#ScholarSunday Thread 239

What goes great with your holiday weekend bbqs & labor activism? My 239^th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all!

First, a reminder that my wife & are I working on a public scholarly website that will soon host these threads, our various writing & work, & hopefully y’all too. Watch this space for more!

Starting this week’s thread with some favorites from the week as usual, including Prisonculture on their pilgrimage to Chicago’s memorial to the legendary Ida B. Wells:

Wonderful essay from Ashley Steenson in Contingent magazine on her research trip to NYC’s iconic Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/08/26/postcard-from-a-southerner-in-harlem/

Rana Banks wrote for the Texas Observer about her experiences growing up & facing subtle everyday prejudice in a small town:

https://www.texasobserver.org/racism-wrapped-rural-warmth/

& I really enjoyed this Southern Cultures interview with & excerpt from Kalamu ya Salaam for its special issue “Katrina’s America”:

https://www.southerncultures.org/article/another-kind-of-city/

Lots of other great public scholarly writing this week as well, including Ryan Reft for the UHA’s Metropole blog on the 55^th anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium Anti-Vietnam War March:

https://themetropole.blog/2025/08/27/the-national-chicano-moratorium-and-ruben-salazar-inquest-55-years-later/

Solveig Marie Wang wrote for The History Workshop on reclaiming the medieval Saami past from white supremacist visions of the Middle Ages:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/indigenous-history/reclaiming-the-medieval-saami-past/

Fun piece from Sam Franz for the Consortium for History of Science, Technology, & Medicine on the political economy of universities & the rise of computing:

https://www.chstm.org/news/computing-centers-computer-science-political-economy-us-universities-and-rise-computing-1930

Speaking of universities, a trio of great pedagogy pieces for the start of the new semester, including Alexandra Garrett for the Journal of the Early Republic’s Panorama blog on using SNL’s George Washington skit in the survey classroom:

https://thepanorama.shear.org/2025/08/22/how-to-use-snls-washingtons-dream-2023-skit-in-the-early-american-history-survey/

Natalie Mendoza wrote for Teaching Military History on teaching students to complicate textbook narratives of WWII:

https://teachingmilitaryhistory.com/pedagogicalessays/eh8kyjy4jqd8iysnrkeu0ywurdff63#_msocom_4

While Andrew Joseph Pegoda wrote for his Medium column on resisting challenges & turning education from nonperformative to performative:

https://medium.com/thenextclassroom/is-education-a-nonperformative-cde83db7b888

Two excellent pieces for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Jose Luis Castro on Catholics in LA’s Mexican American civil rights struggle:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/los-angeles-fights-back/

& I enjoyed the latest Perspectives AHA Member Spotlight, on public historian & independent scholar Lori Rogers Stokes:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-member-spotlight-lori-rogers-stokes/

Six new columns from Saturday Evening Post colleagues this week (ahead of my new column which drops Monday), including Robert Annis on how we can give back to America’s National Parks:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/giving-back-to-our-parks/

While for her travel Post column, Teresa Bitler profiled Mary E.J. Colter, the architect behind the distinctive National Park architecture:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/the-architect-behind-parkitecture/

For the latest installment in her Commons Threads Post column, Einav Rabinovitch-Fox wrote about the history of avoiding wearing white after Labor Day:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/common-threads-wearing-white-after-labor-day/

While Selina Alipour Tabrizi wrote for the Post on the history of dangerous beauty tools:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/dying-to-look-good-dangerous-beauty-tools-throughout-history/

Ryan Reft wrote for the Post on how the death of a Mexican American journalist 55 years ago empowered the Chicano Movement:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/50-years-ago-a-journalists-death-empowers-the-chicano-movement/

Finally, I enjoyed the first installment in Post editor Troy Brownfield’s new series on defining moments across the 20^th century, this one focused on the 1900s, 10s, & 20s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/08/defining-each-decade-since-1900-part-1-1900-1910-and-1920/

Turning to current events, vital essay from Daniel Ziblatt in Foreign Affairs on lessons from Weimar Germany in why bargaining with authoritarians fails:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitler-warnings-weimar-democracy-daniel-ziblatt

