We would have zero tolerance for people of the past who said “we did nothing because we couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.”

History is not a settled field. We remain in discussion, debate, and research on every event in the past and are likely to forever remain uncommitted to one singular “true” version of the past.

Currently Frames of War, but ask me again tomorrow

Today’s deep question on why education still matters in the era of AI.

On the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, John Sloan's searing March 1911 illustration for the New York Call, a Socialist newspaper, responding to the tragic event

I wonder how many archival documents are never used because they're only available on microfilm and historians come to the reasonable, measured conclusion that life is too short?

The destruction of schools and universities is an attempt to destroy the possibility of imagining a future. Judith Butler, Barnard College, Feb. 28, 2026 (paraphrased)

John Quincy Adams had zero Fs to give when he sat for this daguerreotype c. 1843. Elected to Congress not long after his term as president, JQA spent years bashing the Slave Power on the House floor. @lmchervinsky.bsky.social for @inpursuitusa.bsky.social inpursuit.substack.com/p/john-quinc...

My PhD thesis is on "Yo what's up!" on youtube. My degree has three copyright strikes and is now demonetized.

Anyone know what's going on with Newspaper Archive? 🗃️

We're writing a publishing joke, but we need to get the copy right

Ayatollah Khamenei killed, Reuters reports www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Bill Siemering, founding program director of NPR, author of its mission statement, has asked me to inquire if any profs might be interested in a Zoom class visit? No honorarium necessary. Bill founded All Things Considered, Fresh Air, won a MacArthur, etc.

At sixteen, I checked myself out of high school to join Reverend Jesse Jackson as he opposed the death penalty for Wanda Jean Allen. I sat in the federal courtroom with him. I knew no one there, but his protest gave me something to do with my feet that agreed with my heart. Rest in power.

The FAA is closing the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days, grounding all flights to and from the airport, for “special security reasons." The FAA's notice did not provide additional details.

Butterfinger is not nearly as bad as I remembered.

Today is the day to brush up on what we did for Citi Bank in Haiti and Vera Cruz for Oil in the early 20th century. #surveyprep 🗃️

Is it possible that the instability and (gestures broadly) loss-of-luster we have experienced over the last 10-15 years is the result of widespread access to specialized knowledge (INCLUSIVE OF ALL SHORTCOMINGS!) without normal prerequisites thanks to the world wide web? Keep reading as I muse 1/? 🗃️

"When you revise a sentence you are revising not only the words of the sentence but also the *thought* in the sentence." —Lydia Davis, "Essays One"

Happy course eval day to those who celebrate.

“Tank Top Christmas” is the slippery slope to WNV Valentine’s Day. If you could go ahead and deploy whatever tricks and/or magic or divinations or futuristic cloud seeding science you’re proficient in to cool down NTX, my people would be greatful. 🪄🧞🔮☁️🌱💫✨

The Developers who built The Standard student housing on West Main Street—the giant high-rise that towers over Westhaven and the 10th & Page neighborhood—now want to build a juggernaut of a building atop of another historically Black community: Fifeville.

"The old world is dying, and the new struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters." Gramsci reminding us to pay attention to transitions because they are where power disciplines itself for popular consumption. 🗃️

The publication date for my book on the history of policing American slavery has been moved up a month! Now available May 12, 2026! Thanks so much to those who have preordered! The Press is offering 30% off with the code, 01UNCP30 uncpress.org/978146969484...

Don't worry, once I go and figure out the dress code for this conference, I'll forget to write it down for you so you'll get to awkwardly ask someone who doesn't care anymore & says to just wear hawaiian shirts and then you'll go and forget and we can keep this charade going for a long, long time.

Gen Z rejects earnestness because they grew up online where bullies picked on earnest/concerned/caring people and made others laugh at them for their investment. We are seeing this in the classroom, the kids are afraid to be earnest in learning. Safety is a prerequisite to education. 🗃️

Now that I’ve learned how to merge PDFs, I’m dangerous.

Battling json errors doesn't sound as riveting as battling a dark wizard from another dimension but it sure is fulfilling. 🗃️

I love unnecessarily sexy statues. My favorite being Thirst Trap Lincoln from the LA County Superior Courthouse.

Alas, I'm far too beautiful for this advice to help me in any way

Someday we will talk about someone’s keen sense of systemic violence instead of their “obsession with victimhood”

Tired: Civil War Wired: Civility War

I'm with you, Jacob, this is my new job market/postdoc market strategy: be the ungovernable horse.

"the general anxiety surrounding the humanities major points to a broader cultural shift: we no longer treat advanced literacy as essential to education or citizenship." bit.ly/4mYHUg9

It’s true, I’m there in that big stack on your digital desk. 🎵Take a chance on me🎵

Intellectual “work” is misnamed; it is a pleasure, a dissipation, and is its own highest reward. The poorest paid architect, engineer, general, author, sculptor, painter, lecturer, advocate, legislator, actor, preacher, singer is constructively in heaven when he is at work -Twain, Conn Yankee

"We are again confronting a massive attack on the very foundations of democratic education + the stakes feel even higher. In the 50s the targets were individual teachers—communists progressives liberals +their leftwing unions. Now the target is the system itself" www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-g...

Life hack: if you never finish writing your books, AI can’t steal them.

Part of what makes AI appear to do creative tasks (it cannot invent on its own at present) is that it provides regular people access to academic ideas and creation. It has removed the barrier of education to understand our craft but at the expense of naming the people who built the ideas. 🗃️

The grief when I open up outlook to send an email to a historian whose article on trains in 1850s Arkansas is exceptional, edited flawlessly, and inspires me to write better as a result only to find a beautiful but year old obituary instead of an email address. 1/2

HACK! Replace 15 minutes of doom scrolling with 15 minutes of reading a book from a university press 📖

I wonder how we'll parse human from non-human histories in 25 years or so, especially since everyone seems hell-bent on arguing with bots on this devil box. 🗃️

This is now a Peter Coviello Stan account. Also, I will not be taking questions at this time. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.” Virginia Woolf, born on this day in 1882

I beg of you, nonfiction writers, breathe life into your prose! Ignore the professor in your brain that's always ready to mark something as too colloquial. Make it read like something written by an actual human you might want to talk to at a party!

Who is theorizing what it means for all systems of governance when the goal is no longer to pacify/exploit the serfs because they aren’t needed/valued…?

Are there conversations in 🗃️ about mirroring/archiving major digital NARA and LOC holdings— notably those records in categories already under fire in other agencies/departments of the USG?