I don’t know what to tell you, man. I’m a medieval historian, and, in my field, if you don’t check your sources (and your sources’ sources) you are just asking to be taken for a ride by some bored 19th C. aristocratic English antiquarian with a penchant for inventing history.

Yup. Why I need compulsory pre-modern classes in any historian’s curriculum: you do learn to check your information very thoroughly thanks to [through gritted teeth] the nineteenth century.

We had been told we would get credits by the BBC…I’m really tired of major tv companies doing historical documentaries and only crediting the big names who they use on screen, rather than the rest of us they talk to (for no pay) in the planning stages. This isn’t the first time it’s happen to me.

In the 1950s Mills & Boon’s medical romances helped make the NHS and a career in nursing more appealing to an ambivalent British public. ⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...

READ: A woman was forced to give birth in Brooklyn criminal court 2 nights ago on a courtroom bench. Shackled. All while courtroom personnel gawked. And the judge ultimately refused even to dismiss her case—trespassing on her own rooftop. This is "justice" in America. More:

Glendale Community College in Arizona used an AI voice to read the graduates' names. But it crapped out in the middle of the ceremony. Image from ~1:59:30: www.youtube.com/live/0xrwfCp...

I once read a chapter in a published history book that was based on interviews with the head of the history department at a US university describing things he personally witnessed. He made it up, though. I read all the primary sources.

I still remember the incredible primary source quote I had to leave out of my dissertation because I lost the citation to it. But to lose a citation, you had to have had it in the first place, because you read things. If reading the sources in your field is too much, I don't know why you're in it.

Your tax dollars paid for this event freedom250.org/celebration/...

This morning, I am processing some books to list in my eBay store, but I think I might keep this one. It's too pretty. Hawthorne's "A Wonder Book" with illustrations by Walter Crane (1892)

I think it would be good if people didn't need to sell things to pay for a teenager's cancer treatment

This is an extremely niche question. Anyone have any good material for jail breaks, especially those perpetuated by outside agents, in 18th Century Colonial America especially prior to the American Revolution?

Proud of this nomination for Ring of Fire. @pikegrey1418.bsky.social & I tried hard to write a military book not solely on combatants. If you appreciated it please consider voting 🙏🏼 www.military-history.org/books/mhm-bo... @iaindale.bsky.social @thehistoryguy.bsky.social @charliehigson.bsky.social

New — I spoke to parents whose kids are former patients of NYU Langone's trans youth health care program about the Texas criminal subpoena for their private health records. "I was furious. I was in disbelief. I was scared for my child's well-being." Read my full report:

Watching Breaking Bad for the First Time but You're a Woman in her 30s youtube.com/shorts/qM1gP...

OKAY SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT THEN this thread will contain mild spoilers for previous books!

Early modern & early America colleagues: Can you recommend reading on prisons & incarceration? I am looking for 1 short reading for undergrads in my fall course on witch trials, as well as more reading for myself. (For myself can be in English, French, Italian.) thank you! #earlymodern #skystorians

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Mind you, this is at the "flagship" public R1 in a blue state (MA). But the administration is anti-humanities, impervious to persuasion, and the department itself has no money.

We've been requesting a hire in 20th century US history since 2018 and been denied every year. Since I got here in 2019, we've lost 7 faculty and only have been authorized to hire 3. At that rate, we'll be 50% cut by the time I retire.

I want it on a t- shirt.

And I actually think you can't teach the bombing now without also teaching about the abuses of the remains (and the activism of the people who tried to bring it to light). It's part of it.

Every time I teach the MOVE bombing, students are shocked. And when I teach the aftermath involving an anthropologist who hoarded some of the remains and used them as teaching tools, they are even more shocked. And I teach in Pennsylvania. Even some students from Philly are unaware of this history

Just finished my NLSY97 interview for this cycle (29 years!?) and it’s a good reminder that even the best survey data is generated by smooshing approximate answers into ill-fitting receptacles.

While I am glad that more people are acknowledging the scope of Harvard officials' enslaving and profiting from slavery (this database is a small part of a much larger history), I also hope that people will engage with the ongoing violence of this sort of data:

This is a long shot because this isn't the old twitter, but I'm looking for history articles/books that look at cases of British/Irish settlers/squatters being prosecuted for crimes against Indigenous/colonized people. It can be anywhere in the world, but ideally the late C18/early C19.

