I got this useful bon mot from a middle school teacher recently. In response to, “I DONT UNDERSTAND,” he calmly said, “okay what steps have you taken to understand?” And that’s when I realized that a lot of folks have no steps.

It's dreary, dark, and pouring rain here in eastern New England this morning. So I'm required to post and share this music video.

Great look into the comprehensiveness of EEBO and EEBO-TCP and what that means for using those tools. Highly recommend for all computational bibliographers and early modernists doing large-scale work with EEBO

The Rose Reading room at the NYPL, for instance, is a place where literally anyone can have access to world class research materials— a universe of ideas— and, if they use them right, and stay at it, they can become a genius

Yes! The thing abt public libraries that is so beautiful & crucial is the idea that *anybody* could do this — you need no credential, there’s no gatekeeping, literally any person can be an intellectual. You can come from absolutely nothing & yet, by means of curiosity + work, create real knowledge

THE POOREST PERSONS ON TWITTER MAY HAVE ACCESS TO MORE BEAUTY AND MEANING THAN THE ‘MOST WEALTHY PERSON IN THE WORLD’ omg. Just absolutely devastating, from the top ropes.

The Politics of Family/History. I've been so grateful for opportunities to talk abt the history of genealogy in early America & its implications. Tuesday lovely colleagues @brownhist.bsky.social are hosting my conversation w the great Leslie Harris. Join us! events.brown.edu/history/even...

Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

The Mamdani political sign generator is kinda fun https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/for.html

And the 1986 iteration thereof.

Omg

If you’re trying to catch up on what went down with #SNAP late last night at #SCOTUS, here’s my attempt to read the breadcrumbs on the “administrative stay” issued by Justice Jackson—and why a justice so critical of the Court’s grants of emergency relief to Trump still granted temporary relief here:

Omg

This! The extent to which people don’t actually enjoy thinking has been eye opening.

This. Especially because I believe that writing is thinking (for me). I don’t want to lose that.

I can’t believe Zohran is transing the trains already www.mta.info/article/f-m-...

Coming this afternoon at #USIH2025, a fun session on thinking about public history and #America250, moderated by @sarageorgini.bsky.social and featuring me, @kathrynbrownell.bsky.social @theotherrbg.bsky.social @lizcovart.bsky.social (unfortunately @katejewell.bsky.social can’t be here).

In Detroit for #USIH. @jmadelman.bsky.social and I decided to check out the Motown Museum. It was a great tour and worth the stop.

CFP for Slavery North conference on "Rebellion, Resistance, and Refuge: Slavery and Border-Crossing during the American Revolution" @umassamherst.bsky.social 7/9-7/12/2026, abstracts due 12/19/2025 #vastearlyamerica slaverynorth.com/event/call-f... 🗃️

This & her indispensable role in passing the ACA are the defining points in her career. Adding: Pelosi's opposition to the Iraq war came from her knowledge & leadership on national security, something that persuaded/affirmed other colleagues in their opposition to war.

Mamdani-Spanberger-Sherrill axis suggests outlines of an emerging Dem coalition organized around anti-Trump *and* affordability politics. This is doing serious damage to the MAGA coalition. Its success this week undermines the idea of a big Trump 2024 realignment. 7/ newrepublic.com/article/2027...

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

A reminder that this morning we would also be talking about @wutrain.bsky.social’s big progressive win in Boston but she trounced the right-leaning candidate so badly in the preliminary round that he gave up.

Oh no! A bunch of candidates who speak to voters’ concerns and genuinely seem to like the place they seek to represent! The horror!

This essay from @bschmidt.bsky.social on how history rejected computational methods, & so "quantitative history" ended up in the social sciences, & "digital humanities" in literature, with no historians doing computational work, is fascinating, & worth a read: dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/computa...

yup, it's a non-ideological cross-cutting campaign that can help dems perform well with people aligned with them on an axis other than D vs R (this is also how trump won in 2024, just with prices)

Not to get too technical, but wouldn't the Resurrection be the "most important event since the birth of Christ?" www.cbsnews.com/news/ken-bur...

Is it standard practice for CBP to leave a weapon it believes was used in the commission of a crime sitting in place?

I have nothing really useful to say about Dick Cheney so I’ll just add that I’m stunned to be reminded that he was as young as 59 when he became Vice-President. One of those people I always assumed was born at 75.

Kids are home today (schools close here for Election Day) so I figured what the heck and made pumpkin donuts.

When we founded Contingent, we wanted to be a history magazine that didn't just publish "relevant" history that was responding directly to the news, because that often meant a narrow vision of history . . . but it was okay because in 2019, other outlets were publishing historians more. And now?

A few years ago, we did a series called Personal Pan Histories. Each piece came with a recipe by the author. We didn't ask people to pitch simple comfort foods, but they did. Anyway, it's a good time to revisit a series of six pieces about what food means to us.

I mean, all the best baseball people are here.

YES YOU SHOULD VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS TOMORROW EVEN IF MAMDANI IS NOT ON THE BALLOT WHERE YOU LIVE

I've been thinking about #TeenVogue this afternoon in the wake of the publication laying off its entire politics staff and why its political coverage has been so successful across such a broad spectrum of readers. And I think it's precisely because they didn't try to speak to everyone. /1

thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting. now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.

Teen Vogue has become a top-tier political journalism authority and doing this the day before election day is just cruel.

On a semi-related note, if you remember Ivan Tribble it's probably time to schedule your colonoscopy.

Congrats to @civilwarmemory.bsky.social on twenty years of blogging!

Not a surprise, but gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

Calling all Cambridge and Boston Metro West Blueskis!

The thing about sandwiches is that if you throw them from outside point blank range, they are severely affected by air resistance. THAT'S WHY SUBMARINE WARFARE PRODUCES SO FEW TRUE HEROES!

Well that’s gonna be an interesting barometer of where the game is right now.

Working on another new @bfworld.bsky.social episode for November this week. There are several bonus episodes in November and December because @kawulf.bsky.social, @jmadelman.bsky.social, and I had opportunities for great interviews.

Before we at @contingent-mag.bsky.social do our Face/Off project in the new year, we want to try a few with editors as participants so we can get the wrinkles smoothed out. Any contingent non-historian who studies women’s friendship (19th c US good but not required) want to try w/me? (it’s paid!)

It doesn’t matter what I think. Also, none of this would ever happen. But if I had a zillion dollars: 1. Run a “we do hard things” campaign across southern and rust belt states. Invest heavily in local, state and regional social infrastructure. Sponser later hours at a library, build a skate park…

That Game 7 is gonna get me through a good number of the 100 or so days until pitchers and catchers report, but not enough.