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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern
@scottwstern.bsky.social
320 followers 420 following 67 posts
Reader, writer, environmental lawyer. Books: The Trials of Nina McCall (2018); There Is A Deep Brooding in Arkansas (2025); Shakespeare’s Margaret (2026). Words: NYRB, TNR, WaPo, Atlantic, LARB, Jacobin, etc. For more: www.scottwstern.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · 5d
This is a massive story that the U.S. press is almost entirely ignoring.

A week ago, union dockworkers warned this would happen: “If we lose contact with the boats, even for twenty minutes, we’ll shut down all of Europe.”

www.politico.eu/article/ital...
Mass protests and strikes for Gaza bring Italy to a standstill
Roads and ports were blocked and schools closed after unions called for general strike over Israel’s war on Gaza.
www.politico.eu
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triofrancos.bsky.social
Thea Riofrancos @triofrancos.bsky.social · 6d
Thrilled to see this review of EXTRACTION by @scottwstern.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com. A very thorough essay that situates the book in broader debates about mining, the energy transition, the history of global capitalism, and the possible green futures ahead www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · 6d
Check out my latest in @theatlantic.com, wherein I review EXTRACTION (@wwnorton.com), a dazzling new book by @triofrancos.bsky.social.

I argue that it is "by far the most clear-eyed of mining’s many recent chronicles." www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
The Costs of the Green Transition
A new book argues that simply replacing fossil-fuel extraction with critical-mineral mining is no way out of the climate crisis.
www.theatlantic.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · 9d
"A literature which is made by machines, which are owned by corporations, which are run by sociopaths, can only be a 'stereotype' — a simplification, a facsimile, an insult, a fake — of real literature. It should be smashed, and can." www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
Large Language Muddle | The Editors
The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...
www.nplusonemag.com
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nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 9d
“Of all the women incarcerated worldwide, one in four is imprisoned in the US. Over the past four decades, the number of women in state prisons has grown by almost 600 percent.” — @scottwstern.bsky.social
Writing Their Prison’s History | Scott W. Stern
A recent study by a group of incarcerated scholars at Indiana Women’s Prison reveals how progressive reforms turned into profitable abuse.
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nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 11d
“The members of the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project demolish many of the myths surrounding the institution, proving that its founders…were far more abusive than conventional accounts suggest.” — @scottwstern.bsky.social
Writing Their Prison’s History | Scott W. Stern
A recent study by a group of incarcerated scholars at Indiana Women’s Prison reveals how progressive reforms turned into profitable abuse.
buff.ly
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nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 14d
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social on how a group of incarcerated women rewrote the history of their prison
Writing Their Prison’s History | Scott W. Stern
A recent study by a group of incarcerated scholars at Indiana Women’s Prison reveals how progressive reforms turned into profitable abuse.
buff.ly
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charlesomalley.bsky.social
Charlie O'Malley @charlesomalley.bsky.social · 20d
check out scott's latest in @nybooks.com -- reviewing a history of a women's prison in indiana written by those currently incarcerated there. beautifully written and devastating.

in the oct. 9 print edition!
nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 20d
Our 10/9 issue is now online, with Frances Wilson on Charlotte Brontë, @harikunzru.bsky.social on Adolescence, @scottwstern.bsky.social on women’s prisons, Dorothy Sue Cobble on home work, Joshua Hammer on Prigozhin & the Wagner Group, and much more.
October 9, 2025 Issue
Table of Contents
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carceralabolition.bsky.social
Carceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 20d
Writing Their Prison’s History:

A recent study by a group of incarcerated scholars at Indiana Women’s Prison reveals how progressive reforms turned into profitable abuse. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Writing Their Prison’s History | Scott W. Stern
A recent study by a group of incarcerated scholars at Indiana Women’s Prison reveals how progressive reforms turned into profitable abuse.
www.nybooks.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · 20d
Check out my latest in @nybooks.com! It's a review of a brilliant book - a history of the nation's oldest women's prison, written by inmates in that same prison. It was a true privilege to engage with their scholarship. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 20d
Our 10/9 issue is now online, with Frances Wilson on Charlotte Brontë, @harikunzru.bsky.social on Adolescence, @scottwstern.bsky.social on women’s prisons, Dorothy Sue Cobble on home work, Joshua Hammer on Prigozhin & the Wagner Group, and much more.
October 9, 2025 Issue
Table of Contents
buff.ly
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Aug 9
"It seems western leaders have summoned precisely enough political will to fail to stop a world-historic crime." nymag.com/intelligence...
The Gaza Breaking Point
Political consensus is rapidly shifting as famine looms and Israel escalates.
nymag.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Jul 2
I'm still walking on air hours later - this @nytimes.com review so perfectly and concisely gets the point of THERE IS A DEEP BROODING IN ARKANSAS (@yalepress.bsky.social)

