#ScholarSunday Thread 241

From Ann Arbor for Family Weekend, here’s my 241^st #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy, all!

First, a reminder that my wife & I are finalizing a new public scholarly website (seriously, it’s getting close & thanks to her looks phenomenal!) that will host these threads & a lot more. Coming soon, so watch this space!

Starting with favorites from the week as usual, including the launch of a great new journal, the Pittsburgh Review of Books (founded & edited by my friend Ed Simon):

https://pghrev.com/

I loved these moving & beautiful poems from Eraldo Souza dos Santos, part of his complementary collections & works in progress inspired by his mother:

https://caribbeanphilosophy.org/blog/notes-for-an-autobiography-of-my-mother?fbclid=IwdGRjcAMr539jbGNrAyvnemV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEe8nNVAknw8Pdv3KH0RUhiW9hnVpkyxxyQJrC3J9e8EX5uOAmWgxY_bNoeNgg_aem_BQTqDhj22V2D8rxao-ma2w

Speaking of parental inspiration, Joan Wallach Scott wrote for Boston Review on lessons from her father’s struggles during the Red Scare:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-general-air-of-anxiety/

Laura Sangha wrote for the University of Exeter’s Material Culture of Wills project on what she & musician Chris Hoban did during their Arts and Culture Creative Fellowship:

https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/2025/09/09/history-and-art-history-as-art/

& here’s Benjamin Thomas White for the History Workshop on the Jesuit priest, aerial archaeology pioneer, & French spy in Syria Antoine Piodebard:

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decolonisation/the-bombers-view-of-the-past/

From a few weeks back but new to these threads, here’s Timothy Messer-Kruse for HNN’s Newsletter on why conservatives are trying to replace “democracy” with “constitutional republic”:

https://www.hnn.us/article/a-republic-if-they-can-force-it

Two excellent posts for the AHA’s Perspectives blog this week, including Whitney E. Barringer on encountering primary sources during a road trip:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/insights-from-the-road/

& here’s the latest installment of AHA President Ben Vinson III’s conversations with historians, featuring N.D.B. Connolly on racial literacy & much more:

https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/a-literacy-beyond-the-page/

Lots of great pieces from Saturday Evening Post colleagues to share this week, including Jennifer Mercieca on working with her students to replace doomscrolling with hopescrolling:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/the-toll-of-the-scroll/

For her Missing in History Post series, Nancy Rubin Stuart highlighted Toll House restaurant’s cookie queen Ruth Graves Wakefield:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/missing-in-history-cookie-queen-ruth-graves-wakefield/

While for her latest Women’s Work column, Tanya Roth traced the story of special education in American history:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/womens-work-fighting-for-a-place-in-the-classroom-the-story-of-special-education-in-america/

Moving Post column from Robert M. Edsel & Bret Witter on how Dutch families have honored American WWII casualties for 80 years:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/honoring-the-fallen/

& for the third installment in his Defining the Decades series, Post editor Troy Brownfield wrote about the 60s, 70s, & 80s:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/defining-the-decades-part-3-1960s-1970s-and-1980s/

I also published my latest Considering History column this week & it’s one of my favorites yet, connecting a wonderful event on Treme & a very personal inscription in a book of mine to lessons we must learn from the 20^th anniversary of Katrina:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/09/considering-history-20-years-after-katrina-a-harbinger-of-the-best-and-worst-of-america/

Turning to current events, vital essay from Jenna M. Loyd in Public Books on how big tech is redefining “the border”:

https://www.publicbooks.org/with-big-tech-the-border-is-everywhere/

Ben Rothenberg wrote for his Bounces tennis newsletter on the U.S. Open’s ordering broadcasters to censor reactions to Trump at the Open:

America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas shared an important statement on how Trump’s war on immigrants is morphing to a war on America:

https://americasvoice.org/press_releases/vanessa-cardenas-from-a-supposed-war-on-immigrants-to-a-war-on-america/

For The Guardian, Kojo Koram wrote about how the populist right in both the US & UK are trying to erase histories:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/washington-westminster-populist-right-smithsonian-nigel-farage?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

While Robert A. Strong wrote for The Conversation on how George Washington’s worries about dictatorship are coming true on this 250^th anniversary of the Revolution:

https://theconversation.com/george-washingtons-worries-are-coming-true-263240?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=bylineblueskybutton

Here’s one of Jamelle Bouie’s best New York Times columns yet (which is a high bar), on how Trump & company don’t want to live in Lincoln’s America:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/opinion/lincoln-schmitt-trump-vance-citizenship.html?unlocked_article_code=1.k08.4RU_.TkacC9YAxdAr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

I’ll end this with a couple more hopeful pieces, including Greg Sargent for The New Republic (featuring contributions from Leah Litman & Sherrilyn Ifill) on how Trump’s Tweet about firing Lisa Cook backfired:

https://newrepublic.com/article/200249/trump-lisa-cook-tweet-backfires-judge-ruling-fed

& I really enjoyed this piece from CBS News Philadelphia on how 45 organizations in the city are fighting Trump’s attempts to alter Independence Mall exhibits:

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/presidents-house-history-philadelphia-trump-burgum/

& speaking of hopeful, beautiful images & details from the Future Waves festival & conference, courtesy of presenter Walter D. Greason:

Lots of great new podcast episodes this week, including the latest for Kelly Therese Pollock’s Unsung History, featuring Caitlin Reed Wiesner on Black women’s anti-rape activism:

https://www.unsunghistorypodcast.com/Anti-Rape/

For episode 185 of Axelbank Reports History & Today, Evan interviewed Claudia Rowe about her book Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care:

While Renata Keller joined Lillian Guerra’s Conversatorio Cubano to discuss her new book The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis & the Hemispheric Cold War:

https://cubanstudies.history.ufl.edu/conversatorio-cubano-2/conversatorio-cubano-with-dr-renata-keller/

Episode 420 of Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World podcast featured Peter Kastor on his Creating a Federal Government, 1789-1829 digital project:

https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-420-peter-kastor-creating-the-u-s-federal-government/

For the latest episode of the Civics & Coffee podcast, host Alycia Asai discussed the vital American story of education during Reconstruction:

https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/talking-to-books-education-during-reconstruction/

For the latest episode of his America: A History podcast, Liam Heffernan was joined by the legendary Patricia Nelson Limerick to discuss the history of California:

Turning to current events podcasts, the latest episode of Sophia Smith Galer’s Universities Challenged highlights the catastrophic effects if a university closes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002j6xz

Episode 33 of the Clearer Than Truth podcast features Oona A. Hathaway on the development & significance of international law:

Here’s a recording of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s recent panel “Unreal Pasts, Playful Presents: History & Fantasy in Games & Media,” featuring Chris Kempshall & many others:

Over at The Art Angle podcast, Sonia Manalili & Kate Brown interviewed critic & theorist Mike Pepi on why we need new art institutions:

https://news.artnet.com/multimedia/why-we-need-new-art-institutions-2677298

Matthew & Melissa Teutsch have dropped the second episode of their new This Ain’t It podcast, focusing on faith, power, & the politics of exclusion:

For the latest episode of their The Oath & the Office podcast, John Fugelsang & Corey Brettschneider discussed the Supreme Court’s disastrous green light for Trump’s ICE arrests:

For the latest installment of her American Conversations series, Heather Cox Richardson interviewed former Senator Sherrod Brown:

Two important conversations for Stephanie G. Wilson’s Freedom Over Fascism podcast this week, including this one with the Giffords organization’s Executive Director Emma Brown:

& Stephanie also talked with Walter Rhein & Will Fullwood about a number of subjects including Epstein, soft secession, & how we fight back:

Brian Harnetty has now completed all five episodes of his Sound is Magic podcast, exploring his new book Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives:

https://brianharnetty.substack.com/podcast

& I’ll end this section with a personal podcast, as I was honored to appear on Niels Eichhorn & Andrew Houck’s War of the Rebellion to discuss my book Of Thee I Sing (a second part of this conversation will air in November):

A trio of great new pieces for Time’s Made By History this week, including Lindsey Stewart on the powerful meaning of Black mermaids in American history:

https://time.com/7313994/mermaids-culture-history/

While Sam Collings-Wells wrote for Made By History on now Neil Postman’s 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death predicted today’s dystopian politics:

https://time.com/7313999/neil-postman-trump-prediction/

& Ansley Quiros & Allie R. Lopez wrote for Made By History on lessons from the battle for the Voting Rights Act:

https://time.com/7314300/voting-rights-act-history-struggle/

Elsewhere in Time, vital work from Marianne Cooper & Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman on why rising unemployment among Black women is a bad sign for the economy:

https://time.com/7315624/rising-unemployment-black-women-economy/

A number of new books to share this week, including the long-awaited release of The Nursing Clio Reader from Rutgers University Press:

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

Also published this week is Laura Garbes’s Listeners Like Who?: Exclusion & Resistance in the Public Radio Industry from Princeton University Press:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691257426/listeners-like-who

Thanks to the folks at Universal Write Publications for sharing two new releases for the thread, including Lawson Bush, Edward C. Bush, & Amiri Mahnzili’s Sankofa (Re)search Model: (Re)membering, (Re)storing, & (Re)birthing Black Boys & Men:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/sankofa-a-research-methodology-for-remembering-restoring-and-rebirthing-black-boys-and-men/

