Merle Eisenberg
@merleeisenberg.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University.
PhD, Princeton University
Middle Ages & Late Antiquity | Pandemics & Plague | Environmental
Podcast: Infectious Historians @ infectioushistorians.com
Also: Arsenal | Mets | Vikings | UConnWBB
PhD, Princeton University
Middle Ages & Late Antiquity | Pandemics & Plague | Environmental
Podcast: Infectious Historians @ infectioushistorians.com
Also: Arsenal | Mets | Vikings | UConnWBB
Pinned
How Mediterranean Economies Were Shaped in the Early Middle Ages
The clichéd image of the premodern Mediterranean economy is stagnation until the twin forces of capitalism and Industrial Revolution kick-started growth an
doi.org
My review article, "How Mediterranean Economies Were Shaped in the Early Middle Ages" in the American Historical Review is out. This was a lot of fun and I try to make sense of 500+ years of recent economic histories. Find it: doi.org/10.1093/ahr/.... 1/
Spent my morning coffee reading the Board of Regents meeting agenda for an upcoming meeting. Highly recommend it to academics at a U.S. public university, so you actually know what's happening at your university. (Also read the minutes afterward.)
December 5, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Spent my morning coffee reading the Board of Regents meeting agenda for an upcoming meeting. Highly recommend it to academics at a U.S. public university, so you actually know what's happening at your university. (Also read the minutes afterward.)
Great article and worth a read. It turns out: budgets, strategic vision, and branding of what a university is all really matter. Changing plans every 3-5 years is less than ideal.
🧵 A dean is abruptly removed. Her account goes viral. At first, it looks like a fight over the humanities. But the more I reported on the University of Tulsa, the clearer it became: this controversy was just the entry point for a far larger institutional unraveling. (1/14)
December 4, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Great article and worth a read. It turns out: budgets, strategic vision, and branding of what a university is all really matter. Changing plans every 3-5 years is less than ideal.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Brentford made that really hard work in the second half with a very intense press, but we also had chances to score a second before we did, and they didn't really threaten in any significant way.
Goal + assist for Merino, Saka on the scoresheet, 3 points and a clean sheet again.
Solid work.
Goal + assist for Merino, Saka on the scoresheet, 3 points and a clean sheet again.
Solid work.
December 3, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Brentford made that really hard work in the second half with a very intense press, but we also had chances to score a second before we did, and they didn't really threaten in any significant way.
Goal + assist for Merino, Saka on the scoresheet, 3 points and a clean sheet again.
Solid work.
Goal + assist for Merino, Saka on the scoresheet, 3 points and a clean sheet again.
Solid work.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Check out Kelly Austin and I chatting about our book on the Infectious Historians podcast!
Episode 142 is out. Lee and I talked to @brentzkaup.bsky.social and Kelly Austin about the links between financialization and diseases in the U.S. and in Uganda. We also talked about writing a book together. Give it a listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/09/17/c... (or via Spotify, iTunes, etc.)
Episode 142 – Capitalism and Vector-Borne Disease with Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin, Infectious Historians
Capitalism and Vector-Borne Disease with Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin Episode 142 - September 17, 2025 Brent Kaup (William & Mary University) and Kelly...
infectioushistorians.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Check out Kelly Austin and I chatting about our book on the Infectious Historians podcast!
Episode 142 is out. Lee and I talked to @brentzkaup.bsky.social and Kelly Austin about the links between financialization and diseases in the U.S. and in Uganda. We also talked about writing a book together. Give it a listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/09/17/c... (or via Spotify, iTunes, etc.)
Episode 142 – Capitalism and Vector-Borne Disease with Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin, Infectious Historians
Capitalism and Vector-Borne Disease with Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin Episode 142 - September 17, 2025 Brent Kaup (William & Mary University) and Kelly...
infectioushistorians.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Episode 142 is out. Lee and I talked to @brentzkaup.bsky.social and Kelly Austin about the links between financialization and diseases in the U.S. and in Uganda. We also talked about writing a book together. Give it a listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/09/17/c... (or via Spotify, iTunes, etc.)
This is a fantastic book: amazingly well-written and tells a new history of American Revolution. Can't recommend highly enough.
