’s Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London & Eric Hazan’s Balzac’s Paris: The City as Human Comedy.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including the introduction of America’s Voice’s new “Charting a New Narrative on Immigration” newsletter.
For his Democracy Americana newsletter, Thomas Zimmer wrote about why resistance matters in exposing Trumpism’s structural weaknesses & ideological blind spots.
For her newsletter, Marianne Dhenin wrote about how organizers are challenging Missouri’s crackdown on speech in schools. & speaking of Dhenin, she’s available for editing projects, from journal issues & books to proposals & more!
Over at his One First newsletter, Steve Vladeck wrote about the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s destructive “modern emergency docket.”
For her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote about why we need to be mobilizing to stop the oppressive SAVE Act.
Over at her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh connected the Epstein scandals, the end of Gender Studies programs, & authoritarianism with the help of Joan Scott & Laurie Essig.
While for his newsletter, Maxwell Kuzma highlighted how caring about LBGTQ+ rights & all those on the margins strengthens society for everyone.
& for her newsletter, Maria Torres wrote about the painful challenge of being the exception to someone’s racism.
For another fascinating current political perspective, Matthew Teutsch interviewed his wife Melissa on why she’s founded her new enterprise Y’all Ain’t Right.
Turning to more historically focused posts, check out Eric Rauchway for his A Necessitous Blog on unemployment in Puerto Rico from 1930 to 2010.
Two posts from Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory to share this week, including this one on Carter G. Woodson & the politics of Civil War memory & this one on how for the Confederacy “states’ rights” stopped where slavery began.
For the latest installment in his More, America newsletter, Max Perry Mueller shared his 1820s nominee, Denmark Vesey.
While for his Looking Through the Past newsletter, George Dillard wrote about Frederick Douglass & the power of the photograph.
Two new posts for Pamela D. Toler’s History in the Margins blog to share, including this one on the late 19th century portrait painter Cecilia Beaux & this one on Karen Valby’s book The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, & the Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History.
Bracing & powerful new post from Karen Attiah on her The Golden Hour about her grandfather’s Golden Sword that she’s named after, that the British stole, & that she’s fighting to get back.
For his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote about lessons from Zora Neale Hurston on seasons of shedding & what remains after.
While for the third installment of her Dispatches from the Writing Life series, Theresa Kaminski shared progress on her book on Jane Grant.
Gonna end with a bunch of great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Dion Georgiou for his Academic Bubble newsletter on refugee narratives on the BBC’s The Reunion.
Over at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Laura Evers wrote about Different from the Others, the iconic character actor Conrad Veidt, & lessons in loneliness.
A pair of thoughtful Film Studies essays for Public Books this week, including Lora Maslenitsyna on what we can learn from Eisenstein’s unfinished films & Shawna Lipton on the new film’s romance rebranding of Wuthering Heights.
For Clio & the Contemporary, Jason A. Higgins wrote about the 50th anniversary of Taxi Driver & popular myths about veterans, homecoming, & trauma.
I really enjoyed Outlaw Vern’s review of Richard Linklater & Ethan Hawke’s latest collab, the Lorenz Hart biopic Blue Moon.
& for her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered a fascinating sound/score analysis of humans & animals in The Defiant Ones.
& on that note, I have to end with my Valentine’s weekend blog post, a culmination of a series on scholarly books I’ve loved featuring Vaughn’s excellent book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy.
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 & reflective holiday, all!
PPS. Traveling this coming week so no thread next Sunday, but please keep sharing all the great public scholarship & I’ll see you on March 1st!
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