Announcing a good ol’ fashioned Teach-In in Washington, DC on Sunday, October 26th. We’ll convene for a series of lectures, stories, and conversations to celebrate and stand up for the work of history and museums. Shoutout to @natedimeo.bsky.social for bringing this idea to us. See you in DC!

Pete Hegseth: history is settled Historians: aww, bless his heart.

My latest column for the Chronicle of Higher Ed is now live. It's an argument for including AI-critical voices in campus conversations and policymaking workgroups, and I'm proud to get this dissenting piece into the mainstream genAI/higher ed discourse. Please read and share if you're so inclined 🙂

From Nashville for one more Family Weekend, here’s my 242nd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

This. I told a student group that I declined their debate invitation but that I would love to read something together and have a conversation. The response: crickets. Let's stop debating and try to talk with each other instead.

I think this comparison is largely right. Yes, it’s a replay of McCarthyism’s ugliest aspects but that was fueled by a widespread sense that the country faced dire external dangers while this is about a deeply unpopular president’s grudges.

This is the biggest attack on free speech since the McCarthy era but it also has significantly less popular consensus behind it than the second Red Scare. It's being done on behalf of a minority faction led by the most unpopular president in modern history. Organizing against this can win.

This week’s blog posts need a lot more love. The histories & issues of censorship in America have never been more relevant. Please share widely! @kevinmkruse.bsky.social 🗃️

McCarthyism in your news feed? Check out @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social's latest, "'Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Tom Hanks fan club?': Modern McCarthyism in America," which explores recent echoes of the McCarthy era in Hollywood and academia.

🗃️ McCarthyism is back and it’s coming for Tom Hanks. @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social with an excellent piece about the echoes of the Red Scare in today’s Hollywood.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

Re-upping this list of "Against GenAI" resources - updated, with more links! catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...

& for a very clear indication of some of the many, many ways in which we have returned to & far surpassed the Sedition Act era in our own period, check out @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social's vital new @cliocontemporary.bsky.social article: bsky.app/profile/clio...

'In both the Cold War Red Scare & today’s sequel, culture has been key to gaining public support for escalations that trample civil liberties. Both...have relied on nebulous philosophies as catchalls for political, social, cultural, & ideological views—McCarthy’s “communism” and Trump’s “woke”.'

The consolidation of media into a few corrupt hands is to control the hearts and minds of the American people, a goal of McCarthyism. In this linked article, I talk about the parallels of the McCarthy era and today. In my new book (pinned), I analyze the cultural impact of McCarthyism on Hollywood.

The @aaup.org just shared guidance for academic workers on how to protect themselves online www.aaup.org/news/advisor...

I generally write & schedule my blog series a ways in advance, & am often inspired by a historic anniversary that's not in any specific way related to current events (even if I could predict what those events will be by the time the series airs). But sometimes, like this week, the timing still hits.

Great piece in @cliocontemporary.bsky.social by @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social about modern McCarthyism

I know it's been a year since last Monday, but we gotta talk about Trump calling Tom Hanks un-American and Texas A&M. "A vehement refusal to learn about the world around us, to instead insulate ourselves with pre-approved topics and facts that confirm what we already think or feel, is dangerous."

McCarthyism in your news feed? Check out @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social's latest, "'Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Tom Hanks fan club?': Modern McCarthyism in America," which explores recent echoes of the McCarthy era in Hollywood and academia.

Here are the promotional flyers for my Spring 2026 courses, America in the 1980s and the History of Reality TV.

#academicsky US Historians -- what textbooks are you assigning students these days?

From Ann Arbor for Family Weekend, here’s my 241st #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

This Day in Labor History: September 12, 1934. The Rhode Island National Guard opened fire on people associated with striking textile workers throwing rocks and bricks at them in the Moshassuck Cemetery in Saylesville, Rhode Island. 2 died. Let's talk the Saylesville Massacre's complex history!

It is quite simply dishonest to describe TPUSA as a “free speech” organization and not even mention the “Professor Watchlist,” as NPR just did. Reporting on a crime does not entail adopting the victim’s views.

We’re always accepting submissions on current events in historical context. Please reply or DM if you’re interested in writing. We’re particularly interested this week in pitches that address political/cultural responses to assassinations or mourning controversial figures in the age of social media.

I have two professor colleagues who have faced threats and harassment due to the organization Charlie Kirk built, and they were not alone. We can denounce and loathe political violence without hagiography for its victims. This is dangerous nonsense.

And we're back to the question of who gets to define what counts as disciplinary knowledge. Does the expert who has spent their lives studying the subject get to define it in the classroom? Or the 20 year old right wing activist who literally believes the president can make laws by dictate?

It's our fucking job to present students with uncomfortable facts and challenge their worldviews. The point isn't to change their beliefs but to ensure that they can better defend whatever positions they take.

This line about teaching to the course catalog description is such a pathetic cop out. Beyond academic freedom it's ignorant of how learning and knowledge creation work. "This class is supposed to be about Renaissance Italy but the professor talked about early modern Germany, I want them fired"

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

While we're at it, if you think that this "wrong think" firing of professors at A&M will stop with those woke humanists, remember this is the administration that cancelled grants for studying transgenic mice because they thought it was the same as transgender mice

History majors have lower unemployment than computer science majors. Folks with humanities graduate degrees are more sought after by corporate recruiters than those with MBAs. Study history! Get a job!

In the last week of the 1936 campaign, FDR reminded a massive crowd in Madison Square Garden that "organized money" was "unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred!" And then the country rewarded him with a 523-8 landslide in the electoral college. This is, in fact, good politics.

Let’s kick off a new semester & season with my 240th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Live footage of historians these days

Something that I love about being faculty at a CC is that we have *zero* prestige and therefore (usually) nobody targets us with their political machinations. We are still focused on equity. We are still teaching anti-racism. My colleagues at other CCs have not stopped, either.

I post history because we need to remember that our best rules and institutions took generations to develop. We fought for decades for a nonpartisan civil service, independent regulatory agencies, safe food & drugs, voting equality, etc., etc. And Trump’s blowing them up like they were nothing.

I feel obligated to keep trying to convince my students not to sacrifice their own skill development to AI while in college, but I think I come across as preachy and out of touch. @lornab.bsky.social and T-Pain send a much more compelling message that I plan to adopt into my classrooms.

T-Pain may not “Buy You a Drink,” but he can offer lessons on how to help your students develop their writing skills sans AI. Check out this wonderful lesson plan by @lornab.bsky.social 🗃️

Such a great teaching tool, speaks to my millennial heart and ears. Pain’s stunning, stripped-down vocal performance on the Tiny Desk version of “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” makes it clear that his suite of digital audio tools needs T-Pain far more than T-Pain needs his suite of digital...tools

Great piece from @lornab.bsky.social! Using T-Pain to help students understand the problems with using AI

This is a fantastic resource for those of us combatting AI misuse. Read it!

Proud to have contributed a little piece on pedagogy to this fantastic history blog. Little known fact: All my lesson plans involve T-Pain.

Excellent distillation of the use of computer tools as a creative use rather than replacing creativity. T-pain can sing but used Auto-tune to enhance art not replace skill.

Looking to persuade your students to develop humanistic writing skills before leaning on AI? Invite T-Pain (sans Auto-Tune) to your class. @lornab.bsky.social offers a riveting lesson plan about AI and the power of honing our voices. 🗃️#academicsky clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/09/02/t...

For @cliocontemporary.bsky.social, @kirkcurnutt.bsky.social considers "Meeting Across the River" as not the least-lauded track of "Born to Run," but as a signal of where Bruce Springsteen (and the country) were headed in the late 1970s.

At @bencollins.bsky.social 's suggestion, my Gaming and History class is reading Jedediah Purdy's "What I Had Lost Was A Country" for class tomorrow, to start talking about contemporary fascism alongside the Spanish Civil War. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Labor Day is a very good day for my fellow academics to joint their local @aaup.org and if your school doesn't have one you should start one!

What goes great with your holiday weekend bbqs & labor activism? My 239th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast eps, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...