William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Another year went by and I didn't win a MacArthur. At this point, they're only embarrassing themselves. 1272
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Numbers for the Dems looking so surrealistically good that the actual outcome will be inevitably portrayed as a disappointment. 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 19/09/2026How can a day be a complete loss if its the day you find out Lauren Boebert likes girls? 110
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Interesting moment in the long history of America and the Kennedys, as Trump threatens the destruction of the Kennedy Center at the same time RFK Jr. destroys the family's reputation. 110
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The Piddington thing (even the name is perfect) shows that the English have managed to make even fascism twee. 110
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Welcome to the William Gilmore Simms Podcast. 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Both the Sparta Bros and the Sparta Bashers would benefit from realizing Thermopylae was not that important. 100
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 30/08/2026At some point in the not-too-distant future, American Zionists will have to choose between a Democratic Party that is anti-Zionist and a Republican Party which is anti-Semitic. 040
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Seeing an increasing number of internet ads whose purpose seems to be not to sell stuff, but being annoying enough so that people pay extra to go adfree. 030
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 25/08/2026#RIPDollyParton I'm sure there's someone out there with something bad to say about her, but I've never encountered them. 110
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 21/08/2026#academicsky What is an edited book chapter you're particularly proud of or you think deserves more readers? #celebratebookchapter This is the one where I solve the mystery of the dating of the Bickerstaff hoax. www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...cambridge.org“The Terriblest Eclipse That Hath Been Seen in Our Days”: Black Monday and the Debate on Astrology during the Interregnum (Chapter 7) - Rethinking the Scientific RevolutionRethinking the Scientific Revolution - March 2000 161
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Do men still wear toupees? Seems like not so much of a thing anymore. 110
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Since everyone's talking about Nancy Mace, I'll add she's the most famous person who ever retweeted me. During the congressional bathroom foofaraw in which Mace was a leader, I commented on someone's post that it was obviously aimed at Sarah McBride, who had just been elected to the House. 100
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 16/08/2026The post that got Bluesky to forget that George Washington owned slaves. 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 14/08/2026"Always stand up for a parent's right to decide what's best for their children" is borderline antivax. 031
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 10/08/2026There was some real dumbassery and cruelty in Woke I--look up Isobel Fall if you don't believe me--and trying to defend all of it is a waste of time and energy. 611613
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Has anyone done a comparative essay on the uses of the flat earth by Tanith Lee and Terry Pratchett? 010
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Kind of nice to pay tribute to Ross Douthat's last New York Times column with one final round of Douthat-bashing. 111
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 01/08/2026My most "against type" opinion as a Bluesky liberal is that I think Ross Douthat is a pretty good opinion writer. 001
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Why is everybody talking about Jimmy Carter this morning? 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Optimistic in the short term, pessimistic in the medium term, optimistic in the long term, pessimistic in the very long term. 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Has anyone considered that Trump's drive to conquer Persia is actually a desire to emulate Alexander the Great? 3101
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 18/07/2026God, we're doing Sparta discourse again. Maybe just let them rest in peace rather than dragging them out for the culture wars. 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Has anyone blamed Mamdani for Marvel Comics leaving New York? 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Have any fundies called out Trump on this daylight savings time thing? Isn't the Antichrist supposed to change the times and seasons? 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Today I discovered that Havarti and a slice of fresh pineapple makes a decent sandwich. 030
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 12/07/2026I don't have much good to say about the late Senator from South Carolina, but I will say he always struck me as a guy it would be fun to have a conversation with after a few drinks. 010
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 10/07/2026PG Wodehouse Roger Zelazny Ruth Rendell JGA Pocock Donald Westlake 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 09/07/2026C J Cherryh Lawrence Block Margaret Jacob Alan Moore Jane Smiley 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Was this the face that launched a thousand posts, and burnt the topless towers of X (formerly Twitter)? 040
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 06/07/2026@manchesterup.bsky.social is having a half off sale, so if anyone wants to pick up my book with them now's the time: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719081279/manchesteruniversitypress.co.ukManchester University Press - An age of wondersAn age of wonders - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of An age of wonders by William Burns 030
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Wishing a very happy Fourth of July to the people of France, Spain, Holland and Mysore. 010
Reposted by William BurnsWilliam Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 27/01/2025The ultimate resistance to Trump 2 is not the Democrats, or the liberals or the immigrants, but physical reality. The warming world, bird flu, the stuff you can't bullshit your way around or intimidate. 151
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 28/06/2026I am really beginning to despise the standard open access journal model. The contempt for scholarship in making people pay to get published isn't progressive. It's just another step in exalting the customer at the expense of the worker. 010
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 26/06/2026It's interesting how the kids's "ask the old people where they were during 9/11" has replaced my generation's "ask the old people where they were when they heard about the Kennedy assassination." 000
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Pendulum has swung a little far in this direction, I think. The rejection of Copernicanism by the Church was a major reason why scientific leadership migrated to France and Protestant Europe in the late seventeenth century. 151
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Happy Juneteenth holiday to my American followers. It looks to be the most enduring legacy of the Biden Administration. 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Given the fiasco of the Iran war, I'm hearing a lot less "on to Ankara!" stuff these days, an unalloyed good. 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 17/06/2026#RIPCarloGinzburg I've assigned Night Battles many times in Ren/Ref or early modern surveys. 011
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Five favorite books that didn't make the Guardian 100 in no particular order: The Way we Live Now (Trollope) Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour (Surtees) Joy in the Morning (Wodehouse) Neuromancer (Gibson) Rasselas (Johnson) 020
William Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Nowadays the voice tells you that Guys are Not Supposed to Read 010
Reposted by William BurnsWilliam Burns @williameburns.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Ted Cruz looking forward to being only the second creepiest US Senator from Texas. 042
