profmarkwilson.bsky.social

Got an idea for reforming defense acquisition? The Pentagon’s all ears. “We need radically different ideas,” says assistant defense secretary.

Got an idea for reforming defense acquisition? The Pentagon’s all ears. | “We need radically different ideas,” says assistant defense secretary. | by Jennifer Hlad, reporting from Honolulu:

The program for the BHC 2026 Annual Meeting in London is now available‼️

You can view the full meeting program here: thebhc.org/meeting-prog...

Note that there are visa requirements to enter the UK for most nationalities -- ETA application form: www.gov.uk/eta

#BHC2026 #bizhis #BHCLondon

Trump orders defense companies to stop stock buybacks, dividends

RIP to Nick Salvatore, author of Eugene V. Deb’s: Citizen and Socialist, one of the book’s that inspired me to pursue the study of history.

“A 3rd (awful) NYT editorial on the future of war has dropped”

Use code: UPKHOLIDAY25 to receive 40% off (kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640089/).

@strickjl.bsky.social

#americanpresidency #presidentialleadership #welfare #FranklinDRoosevelt #harrystruman #DwightDEisenhower #JohnFKennedy #LyndonBJohnson #ForeignPolicy #upkansas

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life (Gift Article) This is the story of how a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft and, in the process, found his soul.

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. How a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft, and, in the process, found his soul. Wonderful writing by the great Kurt Streeter.

Good news: the US National Archives system is still making its way through researchers’ Mandatory Declassification Review requests.

Not so good news: the update I received today concerned a request I filed in March 2015, nearly 11 years ago.

Cover of Cambridge UP Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations

Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations won’t be out officially until 2026 but is shipping now🗃️ edited by Frank Costigliola and Barbara Keys, exceptional contributors and graat chapters, also mine on #ideology @shafrhistorians.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/highereducat...

"Death by Lightning," Episode 3 reaction thread:
• Praise for the series
• Major players: What's right/wrong/missing
• What was machine politics? How did the spoils system work? Why do they keep talking about the New York Custom House?

Let's get wonky!
1/14

In time for the holidays, now pre-orderable, the long awaited Oxford Handbook of American Military History, edited by Sam Watson. 32 chapters by top scholars in the field, including @bethbailey.bsky.social , @notabattlechick.bsky.social , @karadixonvuic.bsky.social, yours truly, and many more.

Three points about the “Department of War” talk:
1. Hegseth called for the name change before he was nominated.
2. The term used historically, for the most part, was actually “War Department.” Its sister was the Navy Department.
3. Only Congress can change the name.

AR-15 Ammunition at a Crime Scene? Good Odds This Army Plant Made It.

From Ben Dooley on the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant: In the late 2000s, the Army “gave the operator two choices: maintain the equipment in a state of readiness or use the excess capacity to make rounds for the commercial market. The contractor chose the latter…” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

My new book will be out in early December 2025 via
@mitpress.bsky.social

Details at: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348...

#HistSci #Computing #History #Books 🗃️

Pentagon is shifting weapons purchases to ‘a wartime footing’, Hegseth announces - live ‘The defense acquisitions system as you know it is dead,’ Hegesth says in a speech to industry leaders, military commanders and officials

Pentagon is shifting weapons purchases to ‘a wartime footing’, Hegseth announces

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Yes. Anticipating the day my smart oven refuses to bake.

Solid piece. I recommend Larrie Ferreiro’s book on UK-US cooperation on WWII high tech, as well as Alex Field and myself on the industrial mobilization. We can also reflect today on the quantity-quality debates of the 1970s including the Boyd circle and military reform Luddism.

Don’t know of anything, even though I am teaching the New Deal this semester. It appears that one of the more ambitious of the 2025 books on the New Deal (not FDR) is the George Selgin book. Haven’t yet seen a copy, but it appears to extend libertarian and conservative efforts of Higgs, Shlaes, etc.

Honored to receive a State History Award from the Historical Society of Michigan for my book Freedom Enterprise!

Welcome to the resistance, director of the Eisenhower library in Kansas who would not let the president steal a historic sword

Hegseth’s Unusual, Partisan, and Dangerous Convening of Military Leaders If the defense secretary’s event allayed concerns of DEI in the military for some, it aggravated concerns of a politicized military for all.

@kschake.bsky.social reflects on yesterday's address by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump at a gathering of the country's top military officials. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/hegs...

The ultimate aim here is that people will no longer expect the military to serve the public at large, but that its goal and purpose is to advance the interest of one faction or party in politics. 10/

Report to Congress on Navy's Columbia-class Submarine Program - USNI News The following is the Sept. 25, 2025, Congressional Research Service report to Congress, Navy Columbia (SSBN-826) Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program: Background and Issues for Congress.  From th...

Report to Congress on Navy’s Columbia-class Submarine Program — USNI News
news.usni.org/2025/09/30/r...

Lockheed, Pentagon finalize deal for 296 F-35s The $24.3 billion deal covers 148 aircraft each in production lots 18 and 19, closing out negotiations that have stretched since 2023.

Lockheed, Pentagon finalize deal for 296 F-35s
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/09/lockheed-pentagon-finalize-deal-for-296-f-35s/

Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are.

My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.

a.co/d/29c7EIP

AFT, AAUP Launch Nationwide Campaign, ‘Higher Education: Saving Lives, Building Futures, Powering the Economy’ WASHINGTON—The AFT and the American Association of University Professors, together representing the country’s largest and most powerful force of higher education workers, launched a major national cam...

Once again, if you teach or conduct research in higher ed, please join @aaup.org

How Today’s America Came About Two different accounts from two of the Prospect’s co-founders

Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social reflects on the ways in which his new book differs from the history served up in the latest Robert Reich memoir. prospect.org/culture/book...

The “War Department” thing was one of Hegseth’s hobbyhorses well before his nomination.