I thought of the story of the Sultan intervening on behalf of an enslaved man: mississippitoday.org/2025/10/27/n...

Getting ready to watch Morocco in the World Cup knockout round? Here are a couple of fascinating Revolutionary-era American & Moroccan histories first, connections that make them the perfect team to be playing during the U.S.’s 250th anniversary week. Quick thread 🗃️ +

Did you know that the New Jersey Constitution of 1776, ratified in the same month as the publication of the Declaration of Independence, gave women in the new state the right to vote? That & much more in the first post in my AmericanStudying the 250th series! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Celebrate the semiquincentennial with me and @americanstudier.bsky.social as we talk all about INDEPENDENCE DAY and shifting understandings of patriotism, masculinity, and hegemony during the End of History 90s. Also, why MARS ATTACKS! rules. youtu.be/3MZyfgewqEs?...

You wouldn't know it from the handful of sad sacks attending the fascist rodeo clownshow on the National Mall, but this week the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. Despite that & every other damn thing, or maybe because of them, it's important for us to commemorate the occasion. +

Today in things that have never, ever, not one single frakking time, happened.

Happy Julia Lathrop Day & Stokely Carmichael Day! memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/june-nomin...

Once more before Sunday ends, here’s today’s Brookstastic #ScholarSunday thread. Please share widely if you value these threads & want to support all these awesome scholars! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

I wrote about this in my review of The Producers a couple months back, and how he hired people who could make powerful statements just by being present, as with Zero Mostel whose blacklisting and principled testimony to HUAC add an extra level of defiance through comedy. Brooks is beyond comparison.

Then is finally now—it’s Mel Brooks’ 100th birthday! I think the maestro of mensches would agree that there’s no better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than with a thread of phenomenal public scholarship, so excuse me while I whip this out: +

Cloudy day in #Minnesota? Let’s read new nonfiction together.

Love the Mel Brooks humor on this week's #ScholarSunday.

Another great day for public scholarship 💗 thanks to @americanstudier.bsky.social

Will add this episode to next Sunday's thread, but in the meantime, you know how to wish Mel the happiest centennial: bsky.app/profile/amer...

+ My 282nd #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Always an honor to be included in @americanstudier.bsky.social threads, and especially on the occasion of Mel Brooks’s 100th birthda!

Every week Ben puts together this incredible guide to the latest public scholarship. It’s an incredible resource, and I am so grateful there are folks like him supporting all of our work out there. 👇

Halfway to 2027! Stay connected and support each other. #Writing @wkamaubell.bsky.social

Thank you to Ben for sharing my first three Mel Brooks reviews in my Mel Brooks-a-thon, all linked at the top of this Young Frankenstein review and at the top of this week's #ScholarSunday. And keep an eye out for a special comparative review this week of Blazing Saddles and (spoiler) Deadwood.

Then is finally now—it’s Mel Brooks’ 100th birthday! I think the maestro of mensches would agree that there’s no better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than with a thread of phenomenal public scholarship, so excuse me while I whip this out: +

The 1884 painting that became an 1896 lithograph hanging above the bar in countless saloons did more to shape our collective memories—inaccurately—than any official propaganda could hope to. That & much more in today’s post! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

In other news, Harvard will not honor Ted Kaczynski at its new science building. www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...

If we’re gonna do McCarthyism too, y’all better be reading @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social. 🗃️

Happy Emma Goldman Day, Helen Keller Day, & Lucille Clifton Day! Ain't that the best of a badass American legacy? memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/june-nomin...

Our most important job as historians is now contextualizing the terror campaigns of this jackass brigade pulling lazy refrains from the past. If you don't know where to pitch a piece to, here's a list of publications and podcasts open to pitches:

If we’re gonna do McCarthyism too, y’all better be reading @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social. 🗃️

The single most famous goal in USMNT World Cup history was scored by a Haitian American—76 years ago. Vital moment to fight for this longstanding & deeply impressive American community. 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Started the week sharing a great podcast I was honored to join (@historyonfilm.bsky.social), & I get to end it the same way: with the first of two excellent conversations I had recently with Jenny Chan of Pacific Front Untold. Check it out & share if you would! 🗃️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAWu...

this event is also called Battle of the Greasy Grass nativenewsonline.net/currents/its...

