Rebecca Spang
@rlspang.bsky.social
Professor of History, sometimes administrator at big public university in Midwest. Writes about money, French Revolution, restaurants. Friend to vert paleo.
ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow.
once/future Mainer
ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow.
once/future Mainer
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
This DID make me laugh
January 30, 2026 at 1:53 AM
This DID make me laugh
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
This is a five-alarm fire not just for Texas A&M but for higher education and the country more generally. And it’s old news to say it, but this resides in a different universe of consequentiality than any of the perceived transgressions that triggered the Harper’s letter.
Texas A&M Ends Women’s Studies and Overhauls Classes Over Race and Gender
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:37 PM
This is a five-alarm fire not just for Texas A&M but for higher education and the country more generally. And it’s old news to say it, but this resides in a different universe of consequentiality than any of the perceived transgressions that triggered the Harper’s letter.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
"the Clouds thicken fast, where they will burst I know not, but we should be armed at all points."
- George Washington to John Hancock, 30–31 January 1776
founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...
- George Washington to John Hancock, 30–31 January 1776
founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...
January 30, 2026 at 10:26 PM
"the Clouds thicken fast, where they will burst I know not, but we should be armed at all points."
- George Washington to John Hancock, 30–31 January 1776
founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...
- George Washington to John Hancock, 30–31 January 1776
founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US
Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.
www.bloomberg.com
January 30, 2026 at 4:47 PM
BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Last week a border patrol agent was filmed pepper-spraying a detained protester at point-blank range. @pacantifa.is identified agent as Tyler Gramlin.
For @us.theguardian.com I asked Gramlin for comment. His response? He sent me a weird far-right "Amelia" meme. "DEFEND YOUR HOMELAND," it said.
For @us.theguardian.com I asked Gramlin for comment. His response? He sent me a weird far-right "Amelia" meme. "DEFEND YOUR HOMELAND," it said.
January 30, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Last week a border patrol agent was filmed pepper-spraying a detained protester at point-blank range. @pacantifa.is identified agent as Tyler Gramlin.
For @us.theguardian.com I asked Gramlin for comment. His response? He sent me a weird far-right "Amelia" meme. "DEFEND YOUR HOMELAND," it said.
For @us.theguardian.com I asked Gramlin for comment. His response? He sent me a weird far-right "Amelia" meme. "DEFEND YOUR HOMELAND," it said.
It's not good for my spine, my carbon footprint, or many other things, but I am making an insanely fast trip to London and back so I can be there at the Launch Party for HWJ 100 (cc @historyworkshop.org.uk ) at Birkbeck on Saturday at 2:00 local time. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/work...
Working Collectively Then and Now
How did History Workshop Journal's editorial collective sustain its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years? Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks discuss.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 30, 2026 at 4:58 AM
It's not good for my spine, my carbon footprint, or many other things, but I am making an insanely fast trip to London and back so I can be there at the Launch Party for HWJ 100 (cc @historyworkshop.org.uk ) at Birkbeck on Saturday at 2:00 local time. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/podcast/work...
This DID make me laugh
January 30, 2026 at 1:53 AM
This DID make me laugh
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Our excellent and reasonable president just grounded, by my count (based on Wikipedia), 231 out of 544 aircraft in the American Eagle fleet.
Good luck to us all.
Good luck to us all.
January 30, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Our excellent and reasonable president just grounded, by my count (based on Wikipedia), 231 out of 544 aircraft in the American Eagle fleet.
Good luck to us all.
Good luck to us all.
If DHS/ICE is admitting to having kidnapped 40 people/day, how many did they actually take?
Averages are of course deceptive but the population density of Maine overall is ~40 people/square mile. So they’re admitting to emptying at least 5 square miles in the last week
Averages are of course deceptive but the population density of Maine overall is ~40 people/square mile. So they’re admitting to emptying at least 5 square miles in the last week
One of the several unknowns is what may happen to the more than 200 people that federal officials say were arrested in the first five days of the operation.
Maine’s ICE surge is over, but arrested immigrants remain scattered across the country
One of the several unknowns is what may happen to the more than 200 people that federal officials say were arrested in the first five days of the operation.
www.bangordailynews.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:46 PM
If DHS/ICE is admitting to having kidnapped 40 people/day, how many did they actually take?
Averages are of course deceptive but the population density of Maine overall is ~40 people/square mile. So they’re admitting to emptying at least 5 square miles in the last week
Averages are of course deceptive but the population density of Maine overall is ~40 people/square mile. So they’re admitting to emptying at least 5 square miles in the last week
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Eighty year olds in Maine physically blocking ice agents from accessing ice offices. Faith leaders in DC up to #GoodTrouble. High schoolers and nurses striking.
Shame on those who aren’t willing to sacrifice anything.
Shame on those who aren’t willing to sacrifice anything.
It appears several clergy were just arrested as they staged an anti-ICE protest in the Russell Rotunda in the U.S. Senate office building.
A number of faith leaders, who were in town urging Senators to vote against additional ICE funding, were led away by police: www.facebook.com/FIAnational/...
A number of faith leaders, who were in town urging Senators to vote against additional ICE funding, were led away by police: www.facebook.com/FIAnational/...
January 29, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Eighty year olds in Maine physically blocking ice agents from accessing ice offices. Faith leaders in DC up to #GoodTrouble. High schoolers and nurses striking.
Shame on those who aren’t willing to sacrifice anything.
Shame on those who aren’t willing to sacrifice anything.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
ICE's decision to just leave cars abandoned in the roads is one of those dystopian things that makes you recoil in shock when you encounter it.
A legal asylum-seeker who works at Chipotle and plays music at a church in Maine went missing. His pastor searched and searched, eventually finding his abandoned car with the keys on the floor.
