Devastated by the shooting at Brown University, just a short walk away from home. Students have been sheltering in place for hours, hiding as they have been sadly trained to do instead of studying for exams & preparing to go home for the holidays. My heart breaks for my Providence community.

The ch that @profjessblankshain.bsky.social and I wrote focuses on how the Total Force Policy affected the reserves: “Combined with the post–Cold War security environment, it fundamentally changed the way the reserve component is employed, increasing its operational use and professionalization.”

This was a lot of fun.

"Matthiessen’s many masks are on display in True Nature, a deeply researched and artfully executed biography. ... Mr. Richardson has drawn from an enormous range of sources ... to better understand a gifted, difficult man who, for all his adventures and good fortune, seemed resolutely dissatisfied."

"True Nature" on the Washington Post list of notable nonfiction books in 2025.

Gosh. "A magnificent literary biography, painstakingly researched, intricately organized, and beautifully written, fully worthy of its sensitive, restless, and driven subject. ... It should be of interest to anyone drawn to the search for our true nature and the deepest truths of the human heart."

Ouch! Feeling kind of old as one of that “earlier generation” that engaged in “shopworn” debates :) Great review of important recent work on qualitative methods! I would add Fairfield and Charman on formal Bayesian process tracing as one of the key recent contributions.

Two book events this weekend! Both with exceptional writer friends. Saturday in DC: Politics & Prose with @carlhoffman.bsky.social at 3pm. Details here: politics-prose.com/lance-richar... Sunday in Providence: Riffraff with @francescawade.bsky.social at 6pm. Details here: riffraffpvd.com/events/

Yes, this is largely symbolic, as the House has already indicated it will not take it up. But the Senate is sending a loud, bipartisan signal across the street to SCOTUS, who will be considering the very question of who decides whether a national emergency exists to justify global tariffs next week.

Going to be a fun one. DC peeps, come out for it!

Two book events this week! Tuesday eve: Broadside Books, in Northampton, with Hans Teensma and @daeganmiller.bsky.social. Thursday night: The Leon Levy Center for Biography, in Manhattan, with @pgourevitch.bsky.social. Both will be wonderful. Links below. (Pic of the first Paris Review office.)

2 fast, 2 furloughed (pro-American democracy version). #🇺🇸 #🗽

This move could also weaken Congress’s oversight over these ops. Adm. Holsey’s successor will require Senate confirmation, which would invite questions that have thus far gone unanswered. Having his deputy serve in an acting capacity for an extended period skirts scrutiny & erodes advice & consent.

In my book, I argue that this kind of elite disagreement is an important constraint in democracies. And up til now these concerns would make the president think twice, so the “stepping down” would not ever happen. Now it’s happening, but there’s nobody else to pay attention to the fire alarm.

A dream launch at the New York Public Library last night.

The writer Peter Matthiessen traveled the world looking for elusive snow leopards and rare cranes. But a new biography shows that the genuine self he was really seeking would be much harder to find, writes John Kaag:

Reviewed in The New Yorker.

Early review (two days early, anyway) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Beautifully written, insightful, and engaging, 'True Nature' is a tour de force depiction of a charismatic, restless, self-absorbed, immensely talented literary lion."

We were 2 fast 2 furlough at the Newport Half Marathon.

Launch events next week! NYPL: www.showclix.com/event/richar... BPL: www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/lan... NWS: nationalwritersseries.org/author-event...

There is an alternate universe in which I studied art history and dd my dissertation on this topic: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/a...

Folks we are watching the adjudication of some of the most important constitutional issues of federalism, executive discretion, and judicial review since the 19th c www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

I'm seeing a) assertions that no one has been thinking about the issues raised by these NG deployments and b) confident assertions about complicated legal issues. So a friendly reminder that we do have experts on domestic use of the U.S. military, and even they don't have clear answers! ⬇️

Book Launch! October 14 at the New York Public Library. Should be a really fun evening. Tickets (free) here: www.showclix.com/event/richar...

Floored by this review of my book by Pico Iyer. Gosh.

Book tour time! Excited to be hitting the road this fall to talk about Matthiessen and TRUE NATURE with these incredible people. Ticket links and full details at lancenrichardson.com/events. ❄️🐆

Going to start a review thread for my book ... earlier than expected! But today the first major review came out in The American Scholar. "True Nature is enthralling, expertly told, and based on extraordinary research."

“Season Scaries”: Like Sunday scaries, but reserved only for Labor Day and January 2.

So happy I stumbled upon the National Constitution Center's Interactive Constitution. The text is accompanied by short essays from legal scholars (e.g., @stevevladeck.bsky.social ) explaining debates about the interpretation of various sections and clauses. constitutioncenter.org/the-constitu...

Final North America cover of TRUE NATURE, and the blurbs on the back. Out October 14.

I wouldn’t tell anyone if I won the lottery, but there would be signs.

It's that time again--if you use any of my published work (or videos, podcasts, etc.) in a class you teach, could you please let me know? Thanks in advance!

“A comprehensive, compelling life of a man of many parts.” Kirkus weighs in. First pre-pub review.

"I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." -- James Baldwin, "Autobiographical Notes," in _Notes of a Native Son_ (1955) #FourthOfJuly #🗽

Reviewed James Rebanks's strange and beguiling new book for the Washington Post.

Why am I so unimpressed by these strikes? Israel and the US have failed to target significant elements of Iran's nuclear materials and production infrastructure. RISING LION and MIDNIGHT HAMMER are tactically brilliant, but may turn out to be strategic failures. 🧵 1/17

The US may be using threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities to get Iran to the negotiating table. Will it work? I can't credibly answer that. But I can tell you the factors that influence whether this type of threat works. There's 3 conditions for success, based on my research. 1/

For context on Israel-Iran, here's a list of cases where countries considered or used military force to stop nuclear proliferation in peacetime. It's from my new @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org book Influence Without Arms. Chapter 6 is devoted to explaining why preventive strikes happen.

🧵IR scholars, let's start a thread of what we know that's relevant for a US attack on Iran. Won't change any minds, but might help us teach this crisis and learn new angles. Please add (incl. your own work!), forgive/correct omissions. Nobody can cover everything and it's great to find new work. 1/?

Congratulations to the Naval War College class of 2025! We love a chance to wear our silly hats and robes. @lindsaypcohn.bsky.social @theomilo.bsky.social

I’ve found the parade criticism™ fascinating and maybe even a little disappointing, and this comes from someone who would have preferred the Army not to be put in this position in the first place. 1/

Thoughtful piece from @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social , who I believe is the only journalist I have spoken to (in my personal capacity as always) who had read my primer on US civ-mil www.vox.com/politics/416...

Thanks to @defenseone.bsky.social for publishing my latest on the military’s norm of nonpartisanship and why Army leaders must uphold and teach this, now more than ever. www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

After many, many discussions about the legal authorities surrounding the domestic use of the military, my main takeaway is that the continued existence of the rule of law is fundamentally a political problem, not a legal one.

To clarify, I'm not worried because this tells us something about the political views of "The Troops." I'm alarmed because of how many times/places professional norms had to break down for this to happen.

I probably shouldn’t say stuff like this without being clearer. It’s not entirely clear whether the 2000 Guard personnel mentioned by the admin will all be federalized CA Guard, or whether some might be Guard from other states whose Govs volunteer them.

Reminder that the most important constraints on domestic use of the U.S. military are political. I think it's still important to say when something is illegal, even if that doesn't appear to be constraining. But this is a realm where a lot of bad things are legal.

On this #D-Day anniversary, don’t miss this gripping @nytimes.com story by @nazaneentv.bsky.social on clashing organizational processes, bureaucratic compromises, & sheer Clausewitzian friction over weather forecasts that helped the Allies deliver a bold & daring victory in the Normandy landings.

Renaming ships never made anybody less gay (it just tells them that their service to their nation isn't valued)