A new interpretation of the American Revolution as a transformative monetary contest.
Andrew David Edwards' Money and the Making of the American Revolution is now available (27 Jan UK pub):
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#History
Andrew David Edwards' Money and the Making of the American Revolution is now available (27 Jan UK pub):
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#History
December 3, 2025 at 2:08 AM
This is a fantastic book: amazingly well-written and tells a new history of American Revolution. Can't recommend highly enough.
Great thread as a whole and the original article is: www.nber.org/papers/w34498. Given that the impending "enrollment cliff" is constantly used for austerity this paper suggests otherwise (among other insights).
December 1, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Great thread as a whole and the original article is: www.nber.org/papers/w34498. Given that the impending "enrollment cliff" is constantly used for austerity this paper suggests otherwise (among other insights).
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Don't think you can really say we deserved more than a point today.
Couldn't make the man advantage count. It's good to have the attacking players back, but probably fair to say there's a degree of rustiness to all of them.
2 wins and a draw in a very hard week not a bad return though.
Couldn't make the man advantage count. It's good to have the attacking players back, but probably fair to say there's a degree of rustiness to all of them.
2 wins and a draw in a very hard week not a bad return though.
November 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Don't think you can really say we deserved more than a point today.
Couldn't make the man advantage count. It's good to have the attacking players back, but probably fair to say there's a degree of rustiness to all of them.
2 wins and a draw in a very hard week not a bad return though.
Couldn't make the man advantage count. It's good to have the attacking players back, but probably fair to say there's a degree of rustiness to all of them.
2 wins and a draw in a very hard week not a bad return though.
The debate about "what students are like" for the 500th time. As always perspective matters: where you teach (university type), what you teach, what type of format (online, etc.), what size course, what level course, etc. Social media can't deal with nuance, so we dunk on each other instead. Joy.
November 29, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The debate about "what students are like" for the 500th time. As always perspective matters: where you teach (university type), what you teach, what type of format (online, etc.), what size course, what level course, etc. Social media can't deal with nuance, so we dunk on each other instead. Joy.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
That second half from Arsenal was fucking sensational. As good as you could possibly hope to put in against a team as good as this.
Bossed it 100%. Madueke with his first goal, and then Martinelli, no less than we deserved. And Bayern offered NOTHING after the break.
Hello Europe, we're Arsenal
Bossed it 100%. Madueke with his first goal, and then Martinelli, no less than we deserved. And Bayern offered NOTHING after the break.
Hello Europe, we're Arsenal
November 26, 2025 at 9:56 PM
That second half from Arsenal was fucking sensational. As good as you could possibly hope to put in against a team as good as this.
Bossed it 100%. Madueke with his first goal, and then Martinelli, no less than we deserved. And Bayern offered NOTHING after the break.
Hello Europe, we're Arsenal
Bossed it 100%. Madueke with his first goal, and then Martinelli, no less than we deserved. And Bayern offered NOTHING after the break.
Hello Europe, we're Arsenal
Enjoyed this article, so highly recommend. Just wanted to pull out a thread discussed in it that reverberates back to Covid and all infectious diseases in public thought: how people get sick and who dies. When it comes to 9/11 deaths on the day are perceived very differently than others 1/
As a high schooler downtown on 9/11, this looks very cool as an article and resonates both because I saw the dust at the time and for months afterward along with knowing people who are sick. Also reached the stage where events in my life are history. Guess I'm officially "old." 🤷♂️
My article on toxic ecologies post-9/11 now available open access in the latest issue of Environmental Humanities @dukepress.bsky.social Dust as both sacred and toxic. Inspired by Elena del Rivero's art, situated between exposure and containment
#STS #envhum #envhist #histstm
#STS #envhum #envhist #histstm
November 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Enjoyed this article, so highly recommend. Just wanted to pull out a thread discussed in it that reverberates back to Covid and all infectious diseases in public thought: how people get sick and who dies. When it comes to 9/11 deaths on the day are perceived very differently than others 1/
As a high schooler downtown on 9/11, this looks very cool as an article and resonates both because I saw the dust at the time and for months afterward along with knowing people who are sick. Also reached the stage where events in my life are history. Guess I'm officially "old." 🤷♂️
My article on toxic ecologies post-9/11 now available open access in the latest issue of Environmental Humanities @dukepress.bsky.social Dust as both sacred and toxic. Inspired by Elena del Rivero's art, situated between exposure and containment
#STS #envhum #envhist #histstm
#STS #envhum #envhist #histstm
Gathering Dust | Environmental Humanities | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 25, 2025 at 10:41 PM
As a high schooler downtown on 9/11, this looks very cool as an article and resonates both because I saw the dust at the time and for months afterward along with knowing people who are sick. Also reached the stage where events in my life are history. Guess I'm officially "old." 🤷♂️
Lots of reading and grading to do today before Thanksgiving, so instead I'll just re-watch key moments of the Arsenal game from Sunday for the 10th time.
