#ScholarSunday Thread 214
Published on March 2, 2025
Just about everything is janky as hell here in March 2025, but one thing you can depend on: my #ScholarSunday threads! Here’s my 214th of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all!
Starting with a last batch of great pieces for this year’s #BlackHistoryMonth, including James Edwards Mills for National Geographic on Black history & the Cretaceous period:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/black-belt-us-history-cretaceous
Great reporting from Joshua F.J. Inwood & Derek H. Alderman for Mississippi Free Press on Black communities’ use of mapping:
Really enjoyed Derek Guy for PBS’s American Masters series on what we can learn about James Baldwin from his clothes:
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/what-do-james-baldwins-clothes-tell-us-about-him/35234/
Phenomenal conversation between George Yancey & Farah Jasmine Griffin for Truthout on the creative power of Black resistance:
& for her Saturday Evening Post Common Threads column, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox wrote about beauty as a tool for Black women’s empowerment:
That was far from the only great work from Saturday Evening Post colleagues of mine this week, including Nancy Rubin Stuart on the inspiring Bessie Coleman:
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/02/the-high-flying-feats-of-bessie-coleman/
Don Vaughan wrote for the Post on the unique & compelling work of National Zoo Senior Nutritionist Mike Maslanka:
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/02/dinner-at-the-national-zoo/
& Troy Brownfield’s Post columns are always entertaining & enlightening, as illustrated by his latest on why we should listen again to Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti:
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/02/listen-again-physical-graffiti-by-led-zeppelin/
Turning to other great writing from the week, check out this unique and compelling essay from Peter Coviello for Public Books on queerness, sex, friendship, & much more:
https://www.publicbooks.org/a-brief-queer-history-of-going-to-bed-with-your-hot-friends/
Vital work from James Sun & Greg Robinson for Discover Nikkei on Japanese Americans & the Federal Writers Project:
https://discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2025/2/26/federal-writers-project-1/
(FYI, my own latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column will focus on the FWP & many other vital contributions from federal workers, so watch this space for that!)
Over at the History News Network, Cecily Zander wrote about Thaddeus Stevens, the power of the purse, & the fight for equality:
https://www.hnn.us/article/thaddeus-stevens-and-the-power-of-the-purse
Two great pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including the latest “What is Scholarship Today?” column, Shu Wan on his New Books Network podcast:
https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/reaching-a-different-shared-audience/
& for his latest conversation with a historian, AHA President Ben Vinson III interviewed Pragya Kaul on technology, pedagogy, & more:
https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/history-enmeshed/
Speaking of pedagogy, vital stuff from Paul Lerner for Zócalo Public Square on teaching about historical fascists in the age of Trump:
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/is-he-a-fascist-you-tell-me/
Turning fully to current events, Melvin L. Rogers wrote for Public Seminar on the exclusionary ethos of Trump’s attacks on DEI:
https://publicseminar.org/2025/02/trumps-attack-on-dei/
For a bracing & vital perspective on the effects of those attacks, check out Wendy Rouse for Out History on the erasure of her National Park Service essay on queer history:
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/suff/yetmore
Teen Vogue is leading the resistance as ever, as illustrated by Lajward Zahra on how teachers & schools can challenge ICE:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ice-arrests-at-schools-students-teachers-immigration-raids
Two great essays for Slate to highlight this week, including Nitish Pahwa on foreign-language propaganda & non-white voters:
& Ethan Ris wrote for Slate on how proposed funding cuts to the NIH would hurt undergraduate students as well:
https://slate.com/life/2025/02/nih-funding-cuts-trump-indirect-costs-grants-ruling.html
Finally, great work from Linn Washington Jr. for The Conversation on how Philadelphia is continuing its tradition of Black-led protest:
Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History featuring Natanya Duncan on the women of the Universal Negro Improvement Association:
https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/UNIA/
Episode 60 of Kate Carpenter’s wonderful Drafting the Past podcast features Rebecca Brenner Graham on crafting book publicity:
Thanks to Walter Greason for sharing the latest Black Studies Podcast episode, a conversation with Zebulon Miletsky:
For episode 405 (!) of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Leslie M. Harris joined to talk about African Americans in early New York City:
https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-405-african-americans-in-early-new-york-city/
Dr. Max of the Poor Historians Podcast joined for the third & final part of the Presidencies Podcast’s series on Early Republic Cabinet member William H. Crawford:
https://www.presidenciespodcast.com/satt-0303-william-h-crawford-part-three/
Over at his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by Jacqueline Fear-Segal to talk about the horrific history of Native American boarding schools:
The latest episode of the Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs podcast focuses on Australia’s deadliest shipwreck, the 1845 wreck of the Cataraqui:
https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/australias-deadliest-shipwreck-the-cataraqui/
For the 19th episode of the History on Film podcast, aviation historian David Schroeder joined to talk cinematic depictions of aerial combat:
https://shows.acast.com/the-history-on-film-podcast/episodes/flying-high-with-david-schroeder
The Civics & Coffee podcast offered two bonus episodes this week, including a conversation with Brittany Friedman on her book Carceral Apartheid:
https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/carceral-apartheid-with-dr-brittany-friedman/
& also check out this Civics & Coffee conversation with Paul Gagliardi on his new book All Play & No Work about the Federal Theatre Project:
https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/all-play-and-no-work-with-dr-paul-gagliardi/
Vital new episode of Corey Brettschneider’s The Oath & the Office podcast, featuring John Fugelsang on what we can learn from Germany:
Speaking of Germany, episode 45 of Waitman Beorn’s Holocaust History podcast features Wolf Grüner on Jewish resistance in Germany:
Over at the French History podcast, Terrence Peterson joined to talk about how the Algerian War led to modern counterinsurgency tactics (more on Peterson’s new book below):
https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/making-modern-counterinsurgency-with-dr-terrence-peterson/
& this week I was so honored to join Iona Morris Jackson & Phil Morris on their inspiring The Vision is Possible podcast, talking Black history, patriotism, & much more:
Four excellent pieces for Time’s Made By History blog this week, including Ryan Shaw on how politics have always influenced the military service academies:
https://time.com/7252991/political-debates-have-always-influenced-service-academies/
Trysh Travis wrote for Made By History on why the government historically has & still should pay for university research:
https://time.com/7259548/why-government-should-pay-for-university-research-costs/
While Amy Gais wrote for Made By History on lessons about care & justice from the iconic & inspiring Ida B. Wells:
https://time.com/7260784/ida-b-wells-care-and-justice/
& finally for Made By History, Christmaelle Vernet & Kathy Roberts Forde wrote about why U.S. democracy needs Black journalism:
https://time.com/7213499/democracy-history-black-journalism/
Lots of important new books out this week, including Hilary N. Green’s long-awaited Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War from Fordham University Press:
https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531508524/unforgettable-sacrifice/
Also long-awaited & now out is Mary Fissell’s Abortion: A History from Hurst Publishers:
https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/abortion/
Out now from UNC Press is Michael Rosino’s Democracy is Awkward: Grappling with Racism inside American Grassroots Political Organizing:
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469685632/democracy-is-awkward/
Also out now, as highlighted in a podcast above, is Terrence Peterson’s Revolutionary Warfare: How the Algerian War Made Modern Counterinsurgency from Cornell University Press:
https://afriquexxi.info/The-astonishing-legacy-of-French-counter-insurgency-doctrine
Check out the latest History News Network excerpt, from Joshua D. Farrington’s Black Republicans & the Transformation of the GOP, now in paperback from UPenn Press:
https://www.hnn.us/article/a-party-for-the-white-man
For his latest author conversation at his newsletter, Kevin M. Levin interviewed Lesley Gordon on her new book Dread Danger: Cowardice & Combat in the American Civil War:
For his Pittsburgh City Paper column, David S. Rotenstein reviewed former Pittsburgh cop Brenda Tate’s new memoir Journal of a Black Woman in Blue:
& for The New Republic, Joshua D. Rothman reviewed Judith Giesberg’s Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families:
https://newrepublic.com/article/189020/missing-families-former-slaves
Forthcoming this Tuesday is another long-awaited book, Martha S. Jones’s The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir from Hachette:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/martha-s-jones/the-trouble-of-color/9781541601000/
& thanks to the awesome folks at Universal Write Publications for sharing their new Author Impact Guide, from which every author can learn a lot:
https://uwpbooks.com/resources/author-impact-guide/
Gonna end with a bunch of great new newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Vaughn Joy’s beautiful Review Roulette tribute to the late Gene Hackman & the editing of his film The Conversation:
Speaking of vital filmmaking, check out Noella Williams’s Uproxx interview with RaMell Ross on his new film Nickel Boys:
https://uproxx.com/movies/ramell-ross-interview-nickel-boys/
I really enjoyed Lady J’s challenge to J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (the book & film) from another rural Appalachian perspective:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-157930648
Over at her website, Lisa Funnell (& co-authored Klaus Dodds) wrote about the gendering of aircraft travel in Bond films:
https://lisafunnell.com/2025/02/25/gendering-of-aircraft/
Great stuff as ever from Kevin M. Levin at his Civil War Memory newsletter, this time on a Civil War soldier’s prescient reflections:
For the Many-Headed Monster blog, check out the first guest post in the new Visual Culture in Early Modern England series, Adam Morton on laughter:
https://manyheadedmonster.com/2025/02/27/printed-images-laughter-and-early-modern-history/
For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela Toler reviewed Mikki Kendall & A. D’Amico’s Amazons, Abolitionists, & Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights:
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/02/25/amazons-abolitionists-and-activists/
Speaking of badass feminism, Mona Eltahaway’s Daily Dose is always a must-read, including this entry on Argentinian anarchist feminism:
https://www.feministgiant.com/p/daily-dose-109
Turning to current events newsletters, Thomas Zimmer wrote for his Democracy Americana on the German election & the transnational assault on democracy:
Over at her Freedom Over Fascism newsletter, Stephanie G. Wilson wrote about the challenging & important goal of “talking about politics without talking about politics”:
For his Interminable Rambling blog, Matthew Teutsch used a great Lillian Smith quote to argue that the construction of “enemies” harms us all:
For the latest entry in his Notes from the Circus newsletter, Mike Brock highlighted the fight for democracy in a broken Republic:
Over at his blog, Dan Sinker wrote about the 1920s Ku Klux Klan & how what felt impossible became possible:
https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-02-23-dale/
For her Meditations in an Emergency newsletter, Rebecca Solnit wrote about the frustrating “she made him do it” theory:
https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-she-made-him-do-it-theory-of-everything-2/
As usual, I could share any entry in Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American newsletter here, but I’ll feature her February 23rd entry on Timothy Snyder, the American Revolution, & the past & present fight against tyranny:
Two great pieces from Etienne Toussaint this week, including for his Tenure Track newsletter on reclaiming the joy of learning:
& over at his Freedom Papers newsletter, here’s part two of Toussaint’s series on race, capitalism, & economic justice in America:
I’ll end with two particularly inspiring posts, including Joyce Vance for her Civil Discourse newsletter on resistance & Thomas Paine:
& I really enjoyed S. Baum for the Erin in the Morning blog on young Americans extending Stonewall’s legacy of resistance:
PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially your own) below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & let’s bring March in like a lion, my friends!