CARTOON OF THE DAY 🇺🇸

My new book — Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction — is now available as an e-book (paperback in March 2026)! The book offers a concise history of humanitarianism in an international perspective, from the 18th century to the present. More info here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

What a great idea. Deadline for CFP 126/26. 🗃

Of course we went to the beach.

Snowing in RI.

Historians - Apply now for the Peggy Renner Award for Teaching and Curricular Innovation which recognizes an historian who has developed a college or university course that engages students in exploring the links between contemporary issues and the past. 🗃️ wawh.org/renner-teach...

May your days be merry and bright.

Two geese head out at dusk.

Grading is making me crazy but company has arrived.

Just started reading an advance copy and you should gift yourself this book for the holidays. Alfred McCoy, Cold War on Five Continents @haymarketbooks.org HaymarketBooks.org share.google/cAM9ZXObq9Pi...

AOC: Donald Trump and Stephen Miller want you to believe that this is who we are as a country. And we are here to say that it is not. We are a country that has fought and defeated the confederacy. That has defeated a history of civil rights violations, of secret police, of fascism.

The History department at the University of Toronto is searching in the field of Ukrainian history. networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

Must read.

Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Biography

It is international law 101 that a military blockade is not just a violation of the UN Charter, but a crime of aggression. Unless that blockade is in response to an 'armed attack.' None of President's Trump's list of complaints come close to an armed attack. 1/

More on Bill Burr via @nsarchive.bsky.social. What a hero. When Kissinger stole his files rather than giving them to the archives, Burr found copies elsewhere and made them publicly available. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...

My new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY goes on sale TODAY! It is a NEW argument about TRUMAN AND THE ATOMIC BOMB, from Hiroshima through the Korean War, from HarperCollins. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...

ICYMI

Completely agree. My article for @TNR the day the decision came down— newrepublic.com/article/1833...

What a nightmare.

At the end of the Cold War, we wanted Russia to become more like us. Trump wants US to become more like Russia.

Oh my. News of Bill Burr's death is a gut punch to all who knew him & everyone who relies on declassified US national security records. Once called the Yoda of FOIA, he always had a sparkle in his eyes. All who care about government transparency will continue to benefit from his contributions.

If you are looking for a reliable source, refresh this page periodically from the Brown Daily Herald. They are posting periodic live updates at the moment. www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...

Weekend Special - updated with 11 new Q&A (including on seizure of sanctioned vessels) and expanded answer on law of proportionality and boat strikes involving the shipwrecked. Expert Q&A By @tessbridgeman.bsky.social, @mikeschmitt.bsky.social, @rgoodlaw.bsky.social

I have one class left, due to being an absent-minded professor, lol, but last week students LOVED the edited volume of beloved Marilyn Young's work, edited by @marydudziak.bsky.social and Mark Bradley.

From @attackerman.bsky.social on the inhumanity at Alligator Alcatraz. www.forever-wars.com/torture-tech...

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Mountains, clouds, and a dirty window.

A remarkable project - a consortium of scholars from prehistorians to modern history. The Russians are indeed trying to kill an entire country and its culture, Ukrainians and their friends are resisting uhgi.org

“The Radical Center in Contemporary Legal Thought” - my latest balkin.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

Took favorite 93-year-old to lunch on the Sound.

More of this nationwide please!

How many of us truly understand that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was part of the civil rights movement?

One thing is sticking to my craw is the claims of birthright citizenship would only be limited to black citizens. American citizenship was complex even in 1865. You had citizenship disputes that arose when the United States acquired territory under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Remember, all of the FIRST strikes were murder, too.

Reposting…

If you are pondering how to think about our current era of madness re the use of force, Marilyn Young's work may be of help -- re: lessons not learned, etc. makingtheforeverwar.mystrikingly.com

3/ And, yes, the administration's attempted constitutional and other legal claims unravel if boats are delivering drugs (let alone, cocaine not fentanyl) to Europe instead.

How is U.S. military killing these 11 people keeping drugs (fentanyl) out of the United States? USG knew the drugs (cocaine) were headed to Suriname. Yes, that's the OTHER DIRECTION. Read what Bradley-Caine told lawmakers: Scoop by @natashabertrand.bsky.social 🧵 1/

Buy it, read it. As an ex military person it challenged me. A brilliant set of essays well researched and grounded.

NEW info on shipwreck attack. It gets worse. The 2 survivors climbed atop wreckage and waved to overhead. "Some of the people viewing the video thought ... could have been an attempt to surrender" Others "said the most logical explanation was ... signaling for a rescue." 1/

This regressive move will literally kill people. It's making kids' liver cancer great again. And it's a sign of more harm to come. CDC panel recommends delaying birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine www.statnews.com/2025/12/05/c... via @statnews.com

I can't stop thinking about the purported drug smugglers being murdered by the US military. The punishment for drug offenses isn't the death penalty. This is just bloodlust and men in suits playing with lives they don't care about. It's truly grotesque and gravely compromises this country.

Thinking about Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (1849) “What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” “Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward” www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7...

Making the Forever War: Marilyn Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism is on sale at the @umasspress.bsky.social holiday sale! 40% discount when you use the code HOLIDAY for this & other books. www.umasspress.com/978162534568...

"How do we guard our souls" as we watch the boatstrike video and other acts of inhumanity, @philklay.bsky.social asks. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...