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Rachel Tamar Van

@rtvan.bsky.social
3.7K followers 1.9K following 238 posts

Prof & DH Coordinator @CPP. Early Americans abroad, merchants, smugglers, capitalists, family history = labor history. In it for the gossip. Views my own.

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Reposted by Rachel Tamar Van
Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
In planning this symposium, I placed high priority on a) making it hybrid and b) making it affordable. $10 streaming tickets for sale now, including full Q&A participation and access to the recording after the event. We hope you will tune in! marktwainhouse.vbotickets.com/event/Creati...
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Chaco Canyon is not for sale. That's what 20 Pueblo leaders and New Mexico lawmakers told the Capitol this week, opposing Trump's plan to open one of the most sacred Indigenous landscapes in North America to drilling. www.hcn.org/articles/pue...
hcn.org
Pueblo leaders, New Mexico lawmakers speak out to protect Chaco Canyon - High Country News
Officials are calling the push to remove an oil and gas buffer around the culturally critical monument ‘an absolute gut punch.’
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Tony Corsentino @notalegalrecord.net · 21/07/2026
AI companies are buying, scanning, and destroying older books to improve their models' training data & avoid problems of "model collapse" (wherein LLMs choke on their own slop). One of their suppliers is Better World Books, which partners with public libraries. www.404media.co/ai-companies...
404media.co
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
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Kelly Lynne D’Angelo ✨ @kellylynnedang.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Please blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development
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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
You may have heard about the OMB rule change that will put politics over federal grants. However bad you think it is? It's probably worse. Thanks to @theverge.com for letting me report this one out. There is still time to comment. bit.ly/4v2X4nQ
bit.ly
The war against ‘woke’ could end US science as we know it
“Everyone will be affected, not just scientists. Every community in the country.“
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Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
'A lost interview (1995) with award-winning writer #OctaviaButler and filmmaker @juliedash.bsky.social at her home in Los Angeles for Marc Boothe, Digital Diaspora, and "40 Acres & A Microchip" the first Black cyberspace conference in the UK for digerati of African descent.' vimeo.com/163190768
vimeo.com
Julie Dash interviews Octavia Butler (1995)
A lost interview (1995) with award-winning Sy Fy writer Octavia Butler and filmmaker Julie Dash at her home in Los Angeles for Marc Boothe, Digital Diaspora, and "40 Acres & A Microchip" the first bla...
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San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle.com · 17/06/2026
California is temporarily offering a free Historian Passport that covers admission for up to four people at more than 30 state historic parks through 2026.
bit.ly
California offers free pass to more than 30 historic state parks — for a limited time only
California is temporarily offering a free Historian Passport that covers admission for up to four people at more than 30 state historic parks through 2026.
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dhnow.bsky.social @dhnow.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Job Announcement: Digitization Archivist at Letterform Archive jobs.gusto.com/posti...
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Joshua R Greenberg @joshrgreenberg.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
In an interesting new Commonplace piece, James Blake stumbles upon a page in John F. Watson's scrapbook that at first seems to be about Lenape history, but with more investigation really offers more about the antiquarian construction of Lenape history. 🗄️ commonplace.online/article/past...
commonplace.online
Pasted Indians: John F. Watson, Scrapbook Culture, and the Construction of a Lenape Image - Commonplace
Rather than preserving a direct record of Native life, the page reveals the processes by which early American antiquarians assembled and interpreted the past.
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Dr. Jim Downs @jimdowns.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
HISTORIANS, Please share widely.I'm hosting an exciting Juneteenth event at the Library Company of Phila,June 16. "From Ledger to Genome: Data & the History of Black Life," exploring how Black lives have been recorded & recovered across time. Register here. support.librarycompany.org/event/junete...
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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 27/05/2026
The National Science Foundation is terminating and suspending grants again, and at Grant Witness we need you to help to track them! 🧪 We can only identify research being suppressed by under-the-radar suspensions directly from researchers. Please report! grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NSF
grant-witness.us
New Grant Disruptions at NSF - We Need Your Help to Report! – Grant Witness
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FLAVOR FLAV ⏰ @flavorflav.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Many of y’all asked how you can support and donate to our female athletes and the celebrations,,, so I created a Go Fund Me. I’m hopeful this can have an impact beyond the weekend and help those that represent the best of the US gofund.me/140322128
gofund.me
Donate to Support She Got Game: Celebrate Female Athletes, organized by Flavor Flav
Flavor Flav, the legendary rapper and Hollywood personality, has long been… Flavor Flav needs your support for Support She Got Game: Celebrate Female Athletes
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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
taking tax dollars to pay insurrectionists. which (by the way) the 14th amendment is supposed to prohibit: "[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States...."
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
This graph shows how registration rates between Black and White voters varied in Louisiana since Reconstruction. In a single image, it tells the story of political power and discrimination. Black voters had power, briefly, then it was taken from them. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/power-demo...
graph shows high black voter registration during reconstruction, then it drops to zero, rises slightly in the 1940s and 1950s, and increases until it gets to parity with white voters in the 2000s
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Sharon Howard @sharonhoward.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
I don't think people fully understand yet just how fragile university-hosted digital resources are after external funding ends (especially if the lead academic retires or moves or is made redundant).
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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Women’s history for (US)Mother’s Day on May10th. Material culture off my shelves at home version.
Four books laurel ulrichs age of homespun (tapestry on cover) Laura edwards only the clothes on her back (a black 19thc dress) Sarah Weicksels a nation unraveled (piece of cloth at top) and Susan stabiles memory’s daughters (pencil drawing of women’s heads w 18th c caps)
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adamxmcneil.bsky.social @adamxmcneil.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
In case you missed my virtual talk yesterday, take a listen! Thank you, @kawulf.bsky.social for offering me the chance to lecture on Black Loyalists and Black Loyalism! The Revolution is News: Adam McNeil on Black Loyalism youtu.be/-nIt8JbUBhc?...
youtu.be
The Revolution Is News: Adam McNeil on Black Loyalism
YouTube video by The John Carter Brown Library
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Merrilee Proffitt @merrileeiam.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I'm excited to share that we've made a collection of historic Supreme Court Records and Briefs available via @archive.org I've written a blog post where I go into detail about the importance of this collection. blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u...
blog.archive.org
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs: The Arguments That Shaped America, Now Freely Available | Internet Archive Blogs
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Story here: www.azcentral.com/story/news/p...
azcentral.com
Smell of feces, vomit fills crowded ICE facility, detainee's wife says
Conditions at the ICE facility in central Phoenix mirror the conditions at a Mesa facility, where people were being treated worse than "animals," lawmakers said.
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Rachel Tamar Van @rtvan.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Any Cal PhDs-Jr faculty need regalia? Pref. details below ❤️. Go Bears.
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Mike Walker @newnarrative.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA are an insult to astronauts like the Artemis crew By Bill Nye www.ms.now/opinion/arte...
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
“'I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life,' the congresswoman said, fighting back tears. "She described the way people were laying down inside as “like sardines.” “'It is frightening in there,' she said. 'It is disgusting'..." azmirror.com/2026/04/10/i...
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Rebecca Nagle @rebeccanagle.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
The federal govt wants to end the block on new leasing for mineral extraction at Chaco Canyon. They announced a 7-day comment period and it ends tomorrow, April 7. Submit a comment now to remind the govt of their obligations to tribes. nativenewsonline.net/environment/...
nativenewsonline.net
ACTION NEEDED to Save Chaco!
Overview: Tribal leaders and advocates are calling for urgent public action to protect Chaco Canyon from renewed oil and gas development threats. The Association on American Affairs has released this ...
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Rachel Tamar Van @rtvan.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Horrifying.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 02/04/2026
the trump administration is selling this country wholesale to rapacious, extractive industries that will destroy our collective resources for private profit morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...
morethanjustparks.substack.com
BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service
The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Feels appropriate to point out on No Kings day: Allowing Trump to selectively pay employees he likes, when he feels like it, rather than having Congress solve the problem, is a real constitutional threat. From @joshchafetz.bsky.social donmoynihan.substack.com/p/mike-johns...
These actions aren't just illegal, although they are that. They aren't just unconstitutional, although they are that. They are anti-constitutional: they strike at the core of one of the principles that allows our entire constitutional order to function.

From the Founding through the present day, the power of the purse has been understood as one of Congress's most potent tools against the executive: the executive can't do anything without money, and he can't spend money without Congress. If Trump is able to get away with ignoring that, with arrogating the entire power of the purse to himself, then Congress has pretty much no way of checking him.
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H-Net Job Guide @h-net-job-guide.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
New job: Senior Historian Colonial Williamsburg Foundation jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69898
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King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Hot off the press! I wrote an article that got published in the Journal of American History. It explores how abolitionists used runaway slave advertisements to ridicule slaveowners and slaveowners' northern allies. 🗃 academic.oup.com/jah/article/...
academic.oup.com
Slip the Yoke and Change the Joke: How Abolitionists Used Runaway Slave Advertisements to Ridicule Slavery
Speaking to an abolitionist audience in New York City in May 1856, William Wells Brown read an advertisement sliced from the New Orleans Daily Picayune:
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Zito @zeets.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I’m not sure we can donate to small independent media our way out of the reality that the media and arts landscapes are controlled by an authoritarian and his friends. I’m as supportive as anyone else but this seems like a critical problem that goes beyond that.
