"...history has the potential to change a people’s future by changing its self-understanding." History is exceptionally powerful, which is why its expert work is degraded, distorted, accepted only as tourism. Always the authoritarian political instrument of choice. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

Opinion | Trump's Smithsonian Attacks Are Attacks on America’s Future (Gift Article)

This is how we decide who we are and who we want to be.

nytimes.com

Annual summer socials break! 👋

Hey this is tomorrow and you don’t need prediction markets to know it’s going to be stupendous. Info w Registration link: jcblibrary.org/events/chris...

John Carter Brown Library@jcblibrary.bsky.social · 3w ago

Join us Tuesday, July 21 for the next installment of The Revolution Is News! Christopher Bonner (University of Maryland) will discuss the Memory of the American Revolution in Black Politics. Details at jcblibrary.org!

You've finished the manuscript. Now what? Join our AHA Online webinar on July 28 at 12 p.m. ET exploring the nuts and bolts of book publishing, from acquisitions and contracts to marketing. With Mike Baccam, Levi Stahl, and Elizabeth Townsend Gard. Register now.

Book Publishing 101: Acquisitions, Contracts, and Promotion for Historians – AHA

Book Publishing 101: Acquisitions, Contracts, and Promotion for Historians AHAOnline Tuesday, July 28, 12–1 p.m. ET You’ve written a dissertation or drafted a new manuscript and are in talks to publis...

historians.org

Congratulations to Lauren Duval the second winner (not finalist!) for The SHEAR Book Prize for The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence. (@uncpress.bsky.social)

So many high points in those @shearites.bsky.social awards! Super congrats to @caycarbs.bsky.social for her brilliant essay on materials and archives of household.

SHEAR@shearites.bsky.social · 3w ago

Congratulations to Caylin Carbonell the inaugural winner of the joint SHEAR and MCEAS G.E.H. Article Prize for “Fraught Forms: Negotiating Servitude in Colonial New England” in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. (@easmisc.bsky.social)

Megan I am at a conference right now and honestly at its best it’s …

Megan L. Cook@meganlcook.bsky.social · 3w ago

Reading minutes from meetings of the Society of Antiquaries in the 1720s and 1730s and so much of it is "hey guys, I found a cool rock!" "Would you look at this weird coin?" or "My cousin told me about a dead body he saw one time." We need to bring back adult show and tell. I'm serious about this.

Are you unable to attend the tonight's (6:15pm) SHEAR Presidential Address? Well, President Carolyn Eastman’s address on “What They Talked About When They Talked About Demagogues in the Early American Republic,” will be livestreamed to our YouTube channel. Link here: www.youtube.com/live/0izEG4S...

SHEAR 2026 Presidential Address

YouTube video by SHEAR

youtube.com

Vast, I tell you.

Robert Paulett@robertpaulett.bsky.social · 3w ago

Brushing up for a new class and it really is remarkable how much the Anglophone historiography of North America has been transformed by something as simple as “more people learning Spanish”

I'm delighted & proud that this article, based on my Historical Research Lecture 2025, is now published in its final form in the @ihr.bsky.social journal Historical Research. It's the 'Editor's Choice' (thanks, @saracharles.bsky.social!), so open access for 6 months. academic.oup.com/histres/arti...

Can popular history be radical? Historical research and writing for the public with a manifesto for radical popular history

Abstract. This article, a transcript of the 2025 Historical Research Lecture, re-visits the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of rad

academic.oup.com

What a(nother) great event! One slide 3 minutes. 😀 Ten (More) Things to Know about the American Revolution @ #SHEAR2026, following Ten Things in Providence in 2025. Co-sponsored by HSP, ITPS, & @jcblibrary.bsky.social (logo not appearing!) w super thanks to presenters & @noraslonimsky.bsky.social!

There is a massive amount of research and literature on needed reforms to universities that nobody at The Atlantic, New York Times, New Yorker, or in the "thought industry" want to talk about or even pretend exists. Wonder why! www.press.jhu.edu/books/series...

Today is World Emoji Day! Did you know that Alice Thornton used an early form of emoji in her writing? She often used a ❤ instead of writing the word heart. In the image, see seven lines up on the right: 'Oh that our soules, my mind & ♥' Image: Book of Remembrances, 109. Photo by Derek Beattie. 📜

Join us Tuesday, July 21 for the next installment of The Revolution Is News! Christopher Bonner (University of Maryland) will discuss the Memory of the American Revolution in Black Politics. Details at jcblibrary.org!

The history itself has not gone anywhere. The administration is simply betting that if visitors are not asked to confront it, most never will. Proving that bet wrong is now the work in front of all of us. #America250 #publichistory 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Ona Judge Didn't Run Away From a House

She ran away from George Washington. The new exhibit on Independence Mall would rather you not think about that.

open.substack.com

We are living through the most deranged syllabus development era for Gender 101.

And again and ever after apparently.

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm back to reading about Henry VIII. Post 1536. IYKYK.

📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.

Jesse Locker@jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3w ago

Giving myself a headache in the archives

Now that postdocs have become the next step in a faculty career, here's your guide. Coming soon from @hopkinspress.bsky.social www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/... #Postdoc #Faculty #AcademicSky

Here is the American Historical Association's statement, identifying three specific provisions that undermine our disciplinary work: www.historians.org/news/aha-sub...

AHA Submits Comment Seeking to Prevent Politicization of Federal Grantmaking - AHA

The AHA submitted a comment to the Federal Register stating our opposition to a rule proposed by the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees final approval over all federa...

historians.org

Scholarly folks who have ever received federal funding: today is the deadline for public comment on proposed revisions that will decimate our national research capacity and replace expertise with political whim. Please consider throwing in your 2¢. See below for some useful links and encouragement.

Just submitted my comment; hope others do the same! Today's the last day, procrastinators!!!

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 4w ago

Public conversation about the OMB proposal has focused on science, but make no mistake: this is about ALL research and humanities are just as vulnerable. I'm back @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social w historian & @historians.org exec director Sarah Weicksel. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/07/10/t...

Get out if your list doesn't include _Gaudy Night_. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/b...

Golden Age Mysteries: A Starter Pack

Interested in these classic novels, but not sure where to start? Let our expert guide you.

nytimes.com

Today is the last day for public comments! 🚨

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 4w ago

Public conversation about the OMB proposal has focused on science, but make no mistake: this is about ALL research and humanities are just as vulnerable. I'm back @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social w historian & @historians.org exec director Sarah Weicksel. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/07/10/t...

Here it is, my 284th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

#ScholarSunday Thread 284 (7/12/26) – Black and White and Read All Over

Here it is, my 284th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy,...

blackwhiteandread.com

For folks asking why bother commenting because the OMB won't care: comments help build cases for the courts by explicitly laying out harms. That's why it's really important to have your comments be as specific as possible. Also, contact your senators and reps! They actually do care about this.

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 4w ago

Monday is the deadline for public comment! The Heritage Foundation has been mobilizing its members to leave comments in favor of the rule change, so every unique comment matters (don’t use a form letter or copy/paste—similar comments are batched and treated as one).

90% of (my) writing is shuffling the notes around.

Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 4w ago

Surfing the writing wave of "I love this" to "ugh, banality" to "I can do this!" to "what was I thinking obviously I wasn't." Repeat! Matching words to ideas to refine the ideas that need the right words is the best. Also the worst!

The cross sector impact of snotty disregard for expertise because it’s not your own. The wave of analysis is only starting to build.

Public conversation about the OMB proposal has focused on science, but make no mistake: this is about ALL research and humanities are just as vulnerable. I'm back @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social w historian & @historians.org exec director Sarah Weicksel. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/07/10/t...

The OMB Guidance Revision Threatens All Research - The Scholarly Kitchen

The OMB proposed revision is about all research — and humanities research is just as vulnerable as STEM.

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org