Mary Block

worth tying this into the political economy of the slave south as well. from roughly the 1820s onwards, slavery became enormously lucrative in ways that had never been seen before. slave traders became millionaires. large planters had tremendous purchasing power. just huge amounts of wealth.

John Roberts is Natalie Harp in a robe. A cringeworthy handmaiden

!!!

#OtD 6 Jul 1973 Rev Ray Broshears, a gay Pentecostal Evangelist, formed the Lavender Panthers, a group of armed street vigilantes who patrolled San Francisco to defend the LGBT+ community amidst increasing homophobic violence. Learn more in this book: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/be-...

I borrowed from Jeremy Milloy, Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Violence at Work in the North American Auto Industry, 1960-1980 to write this post.

“History helps us understand the world we live in. The skills learnt through the study of the past such as finding and assessing evidence, weighing different positions and analyses, and constructing an argument based on the use of accurate and searchable evidence, are vital”

#OtD 12 Apr 1943 young Walter Mayer was jailed by a Nazi court in Düsseldorf for looting and being a member of the anti-fascist Edelweiss Pirates. He later escaped a concentration camp. This is our podcast about the group, including Walter: workingclasshistory.com/podcast/72-e...

There are only a few hours left to listen to my latest podcast, before the next one drops tomorrow. It revisits the strange case of the Springfield Three—a mother, her teenage daughter, and her daughter's friend—who vanished from a home one night. It’s been a baffling mystery for over three decades!

Obv the late 17th c English context is key here and is references in this full essay by Franklin signed Silence Dogood — here: founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

A cool thing is that religious death cults like American Evangelicals are so obsessed with their paranoid and unhinged fears l that when they are granted even a bit of power they move heaven and earth to manifest them in the world and create the Armageddon they have always desired.

Expected my new column to drop next week, but it's here today to add another layer to this thread! www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2026/01/cons...

Perhaps someone should ask Bondi whether her understanding of the president's powers comports with SCOTUS in Fleming v. Page, 50 U.S. 603 (1850). And yes, it's painful to quote Chief Justice Taney 1/

Whatever you think of the politics of this it is not “history-heavy,” but alas history gestural. Pls do read the report (weirdly not linked in the CNN piece?) www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/y...

Want to hear re: a president who wanted his opponents physically beaten & was accused of wanting to be king? My lecture on Andrew Jackson In this cartoon from his presidency, he’s standing on a shredded Constitution w/a book titled “Judiciary of the US” at his feet www.youtube.com/watch?v=vri7...

Want to hear about a party that isn’t too keen on democracy, deporting people who side with their opposition and stifling the opposition press to remain in power? The Alien and Sedition Acts have a LOT to say.

We've got over 100 history podcasts featured here. We especially love other academic history podcasts - like our friends at amplifypodcastnetwork.ca, so let us know if you'd like to be included!

New from me: Republicans are going after Obamacare AND ITS PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS PROTECTIONS again, they just aren’t bragging about it the way they did a decade ago. 🧵 www.offmessage.net/p/republican...

My department is hiring a new Full Time Instructor (FTI) in American History and we're looking for someone with a speciality in post-Civil War America, Appalachia or Upper Ohio Valley, and experience with public history projects. #AmericanHistory #Appalachia #PublicHistory #shawneestateuniversity

This segment from @maryannefranks.bsky.social is an incredibly tight argument that captures the breadth of the Trump assault on free speech perfectly and in less than a minute. Spread it far and wide.

Will be interesting to see how this scandal resulted from DEI Maybe all the people who could have told them not to plan wars on Signal were DEI-fired Gotta say the white men aren't recommending themselves

America was given a choice between a lawless, amoral monster and a qualified, intelligent, joyful woman of color—and it chose the monster. We need to reckon with the reality of what that says about so many of us here. johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/america-ch...

They are monsters. There is no way around it. It is both dangerously bad foreign policy and it is grotesquely inhumane. The vast majority of Americans don't get it and need to wake up to what is happening here, to how disastrous it is for us and the world, how dangerous it is for our future.

