Eric Brandom
@ebrandom.bsky.social
Intellectual history, here decontextualized. Especially modern France, history of political thought, and socialism. And Kansas, because that's where I live "als Gelehrter, der durch Schriften zum eigentlichen Publikum, nämlich der Welt, spricht."
Pinned
Eric Brandom
@ebrandom.bsky.social
· Feb 22
"the common ruin of the contending classes"
Reposted by Eric Brandom
tintinnabulation
January 12, 2026 at 11:20 PM
tintinnabulation
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Parce que je n'oublie pas Walter Benjamin, je partage volontiers ce CFP pour le prochain volume des Benjamin Studies consacré à "Walter Benjamin in Times of Crisis"
January 12, 2026 at 12:16 PM
Parce que je n'oublie pas Walter Benjamin, je partage volontiers ce CFP pour le prochain volume des Benjamin Studies consacré à "Walter Benjamin in Times of Crisis"
Not a scholar of Paine, but I would say that there was also much more of a free thinker and radical reception of Paine in the 19th century US than appears in this (short! no doubt lots left out) treatment. Du Bois says John Brown's people were reading him before Harpers Ferry!
Historian here, Fantastic piece by Jenny Schuessler in @nytimes.com today in Thomas Paine. This was my question at the 250 panel in #aha2026 Paine saw himself as the citizen of the world, a sensibility we need today! www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/a...
How Americans Learned to Love Thomas Paine
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Not a scholar of Paine, but I would say that there was also much more of a free thinker and radical reception of Paine in the 19th century US than appears in this (short! no doubt lots left out) treatment. Du Bois says John Brown's people were reading him before Harpers Ferry!
today's word, "munitionnette" which must be a development of "midinette" but with bombs rather than dresses
part of a discussion through which I learned the word "apocatastasis"
January 12, 2026 at 6:17 PM
today's word, "munitionnette" which must be a development of "midinette" but with bombs rather than dresses
Imagining trying to write a final paper that is Rose vs Zizek and having a nervous breakdown
happy first day of school to semester colleagues please enjoy this jameson syllabus from January 1996
January 12, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Imagining trying to write a final paper that is Rose vs Zizek and having a nervous breakdown
Reposted by Eric Brandom
happy first day of school to semester colleagues please enjoy this jameson syllabus from January 1996
January 12, 2026 at 5:23 PM
happy first day of school to semester colleagues please enjoy this jameson syllabus from January 1996
If I'm interpreting this email header correctly, which I may not be, someone just sent an email meant for like ten people out to *all* instructors at my institution, ~1400 people.
January 12, 2026 at 3:17 PM
If I'm interpreting this email header correctly, which I may not be, someone just sent an email meant for like ten people out to *all* instructors at my institution, ~1400 people.
"Opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum"
January 12, 2026 at 3:06 PM
"Opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum"
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Great is Justice;
January 12, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Great is Justice;
"Men, ye seem the years; so brimming life is gulped and gone."
January 12, 2026 at 12:20 AM
"Men, ye seem the years; so brimming life is gulped and gone."
"a cosy inhabitiveness...a comfortable localness of feeling"
January 11, 2026 at 11:54 PM
"a cosy inhabitiveness...a comfortable localness of feeling"
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Today is Tridi the 23rd of Nivôse in the year 234.
Nivôse is the month of snow.
Today we celebrate iron.#JacobinDay
More information on iron
Nivôse is the month of snow.
Today we celebrate iron.#JacobinDay
More information on iron
January 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Today is Tridi the 23rd of Nivôse in the year 234.
Nivôse is the month of snow.
Today we celebrate iron.#JacobinDay
More information on iron
Nivôse is the month of snow.
Today we celebrate iron.#JacobinDay
More information on iron
Official count I hear was 350, which isn't bad for a protest announced ~24 hours ago.
January 11, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Official count I hear was 350, which isn't bad for a protest announced ~24 hours ago.