Check it out - the Times calls the book "powerful new history"!! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/b...
Is the Supreme Court the Best Way to Get Justice?
www.nytimes.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Jul 2
Beyond thrilled to receive a glowing review in today's @nytimes.com!!! THERE IS A DEEP BROODING IN ARKANSAS is a "powerful new history"!

An enormous thanks to @alexiscoe.bsky.social for her deep engagement with my work! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/b...
Is the Supreme Court the Best Way to Get Justice?
www.nytimes.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Jun 27
Check out my latest in @newrepublic.com - a review of "Downtime: The Twentieth Century in Slow Motion" by @goblemark.bsky.social!

The review asks why this one particular special effect resonates - and concludes it's because "our world is, obviously, ending" newrepublic.com/article/1962...
How Slow Motion Became Cinema’s Dominant Special Effect
The turbulent late ‘60s saw the technique’s popularity explode—and it’s been helping moviemakers (and literary artists) engage with the unsettling tempos of modern life ever since.
newrepublic.com
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jamellebouie.net
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jun 27
as for the upshot of the decision, the republican court has put the citizen children of non-citizens in a position similar to that of free blacks during the antebellum period. their right to enjoy the privileges and immunities of american citizenship will vary according to state borders
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dsc250.bsky.social
David S. Cohen @dsc250.bsky.social · Jun 27
The left better start figuring out how to weaponize today's decision rather than just (rightfully) criticizing it.

- Go back into Judge Kaczmaryk's court to dissolve all of his nationwide orders.

- Pass gun bans and insist any order applies only to plaintiffs.
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Jun 25
Wow wow wow wow wow
scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Apr 25
A thrill to be interviewed about my new book, THERE IS A DEEP BROODING IN ARKANSAS (@yalepress.bsky.social), in the @arktimes.bsky.social. Check it out in print and online. Thanks to Guy Lancaster for the insightful questions! arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
‘There Is a Deep Brooding in Arkansas’: A Q&A with writer Scott W. Stern - Arkansas Times
Scott W. Stern’s new book, “There Is a Deep Brooding in Arkansas,” intertwines two rape trials that occurred in Mississippi County alongside a recounting of the life of Maya Angelou.
arktimes.com
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hilaryagro.com
Dr. Hilary Agro, PhD 🍄 @hilaryagro.com · Apr 16
I can't emphasize enough that the most important thing journalists can do right now is publish exactly this kind of article
Headline: ICE came for their neighbor so these Tennesseans formed a human chain to protect him
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Apr 15
Wild that the NYT insists on assigning Malcolm Harris books to the least sympathetic possible reviewers. This one calls for "something more modest and, admittedly, conservative than what Harris suggests," which ... isn't critique! It's just a call for a different book www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/b...
Book Review: ‘What’s Left,’ by Malcolm Harris
“What’s Left,” by Malcolm Harris, arrives at a particularly difficult time to consider anything beyond our immediate turmoil.
www.nytimes.com
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Apr 5
Damn. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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harikunzru.bsky.social
Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · Mar 13
The ‘can machines do creative writing’ thing is mostly a distraction from the use of the machines to go through text and images to cancel grants and put people on deportation lists
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nicolehallett.bsky.social
Nicole Hallett @nicolehallett.bsky.social · Mar 30
“BigLaw firms are not going to save the legal profession, because what they care about is preserving their positions of power within it. If an unlucky few are going to go down, the others are going to try to make a buck off their demise.”
jaywillis.net
Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · Mar 30
🚶 ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...
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scottwstern.bsky.social
Scott W. Stern @scottwstern.bsky.social · Mar 29
I am honored beyond words at this event happening today, honoring many women abused by the U.S. government, including several I wrote about in The Trials of Nina McCall! montpelierbridge.org/2025/03/herv...
HERVermont’s Bold Debut: From Research Project to Advocacy Powerhouse - The Montpelier Bridge
The five U-32 students who recently founded the organization “HERVermont” started it by reading a book. Inspired by Scott Stern’s “The Trials of Nina McCall,” they went all-in developing an informatio...
montpelierbridge.org
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