Bracket busted? Join the club, & then check out all the winning picks in my 268th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy all this March meaningfulness!
Articles:
Starting with a couple great responses to the Academy Awards & last year’s genuinely best film, including Sheree Renée Thomas for MS Now on how Sinners gives Mississippi’s hoodoo culture the reverence it deserves.
I also enjoyed this post & thread from the folks at Universal Write Publications on how Walter D. Greason, Danian Darrell Jerry, & cover designer Stacey Robinson’s Illmatic Consequences helps us analyze & contextualize the film.
For a lot more contexts for this phenomenal & vital film, check out Jemar Tisby & Keisha N. Blain’s Sinners Syllabus for AAIHS. & for other excellent analyses, check out the voices & pieces I highlighted in the final post in my Sinners blog series from last July.
Tons of great pieces for Women’s History Month this week, including Ellen Cushing for The Atlantic (paywalled, which I don’t normally include in my threads, but you can try for free & this piece is well worth it) on WWII’s forgotten, inspiring female pilots.
For the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives’ ongoing series on the Global Black Thought special issue on the Brown decision, Ashley Everson interviewed Tejai Beulah Howard about her article on Pauli Murray, Brown v. Board, & the struggle for equal rights.
Fascinating piece from Justin Weinberg for Daily Nous on how Harriet Taylor Mill has officially been added as a co-author for a new edition of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty.
& here’s Kerry Clare for Literary Hub on Barbara Pym’s quiet brilliance & moving beyond categories like “women’s fiction.”
Turning to other great public scholarly articles from the week, here’s Rob Garner for NASA on the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard et al & the birth of modern rocketry.
David Rotenstein wrote for his Covert NKY column on a mysterious Covington parking lot that might have been an Underground Railroad station, among other historic possibilities.
Fascinating Scientific American essay from K.R. Callaway on the real meteorological & geographic reasons why Ireland has no snakes.
& speaking of St. Patrick, for my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column I used the contrasting lives & legacies of Denis Kearney & Mary Doyle Curran to trace the worst & best of Irish American histories & voices.
Elsewhere in the Post this week, here’s Einav Rabinovitch-Fox’s latest Commons Threads column, a Women’s History Month tribute to the evolution of pockets in women’s clothing.
& I very much enjoyed Paul Hetzler’s latest Our Better Nature column on what we’ve recently learned about animal species who can learn to read.
Current Events:
Turning to current events public scholarly articles, I missed Alvin Thomas & Conial Caldwell’s Common Dreams essay on “the talk” that Black parents perfected is now needed by all families in ICE’s America.
This week for his The Nation column, Elie Mystal wondered why the Supreme Court continues to treat Trump like a “regular” president.
In a similar vein, for Liberal Currents Dennis Lytton wrote about why the Constitution’s Pardon clause will have to be amended & reformed as we move forward.
Tons of great pieces about AI this week, including Zeb Larson for DAME magazine on why the data center boom is looking a lot like the railroad bubble.
For the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, librarian Andrew Gray traced how AI use in publishing threatens research integrity, lessens trust, & invites misinformation.
& two great responses this week to Glenn Beck’s AI version of Framers like George Washington, including Alexis Coe for Vanity Fair on how it’s a right-wing sexual fantasy.
& John Garrison Marks wrote for his newsletter on how the AI Washington continues a long American tradition of misusing the Revolutionary leader.
For a broader but related issue, here’s Mary D. Lewis for the AHA’s Perspectives on what altering historical images can teach us about history.
AI is far from the only current threat to education, as illustrated by Jafari S. Allen’s report for The Chronicle of Higher Ed (free subscription needed but worth it) on the ongoing erasure of Black Studies.
For a vital response to another such threat, check out Bruce Simon & colleagues’ open letter to New York State politicians on 2027 budget negotiations & higher ed.
For an open-access analysis of trends within as well as beyond higher ed, here’s David Waldstreicher for Reviews in American History on the 2019-2021 debates over 1619.
A couple of thoughtful alternative visions of teaching & learning these histories to share this week, including Rich Barlow for Boston University Today on Joseph Rezek’s “Revolutionary Icons” class.
While for the final installment of the Journal of the Early Republic Panorama’s series on Ken Burns’s The American Revolution, VanJessica Gladney reviewed Episode 6’s depiction of the Revolution’s unfinished business.
Two important pieces on prisons & the justice system to share this week, including Michael Phillips, Rick Halperin, & Hadi Jawad for the Dallas Observer on a shameful upcoming milestone & the need to move away from the hidden cruelty of lethal injection.
& for the Prison Journalism Project, Derek Jason Lecompte argued that language like “incarcerated people” does not make the place & experience any less inhumane for him & his fellow prisoners.