Retiring my old pocket (too small) for a new, slightly larger pocket so I can carry my phone around when my dress has no pockets of its own.

FYI for Boston / Cambridge folks: if you're coming into the area tonight, the River St. bridge is closed and a chunk of Memorial Drive to the east of River St. is closed so you will want to avoid doing things like taking the Pike to get to Cambridge.

Plants in my garden that are wailing/dying in this back-and-forth weather: -zucchini -basil -green beans I planted too early Plants in my garden that are living their best life: -mint -parsley -blackberry Plants that seem confused but haven’t completely given up: -lettuce -apples -strawberries

Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe I did actually mean the opposite of what I wrote. Thanks so much.

Our website redesign lives. IT LIVES!!! With an all new layout, new colors, and a new, much queerer logo, we could not be more excited to introduce the new Assigned Media at assignedmedia.org. It lives! (Might need do something about this preview image for sharing the homepage, but it lives!!!)

Working on some new postcards for the craft fair, which is coming up in two weeks!

Story of enslaved boy featured in 1748 Joshua Reynolds portrait emerges in new study: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

It has been a long time coming but my episode for the For You the War is Over @FYTWIO podcast, featuring Albert Hake, has finally dropped. I hope you enjoy it. shows.acast.com/for-you-the-...

We talk about Elizabeth Jennings on my Black Abolitionist in NYC walking tour and it's usually the case that no one has ever heard of her before. I'm running the tour on 7/25 this year. blackabolitionistsnyc2026.eventbrite.com

"A Haitian Revolution Reading List" from the New York Public Library (includes fiction and non-fiction) www.nypl.org/blog/2026/05...

In another life, I kept a list of real people from 18th-century New England with names out of a didactic novel. Our heroine, Fanny Forward of Deerfield. Our villain, Capt. William Wanton of Newport. New entry for today: The enigmatic rural post rider, Silent Wilde.

and you can see this document (and around 75 others telling the story of the American Revolution) in our exhibition ‘Revolution 250’ at The National Archives - opens 24/06! www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/exh... #skystorians

I imagine that this has been going on from the beginning and many more are doing it.

Female, queer, non-academics, in a world dominated by male editors with university affiliations, Helen Clarke and Charlotte Porter were outliers in the world of Shakespeare scholarship. The Folger's Curator of Manuscripts Heather Wolfe explores their life and work: www.folger.edu/blogs/shakes...

Applications are still open for the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants. These grants help to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. Apply now: https://bit.ly/4t0MDRl

You've got 24 hours left to bid on this 19th-century leech jar with handles made out of little leeches [furiously googling "do leeches have eyes???]. The paint looks like something you shouldn't keep within 50 feet of food or reproductive organs! www.liveauctioneers.com/item/2309083...

While the world’s eyes are on fashion’s biggest night, we’re turning ours to the garment, retail, and warehouse workers who keep the industry running. From true love found on the picket line to a free tailoring school out of a Brooklyn basement — meet the New Yorkers who make it all possible.

William Bourne of Marblehead, Massachusetts had quite an elaborate funeral in 1770. Figs! Oranges! Pineapples! Gauze mitts! Fans! Possibly a professional mourner(?)

Girl, look out for a baby! Dutch booklet printed in 1945 when a lot of very dashing lovely allied soldiers were turning the Dutch girl's heads! Some interesting advice, let's read it.🧵

Um...so I accidentally stumbled onto the UVA law library's collection of 6,000 drawings by courtroom sketch reporter Ida Libby Dengrove, who worked in NYC mostly in the '70s & '80s, & they're kind of...amazing..?? This one is tagged "Clown Attack" (thread) archives.law.virginia.edu/resources/18...

"Clergy with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization Monday withdrew $1 million from an account with Citizens Bank as it urged the institution to cut ties with two companies that finance and operate immigrant detention centers..." www.wgbh.org/news/politic...

The metaphors are, yet again, getting a little heavy-handed.

“Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” @cornellupress.bsky.social featured in the Guardian! 🥹 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

This story was broken by The Cornell Sun, which @nytimes.com nowhere cites. As a former editor-in-chief of The Sun — and in the name of brave, amazing college newspapers everywhere — do not treat student journalists as truffle pigs, taking what they've sniffed out without credit or compensation.