Thiago Krause

The decline of reading among American teenagers is a grave indicator of the decline of literacy.

The full announcement is now up at this link. Deadline still 31 Oct.

Yep, that’s what I meant.

Economists publish more papers than historians, I think. I only took issue with the idea is that it is specific of top econ papers - top history papers *also* require a huge amount of work. I recently submitted a R&R at the AHR. Five years of work! I think your gripe is with the sciences...

Fair enough, although I think @filipecampante.bsky.social's point was regarding effort, not value - and mine was just that economics is probably not special in that regard, with an aside on the different disciplinary understandings of what books are for.

Thanks, that’s what I found! I’ll probably order it then… The original is apparently in Portuguese, which always helps!

Economic historians like @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social often write monographs, though - though that's probably more common for those who are historians by training instead of economists by training.

I'm mostly thinking about Acemoglu's books, to be frank. @drodrik.bsky.social's books feel closer to the humanities (or a return to old-style economic writing like Hirschmann), although I'm not sure they should be understood of monographs.

For economists, it feels like books are a distillation of previous work done on articles - less math, though. That’s definitely not how it works in the humanities, for which the monograph remains the highest form of intellectual work, going way beyond previously published articles.

I think that’s true of history as well, at the level of the American Historical Review and Past & Present. Probably every discipline has top 2-5 journals that require similar levels of work. I’d say, though, that the way the humanities think about book writing is vastly different from economists…

Oh, this is so exciting! Thank you @lizcovart.bsky.social for the invitation. And while I'm here, pleased to announce that @uchicagopress.bsky.social is bringing out a paperback in Spring 2026!!!

@jorisvdt.bsky.social cites a petition by Israel da Costa in his book at 1.01.02, 12564.5. Joris, can you tell me anything else about it just to see if it's the same document cited by Schwartz and partially published by Gonsalves de Mello? I would order it if it's the case...

a blue background with the words you 're my only hope in white letters ALT: a blue background with the words you 're my only hope in white letters

@brfmiranda.bsky.social @jorisvdt.bsky.social @deborahhamer.bsky.social @ramonanegron.bsky.social @voetnoot.bsky.social

Dear hivemind, can anyone help me locate a memorial by Joseph Israel da Costa (Joao Peres da Cunha), cited decades ago as HaNA, Loketkas 6, Staten General West Indische Co? I looked at openarchieven.nl and dekok.xyz/htrsearch/wic/ and did not get any hits. It has only been partially published, alas.

Fireside Chat- The Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean

If you're bored tonight around 7pm EST, join Jessica Chopin Roney and I for a conversation about The Predatory Sea! 🗃️

librarycompany.org/events/fires...

Congratulations!

CFP: A Time of Monsters The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

The New York Historical’s Bonnie and Richard Reiss Graduate Institute for Constitutional History is accepting applications for its fall 2025 seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty. seminar | fall 2025 Native Peoples, American Colonialism, and the US Constitution Fridays, November 7 and 21, December 5 and 12, 2025 | 11 am–2 pm ET Instructors: Maggie Blackhawk, Ned Blackhawk As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this seminar invites a critical examination of a central paradox in American constitutional history: how can a nation celebrate a founding document and constitutional tradition built, in part, on the dispossession of Indigenous homelands? Indian affairs and westward expansion were foundational to the creation and evolution of the US Constitution, yet Native history remains marginalized within the fields of constitutional history and mainstream constitutional scholarship. This seminar explores emerging historical and legal literature that re-centers Native peoples and American colonialism in the narrative of US constitutional development. Presented in person at The New York Historical and via Zoom Apply by October 10, 2025

What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...

Much more likely to be North Africa, no?

A fair assessment!

It definitely does not replace writing (and revising!) as the best medium for deep thought, but I think it can be helpful. I have used at times it to try to parse what's unclear or underdeveloped in a draft, and even to think about primary sources. The #1 rule is, of course, never to trust it.

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.

What it does show is how a model can function as an extended conversation with oneself. It can - and does! - lead people to delusions and self-harm if they are not self-aware enough but it can also be a way to organize and develop one’s own thoughts.

Putting ChatGPT on the Couch When I played doctor with the chatbot, the simulated patient confessed problems that are real—and that should worry all of us.

“Just because it’s a simulation of insight, that doesn’t mean it isn’t insightful” An interesting, albeit at times overwrought, piece that is simply a long exchange between a smart guy and a LLM. It doesn’t show “interiority,” as the author himself keeps noting.

Reading a 1690 French dispatch from Lisbon on a Portuguese royal proclamation banning imports to boost local manufacturing: merchants predict higher prices, clunkier goods, smugglers delighted, and angry consumers. Hmmmm...

It's funny that this French diplomat felt the need to cypher his criticism of the Portuguese: "Comme la plus part des Portugais infatué de son pays et de sa nation estimant peut tout ce qui n'est pas Portugais et Anglois" (20/11/1666)" (ANF, AE/B/I/643, fl. 453, November 20, 1666).

And of course, this guy surely used a LLM to post his rant.

WTF

Raise The Colours - Heavy Metal Version

It's really disturbing that Spotify has started suggesting AI-generated far-right heavy metal songs to me...
open.spotify.com/track/4DF7FU...

Mostly Marine and Affaires étrangères. It really shows how helpful archivists, solid finding aids, and excellent handwriting can nudge research - even when you’re trying to be comprehensive. Now I’ll stop singing their praises and go read the last batch they sent me!
(ANF/AE/B/I/647, fls. 309v-310).

Trying to write an archive-based global history means contacting a lot of archives (80+ so far). I love most of them, but the gold medal goes to the Archives nationales de France: two great weeks on site, and they’ve fulfilled 116 (!) scan requests in 4.5 years. And I only paid 72 euros total...