The first weekend of autumn brings not only a nor’easter, but also a great reason to stay hunkered down: my 295th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy the scholarly storm, all!
First, a reminder that I’m no longer able to tag on Bluesky the scholars whose work I’m featuring—which makes it even more crucial that everybody who sees, enjoys, & wants to support these threads share them wherever & however they’re able. Please help get the word out, & thanks!
& if you want to keep up on all the threads, remember that you can subscribe to this newsletter–& any of our others—for free! This weekend is BW&RAO’s one-year anniversary (thanks as ever to Vaughn for her amazing, ongoing work on the site), & subscribers just happen to be our favorite gift!
Articles:
Starting this week with a trio of bracing & important pieces on the histories & stories of slavery, starting with the latest AAIHS Black Perspectives Global Black Thought follow-up: Mickell Carter interviewing Vanessa Charlot about her article on photographing the afterlife of slavery.
For her website, Karin Wulf used a prominent but controversial new book about the Jefferson-Hemings histories (which is included in the Books section below) to discuss the fraught & fascinating politics of genealogy, DNA, & more.
& I appreciate The Guardian’s Aamna Mohdin sharing an important new digital resource, the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery’s searchable database of nearly 4 million records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies.
Turning to other excellent articles from the week, Bryan Edward Stone wrote for Clio & the Contemporary about why the too-often forgotten early 20C Galveston Movement offers a model for immigration advocates.
The fourth entry in the Urban History Association’s Metropole’s Grad Student Blogging Contest features Heather N. Jahrling on how civil defense turned to urban unrest in Cold War America.
For JSTOR Daily, Danny Robb highlighted the groundbreaking work of seismologist Hugo Benioff, who spent decades turning seismic vibrations into signals he could hear.
Two great pieces for The History Workshop to share this week: Shahrzad Mojab’s reflections on her political education in the 1970s Iranian student movement in the US; & Rebecca Jane Morgan on Rachael Webb, a forgotten trans Marxist activist.
NiCHE Canada featured four compelling pieces this week: Donica Belisle (reprinted with a new author’s note) on how Canadian sugar was built on violence; Kateryna Rudenko for the series “Gender & Atlantic Ocean Environments” on the relationships between sea & steppe; Ma. Rhea Gretchen A. Abuso on the Philippines’ Cagayan River & the 2011 Sendong tragedy; & Rae Ferner-Rose in conversation with nature photographer Martin Gregus Jr.
& three articles from the Pittsburgh Review of Books to share here as well: Eva Jurczyk on how Hot Pockets (you read that right) can remind us of the importance of broadening the scope of academic study; Laura Kolbe on her distinct but interconnected careers as a doctor & poet (one of my two favorite American poets would agree); & SB Rodríguez-Plate commemorating a century of the unique legend John Coltrane.
Four open-access academic publications to pass along this week, including Jessica L. Minieri in History on relics & the politics of Aragonese expansion in the 15C Mediterranean.
Also open-access is Matt Gabriele’s chapter (in the book Political Medievalism) on crusade medievalisms in the 21C United States.
& two open-access Gender & History articles to share: Sarah Crook on the political ecology of the “new” feminism in late-1990s Britain; & Alexander Jin on the travails of the Chinese “slave girl” in Progressive Era California.
& four columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week: Tanya Roth’s latest Women’s Work column, on the women who painted America’s fruit before photography; Kristine Esser Slentz with an ode to honey & the insects on whom we depend for it (& so much else); Selina Alipour Tabrizi on the evolution of vending machines, from holy water to frozen meals; & Jeff Nilsson with an ode to the weekend on its 100th anniversary.
Current Events:
Turning to current events public writing, I have to start with Sony Ton-Aime’s bracing & moving Pittsburgh Review of Books essay on why they & others still come to the US in the age of ICE.
For TIME magazine, Katharine Hayhoe & Dana Fisher argued that we need to stop talking about climate change as if it’s partisan. & over at her website, Fisher complemented that piece with some thoughts on a new report that traces who’s talking about climate change & why it matters.