Also out now from UWP is Molefi Kete Asante’s Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry:

https://uwpbooks.com/product/indexicality-an-africological-method-of-inquiry/

I know I miss plenty of new releases, so I’m happy to share three recent publications this week as well, including Alexandra Freidus’s Unequal Lessons: School Diversity & Educational Inequality in New York City from NYU Press:

https://nyupress.org/9781479827817/unequal-lessons/

Recently out from Ohio State University Press is Reynaldo Anderson’s Afrofuturism & World Order (thanks to Walter D. Greason for sharing it!):

https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814215944.html

& also recently published was John G. Turner’s Joseph Smith: The Rise & Fall of an American Prophet from Yale University Press:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300255164/joseph-smith/

Two books forthcoming on Tuesday 9/23 to highlight, including Anne E. Marshall’s Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder & the Paradox of American Reform from UNC Press:

https://uncpress.org/9781469690995/cassius-marcellus-clay/

Also out on 9/23 will be The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman: The Complete Annotated Edition, edited by John F. Marszalek for Harvard University Press:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674988354

& forthcoming in October & now available for pre-order through its publisher De Gruyter Brill is Vaughn Joy’s Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy:

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111624167/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOor6SaTwfaAEyAnOOsYvT0xDugGfzxZEmtVO3-ggRv7Tdkl8nCoX

For Contingent magazine, Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell reviewed Sara Catterall’s new book Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon from Belt Publishing:

https://contingentmagazine.org/2025/09/09/dressed-for-reform/

While for the latest USIH review, Naida García-Crespo wrote about Beatrix Hoffman’s Borders of Care: Immigrants, Migrants, & the Fight for Healthcare in the United States from University of Chicago Press:

https://s-usih.org/2025/09/naida-garcia-crespo-on-beatrix-hoffmans-borders-of-care-immigrants-migrants-and-the-fight-for-healthcare-in-the-united-states/

I also enjoyed Pamela D. Toler’s latest History in the Margins Q&A, featuring Cathy Curtis on her new book Fearless: A Biography of Edna O’Brien:

https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2025/09/09/fearless-a-q-a-with-cathy-curtis/

Gonna end with lots of great newsletters & blog posts as usual, including Sherillyn Ifill’s latest on SCOTUS, ICE, & the matter of facts:

Neil H. Buchanan wrote for the Dorf on Law blog on what we must do when crossing the US border is perilous for international scholars:

https://www.dorfonlaw.org/2025/09/when-crossing-us-border-is-perilous-for.html

William Horne wrote for his In Case of Emergency newsletter on Charlie Kirk & why we pretend when the truth is unthinkable:

On the same subject, here’s Mona Eltahawy for her Feminist Giant newsletter on the need to speak truth of the dead:

& Thomas Zimmer wrote for his Democracy Americana newsletter on how this assassination is becoming part of the Right’s desire for a Reichstag fire:

For his latest Rearview Mirror newsletter, Charles S. Meier connected our moment to 1914 to consider how Europe might be headed for war:

Kevin M. Levin’s Civil War Memory newsletter is always a must-read, including this piece on how assessing slavery at historic sites & in public memory has evolved over the last 25 years:

For his Liberating Narratives blog, Bram Hubbell argued that while the Haitian Revolution had many causes, the Enlightenment wasn’t one of them:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenment-haitian-revolution/

& Bram also wrote on his blog about two new books from Marlene Daut & Julia Gaffield & what they can offer teachers of World History classes:

https://www.liberatingnarratives.com/astonish-the-world/

For the latest installment of her wonderful Shy Museumgoer blog, Diane Tucker wrote about Toulouse-Lautrec at the Moulin Rouge’s blue cabaret:

https://theshymuseumgoer.com/2025/09/05/explore-empathy-in-toulouse-lautrec-paintings/

Over at her Siren newsletter, Mia Brett continued her series on the criminalization of motherhood with a piece focused on medications & drug use during pregnancy:

While for his latest History Can’t Hide newsletter, Kahlil Greene connected Julia Roberts’s family history with MLK to her thoughtful reaction to a racist film junket interview:

Gonna conclude with great cultural studies pieces as ever, including Matthew Teutsch for his Interminable Rambling Medium column on contaminated blood in EC Comics’ The Green Thing:

https://interminablerambling.medium.com/contaminated-blood-in-ec-comics-the-green-thing-4e307bbfff8f

Wonderful piece for NPR’s All Things Considered on the 75^th birthday of Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby’s neighbor in Beverly Cleary’s books:

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5418029/henry-huggins-beverly-cleary-ramona-quimby

I’m really enjoying Etienne Toussaint’s poetic journey through Sinners over at his Freedom Papers newsletter (in collaboration with Robert Monson):

Vern’s film reviews are always top-notch, but lately he’s been especially on fire when the films intersect with the complexities of our current moment, as in his latest review of Sovereign:

https://outlawvern.com/2025/09/11/sovereign/

Finally, for her latest Review Roulette newsletter Vaughn Joy used The Blues Brothers to argue beautifully for Chicago, Black music, & the best of America:

& speaking of Vaughn, check out her vital Bluesky thread on historical contexts for the Trump administration’s propaganda & why we need to engage critically with such media manipulation:

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, all!