Coming to you from this AmericanStudier’s hometown of Cville, here’s my 276th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all!
After a week off from the Easter Egg hunts, they return this week, so make sure to check out my Bluesky timeline for this week’s clue & win yourself a shout-out at the top of next week’s thread!
Articles:
Starting with two new pieces in NiCHE Canada’s “Mobilizing Motherhood” series, including Sadie Bergen & Molly M. Henderson on reproduction & environmental coalitions in the 1970s, & Warren Dennis on the League of Women Voters & the 1970s energy crises.
Also two entries in the Urban History Association Metropole’s “Cities at Play” series, including Ellery Weil on the ferris wheel as a symbol of urban prosperity, & Dan Holland on the unifying role of sporting venues for Black Pittsburgh.
Important work from Glenys Echavarri & Holly Norton in the Denver Gazette on the history of federal Indian boarding schools in Colorado.
Here’s Danny Robb for JSTOR Daily on competing arctic airship expeditions & the rise of the technological explorer.
I know I tend to focus on AmericanStudies work, but a trio of excellent EnglandStudies pieces to share this week, including Jane Whittle for the Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790 project on three approaches to the more than 30,000 wills they’ve now transcribed.
Over at the History Workshop, Helen Kingstone wrote about the novelist Margaret Oliphant & how Victorians fought against ageism.
& for the Save Tangmere Tower site, Tangmere Military Aviation Museum VP David Coxon shared a guest post on a 1950s attempt to break the land speed record.
Moving essay from Lindsey Adler for The Small Bow magazine on her two decades guarding the human sides of her brother David Foster Wallace.
In a similar vein, Jordan Hirsch wrote for Slate (subscription required, but this is a compelling enough piece that I’m sharing it nonetheless) on a writing discovery in his late father’s home office.
& for Contingent magazine, Grant Wong shared a postcard from USC’s Pop Conference, an annual gathering of journalists & music scholars.
Two open-access academic publications to share this week, including Erica Millar, Carrie Purcell, Fiona Bloomer, & Emma Campbell for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society on framing a feminist abortion.
& fully open-access is a special issue of the Journal of the Civil War Era focused on “Race & the Social History of the Law in Brazil” & edited by Keila Grinberg & Celso Thomas Castilho.
Two columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Andy Hollandbeck’s latest In a Word column on the missionary who returned with the word “juggernaut.”
While Jeff Nilsson’s latest 100 Years Ago column from the Post archives highlights a handful of happenings from May 1926.
& for my own latest Considering History Post column, I wrote for AAPI Heritage Month & Military Appreciation Month on the Aloha baseball team of WWII Japanese American soldiers.
Current Events:
Turning to current events writing, a pair of excellent Pittsburgh Review of Books pieces to share, including Sam Beckbessinger on lessons from his life among the techbros, & Michael Bérubé offering some counterintuitive thoughts on academic freedom & democracy.
Vital Liberal Currents newsletter piece from Steve Kennedy on tradwives, dependas, & the politics of degradation.
For her latest MS NOW column, Jessica Calarco argued that Trump’s “Moms.gov” website is short on facts & long on propaganda.
While for her Handbasket newsletter, Marisa Kabas interviewed people affected by the subpoena of NYU Langone trans youth health records.
For the student newspaper the Harker Aquila, Harker School students Chelsea Xie & Claire Tian reported on & contextualized the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship case (thanks to SAGE GRAY for sharing this article).
Over at her Inside Higher Ed column, Dominique J. Baker interviewed Anna O. Law about lessons from her new book when it comes to immigrant access to higher ed.
Public Books launched a new series on the statutes that have paved the way for today’s emergent fascism, starting with an intro essay from editors A. Naomi Paik & Catherine S. Ramírez, & continuing with pieces from Justin Akers Chacón on 100 years of murdering migrant workers, Alberto Ledesma & Catherine S. Ramírez on Republican debates over amnesty, & Rahim Kurwa on 30 years of breaking welfare.
For NiCHE Canada, Andrew Watson wrote about the Great Acceleration, climate crisis, & Canadian environmental history.
Over at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, François Diaz-Maurin launched a new series on the catastrophic realities of nuclear war.
While Emily Herring wrote for Aeon magazine on what a disaffected generation in 19th century France can tell us about young people in our own moment.
I’ll end this section with three more hopeful pieces, including the editors of DAME magazine launching a new ongoing series on how to repair America.
Here’s David Newheiser for Contending Modernities on hope as a political practice.
& I loved Jason Jones’ essay for The Athletic (that’s a gift link) on what NBA star J.R. Smith learned when he went back to finish his college degree.
