Rebecca Spang
@rlspang.bsky.social
12K followers 2.3K following 3.6K posts
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
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Reposted by Rebecca Spang
rlspang.bsky.social
When existing institutions have been delegitimated and there’s no agreed way to adjudicate differences, then either you have a failed state or you have a new beginning. A glorious revolution, if you can keep it.
hcrichardson.bsky.social
Today in Politics Chat, I talked about how power sloshes around when a president is checked out, and noted that right now unelected officials like Stephen Miller are trying to grab it. But instead, We the People can take it back and create a better nation.
rlspang.bsky.social
The NYT Flashback puzzle repeatedly confirms this suspicion! Since I teach this period, I do just fine but I am always shocked at the number of people who mess it up
rlspang.bsky.social
It’s as if we vote by estate rather than by head!!
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“In a city once choked with cars and infamous for its traffic snarls, Paris has pulled off a remarkable turnaround…the French capital has officially become Europe’s best city for children to walk, cycle, and move around independently.” Via @momentummag.bsky.social

A victory for FAST leadership.
Paris Pedals to the Top: How the City of Light Became Europe’s Best for Young Cyclists
The French capital has officially become Europe’s best city for children to walk, cycle, and move around independently
momentummag.com
rlspang.bsky.social
When existing institutions have been delegitimated and there’s no agreed way to adjudicate differences, then either you have a failed state or you have a new beginning. A glorious revolution, if you can keep it.
hcrichardson.bsky.social
Today in Politics Chat, I talked about how power sloshes around when a president is checked out, and noted that right now unelected officials like Stephen Miller are trying to grab it. But instead, We the People can take it back and create a better nation.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
charlotteclymer.bsky.social
"So, Democrats have three words for this: no fucking way. It's literally life or death. We will not let Republicans blow up our health care system."

This is, hands down, the best comms work Chuck Schumer has done in YEARS. Surprisingly good.
rlspang.bsky.social
I’m shocked that anything could top Jane B’s performance in Mystery Bouffe!!
rlspang.bsky.social
This could all end so Gloriously!
dael.bsky.social
I keep saying this dude is speed running the Stuart dynasty
(particularly, though not uniquely, in his interest in using stakes in corporations as a means of rule, courtier coalition building, and enrichment)
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
criminalerin.bsky.social
If all these data centers being built everywhere where no one who lives there wants them are so great and wonderful how come they're all being built as fucking secrets
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
"Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia" should be how Democrats begin every single comment to reporters these days.
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Ruben Gallego on whether Trump is talking to Democrats:

“Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia, so I think there's a he's probably talking to himself, or think he's talking to a Democrat, but I sincerely doubt that that's actually he's actually physically talking to a Democrat.“
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
josephpolitano.bsky.social
To add to this thread, with the annual National Economic Accounts update released recently we got our 1st estimates of real data center construction

It's tripled since 2022, reaching $25B/yr. Keep in mind this doesn't include investment in computers within, which have risen by $100B
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'A nationwide survey commissioned by Henry VIII on the property and wealth of 16th century England and Wales is to be made publicly accessible for the first time.

The survey, known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus, set out to discover the financial state of the Church'.
National project launched to rediscover Henry VIII’s long-forgotten ‘Tudor Domesday Book’
A nationwide survey commissioned by Henry VIII on the property and wealth of 16th century England and Wales is to be made publicly accessible for the first time. The survey, known as the Valor Ecclesi...
news.exeter.ac.uk
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
theintercept.com
Listen to our interview with @brian-goldstone.bsky.social on American homelessness:
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
govpritzker.illinois.gov
What's happening in Chicago is not normal.

The arrest of Alderperson Fuentes is just the latest example of how far Noem and Bovino are willing to go to ignore the rule of law. We must all speak up.
rlspang.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing. I mean that. I feel I've learned something about other people!
rlspang.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing. I mean that. I feel I've learned something about other people!
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
conradhackett.bsky.social
If ACA healthcare subsidies are not extended, a 60-year-old earning $65k in Key West, Fla. could see premiums go from $460 a month with the subsidies to $2,400 a month without.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Maps show how expected increases in monthly premiums vary by age and geography.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
coryjamesyoung.bsky.social
People incarcerated in Iowa state prisons earn between 28 and 95 cents per hour according to the ACLU. This is legal because the Iowa state constitution still permits slavery for people convicted of crimes.

You used to be able to learn about this history in the materials the state is disappearing.
Screenshot of a 10/7/25 Cedar Rapids Gazette article lede reading: “IOWA CITY - Despite a lawsuit fighting the State Historical Society of lowa's unexpected and
"haphazard" closure of its lowa City research facility and archives - and a court hearing scheduled in the dispute next week - the state on Monday began moving some of the historical documents with help from prison inmates.”
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
inquirer.com
OPINION: "Signing on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education offered by the Trump administration would end the school's ability to determine its own future." — The Inquirer Editorial Board
Federal funding is not worth Penn’s independence | Editorial
Signing on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education offered by the Trump administration would end the school's ability to determine its own future.
www.inquirer.com
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
derbyshiredro.bsky.social
Ragged Schools between the 1840s and 1870s provided an education to the country's poorest children. In this blog post, the Derby Ragged School is explored, including some entries from the school's log in our collection: recordoffice.wordpre...

#EYAEducation
Derby Ragged School
Ragged Schools were an attempt between the 1840s and 1870s to provide free education for children living in extreme poverty, who could not afford to pay for admittance into other schools.  The…
recordoffice.wordpress.com
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
saengler.bsky.social
"Precisely because they have been losing court cases over free speech and visas for foreign students, Trumpists now seek to entrap universities in a deal that effectively removes the protections of federal law and gives the administration arbitrary power over them."
US universities must reject Trump’s ‘compact’. It is full of traps | Jan-Werner Müller
The administration is trying to make nine universities an offer they seemingly cannot refuse
www.theguardian.com
rlspang.bsky.social
Knowing her to be an especially well educated individual with exquisite taste who happens to be somewhat (!) younger than myself, I feel quite vindicated!