Benjamin L. Carp 🎏
@bencarp.bsky.social
Historian of Early America, Brooklyn College & Graduate Center, CUNY. Leading AHA wit. Latest AmRev book: "The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution" 🔥 Dad, Mets fan, fantasy reader
Pinned
Benjamin L. Carp 🎏
@bencarp.bsky.social
· Jul 21
Here I am, as the Scorpions once foretold.
Something else just occurred to me, thinking about old movies: maybe those conference hotel room interviews were a throwback to a time when academic departments could afford palatial suites with a separate living area? And things contracted…
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 17, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Something else just occurred to me, thinking about old movies: maybe those conference hotel room interviews were a throwback to a time when academic departments could afford palatial suites with a separate living area? And things contracted…
You know who else had a hotel room interview? The hapless wheelman in the original “Thomas Crown Affair”
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 11:56 PM
You know who else had a hotel room interview? The hapless wheelman in the original “Thomas Crown Affair”
This is the best dialogue exchange in “Clueless” by far, I love it forever.
Josh: Which I'll bet serves your interests more than theirs. You know, If I ever saw you do anything that wasn't ninety percent selfish, I'd die of shock.
Cher: Oh, that'd be reason enough for me.
Josh: Which I'll bet serves your interests more than theirs. You know, If I ever saw you do anything that wasn't ninety percent selfish, I'd die of shock.
Cher: Oh, that'd be reason enough for me.
November 16, 2025 at 4:35 PM
This is the best dialogue exchange in “Clueless” by far, I love it forever.
Josh: Which I'll bet serves your interests more than theirs. You know, If I ever saw you do anything that wasn't ninety percent selfish, I'd die of shock.
Cher: Oh, that'd be reason enough for me.
Josh: Which I'll bet serves your interests more than theirs. You know, If I ever saw you do anything that wasn't ninety percent selfish, I'd die of shock.
Cher: Oh, that'd be reason enough for me.
If I…don’t watch the Ken Burns documentary, it’ll definitely annoy all the people who are going to ask me about it for the next few decades.
November 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM
If I…don’t watch the Ken Burns documentary, it’ll definitely annoy all the people who are going to ask me about it for the next few decades.
In light of the fact that the victims’ families are suing the Eastman family for gross negligence and fraud, does this read as an attempt to exonerate Edward Eastman in Olivia Nuzzi fashion with fancy maps instead of glamor shots? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
New Videos, Data and Reporting Give a Detailed Account of the Camp Mystic Disaster (Gift Article)
Never-before-published videos, data from smart devices, a crash report and the first interview that Camp Mystic's owners have granted since the July 4 disaster offer the most detailed account yet.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
In light of the fact that the victims’ families are suing the Eastman family for gross negligence and fraud, does this read as an attempt to exonerate Edward Eastman in Olivia Nuzzi fashion with fancy maps instead of glamor shots? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
I’m at the dentist’s office and the guy before me just tipped the hygienist. Neither here nor there I guess, just…new
November 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I’m at the dentist’s office and the guy before me just tipped the hygienist. Neither here nor there I guess, just…new
I guess the billionaires were right!
November 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I guess the billionaires were right!
Brooklyn College as Borderlands, Part MMCCCLVIII…
November 5, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Brooklyn College as Borderlands, Part MMCCCLVIII…
Mamdani will be the 7th NYC mayor since 1834 to have been born abroad
November 5, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Mamdani will be the 7th NYC mayor since 1834 to have been born abroad
If you starve CUNY for years and do nothing for its students, we will eventually make you lose the same election twice
November 5, 2025 at 2:14 AM
If you starve CUNY for years and do nothing for its students, we will eventually make you lose the same election twice
Good news for people who like nursing home deaths and workplace harassment: you’ll always have a home in Staten Island
November 5, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Good news for people who like nursing home deaths and workplace harassment: you’ll always have a home in Staten Island
Well? Where are my NYC results?
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Well? Where are my NYC results?
This ad made a small part of me hope that Mamdani loses today so that he’ll have time to give a guest lecture in my “History of New York City” class at Brooklyn College in the spring — but on balance I’d rather he be my mayor that a guest lecturer
UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 5: Vito Marcantonio
There are many who dismiss our vision for New York as impossible. To them, I say we need look only to our past for proof of how we can shape the future.
Tomorrow is Election Day. And this is the final Until It's Done of our campaign.
There are many who dismiss our vision for New York as impossible. To them, I say we need look only to our past for proof of how we can shape the future.
Tomorrow is Election Day. And this is the final Until It's Done of our campaign.
November 4, 2025 at 11:19 AM
This ad made a small part of me hope that Mamdani loses today so that he’ll have time to give a guest lecture in my “History of New York City” class at Brooklyn College in the spring — but on balance I’d rather he be my mayor that a guest lecturer
Reposted by Benjamin L. Carp 🎏
"At a time when the federal government is targeting the communities of color and immigrant communities that CUNY serves, New Yorkers need a mayor who will be a champion for CUNY." Vote
citylimits.org/opinion-why-...
citylimits.org/opinion-why-...
Opinion: Why Cuomo Would Be a Bad Deal for CUNY - City Limits
"At a time when the federal government is targeting the communities of color and immigrant communities that CUNY serves, New Yorkers need a mayor who will be a champion for CUNY."
citylimits.org
November 4, 2025 at 12:15 AM
"At a time when the federal government is targeting the communities of color and immigrant communities that CUNY serves, New Yorkers need a mayor who will be a champion for CUNY." Vote
citylimits.org/opinion-why-...
citylimits.org/opinion-why-...
