#ScholarSunday Thread 293 (9/13/26)

Here it is, my 293^rd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all!

First, here at the end of Labor Day week, I wanted to share a few complementary columns where I’ve written about the holiday & labor movement histories: this one for Talking Points Memo in 2015 on the holiday’s radical origins; & two for my Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, in 2022 on including enslaved laborers in our collective memories & in 2023 on how the fight for labor unions goes all the way back in American history.

Articles:

Starting this week with two additional tributes to artistic icons we’ve lost over the last couple weeks (& for much more on whom, see the last two threads): John Nichols for The Cap Times on Dolly Parton’s working-class solidarity; & John Warner for his The Biblioracle Recommends newsletter on how Wendell Berry would have wanted to be seen as an example, not an exemplar.

As you’d expect, the 25^th anniversary of 9/11 brought out a ton of thoughtful public scholarship, including six posts in Clio & the Contemporary’s excellent series:  Danalee Jahgoo on how the attacks & their aftermaths reshaped Trinidad & Tobago; Derek Charles Catsam on the national anthem & performative patriotism; Dakoda Trithara on the War on Terror’s influence on online political discourse; Ebrahim Rezaei Rad on central Asia as a forgotten battlefield of 9/11; Jay Jolles on the evolution of sonic culture & listening after 9/11; & Bill Knoblauch on Vietnam video games & battling the Vietnam Syndrome after 9/11.

For her website, Cassandra Good blogged about the experience of teaching 9/11 to a new generation of students.

For episode 9 of his Long Shadow podcast, Garrett M. Graff considered the lingering questions & destructive, ongoing legacies of the attacks.

For Forever Wars, Spencer Ackerman engaged with similar questions of what the 9/11 commemorations ignore & we must try to remember.

Turning to more artistic reflections on the anniversary, the Pittsburgh Review of Books published a trio: Ed Simon’s thoughtful take on Pittsburgh, Flight 93, & our century of war; snapshot memories of the day from Bo Young, Frank Lehner, Judith Vollmer, & Nancy Koerbel; & an excerpt from Marian Fontana’s book A Widow’s Walk: A Memoir of 9/11.

For the Saturday Evening Post, Judith Zimmer introduced & shared her autobiographical short story “That Fall.”

Thanks to Tim Fiedler (Dieselfunk) for sharing the trailer for his beautiful animation of Sojourner Hughes’ memoir “One Tuesday Morning in September.”

& I’ll end this section with Steven Beschloss’ moving call on his America, America newsletter for using the anniversary to lean into our shared, urgent duty to drive change.

Turning to other great articles from the week, check out the latest New York Almanack piece on the tanneries, bucktails, loco focos, & other messy democratic stories of Lower Manhattan’s “Swamp.”

For Signal Cleveland, Mary Ellen Crowley Huesken wrote about the city’s new historical marker honoring a hotel that welcomed Black travelers during Jim Crow.

Over at The Nation, Dan Sinykin wrote about the recent novel Hothouse Bloom in the context of literary, cultural, & autobiographical stories of labor in nature.

For Places journal, Mireille Roddier shared a bracing & vital essay on what we can learn from attempts to keep Paris cool during record heatwaves.

Over at The Space Review, Danny Robb traced the fascinating & timely story of the 1962 Iowa Summer Study of science in space.

While Jonathan Eig wrote for The New York Times (that’s a gift link) on the complicated experience of seeing himself as a character in a dramatic adaptation of his book The Birth of the Pill.

I really enjoyed the latest Longreads essay, Kanya Kanchana with a reading list on how the process of measurement changes the measurers.

& for Public Books Alejandro Zuleta shared a beautiful essay on Atahualpa Yupanqui, empire, & the musical sounds of stolen land.

Two new pieces for the History Workshop this week: Su Lin Lewis on Afro-Asian rhythms in honor of last year’s 70^th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference; & Kirstie Stage on what we can learn from the histories of the Radar Key, which offered disabled people access to UK public toilets.

Also two new pieces for the Urban History Association’s Metropole this week: Jason Collins for the ongoing “Cities at Play” series on Eden Gardens & the urban history of play in Kolkata; & the first entry in this year’s Graduate Student Blogging Contest, Sarah Daisy Amador with a history of wheat, pollution, & advocacy on the Palouse.

In addition to the 9/11 essays above, two other Pittsburgh Review of Books pieces to share: Steven Mintz on the intellectual revolution we’re all missing; & Jessica Hullman on what stories we should tell about scientific progress in this fraught moment.

Four pieces for NiCHE Canada to share this week: Dimitra Chrysoula Kardakari on gender, weather, & Greek shipping networks in the early 20C Atlantic world; Jack Love on the Ponca lands of Swift Running Water & Standing Bear’s struggle against the US government; Colby Gaudet on Wilmot Springs, Nova Scotia’s elixir vitae; & Simone Schleper with a complementary piece to their recent Journal of Global History article on global governance & environmental imaginaries since 1970.

& speaking of complements to articles, for AAIHS Perspectives Mickell Carter interviewed Jaimie D. Crumley about her Global Black Thought article on Charlotte Forten & the 19C Black feminist project to be remembered.

Also a pair of open-access academic articles to share this week, including Florence Ashley in the UBC Law Review arguing for unreliable witness warnings for police testimony.

& also open-access is Aaron M. Hyman & Stephanie Porras in Renaissance Quarterly on the propaganda of piracy in the Dutch Caribbean.

In addition to the 9/11 short story above, five other columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week: Teresa Bitler on Dana Hudkins Crawford, whose efforts to save a historic site in Denver fueled historic preservation nationwide; Bitler again on Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues; Donald Liebenson on the new memoir from groundbreaking advertising legend Linda Kaplan Thaler; Einav Rabinovitch-Fox with her latest Common Threads column, on the history of school dress codes; & Jill Robbins on a Texas museum that makes death a fascinating subject.

Current Events:

I have to start this section with one of the most bracing & powerful pieces I’ve read in a while, Jamelle Bouie for his New York Times column (that’s a gift link) on the horrific tragedy of Pierre Damas Bel.

From the sublime to the absurd, Mary Baxter wrote for NiCHE Canada on lessons for historians & us all from the Lake Ontario naming dispute.

Victor Ray wrote for MSNOW on how Trump’s new proposal for higher education & race fits into his larger segregationist project.

On a parallel note, Ibram X. Kendi wrote for The Emancipator on the regime’s plan to return us to the pre-Civil Rights era by banning data.

For another context for such attacks, here’s Jordan Harper for Public Books on what university administrators really do & why.

While for The New Republic, Perry Bacon Jr. talked with my friend & former SSN Boston Chapter co-leader Natasha Warikoo about how Trump fortunately hasn’t killed DEI.

Turning to other current events topics, Dana R. Fisher wrote for her website about overshoot & democratizing AI.

For Defector magazine, Joel Pinckney talked with booksellers about what they make of the much-discussed “End of Reading.”

While Jay Willis wrote for Fast Company on Sophie Cunningham & the cynical economics of the anti-trans athlete.

& for his Guardian column, Howard Bryant highlighted recent controversies that remind us that for baseball’s Black & Latino players, it’s always 1926 somewhere.

Gonna end with four Liberal Currents essays from the week: Alan Elrod on Trump’s Jim Jonesian convention speech & his desire to bury America with him; Katherine Alejandra Cross on a frustrating new take on the “end of history”; Adam Gurri’s Reconstruction Papers chapter on how we can fix federalism; & Samantha Hancox-Li on how liberalism needs to evolve to be the mass party of the future.

Podcasts:

Starting with pop cultural conversations as usual, including Pod Only Knows co-hosts Kelly J. Baker & John Brooks talking with Lauren Turek about the film Contact.

The latest Pop Culture Basement episode features Best Care Anywhere host Anthony in a therapy session on the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

While the new episode of Alan Sepinwall & Kathryn VanArendonk’s TV is Good podcast pairs Colin from Accounts with the 90s PBS classic Wishbone.

Turning to more historical subjects, for their War of the Rebellion podcast Neils Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Robert H. Gudmestad about his book The Devil’s Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War.

Two new episodes of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast this week: an interview with Jason Green about his book Too Precious to Lose, a history & memoir of a Black community in Maryland; & her regular Saturday episode, this week focused on the shootout at the OK Corral.

Jerry Landry’s Presidencies of the United States podcast shared part two of his conversation with Joe Pascone, this time tracing how Puerto Rico was absorbed into the American empire.

The latest episode of Rich Napolitano’s Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast focuses on the 1923 Honda Point disaster, the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy vessels in history.

For her Say It With History podcast, Holley Snaith interviewed Lesley L. Coffin about her newly reprinted book on Lew Ayres, Hollywood’s conscientious objector, & the myth of Hollywood war heroes.

I missed a two-part series for James Crossland’s History’s Devils podcast, featuring 15 Minutes to Fascism host Craig Johnson on Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City bombing. & for a new episode this week, James was joined by Roger Moorhouse to discuss Claus von Stauffenberg & the plot to kill Hitler.

Continuing with such global topics, the latest episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast features Alexander D’Alisera on medieval caves.

While over at Danièle Cybulskie’s The Medieval Podcast, Sara McDougall joined to discuss her new book Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor.

The latest episode of Jacke Wilson’s History of Literature podcast features Susan Dunne on Charlotte Brontë & her biographer Elizabeth Gaskell.

Episode 112 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past podcast is a conversation with archivist & independent New Zealand historian Jared Davidson.

The new episode of the Norton Library Podcast is the first part of a conversation about the modern relevance of Thoreau’s Walden with editor Jedidiah Britton-Purdy.

While episode 91 of Han VanderHart’s Of Poetry podcast features Jennifer Graham on YA poetics & working-class readers vs. “reading as a luxury.”

Three new conversations for the Black Studies Podcast to share this week: John Drabinski with James Smethurst from UMass Amherst; Ashley Newby with Brandon Byrd from Vanderbilt; & Ashley with Mabel Wilson from Columbia.

Also three new episodes of Lauren Lassabe Shepherd’s American Campus podcast to share: Karen Weaver on the big budgets behind college sports; Marshall Steinbaum & David Austin Walsh on Gaza encampments; & William Whyte on his book The University: A History in Stone, Silk, & Blood.

Continuing with current events conversations, the latest episode of Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine podcast features Alex Hanna on the real AI jobs apocalypse.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Bill McKibben kicked off season five of their What If We Get It Right? podcast with Leah Stokes on climate hushing, EVs, & creating “The Carbon Wave.”

For the latest Sunday Interview on his Straight White American Jesus podcast, Bradley Onishi talked with Robert P. Jones about the Christian turn against democracy.

The new episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today is a conversation with Peter Bergen about his book All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror.

For the latest episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast, Jennifer Greenfield discussed the high costs of caregiving.

Over at the Maine Beacon’s podcast, the folks from the Money on the Left Collective joined to discuss rethinking money through public banking.

While for her latest Neon Liberalism episode, Samantha Hancox-Li interviewed Kathryn Anne Edwards about why fixing inequality requires starting young.

Two new installments of Heather Cox Richardson’s American Conversations this week: with Ray Madoff about his book The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy; & with Fox News’ resident liberal host Jessica Tarlov.

Finally, I’m excited to share the trailers/pilot episodes for two important & complementary new podcasts: Amy Fuller’s Challenging Histories; & Kelly Jensen’s Liberating Lit.

Books:

Out this week from UNC Press is Molly M. Brookfield’s Watching the Girls Go By: A History of Street Harassment in the United States.

Likewise out this week from the University of Minnesota Press is Jennifer de Mooy’s Water, Carbon, Time: Exploring Peatlands in a Warming World.

While published this week by Yale University Press is Will Tullett’s Sniff: A History of Smells.

& here’s Robert P. Jones announcing the publication of his important new book, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith & a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy.

Three books forthcoming this Tuesday (9/15) to highlight: Taj Ali’s Come What May, We’re Here to Stay: The Story of South Asian Resistance in Britain from Manchester University Press; Sara McDougall’s Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor from Princeton University Press; & Nikolas Bowie & Daphna Renan’s Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People from W.W. Norton.

Forthcoming on September 29 from UNC Press is Kevin M. Levin’s much-anticipated A Glorious Fate: The Life & Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

While forthcoming soon from OpenBook Publishers is Brandon Walsh’s vital Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching & the Infrastructure of Change.

The Pittsburgh Review of Books featured a pair of interviews about new books: Judy Sandler & Rachel Weaver interviewing each other about their new memoirs on body stories; & Greg Barnhisel interviewing Amanda Golden & Karen V. Kukil, editors of The Poems of Sylvia Plath. Jack Turner shared an excerpt from his new book, Die Your Own Death: Walt Whitman’s Existential Democracy. & also check out Sam Lemley’s essay on Whitman’s Leaves of Grass & the 1876 American Centennial.

Two new reviews for Public Books this week: Susan Zieger on Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing; & Francesca Mancino on Sarah Chihaya’s Bibliophobia: A Memoir.

For the new USIH book review, Steven F. Lawson wrote about Sharron Wilkins Conrad’s The Trinity: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, & Civil Rights in African American Memory.

While for Volume 121 of her Maris Review, Maris Kreizman wrote about Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, Imani Thompson’s Honey, & more.

Made By History:

Three excellent new posts for the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Made By History this week: Rashida Shafiq on the Indian roots of Gloria Steinem’s feminism; Elyssa Ford & Rebecca Scofield on the lessons for all Americans of Dolly Parton’s contradictions; & Oscar Blanco on what the Suez Canal crisis reveals about the fight to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Newsletters and Blog Posts:

Gonna end with a ton of great newsletters & blog posts as ever, including Thomas Zimmer for his Democracy Americana newsletter on lessons from the US for German resistance to rightwing extremism.

For his Another Way newsletter, Henry Snow wrote about what we all lost in the controversial Navier-Stokes breakthrough.

Over at his Can We Still Govern? newsletter, Don Moynihan analyzed Mamdani, media, & negativity bias. & also check out Thor Benson’s Madness newsletter conversation with Don about what’s been broken within the federal government.

Four new posts this week from Karen L. Cox for her America & the Lost Cause newsletter: on whether the UVA statue of Thomas Jefferson is a Confederate monument; on the far more inspiring Natchez memorial to the victims of the Rhythm Club fire; on the defense of the Lost Cause at Arlington National Cemetery; & an anniversary post on her memories of 9/11.

Also four new posts for Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter: his own 9/11 tribute to a family member he lost; his take on what Arlington reveals about who gets remembered in America; a response to Lonnie Bunch’s retirement & a reminder that the fight to protect American history has always been local; & a fascinating piece on Kansas football’s Bleeding Kansas video.

Continuing with historical subjects, for her History in the Margins blog Pamela D. Toler dove deep into the Great Panic of 1893.

Over at his Birth of a Capital newsletter, Neil Flanagan considered the fascinatingly ubiquitous topic of te 1893 World’s Fair.

While for her Well, Actually… newsletter, Ashley Best continued tracing the history of American immigration law with a brief take on visas.

Turning to global topics, for The Busy Town newsletter D.A.T. Green shared some preliminary thoughts on the Bayeaux Tapestry at the British Museum.

For the Age of Revolutions blog, Robert D. Taber used mouchoirs (headwraps) to illuminate connections between women of color in colonial Haiti.

The latest Verbum Libere newsletter focuses on how diseases & health conditions shaped the story & effects of the Great War.

For the Save Tangmere Tower blog, David Coxon shared a guest post on two high speed flight record attempts in the 1940s.

While Matthew Eaton wrote for his blog on the efforts to bring entertainment to WWII British troops from Arras to Rangoon.

For his A Sea of Words newsletter, Lincoln Paine reflected on his yearlong research project into Maine’s maritime histories.

While for his Campaign Trails newsletter Kevin M. Kruse shared some broader Labor Day reflections on why he became a historian.

& for his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote about bell hooks & what we do instead of loving.

I’ll conclude with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as ever, starting with Howard Burton for his Exploring Art History newsletter on the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

For his Interminable Rambling blog, Matthew Teutsch wrote about subverting the Lost Cause narrative in Frank Yerby’s Benton’s Row.

Thanks to Longreads for sharing Lisa Whittington-Hill’s fascinating essay on the groundbreaking musical ladies of the 80s.

Speaking of music studying, I have to share one of my week’s SubmarineStudying blog posts, a trio of interpretative takes on John Mayer’s magisterial “Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967.”

For her Strange & Wondrous newsletter, Surekha Davies offered a 60^th anniversary analysis of Star Trek’s defense of the humanities.

One of Outlaw Vern’s latest film reviews is another with important contemporary echoes, a take on Adam Wingard’s action-horror film Onslaught.

For the ongoing Bright Wall/Dark Room Summer Blockbusters issue, Travis Woods wrote about Michael Mann’s Miami Vice on its 20^th anniversary.

While for a Labor Day installment of her Solzy at the Movies, Danielle Solzman reviewed 9 to 5.

A reminder that Vaughn Joy also wrote about 9 to 5 for last week’s Review Roulette newsletter. & this week Vaughn shared a back-to-school take on Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.

Finally, for his Academic Bubble newsletter Dion Georgiou analyzed the combinations of time & space in a key two-minute section of Passport to Pimlico.

& if you can’t get enough public scholarly goodness, check out the 68^th installment of Dion’s Stop, Look, & Listen compilation newsletter.

PS. I’m sure Dion & I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!