Prof of Amer Lit & Studies. Dad to 2 amazing young men. We the People: https://t.co/HSQd0cfKJa; Of Thee I Sing: https://t.co/bSkmCeE703. #ScholarSunday guru. he/him
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Apr 2 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Of the many falsehoods at the heart of the current attacks on education, perhaps the most pernicious is that white students—or any students—will feel bad if they learn all the layers of our history. In truth, such education can help them feel something genuinely vital: empathy. +
As I write in my new @SatEvePost Considering History column, there’s no more important goal, of every form of education & communal conversation about our hardest shared histories, than empathy.
When I gave book talks on my Chinese Exclusion Act book, one of the questions I was asked most frequently was “Why do we see these periodic surges in xenophobia & anti-immigrant legislation in US history?” A quick thread:
To be clear, those attitudes & prejudices are always present in America, as one half of the defining battle between exclusion & inclusion that I traced in my book We the People: rowman.com/ISBN/978153812…
Jan 21 • 51 tweets • 14 min read
Here it is, my 162nd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
First, a reminder that I’m now also sharing these threads on my newsletter:
100 years ago this week, the renamed & rebranded Columbia Pictures was launched. It would become one of Hollywood’s most iconic & influential film studios over the rest of the 20th century.
So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of stages to Columbia Pictures’ history, starting with today’s post on 3 1910s & 20s origin points, including Hollywood gossip, Vaudeville, & the first feature film! #FilmTwitter
50 years ago this week, President Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger—already his National Security Advisor—as Secretary of State. Kissinger had long been controversial on the global stage as the mastermind of the brutal & illegal war in Cambodia, but +
+ it was another controversial & catastrophic global event, one that took place just two weeks before Kissinger’s appointment as Secretary of State & which bore his influence very fully, that truly embodied his, Nixon’s, & America’s most consistent & troubling foreign policies.
Aug 13, 2023 • 40 tweets • 11 min read
In Cville for our annual visit to AmericanStudier’s homeland, but that can’t stop the #ScholarSunday threads! So here’s my 140th thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
First, a reminder that I’m now also sharing these threads on the newsletter I created for that purpose:
Here it is, my 136th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
First, a reminder that I’m now also sharing the threads in the newsletter I created for that purpose, here:
So I have some more thoughts on the most telling & frustrating argument in that Hedgehog essay on why historians need to stop writing from the left (which I’ll link here so you can read for yourself if you haven’t). + hedgehogreview.com/issues/theolog…
To be clear, the essay makes a number of distinct points, from the good (rigorous analysis should indeed be a central goal of history-writing!) to the less so (an elementary school student’s perspective on Native Americans is not related to historical scholarship).
May 28, 2023 • 46 tweets • 31 min read
As we rest, reflect, & remember on this holiday weekend, here’s my 129th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week to help ya do all three! Enjoy, & share more below, please. #twitterstorians
Starting with a few favorites from the week as usual, including @ehphd’s delightful thread of some of the best Tina Turner scholarship in honor of the icon’s passing:
No American story is more pitch-perfect for the combination of #MemorialDay & #AAPIHeritageMonth than that of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team, the all-Japanese American #WWII regiment that would by war's end become the most decorated unit in US military history.
The 442nd's more than 14,000 awards & honors include a posthumous Medal of Honor, awarded in March 1946 to Private Sadao Munemori for his heroic actions to save the lives of two fellow soldiers during heavy fighting along Italy's Gothic Line.
Apr 30, 2023 • 50 tweets • 35 min read
What do you get for a 125th anniversary? It’s your lucky day, ‘cause the answer is my 125th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Share more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
Starting with a few favorites from the week as usual, including @felixmooreactor for @PinkNews on an early fight for trans rights (h/t @DamselDystopia): thepinknews.com/2023/04/24/san…
Apr 28, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Haven't had a chance to properly commemorate #NationalPoetryMonth yet, so wanted to quickly share a few of my favorite American poems as well as a couple current folks continuing these awesome legacies:
Sarah Piatt's my favorite poet, & "The Palace-Burner" my favorite American poem. Empathy, history, self-reflection, parenting, doubts, inspirations, it's all there & then some. neglectedbooks.com/?p=3246
Apr 12, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The authoritarian, demeaning, & racist attacks on @brotherjones_ & @Justinjpearson are a troubling reflection of where our political & democratic debates stand in 2023, but they're also nothing new. Indeed, such attacks originated with the first Black legislators in US history.
One of the most familiar images & tropes of the propagandistic, white supremacist narratives of Reconstruction created in US educational & pop culture spaces alike for more than 100 years was precisely such racism targeting the era's groundbreaking Black legislators.
Apr 12, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Happy Ronald Takaki Day! On my short list for the greatest & most influential American historians. #History#twitterstorians
memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/april-nomine…
I wrote about one of my single favorite Takaki moments, from the intro to his magisterial A Different Mirror, as part of this post on Carlos Bulosan & redefining American identity:
150 years ago this week, the small Louisiana town of Colfax was the site of one of the Reconstruction era's most violent acts of racial terrorism (a far too competitive category), with more than 100 Black militia members killed by a white supremacist mob.
That specific sesquicentennial, like Reconstruction's broader 150th anniversary, still needs a more central place in our collective memories. So this week I'll blog about a handful of Reconstruction histories we could better remember, including Colfax & many more.
Feb 3, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The main reason I wanted to do short stories in my adult learning courses this semester was that it's been a long time since I've really just sat in a classroom & talked about literary works with a community of fellow readers (that's part of undergrad teaching, but just part).
That's what it felt like the other times I taught lit-focused adult learning classes, but I didn't want to do so over Zoom so it's been about 4 years since I had the chance. I knew it would feel good to be back in that space, & at last week's 1st class it most definitely did.
Feb 1, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
There are no shortage of horrific & fascistic elements to the attacks on education from the De Santis administration & around the country. But when it comes to Black history, there's also a stunning irony: we still collectively teach, learn, & know so frustratingly little of it.
A telling example is Boston's Black Heritage Trail, which begins at the same spot as the Freedom Trail, winds past a number of amazing historic sites & spaces in Beacon Hill, & features a great museum (@MAAHMuseum) yet receives far fewer annual visitors than the Freedom Trail.
Feb 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Happy Langston Hughes Day! One of my favorite Memory Day Calendar details is that #blackhistorymonth2023 begins with not just one of our greatest poets, but a vital voice on Black & American histories. #twitterstorians
memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/february-nom…
He offered that vital voice through poems like "American Heartbreak" that reflect on the gap between our national ideals & the histories of enslavement, racism, & white supremacy.
150 years ago today, the English-language edition of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days was published. While Verne's book is a work of fiction, it both inspired a great deal of travel writing & helps us think about complex questions of how authors depict travel stories.
Starting today with three American travelers who were connected to and/or created their own versions of Verne's travel story:
William Perry Fogg, the Ohio businessman & adventurer whose travels & book helped inspire Verne;
Jan 8, 2023 • 44 tweets • 29 min read
Here it is, my 109th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes & conversations, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
Starting with a few favorite pieces from the week, including two for the 100th anniversary of the Rosewood massacre. Here’s @gonzaleztennant for @JSTOR_Daily (h/t @KeishaBlain): daily.jstor.org/remembering-ro…
memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/january-nomi…
I love Their Eyes a lot (and it teaches really well), but it's far from the whole story of Hurston's multi-genre, interdisciplinary career. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928) is one of the great American personal essay:
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