Seth Rockman
@sethrockman.bsky.social
4.8K followers 780 following 310 posts
Historian at Brown University: https://history.brown.edu/people/seth-e-rockman Author of _Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery_ Nov. 2024, https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo237040605.html
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Reposted by Seth Rockman
brownhist.bsky.social
Student Spotlight: Carlo Kim ‘27 — The department sits down with Carlo Kim, a junior passionate about American labor history, to discuss what led him to join the labor movement in Providence.
Student Spotlight: Carlo Kim '27
In this spotlight, the department sits down with Carlo Kim, a junior passionate about American labor history, to discuss what led him to join the labor movement in Providence.
history.brown.edu
sethrockman.bsky.social
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!!!
lizcovart.bsky.social
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
sethrockman.bsky.social
I've never seen this ad, but imagine this is for "Georgia Stripes"

also, it sure is a good thing that I don't know about these auction sites, because I'd be spending a lot of time and a lot of money.
sethrockman.bsky.social
this app so needs a "dislike" button!
sethrockman.bsky.social
Research fellowships at the Rhode Island Historical Society! Come spend some time in Providence in 2026. Applications due 12/23/25
Fellowships – The Rhode Island Historical Society
www.rihs.org
sethrockman.bsky.social
don't know what you are talking about...
statue of Dorr that now stands in the RI State capitol
sethrockman.bsky.social
Whose day just got brightened by the arrival of this new volume? Mine!!!

Indeed there is generally too little Dorr content on this app.
Rockman holding book entitled The Selected Writings of Thomas Wilson Dorr
sethrockman.bsky.social
May have jumped the shark today in lecture with references to Life of a Showgirl, 6 maybe 7, and some Hamilton lyrics.

Or I hit the trifecta. Hard to say…
Reposted by Seth Rockman
bordergroves.bsky.social
Ai companies want to use our electricity? Ok. They can pay triple rates offset all our bills.

Ai companies want to use our water? Ok. They can subsidize infrastructure construction and maintenance.

Ai companies want to use our land? Ok. They can pay taxes high enough to fund affordable housing.
Reposted by Seth Rockman
devawo.bsky.social
As for me, I am not a pessimist of any kind. And these tech bros are not optimists. They are autocratic extractionists and I’m against that.
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
When I’m accused of “technopessimism“ I counter that I’m not “pessimistic about technology“; I am opposed to the economic, political, and social project of upward wealth transfer that “AI” is being leveraged to bring about. If that phrasing is useful to others, then go ahead and use it.
sethrockman.bsky.social
this truly attests to the impoverishment of our whole discourse around liberal/conservative (let alone Dem/Rep) as measurements of intellectual diversity on campus. We have no capacity for talking about Econ or CS as ideological spaces.
sethrockman.bsky.social
At a "liberal" university where Econ and CompSci are the top majors, I have to ask: By 'liberal' do they mean an ideological belief in the power of markets to fairly and justly distribute the fruits of the material world? Cuz that's the liberalism I'm seeing embedded in every facet of my institution
Reposted by Seth Rockman
jeffreyinsko.bsky.social
Sincere question: is there a single college or university anywhere that is approaching AI from a position of resistance?
sethrockman.bsky.social
Going to a "state school" about to mean something different.
donmoyn.bsky.social
Some schools will be starved of resources. Other schools will be offered bribes. The end goal is the same. To make the universities an extension of the Trump administration. Shame on any of these institutions willing to take the bribes.
Letters on Wednesday were going out to solicit agreement and feedback from Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia, according to an administration official.
Reposted by Seth Rockman
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Who did what in early modern England?

New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️

Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...


This book applies the innovative work-task approach to the history of work, which captures the contribution of all workers and types of work to the early modern economy. Drawing on tens of thousands of court depositions, the authors analyse the individual tasks that made up everyday work for women and men, shedding new light on the gender division of labour, and the ways in which time, space, age and marital status shaped sixteenth and seventeenth-century working life. Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, the book deepens our understanding of the preindustrial economy, and calls for us to rethink not only who did what, but also the implications of these findings for major debates about structural change, the nature and extent of paid work, and what has been lost as well as gained over the past three centuries of economic development. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Cover of Whittle, Jane, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb, and Taylor Aucoin. The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. of Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Reposted by Seth Rockman
cjdenial.bsky.social
The only LLM I can get behind
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by Seth Rockman
pennpress.bsky.social
Happy #NationalCoffeeDay! We're celebrating by spotlighting Michelle McDonald's meticulously researched, must-read new book COFFEE NATION, which explores how coffee tied the economic future of the early United States to the wider Atlantic world.

bit.ly/448PrAZ
sethrockman.bsky.social
Well, I guess the Wall Street Journal's history of American capitalism was always going to be the Wall Street Journal's history of American capitalism.

It is great to see so much of the recent scholarship on capitalism mobilized at this important moment; the stuff on slavery especially [sarcasm].
USA 250: The Story of America, The World's Greatest Economy
Read USA250Section on The Wall Street Journal
www.wsj.com
sethrockman.bsky.social
if you'll indulge something nice amidst the abundant bad, I am happy to report that there is now an audiobook version of Plantation Goods. Perfect for your next cross-country roadtrip, transcontinental flight, or ultra-marathon.
Plantation Goods
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. This is an audiobook version of this book. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in History, this eye-opening rethinking of nineteenth-century American history reveals ...
www.audible.com
Reposted by Seth Rockman
laborlawchajournal.bsky.social
We are excited to announce Labor's Big Book Forum for 2025! Scheduled for Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET via Zoom, this year we feature Rudi Batzell's (@rbatzell.bsky.social) new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social)
A flier that says: 2025 Labor Big Book Forum; Friday Oct 17 2-4 ET ; Register Today! with the link: go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025 ; and has a picture of the book "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" which features four sets of raised fists, alternating between red and blue.