#ScholarSunday Thread 200 (!)

Shared on November 24, 2024

This is a big one, friends—my 200^th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week! & it’s appropriately super-sized, thanks to many great contributions from folks (add more below, please)!

First, a couple quick notes. Yesterday I shared a newsletter featuring a few reflections on the four+ years I’ve spent compiling & sharing these threads. I wanted to offer those thoughts separately from both today’s thread & the overall work of the threads, which is about everyone’s voices rather than just mine. But I do hope you’ll check out that newsletter & my reflections if you haven’t had the chance:

https://americanstudier.substack.com/p/a-few-reflections-on-my-scholarsunday

& in case you don’t have a chance to read that newsletter, I’ll also remind you here that I’ve collected all the #ScholarSunday threads into a Google Doc, so you can dip back into all the good work you all have been doing over these four+ years:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cmXo7uNRbXusD74-6ul4B6LxlnweEdVUoAfwjVpNKy4/edit?usp=sharing

Starting with multiple pieces each from examples of awesome public scholars who have been friends of these threads from the jump, including Walter Greason on his website on Gaza & mass incarceration, Afrofuturist dystopias, George Zimmerman, & more:

https://geniuslocus.com/

Two great pieces from Matthew Teutsch on his blog to share this week as well, including his analysis of religion & hate in X-Men:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/using-the-bible-to-justify-blinding-hate-in-x-men-god-loves-man-kills-e020c3101664

& Matthew also shared a new short story of his, which he’ll following up today with a post on the process of writing it:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/this-story-is-continuing-to-develop-17e2c7b36956

Also two excellent pieces of work from Alyssa Sepinwall this week, including her own essay for Age of Revolutions on French historians & slavery before the “Haitian turn”:

https://ageofrevolutions.com/2024/11/18/before-the-haitian-turn-french-historians-and-slavery-over-the-twentieth-century/

& Sepinwall edited a special issue of French Historical Studies on that same subject, featuring five excellent open-access essays:  

https://read.dukeupress.edu/french-historical-studies/collection/211987/Atlantic-Antecedents-Before-the-Haitian-Turn

Speaking of open-access journals, I’m so excited that the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial has re-launched, with Volume 1 Issue 1 now available & featuring great work from Jeffrey Insko, Jamie L. Jones, Kristen Treen, & many more:

https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/881

For another multi-vocal public scholarly project, check out this roundtable & set of resources from Liberating Narratives on centering marginalized voices in the Age of Revolutions, featuring contributions from Angela Lee, Bram Hubbell, & Eric Beckman:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/reframing-revolutions/

& for another phenomenal digital resource, here’s Confront Eugenics’ exhibition “We are not Alone,” featuring the work of Marius Turda:

https://confront-eugenics.org/2024/11/19/we-are-not-alone-digital-exhibition/

Turning to other great public scholarly writing from the week, here’s Daniella Ignacio for Washingtonian on remembering the lost history of a DC Black neighborhood that was never built:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/11/18/the-lost-history-of-a-dc-black-neighborhood-that-was-never-built/

Robin Field wrote for King’s College’s newsletter on the stories of groundbreaking Black students, faculty, & staff at that institution:

https://www.kings.edu/news/netvue/4-black-students-faculty-and-staff-at-kings-college.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3qunpIWfIWOwGwy0vl93pcEpJcyX5ss7i4a-oNocEGchmUjFErSTuOVVE_aem_fgYIYNVcJ7g6FaKitoxSeA

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox wrote for her Saturday Evening Post Common Threads column on the surprising history of NASA’s fashion collabs:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/11/common-threads-from-playtex-to-prada-nasas-surprising-spacesuit-collaborations/

A trio of great pieces this week on revisiting pop culture in late 2024, including Brian Fanelli for 1428 Elm on John Carpenter’s prescient They Live:

https://1428elm.com/why-john-carpenters-they-live-speaks-current-political-landscape

For Lit Hub, Maris Kreizman revisited 50 Shades of Grey in the age of mega-rich creepers:

https://lithub.com/billionaires-are-bad-revisiting-50-shades-of-grey-in-the-age-of-mega-rich-creepers/

& for the Mid Theory Collective, Rachel Tay wrote about Succession & the state of TV in the age of ambien media:

https://mid-theory.com/2024/11/21/ambien-media/

Turning to current events, Axios offered an excellent explainer on the backlash to “woke,” featuring vital contexts from Martha S. Jones:

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/17/axios-explains-woke-backlash

Important reporting from Jaden Edison for The Texas Tribune on the flaws & blindspots in the state’s new history & social studies curriculum:

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/18/texas-curriculum-history-social-studies-slavery-racism/

Keith Orejel wrote for the LPE Project on the political economy of the urban-rural divide in American politics & society:

https://lpeproject.org/blog/the-political-economy-of-the-urban-rural-divide/

Here’s Sam Adler-Bell for New York magazine’s Intelligencer on the post-election pre-exhaustion of Trump’s second term:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-second-presidential-term-postelection-exhaustion.html

A pair of important articles from the New York Times to share as gift links, including Dara Lind’s guest essay on what “mass deportation” actually means:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/opinion/trump-mass-deportation-immigration.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bk4.S6Vo.aKjYaDq3KiA9&smid=url-share

& Jamelle Bouie shared a Frederick Douglass speech we should all read in the aftermath of the 2024 election:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/opinion/election-frederick-douglass.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cE4.pS4h._K3oV7C4lHSh&smid=url-share

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela wrote for MSNBC on how RFK Jr. & Mehmet Oz exploit America’s Covid worries & are likely to continue doing so in the new administration:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rfk-jr-mehmet-oz-capitalized-americans-covid-worries-rcna180922

For Slate, Christina Cauterucci wrote on how the resistance to Trump won’t look the same this time, but might evolve into something new & powerful:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/resistance-trump-second-term-womens-march.html

For one tangible & potent example of resistance on the ground, check out this Essence story on the inspiring first Every Woman’s Marathon:

https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/every-womans-marathon-race/

I really enjoyed Allison S. Finkelstein’s piece for the AHA’s Perspectives blog on finding fulfillment as a federal historian:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/finding-fulfillment-as-a-federal-historian/

& speaking of making our profession more meaningful, check out this white paper from Cate Denial et al on Centering Care in the Academic Research Enterprise:

https://www.aag.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Centering-Care-in-the-Academic-Research-Enterprise.pdf

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest Unsung History featuring Averill Earls on the spiritualist utopian community Lily Dale:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Lily-Dale/

For episode 56 of Drafting the Past, Kate Carpenter interviewed historian James Chappel on lessons from his diverse projects:

https://draftingthepast.com/podcast-episodes/episode-56-james-chappel-tames-the-waterfall-of-detail/

For the new episode of Lost Ladies of Lit, Pamela Toler talked about the groundbreaking journalist Sigrid Schultz, “the dragon from Chicago”:

https://www.lostladiesoflit.com/podcast/208-sigrid-schultz-the-dragon-from-chicago-with-pamela-toler

For the latest episode of the BBC’s You’re Dead to Me, Joanne Freeman & Chris Addison talked quirky stories from America’s founding era:

While for the new episode of American History Hit, Christopher McKnight Nichols talked the Spanish-American War & US imperialism:

For episode 75 of America the Bilingual, Margaret Boyle talked about her new Jewish Mexican cookbook & her Multilingual Mainers program:

https://www.americathebilingual.com/75-recipe-mix-jewish-with-mexican-add-maine/?utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Meet%20the%20coauthor%20of%20a%20new%20Jewish%20Mexican%20cookbook%20-%2015704732

& for episode 35 of his Holocaust History podcast, Waitman Beorn talked with Tomaz Jardim about the trials of Nazi wife Ilse Koch:

Two new podcast episodes from Jason Herbert to share this week, including the latest HATM episode featuring Robert Colby on 12 Years a Slave:

& check out episode 6 of Jason’s new Reckoning podcast, featuring David Shiffman on all things shark studies:

For the first episode of the important new podcast Views on First, Julia Rose Kraut stopped by talk all things freedom of speech & immigration:

& two excellent YouTube recordings to share this week, including Christopher Newfield’s stirring lecture “What Are the Humanities For?”:

& for the public humanities in action, check out the latest episode of Joanna Pearce’s Joanna Loves History Books, on space archaeology:

Four excellent pieces from Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Karin Wulf on how even our iconic first president can be defined as a tyrant:

https://time.com/7173647/george-washington-tyranny-slavery/

Allie R. Lopez wrote for Made By History on the longstanding & evolving rural hospital crisis:

https://time.com/7176024/rural-hospital-crisis-history/

Here’s Christopher Ewing for Made By History on the long history of conservative masculinity’s contradictory attitudes towards gay men:

https://time.com/7177127/conservative-masculinity-lgbtq-history/

& finally for Made By History, Luke Voyles wrote on warnings from Grover Cleveland’s second term for Donald Trump’s:

https://time.com/7177312/grover-cleveland-donald-trump-warning/

A pair of excellent new pieces for the AAIHS’s Black Perspectives blog this week as well, including Elizabeth Gonzalez on Beyoncé’s “Ameriican Requiem” & reclaiming genre:

https://www.aaihs.org/beyonce-ameriican-requiem-and-reclaiming-genre/

& also for Black Perspectives, Keisha Blain interviewed Kali Nicole Gross on her new book Vengeance Feminism:

https://www.aaihs.org/vengeance-feminism-an-interview-with-kali-nicole-gross/

Speaking of new books, a number of important publications to highlight this week, including Ryan Semmes’ Exporting Reconstruction: Ulysses S. Grant & a New Empire of Liberty from the University of South Carolina Press:

https://uscpress.com/Exporting-Reconstruction

Also newly published is Rory McGovern & Ronald G. Machoian’s edited collection Race, Politics, & Reconstruction: The First Black Cadets at Old West Point from University of Virginia Press:

https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10015/

Important new release from UNC Press this week, Nathan Kalman-Lamb & Derek Silva’s The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469683461/the-end-of-college-football/

