#ScholarSunday Thread 202

Shared on December 8, 2024

Here it is, my 202^nd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all!

Starting with three great columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues of mine, including Teresa Bitler on lessons from the 1900 Galveston hurricane:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/12/lessons-from-americas-deadliest-natural-disaster/

& Bitler also wrote for the Post on how Westerville, Ohio became the heart of the Prohibition movement:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/12/the-ohio-town-that-launched-a-whiskey-war/

While for her Women’s Work column, Tanya Roth wrote on arts & crafts at the anti-slavery fairs of the 1800s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/12/womens-work-the-anti-slavery-fairs-of-the-1800s/

& for my latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, I wrote about the fraught history of US-Canada relations in light of Trump’s promised attacks:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/12/considering-history-lumberjack-wars-fenian-raids-and-trade-troubles-the-fraught-history-of-u-s-canada-relations/

Also a trio of great pieces for Contingent magazine this week, including Emma Katherine Bilski on Baltimore’s Native American histories:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/11/30/the-treaty-on-the-severn-river/

While Bodie Cambert wrote for Contingent on Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s historic Lancaster Crematorium:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/11/24/all-is-perfect-quiet/

& for Contingent’s How I Do History series, Executive Director of the Roebling Museum Lynne Calamia talked about her work:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/06/how-lynne-calamia-does-history/

Turning to other great public scholarly writing, great Bitter Southerner essay from Christina Cooke (with photos by Cornell Watson) on a groundbreaking Black farmer:

https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2024/black-earth-north-carolina-farmer

Really important work from Cordell Jones for Scalawag magazine on Black preservation work in South Florida:

https://scalawagmagazine.org/2024/12/whos-keeping-our-history-alive-black-preservation-in-south-florida/

Great stuff from Alexander Walton for Black Catholic Messenger on better remembering the Jewish educational pioneer Julius Rosenwald:

https://www.blackcatholicmessenger.org/remembering-julius-rosenwald/

Speaking of groundbreaking Jewish voices, check out Julia Friedman’s open-access Master’s thesis on Lilith & Ms. Magazines’ 1970s & 80s responses to Antisemitism (h/t her advisor Alyssa Sepinwall):

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/hq37vx98h

For her website, Theresa Kaminski offered a Pearl Harbor Day tribute to the Black Manila restauranteur Gladys Savary:

https://theresakaminski.com/2024/12/07/everyone-goes-to-gladyss-in-memory-of-december-7-1941/

Isaac Samuel wrote for African History Extra on the “hidden founders” of African Studies in Europe from 1652-1918:

The 'hidden founders' of African studies in Europe: African intellectuals in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Reich ca. 1652-1918.

Really interesting new project from Peter J. Kastor & colleagues at Washington University on the creation of the federal government in the Early Republic:

https://creatingafederalgovernment.wustl.edu/

& speaking of the federal government’s evolution, check out Jordan Friedman for History.com on the rise & fall of the first US Department of Education in the 1860s:

https://www.history.com/news/department-education-andrew-johnson-reconstruction

For the History News Network, David Suisman offered an excerpt from his new book Instrument of War on why the soundtrack to the Vietnam War should go beyond rock:

https://www.hnn.us/article/not-the-rock-and-roll-war

Also for the History News Network, Jessica Clarke wrote on how Gladiator & its sequel have more to do with the American present than the Roman past:

https://www.hnn.us/article/all-the-worlds-americas-stage-even-ancient-rome

& for The New Republic, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela revisited the complex 1978 bestseller Fat is a Feminist Issue:

https://newrepublic.com/article/186825/fat-feminist-issue-liberating-weight-loss-propaganda

Turning to current events, here’s Adam Serwer for The Atlantic on conservatives embracing fascist villains in pop culture:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-judge-dredd-autocrat/680881/?gift=Je3D9AQS-C17lUTOnl2W8CBSmuV2OiRdoa9ckmQzxaU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Important thread (& linked article) from Seamus Hughes & colleagues at NCITE on federal prosecutions of domestic terrorists:

https://bsky.app/profile/seamushughes.bsky.social/post/3lcktl2f2rc27

For The Nation, Thomas Birmingham wrote on the push for a National Tenant Union:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/tenant-union-organizing-rent/