For the Bucks County Beacon, Jon Hurdle reported on how Pennsylvania’s AI data center boom is repeating old patterns of exploitation in the region.
While for Dissent magazine, Brian J. Chen wrote about what needs to happen to sustain & expand the popular anti-data center movement.
Excellent reporting from undergrads Alex Klee & Isabela Pierry for The Dartmouth on the college provost using AI to draft his own writing (h/t Jeff Sharlet).
In the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Meghana Mysore responded to such trends with an argument for the human pleasure of mistakes.
& in a similar vein, check out Dave Hitchcock for the Royal Historical Society blog on why & how History is a human craft.
If we fail to heed such warnings, we might indeed be faced with “the last graduate students,” as Cole Adams puts it in a bracing Public Books essay.
For a more optimistic perspective, check out SAGE GRAY (Walter D. Greason) in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press with an argument that the future of learning lies beyond the classroom. & he also shared an example of such educational spaces, the Mississippi River Open School for Kinship & Social Exchange.
Three Liberal Currents articles to share this week: Michael Christopher Sardo on the College Board’s new “Founding Father” & the politics of canonization; Alan Elrod on Richard Hanania’s male supremacism & the dangers of rehabilitating extremist intellectuals; & Aishwarya Khanduja & Stuart Buck’s Reconstruction Papers chapter offering a new framework for the public funding of science.
& I’ll end this section with an inspiring voice (h/t Katherine Yngve for sharing it & highlighting my book Of Thee I Sing at the same time), The Guardian on outgoing Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch making the case for critical patriotism.
Podcasts:
Starting with a trio of pop culture conversations, including the new episode of Emily J. Edwards’ Silver Screen Sleuths podcast, featuring Colin Harker on Laura.
The official kick-off of Season 3 of Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast is a conversation with Brad Schwartz & Joshua Shepperd for Network’s 50th anniversary. For more on the film at 50, check out Katherine Alejandra Cross for Liberal Currents.
While the latest episode of Alan Sepinwall & Kathryn VanArendonk’s TV is Good podcast connects Reacher & its new spinoff Neagley to Taxi (obviously).
Turning to American historical subjects, the new episode of Jerry Landry’s Presidencies of the United States podcast focuses on President James Monroe’s fractured frontiers.
Over at the Norton Library Podcast, Jedidiah Britton-Purdy returned for part two of the conversation about Thoreau’s Walden.
Two new episodes of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast this week: a conversation with Stan Haynes about his new historical novel And Slavery No More; & the regular Saturday episode, this week on the origins & evolution of Labor Day.
While for their War of the Rebellion podcast, Neils Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Ryan C. McIlhenny about his new book American Socialist: Laurence Gronlund & the Power behind Revolution.
Turning to more global histories, the new episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast is a wide-ranging discussion of recent news with David M. Perry & Thomas Lecaque.
The latest episode of Rich Napolitano’s Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast tells the story of Newfoundland’s deadliest night, the 1942 wreck of the SS Caribou.
Two conversations this week about Catherine Grace Katz’s new book Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster & the Prelude to War: with Evan Axelbank for Axelbank Reports History & Today; & with Kate Carpenter for Drafting the Past.
The long-awaited return of Waitman W. Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast is an interview with Julie Brill about her family history of the Holocaust in Yugoslavia.
Over at the Writer’s Bone podcast, Daniel Ford talked with Kayla Rae Whitaker about her new novel Returns & Exchanges.
While for her Academic Life podcast, Christina Gessler interviewed Gabriela Jauregui & Heather Cleary about their new co-edited anthology Tsunami: Women’s Voices from Mexico.
& three new conversations this week for the Black Studies Podcast: Ashley Newby with Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh from Stanford; John Drabinski with Will Mosley from the University of Maryland; & Ashley with Zahra Caldwell from Westfield State University.
Turning to current events conversations, the latest episode of Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine podcast features Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor on their new book & the “end times fascists.”
Speaking of AI, the latest live episode of Matt Seybold’s American Vandal podcast is a conversation with Lauren M.E. Goodlad & Jeff Jarvis about critical AI & the end of mass media. & also check out Jarvis in The New World on how Mark Twain warned us about AI more than a century ago.
For another challenge to AI, here’s the latest episode of Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club podcast, featuring Angus Fletcher on the uniquely human quality of “primal intelligence.”
Two new episodes of Lauren Lassabe Shepherd’s American Campus podcast this week: with Harry Hanbury & Gaby Batista on the hostile takeover of New College of Florida; & with Rod Flower on the story of pharmacology.
Turning to more overtly political topics, for their Maintenance Phase podcast Michael Hobbes & Aubrey Gordon (with help from Gregg Gonsalves) talked about RFK Jr’s belief that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS.
Over at their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Mickey Dollens about the threat of religious coercion.
For their Liberal Currents Half the Answer podcast, Caitlin M. Green & Trent R. Nelson interviewed Hunter CG about European election results, racist militias, & Jared Kushner.
While for her Liberal Currents Neon Liberalism podcast, Samantha Hancox-Li talked with Keira Havens about the Constitutional need to impeach Pete Hegseth.
I’m excited for the ACLU’s upcoming new podcast Let the Record Show, featuring Shereen Marisol Meraji & Mr. Beat on major court cases from across US history.
& I’ll end this section with a conversation about a topic clearly near & dear to my heart: David M. Perry for the Academic Publishing Podcast on becoming a public scholar.
Books:
A ton of new books published this week, including the controversial one I referenced above: Richard Kurin’s History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery from Penguin Random House. The real problem is the last phrase in Kurin’s subtitle, as Annette Gordon-Reed already solved that mystery quite thoroughly in books like Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.
Also out from Penguin this week is another book highlighted above, Catherine Grace Katz’s Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster & the Prelude to War.
Two anticipated new publications from the University of Chicago Press this week: Bryant Simon’s For Customers Only: Public Bathrooms & the Making of American Inequality; & Timothy Stewart-Winter’s Outed: LBJ’s Confidant & the Arrest That Transformed a Presidency.
Out this week from W.W. Norton is Kelly Lytle Hernández’s Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control.
Likewise published this week from Simon & Schuster is Marion Gibson’s Witchland: A Deadly Moral Panic in Seventeenth-Century Britain.
Now out from the University of Washington Press is Sara B. Pritchard’s Transforming Night: The History & Science of Light Pollution.
& finally, now available from OpenBook Publishers is Brandon Walsh’s Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching & the Infrastructure of Change.
Forthcoming this Tuesday (9/29) from the University of Illinois Press is Kristen M. Turner’s The Operatic Kaleidoscope: Voice, Race, & the Ragtime Popular Stage.
While out on Friday (October 2) from Routledge is Richard James Johnson’s A Deweyan Approach to Teaching Literacy Inquiry.
Thanks to Sarah Marsh for sharing that her new book Novel Constitutions & the Making of Race: A Literary & Legal History of Slavery in the Anglophone Atlantic, 1688-1818, will be available on October 8. She adds, “On launch day, I’ll be giving a public talk at American University’s Political Theory Institute: “Constitutions Ancient and Novel: Slavery, Race, and the Meanings of 1776,” October 8 at 5:30 pm ET.”
While forthcoming on 11/2 & available for pre-order from DeGruyter Brill is Rebecca Brückmann, Silke Hackenesch, & Charlotte A. Lerg’s edited collection Radical in the Ordinary: Women’s Activism in Everyday American Life.
Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler talked with Marcia Biederman about her new book Attic Wife: The Shocking Case of Agnes Young McAlpin.
The Pittsburgh Review of Books shared an excerpt from Erin Osmon’s new book Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock & the Fight for America. & also for PRoB, Elise L. Ryan interviewed Charles O’Malley & Scott Stern about their book Shakespeare’s Margaret: The Dramatic Life of a Warrior Queen.
