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Josh Specht

@joshspecht.bsky.social
362 followers 859 following 58 posts

Historian at the University of Notre Dame, author of Red Meat Republic, a book about 🍖. Almost done with another book, still not sure what it's about.

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Reposted by Josh Specht
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Daniel Immerwahr reviews @joshspecht.bsky.social's "lively" new book Property Values for @newyorker.com: buff.ly/1oerTAc
buff.ly
Why America Looks the Way It Does
From vast grids to winding suburbs, Americans have spent two centuries remaking the landscape around property.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 02/10/2026
Campaign after campaign to remake America’s land—into plots, cities, and suburbs—has delivered soullessness, Daniel Immerwahr writes. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Why America Looks the Way It Does
From vast grids to winding suburbs, Americans have spent two centuries remaking the landscape around property.
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Mike Glass @m-r-glass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Totally surprised, and utterly thrilled, for my book to be discussed in this review of @joshspecht.bsky.social's fantastic new book!! 🙀 Josh -- our books will forever be cousins-in-law (or something like that!). www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I deserve no credit, but this made me happy! :)
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
(sort a theme of all the podcasts I've done)
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Really fun conversation, despite my efforts trying (and failing) to talk about current policy at the very end. www.diggingaholepodcast.com/episodes/spe...
diggingaholepodcast.com
Episode 81: Joshua Specht — Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast
Joshua Specht joins the podcast to discuss his new book and America's obsession with land ownership.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Reed Schwartz @reed-schwartz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Really enjoyed talking to @joshspecht.bsky.social about Property Values, a new history of American home and land ownership, for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. We talked Frederick Jackson Turner on "pacing the frontier," Disney's HOA, whether land value taxes would solve ~this, + more.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Really enjoyed this conversation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=10E-...
youtube.com
Mortgaging the American Dream: Joshua Specht on the Rise & Fall of US Homeownership
YouTube video by Keen On
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Skyrocketing housing costs and the decline of community are interlinked problems press.princeton.edu/ideas/housin...
press.princeton.edu
Housing affordability and our fraying social fabric
The average American is worried about the cost of living, particularly housing. The average pundit is worried about the state of our social fabric. These are parallel conversations, but they are close...
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis. @joshspecht.bsky.social's Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner is out now (10 November UK pub). Find it here: buff.ly/70NK8ra #History
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"A masterpiece"
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Publication day for my new book, Property Values! Get it while you can. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Picture of Property Values by Joshua Specht
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
😎
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Jo Guldi @joguldi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Well, this was dangerous. A preorder sale led me to @joshspecht.bsky.social on property, @jeannasmialek.bsky.social on Maria Edgeworth, and Andrew Whelan on destroyed records and power. @duttonbooks.bsky.social’s THE WAR OVER RENT connects all three. PREORDER25
Four actual covers—The War Over Rent, Property Values, The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth, and Destruction of Documents—with 25% off eligible B&N preorders through September 11, code PREORDER25.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
In Property Values, @joshspecht.bsky.social reveals why housing affordability has posed significant challenges to the nation’s politics & promise since the founding, & why the American story has always been one about land. Available Sept 15 (10 Nov UK pub). Read a free preview: buff.ly/QOksg52
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht. A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In his new book Property Values, @joshspecht.bsky.social traces how land & its ownership became inextricably tied to the American ideal of independence. Available September 15 (10 November UK pub). Learn more & preorder your copy today: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #History
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht. A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I've got my author's copy! Out soon.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Alex Drace-Francis @alexdrace.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
"Circulating Subjects: Sex Work and Migration in Russia, 1885–1935" - great (and sadly posthumous) book by our inspirational and much-missed colleague Philippa Hetherington @cornellupress.bsky.social cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Circulating Subjects by Philippa Hetherington | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
Circulating Subjects investigates the migration of women abroad for sex work from the 1880s through the 1930s, which Russian feminists, liberal jurists, and imperial bureaucrats worked together to def...
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis. @joshspecht.bsky.social's new book, Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner, arrives September 15 (10 November UK pub). Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner by Joshua Specht
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
I've only just discovered emojis as email responses and the game has changed 🫠
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Ella Hadacek @ellahadacek.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Really excited to share that JGAPE has published my article, "Doubly Intolerable: Gender, Union Busting, and the Fear of Catholic Power in the Loeb Affair, 1915–1917." It looks at how sexism and anti-Catholicism acted together to union bust the Chicago Teachers' Federation.
The “S.O.S.” issue of The Menace contained several other cartoons, all signed by an artist, “Mark Luther.” Original in State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. This image courtesy Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Yessss loved the first three volumes Book Review: ‘On the Calculation of Volume IV,’ by Solvej Balle - The New York Times share.google/nZPjyC0PlHHF...
share.google
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
It's not out for a while, but if you're a Specht completionist, you can pre-order now!
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
My new book has a cover and a page! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
Property Values
A wide-ranging history of American land ownership, from westward expansion to the suburban housing crisis
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Duncan Money @mininghistory.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Christie's bio in his book 'Electricity, Industry and Class in South Africa':
Snippet from a book cover.
Text reads:
"Dr Renfrew Christie, who was born in South Africa, combined a
distinguished university career with service to the student community,
first on the Students' Representative Council of the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, later as full-time deputy president and
honorary treasurer of the National Union of South African Students.
He was awarded his BA at the University of Cape Town in 1973 with
distinction in comparative African government and law (CAGL) and
received gold medals for CAGL II and African economic history. He
went on to obtain an MA with distinction in comparative African
government and law at the University of Cape Town in 1975. Awarded
the Jan Smuts Memorial Scholarship, he entered St Antony's College,
Oxford, from where he received his doctorate of philosophy in 1979 with
the thesis on which the present book is based.
In July 1979 he returned to South Africa and was detained in October
1979 and held in solitary confinement until his trial and conviction for
contravening the South African Terrorism Act for conspiring with the
African National Congress to obtain and make available to the ANC
information on energy in the Republic of South Africa. He is serving a
ten-vear year sentence"
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Still haven't quite figured out the video format. At some point I'll learn how to embed some slides and visuals. But I tried to keep it as clear and usable as possible.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
It's based on the blog post here:
joshuaspecht.com
Running a successful discussion section – Joshua Specht
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
I've been making some videos with advice for grad students / first time TAs and teachers. They're mostly based on old blog posts for my website, but I've found it helpful to record something I can share. My first one is advice for running a discussion section...
youtu.be
Teaching advice: how to survive your first class discussion
YouTube video by Joshua Specht
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Oh wow, thanks so much! I'm so flattered :)
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Reposted by Josh Specht
David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Really enjoyed recording this discussion with David Runciman, covering threats to democracy, early 20thc theories of oligarchy, how algorithmic social media is changing politics, the problem with 19thc approaches to suffrage - and much, much more!
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 25/10/2025
In 1904, Henry Dwight Sedgwick imagined America plagued by corruption, riots, and economic collapse in The Atlantic. Jake Lundberg revisits Sedgwick’s writing in Time-Travel Thursdays:
bit.ly
A Frightening American Fable
The Atlantic writer who previewed an unmoored country
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I learned so much from him
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
What a loss :(
theguardian.com
American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies at age 29
No cause of death was given in a statement from the family of Naroditsky, who became a grandmaster in 2013 and was known as a popular commentator
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Reposted by Josh Specht
Journal of the History of Ideas @jhideas.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
The winner of the JHI’s 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize for the best first book in intellectual history is Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for Required Reading: The Life of Everyday Texts in the British Empire! @princetonupress.bsky.social
web.sas.upenn.edu
Congratulations to Priyasha Mukhopadhyay, winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize!
Announcing the winner of the JHI's 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize.
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Reposted by Josh Specht
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 01/08/2025
The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade the American mind, Jake Lundberg writes in Time-Travel Thursdays.
bit.ly
The Birth of the Attention Economy
The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century remade how Americans engaged with the world.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Happy to answer any questions about South Bend, the history department, or Notre Dame.
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
We are hiring in 20C U.S. political history (tenure track)! Feel free to get in touch with questions. Deadline: Oct 1. networks.h-net.org/jobs/68888/u...
networks.h-net.org
University of Notre Dame - Assistant Professor, 20th-Century U.S. Political History (tenure track) | H-Net
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Princeton Audio @princetonaudio.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex. For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/... #History #ListenUP
Audiobook cover of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America by Joshua Specht, narrated by John Chancer
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
They're practically giving this thing away!!
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus. A marvelously illustrated look at everything we now know about the fearsome king of the dinosaurs. #dinosaurs #naturalhistory press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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Ariel Ron @arielron.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The Journal of the Civil War Era will have a special issue on political economy edited by me, @maggor.bsky.social, Sofia Valeonti & Nicolas Barreyre. I'll post again when the link is up on the Muster, but wanted to get the word out now. See CFP. Submission deadline is April 25. 🗃️
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
thought leader to idea doofus pipeline
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
One of the greatest www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/f...
theguardian.com
Boris Spassky obituary
Russian chess world champion who lost to Bobby Fischer in the sport’s most famous match at the peak of the cold war
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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Sophie Rosenfeld’s Age of Choice is an Editors’ Choice (!) @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life by Sophia Rosenfeld
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Tehila Sasson @tsasson.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
please share widely!
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Thanks for the fun conversation!
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AnimalHistory Podcast @animal-history.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
In our very first episode we sit down with historian @joshspecht.bsky.social. We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more! You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...
animalhistorypodcast.substack.com
Joshua Specht on the History of American Beef
Episode 1 of the Animal History Podcast!
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Very cool to see my book in Chinese!
Book cover of Chinese edition of Red meat Republic
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
what a title!
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Josh Specht @joshspecht.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
-20C and we've got ice on the INSIDE of the back window...prob need some better insulation back there
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