Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Joseph M. Adelman

Liz Covart @lizcovart.bsky.social · 3h

I’m speaking about my work into the origins of the American union at the Old North Church’s Digital Speaker Series tonight. It’s virtual and free, although I hope you will consider a donation to the Old North Church to help support their history education work.

#Boston #History

The First Drafts of the United States: Early Experiments in American Union

Join us on Zoom for a conversation about the forgotten stories of America's "rough drafts": a series of failed experiments with unity.

www.eventbrite.com

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Reposted by Joseph M. Adelman

Rebecca Brenner Graham @theotherrbg.bsky.social · 3h

facilitated by RI Historical Society and hosted at Brown, History Day is an opportunity to encourage & provide feedback to local high school & middle school students interested in history. Rhode Islanders, save the date: March 28. register to judge here! #Brown2026 sites.google.com/rihs.org/rho...

Rhode Island History Day - Judges

Why Become a History Day Judge?

sites.google.com

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Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 7h

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 4h

Holy crap that’s bad.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 6h

ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 4h

With the announcement of 22 new "genius grant" recipients, I'm delighted to say that it's at least theoretically possible that the MacArthur Foundation may have ranked me as high as 23rd on their list.

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 11h

As with most America 250 things these days, my paired reactions are first, "sure go ahead;" and second, "shouldn't they have done this like three years ago?"

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Reposted by Joseph M. Adelman

John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 11h

Following on the whole Trump $1 coin thing, all the congressional members of the U.S. Semiquin Committee have introduced a bill requiring treasury to mint $2.50 coins for 2026. legiscan.com/US/bill/HB56...

US Congress HB5616 | 2025-2026 | 119th Congress

Summary (2025-09-30) $2.50 for America’s 250th Act [Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.]

legiscan.com

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 11h

In this week's Declaration Stories, @emilysneff.bsky.social explores the work of Benjamin Towne, whose Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first English-language newspaper to print the Declaration in July 1776. www.declarationstories.org/stories/earl...

Early Intelligence — Declaration Stories

On July 6, Benjamin Towne had the Declaration of Independence before any other newspaper printers were able to share the text with their readers

www.declarationstories.org

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Roger Cormier @yayroger.bsky.social · 20h

He is now wearing a Dump Here 62 shirt.

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Roger Cormier @yayroger.bsky.social · 20h

A gentleman with a "Dump Here 61" shirt caught the Raleigh home run (on a bounce.)

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 1d

This is all but literally one of the things that King James II did that led to the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the English Bill of Rights in 1689. (Want to guess who used that document as a model in the 1770s and 1780s?)

avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century...

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 1d

[Requisite not-a-lawyer caveat]

This is one of the reasons I make sure to discuss the concept of standing in history courses. It’s such a central part of American legal history (Dred Scott!) and so few of my students have ever even heard of it before.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 1d

That would be my guess too — mutual reinforcement that blots out the sun (the sun being most other historical fields).

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Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 1d

an UWS giant is no more

RIP

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/d...

Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97

www.nytimes.com

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 1d

In fairness, they have to read something in between books about Antietam.

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Seth Rockman @sethrockman.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, this is so exciting! Thank you @lizcovart.bsky.social for the invitation. And while I'm here, pleased to announce that @uchicagopress.bsky.social is bringing out a paperback in Spring 2026!!!

Liz Covart @lizcovart.bsky.social · 1d

Today is @bfworld.bsky.social’s 11th Podversary. The first 4 episodes debuted 11 years ago.
So it’s fitting we have a great new episode to celebrate!

How did Northern manufacturers support Southern slavery?

Seth Rockman joins us to talk about “plantation goods” and slavery’s hidden supply chain.

Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy

Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.

benfranklinsworld.com

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Reposted by Joseph M. Adelman

Casey Schmitt @csschmitt.bsky.social · 1d

If you're bored tonight around 7pm EST, join Jessica Chopin Roney and I for a conversation about The Predatory Sea! 🗃️

librarycompany.org/events/fires...

Fireside Chat- The Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean

librarycompany.org

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Reposted by Joseph M. Adelman

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 1d

Dinosaurs got bone cancer, which means we can study TUMOR FOSSILS.

I've since read about some other dinos species with evidence of tumors, but I still suspect there was something about hadrosaurs that made them prone to it.

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Mar 15

One of the amazing things about science is we will never run out of mysteries.

Take "Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500", which performed a survey of 10,000 dinosaur fossils for evidence of tumors in the bone.

I was prepared for yes, no, but what I wasn't prepared for was:
"only in hadrosaurs."

It's a black and white paper header for a short communication, and I've copied the text below. Please stop reading if you don't want the literal copy to be read to you.
"Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500
DOI 10.1007/s00114-003-0473-9
SHORT COMMUNICATION
B. M. Rothschild · D. H. Tanke · M. Helbling ·
L. D. Martin
Epidemiologic study of tumors in dinosaurs
Received: 16 June 2003 / Accepted: 29 August 2003 / Published online: 14 October 2003 Springer-Verlag 2003"

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 1d

With the Mets eliminated, I really just want close games and close series. More playoff baseball is always better.

But sad Castellanos is a nice bonus.

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Julian Davis Mortenson @jdmortenson.bsky.social · 1d

if someone tells you founding era judges didn’t have a role in adjudicating military affairs, what they’re actually telling you is they don’t know anything about the 18th century

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Jay Jaffe @jayjaffe.bsky.social · 1d

You might say Will Smith left some fresh prints on this game.

Jay Jaffe @jayjaffe.bsky.social · 1d

Will Smith, back from the dead

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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 2d

"No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it." @acls1919.bsky.social statement on the White House "compact" proposed to universities. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...

www.acls.org

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 2d

My intro classes on the ideology of the Revolution always have this “well, historians kinda got this down about 50 years ago” and all of a sudden teaching Bailyn and Wood on republicanism and virtue are radical acts. 🙃

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 2d

Imperium in imperio had a nice run, I guess.

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 2d

just noticed this little detail in Illinois's complaint

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
STATE OF ILLINOIS, a sovereign state;
CITY OF CHICAGO, an Illinois municipal corporation,

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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 2d

That second paragraph ... whew. Quite the flawed description of the "founding" of the news media. To be really brief: newspapers/the press were partisan long before they adopted an informational mission. Washington worried about partisanship not in a prospective future but very much in his present.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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