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Now I want a t shirt that says "Modernism isn't real, it can't hurt you."
Modernism isn't real, it's just Romanticism again.
November 25, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Now I want a t shirt that says "Modernism isn't real, it can't hurt you."
“Although [God] may have expressed his wrath against those who transgressed his laws in many instances in the Bible, it is reasonable to imagine that he will have successfully dealt with his anger management issues by the end of historical time."
January 10, 2026 at 6:47 PM
“Although [God] may have expressed his wrath against those who transgressed his laws in many instances in the Bible, it is reasonable to imagine that he will have successfully dealt with his anger management issues by the end of historical time."
The first line of this final paragraph is of course famous, but the heroic assumption of paradox and moral catastrophe, continuing in the face of "the crumbling of all hopes," this is the real core of the thing.
January 10, 2026 at 6:38 PM
The first line of this final paragraph is of course famous, but the heroic assumption of paradox and moral catastrophe, continuing in the face of "the crumbling of all hopes," this is the real core of the thing.
"Not summer's bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now."
Finally getting to this Joan Scott talk. Appreciate it in many ways. The epigraph is a gut punch and a reminder of how good Weber's Politics as Vocation is.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
“A GUESSER IN THIS VALE OF TEARS”: ON THE POLITICS OF HISTORY WRITING
The essay makes three points about historians’ responsibilities in the current moment. The first has to do with making sense of the present by bringing the past to bear on it—that is, offering to the...
doi.org
January 10, 2026 at 6:26 PM
"Not summer's bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now."
Finally getting to this Joan Scott talk. Appreciate it in many ways. The epigraph is a gut punch and a reminder of how good Weber's Politics as Vocation is.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
“A GUESSER IN THIS VALE OF TEARS”: ON THE POLITICS OF HISTORY WRITING
The essay makes three points about historians’ responsibilities in the current moment. The first has to do with making sense of the present by bringing the past to bear on it—that is, offering to the...
doi.org
January 10, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Finally getting to this Joan Scott talk. Appreciate it in many ways. The epigraph is a gut punch and a reminder of how good Weber's Politics as Vocation is.
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
doi.org/10.1111/hith...
*in* his face!
"Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face"
January 9, 2026 at 4:27 AM
*in* his face!
"He looked like a man cut away from the stake"
January 9, 2026 at 4:20 AM
"He looked like a man cut away from the stake"
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Excited about the improvements to this prototype, Rhetoric and Revolution, about the French assembly drafting the revolutionary constitution of 1791. Going to be much more streamlined good for discussion.
January 8, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Excited about the improvements to this prototype, Rhetoric and Revolution, about the French assembly drafting the revolutionary constitution of 1791. Going to be much more streamlined good for discussion.
Pleased to get to teach Modern France & Empire this coming semester. Here is a list of readings/weeks, lots of which will need to be cut. Also I want a week about the 80s-today. Maybe from Françoise Gaspard's *Small City*? Would love to hear about new scholarship I should teach. 🗃️
![Week #6 The Commune
Eichner, Surmounting the Barricades -- chapters 2 & 3, plus conclusion
Paris Under Siege, from the Goncourt Journal. Becker trans. & Beik ed (pp 220-267
Week #7 – Third Republic I
Clement, “The Christ in the Cabaret” Cultural and Social History 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2020.1742038
Bouvier, Jeanne "My Memoires" from Traugott ed. The French Worker
Renan, “What is a Nation?”
Anténor Firmin, Equality of Human Races (selections)
Week #8 – Third Republic II
Offen, Karen. “Depopulation, Nationalism, and Feminism in Fin-de-Siècle France [PDF]” The American Historical Review 89, no. 3 (1984): 648–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/1856120.
Conklin, Alice L. “Colonialism and Human Rights, A Contradiction in Terms? The Case of France and West Africa, 1895-1914.” The American Historical Review 103, no. 2 (1998): 419–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2649774.
