As we begin this most fraught & most important Black History Month, & amidst every damn thing else, #ScholarSunday threads carry on—here’s my 261st of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all!
First a reminder that if you want to contribute your own public scholarly work, our Black & White & Read All Over website has an excellent Pitchables page (created by my awesome wife Vaughn Joy) with tons of opportunities!
Articles:
Starting with a trio of phenomenal pieces offering contexts for Minnesota, including Ifrah Mansour for Hyperallergic on being a Somali artist in the state.
The folks at Left Voice contextualized the recent general strike in the state (& beyond) with the inspiring 1934 Minneapolis general strike.
& for her No Class Teen Vogue column, Kim Kelly likewise contextualized Minnesota’s labor activism with the “Bread & Roses” strike & other historical parallels.
Turning to other great writing from the week, Travis C. Perusich wrote for Age of Revolutions on the Black Patriot experience of the American Revolution through the eyes of drum major Jim Capers.
Great essay from the KOLUMN magazine editors on the groundbreaking & still vital work of Derrick Bell, the prophet of racial realism.
Toby Green wrote for Aeon magazine on lessons in pluralism from the 17th century West African, multicultural, women-run town of Cacheu.
For the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama, Mackenzie Tor contextualized both Massachusetts’ expanded liquor license law & her recent JER article on antebellum Black temperance with histories of the equitable provisioning of alcohol.
This week saw the final two pieces in Metropole’s Urban & Environmental Dialogues series (a collaboration with the folks at NICHE), including Sara B. Pritchard on urban nightscapes & the Anthropocene & Andrew Watson on how Toronto’s foundations offer sources for exploring historic urban metabolism.
For the Northern Kentucky Tribune, David Rotenstein wrote about Covington’s acquisition of & plans for the historic industrial site that was the Duro Bag Manufacturing Company headquarters.
While for his LA Daily Mirror site, Larry Harnisch highlighted a January 1934 story about an ancient lizard cult hiding gold tablets in tunnels under the city.
Over at Clio & the Contemporary, Oscar Winberg shared stories from his new book on the impacts of All in the Family on American television & society.
For the History Workshop, Robert D. Priest wrote about the origins of “culture wars,” a companion piece to his open-access History Workshop Journal article on whether the concept is a useful category of historical analysis.
Also check out the rest of that open-access History Workshop Journal 100th volume, featuring a great roundtable on teaching public history in Britain today & much more.
Speaking of the History Workshop, here’s an excellent piece that I missed last week, Vivien Chan & students from their Nottingham Trent University Illustration course on illustrating history from below.
& speaking of artistic histories, Martin Herbert wrote for Apollo magazine on a mammoth Paris retrospective on the German painter Gerhard Richter.
Here’s incoming AHA President Suzanne Marchand’s debut column for the Perspectives feature, on Herodotus, history, & flattery.
While Perspectives also featured the latest AHA Member Spotlight, on the Early Republic intellectual historian James M. Banner Jr.
Finally, a trio of columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Teresa Bitler on Colonial Williamsburg in this 250th anniversary of the Revolution.
For her Missing in History Post column, Nancy Rubin Stuart highlighted the letters & story of 19C Wyoming homesteader Elinore Pruitt Stewart.
& I appreciate Donald Liebenson writing for the Post on the latest batch of inductees to the National Film Registry, including one of my very favorite films Glory & many more.
Current Events:
Turning to current events, so much great writing about Minnesota this week, including Sarah Jeong for The Verge on law enforcement that doesn’t follow the law.
While Justin Briley wrote for Liberal Currents on how the power of the badge & state violence comes with an obligation to uphold a higher standard.
Here’s David M. Perry for his Minnesota Star Tribune column (that’s a gift link) on how abolishing ICE is only the first step in changing this system.
Similarly, Reece Jones contributed a guest essay to the New York Times (also a gift link) on why the Border Patrol is & always has been the problem.
Emma Janssen likewise wrote for The American Prospect on the Border Patrol’s foundational & ongoing legacy of violence.
For a potent contextualization of those histories through the overarching debate over the American “homeland,” Ta-Nehisi Coates in Vanity Fair (that’s a gift link) is a must-read as ever.
From last June but missed in this space & in important conversation with these current events is Kelly Hayes for her Organizing My Thoughts page on protest, power, & the violence debate.
Lots of great pieces this week as well on how to resist these trends, including Walter D. Greason/SAGE GRAY for his Genius Locus site on defending Minnesota.
