#ScholarSunday Thread 240

Let’s kick off a new semester & season with my 240^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 & I are finalizing a public scholarly website that will host these threads & a lot more from both of us & hopefully y’all as well, so watch this space for updates!

Starting with a handful of great pieces for Labor Day 2025, including excerpts from FDR’s September 6, 1936 Fireside Chat courtesy of the folks at The Bulwark:

Harold Meyerson wrote for The American Prospect on how Trump’s union busting plays a significant role in his war on democracy:

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-09-01-trump-celebrates-labor-day-as-most-anti-union-president/

On a similar note, Paul Waldman wrote for his Public Notice newsletter on how Trump 2.0 is a disaster for American workers:

& labor historian Erik Loomis contributed a guest essay to the New York Times wondering why American unions aren’t vocally resisting Trump’s attacks:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/trump-unions-labor.html

My latest Saturday Evening Post Considering History column links Labor Day to another historic anniversary this week, Katrina’s 20^th, highlighting the throughlines between New Orleans & Detroit:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/considering-history-tracing-the-story-of-america-from-new-orleans-to-detroit/

For another great take on Katrina’s 20^th, here’s Lauren LeBlanc for Oxford American on John Updike, art & criticism, & the realities of the storm’s effects:

https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/what-john-updike-got-wrong-about-katrina

& for Current Affairs, author Sarah Fouts & activist Malik Rahim discussed how Katrina paved the way for our current fascist moment:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-katrina-paved-the-way-for-american-fascism

Also just a note that my next Saturday Evening Post Considering History column should drop this coming week & will likewise consider Katrina’s many legacies in 2025 America!

Two other excellent pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Will Mari on how analog music like cassette tapes is making a comeback:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/the-return-of-the-cassette-tape-how-analog-music-is-making-a-comeback/

& Post editor Troy Brownfield continued his series on defining 20^th century decades, focusing on the 30s, 40s, & 50s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/defining-the-decades-part-2-1930-1940-and-1950/

Turning to other great public scholarly writing from the week, David Rotenstein wrote for his Pittsburgh City Paper column on the city’s historic jitney cabs:

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/pittsburghs-jitneys-were-lyft-and-ubers-analog-ancestors-28614185

I really appreciate every entry in the New York Times’s “Overlooked No More” obituaries series, including the latest, Grace Linden on early 20C photographer Tina Modotti:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/obituaries/tina-modotti-overlooked.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jE8.O93b.lGDtCD2ZceDL&smid=url-share

For the AHA’s Perspectives blog, Laura Ansley interviewed the AHA’s new Executive Director Sarah Weicksel on how we must broaden our collective work:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/broadening-our-collective-work/

& Weicksel also shared her first Executive Director’s column for the blog, on staying calm & hopeful while we do that work in these fraught times:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/staying-calm-and-hopeful/

Finally in Perspectives, here’s the last installment of the AHA Summer Reads challenge, featuring lots of great book recommendations to check out:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/aha-reads-2025-challenge-complete/

Turning to current events, vital op ed in the Des Moines Register from Linda K. Kerber & David B. Blight on what we’ll all use if Iowa succeeds in shutting down its state archives:

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2025/09/01/iowa-city-history-facility-shutdown-would-be-costly/85854013007/?sltsgmt=0154_D

On a similar note, Slate’s Lyanne Wang interviewed Don Romesburg on the attacks on LGBTQ-inclusive education at all levels:

https://slate.com/life/2025/09/lgbtq-history-school-curriculum-dei-trump-bans.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=facebook_share&fbclid=IwZnRzaAMmbbJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgWnMZ3uPHEowErxdcE-6zjHms_XdQ4-Pmx4kVgIm1Q8p3yeVan5Bci4CbH6_aem_e7Q7QDqC-w5AACOC_d0LTA#1grwuk56jq3qx1hxgiwrobomjchlflhf

Excellent op ed from Donald Earl Collins for Al Jazeera on why we can’t simply reduce global racism to personal prejudice or “hate”:

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/9/4/racism-is-not-hate

Crucial New York Times guest essay from nine past leaders of the CDC on what RFK Jr. is doing to the organization & every American’s health:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/cdc-leaders-kennedy.html

Over at Balls and Strikes, Jay Willis wrote about the telling ways that conservative media are coddling Justice Amy Coney Barrett as she launches her book tour:

https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/amy-coney-barrett-book-tour-conservative-media-free-press-bari-weiss/

While for Democracy Docket, Matt Cohen wrote about anti-voting attorney Cleta Mitchell’s alarming predictions about Trump taking control of elections:

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/cleta-mitchell-thinks-trump-will-use-emergency-powers-to-take-control-of-elections/

With the new semester & school year underway, two great pieces from student writers to share this week, including Josephine Riesman for the Harvard Independent on how the campus organization that bears her family’s name is letting down its cause:

https://harvardindependent.com/avoid-the-building-with-my-familys-name/

I really appreciated high schooler Ashanty Rosario’s essay in The Atlantic on how AI is destroying her & her peers’ education:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/high-school-student-ai-education/684088/

& for an excellent response to that frustrating trend, check out Lorna Bracewell for Clio and the Contemporary on how mid-2000s hip hop can help inspire students to trust their own voices instead:

https://clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/09/02/t-pain-against-the-machine/

Continuing with teaching tips & turning to new podcasts, the AHA’s History in Focus dropped four episodes on the “State of the Field for Busy Teachers,” including Jennifer Hart on African history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-african-history/

Here’s Ned Blackhawk for the History in Focus series on Native American history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-native-american-history/

While Don Romesburg is featured in the episode on LGBTQ+ history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-lgbtq-history/

& finally in that excellent History in Focus series, here’s Walter D. Greason on graphic history:

https://www.historians.org/podcast/state-of-the-field-for-busy-teachers-graphic-history/

Turning to other new podcast episodes from the week, the latest episode of the Avram Davidson Universe podcast features a guest host from The Wheel of Genre podcast & Virgil from Literally Books on Davidson’s story “The Caravan to Illiel”:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1310005/episodes/17764163

For the latest episode of the You’re Missing Out: A National Film Registry Podcast, Bella Zaydenberg joined to talk journalism, rom coms, weddings, & His Girl Friday:

https://youremissingout.simplecast.com/episodes/his-girl-friday

While the new episode of Alycia Asai’s Civics & Coffee podcast focuses on the Southern economy & landscape during Reconstruction:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/landscape-of-ruin-the-southern-economy-during-reconstruction/

Over at the Shipwrecks & Sea Dogs podcast, here’s part two of the series on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania:

https://www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com/the-sinking-of-rms-lusitania-part-2/

For his America: A History podcast, host Liam Heffernan was joined by Sean Vanatta to discuss the history & role of the U.S. Treasury:

& Liam also shared a new episode of his “In the Making” current events series, focused on America’s descent into dictatorship:

Continuing with the current events podcasts, Hilde Lovdal Stephens joined hosts Kelly Baker & John Brooks on the Pod Only Knows podcast to discuss James Dobson:

The latest episode of Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s Democracy & Destiny podcast features Heather Cox Richardson on our moment & her public scholarly journey:

While the latest episode of Micah Sifry’s This Old Democracy podcast features Project Democracy Executive Director Ian Bassin on countering the authoritarian playbook:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed legal challenges to Trump’s illegal use of the military:

& speaking of Fugelsang, Dean Obeidallah hosted him on his show to discuss Fugelsang’s new book Separation of Church & Hate:

& on that note of religion & politics, check out the first episode of an exciting new podcast, Matthew & Melissa Teutsch’s This Ain’t It on their journey away from the conservative Southern Baptist Church:

Time’s Made By History returned from hiatus with three excellent new pieces this week, including Robert Pee on how Trump is shattering the bipartisan legacy of promoting democracy abroad:

https://time.com/7294182/trump-democracy-promotion-history/

Here’s Heather McNamee for Made By History on how the history of school desegregation reveals that the job isn’t finished yet:

https://time.com/7314276/school-segregation-history-dei/

& Elizabeth R. Varon wrote for Made By History on the unseen danger of Trump’s campaign to restore Confederate names & statues:

https://time.com/7314031/trump-confederate-statue-names-danger/

A trio of important new scholarly book publications to share this week, including Daniela F. Melo & Paul Christopher Manuel’s edited collection After the Carnations: Social Movements in Portugal Since the 25 April 1974 Revolution from Liverpool University Press:

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836245315

Also out from Liverpool this week is Walda Katz-Fishman & Jerome Scott’s Motown & the Making of Working-Class Revolutions: The Story of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers:

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9780820374277

Out this week from Penguin is Anthony Delaney’s Queer Georgians: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, & Homemakers:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460692/queer-georgians-by-delaney-anthony/9781529927689

While newly out in paperback is Derrick E. White’s groundbreaking Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, & the History of Black College Football from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469692104/blood-sweat-and-tears/

Forthcoming this Tuesday from Rutgers University Press is the long-awaited The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, & Justice:

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-nursing-clio-reader/9781978838598/

While forthcoming the following Tuesday (9/16) is Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman’s The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged & Underpaid:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-double-tax-how-women-of-color-are-overcharged-and-underpaid-anna-gifty-opoku-agyeman/22146561?ean=9780593714256&next=t&affiliate=2186

Also forthcoming & available for pre-order is Ronald Angelo Johnson’s Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom & Atlantic Diplomacy During the American Revolution from Cornell University Press:

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501783715/entangled-alliances/#bookTabs=1

& likewise forthcoming in October is Renata Keller’s The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis & the Hemispheric Cold War from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469689432/the-fate-of-the-americas/

Check out Tracy Slater’s New Books Network interviewed on her newly published Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp:

https://newbooksnetwork.com/tracy-slater-together-in-manzanar-the-true-story-of-a-japanese-jewish-family-in-an-american-concentration-camp-chicago-review-press-2025

While Pamela D. Toler’s History in the Margins site featured an interview with Eve Kahn on her new book Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/02/queen-of-bohemia-a-q-a-with-eve-kahn/

& for the latest USIH book review, Jason Shaffer wrote about Scott Gac’s Born in Blood: Violence & the Making of America:

https://s-usih.org/2025/08/jason-shaffer-on-scott-gacs-born-in-blood-violence-and-the-making-of-america/

I’ll conclude with tons of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Joyce Vance’s always vital look at the political week ahead on her Civil Discourse newsletter:

For his Systematic Hatreds newsletter, Paul Musgrave wrote about our government losing the ability to make & implement policy, & how we can repair it:

For the Fight the Fire newsletter, Sam Bellamy highlighted the disgusting & destructive ICE arrest of immigrant firefighters & emergency responders:

For her newsletter, Sherrilyn Ifill wrote about how we must focus on challenging the premise of Trump’s power grabs:

Over at his Campaign Trails newsletter, Kevin M. Kruse traced the longstanding & evolving conservative crusade against CBS:

https://campaign-trails.ghost.io/the-conservative-crusade-against-cbs/

For The Argument, physician Rachael Bedard wrote about RFK Jr.’s erroneous & damaging ideas about mitochondrial issues in children:

While for his Need to Know newsletter, David Rothkopf highlighted the foreign policy ugliness that Trump is spreading:

Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter is always a must-read, including this piece on the Smithsonian & how much history of American slavery is “too much”:

Speaking of teaching our histories, two great new pieces for Bram Hubbell’s Liberating Narratives blog this week, including how we can revisit enslaved African resistance:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-huge-contingent-of-armed-africans/

& Bram also wrote about how we can teach African women’s influences on the Portuguese slave trade in 16^th-century West Africa:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-single-black-woman/

Over at Ideas Roadshow they’ve launched a nine-part in-depth analysis of Sofonisba Anguissola’s fascinating Renaissance painting The Game of Chess (complementing an upcoming film on the painting):

For her History in the Margins blog, Pamela D. Toler wrote about the fascinating 19^th century story of Black Buffalo Soldiers on bicycles:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/05/buffalo-soldiers-on-bicycles/

For her Love Notes newsletter, Jenn M. Jackson wrote about tennis star Taylor Townsend & why Black women don’t owe us “grace”:

While for her Feminist Giant newsletter, here’s Mona Eltahawy on unbecoming, unlearning, & menopause:

Benjamin Dreyer continued to write wittily & importantly about AI & writing with this newsletter on a controversy over accusations of AI authorship:

Gonna end with a bunch of cultural studies pieces as ever, including Matthew Teutsch for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on Rick Remender & Daniel Acuña’s graphic novel Escape:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/the-cost-of-war-in-rick-remender-and-daniel-acu%C3%B1as-escape-1-eeda45ed19c5

For his Matt’s Historical Ephemera newsletter, Matt Eaton wrote about an endangered British Army entertainment ship during WWII:

Over at her Wondrous Reading newsletter, Luella D’Amico wrote about sharing the Nancy Drew mysteries with her daughter:

For his Academic Bubble newsletter, Dion Georgiou wrote a fascinating piece on the evolution of the theme songs for British children’s TV shows:

For RogerEbert.com, Omer M. Mozaffar highlighted the South Asian epic film Sholay on its 50^th anniversary:

https://www.rogerebert.com/features/50-years-later-sholay-remains-a-captivating-south-asian-epic

While Travis Woods wrote for Bright Wall/Dark Room about Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild ahead of its 40^th anniversary next year:

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2025/09/04/undressing-demme-something-wild/

Finally, check out Vaughn Joy’s latest wonderful Review Roulette newsletter, a funny & feminist perspective on Working Girl:

& speaking of Vaughn, remember that her forthcoming must-read book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is now available for pre-order:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/selling-out-santa-vaughn-joy/1147556052

PS. I’m sure I missed plenty as ever, so please share more public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books (especially your own) below! Thanks, & happy reading, listening, & learning, all!