Here it is, my 273rd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all!
Nobody solved last week’s Easter Egg contest—it was a reference to C&C Music Factory, natch—so in lieu of a shout-out at the start of this thread, here’s a treat for everyone: a newly rediscovered, very clean recording of Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” from 1936!
& if you want a chance to solve this week’s Easter Egg hunt & get a shout-out in next week’s thread, head over to my Bluesky timeline where I’ll include the clue in the thread about this thread!
Articles:
Starting with some favorite writing from the week as usual, including A. Brad Schwartz for the Columbia Journalism Review on how a prison fire & a charismatic inmate helped (the now frustratingly endangered) CBS news radio take off in 1930.
Austin McCoy wrote for the Conversation on how the Motown legends Martha & the Vandellas not only recorded a civil rights anthem, but also fought for equal pay.
Fascinating LitHub essay from Craig Fehrman on how Lewis & Clark invented the West & influenced the rise of American literature.
& here’s Aakanksha Agarwal for the Pittsburgh Review of Books on a new exhibition at the Frick Pittsburgh on the groundbreaking early 20C photographer Lewis Hine.
Over at the Council on Foreign Relations, James M. Lindsay wrote about what we still need to learn from George Washington’s controversial & crucial 1793 neutrality proclamation.
I appreciate William Thomas of the American Institute of Physics offering this expert perspective on what we can take away from three newly released 1960s interviews with Robert Oppenheimer.
& speaking of archival materials, Marina Nye offered some tips for grad students on demystifying archival research for the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama.
A pair of open-access academic publications to share this week, including Line Nybro Petersen & Mikkel Bækby Johansen for New Media & Society on the violence of online conspiracy theories.
As always, the latest issue of King’s College’s magazine Zeal (edited by my friend Robin E. Field) is fully open-access, featuring a forum on Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life & much more.
& for a great opportunity to submit your work to a journal, check out this CFP for a special issue of Global Black Thought on Jesse Jackson & the Black intellectual tradition.
A trio of compelling Sports Studies pieces to share this week, including Tanya Aldred for The Observer on the historical partnership between coal mining & cricket.
Fascinating post from Mark Ehlers on John Sexton’s Baseball as a Road to God, the companion documentary Baseball: Beyond Belief, & the relationship between religion & sports.
& for my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, I wrote about the surprising & inspiring links between Jackie Robinson & his family, incarcerated Japanese Americans, & Black & Japanese American baseball (links I discovered while researching my new podcast season, for the latest Inning in which see below!).
Speaking of baseball writing for the Post, for her latest Women’s Work column Tanya Roth wrote about the story of women & baseball in America.
Four more columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Einav Rabinovitch-Fox’s latest Commons Threads piece on the history of lipstick.
Selina Alipour Tabrizi wrote for the Post on how many different cultures & cuisines have shaped the American diet.
For his latest Contrariwise column for the Post, Andy Hollandbeck argued that we need to stop organizing art into winners & losers.
& finally for the Post, Malak Kassem highlighted grassroots environmental organizations worth supporting for Earth Day (& all year long).
Speaking of Earth Day, all week on my AmericanStudier blog I’ve highlighted founding figures & histories for the holiday, leading up to a special weekend post on my two favorite young environmental activists!
Current Events:
Turning to current events writing, bracing & vital essay from Gabrielle Bruney for Places journal on what we’re really losing when public benches disappear.
Jon Greenaway argued for Current Affairs that the banal horror of Jimmy Fallon could very well usher in the death of culture.
Incredibly frustrating but important essay from Andrew Lawler in The American Scholar on a highly productive, entirely AI-invented historian.
Great piece in The Bulwark from Thomas Lecaque on what George Washington’s military vaccines could teach our current anti-vaxxers in charge.
Here’s Matthew Sheffield for Flux magazine on how the first American Pope is standing in the way of Trump’s efforts to rebuild Christianity in his own image.
On a similar note, Hannibal Hamlin wrote for the Pittsburgh Review of Books on Pete Hegseth’s inaccurate Bible quote & the administration’s casual blasphemy.
While elsewhere in PRoB, Michael Bérubé highlighted the culture war racket & how spewing nonsense about humanities work & higher ed has real-world consequences.
For a different higher ed frustration, here’s Michela Moscufo for The Guardian on why the researchers at Harvard’s Antigua slavery project are quitting or being fired.
For an important way to resist such historical erasures, check out & contribute to the important People’s Archive of National Park Signs (h/t Wendy Rouse for sharing it!).
