Clio and the Contemporary

Uncomfortable with the First Thanksgiving Narrative? Good News, it’s Actually a Civil War Holiday Take heart, all you who grow unsettled at the time of year where the narrative of friendly Pilgrims and American Indians is spread around to make us feel good about a brief moment in American histo…

Happy Victory for US Arms and Down With Treasonous Slavers Day!

Seed catalogue from 1896. Color illustration of watermellons, corn, onions, radishes, and lettuce.

Seed catalogue cover, 1909. Color illustrations of onions.

The Internet Archive just released tens of thousands of seed catalogs, spanning over two centuries!

They are both lovely and interesting. Check them out!

archive.org/details/usda...

🗃️ #c18th #c19th #c20th #illustration

You know what we won't need once handwriting recognition software has done its thing? Archivists, curators, conservators, catalogers, codicologists, or paleographers. We won't need archives either. We won't need diplomatics, editorial theory, book or media history, or material culture studies 🗃️🧵

What the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Can Teach Us Fifty Years Later Fifty years ago the ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior storm. But more than the “gales of November” wrecked the Fitz. The ship was also the casualty of a globalizing neoliberal…

Historians of recent US -- insightful piece about late-20th and an exemplar article for how academic historians can write as pop intellectuals.
Pop culture of massive chart hit + scholarly analysis + vernacular vocab and syntax = smart pop history nugget
@cliocontemporary.bsky.social

Any interest in writing an intro for instructors about how to get started gaming the past in their courses for us? Our readers would love that.

Hey historians 🗃️: Do you know of presses that publish short books (around 30K words / 90 pages plus notes)? I have been working on an article project that could easily turn into an great micro-history of that length, but I'm not sure it would make it to the usual full 60-90K words...

The vast body of research that Ken Burns relied upon to make his new documentary on the American Revolution would be practically impossible to be produced today, what with the defunding of humanistic scholarship, the collapse of stable academic jobs, the attack on public history & academic freedom.🗃️

#ScholarSunday Thread 250! (11/16/25) – Black and White and Read All Over Here it is, a very special--& especially supersized—250th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Please add more ...

Here it is, a very special--& especially supersized—250th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Please add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

It's #DigitalFriday ! This is my routine appeal to #skystorians and all other academics prepping for teaching to share any software, hardware, online resources (primary, secondary, teaching tools, blogs) tips and tricks that they've found useful this week! #AcademicSky 🗃️(pls boost to relevant feeds)

What the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Can Teach Us Fifty Years Later Fifty years ago the ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior storm. But more than the “gales of November” wrecked the Fitz. The ship was also the casualty of a globalizing neoliberal…

On the 50th Anniversary of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Jerald Podair shares the broader significance of the tragedy, not just on the lives of those involved, but on the broader implications it represented for the post-WWII US economy. 🗃️
clioandthecontemporary.com/2025/11/10/w...

I was talking to a friend about the review process and I told them sometimes you just run into the wrong reviewer. It ain’t always you. 🤷🏾‍♂️

Had a blast writing this piece for @cliocontemporary.bsky.social!

#ScholarSunday Thread 248 (11/2/25) – Black and White and Read All Over It’s November, and like Mariah it’s time for my 248th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week to be defrosted. Add ...

It’s November, and like Mariah it’s time for my 248th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week to be defrosted. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Check out Clio’s latest from our very own @oaverettephillips.bsky.social with fantastic advice for PhD students. Check it out!

I was very excited to write this advice piece with tips on how to take, and pass, your comprehensive exams. I received some good advice leading up to my exam on how to tackle comps and that—as well as my own lived experience—is passed on in this piece.

Written & Oral Comps The written and oral portions of your comprehensive exams may seem daunting, but try to remember that when you get to this step you are ready.

Our "Comps Series," continues with @oaverettephillips.bsky.social giving advice on taking your oral and written exams: "The written and oral portions of your comprehensive exams may seem daunting, but try to remember that when you get to this step you are ready."

JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

#ScholarSunday Thread 247 (10/26/25) – Black and White and Read All Over Here it is, my 247th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy,...

Here it is, my 247th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Great advice from @mingsga.bsky.social on using comps to craft your dissertation prospectus!

@cliocontemporary.bsky.social “Comps Series” continues with a helpful piece by @mingsga.bsky.social. Be sure to charge this series with grad students currently or planning to dive into comps or prospectus defenses.

From the Comprehensive Exam to the Prospectus Defense: Using Comps as a Roadmap for the Prospectus When you’re getting ready to draft your dissertation prospectus, your comprehensive exams can be a helpful tool. Here’s some advice on how to use your comps for a great prospectus.

"When you’re getting ready to draft your dissertation prospectus, your comprehensive exams can be a helpful tool."

In the next piece in our "Comps Series," @mingsga.bsky.social gives advice on using comps to create your dissertation prospectus.

Reading, Remembering, and Reorienting for Comprehensive Exams Comprehensive exams are less about recalling every detail of every book than about building a durable system of arguments, interventions, and stakes. Read with precision, take structured notes, tes…

In the second piece of our "Comps Series" @keanuheydari.bsky.social gives advice on how to read and remember for comps: "Read with precision, take structured notes, test your memory, and lean on community—the process is as much formation as it is evaluation."

From @keanuheydari.bsky.social : “The comprehensive exam is a strange hybrid: part intellectual calisthenics, part memory sport, part existential reckoning.”

This is so useful for current and prospective graduate students. 🗃️

@keanuheydari.bsky.social has written a GREAT piece on how to read—and remember what you read—for comps

Reading, Remembering, and Reorienting for Comprehensive Exams Comprehensive exams are less about recalling every detail of every book than about building a durable system of arguments, interventions, and stakes. Read with precision, take structured notes, tes…

In the second piece of our "Comps Series" @keanuheydari.bsky.social gives advice on how to read and remember for comps: "Read with precision, take structured notes, test your memory, and lean on community—the process is as much formation as it is evaluation."

Again, your mostly non-profit mostly uni press humanities publishers are not the thing making a wreckage of scholarly publishing. Paying for their work is a good thing, and we should keep doing that.

What are Comps? Comprehensive Exams, or ‘Comps,’ can be confusing and intimidating for graduate students, but the first step to conquering Comps, and the fear they elicit, is to understand what they ar…

In the first piece of our "Comps Series" Summer Perritt explains just what comps are: "'Comps,' can be confusing and intimidating for graduate students, the first step to conquering Comps, and the fear they elicit, is to understand what they are, what they are designed to test, and how they work."

Let this help demystify this rite of grad school passage. We called it quals at UF, and whew, it was one of the toughest periods of my professional life.

🗃️ If you or someone you know is preparing for Comps, be sure to check out this ongoing series @cliocontemporary.bsky.social is putting together.

I've been wanting to bring together a number of advice pieces on comps since I started at @cliocontemporary.bsky.social. Summer kicks off the series with a very helpful explainer that demystifies the entire process.