Here it is, my 245th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more in comments below, please share widely, & enjoy, all!
Articles:
Starting with some favorite writing from the week as usual, including Zeb Larson for SF Gate on why you’ve never heard of the largest national park in the U.S.
David Rotenstein wrote for LinkNKY on the fascinating story of Ralph Emerson Gaches, the showboat pioneer known as the “Barnum of the rivers.”
Over at the Pittsburgh Review of Books, its founder Ed Simon wrote about New York for its 400th anniversary.
& I also really enjoyed this PRoB piece for Banned Books Week, featuring recommendations from the magazine’s writers & staff.
For the History News Network’s newsletter, Brendan Hornbostel traced the political role the Metropolitan Police Department has played since its founding.
Two pieces for the Urban History Association’s Metropole blog this week, including Genevieve Carpio on what auto insurance in California history reveals about race, risk, & responsibility.
While for the next entry in Metropole’s Graduate Student Blogging Contest, here’s Charlotte Lieb on birds, cities, & the forgotten violence of artificial illumination.
The folks at The Many-Headed Monster continued their series on the experience of work in Early Modern England with Mark Hailwood’s fascinating post on winter & seasonal work patterns.
& check out this University of Exeter piece on that open-access book project, The Experience of Work in Early Modern England.
Over at the Public Engagement with Research at the University of Exeter project, Catherine Hurcombe interviewed Laura Sangha on her archival work with wills.
For the AHA’s Perspectives blog, Deanna Hagman wrote about lessons on disability, community, & belonging from her research on design histories.
While for Contingent magazine, Grant Wong used his research into New York City’s punk rock movement to argue for the importance of studying pop culture & our interests.
Projects:
Two exciting new public history projects to share this week, including Liz Covart et al’s about-to-be-launched History Explorers Club.
& check out the Kickstarter for Rebecca Hall’s Wake Productions, an AfroFuturist Education Project in the Black Radical Tradition.
Saturday Evening Post Columns:
Three columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Don Vaughan on how Armed Services Editions brought pocket-sized books to WWII soldiers.
Speaking of fascinating WWII histories, Nancy Rubin Stuart wrote for her Missing in History series on Virginia Hall, the American woman who became one of the most dangerous spies in France.
Post editor Troy Brownfield concluded his Defining the Decades series with a piece on the last four decades in American history & culture.
& I’m really proud of my latest Considering History column, on what the 1985 MOVE bombing reminds us about the inevitable tragedies of “war from within.”
Current Events:
I’m also proud to be quoted at length, alongside Michael Leroy Oberg, Philip Deloria, & many others, on Jasmine Laws’ Newsweek piece on contexts for America’s widely varied Columbus Day celebrations.
Turning to other current events, Nur Yasemin Ural & Donovan O. Schaefer wrote for the Political Theology Network on how Notre Dame is becoming cultural Christianity’s secular cathedral.
Important article from Eli Erlick in G&LR magazine on how we can make sense of the rise of the trans right.
Thanks to Jamelle Bouie for sharing Joseph Fishkin’s must-read article for Balkinization on the Trump administration’s proposal for a higher education “compact.”
Bracing & important piece from Marian Wilson Kimber for Bleeding Heartland on the unnecessary & destructive closure of the State Historical Society of Iowa.
For one inspiring way that folks are fighting back against such trends, here’s Chris Yogerst for The Hollywood Reporter on the new Committee for the First Amendment.
& for another such inspiring community, here’s Jule Pattison-Gordon for Governing on how local librarians are keeping AI slop off their shelves.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes to share this week, including the latest for Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past, an interview with Andrew Hartman about his new book & much more.
I meant to include the prior Drafting the Past episode in last week’s thread, but my quick write-up disappeared, so make sure to check out Ruby Lal’s episode as well!
The new episode of Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History features Eve M. Kahn on the fascinating career & life of Gilded Age journalist Zoe Anderson Norris.
Check out the debut of a fascinating new archival podcast, Bethany Qualls & Joe DeGrand’s Re(un)Covered, with a first season focused on the history of women typeface designers.
The latest episode of the History on Film podcast features Chris Morgan discussing his book The Nickelodeon 90s: Cartoons, Game Shows, & a Whole Bunch of Slime.
While for the latest episode of the Infinite Women podcast, Maggie Hennefeld joined to talk about her book Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria & Early Cinema.
Over at the Christmas Cousins podcast, they were joined by Brian Earl, host of the Christmas Past podcast & author of the new book Of Christmases Long, Long Ago.
The latest (422nd!) episode of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast features Seth Rockman on his book Plantation Goods & how Northern factories fueled the plantation economy.
While for the new episode of Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck’s War of the Rebellion podcast, Jonathan D. Neu joined to discuss his book Our Onward March: The Grand Army of the Republic in the Progressive Era.
The latest episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast highlights the infamous 1877 murder of Bessie Moore, better known as Diamond Bessie.
Over at the Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs podcast, host Rich Napolitano shared the second part of his series on Ernest Shackleton.
While episode 63 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast features Hannah Pollin-Galay on Yiddish & the Holocaust.
Two new episodes of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast this week, including Lilia Fernández & Lorrin Thomas joining to discuss the 1960s Latino Urban Riots in Chicago.
Liam also shared the latest of his In the Making current events episodes, featuring activist Alyssa Royse on the National Guard in Chicago & more.
Continuing with current events podcasts, the latest episode of SSN’s No Jargon features Nancy Hiemstra on the big business of immigration detention.
