The pastoral tradition is marked by idealized depictions of rural life and landscapes, presenting a simpler and more innocent way of living, often imagined for the benefit of urban audiences. https://bit.ly/3VrKoHV

We’re back with a new edition of Ask a Professor! This month we interviewed Rebecca Lehmann, Associate Professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College. https://bit.ly/46O5wON

The algorithms that promise to predict wildfires and optimize energy grids are powered by servers that drink up rivers and belch out more carbon than cars. https://bit.ly/3KbHzYY

No one uses “Malthusian” as a compliment. https://bit.ly/4ne8YZ0

Not all of the world’s legions of undead are nocturnal blood-predators with fangs. https://bit.ly/465JmY8

In this week’s Suggested Readings: Frank Matsura photographs the Okanogan, the meaning of “clean” gold, and finding the truth on Mars. https://bit.ly/4nFyNRD

To rifle through the Augusta Baker Papers is to behold the profound and lasting influence a single librarian can have on generations of children. Baker worked for decades in a New York Public Library branch, showing young readers worlds of possibility. https://bit.ly/3InPu4U

Markers of both environmental change and periods of stability, trees have a lot to tell us about nature—but also about humanity. https://bit.ly/3K14u9u

There was a growing pantheon of heroes in the early twentieth century, as the new science of caves, speleology, emerged. But right-wing nationalism was also growing in Austria, and it changed the nature and purpose of speleology in central Europe. https://bit.ly/464hlQN

When the bohemian and button-pushing Thomas Bertram declares he wants to stage Elizabeth Inchbald’s Lovers’ Vows, Fanny Price knows there will be trouble. https://bit.ly/46eNPGB

Pollen-based products have some way to go before reaching the market, but once they arrive, they could be a game changer. https://bit.ly/4pgCXkk

Enjoy reading speculative fiction? Our newest reading list offers insights into the effectiveness of the genre as a tool for analyzing—and even changing—the world. https://bit.ly/4phNfAE

How can teachers use the work of Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, and other writers of speculative fiction to teach students about political and social theories? https://bit.ly/487g4JV

Birdwatchers will have little difficulty with 4 down. https://bit.ly/3IchyrN

The neoliberal politics that developed in the 1970s created financial instability and fragmented cultural markets, helping to pave the way for Trumpism. https://bit.ly/4mTCEKR

The transformation of daily lives around the world during the COVID pandemic led to a loss of the bodily feeling of social trust across entire communities at once. https://bit.ly/460L797

Nixon held a personal grudge against the CIA. At least one political scientist describes it as a “pathological hatred.” https://bit.ly/4nfW4Jx

Welcome to the intermediate mass black hole. https://bit.ly/4m3FeN9

“The urgent need to tackle rising levels of crime and to placate public outcry over insecurity have not helped to strengthen police institutions in Central America,” writes José Miguel Cruz. https://bit.ly/3I6ApED

Though Shakespeare appealed to King James I of England’s interests with the Scottish play, the two men held divergent views on what witches did and not do. https://bit.ly/4g2ws0a

The felling of England’s famous Sycamore Gap tree in 2023 was an act of vandalism not just toward the tree, but toward the cultural heritage and folkloric narratives it invoked across traditions and societies. https://bit.ly/3I16iOQ

In this week’s Suggested Readings: Strongheart the German shepherd becomes a star, what we can learn from micrometeorites, and the possibilities of evolving the ultimate consciousness. https://bit.ly/3JCaPYL

“Immigrants, they get the job done!” But did Alexander Hamilton really believe that? https://bit.ly/4g1gaVs

How important are labor unions for combating wage inequality in the United States? https://bit.ly/3I2YqfL

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, following the Pullman railroad strike in Illinois. Learn more in this collection of our best stories about workers’ rights, labor unions, and international movements to improve working conditions, from the factory to the farm. https://bit.ly/4lRw8Tp

Used heavily in early medicine and at times for opposing aims, the pomegranate shows a marked versatility in its cultural connotations and connections. In collaboration with the Plant Humanities Lab at Dumbarton Oaks: https://bit.ly/41wouql

“What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men?” https://bit.ly/4g1Cq1u

Let’s check in with Anne Shakespeare, née Hathaway, about whom so little is known. https://bit.ly/3JCEIIn

