Melani McAlister

“if you cared about US foreign policy, and especially if you would like to see ordinary people staking more a claim on changing that policy, then culture was the place to start.” SHAFR President @melanimca.bsky.social in Learning the Scholar’s Craft @h-diplo.bsky.social
issforum.org/essays/PDF/E...

NO KINGS Silver Spring / Wheaton · No Kings **In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.** NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allie...

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS Silver Spring / Wheaton” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Some Rob You with a Six-Gun/ Some With a Fountain Pen: On Civil War By Other Means Imagine if we were at war with a foreign power that bombed most of the federal buildings in Washington, destroying the records and functions of those departments and killing millions of federal worker...

"But this is a blurry invasion from within, an autoimmune disorder of the state, an army of Manchurian candidates, and a zombie horror movie...."

For more on the firing of the members of the Historical Advisory Commitee....

The White House terminated the entire membership of the State Department's Historical Advisory Committee, which advises the folks who produce For Rel of the US (FRUS) volumes. This is illegal, and another broadside against diplomacy and nonpartisan governance.

4th Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the threat to the Constitution (and sanity) evidenced by the USG refusal to bring back K. A. Garcia. The use of the federal government to attack political enemies is already happening; rendition is apparently on the menu.

Why Government Matters, DAY 91

Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & Scientists Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has given Fellowships to exceptional artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, empowering them to pursue meaningful work under the freest possible conditions.

Congrats to @shafrhistorians.bsky.social and SHAFR adjacent recipients of Guggenheims this year, including former SHAFR President Kristin Hoganson and @quinnslobodian.com. www.gf.org/stories/anno...

On today's episode of "Better Way Late than Never," we have Harvard standing up for the right to be a university.

Somebody needs to send this letter to the administrators at Columbia.

Et aussi, il y a des gens qui parlent français là-bas. Quelle horreur!

With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:

Zoom event coming soon on the Evolution and Future of US views of Israel, focusing on a discussion of Amy Kaplan's Our American Israel, soon to be released in paper. March 6, 12:30 pm. RSVP on the link: imes.elliott.gwu.edu/events/chang...

For Americans over 50, if you ever wondered what it was like living through "shock therapy" in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, this is it.

What is America's Relationship to the Middle East? America: A History · Episode

A BIG new episode this week, as @melanimca.bsky.social joins the pod to discuss the US and the Middle East.

Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/7ofm... #usa #middleeast #gaza #israel #hamas #ceasefire

Fabulous cover!

A few days ago, I got to talk to about Promises, Then the Storm, plus US-ME relations more generally, with the super-neat Liam Heffernan for the podcast America: A History. The show comes out in Jan. Of course, already some things have changed: e.g. governments overthrown & new bombing campaigns.

My new book, Promises, then the Storm: Notes on Memory, Protest, and the Israel-Gaza War (London: MACK books) is now available at an online megastore near you. I'd love to see more local bookstores carry it, so please consider asking yours!

I understand. But really, given that you are the keynote for SHAFR2025, I think you need to include that one in your list of "most delightful"!

The Biden/Harris Administration’s enthusiastic embrace of these war criminals and support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza is, aside from the invasion of Iraq, the most shameful foreign policy act in my lifetime. Just unrelieved cynicism, hypocrisy, and illegality.

I totally get the sentiment, but please don't use the term "rednecks" -- it's classist (sneering at people who have to work outside) and just offensive. Leftist white Southerner here, & it literally hurts to hear that word used to describe anybody.