Before tonight’s Oscars, I’d like to nominate myself for Best Supporting Scholar with my 267th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & the winner will be … all of us!
Articles:
Starting with another collection of great writing for #WHM (along with many more such pieces in the Newsletters & Blog Posts section below), including the Museum of Rural English Life’s International Women’s Day post on three 20C women curators, collectors, & designers.
Over at the Urban History Association’s Metropole, Dan Holland told the story of four African American women activists who shaped Pittsburgh’s Black neighborhood identity.
For the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives, Ashley Everson interviewed Amato Nocera & Alexander Hyres about their new Global Black Thought article on Ruby J. Gainer, Black educators, & their concept of a “Long Brown era.”
While over at Dua Lipa’s Service95, Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist is Dua’s Monthly Read for March, & so Ashley C. Ford shared some personal reflections on having Gay as a friend & mentor.
Lots of great writing this week ahead of the Oscars, including Omari Averette-Phillips for Clio & the Contemporary on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.
While Erika Hardison wrote for Reactor magazine on Sinners, the Great Migration, & Rust Belt Gothik (h/t Andre Carrington for bringing that essay to my attention).
Over at Public Books, Michael Berubé & Urmila Seshagiri wrote about Del Toro’s Frankenstein, Shelley’s novel, & Victor’s progeny.
While for the University of California Press blog, Surekha Davies connected her recent book Humans: A Monstrous History to the new film The Bride!
Finally, for the Mid Theory Collective’s Adaptation Anxiety series, Charline Jao wrote about what the many adaptations of Shelley’s novel tell us about us. (A reminder that Vaughn Joy similarly analyzed Frankenstein & its adaptations for Contingent magazine in November.)
& for a bracing & powerful analysis of an Oscar-nominated documentary, check out Natalie D.C. in the Pittsburgh Review of Books on The Voice of Hind Rajab.
Speaking of the Pittsburgh Review of Books & turning to other public scholarly writing from the week, here’s Willy Maley on the Spanish Civil War’s Shevchenko Company & the role played by nationalism within international struggles.
Andrew Holter wrote for The Boston Review on reading the novelist Mary McCarthy on Vietnam in a new era of wartime illusions.
While Irvin Ibargüen wrote for the Immigration & Ethnic History Society (IEHS) about Mexico during the Bracero Era & special interests in the sending state.
Fascinating Commonplace journal essay from Beth van Duzer on rediscovering the final resting place of Concord (MA)’s Colonial-era Black community.
& here’s David S. Rotenstein for Cincy Jewfolk on Newport (Kentucky)’s Jewish mobsters & an infamous 1940s Washington’s Birthday shooting.
A few open-access scholarly publications to share this week, including Hannah Young for the Journal of British Studies on female enslavers & compensation debates in 19th-century Britain.
Also open-access is the entirety of the Winter 2025-26 issue (Volume 2 Issue 2) of the newly revived The Dial, including a fascinating forum on the Transcendental Manosphere.
& check out Andrew W.M. Smith’s Bluesky thread of open-access articles from the latest update to Paper Trails: The Social Life of Archives & Collections.
A trio of columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Bill Newcott on the history & diversity of houses of worship in Key West.
For her Missing in History Post series, Nancy Rubin Stuart highlighted Maria Tallchief, the Native American dancer who revolutionized modern ballet.
& Malak Kassem wrote for The Post on how the holy month of Ramadan is about reflection & community, not just fasting.
Current Events:
Turning to current events public scholarly writing, here’s James Pickett for the Pittsburgh Review of Books on Irianian Shiism, Shia theocracy, & what comes next in the country & region.
Important reporting from Beau Hodai for the Phoenix New Times’s Big Takeover investigative series on a May 2024 brunch at which Trumpists plotted to deploy the military on US soil around the election.
Two great Liberal Currents articles to share this week, including Alan Elrod on what right-wing attacks on James Talarico reveal about Christian extremism & Christopher M. Cruz on how love of the world rather than meaningless tests must be at the heart of liberal education.
A trio of great pieces on AI this week, including Matthew Gault for 404 Media on his visit to the “Freedom Truck” to meet PragerU’s AI (Slop) Founders.
While for her Something Mo site, Mo Ryan penned an impassioned open letter to Grammerly & other plagiarists, thieves, & slop merchants.
& great reporting from Alice Speri for The Guardian on the impact of AI on professors, students, & learning, featuring comments from Matt Seybold among others.
Speaking of threats to higher ed, for the third part of her Echoes in the Quad Inside Higher Ed series Dominique J. Baker wrote about the danger of silence when academic freedom is under threat.
Over at Africa is a Country, A. Kayum Ahmed wrote about the arrest protocol on their fridge & the threats facing pro-Palestine organizers, including college students.
For another dangerous current threat to knowledge, here’s Tina Loo for the Network in Canadian History & Environment (NiCHE) on the plan to decommission the Parks Canada Library.
While Anna Snyder wrote for the AHA’s Perspectives on why lawyers need to be more consistently included in America’s 250th anniversary commemorations.
Gonna end this section with a trio of inspiring pieces, including this New Humanist piece highlighting the voices of six folks fighting propaganda around the world, including Michael E. Mann & Peter Hotez on protecting science in the U.S.
Check out Benjamin Melusky, Eric Loepp, & Kristin Kanthak’s open-access article in PS: Political Science & Politics on the recent successes of women running for office.
& this Boston Celtics fan loved Daniel W. Drezner’s newsletter on what the C’s can teach America about the power of organizational culture.
Podcasts:
Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including a timely episode of Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History featuring Monica Sandler on the history of the Oscars.
For more film histories, here’s the latest episode of Ross Lennon’s History on Film podcast featuring Chris Bell on Bulworth.
& for his America: The Story of the USA podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by Van Connor to discuss who killed the movie star.
Episode 90 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past podcast features Matthew Delmont on his focus on pacing & character in his many excellent projects.
Season 4 of Geraldo Cadava’s Writing Latinos podcast for Public Books kicks off with Jazmine Ulloa on her new book El Paso: Five Families & One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, & Memory.
While over at the Converging Dialogues podcast, Xavier Bonilla interviewed Megan Kate Nelson about her forthcoming book & deconstructing the American West frontier myth.
For episode 198 of his Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Andrew Porwancher about his new book American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt & the Jews.
For her latest Civics & Coffee episode, Alycia Asai started a series on the political career & brief presidency of James Garfield. & for her latest author interview, Alycia chatted with historical novelist Alyson Richman about her new book on Titanic victim Harry Elkins Widener.
For episode 135 of his The Way of Improvement Leads Home podcast, John Fea interviewed Stephen M. Koeth about his new book on the suburbanization of American Catholicism.
While episode 187 of Reckoning with Jason Herbert features Adrian Miller about the stories behind his book Black Smoke: African Americans & the United States of Barbecue.
For the latest episode of the Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures podcast, Jason König & Jonathan Westaway interviewed Caroline Schaumann about her work on the history of mountaineering.
Episode 436 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast features Matthew Keagle on the 250th anniversary of Henry Knox’s famous artillery train.
The latest episode of Rich Napolitano’s Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast tells the story of the HMHS Brittanic, which sunk on a German mine in November 1916.
Two episodes of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast to share this week, as I missed last week’s with Eugene Smelyansky on Russian Medievalisms, & then this week Lisa Fagin Davis joined to discuss the inscrutable & mysterious Voynich Manuscript.
Turning to current events conversations, for her Amicus podcast Dahlia Lithwick interviewed Anna O. Law about her forthcoming book, immigration myths, & birthright citizenship.
Over at Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast, All Above All President Nourbese Flint joined to talk sci fi, pop culture, & building the future we want to live in.
For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked about Trump’s Iran War & the Imperial Presidency.
Two episodes of Melissa & Matthew Teutsch’s This Ain’t It podcast to share this week, as I missed last week’s on apocalyptic thinking & the Iran War, & then this week they discussed James Talarico’s comments & why God is indeed non-binary.
Over at the This Old Democracy podcast, host Micah Sifry was joined by Lisa Disch to discuss our unnatural two-party system.
For her latest American Conversation, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed Representative Maxwell Frost about the Epstein Files & more.
& I greatly appreciate David W. Blight sitting down for a rightly combative conversation with the Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts about that organization & Trump’s attacks on history & education.
Books:
A couple of important new books published this week, including Ayşehan Jülide Etem’s Film Diplomacy: A Media History of Turkey-US Relations from Columbia University Press.
Also out this week from Faber is John Grindrod’s Suburbia: A Twentieth Century LGBTQ+ Survival Kit.
Now available open-access with extra resources is Kylie Smith’s Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry & Civil Rights in the American South from UNC Press.
& now available from Verso Books in the UK (still forthcoming in the US) is Marcus Rediker’s latest, Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea.
Forthcoming tomorrow, March 16, is Chris Edelson’s timely Above the Law?: The Evolution of Emergency Presidential Power from Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Also forthcoming on March 16 is David M. Henkin’s Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball from Oxford University Press (should be helpful as I work on my podcast’s second season!).
