Sam Klug
@samklug.bsky.social
Historian and teacher. Author of THE INTERNAL COLONY: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo238821158.html
This incredibly annoying article mentions in passing that the history of emotions is actually not a new field at all, then brushes past that fact to ignore all previous scholarship and set up its protagonist as a Silicon Valley-style "disruptor" of our understanding of what it means to be human
A common assumption is that throughout history, people have experienced the same basic range of emotions. A radical field of history now challenges this assumption, Gal Beckerman reports. theatln.tc/KD2QRX9Y
🎨: Nicolás Ortega
🎨: Nicolás Ortega
January 20, 2026 at 8:52 PM
This incredibly annoying article mentions in passing that the history of emotions is actually not a new field at all, then brushes past that fact to ignore all previous scholarship and set up its protagonist as a Silicon Valley-style "disruptor" of our understanding of what it means to be human
Reposted by Sam Klug
When the AI slop summer reading list dropped last year I knew I had to write about making book lists. Thanks to @thebaffler.com for letting me go long with bewildered nostalgia & regret on 20 years of Internet book culture & how we made the slop book list inevitable. thebaffler.com/after-the-fa...
List and Shout | Lydia Kiesling
The labor involved in making lists was as close to the opposite of a transcendent reading experience as a disillusioned culture worker could get.
thebaffler.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:18 PM
When the AI slop summer reading list dropped last year I knew I had to write about making book lists. Thanks to @thebaffler.com for letting me go long with bewildered nostalgia & regret on 20 years of Internet book culture & how we made the slop book list inevitable. thebaffler.com/after-the-fa...
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the publication of my book, The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization. Many thanks to anyone who has read or taught it 🙏
January 15, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the publication of my book, The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization. Many thanks to anyone who has read or taught it 🙏
Reposted by Sam Klug
Am I crazy or is “woman murdered by state secret police served on school board, which was looking for ways to protect children from state secret police” not convincing as an antifa super soldier backstory meant to incriminate the dead
The woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week served on the board of her son’s school, which linked to documents encouraging parents to monitor ICE and directing them to training. https://cnn.it/49yoNEa
January 14, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Am I crazy or is “woman murdered by state secret police served on school board, which was looking for ways to protect children from state secret police” not convincing as an antifa super soldier backstory meant to incriminate the dead
what stage of capitalism is this
January 14, 2026 at 3:39 PM
what stage of capitalism is this
Imagine writing to the subject of your research, someone who shaped some of the most consequential events of the 20th century, and mentioning that you earned a varsity letter in tennis in high school.
God this rules so hard; no one does it like Anders Stephanson
newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...
God this rules so hard; no one does it like Anders Stephanson
newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...
Anders Stephanson & George Kennan, Stephanson–Kennan Correspondence, NLR 156, November–December 2025
An inter-generational exchange between one of the Cold War’s originating thinkers and a young Marxist scholar studying his work. Problems of American foreign policy, definitions of the national intere...
newleftreview.org
January 13, 2026 at 2:04 AM
Imagine writing to the subject of your research, someone who shaped some of the most consequential events of the 20th century, and mentioning that you earned a varsity letter in tennis in high school.
God this rules so hard; no one does it like Anders Stephanson
newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...
God this rules so hard; no one does it like Anders Stephanson
newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...
Reposted by Sam Klug
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
Criticism Is Literature. Why Is It Vanishing?, by Adam Morgan
What do the best book reviews do? What is the current state of the critical ecosystem? Chicago Review of Books founder Adam Morgan takes stock of book reviewing in the US.
worldliteraturetoday.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
“You still think you can control them?”
December 21, 2025 at 10:05 PM
“You still think you can control them?”
A lot of people are not being honest about how some of the most successful historians of our day use research assistants, or about how much they truly read, and that’s all I’ll be saying on the matter.
December 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
A lot of people are not being honest about how some of the most successful historians of our day use research assistants, or about how much they truly read, and that’s all I’ll be saying on the matter.
Reposted by Sam Klug
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
I think there’s a broad hunger for this kind of shift and journalists/writers/podcasters should evangelize it aggressively. And we should say that it doesn’t need to be total: You don’t need a print newspaper to tone down the algorithm’s role in your life. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
December 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts Want to Get Under Your Skin
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Sam Klug
Democrats were so worked up about young people seeing the genocide happening in Gaza that they paved the road for TikTok becoming owned by Trump family members and cronies.
