The ITPS (Institute for Thomas Paine Studies)

Beyond the pages: John Carter Brown Library exhibition celebrates the making of rare books “Elemental: Crafting Books from Nature” is an ode to the physical book, exploring thousands of years of practical knowledge and natural resources that led to the production of books.

Interested in learning more about our current exhibition, Elemental: Crafting Books from Nature?

Check out this article:
www.brown.edu/news/2025-06...

Elemental is on view until Dec. 15, M-Th, 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., and F 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Photo credit: Rythum Vinoben.

A beige and black flyer held in front of a red and gold leaf print carpet with a table behind it with a blue and white table cloth

At last week’s @shearites.bsky.social conference, the new #ITPS series made an appearance at the @uvapress.bsky.social table!

So the London reprints of Common Sense from 1776 CENSORED extra mean and snarky comments about the king but the Edinburgh reprints did NOT —- i repeat: the SCOTTISH reprints KEPT all the very mean and snarky comments about the king, the ROYAL BRUTE OF BRITAIN. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥇

Great talk!

Congratulations Meg! Check out Meg’s article in the Journal of the Early Republic.

muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/artic...

Open spiral with Sunday morning sessions listed for the society for historians of the early American republic.

So excited to have most of my responsibilities discharged and be able to relish sessions this morning at #SHEAR2025!

@profmsinha.bsky.social

A projector screen in front of a wooden wall on a state with a woman with dark hair in a black shirt standing behind a podium

Paine and “Common Sense” make an appearance in @shearites.bsky.social President Manisha Sinha’s address⬇️

This event is going to be so cool! And the idea, cooked up with @noraslonimsky.bsky.social, is to do this format again in 2026. We're excited about it! And super grateful to this awesome line-up of scholars.

New Manuscripts Finding Aids, June 2025 - UM Clements Library

Great batch of new manuscript collection finding aids at the Clements Library! Wonderful opportunities for research.

clements.umich.edu/mss-finding-...

The opening page of the essay. Here is the first paragraph: -HISTORIANS always note the great impact of Thomas Paine's of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English lan-guage." Yet, despite the frequency of these claims, scholars rarely bring them together as mutually informing insights or controlling premises.! On the one side, the twin appeals of the pamphlet-the historical assertion of immediate impact and the literary assessment of timeless merit-make it an extraordinary source for gauging how Americans think about themselves and their country, then and now. On the other side, the same unique combination of instant effect and lasting influence welcomes rhetorical analy-sis, turning Common Sense into a seminal text for thinking about "the art of persuasion" in American life. One can go further. Precisely how the pamphlet persuades its readers is an object lesson in the workings of modern democratic culture, and the way Americans have absorbed it into collective or national memory remains an untold story in ideological formations.

Still unsurpassed as the best close reading of a non-literary text in my field.

Robert A. Ferguson, “The Commonalities of COMMON SENSE.” William and Mary Quarterly (2000)

Submissions are open for the 2026 Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award!

The prize grants £20,000 annually to two writers for a yet-to-be-published book relating to the Americas, as well as a unique research residency at the Library.

Find out more & apply: bit.ly/BL-WritersAw...

The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth Juneteenth is an often overlooked event in our nation’s history. On June 19, 1865, Union troops freed enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay and across Texas some two and a half years after Presi...

Happy Juneteenth! nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stor...

OAH has partnered with @volckeralliance.bsky.social to capture oral histories! Read about the project here: ow.ly/ww9h50Wbmsb

Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany - Village Preservation Please join us for an author talk with Rebecca Brenner Graham in conversation with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. Former Greenwich Village resident Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in a preside...

NYC tonight @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social www.villagepreservation.org/event/dear-m...

This is cool. I always explain to students that broadsides were kind of like an early modern blog post!

Thank you! That’s definitely the idea.

New Book Series Brings the Spirit of Paine’s “Common Sense” and the Founding Era into the 21st Century <p>The University of Virginia Press is pleased to announce “From Pamphlets to Podcasts: An Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Series,” a new series th

Big news from the #ITPS! We are thrilled to share a new series with @uvapress.bsky.social! Here are more details about "From Pamphlets to Podcasts" and if you're working on relevant themes (this is an intentionally 'big tent' series), consider sending them our way upress.virginia.edu/news/new-boo...

I Have Avenged America A moving and humane portrait of the abolitionist revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haiti’s fight for independence from French colonial rule  ...

PUBLICATION DAY!

_I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom_ is now available from @yalepress.bsky.social

To celebrate, I am going to post some of the most extraordinary Dessalines quotations below!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

American Revolutions in the Digital Age Virtual Event Series | Living Landscape Observer

Happening this afternoon! The second workshop in an ongoing series with our friends at the Mellon Foundation and National Park Service about “American Revolutions in the Digital Age,” the ITPS open access voluem with @cornellupress.bsky.social: livinglandscapeobserver.net/american-rev...

A few more weeks to send in your proposals for "Common Sense at 250"! Talks can (and hopefully will) take a broad approach to the topic, and some support for travel to the UK or virtual participation may be possible, so please send your ideas our way: theitps.org/event/common...

baby feet with the word denied in red

📣 The OAH is proud to partner with @brennancenter.org for an exciting event exploring the history and future of birthright citizenship.

🗓️ June 12
🕧 12:30pm ET
📍 Online – Free to attend!

🔗 Register: ow.ly/9Qas50W0t7R

George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Award Visit the post for more.

***Attention graduate students***

Apply to the George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Award!

IEHS invites submissions for two awards of $3,500 each (up from $1,000) to help graduate students with their dissertations on U.S. immigration, emigration, or ethnic history.

iehs.org/awards/georg...

a purple flyer with tourqouise details, featuring a picture of a conference panel and audience, along with three headshots, one of a man with short blond hair and glasses, one of a woman with brown straight hair and a blue dress, and one of a woman with brown curly hair and a black shirt.

Our friends @shearites.bsky.social are expanding a wonderful initiative around mentorship in honor of the late, great Jan Lewis, which kicks off this afternoon with a conversation about conferences with @carolyneastman.bsky.social @wmackintosh.bsky.social & @drhonor.bsky.social. Details⬇️

Fantastic resource! Alec's book, which was based on some of this research, is also worth your time and attention!

James Alexander Dun, Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America (UPenn Press, 2016)

Make sure to pickup our exec editor’s book!

Pre-order ENTANGLED ALLIANCES here:
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America

I just interviewed a brilliant historian who also happens to be a good friend and mentor. It was fun! I think you are all going to enjoy @kawulf.bsky.social's new book Lineage, which you can pre-order now.

#Skystorians #History #Genealogy

A woman in a striped desk and face mask presents in front of a screen with an image of a grave stone and text

Kicking off the start of our three-day pAIne workshop with Portland State’s publishing studies program with some comparisons between communication, past and present with Iona libraries!