Bobbi-Jeanne Misick wrote for Verite News on the 20^th anniversary of Katrina & how immigrants who helped in the recovery might be forced to leave by Trump’s policies:

https://veritenews.org/2025/08/29/new-orleans-immigrants-katrina-recovery/

Speaking of Trump’s policies, Isa Farfan wrote for Hyperallergic on some of the lowlights from his bulleted memo of Smithsonian Institution targets:

https://hyperallergic.com/1036180/trump-targets-lgbtq-history-migrants-and-more-in-chilling-smithsonian-hit-list/

While Clint Smith wrote for The Atlantic on how those attacks on the Smithsonian are an attempt to erase Black history (gift link below):

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-attack-smithsonian-slavery/683969/?gift=JORs3BlPb0E7W_6BAebCaJN1Mh7EJKQaGGCyaAfRDYI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

& here are Kimberlé Crenshaw & Jason Stanley for The Guardian on why these attacks on the Smithsonian matter so much:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/why-trumps-attack-on-the-smithsonian-matters?CMP=share_btn_url

Speaking of The Guardian, Katherine Kelaidis wrote there about how these battles over history reveals a key flaw in our education system:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-history-trump-education-liberal-arts?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Here’s Kate Wagner for The Nation on why Trump’s doomed proposal for a new White House ballroom offers a revealing glimpse into his state of mind:

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/white-house-ballroom-mccrery-postmodernism/

For Nursing Clio, Alycia Asai (host of the Civics & Coffee podcast) wrote about the hidden casualties of legislation such as the “Big Beautiful Bill”:

https://nursingclio.org/2025/08/27/hidden-casualties/

A handful of pieces this week on AI, including Derek Slater & Aram Sinnreich for Lawfare on what history can teach us about copyright & “market floods”:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-history-can-teach-us-about-copyright--ai--and--market-floods

While Ketan Joshi wrote for his blog on how Big Tech’s selective disclosure masks AI’s real climate impacts:

https://ketanjoshi.co/2025/08/23/big-techs-selective-disclosure-masks-ais-real-climate-impact/

Despite my own deep misgivings, I don’t want to share only negative pieces on AI, so I’ll add this New Yorker essay from Dan Rockmore on brainstorming with a chatbot:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-its-like-to-brainstorm-with-a-bot

But I very much agree with Ragini Tharoor Srinivisan for the Columbia University Press blog that AI could never have written his book Overdetermined:

https://cupblog.org/2025/08/22/why-ai-could-not-have-written-overdetermined-ragini-tharoor-srinivasan/

& we can’t separate AI from stories like this Observer piece from The Art Daddy on the death of the full-time art critic:

https://observer.com/2025/08/arts-opinion-death-of-the-full-time-critic-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-art-writing/

Gonna end this section with a couple inspiring stories about libraries, including Anna Trammell for the Internet Archive’s blog on public librarians preserving local digital heritage:

https://blog.archive.org/2025/08/27/public-librarians-partner-with-internet-archive-to-preserve-local-digital-heritage/

& really fun stuff from Liz Susman Karp for Civil Eats on how libraries are creating community through food programs:

https://civileats.com/2025/08/27/how-libraries-are-creating-community-through-food/

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Julia Rose Kraut on the history of ideological exclusion & deportation:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/IdeologicalExclusion/

For the latest episode of SSN’s No Jargon podcast, Michael S. Latner discussed gerrymandering & how maps decide elections:

https://scholars.org/podcast/how-maps-decide-elections

Over at Brandy Schillace’s Peculiar Book Club podcast, Sam Kelly joined to talk about his book Human History on Drugs:

While for the latest episode of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Jonathan Mahler about his book The Gods of New York:

For his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by John Cox to discuss the life & legacy of Harry Houdini:

While the Sport in History podcast shared Matthew Brown’s conference keynote lecture on sports history in South America:

https://shows.acast.com/sport-in-history-podcast/episodes/68ac393a352b565deb97c33a

