Christopher McKnight Nichols
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cmcknichols.bsky.social
Christopher McKnight Nichols
@cmcknichols.bsky.social
Historian, Hayes Chair @OhioState Mershon Ctr Carnegie Fellow 6 Books: Ideology in US Foreign Relations, Rethinking American Grand Strategy, Promise & Peril. Isolationism, Internationalism, Globalization. ⚾️
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Thrilled that Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories, co-edited with David Milne, @columbiaup.bsky.social, has been awarded the International Studies Association's 2023 Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations. cup.columbia.edu/book/ideolog...
I'm with @hcrichardson.bsky.social "every day, I am struck by all the ways in which we are reliving the 1890s. In that era too, consumers organized, using their buying power to affect politics...." tariffs, power of protest, power of corporate capital, relationship between consumption and reform🗃️
November 26, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
This was such a great conversation! Huge thanks to @rachelgracenewman.bsky.social for all the smart questions and in-depth engagement with my book! I really enjoyed this one 😊 #History 🗃️
How much do you know about the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Learn more about how the crisis was made by hemispheric politics with @renatakeller.bsky.social on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social.

This interview was so much fun--thanks for a great read & great chat, Renata!

newbooksnetwork.com/the-fate-of-...
November 25, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
eliminated programs include:
BS in integrated major in mathematics and English
BA in medieval and renaissance studies
BM in music theory and musicology
Associate in biochemical science
Associate in landscape horticulture
Associate in sustainable agriculture
Associate in sustainable agriculture
November 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
And yet Ohio State remains an amazing place to work, teach, live, and be in community.
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The cuts and mergers in higher education in Ohio have now begun in earnest in large part due to the sweeping demands required by the state to comply with SB1 www.dispatch.com/story/news/e...
Ohio State to cut eight majors, merge 20 others to comply with SB 1
Ohio State University will cut eight programs across two colleges and proposed several new merged majors to comply with Senate Bill 1.
www.dispatch.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:53 PM
On OSU and the near absolute ban on land acknowledgements, ban on all chalking, chilling effect of SB1 on camous free apeech www.axios.com/local/columb...
Why Ohio State won't adopt a Native American land acknowledgment
Senate Bill 1 is chilling efforts to honor Indigenous history.
www.axios.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
Thanksgiving is not a colonial/Pilgrim holiday. It’s a Civil War holiday. & we think otherwise in part because of the Lost Cause. 🗃️
www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UrgXv1/
Let’s talk the real #history of #Thanksgiving & the #LostCause history of the #CivilWar Follow @karencoxhistorian “Forgotten America” is available on @thegreatcourses plus & @Audible
TikTok video by PhDRachel
www.tiktok.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Will miss #LGM … also likely more deals to come, this feels like a move among many or at least several
November 24, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
The Mayflower Compact was signed on this day in 1620, so here we have a bank note with detailed center vignette depicted the Pilgrim landing with a small 1620 in the grass, a Native American behind a tree, and the Mayflower just off shore. The Old Colony Bank, Plymouth, MA, $10, May, 18--. 🗃️
November 21, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
How does the public perceive and engage with the discipline of history and the past? Check out the results of a national survey that explored these issues, conducted by the AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 🗃️
History, the Past, and Public Culture: Results from a National Survey | American Historical Association
This project aspired to take America’s historical pulse by assessing public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past.
www.historians.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
Episode 3 of our SECOLAS audiodocumentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis is live! In this episode, we look at the global repercussions of the Cuban Revolution, analyzing Cuba’s relations with the United States, Latin America, the Soviet Union, and the Global South. (1/2) soundcloud.com/historiaspod...
Episode III - Cuba in the Global Cold War
In this episode, Renata Keller and Dustin Walcher look at the global repercussions of the Cuban Revolution, analyzing Cuba’s relations with the United States, Latin America, the Soviet Union, and the
soundcloud.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
An important reminder for professors and students ⬇️
Thinking a lot lately about the simple fact that college allows people to spend about 15 weeks immersed in a disciplinary conversation with an expert in that field. And what a special thing that is.
November 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
“American socialists…move so-called “radical” ideas — proposals to make society more humane, more livable, and more fair, and to give everyday people a stronger voice in their democracy and workplaces — from the margins to the mainstream.”
🗃️
Are Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson Democratic Socialists or FDR Democrats? They Are Both
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
The greatest trick the media ever pulled was convincing the American people that Joe Biden was the senile one
"We have a great portrait of FDR that I found in the vaults that was missing for years. I found it and I put it up. He's a Democrat, to the best of my knowledge...

And when the mayor saw that portrait, he said, Sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken by that portrait?' It's an amazing portrait."
November 22, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
This might be the single funniest thing that has happened during this incredibly cursed year
November 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
No, he isn’t. There is literally no legal means by which he can do this. It’s not presidential power. TPS by law cannot be terminated early, and Somali TPS is not set to expire until March 17, 2026.
Trump says he’s ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali refugees in Minnesota “immediately.”
November 22, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
And this is the problem: Too many people think that the vote for president is the only vote that matters.
I worked in a state legislature for more than two years. Immense amounts of power laying around, but people think the president is a god.
I’m 43 and my vote for president has been utterly meaningless my entire adult life. This has been true for the majority of americans. If you want to have an engaged democracy - which I assume Tom does - making every citizen have a say in the presidency would be a massive step forward on that front
The issue isn't who gets representation, it's that once you start unwinding federalism, why stop at presidential elections? Why bother having "states" at all other than as national administrative boundaries?
And why keep the Senate at all? Why not just a giant House, proportionally elected?
November 22, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols
Ryan Skinner, Director of OSU’s Humanities Institute, celebrates the work of faculty and units in the arts and humanities in this open letter. Ryan serves as Vice-President of AAUP-OSU.

humanitiesinstitute.osu.edu/news/praise-...
In Praise of the Arts and Humanities
Of griots and professorsAs a scholar, I have spent nearly three decades studying the art and social life of West African griots. Griots are storytellers, guardians of cultural memory (they are known c...
humanitiesinstitute.osu.edu
November 21, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations won’t be out officially until 2026 but is shipping now🗃️ edited by Frank Costigliola and Barbara Keys, exceptional contributors and graat chapters, also mine on #ideology @shafrhistorians.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/highereducat...
November 21, 2025 at 9:48 PM
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What is this interview style? Could she be more disrespectful?
"That's absolutely a ridiculous assertion. Shame on you for saying that" -- Hakeem Jeffries was not happy when CNBC's Rebecca Quick claimed he actually wants healthcare costs to go up to score political points on Republicans
November 21, 2025 at 2:09 PM
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The Coast Guard reversed its 'swastikas aren't all that bad' policy just hours after the Washpost broke the story.

It's both surprising, and good, to see that one government agency these days is capable of being embarrassed, and changing course quickly.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The new order came hours after The Post reported the service would instead classify such symbols as “potentially divisive” under guidelines set for release next month.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:56 PM
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Solidarity with the faculty at The New School, one of the most important institutions for humanistic research in the US over the past 75 years.
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
November 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Christopher McKnight Nichols