Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I could go on and on, but the piece does perhaps surprisingly fully endorse government efforts to inoculate citizens, writing that “[Washington’s order] was an effective, organized public health intervention, demonstrating the capacity of centralized authority to manage disease on a large scale.” 052 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026It also likely shows the politics of the current CDC because it does not mention that inoculation was introduced in America by an enslaved Black man named Onesimus. Instead it cites me as it credits Cotton Mather. My book mentions Mather but credits Onesimus. 1104 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026But the article is very odd. For one it acknowledges that the author used chatgpt to research it (why not reach out to me and have me or another expert write it?) 193 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Sprite to the rescue! (His favorite thing right now is this empty first aid kit box) 180 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 07/08/2026True, but he did still get nearly twice as many votes as Mike Rogers did in Wayne County. 240 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Eww, teacher submitted multiple choice questions! 020 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026The historian in me couldn’t leave this alone. Here’s another article from 1986 (“CHS chilli chatter!”) describing the format of northern Missouri quiz bowls. Still no idea why they mentioned 20,000 questions, ha 110 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Sprite saved us all from an invasion this morning. Our little hero… 270 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Sprite has announced that this game is over and it’s time for *him to play ball. 040 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026Today is the 250th anniversary of Boston’s mass inoculation against smallpox on July 3, 1776. The city was effectively closed to commerce from July through September 1776. The mass immunization effort was cheered as evidence of true independence. Here's how I described it in my book: 8966459 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 30/06/2026I very much endorse pretending to read my book while lying in a hammock. Thanks, Library of Virginia! 1162 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 20/06/2026I showed this with a shocked face to my wife (who is not a soccer fan), and she too looked shocked and said “how did they get half a goal?!” 161 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Here’s a police dog that I saw in France. There’s no need for police dogs to be intimidating if their job is just to smell. 0171 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 17/06/2026I hope you catch that inside straight! I’ve had a poor streak lately too. I’m not factfueling, but here’s a pic from Geneva today. 120 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026And here’s another full view of the Hotel de Ville in Lyon (Bloch’s birthplace) and its tribute to Marc Bloch and Simonne Vidal. 051 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026I was happy to see these large banners in Lyon commemorating the lives of historians Marc Bloch and Simonne Vidal in Lyon this week. 2225 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Currently in France and wondering if these are lawyers for octopi or indeed octopus lawyers. 050 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Someone is upset that he’s not coming on our upcoming trip… 050 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 17/05/2026My wife has been painting bricks for our garden to look like classic books. Here are a couple of favorites: 191 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026She looks like my Sprite who was the dunce of his obedience class (we made him a hat), but is otherwise the best pup. Here he is after stealing my son’s wallet. 260 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 25/04/2026My freshman year at the University of Arkansas, my professor wrote this on my first ever research paper. He made copies and put them in other history professors’ mailboxes to read what this freshman had written. (But he still only gave me a 92, ha!) 1150 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Gas prices are already high and now I also have to look a bald eagle in the eye to get it. MAGA, I guess. 240 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/04/2026The master criminal just stole my son’s wallet too. 010 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/04/2026So it’s come to this. My dog forced me to give him a treat at (nerf) gunpoint. 2173 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/04/2026One of the cooler collections in CMU’s Clarke Historical Library is the Dick Enberg Papers (a CMU alum and longtime sports broadcaster). Here are Enberg’s handwritten notes for a classic NCAA tournament game in 2005 between The University of Illinois and the University of Arizona. 010 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 28/03/2026I just bought my own copy of the PBS American Experience DVD of “A Midwife’s Tale” that I’ve been checking out of the library for years. It’s great and it still holds up! But is there a similar but more recent documentary/dramatization of the historian’s process? 184 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 28/03/2026This log cabin hotdog food truck is for sale near me, and I have a strong urge to show up at history conferences wearing a stovepipe hat and selling “Lincoln Dogs” 0110 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Kaplan also writes that Congress banned inoculation after the invasion of Canada. It did no such thing. It was Washington who banned inoculation from the outset in the Army. He supported the jailing of inoculators and called for any who inoculated "an enemy and traitor to the country" in May 1776. 100 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/03/2026This is all wrong. Howe and the British famously evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776. There was no direct confrontation with Washington's troops. Washington only sent 1000 immune troops after the British left and not into Boston but to control Dorchester Heights just outside the city. 120 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/03/2026My wife slyly altered this car for me for my birthday. She’s the best and knows me so well. 121 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 17/02/2026I appreciated the thorough report! *Thank you* The book doesn’t have a timeline (I’m sure it was harder to keep up with as an audiobook!), but it does have maps and images. Here are a couple of them. 110 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 14/02/2026This is what happens when you ask Google if there’s school in our town on Monday. 000 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Leave it to MAGA and MAHA to bring us back to the measles outbreaks of the Roaring 20s. 1123 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 24/01/2026Here's an example of a report from the commission that Gadsden was a part of from 1760. The law required that Gadsden’s committee report all smallpox cases, quarantine them, and keep the public updated on their condition. Gadsden was opposed to arbitrary, lawless government not all government. 132 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 11/01/2026I’m juuust ahead of you! I’m speaking in Alabama next month so that will switch to stayed, and I still haven’t been to Oregon… 210 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 09/12/2025One of my students drew me on the whiteboard before our final exam today. Pretty good dry-erase likeness! 0120 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 04/12/2025Good news! Sprite’s brother Milo (right) is coming to visit us this weekend. 050 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Good morning from Sprite who has decided to take on some light carpentry jobs for extra treats. 1271 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 17/11/2025We had a pretty good turnout for night one of Ken Burns’ American Revolution at CMU. I showed it in an auditorium with a second big screen so that students in the room could participate in a live chat while we watched. It worked well! 1110 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025I’m hosting a watch party for all six nights of Ken Burns’ “American Revolution” at CMU. In all 12 hours how much smallpox will there be? My guess is not enough! 091 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 08/11/2025Our first Razorback game in over a decade! Go hogs! 050 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 03/11/2025My 11 year-old declared that he's going AImish (eschewing AI in the way that the Amish avoid certain technolgies). He was frustrated that some kids don't know how to use a calculator, even, because they're over-reliant on AI. To course correct, he's been teaching himself to use a slide rule. 1251 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/10/2025Dargan, Josh Hill (@joshtigerhill.bsky.social) and I piled in my car and drove from Fayetteville to Memphis (5 hours) to tryout for Jeopardy! in 2003. It took a while (and lots more tryouts), but 2/3 of us are now Jeopardy! champions. Still waiting for my turn @kenjennings.bsky.social 1102 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 18/10/2025My old college quizbowl teammate at the University of Arkansas Dargan Ware made quite the first impression on Jeopardy! today! Woo Pig Sooie! 5232 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 16/10/2025When Sprite is really focused on his game, he sticks out his tongue while still in complete control of the ball. He thinks he’s the Michael Jordan of fetch. 040 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 12/10/2025“Sir, nobody is buying these John Adams costumes!” “Ok. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Call ‘em plus size Jeffersons.” 3245 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 11/10/2025I’m currently reading through the wonderful essays in @theatlantic.com’s “The Unfinished Revolution.” The editors included this image of an inoculation certificate, but there’s no essay on the legacy of the Revolution on vaccination and public health. *ahem (I did send in a pitch…so we’ll see?) 0385 0
Andrew Wehrman @profwehrman.bsky.social · 07/10/2025My son turned his “Quaker Life Notes” from his 8th grade U.S. history class into “Quaker Otes” He gets an A in my book. 101758 0