These America250 product emails are beyond parody.

Hello non-fiction writers of the internet! If you or someone you know is feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or could use an outside reader, I still have some availability this spring for writing coaching and editing. ✨ You can learn more about working with me here: halperta.com/categories/e...

I’m excited to read this book and this giveaway is what finally got me to sign up for goodreads

Every single day the world's dumbest woodpecker hammers away at the metal cap at the top of my chimney, vibrating the entire house. Figure it out already man.

Win a free copy of my book.

Win a free copy of my book.

I wrote a book about how Americans have remembered, forgotten, and fought over George Washington and slavery for the past 250 years. It comes out on April 7—but you can win an advance copy and read it before anyone else by entering this giveaway on Goodreads! Please share.

I don't have a publicist, therefore I am the publicist. New website for my forthcoming book. Please especially check out the Author Q&A at the end of the page (Why did i write the book? Who's it for?. Journos, pod-casters, museums can find my contact info & how to obtain a bound review copy. 1/

Apparently NBC **donated** the Super Bowl ad spot to Freedom 250, the WH's effort to direct national 250 celebration. Valued at $8 million. (via Daily Wire so ymmv) And to clarify, this entity is different from "America250," whose flags were on the field pre-game. www.dailywire.com/news/at-supe...

The Super Bowl halftime show becoming elaborate performance art instead of just a concert with a bunch of cameos is just really great. makes me actually excited for it next year.

When FL revised its state social studies curriculum in 2023, they acknowledged Washington’s involvement with slavery only by emphasizing his decision to free the people he enslaved in his will. Americans have been trying to make that particular distortion work since days after Washington’s death.

I wrote a book about how Americans have remembered, forgotten, and fought over George Washington and slavery for the past 250 years. It comes out on April 7—but you can win an advance copy and read it before anyone else by entering this giveaway on Goodreads! Please share.

Bro literally came out and said “it’s our labor and culture that has always made the Americas great: y’all are just the beneficiaries of slave owners from sea to shining sea,” and I am here for it.

I chose the wrong sub-field.

Pretty sure one was consulted, definitely was for the album news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin

The coin for the coin toss is based on Libertas Americana, designed by Benjamin Franklin and struck to mark victory in the American Revolution. As far as ways to mark the 250th go, this one is pretty cool. www.si.edu/spotlight/co...

Lot of screen time for the America250 logo there.

Wild that this is the very top story on NYT.com all day. Gonna make all the America250 stuff during the Super Bowl hit different.

“Most adjuncts bargain hunting, sleeping-in-car enthusiasts.”

Just finished reading The Memory of '76 by @michaelhattem.bsky.social. Can't recommend it enough. I just loved it. The perfect book for right now. Go buy it, especially if you're not an academic historian but want an accessible read to help you understand this bizarre commemorative moment.

New, detailed reporting about how Trump is using the 250th to raise money, launch his pet projects, and advance his political interests—and how donors with interests before the administration are all too eager to oblige. With expert comment from @mjrp.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/u...

I did convey how over the course of US history the protection & coverage of legal citizenship shifted arbitrarily to cover & uncover different groups based on politics. But I could only explain it via a book that took me 16 years to write. Pre-order now for March 24 delivery. More: shorturl.at/qZXae

Oh hey speaking of which (h/t @profmsinha.bsky.social)

Writing that chapter about free Black fictive kinship networks in the 19th century Americas finally paid off by understanding this joke.

Been thinking about this song a lot lately. m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvJ-...

It’s me (again)

When I moved to Nashville in 2017, residents voted no on a huge public transit referendum, kept saying that we’d have self driving cars so soon it didn’t make sense to invest in transit. (But also the mayor resigning in disgrace after having an affair with her bodyguard in a graveyard didn’t help)

A great summary of what's changed at IMLS, including reactions from former directors. Among my remaining questions about both IMLS and NEH right now: what is the peer review process like? Who are the "peers" evaluating these applications still?

For the 1976 Bicentennial, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival lasted a full 12 weeks, bringing nearly 5 million people to the National Mall. This year, it's being forced to go "on the road" to make way for Trump's half-baked "Great American State Fair." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...

The image of Toussaint Louverture had to be removed because the Olympic committee considered it a "political statement"?? www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

Got quoted in the NYT today, ate tacos for dinner. Good day.

Re-upping again, because I'm in the damn New York Times.

This is one of the highlights of my career: a lovely blurb from the brilliant @vscharff.bsky.social! 🥰🙏📚 THE WESTERNERS is out March 31, 2026 with @scribnerbooks.bsky.social

Re-upping again, because I'm in the damn New York Times.

"Black Americans have long highlighted Washington’s slaveholding, even if some white citizens and white institutions have not wanted to hear it." @johngmarks.com in @nytimes.com ⤵️ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...

You'll find this shocking, but Colin Kaepernick's demonstrations for racial equality are not mentioned in this press release about how the Pro Football Hall of Fame is going to recognize America's 250th. www.profootballhof.com/news/2026/02...

This is a really excellent piece about what it means to resist tyranny and defend liberty today, as we approach our 250th anniversary. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/05/p...

This video promoting the WH's "Story of America" video series for the 250th somehow celebrates the "patriots" who overthrew colonial rule, while also celebrating Americans' colonial ventures—they "tamed the Wild West" and fought on "the shores of the Philippines." www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRR...

I'm quoted (and my book is mentioned!) in this excellent piece by Jennifer Schuessler about the President's House site in Philadelphia and our broader fight over George Washington and slavery. My first time ever having my name in the NYT, pretty excited about it. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...

I'm quoted (and my book is mentioned!) in this excellent piece by Jennifer Schuessler about the President's House site in Philadelphia and our broader fight over George Washington and slavery. My first time ever having my name in the NYT, pretty excited about it. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/a...

I've been sorting through my angry thoughts about the gutting of the Washington Post. And while the whole story is terrible—humanly for the talent that has been laid off, and politically for our democracy—I'm especially appalled by the philistinism of getting rid of books and arts coverage.

I just watched all of Karen Pirie so my deepest apologies if you hear me speaking with a Scottish accent in the next few days.

This piece is wild for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that it claims loyalists dispossessed during the Revolution have a stronger claim to reparations than enslaved people. www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/4443...

Gramsci once observed "the old is dying and the new struggles to be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear," and I'm not sure there would be any better encapsulation of our society's comorbidities than this headline.

This is a great piece, but so strange for me to read. For my first book—about free Black people before the end of slavery in Charleston and Cartagena, Colombia—I essentially went through the process he describes here over and over and over. uscpress.com/Black-Freedo...

The statue of Columbus that was placed outside the U.S. Capitol in 1844 was such a flagrantly offensive embodiment of Manifest Destiny that it was removed in 1958 and carted off to storage at the Smithsonian. I'm certain things will go just as well for this Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight.

"Today, we're excited to announce our plans to improve our position in an increasingly competitive, fractured media landscape by producing a much, much shittier product."

For Trump, "history" is just a big Hall of Fame. The only question that matters is: "is this person famous?" It's why you get his complaints about negative portrayals of historical figures, and it's how you get him saying people are talking about Frederick Douglass "more and more."