That Project itself is an inspiring space of resistance in our current moment, & I’ll end this section with a few more, including Miaad Banki for Public Books on translating through the Tehran blackout.
Vital piece from Kelly Hayes for Truthout on why libraries matter more than ever in a fascist moment, featuring a conversation with Mariame Kaba, Alison Macrina, & Katie Clark.
& for a publication that models the best of public scholarly writing in 2026, check out the new issue of Hammer & Hope!
Podcasts:
Tons of great new podcast episodes this week, including a St. Patrick’s Day special 90th episode of Shannon Heaton’s Irish Music Stories podcast.
Monica Sandler joined David Bryan’s Curiosity Invited podcast to discuss the history & cultural significance of the Academy Awards.
For a conversation about one of the best films from the past year, check out Gus Lanzetta discussing The Secret Agent on Jesse Hawken’s Junk Filter podcast.
While the latest episode of Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast features Joseph Kellner on spiritualist subcultures during the final years of the USSR.
Turning to more American historical conversations, for her Civics & Coffee podcast Alycia Asai interviewed John Garrison Marks about his new book on George Washington’s complicated legacies. While the latest Saturday episode of Civics & Coffee is a conversation about Rosie the Riveter featuring an actual Rosie & a representative of the Rosie the Riveter National Trust (& check out their YouTube channel for an extended version of the conversation!).
The latest episode of the Presidencies of the United States podcast is part two of the series on James Monroe pre-presidency.
For his Civil War Memory podcast, Kevin M. Levin interviewed Kenneth W. Noe about his new book on Abraham Lincoln & the “heroic legend.”
While over at their War of the Rebellion Podcast, Neils Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Jennifer Lynn Gross about her new book Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widows in the New South.
For episode 116 of The Gilded Age & Progressive Era podcast, Boyd Cothran & Cathleen Cahill interviewed James H. McCommons about his new book The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds.
Episode 91 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past podcast features Emily Lieb on textbooks for kids, her new book on the highway map that wrecked Baltimore, her work as an agent, & more.
Over at Rich Napolitano’s Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast, he shared a bonus episode for his HMHS Brittanic episode, this one focused on the unsinkable Violet Jessop.
For Episode 74 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman W. Beorn was joined by Andrea Pitzer to discuss the global history of concentration camps.
While the latest episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast features Sonja Drimmer on medieval printing & why AI is crap.
Continuing with those current events conversations, the latest episode of SSN’s No Jargon podcast features Hilary Botein on the “affordable” housing myth.
For Micah Sifry’s This Old Democracy podcast, Miles Rapoport joined to discuss lessons for making democracy work from his four decades of advocacy & reform.
For a very special episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by Stacey Abrams to discuss the SAVE Act & voter suppression efforts.
Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations channel featured three important episodes this week, including Georgia Senators Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, & this conversation with Josh Cowen on education policy trends, debates, & reforms.
The latest episode of Holley Snaith’s Say It With History podcast features Kat Smith on her work with the VA250 & Lafayette Bicentennial celebrations.
Gonna end this section with a trio of fascinating conversations beyond the news, including Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club convo with Carly Anne York about her book The Salmon Cannon & the Levitating Frog.
The latest episode of Public Books’s Novel Dialogue podcast is a conversation between novelist Aaron Gwyn & literary critic Sean McCann.
& check out a live recording of Matt Seybold’s American Vandal podcast, a conversation with Johanna Winant, Dan Sinykin, Annie Abrams, & many many more on the vitality of close reading in the 21C.
Finally, a reminder that Diamond in the Rough, Season 2 of my Baseball, Bigotry, & the Battle for America podcast, will drop its First Inning this coming Wednesday!
Books:
For an important recent scholarly book that I missed in this space, check out Gregory E. O’Malley’s The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, & the American Revolution from MacMillan.
While out this week from MacMillan is James H. McCommons’s aforementioned The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds.
Lots more scholarly books published this week, including William Carruthers’s Flooded Pasts: UNESCO, Nubia, & the Recolonization of Archaeology from Cornell University Press.
Also out this week from Lynne Rienner Publishers is Chris Edelson’s Above the Law?: The Evolution of Emergency Presidential Power.
Two new books from Princeton University Press this week, including Annette Gordon-Reed’s edited collection Jefferson on Race: A Reader.
Also out this week from Princeton is Durba Mitra’s The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism.
& finally, out this week from Zone Books is Tim Altenhof’s fascinating Breathing Space: The Architecture of Pneumatic Beings.
Forthcoming Tuesday from Oxford University Press is Anna O. Law’s Migration & the Origins of American Citizenship (my copy’s in the mail!).
