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Brian DeLay

@briandelay.bsky.social

2.9K followers 900 following 140 posts

Berkeley Historian. Author of War of a Thousand Deserts. For Norton, finishing Aim at Empire: An international History of American Revolutions, through the Barrel of a Gun. Also 2nd Amendment cases. Birds, too. https://history.berkeley.edu/brian-delay

history.berkeley.edu

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Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · Mar 17

I'm thrilled that "The Myth of Continuity in American Gun Culture," a long (79-p.) article that I spent most of a year working on, has just been published in the California Law Review www.californialawreview.org/print/gun-co...

The Myth of Continuity in American Gun Culture — California Law Review

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen elevated history, text, and tradition as the sole criteria for assessing the constitutionality of firearms...

www.californialawreview.org

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Kerri Arsenault @kerriarsenault.bsky.social · 6h

Congratulations to @ievajusionyte.bsky.social and her incredible work on borders and how they affect cultures on both “sides” of a boundary line ❤️❤️💪 www.macfound.org/videos/2025-...

Ieva Jusionyte - 2025 MacArthur Fellow

www.macfound.org

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Mary Hicks @maryhicks.bsky.social · 1d

I'm really honored to have Captive Cosmopolitans join the long line of fantastic books which have won the Warren Dean Memorial prize. Thanks so much to the committee members, who have authored many books that I've been inspired by, for this recognition:

CLAH @clahistorians.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to Mary Hicks (@maryhicks.bsky.social) for winning the Warren Dean Prize for her book, Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery (@oieahc.bsky.social & @uncpress.bsky.social).

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Jared Farmer @geohumanist.bsky.social · 2d

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 4d

Broaden your vista, hermano: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4eP...

Woodworking Giant Extremely Dangerous!!! Red Wood Turning Skills - Working Giant Wood Lathe!

YouTube video by Woodworking Tools

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Brian DeLay

b-eichengreen.bsky.social @b-eichengreen.bsky.social · 5d

www.centralbanking.com/central-bank...

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 5d

"It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it. If any schools capitulate, the pressure will be enormous on all to fold. The only solution is solidarity & collective action against this effort at federal control over higher ed."

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 8d

For more on the inspired lawsuit from the AAUP-Harvard chapter, the national AAUP, AAUP-NYU, AAUP-Rutgers, and the Middle East Studies Association that led to this opinion: www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... @kirstenweld.bsky.social

We’re Harvard Professors Suing the Trump Administration. Here’s Why. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

Universities are currently on the front lines of a battle for basic civil liberties. We must fight for the values — and the people — that define us. This lawsuit is a start.

www.thecrimson.com

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 8d

"...that they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.

Is he correct?" (4/4)

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 8d

The challenge: "I’ve come to believe that President Trump
truly understands and appreciates the full import of
Reagan’s inspiring message –- yet I fear he has drawn from it a darker, more cynical message. I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today..." (3/4)

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 8d

The quote: "Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s
never more than one generation
away from extinction. It is not
ours by way of inheritance; it must
be fought for and defended constantly
by each generation, for it comes
only once to a people." - Ronald Reagan, 1967 (2/4)

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 8d

Read this incandescent opinion - a landmark in the Trump-era fight to retain freedom of speech in the United States. Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, ends with a quote and a challenge to all Americans today (1/4)

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 8d

BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to "strike fear" into First Amendment protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 8d

BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to "strike fear" into First Amendment protesters. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 12d

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 13d

1. This piece by Roge Karma is absolutely worth reading - www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch... . If the Supreme Court allows Trump to fire Lisa Cook, the consequences are likely to be disastrous. key points:

Trump Is Getting Closer to Having an ‘Infinite Money Pit’

If the president takes over the Federal Reserve, he will have extraordinary power to reward his friends and destroy his enemies.

www.theatlantic.com

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Science Magazine @science.org · 14d

U.S. court orders NIH to restore killed grants to California researchers. https://scim.ag/46xy9hY

U.S. court orders NIH to restore killed grants to California researchers

Judge says district court is proper forum to protest mass grant terminations

Reposted by Brian DeLay

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 14d

From invaluable @calmatters.org, funding update for Calif Prop 50. "Support" lets CA gerrymander to offset TX

-"Support" has 100x more "small-dollar" money
-Nearly all "oppose" money comes from one person: Charles Munger Jr, like DJT a princeling heir

Vote YES

calmatters.org/california-v...

