Publishing tip #6: Try to find an editor who actually edits, someone who will help you think hard, conceptually and structurally, about your project. Editing is increasingly a lost art as universities cut subsidies to their presses, but there are still great editors out there.

University of Illinois Press's free e-book this month is Hidden Histories of Unauthorized Migrations from Europe to the United States, edited by Danielle Battisti and S. Deborah Kang. Request it at the link. cc: @kevinkenny.bsky.social @adamjst.bsky.social 🗃️

***New article from IEHS member Jonathan Cortez*** “For the Sake of Migrant Futures: Historicizing Migrant Deaths in Shipping Containers on the U.S. – Mexico Border in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries,” California History 3, no. 1 (Spring 2026): 70-107. online.ucpress.edu/ch/article/1...

Thank you @hcrichardson.bsky.social for referring to my work on birthright citizenship in your “Letters from an American”! open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

"Do we want to be the America of John C. Calhoun or John Bingham? The America of Stephen A. Douglas or Frederick Douglass? Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it will not settle the question. Only the people can do that, one way or another." a great piece from @adamserwer.bsky.social

The writing tips I published one by one here have now been gathered up and published by Ed Simon in the *Pittsburgh Review of Books*. Happy to make them available here: pghrev.com/sixteen-writ... Be sure to check out the relatively new PRoB while you are there!

mostly reading the papers of Amos Adams Lawrence, who helped fund the New England Emigrant Aid Company. That org facilitated the migration of New Englanders to Kansas in hopes of securing enough votes to make Kansas a state w/o slavery. The violence that erupted there foreshadowed secession & war

Just finished up day one at @mhs1791.bsky.social the MHS. I had Charles Sumner looking over my shoulder, keeping me on my toes.

I can think of three potential statutory sources for my citizenship as an Indian. Not even taking into consideration that I am also the child of a citizen non-Indian parent.

The issue is complex to start and even more complex at the level of each Indigenous nation with overlays of treaties, statutes, and court orders conveying citizenship depending on each Indian and each Tribal Nation.

“The problem of Tribal Indians” - Solicitor General Sauer, Barbara v. Trump. My Tribal Indian self and my Tribal Indian Mom, being adorable Choctaw Tribal Indian “problems.”

Now imagine that same question after 250 years of occupation. We cannot presume that the answer to this constitutional question is easy. We cannot presume that we have never occupied another territory and governed by force. That presumption is causing problems within for the very people we occupied.

Friends, again with respect because this is a complex issue: children born to citizens of tribal governments do not have constitutional birthright citizenship under many, if not most forms of constitutional argument and authority (incl. Supreme Court precedent relied upon in this case)./1

The common reaction is often: this is America, of course Native Americans have U.S. citizenship. But that reaction overlooks the existence of Native nations governing "America" and tribal citizenship. We cannot presume that everyone over whom the U.S. has extended its power wants U.S. citizenship.

No doubt this issue is controversial. But important aspects of this normative and constitutional debate are lost: if the U.S. invaded Greenland or Canada tomorrow, would residents of those areas want citizenship? Some might, to prevent despotism of the invader; some might not. Its complicated.

Not sure whether this is apt or terrible timing but here’s the official cover of my book due out with @uncpress.bsky.social W. Hodding Carter III imprint this fall. 🎉

I’m building off the recent works of Samantha Seeley, @kevinkenny.bsky.social and @unlawfulentries.bsky.social while invoking the old masters: Ira Berlin, John Hope Franklin, and G Carter Woodson.

About to start my fellowship at @mhs1791.bsky.social in a few minutes. I’m working on a book about the origins of criminalized migration in the US, largely from the vantage point of the migrants themselves. What did it mean to be an illegal migrant before the Civil War? I’m finding out.

Delighted to announce that my new book, a global history of Saint Patrick’s Day, will be published by @uncpress.bsky.social in early 2027. Big thanks to @bc-irish-studies.bsky.social @gihnyu.bsky.social @ndirishstudies.bsky.social @iehs.bsky.social @unlv.edu and everyone who helped me along the way.

Something big to celebrate.

It’s bedrock.

🗃️March 28, 1898: In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court upheld the principle of birthright citizenship enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment. A thread on birthright citizenship… 1/6🧵

For more on these and similar questions, see “The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic” @academic.oup.com 🧵6/6

🗃️Asian immigrants could not be naturalized as citizens until the 1940s (Chinese and Indians) and 1950s (those from other Asian countries), yet their American-born children were automatically US citizens at birth. 🧵5/6

🗃️All persons born on American soil and subject to its jurisdiction, SCOTUS ruled in Wong Kim Ark, were automatically US citizens—even though their parents, under US law, could not become citizens under naturalization law (until 1943). 🧵4/6

🗃️Birthright citizenship has been the bedrock of civil and political membership since Reconstruction. That principle is under threat today, with nativists questioning—implausibly but persistently—whether the American-born children of certain immigrants owe their allegiance to the US. 🧵3/6

🗃️Forged in a war to end slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment became a powerful force for assimilating immigrants and their children, regardless of their background or status. 🧵2/6

🗃️March 28, 1898: In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court upheld the principle of birthright citizenship enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment. A thread on birthright citizenship… 1/6🧵

We have a new sign 💅

Great #FridayPhoto by @juliarosekraut.bsky.social ‼️

Suddenly there are a thousand (fake) book clubs out there that want to feature one or another of my books. They can seem convincing because they use AI to summarize the books they have illegally scraped. Everyone beware of these scams.

Here’s an interview I did with my friend Dave Clinch for *Socialist Worker*. A British edition of the book was published March 10 by @versobooks.bsky.social. socialistworker.co.uk/reviews-and-...

If anyone wants an e-book of *The Slave Ship: A Human History*, it is on sale today on Amazon for $1.99.

Publishing tip #2: Ask all your friends and colleagues who work in your field or a related one about their presses and editors. When you are in the final six months of completing your project, make appointments with a few editors to make your pitch in person.

🗃️Not until 1870 were “aliens of African nativity and…persons of African descent” allowed to naturalize as US citizens. Asian immigrants remained barred from becoming US citizens: Chinese until 1943, Indians and Filipinos until 1946, other Asians until 1952. 🧵2/2

🗃️March 26, 1790: Congress passed the first Naturalization Act, laying down the procedure whereby foreigners could become US citizens after a waiting period, proof of good character & an oath of allegiance. To be eligible, an immigrant had to be “a free white” person. 🧵1/2

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's independence from a nation that put its monarch on its money, the US will - for the first time in its history - put the President's signature on its currency.

Brava to our very own IEHS member, @unlawfulentries.bsky.social , on the official release of her book!

New book chapter by IEHS member @ciantmcmahon.bsky.social : “Shipwrecks and Society: Press Reports of the Irish Emigrant Passage to Canada, 1845-1855” in William Jenkins, ed., Canada and the Great Irish Famine (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025): 55-72. www.mqup.ca/Books/C/Cana...

🗃️March 26, 1790: Congress passed the first Naturalization Act, laying down the procedure whereby foreigners could become US citizens after a waiting period, proof of good character & an oath of allegiance. To be eligible, an immigrant had to be “a free white” person. 🧵1/2

"Spots are limited" ‼️

Congratulations @unlawfulentries.bsky.social on the long-awaited publication of "Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship" @academic.oup.com @iehs.bsky.social ‼️

Mood ... March 2026

Publishing tip #1: Identify the presses that publish well in your specific field. That proves their interest. Find books that have had success and figure out how. When you are close to finishing your work, use those books as examples of how you would want your own book to be handled.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

🗃️ Yes @marcusrediker.bsky.social please keep the tips coming our way ‼️ Things don't go viral here on @bsky.app compared to that other s(h)ite -- but that's a good thing and rest assured that people here are reading and benefiting from what you are sharing. @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social

Writing tip #15: Read broadly and deeply to master the cultures you are writing about. Your command of cultural detail, especially language and meaning, will add authenticity and depth to your writing. Much history from below is to be found in *A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue* (1785).

Last writing tip, #16: Find ways to combine narrative and analytical voices in your writing. This is hard to do but well worth working at. Adding deep context to storytelling will help, but it is still important to step back from the story to explain its causes and consequences.

The Space In Between - New York City - #FridayPhoto 🗃️📷📸

Good morning! The website of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy is LIVE! And it’s 🔥. You need this resource pinned in your favorites. Especially now. 14thamendmentctr.org