Call me a bizarre anthropomorphic rabbit, because I’ve got so many Easter Eggs in my 270th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy the hunt, all!
Articles:
Starting with a few historic anniversaries & commemorations, including my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column on how we can reframe March 31st to focus on the collective farm worker movement.
March 31st was also Transgender Day of Visibility, so check out this KCUR (NPR in Kansas City) piece from Jacob Smollen on a transgender doctor who made a lifesaving tuberculosis breakthrough.
For one more March 31st anniversary, Ellen Wexler wrote for Smithsonian magazine on Abigail Adams’s famous 1776 later to her husband John, featuring the expertise of Sara Georgini & Cassandra Good.
& on the anniversary of MLK’s assassination, Jeanne Theoharis shared an excellent Bluesky thread on the media’s troubling role in the civil rights struggle.
Turning to other excellent articles from the week, here’s Manisha Sinha for Ms. magazine on the multi-century abolitionist origins of American feminism.
While Molly Crabapple wrote for Harper’s Bazaar on what we can learn from the radical Jewish women of the early 20th century Bund about the legacy of women fighting for their families.
Fascinating piece from Zachary Schrag for Greater Greater Washington answering some frequently asked questions about the missing Georgetown Metro station.
For more histories of place, check out Shifting Landscapes: Slavery & the Built Environment, the new virtual tour of Gallier House from SAGE GRAY (Walter D. Greason) & colleagues.
David Rotenstein wrote for his Next Pittsburgh column on whether Art Rooney’s efforts to loosen Pennsylvania’s blue laws helped bring the NFL draft to the city in 1947.
For the Network in Canadian History & Environment’s “Land, Memory, & Schooling” series, Kisha Supernant traced the fraught & vital work of searching for unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools.
Another thought-provoking pair of complementary pieces for Docalogue, featuring Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall & A.J. Bauer on two ways to bring George Orwell into conversation with our moment.
Over at the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Hannibal Hamlin used the passing of Chariots of the Gods author Erich Von Däniken to consider lessons from his seductive pseudoscience & conspiracy theories.
Thanks to the folks at the Public Domain Review for sharing another fascinating primary source, Wallace Craig’s three articles from 1909-11 on the expressions of emotions in pigeons.
While for the History Workshop, Lyndal Roper offered companion reflections on her recent open-access article “Turbulence & the German Peasants’ War of 1524-26.”
Two more open-access academic articles to share this week, including Kathleen Commons for The Historical Journal on discovering “immigration control” in England, 1540-1640.
Also open-access is Jonathan Cortez for California History on the painful & crucial work of historicizing migrant deaths in shipping containers on the U.S.-Mexico border.
In addition to my aforementioned piece on the farm worker movement, two other fascinating Saturday Evening Post columns to share this week, including Ryan Reft on Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, & the “terrible duties” of democracy.
While for Jeff Nilsson’s “From the Archive” column, he shared F. Scott Fitzgerald’s reflections on selling his first short story to the Post.
Current Events:
Turning to current events writing, I have to start with a pair of horrific but vital Mother Jones articles from Julia Lurie, framing & sharing legal declarations from parents & children detained at the Dilley incarceration camp in Texas. (I’ll have more to say about that camp in the upcoming Third Inning of my podcast’s season season.)
Also for Mother Jones, Pema Levy & Isabela Dias introduced us to the conservative legal minds making Trump’s nonsense case against birthright citizenship.
On that same note, experts Martha S. Jones & Kate Masur wrote a guest essay for the New York Times (that’s a gift link) on why birthright citizenship was never only for the children of enslaved people.
For a ton more legal expertise, thanks to the Villanova Law Review for sharing Madiba Dennie’s 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Address at the university’s Law School.
Over at his The Birth of a Capital project, Neil Flanagan argued that they’ve already built a bunker under the proposed White House ballroom.
Speaking of federal government expenditures, Jessica Calarco wrote for MS NOW on how history reveals that we can still pay for child care during wartime.
Important New Yorker essay from Ishaan Tharoor on how the current Iran War’s resulting shipping crisis echoes the strategic failures around the Suez Canal.
Bracing & powerful reporting from Brendan I. Koerner for Wired on Rafael Concepcion, the coder whose inspiring opposition to ICE is also ruining his life.
Two important articles for Liberal Currents to share this week, including Ryan C. Smith on how our energy crisis could be far more than the one in the 1970s.
While Alan Elrod wrote for Liberal Currents on the Christian male supremacist abusers who are pushing for silent women in every public forum.
Here’s Elizabeth Spiers for The Nation on what Richard Hofstadter’s ideas about American anti-intellectualism can tell us about today’s Silicon Valley elite.
While Julia Azari wrote for her Good Politics/Bad Politics newsletter on contemporary lessons from another important book, Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt’s Tyranny of the Minority.
I’ll end this section with a more inspiring piece, Deepa Bharath for the AP on scientists who are finding spiritual inspiration for their work with dark matter (featuring Chanda Prescod-Weinstein).
