Mark R. Cheathem
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markcheathem.bsky.social
Mark R. Cheathem
@markcheathem.bsky.social
Historian, documentary editor, and writer. Views are my own. https://linktr.ee/markcheathem
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Looking for a good book about President James Garfield? The James A. Garfield National Historic Site has you covered. 🗃️#NationalParks
November 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
19th century people… Is the a definitive (or preferred) unabridged edition of Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America?”
November 22, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI
Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI
When the people making AI seem trustworthy are the ones who trust it the least, it shows that incentives for speed are overtaking safety, experts say
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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An interview with a historian who set out to weave a textile of the type that would have been sold to plantations for use by enslaved people, using period equipment.

www.publicbooks.org/cloth-and-co...
Cloth and Complicity: Seth Rockman on Plantations, Textiles, and the Art of Weaving - Public Books
“But I had found a set of instructions in the archives of one of New England's leading manufacturers of low-end woollen cloth for enslaved wearers.”
www.publicbooks.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Anyone know of research on the 50-year commemoration of the U.S. Constitution in 1837? All I have found so far is Milton Klein's 1995 article “Mythologizing the U.S. Constitution.” I am working with a high school teacher who wants to use Van Buren's inaugural address to analyze the commemoration.
November 21, 2025 at 11:11 PM
James K. Polk did it better.
DOD contractors “mistakenly” landed on a Mexican beach, declared it US property and planted “restricted area” DOD signs, triggering a tense confrontation with armed Mexican forces.

Mexico removed the signs, insisting the area is theirs.

Yet another example of total incompetence.
Pentagon Pete’s War Goons Accidentally Invade Mexico
U.S. “contractors” planted signs declaring that a Mexican beach was U.S. territory.
www.thedailybeast.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
“The University of Georgia Press is delighted to welcome a new editorial team to our Race in the Atlantic World series: Ana Lucia Araujo, Toby Green, and Brooke Newman.” ugapress.wordpress.com/2025/11/19/t...
The University of Georgia Press Welcomes New Editorial Team to Race in the Atlantic World Series
The University of Georgia Press is delighted to welcome a new editorial team to our Race in the Atlantic World series: Ana Lucia Araujo, Toby Green, and Brooke Newman.
ugapress.wordpress.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
The publication date for my book on the history of policing American slavery has been moved up a month! Now available May 12, 2026! Thanks so much to those who have preordered! The Press is offering 30% off with the code, 01UNCP30

uncpress.org/978146969484...
White Power
Beginning in the colonial era and growing through the American Revolution and the Southern plantation system, slaveholders’ violent police regime continued...
uncpress.org
November 20, 2025 at 11:55 AM
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7/ He was a fascinating man who led a fascinating life full of sweep and drama and, of course, many startling turns. I'm calling the book THE GREAT APOSTATE. If all goes as planned, it will be published in the fall of 2027.
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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6/ He advocated nullification after the 1828 tariff law. He wrote prolifically on trade and tariffs, economic theory, politics, and history. He pushed for a militant South. In many ways he was the intellectual godfather of secession.
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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5/ In 1820 he joined the faculty at South Carolina College. There he entered the most fateful period of his life. The former abolitionist was now an enslaver himself and unabashed defender of the institution.
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
4/ Jefferson, who thought he was "the greatest man in America," wanted him president of his new institution, the University of Virginia. Once again the state's religious leaders objected, dooming his dream job
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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3/ He settled in Pennsylvania and became a land commissioner and judge before his battles with organized religion led to his removal. He then entered academia, teaching chemistry at Dickinson College
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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2/ who, fearing arrest in UK, fled to the US in 1794. But this bitter critic of John Adams was arrested and tried for sedition here and imprisoned in 1800, making him a martyr and hero to Jeffersonians, including Jefferson himself
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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1/ an English-born radical, supporter of the French Revolution, and fervent opponent of slavery; a brilliant Oxford-educated polymath ...
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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I'm thrilled to announce that my next book, a biography of Thomas Cooper (1759-1839), has been accepted by LSU Press as part of its distinguished Southern Biography Series. Cooper was ...
August 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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I’m working on a new episode with Jessica Lepler. She wrote a fascinating book called Canal Dreamers. It’s about the quest of early Americans to build a interoceanic canal across present-day Nicaragua.

* This is an affiliate link. If you purchase you support local bookstores & @bfworld.bsky.social
Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific in the Age of Revolutions
The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific in the Age of Revolutions
bookshop.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
I am absolutely over the moon that my book “The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and the Transformation of the GOP” is officially published TODAY!

After years of hard work, I am incredibly proud. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible 📚🐘🗃️

@uscpress.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
I need to build a list of online primary source databases and digitized archival collections for post-1877 Native American History. Please post your favorites in the comments.

Or, if you already have a list I can build from, please send me a message! 🗃️
November 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Happy birthday to the GOAT, Calvin & Hobbes!

I thought it'd be a good time to reshare this piece I wrote during the first year of SKTCHD all the way back in ye olden days of 2015, that time for the 30th anniversary of Bill Watterson's creations debuting. It's a fun one.
It's the 40th anniversary of the debut of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes, so let's dive back into what made that strip so wonderful with insight from Skottie Young, @chriseliopoulos.com, Michael Cho, and more.

Note: This was written for the 30th anniversary of SKTCHD and is free to read.
The Wonder and Legacy of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, Thirty Years Later - SKTCHD
There’s something magical about being a kid. It’s a time of infinite opportunities. A time where pillows aren’t just pillows, but the key to a totally rad fort. The forest behind your house isn’t a we...
sktchd.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Spent part of my morning listening to one of my favorites talk about her writing process. Loved every minute! Listen to @jlepler.bsky.social and then go out and buy Canal Dreamers!
draftingthepast.com/podcast-epis...
Episode 75: Jessica Lepler Knows That Criticism Is Praise – Drafting the Past
draftingthepast.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
Extraordinarily honored to receive the American Society for Legal History’s Craig Joyce Medal for service to the Society for my work as editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social.

Also this replica premier league trophy with Law and History Review regalia!

#ynwa #upthereds #legalhistory
November 16, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
The 2025 Margaret Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize goest o Alison M. Downham Moore for her book, The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women's Aging.

global.oup.com/academic/pro... #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Mark R. Cheathem
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever. In a basement at Howard University, uncovered treasures have includ...
www.csmonitor.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM