Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 1h

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bsky.app/profile/thec...

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 2h

Reminds me of this excellent sign that I saw at the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia.

Piano, which once belonged to Little Richard, with a sign on it saying "Do not attempt to play Little Richard's piano. He will know."

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 3h

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www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 21h

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Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 21h

The Not-Quite States of America is on sale (in multiple formats!) and you should probably buy it

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 2d

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mailchi.mp/b218502be6b8...

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

mailchi.mp

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 2d

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 2d

The actual strategy plan Walt Disney gave investors.

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 4d

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degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/you-don-t-...

You don't have to swallow frogs

Klein and Coates show that if you don't know what your core beliefs are, you're going to get played.

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 5d

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 5d

Celebrate the Gore Vidal Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Leonard McCombe, 1960
#GoreVidal100

"There is not one human problem that could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."

Vidal has a cup of tea in his beautifully furnished home.

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Reposted by Eric Rauchway

Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 5d

You may have heard my arguments against the Electoral College before. Here’s a new one the Founders never anticipated:

If the President is elected by popular vote, he probably wouldn’t selectively punish entire states for voting against him.

OPB @opb.org · 5d

Oregon is set to lose an additional $400 million in federal grants awarded for climate action and is among more than a dozen Democratic states losing federal funding after the Trump administration terminated nearly $8 billion for those states this week.

Oregon to lose an additional $400 million in federal climate grants

Oregon and 15 other Democratic states are losing nearly $8 billion toward climate projects, after the Trump administration terminated multiple federal grants.

www.opb.org

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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 7d

Looks like someone sank the BLS mark.

White House withdraws Antoni’s nomination to lead BLS | CNN Politics

The White House has sent paperwork to the Senate to withdraw the nomination of E.J. Antoni as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three sources told CNN.

www.cnn.com

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Reposted by Eric Rauchway

Ali Trotta @alwayscoffee.bsky.social · 8d

Some people need to sit in a room and watch Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, and Reading Rainbow until they become better people.

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 7d

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Elaine Ayers @eayers0.bsky.social · 8d

Job at UC-Berkeley: Asst. Prof. in Global History of Technology, apps due 10/10 (so soon). #history #histSTM #histsci #histphilsci

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065

Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Reposted by Eric Rauchway

Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 10d

2016: EC R 307 - D 224 / PV R 46.1% - D 48.2% on 60.1% turnout. “We lost very narrowly.”

2020: EC R 232 - D 306 / PV R 46.8% - D 51.3% on 66.3% turnout. “We almost lost.”

2024: EC R 312 - D 226 / PV R 49.8% - D 48.3% on 64.1% turnout. “We really got our asses handed to us.”

Cool stories bro.

In 2016, we lost to Donald Trump the first time — very narrowly. We won the popular vote.
Then in 2020, we almost lost to the Republicans, and began seeing that we were losing a bunch of voters we thought we were fighting for - losing more working class voters, losing on white voters. Something was changing, but we won. OK.
Then in 2024, we really got our [expletive] handed to us, and we let a much more dangerous form of politics fully erupt.
And I think that reflects strategic decisions they made. I think it reflects decisions we made.
So, for me, it's not enough to say: We lost, there are

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Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 12d

Yesterday evening, I picked these bad boys up from the mailbox. This morning, I’m taking out the recycling.

8 copies of the book Model to Meaning by Vincent Arel-Bundock

bottle of champagne in the recycling bin

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 12d

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www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Citizen historians document Smithsonian exhibits under White House scrutiny

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. It's a public-private trust that has long operated at arm's length from the White House, but now finds itself...

www.pbs.org

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 12d

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Greg Priest @gregpriest.bsky.social · 12d

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published OTD in 1962.

“[W]e have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

🌱🐋 # HistSTM 🧪🌎 #philsci #philsky #WomeninSTEM

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 12d

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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/

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 15d

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15d

to be more specific, although FDR had to play ball with southern segregationists in congress, he did not do so by sacrificing black voters in the urban north to their whims.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15d

to be more specific, although FDR had to play ball with southern segregationists in congress, he did not do so by sacrificing black voters in the urban north to their whims.

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 25d

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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 28d

NEW: If Donald Trump were... not doing well... would we know right away? I spoke to Dr. Kathy Olmsted, a historian and expert on conspiracy theories about the government. History is not reassuring on this point, as it turns out! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

If Donald Trump Was Incapacitated, Would We Know?

History is not particularly reassuring.

www.motherjones.com

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · 25d

Notes from recent @thetls.bsky.social essays on interwar fascism, including Fintan O'Toole on "the IRA’s collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War (on the time-honoured but idiotic grounds that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’)." 🗃️

erauchway.github.io/posts/tls_in...

Black and white photograph of a line of mostly women (Blue Blouses) and some men (Blueshirts) giving a stiff-armed salute on a street in interwar Ireland.

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Josh Abraham @thejoshabraham.bsky.social · 27d

I’ve been rewatching the Coen Bros filmography this month and while drawing a Barton Fink illustration, it struck me how much their films feel like Far Side cartoons: funny, strange, clever, yet frequently inscrutable. Anyway here’s a thread!

An illustration of a scene from Fargo drawn in the style of the comic strip The Far Side: Marge encountering the wood chipper situation and exclaiming, “Oh Jeez.”

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Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · Sep 8

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John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · Sep 8

Apparently ICE is hiring a historian to help investigate human rights violations, can't imagine how that could go wrong. careers.historians.org/jobs/2164421...

Historian in Washington, DC for Human Rights Violator Law Division, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Exciting opportunity in Washington, DC for Human Rights Violator Law Division, U.S. Immigration a...

careers.historians.org

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Reposted by Eric Rauchway

Eric Rauchway @rauchway.bsky.social · Sep 5

Plattism is back; so is the Gibraltar of Puerto Rico 🗃️

erauchway.github.io/posts/monroe...

The fortress of San Felipe del Morro, Puerto Rico, in 1943; the fortified rocky outcrop might recall Gibraltar.

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American Historical Association @historians.org · Sep 4

Watch the AHA’s Congressional Briefing on the history of tariffs on C-SPAN. Panelists @douglasirwin.bsky.social, @sharonannmurphy.bsky.social, & @rauchway.bsky.social discussed how the government has implemented tariffs in the past & how they have impacted the economy. 🗃️

History of Tariffs

Professors Douglas Irwin (Dartmouth College), Sharon Ann Murphy (Providence College), and Eric Rauchway (University of California, Davis) discussed how the federal government historically has implemen...

www.c-span.org

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