Barres, Maurice. “The Nancy Declaration” (1898)
Durkheim, Emile. "Individualism and the Intellectuals" (1898)
Sorel, Georges. "Apology for Violence" [1908]
Week #9 - WWI
Boucheron ed, France in the World pp 657-688
Stovall, "The Color Line Behind the Line" AHR 1998
Joseph, "Black Women, Citizenship, and Separation Allowances" French History 2021.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5syae7p7dr6zsfdoe4k6buky/bafkreifiwunm6elthss5evrxllwnz7cvkf7zq4c5le55a7ez3wpwsaxa4i@jpeg)
![Week #10
Popkin, A History of Modern France chapters 26-27
Bloch, Strange defeat, chapter 3
Simone Weil, “Letter to Georges Bernanos” & “What is a Jew? (letter to the interior ministry)”
Week #11
Virgili, Fabrice. Shorn Women (2000), chapters 1, 4, 8, and conclusion.
Joseph-Gabriel, Annette. “Eugénie Éboué-Tell and Jane Vialle: Refiguring Power in the French Union.” Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire. Illinois, 2020.
Week #12 – Algerian war
Mon, Nov 7
Chabal, Emile. France chapter 3
Fanon, from Toward the African Revolution, selections; Letter of resignation, 1956; from Wretched of the Earth, selections
Panchasi, "An Atomic 'Adventure' in Empire" Jadaliyya
To read alongside, this piece of journalism.
Week #13 – 1968 and after
Barthes, Roland. selections from Mythologies.
Seidman, Imaginary Revolution (selections)
Popkin, chapter 33
Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" [1970]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5syae7p7dr6zsfdoe4k6buky/bafkreicrzssaix5tfawnhuci7sfgemuecdlatrr5nuhy4voi5ekaijkp5q@jpeg)
January 8, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Pleased to get to teach Modern France & Empire this coming semester. Here is a list of readings/weeks, lots of which will need to be cut. Also I want a week about the 80s-today. Maybe from Françoise Gaspard's *Small City*? Would love to hear about new scholarship I should teach. 🗃️
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Pitch me your ideas—scholarly and otherwise—for a series on Venezuela. I’ve already seen a lot of good discussion on here. Let’s move some of it to a more expanded forum. DM or email with questions.
Age of Revolutions seeks contributions on Venezuela’s revolutionary movements, ideas, and global impact.
🔗 Submit here ageofrevolutions.com/2026/01/06/c...
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis but should be submitted by January 19, 2026.
Bring your research to the conversation!
🔗 Submit here ageofrevolutions.com/2026/01/06/c...
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis but should be submitted by January 19, 2026.
Bring your research to the conversation!
CFP: Venezuelan Revolutions
Series editor: Amanda C. Waterhouse, University of Notre Dame Recent events in and around Venezuela demand more scholarly and public attention to the country’s history and relevant related t…
ageofrevolutions.com
January 6, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Pitch me your ideas—scholarly and otherwise—for a series on Venezuela. I’ve already seen a lot of good discussion on here. Let’s move some of it to a more expanded forum. DM or email with questions.
Reposted by Eric Brandom
Reposted by Eric Brandom
On Darwinism before Darwin: Hayek on Mandeville and Machiavelli (with some Rawls, Halévy and Spinoza thrown in).
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with shout outs to @neuroyogacara.bsky.social @walterveit.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with shout outs to @neuroyogacara.bsky.social @walterveit.bsky.social
On Darwinism before Darwin: Hayek on Mandeville and Machiavelli (with some Rawls, Halévy and Spinoza thrown in).
A few days ago (here), I made a wholly unnecessary, somewhat catty remark of Hayek’s (1966) ‘Master Mind’ lecture, “Dr.
open.substack.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:19 PM
On Darwinism before Darwin: Hayek on Mandeville and Machiavelli (with some Rawls, Halévy and Spinoza thrown in).
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with shout outs to @neuroyogacara.bsky.social @walterveit.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with shout outs to @neuroyogacara.bsky.social @walterveit.bsky.social