Speaking of inspiring resistance, here’s Walter D. Greason (AKA Sage Grey)’s keynote address for the 2026 Hamline University Social Justice Symposium.
& for a final example of contemporary resistance, great stuff from Holly Berkley Fletcher in Liberal Currents on how mainline Protestant churches are helping challenge ICE in their communities.
Podcasts:
Tons of excellent new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Megan Kate Nelson on her new book & challenging the frontier myth.
Over at the Revolutions in Retrospect podcast, host Lynn Price Robbins interviewed Jenny Shaw about her book The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family & Slavery.
Before you set out to steal a national treasure, check out episode 439 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World, featuring Emily Sneff on her new book When the Declaration of Independence was News.
The latest episode of Jerry Landry’s Presidencies of the United States podcast focuses on Hugh Lawson White & his defiance of Andrew Jackson.
For the Civil War Talk Radio Companion, Kenneth Noe joined to discuss his book Abraham Lincoln & the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief.
While for the latest episode of their War of the Rebellion podcast, Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck talked with Court Carney about Shelby Foote’s role in Ken Burns’s Civil War.
The new episode of The Gilded Age & Progressive Era podcast is a special one, a recording of the conference panel “Challenging Colonial Imagery: Indigenous Centenarians & Gender in California,” featuring Boyd Cothran, Martin Rizzo-Martinez, & Olivia Chilcote.
The latest episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast continues her Gilded Age focus as well, focusing on the era’s mansions.
Episode 96 of Kate Carpenter’s Drafting the Past podcast features Daniel Neep on his new book Syria: A Modern History & the power of immersion.
For the latest episode of his Pop Cullture Basement podcast, Mike Jamison was joined by former STARLOG Managing Editor Dan Dickholtz to discuss the iconic magazine.
While the new episode of Matt Gabriele’s American Medieval podcast features Blair Apgar on medieval-set video games.
Over at her Academic Life podcast, Christina Gessler interviewed Caroline Bicks about her groundbreaking year of access to Stephen King’s private archives.
Turning to current events conversations, for the latest Axelbank Reports History & Today episode Evan interviewed Amy Littlefield about her book Killers of Roe: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights.
For a new installment of the In the Making series for his America: The Story of the USA podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by Chris Marvin of Everytown for Gun Safety to discuss the Louisiana mass shooting. Liam also talked this week about the intersections of sports & politics with the editor of Sports & the American Presidency, Adam Burns.
Over at their Whiplash podcast, Max Kuzma interviewed Christine Zuba about her transgender Catholic life 70 years in the making.
While for their latest This Ain’t It episode, Melissa & Matthew Teutsch begged us to stop casting Trump as Jesus.
The latest episode of the Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast features Julie J. Park on what has changed in the rules for college admissions since the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision.
For her latest American Conversations episode, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed Representative Joe Morelle about his work on healthcare, the economy, & more.
Over at Matt Seybold’s American Vandal podcast, he interviewed Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff about their new book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.
For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider were joined by Aaron Parnas to discuss the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket & much more.
Over at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s new Apathy is Not an Option podcast, host Alex Beightol was joined by Walter D. Greason & Reynaldo Anderson to discuss Afrofuturism in action.
While Sherrilyn Ifill joined The Best People with Nicolle Wallace podcast to discuss the tough but crucial work of rebuilding after Trump.
Finally, make sure to check out the latest episode of my Diamond in the Rough podcast season, The Fifth Inning: Photographing the Camps, and Resistance through Art & Activist Journalism.
Books:
A number of important new books out this week, including no fewer than four from UNC Press: Stevie Ruiz’s Stewards of the Land: Race & Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West; William A. Link’s Jesse Helms: Modern Conservatism & the Politics of Opposition; Nicole Greer Golda’s The Detroit Model: Manufacturing American Men & Women in the Industrial City; & the latest Reacting to the Past historical game, Nicholas W. Proctor’s Radical Reconstruction in New Orleans, 1868-1876.
Also out this week from the University of Chicago Press is Devyani Prabhat’s Migrating Borders & Citizenship in Law: Scales, Locales, Themes, & Practices.
& likewise published this week from the University of Iowa Press is Mary Rizzo’s Baltimore’s Black Arts Then & Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project.
Three books forthcoming on Tuesday (April 28) to highlight, including: Roland Betancourt’s Disneyland & the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth from Princeton University Press; Mary E. Mendoza’s Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, & People Defied the US-Mexico Border from UNC Press; & Eladio B. Bobadilla’s Dangerous Migration: Mexican Labor & the Fight for Immigrant Rights from University of Illinois Press.
