We have a NEW essay over @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social all about Halloween tourism and where witches are (and are not) in modern-day Salem. Courtesy of Carla Pestana!

NEW on Commonplace: Halloween may be over but the time is always right to talk about historic memory! In a new essay, historian Carla Pestana searches for the witches in witch city and considers what is lost when history and Halloween tourism collide: commonplace.online/article/sale...

Poet, editor, and author of all things terrifying and macabre, Edgar Allan Poe is perhaps the perfect author to revisit in the lead up to Halloween. So on this All Hallow's Eve Eve, we present Edgar Allan Poe...the mollusk specialist? From James D. Lilley in 2022: commonplace.online/article/edga...

NEW on Commonplace: Think you know the full story of Eli Whitney's role in the road leading to the Civil War? Think again. Get the full story in Ariel Ron's latest essay for Commonplace: commonplace.online/article/how-...

Need some teaching inspiration for this Constitution Day? Check out Katlyn Marie Carter's 2024 essay on teaching the Constitutional Convention through the strategic silences and gaps in the historic record: commonplace.online/article/gaps...

We have a brand new essay @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social today! Jordan Smith writes on his forthcoming history of rum and responds to the question "where all the pirates???"

NEW on Commonplace: Jordan Smith asks and answers "where've all the pirates gone?" Check out the latest from Commonplace to learn more about the reasons for this piratical absence in Smith's forthcoming book "The Invention of Rum." commonplace.online/article/wher...

Tis the season to make plans to reclaim and cherish your book-life balance! See my 10-step handout “How to Read a Book” @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social #skystorians #gradstudents #howtoreadabook #bibliophiles #selfcare commonplace.online/article/how-...

I see more Bluesky discussion, so here is some @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social data (I am the editor). In the past month Bluesky ranked third on how people came to Commonplace.online (twitter was not in top ten). Same month two years ago, Twitter ranked third, but with fewer than half the referrals.

Headed to Providence for #SHEAR2025???

Headed to #SHEAR2025? Let's connect!

NEW on Commonplace: A reflection on the work of family history and the stakes involved in facing your family's past. Lisa Roney shares an essay and original poems excavating her family's Confederate forbearer and the corrective potential of genealogical work. commonplace.online/article/hot-...

What’s the most asked question about the Declaration of Independence? Emily Sneff has heard them all—and answers some of yours in our latest episode. 📜 Myths, manuscripts, missing minutes—it’s all here. #USHistory #History #America250 #Rev250 #July4th 🎧 www.benfranklinsworld.com/415

Looking to read some history this fourth of July? Commonplace has you covered. We start with a 2016 piece from Jessica Lepler, all about Exeter's annual American Independence Festival...celebrated on July 16! commonplace.online/article/vol-...

I'll be adding to this thread throughout the day, but here's just a smidgen of Revolutionary content from the @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social archives. If you don't know what to do today--if you don't know what to do WITH today--here's some history to keep you company.

Looking to read some history this fourth of July? Commonplace has you covered. We start with a 2016 piece from Jessica Lepler, all about Exeter's annual American Independence Festival...celebrated on July 16! commonplace.online/article/vol-...

NEW @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social, Jayne Ptolemy shares a fascinating essay on unexpected archival discoveries and the crucial details they provide on the life of William Ansah Sessarakoo.

NEW on Commonplace: Jayne Ptolemy explores an unexpected bundle of documents in the Charles Townshend Papers and the insights they share on the life of William Ansah Sessarakoo. commonplace.online/article/the-...

OTD in 1851, Uncle Tom's Cabin's first installment appeared in The National Era. Here are six @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social articles about Harriet Beecher Stowe's work. Patricia Jane Roylance explored how a 19th century jigsaw puzzle jumbled Stowe's story: (1/6) 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/uncl...

NEW on Commonplace: In the 1840s and 50s, the quest for spoils could lead men to despair. In his latest essay for Commonplace, Jeffrey Broxmeyer tracks the spoilsman's progress--and pain--through the political careers of George H. Proffit and Robert Dale Owens. commonplace.online/article/the-...

NEW essay on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social! Jeffrey Broxmeyer explores the spoils system and antebellum politics.

NEW on Commonplace: In the 1840s and 50s, the quest for spoils could lead men to despair. In his latest essay for Commonplace, Jeffrey Broxmeyer tracks the spoilsman's progress--and pain--through the political careers of George H. Proffit and Robert Dale Owens. commonplace.online/article/the-...

Did you ever wonder how patronage and political spoils worked in antebellum party politics? Jeffrey Broxmeyer has a great new piece up @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social that explores this world and the careers of Robert Dale Owen and George H. Profitt. Check it out:🗃️ commonplace.online/article/the-...

NEXT WEEK: Michelle McDonald will discuss her forthcoming book COFFEE NATION, which illuminates how coffee tied the economic future of the early US to the wider Atlantic world, in a hybrid event at the @amphilsociety.bsky.social on Thursday, June 5. Register today!

Interesting things are sometimes hiding in plain sight. Newly up on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social, Leslie Brunetta investigates the fascinating life and family of Mary Lewis, a Black housekeeper for William Dean Howells and the subject of his essay, "Mrs. Johnson".🗃️ commonplace.online/article/a-su...

We're starting the day with a NEW essay on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social, courtesy of Leslie Brunetta!

NEW on Commonplace: In 1868, William Dean Howells published "Mrs. Johnson" in The Atlantic, a fictitious account of the Howellses' Black housekeeper. Leslie Brunetta explores the personal and familial story of Mary Lewis, the real woman behind "Mrs. Johnson." commonplace.online/article/a-su...

I know this holiday means different things for folks, but 1 thing we all can agree on: my 224th #ScholarSunday thread features a mother lode of public scholarly writing, podcast eps, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Share widely & enjoy, all!🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

NEW on Commonplace: @rybeddard.bsky.social explores "the power of the dead" in his latest piece on the religious forces undergirding the 1730 Chesapeake Rebellion, particularly the interplay between BaKongo cosmologies and Kongo Christianity. commonplace.online/article/the-...

How did African religious beliefs and practices inform reactions to slavery in colonial Virginia? Check out Ryne Beddard's @rybeddard.bsky.social fascinating new piece at Commonplace @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social on BaKongo cosmology and the Chesapeake Rebellion.🗃️ commonplace.online/article/the-...

Looking for a labor history read? Check out Max Chapnick's latest review of Todd Carmody's monograph "Work Requirements"!

For a really smart reading on the founders and the 3/5th clause, see Nathaniel Green’s recent piece in Commonplace @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social : commonplace.online/article/not-...

NEW on Commonplace: Max Chapnick explores the making of the American culture of work in his review essay of Todd Carmody's labor history, "Work Requirements: Race, Disability, and the Print Culture of Social Welfare." Now live on Commonplace! commonplace.online/article/the-...

In a new review on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social, Max Chapnick looks at Todd Carmody's thought-provoking Work Requirements: Race, Disability, and the Print Culture of Social Welfare, a fascinating read on the manufacture of American assumptions about work. 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/the-...

Some Philadelphia Quaker history, or perhaps mythos, for Earth Day.

No better day than Earth Day to brush up on some environmental history! To mark the occasion, we're revisiting Laura Turner Igoe's piece from 2016 placing lumber and an elm bust of William Penn in the historic context of PA's changing environmental realities. commonplace.online/article/the-...

Here it is, my 220th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Please add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

ICYMI: NEW on Commonplace!

Starting your second book? You don’t have to do it alone. SHEAR’s Second Book Writers’ Workshop meets July 17 in Providence during #SHEAR2025. Apply by May 4 to join a community of peers and a space for feedback, support, and momentum. Details at #JERPano: thepanorama.shear.org/2025/04/07/s...

NEW piece now live on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social. Brian Fehler writes on the 19th-c. moral reformer Margaret Woods Lawrence and her efforts to purge smoking and tobacco use from American life.

Most people know about the 19th century temperance movement, but what about other moral health reforms? In a new @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social piece, Brian Fehler ingests the anti-tobacco writings of Margaret Woods Lawrence (aka Meta Lander). Check it out here: 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/puff...

NEW on Commonplace: Margaret Woods Lawrence was dedicated to bringing Americans out of the haze of tobacco use. Brian Fehler's latest essay explores the work of the 19th-century moral reformer and the crusade against smoking in American life. #VastEarlyAmerica commonplace.online/article/puff...

Bracket busted? Me too, so let’s take solace in my 217th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Have you read the latest essay from Ranmi Bae yet? ⬇️

ICYMI: We have a BRAND NEW essay over @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social, courtesy of Ranmi Bae! Check it out to learn more about the life and legacy of Virginia W. Broughton.

Ranmi Bae with new piece up on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social about Virginia W. Broughton, an educator and Holiness Baptist missionary in the Jim Crow Era. Bae explores Broughton as a Black theologian speaking and writing about womanhood. 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/the-...

NEW on Commonplace: Ranmi Bae writes on the life and works of Holiness Baptist missionary Virginia W. Broughton, highlighting Broughton's legacy as a community leader and Black feminist theologian. #VastEarlyAmerica commonplace.online/article/the-...

NEW on Commonplace: Walker Robins investigates the influencer travelogues had on westerners' perceptions of Palestine. Check out his latest to learn more about Henry Allen Tupper, Rolla Floyd, and the tales they told to shape readers' views. commonplace.online/article/an-a...

Fascinating new piece by Walker Robins at @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social about Rolla Floyd, who was born in Maine and moved to Jaffa as part of a millenarian religious colony before becoming a legendary dragoman (guide, translator, and fixer) in Ottoman Palestine. 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/an-a...

A NEW piece is live on @commonplacejrnl.bsky.social today. Walker Robins investigates 19th-century travel narratived and how they shaped westerners' perceptions of Palestine.