Amy J. Rutenberg

The CIA World Factbook is dead. Here's how I came to love it The Factbook survived the Cold War and became a hit online. It mixed quirky cultural notes and trivia with maps, data, and photos taken by CIA officers. But it was discontinued this week.

Another awesome research and teaching resource just gone 🗃️🗺️ www.npr.org/2026/02/07/n...

And the information was always meant to be public, per the medium. No it will be behind a FOIA request.

State Department will delete X posts from before Trump returned to office The policy change orders the removal of any post made by official State Department accounts on X before President Trump returned to office in 2025.

This seems not great 🗃️ www.npr.org/2026/02/07/n...

This is kind of amazing.

For history and gov’t teachers: National Bar Association/Federal Judicial Center, National WWII museum, National WWI museum, USS Midway Museum, USS Intrepid. There are definitely others, but this is off the top of my head. 🗺️🗃️

So is the Society for Military History. Too much history is being pulled down 🗃️ www.smh-hq.org/archivingres...

Call for Papers: Journal of American History Textbooks and Teaching section, 2027 We invite submissions for the March 2027 Textbooks and Teaching section of the Journal of American History. We are particularly interested in essays that explore the way that graduate students are involved in teaching, especially at the college and university level. Possible questions to consider: How do departments prepare students for the teaching they will do in graduate school—and beyond? (And what might be ideal ways for preparing grad students for teaching?) What are the most salient issues that graduate students experience as they perform the labor of teaching in an age of austerity and political intimidation? Does teaching become more, or less, important to students’ professional hopes and commitments as they proceed through graduate school? We invite both graduate students themselves, as well as established scholars, to contribute essays. Examples from American history would be best, but we understand that essays may well move beyond that boundary. Essays should not exceed 4,000 words. As usual, we are interested in analytical and evidence-based essays. We will also consider personal narrative reflections on teaching. Deadline for an initial draft is June 1, 2026, with editorial work happening between then and October 15, 2026. Please send questions and contributions to Natalie Mendoza at natalie.mendozagutierrez@colorado.edu and Robert Johnston at johnsto1@uic.edu. We strongly encourage prospective authors to consult with the section editors on possible topics before submitting proposals.

🗃️ CfP: Journal of American History Textbooks and Teaching section, 2027 (of which I am the new co-editor!). See image below as well as thread:

We invite submissions for the March 2027 Textbooks and Teaching section of the Journal of American History. We are particularly interested in essays

“In theater” - Minneapolis, I guess, is the Northern Front. We’re at war with ourselves.

The history and future of women in the military The Pentagon recently launched a formal review of women in ground-combat positions. On today's episode, what lead to this review, and how could it impact the United States Armed Forces? Amy Rutenberg,...

Turns out it’s impossible to go through the history of women’s service in the US military in 17 minutes, but I had fun giving it the old college try. If anyone’s needs it, my segment (or the whole show) might make for a good lesson starter. 🗃️🗺️ www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/rive...

There are no Nazis, there is no eventual Holocaust, if moderate politicians and the people hadn’t been willing to support the Nazi party IN SPITE OF its policies against minorities.They didn’t have to actively support the policies to still be responsible for the end result of those policies.

Currently listening to the child of German Jewish refugees talk about his parents’ experiences in the 1930s.There are many ways to parallel the past and present, but here’s mine. 1/

Ames, Iowa. And anyone else who wants to share in their communities.

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

How ICE’s detention system makes people untraceable

Trump's ICE detention system is making people untraceable.

Detention documentation specialists at AFSC spent the past 6 months tracking.

A pattern emerged.

People do not simply get lost in Trump's immigration system.

The system itself is designed to lose them.

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How an errand for a 12-year-old immigrant in Minneapolis became an underground operation In Minnesota, there is an extensive network of community members who are volunteering en masse to help one another. NPR's Jasmine Garsd tells the story of one family who needed to run one errand…and h...

Heard this on @npr.org this afternoon, and all I could think about were the networks of people who made the Montgomery bus boycott work in 1955. They were also targeted by law enforcement & on the side of right, even as they were tarred as lawbreakers. 🗃️ www.npr.org/2026/01/21/n...

school being canceled because the president sent armed thugs to harass and imprison the populace for voting against him should be the biggest domestic scandal in american history

CFP: USIH-IU Community Scholars Program | Society for US Intellectual History In partnership with the Institute for American Thought at Indiana University, the Society for U.S. Intellectual History is pleased to announce the continuation of a new opportunity to support continge...

🗃️ Psst, friends at #AHA26 #MLA26 and beyond, please share word of the @susih.bsky.social Community Scholars Program, which unlocks library resources for 3 years (onsite + remote) for #contingent faculty & historians at work beyond the traditional academy, due 2/1 s-usih.org/2025/12/cfp-...

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The tear gas and militarized response at a school are horrifying. The two-minute photo op by Bovino that my friend saw happen should make everyone’s blood run cold. Fin/

Our nation is in the collective process of letting an evil genie out of a bottle that will not be easily put back. The US is a special place - but it’s not so special that the patterns of history won’t repeat here unless the populace cares enough to enact its democratic prerogative. 4/

We should all be pissed off and pushing back on the idea that any official anywhere should ever think a militarized raid at a school is an okay thing to happen. 3/

There is NO circumstance short of *maybe* an active shooter situation where chemical agents should be deployed on school property. I don’t care what folks’ politics are. I don’t care the legal status of the staff or students. 2/

Live updates: Noem says ICE agent justified in killing woman Renee Good, 37, was identified as the woman shot and killed Wednesday morning by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis. ICE said Good was shot while trying to run over agents with her car. Mayor Jacob Fre...

🧵 A friend was at Roosevelt HS in MPS when it was raided today. My friend is now dealing with the effects of the tear gas that was deployed on school grounds AT DISMISSAL TIME. Bovino popped out of a car for photos while children sheltered in place. 1/ www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

For everyone writing and re-writing syllabi this week, media literacy has to be part of what we do. Students aren’t learning this stuff anywhere else. 🗃️

For those trying to make sense of the underlying ideas & motivations at work here, in the history of US foreign relations ideology, unilateralism + interventionism have been core components of isolationism along with Monroe Doctrine justification to use force + assert influence in the hemisphere.🗃️

Social media breaks are my reward for finishing x papers. But now it’s not so much.

U.S. military members fear personal legal blowback tied to boat strikes Staff officers and at least one drone pilot have sought advice from outside groups over legal concerns about their own involvement — or potential involvement — in the strikes against suspected drug bo...

I’m glad to see the GI Rights hotline and Quaker House getting some news coverage. Folks doing this work are so important, and the fact that these services have hung on since the Vietnam War is pretty amazing. 🗃️ #milhist www.npr.org/2025/12/12/n...

Literally nothing is keeping me focused. It’s awful 😭