I'm at @askhistorians.bsky.social this morning, answering questions about the history of US migration and citizenship laws and policy.

Motherfucker out here looking like the sleazy scientist henchman whom a Bond villain kills in the first twenty minutes to establish his badass cred.

Happy Pearl S. Buck Day & Babe Didrickson Zaharias Day! memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/june-nomin...

I was raised on these streets

I have exciting news!! I will be the new volunteer Social Media Manager for the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) on Bluesky so please go follow @northeastmla.bsky.social! ALSO, I am launching a new NeMLA Initiative for NeMLA members: Interdisciplinarity in the Spotlight

This reminds me of my first "archives shock" when I was an undergraduate. (Note that in telling this story I'm going to use historical anti Japanese slurs). I went to high school in Phoenix, AZ. At some point in college I was made aware of the prison camp full of German UBoat sailors (1) 🗃️

Also worth noting, apropos of the decisions released by our white supremacist Supreme Court majority here on this anniversary, that Alito & friends would undoubtedly describe "Indian Wars" & "Indian Removal" as color-blind, race neutral phrases & policies. 🗃️

It’s a good day to say that Son of the Morning Star, by Evan Connell, is one of the best pieces of long-form nonfiction ever written in English

Happy James Meredith Day! Educational equity now, educational equity tomorrow, educational equity forever. memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/june-nomin...

During WWII, the US govt targeted birthright citizens with exclusionary hate & discrimination. Many of those Japanese Americans happened to be hugely talented athletes, & used sports to resist & offer an inspiring alternative. Check out my column & podcast season on baseball at the camps for more! 🗃️

If you want an interesting pairing, don't miss yesterday's #AHAPerspectives on baseball, Japanese American incarceration, and resistance during WWII by @americanstudier.bsky.social.

Happy Henry Ward Beecher Day & Ambrose Bierce Day! Ain't that the yin & yang of American philosophy? memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/june-nomin...

Columns in both AHA Perspectives & Made by History dropped today, each inspired by the sports & American histories at the heart of my new podcast season on baseball at Japanese incarceration camps. Check them out, enjoy, & share if you would, please! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

There's a serious link between a film like Dog Day Afternoon and Trump's abuses of resources (e.g. the National Guard being paid to defend his $14m algae which will now cost millions more). A 51-year-old film remains a damning display of the State's unlimited resources for things they deem worthy.

Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975) is a masterful depiction of how quickly the State's repressive resources can be mobilized and how unlimited they truly are. Just like 1974's The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon is a terrifying, excellent, prescient film.

When 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes during World War II, baseball became more than a game. In #AHAPerspectives, @americanstudier.bsky.social explains how the sport fostered community and collective resistance in the incarceration camps. 🗃️

Just like CEOs and mid-level managers who throw pizza parties for their overworked, underpaid staff, the police response to a bank robbery in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) was to show up with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of officers, equipment, and also pizza. My newest review just dropped:

Really excited to share a second, interconnected new piece that also dropped today, for @historians.org’s Perspectives, on baseball as resistance at Japanese American incarceration camps! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Did you know there were 100+ men's and 14 women's baseball teams at Manzanar? Today in #AHAPerspectives, @americanstudier.bsky.social writes about the Japanese Americans who used baseball "to keep joy and passion and community alive in these dark places and times" during their incarceration in WWII.

Really excited to share a second, interconnected new piece that also dropped today, for @historians.org’s Perspectives, on baseball as resistance at Japanese American incarceration camps! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Great conversation at the @scholars.org conference with @ejdionne.bsky.social @mjtoma.bsky.social @leedrutman.bsky.social Carrie Baker & Michael Jonas of @cwbeacon.bsky.social on scholars in today’s media landscape.