Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Rochester, NY, has a monument at the place where Susan B. Anthony cast a vote in the 1872 presidential election. Although she’d talked a registrar into adding her to the voter list, she was convicted of voting illegally and fined $100. 🗃️ 17822
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 17/08/2026The house I owned in Troy, NY, was briefly shown in two Gilded Age Scenes. The RPI fraternity I played hockey for also shows up in period dramas (beginning with The Age of Innocence and including The Gilded Age). Troy was used as a location for The Time Machine when I lived there. 020
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 21/07/2026On the way from Lancaster to Philadelphia I stopped in Christiana to see if there is any public commemoration of the 1851 Resistance, a major act opposing the Fugitive Slave Act. I found a rather odd interpretation, including the statement that a slave catcher “died for law.” 🗃️ 5178
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 17/07/2026I’m in Lancaster this weekend, rather than at SHEAR, and took the opportunity to visit the new Stevens and Smith Center. I particularly liked the way that it contextualized Stevens’ life in Lancaster and presented Smith as a political actor in her own right. 🗃️ stevensandsmithcenter.org 060
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 19/06/2026I always visit Douglass’s grave when back in my home town, and Juneteenth was the obvious day to go this time. 🗃️ 16210
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 07/06/2026I realized when preparing the paper that I presented yesterday at APHC that it involved at literal panic at a Lyceum. I briefly spoke about how a young men’s Lyceum responded politically to a local financial panic that bankrupted potential employers. 061
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 06/06/2026I’m always happy to contribute cat photos to the internet. 040
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Having a great time at APHC and looking forward to my presentation tomorrow. It’s been great to hear the presentations this morning and meet other 19th century political historians. @adamrothman.bsky.social was gracious enough to lie and say that I held my own in wordplay. 030
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Introduce yourself with ten bands you’ve seen live: Neutral Milk Hotel Sharon Van Etten Son Volt The Psychedelic Furs Bruce Springsteen Elvis Costello Pet Shop Boys Metric Wye Oak The Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social 120
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Wyna Liu finally has a badge that recognizes my quest for reverse rainbows. 000
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 08/03/2026After checking newspaper databases, I think that I have an answer to my question from last week. “The principles of ‘93” appears to be shorthand for some form of Jeffersonian republicanism. 🗃️ 142
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Have any #skystorians come across the phrase “principles of ‘93?” An 1854 announcement for a Connecticut Young Men’s Institute newspaper described it as devoted to those principles. Is it Jeffersonianism? 342
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 10/02/2026Post a banger that’s not in English. youtu.be/8soQkubMk1g?...youtu.bePlastic Bertrand - Ça plane pour moi (Official Audio)YouTube video by Plastic Bertrand 020
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 09/02/2026Do any historians know what type of certificate would possibly be useful for a voter in a 1853 Connecticut election? It’s far too early for it to have been a birth certificate, and a naturalization certificate seems unlikely to be important for Whig voters after 1852. 🗃️ 431
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 04/02/2026What’s your favorite song that has a long title, say at least 6 words long? “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” (Primitive Radio Gods) Honorable mention to Sufjan Stevens, although my favorites among his songs all have shorter titles. 030
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 28/01/2026I came across a CT newspaper account of the 1851 Christiana Resistance during my research. An organized group of free and formerly enslaved Blacks fought off an attempt to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, blowing a horn to summon reinforcements. 1/3 🗃️ 2266
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 16/01/2026I’ve been working on the politics of the 1850s. Although I will focus on how local leaders crafted a rhetorical strategy to help assemble a winning electoral coalition, I’ve also looked into whether updated ecological regression tools can help. 🗃️ 1/4 philfeller.github.io/election-inf...philfeller.github.ioConnecticut Voter Transitions, 1851-1857 151
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 16/11/2025I’ve realized one life goal: playing the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle on air. www.npr.org/2025/11/16/g...npr.orgSunday Puzzle: Name's the SameNPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with Phil Feller of Durham, North Carolina, and Weekend Edition Puzzlemaster Will Shortz. 030
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 28/10/2025You’ve probably seen that xAI launched Grokipedia, its LLM-created alternative to Wikipedia. I looked at its article on the Know Nothings, and it didn’t take long to find a problem. It made an unconventional claim, and the provided citation failed to support it. 1/ 🗃️ grokipedia.com/page/Know_No...grokipedia.comKnow NothingThe Know Nothing, more formally the American Party from 1855 onward, was a nativist political movement and party active in the United States from the 1840s through the 1850s, distinguished by its vehe... 261
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 04/10/2025I’ve suspected that right-wing fascination with René Girard might come from reading his theory of mimetic desire through the lens of Carl Schmitt. In the specific case of Peter Thiel, that seems to be the case. www.wired.com/story/the-re...wired.comThe Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist ObsessionThirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since. 110
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 16/08/2025If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. 🗃️ 36313
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 17/07/2025I’m in Lancaster, PA, for the weekend, and I discovered that our Airbnb has a famous neighbor. #skystorians 2422
Reposted by Phil Fellerb-eichengreen.bsky.social @b-eichengreen.bsky.social · 17/06/2025"This Bill Will Return Us to an Era of Economic Chaos" www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/o...nytimes.comOpinion | This Bill Will Return Us to an Era of Economic Chaos 144
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Historians have been discussing the NYT piece about AI and history writing, and I largely agree with what they’ve written about it. However, there’s one part to it that I haven’t seen discussed: the way that academic historian Mark Humphries uses AI. 1/ #skystorians 491
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 14/06/2025This thread provides smart analysis of the civic symbolism encoded into previous military parades through DC and the one planned for today. #skystorians 0163
Phil Feller @philfeller.bsky.social · 11/02/2025UNC Press notes two recent events that it worries may signal attempts to silence its authors’ voices. Most recently, a scheduled talk to U. S. Attorneys about lawyers’ role in Nazi Germany was abruptly canceled before an outcry led to its reinstatement. uncpressblog.com/2025/01/31/a... #skystoriansuncpressblog.comAcademic Freedom and Open Discourse - UNC Press BlogFor over 100 years UNC Press has championed the principles of academic freedom, open discourse, and the free exchange of ideas—values essential to a democratic society and the pursuit of knowledge. R... 096