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Bruce Dorsey

@profbrucedorsey.bsky.social

Historian, writer. Professor of History, Swarthmore College. Most recent: MURDER IN A MILL TOWN (Oxford UP). Rep'd by Mullane Literary Associates.

3,634 Followers  |  1,570 Following  |  376 Posts  |  Joined: 13.11.2024
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Posts by Bruce Dorsey (@profbrucedorsey.bsky.social)

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3/10/2026- The Board of Peace www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/ma...

09.03.2026 22:38 β€” πŸ‘ 76    πŸ” 34    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 2
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Trump Press Sec Goes Full Cult in Odd Rants as Polls Take Brutal Turn As this presidency enters the danger zone on multiple fronts, a writer who chronicles Trumpworld explains how cultlike praise of Trump functions for MAGA at moments of political crisis.

Great point from @amandamarcotte.bsky.social: Trump's 38% support for Iran war rivals where he was after "very fine people," amid worst of his Covid debacle, and after Jan 6.

On the pod we dig into Karoline Leavitt's latest full cult display and its real purpose:
newrepublic.com/article/2074...

09.03.2026 15:39 β€” πŸ‘ 181    πŸ” 68    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 9

Sooooo when’s the next β€œBoard of Peace” meeting?

08.03.2026 00:58 β€” πŸ‘ 1476    πŸ” 213    πŸ’¬ 106    πŸ“Œ 10
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Noem is gone, sort of, but there are lessons to be learned from her tenure, how she was fired, and why it didn’t happen earlier, why the Senate confirmed her in the first place, that we can”t afford to ignore joycevance.substack.com/p/fired-but-...

06.03.2026 16:23 β€” πŸ‘ 2736    πŸ” 792    πŸ’¬ 157    πŸ“Œ 28
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Kristi Noem is out.

anntelnaes.substack.com/p/kristi-noe...

06.03.2026 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 619    πŸ” 119    πŸ’¬ 18    πŸ“Œ 6
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Goodbye, puppy killer. #KristiNoem

06.03.2026 14:59 β€” πŸ‘ 117    πŸ” 39    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 7
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CNN put together a montage of the regime's incoherent talking points about Trump's war on Iran

03.03.2026 03:25 β€” πŸ‘ 8596    πŸ” 3416    πŸ’¬ 336    πŸ“Œ 259

A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else.

We mustn’t let this war do so.

01.03.2026 23:01 β€” πŸ‘ 23238    πŸ” 7890    πŸ’¬ 696    πŸ“Œ 322

"this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame” - Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. @jahimes.bsky.social

28.02.2026 14:20 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

How fitting that this illegal war was launched from the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, named for the man who launched the travesty that American presidents are above the law

28.02.2026 12:34 β€” πŸ‘ 994    πŸ” 211    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 3
Post image 28.02.2026 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 6111    πŸ” 2318    πŸ’¬ 313    πŸ“Œ 177
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Still up on the official White House website:

www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...

28.02.2026 13:25 β€” πŸ‘ 3268    πŸ” 1120    πŸ’¬ 54    πŸ“Œ 61
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…

28.02.2026 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1413    πŸ” 465    πŸ’¬ 45    πŸ“Œ 13
Post image 27.02.2026 22:42 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 18    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Columbia’s President licked the boots of the authoritarian thugs and they just kicked her institution in the face, as anyone who knows anything about authoritarian thugs was trying to tell her they would do.

27.02.2026 12:06 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Historians’ Amicus Brief inΒ Trump v. Barbara Two historians and professors of legal history represented by Kendall Brill & Kelly LLPΒ have filed a brief supporting a challenge to President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citi...

« The historians’ brief β€” authored by Professor Martha S. Jones and Professor Kate Masur β€” centers on the pre–Civil War advocacy of free Black Americans for a broad and inclusive principle of birthright citizenship.Β Β» www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

27.02.2026 22:30 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 16    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Opinion | Trump Has Lost Touch With Reality

Frank Bruni on Trump's SOTU: "preposterously self-satisfied, preternaturally nasty and profoundly delusional. Most of what he boasted about was hallucinatory." So immersed in fantasy, "I kept thinking I should have worn 3-D glasses."

Trump Has Lost Touch With Reality www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/o...

26.02.2026 13:50 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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"Who cares that he managed to say almost nothing with all those words? He made history." www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

26.02.2026 02:23 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The Trump Administration Can’t Kill Black History Month We don’t need permission from the government to commemorate a complex past.

Last week, my mother took me and my kids to see the school where, 60 years ago, she was among the first wave of Black students to integrate a previously all-White school. We wanted to remind my kids that Black history is not just famous people in textbooks, it is often the people right next to you.

25.02.2026 16:41 β€” πŸ‘ 1159    πŸ” 328    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 6
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Library Company names its new chief, the first-ever woman to lead the group in 295 years Jessica Chopin Roney will take over after the Library Company of Philadelphia merges with Temple University. She has existing ties to both institutions.

Swarthmore College's History Department is proud of our former student and distinguished colleague, Jessica Roney, who will become the first woman to be director of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
#history #vastearlyamerica

share.inquirer.com/j2Pc8h?utm_s...

21.02.2026 17:15 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Philadelphia’s slavery exhibit is restored at President’s House Site β€œThis is the American people fighting back and saying we will not accept this,” said one Independence Mall visitor. β€œWill not allow history to be rewritten.”

"Amid occasional applause from passersby, as National Parks workers restored the panels, an unnamed employee said, β€œIt’s our honor.”

Mayor Cherelle Parker: ...β€œtoday, we celebrate the return of our history to the President’s House exhibit.”"

whyy.org/articles/phi...

21.02.2026 02:27 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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2/18/2026- Redactions www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/fe...

17.02.2026 23:17 β€” πŸ‘ 96    πŸ” 43    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 3
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Judge Orders Slavery Displays Restored at George Washington’s Philadelphia Home

Grateful for all those who refused to accept this erasure of history:

β€œEach person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history.” β€” U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

17.02.2026 13:57 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

πŸ‘‡This πŸ‘‡

15.02.2026 20:05 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

πŸ‘‡ Joan Scott connecting the canceling of gender studies and the Epstein files:

"Gender studies is not an β€œideology”, but a critical tool for examining – in the case of Trump and Epstein – the predations of toxic masculinity."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

14.02.2026 03:11 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

I dunno guys. I’m starting to think that this Noem person who auditioned for her tough guy/border enforcer job with the Trump administration by bragging in her memoir about shooting the family dog in a gravel pit, might not be a good person.

13.02.2026 18:03 β€” πŸ‘ 236    πŸ” 31    πŸ’¬ 11    πŸ“Œ 3

Yes! Although there has been very little written ABOUT the history of masculinity during the 80s and 90s, that was the moment when pioneering work OF histories of masculinities were being written -- think Gail Bederman, George Chauncey, Anthony Rotundo, et al (for US history).

13.02.2026 14:20 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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On this day in 1759, 267 years ago, the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay passed away at age 77. A hundred years before William Lloyd Garrison, Lay called for the immediate and complete abolition of slavery worldwide, with no payments to enslavers. Let us remember him. Art by Marco Lorenzetti.

08.02.2026 11:30 β€” πŸ‘ 112    πŸ” 32    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
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πŸ—£οΈ

07.02.2026 03:15 β€” πŸ‘ 15610    πŸ” 3770    πŸ’¬ 156    πŸ“Œ 115