A pair of great essays on that topic for LitHub, including Dobby Gibson offering a letter from Minnesota to the nation & James Folta’s conversation with Moon Palace Books owner Angela Schwesnedl on how the bookstore became a hub for anti-ICE resistance.
& speaking of books as resistance, Laurie Muchnick argued for Kirkus Reviews that in solidarity we should all be reading books from Minnesota presses.
Turning to other current events, Dana Munro of the Philadelphia Inquirer talked with John Garrison Marks about the removal of exhibits from the city’s President’s House site.
The administrators of the American Association for State & Local History (AASLH) offered a powerful statement on their opposition to that censorship.
& pulling those two pieces together, Marks, who is AASLH Vice President of Research & Engagement, wrote for their site about why he’s still excited for the 250th anniversary despite everything.
For the Boston Review, Ash Ü. Băli & Aziz Rana wrote about how the Middle East incubated the coercive policies that led to the Trump Doctrine.
Over at The Baffler, Kim Kelly traced how the Department of Labor’s anti-immigrant turn betrays its origins with the great Frances Perkins.
For his The American Vandal newsletter, Matt Seybold argued that forced adoption of AI was the subtext of the Davos conference.
For NC Newsline, Belle Boggs offered an important op ed on why parents & students should care just as much as teachers do about academic freedom.
& to end this section on a hopeful note, here’s Mariane Kaba for In These Times with a letter to young organizers on how they & we all can move forward.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes to share this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Ethelene Whitmire on the inspiring gay Black artist Reed Peggram, who refused to leave his Danish lover in a WWII Italian concentration camp.
Episode 85 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past features Fahad Bishara on how his new book Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History tells the story of a world in motion.
Over at Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast, John Ferling joined to discuss his new book Shouts Heard Round the World & how France & Spain helped win the Revolution.
Over at his America: The Story of the USA podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by none other than Liz Covart to discuss the American Revolution’s origins & meanings. (Liam also shared his latest In the Making currents events conversation, featuring Theo Zenou on the possibility of war with Iran.)
& speaking of the Revolution, episode 23 of Jim Ambuske’s Worlds Turned Upside Down has dropped, focusing on the invasion of Quebec.
For his Lincoln Conspirators podcast, host Dave Taylor was joined by Reignette Chilton to discuss her pair of books on Abraham Lincoln’s historic coats.
While for the latest episode of their War of the Rebellion podcast, hosts Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck interviewed Damien Shiels about his book Green & Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861-1865.
Over at her Bitchy History podcast, Professor Meredith offered the finale of her series on late 19C women’s rights activist, author, & inventor Matilda Josyln Gage.
While the latest in Alycia Asia’s Civics & Coffee series on the Gilded Age focuses on quietly radical First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes.
The latest episode of Ian Sanders’ Cold War Conversations was a live interview with veteran Colin Ferguson on British Army “stay behinds.”
While for the latest episode of the delightful Backlisted podcast, Ian Patterson discussed Iris Murdoch’s The Sacred & Profane Love Machine (1974).
Turning to current events conversations, check out this bracing & inspiring dialogue between Eddie Glaude Jr. & Imani Perry at Baldwin & Co. bookstore.
For her American Conversations series, Heather Cox Richardson talked with journalists Carol Leonnig & Aaron C. Davis about their new book on the destruction of the Justice Department.
For their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by a principal author of the House January 6th Committee final report, Tom Joscelyn.
For much more inspiring examples of protest, check out the latest episode of Melissa & Matthew Teutsch’s This Ain’t It podcast, on how protest can indeed change things for the better.
Over at his Behind the Lines podcast, host Arthur Snell interviewed Samir Puri on his book Westlessness & the post-Western world.
While for her Freedom Over Fascism podcast, Stephanie G. Wilson was joined by the Iranian American activist Zahra Amanpour to discuss Iran, women & freedom in the Islamic Republic, & more.
I’ll end this section with a podcast conversation featuring me, as I was delighted to join Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast to discuss The X-Files, the POW/MIA Vietnam War conspiracy theory, America in the 90s, & more!
Books:
Lots of important new book publications this week, including Brooke N. Newman’s long-awaited The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy & Slavery in the Americas from Harper Collins.
For an excerpt from Newman’s book, check out her new essay for Smithsonian magazine.
& Michael O’Donnell reviewed Newman’s book for the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Also published this week was Mélanie Lamotte’s By Flesh & Toil: How Sex, Race, & Labor Shaped the Early French Empire from Harvard University Press.
