#ScholarSunday Thread 199

Published on November 17, 2024

Here it is, my 199^th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Share more below & enjoy, all!

Starting with a few great pieces on the role of teaching, history, & public scholarship in times like these, including Robert Greene II for the SC Progressive Network:

https://www.scpronet.com/wordpress/2024/11/11/what-history-can-teach-us-now/

Here’s Bram Hubbell for Liberating Narratives on teaching modern global migration, 1700 to the present:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/the-voyage-was-full-of-dangers/

& this is an especially important moment to check out the AHA’s lesson plan on teaching US history in secondary schools (& everywhere):

https://www.historians.org/teaching-learning/k-12-education/american-lesson-plan/

Speaking of the AHA, couple excellent additions to its Perspectives blog this week as well, including Scot McFarlane on the history of the canoe:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-canoe/

& here’s Anne E. Lester for Perspectives on the rebirth of Notre Dame five years after the fire:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/notre-dame-arises/

Lots of other great public scholarly writing this week to share, including Nicole Carr for The Emancipator on what the history of the Black press can teach us today:

https://theemancipator.org/2024/11/09/topics/movements/the-black-press-democratized-america/

Josh Kluever wrote for Contingent Magazine on growing up in the area of Wisconsin known as “Holyland”:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/11/10/pilgrims-in-a-holyland/

A trio of excellent Saturday Evening Post columns to share this week, including Eric Weiner on Ben Franklin’s lifelong love of publishing:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/11/benjamin-franklin-man-of-letters/

Donald Liebenson wrote for the Post on the first comprehensive biography of sitcom legend Norman Lear:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/11/the-life-and-times-of-king-norman-lear/

& for my Veterans’ Day Considering History column, I highlighted the critical patriotism of Vietnam Veterans Against the War:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/11/considering-history-the-critical-patriotism-of-vietnam-veterans/

Speaking of Veterans’ Day, check out Lee Kluck for his History 4 Public Consumption newsletter on how to remember our veterans:

Every Veteran is A Snowflake

Turning to current events, Andrea Pitzer wrote beautifully for her Degenerate Art site on what history tells us about what happens now and what to do about it:

https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/swept-into-the-flood

On that same note, vital work from Nina Burleigh for The New Republic on what’s coming with Project 2025 & how to fight it:

https://newrepublic.com/article/188376/trump-2025-plans-fight

For The Guardian, here’s Carol Anderson on whether & how America can survive the anger of white men:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/12/trump-white-men-anger-american-history?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

Adam Gopnik wrote for The New Yorker on how a visit to the site where the Civil War began offers clues on how we can rebuild a common life:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/dispatches/after-trumps-reelection-how-can-americans-rebuild-a-common-life

& two great pieces to share on what we can lean into in this moment, including Chanda Prescod-Weinstein for New Scientist on the awe that science can still inspire:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26435170-100-you-cant-put-a-price-on-the-sense-of-awe-particle-physics-inspires/

& a wonderful essay from Jeff Sharlet on the book Octavia Butler was writing at the end of her life, Parable of the Trickster:

https://bitter-meteoroid-729.notion.site/Enthusiasms-Jeff-Sharlet-on-Parable-of-the-Trickster-by-Octavia-Butler-13c1682eb321805f90c4f1a676f31eb9

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest Unsung History featuring Stephanie Baker Opperman on groundbreaking anthropologist Isabel Kelly:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Isabel-Kelly/

Jason Herbert has fully launched his new Reckoning podcast, with this episode featuring Holly Miowak Guise on Alaskan Native resilience:

For the latest Axelbank Reports History and Today, Evan interviewed David Greenberg on his new biography of John Lewis:

The latest episode of Civics & Coffee highlighted a number of crucial Reconstruction-era histories, from Union Leagues to the KKK:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/union-leagues-reconstruction-and-the-kkk-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-political-power/

Episode 34 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast features Franziska Exeler on the Holocaust in Belarus:

For the latest episode of The American Vandal, Matt interviews a number of scholars on Morehouse, HBCU’s, & philanthrocapitalism:

For a special live episode of his America: A History podcast, Liam spoke with Rebecca Fraser, Toby James, Suzanne Doyle, & Emma Long on the election:

& check out this Democracy Now piece on the post-election racist text messages, featuring insights from Robert Greene II:

