In a new @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social piece, I explain how this agenda from @repcasar.bsky.social & @usprogressives.bsky.social revives an American tradition of DIY progressivism that promotes affordability by using public factories to counter monopoly power washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/18/p...

Business History Conference 2027 𖡼 Call for Papers 𖡼 thebhc.org/2027-bhc-cal... We encourage 𓂃✍︎ 𖡼Full panel proposals 𖡼Proposals en español 𖡼Interdisciplinary approaches Deadline for proposals: October 16, 2026 Location: Mexico City #bizhis #BHC2027

You will want to read Anand Toprani’s excellent book on Lehman, now available for preorder. www.sup.org/books/politi...

In the supply-shock era, we should revisit a lost industrial policy tool: public factories. 🏭In a new paper, Ganesh Sitaraman & I explore the history & future of US public factories. ⚡️In another paper, I propose public factories for critical energy components www.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt-p... 🧵

I appreciate @kschake.bsky.social's efforts to shed light on these vital issues, but I am less sanguine Politicization operates through multiple mechanisms not captured by analyzing the credentials or past partisan commentary of senior officers replacing those who have been fired. 1/

Blurbs are in for my new book, Gangster of New York! Many thanks to Eric Rauchway (@rauchway.bsky.social), Rebecca Jo Plant, and Douglas Egerton.

North Carolina’s budget stalemate froze raises, cutting average teacher pay ~1% to $60,984. The state ranks 43rd nationally, and about 10.1% of teachers—roughly 1 in 10—leave each year, worsening shortages. #NCed

Miller Center oral history interviews with Obama administration officials now available. (Apparently different from broader set of Obama presidency interviews also released recently from a Columbia University Incite Institute project.) millercenter.org/the-presiden...

Microsoft, in a legal filing, is challenging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s action last week to shut Anthropic out of military work by labeling its AI products as posing a threat to national security.

👋 Say hello at #BHC2026 👉 Business History is sponsoring workshops and is an official sponsor of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social in London. We look forward to connecting, hearing about your work, and continuing conversations around #bizhis #businesshistory.

A 21st century policymaker reflects on lessons from the WWII industrial mobilization, while offering a generous and astute discussion of my 2016 book on the subject. www.factorysettings.org/p/what-does-...

Never has so much US combat power been assembled with so little explanation to the public, allies, or Congress regarding why or how it will be used. Never.

Got an idea for reforming defense acquisition? The Pentagon’s all ears. | “We need radically different ideas,” says assistant defense secretary. | by Jennifer Hlad, reporting from Honolulu:

The program for the BHC 2026 Annual Meeting in London is now available‼️ You can view the full meeting program here: thebhc.org/meeting-prog... Note that there are visa requirements to enter the UK for most nationalities -- ETA application form: www.gov.uk/eta #BHC2026 #bizhis #BHCLondon

Trump orders defense companies to stop stock buybacks, dividends

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.