#ScholarSunday thread 152

Published on November 5, 2023

End of Daylight Savings gotcha down? Find some light in my 152^nd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians

First, a reminder that I’m now also sharing these threads on my newsletter:

Starting with a few favorites from the many great Halloween pieces this year, including @tribecalledlex for @ringer on the contradictions of Salem:

https://www.theringer.com/features/2023/10/30/23934926/salem-witch-trials-tourism-halloween

I’ve also written a good bit, such as in this blog post, about the frustrations & opportunities of Salem’s dualities when it comes to collective memory:

https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/03/march-1-2019-salem-witch-trials.html

Back to this year’s Halloween goodness, my @SatEvePost colleague @TroyBrownfield wrote about some of the best screen Draculas (a very competitive list):

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/10/the-best-screen-draculas/?fbclid=IwAR3RShdNUtAzfykuAcZYQOyIrPrukmlnEBmktsxRACtWF6LUMQUBET1SXdI

& a really unique & compelling essay from @nickripatrazone for @lithub on Langston Hughes’ many supernatural encounters:

https://lithub.com/on-the-many-hauntings-of-langston-hughes/

Turning to other great writing from the week, here’s @rob_rubsam in @thebafflermag on filmmaker Paul Schrader’s “Man in a Room” trilogy:

https://thebaffler.com/latest/paul-schraders-american-carnage

Speaking of vital FilmStudying, for the latest entry in her Review Roulette newsletter @gvaughnjoy applied a disability studies lens to the Danny Kaye ghost mystery Wonder Man:

Wonder Twins Power Activates State Violence

Compelling story from Selene Santiago for @metrolosangeles on the late 19C & early 20C histories of LA’s Chinatown (h/t @LAhistory):

https://thesource.metro.net/2023/11/01/where-you-stand/

For his weekly @BaltimoreHist newsletter, @EmmanuelMehr wrote about Juanita Jackson Mitchell’s work for the @NAACP:

https://www.baltimorehistories.com/post/juanita-jackson-mitchell-s-expansive-naacp-role-from-baltimore-to-national

Excellent stuff from Finola O’Kane for @IrishTimes on the Irish American signatory to the Constitution who was also a slaveowner (h/t @MartinDoyleIT):

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2023/11/05/the-irish-signatory-to-the-us-constitution-who-was-also-a-slave-owner/

& @IBJIYONGI interviewed the great Kiese Laymon for @PublicBooks:  

https://www.publicbooks.org/literary-experiments-and-black-southern-time-travel-with-kiese-laymon/

Turning to current events, I could easily link @HC_Richardson’s newsletter in every thread, but her post on the Stock Market Crash, the GOP, & Speaker Mike Johnson was especially excellent (h/t @gastropoda):

October 29, 2023

Also excellent is this essay from @LuElla_DAmico for @Current_Pub1 on making the case for humanities education in 2023:

https://currentpub.com/2023/11/03/long-form-beyond-market-trends/?fbclid=IwAR03G3y54DAMzAiFVtQmjAI3d7HyFShl8ZLfwS0RTodIuphIl7CWm-QF6yE

& among the many crucial pieces of writing this week on the Israel-Gaza conflict, former Israeli soldier @bernstein_ariel for @ObsMagazine stood out to me (h/t @EranZelnik):

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/29/i-fought-house-to-house-in-gaza-i-know-force-alone-wont-bring-peace

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest @Unsung__History featuring @ComedoErgoSum on the history of the nutrition facts label:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/nutrition-facts/

The new episode of @HerbertHistory’s #HATM podcast was a Halloween special featuring @DrSpooky_ER on Flatliners:

https://twitter.com/HerbertHistory/status/1719736958409150917?s=20

& speaking of @HerbertHistory, the latest episode of @mhptpodcast featured an interview with him on his career & much more:

My favorite podcast episode of the week was definitely this installment of @Fitchburg_State’s student-run Perseverantia podcast, featuring the inspiring nontraditional English Major Stephen Wells:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1981788/13855290

