Jonathan S. Jones

Winning a Nobel Prize Interrupted His Off-the-Grid Vacation Fred Ramsdell found out about his Nobel Prize nearly 12 hours after it was announced because he was on vacation in the Rockies.

Fred Ramsdell was parked at a campground in Montana on Monday when his wife suddenly started shouting. He first thought that maybe she had seen a grizzly bear. Instead, she had regained cell service and had seen a flood of text messages with the same news. “You just won the Nobel Prize!” she yelled.

NOT A DRILLLLLLL IT WORKS!

🗃️ So very excited to host Laura Edwards for the annual Brose Lectures at the @richardscenter.bsky.social this year! The lectures, are free and open to the public. Please join us:

Thursday, October 23 at 5:30pm
Friday, October 24 at 5:30pm
Saturday, October 25 at 11:30am

Wary of changes under Trump, 'citizen historians' are documenting the Smithsonian Historians and citizens who say they are concerned about the Trump administration's pressure on the Smithsonian are working to document exhibits, as they exist today, throughout the museum network.

Historians and citizens who say they are concerned about the Trump administration's pressure on the Smithsonian are working to document exhibits, as they exist today, throughout the museum network.

yes!!! thank you

There was a post circulating a few days back on bluesky about an AI-generated history book cover... does anyone have the link to that post?

Giving a talk on AI and history to some students tomorrow, and the cover would be a great convo starter 🗃️

Robert E. Lee and the Return of the "Loyal Slave" to West Point This week we finally got visual confirmation of the return of a portrait of Robert E.

At a time when the Trump administration is actively suppressing the work of public historians and the history of American slavery, the decision to highlight one of the most harmful historical myths in American history should be roundly condemned by all of us. 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Thanks! I’ve found some great materials, but not an oral history form. you happen to have a link?

good idea, thanks! I will check on this

Teaching request: I'm having students listen to and annotate oral histories from the Vietnam War. I need some kind of form that they can complete as part of their active listening and that can let them document their key takeaways. Does anyone have a form you'd be willing to share? 🗃️

The Supreme Court says colleges can’t consider race. But ICE can. So much for the justices' promise of a "colorblind Constitution."

Justice Clarence Thomas writes constantly that the Constitution is "colorblind."

Yet, as @pemalevy.bsky.social writes, Thomas was silent this week as the high court voted to allow the Trump admin to detain immigrants based in part on the color of their skin or whether they spoke with an accent.

NATO shoots down Russian drones in Polish airspace, accusing Moscow of being ‘absolutely reckless’ | CNN NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones that violated Polish airspace during an attack on neighboring Ukraine early on Wednesday, as the military alliance denounced Moscow for “absolutely ...

Not good www.cnn.com/2025/09/09/e...

Our book is out!! Happy publication day to our fantastic team of editors and authors.

This event is happening on Wednesday! I think there's still time to book a place for either in person or to attend online and watch some very smart people (and me) talk about history and fantasy in games and media! 🗃️

Broadening Our Collective Work – AHA In her new position as executive director, Sarah Weicksel discusses her career path and goals for the AHA.

Today in #AHAPerspectives, a real treat for me! I got to sit down with my friend and colleague, Sarah Weicksel, to discuss her new role as @historians.org executive director. As a fellow first-gen college student (and grad student), a lot in her experiences resonates with my own. 🗃️

Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil War Era - HigherEdJobs Jobs in higher education. Faculty and administrative positions at colleges and universities. Updated daily. Free to job seekers.

Job alert: Penn State's @richardscenter.bsky.social is hiring for a Civil War & Reconstruction postdoc... apply!! This postdoc worked miracles for me a few years back and there's no better environment to turn your dissertation into a book. I can't recommend the Richards Center enough! 🗃️

Opium Slavery During the Civil War, the utility and widespread availability of opium and morphine made opiates essential to wartime medicine. After the war ended, thousand...

Don’t walk, run to the new @uncpress.bsky.social website for a 48-hour-flash sale!

Any titles you've had your eye on (including Opium Slavery 🤷‍♂️) are 50% off plus free shipping on orders over $75 with code 01NEWSITE50 at checkout 🗃️

uncpress.org/978146968953...

Fantastic resource for historians: a spreadsheet of NARA's digitized microfilm, with links to the files in the Archives catalog. May it help you as much as it has helped me.

www.archives.gov/files/colleg...

Google's Gemini AI tells a Redditor it's 'cautiously optimistic' about fixing a coding bug, fails repeatedly, calls itself an embarrassment to 'all possible and impossible universes' before repeating 'I am a disgrace' 86 times in succession

I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.

Pleasantly surprised by past me haha

Historians Respond to Federal Actions - AHA AHA members are providing important historical context and insight to the public on the recent actions by the federal government.

The AHA is compiling resources developed by historians in response to recent actions by the federal governments. We welcome submissions from our members about op-eds, media appearances, or other resources they've contributed offering historical context and insight to the public. 🗃️

Here are the new public education laws going into effect in Texas this school year We break down what new Texas laws are going into effect Sept. 1, 2025.

This list is practically out of the 1800s. It’s unreal, but real. When I was a public high school teacher in TX, just a decade ago, the ideas codified in these laws were literally laughable. And now they are law. Heartbroken. www.wfaa.com/article/news...

Vietnam polling source: www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learn...

This table shows Gallup polling data from 1965-1971 tracking the percentage of Americans who said "no" when asked if the U.S. made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam, with support declining from 61% in August 1965 to 35% in August 1968 to 28% by May 1971.

new polling suggests that American support for Israel's genocide in Gaza is starting to mirror how Americans felt about the US's conduct in Vietnam after the Tet Offensive in 1968-69 (from the big picture, at least) 🗃️
www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/p...

Wonderful, thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Awesome, thank you so much, that’s really kind of you!

Yes! So we did this exercise with chatbots purporting to stand in for Frederick Douglass in my Civil War and Reconstruction class at JMU. Biggest takeaway from students? LLMs do a god awful job of emulating Douglass AND he would've hated having his powerful, inimitable voice stolen by big tech 🗃️

Check out Uncensored, the archive created by ex-NPS historians that documentes which stories have been censored by the administration www.resistancerangers.org/rangers-unce...