Wetland the course of empire takes its way

I secretly divide my relatives into "funny," "neither here nor there but an easy sense of humor," and "relentlessly not funny"

"Ruckus," eh? As if we needed further proof that Wu-Tang is for the children. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Hy...

Spoiler alert--the AHR editors are huge Broadway musical fans, so all of the objects are trombones. Every. Single. One.

Oh, man, I cannot WAIT to see what everyone else is presenting. (Well, I read Ken’s essay in draft, but the others!)

I just found out that the last great uncle of my grandparents’ generation died today (the great aunts and grandparents are all gone). He was 101! A committed socialist and advocate for women’s rights and civil rights.

My son requested this in the car today. I regret to inform you that it has been 35 years. 💾 youtube.com/watch?v=_Kzt...

The '60s were so weird. www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUd...

13 JUNE 1776, NEW YORK: The committee of safety strips Lorenda Holmes, a woman who has previously worked as a Loyalist courier, and displays her naked for hours in an upstairs window to “many Thousands” of passersby in the street outside.

12 JUNE 1776, NEW YORK: “Several, and among them gentlemen, were carried on rails; some stripped naked and dreadfully abused”: In the culmination of three nights of anti-Tory riots, New Yorkers beat an enslaved woman to death and parade men through the street as they torture them.

13 JUNE 1776, NEW YORK: Christopher Benson, one of the Tories who has so far eluded the city’s rioters, visits Washington after last night’s public torture of four men and “begged him to protect him.” Washington replies he won’t “trouble himself with any Thing of the kind.”

Historian here—we’ll be collecting more endorsements as the centuries unfold

I just got back from this conference and I learned a TON. I had fun (maybe too much) at our plenary session on the new essay volume (Fire and Freedom: the AmRev in NY). Congratulations to the organizers on a very well-run small conference. Marist University was a great host, too.

Ok, here's that podcast episode! They posted it yesterday. Clarke Peters introduces me around minute 35. www.noiser.com/founding-fat...

I got a query via the website today where the person wrote, "I ask not as a teacher, crazy person, or historian..." So I laughed, and then I paused at "crazy person" and said to myself, "I'll be the judge of that!" (It was a perfectly sane query as far as I can tell.)

George Thorogood orders a bourbon, Scotch, and beer in celebration

This is terrible news. RIP Gordon Wood. www.golocalprov.com/news/pulitze...

Here's a new podcast, "Founding Fathers: An American Dream," narrated by Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon on "The Wire"). They used some previous recordings of an interview with me for episode 2, which comes out Friday, 6/12 www.noiser.com/founding-fat...

12yo played this (singing, rapping, and bass guitar) at his recital last night—highlight of the night for me! youtu.be/M1N_wbhAfQ4

Chumbawamba could only dream of the day when the perfect subject for their song would emerge

Cowards ban books. And if you’ve read this one, you know who silence protects…

I am reading Speak by @halseanderson.bsky.social in part because it’s so iconic; I’m only on p. 28 and man, it is a tough go

I saw the list of the day’s patients at my dentist’s office, and a Mr. Plaks is scheduled to come in this afternoon, 😬🦷🪥

Never has “gonna make ya sweat til ya bleed” sounded so menacing

This is true in the sense that chopping down a tree is a lot more consequential than pruning it

Or for the genre geeks, you just say, “hey, it’s canon!”

Unsurprisingly, since NYS was the most populous state from 1810 to 1962, it also had the largest number of casualties of any state during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.

Me watching younger Mets fans griping on here:

This reminds me of an old family in-joke where my grandmother asked my uncle who Sacco and Vanzetti were (because he was talking about them while studying) and he answered, “they were ballroom dancers”

As a joke, my high school chemistry teacher used to just say that all famous scientists had the first name "Joe." He also posited that many famous scientists had curly hair to conceal the fact that their brains were coming out of their ears. Honestly these were good mnemonics!

The triumph of this piece is that it argues--VERY SNEAKILY--that being from Brooklyn and Queens also makes you a Long Islander. Any day I'm in the mood to pick a fight, I will tell this to someone from one of those boroughs! She doesn't use SI, BX, or NJ as examples of "proximity without belonging"!

I was, by any reasonable standard, one of the jerks Carla grew up with, but I am not currently overtaking the country in any meaningful way. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/o...

Growing up in Nassau County: yep! It's where villains are born. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/o...

Lol, Washington *did* sometimes invoke "Providence," e.g., (writing to his cousin) when he said "Providence, or some good honest fellow, has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves," i.e., burning a fifth of NYC to the ground in 1776. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/a...

Congrats to Blake McGready, who defended his fantastic dissertation, "Making Nature’s Nation: The Revolutionary War and Environmental Interdependence in New York, 1775–1783" at @historygc.bsky.social today, and is headed to a postdoc at Brown next year! He left the place better than he found it!

Me, a former fastball pitcher: I was finished drinking at the bar, and I was all set to leave, when a guitar player I kinda remembered from high school arrived and talked me into a few drinks. We had nothing in common, so I had to talk about high school. Then he writes a song and mocks me for it!

New oath just dropped

some really, really exciting news. we're hiring a two-year reporting fellow to cover higher ed in NYC but especially CUNY!! come work with me and dive into an amazing, complicated and under-covered beat

Wouldn't the birth of Muhammad, at least, be a more significant post-B.C. event than the American Revolution? There are a lot more Muslims than Americans.

It’s a hard-knock life For them!

Well if there’s one thing I’ve enjoyed about public sector union membership it’s the overweening power over City Hall and Albany…

Historian here, historian there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money!

My book is on goodreads! If you've had the chance to read it, I encourage you to leave an honest review. It would be appreciated if you did so on the actual Amazon page as well. Thanks in advance! #LocalHistory #IndieAuthor #IWW #Review www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

Sometimes you film these things and you have no idea what it’ll become. Well, this is what it became! www.netflix.com/tudum/articl...

Last night I got to go to one of the opening receptions for this exhibition at MCNY ("The Occupied City: New York and the American Revolution")--it's incredible! Really excited for what these folks have done; everyone go check it out.

Walk through New York and you’re walking through Revolutionary history. A new exhibition co-curated by @gothamcenter.bsky.social, led by alumnus Peter-Christian Aigner, uncovers the city’s often overlooked role in the American Revolution www.gc.cuny.edu/news/new-exh...

Who will be the leftist of 2026 to create the next schlock collection? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"Facially neutral"; sort of like a 100-year labor contract.

Someone in my neighborhood has started going outside to the edge of the small park/playground area and playing the bagpipes; I can hear it while WFH. If I'm being completely honest, I don't hate it!

The South, Midwest, West Coast, etc., get their due, but about a third of the songwriters on this list are from Greater New York City. You could say, well, it's the Times, they're notoriously provincial, but NYC is also a good place to think up music. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...