Forthcoming in September & now available for pre-order from Yale University Press is Ross Brooks’ Darwin & the Queer Origins of Life: A History of Sex & Science.
Likewise forthcoming in September & available for pre-order from UNC Press is Kevin M. Levin’s A Glorious Fate: The Life & Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
& forthcoming in October & available for pre-order from Hachette Books is Alan Sepinwall’s Se/rling: A Journey into the Twilight Zone with TV’s First Visionary.
For the latest USIH book review, Jacob Hiserman wrote about Colin Woodard’s Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America.
For Emerging Civil War, Rich Condon reviewed Robert D. Bland’s Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory & the Legacy of the Lowcountry’s Lost Political Generation.
Over at Ms. magazine, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox reviewed Kathleen B. Casey’s The Things She Carried: The Social History of the Purse in America.
For the Pittsburgh Review of Books, Greg Barnhisel reviewed a number of new literary biographies to argue that the genre has evolved.
& I’m excited for Commonplace journal’s new Read More Books review feature, starting with Karin Wulf on John Garrison Marks’ Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery & the Fight for American Memory.
Newsletters and Blog Posts:
Gonna conclude with a bunch of great newsletters & blog posts as ever, including W. Kamau Bell for his Who’s with Me? on how Substack is choosing Andrew Tate over the human race (one of many reasons why Vaughn & I started this website of our own!).
For his Can We Still Govern? newsletter, Don Moynihan wrote about how our tech philosopher kings want power without accountability.
Over at his American Blindspot newsletter, Gerardo Martí wrote about Franklin Graham, Trump, & the sociological consequences of unchecked religious flattery.
Andrew McCabe has started a newsletter at his blog, & launched it with a piece on Kash Patel & the lessons of FBI leadership.
On a similar note, for her Civil Discourse newsletter Joyce Vance wrote about Patel’s defamation case against The Atlantic.
For the Hagerstown Rapid Response newsletter, Laura Spivak highlighted an important & inspiring victory in court over ICE & its warehouse plans.
While for her Perceptive Travel blog, Kerry Dexter shared four podcasts & three songs for our moment of climate emergency.
Turning to more historical subjects, for her latest Strange & Wondrous newsletter, Surekha Davies reviewed a monster-filled exhibition at the Linnean Society.
The latest installment of Sarah E. Bond’s Pasts Imperfect newsletter features Tejas S. Aralere on ancient astrology in South Asia & much more.
Over at his Liberating Narratives blog, Bram Hubbell shared strategies for teaching New Imperialism in Africa.
Two new posts for George Dillard’s Looking through the Past newsletter this week, including part two of his series on stimulants, this one on sugar; & this related post on pocketbook protests against tea & sugar.
The folks at Verbum Libere offered a fascinating examination of why we haven’t remembered the 1889-93 Russian Flu pandemic.
For his Exploring Art History newsletter series, Howard Burton highlighted Bill Wallace, a trailblazing art historian following Michelangelo’s footsteps.
The latest installment of the In Pursuit newsletter features Christopher J. Leahy on John Tyler & decisive leadership in the face of ambiguity
For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler revisited her book on Civil War nurses to highlight the nurse & reformer Cornelia Hancock.
For his Freedom Papers newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote about Pauli Murray, presence, & leaning into the grace of this moment over the weight of tomorrow.
Theresa Kaminski offered her 13th Dispatch from the Writing Life, on how revisions on her Jane Grant are proceeding amidst life in this fraught moment.
Over at her Imperfect Union newsletter, Lindsay M. Chervinsky shared a number of project updates as well as other recommendations.
Gonna end with a handful of great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Rosemary Mitchell for the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies on Margaret Oliphant’s ghost story The Open Door.
Bob Spitz wrote for LitHub on the crazy 1963 tour that established the Rolling Stones’ bad boy image.
Here’s Sundus Abdi for The Guardian on the new film Time Hoppers: The Silk Road & representing Muslim kids in animated films.
For Bright Wall/Dark Room’s ongoing issue on comedy, Emma Kantor wrote about Alfred Hitchcock’s guide to hilarity.
For her latest wonderful Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy modeled a symbolism approach through a piece on The Maltese Falcon.
& finally, for his Academic Bubble newsletter Dion Georgiou wrote about Dead Man’s Wire & the economic & ideological confrontations of the 1970s.
Can’t get enough public scholarly goodness? Then check out Dion’s 55th installment of his Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter series!
PS. I’m sure me & Dion both missed plenty, so please add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!
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