ICE grabbed him. No criminal record. No explanation.
ICE grabbed him. No criminal record. No explanation.
January 29, 2026 at 4:58 PM
ICE's decision to just leave cars abandoned in the roads is one of those dystopian things that makes you recoil in shock when you encounter it.
The ICE surge in Maine seems to be targeting church-going, fully legal, asylum seekers. Or maybe those are the victims who have someone to speak for them. It’s so shameful and sickening.
Full story here www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/a...
A pastor searched for a missing congregant. He found a car with the keys on the floor
Evaristo Kalonji, an asylum seeker from Angola who has no criminal record, vanished from South Portland. He turned up in one detention center, then another.
www.pressherald.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:25 PM
The ICE surge in Maine seems to be targeting church-going, fully legal, asylum seekers. Or maybe those are the victims who have someone to speak for them. It’s so shameful and sickening.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
The parents are legally in the U.S. as asylum seekers. This is lawless behavior by ICE. #mepolitics
Video shows ICE leaving behind an infant and broken glass after arresting a man with no criminal history.
“There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.”
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...
“There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.”
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...
ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest
Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.
www.pressherald.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:16 PM
The parents are legally in the U.S. as asylum seekers. This is lawless behavior by ICE. #mepolitics
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Legal asylum seeker, no criminal record, working two jobs, dragged out of smashed car and kidnapped by ICE as his US citizen newborn cries in a car seat in the freezing cold in Maine and his wife who barely speaks English pleads for help. WTAF
Video shows ICE leaving behind an infant and broken glass after arresting a man with no criminal history.
“There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.”
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...
“There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.”
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...
ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest
Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.
www.pressherald.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Legal asylum seeker, no criminal record, working two jobs, dragged out of smashed car and kidnapped by ICE as his US citizen newborn cries in a car seat in the freezing cold in Maine and his wife who barely speaks English pleads for help. WTAF
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
This will force the other news outlets to cover it. Based on past performance, most of that will be to cover the controversy of Trump claims X, everyone says not X, which will further promote nothing being true & everything/anything being possible. Which is what Trump & the MAGA movement want. end/
January 29, 2026 at 4:59 PM
This will force the other news outlets to cover it. Based on past performance, most of that will be to cover the controversy of Trump claims X, everyone says not X, which will further promote nothing being true & everything/anything being possible. Which is what Trump & the MAGA movement want. end/
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
We're once again going to get to watch Trump, his aides, & his fellow travelers run a complete influence operation based on baseless & long debunked conspiracy theories through his press gaggles & social media posts through Fox News & now CBS News right into Congress. 4/
January 29, 2026 at 4:57 PM
We're once again going to get to watch Trump, his aides, & his fellow travelers run a complete influence operation based on baseless & long debunked conspiracy theories through his press gaggles & social media posts through Fox News & now CBS News right into Congress. 4/
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
For those not familiar with "destructive scanning", this means Anthropic would buy up millions of physical books, use “hydraulic powered cutting machines” to chop them up, scan the pages on “high speed, high quality, production level scanners,” then send the pages to recycling companies!!!
Absolutely damning from @aaronschaffer.com, @willoremus.com, & @nitasha.bsky.social.
To get more data, Anthropic:
* "destructively scanned" millions of books
* downloaded the shadow library LibGen
* hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!"
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
To get more data, Anthropic:
* "destructively scanned" millions of books
* downloaded the shadow library LibGen
* hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!"
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Inside an AI start-up’s plan to scan and dispose of millions of books
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 28, 2026 at 9:26 PM
For those not familiar with "destructive scanning", this means Anthropic would buy up millions of physical books, use “hydraulic powered cutting machines” to chop them up, scan the pages on “high speed, high quality, production level scanners,” then send the pages to recycling companies!!!
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
The news from Minnesota is rightly in all the headlines but the news from Maine is terribly ugly as well: wgme.com/news/local/s...
Saco reverend 'heartbroken' and 'furious' over ICE arrest of church member
The reverend says after their conversation Nzeza went to pick up some things for his family and on his way home ICE took him.
wgme.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:03 AM
The news from Minnesota is rightly in all the headlines but the news from Maine is terribly ugly as well: wgme.com/news/local/s...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Trump really doesn’t give a damn. It’s not his money. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump’s National Guard Deployments Costing $93 Million a Month
President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to US cities cost taxpayers at least $496 million in 2025 — with the price tag rising to a rate of $93 million a month, according to a new ...
www.bloomberg.com
January 28, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Trump really doesn’t give a damn. It’s not his money. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Judge in Minnesota Says ICE Has Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders
www.nytimes.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Related, "polarization" as a problem is one of the most destructive ideas US political science has ever helped popularize.
This is why I have real fucking problem with blithe criticisms of "polarization" or "congressional dysfunction." We have a Republican member blaming his colleague for being attacked.
The problem isn't polarization or dysfunction. It's the Republican Party.
The problem isn't polarization or dysfunction. It's the Republican Party.
Rep. Randy Fine on Ilhan Omar getting attacked: "I blame Ilhan Omar for what happened"
January 28, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Related, "polarization" as a problem is one of the most destructive ideas US political science has ever helped popularize.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
New planet just dropped and it
1) is almost exactly Earth-sized
2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year.
3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡
Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪
1) is almost exactly Earth-sized
2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year.
3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡
Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪
Earth-size planet spotted with yearlong orbit
Long-overlooked Kepler signal discovered by citizen scientists reveals promising world worth a closer look
www.science.org
January 28, 2026 at 9:42 PM
New planet just dropped and it
1) is almost exactly Earth-sized
2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year.
3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡
Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪
1) is almost exactly Earth-sized
2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year.
3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡
Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