Calvin Schermerhorn
@calscherm.bsky.social
Author of The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made (2025) @yalepress. From Southern Maryland🍂. Teaches history in Arizona 🌵
Pinned
“A carefully researched work of history that chronicles centuries of injustice while calling for an end to inequality. A historical examination of the origins of the ever-deepening divide between Black and white intergenerational wealth”-Kirkus; in print &audiobook yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
daily.jstor.org/the-first-bl...
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
daily.jstor.org/the-first-bl...
The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom - JSTOR Daily
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
daily.jstor.org
February 5, 2026 at 8:02 PM
The First Black-Owned Bookstore and the Fight for Freedom
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
daily.jstor.org/the-first-bl...
Black abolitionist David Ruggles opened the first Black-owned bookstore in 1834, pointing the way to freedom—in more ways than one.
daily.jstor.org/the-first-bl...
Thanks @ashleyrparker.bsky.social for the requiem of The Washington Post. I too grew up reading it-and delivering it-in MD as a kid. My Dad would read aloud the Style invitational, book reviews & animal stories. I'll miss what Bezos wasted but treasure what it was
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The Murder of The Washington Post
Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.
www.theatlantic.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Thanks @ashleyrparker.bsky.social for the requiem of The Washington Post. I too grew up reading it-and delivering it-in MD as a kid. My Dad would read aloud the Style invitational, book reviews & animal stories. I'll miss what Bezos wasted but treasure what it was
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
adding to my book wishlist
January 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
adding to my book wishlist
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Check out this blog post from Plunder of Black America author, Calvin Schermerhorn. Read this and more on our website!
When Canada was the Promised Land: What Canada Taught America about Freedom and Inclusive Democracy - Yale University Press
Calvin Schermerhorn— “I felt no real safety South of Canada,” Henry Goings recalled as he gazed at Canada across the Detroit River, “for there is none to the colored man... READ MORE
yalebooks.yale.edu
June 4, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Check out this blog post from Plunder of Black America author, Calvin Schermerhorn. Read this and more on our website!
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Idrees Kahloon, @wsj.com reviews the Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn
What We Miss When We Talk About the Racial Wealth Gap
Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged it, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions. Have we been focussing on the wrong things?
www.newyorker.com
August 11, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Idrees Kahloon, @wsj.com reviews the Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Historian Calvin Schermerhorn traces four hundred years of Black dispossession and decapitalization, telling of the quiet heroism of those who worked to overcome obstacles and defy the plunder. Learn more at yalebooks.com.
February 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Historian Calvin Schermerhorn traces four hundred years of Black dispossession and decapitalization, telling of the quiet heroism of those who worked to overcome obstacles and defy the plunder. Learn more at yalebooks.com.
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made Hardcover by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made [Schermerhorn, Calvin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made
www.amazon.com
February 26, 2025 at 2:24 AM
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made Hardcover by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Last was “The Plunder of Black America” by @calscherm.bsky.social, who uses individual cases across US history as a lens into the economic repression of Black people - with every gain by being quickly met with systemic subversion. Highly recommend
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (5/5)
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (5/5)
The Plunder of Black America
The long history of the racial wealth gap in America told through the stories of seven Black families who struggled to build wealth over multiple generations...
yalebooks.yale.edu
January 20, 2026 at 3:38 AM
Last was “The Plunder of Black America” by @calscherm.bsky.social, who uses individual cases across US history as a lens into the economic repression of Black people - with every gain by being quickly met with systemic subversion. Highly recommend
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (5/5)
Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (5/5)
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...
Racialized Economic Piracy | Los Angeles Review of Books
Joel Edward Goza dives into Calvin Schermerhorn’s new study of American history, tracing a financial pattern of racial exploitation that’s woven into the nation’s fabric.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 1, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...
Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...
Racialized Economic Piracy | Los Angeles Review of Books
Joel Edward Goza dives into Calvin Schermerhorn’s new study of American history, tracing a financial pattern of racial exploitation that’s woven into the nation’s fabric.
lareviewofbooks.org
December 1, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Thank you @joelegoza.bsky.social for a brilliant review in the L.A. Review of Books: lareviewofbooks.org/article/raci...
"The stories hit on almost all of the factors that contribute to our nation’s imbalance in racial wealth....this list takes on the flesh and blood of family life—stats become stories, & we must reckon not simply with what happened but also with the real people it happened to"[email protected]
December 1, 2025 at 5:59 AM
"The stories hit on almost all of the factors that contribute to our nation’s imbalance in racial wealth....this list takes on the flesh and blood of family life—stats become stories, & we must reckon not simply with what happened but also with the real people it happened to"[email protected]
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
November 16, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
My article shows how we can use postcolonial lenses to navigate something we as yet don't know how to acknowledge or talk about well: premodern, non-European people doing things that look a lot like what we now call blackface.
read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/articl...
read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/articl...