For his American Prospect column, Rick Perlstein wrote on how the magical thinking of Kennedy-ism aligns with the MAGA cult:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-12-05-magic-thinking-of-kennedy-ism/

Speaking of our administration-elect, Carol Nackenoff & Julie Novkov wrote for The Conversation on the push to end birthright citizenship:

https://theconversation.com/long-standing-american-principle-of-birthright-citizenship-under-attack-from-trump-allies-244108?utm_content=buffer0eb6a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=buffer

While Susan Rinkunas wrote for MSNBC on how states with abortion bans are trying to hide the truth of their effects:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-georgia-women-deaths-abortion-ban-rcna182540

For one such effect, check out Stephania Taladrid in The New Yorker on the exodus of ob-gyns from Texas:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/02/the-texas-ob-gyn-exodus

While elsewhere in The New Yorker, Jane Mayer wrote on documents that reveal Pete Hegseth’s secret history:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

For the crucial value of such historical documents, check out this abstract of American Historical Association President Thavolia Glymph’s upcoming address at the 2025 annual meeting:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/abstract-of-the-presidential-address-at-the-2025-annual-meeting/

& speaking of historical education, vital work from Priscilla Rahn for the National Center for Public Policy Research on the need for AP African American Studies:

https://nationalcenter.org/ncppr/2024/12/02/priscilla-rahn-the-value-of-ap-african-american-studies-is-in-the-truth-not-crt/

Lots of important new podcast episodes this week, including the latest Unsung History featuring Jessica Ziparo McHugh on women entering the federal workforce during the Civil War:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Women-Federal-Workforce/

For episode 57 of Drafting the Past, Kate Carpenter talked with Seth Rockman on his writing process, the archives, & more:

https://draftingthepast.com/podcast-episodes/episode-57-seth-rockman-vows-this-time-will-be-different/

For the latest episode of America: A History, Liam Heffernan talked with Megan Hunt on the history of the Bible Belt:

While for episode 8 of Reckoning, Jason Herbert chatted with Rachel Gross on how the outdoor industry sold nature to Americans:

For the New Books Network, Max Jacobs interviewed Matthew Gardner Kelly on his Dividing the Public: School Finance & the Creation of Structural Inequity:

For the latest episode of Prevail, Greg Olear talked fascism & stupidity with Brynn Tannehill, Manisha Sinha, & more:

For a vital tool in resisting those forces, check out this podcast introduction to the American Historical Review’s inaugural special issue “Histories of Resilience”:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/histories-of-resilience/

Here’s a bonus episode of Emmanuel Dobbs’s La Fayette, We Are Here on Nouvelle France: The French in North America:

https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/2024/12/03/nouvelle-france/

The latest episode of the Alpinist podcast focuses on the new collection Other Everests with co-editors Jonathan Westaway & Peter Hansen:

& the full run of Dave Taylor’s video series The Lincoln Conspirators at Fort Jefferson is now available:

https://lincolnconspirators.com/the-lincoln-conspirators-at-fort-jefferson/

Five excellent pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Laura Ellyn Smith on lessons about government efficiency from William Howard Taft:

https://time.com/7178134/taft-musk-ramaswamy-government-efficiency/

Brucie Porter wrote for Made By History on what George Wallace reveals about the dangers of Trump’s brand of populism:

https://time.com/7198869/george-wallace-donald-trump-populism/

Here’s Caleb Franz for Made By History on abolitionist Reverend John Rankin & how one person can spark a movement:

https://time.com/7177123/rankin-abolition-moral-argument/

While Laura-Zoe Humphreys & Daymar Valdés Frigola wrote for Made By History on Cuban laws that threaten global entertainment:

https://time.com/7085802/cuba-media-piracy-law-history/

& finally for Made By History, Julio Capó Jr. & Helena Gomez highlighted Miami’s Vizcaya Museum & its showcase of LGBTQ histories:

https://time.com/7198591/vizcaya-museum-paul-chalfin/

Lots of important new book publications this week, including Vaughn Scribner’s Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, & the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469680774/under-alien-skies/

