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Mason B. Williams

@masonbwilliams.bsky.social
404 followers 226 following 50 posts

Historian and associate professor at Williams College. My newest book, City of Fortune: Inequality and the Making of Contemporary New York, comes out with W.W. Norton on June 23.

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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 15h
Just a reminder that the concept of "Western civilization" developed in the late 19th century in the context of imperialism, the White Man's Burden, etc. Thirty years earlier Americans conceived of their country as being fundamentally different from Europe.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is a useful, interesting article, but it's worth asking why we focus so narrowly when talking about educational inputs. Like, there's another version of this article where the "solutions" for U.S. education are stuff like stable, decent housing www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...
nytimes.com
30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts
Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?
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Dan Barry @danbarry58.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We all have memories of that day. Here's mine, from the perspective of an overwhelmed journalist. Take care, everyone. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Sept. 11 and the Persistence of Memory (Gift Article)
Twenty-five years later, fleeting memories and indelible images still haunt those who lived through the attacks and their aftermath.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Here's the podcast & video from me, @adambonica.bsky.social, and Osita Nwanevu for @bostonreview.bsky.social. Fun conversation. www.bostonreview.net/articles/whi...
bostonreview.net
Which Way, Democratic Party?
A conversation on the primaries, the establishment’s “moderation” obsession, and why the party needs social movements more than spreadsheets and scammy fundraising.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
😢 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/a...
nytimes.com
Cassandra Wilson, Star Jazz Singer, Dies at 70
With a low and smoky voice, she conjured the blues tradition of her native Mississippi in both her own songs and in covers.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
On now and really, really good
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Dr. Jim Downs @jimdowns.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Glad to see that Johanna’s remarkable life will be preserved for posterity in The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/u...
nytimes.com
Johanna Fernández, Historian of the Young Lords, Dies at 55
She wrote an award-winning book about the leftist collective, a Latino counterpart to the Black Panthers.
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Julian Zelizer @zelizer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
substack.com/note/m-807fe... @masonbwilliams.bsky.social #TheLongView
substack.com
How did New York Become So Unequal? A Conversation with Mason Williams, author of City of Fortune: Inequality and the Making of Contemporary New York
A recording from Julian Zelizer's live video
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Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 03/08/2026
To honor Johanna Fernandez @jeannetheoharis.bsky.social & colleagues at Brooklyn College are founding a student activism award in her name. Johanna was an exemplary scholar activist, as her work on the Young Lords shows. Please direct inquiries to Jeanne. Link to donate below tinyurl.com/5b3j7s89
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Bobby Rivera @bobbyrivera21.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Johanna Fernandez—Presente!
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Johanna was an amazing scholar, a wonderful, generous person, and a force for justice in the world 💔
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I am stunned to hear of the passing of the fierce, brilliant and principled scholar activist Johanna Fernandez. Johanna's scholarship will endure. She was a gem and the world is worse for her no longer being here. Rest in power, comrade.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I'm joining @zelizer.bsky.social 's great Substack The Long View this morning to talk City of Fortune. Starts at 10:30 -- julianzelizer.substack.com
julianzelizer.substack.com
The Long View | Julian Zelizer | Substack
Have we ever seen this before? Let's put the news in perspective and take the long view with political historian Professor Julian Zelizer. Click to read The Long View, by Julian Zelizer, a Substack pu...
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
City of Fortune is a month old today! Thank you to everyone who has read it, hosted me to talk about it, or just been in touch. If you'd be interested in discussing the political history of neoliberalism in NYC (in class, on a podcast, in an interview -- anything!) please be in touch!
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melanie newport @melanienewport.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
This Is My Jail, my history of Cook County Jail in Chicago and the role of jails in mass incarceration, is in the @pennpress.bsky.social Fall 2026 catalog. It’s out in paperback this December. www.pennpress.org/978151282349...
AMERICAN HISTORY
This Is My Jail
Local Politics and the Rise of Mass Incarceration
Melanie D. Newport
While state and federal prisons like Attica and Alcatraz occupy a central place in the national consciousness, most incarceration in the United States occurs within the walls of local jails. In This Is My Jail, Melanie D.
Newport situates the late twentieth-century escalation of mass incarceration in a longer history of racialized, politically repressive jailing.
Centering the political actions of people until now overlooked—jailed people, wardens, corrections officers, sheriffs, and the countless community members who battled over the functions and impact of jails— Newport shows how local, grassroots contestation shaped the rise of the carceral state.
A sweeping history of urban incarceration in Chicago and Cook
County, This Is My Jail shows that jails are critical sites of urban inequality that sustain the racist actions of the police and judges and exacerbate the harms wrought by housing discrimination, segregated schools, and inaccessible health care.
Melanie D. Newport is Associate Professor of History at the University of Connecticut.
POLITICS AND CULTURE IN MODERN AMERICA
I Meticulously documented, tightly argued, and highly readable.... This is an essential read for anyone interested in the US carceral state, the failed philosophies and practices of even well-intentioned reforms, and the causes and effects of segregation, discrimination, and exclusion that link homes, schools, police, judges, and juries in the violence of racial repression that is the United States' criminal injustice system."
—Library Journal (starred review)
More of the text of the catalog page is on the book website linked in the post, the quotes were too long!
NEW IN PAPERBACK
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A beautiful tribute to the great Mike Wallace by Peter-Christian Aigner, director of the Gotham Center (which Mike founded and guided) -- "Saying Goodbye to a Giant"
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Some book news: -- I'll be on @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social on @wnyc.org starting around 11:10 a.m. to discuss it -- The @nytimes.com review is out: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/b... This generous review focuses on the role of conservatives; the book discusses liberals & the left at equal length
nytimes.com
Conservatives Tried to Fix New York City. Here’s What Happened.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
My book is out today! City of Fortune tells the story of how, as it rebuilt after the 1970s, New York turned mid-century forms of inequality into contemporary ones -- and how NYers fought those transformations & preserved visions of a democratic city against great odds. wwnorton.com/books/978039...
wwnorton.com
City of Fortune
A powerful history of New York’s transformation from a city of middle-class aspiration to one of entrenched inequality., City of Fortune, Inequality and the Making of Contemporary New York, Maso...
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Twelve years later, the NYPD is still not in compliance with the court orders from Floyd v. New York, the lawsuit that found the city's stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional (by @reuvenblau.bsky.social, @thecity.nyc) www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/26/n...
thecity.nyc
NYPD Still Illegally Stopping New Yorkers 12 Years After Court Ruling, Monitor Finds
Illegal stops, missing paperwork and weak discipline remain widespread despite federal oversight.
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
I took a shot at placing Mamdani's victory in the long scope of New York City's political history -- in the most recent issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social , alongside a bunch more essays by some really sharp people. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-n...
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | A New Era in New York City Political History?
Putting Mamdani’s huge win in perspective — from La Guardia to today
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Mason B. Williams @masonbwilliams.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
This was an absolute blast--
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