Since the start of Trump’s second term, the number of children in ICE detention has increased sixfold. In their letters, kids held at the Dilley center told us about missing their friends, being unable to go to school and feeling trapped.

A little bit of #Revolutionary history & #urbanhistory: as Patriots fled west from New York City, this was the moment when #NewJersey 's Manhattan-adjacent towns first began to gain a kind of suburban-urban density that would never from that point stop accreting #Jersey #AmericanRevolution #history

Really looking forwd to teaching the #SuperBowl #BadBunny halftime show in dialogue w/ American energy history & colonialism in the future. #envhist #energy #colonialism #sugarcane #electricpower

My book,The Sweet Taste of Empire focuses on Anglo Caribbean, but shows the importance of sugar to the global economy & the racial order in the West. Bad Bunny turns the white mastery embedded in sugar/slave complex on its head: highlighting vibrant, resilient culture that emerged from history

When ye olde Julian and Gregorian calendars add hours to verifying footnotes and cross-checking sources to set the dates straight, I'm grateful to have been a distance swimmer...early American history is an endurance sport! #amwriting #earlyAmhist #vastearlyAmerica

the bushes were people 😂

This kind of smart, walkable, mixed-use urbanism is illegal to build in most American cities.

Brick acting as wall, floor and somewhere to sit in Shiraz, Iran By Mahsa Saeidi

And so, with Bad Bunny and the Puerto Rican electricity crisis, the climate disaster finally made it into the Super Bowl. This is the kind of image that might show up in a history timeline or even a textbook someday.

100% wyth Elmo on thys

Whenever somebody says “So you do environmental history? That must be a new niche subfield or something.” I tell them about this guy.

Gift article. This is a great story about a neglected artistic legacy of the New Deal, the public art found in post offices across the US. Sadly, it’s also testament to the skill of a variety of WaPo employees who were just laid off.

For reference, his name comes up more often in the Epstein Files than Harry Potter's name does in the Harry Potter novels.

Ok, it's 1 °F in New Haven, and I just ordered a giant bag of chocolate online for melting. The world is a mess. Somehow chocolate seems like a good thing to have for this February 2026. Sharing this recipe in case you, too, need chocolate. May look decadent, but it's high in iron and magnesium!

Whenever tech companies claim it’s technological magic, it’s ALWAYS capital exploiting somebody’s labor.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

An excellent project - documenting these erasures of history at federal sites is a vital part of the #resistance.

I'm a huge fan of Claudio Saunt's project on land claims and treaties and cessions that is so revelatory in its scope-- pic 1 is 1776, pic 2 is 1876. Blue is Indian homelands, gray is unceded territory, red is reservations. usg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappv...

This was my exact reaction. C'mon NYT, we don't need more anxiety in our lives! And with weather like we're having, my scarf didn't keep me warm outside or inside today, no matter how it was tied or how much fringe it had. I'm worried less about Gen Z fashion, more concerned about paying for heat 😒

I've got a new article out today—the first in a three-part series written with the United States' #Semiquincentennial in mind. Come for the maps, stay for the #envhist @nichecanada.bsky.social @bplmaps.bsky.social @yalewhc.bsky.social @asehearlycareer.bsky.social

they're executing moms and nurses in the street. they're using preschoolers as bait. they're stealing people's dads and grandmas and children. they're tear gassing babies. they're staking out schools. there is no remedy but abolition. any proposal that doesn't start there is an act of violence.

In Altadena, the Palisades, and other recent fire disasters, there was one thing many fire victims had in common: they were unable to drive themselves out. In Katrina, there was no plan to help people without cars evacuate. With planning, public transit can literally be a lifesaver.

New on the blog! The 4th entry in our January partnership with @nichecanada.bsky.social; Carmen Gilmore on species loss in Saskatoon: themetropole.blog/2026/01/15/r... #envhist

A freshly made snowman ready to greet all passerby this snowy Sunday in #NewHaven

FYI: In 1916 the U.S. signed an agreement for control of St. Thomas, St. John & St. Croix, known as the “Danish West Indies,” in exchange for $25 million & a declaration that the U.S. would “not object to the Danish Govt extending their political & economic interests to the whole of Greenland.

