Today, of all days, PLEASE take a few minutes to read the dozens of reasons martial law will NEVER work in the U.S. Explained in detail by a former DOD employee who worked extensively on the military occupation in Afghanistan. Trump & Hegseth do NOT know that aspiration ≠ practical reality.

Political violence and threats are not the answer. This is a watershed moment — we can choose to stay silent and live in fear, or we can choose to be loud for peace and compassion. We must work together to stop this crisis, and it should start from the top with the President.

They don’t have the power to do what they’re threatening on a grand scale. But they want us to think they do.

Seattle friends, please join us tomorrow 7 to 8 pm in one of the West Coast’s all time best bookstores (and a family fave)

Having a lot of fun today answering the excellent questions all you smart people are asking me for my Ask Me Anything over on Reddit for @askhistorians.bsky.social Come join us! #art #history #revolution #women #blackhistory

Cannot wait to be in conversation with curator extraordinaire Carol Soltis at the Philadelphia Museum of Art July 24th! We start with some time in the galleries with early American art and then move into a talk and Q & A—join us, Philly friends! philamuseum.org/calendar/eve...

Back from #SHEAR2025, now back to writing Worlds Turned Upside Down: Episode 22: The Siege, featuring an appearance by Mercy Otis Warren and her 1775 play, "The Group" quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/t...

Honored to have a new article in Colonial Williamsburg’s Trend and Tradition—“Martha Washington’s Quilts.” A pleasure to work w/the magazine’s talented editors and designers! Read for why we often find early American women’s history (enslaved and free) in things like cloth. lnkd.in/eCEp248c

Thanks for a great feature @literaryhub.bsky.social—honored to be in your publication!

Boston friends, please join us Wednesday July 23 for the inaugural Jack Grinold Lecture in American Art and Architecture at the Massachusetts Historical Society!

Genealogy in early America wasn’t just about ancestry—it shaped freedom, power & identity. Historian Karin Wulf joins us to explore how lineage helped early Americans define themselves. 🎧 Listen: benfranklinsworld.com/416 #History #Genealogy #USHistory #VastEarlyAmerica

Here it is, my 233rd #ScholarSunday thread, full of so much awesome public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Great piece by @drzara.bsky.social -- with a terrific analysis of a case championed by the famous artist Patience Wright and also Benjamin Franklin. But once habeas was suspended, there was little anyone could do. That's the lesson, and the key history.//

What is habeas corpus and what's its history in the U.S.? @drzara.bsky.social has an excellent article in TIME that explains why habeas corpus was so important to this country's founders. time.com/7288973/amer...

Tonight! 6:30 pm. So looking forward to being back in DC talking about THE PAINTER’S FIRE at the American Revolution Institute (Society of the Cincinnati). An excellent excuse to break out some military history to complement the art! C-SPAN will be recording this one so stay tuned on how to watch

A key to being a historian. Your subjects are looking FORWARD in time.

Now streaming! Thing4Things Podcast, Episode 4 “CAP” Everywhere but their heads. Our fourth episode follows the travels of a cap that won’t stay put. And has a lot to tell us about liberty and its limits— making it, a perfect listen for your Independence Day weekend.

Dear fellow Americans, This 4th of July, we wish we could share your stories with the world, like we’ve done for 83 years. But we can’t. Our voice has been silenced. #SaveVOA #happy4thofjuly

Damn honored to be featured in Damn History!! Thank you @jackelhai.bsky.social

Happy publication day to @drzara.bsky.social for her exciting new book _The Painter's Fire_ about an intense group of revolutionaries! I talked w Dr. Z for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social 😀🤓 #VastEarlyAmerica www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thes...

Could not imagine more of a dream team to kick off publication day for THE PAINTER’s FIRE! Thank you @kawulf.bsky.social @smithsonianmag.bsky.social for highlighting my newest book on its birthday

Super excited to be in conversation with my friend Kevin Butterfield at the iconic Politics and Prose Bookstore! DC area friends, please join us

What can we do against such reckless hate? Enjoy & share widely the solidarity with all the amazing work in my 231st #ScholarSunday thread of public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the last week. 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

In our latest episode of the Thing4Things Podcast, a fringed shirt is not all it seems. With expert guest the brilliant and fashionable Amanda Vickery!

Colin Firth’s wet shirt from Pride and Prejudice has a starring role in our newest episode of Thing4Things Podcast (called, fittingly enough, “SHIRT”)! www.thing4thingspodcast.com

Historians are on 🔥 this week! Special thanks, Ben, for the Thing4Things Podcast shout out!

