Randall Stephens
@randalljstephens.bsky.social
American historian, religion, environment, pop culture, the South. Author: The Devil's Music (Harvard, 2018). Prof of Am & Brit Studies, Univ of Oslo. Fulbright alumnus.
Don Heckman, NYT review Joni Mitchell's Blue in 1971: "I suspect this will be the most disliked of Miss Mitchell's recordings, despite the fact that it attempts more & makes greater demands on her talent than any of the others. The audience for art songs is far smaller than that for folk ballads..."
Right-wing cartoonist Bob Howie's 1964 reimagining of what the "Lefty Wing" and Civil Rights Act would do to individual rights. (Howie was like a real-life version of the Onion's Stan Kelly.) In addition to the Jackson Daily News, Howie's cartoons appeared in the White Citizens' Council newspaper.
Playing midterm strategy 3D chess: "According to US intelligence, Russia is providing real-time tracking data to Iran, which helps them strike US targets in the Middle East. So the lifting of these Russian oil sanctions—Trump is helping an important ally of Iran's." www.npr.org/2026/10/11/n...
Politics chat: Trump announces fuel deal with Russia. What does it mean for sanctions?
President Trump announced a deal to import Russian fuel to the U.S. We look at what this means for the sanctions he recently signed off on against Russia, as well as the U.S.'s support for Ukraine.
npr.org
"A few suggestions..." Jimmy Johnson on the role of the Moral Majority in the 1980 election.
"The Wallace boom boom." John Fischetti about racist former Alabama governor George Wallace's surge in the presidential polls, August 1968. Wallace peaked at around 23% and received 13.5% of the popular vote in November.
"It was 14 August 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky....Some slept overnight near the gallows to preserve their spots. Others held 'necktie' parties the previous evening, arriving hungover as teenagers sold popcorn and soda to spectators....the crowd had swelled to an estimated 20,000."
Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?
The Pentagon says the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed, but experts suggest officials are reading the country wrong.
bbc.com
"He has usurped our prerogatives!" Ed Valtman, 1970.
"Have a nice Halloween, daddy!" Ed Valtman, 1965.
A very stylish #Roman woman's shoe with a decorative pattern punched into the leather. Found in 1907 in a well in the civilian settlement of the Saalburg fort, dating first half of the 2nd century AD. Photo: Römerkastell Saalburg
Was not expecting to see snow in Oslo today. 
Bob Jones Sr. after receiving a financial gift from the KKK in 1924: "I am hurriedly writing you this line to express my appreciation for your most generous gift....I am happy to know that practically every member of the Klan who was not a Christian has given his heart to God during the meeting."
"I've changed my mind. Let's take from the poor and give to the military." Mike Peters on Reaganomics, March 1981.
Happy Prize Day! Trump, October 13, 2024: “If I were named Obama, I would’ve had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds….There has to be fairness and I don’t care about…I’m not looking for it. I’m not politicking for it. I’m just saying that there’s a lot of unfairness in this world...”
Paul Szep on the fate of social programs at the start of the Reagan years, March 1981.
One of the earlier album reviews of the Beatles in an American newspaper.
Time magazine's brief notice about Rubber Soul, March 18, 1966.
“The war on poverty, 1981.” Herblock, with a play on LBJ's program, reimagines Reagan as a wrecking ball to social programs and welfare spending, March 1981.
“If we’re selfish, that could destroy the whole program.” Herblock on Reagan’s spending priorities, March 1981.
Ben Sargent on Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and the impact on the working poor, March 1981.
"The entire US economy?..." Ben Sargent on the big gamble of Reaganomics, March 1981.
"They fight over the size of their cuts, too." Herblock on government spending under Reagan, March 1981.
This week in the MA rock history seminar we have chapters and articles by Kelefa Sanneh, Suzanne E. Smith, John Covach and Andrew Flory, Phyl Garland, James Brown, and Robert Hilburn.
Herblock on the Reagan-era Office of Management and Budget cutting programs, February 1981.
!!!! U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...
U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats (Gift Article)
The withdrawal came with unusual speed, following what U.S. officials said were threats of an Iran-based plot against the installation.
nytimes.com
Mike Peters on the Gun Lobby, February 1981. This was just two months after John Lennon was murdered.
At the natural history museum. “No one does bird better than me. That I can tell you.”
The AfD’s “vision includes so-called remigration, a policy that advocates deporting people on a massive scale, including immigrants with German citizenship.…’The word remigration is nothing more than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color,’ Merz recently told lawmakers.”
Following far-right and far-left gains, Germany's center struggles for relevance
After gains for the far-right and far-left, Germany's centrist politicians are soul-searching among echoes of a past that led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and rise of fascism decades ago.
npr.org
Keith Emerson (ELP), the science of prog rock, Civic Center in San Francisco, February 17, 1974.
