David Waldstreicher
LightNews LightNews
David Waldstreicher
@dwaldstreicher.bsky.social
2.2K followers 510 following 280 posts

Historian, CUNY Graduate Center. The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley (Farrar Straus & Giroux/ Picador), Slavery's Constitution, & Runaway America (Hill and Wang). More at www.bostonreview.net/authors/david-waldstreicher

Videos
Political science 60%
Sociology 12%
Posts Replies Media Videos

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 1d
“Most of our political evils may be traced to our commercial ones, as most of our moral may to our political.”
--James madison to thomas jefferson, 1786

Reposted by Steven S. Smith, Anders Nilsson, Trevon D. Logan , and 3 more

captmarkkelly.bsky.social
Captain Mark Kelly @captmarkkelly.bsky.social · 5d
I've had a missile blow up next to my airplane, been shot at dozens of times by anti-aircraft fire, and launched into orbit — all for my country. I never thought I'd see a President call for my execution.

Trump doesn’t understand the Constitution, and we're all less safe for it.

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

jysexton.bsky.social
Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 6d
Just a reminder that Trump had his attorney general preempt the Mueller Report with a self-serving “summary” and the media ran with it and it defined everything that came after.

Something to remember as we wait for a probably doctored and scrubbed “Epstein Files” report.

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

johnfea1.bsky.social
John Fea @johnfea1.bsky.social · 7d
On Phillis Wheatley, check out our recent podcast interview with Wheatley biographer David Waldstreicher: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Episode 127: Phillis Wheatley: A Black Evangelical Poet in Revolutionary America
Podcast Episode · The Way of Improvement Leads Home: American History, Religion, Politics, and Academic life. · 11/04/2025 · 55m
podcasts.apple.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 9d
"The real question for the Semiquincentennial isn’t whether we can celebrate the Revolution, but whether we can finally afford to understand it—not the comforting mythology Burns offers, but the history scholarship reveals: disturbing, illuminating, and indispensable."
substack.com/home/post/p-...
What Ken Burns Won’t Tell You About How 1776 Built a Democracy—and an Empire
Founding Myths vs Founding Realities
substack.com

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 9d
What an honor to sit between Robin Kelley and Vivian Gornick, so a reading, discuss, & celebrate the Boston Review! Thanks to Brooklyn Public Library too (recording linked below)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LahH...
Vivian Gornick, Robin D.G. Kelley & David Waldstreicher on Boston Review at 50.
YouTube video by BPLvideos
www.youtube.com

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 15d
farkokta, farfalle.
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 22d
Yes! We must remember BILL whenever possible!
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 22d
Recent book on Jews and the American Revolution by Adam Jortner, A Promised Land (2024) & essays by my colleague John Dixon, who's finishing a book about Jews in the early Americas with a caribbean emphasis, provide much insight into the field--listed on his website www.csi.cuny.edu/campus-direc...
John M. Dixon | | College of Staten Island Website
John Dixon is a historian of early America and the early modern Atlantic world who teaches at the College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center. His research interests include intellectual and...
www.csi.cuny.edu

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 22d
Excellent - next let's do Meyer London!
www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...
MSN
www.msn.com

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 24d
Joe Robinette Bidet has a certain ring to it
of course there is Don John Dump
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 26d
be there and get a square!
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · Oct 24
I guess he didn't read Steven Hahn. But then Steve also says it wasn't really a nation, either?

Reposted by Anna O. Law, American Library Association, Johann N. Neem , and 1 more

pastpunditry.bsky.social
Nicole Hemmer @pastpunditry.bsky.social · Oct 24
In today’s Guardian with @kcarterjackson.bsky.social, explaining why teach-ins (like the one we’re holding Sunday!) are a vital part of activism.
Why we’re holding a teach-in about American history at the Smithsonian | Kellie Carter Jackson and Nicole Hemmer
Podcasters, professors, journalists and ordinary citizens will gather in Washington as the Trump regime wages war on history
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Nandita Sharma, Dawn J. Wright , and 6 more

krassenstein.bsky.social
Krassensteins @krassenstein.bsky.social · Oct 23
BREAKING: Letitia James has announced a Government portal for Videos and images of ICE Agents who may have committed crimes.

Please Use it and SHARE!

ag.ny.gov/federal-acti...
Federal Action Reporting Form
Federal Action Reporting Form Please use this form to share information regarding federal government action in New York state. Filing a complaint does not start
ag.ny.gov

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

lutzfernandez.bsky.social
Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · Oct 17
It’s not just people outside NYC who are clueless about what taking transit is like in New York City. Manhattanites who haven’t stepped foot on it in decades keep telling me how dangerous it is. Meanwhile I keep getting places faster and more pleasantly than they do.
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · Oct 16
November 6:
www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/viv...
Vivian Gornick, Robin D.G. Kelley & David Waldstreicher on Boston Review at 50, with Gianpaolo Baiocchi | Brooklyn Public Library
Join BPL Presents as we celebrate the legendary Boston Review, as it turns fifty this year—with appearances by Vivian Gornick, Robin D.G. Kelley, David Waldstreicher, moderator Gianpaolo Baiocchi, and...
www.bklynlibrary.org

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · Oct 16
Hey, remember in 1783 how Philadelphia built a triumphal arch to celebrate the end of the Revolution and then God used the celebratory fireworks to burn it down and kill people and injure its designer, who came to regard it as punishment for his hubris? Anyway.

www.amphilsoc.org/item-detail/...
reconstructed drawing of Charles Willson Peale's Triumphal Arch, which burned in 1783. Drawing by Lester Hoadley Sellers, 1969, from details reported in newspapers. In the collection of the American Philosophical Society https://www.amphilsoc.org/item-detail/peales-triumphal-arch

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · Oct 16
Vice-Presidents these days....
ngs.bsky.social Nate @ngs.bsky.social · Oct 16
They weren't kids.

And you're really telling on yourself if you think being racist and praising Hitler are things that kids do.
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · Oct 16
JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

ngs.bsky.social
Nate @ngs.bsky.social · Oct 16
They weren't kids.

And you're really telling on yourself if you think being racist and praising Hitler are things that kids do.
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · Oct 16
JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’
JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’
Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’ JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages – including one in which rape was called “epic”, and another in which someone wrote “I love Hitler” – as youthful indiscretions. Vance, speaking on a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, the podcast run by colleagues of the late conservative activist, suggested that the participants in the leaked chats were much younger than they in fact are. Some of the participants are barely younger than the 41-year-old vice-president. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Jan W. Mueller, Elizabeth Saunders , and 12 more

charlesornstein.bsky.social
Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · Oct 16
Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...
www.propublica.org

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

brunojnavarro.bsky.social
Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · Oct 16
Indiana University Media School Dean David Tolchinsky terminated Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush on Tuesday afternoon after he refused to censor the Indiana Daily Student.
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: IU fires student media director after he refused to censor the IDS
Indiana University directed the IDS to stop printing news.
www.idsnews.com

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

enghistrev.bsky.social
The English Historical Review @enghistrev.bsky.social · Oct 16
David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social reviews 'Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions', by Katlyn Marie Carter

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

@yalepress.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social
Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions, by Katlyn Marie Carter
A book about secrecy and transparency in politics needs to be both subtle and hard-hitting; when it is also comparative, treating both the American and Fre
academic.oup.com

Reposted by David R. Miller, Jacob T. Levy, Stephen A. Meserve , and 3 more

donzeko.bsky.social
Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · Oct 16
This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Oct 15
President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.
Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money
The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.
nyti.ms

Reposted by Adrian Vickers, Margot C. Finn, Lisa Diedrich , and 2 more

katewagner.wehwalt.net
kate wagner @katewagner.wehwalt.net · Oct 15
wrote briefly about architecture and the situation at u Chicago www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Why Did UChicago Destroy the Humanities?
The answer is simple: to spend untold sums on useless buildings by starchitects.
www.thenation.com

David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · Oct 15
momzer.

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

jessdkant.bsky.social
Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · Oct 12
It’s actually incredible that as a society we never managed to find the political will to force elected officials to tell the truth on TV.

Reposted by David Waldstreicher

cripdyke.bsky.social
Crip Dyke @cripdyke.bsky.social · Oct 12
To add to this, the US professoriate was overwhelmingly, relentlessly white and male before 1960, and it was overwhelmingly a well-paid white collar job.

1964 CRA prevents ed discrimination. It takes 5 years to complete a PhD. 1969 begins a trend towards adjuncts and lower pay.

Reposted by Jennifer A. Richeson, Steve Peers, Robert C. Richards , and 4 more

sallyjenx.bsky.social
Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · Oct 12
This is really smart. Amazed at the hysteria over the ascendance of a woman entrepreneur who clearly knows how to cover and sell news and who's not afraid to take on a mob. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss
The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.
www.theatlantic.com