A nice job has opened in my department at Cambridge: Assistant Prof. in US History since 1920. Please share widely! No references letters required up front. Applications close 27 Oct. 2025.🗃️ www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

I'll be speaking about Scotland and the American Revolution at the US Consulate in Edinburgh on Saturday, 27/9 at 11:00 as part of #EdinburghDoorsOpen day www.doorsopendays.org.uk/regions/edin...

A student dropped by for a tutorial and we ended up discussing Hobbes. She told me why she disagrees with the translation of "commonwealth" in her Mandarin translation of Leviathan. I'm quite sure that she taught me more than I taught her.🤯

"We need strong uptake of the voluntary redundancy scheme. It's less generous than the earlier voluntary severance scheme. Any future scheme is unlikely to be more generous than the current one." "We're very committed to supporting you." Okay ...

Cracking sunrise in #Edinburgh this morning.

Phil O'Brien is worth reading!

The Russia will win narrative is unravelling in real time. Trump did more than anyone to spread that idea. In two days he has crapped on everything he said for years before. The intelligence on Russia must be devastating.

Featuring Julie Flavell, Mary Beth Norton, @michaelhattem.bsky.social, and @frankcogliano.bsky.social Super voice work by @gracemallon.bsky.social, Amber Pelham, Evan McCormick, @aipsmith.bsky.social, @kreggallagher.bsky.social, and @johntrterry.bsky.social

Page proofs! That's my weekend sorted. Coming your way next spring.

Made it back. Thirty-six hours door-to-door (should have been about ten). Highlight of the trip, waiting the passport queue in Edinburgh and a little boy said, "Hi, ahm two. At ma next burfday ah'll be three." Speak your truth wee man.

Producer from BBC Radio Scotland, prior to an interview about Trump's state visit: "Are you still 'Professor of American History' at the University of Edinburgh?" Me: "I think so. The proper question is: Will I still be after this interview?"

Update: we've boarded our third flight in 24 hrs: "Folks, sorry for the delay, there's a problem with our communications. We hope to get it sorted and be on our way ..." Lots of ground staff on board shaking their heads. It's amazing how patient & good natured the passengers have been. (So far ...)

I know senior scholars have too much on their plates already, but I hope they will give this blogpost (and the ones to follow) a read. The "Early Career state of mind" is very real, and the anonymous ECRs here capture so many of the challenges that it raises

Overheard during my unexpected layover in Newark: "Florence is more European than Italian ..." 🙄

I left Dulles last night bound for Edinburgh. So far after two flights were turned back en route owing to mechanical isues, we've only got as far as Newark. #stuckinsideofNewarkwiththeEdinburghbluesagain

Jefferson survives! A conservation with Peter Onuf and @frankcogliano.bsky.social moderated by Cara Roger Stevens

Kavanaugh basically says, If you’re a Latino and a citizen, f*ck you, prove it. He’s saying, If you’re a Latino citizen, you better carry your papers with you at all times. Imagine if it were a question involving owning or carrying a firearm. He’d be screeching against law-enforcement overreach.

Out walking the dog this morning. Saw what I'm fairly certain was a new international student look the wrong way, step off the kerb/curb, and nearly get hit by an SUV. Thankfully her pal pulled her back. It's #FreshersWeek: drivers be careful; students #lookright, better yet, #lookbothways!

Son dropped by for coffee this morning. We spoke about the semiquincentennial. Son: So you and your nerd friends are all publishing things? Me: Yeah. It's kind of like Avengers Assemble. Son: Sure. If you say so. #USA250 #NerdsAssemble

The greatest living Texans are: @agordonreed.bsky.social and Willie Nelson. Last night we saw number 3 on the list, Lyle Lovett, at the Festival Theatre. He was brilliant, as always.

Student in a nearby flat replaced their Stars and Stripes with a California flag.

He's struggling to remember the "North Sea."

the crisis in which the University of Chicago is now engulfed -- one entirely of its own making, and which has led to the (hopefully temporary) suspension of admissions into numerous PhD programs in the humanities -- represents I think a seismic event in the history of American higher education 1/

One more pass through the ms before submitting it on Tuesday (on time!). We wrote most of this while I was under house arrest on Maggie's Farm in the spring of '24. At least something good came of that.

Wow I can't believe someone defaced the Jefferson Memorial by chiseling the words "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just" into the marble.

Great time at my niece's wedding in Rhode Island over the weekend. We proved conclusively that tartan is inappropriate in North America in August. (In truth, we knew that already but the bride insisted.)

Job opportunity for an historian at Monticello. This is the 4th time they've tried to fill the role this year (they seem to have given up trying to find a senior person and have dropped the PhD requirement). DM me if you want to know what it's like to work there. www.monticello.org/thomas-jeffe...

At every wedding there's one relative who ends up out of control with their shirt untucked. I didn't expect it to be my three-year-old great nephew, George, but life's full of surprises.

Gang's together for a family wedding in New England.

Methinks an editor at the BBC might have chosen a deliberately unflattering shot.

It's going to be a GREAT book!

You’re going to want to read this.

Got to see the Stamp Act at the National Archives yesterday. Amazing experience.

This is going to be a great book!

Publication date is November 5--three months from today. Exciting :) www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10151/

Team @thorntonsbooks.bsky.social - we are in the Guardian! @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social @uoe-llc.bsky.social

Happy anniversary! Still got the girl and the suit (hair, not so much).

Fellowship applications for the '26-'27 cycle have opened at Mount Vernon. Research Fellowships at the George Washington Presidential Library share.google/P5pDZjrl58i0...

Happy birthday, kid. This is a few years old, and there are more flattering pictures of us, but nothing better captures our relationship.

We’re exactly 6 months out from the US launch of THE CROWN’S SILENCE with @marinerbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social —available for pre-order now. I know the world is a mess but at least we have books 📚, & this one is a decade in the making. More here: www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

I'm not a coffee drinker but I do like early twentieth-century industrial architecture.

Quick dip in the Baltic. Finland is just beyond the horizon.

The only thing better than a great cafe is the shy lady hiding behind the tray.

Friday night in Stockholm.

Apologies in advance - this is going to appear a LOT on people's timelines! Send your submissions! Give us your abstracts! Meet other postgrads in American Studies! Four weeks to go until the deadline!

this should be the entirety of the internet tbh

In a huge advance for gender equality I was womansplained at the gym. She even adjusted the machine I was using while I was using it. Beloved, who lifts free weights, thought it was hilarious. "Now you know what happens to me at least once a week."

Really important thread!

I write serious history—via biography—for a non-academic audience. So I'd like to say something about Ken Burns's remark, something that also explains why AI can't write history. Pardon me for citing the example of one of my books, "Custer's Trials," on one of history's best-known figures. 1/12

A tale of two 11th-century runestones (currently located about 200m apart). First: "Tägn and Dan had the stone erected after Thorsten, their father, and Gunvar after her husband."