#ScholarSunday Thread 194

Published on October 13, 2024

Traveling this weekend so it’s a bit shorter, but here’s my 194^th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Share more below & enjoy, all!

Starting with a couple great pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues of mine, including Megan Mateer on the vital role of living history interpreters:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/10/can-living-history-bring-us-together/

& Troy Brownfield wrote for the Post on why exorbitant salaries for professional athletes are not in any way the problem:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/10/contrariwise-their-paycheck-is-not-your-problem/

For tons of great new public scholarly writing, I highly recommend the first pieces from the newly launched Mid-Theory Collective:

https://mid-theory.com/

Lots of great podcast episodes this week, including the latest from Unsung History (co-hosted by Kelly’s son Teddy) featuring Kate Masur on Reconstruction & education in DC:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Reconstruction-DC/

Episode 53 of Drafting the Past has dropped & features Andrew Kahrl on his new book & the importance of embracing the contemporary relevance of historical work:

https://draftingthepast.com/podcast-episodes/episode-53-andrew-kahrl-embraces-relevance/

Episode 29 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast features Mark Roseman on German socialists’ resistance to the Nazis:

While Episode 49 of Liam Heffernan’s America: A History podcast features two guests, Keith Wailoo & Julian Zelitzer, on the history of Medicare:

For his Axelbank Reports History & Today podcast, Evan Axelbank talked with Kevin Baker on his new book on baseball’s New York roots:

Both of those last two podcasts connect to my own ongoing one, as I had the chance to talk with Liam about it in a forthcoming episode & my podcast connects to 19^th century baseball histories including the competing New York and Massachusetts games!

& speaking of my podcast The Celestials’ Last Game: Baseball, Bigotry, & the Battle for America, the 6^th Inning has now dropped: To San Francisco & the Final Game, Part 1. Watch this space later tonight for the pivotal 7^th Inning!

https://americanstudier.podbean.com/e/sixth-inning-to-san-francisco-and-the-final-game-part-1/

Five excellent pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Justin McBrien on hurricane histories:

https://time.com/7072620/hurricane-lesson-helene-camille-history/

Michael Bobelian wrote for Made By History on how liberals helped hand the Supreme Court over to its current conservative majority:

https://time.com/7027081/conservative-supreme-court-history/

Here’s Marissa C. Rhodes for Made By History on how #Tradwife influencers misunderstand the lives of 19C women:

https://time.com/6995062/tradwife-influencers-19th-century-women/

While Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus wrote for Made By History on the Catch-22 of Puerto Rico’s status referendum:

https://time.com/7024574/puerto-rico-status-vote/

& finally for Made By History, Stephanie McNulty & Sarah Chartock highlighted why Americans need to know Alberto Fujimori:

https://time.com/7027079/history-alberto-fujimori/

A trio of great pieces for the AAIHS’ Black Perspectives blog this week, including Sophia Monegro on Black women enterprising freedom in colonial Santo Domingo:

https://www.aaihs.org/black-women-enterprising-freedom-in-colonial-santo-domingo/

Savannah Flanagan wrote for Black Perspectives on the history of medical harm to Black women:

https://www.aaihs.org/the-troubled-history-of-medical-harm-to-black-women/

& M. Keith Claybrook Jr. wrote for Black Perspectives on Maulana Karenga & the Black Power Movement:

https://www.aaihs.org/maulana-karenga-operational-unity-and-the-black-power-movement/

I’m also very much looking forward to the next Black Perspectives Forum, which kicks off this week & will focus on urban rebellions in the 1960s:

https://www.aaihs.org/online-forum-urban-rebellions-in-the-1960s/

Four important new book publications to highlight this week, including Jonathan Lande’s Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, & Prisons from Oxford:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/freedom-soldiers-9780197531754

Out this week from UNC Press is Phillip H. Round’s Inscribing Sovereignties: Writing Community in Native North America:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469680699/inscribing-sovereignties/

& two new books from Penguin Random to highlight, including Russell Cobb’s Ghosts of Crook County: An Oil Fortune, A Phantom Child, & the Fight for Indigenous Land:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/757629/ghosts-of-crook-county-by-russell-cobb/

Also out from Penguin is Richard Bernstein’s Only in America: Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703276/only-in-america-by-richard-bernstein/

Finally, I’ll end as usual with a handful of excellent new newsletters from the week, including Vaughn Joy’s latest wonderful Review Roulette on The Sixth Sense:

Twists & Snaps for M. Night

Speaking of great film reviews, check out Dion Georgiou’s latest Academic Bubble on Passport to Pimlico:

‘It Laughs with and at the English’

For his Civil War Memory newsletter Kevin Levin reviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book:

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Civil War Memory, and the Power of Narrative

While for his It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way newsletter, Josh Eyler started a vital series on Project 2025’s plans for education:

Project 2025's Disastrous Plans for Education, Part 1

& to end on a more inspiring note, here’s Etienne Toussaint’s latest Becoming Full newsletter on how academics can become true leaders:

True Leaders Never Search for Followers

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Happy reading, listening, & learning, all!