Also forthcoming from Oxford, now pushed to March 24 but still imminent, is Anna O. Law’s Migrations & the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, & Immigrants.
& forthcoming on April 7 from Penguin Random House is Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s latest, The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, & the Cosmic Dream Boogie.
For the latest USIH book review, Virginia Olmsted McGraw writes about David S. Foglesong, Ivan Kurilla, & Victoria I. Zhuravleva’s Distant Friends & Intimate Enemies: A History of American-Russian Relations.
Over at Instick Media, Moira Lavelle reviewed Molly Crabapple’s important new book Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund.
For The New Yorker, Moira Donegan reviewed Ellen Carol DuBois’s new biography Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life.
While the Historic Bostons Book of the Month is Linford D. Fisher’s Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in US History.
Speaking of book reviews, I really appreciate & agree with Kathleen Rooney for the Chicago Review of Books on why such reviews continue to matter to the literary community & beyond.
For a new space offering such reviews & more, check out Volume 1 of Summer Brennan’s Book Supplement at her A Writer’s Notebook.
& LitHub featured two relevant essays on such topics this week, including Sandy Ernest Allen & Maris Kreizman’s queer accounting of books that were missing from the NY Times Book Review between 2013-2022, & Jeannine A. Cook on why she opened the groundbreaking Harriet’s Bookshop in Philadelphia.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna end with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as ever, including Seth Cotlar for his Rightlandia on old timey Christian Americanism & the history of American Fascism.
On a similar note, over at his Democracy Americana Thomas Zimmer has begun a history of the Republican Party’s shift from anti-slavery origins to white conservative domination.
For his Prevail newsletter, Greg Olear offered a view of the capital of Iran from the capital of Bavaria.
Over at his Systematic Hatreds newsletter, Paul Musgrave continued his series on reading Thomas Schelling’s Arms & Influence through the lens of this war.
While for his Looking Through the Past newsletter, George Dillard traced the American obsession with war with Iran.
Bracing & important piece from Michael Phillips for his newsletter on how Texas plans to turn its colleges into mini-police states.
For Don Moynihan’s Can We Still Govern?, guest posters Christian Glässel & Adam Scharpf offered historical lessons from dictatorships on our own American secret police.
For her website, Dana R. Fisher reflected on a couple recent papers that can help us unpack the reffects of repression & civil disobedience.
Over at his How Things Work newsletter, Hamilton Nolan analyzed the shifting journalistic landscape & the move away from advertiser-based models.
While for his Ehlers on Everything blog, Mark Ehlers lamented the death of The Washington Post, a once-great American newspaper.
For The Objective, James Salanga interviewed Anita Varma about her new book Solidarity in Journalism & why all journalism advocates.
Turning to more historical subjects, in a guest post for the Victoria County History blog Louise Ryland-Epton wrote about John Aubrey’s work on prehistoric monuments.
Over at the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama, they shared a Q&A with Managing Editor Kate Tyler Wall for her 20th anniversary with the journal.
For her History in the Margins site Pamela D. Toler continued her Women’s History Month interviews series, this week featuring Lorissa Rinehart, Sharon M. Harris, Carla Kaplan, & Jennifer Banning Tomas, as well as a new post of Pamela’s on Mary Elizabeth Garrett & coercive philanthropy.
For his What I’m Reading newsletter, Phil Lewis wrote about how the staff at Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History are using viral videos to depict working at the legendary museum from a Black perspective.
While for his New York Almanack site, Jaap Harskamp wrote about American art history & the historical village named Broadway.
Gonna conclude with a bunch of great cultural studies work as usual, including Neil Cole for Superman Super Site on Broadway performer Ray Middleton, the first live Man of Steel.
Diana W. Anselmo wrote for Nursing Clio on Heated Rivalry, US television, & the historical pathologization of gay desire.
A pair of pieces from Alex Pagliuca to share this week, including this review of The Bride! & this thoughtful take on watching Craig Zogel’s Compliance in 2026.
Over at his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou wrote about Ealing Studios head Michael Balcon & shaping institutional identity through storytelling.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s issue on comedy, Abigail Oswald wrote about the delights of watching Jennifer Coolidge in films like Austenland.
For Nighttide magazine, Mo Moshaty used four films to analyze how horror portrays the four seasons.
For her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered an appropriately delightful Feminist take on The Birdcage for the film’s 30th anniversary.
& for my AmericanStudier blog this week, I shared a series on the life & legacies of the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, starting with this post on turn of the century Chinese American histories & culminating with reflections on the podcast of Vaughn’s that introduced me to Howe.
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may the best film win!
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