It’s too damn hot to be outside, & the world's burning anyway, so why not stay in & check out all the amazing public scholarly writing, podcast eps, new books from the last week in my 230th #ScholarSunday thread? Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

Thing4Things Podcast Episode 2 “MONUMENT” is now LIVE! A strange tale of a tail is the thing at the heart of our latest episode. This week’s expert is the fabulously brilliant art historian Wendy Bellion.

Past and Prologue

It’s never been more important for historians to speak up and speak truth about America’s founding era

New history podcast now LIVE 🥳 Check out episode 1: “KEY” now streaming everywhere you like to listen. It’s just the start of our 10 episode first season on “The Stuff of Revolution.” www.thing4thingspodcast.com

Team: Set your pocket watches for June 12th. Worlds Turned Upside Down contributor @drzara.bsky.social and fellow historian Jo Cohen are launching a new podcast called Thing4Things. Season One will offer us "The Stuff of Revolution." www.thing4thingspodcast.com

Here it is, my 228th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Please add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...

"This was an experiment by a kindergarten class. They dropped seeds in the cracks of the sidewalk to see what would happen. This would help our bees " via I Love Bees

BREAKING: Chief Judge James Boasberg finds that those people sent to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15-16 had their due process rights violates and certifies them as a class. He orders that the government "facilitate" the ability for them to seek habeas relief.

Bernie: "What that is all about is that if you're rich in America, you can make campaign contributions, you are entitled to massive tax breaks because you're superhuman beings. But if you're a poor working stiff, working at McDonald's, struggling to put food on the table, you're entitled to nothing"

Boasberg: "Absent this relief, the Government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country, and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action." An unassailable point. The fact that the U.S. government is fighting this tells you what you need to know.

Getting so excited for the June 27-28 seminar on the #publichistory of the American Revolution. The keynote by @drzara.bsky.social is going to be 🔥! Register here for in-person or online (talks accesssible for a month)! www.historic-deerfield.org/events/dubli...

Sauron wants to dominate Middle Earth. We sat down with him to discuss his love for rings. - Rohan Sun-Telegraph

New or forthcoming trade and academic releases by talented early modern/18th-century historians that I look forward to reading this summer.👇 Spread the word! @juliagaffield.bsky.social @marcusrediker.bsky.social @kawulf.bsky.social

A throughline in backlash politics since Reconstruction is the idea that civil rights is driven by what Trump calls "anti-white feeling." In late 1867, for example, an editor complained about Congress's plan to enact "pro-black and anti-white legislation." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/u...

“I will not yield to disrespectful men.” Put it on a canvas, then put it in the Louvre

At the start of the book 1984, Winston Smith is watching people celebrate the rise in chocolate rations and thinking, No, chocolate rations have been cut! Don’t these people remember? I’m thinking about this because the stock market is celebrating tariffs of 30%, which means prices going up.

Jefferson Davis was captured by U.S. soldiers on May 10, 1865. Rumors circulated that Davis was disguised in women's clothing when he was caught, and the northern press gleefully ridiculed Davis for it. What a drag for the Confederacy! www.loc.gov/resource/pga...

Dr. Carla Hayden has served as Librarian of Congress with honor and distinction, bringing our prized institution to new heights.   Trump’s outrageous, politically-motivated move to fire her is despicable. The Library of Congress belongs to the American people — NOT to Trump.

Even *if* you accept Stephen Miller’s (textually, historically, and morally indefensible) claim that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to due process, you’d *still* need due process to ensure that the individuals at issue are, in fact, undocumented. His argument fails even on its own terms.

University leaders need to understand: they are holding INCREDIBLY good cards. It is so rare in today's polarized era to have the support of 70+ percent of the public against the Trump admiministration on anything. Universities have that—AND winning legal arguments.

Here is our first preview for the opening of *The Return of Benjamin Lay* at Quintessence Theatre (@quintessencephl.bsky.social) in Philadelphia May 1 — a play “for the moment! www.phillyvoice.com/return-of-be...

The 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775 continues with a new episode of @bfworld.bsky.social! #History tells us who we are. In Lexington & Concord 250 years ago, it told the world Americans wouldn't back down. Join the #BFWorld podcast for a deep dive into 1775! 🔥

The idea that biology defines womanhood (or maleness) is quite literally the genus point, modus operandi, and logic of patriarchy. Whilst complexity reduction can be (strategically) useful within advocacy, pretending that it is an underlying reality is ultimately violent and destructive.