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
TikTok U.S. Deal to Close Next Month: Oracle and Silver Lake Confirmed in Buyer Consortium
Abu Dhabi's state investment fund will also be a managing investor.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Democrats were so worked up about young people seeing the genocide happening in Gaza that they paved the road for TikTok becoming owned by Trump family members and cronies.
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Reposted by Sam Klug
Reposted by Sam Klug
2/2 🧵 ✨ The entire Frantz Fanon special issue is available to read and download for free — the perfect festive deep dive 🎄🔥
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
December 18, 2025 at 9:10 AM
2/2 🧵 ✨ The entire Frantz Fanon special issue is available to read and download for free — the perfect festive deep dive 🎄🔥
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
Reposted by Sam Klug
My book _I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom_ (@yalepress.bsky.social) has been out for 6 months! I’m thrilled that in 2026, it will be available as an audiobook (March) and a paperback (July)!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
I Have Avenged America
A moving and humane portrait of the abolitionist revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haiti’s fight for independence from French colonial rule ...
yalebooks.yale.edu
December 17, 2025 at 2:13 PM
My book _I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom_ (@yalepress.bsky.social) has been out for 6 months! I’m thrilled that in 2026, it will be available as an audiobook (March) and a paperback (July)!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Since it's the season for year-end list-making, here are my favorite books I read this year (books by friends not eligible)
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
December 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Since it's the season for year-end list-making, here are my favorite books I read this year (books by friends not eligible)
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Reposted by Sam Klug
HARD BOILED DETECTIVE: another cruel sunrise over the city of the damned. another corpse. another widow. another cup of black coffee to drag my sorry ass back to life- *sputtering*
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
December 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
HARD BOILED DETECTIVE: another cruel sunrise over the city of the damned. another corpse. another widow. another cup of black coffee to drag my sorry ass back to life- *sputtering*
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
When I teach the War on Terror I emphasize how “WMD” always was a strange and unstable concept, encompassing both battlefield chemical weapons and nuclear weapons developed explicitly to cause maximum civilian harm. It never made any sense as a category and now it has fully jumped the shark
NEW — Trump has signed an executive order "designating illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemical as weapons of mass destruction (WMD)." www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
As a reminder, The Handbasket had the scoop that this was coming back in MARCH:
As a reminder, The Handbasket had the scoop that this was coming back in MARCH:
Trump to declare 'illicit' fentanyl 'Weapon of Mass Destruction,' per draft EO
A copy of the draft was obtained and reviewed by The Handbasket.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 16, 2025 at 12:34 AM
When I teach the War on Terror I emphasize how “WMD” always was a strange and unstable concept, encompassing both battlefield chemical weapons and nuclear weapons developed explicitly to cause maximum civilian harm. It never made any sense as a category and now it has fully jumped the shark
In Michael Denning's Culture in the Age of Three Worlds -- a marvelous book that I sadly lost my copy of in a move a few years ago & have still failed to replace -- there's an incredible list of left intellectuals and activists born between c. 1925 and c. 1935 (1/2)
I sometimes wonder where the left would be if James Baldwin had been the one who got another 30 years rather than Chomsky.
December 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
In Michael Denning's Culture in the Age of Three Worlds -- a marvelous book that I sadly lost my copy of in a move a few years ago & have still failed to replace -- there's an incredible list of left intellectuals and activists born between c. 1925 and c. 1935 (1/2)
Reposted by Sam Klug
December 2, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, Ronin, and Heist are all good-to-great movies with great scripts. I think with Mamet we’re dealing with a post-9/11 (and post-Second Intifada) derangement situation
his politics are bad and they seem to get worse every year but here is a list of screenplays he has written since 1997. whatever else you can say about him, he stopped being a good writer long before he started having bad takes
December 12, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, Ronin, and Heist are all good-to-great movies with great scripts. I think with Mamet we’re dealing with a post-9/11 (and post-Second Intifada) derangement situation
Reposted by Sam Klug
This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.
Proposed Model Bill Would Change College Tenure, Teaching, & Research
Three conservative groups have proposed model legislation that would dramatically change faculty tenure paths, teaching loads, research activities and hiring authority
www.forbes.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:45 PM
This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.
Reposted by Sam Klug
Fairly remarkable article here: ICE's acting director is publicly demanding that a parish in Massachusetts remove its nativity scene because it offends the administration.
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
ICE director demands Mass. church remove ‘ICE was here’ nativity scene
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons is calling for the removal of a nativity scene at a Catholic church in Mass. that protests U.S. immigration policies.
www.masslive.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Fairly remarkable article here: ICE's acting director is publicly demanding that a parish in Massachusetts remove its nativity scene because it offends the administration.
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...