Robert D. Bland

I enjoyed this conversation with Niels Eichorn on the War of the Rebellion podcast. It was wide ranging in the best way and captured some important themes that tie the story of Reconstruction to some bigger questions in US history www.youtube.com/watch?v=heqe...

I had a good time talking about the legacy of Reconstruction on yesterday's The Majority Report with Sam Seder. The link is below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZQ...

I am looking forward to this AMA conversation with r/AskHistorians on July 1!

I really enjoyed this conversation! Grateful to be in community with such a rich tradition of scholars and scholarship.

I really enjoyed this thoughtful interview with Jim Townshend and the Levin Center. Reconstruction-era stories are more important now as we continue to confront the ongoing struggle to make American democracy meaningful

Important piece from @uncpress.bsky.social author Robert Bland on how today’s voting-rights battles echo the unresolved conflicts of Reconstruction

I wrote a piece for @theconversation.com on the Reconstruction-era roots of racial gerrymandering. As we continue our slide into a post-Voting Rights Act world, it is more important than ever to understand the nineteenth-century precedents for our current moment. theconversation.com/the-supreme-...

After federal troops forced a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns back into slavery in the 1850s, one Bostonian wrote, “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” The abuse of power radicalizes people. We are seeing that now.

Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot & killed by an ICE agent, had a young son whose father died in 2023, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune “There’s nobody else in his life,” the boy’s grandfather told the paper. “I’ll drive. I’ll fly. To come get my grandchild.” www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...

A preview of the larger story that you will find in my book, Requiem for Reconstruction. Now available through @uncpress.bsky.social

It's our first pub day of 2026 🎉 From the fascinating world of crayfish to uncovering the untold complexities of Reconstruction, to clothing, culture, and violence in the Civil War Era these new releases make for a powerful start the year 📚 Check them out 👇 uncpressblog.com/2026/01/06/n...

I had a great conversation with @thesullivansummer.bsky.social and @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my book, Requiem for Reconstruction, which will be officially released tomorrow (1/6) through @uncpress.bsky.social. You can listen to that interview here newbooksnetwork.com/requiem-for-...

In today's Muster, @richcondon.bsky.social explores the recent Netflix series Death by Lightning and its portrait of James Garfield as the last "Lincoln Republican" www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/12/deat...

Christmas came early in East TN. 📚

Requiem for Reconstruction is now available for presale. It is still a bit surreal to know that it is actually going to be out in the world. If you buy the book through UNC press, you can get 30% off with the promo code 01UNCP30. uncpress.org/book/9781469...

At some point today, perhaps around noon, take some time to read Lincoln’s words for yourself. It will do you good. 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/i-needed-t...

I pray this helps some of you today. We have a duty to Dr. King whose life was taken because he dared demand that this country face itself, to demonstrate that his work & sacrifice was not in vain. Let’s do it together. Please share. And subscribe. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Best data from the article.

The December issue of the JCWE is now available. This special issue on Black Internationalism is edited by Brandon Byrd, associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University and author of The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/june2024142/

The co-winners of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize are Marlene Daut for “Awakening the Ashes” (@uncpress.bsky.social) & Sara Johnson for “Encyclopédie Noire:” (OIEAHC and UNC)!!!!!!!! macmillan.yale.edu/glc/stories/...

This thanksgiving, I'm thinking about how we've been complaining about losing recipes for years, and need to get intentional about preserving them. open.substack.com/pub/naimacoc...

W. Ralph Eubanks explores his family's connection to Mileston, MS: “Black farmers owning their own land and profiting from it was what my father thought would lift the Delta out of poverty.” Read: ow.ly/XnnE50Ugf3Y 📷 Marcella Plantation, 1939, FSA/LOC

Calling all history teachers. This is a great opportunity to work with some excellent Civil War scholars @naucivilwar.bsky.social at the University of Virginia next summer. 🗃️ docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

'Erik S. McDuffie...shows how cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, as well as rural areas in the heartland, became central and enduring incubators of Marcus Garvey’s Black nationalist Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and its offshoots' www.dukeupress.edu/the-second-b...

In today's Muster, Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz discusses using nineteenth-century art to teach the antislavery movement www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2024/11/teac...

Sobering article by historian Eric Foner about the many terrible historical precedents for Trump's mass deportation plan, esp. the popular 1800s idea of "colonization"--sending formerly enslaved people to Africa so America would be a white country www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Teedra Moses’ NPR Tiny Desk performance is out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQTE...

"Speculative Light" brings together scholars, critics, & artists who analyze James Baldwin’s and Beauford Delaney’s works, showing how their lifelong friendship fundamentally shaped their ideas about art and life. Read the intro for free now: ow.ly/xURO50Ufkim

Again sending around this starter pack courtesy of @viewfromargus.bsky.social go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC

The @richardscenter.bsky.social is excited to host a 2-panel public symposium in honor of Tony Kaye's academic legacy & book w/ Greg Downs: Nat Turner, Black Prophet. Feat. @katemasur.bsky.social @william-sturkey.bsky.social @jimccasey1.bsky.social & others. Register to join us Dec. 6, 10am-3pm. 🗃️

In today's Muster, JCWE Book Review editor Megan Bever chats with Professor George C. Rable about his latest book, Conflict of Command (LSU Press, 2023). www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2024/11/conv...

Memeing Your Way Through the History of Reconstruction 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/memeing-yo...

Detail from an 1870s stereoview of the Aqueduct Bridge, connecting Georgetown to Virginia. The bridge carried the C&O Canal over the river to Virginia, where it continued down to Alexandria. It leaked constantly. Today a few piers remain in Georgetown and on the Virginia side of the river.

An important piece on how Black & radical white Southerners successfully reorganized their politics following the overwhelming white conservative disenfranchisement & violence of 1868. Several major caveats w/this approach, however, most crucially that it ignores the toll of anti-Black violence.

NEW: Private schools across the South that were established for white children during desegregation are now benefiting from tens of millions in taxpayer dollars flowing from rapidly expanding voucher-style programs, a @propublica analysis found. www.propublica.org/article/segr...

Woke? Thanks to @delanomassey.bsky.social over at @axios.com for the chance to recall the before times when to be woke was a pride. As a writer, I’m sure words and the meanings they carry still matter, even when twisted into a dog whistle. Stay woke, friends. www.axios.com/2024/11/17/a...

1987 Sony WM-F107 Solar Walkman

Feels like watching a grocery store parking lot fight

In today's Muster, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Justene Hill Edwards about her new book Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank. Check it out! www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2024/11/conv...

Good morning, I'm Rob. Mostly here to talk about Reconstruction-era and build community. I edit the JCWE's blog Muster--feel free to pitch me your ideas! Excited to be joining this community and getting off that other hell site. open.spotify.com/track/0SIzIf...