Janine Holc

it is genuinely funny that black protestant aunties are basically the strongest warriors of the democratic party but you never hear any discussion about "how do we keep the black protestant aunties happy?"

Oh by the way, don’t forget you can ask your library to order nearly any book you want to read but don’t want to buy. And as authors we love libraries buying our books & readers being able to access them through libraries.

If there's one thing you watch today, make it this

Bob Geldof criticises Israel for what they're doing in Gaza

Then criticises Trevor Philips for making excuses for what Israel is doing in Gaza

Part 1/3

Austria signals possible NATO membership amid changing security landscape Read more

Another great Putin success: Austria is reconsidering its long-standing neutrality and discussing joining NATO.

Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said neutrality no longer guarantees Austria's security.

In the current issue of Journal of Democracy (and ungated for now), a sobering warning about how hard it is for countries to recover from authoritarian episodes — even the relatively rich ones with longer histories of electoral democracy.

Some of the bottles of rice and formula and flour Egyptians threw into the sea have actually made it to Gaza - now people in Cyprus and Lebanon are joining the effort, with scientists from all over the world virtually assisting them in figuring the time and location to do so based on the currents. 💚

NEW: Bob Geldof lets rip over Gaza genocide.

PRESENTER: "Isn’t it a bit unfair to say this is the Israelis as a whole?"

GELDOF: "Stop it Trevor. If Israelis want to protest, get in your cars. Stuff your cars full of food & drive through that border. Let your own army stop you. Shame on you.”

Out September 9th and available to pre-order in good bookshops, which is where I hope you’ll buy it from. @stanleysbill.bsky.social and I explain why PiS’s illiberal revolution happened, what happened, why it failed, in what ways it didn’t fail, and why it might return.

The cover of a Richard Scarry book showing the occupants of Busytown. The title has been changed to read “all We Do Is Work on Documents, That’s All Anyone Does Anymore.”

Good to see them updating the Richard Scarry books

oh, you don’t like the effects of anthropogenic climate change? maybe you should have thought about that before rapidly industrializing your society with fossil fuels

Great essay by Joshua Zeitz on how ICE actions affect bystanders

I see grocery/takeout shaming discourse going around again, so this is your periodic historian reminder that cooking from scratch daily while working has never been sustainable, and for millennia everyone either relied on takeout & restaurants or ate in huge households w/ big dorm-like group dining.

📣 Heads-up that our amazing dept (Berkeley Psych) is anticipating hiring *two* TT Asst Profs this Fall, under the themes of (1) Social & Personality Psychology, and (2) Biological Basis of Behavior.

Official job ads coming soon...

Send qs for (1) to Iris Mauss/Serena Chen, (2) to Linda Wilbrecht

“At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced, and endangered across our nation,” she added, “silence is not an option.”

Things are going well back home, I see.

Unsilencing by Lilia Topouzova | Hardcover | Cornell University Press Unsilencing provides the first comprehensive study of Bulgaria's forced-labor camps, a network of repression that operated throughout the communist era from 1945 to 1989. Lilia Topouzova uncovers the....

A hidden prison system. Decades of silence.

UNSILENCING by Lilia Topouzova exposes #Bulgaria’s secret forced labor camps and the fight to confront a past no one wanted to remember.

It is a #history everyone should know.

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025 History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.

Are you an early-career historian with a love for radical, public history?

We are currently looking for two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop.

Deadline is at midnight on 15th August. See below for more details!

www.historyworkshop....

Awareness Protests Won’t Threaten the Richest, Most Well-Armed People on Earth “Making durable changes isn’t always about the raw numbers,” says Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

“I’m not uninterested in how to draw the narrative line that starts at Fanon and ends somewhere in my apartment or whatever. But it’s not the thing that’s important about activism.”

@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social author or Elite Capture interviewed for @truthout.org
truthout.org/audio/awaren...

Historians - as you think about the new semester, consider this first-day exercise as a way to get conversation going about what historians *actually* do, and the context within which we do it. catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...

Just recalled the one time I tried to buy a French book in a Parisian bookshop and, when the cashier saw I don't really speak French actively, she suggested I "come back when I know enough French, as to not waste the book's time."

For young reporters: the ethical thing to do when reporting a story that another outlet first reported on is to acknowledge their work.

🚨 My next book, EXTRACTION: THE FRONTIERS OF GREEN CAPITALISM is out 9/23 with @wwnorton.com

Today and tomorrow, you can pre-order it at 25% off 😊 Use code PREORDER25 at www.barnesandnoble.com/w/extraction...

Zohran Mamdani endorsed by NY Rep. Adriano Espaillat for mayor Espaillat’s support of the state assemblymember comes as more of the city’s Democratic establishment lines up behind him for November’s election.

Feels notable since Rep. Espaillat received $160k from AIPAC last year

Have you seen this man? In the wake of deadly floods in Texas, FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson is nowhere to be found.

hi @politico.com my name is marisa kabas and i publish the handbasket and you basically copied my story and then linked me in the 23rd paragraph of your story without specific attribution: www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

here's my original: www.thehandbasket.co/p/fema-david...

Very happy to endorse it: While she is clear-eyed about the many problems of extraction, Riofrancos also offers thoughtful steps toward a more humane and decarbonized world. Deeply researched, beautifully written, the book provides an accessible roadmap through difficult concepts and phenomena.

“Then they started to talk about cuffing me, and that if the kids were here legally, what do they have to lose by answering. I told them that they still have their fifth and fourth amendment rights, and that they don’t have to speak to you or help with any investigation.”

Finally reading the NYT story about Baltimore real estate and found it amazing that the reporter just casually takes credit for Dr. Lawrence Brown’s phrasing (which everyone here uses).

A Message from a University President: Jim Ryan’s Questions Guest article by Michael Roth

Trump’s DOJ forced UVA President Jim Ryan to resign. Wesleyan President Michael Roth calls it what it is: an assault on academic freedom and a warning sign of tyranny. A must-read for anyone who cares about democracy:

What we are living through is the PEAK of "drained pool politics"

Drained pool politics is the termination or defunding of public resources due to the will of one group, whether they also use the resource or not.

Think the end of public pools nationwide b/c white people refused to integrate