All our recommendations...

Stuff that's inspiring us headed into 2023

Hey everyone, we hope 2022 is coming to a nice close and that you have exciting things ahead in 2023. We recently did a two-part series in which we recommended lots of works of history — academic and more “popular” — that inspired us this year, and that has influenced our thinking going into the new year.

Here are all the things we recommended, in very scattershot order. It’s a lot. We talked about why we liked this work in the episodes, so here we’ll just provide links, and you can click around and see what intrigues. Here we go…

• The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

• Disabilities of the Color Line: Redressing Anti-Blackness from Slavery to the Present

• The Johnstown Flood

• Tiny You: A Western History of the Anti-Abortion Movement

(Jody mentioned he’s looking forward to more research about the Box 13 scandal in 2023)

Carly Goodman, Ph.D., emerita @car1ygoodman

I was not expecting to hear @pastpunditry say these words about DREAMLAND as an example of new history work that excites and inspires her. What a gift. 😭

Jody Avirgan @jodyavirgan

Very fun to hear @kcarterjackson & @pastpunditry talk about works of history that inspire them, and current trends in historical research. Historians are working hard to reach a wider audience, but the academic squabbles will never really go away... https://t.co/IVksRhbj3W

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Jody Avirgan @jodyavirgan

Okay how about this. Anyone who gives $50 or more to @radiotopia, let me know (DM is fine) and I'll set up a zoom call and tell you the joke. https://t.co/T0KPSM80Ou

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Back to the recommendations…

Joshua R Greenberg (also historians.social) @joshrgreenberg

I really appreciate the historical work being done by Jamelle Bouie @jbouie. If you had told me 20 years ago when I was writing a dissertation that prominently featured Thomas Skidmore that I would be reading about him in a smart NYT piece in 2022, I would not have believed you.

• Lessons in Chemistry

• Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

• The Black vanguard in white utopias

  Derek Thompson @DKThomp

  I'm SO EXCITED to reveal a magazine feature I've been working on for months (and thinking about for years): theatlantic.com/magazine/archi… It's about the myths of progress in America, and about how we—in politics, policy, and the media—overrate invention and underrate implementation.

  

  theatlantic.comWhy the Age of American Progress EndedInvention alone can’t change the world; what matters is what happens next.

Eileen Clancy @clancynewyork

Just saw the spectacular ❤️ "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed." Laura Poitras and Nan Goldin. Life, art and fighting to vanquish evil billionaires. All the queerness. Both artists are at the height of their powers. @shanti_avirgan found stunning film/video of 1980s & 1990s NYC. +

The Nap Ministry @TheNapMinistry

OMG! It happened. I just got the word. My debut book hit The NY Times Bestseller list today. I’m without words. nytimes.com/books/best-sel…

Phew! That was a lot, but we think we got it all. Let us know if you end up reading or listening to any of the picks, and do keep the suggestions coming on Twitter or in the comments of this post. Thanks for listening, we’ll see you soon!