John Raimo

Taking a break from social media for a bit in order to better focus on my own work. Two quotes for now, and take care out there!

“Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.”
~ Alasdair Gray

“The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.”
~ Virginia Woolf

3/3: Der oben zitierte Aufsatz erschien erstmals in 1985 („Die Hermeneutik und die Wissenschaften,“ Hans-Georg Gadamer & Gottfried Boehm, Hrsg.), auch wenn Koselleck diese Fragen doch in „Vergangene Zukunft“ (1979) angesprochen hat. Daher ist jede direkte Einflusslinie sinnvollerweise diskutierbar.

2/3: Meines Erachtens nach sind die Kritiken von Carlo Ginzburg an White noch relevanter; vgl. „Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’“ (Saul Friedlander, Hrsg.; 1992).

1/3: Koselleck und White verfassten Vorworte zu den jeweiligen Übersetzungen ihrer Werke, wobei Kosellecks Vorwort eine deutlich tiefere Auseinandersetzung und Kritik an dieser Idee erkennen lässt; vgl. „Auch Klio dichtet oder Die Fiktion des Faktischen’“ (1986).

2/2: Noch relevanter sind die Kritiken von Carlo Ginzburg an White; vgl. „Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’“ (Saul Friedlander, Hrsg.; 1992). Siehe auch „Seminar: Die Hermeneutik und die Wissenschaften“ (Hans-Georg Gadamer und Gottfried Boehm, Hrsg. 1985).

»Solange es Geschichte gibt, wird es Historie geben« (Koselleck wieder einmal).

Beobachtung von Karl Schlögel:

"Und ich bin überhaupt der Auffassung, dass die Erfahrung des Scheiternkönnens und des Verstumenmüssenkönnens eine zentrale und wesentliche Erfahrung aller Arbeit von Historikern ist.“

A woodcut showing St Augustine in his study, lifting a burning heart up towards a heavenly light. The image is part of the title page of 'Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres', volume 2, second edition, published in Paris by Denis Mariette, 1696.

A detail of the image: the books in the back. All stored backwards.

A private library full of #backwardsbooks. You see St Augustine in his study, lifting a burning heart up towards a heavenly light, and his books are all nicely shelved fore-edge outwards. #bookhistory #booksky

In celebration of Mamdani's first day in office, the map from our 2016 NYC atlas celebrating Queens as the most linguistically diverse place on earth. (800 languages spoken in NYC, according to NY's Endangered Language Institute, which collaborated with us on this map.

Know of any translations ...?

Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts

Emily Doucet, Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts - @dukepress.bsky.social, April 2026
www.dukeupress.edu/inventing-na...

Pour @giselesapiro.bsky.social, @anthonyglinoer.bsky.social et @stuartelden.bsky.social parmi d'autres #skystorians.

Antoine Compagnon, 1966, année mirifique (Gallimard, 2026 ; #skystorians) : www.gallimard.fr/catalogue/19...

Thanks! And my Americanism was showing, to my chagrin. Older than I'd like and I've never met a fellow American younger than myself who has read Cooper unless I bought them a copy of the books, myself, and sadly have yet to see them in an American bookstore.

T.J. Clark · A Kouros at the Met The kouros in the Met was almost certainly a soldier: he has stepped out of his armour into his skin. The idea of...

‘Is the Met kouros indelibly – for all its composure – another Actaeon? Do we men and women not always look at his kind of manliness with an admiration subtended by pity and rage?’

T.J. Clark visits and revisits a male statue in the Met:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Jean Grondin, Les tournants herméneutiques de Paul Ricœur (Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 14, No 1 [2023], pp. 9-24) : ricoeur.pitt.edu/ojs/ricoeur/...

For @infinite-milos.bsky.social among other #skystorians.

Beatrice Loayza (@bealoayza.bsky.social), Sisters of Sacrilege (@criterion.bsky.social; h/t @jrdwrrn.bsky.social): www.criterion.com/current/post...

Pour @giselesapiro.bsky.social, @anthonyglinoer.bsky.social et @stuartelden.bsky.social parmi d'autres #skystorians.

Les Écrivains collaborateurs : Pour en finir avec le culte de la victimisation - En attendant Nadeau Dans Les Écrivains collaborateurs. Engagement, stigmate et postérité, Tristan Rouquet retrace la trajectoire de plus de deux cents écrivains avant, pendant et après la collaboration.

Jonas Nickel, Pour en finir avec le culte de la victimisation (En attendant Nadeau ; #skystorians) : www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2025/12/27/p...

(All kidding aside: is there a generational cut-off for Cooper readers? Did Harry Potter—which took a LOT from The Dark is Rising—sort of push it off lists? Would love to hear an expert on Cooper's continuing reception.)

Perennially delighted with your Susan Cooper references, Ben. 🎄✊

I'd love an almost pointilist history of SDP campaign-policies' implementation under grand coalition circumstances .... (Relatedly: I'll keep my gripes about Scholz appointing Lindner to the finance ministry in 2021 to myself because, well, that's hardly a set of original views.)

Also love how the center-right in most European countries as well as in America invests most of its political capital when *not* in power to making sure that center-left / left policies initiatives (however concrete) fail, hence ... providing rationales for "government doesn't work!!!" parties. 💧🛀🧼🔁

The NYT Recruiting Brochure for New College A failing Ron DeSantis higher ed experiment gets a boost

New, from me: The NYT reporter who specializes in profiles of beleaguered right-wingers on campus went to New College...and found out that things were going ok!

So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...

From the Collection: Sylvie Vodáková’s Book Covers for Květy Poezie Meet the Czech designer who shaped how generations of readers encountered poetry.

Gorgeous work from a book designer I had always wondered about; delighted to see this contribution to graphic design and #bookhistory! Tanya George, Sylvie Vodáková’s Book Covers for Květy Poezie (@letterformarchive.org; #skystorians): letterformarchive.org/news/sylvie-...

Seydou Keïta’s Revelatory Portraits of Malian Life In midcentury Bamako, sitting for a portrait in Seydou Keïta’s studio was a defining assertion of identity.

Gorgeous article: Kobby Ankomah Graham (@kobbygraham.bsky.social), Seydou Keïta’s Revelatory Portraits of Malian Life (Aperture, #photography) aperture.org/editorial/se...

For @adamtooze.bsky.social, @stevenseegel.bsky.social, @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social, and @hdrochon.bsky.social among other #skystorians, political theorists, and experts on post-Cold War Eastern Europe.

Republic: The Revolution - Wikipedia

Let the depth of techbros' weirdness vis-à-vis politics & history never be underestimated .... Demis Hassabis, a primary architect of AI technologies today as well as the joint winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, directed and conceived this game in 2003: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republi...

For @adamtooze.bsky.social and @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social among other #skystorians.