Dickens told us in 1843 that we had to fix our hearts and care about our communities all year round, not just in December. A century later in 1947 Kris Kringle told us Christmas isn't just a day; it's a frame of mind. The Grinch and Ralphie learned Christmas isn't just about presents in 66 and 83

Exciting news for the new Ken Burns series on the American Revolution. @lizcovart.bsky.social @michaelhattem.bsky.social & Historians At The Movies are partnering to bring you a first of its kind watch party next Sunday. Detail below. Share widely. #HATM open.substack.com/pub/jasonher...

I just drafted an op-ed that I hope I'll get to place somewhere with more reach than my own platforms (but if not I will just post it eventually). 🗃️ The gist is that Christmas is an active word. We DO Christmas. Christmas is a call to secular civic action. 1/4

There's a reason they're civic holidays. They're not just days off work or school; they're the only times of year society prompts us to have an ounce of care for other people, and we'd do so much better as a society if we actually practiced the collectivism of Christmas the other eleven months too.

I just drafted an op-ed that I hope I'll get to place somewhere with more reach than my own platforms (but if not I will just post it eventually). 🗃️ The gist is that Christmas is an active word. We DO Christmas. Christmas is a call to secular civic action. 1/4

The thing about Mamdani is that he’s a talented politician but not otherworldly or one in a billion, he’s just a competent guy with popular ideas who ran against an entitled piece of shit and to me it’s a lot more optimistic to imagine 1000 campaigns like his than to view him as a unique phenomenon

I just hit 100 subscribers on Review Roulette!! Thank you all so much! Rebuilding on a new site is rough going and it was hard to say goodbye to our much higher subscriber counts on Substack, but I'm so proud of this site and @americanstudier.bsky.social's and my work on it. Please subscribe if...

Just called all three of my federal reps(all Republicans) and told them I'd be single issue voting wrt putting Donald Trump and his accomplices and enablers in prison come 2028.

I just hit 100 subscribers on Review Roulette!! Thank you all so much! Rebuilding on a new site is rough going and it was hard to say goodbye to our much higher subscriber counts on Substack, but I'm so proud of this site and @americanstudier.bsky.social's and my work on it. Please subscribe if...

For many years, @americanstudier.bsky.social has worked tirelessly to make scholarship more accessible to a broader audience and help interject academic observations into our political discourse. He is now continuing that crucial mission away from Substack - and he deserves your support:

In these fraught times, we need spaces & communities of our own, that we can make what we want & use to support each other & our work. &, yes, to avoid Nazis as much as possible. That's why we left Substack, & why @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social worked so hard on our new website. So+🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com

Life is so fucking hard, and if you're just doing it, just getting up and living a day and going to bed to do it again the next day, I'm so fucking proud of you, and I hope you're proud of yourself too. I hope you get a moment to smile and feel like you today, if even for a second.

PS. @lollardfish.bsky.social, @thomaszimmer.bsky.social, @sarahebond.bsky.social, & @kevinmkruse.bsky.social, as folks who also left Substack & are helping making the case for alternative sites & public scholarship, we'd love if y'all could help spread the word about ours! blackwhiteandread.com

+ we're gonna need folks to subscribe (for free), to help support this site, those of us trying to do things the right way, & these vital public scholarly goals. Check it out, & if you like what you see, please subscribe! (& then share announcements too, please!) blackwhiteandread.com/newsletter/

Starting with today's post, on two important lessons about veterans & America that we can draw from Alfred F. Young's wonderful book *The Shoemaker & the Tea Party* & its Revolutionary War veteran subject, George Robert Twelves Hewes! blackwhiteandread.com/november-10-...

Veterans' Day is first & foremost an occasion to commemorate the millions of Americans, past & present, who have served & sacrificed as part of our armed forces. A list that includes both of my grandfathers, my wife's grandfather, & I know many folks with whom I'm connected on this site as well. +

Life is so fucking hard, and if you're just doing it, just getting up and living a day and going to bed to do it again the next day, I'm so fucking proud of you, and I hope you're proud of yourself too. I hope you get a moment to smile and feel like you today, if even for a second.

I reviewed The Godfather Part II (1974) this week and am actively nervous to share it because it's a comparative study. Be cool, everyone just be cool and know that I'm sorry. Here's my latest: The Godfather 2½: Simba's Pride

NEW EPISODE ALERT! This week on the AWARD-WINNING #HoFCast, @alansiegella.bsky.social comes on to honor America's non-prehistoric cartoon family- The Simpsons! The production, the fandoms, the controversies- PLUS "Naked Gun" (2025) and "King of the Hill" revival reviews! youtu.be/f9NtJB-Mg_w?...