Also out this week from UNC Press is Jenny Shaw’s long-awaited The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family & Slavery:

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

For more on Atlantic slavery, check out Beth R. Wilson & Emily West’s edited collection Slavery & Emotions in the Atlantic World from Routledge:

https://www.routledge.com/Slavery-and-Emotions-in-the-Atlantic-World/Wilson-West/p/book/9781032815848?srsltid=AfmBOopWeB3-MVhG5xagVV3CMzx4df_YZjpNOwROEOIqxa5zTbdUGWMe

& also out this week & open-access is Carrie N. Baker’s Abortion Pills: US History & Politics from the University of Michigan Press:

https://services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/A/Abortion-Pills3

Not new this week but new to me & well worth checking out is Frank Abe & Floyd Cheung’s anthology The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/570029/the-literature-of-japanese-american-incarceration-by-edited-with-an-introduction-by-frank-abe-and-floyd-cheung/

For Mid Theory Collective, Matthew Beeber reviewed Joseph Andras’s Faraway the Southern Sky, out now from Verso:

https://mid-theory.com/2024/12/05/history-uncapitalized-a-review-of-joseph-andrass-faraway-the-southern-sky/

& I really enjoyed Willa Glickman’s New York Review of Books interview with Olivia Paschal on her writing on the Ozarks:

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/12/07/an-internal-colony-olivia-paschal/?srsltid=AfmBOooBCYOG0uf0MyXNNU3dfmOK66ruonLE7vWL-vUvFAQBBbiuxCG6

Two forthcoming books are now available for pre-order, including Surekha Davies’s Humans: A Monstrous History from University of California Press:

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/humans/hardcover

& also available for pre-order is Brian D. Bunk’s Beyond the Field: How Soccer Built Community in the United States from University of Illinois Press:

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088780

Want more excellent scholarly book recommendations? Check out Contingent magazine’s annual list of books from scholars working off the tenure track:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/02/2024-contingent-book-list/

& also check out Contingent’s complementary list of journal articles from scholars working off the tenure track:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2024/12/03/2024-journal-article-list/

Gonna end with great newsletters from the week as usual, including the start of Vaughn Joy’s always-phenomenal holiday Review Roulette series, a disability studies review of the 1980s George C. Scott A Christmas Carol:

A Metaphorically Pile-Drived Christmas Carol

Speaking of disability studies, I really enjoyed Sara Noviċ for her signs + wonders newsletter on why we all should care about disability rights:

Disability rights are your (yes, you!) rights

And speaking of A Christmas Carol, for her Bugbear Dispatch newsletter Chrissy Stroop wrote on a 21^st century American version:

An American Christmas Carol

For his Tenure Track newsletter, Etienne Toussaint wrote on the power of pause to challenge limiting beliefs:

The Power of Pause

Two great installments of Kevin Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter to share this week, including racism & the limits of imagination in the US & the Confederacy:

Racism and the Limits of Imagination in the United States and the Confederacy

& Kevin also wrote on remembering & forgetting violence in Nat Turner’s Virginia:

Remembering and Forgetting Violence in Nat Turner's Virginia

I could highlight every entry in Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, but two particularly great installments this week, including December 4^th on the Gilded Age:

December 4, 2024

& for December 6^th Heather highlighted an inspiring figure from the Pearl Harbor attack & how we must carry his legacy forward:

December 6, 2024

For his One First newsletter, Steve Vladeck wrote on the Supreme Court’s Ex parte Milligan decision & its bulwark against military authority:

111. Ex parte Milligan and the Limits of Martial Law

For her Freedom Over Fascism newsletter, Stephanie G. Wilson made the case for what we all must do to create community in this fraught moment:

Information, Infrastructure, Investment...and not being idiots.

& for an evocative & powerful voice from one of my own communities, here’s my FSU colleague Steve Edwards on the bittersweet pleasure of a nightly drive:

Every arrival is a point of departure

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please add more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially yours!) below. Enjoy, share widely, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!