Podcasts:
I have to start this section with two recent podcasts that I missed, including the latest Gilded Age & Progressive Era episode featuring guest host Chelsea Gibson’s interviews with three SHGAPE prize winners: Carlotta Wright de la Cal, Nicole Martin, & Manisha Sinha.
I also missed the sixth & final episode of Renata Keller & Dustin Walcher’s Historias podcast series on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Tons of new episodes this week, & I’ll start with a bunch of cultural studies conversations, including the latest for Mike Jamison’s Pop Culture Basement featuring Sarah Eddie on Sherlock Holmes fandom.
Episode 243 of Gordon McNulty’s The Lone Acting Nominees podcast features Oscars historian Monica Sandler on Mary Pickford & Coquette.
History on Film podcast host Ross Lennon shared a special episode featuring tons of recommendations for pop culture podcasts, reading, & more.
For the Commotion podcast, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud was joined by Gayle Wald, Mark Anthony Neal, & Jay Smooth to discuss how Black & Jewish America shaped pop music.
While for the latest episode of Mary Mahoney’s Landline podcast, she interviewed Aimee Loiselle on the telling story of Baby Phat, the real woman behind Norma Rae, and more.
For a new episode of her Peculiar Book Club, Brandy Schillace interviewed Damon Young about his book Immortal Gestures: Journeys in the Unspoken.
For Public Books’s Novel Dialogue podcast, critic Matt Hooley talked with poet, essayist, & novelist Billy-Ray Belcourt about his experimental debut novel A Minor Chorus.
While for episode 93 of her Drafting the Past podcast, Kate Carpenter interviewed Matthew Avery Sutton about his new book Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America & Americans Remade Christianity.
For the New Books Network’s African American Studies channel, host Brigid Wallace talked with Jessica Ann Levy about her book Blac Power, Inc.: Corporate America & the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics.
Two new episodes of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast this week, including this interview with Elizabeth Block about her new book Gilded Age Fashion and this first part of a new series on Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau.
For the latest episode of his The Presidencies of the United States podcast, host Jerry Landry interviewed Jan Cigliano Hartman about her new book Lincoln’s Speechwriter: John Hay & the Friendship That Inspired American Eloquence.
Over at Liam Heffernan’s America: The Story of the USA podcast, he was joined by Matthew Davis to discuss his new book and the history of Mount Rushmore.
While over at Rich Napolitano’s Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast, he was joined by Madison Schmidt from the It’s a History podcast to discuss the Civil War tugboat USS Narcissus. & Napolitano also shared a new newsletter, on the US Navy’s mysterious first submarine the Alligator.
For episode 75 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman W. Beorn was joined by Katherina von Kellenbach to talk about guilt & the postwar lives of Nazi perpetrators.
While the latest episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast is a special April Fool’s Day convo about the “Dark Ages” with David M. Perry & Eleanor Janega.
Turning to current events conversations, the latest episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast features Pasquale Rummo on the politics of what we eat.
For the rePROs Fight Back podcast, host Jennie Wetter interviewed the ACLU’s Brigitte Amiri about protecting reproductive freedom through ballot initiatives.
For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked with David Sirota about how the Right built Trump’s power grab.
While for her American Conversations podcast, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed Brookings senior fellow Vanessa Williamson about her new book & the revolutionary power of taxation.
Gonna end this section with timely conversations beyond the realm of politics, including a World Day for Glaciers roundtable sponsored by NiCHE Canada & featuring the editors of Mountain Voices: The Mountain Legacy Project & a Century of Change in Western Canada.
For the History Workshop’s ongoing anniversary series, Rosa Campbell led a discussion of the History Workshop movement’s global reach, featuring contributions from Andrew Flinn & Astrid von Rosen, Noor Nieftagodien, & Hiro Matsubara.
To help commemorate Easter, Peter Marshall joined the That Shakespeare Life podcast to discuss how Easter was celebrated in Shakespeare’s England.
I’m really proud of all the work that’s happening at Fitchburg State University’s Perseverantia podcast network, led by my colleague Kisha Tracy & featuring tons of student hosts.
& I’m excited to share the Second Inning of Diamond in the Rough: Baseball, Bigotry, & the Battle for America, Season Two. The Third Inning will drop this Wednesday, so keep your ears open for that as well!
Books:
First, a book published a couple weeks back that I missed, Sally Shuttleworth’s In Quest of a Cure: Literary & Medical Cultures of the Health Resort from Oxford University Press.
Finally out this week is Megan Kate Nelson’s long-awaited The Westerners: Mythmaking & Belonging on the American Frontier from Simon & Schuster.
Also published this week is Madeleine Sumption’s What is Immigration Policy For? from Bristol University Press.
Out now from Lofty Pigeon Books is Elizabeth L. Block’s aforementioned Gilded Age Fashion. & check out Deborah Kalb’s Book Q&A with Block for more on this project.
Likewise published this week is Annette Gordon-Reed’s edited volume Jefferson on Race: A Reader from Princeton University Press.
& one more collection to share this week, UNC Press’s American Revolution: Essays on the Founding Era, edited by Nicholas Popper & with an Introduction by Cynthia A. Kierner & a Preface by Johann N. Neem.
Speaking of UNC Press, out from there this coming Tuesday is John Garrison Marks’s Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery & the Fight for American Memory.
Out the following Tuesday (April 14) from Princeton University Press is Catherine Fletcher’s The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires.
Forthcoming later this year from W.W. Norton & now available for pre-order is Nikolas Bowie & Daphna Renan’s vital Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People.
Popular Science magazine shared an excerpt from another forthcoming book, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein on Star Trek’s lasting legacy of diversity & wonder.
Over at the Urban History Association’s Metropole, Ryan Reft interviewed Michael Glass about his new book Cracked Foundations: Debt & Inequality in Suburban America.
While for Public Books, Tasha Sandoval interviewed Daisy Hernández about her new book Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth.
& Publisher’s Weekly interviewed Samira Mehta about her new book God Bless the Pill: The Surprising History of Contraception & Sexuality in American Religion.
For the latest USIH book review, Emily Callaci wrote about Sam Klug’s The Internal Colony: Race & the American Politics of Global Decolonization.
For her Academic Life newsletter, Christina Gessler interviewed Princeton University Press Audio Curator Danielle D’Orlando about their audiobooks division.
While Brock Schnoke wrote for the UNC Press blog about a new open-access journal, Teaching Educational Research Methods (TERM).
Over at the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog, they announced the 2026 AAIHS award winners, including Pauli Murray Book Prize winner Jarvis C. McInnis for Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South.
& for her newsletter’s 14th Black Feminist Book Club, Jenn M. Jackson led a conversation about Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Speaking of newsletters and blogs, gonna end with a bunch of great posts from the past week, including Karl Bode for his The Fine Print* on the dangerous silliness of “CEO said a thing!” journalism.
On a similar note, Marisa Kabas wrote for her The Handbasket newsletter on refusing to accept Big Tech’s AI-poisoned future of journalism.
Brien Beutler wrote for his Off Message newsletter on how the empathy gap has swallowed American politics & society.
Two great, interconnected posts from Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter to share this week, including this one on how kings don’t like history they didn’t write & this one on why Trump wants us to forget why the 14th Amendment & birthright citizenship exist.
Speaking of kings, I really enjoyed Joyce Vance’s reflections on last week’s #NoKings rallies for her Civil Discourse newsletter.
Turning to more historical subjects, for the In Pursuit newsletter Lindsay M. Chervinsky wrote about John Quincy Adams, and then shared a live conversation about the piece on her Imperfect Union newsletter. While Louisa Thomas wrote about JQA’s wife Louisa Catherine Adams.
Over at his More, America project, Max Perry Mueller paused to reflect on the nine new founders he has highlighted thus far.
For the Australian Women’s History Network blog, James Keating & Paige Donaghy presented undergraduate research into gender histories.
Over at the Norfolk Record Office blog, a new series on LGBTQ+ history in the archives started with the diaries of Judith M. Ferrier.
While for the Economic History Society’s blog, Rebecca Wynter & Len Smith wrote about women in the private asylum business in 19th-century England.
Over at her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler shared the last of her Women’s History Month daily posts, a conversation with Della Leavitt, & then offered her own reflections on the month.
For her Civics & Coffee monthly newsletter, Alycia Asai wrote about the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire & a growing environmental movement.
For his Liberating Narratives newsletter, Bram Hubbell shared histories of new imperialism & the persistence of resistance in French Indochina.
The latest installment of Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect newsletter features Nandini Pandey, Niek Janssen, & Christopher Londa on writing, labor, & enslavement in Roman antiquity.
While for her Creighton Cabin newsletter, Crystal Lorimor wrote about how she accidentally solved the problem of her focal historic place’s mysterious neighbors.
& over at her blog, Theresa Kaminski offered the 10th installment of her Dispatches from the Writing Life, discussing revisions.
Gonna end with a bunch of great cultural studies work as ever, including Matthew Teutsch for his Interminable Rambling blog on just & unjust laws in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther.
Philip Maciak wrote for The New Republic on the new shows Vladimir & Rooster & TV’s problem portraying professors.
While Anna Storti wrote for Public Books on racist fantasy in The White Lotus.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s ongoing issue on comedy, Will Hattman wrote about the monkeying hero in the films of Preston Sturges.
& for her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy offered thoughtful reflections on our experience watching all of Desperate Housewives over the last 15 months.
Finally, speaking of Vaughn, all week on my AmericanStudier blog I shared reflections on the book talks, podcasts, pieces, & more through which she’s shared her wonderful book Selling Out Santa.
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 it be a restful & informed Sunday however you’re spending it, all!
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