Say what you will, but these people were sending death threats "the right way."

I have this book and love it dearly.

Something that I think might explain a bit of the mainstream liberal kowtowing to MAGA in the post-Kirk environment comes from Paul Berman's Terrorism and Liberalism book, where he argues that liberals have a rationalistic sense of proportionality about the world. What he means is that if/

This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.

Just so I'm clear: TV host says we should kill every homeless person? No big deal TV host says the right must "go to war" with the left? Pfft. TV host says the government is cracking down on critics? Well, the government cracks down on him for the criticism. Free speech, everyone.

So: a) none of political assassins were students, or even shared a coherent ideology - shameful to blame universities b) Trump is already engaged in the attack on campus speech the Free Press wants c) I worry a lot more about the animosity to campus The Free Press is fueling than any of my students

Imagine learning that Concentration Camps in Germany were ordered to remove signs and other exhibits documenting the suffering and hardships of Jewish prisoners. That's what we are talking about when it comes to the tory of slavery at Harpers Ferry. #NationalParks www.wlbt.com/video/2025/0...

I spoke with the NYT Magazine a while ago but have now heard that an editor said they can't quote me because I'm "too liberal" to be a trusted source. You know what's always the first example conservatives use to claim I'm "too liberal"? My work in the 1619 Project, organized by the NYT Magazine.

For a far-right ideologue, "Prove me wrong" comes along with the intention to refuse to acknowledge any proof of an idea one disagrees with. The point is to put on a show of not being proven wrong, and to use this bluff to convince people that the far right wins the debate.

2 key points about the current events I have yet to see made: -Elon Musk reinstated Nick Fuentes X account, thus increasing his reach -There is reporting that Tyler Robinson's friends remembered him at 14 years old talking about Benghazi conspiracy theories. 2017. Radicalized how? when?

This is good. @kevinmkruse.bsky.social understands this all too well. And yet, ironically, I also think this is actually too easy on the WCC, even as it criticizes the media for being too easy on the WCC. They def. advocated murder and helped people get murdered. Worked with Klan closely

One major theme of American politics for the last couple decades is that right wing grifters are free to be wrong endlessly and to make the most egregious accusations without evidence and they inevitably fail upwards and gain bigger audiences

'The Containment' by Michelle Adams is our winner this year! "What's it about?" you ask. 'The Containment' details the history & impact of the Detroit school desegregation case that ended the Brown v. Board of Education era. Come to the event on October 9th to learn more! Register on our website.

Two tenure-track positions at Haverford College in the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program, with links to the Kim Ethics Institute. An amazing place working with incredible colleagues! (Deadline Oct. 24) www.haverford.edu/provost/news...

Everybody who fell for the Harper's Letter or all the hand-wringing about "uncivil" students on the left, congratulations. You built this. You own this. And fuck you for being the useful idiots these fascists needed to launder their dismantling of academic freedom.

JUST IN: President Trump never told Congress about a disastrous 2019 intelligence mission targeting North Korea that left several people dead. trib.al/xoTcqgD The news follows the Pentagon's deadly strike on a boat in international waters that officials claimed was carrying drugs.

Corporate media proving again that it’s not suited to the moment. Congress created the Dept of Defense through the National Security Act Amendments of 1949, which Truman signed into law. Trump can no more undo this unilaterally than he can rename Mars Trump Word. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/u...

Exciting news from Providence: Arielle Alterwaite is here as postdoctoral fellow at @jcblibrary.bsky.social and the Simmons Center. A great opportunity for us to think about the Haitian indemnity, the French Empire, and the financial history of slavery and its aftermath. Welcome Arielle!

“It affirms that the government cannot extort money from private institutions for political reasons,” he said. “That’s important to everybody, not just Harvard.” www.wgbh.org/news/educati...

Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back. "The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."

Curious about the big lecture course that I'm teaching with David Blight and Beverly Gage, beginning tomorrow? Here's a peek.

"There are more than 19 million college students in the US. Most are well removed from corridors of wealth+power..43% of undergrads attend community college. 25% live with their parents." a listicle for everyone, especially for the NYT editors themselves to learn www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...