& if you want to add your thoughts to a great podcast, check out @C19Podcast’s Season 8 Call for Proposals:

https://www.c19society.org/podcast

Lots more great work this week for the revamped @madebyhistory hosted by @TIMEHistory, including @ansleyquiros on a forgotten school integration story:

https://time.com/6321898/civil-rights-integration-wendell-gunn/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=_&linkId=245378899

Also for @TIMEHistory’s @madebyhistory, check out @Mary_E_Mendoza on the frustratingly bipartisan border wall:

https://time.com/6324599/bidens-trump-history-border-wall/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=_&linkId=244914869

Jonathan Van Harmelen wrote for @TIMEHistory’s @madebyhistory on a New Deal program that models how we can successfully confront homelessness:

https://time.com/6322025/homelessness-new-deal/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=_&linkId=245723087

Here’s Elizabeth Schmidt for @TIMEHistory’s @madebyhistory on what we can learn from Rhodesia about the difference between talking about & supporting equality:

https://time.com/6324696/rhodesia-minority-rule/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=_&linkId=245878812

& finally for @TIMEHistory’s @madebyhistory, a Halloween treat (or maybe trick) from Ulbe Bosma on how Americans became addicted to sugar:

https://time.com/6329462/history-sugar/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=_&linkId=245121827

A trio of great pieces for @BlkPerspectives this week as well, including @candace_n_c on groundbreaking educator John Potts & radical student activism:

https://www.aaihs.org/john-potts-and-radical-student-activism/

Also for @BlkPerspectives, here’s Benjamin Baker on why Black Americans have long embraced belief in the end times:

https://www.aaihs.org/why-black-people-believe-the-end-is-near/

& finally for @BlkPerspectives, @radatalay reviewed @mia_bay’s excellent new book Traveling Black from @HarvardPress:

https://www.aaihs.org/the-legal-history-of-travel-discrimination/

Speaking of important new books, @EmilyMBrooksPhD’s Gotham’s War Within a War is out this week from @UNC_Press:

https://twitter.com/EmilyMBrooksPhD/status/1719381953328148573?s=20

While @Reighangillam of @NewBooksNetwork talked with @sagreen1913 about her new book on Zora Neale Hurston, out now from @JHUPress:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-chase-and-ruins-2

& @IChotiner wrote for @NewYorker on @stuartareid’s book about the CIA & the Congo, out now from @penguinrandom:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/06/the-lumumba-plot-the-secret-history-of-the-cia-and-a-cold-war-assassination-stuart-a-reid-book-review?utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter

Four great books now available for pre-order this week, including @scholarLEIGH1’s Black Girl Autopoetics from @DukePress:

https://twitter.com/scholarLEIGH1/status/1718992620586770757?s=20

Also available for pre-order is @K_Marino1’s Votes for College Women: Alumni, Students, & the Woman Suffrage Campaign from @NYUpress:

https://nyupress.org/9781479825196/votes-for-college-women/

You can likewise now pre-order @reevesjw’s Soldier of Destiny (a reconsideration of one of our most underrated political figures, Ulysses S. Grant) from @Pegasus_Books:

https://twitter.com/reevesjw/status/1719450828996489584?s=20

& finally of these books now available for pre-order is @CNZander’s The Army Under Fire from @lsupress:

https://lsupress.org/9780807181409/the-army-under-fire/

Gonna end with a few more favorites from the week as usual, including @tianareid interviewing Caribbean film curator @JonathanAliTT for @Criterion (ht @williamcson):

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8295-curator-jonathan-ali-on-the-cutting-edge-of-caribbean-cinema

@AfroAsianMythos wrote for @TheConversation on the 30^th anniversary of Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) (h/t @BucarLiz):

https://theconversation.com/enter-the-wu-tang-36-chambers-turns-30-how-the-album-pays-homage-to-hip-hops-mythical-and-martial-arts-origins-215049

While @newestwords wrote for @SatEvePost on the complex life & legacy of Maggie Fox, a co-founder of American spiritualism:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/10/maggie-fox-co-founder-of-american-spiritualism/

& if you want another great compilation of recent public scholarship, make sure to check out @DrDionGeorgiou’s Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter:

Stop, Look, and Listen (29.10.23)

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing & work, podcasts, new & forthcoming books—including your own!—below. Happy reading, listening, & learning, all! #twitterstorians