& likewise published this week is Lesley J. Gordon’s Dread Danger: Cowardice & Combat in the American Civil War from Cambridge:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dread-danger/8D01D24BC22103A471DD5C66D179C1DF

Lots of great book reviews this week as well, including Dennis M. Hogan for Public Books on Cristina Henriquez’s new novel The Great Divide:

https://www.publicbooks.org/drawn-together-held-apart-cristina-henriquezs-the-great-divide/?utm_content=buffer6858a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

For USIH, Hooper Schultz reviewed Neil J. Young’s Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right:

https://s-usih.org/2024/11/hooper-schultz-on-neil-j-youngs-coming-out-republican-a-history-of-the-gay-right/

For Contingent magazine, Emily Brooks reviewed Lauren Lassabe Shepherd’s Resistance from the Right: Conservatives & the Campus Wars in Modern America:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/11/17/what-the-new-right-learned-in-school/

For Mer magazine, my colleague DeMisty D. Bellinger reviewed Jennifer Case’s We Are Animals: On the Nature & Politics of Motherhood:

https://merliterary.com/2024/11/21/we-are-animals-on-the-nature-and-politics-of-motherhood-by-jennifer-case/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0wMyvow9AVAW0Xgiv_Mdp9yegicasiwivHD3i5f4VVJW8xnfFPayQNim0_aem_nirDF93GpVpmoGkCLPKYzg

& check out Jennifer L. Morgan for Smithsonian magazine on a groundbreaking new exhibition on the Transatlantic slave trade, inspired by Cristina Sharpe’s In the Wake:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-books/2024/11/07/how-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-continues-to-impact-modern-life/

Two important forthcoming books are now available for pre-order, including Philip Nel’s How to Draw the World: Harold & the Purple Crayon & the Making of a Children’s Classic from Oxford University Press:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-to-draw-the-world-9780197777596?cc=us&lang=en&

& forthcoming from UNC Press is María de los Ángeles Picone’s Landscaping Patagonia: Spatial History & Nation-Making in Chile & Argentina:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469686134/landscaping-patagonia/

For even more great reading recommendations, check out Robin Mitchell for Shepherd on books about women’s lives that will change your life:

https://shepherd.com/best-books/womens-lives-that-will-change-your-life

Gonna end with a bunch of phenomenal newsletters from the week, including Vaughn Joy reflecting on her successful PhD viva!

A Review of Something Else

For his Tenure Track newsletter, Etienne Touissant wrote about stopping comparing & reclaiming our own academic voices:

Stop Comparing, Start Creating

Two great pieces from Kevin Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter to share this week, including contemporary reflections on the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address:

"It Is Rather For Us To Be Here Dedicated To the Great Task Remaining Before Us"

& Levin also contextualized the current mass deportation plans with the federal government’s 1850s hunts for enslaved people:

When the Federal Government Hunted People in the Streets of Boston

Lots more great newsletters contextualizing our current crisis, including Thomas Zimmer for his Democracy Americana on elite acquiescence:

Elite Acquiescence and Treacherous “Normalcy” All Around Us

Mike Madrid wrote for his Great Transformation newsletter on the dark histories of mass deportations:

Mass Deportations - A Dark History Returns

For her Freedom Over Fascism newsletter, Stephanie G. Wilson wrote on her & all of our plans to keep doing the work:

How to keep functioning and getting out of bed every morning.

For her Bugbear Dispatch newsletter, here’s Chrissy Stoop on social media’s place in history:

Some Thoughts on Social Media's Place in History

Speaking of social media, check out this English translation of Aviel Roshwald’s recent article on re-reading Benedict Anderson through the lens of social media:

https://www.academia.edu/125778125/_Fractured_Communities_Re_reading_Benedict_Anderson_through_the_Prism_of_Social_Media_NOTE_This_is_my_English_language_original_of_an_essay_that_was_published_in_Spanish_translation_in_the_Argentinian_journal_of_intellectual_history_Prismas

Important piece from Michael J. Kramer for his blog on the artificial effects of AI in Apple’s new “Intelligence” ads:

https://www.michaeljkramer.net/phonies/

& for more on the troubling realities of AI, check out Rick Perlstein’s latest American Prospect column on the destructive threat of AI web searches:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-11-20-ai-information-corrosion/

I don’t want to end on those important but bleak notes, so here are two great pieces from another longtime friend of these threads, Dion Georgiou’s Academic Bubble newsletter, including his review of a Thomas the Tank Engine joint:

Duck and the Diesel Engine (1958)

& as always, you can find even more public scholarly goodness on Dion’s Stop, Look, & Listen newsletters, such as his latest 39^th installment:

Stop, Look, and Listen #39

PS. Super-sized as this thread is, I’m sure I still missed plenty of great public scholarship, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & here’s to the next 200 threads!

PPS. Taking next week off for Thanksgiving, so I’ll say now how thankful I am for all of y’all. Now more than ever, community is crucial, & I love the one I believe these threads have helped support & share & grow & build. Have a restful & recuperative holiday, all, & see you on the other side!