Talking about “stocks” of salmon is not nearly anodyne as the average lox eater might think. A century of debate over homing habits and genetics reveals why. https://bit.ly/4g2T6py

Invented in 1922, water-skiing quickly became shorthand for American ideas on beauty, athleticism, and affluence. https://bit.ly/4n0VZZU

Historians are rethinking the claim that the Panic of 1907 in the United States helped spark the Mexican Revolution. https://bit.ly/4lHkXfV

In this week’s Suggested Readings: wondering about rudeness, the long history of prosecuting miscarriages, and finding those elusive exoplanets with the potential for hosting life. https://bit.ly/3UIwsZF

Proposed as a compromise to ensure the ratification of the new US Constitution, the Bill of Rights has become a critical protector of civil liberties. https://bit.ly/4fTv6Fb

From the US South to West Africa, the dispossession of Ghanaian and Black American families from their lands is not an isolated incident or coincidental but part of a larger global pattern. https://bit.ly/4fM5cmv

From the US South to West Africa, the dispossession of Ghanaian and Black American families from their lands is not an isolated incident or coincidental but part of a larger global pattern. https://bit.ly/4fM5cmv

From the US South to West Africa, the dispossession of Ghanaian and Black American families from their lands is not an isolated incident or coincidental but part of a larger global pattern. bit.ly/4fM5cmv

When we engage with the library, librarianship, and archives, we become entangled in a storied history of cultural and knowledge exchange. https://bit.ly/3Hmax7D

Over the course of millennia, dates and date palm trees have journeyed from Mesopotamia to California’s Coachella Valley, winning over fans everywhere, influencing geopolitics, and transforming economies. bit.ly/41PfZGK

An interview with historian of US foreign policy and diplomacy Simon Miles, who finds that surprises in the archives can lead to the most compelling projects. bit.ly/47tCpRx

Writing and teaching is keeping me sane…and both continue to feel more and more important as histories are trying to be rewritten. So enjoy a short read on Minerva Parker Nichols. @jstor.bsky.social @jstordaily.bsky.social daily.jstor.org/rediscoverin...

When colonists arrived in Western Australia in 1829, they envisioned a transplanted rural British society. However, historians have found that most laborers who arrived on the first ships were either indentured or bound by contracts that limited their freedom. bit.ly/4ledHIb

William Merritt Chase’s talent as a painter might’ve been exceeded only by his ingenuity. He founded an art school as a way to make some money and wound up an inadvertent champion of women’s rights. bit.ly/4foEP65

🔬 “In the past two decades, new imaging techniques have allowed researchers to visualize biological structures in far more detail than normal microscopes permit.” Thanks for the shoutout, @jstordaily.bsky.social! Check out the rest of their recommendations 👇 daily.jstor.org/visualizing-...

Our July #PlantOfTheMonth feature on @jstordaily.bsky.social explores the saguaro’s ties to desert wildlife, human history, and environmental change.🌵 Check out “Saguaro Cactus: A Desert Sentinel’s Prickly Plight” by Nina Foster: daily.jstor.org/saguaro-cactus…

Are you new to teaching this Fall? Looking to refresh your class reading list? Check out my article in @jstordaily.bsky.social about how to navigate assigning reading in your class. #pedagogy #EduSky #highered daily.jstor.org/assigned-rea...

What happens when an oil-rich island paradise interrupts its production of petroleum? You may have to visit the Caribbean island of Aruba to find out. bit.ly/3IWVCRp

I’m a big fan of Open Educational Resources. My optional textbook is American Yawp. Most of my assigned readings come from the AY primary sources paired with @jstordaily.bsky.social or WereHistory pieces. I like to pair short primary & secondary sources so students can see how historians use sources

This is one of my favorite secondary sources to assign students. It goes thru the different depictions of the Boston Massacre & of Crispus Attucks. Leads to an interesting discussion of usable history. 🗃️ @jstordaily.bsky.social daily.jstor.org/crispus-attu...

Our newest reading list treats the Black Midwest not as periphery or demographic footnote but as a site of radical epistemic and ontological experience—a place where refusal, care, rupture, and geography converge. bit.ly/44FTgPq

🤔 Want to teach with primary sources but need free, #OpenAccess materials? in the latest @jstordaily.bsky.social article, a history instructor shares three in-class activity ideas with links to free #primarysource collections on #JSTOR. Try one out and let us know what you think: bit.ly/40pWBzB