While forthcoming April 7 from UNC Press is John Garrison Marks’s aforementioned Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery & the Fight for American Memory.
& also forthcoming from UNC, on April 28, is Mary E. Mendoza’s Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, & People Defied the US-Mexico Border.
Forthcoming September 29 but now available for pre-order from MacMillan, & featuring tons of new blurbs & details, is Keri Leigh Merritt’s An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America.
For the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Cynthia Miller-Idriss shared an excerpt from her new book Man Up: The New Misogyny & the Rise of Violent Extremism.
While over at the Urban History Association’s Metropole, Betty Boyd Caroli shared an excerpt from her new book A Slumless America: Mary K. Simkhovitch & the Dream of Affordable Housing.
For the latest USIH book review, David I. Levine & Budd N. Shenkin wrote about Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash’s The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History.
For Jacobin, Paul Renfro reviewed Heather Ann Thompson’s Fear & Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, & the Rebirth of White Rage.
For The Boston Review,Benjamin Balthaser reviewed & contextualized Mark Mazower’s On Antisemitism: A Word in History.
While for Engelsberg Ideas, Tim Bouverie reviewed Caroline Sharples’s The Long Death of Adolf Hitler.
& over at Public Books, Juan Carlos Quintero Herencía reviewed Marisol Negrón’s Made in NuYoRico: Fania Records, Latin Music, & Salsa’s Nuyorican Meanings.
Finally, I enjoyed Christina Gessler’s Academic Life newsletter conversation with Ranita Ray about her book Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
I’ll end with lots more great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including part two of Thomas Zimmer’s Democracy Americana series on the history of the Republican Party.
For his Future/Conditional newsletter, Nathaniel Morris offered reflections on the Iran War & our increasingly troubled times.
While for her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh contextualized that war in our long history of farcical & tragic foreign adventures.
Two important pieces from Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory to share this week, including this one on what we can learn from Charlottesville’s melting down of white supremacist statues & this one on how schools named for César Chávez are responding to the recent revelations.
On that latter note, I also really appreciate Matt García’s thoughtful Zócalo Pubic Square essay on what Chávez cost the movements he purported to lead.
Over at his The Way of Improvement Leads Home newsletter, John Fea highlighted what the World Baseball Classic tells us about citizenship & imperialism.
For her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky responded to a frustrating recent cancellation of a talk at the Air War College with lessons from the archives on leadership, courtesy of Washington, Lincoln, & more.
A trio of new pieces for the In Pursuit newsletter to share this week, including Jack Rakove on James Madison, Catherine Allgor on Dolley Madison, & Stewart D. McLaurin on James Monroe.
Over at his wonderful More, America newsletter, Max Perry Mueller is up to the 1850s, with a piece on the fascinating enslaved woman & activist Biddy Mason.
For his The Historian’s Holonet newsletter, Chris Kempshall focused his monthly First World War piece on the Battle of Verdun.
Pamela D. Toler continued her daily Women’s History Month posts for History in the Margins with interviews with Shelley Puhak, Denise Kiernan, Kate Moore, & Elizabeth de Wolfe, as well as a piece of her own on her visit to Iowa’s Anne Frank Pen Pal Museum.
For the 8th installment of her Dispatches from the Writing Life, Theresa Kaminski shared details of her subject Jane Grant’s pre-World War I romances.
Over at her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson argued that Black womanhood is inherently & importantly nonbinary.
While for his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote movingly about Octavia Butler, change, & the work of becoming.
Thanks to Kerry Dexter for sharing a trio of recent pieces she wrote for Perceptive Travel, including this one on Florida’s The Grove, this one on 7 Boston spots that reflect resilience, & this one on a scenic drive through Ireland’s County Down.
Gonna conclude with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as ever, including Lora Mitchell for her newsletter on how Timothee Chalamet’s thoughtless comments can lead to important conversations about the state of arts funding.
For his blog, Eddie Selover dug into why Oscars announcer Matt Berry mentioned Basil Rathbone at the 2026 Academy Awards.
Speaking of the Oscars, I really enjoyed Riley Womack for Bright Wall/Dark Room’s Best of 2025 series on Trian Dreams.
Over at Screen Daily, Robert Daniels reviewed an acclaimed new release, Graham Parkes’s Wishful Thinking starring Maya Hawke & Lewis Pullman.
For his Patreon, Alex Pagliuca wrote about the Ready or Not films as reflections on wealth & tradition in the 21C US.
& for a St. Patrick’s Day post on her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered delightful considerations of genre in The Quiet Man. & Vaughn followed up that review with an excellent Bluesky thread on the first American film shot abroad, The Lad from Old Ireland (1910).
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may we find some inspiring Cinderella stories as the Madness continues!
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