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/11/trump_racism

A handful of excellent new Time Made By History posts this week, including Jonathan Lande on remembering Black Civil War soldiers for Veterans’ Day:

https://time.com/7173749/black-patriots-freedom-civil-war/

J. Jacob Calhoun wrote for Made By History on lessons from America’s first Black voters:

https://time.com/7176913/first-black-voters/

Here’s Carly Goodman for Made By History on how the election reveals our continued love affair with lotteries:

https://time.com/7175203/trump-musk-2024-lotteries/

Katie Gaddini wrote for Made By History on the woman whose book-banning crusade gave current activists a blueprint:

https://time.com/7095938/book-bans-norma-gabler/

& finally for Made By History, here’s Rachel Louise Moran on celebrities who are helping change the conversation on post-partum depression:

https://time.com/7134456/celebrity-postpartum-depression-cardi-b/

A trio of great pieces for the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog this week, including Jessica Walker on the expansion of soul foods:

https://www.aaihs.org/the-expansion-of-soul-foods/

Denise Lynn wrote for Black Perspectives on the election, white women, & reactionary politics:

https://www.aaihs.org/white-women-and-reactionary-politics/

& finally for Black Perspectives, here’s M. Keith Claybrook Jr. on Malcolm X, MLK, & the call for a cultural revolution:

https://www.aaihs.org/min-malcolm-rev-king-and-the-call-for-a-cultural-revolution/

A number of important new books out this week, including Emily Mitchell-Eaton’s New Destinations of Empire: Mobilities, Racial Geographies, & Citizenship in the Transpacific United States from University of Georgia Press:

https://ugapress.org/book/9780820366913/new-destinations-of-empire/

Also out is Eva Payne’s Empire of Purity: The History of Americans’ Global War on Prostitution from Princeton University Press:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691256979/empire-of-purity?srsltid=AfmBOoqXyJU777-H1wTb6KLrhd900r8uNNU8uvHDoqsljIjDd3AvGG5-

Likewise published this week is Gerard Lee McKeever’s Regional Romanticism: Literature & Southwest Scotland, c.1770-1830 from Springer:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-61325-8

Check out this piece on a fascinating new book written by two authors decades apart, Olive Anderson & Jennifer Aston’s Deserted Wives & Economic Divorce in 19^th Century England & Wales: For Wives Alone:

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/for-wives-alone/

A trio of great reviews of new books to share as well, including Ang Li for USIH on William Gow’s Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, & the Making of a Chinese American Community:

https://s-usih.org/2024/11/ang-li-on-arthur-dongs-performing-chinatown/

For the LA Review of Books, Erik Loomis reviewed Sunil Amrith’s The Burning Earth: A History:

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/chronicles-of-collapse/

& my friend & grad colleague Matthew Chambers wrote for the Times Literary Supplement on Evan Friss’s The Bookshop:

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/in-brief/the-bookshop-evan-friss-book-review-matthew-chambers?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR00O-KnM2kR_oUX4O49rGq3tmx7ScZGY7-Z6xUQWlTx7C9R84lQ0Zgs8eM_aem_0uAe4oS9c2ZUDIahJQSvEA

A pair of important forthcoming books from UNC Press are now available for pre-order, including Lina-Marie Murillo’s Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, & Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469682594/fighting-for-control/

Also available for pre-order is Jenny Shaw’s The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family & Slavery:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469682761/the-women-of-rendezvous/

& for more great book recommendations, check out the Mid Theory Collective’s Mixtape #2, asking their recent authors for “Big Five” books:

https://mid-theory.com/2024/11/11/mixtape-2-big-five-books/

Gonna end with more favorites from the week, including Vern’s thoughtful & timely review of three films about Basquiat:

https://outlawvern.com/2024/11/14/jean-michel-basquiat-triple-feature-the-radiant-child-basquiat-downtown-81/#more-66391

For her latest excellent Review Roulette newsletter, ahead of her dissertation defense on the topic, Vaughn Joy reviewed a pair of 1940s Christmas films:

Christmas Came Early (Kinda)

Lots of other great newsletters this week as well, including Dion Georgiou for his Academic Bubble on 1930s legal debates & films:

Law, Film, and the New Deal Era

For his renamed Tenure Track newsletter, here’s Etienne Toussaint on unlocking creative freedom within academic boundaries:

Dancing in the Aquarium

A number of vital post-election newsletters to share, including Kevin Levin for Civil War Memory on why Trump is not a Confederate President:

Donald Trump is Not a 'Confederate President'

Thomas Zimmer wrote for his Democracy Americana newsletter on the significantly greater dangers of the second Trump regime:

Why the Second Trump Regime Will Be Far More Dangerous

For his In Case of Emergency newsletter, William Horne wrote about the choice between fascism & democracy in our past & our future:

Fascism or Democracy: The Work Behind, the Work Ahead

& I really enjoyed L.D. Burnett’s impassioned call for a return to Reinhold Niebuhr for her The Liberal Agenda newsletter:

Silence in Heaven

Finally, I couldn’t agree more with every word of this case for public writing from Devoney Looser, part of Public Humanities’ special Manifesto Issue:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/necessity-of-public-writing/A88EAF9986591A29407F367837FB9E61

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & I’ll see you next week for a Very Special 200^th #ScholarSunday thread!