The wizened old man surveyed the smoking ruins and shook his head.
“You see it all around you,” he sighed. “Good loving gone bad.”
“You see it all around you,” he sighed. “Good loving gone bad.”
November 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
The wizened old man surveyed the smoking ruins and shook his head.
“You see it all around you,” he sighed. “Good loving gone bad.”
“You see it all around you,” he sighed. “Good loving gone bad.”
I was just saying at dinner last night that if I could have one wish for US politics, it would be to mandate that every American to spend one hour learning about the definition and history of marginal tax rates
i told my father in law what the top tax rates were in 1955 and he just flat out refused to believe it and he was a teenager in 1955. couldn't be true, that's communism.
phone banking for Zohran today and I fully got yelled at for supporting a communist like it was 1952 and my interlocutor was the ghost of George Kennan (I'm not fussed, just fascinated in the academic sense by how long this specific shadow is in American politics)
November 2, 2025 at 11:57 PM
I was just saying at dinner last night that if I could have one wish for US politics, it would be to mandate that every American to spend one hour learning about the definition and history of marginal tax rates
Historian of the Boston Tea Party here: the best reason to dress in costume is to protest unjust tax policies, corrupt placemen, unresponsive governance, and monopoly power. (Though we can do so less racistly than the Bostonians of 1773.)
October 31, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Historian of the Boston Tea Party here: the best reason to dress in costume is to protest unjust tax policies, corrupt placemen, unresponsive governance, and monopoly power. (Though we can do so less racistly than the Bostonians of 1773.)
That’s fine as long as he didn’t pronounce it like they do in “2 Fast 2 Furious,” which would be disqualifying for me
Breaking: Zohran Mamdani once called an acquaintance “bro.” There is no evidence that Mamdani and the acquaintance have the same parents.
October 28, 2025 at 4:49 PM
That’s fine as long as he didn’t pronounce it like they do in “2 Fast 2 Furious,” which would be disqualifying for me
I'm doing some "light grading," which I guess is like "light rail," "light industry," "light infantry," or "light treason."
October 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I'm doing some "light grading," which I guess is like "light rail," "light industry," "light infantry," or "light treason."
Someone posted a picture of one of those fake 20 dollar bills with the wreckage of the East Wing and I wrote "putting the demo in democracy." Then I nerded out and discovered that while "democracy" is a Greek word (which I knew), "demolition" is Latin.
October 23, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Someone posted a picture of one of those fake 20 dollar bills with the wreckage of the East Wing and I wrote "putting the demo in democracy." Then I nerded out and discovered that while "democracy" is a Greek word (which I knew), "demolition" is Latin.
Never again
Is what you swore
The time before
--Depeche Mode
Is what you swore
The time before
--Depeche Mode
October 22, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Never again
Is what you swore
The time before
--Depeche Mode
Is what you swore
The time before
--Depeche Mode
Natalie Zemon Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Mikhail Bakhtin, Chuck McCurdy, Jon Wiener, Naomi Klein, and, um, Benjamin Carp are all cited here. thelivingstonpost.com/guest-column...
GUEST COLUMN: From the Boston Tea Party to No Kings: America’s 250-year tradition of protest in costume
By Eric Chapman During the nationwide “No Kings” protests on Oct. 18, 2025, streets across the United States filled with color and creativity. Protesters in cities from New York to Los Angeles opposed...
thelivingstonpost.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Natalie Zemon Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Mikhail Bakhtin, Chuck McCurdy, Jon Wiener, Naomi Klein, and, um, Benjamin Carp are all cited here. thelivingstonpost.com/guest-column...
Maybe I’m missing the point but I think he’s basically arguing that Brooklyn College history professors’ viewpoints are superior and you should listen to them
How every state in the US teaches about feudalism. A New post from me and @profgabriele.com, along with access to a slideshow and spreadsheet with more info.
24 states REQUIRE feudalism.
8 suggest feudalism.
Feudalism, ICYMI, is not a real thing. Click, read, share, subscribe (it's free!).
24 states REQUIRE feudalism.
8 suggest feudalism.
Feudalism, ICYMI, is not a real thing. Click, read, share, subscribe (it's free!).
Revisiting the Medieval "F-Word" (Feudalism)
How Every State Teaches (or doesn't) about Feudalism
buttondown.com
October 21, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Maybe I’m missing the point but I think he’s basically arguing that Brooklyn College history professors’ viewpoints are superior and you should listen to them
My boomer dad’s best friend once told me that growing up in the NYC outer boroughs, everyone knew two things about every family in the community—what the dad did during World War II, and what baseball team they rooted for.
We used to be a whole nation of antifascists (mostly)
We used to be a whole nation of antifascists (mostly)
Your grandfathers didn’t storm Normandy so you could be afraid of the word antifascist or “antifa”
October 12, 2025 at 12:23 AM
My boomer dad’s best friend once told me that growing up in the NYC outer boroughs, everyone knew two things about every family in the community—what the dad did during World War II, and what baseball team they rooted for.
We used to be a whole nation of antifascists (mostly)
We used to be a whole nation of antifascists (mostly)
On a road trip, my son requested a Hall & Oates song and then speculated that he didn’t know any others. I predicted correctly (as I put on a playlist) that he’d know six more. Exactly correct.
October 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
On a road trip, my son requested a Hall & Oates song and then speculated that he didn’t know any others. I predicted correctly (as I put on a playlist) that he’d know six more. Exactly correct.