During the 1970s, an arson wave ravaged poor communities across the US. Some lost 80% of their housing. Residents were blamed. In reality, landlords—paid by insurers and enabled by the state—drove this arson-for-profit epidemic. 

I reviewed @benchansfield.bsky.social's revelatory BORN IN FLAMES:

I’m kind of speechless with this one. I can’t imagine the kind of person who continues to make the argument that it doesn’t count as real starvation if the kids were already sick.

The administration is using the tools of the state to influence—even poison—how America’s racial history will be taught in our public forums and schools. But unfortunately for Trump and his supporters, the censors can’t reach everywhere. trib.al/odpfMdl

And we need to search the Smithsonian for "divisive ideology"?

300 plantation sites across the country, together, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year. This forces communities and visitors alike to ask: What parts of the past do Americans preserve, and for whom? theconversation.com/plantation-t... #darktourism h/t @learothawms.bsky.social

We stopped expanding the House in the 1920s, decided the Supreme Court should freeze in the 1930s, added the last states in the 1950s, amended the Constitution only once in the last fifty years. The USA and its government continued to grow, but almost all that growth came in the executive branch.

@newrepublic.com asked a bunch of historians to write about studying and teaching History under Trump 2.0. Honored to share my response here: newrepublic.com/article/1983...

11 historians on doing history under Trump 2.0 features in TNR's Sept issue. 7 articles, including this fabulous one by @jgrossman.bsky.social, are now online; others coming soon. Be sure to check them out! newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...

New! the @newrepublic.com's Sept issue features a great symposium "Trump vs. History," for which I asked the great @dblight.bsky.social to assemble colleagues to reflect on Trump's war on our history. We posted the first four (incl. David's) today; others coming soon! newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...

The whole Trump era can be understood as a kind of last stand for a white supremacist’s conception of American history. trib.al/KiHAbb6

If you think a golden ballroom is more important than childhood cancer research… I have nothing left to say to you. Please unfollow me. #pediatriccancer #cancermom

I honestly think many of them learned the wrong lesson They were so hyper-fixated on communism that the lesson they should have learned about fascism fell by the wayside. Many of them very quickly began cheering would-be autocrats and the suspension of civil liberties almost immediately after WW2

What is required for someone to be an American? 30% of Republicans say being White is very or somewhat important. www.pbump.net/o/what-makes...

The idea of a "liberal bias" in media, in academia, and in reporting is a creation wholly of movement conservatives in the decades after WWII, particularly of rich men who threw money at promoting the idea. It worked. Now, reality has a "liberal bias."

White Nationalism is supporting the erection of Confederate monuments while accusing the former Black President of treason.

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

say it again: 4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage in Congress. Here's what happened next:

New reporting on the main issues covered in my book The Black Tax. This piece also echoes my argument on the effects of further cuts to local governments at the federal level: that it will make all of the regressive and predatory features of local tax policy and administration much, much worse.

Almost every sentence of this is wrong: Aside from the fact that he’s deepening our involvement in the region and backing Israel’s brutal war without reservation, Samet is wrong that Biden and Obama ‘funneled billions of dollars to Tehran.’ They released/ www.nationalreview.com/2025/08/1862...

I grew up in a white working class Rust Belt town Republicans always give them a reason why their lives aren’t better—welfare queen, immigrant, elite academic, affirmative action Dems need alternative blame game centered in private equity and billionaires Either way, find someone to blame

Terrific piece. A must-read for academics: "Not since the Red Scare...has American science been so beholden to political ideology." www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Sarah Gronningsater discusses her multiple award-winning new book, The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024). lawandhistoryreview.org/article/sara...

Everyone who penned an essay on cancel culture or "self-censorship" in the past 10 years should be required to write a response to this

Faculty who wrote to defend their president and object to a DOJ investigation of their university...are now being investigated by the DOJ. The most banal defense of free speech and academic freedom will trigger the full wrath of the US government now. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

To my academic friends! I’m looking for online adjunct opportunities for this fall and spring semester. If your department is looking for online/asynchronous support in history, please check out my academic website to learn more about my work. www.johnlegg.org