Scott Sandage
@scottsandage.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1K following 98 posts
History isn’t reality, it’s methodology. Historian. Husband. Iowan. Pittsburgh 🏳️‍🌈🐕🪕⚾️ Wrote a book long ago. Writing another on the Métis Rez in Nebraska. Most useful thing I’ve done is probably https://commonplace.online/article/how-to-read-a-book/
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Reposted by Scott Sandage
"Don't bite the hook": Northwestern History Professor Leslie Harris tells a gathering of faculty, students and staff that universities including her own need to stand together against the Trump administration's 'fascist, authoritarian takeover' #highered #chicago
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One of the most interesting methods I've seen.

As a slow reader I've come to something similar through the close reading of structure. (Part of the reason I'm obsessed w/ pics, chronology & index.)

Sandage's x-ray method is fully fleshed out, next level & sympathetic to the process of learning. 🫀
A copy of the method as circulated by Marie Barclay one of Sandage's students. It's next level & requires you cheat and spoil all that is sacred. The attached article expands on the last point: "Compress All the Information into a Single Page Summary for Containing All of the Above Information. I'm not posting the contents of the picture here, you can find that in it's revised form here: https://commonplace.online/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sandage-Handout-2.pdf --> Do if you dare!
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rereading rochelle davis for a thing this afternoon and omfg does it ever hit hard right now
A copy of Rochelle Davis’s Palestinian Village histories on a stack of papers and other books. Title in yellow on a black cover with a green, red, and black illustration of village homes and a yellow sun in the background.
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Don’t believe it that faculty members are the problem. Many of them with the most to lose are they very ones putting themselves on the line to directly speak truth to power.

youtu.be/xqLsgqOwNBM?...
Leslie Harris, Northwestern University Faculty Assembly, Oct. 15, 2025
YouTube video by Michael Peshkin
youtu.be
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Oh, this is so exciting! Thank you @lizcovart.bsky.social for the invitation. And while I'm here, pleased to announce that @uchicagopress.bsky.social is bringing out a paperback in Spring 2026!!!
Today is @bfworld.bsky.social’s 11th Podversary. The first 4 episodes debuted 11 years ago.
So it’s fitting we have a great new episode to celebrate!

How did Northern manufacturers support Southern slavery?

Seth Rockman joins us to talk about “plantation goods” and slavery’s hidden supply chain.
Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy
Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.
benfranklinsworld.com
Teaching a favorite session today on #FrederickDouglass #Narrative — after decades of scrounging cheap original printings (1799 - 1832) of the #ColumbianOrator … I finally have enough to give one to each student & say, DISCUSS: What kinds of things could an enslaved teenager learn with this book?
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Excited to hear that Jeff Hiller won an Emmy for his work in Somebody, Somewhere. He was so fantastic in that show. What a charmer, too. A beautiful show that was all about small stuff and small moments in a small town that felt real and lived in.
Jeff Hiller poses with his OScar
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If Jeff Hiller's charming Emmy acceptance speech is the first you're hearing about SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, you really owe yourself to check it out. It's been my show of the year two years running: newrepublic.com/article/1875...
The Glorious Swan Song of Somebody Somewhere
The HBO show, in its third and final season, is a a miniature epic about grief and acceptance.
newrepublic.com
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Tomorrow morning on my live podcast, “History Matters:”

Standing Up Matters!

We’ve seen a lot of push back this week from people in high places.

And it matters—more than you might think.

Join us for some reckoning.

Friday 10AM ET
NCHEteach.org/conversations
Conversations
NCHEteach.org
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That’s exactly the point why faculty claim syllabi are their intellectual work. If you need AI to build a syllabus for you, you shouldn’t be teaching a class.

Syllabi represent YOUR pedagogical approach (or one built *hopefully* by your department with thought to building student knowledge). 6/🧵
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So I'm doing a commonplace book assignment with the students in my #earlymodern women's history course this semester. Big thank you to everyone who shared resources and ideas!

Watch this space for updates and reflections.

#teaching #pedagogy
Reposting this because I got such great responses and others might be interested in doing a similar assignment.

#teaching #pedagogy #skystorians

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#skystorians: have any of you ever done a commonplace book type of assignment in your courses? I'm thinking of something like @jmadelman.bsky.social 's assignment, detailed here.

josephadelman.com/2014/09/04/c...

#teaching #pedagogy

Thoughts? Advice? Could it be done digitally?
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I am assigning this in my grad seminar. Such a wonderful article and technique!
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Young adults do also like notebooks! I think analog, assign them to purchase a notebook they *like* and a pen they like writing with. That part of the assignment alone is valuable.
In my Constitution course, they earn 10 points toward 100 total for copying out the Bill of Rights, and another 10 for copying out Article II. Quid pro quo isn’t a bad teaching strategy.
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The oldest Aldabaran tortoise at Blank Park Zoo is currently... in time out. For climbing the fence in an escape attempt. Love it.
I’m teaching the old fashioned way: no Canvas, no PDFs, no e-books, no uploads, no turn-it-in checks. Everything on paper. Day one I gift each student an old-time comp book. Last year, many students filled 100 sheets/200pp w/ handwritten notes & thoughts. Some filled 2 books! Best discussions ever!!