“Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”

Evacuation Day: Marking the End of the Revolutionary War We know how to honor the image of soldiers charging forward, but we often forget to cheer the backs of troops as they peaceably depart.

Today is the anniversary of the British evacuating New York City after the end of the Revolutionary War. Here's how I learned about it: the piece that introduced me to the terrific work of @bencarp.bsky.social

Anthony Grafton · No Cheese Please: The First Bibliophiles The library made possible a new kind of intellectual life. Machiavelli, when he’d been exiled from Florence, described...

‘When Claude Bellièvre visited the Vatican Library around 1514, he copied down a papal edict: readers must not quarrel, make noise or “cross the desks [to which books were chained] and tear them up with their feet”.’

Anthony Grafton on Renaissance libraries: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

That any of us have to care about the messy breakup of these two massive narcissists — and that they both individually wield such massive power — is an indictment of our political system and further proves the poisonous influence of Big Money on our democracy.

So my phone started blowing up last night because guess who's on the banned book list at the naval academy? Yours truly. Go support an author today and buy a book off of this this list... Doesn't even have to be mine. Gift link coming

Obama calls on citizens, colleges and law firms to resist Trump agenda In a campus speech, the former president said universities should be prepared to lose federal funds to defend academic freedom, rather than be “intimidated.”

Former president Barack Obama called on universities and law firms to stand up to intimidation from President Donald Trump’s administration and urged Americans to prepare to “possibly sacrifice” in support of democratic values.

The History Books Purged From the Naval Academy's Library The Trump administration is engaged in something much worse than book burning. It is attempting to burn down the entire cultural infrastructure that supports the pursuit of history.

The History Books Purged From the Naval Academy's Library 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Revolution 250 - Leslie's Retreat - with Charlie Newhall & Jonathan Streff YouTube video by Revolution 250

Rev250 podcast on Leslie’s Retreat released today. Thank you to Bob Allison for hosting, Jonathan Lane for producing, and Jonathan Streff for joining me.

www.youtube.com/live/LbcJMri...

Yes! Show historical action rather than tell facts. Use rich details. My students are writing essays now. Love Rediker’s 10 tips!

Used this in class today for an example of both good engaging historical research and writing. It was a hit!

Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...

Here is a fascinating article by Fara Dabhoiwala in the LRB about the 18c Afro-Jamaica polymath Francis Williams (c, 1690-c. 1770). Brilliant detective work on the level of Carlo Ginsburg. And it has a Benjamin Lay connection!

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Mr. Streeck has a clear vision of something paradoxical about the neoliberal project: For the global economy to be “free,” it must be constrained. What the proponents of neoliberalism mean by a free market is a deregulated market. But getting to deregulation is trickier than it looks because in free societies, regulations are the result of people’s sovereign right to make their own rules. The more democratic the world’s societies are, the more idiosyncratic they will be, and the more their economic rules will diverge. But that is exactly what businesses cannot tolerate — at least not under globalization. Money and goods must be able to move frictionlessly and efficiently across borders. This requires a uniform set of laws. Somehow, democracy is going to have to give way.

The best definition of neoliberalism I’ve read is in this article about Wolfgang Streeck, a German sociologist and theorist of capitalism, who points out why democracy is failing around the world right now as it conflicts with the needs of capital.

🎁 www.nytimes.com/2024/11/28/o...

The Authors of “How Democracies Die” on the New Democratic Minority Podcast Episode · The New Yorker Radio Hour · 11/15/2024 · 32m

Terrific discussion about the big picture post election:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...