The Trump Presidency belongs to Putin and Musk. It'll take a while for the MAGA cult to realize they've been played but should be clear to everyone else by now. America is for sale.

Dems need new leadership.

Funny how almost anyone who tells you to “follow the money” and “do your own research” has no idea how to do either

Schumer sucks, Jeffries is useless, Cuomo is a menace, Biden fell on his face. Demand better leaders. That’s what democracy is for.

As it turns out the only immigrant coming for your job is Elon Musk.

The leader of the Republican Party is Donald Trump. If you are a registered voter of the party, you are a supporter of Donald Trump. If you're a Republican, you're MAGA.

Not a great time for citizens who have chosen to serve their country by working in government, when the current leaders have nothing but contempt for your very existence. I have an idea, run for office against a Republican who is enabling it - which is all of them.

When they say Kamala Harris wasn't qualified, do they mean she had too much pigment or do they mean she didn't have a penis?

We had someone in our office after the tRaitor tRump tax increase on regular Americans. They usually received a tax refund. This time they owed thousands. She said to my face, as long as the money goes to the wall, she didn’t care. Their hatred drives them.

Wilson, because there was already a record of hundreds of competent African-American workers throughout the federal government at different levels and he still authorized its segregation.

For a good explainer of why autocrats and demagogues target trans people, recommend this from Sohini Desai and @justinflorence.bsky.social @protectdemocracy.org www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/why-are-au...

Costco responded to shareholders requesting that it withdraw from DEI policies. The response was direct and to the point: Costco says, "Our board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect & inclusion is appropriate & necessary." ❤️COSTCO♥️

Now seems like a good time to remind you that the Pentagon just failed its seventh consecutive annual audit.

MAGAts bitching about liberals’ responses to the UHC assassination when they cheered Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder of an unarmed man protesting police brutality and made him their folk hero brings hypocrisy to such an epic level that I can’t even wrap my brain around it

Poor people die so the rich can profit all the time; the rich dgaf What you’re seeing is poor people starting to feel about the rich the way the rich feel about the poor Why it’s scary is there are a lot of poor people If the rich aren’t scared it’s because they defunded too many history programs

Took me a bit but I've found the framing to put into words a way to express to the people fretting about the death of the UHC CEO why we just aren't heeding their admonishment: The social contract stipulates that all life is sacred, and Brian Thompson violated it. But it's more than that.

Elect people who are willing to scale fences to stop authoritarians and give up on people who have built their careers on expressing concerns, performing gestures, and then using it all to fundraise.

It's time to stop expecting critical thinking skills from people who aren't smart enough to realize that "I love the poorly educated" was not a compliment.

We would be better informed if Corporate Media went out of business.

Jeffrey Toobin: “Biden’s pardon for his son dishonors the office.“ I am so sick of these fucking talking heads. I am so sick of CNN. I am so sick of these self defeating assholes. Our freedom is on the line and these guys are in-fucking-capable of focusing on what’s at stake. FUCK.

“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record. They run them bc people react to them the most. If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change. It’s not easy and takes constant practice!

New piece. A long deep dive piece into the reasons beyond the punditry and headlines as to why Harris and Democrats as a whole failed in 2024. I firmly believe this is about far more existential, psychological, and structural reasons than it has been depicted as. Here’s why.

Increasingly I think that Trump is focused on his own…comfort. He’s aware of his inadequacies. It’s why he’s uncomfortable around military generals and war heroes. These picks are so profoundly unfit, so deeply lacking in sound character, I think it makes Trump feel comfortable with himself.

If you think the big question in American politics today is "what's wrong with the Democrats?" either you are not following American politics very closely or you are not a serious person.

FOLLOW FRIDAY! Let’s build up the Resistance here — if you’re here, I want to follow ALL of you 🦋 Until midnight - Follow me, I’ll follow you back - Already follow me? Repost and I’ll follow you