Podcasts:
In the debut episode of her new Silver Screen Sleuths podcast, Emily J. Edwards was joined by Libby Cudmore to discuss Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Lots of other podcast episodes to share this week, including the latest for Mike Jamison’s Pop Culture Basement featuring Mark Domeier on the dawn of Event Comics.
Over at the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, host Bonni Stachowiak interviewed David M. Perry about his new book The Public Scholar.
For the latest episode of Jerry Landry’s Presidencies Podcast, he shared part one of a series on Samuel Southard & the politics of the Early Republic. & also check out this conversation between Jerry & Tyler C. Weaver of Writers’ Loom.
Also a pair of conversation this week with Craig Fehrman about his new book on Lewis & Clark, including episode 99 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past podcast, as well as Fehrman’s chat with Max Mitchell of the Engelsberg Ideas podcast.
Likewise a pair of new episodes of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast this week, including debunking the disturbing Yule log myth with history detective Robert May, & the start of a new series on Cornelius Vanderbilt.
For the latest episode of the Civil War Monitor podcast, Terry Johnston interviewed Aaron Sheehan-Dean on soldier life during the war.
While over at his The Way of Improvement Leads Home podcast, John Fea shared his conversation with Daniel Hummel & Maggie Capra on a new podcast about the history of American evangelicalism.
At his America: The Story of the USA podcast, Liam Heffernan shared part two of his conversation with Rachel Hartigan about Amelia Earhart & her famous disappearance.
Speaking of lost explorers, Rich Napolitano added some important updates to a prior Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs episode on the 1845 Frankin expedition.
While for the latest episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast, he talked with Patrick Wyman about recreating lost worlds.
& for episode 78 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman W. Beorn talked with Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe about Polish mayors & the Holocaust.
Four literary conversations to share this week, including the latest episode of the Print Run podcast featuring Laura B. McGrath on her book on literary agents.
For episode 141 of Can We Talk? The Jewish Women’s archive podcast, Mark Oppenheimer joined to discuss the quiet radicalism of Judy Blume.
For Public Books’ Novel Dialogue podcast, South African novelist Ivan Vladislavić talked with critic Jeanne-Marie Jackson about how we write about place.
While for Public Books’ Writing Latinos podcast, host Geraldo Cadava interviewed Xochitl Gonzalez about her novel Last Night in Brooklyn.
Turning to current events conversations, the latest episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast features Ali K. Groves on whether cash can improve pregnancy outcomes.
The latest episode of Adam Becker’s Dreaming Against the Machine podcast features philosopher Shannon Vallor on metaphors for AI.
While for their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked with the ACLU’s Cecellia Wang on whether Trump can undo our citizenship rights.
Two new installments of Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations this week, including this one with Georgia Supreme Court candidates Jen Jordan & Miracle Rankin, & this one with Josh Marshall & Kate Riga from Talking Points Memo.
& I’m proud to share the Eighth Inning of my Diamond in the Rough: Baseball, Bigotry, & the Battle for America, Season Two, this one focused on literary voices, baseball as metaphor, & the story of America.
Books:
Speaking of Japanese incarceration, thanks to Doug Sackman for sharing a recent publication I missed, Tamiko Namura’s A Place for What We Lose: A Daughter’s Return to Tule Lake from the University of Washington Press.
Five new books publications to share this week, including Christopher Hodson & Brett Rushforth’s Beyond the Ocean: France & the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions from Oxford UP.
Out now from Cornell University Press is Patricia Goldsworthy’s Colonial Negatives: Picturing History & Identity in Morocco.
Out this week from Penguin Random House is H.W. Brands’ American Patriarch: The Life of George Washington.
Also published this week is Howard Ramsby II’s Writing Black Panther: Ta-Nehisi Coates & Representation Struggles from Bloomsbury.
& finally, out this week from UNC Press is Mary Ruffin Hanbury & Ian F.G. Dunn’s Lost Raleigh: Exploring the Oak City’s Architectural History.
Now out in paperback from Intellect Books is Veronika Keller & Sabrina Mittermeier’s edited collection From Broadway to the Bronx: New York City’s History through Song.
Out this coming Tuesday (5/19) is Edward Jones-Imhotep’s The Broken Machine: Histories of Technology, Social Order, & the Self from MIT Press.
While forthcoming in July & available for pre-order from Verso Books is Ericka Beckman’s Agrarian Questions: The Latin American Novel on the Road to Capitalism.
Over at the History News Network, Gautham Rao shared an excerpt from his new book White Power: Policing American Slavery.