Performing Blackness in the Medieval Muslim Metropolis: Arabic Literature and Tropicalization
This essay aims to chart a path between premodern blackface performance and postcolonial theory that escapes colonial teleologies. It analyzes moments from the Abbasid through Mamluk era (ca. 750–1517...
read.dukeupress.edu
October 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
My article shows how we can use postcolonial lenses to navigate something we as yet don't know how to acknowledge or talk about well: premodern, non-European people doing things that look a lot like what we now call blackface.
read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/articl...
read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/articl...
Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
November 16, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Out now, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by @rickbell.bsky.social A wide angle view of a global event that never loses focus on the Revolution itself. Check it out!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/752265...
Now out! Without Fear: Black Women & the Making of Human Rights — Keisha Blain’s brilliant new book tells a 200-year history of Black women who fought for human rights from enslavement through the activists against police violence in our time. Check it out: wwnorton.com/books/978039...
Without Fear
“<em>Without Fear</em> tells the stories of Black women who, like Deborah in the Bible, have engaged in social justice agitation, refusing to simply suffer by engaging in the redemptive work of ...
wwnorton.com
October 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Now out! Without Fear: Black Women & the Making of Human Rights — Keisha Blain’s brilliant new book tells a 200-year history of Black women who fought for human rights from enslavement through the activists against police violence in our time. Check it out: wwnorton.com/books/978039...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
www.dukeupress.edu
October 15, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
www.dukeupress.edu
October 15, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made [Schermerhorn, Calvin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made
www.amazon.com
July 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made by Calvin Schermerhorn
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
www.amazon.com/Plunder-Blac...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
"Both books excel at showing how disproportionately Black wealth has suffered from both racist policy and financial shocks." @newrepublic.com reviews The Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn
Racism Isn’t the Only Cause of the Racial Wealth Gap
Widening the lens to capitalism itself could yield insights on how to close the gap.
newrepublic.com
March 13, 2025 at 9:31 PM
"Both books excel at showing how disproportionately Black wealth has suffered from both racist policy and financial shocks." @newrepublic.com reviews The Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth....that chattel slavery,which lasted in the British American colonies & then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad" @clintsmithiii.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
August 22, 2025 at 3:28 PM
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth....that chattel slavery,which lasted in the British American colonies & then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad" @clintsmithiii.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth about it. . . . chattel slavery, which lasted in the British American colonies and then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad." -Clint Smith www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
August 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth about it. . . . chattel slavery, which lasted in the British American colonies and then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad." -Clint Smith www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
“every apparent step forward is matched by a quiet reversion—each gain followed by a new, more elusive form of loss. Redlining gives way to ‘predatory inclusion’….School desegregation in the cities sparks white flight“ -Idrees Kahloon on The Plunder of Black America
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
What We Miss When We Talk About the Racial Wealth Gap
Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged it, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions. Have we been focussing on the wrong things?
www.newyorker.com
July 31, 2025 at 2:15 PM
“every apparent step forward is matched by a quiet reversion—each gain followed by a new, more elusive form of loss. Redlining gives way to ‘predatory inclusion’….School desegregation in the cities sparks white flight“ -Idrees Kahloon on The Plunder of Black America
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
One reason so many American hospitals are struggling? Investors buy them up, then suck them dry, charging such high rents that services are gutted.
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The landlord gutting America’s hospitals
Medical Properties Trust buys up hospitals and then leases them back to health care systems. Dozens of its hospitals have gone belly up.
www.motherjones.com
July 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM
One reason so many American hospitals are struggling? Investors buy them up, then suck them dry, charging such high rents that services are gutted.
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Looking for heroes, you say?
Let us introduce you to the abortion rights activists who took on Alabama's attorney general—and won. So many lessons here for the post-Roe era. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Let us introduce you to the abortion rights activists who took on Alabama's attorney general—and won. So many lessons here for the post-Roe era. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Inside Alabama’s threats to prosecute abortion helpers
When Roe v. Wade was overturned and abortion became illegal in Alabama, helping people get out of state came with the threat of jail time.
www.motherjones.com
July 27, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Looking for heroes, you say?
Let us introduce you to the abortion rights activists who took on Alabama's attorney general—and won. So many lessons here for the post-Roe era. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Let us introduce you to the abortion rights activists who took on Alabama's attorney general—and won. So many lessons here for the post-Roe era. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Broke-ish® with Erika( @brownerika.bsky.social )Brown & Amber Sims "Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money" Dr. Calvin( @calscherm.bsky.social )Schermerhorn #BlackLiberationMedia www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDMR...
Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money
YouTube video by Black Liberation Media
www.youtube.com
July 16, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Broke-ish® with Erika( @brownerika.bsky.social )Brown & Amber Sims "Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money" Dr. Calvin( @calscherm.bsky.social )Schermerhorn #BlackLiberationMedia www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDMR...