RIP to Nick Salvatore, author of Eugene V. Deb’s: Citizen and Socialist, one of the book’s that inspired me to pursue the study of history.

“A 3rd (awful) NYT editorial on the future of war has dropped”

Use code: UPKHOLIDAY25 to receive 40% off (kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640089/). @strickjl.bsky.social #americanpresidency #presidentialleadership #welfare #FranklinDRoosevelt #harrystruman #DwightDEisenhower #JohnFKennedy #LyndonBJohnson #ForeignPolicy #upkansas

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. How a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft, and, in the process, found his soul. Wonderful writing by the great Kurt Streeter.

Good news: the US National Archives system is still making its way through researchers’ Mandatory Declassification Review requests. Not so good news: the update I received today concerned a request I filed in March 2015, nearly 11 years ago.

Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations won’t be out officially until 2026 but is shipping now🗃️ edited by Frank Costigliola and Barbara Keys, exceptional contributors and graat chapters, also mine on #ideology @shafrhistorians.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/highereducat...

"Death by Lightning," Episode 3 reaction thread: • Praise for the series • Major players: What's right/wrong/missing • What was machine politics? How did the spoils system work? Why do they keep talking about the New York Custom House? Let's get wonky! 1/14

In time for the holidays, now pre-orderable, the long awaited Oxford Handbook of American Military History, edited by Sam Watson. 32 chapters by top scholars in the field, including @bethbailey.bsky.social , @notabattlechick.bsky.social , @karadixonvuic.bsky.social, yours truly, and many more.

Three points about the “Department of War” talk: 1. Hegseth called for the name change before he was nominated. 2. The term used historically, for the most part, was actually “War Department.” Its sister was the Navy Department. 3. Only Congress can change the name.

From Ben Dooley on the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant: In the late 2000s, the Army “gave the operator two choices: maintain the equipment in a state of readiness or use the excess capacity to make rounds for the commercial market. The contractor chose the latter…” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

My new book will be out in early December 2025 via @mitpress.bsky.social Details at: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348... #HistSci #Computing #History #Books 🗃️

Pentagon is shifting weapons purchases to ‘a wartime footing’, Hegseth announces www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Honored to receive a State History Award from the Historical Society of Michigan for my book Freedom Enterprise!

Welcome to the resistance, director of the Eisenhower library in Kansas who would not let the president steal a historic sword

@kschake.bsky.social reflects on yesterday's address by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump at a gathering of the country's top military officials. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/hegs...

The ultimate aim here is that people will no longer expect the military to serve the public at large, but that its goal and purpose is to advance the interest of one faction or party in politics. 10/

Report to Congress on Navy’s Columbia-class Submarine Program — USNI News news.usni.org/2025/09/30/r...

Lockheed, Pentagon finalize deal for 296 F-35s https://breakingdefense.com/2025/09/lockheed-pentagon-finalize-deal-for-296-f-35s/

Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are. My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder. a.co/d/29c7EIP

Once again, if you teach or conduct research in higher ed, please join @aaup.org

Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social reflects on the ways in which his new book differs from the history served up in the latest Robert Reich memoir. prospect.org/culture/book...

The “War Department” thing was one of Hegseth’s hobbyhorses well before his nomination.

“The professional soldier” by Morris janowitz “The paradoxes of professionalism in International security by @risabrooks12.bsky.social “The right to be right” by Peter Feaver (anything by him is good) “Supreme command” by Eliot cohen These are all good primers I think

In case you missed it, here is "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLIV, Part 1, National Security Policy, 1985–1988" history.state.gov/historicaldo...

Mine and Julia Macdonald's new podcast on autonomy--from mines to missiles to drones--is now available! Follow the people behind America's unmanned arsenal from the revolutionary war to Afghanistan, Ukraine, and looking to the future. www.hoover.org/research/epi...

MIT Political Science is hiring this fall, with junior lines in both American Politics (members.apsanet.org/CAREERS/eJob...) and IR. Please share widely!

Reading this recent Economist story on defense industry, dismayed to see the claim that in WWII, B-24s were built “in a Ford car factory in Detroit.” Let’s recall please that Willow Run and other big WWII plants were new ones. The war in Ukraine shows the West can re-arm without re-industrialising

This is absolutely appalling.

Enjoyed talking with Steve Spierer for an hour on his radio show today about my book Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II www.talkradioone.com/steven-spier...

If I were a college professor, it would be oral exams and in-class essays only from now on. nymag.com/intelligence...

HUGE ruling—by a conservative judge—that is almost certain to be affirmed by the 4th Circuit and is unlikely to be disturbed by SCOTUS. Justice Riggs’ final victory draws much closer.

If you like keeping your tax returns private, you can thank these hearings

NEW: Trump's nominee for Under Secretary of the Army, an executive at the weapons firm Anduril, says he's going to hold onto his stock in the company despite its billions of dollars in contracts with the Army, according to a recently filed ethics statement theintercept.com/2025/05/01/t...

ICYMI: DESTRUCTIVE CREATION by @profmarkwilson.bsky.social gets a shout-out from @saikatc.bsky.social on the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show! nyti.ms/4lVnCEa

I’ve been honored to serve as the @apsa.bsky.social rep on the committee (a role mandated by Congress) since 2020 + to have chaired the committee since 2021. Congress understood in creating its 1991 statute governing our work the importance of “thorough, accurate, and reliable” accounts of the past

Unhappy to confirm that the entire Historical Advisory Committee at the State Department received termination notices this afternoon (myself included). The HAC, set up by Congress, oversees the office that produces the FRUS series. history.state.gov/about/hac/in... 1/

Interesting conversation here with plenty of attention to today’s situation but also some deep history on the New Deal and World War II. Many thanks to @saikatc.bsky.social for the unexpected shout-out to my book *Destructive Creation*.

Post Trump, we need a detailed plan—an anti-Project 2025—& a dose of civics. We must explain there's no return to the 1950s economy, when World War 2 had blighted much of the world. That the 1890s show we need federal agencies, not tariffs; equality, not segregation; immigrants, not xenophobia.

Agree with much of this thread but need to remind folks this was not an either/or. The USA did indeed invest in national labs, as well as partner with universities, nonprofits, and for-profit contractors.

My dear friend and colleague Sarah Jones Weicksel is publishing her book with @uncpress.bsky.social, and it’s now available for preorder!! I’ve read pieces of this, and it’s soooo good.

The NYT wants you to think universities became dependent on government. This is false. The government invested in the national research infrastructure by competitive grants to universities. The taxpayers built this. It got us to the moon. Won the Cold War. Created Silicon Valley. Made the McRib.

Federally funded R&D (not all of which is spent at universities) as a fraction of GDP is as low as it's been since we started tracking. Which is a different way of looking at it than "line go up." 4/x ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf2332...

This program, COINTELPRO, required detailed records on a large number of people. The Privacy Act of 1974 was created to prevent this type of record-keeping, esp. with computers. I propose that if you get rid of the law that keeps COINTELPRO from happening again, then COINTELPRO will happen again.

As Justice Earls notes, it's unclear exactly how many voters will have 30 days to cure their ballots. At minimum, it's 1,409 Guilford County voters. If that's the case, Riggs could very well maintain her win. But if it's a higher number, election could go to Griffin. #ncpol

Fears of recession increasing state university board conversations about austerity. Yet another reason to remind legislators and voters of the value of our universities. From @publicedworks.bsky.social. www.publicedworks.org/2025/04/a-se...