Josh Specht

My new book has a cover and a page! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Homeownership has long been a central pillar of the American dream. A new book shows how that dream has enriched a few, excluded many, and debilitated the provision of public goods on which everyone depends.

Daniel Immerwahr reviews @joshspecht.bsky.social's "lively" new book Property Values for @newyorker.com: buff.ly/1oerTAc

Campaign after campaign to remake America’s land—into plots, cities, and suburbs—has delivered soullessness, Daniel Immerwahr writes. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Totally surprised, and utterly thrilled, for my book to be discussed in this review of @joshspecht.bsky.social's fantastic new book!! 🙀 Josh -- our books will forever be cousins-in-law (or something like that!). www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Really enjoyed talking to @joshspecht.bsky.social about Property Values, a new history of American home and land ownership, for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. We talked Frederick Jackson Turner on "pacing the frontier," Disney's HOA, whether land value taxes would solve ~this, + more.

Really enjoyed this conversation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=10E-...

Skyrocketing housing costs and the decline of community are interlinked problems press.princeton.edu/ideas/housin...

A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis. @joshspecht.bsky.social's Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner is out now (10 November UK pub). Find it here: buff.ly/70NK8ra #History

Well, this was dangerous. A preorder sale led me to @joshspecht.bsky.social on property, @jeannasmialek.bsky.social on Maria Edgeworth, and Andrew Whelan on destroyed records and power. @duttonbooks.bsky.social’s THE WAR OVER RENT connects all three. PREORDER25

In Property Values, @joshspecht.bsky.social reveals why housing affordability has posed significant challenges to the nation’s politics & promise since the founding, & why the American story has always been one about land. Available Sept 15 (10 Nov UK pub). Read a free preview: buff.ly/QOksg52

In his new book Property Values, @joshspecht.bsky.social traces how land & its ownership became inextricably tied to the American ideal of independence. Available September 15 (10 November UK pub). Learn more & preorder your copy today: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #History

I've got my author's copy! Out soon.

A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis. @joshspecht.bsky.social's new book, Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner, arrives September 15 (10 November UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I've only just discovered emojis as email responses and the game has changed 🫠

Really excited to share that JGAPE has published my article, "Doubly Intolerable: Gender, Union Busting, and the Fear of Catholic Power in the Loeb Affair, 1915–1917." It looks at how sexism and anti-Catholicism acted together to union bust the Chicago Teachers' Federation.

Yessss loved the first three volumes Book Review: ‘On the Calculation of Volume IV,’ by Solvej Balle - The New York Times share.google/nZPjyC0PlHHF...

Christie's bio in his book 'Electricity, Industry and Class in South Africa':

Really enjoyed recording this discussion with David Runciman, covering threats to democracy, early 20thc theories of oligarchy, how algorithmic social media is changing politics, the problem with 19thc approaches to suffrage - and much, much more!

In 1904, Henry Dwight Sedgwick imagined America plagued by corruption, riots, and economic collapse in The Atlantic. Jake Lundberg revisits Sedgwick’s writing in Time-Travel Thursdays:

The winner of the JHI’s 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize for the best first book in intellectual history is Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for Required Reading: The Life of Everyday Texts in the British Empire! @princetonupress.bsky.social

The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade the American mind, Jake Lundberg writes in Time-Travel Thursdays.

In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex. For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/... #History #ListenUP

They're practically giving this thing away!!

King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus. A marvelously illustrated look at everything we now know about the fearsome king of the dinosaurs. #dinosaurs #naturalhistory press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The Journal of the Civil War Era will have a special issue on political economy edited by me, @maggor.bsky.social, Sofia Valeonti & Nicolas Barreyre. I'll post again when the link is up on the Muster, but wanted to get the word out now. See CFP. Submission deadline is April 25. 🗃️

thought leader to idea doofus pipeline

One of the greatest www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/f...

Sophie Rosenfeld’s Age of Choice is an Editors’ Choice (!) @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...

please share widely!

In our very first episode we sit down with historian @joshspecht.bsky.social. We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more! You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...

Very cool to see my book in Chinese!

what a title!

-20C and we've got ice on the INSIDE of the back window...prob need some better insulation back there

for those who would like to take their minds off of ... other things today, here's a thread on the oil spillovers special issue that I guest-edited at History+Technology: www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4... 1/x

-18C in South Bend today! Missing Melbourne for sure