Josh Specht

The Birth of the Attention Economy The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century remade how Americans engaged with the world.

The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade the American mind, Jake Lundberg writes in Time-Travel Thursdays.

Happy to answer any questions about South Bend, the history department, or Notre Dame.

We are hiring in 20C U.S. political history (tenure track)! Feel free to get in touch with questions. Deadline: Oct 1. networks.h-net.org/jobs/68888/u...

Audiobook cover of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America by Joshua Specht, narrated by John Chancer

In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex.

For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...

#History #ListenUP

They're practically giving this thing away!!

King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus. A marvelously illustrated look at everything we now know about the fearsome king of the dinosaurs. #dinosaurs #naturalhistory

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The Journal of the Civil War Era will have a special issue on political economy edited by me, @maggor.bsky.social, Sofia Valeonti & Nicolas Barreyre. I'll post again when the link is up on the Muster, but wanted to get the word out now. See CFP. Submission deadline is April 25. 🗃️

thought leader to idea doofus pipeline

Boris Spassky obituary Russian chess world champion who lost to Bobby Fischer in the sport’s most famous match at the peak of the cold war

One of the greatest www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/f...

The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life by Sophia Rosenfeld

Sophie Rosenfeld’s Age of Choice is an Editors’ Choice (!) @nytimes.com:

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...

please share widely!

Thanks for the fun conversation!

Joshua Specht on the History of American Beef Episode 1 of the Animal History Podcast!

In our very first episode we sit down with historian @joshspecht.bsky.social.

We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more!

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...

Book cover of Chinese edition of Red meat Republic

Very cool to see my book in Chinese!

what a title!

-20C and we've got ice on the INSIDE of the back window...prob need some better insulation back there

History and Technology Oil Spillovers. Guest Editor: Cyrus Mody. Volume 40, Issue 3 of History and Technology

for those who would like to take their minds off of ... other things today, here's a thread on the oil spillovers special issue that I guest-edited at History+Technology:

www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4...

1/x

-18C in South Bend today! Missing Melbourne for sure

Oh, here's a 900 pager but that payoff only really comes if you've read the 900 pager set after it and that is actually probably the better one

Also no stranger feeling than finishing a long book that has absolutely consumed your life and you don't really have anyone to talk about it with and its hard to persuade someone to read it.

Anyways, both books are amazing, but Life and Fate is really the one to read. Maybe my favorite book. That said, the image in Stalingrad of German soldiers drinking the waters of the Volga is unforgettable, given what later happens.

Most such packages were later? It's possible Grossman invented it because it works well (German soldiers later seize the package). Also possible bc Stalingrad, more than Life and Fate, feels like Grossman is still a true believer (still seems like a believer in Life/Fate, but more ambivalent).

passage from Grossman's book Stalingrad (p. 893, NYRB edition)

Finished Grossman's Stalingrad and one of the strangest and most memorable aspects of the ending is a woman fighting on the front who receives a care package including silk stockings from American women. Was this a thing? (p. 893 NYRB edition)

The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History a book by Maggie Gram A critical history of the idea of design--and its utopian promise Design has penetrated every dimension of contemporary society, from classrooms to statehouses to corporate boardrooms. It's seen as ...

Somehow this is happening, and it’s even available to pre-order. 😫

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

If you're in NYC on January 6th, the AHA is hosting a panel for my book featuring some of my favorite historians. Do come! #AHA25

me: [carefully placing a baby on my boss’s desk]
my boss: and the other one
me: [pauses, then unstraps an ankle holster that cradles a smaller, but just as deadly baby]

Sarah's article is free to read!

This looks really great!

Only hope is to read Atomic Habits and return to sparking joy for legions of followers

Posting was once a habit: have a deep insight, gotta fire up a tweet, come up with a stupid joke, repeat it to the people around me until they can't take it, and then fire up a tweet. When I quit twitter I got out of practice. Not sure I'll ever recapture the magic