A 1927 pitch letter from Paul Revere Reynolds, the first American literary agent. In its entirety. Agents have come a long way.

A 1927 pitch letter from Paul Revere Reynolds, the first American literary agent. In its entirety. Agents have come a long way.

If the California Ideology grew out of the collision of the computer industry and the counterculture, the Texan Ideology reflects a century-old fusion of the oil industry and millenarian Christianity. —Fred Turner in @thebaffler.com

In "Cats: A History," Rod Phillips shares a sweeping cultural and social history of felines, tracing their shifting place across societies and centuries, from medieval Europe's suspected familiars of witches to today's cherished internet icons. 🐈 https://tr.ee/T6Madp

Tim Barker evaluating Samuel Huntington’s argument that “The United States is unlikely to decline so long as its public is periodically convinced that it is about to decline.”

Data shows that teens are being targeted in deepfake crimes at school. But nudify apps are still being pushed on Google and Apple's app stores. How can we hold Big Tech responsible? @samleecole.bsky.social and @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social break it down. Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bWe...

Jeff Bezos.

If you are going to be at LSA this weekend, before you go enjoy your Saturday evening in SF, it would be lovely if you came to hear my brilliant co-panelists be brilliant and me be me

Congratulations @paullangley.bsky.social & @andrewleyshon.bsky.social on the publication of #FinTechCapital @fintechcapital.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social It’s a huge achievement & a timely intervention

US overreach with sanctions and tariffs has pushed its adversaries into hardening their own financial systems, accelerated the development of substitutes for American products, and forced its allies into self-sacrificial choices while offering them nothing in return. @quinnslobodian.com

In the unlikely event there's a genuine agreement between the US and Iran, there will. be a lot of talk about how Trump chickened out, surrendered, etc. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that a negotiated end to the war is a good outcome, even if - especially if - it is a favorable one for Iran.

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

Scammers have been impersonating me—please don’t take the bait!

As the spammers who impersonate me get darker and more threatening, the spammers who spam me are getting friendlier and friendlier

Scammers have been impersonating me—please don’t take the bait!

for every @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social episode we put out we get a pile of bad faith misreadings in our inbox, accusing us of all manner of reactionary nonsense. to you, our critics, I say: nothing. you howl uselessly into a yawning void prison of your own mind's construction

BREAKING: The fight over the prices of essentials is out in the open. What you pay for the things you can’t do without is a political question. Affordability in this crisis means facing up to corporations. The supermarkets aren’t thrilled with the cap, even though it’s voluntary.

Might have to start ending all my emails like this

Got my first impersonator—apparently targeting self-published fiction authors. Please note this is not me!

Tech workers have more power than they realize when it comes to stopping AI use for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, says Kate Andrias.

Tech workers have more power than they realize when it comes to stopping AI use for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, says Kate Andrias.

Terrific piece by Kate Andreas: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/o...

Birth Rates: Little sumbitch shot right out. In and out the door in ten minutes tops. Best new birth. 10/10

Friendly reminder — Individual faculty can do this by opting out. I did this semester. I assigned books, gave paper handouts in class, and put nothing on canvas save the syllabus. The result? Better engagement and a better grade average. www.chronicle.com/article/kill...

On National Biographer's Day in the US, explore our Biography catalog—and find many titles at 50% off with code SPRING50: press.princeton.edu/catalogs/bio... Some exclusions apply. Offer valid through June 9th.

Riding bikes is 10X more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. And that’s just the climate emissions. Doesn’t include the massive public & personal cost difference, the air & noise pollution difference, the massive space difference, etc, etc…Via @theconversation.bsky.social

14th Amendment repealers 🤝 Zionists

Oh hey it's me! Gotta love distinctive tats. UNION!!!!!

Asking myself why this is so satisfying, I'm realizing some of the anger I have about AI mania is having worked for people like this, who thoughtlessly inhale the latest BS, present it as deep thought, and then use it to impose extra work on employees for their own resumes and self-aggrandizement.

Today is Nakba Day - and Verso has compiled a reading list of books on Israel and Palestine: www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/5...

Chief Justice Roberts says the court isn't political. This week, six justices "read" 107 pages of legal briefing in 38 minutes and let Alabama gerrymander its congressional map mid-election. The stopwatch says otherwise.

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Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.

Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!

Indie bookstores making a comeback

We’ve been told our content needs to be more informative so here you go

folksism

The men who do monstrous things are of us and amongst us katemanne.substack.com/p/the-banali...

Oh no, those poor CEOs. I hope they come out of this OK.

Monthly ebook releases on Amazon were basically flat before the release of ChatGPT and other LLMs. Now around 2/3 of all ebooks released on Amazon are fake.

YouTube has removed one of my videos because I reported that women can still access abortion pills. I shared *factual & medically accurate* information about women's health—yet the platform says I'm "facilitating the sale of illegal drugs"

OK ya'll, I did it. I sent in my final manuscript after revisions to @oupress.bsky.social. Nearly 20 years in the making. Reefs or Rubbish: A More-Than-Human Policy History of Rigs-to-Reefs coming your way soon! #envhist

I don't quite have words yet. I'm stunned, grateful, disoriented. My deepest, deepest thanks to the five families without whom this book would not exist. It has been the honor of my life to know and learn from you.

Leon Botstein, longtime friend of pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has resigned as president of @bardcollege.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/u...

If job openings are at a “five-year low,” how do you explain this???

The University of Oxford is advertising a Professorship of Economic History, which will be held in the Department of Economics in association with Nuffield College. Closing date 25 May 2026, interviews 26 June. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru....

Happy May Day from Fidel Catstro and Frida Katlo! They won’t come if you call their names, but the will always come running when they hear The Internationale.😻 #MayDay

'But how "subversive" is May Day? It just happens to be the most American holiday we have. It was brought into being in 1886 by the Chicago workers, in their struggle for the eight-hour day. Remember their slogan: "Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, eight hours of recreation!"' --Howard Fast

The 8-hour day is also where the "labor reformers," the "cooperators"/antimonopolists, and the socialists--overlapping strains of a diverse labor movement-- most fully converged in those heady decades after the Civil War. Happy May Day