Out this week from Princeton University Press is Jamila Michener & Mallory E. SoRelle’s Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power.
Published this week by Oxford University Press is Late Heaney, Nicholas Allen’s personal & lyrical examination of Heaney’s post-Nobel Prize work.
Two important publications from UNC Press this week, including Sylvester Allen Jr. & Belle Boggs’ The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction through Black Lives Matter.
& also out this week from UNC Press is the 2nd edition (featuring a new preface) of Karen L. Cox’s vital No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments & the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice.
Check out Scribner Books’ trailer for Megan Kate Nelson’s much-anticipated next book, The Westerners, which will be out on March 31st & is available for pre-order.
Also available for pre-order is Sarah J. Jackson’s A Second Sight: How the Wonder & Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom from Harper Collins.
In honor of Angela Davis’s 82nd birthday, the folks at Seven Stories Press shared excerpts from Eduardo Mendieta’s 2005 interviews with the legendary scholar & activist.
For the latest USIH book review, Patrick Kindig wrote about Jess Shollenberger’s Ordinary Queerness in American Modernism.
While for Africa Is a Country, A.K. Kaiza reviewed Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, & the Making of the Ugandan State.
For more scholarly books to check out, here’s the International Affairs Blog’s Book Review Editor Mariana Vieira on five must-reads reviewed in the latest issue of International Affairs.
Newsletters & Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as always, including Thomas Zimmer for his Democracy Americana newsletter on the ongoing struggle against tyranny.
Brian Beutler wrote for his Off Message newsletter on Alex Pretti, MAGA, & the public meaning of masculinity.
While for her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson critiqued the white privilege of “surprise” at such law enforcement killings.
Over at his A Sea of Words newsletter, Lincoln Paine catalogued all the injustices that we’ve seen in January 2026.
For his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse connected today’s masked killers & thugs to historical ones such as the KKK.
Over at her History Teaches… newsletter, Felicia Kornbluh shared historical research & stories from her projects as lessons in the limits & possibilities of democracy in our own moment.
For her Meditations in an Emergency newsletter, Rebecca Solnit argued that amidst this cold winter, love is a superpower.
& for her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill channeled the great Frederick Douglass to argue that the immovable object has to be us.
While for his Civil War Memory newsletter, Kevin M. Levin highlighted a fascinating Civil War letter that can give us hope in the most perilous times. & speaking of, I appreciate Kevin sharing how protesters have offered artistic challenges to the censorship at Philly’s President’s House site.
Speaking of the power of art, great piece for the Ideas Roadshow newsletter on how art & art history can emotionally connect us to others.
Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler wrote about one such inspiring artist, Jazz Age illustrator Neysa McMein. & Toler also wrote this week about Georgia Ann “Tiny” Broadwick, the early 20C “First Lady of Parachuting.”
I missed last week’s subject of Max Perry Mueller’s wonderful More, America newsletter, the early 19C Shawnee prophet & activist Tenskwatawa. & this week, Mueller wrote about the Barbary Wars diplomat Mordecai Manuel Noah.
Two new posts from Etienne Toussaint to share this week as well, including starting a series for his The Tenure Track newsletter on connecting our work to what matters & for his Freedom Papers newsletter on Baldwin, resistance, & the daily practice of showing up.
For his blog, William G. Pooley used historical & writing anecdotes to explore six axioms of failure.
While over at her blog, Theresa Kaminski started a new weekly series sharing dispatches from her work in progress on her next book, Invisible Me: Jane Grant & The New Yorker.
& for his Interminable Rambling Medium column, Matthew Teutsch wrote about the joys of assigning unessay projects in class.
Gonna conclude with great cultural studies work as ever, including Benjamin Dreyer for his A Word About… on Meet Me in St. Louis, Broadway revivals, & what we do with nettlesome words.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s fascinating Extras column, Ryan Bedsaul wrote about his encounters with the iconic & iconoclastic filmmaker Hong Sang-soo.
In response to the Oscar noms, one of my favorite current film reviewers, Outlaw Vern, wrote about one of the year’s best films, Train Dreams.
& for her Review Roulette newsletter, my other favorite reviewer Vaughn Joy offered a compared analysis of the two film adaptations of Sabrina.
I’ll conclude with a tribute to today’s birthday celebrant & America’s greatest poet Langston Hughes, my 2025 Saturday Evening Post Considering History column on his vital critical patriotism.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may this Black History Month be full of resistance, reflection, rejuvenation, & rest, all!
Leave a Reply