Ned Blackhawk's magisterial epic reimagining of American history ftw. @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Worth noting you likely wouldn't have this pointed but helpful kind of interagency critique in a world without agency independence--at least not unless a president wants it. I don't think people realize how much we gain from structured conflict in the executive branch. www.npr.org/2026/01/27/n...

Standing with 65 of my UMN Law colleagues (and counting) to condemn ICE’s lawless conduct towards Minnesotans: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Sometimes we talk about the enduring presence of genocidal institutions in a metaphorical way. But sometimes it’s physical. ictnews.org/news/former-...

my Blackest opinion is that the presumption of conflict between "America has a long and deeply rooted history of violence" and "we can and should fight against today's version of that, as did those who came before us" is less a philosophical debate about how to treat the past and more a skill issue

With respect, I understand the need to foster a national identity that resists authoritarianism. But reminders of the Trail of Tears don't undermine this effort; they strengthen it. Excluding these histories makes U.S. authoritarianism harder to recognize because its patterns no longer feel familiar

The incomparable @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social with a short explainer worth your attention

#SCOTUS hears oral argument today in Wolford (2d Am (right to "bear arms")). An issue lurks behind the scenes: whether Bruen's history & tradition preempts property/customary law, supplanting local law with a "national tradition." Here, preempting Hawai'i's tradition banning guns for over 200 years.

Oglala Sioux Tribe demands the release of Lakota men detained by ICE www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Friendly reminder, apropos of nothing: Greenland is a nearly autonomous Indigenous-governed nation, not an empty landscape to be "discovered" and "protected" by the United States (or any other "civilized" European nation).

🗃️ Time to rewrite immigration history with Native history in mind. The US was founded on the conquest, dispossession, removal, exploitation, or genocide of Native people. Denial of that fact generated counter-myths: empty land, waste land, Manifest Destiny—and the slogan “nation of immigrants.” 🧵1/7

Trump says US oversight of Venezuela could last years, NYT reports reut.rs/3Z26kLj

Friends, I hope you’ll share this widely. The @jcblibrary.bsky.social is hiring 2 3-yr research associates for collaborative work on religions and freedoms in the early Americas. Info is here and I’m happy to take questions offline: brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-...

A project I am organizing is hiring a part time workshop coordinator. Applications due January 1. Do you have experience working with Indigenous young people? Do you have experience in creative writing? This job might be right for you! App link in thread -->

My latest, in the @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

Jeff Landry is the Governor of Louisiana.

Hathaway: "The relative peace of the last eight decades should not be taken for granted. []The peace was never perfect. Yet the pact accomplished something remarkable: Conquest, once common, became rare, and fewer people died as a result of nations joining in conflicts outside their own borders."

How to access Legal Theory Blog and the Legal Theory Lexicon! Legal Theory Blog is now at buff.ly/ExRaHzr. The Legal Theory Lexicon is at buff.ly/QRjaM5E. There is a Table of Contents for the Lexicon: buff.ly/QNKOgiH

Almost a year ago, a great light went out: Sarah Lee Best, Penn Law '21, was one of 67 souls aboard the flight that collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac. Sarah was my student and I am honored to join in a dedication to her memory: pennlawreview.com/2025/12/23/f...

New book alert, absolute must-read for anyone interested in the history of US empire and international law: Allison Powers, Arbitrating Empire: United States Expansion and the Transformation of International Law global.oup.com/academic/pro...

This evening at 5 pm—live cast on Zoom and @nyu.edu—the revolution that never ended, with Ken Burns.

At #ASLH where @tannerallread.bsky.social Tanner Allread accepts the Kathryn T. Preyer Award!

Blum of Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) is targeting the Kamehameha Schools-privately run schools founded by descendants of King Kamehameha in 1887 (before the overthrow and annexation of the Kingdom by the U.S.) Refusing all federal funds, the schools aim to preserve Native Hawai'ian culture./1

Again, your mostly non-profit mostly uni press humanities publishers are not the thing making a wreckage of scholarly publishing. Paying for their work is a good thing, and we should keep doing that.

Blum of Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA) is targeting the Kamehameha Schools-privately run schools founded by descendants of King Kamehameha in 1887 (before the overthrow and annexation of the Kingdom by the U.S.) Refusing all federal funds, the schools aim to preserve Native Hawai'ian culture./1

Just a reminder that "en banc" review in the Ninth Circuit is ... unique. The full court (29 active judges, currently with a 16-13 D-R split) votes on whether or not to rehear a case en banc. If so, then *10* judges are randomly drawn to sit with Chief Judge Murguia as the "en banc" court.

Judge Graber is a brilliant and thoughtful jurist. As the first woman to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court, she holds deeply informed views on federalism. I'm also wildly biased, but she is the most beautiful writer (a skill she often restrains because she believes strongly in judicial moderation).

I’ll be speaking at The Henry Ford Theater on November 8 to present "We're Still Here: Fighting Indigenous Erasure in the Media.” Register and get tickets:

What an honor and absolute pleasure it was to spend the week at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Study Center and with the Rothbaum/Jankowsky Family! It was also a delight to present new material from the book project on colonial administration.

We hope everyone enjoyed our 22nd Rothbaum Lecture Series in Representative Government. Our speaker this year was Professor @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social from NYU Law. Her talk was titled "Colonial Administration: Empire, Civilization, and the Making of Political Science"

'Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny' wins the @historians.org John E. O’Connor Film Award for outstanding interpretations of history through film. It was an honour to work and appear on this beautifully edited, timely, documentary. www.pbs.org/wnet/america...

Looking forward to the half-dozen or so lectures and talks that @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social will be delivering here at OU this week! An embarrassment of riches for us Sooners!

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

Adapting Ned Blackhawk's National Book Award winner for young readers has been both an honor and a pleasure. I learned a lot while writing the adaptation, and I am looking forward to sharing this book with the world in Fall 2026.

New essay in the Atlantic today: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution by Ned Blackhawk (with many lessons on how we ended up where we are as a nation, and a gift link) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Fascinating and uncomfortable article. Well worth reading.

This is true of most commonly used history textbooks, including the unironically titled: "Give Me Liberty!" wwnorton.com/books/978132...

New essay in the Atlantic today: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution by Ned Blackhawk (with many lessons on how we ended up where we are as a nation, and a gift link) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Concur in full. I had the opportunity to do a similar program with Maggie and Ned, and it was an incredible experience. I'd recommend it especially to people who are looking for ways to better incorporate Native peoples and histories into their teaching and research.

Political violence, post-pandemic one-party rule, vast economic inequality, and immigration backlash? The 2020s are the 1920s all over again--and that may show us a way out. Adapted from my book, to be published next week. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Anyone would be very lucky to have Nathaniel Donahue in their workshops! His project on corvee labor and U.S. state building is fascinating, and worth a read even in these trying times.

Thanks so much, Mary! Deadline 10/10 to apply for the free seminar for junior faculty and grad students on Native peoples and the Constitution.

I'm excited about our upcoming Rothbaum Lectures given by Maggie Blackhawk! Lectures are free and open to the public.

New Ken Burns!!!! New Ken Burns!!!!!

ca. 250 years go we began a domestic war to define what North America would become. Ken Burns on the Revolution that is still ongoing. Honored (and still pretty surprised) to have contributed. m.youtube.com/watch?v=lruE...

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

I understand there are bigger problems, especially for the academy. But I miss the days when “difficult” meant that a speaker mustered immense evidence to shift entrenched paradigms—and not “difficult” meaning conflict with partisan priors. Difficult meant that 800 pages later minds were blown open.

What-does-God-want-with-a-starship voice: "What does 'from' mean?"

Calling all middle and high school teachers! Drawing inspiration from Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary, The American Revolution, join us for a full day of free, in-person professional development on Friday, October 17th at the JCB. Registration required! forms.gle/CT83ESjTZWeg...

It's been almost 90 years since the Supreme Court in Erie v. Tompkins disallowed federal court application of general common law. There has, however, been a revival of interest in the general common law, something we'll be discussing this spring at UChicago! www.law.uchicago.edu/events/eries...