a close up of a man 's face with his hands folded and a crowd behind him .
Alt: a close up of a man 's face with his hands folded and a crowd behind him .
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Lots of reading and grading to do today before Thanksgiving, so instead I'll just re-watch key moments of the Arsenal game from Sunday for the 10th time.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
What an amazing day for Arsenal and for Eberechi Eze. Incredible for him in any context, but with his history, his journey, it's just really, really special.
Also a massive win, and a statement/fuck off win in this title race after the results yesterday
Huge day, lots of fun to be had after this!
Also a massive win, and a statement/fuck off win in this title race after the results yesterday
Huge day, lots of fun to be had after this!
November 23, 2025 at 6:29 PM
What an amazing day for Arsenal and for Eberechi Eze. Incredible for him in any context, but with his history, his journey, it's just really, really special.
Also a massive win, and a statement/fuck off win in this title race after the results yesterday
Huge day, lots of fun to be had after this!
Also a massive win, and a statement/fuck off win in this title race after the results yesterday
Huge day, lots of fun to be had after this!
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Spurs game plan more or less worked ... until it didn't.
Merino's pass for the first goal is superb, and we stretched them well for the second which allowed that chance to develop for Eze. What a moment for him.
In a great position now, but clearly they'll do something different 2nd half.
Merino's pass for the first goal is superb, and we stretched them well for the second which allowed that chance to develop for Eze. What a moment for him.
In a great position now, but clearly they'll do something different 2nd half.
November 23, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Spurs game plan more or less worked ... until it didn't.
Merino's pass for the first goal is superb, and we stretched them well for the second which allowed that chance to develop for Eze. What a moment for him.
In a great position now, but clearly they'll do something different 2nd half.
Merino's pass for the first goal is superb, and we stretched them well for the second which allowed that chance to develop for Eze. What a moment for him.
In a great position now, but clearly they'll do something different 2nd half.
Was just using their archives last summer and a great place to work. Will miss being able to visit, but hopefully finds new people who can visit from the midwest.
The American Numismatic Society’s collections of coins will be relocating from Manhattan to the spacious campus of the Toledo Museum of Art. The $20 million plan, to be completed in 2028, would make possible its long-harbored vision of a state-of-the-art money museum.
After 167 Years in New York, a Priceless Coin Collection Heads to Toledo
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Was just using their archives last summer and a great place to work. Will miss being able to visit, but hopefully finds new people who can visit from the midwest.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
November 19, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
Alright I'll list out what I've read and been reading in case anyone is interested. Given that I serve as Chair of the Faculty Budget Committee I started with that side of the ledger so: Dean Smith, University Finances and How University Budgets Work. Pretty dry, but very important. 1/
Alright let me try this ask again: what should I read about how higher ed works to continue my learning?
Trying to build up knowledge and maybe start a discussion group (locally? online?) for academics working in the field, but don't research higher ed. Read lots of Chris Newfield, lots of finance/budget books, other books from Hopkins on Critical University Studies. What else should I read/add?
November 17, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Alright I'll list out what I've read and been reading in case anyone is interested. Given that I serve as Chair of the Faculty Budget Committee I started with that side of the ledger so: Dean Smith, University Finances and How University Budgets Work. Pretty dry, but very important. 1/
How do I turn myself into a (temporary) sovereign country and get money for all my costs going up?
New Argentina just dropped.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán says the U.S. will provide a “financial shield” as he struggles to win reelection
Meanwhile Trump President said last week “I don’t want to hear about affordability” as health care premiums explode & food/energy prices rise.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán says the U.S. will provide a “financial shield” as he struggles to win reelection
Meanwhile Trump President said last week “I don’t want to hear about affordability” as health care premiums explode & food/energy prices rise.
November 10, 2025 at 11:10 PM
How do I turn myself into a (temporary) sovereign country and get money for all my costs going up?
Alright let me try this ask again: what should I read about how higher ed works to continue my learning?
Trying to build up knowledge and maybe start a discussion group (locally? online?) for academics working in the field, but don't research higher ed. Read lots of Chris Newfield, lots of finance/budget books, other books from Hopkins on Critical University Studies. What else should I read/add?
November 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Alright let me try this ask again: what should I read about how higher ed works to continue my learning?
Trying to build up knowledge and maybe start a discussion group (locally? online?) for academics working in the field, but don't research higher ed. Read lots of Chris Newfield, lots of finance/budget books, other books from Hopkins on Critical University Studies. What else should I read/add?
November 9, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Trying to build up knowledge and maybe start a discussion group (locally? online?) for academics working in the field, but don't research higher ed. Read lots of Chris Newfield, lots of finance/budget books, other books from Hopkins on Critical University Studies. What else should I read/add?
Nice! Give a listen to Sarah's just published book! I'm obviously biased, since she is a great friend and colleague, but worth a listen to learn about her book.
Sarah Griswold, Resurrecting the Past: France's Forgotten Heritage Mandate - @cornellupress.bsky.social, September 2025
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social with Miranda Melcher
newbooksnetwork.com/resurrecting...
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social with Miranda Melcher
newbooksnetwork.com/resurrecting...
Resurrecting the Past by Sarah Griswold | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
In Resurrecting the Past, Sarah Griswold shows how the Levant became a crucial front in a post-1918 fight over the French past—a contingent and contradictory but always hard-charging struggle over...
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu
November 5, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Nice! Give a listen to Sarah's just published book! I'm obviously biased, since she is a great friend and colleague, but worth a listen to learn about her book.
Reposted by Merle Eisenberg
Comfortable enough in the end.
Second goal was really lovely from Trossard and Merino, the third made it safe, so we could make changes.
4 from 4 in the CL so far this season, 0 goals conceded, 12 scored. And with the players we're missing, that shouldn't be taken for granted.
Momentum.
Second goal was really lovely from Trossard and Merino, the third made it safe, so we could make changes.
4 from 4 in the CL so far this season, 0 goals conceded, 12 scored. And with the players we're missing, that shouldn't be taken for granted.
Momentum.
November 4, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Comfortable enough in the end.
Second goal was really lovely from Trossard and Merino, the third made it safe, so we could make changes.
4 from 4 in the CL so far this season, 0 goals conceded, 12 scored. And with the players we're missing, that shouldn't be taken for granted.
Momentum.
Second goal was really lovely from Trossard and Merino, the third made it safe, so we could make changes.
4 from 4 in the CL so far this season, 0 goals conceded, 12 scored. And with the players we're missing, that shouldn't be taken for granted.
Momentum.
Great conversation on "Foreign Healthcare Workers" with Eram Alam (Harvard). We talked about how immigration, especially from South Asia, has been how the US has historically addressed doctor shortages. Relevant for immigration debates going on now! Listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/08/29/f...
Episode 141 – Foreign Healthcare Workers with Eram Alam, Infectious Historians
Marian Devotion and Plague in Late Medieval Italy with Bianca Lopez Episode 134 - March 7, 2025 Bianca Lopez (Southern Methodist University) joins the...
infectioushistorians.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Great conversation on "Foreign Healthcare Workers" with Eram Alam (Harvard). We talked about how immigration, especially from South Asia, has been how the US has historically addressed doctor shortages. Relevant for immigration debates going on now! Listen: infectioushistorians.com/2025/08/29/f...