The people of Clacton have the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

"still time" says the BBC commentator, delusionally. #USABEL

Seeing as how we're talking about the Reflecting Pool, it's worth bringing back this anecdote from Paula Austin's Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC (which I frantically highlighted and still think about all the time). For context, there was no swimming pool for these kids in their neighborhood.

an all-time banger: “…your petitioners…cannot but express their astonishment that It has never been considered that every principle from which America has acted in the course of their unhappy difficulties with Great Briton pleads stronger than a thousand arguments in favor of your petitioners”

No Scotland no party, indeed. #SCOMAR

For Truthout: Some of my reflections on current movements on Juneteenth. truthout.org/articles/des...

This may be a long shot, but do I know anyone in Aix-en-Provence/ANOM right now? 🗃️

It's still nuts to me that Scotland and Haiti - the only countries I really have any feelings about - are playing each other tonight. It's not too much to ask for a draw and the start of an unlikely mutual friendship, right?

It appears my countrymen have arrived in the Americas and culturally appropriated a statue of George Washington.

The language here of "ended with thousands dead" is part of a longer history of distorted depictions of violence in the Haitian Revolution; read more from Marlene Daut in @laphamsquarterly.bsky.social from 2020, "All the Devils Are Here." www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/a...

I just started driver's ed. Driver's ed is bad pedagogy.

Updated my bio. Exited to move to the mountains! 🎉🥳

Briefly returning from my social media hiatus to share that my article for the Journal of the Early Republic, on Philadelphian freedom-seeking in the Haitian Revolutionary diaspora, is now live (thank you to @chelseastieber.bsky.social for alerting me!). muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/artic...

In the summer of 1950 most US newspapers ran an AP story about how race had become the main issue in the upcoming Georgia governor's race. Segregationist Herman Tallmadge, governor from '47 to '55 and then a Senator until 1981 made a name for himself by refusing to "apologize for being a white man."

“The day the government announced it would end [TPS] for Haiti, Sophie barely slept. Her fear reemerged as she thought about her two children, ages eight and four, and her husband, who had finally found some peace in Flatbush, Brooklyn, among NYC’s largest concentration of Haitian immigrants.”

AS A PROFESSOR, I AM ASKING HOW ARE OUR STUDENTS SUPPOSED TO LEARN IN THESE CONDITIONS? HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GO TO SCHOOL AND TAKE EXAMS KNOWING SOMEONE MIGHT JUST SHOW UP WITH AN EASY TO ACQUIRE AUTOMATIC WEAPON? HOW??????????

Currently tuned in to the great @wwozneworleans.bsky.social, listening to a NOLA big band transition from the Star Spangled Banner to...the Flintstones theme song. Glorious.

🎶 "I am a lineman for the county, and I drive everywhere/searchin' in the sun for another climbing bear..." 🎶 www.tiktok.com/@accuweather...

Fellow Frederick Douglass fans should join us on Dec. 10 for the "Frederick Douglass' Fell's Point" walking tour fullstorybaltimore.tours/our-tours/#f...

And if you want to know more, Prof. Theoharis's chapter “A Life History of Being Rebellious: The Radicalism of Rosa Parks" went down a treat with my students last year! 🗃️

The scholars I follow here are brilliant, politically astute, funny, and quick. It's a pleasure to watch them bat around issues on Bluesky. It happens in a transdisciplinary way. Many are outside of institutions. Or have a Ph.D. not obviously applicable to their work. I learn so much from y'all. 🙏🏼

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

Finally catching up on Ken Burns's The American Revolution: it's interesting to think about the types of histories he wants to tell based on the talking heads. Alan Taylor & Jane Kamensky as regular interlocutors; Gordon Wood appearing for the first time, briefly, halfway through ep. 2. 🗃️

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Hey historians 🗃️: Do you know of presses that publish short books (around 30K words / 90 pages plus notes)? I have been working on an article project that could easily turn into an great micro-history of that length, but I'm not sure it would make it to the usual full 60-90K words...

Not only qualifying (for the first time in 28 years!), but doing it with such spectacular goals. Might even buy the jersey... #WCQ #SCODEN

CFP for Slavery North conference on "Rebellion, Resistance, and Refuge: Slavery and Border-Crossing during the American Revolution" @umassamherst.bsky.social 7/9-7/12/2026, abstracts due 12/19/2025 #vastearlyamerica slaverynorth.com/event/call-f... 🗃️

As @prisonculture.bsky.social has said, hope is a discipline!

Job alert: the University of Illinois Library is hiring a Humanities Librarian to serve as liaison to African-American Studies and English Literatures. I’m sure someone here would be a great fit for this job—& we’ve got a pretty phenomenal community here Please share!

Bought - so excited to read this!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!! The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM. Hope this helps

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

Mind, when I was at W&M a few years ago, most grad students were still not being paid a living wage.

Controversial opinion from the writing desk: Coconut LaCroix is good, actually.

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Hey, at least I opened the laptop. That counts for something, right?

As we begin the 1st few weeks of classes, a reminder that FSSP hosts a large collection of classroom-ready documents related to slavery & its destruction. These first-hand testimonies of enslaved people, Black soldiers, & officials give life to lessons on slavery & the contested arc of emancipation.

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

ATTN: Robert Wood Johnson has money to support “canceled” research on racial-indigenous health equity www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

“The idea that the Smithsonian should reflect any administration’s vision of history is more than problematic.” ~ @agordonreed.bsky.social

A short break in your regular programming: we got married! 🎊🎊

A question, as I polish up my syllabi for th coming semester: do you have a favorite reading on policing/carcerality (broadly conceived) during the American Revolution? I have a few options lined up - but nothing that clicks as well as I'd like so far.

Just took a couple of exciting book proposal steps(!), so we're in the garden to decompress. The bee balm living up to its name!

Ticket booking is live for the new "Baltimore's Confederate Shadows: Wyman Park & Charles Village" tour!! Come join us starting in mid-August (after the weather cools down a little bit): fullstorybaltimore.tours/our-tours/#c...