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics. "It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 14/02/2026
Everyone in the world comes to get married at the NYC Marriage Bureau. Last week, the Mayor stopped by to officiate a few of those ceremonies.    Thank you to all the couples who shared their joy with us. Happy Valentine's Day, New York.     Watch the full video at Youtube.com/nycmayorsoffice
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Some noble, inclusive, and democratic "real America" from the past is not coming to save us, nor are we doomed to forever live in an oppressive, racist, and exclusionary "real America" that has always existed. Both versions of "our" history are real. America's future is up to us.
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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence. The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:
latimes.com
Trump administration drops appeal of court order blocking $1.2-billion UCLA settlement
The Trump administration dropped its appeal of a major higher education case in which a federal judge blocked its $1.2-billion settlement proposal to UCLA over alleged civil rights violations. It will...
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years
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Nicholas Guyatt @nicholasguyatt.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Friends, can I ask you to spread the word that we have a THREE-YEAR postdoc in American history at Cambridge up for grabs - ANY field, but applications are due March 1 so don't delay - apply, apply, apply! networks.h-net.org/jobs/69790/u...
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LAist @laist.com · 09/02/2026
Villa's Tacos founder Victor Villa appeared with his taco cart during Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX halftime show, marking a rare moment of L.A. street food culture being showcased on one of the world's biggest stages. 🔗 See it: ow.ly/gRxg50Ybp64 ✍️ Gab Chabrán 📸 Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
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Becky Hammer @beckyhammer.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming
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Susanne Allen @evensong.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
You might enjoy this. I'm guessing he tapped the historian to help with ideas for the halftime show too. www.latimes.com/delos/story/...
latimes.com
Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' is a love letter to Puerto Rico. This professor helped him tell the island's history
Released Jan. 5, the record pays homage to the island’s rich rhythms like plena and salsa, and delves into it’s seldom taught history.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Steve Vladeck‬: For today's bonus issue of "One First," I wrote about Monday's NYT scoop regarding Chief Justice Roberts having clerks and other employees sign non-disclosure agreements, and why #SCOTUS's transparency problems run far deeper and wider than just NDAs:
open.substack.com
Bonus 207: The Court's True Transparency Problem(s)
Monday's New York Times scoop on Chief Justice Roberts having employees sign non-disclosure agreements would hit differently if the justices were *remotely* committed to more transparency elsewhere.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 06/02/2026
Have your monthly premiums increased under the Affordable Care Act? Has this been affecting your cost of living? We want to hear from you: bit.ly/4qmoBOK
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CNN @cnn.com · 29/01/2026
The US Embassy in Copenhagen has angered Danish veterans by removing flags honoring soldiers killed in Afghanistan from an area outside the building. cnn.it/4k6uaiR
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Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 28/01/2026
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
youtu.be
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
This morning, I recorded a video on TikTok about why DHS’s arguments for the power to enter homes without judicial warrants in immigration cases are bunk. Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is “under review,” and can’t be shared. Well, here’s a link: georgetown.box.com/v/Vladeck-IC...
Screenshot of a TikTok video with error message at top saying “your video is under review and can’t be shared right now.”
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Gender & History Journal @genderandhistory.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
CFP for a Special Issue of Gender & History on childhood and crises to be edited by Katie Barclay and Emily Ward. Abstracts due 31 May 2026; then hybrid workshop; full articles due 31 Jan. 2027. Please share widely. #Skystorians #GenderHistory #HistChild 🗃️
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
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𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @charlescmann.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Mind-boggling stuff: ICE has detained 4 Oglala men and is apparently demanding the Lakota--a nation of the continent's original inhabitants--“enter into an immigration agreement with ICE." www.twincities.com/2026/01/13/i...
twincities.com
Oglala Sioux Tribe says three tribal members arrested in Minneapolis are in ICE detention
The detained tribal members are experiencing homelessness and living under a bridge in Minneapolis.
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Joshua R Greenberg @joshrgreenberg.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Are you finalizing a syllabus and looking for short, accessible articles to assign on some aspect of American history before 1900? Did you know that Commonplace has a subject tags page that allows you to easily browse our 25 year back catalog? Check it out here: 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/subj...
commonplace.online
Subject Tags - Commonplace
Browse by Subject
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Paul Erickson @mrsidetable.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
@ajhasocial.bsky.social Please spread the word about the Charles R. Eisendrath Fellowship at the Clements Library. The fellowship supports research on the relation of journalism to US history before 1900 in both pictorial and written reportage and commentary. See clements.umich.edu/research/fel...
clements.umich.edu
Apply for a Clements Library Fellowship - UM Clements Library
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Wil Wheaton ❌👑 @wilwheaton.net · 23/12/2025
Yo Los Angeles! LA Taco is not only the best reporting on where the most amazing food in town is hiding, they have been way out in front of everyone with their reporting on ICE and CBP thugs. This is the kind of independent, local, media we all need to support. I'm proud to be a member.
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Rachel Tamar Van @rtvan.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Fascinating thread on a canary in the coal mine —
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