How do constitutions teach societies to imagine change? This new Age of Revolutions essay explores the tension between transformation and revolution in Indian constitutional history, highlighting the pedagogical power of constitutional thought & political change. ageofrevolutions.com/2026/08/03/t...

Transformation Contra Revolution: Locating the Pedagogical Aspects of Revolution in Indian Constitutional History

By Shubham Yadav The imagery that revolution invokes depends on the standpoint of the spectator. Revolution, for the elites and powerholders, is bloody, chaotic, disruptive, and tumultuous.[1] For …

ageofrevolutions.com

Anyone have recommendations for histories of libraries, especially over the last 50 years?

A thought-provoking read on memory, history, and the many ways Simón Bolívar’s legacy has been interpreted over time. The Other Bolívar: From Bronze to Ink is well worth your time. 🔗 ageofrevolutions.com/2026/07/27/t...

The Other Bolívar: From Bronze to Ink

By Hugo Sanchez Aranguren American audiences often know Simón Bolívar as the “George Washington of South America.” The analogy orients, but it compresses a life of revolution, contradiction, and st…

ageofrevolutions.com

To keep pigeons in their dovecotes, some French farmers reportedly "used a goat's head, which they boiled thoroughly in water with salt, cumin, hempseed and urine. Then they placed it in the dovecote to serve as an amusement for the pigeons." Just thought some of you might want to know. #18thCentury

Salt = preservative Cumin = antioxidant, boosts gut health Hempseed = superfood Urine = cured meat and reduced bacteria

Bryan Banks@bryanbanksphd.bsky.social · 2w ago

To keep pigeons in their dovecotes, some French farmers reportedly "used a goat's head, which they boiled thoroughly in water with salt, cumin, hempseed and urine. Then they placed it in the dovecote to serve as an amusement for the pigeons." Just thought some of you might want to know. #18thCentury

To keep pigeons in their dovecotes, some French farmers reportedly "used a goat's head, which they boiled thoroughly in water with salt, cumin, hempseed and urine. Then they placed it in the dovecote to serve as an amusement for the pigeons." Just thought some of you might want to know. #18thCentury

Working on my Great Pigeon Massacre book. In trying to describe French farming practices and how pigeons became such a politicized subject, I find myself pushing back against the narrative that French farmers were somehow behind English ones. /1

The Firearm Revolution traces the rise of firearms from Renaissance Italy to the expansion of European empires, revealing how debates over self-defense, public order, and gun regulation are far older than many realize. Learn more about Catherine Fletcher's work! ageofrevolutions.com/2026/07/20/t...

The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires

By Catherine Fletcher The title The Firearm Revolution arose from my observation that guns got significantly less attention in the scholarly literature than the parallel “print revolution”. In the …

ageofrevolutions.com

New on Age of Revolutions: a digital mapping of Lafayette’s 1825 journey through Georgia, tracing his route and highlighting the communities that welcomed the “Guest of the Nation.” A great example of how spatial history can bring Revolutionary memory to life. ageofrevolutions.com/2026/06/29/m...

Mapping Lafayette’s Journey Through Georgia

By Laura June Davis Living in the state of Georgia—the newest, most remote, and most intimately connected colony to Great Britain during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras—students often view the …

ageofrevolutions.com

I was driving down the road last night and the sound of bugs splattering on the car sounded like rain.

Would love to publish an essay on Gordon Wood’s life work on @ageofrevolutions.bsky.social! Any one interested? @asheeshks.org?

Age of Revolutions@ageofrevolutions.bsky.social · 2mo ago

RIP Gordon Wood.

Sometimes the research process brings you into unusual spaces like an eighteenth-century French dovecote built for the royal family…

Picked up @davidandress.bsky.social’s lovely, well-written book at Shakespeare and Co today in Paris. The prose, as with all of his books, is something to admire.

In 2018, I heard a story of tunnels beneath Columbus, Ga. They were used to transport enslaved peoples before the Civil War, this person told me. What followed was my pursuit of the truth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzbP...

Folklore matters—here’s why | Bryan Banks | TEDxColumbus State U

YouTube video by TEDx Talks

youtube.com

A eulogy is often the first—and oftentimes the only—biography written about a person.

Reality is just a mirror of our senses. Love live catcopus

Me and a small nugget of love. 🇸🇪♥️🇺🇦@mnotme.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The extremely rare catcopus.

“History is not merely a collection of dates and events; it is a rich tapestry woven by countless individuals across centuries.” In a 2024 #AHAPerspectives piece, @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social delivers end-of-year remarks to his department. 🗃️

Guardians of the Tapestry of Time – AHA

As the academic year ends, one history department chair reflects on the work of history.

historians.org

In the age of AI, I find myself becoming quite fond of and sympathetic to sloppy but honest undergraduate prose.

I've been awarded a research fellowship to work with the Gimon Collection on French Political Economy at the Stanford University Libraries! Going to be looking at 18th century pamphlets on agrarian reform for my book project, The Great Pigeon Massacre of 1789. @stanfordulibraries.bsky.social

Want to learn how to craft a compelling op-ed? Watch “Op-Ed Writing for Historians" with @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social, @jelaniya.bsky.social, @mauracunningham.bsky.social, @franhirsch.bsky.social, @brianros1.bsky.social, and moderator @lmansley.bsky.social. #AHAOnline 🗃️

Op-Ed Writing for Historians: How to Pitch, Write, Revise, and Get Your Ideas to the Public

YouTube video by American Historical Association

youtu.be

Normalize reviewing as a form of procrastination.

So excited to see the cover for this fascinating, touching book on the hist of schoolhouses in the south, beautifully co-authored by my brilliant colleague & spouse, @abegibson.bsky.social, & his pops Benny Gibson. The Vanishing Schools of Franklin County: A History of Public Education in Rural VA

The Vanishing Schools of Franklin County

<p><b>An in-depth history that assesses the price of progress and the legacy of lost rural American communities</b></p><p>Nestled among the foothills

upress.virginia.edu

Every time I feel like I screw up as a parent, I remind myself that Hemingway used to leave his kid with his cat as a babysitter.

Rumors are that it’s finally happening…

🗣️ New publication! In this introduction, @nagonzalezq.bsky.social and I revisit the historiography on refugees and explore how the category of “refugee” (or its historical equivalent) was constructed in Atlantic and Mediterranean societies (18th–19th c.) ... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@bryanbanksphd.bsky.social pitches me the best pedagogy pieces. Don't miss the latest in #AHAPerspectives!

American Historical Association@historians.org · 4mo ago

What happens when you throw a cannonball off the second floor in a history class? In #AHAPerspectives, @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social makes the case for incorporating “mnemonic moments” in the classroom. 🗃️

Age of Revolutions has had the same look for a decade. It was time for a refresh. New Design! Same Revolutionary Content! ageofrevolutions.com

Age of Revolutions

An Open-Access, Peer-Reviewed Journal

ageofrevolutions.com

Images don’t just document history—they create it. In “Maduro Captured: On Film and Mythmaking” @danielrunnels.bsky.social examines photography, mythmaking, and the construction of public authority. ageofrevolutions.com/2026/03/16/m...

Maduro Captured: On Photography and Mythmaking

By Daniel Runnels The photo of a detained Nicolás Maduro circulated worldwide on the morning after his capture is visual evidence of the definitive end of what was once called the Pink Tide in Lati…

ageofrevolutions.com

It's really fun to be citing my friends while fleshing out footnotes for the chapter draft. If you haven't read @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social 's Write to Return: Huguenot Refugees on the Frontiers of the French Enlightenment, I highly recommend it.