Thoughts and prayers

No, no, makes perfect sense. I wrote a Washington biography. The creator of Landman wants a Washington mood board.

The Great Emancipator remains America's most overworked surrogate alexiscoe.substack.com/p/obama-drop...

This man displays a reasonable amount of anticipatory shame, all but ensuring I'll never hit him with a "it's tempting to make the same assumption as the author." The ones I have? Manspreading all over the bestseller lists.

The verbal equivalent of a soap in a sock: In the South: “Bless your heart.” In academia: “It’s tempting to assume.”

Every exception thinks it's the exception! open.substack.com/pub/alexisco...

13 years ago I spoke to @alexiscoe.bsky.social about this shit www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archiv...

This pretty much sums up my bad feelings about journalism in Germany ca. 2016, when journalists regularly described themselves as "guardians of democracy" - which implies protection as their task, rather than the creation of transparency through good journalism. That's a huge conflict of interests.

I like my subjects good and dead for a variety of reasons, and Jill Biden has recently reminded me of one: They can’t look you in the eye and ask you to doubt what you plainly witnessed. open.substack.com/pub/alexisco...

I could feel my stress levels rise as I went down the list

Totally irresponsible. We have no evidence contemporaries understood it to be demonic.

A year ago, I testified before Congress. Nothing prepares you for the psychological experience of realizing Tucker Carlson is receiving more visual reverence at a congressional hearing than the National Archives. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/a-year-lat...

Really lovely to see ALICE+FREDA FOREVER, which most people DO forget was my first--Washington, Washington, Washington--on this list! bookshop.org/lists/growin...

Against every archival instinct in my body, I wrote about the human urge to put secrets in bottles — essentially felony-level evidence disposal disguised as sentiment. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/special-vi...

Today’s newsletter is about intros — tiny, deranged calibrations that can change an entire piece. And why my latest NYT column on America practicing empire took forever (relatively). Sentence-level surgery. Psychic damage. And now, begin again. Oy vey. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/behind-the...

John Quincy Adams much

I've read three of the five books listed here. Some great recommendations from @alexiscoe.bsky.social.

In what can only be described as a haunting privilege, my latest NYT Books column looks at America’s habit of calling conquest freedom, beginning with Jefferson’s “empire for liberty” — it’s giving Goop x Lockheed Martin collab. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/b...

Annual reminder: www.instagram.com/p/DJhFfkRtB5h/

Great Man History has an astonishing body count.

Hostage negotiators would get nowhere with Robert Caro. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/is-he-dead...

Saw this over in the bad place. As a presidential historian who watches this *gestures* from the sidelines, I appreciate escaping the “AI safety vs. acceleration” cul-de-sac—they've widened the frame to capital, labor, media... mapping-ai.org

Tucker Carlson found his inside voice—and a bigger audience. Don’t be fooled. History teaches us the real one always comes out. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/the-politi...

Some women challenged the system. Others optimized it. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/progress-t...

Today's strain is "Special Relationship Sour" alexiscoe.substack.com/p/special-re...

The American experiment has produced many wonders, (not) among them: GouverneurWiFi Kissinger Has Di-Fi’d Te Constitutional Connection John Wilkes Bluetooth alexiscoe.substack.com/p/join-or-di...

I answered the question nobody asked: How might some future historian, trying to sort the political species of the early twenty-first century, place Keir Starmer in relation to Joe Biden and Donald Trump? alexiscoe.substack.com/p/the-courti...

Yes

Stand by it!

Instant cosmic wedgie: "Pride goes before a fall—Proverbs 16:18"  www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...

The night before: I went to Ohio, and Miami University’s archives handed me chills: Sojourner Truth’s carte, back scrawled 'I heard her' alexiscoe.substack.com/p/i-sell-the...

Excited to talk to @saradaperi.bsky.social, who was a Senior Speechwriter for Obama, on Monday at 8:30pm EDT open.substack.com/pub/alexisco...

Such a lively crowd at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati—and the Cincinnati Museum Center brought me pre-keynote delights, including Thomas Jefferson puzzling through hot air balloons!

If Joe Biden had said/done xyz, Republicans would have already launched a full-spectrum offensive—outrage everywhere, message discipline absolute, no nuance, no grace, total obstruction. That’s the playbook. Follow it.

Citations, citations, citations

When money carries a leader's name, the country starts to read as an extension of that person. Criticism risks sounding like disloyalty; institutions look secondary. We've never had it for good reason. Trump wants it for all the wrong ones. alexiscoe.substack.com/p/the-art-of...

"Keep the blade clean" 😳 Jesus the word choice is terrifying

In December, I gave AI a war-ending bomb scenario. One system chose to drop it. In February, it wobbled, so I sat on it. Then, on Easter morning, the President of the United States threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure. I got up 👇: alexiscoe.substack.com/p/ai-told-me...

In December, I gave AI a war-ending bomb scenario. One system chose to drop it. In February, it wobbled, so I sat on it. Then, on Easter morning, the President of the United States threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure. I got up 👇: alexiscoe.substack.com/p/ai-told-me...

It’s my birthday 🎉 and I have one wish! Come knock doors with us. Best gift I could ask for. lindseyfornyc.com/volunteer

I still fear no one will sign up, let alone come, so these little notes in the itinerary really mean a lot

Idk feels like a missed biopportunity, like Richard Fausset reports from the American South, covering federal disaster response and claims of divine relocation to Waffle Houses www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/u...

Historian Alexis Coe blasts Congress for building the modern presidential monster, arguing they’ve abdicated their Article I powers through drift and partisanship, leaving only courts to enforce the lines they refuse to draw.

Saw this being talked about on this app and glad I checked it out. You may have read other GW biographies, but this succeeds in offering something new. You never forget your first: a biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe #Booksky #BooksMark

Taking my lunch hour with the Phillies and @alexiscoe.bsky.social in the office today. #PHIvsWSH

Second part of my Q&A with @alexiscoe.bsky.social! We really get into the heart of the book in this one.

Part II is out today! alexiscoe.substack.com/p/a-new-wash...

Part II out tomorrow!

I revisited a Q&A I did with @rtraister.bsky.social on writing public history as a journalist in 2021—and it struck me as too good not to resend! alexiscoe.substack.com/p/wordy-wedn...

Washington freed the people he enslaved. That’s the story we’re told. The reality was something different. A Q&A with @johngmarks.com on his great new book—the first of two. It’s that important. open.substack.com/pub/alexisco...