Rachel Louise Moran
@rachellouisemoran.bsky.social
Historian & Professor at TAMU. Author of Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America (Chicago 2024) & Governing Bodies (Penn 2018). Posting as a private citizen.
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
Humans are bad at big numbers. Which makes it easier for billionaires (and trillionaires) to get away with hoarding wealth. Because most people just can't comprehend how much money that is.
So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.
So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.
November 19, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Humans are bad at big numbers. Which makes it easier for billionaires (and trillionaires) to get away with hoarding wealth. Because most people just can't comprehend how much money that is.
So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.
So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
The vast body of research that Ken Burns relied upon to make his new documentary on the American Revolution would be practically impossible to be produced today, what with the defunding of humanistic scholarship, the collapse of stable academic jobs, the attack on public history & academic freedom.🗃️
November 17, 2025 at 9:43 PM
The vast body of research that Ken Burns relied upon to make his new documentary on the American Revolution would be practically impossible to be produced today, what with the defunding of humanistic scholarship, the collapse of stable academic jobs, the attack on public history & academic freedom.🗃️
Sharing my recent article from the Journal of the History of Sexuality, "The Politics of Penetration: Sexual Self-Fulfillment and the G-Spot in 1980s America." It is the first piece I have published from my new project, and it is great to have it out in the world (such as the world is).
Project MUSE - The Politics of Penetration: Sexual Self-Fulfillment and the G-Spot in 1980s America
muse.jhu.edu
November 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Sharing my recent article from the Journal of the History of Sexuality, "The Politics of Penetration: Sexual Self-Fulfillment and the G-Spot in 1980s America." It is the first piece I have published from my new project, and it is great to have it out in the world (such as the world is).
Mark's new book is real! Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars. It's an entertaining and smart take on the last 75 years of political fights over American education. @schoolfuss.bsky.social press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
October 31, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Mark's new book is real! Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars. It's an entertaining and smart take on the last 75 years of political fights over American education. @schoolfuss.bsky.social press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
I serve on the AAHM's Outreach and Education committee, and we are about to launch an exciting 2025 History of Medicine Week series! We have events all next week, a couple are only for AAHM members but most are open to anyone interested.
October 2, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I serve on the AAHM's Outreach and Education committee, and we are about to launch an exciting 2025 History of Medicine Week series! We have events all next week, a couple are only for AAHM members but most are open to anyone interested.
Historians, please share these two exciting new positions in the Texas A&M History Department:
careers.historians.org/jobs/2167991...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2168299...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2167991...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2168299...
Tenure-Track, Assistant Professor of Environmental History in College Station, TX for Texas A&M University, Department of History
Exciting opportunity in College Station, TX for Texas A&M University, Department of History as a ...
careers.historians.org
September 29, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Historians, please share these two exciting new positions in the Texas A&M History Department:
careers.historians.org/jobs/2167991...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2168299...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2167991...
careers.historians.org/jobs/2168299...
Great read
🚨Published in the American Historical Review!🚨
My article argues that historians can treat the body as an archive. Using my own training alongside J.C. Hise’s 1930s squat experiments, I explore how fitness culture reshapes bodies, identities & anxieties.
👉 bit.ly/46xlcVw
My article argues that historians can treat the body as an archive. Using my own training alongside J.C. Hise’s 1930s squat experiments, I explore how fitness culture reshapes bodies, identities & anxieties.
👉 bit.ly/46xlcVw
Mistakes I Carried: Building Strength in a Time of Crisis
Abstract. My critical mistake as a historian was ignoring the physical body as a site of knowledge production. For years, I analyzed fitness history in arc
bit.ly
September 22, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Great read
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
Historians call this "positive eugenics." Policies that encourage "normal" people (however that idea is conceived at a particular time) to have more kids. The sister to that is "negative eugenics." Laws that prohibits "unfit" people from having kids. One often does not exist without the other.
👀 NEW: The group behind Project 2025 wants a "Manhattan Project" for more babies.
We have the Heritage Foundation's closely-held draft paper taking a hard turn into "pronatalism."
It pitches ripping up economic policy to induce straight, married couples to have more children.
Gift link ⤵️
We have the Heritage Foundation's closely-held draft paper taking a hard turn into "pronatalism."
It pitches ripping up economic policy to induce straight, married couples to have more children.
Gift link ⤵️
The group behind Project 2025 wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ for more babies
A draft position paper from the Heritage Foundation proposes massive revisions to U.S. economic policy to encourage heterosexual married parents to have more children.
wapo.st
September 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Historians call this "positive eugenics." Policies that encourage "normal" people (however that idea is conceived at a particular time) to have more kids. The sister to that is "negative eugenics." Laws that prohibits "unfit" people from having kids. One often does not exist without the other.
U Chicago Press has a sale on history books with the code history2025, including 30% off mine (& whoa at the incredible company it is in here!)
September 3, 2025 at 2:41 PM
U Chicago Press has a sale on history books with the code history2025, including 30% off mine (& whoa at the incredible company it is in here!)
When working on my postpartum depression book I met folks so excited about therapy chat bots (& now genAI therapy). New parents in the US struggle to find mental health providers, struggle to afford them, and don’t have childcare to see them. This doesn’t solve those problems. It just accepts them.
‘Sliding into an abyss’: experts warn over rising use of AI for mental health support
Therapists say they are seeing negative impacts of people increasingly turning to AI chatbots for help
www.theguardian.com
August 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM
When working on my postpartum depression book I met folks so excited about therapy chat bots (& now genAI therapy). New parents in the US struggle to find mental health providers, struggle to afford them, and don’t have childcare to see them. This doesn’t solve those problems. It just accepts them.
First academic journal review of my book Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America! Thoughtful (and positive, phew!) review in the Journal of Social History, from the amazing Wendy Kline.
August 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
First academic journal review of my book Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America! Thoughtful (and positive, phew!) review in the Journal of Social History, from the amazing Wendy Kline.
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
Wow: tenure letter writers’ publication records (h-index) are better predictors of tenure decisions than candidates’ own publication record.
Another paper from the same group: "External review letters are more closely related to letter writer characteristics than candidate productivity."
External review letters in academic promotion and tenure decisions are reflective of reviewer characteristics
We examine validity and bias in external review letters (ERLs) in academic settings. ERLs play a critical role in promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Wow: tenure letter writers’ publication records (h-index) are better predictors of tenure decisions than candidates’ own publication record.
Going over page proofs for an article coming out this fall! First piece from my new project. I am super proud of my recent book on postpartum depression but I can't lie, this has been a less depressing project so far...
August 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Going over page proofs for an article coming out this fall! First piece from my new project. I am super proud of my recent book on postpartum depression but I can't lie, this has been a less depressing project so far...
I thought every public pool was required to blast pop or pop country, but my they are blasting The Smiths at kids swim lessons in freaking College Station, Texas and it is all so gloriously wonderfully weird
July 23, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I thought every public pool was required to blast pop or pop country, but my they are blasting The Smiths at kids swim lessons in freaking College Station, Texas and it is all so gloriously wonderfully weird
A fun interview I did with Laura McClaw Helms, with way less editing than I am used to so you can read me just jumping around topics like a hyper squirrel (albeit a squirrel with a lot of enthusiasm for the history of postpartum depression)
Uncovering the History of Postpartum Depression
A Conversation with Historian Rachel Louise Moran
laurakitty.substack.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
A fun interview I did with Laura McClaw Helms, with way less editing than I am used to so you can read me just jumping around topics like a hyper squirrel (albeit a squirrel with a lot of enthusiasm for the history of postpartum depression)
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
Michael Steudeman joins @NPR’s Throughline to explore the 19th-century roots of the Dept. of Education—drawing from his upcoming book ABSENCE OF NATIONAL FEELING. Listen + catch the book mention at the end!
🔗 buff.ly/TccdOzc
#UPMississippi #Throughline #EducationHistory
🔗 buff.ly/TccdOzc
#UPMississippi #Throughline #EducationHistory
June 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Michael Steudeman joins @NPR’s Throughline to explore the 19th-century roots of the Dept. of Education—drawing from his upcoming book ABSENCE OF NATIONAL FEELING. Listen + catch the book mention at the end!