Over at Public Books, Kyle Sossamon reviewed Trevor Paglen’s new book How to See Like a Machine: Images after AI. & also for Public Books, Antonio Y. Vázquez-Arroyo shared a remembrance of & tribute to the late Fredric Jameson.
While for the latest USIH book review, Campbell F. Scribner wrote about Hugo Drochon’s Elites & Democracy.
Finally, over at her Love Notes newsletter Jenn M. Jackson shared a list of books to read if you want to become an anti-racist activist & thinker.
Made By History:
Three great new pieces for the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Made By History this week: Gabrielle Esparza on Argentina, the Falklands, & why nationalist leaders turn to territorial disputes; Thomas Bishop on why eliminating a key radiation regulation would hinder hopes of a nuclear power revival; & Zachary Tayler on what the US-Vietnam reconciliation can teach us about Afghanistan.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna conclude with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Peter Adrastos Athas for First Draft on how we might crawl from this wreckage.
In a similar vein, for The Present Age Parker Molloy analyzed the trainwreck that is our current discourse over trans Americans.
While for her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh highlighted reflections & warnings from poets & scolds for these terrible times.
Over at his The Reliable Narrator newsletter, Paul Thomas returned to Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” as an allegory of privilege.
For her The Many-Headed Monster blog, Laura Sangha made a plea for critical thinking humans in our world of extremes.
& for his newsletter, Michael Phillips highlighted the rare occasion of John Cornyn finding a white supremacist he doesn’t like.
Two new posts from Kevin M. Levin for his Civil War Memory newsletter this week: his thoughts on the new Jefferson-Hemings book & why we refuse to believe; & a post on a powerful 1929 photograph of African Americans visiting the Gettysburg battlefield.
Continuing with more American historical topics, for his Lincoln Conspirators site Dave Taylor wrote about a 2025 auction & Lincoln’s “assassination gloves.”
For her The Lost Cause & America newsletter, Karen L. Cox wrote about a laudatory 1914 book on the KKK for children (!) that attacked “home-made Yankees.”
While at his newsletter, Jonathan Burdick followed up his August Erie Reader article with further reflections on the Vietnam War protest-suicide of Norman Morrison.
Turning to global histories, the new Verbum Libere post focuses on disease, occupation, & neutral countries on WWI’s Western Front.
For his latest Historical Ephemera post, Matthew Eaton traced what Britain’s WWII censorship reports reveal for historians.
Over at her A is for Abortion: Snapshots from the Past newsletter, Mary Fissell has gotten up to P, focusing on the Caribbean abortion-inducing peacock flower.
While for the Immigration & Ethnic History Society blog, Kate Motluk shares efforts to create a digital archive of the mysterious Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
& over at his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint penned a moving tribute to his grandmother & what cannot be repaid.
I’ll finish this thread with a series of great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Part 1 of Howard Burton’s Exploring Art History series on hidden treasures, a post on La Pieve di Santa Maria Maddalena a Sietina.
For Wandering Educators, Kerry Dexter wrote about Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours International Festival.
Over at his Medium column, Matthew Teutsch shared his experience searching for Frank Yerby in Madrid.
Great essay from Joel Anderson for The Ringer on how the mystery of Tupac Shakur’s death didn’t end with a guilty verdict.
For his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou continued his analyses of Passport to Pimlico with an analysis of a scene of spontaneous but transformative public giving.
Over at The Conversation, Daniel LaChance & Paul Kaplan used the new film Primetime to write about how To Catch a Predator indulged America’s appetite for humiliation & punishment.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s ongoing Midlife Crisis issue, Amber Sparks analyzed the experimental 1966 film Seconds.
& for this week’s installment of her Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy shared an amazing autumnal analysis of the 80s classic Mystic Pizza.
Finally, I’ll end with the first piece for an exciting new newsletter, Chris Cantwell’s Avian Americana.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books, & more! Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may we all weather the storm in public scholarly comfort & community.
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