We are in mailbag heaven at the magazine this year, and this is the latest and greatest. I would love to hear the conspiracy theories that you encounter when talking about your work with people outside the field. Do you take the same approaches as Lorna?

How Do Academics Handle Conspiracy Theorists? contingentmagazine.org/2026/06/18/h...

Buzz Aldrin had one way of responding to conspiracy theorists. In our latest mailbag, @lornawallace.bsky.social offers some alternate approaches.

Excited to share my newest article, which sits at the intersection of distance running & African politics. The Cape Town Marathon is now a World Marathon Major, but what does it mean for South Africa to represent the African continent? africasacountry.com/2026/06/the-...

If you're a historian working on global, international, or transregional topics in the (long) twentieth century, the series editors for INTERCONNECTIONS: THE GLOBAL 20TH CENTURY would be delighted to chat with you about your book project. uncpress.org/series/inter...

#Booksky friends: Do you know anyone studying Asian translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass? A recent @ransomcenter.bsky.social fellow is trying to organize a panel on the subject for the 2027 @asianstudies.org meeting. #Alice #Wonderland #LewisCarroll 📚

🎉 Congratulations to SHAFR's June 2026 award winners! We're thrilled to recognize this year's recipients and can't wait to celebrate them alongside our January award winners at the SHAFR Annual Meeting in Columbus next week. tinyurl.com/39a2kzsk

It’s Flag Day, & let’s counter the dumpster fire at one of our most historic public sites with all the great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books in my 280th #ScholarSunday thread! Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

looks like a very useful IR teaching tool www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

It’s June, & with it comes my 279th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Why do nuclear dominoes not fall? The common wisdom holds that each new proliferator goads its rivals into following suit, but they rarely do. Yogesh Joshi and I argue that this gap between expectation and reality cannot be explained by the cost of nuclear pursuit alone. 1/6

Let’s close out this eternal month of May right, with my 278th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Excited to share my H-Diplo review of Elisabeth Leake’s superb article, “The Decolonization Paradigm.” I saw Elisabeth introduce it as the Bernath lecture at last year’s SHAFR, so it was a joy to revisit her work here: networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

Well, Bob Dylan turns 85 today. I started making these birthday playlists for him when he hit 80. If you're Bob-curious, or a casual fan who wants to dive deeper, there's some cool stuff in this thread for you to check out. And for today's birthday, something a little different...

On this fraught, frustrating, profoundly American holiday weekend, here’s my 277th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely please, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

H-Diplo has released a roundtable for STATES-IN-WAITING- Many thanks to @emleake.bsky.social @riakapoor.bsky.social @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social @adenknaap.bsky.social, Saima Ashipala, + Bérénice Guyot-Réchard for their insightful engagement with the book!

I’m stoked about attending this year’s @shafrhistorians.bsky.social Summer Institute. Should be great and I’m excited to meet all the other participants. See you in Ohio!

70 yrs ago today at Bikini Atoll, the US held its first H-bomb airdrop test. A crew member on the B-52 bomber mistook an observation facility on one island for the target on Namu Island, causing the experimental 3.8-Mt device to explode ~3.8 miles off target and the loss of nearly all effects data.

Historians - I'm looking for essays/articles that center on one primary source. Topic = US & the world (broadly conceived) 1890s-1950s. I love Ngai on 1924 immigration act, Costigliola on Kennan's long telegram. Recent & undergrad-accessible preferred. Thanks! @shafrhistorians.bsky.social 🗃️

We’re hiring! 📣 The Whitney Humanities Center at Yale seeks a recent humanities PhD with experience in program-building, innovative humanities work, and higher ed service for a Postdoctoral Associate in Humanities Leadership. $70K + $3K stipend | Deadline: June 12, 2026 🔗 apply.interfolio.com/185526

I'm really excited that we'll be welcoming @unlawfulentries.bsky.social to @marktwainhouse.bsky.social on June 25 for a conversation about her new book! Join us in person or on the live stream! marktwainhouse.org/event/migrat...

People really need to remember they get just one reputation.

I saw Richman perform earlier this year. It was so much fun! I loved it. Everyone should see Jonathan Richman at least once.

Coming to you from this AmericanStudier’s hometown of Cville, here’s my 276th #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

"The conversations I had with music critics were also a healthy reminder that scholars working in university departments have no monopoly on popular music discourse, to say nothing of intellectual conversation more generally." Grant Wong with a postcard from PopCon (Randy Newman was not invited).

One famous theme of genre fiction is that having a doppelgänger typically turns out great.

For this holiday weekend, here’s the mother of all #ScholarSunday threads, my epic 275th of public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Today is a good day to pitch your local outlet something about the canvas hack. Put TIMELY in the subject line. Describe yourself as an educator in a few lines (two sentence!). Then make an argument.

New book! @aidanmilliff.com and I spent years tracking down survey data from the late 1950s-2025 on how the Indian public has viewed China, the US, and Russia/USSR. We use the data to explore trends and patterns. Cambridge has made it Open Access until 5/18, so go read for free here: t.co/YtNCz74758

oh are we talking about Advanced Placement?

In which @lollardfish.bsky.social (kindly) tells me to go to therapy. I'm delighted to have David back on the show to talk THE PUBLIC SCHOLAR (@hopkinspress.bsky.social) and have him ease our (my?) anxieties about writing for the public. Listen: draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...

oh f yes @lollardfish.bsky.social @katecarp.bsky.social @draftingthepast.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

What a run, first with Conan and now Colbert. A lovely profile and I never knew he created the “Andy’s little sister” sketch.

It’s gonna be May—well, it is May, & with it comes my 274th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Blueskys: the American Society for Legal History has a Digital Legal History Prize! Deadline June 1. I am a little embarrassed to have such a prize named for me since my current work isn't digital. 🙄 But years ago, when blogs were new, I created the Legal History Blog. aslh.net/award/mary-l...

Presidential control over the NSF was a major issue during the initial debates about creating a federal science agency. I wrote about the political battle to create the NSF last year. Includes lots of links to great scholarship: 🗃️ #Histsci daily.jstor.org/science-in-w...

"...we now also know that a nuclear accident anytime is a nuclear accident for all time—in the public imagination, if not in the environment" carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

Hello Bluesky #BookSky! The Public Scholar is out today from @hopkinspress.bsky.social. You can buy it everywhere books are sold. Bookshop: tinyurl.com/2uj47sa7 Order from @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social and I'll sign it - moonpalacebooks.com/item/I12x_a-... You can read an excerpt here. (1)

Here it is, my 273rd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

I'm sorry to constantly post about my website, but I do think public scholarship is one of our most important resistance tools right now. Experts getting information and historical context out to the public before fascists can shape narratives is crucial. I'm building resources on my site to help 🗃️

"Sometimes science 'progresses' in terrible ways...Brushing off these practices as unscientific implies that 'true' science is, and always has been, unimpeachable." Today's #histSTM lunch read: @wbarlowrobles.bsky.social's @contingent-mag.bsky.social piece on the dangers of Whiggish #histsci 🗃️📜

Mark Twain may be one of America’s greatest writers. He was also, at times, a world-class hater.

So excited to see this review of The Fate of the Americas in Foreign Affairs that praises my "engaging prose" and "extensive research in Latin American archives"!! www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/fate... @foreignaffairs.com @uncpress.bsky.social @shafrhistorians.bsky.social #History 🗃️

After so many great works, is there more scholars of India can learn about the Green Revolution? The answer is YES. For H-Environment, I reviewed Prakash Kumar's excellent book, A History of India's Green Revolution: Reign of Technocracy. Read my review and read Kumar's book.

Live from New York, because #ScholarSunday travels, here’s my 272nd thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

An unforgettable opossum is waiting on the other side of this link... #histsci #envhist

There has never been a better time to read the declassified history of the failed CIA-led invasion of Cuba in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

This is excellent

Great collection of documents here from @nsarchive.bsky.social for the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion... important warnings for today, too! #History #Cuba 🗃️ nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...