🔗 buff.ly/TccdOzc
#UPMississippi #Throughline #EducationHistory
🔗 buff.ly/TccdOzc
#UPMississippi #Throughline #EducationHistory
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
Many people don’t know that there are #oralhistory collections that provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of Black Texans. Take a moment to explore them today. Here’s one collection:
#Juneteenth #TexasHistory #BlackTexans #BlackTexasHistory
bn.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2...
#Juneteenth #TexasHistory #BlackTexans #BlackTexasHistory
bn.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2...
Juneteenth memories from Baylor’s oral history archives
bn.web.baylor.edu
June 19, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Many people don’t know that there are #oralhistory collections that provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of Black Texans. Take a moment to explore them today. Here’s one collection:
#Juneteenth #TexasHistory #BlackTexans #BlackTexasHistory
bn.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2...
#Juneteenth #TexasHistory #BlackTexans #BlackTexasHistory
bn.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2...
So this review calls Blue "a magnificent, comprehensive, and long-overdue history of postpartum depression in the US," which is incredible. More incredible is the author weaves her own postpartum depression/psychosis story into the academic review in thoughtful and moving ways.
New @susih.bsky.social: A book review from Audrey Wu Clark. #HistMed #USIH
--------------------------
On Rachel Louise Moran’s *Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America*
s-usih.org/2025/05/audr...
--------------------------
On Rachel Louise Moran’s *Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America*
s-usih.org/2025/05/audr...
Audrey Wu Clark on Rachel Louise Moran’s *Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America* | Society for US Intellectual History
When I first experienced postpartum depression and psychosis in 2013, nine months after my first child was born, a well-known psychiatrist told me that postpartum depression did not exist. I knew some...
s-usih.org
June 16, 2025 at 5:55 PM
So this review calls Blue "a magnificent, comprehensive, and long-overdue history of postpartum depression in the US," which is incredible. More incredible is the author weaves her own postpartum depression/psychosis story into the academic review in thoughtful and moving ways.
My daughter's camp counselor described her as "a whole vibe," and I am too old to know if this is a compliment, an insult, or a little of both.
June 12, 2025 at 2:41 PM
My daughter's camp counselor described her as "a whole vibe," and I am too old to know if this is a compliment, an insult, or a little of both.
Haunted by this 30-year-old postpartum depression self help book I bought used, that came with the questionnaires filled in.
June 10, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Haunted by this 30-year-old postpartum depression self help book I bought used, that came with the questionnaires filled in.
targeted ads really going for the jugular
June 6, 2025 at 1:26 PM
targeted ads really going for the jugular
Completely beyond capacity (aren't we all) but was asked to blurb a book of poetry related to postpartum illness and of course had to say yes. I earned a minor in English 20 years ago and FINALLY I can cash that baby in.
May 21, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Completely beyond capacity (aren't we all) but was asked to blurb a book of poetry related to postpartum illness and of course had to say yes. I earned a minor in English 20 years ago and FINALLY I can cash that baby in.
Reposted by Rachel Louise Moran
"The NEH’s entire budget is about $200 million — less than what the Department of Defense spends every six hours. And yet its reach touches towns that rarely see federal investment in education and culture."
‘You should be worried': Small town NH library has funds pulled by federal government
A rollback in humanities funding is threatening years of progress to expand a small library in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire.
www.nbcboston.com
May 17, 2025 at 2:47 AM
"The NEH’s entire budget is about $200 million — less than what the Department of Defense spends every six hours. And yet its reach touches towns that rarely see federal investment in education and culture."
just accidentally put my annual gyno appointment on the department calendar, so that's how today is going
May 17, 2025 at 6:08 PM
just accidentally put my annual gyno appointment on the department calendar, so that's how today is going
It is my first official day as a full professor (the regents decision was yesterday) and I am struggling to figure out how to change my outlook signature. So, already leaning hard into the professor brand.
May 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM
It is my first official day as a full professor (the regents decision was yesterday) and I am struggling to figure out how to change my outlook signature. So, already leaning hard into the professor brand.