Erstwhile editor Sam Bock compiles and comments on a short list of links related to history and working in academia. From Toledo to Standing Rock: The recent decision to call up the National Guard at Standing Rock conjured up images of Guard–led repression throughout US history by Bradley J. Sommer Following up on our very own…
Erstwhile guest contributor Nick Johnson shares some historical context on the history of marijuana in the Centennial State. Nick is the author of the forthcoming book Grass Roots: An Agricultural History of Cannabis in the American West (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2017). Known to the internet as “The Hempiricist,” he also blogs at Hempirical Evidence and…
Erstwhile contributing editor Alessandra Link reveals disturbing parallels between the present-day Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and the long history of covert corporate maneuvering in Indian Country. While mainstream media outlets focus on the legal conflict between the Standing Rock Sioux and the federal government, the oil company itself has slid beyond wide public recognition. Link…
Erstwhile editor Caroline Grego reflects on her dissertation research from the summer and explores the ways in which African Americans in the South Carolina and Georgia sea islands – the Lowcountry – understood the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893, a hurricane that killed thousands of African Americans. Meteorologists later estimated that the storm was…
Erstwhile’s Graeme Pente continues the new review series of historical graphic novels with Kate Evans’s Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg. Read the first in the series here. “Shamed, dishonoured, wading in blood and dripping with filth, thus capitalist society stands. Not as we usually see it, playing the roles of righteousness, of order,…
Erstwhile editor Caroline Grego assembles and interprets history-related news links from roughly the past month. With this post, we also welcome our readers to a new school year! Erstwhile will now be posting weekly until May. Teaching Trump to College Students by Jason Blakely As the fall semester starts, those of us in history departments…
Erstwhile contributor Rebecca Kennedy reflects on the value of reading fiction, with a reading list for the summer days ahead. Last Friday spring arrived in Vermont. The sun was shining, buds were emerging on the trees, flowering bulbs were making their first appearance, and a cool northerly wind was blowing off of Lake Champlain reminding us…
On the hundred and second anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre, Erstwhile editor Graeme Pente reflects on memory and class at the site, which he visited last month. The plain stretches to the east—to the west, the hills from which the miners extracted coal. Nestled at one of the canyon mouths stands the monument to…
Alessandra Link reflects on the importance of seeking professional networks outside of the classic conference circuit. Heavy rain obstructed my view as I turned off of I-290 on to College Drive, but it didn’t stop the memories from pouring over me: darting from my ramshackle house through the wrought iron gates to campus, a…
Erstwhile editor Sam Bock reflects on the burdens of knowledge and the academic’s obligations while on vacation. I’m writing this piece while I recover from the jet lag of my return flight from Maui. I am lucky enough to have spent eight days relaxing there in the Hawaiian sun with my family who were there celebrating my…
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