While for n+1 magazine, Stuart Schrader shared an excerpt from his new book Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect & Serve Themselves.
Also for n+1, Mae Losasso wrote about another new publication, Jennifer Scappettone’s Poetry After Barbarism: The Invention of Motherless Tongues & Resistance to Fascism.
For the Pittsburgh Review of Books’ Third Person Limited, Mason Stockstill interviewed Nina McConigley about her new novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder.
While Malcolm Burnley of the Philadelphia Citizen interviewed Sarah J. Jackson about her forthcoming book A Second Sight: How the Wonder & Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom.
Over at Clio Digital, the editors interviewed James O’Neil Spady about his new book Take Freedom: Recovering the Fugitive History of the Denmark Vesey Affair.
& for Truthout, Kelly Hayes interviewed Chanda Prescod-Weinstein on her new book & cosmic wonder as resistance to despair.
Two book reviews to close out this section, including Matthew R. Anderson for NiCHE Canada on Ken Wilson’s Walking the Bypass: Notes on Place from the Side of the Road.
& for the latest USIH book review, Andrew Scull wrote about Kylie Smith’s Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry & Civil Rights in the American South.
Black Perspectives:
Over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives, the roundtable on Kali Nicole Gross’ Vengeance Feminism concluded this week, first with DaMaris B. Hill on framing Black women’s lives in Philadelphia, & then with an author’s response from Gross on the power of Black women’s fury.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Seth Cotlar for his Rightlandia reflecting on Leah Sottile’s recent article featuring students from his History of the Far Right class.
Nathan Goldwag wrote for his Journal on Civilization blog on how the Supreme Court is forcing us to delegitimize the juristocracy.
While for her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh focused on the Mifepristone case & why the Court’s “Animus” doctrine is on the ropes.
For her newsetter, Sherrilyn Ifill argued that white supremacy is an antidemocracy movement.
Over at his newsletter, Michael Phillips highlighted how ideology & ignorance are trumping science at Texas Tech University.
For their newsletter, Max Kuzma traced how gay Catholics are not “wounding” the church & why Liberation Theology can offer a way forward.
Over at his Civil War Memory newsletter, Kevin M. Levin argued that current controversies represent the Lost Cause’s last stand.
For his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse dug into the abomination that is the Trump administration’s Rededicate 250 project.
While for her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky argued that America falls apart every fifty years around these historic commemorations.
Two important posts from John R. Heckman for his Tattooed Historian’s Dispatch this week, including this one on how questioning the past is an act of care, & this one on what we need to do with public history under pressure.
Turning to more historical subjects, George Dillard continued his stimulants that made the modern world series for his Looking Through the Past newsletter with a post on chocolate.
The folks at Verbum Libere shared a post on how the 1918 influenza epidemic was remembered & forgotten in literature & oral history.
For the latest installment of the In Pursuit project, Steve Israel wrote about Millard Fillmore & how avoiding conflict can precipitate a worse one. & also check out their latest podcast conversation, with Colleen Shogan interviewing Sharon McMahon about her William Henry Harrison piece.
At her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler continued her series on women entrepreneurs with a post on the groundbreaking Black banker Maggie Lena Walker.
For his Exploring Art History newsletter, Howard Burton reflected on Linda Nochlin’s important 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”
While for his The Birth of a Capital blog, Neil Flanagan followed up his recent post on Francis Newlands to consider just how racist that influential architect really was.
Two new posts from Etienne Toussaint to share this week, including this one for his The Tenure Track newsletter on stress, Toni Morrison, & recognizing your fruit, & this one for his Freedom Papers newsletter on Ida B. Wells, truth-telling, & the courage to name what is.
For his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch reflected on his latest courses & what writing means for students.
While Theresa Kaminski offered her 16th Dispatch from the Writing Life post, featuring the time her subject Jane Grant became a movie star.
Gonna conclude with some excellent cultural studies pieces as ever, including Alex Pagliuca launching a new blog series on the TV show The Wolf of Snow Hollow.
The latest installment of Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect newsletter features Matthew Vernon on Beowulf, Blackness, & Sinners.
The folks at Bright Wall/Dark Room have kicked off their latest issue on double features, starting with Sarah Welch-Larson on two tall tales of the Old West, The Outlaw Josey Wales & Keoma.
& for her latest Review Roulette post, Vaughn Joy wrote for AAPI Heritage Month about Mulan’s amazing cast of legendary Asian American actors.
I’ll conclude with one more beautiful Mother’s Day post, Benjamin Dreyer for his A Word About… newsletter on his mother’s potatoes.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & make sure to check out the new Easter Egg hunt on my Bluesky timeline!
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