I sincerely hope my Senators @warren.senate.gov and @edmarkey.bsky.social are doing everything in their power to prevent their colleagues from voting for this deal. If you need to physically chain yourselves to the doors so they can't vote, so be it, boo. I'll donate to your bail fund.

I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable. We are in a health care emergency. A simple one-year extension of these tax credits would cost less than Donald Trump’s $40 billion bailout for Argentina. A vote for this bill is a mistake.

Me, looking at Senate Dems right now:

Hey @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov: compromising with fascists is compliance. Read the room. Do your jobs. Protect your constituents.

Important new work from BLACK WHITE AND READ! #booksky

On Black & White & Read All Over, we have a resources page for academics to find publications to pitch their work to, an announcements page to celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues, and a page that's literally just pictures of our cat Biscuits because we understand this community's needs.

Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

As you check out that thread on our new website, make sure to subscribe for free to get all this great public scholarship each week, as well as all the other work, announcements, & resources we’ll be sharing there! blackwhiteandread.com/newsletter/

Remember: There is nothing natural or inevitable about extreme inequality; it’s the result of an economic system that values wealth and power over human dignity and justice. It doesn't have to be this way.

On Black & White & Read All Over, we have a resources page for academics to find publications to pitch their work to, an announcements page to celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues, and a page that's literally just pictures of our cat Biscuits because we understand this community's needs.

Most people don’t know that with SNAP you are banned from buying “foods that are hot at the point of sale”. So even if you have SNAP (which people don’t now) you can’t get cooked food. Which means you need to also actually have the resources to PREPARE a “healthy” meal.

As the owner of an independent bookstore, I must ask all of y'all to do the opposite of this forever and ever, amen.

🫡

I had a dream last night that the first review of my book was a total evisceration in the New York Times and my husband wouldn't let me read it, so I guess we're under 10 days from publication! Wooooo!!!

🫣 I start my Christmas playlists 🫣 in 🫣 September 🫣 I start soft with a switch from film scores to instrumental Christmas while working, then a month or so later I start the Christmas film soundtrack playlist, then I launch into wider Christmas songs with lyrics in November.

virtue signalling is good actually

Let this sink in. The President of the United States is now appealing a court order forcing him to feed starving children.

Really outstanding book. I still love Natalie Wood in "Miracle on 34th Street," but had no clue about the commercial context. #sschat

Do you need a guest for a Christmas special on your podcast? I have room to schedule recordings during the week of November 17th now available. (Same week my book Selling Out Santa comes out!) Shoot me an email at gvaughnjoy@gmail with your thoughts!

Quite a headline.

Speaking of American film & culture, "Mira Nair's son is now Mayor of New York" is one of my favorite sentences ever. I'll let @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social's phenomenal July 4th Review Roulette explain further: blackwhiteandread.com/the-great-am...

Happy Herman Mankiewicz Day! Ain't that American film & culture? memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/november-n...

Just a reminder that the Call for Papers for our Spring Seminar Series closes this coming Monday, 10 November 2025. If you were considering applying, please do! We would love to hear from you. Submissions should be sent to our seminar convener at [email protected].

Boston/Cambridge film buffs, "Every Noirvember at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, it’s a month for floozies, flophouses and hard-drinking private dicks played for patsies." #FilmSky 🎬 brattlefilm.org/film-series/... coolidge.org/programs/noi...

I reviewed The Godfather Part II (1974) this week and am actively nervous to share it because it's a comparative study. Be cool, everyone just be cool and know that I'm sorry. Here's my latest: The Godfather 2½: Simba's Pride

I’m hosting a Q&A with Bryan Fuller tonight before the screening of Dust Bunny! #filmsky 📽

Honestly, a banger of a lineup on this schedule. You won't want to miss it! Also this is my first ever keynote and is due in large part to @lizwfab.bsky.social and their neverending support!

If you had unlimited money to produce a sequel to any film, what would it be? I want a fourth film in the Before series. Linklater captures humanity so beautifully in those films, and my husband and I have a dream concept for a fourth that we desperately want Hawke, Delpy, & Linklater to make.

Did you know that some towns have community thrift stores that fund their food pantry? And those thrift stores are not only sustainable shopping options but also frequently filled with still-tagged clothes or homewares or holiday decorations for ridiculously cheap prices that FUND FOOD PANTRIES?

Have an op-ed bubbling up about yesterday's results or an essay on Eugene Debs or a blog post on the concept of "hope" that you just have to write but don't know where to pitch it? Head over to our Pitchables page to find over 50 public publications, sites, and podcasts open to pitches: