👇

compare and contrast: when IDF soldiers were caught on tape raping a Palestinian captive at Sde Teiman prison and prosecuted, Israeli civilians rioted outside the court and all charges were eventually dropped

wtf

If you get sued by a government for reporting that its soldiers torture and rape people, that is the discovery opportunity of a lifetime and a pathway to court-ordered revelations or that government being forced to rely on sovereign immunity to shield itself from disclosure and lose the case.

Moving account of Arnold Hirsch's life and work - finished and not - from his son. Take the time. slate.com/life/2026/05... 🗃️

🎉 Today is PUB DAY for YUPPIES 🎉 Join me: 5/12: @harvardbookstore.bsky.social w/ @quinnslobodian.com 5/14: Labyrinth Books w/ @kevinmkruse.bsky.social 5/15: Headhouse Books w/ @brentcebul.bsky.social 5/19: @gothamcenter.bsky.social w/ Sharon Zukin 6/9: @bookculture.com w/ Kim Phillips-Fein

One of the pieces of my students' writing I am most proud of: an obituary for Harold Kahen, who helped the NAACP defeat covenants in a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court challenge. He died six years ago at age 101 and had just a one-sentence obituary. www.chicagocovenants.com/blog/z06l44s...

Wondering if the political commentator Kevin Phillips' papers are available somewhere / planned to be? I'm interested in his "American Political Report" newsletters from the 1980s - a sort of proto-Substack of the Reagan 80s @kevinmkruse.bsky.social @larryglickman.bsky.social @rauchway.bsky.social 🗃️

Again, ”ai” (whatever people mean by this) as a tool, an excuse, a set of narratives, to justify codifying class war gains already made and justify taking even more. employers are not bracing for an underclass they are naturalizing the one that already exists and clearing the way for its expansion

Terrific: “The use of NDAs between governments and data center developers is controversial because the agreements swear public officials to secrecy, making them answerable not to the public but rather to private entities within the scope of the contract.” heatmap.news/politics/sha...

Some great reporting here

Now reading. Really enjoying so far. Not explicitly framed as such in the book but you can really discern through the creation of a multiethnic populist coalition the conditions for the anti-ICE resistance in the Twin Cities. @coryhaala.bsky.social

I’m fascinated by these media cycles that are unmoored from any actual development or event in the real world, but which fuel days, even weeks, of content production and commentary. Someone tweeted something, then the Times made a vitality-bait video, now TCW does his little dance—all about nothing.

starting now i am going to start sharing the books i read. finished this volume this morning. it is terrific.

This afternoon! 👇🏻

Obama's former minister once said "God Damn America" and we never heard the end of it.

Philly and @oah.org visitors: join us next Wednesday for a conversation with @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social and the great Marcia Chatelain on BLACK EXCELLENCE, Danielle Wiggins' terrific new book on Black liberalism. Free and open to the public and no need to register

Philly and @oah.org visitors: join us next Wednesday for a conversation with @danielle-wiggins.bsky.social and the great Marcia Chatelain on BLACK EXCELLENCE, Danielle Wiggins' terrific new book on Black liberalism. Free and open to the public and no need to register

Why did elite professionals start calling their firms "sweatshops"? And who reaped the rewards of all that work? Read this excerpt from my new book, Yuppies, to find out.

new piece in @thenation.com with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social @smw.bsky.social @ambakak.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/econ...

Also, boycott Starbucks. I can't believe you're still giving that miserable company your money for its bad, overpriced coffee.

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 do think that those lawyers and law professors who tried to fabricate a historical or legal case against birthright citizenship should be socially and professionally ostracized for their shocking cynicism and intellectual dishonesty as well as for their bald hostility to pluralist American values.

Syracuse is a private research university in a northern blue state. The attack on higher education transcends tidy public/private, regional, and partisan/political classifications.

So honored that my book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, will be the first in the new W. Hodding Carter III trade imprint from @uncpress.bsky.social. For those attending #OAH2026, please join us for a celebration of the new imprint! Pre-order the book here! tinyurl.com/mwcc4977

Very funny to me that they think this is Trump's doing and not these venal men grossly overstating their shoe sizes to impress each other

It’s easy (more easy than accurate) to dismiss academic critics of generative AI as uninformed or emotive, which is often anyway code for “moralizing.” But it’s remarkable how much gen AI boosterism requires feigning ignorance that theft and impersonation are widely seen as wrong, for good reasons.

Working to build a stronger philosophical foundation personally, so I spoke with @brentcebul.bsky.social and @lilygeismer.bsky.social about the issues with liberalism and the Democratic Party in the last half-century.

🚨 DREAM LAB AT PENN, MAY 26-29 MOTHERFUCKERS 🚨

This "Into the Stacks" feature was very fun to contribute to, in large part because it gave me a chance to highlight all of the wonderful work that @shafrhistorians.bsky.social have been doing in the past few decades to integrate religion more holistically into the study of U.S. foreign relations. 🗃️

still pondering this piece. if you are interested in why rents (particularly in NYC) are so high, can't recommend it enough

Francois Furstenberg on the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute — and much else, a great piece for @publicbooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/the-misuses-...

How and why police actually support the federal invasions—I have been working on this article for ~6 months, trying to make sense of Trump’s nationwide surge of DHS officers, how it has evolved, what brought us here, and what will remain after it ends.

Late last century I had the honor of earning a Ph.D from the finest American Studies department in the world at @utaustin.bsky.social. This week the president of UT bowed to white supremacy and ended the department. I’m sick and angry. This is a dumb way to run a university.

So inspired by all the management consultant speak glossing the otherwise confidential recommendations to overhaul the university. Sorry, "advance" the university. This is gonna be great. So many battlefronts. www.thedp.com/article/2026...

I said this yesterday and I'll say it again. The Trump regime is running a squalid, disease-ridden and deadly concentration camp at Fort Bliss called Camp East Montana. Is it any wonder they don't want drones observing what happens there?

Now wait just a minute?! hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

Well hello there @dygottlieb.bsky.social! So excited to jump into this! Congratulations!

Older daughter to younger after tickling her: “I just took my happiness out on you”

This is such a shame

New in paper or new editions: great books by @timothyjlombardo.bsky.social and @brentcebul.bsky.social www.pennpress.org/978081222483... www.pennpress.org/978151282381...

My article on the occupational sterilizations at a chemical factory in West Virginia has escaped the containment of the paywall.

The next deadline for the Silicon Valley Archives's travel fellowship program is March 1, 2026. Apply! networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

In 1994 I took an anthropology class called "Cultures of Terror." It was about power and violence in authoritarian regimes. I think about that class daily. Here are some of the lessons that have kept me grounded because they help sense of the US right now.

these are public executions. 6 men against 1 they do not fear for their lives or even their safety. continuing to shoot him after he is lying immobile bleeding on the ground really drives home that this is just pure anger and hatred.

So grateful for the opportunity to welcome and work with @victorpickard.bsky.social, one of the foremost scholars and advocates for media democracy in the US. Victor's work on public media is especially urgent as oligarchs and media conglomerates amass ever more communication power at our expense.

Journalists, Editors, Podcasters interested in national security, technology, surveillance, foreign policy, intelligence, law enforcement, activism: With the (audio)book's release, @brianhochman.bsky.social and I are happy to talk with you or facilitate a copy if you want to write about our volume.

I saw that The Graduate hotel is hosting ICE in Minneapolis. I won't be staying at that chain until they stop. @graduatehotels.bsky.social Please contact your local Graduate hotel if you agree.