The folks at the Sociology of Everything podcast shared part two of their conversation with Ernesto Verdeja about his article on the Gaza genocide.
Over at her Freedom Over Fascism site, Stephanie G. Wilson shared her conversation with Will Fullwood about race consciousness & anti-racism for his Contraband Wagon podcast.
The latest episode of John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast features Jake Tapper on America’s legal crossroads.
& finally, the latest Bulwark podcast episode brought on Bill Kristol & the legendary Jane Fonda to discuss “the fierce urgency of now.”
Made by History:
Three excellent new pieces for Time’s Made by History this week, including A.J. Bauer on how CBS has been in conservatives’ sights for decades.
Aaron Coy Moulton wrote for Made by History on how video games have been a convenient political scapegoat since their origins.
& here’s Donald F. Johnson for Made by History on what American Revolutionary histories reveal about using troops to police U.S. cities.
Public Books Higher Ed Series:
I really enjoyed Public Books’ weeklong roundtable discussion Toward the Next American University, introduced here by editor Dennis M. Hogan.
Christopher Newfield kicked off the conversation with an argument for academics seizing the means of knowledge production.
Jasper Cattell continued the roundtable with the need for graduate student unions as a response to ongoing threats.
Christian Collins wrote for the roundtable on why higher ed must seek out Black & Hispanic men.
Here’s Stephanie Reist for the roundtable on why we must stop revering California’s tiered system of higher ed.
Great roundtable contribution from Jarrel T. Johnson on how HBCUs must embrace & empower queer & trans students.
& Anne E. Clark concluded the roundtable with an argument for something near & dear to my heart as well, an alliance between higher & secondary ed.
Black Perspectives:
One new piece for the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog this week, an interview with Ben Vinson III about his work on the Black diaspora in Latin America.
Book Publications:
A number of new scholarly books out this week, including Anthony Delaney’s Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, & Homemakers from Atlantic Monthly Press.
Out this week from the University of Oklahoma Press is Jeffrey T. Manuel & Thomas D. Rogers’ Ethanol: A Hemispheric History for the Future of Biofuels.
Also published this week was Jack Bouchard’s Terra Nova: Food, Water, & Work in an Early Atlantic World from Yale University Press.
& check out Truthdig’s excerpt from another just-published book, Danny Goldberg’s Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating & the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles.
A ton of forthcoming books now available for pre-order, including Justin Randolph’s Mississippi Law: Policing & Reform in America’s Jim Crow Countryside, out 10/21 from UNC Press.
Out from UNC Press one week later will be Jonathan S. Jones’s Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans & America’s First Opioid Crisis.
Also out 10/28 from Princeton University Press will be Shirley Samuels’ Haunted by the Civil War: Cultural Testimony in the Nineteenth-Century United States.
Out a week after that from Princeton University Press will be Arnoud S.Q. Visser’s On Pedantry: A Cultural History of the Know-It-All.
Forthcoming 11/13 from Bloomsbury is Conor Heffernan’s When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century.
& forthcoming 11/20 from De Gruyter Brill is my wife Vaughn Joy’s Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy.
For Print magazine, Steven Heller reviewed Elizabeth Resnick’s new book Women Graphic Designers: Balancing the Canon, out now from Bloomsbury.
The latest USIH book review features Robert Greene II on Lacy Ford’s Understanding the American South: Slavery, Race, Identity, & the American Century.
For a ton more book recommendations, check out this fascinating SEL Marginalia interview with Nathan K. Hensley on the great unread era of the global Covid shutdown.
& over at his The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog, John Fea interviewed Aaron Sheehan-Dean about his book Fighting with the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War.
Newsletters & Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a ton of other great blog posts & newsletters as usual, including Kelly Hayes for her Organizing My Thoughts newsletter on the war on Chicago.
For his relaunched Democracy Americana newsletter (make sure to subscribe!), Thomas Zimmer wrote about how we need to be talking about Russell Vought.
Over at her Wide Awake America newsletter, Nadine Smith wrote about anticipatory humiliation & white male grievance.
Fascinating piece from Steven Beschloss for his America, America newsletter on The Louisville Orchestra & whether music can help bridge America’s divides.
Over at Mona Eltahawy’s Feminist Giant newsletter, she re-shared her vital October 2024 essay on why she writes.
Two new pieces from Etienne Toussaint to share this week, including for his The Tenure Track newsletter on building a visible digital presence that reflects our work.
& a fascinating piece from Toussaint for his Freedom Papers newsletter on the professional politics of hair in legal workplaces.
For his blog, William G. Pooley highlighted Michaela Kalcher’s work on the French Revolution diaries of Céléstin Guittard de Floriban.
For his Ehlers on Everything blog, Mark J. Ehlers wrote about the 20th century rabbi, philosopher, author, & activist Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Really interesting piece from Surekha Davies for her Strange & Wondrous newsletter on Walter Raleigh’s headless monsters & annotation as thinking.
Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter is always worth checking out, including this recent piece on Confederates finding God & slavery in the wake of their defeats at Gettysburg & Vicksburg.
I enjoyed Heather Cox Richardson’s special Letters from an American installment on the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.
Over at his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch analyzed the depiction of religious bigotry in S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed.
Here’s Vaughn Joy’s thought-provoking as well as shiver-inducing next installment in her Review Roulette spooky season series, on 1931’s Frankenstein & monsters in the crystal cave of culture.
& speaking of monsters, check out Contingent magazine’s CFP for their special December issue!
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, all!
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