Reposted by Brian DeLay

AAUP @aaup.org · 22d

BREAKING:

A historic coalition of national & California labor unions led by the AAUP filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the illegal & coercive use of civil rights laws to attack the University of California system & the rights of their members.

UC employees, not waiting on leaders, sue Trump for 'financial coercion' over UCLA cuts

University of California faculty, students and staff on Tuesday sued President Trump over a $1.2-million penalty against UCLA and federal demands over campus changes. They argued that the actions camp...

www.latimes.com

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting @pcgvr.org · 22d

400 Million Guns (or More) The supply side of America's gun problem

Vital City | Issue 13

The supply side of America's gun problem

www.vitalcitynyc.org

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 25d

I try to resist criticizing UC's leaders. They are my colleagues, I believe they love our institution, & they are often prevented from publicly sharing the full context of the difficult decisions they have to make. But I am appalled by what they've done to these 160 faculty, staff, & students.

Opinion | When Universities Become Informants

A practice from the McCarthy era makes an ugly return.

www.chronicle.com

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 28d

Excited to see my essay "Gun Culture Then & Now" appear today in a special issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social. Thanks to @mkang.bsky.social for making this issue happen. Please read and share - the whole issue is packed with wonderful essays about the past, present, and future of guns in America.

Vital City | Gun Culture Then and Now

Firearm ownership meant something very different when the United States was founded.

www.vitalcitynyc.org

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 28d

I wrote this story because the case of the Guatemalan children hasn’t received nearly as much media attention as it deserves.

I wanted to highlight the full extent of the government’s depraved conduct.

I hope you’ll read and share. Don’t look away.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

But on the morning of Aug. 31, as the bus made its way to the airport, A.R.M.D. worried that he would be returned to Guatemala without the opportunity to make his case in court.
Sharing his anxiety were other Guatemalan children who, like A.R.M.D., had been roused from bed in the middle of the night at their respective foster homes or care facilities. At a children's shelter in McAllen, Texas, one young.girl "was so scared that she vomited and asked to speak with a clinician." Another teenager, who said that her sister was murdered in Guatemala last year, worried that she, too, would be killed if she returned. Other potential deportees cited personal histories involving family violence, sexual abuse, or human trafficking as reasons why they were afraid to return to their home country.
In theory, the law is supposed to protect unaccompanied children from being summarily whisked out of the country by the government.

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 28d

Together, Texans built one of the finest systems of higher education in the world. Ideologues and opportunists are tearing it down. It is a despicable act of generational vandalism that will hurt all Texans, their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren.

Professors want to leave Texas because of tense political climate, survey says

Professors’ concerns included the state’s DEI ban and new limits to faculty influence at colleges and universities.

www.texastribune.org

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · Sep 4

We can choose to live by the rule of law. Or we can choose to be agents of tyranny.

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · Sep 3

1/ I worked at DoD. I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat.

Hard to see how this would not be "murder" or war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable.

Read expert analysis by @bcfinucane.bsky.social⤵️

Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean

The Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel raises significant potential legal issues.

www.justsecurity.org

Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · Aug 30

RIP Reginald Horsman, author of the great Race and Manifest Destiny and many other important books. A farseeing historian ahead of his time.

Obituary for Reginald Horsman at Feerick Funeral Home

Reginald Horsman, a distinguished scholar and beloved husband, father and professor, passed away peacefully in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 20th, 2025, at the age of 93. He was surrounded by his lo...

www.feerickfuneralhome.com

Reposted by Brian DeLay

Carlos Noreña @carlosfnorena.bsky.social · Aug 28

NEW: Tenure-track position in History at UC Berkeley in the GLOBAL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY.

We are casting a wide net here: *all* periods, places, and fields are under consideration.

I'm on the search committee, so do let me know if you have questions.

Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu