Andrew Wehrman

Very near Gladstone. Riverside when I was very young, and then my parents moved to the Briarcliff area.

I know! Absolutely unacceptable and infuriating.

I agree with that! With the development of Northwest Arkansas and I-49, Kansas City is much more connected to Arkansas than it was 20-30 years ago. I think you can hear the southern accent in local TV commercials, and I don't remember that when I was a kid.

I think St. Louis feels more Midwestern (more like Chicago or Cincinnati) than Kansas City does. You hear more southern accents in KC, and it also has a more western cowboy focus. KC, however, certainly thinks of itself as the Midwest, though and can easily fit there.

I think you're right, but as someone who grew up in "north of the river" Kansas City and who has lived in Chicago, Ohio, and now Michigan. I think you can reasonably make the claim that KC is something other than Midwest. It's certainly an intersection between West/Great Plains, South, and Midwest.

It took me most of the weekend to track down one reference that I knew I had read but inexplicably did not save or put in my notes. All that is to say that writing on the new book has officially begun.

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

Political violence, post-pandemic one-party rule, vast economic inequality, and immigration backlash? The 2020s are the 1920s all over again--and that may show us a way out. Adapted from my book, to be published next week. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

The paperback version of The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution.

My book, The Contagion of Liberty is coming out (in January) in paperback, and I got some preview copies of this cheaper, more flexible version with new blurbs on the cover!

For the 250th anniversary, it argues that American independence was only achieved through inoculation and public health.

The year before I got my current job at CMU, I was a finalist for a tenure-track U. S. history position at New College of Florida. It was an incredible, unusual place. It's such a shame how it has been intentionally damaged and dismantled.

Amazing! Headed straight for my vaccine files

We can afford the lunches, but it’s 1) really nice and so convenient just to send kids to school and to not worry about it, and 2) (more importantly) it’s wonderful to know that all the kids at their school have enough to eat and that there’s 0 stigma to kids getting a free lunch by giving it to all

Let’s be clear on this: republicans don’t want kids to have guaranteed free meals

Recall RFK's claim that doctors & scientists were "on his side" at his last hearing? Wanna prove him wrong?

I'll be ordering post cards soon, so if you're local to me, I can pass some along. I can also send them on your behalf (DM me your info for that).

Or do it yourself--info @ link below.

It's the most measles cases in the U.S. (by far) since 1992 and currently has a 12% hospitalization rate.

I hope you’re sending us some amazing future historians!

Admissions and Aid Central Michigan University is a public research university offering over 200 programs in business, engineering, health sciences, education and more.

Can I take a moment to appreciate that the subdomain for the recommender portal for Central Michigan is

fireup.cmich.edu

It's the chopper sounds in the background that really got me--the implication that their America 250 project will be backed by military force.

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

My incredible 13-year-old autistic son wants RFK Jr. to read these pages, especially the parts he highlighted, from the wonderful book Welcome to the Autistic Community.

I'm not sure what you're objecting to. I'm just saying that by peddling an easy to point to cause and an easy solution, it will be easier for Republicans to justify cutting more complex (and therefore expensive) autism support services.

Why? States are already limiting coverage for autism therapies by capping annual spending, limiting therapy visits, and narrowing age limits, etc. The requirements for autism coverage vary wildly by state. The recent cuts to Medicaid are going to force states to make further cuts.

Thomas Jefferson on vaccines in 1800: “every friend of humanity must look with pleasure on this discovery, by which one evil the [more] is withdrawn from the condition of man.”

Trump on vaccines in 2025: “It’s too much liquid. Too many different things are going into that baby at too big a number.”

Speech, occupational, and physical therapies cost insurers and therefore corporations a lot of money. Blaming Tylenol and naming a different drug as treatment will justify stripping insurance plans of more expensive therapies and effective forms of support.

This is infuriating. Yes, my son used to cry and get angry when he couldn’t speak. But thanks to access to good therapists and good insurance, he started speaking full sentences at 5 and is now perfectly understandable, smart and funny.

This will only serve to stigmatize and reduce care for kids.

City of Boston School Committee minutes : manuscript, 1792-1905 : Boston (Mass.). School Committee : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 51 volumes : 37 x 26 cm or smaller (fol.)

And you can read the Boston School Committee Minutes for yourself here: archive.org/details/city...

The new ordinance was passed with no controversy or outcry. None claimed it was somehow a violation of their freedom. Some (small but vocial) opposition to vaccination mandates for school children would come after Massachusetts passed a state law requiring it in 1855.

that precisely because "the city government has adopted measures for the universal extension of this benefit without expense to all such persons..." they were requiring that all children "shall have been secured against contagion" by the following spring.

Boston had not had a major smallpox epidemic in decades. They had strong quarantine laws in place. Ten years before they city provided free vaccinations during a massive "general vaccination" of the city. There was not much risk of a broad epidemic. Nevertheless, the school committee wrote...

First, the school committee called smallpox itself "evil" and "deadly" and says plainly "the best security against the contagion of that loathsome and deadly disease is furnished by a diffusion of cowpock (vaccine) through the community..." Not for each individual but for the whole community.

On November 13, 1827, in a meeting of the Boston School Committee, the committee established the first (that we know of) school vaccination mandate. But they didn't call it that. The language used, I think, shows us something about the broad acceptance of vaccines that is sadly slipping away.