A trio of podcast episodes on the Revolutionary War this week, including episode 18 of Jim Ambuske’s groundbreaking World’s Turned Upside Down:

https://www.r2studios.org/show/worlds-turned-upside-down/episode-18-the-resurrection/

While for episode 419 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast, she was joined by Nathan Schultz to discuss the North Carolina Regulator Movement:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-419-nathan-schultz-the-north-carolina-regulator-movement/

& episode 334 of the Hub History podcast focused on the siege of Boston & other developments in the summer of 1775:

https://www.hubhistory.com/episodes/hot-siege-summer-episode-334/

Moving forward a bit in time, the latest episode of the War of the Rebellion podcast (on which I’ll be a guest soon!) featured Thomas Helling on his book Sickly Vapors: Disease & Doctoring in the Old South:

& for an important post-Civil War history, check out the latest Civics & Coffee episode on broken promises to Mexican Americans during the Reconstruction period:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/reconstruction-beyond-the-south-the-broken-promises-to-mexican-americans/

A few decades later still, here’s part 1 of a two-part Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs episode on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-sinking-of-rms-lusitania-part-1/

& a few decades after that, here’s the folks from The Cold War Channel on the origins of the First Indochina War:

Turning to current events conversations, musician & author Rhett Miller joined Ana Marie Cox & Open Mike Eagle’s Past Due podcast to discuss staying creative in the 21^st century:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider talked Trump’s dictatorial dreams:

While for the latest episode of her Freedom Over Fascism podcast, Stephanie G. Wilson interviewed investigative journalist Ellie Leonard:

Longtime podcast partners Heather Cox Richardson & Joanne Freeman joined forces once more for a “What the Heck Just Happened?” conversation about current politics:

& for Chris Hayes’s Why Is This Happening? podcast, vital climate scientist & activist Bill McKibben joined to discuss the push for zero emissions:

A number of important new books out this week, including Brian Harnetty’s Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469691343/noisy-memory/

Also out this week from UNC Press is Jessica M. Lepler’s Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic & Pacific in the Age of Revolutions:

https://uncpress.org/9781469690551/canal-dreamers/

Out now from the new We Here Press is its flagship publication, Dorothy Berry’s The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities:

https://www.weherepress.org/

& also published this week was editor Robert Shail & Sheldon Hall’s Film Critics & British Film Culture: New Shots in the Dark from Edinburgh University Press:

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-film-critics-and-british-film-culture.html

While out this week in paperback is Pamela D. Toler’s The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany from Penguin Random House:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739146/the-dragon-from-chicago-by-pamela-d-toler/

Two forthcoming books now available for pre-order, including Tim Galsworthy’s The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, & the Transformation of the GOP from the University of South Carolina Press:

https://uscpress.com/The-Republican-House-Divided

Also forthcoming from Duke University Press is Katherine Gerbner’s Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion & Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irruptions

Over at the MIT Press Reader blog, Shohini Ghose excerpted her book Her Space, Her Time with a piece on the history of women in physics:

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-forgotten-half-life-of-women-in-physics/

While for Quill & Quire, Cassandra Drudi interviewed author Alison Li about her new biography of transgender medical pioneer Harry Benjamin:

https://quillandquire.com/authors/alison-li-on-her-biography-of-transgender-medical-pioneer-harry-benjamin/

For Women in Translation Month, the folks at the Mid Theory Collective asked critics, scholars, & translators for their favorite works written and/or translated by women:

https://mid-theory.com/2025/08/29/mixtape-7-happy-women-in-translation-month-2025/

Over at LitHub, Polly Atkin wrote about Raynor Winn’s controversial fabricated memoir & the dangers of publishers endorsing medical quackery:

https://lithub.com/nature-is-not-going-to-cure-you-on-raynor-winns-fabricated-memoir/

& for the Boston Review, Jake Grumbach interviewed Osita Nwanevu about his new book The Right of the People & the keys to defeating authoritarianism:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/democracy-v-the-constitution/

Speaking of that battle against fascism, gonna start this final section with a number of newsletters on the subject, including Garrett Graff for his Doomsday Scenario on the tipping point:

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-tips-into-fascism-f51000e08e03254d

On a similar note, Don Moynihan wrote for his Can We Still Govern? newsletter on ticking off the items on the authoritarian checklist:b

While Tina Vasquez wrote for The Flytrap on Kristi Noem’s transformation into “ICE Barbie” & our slide into fascism:

https://the-flytrap.ghost.io/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-american-fascism/

& Adam Kinzinger wrote for his newsletter on the 2^nd Amendment debate that can help us reframe who controls the National Guard:

On that same subject, Heather Cox Richardson’s vital August 27^th installment of Letters from an American focused on the occupation of DC:

& for his Tusk newsletter, Seth Masket argued that these troop deployments represent Confederate payback:

For his One First newsletter, Steve Vladeck wrote about Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch’s unconstitutional attacks on lower courts:

Over at his Ehlers on Everything blog, Mark Ehlers contrasted our moment with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society on the latter’s 60^th anniversary:

https://ehlersoneverything.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-age-of-optimism-lyndon-johnson-and.html

Speaking of 1965, Marc Hudson wrote for the All Our Yesterdays blog on a 1965 commencement speech about climate change that should have rocked the world:

https://allouryesterdays.info/2025/08/25/climatic-change-appears-to-be-underway-in-fact-the-1965-commencement-speech-that-should-have-rocked-the-world/

Powerful piece from Sonya Rose Hartfield on her newsletter on “trad wife” lessons she learned from James Dobson on the occasion of his death:

While Mona Eltahawy wrote for her Feminist Giant newsletter on hatred of women as a key element of Trump’s policies:

Two excellent new pieces this week from Bram Hubbell for his Liberating Narratives blog, including this one on teaching Brazil & the transatlantic slave system:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/the-horrors-of-the-cruel-system-of-slavery-revisiting-the-transatlantic-slave-system/

& Bram also wrote about teaching 19^th-century East Africa & Zanzibar in World History courses:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/everything-is-found-in-zanzibar/

Over at his A Word About… newsletter, Benjamin Dreyer wrote about AI, creativity, & what humans can do with words:

While Matthew Teutsch wrote for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on how both our students & we should be reading more:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/i-wish-i-read-more-eeb8377a63ae

I really enjoyed this Walter D. Greason Bluesky thread on some of the many public scholarly, artistic, educational, & civic reasons to visit the Twin Cities:

Two excellent pieces from Etienne Toussaint this week, including for his The Tenure Track newsletter on how to create productive law review articles:

& I really enjoyed Part 1 of Toussaint’s poetic journey through Ryan Coogler’s Sinners over at his Freedom Papers newsletter:

Speaking of Sinners, gonna end with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as usual, including Rebecca Stone Gordon for Nightmare magazine on archaeology in horror fiction:

https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/plumbing-the-depths-archaeology-in-horror-fiction/

For his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou wrote about how TV interviews for the film Beautiful Girls capture 1990s gender dynamics:

This Boss fan really loved Kirk Curnutt’s Clio & the Contemporary post on Born to Run’s 1970s contexts & most underrated song on the album’s 50^th anniversary:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/08/26/born-to-run-turns-50/

Wonderful essay from Collin Souter for RogerEbert.com on spending his summer vacation at the drive-in movie theater:

https://www.rogerebert.com/features/how-i-spent-my-summer-vacation-at-the-drive-in

& for her latest Review Roulette newsletter, Vaughn Joy penned a fun & thoughtful take on Clue, Communism, & much more:

Speaking of Vaughn, check out this thread on her must-read forthcoming book about Hollywood Christmas films in the age of McCarthy--& then pre-order your copy:

Finally, for Labor Day I wanted to share two of my past Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns, including this 2022 one on including slavery in how we remember labor histories:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/09/considering-history-no-history-of-american-labor-should-exclude-slavery/

& in 2023 I wrote about the foundational & ongoing fight for labor unions in American history:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/09/considering-history-the-foundational-fight-for-american-labor-unions/

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books below. Thanks, happy reading, listening, & learning, & may it be a restful & radical holiday, all!