Lyrics for today: "Father, father /We don't need to escalate /You see, #war is not the answer /For only love can conquer hate /You know we've got to find a way /To bring some lovin' here today /Picket lines & picket signs /Don't punish me with brutality /Talk to me /So you can see /What's goin' on."

In love with Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet’s “Christmas Avenue” New Yorker cover

It can take time to turn people into conservationists, but it can be done with perseverance #Conservation #Restoration #EndangeredSpecies #NaturalHistory therevelator.org/piping-plove...

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Winter light this afternoon, New Haven Green. Soft blur, to soothe, for these troubled times.

Thinking of all those under lockdown at Brown; those who lost their friends and loved ones, and those students injured; the students shaken from the trauma; and the students who are experiencing gun violence disrupting their lives again. Just terrible. 😞 www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...

An energetic #flower to carry you thru the #wintersolstice and onward, to spring.

Proud to say, my former PhD student Jack Bouchard, now at Rutgers University, has published an outstanding new work in Atlantic history: *Terra Nova: Food, Water, and Work in an Early Atlantic World*, with Yale University Press. Congratulations, Jack! yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Disparu il y a quarante ans, Fernand Braudel a profondément marqué les sciences sociales en forgeant des concepts durables pour penser le capitalisme. Son œuvre continue d'éclairer les mutations de l'économie, ses rythmes, ses espaces et ses rapports de force.

Going to have to go see this one, as it's right around the corner in #Hartford...

Ooof, my listening age is 78. I think Vivaldi is throwing off the average! Can't just be all the 60's music on my wakeup playlist Surely not! 🤣 #spotifywrapped

Record-breaking 75-year-old mother #bird prepares to nest. Wisdom has been laying #eggs since the Eisenhower Administration. #Albatross #WorldsOldestBreedingBird #Bird Link for more info, #photos & video: www.popsci.com/environment/...

Full moon skies 🌝

Took a half day off today to frolic in the snow. Not complaining! #snow #Catskills #mountaintime

Recent sidewalk encounters: An errant stove. An ice box. It just so happens I’m writing about both things currently in my dissertation… Yes, you heard it right: stoves and ice! 🧊 Both important understudied topics in 19th century American #envhist and #energyhistory 🔥

@svenbeckert.bsky.social’s new global history of capitalism — looks great👇 www.penguin.co.uk/books/295668...

"This sets off a feedback loop, in which the cold, fresh water released by that melt interacts with the warm, salty water to intensify the spinning of the underwater storm, causing even more melting" #Antarctica

What a “road diet” and renovating for safe, pedestrian and cyclist friendly streets looks like… with Willie Wright’s “Right on for Darkness”’ as soundtrack 😀🎶🎸 #roaddiet #safestreets #NewHaven #righton

Grey Heron #canonwildlifephotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #naturephotography #nature #photography #birds #naturelovers #birdsofinstagram #birdphotography #animals #travel #bird #photooftheday #natgeo #birdwatching

🚨🌳🌎 “A ‘Forest COP’ with no commitment on forests is a very bad joke.” — Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez

Oh so you don’t want generative AI? Nice inbox you got there be a shame if something was to happen to it (cracks knuckles)

Straight up evil is correct. And losing the automatic separating of your inbox into primary, promotions, social, and forums is infuriating.

CFP: The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife 2026: Futurecasting, Futurekeeping: New Englanders Imagine Worlds to Come. June 26–27, Deerfield, Massachusetts. dublin-seminar.org/2026-call-fo...

Final fall blooms in #NewHaven this week. Found this calendula in my writing break round-the-block walk thriving in a stone and concrete microclimate 🍃🍂🌨️ 11.21.25 #fall #flowers

Very good to see progress on this important project, which is designed to link dense suburban New Jersey cities.