David Austin Walsh
@davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social
Historian. Academic Advisor @ University of Virginia. Columnist @ Boston Review. Book: TAKING AMERICA BACK: THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND THE FAR RIGHT // Yale Press // April 2024
Pinned
Higher ed. folks who do teaching and/or research + academic advising: a colleague and I are putting together a pedagogical panel on integrating teaching and advising for AHA 2027 in New Orleans. Interested? Send a DM!
I'm mildly offended that in a column calling Minneapolis Trump's Gettysburg, @jamellebouie.net mentioned the 20th Maine but not the 1st Minnesota.
January 28, 2026 at 3:38 PM
I'm mildly offended that in a column calling Minneapolis Trump's Gettysburg, @jamellebouie.net mentioned the 20th Maine but not the 1st Minnesota.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
People not in Minneapolis spreading the theory that Pretti was targeted in a hit do not understand the damage they’re potentially doing. Insanely irresponsible
January 27, 2026 at 11:09 PM
People not in Minneapolis spreading the theory that Pretti was targeted in a hit do not understand the damage they’re potentially doing. Insanely irresponsible
Rewatching MAD MEN and it's remarkable how much the showrunners hate Peggy's boyfriend Abe despite him being right about pretty much everything.
January 27, 2026 at 10:41 PM
Rewatching MAD MEN and it's remarkable how much the showrunners hate Peggy's boyfriend Abe despite him being right about pretty much everything.
I shifted at least 500 pounds of ice this afternoon and my car is still stuck.
January 27, 2026 at 9:19 PM
I shifted at least 500 pounds of ice this afternoon and my car is still stuck.
Embracing middle age.
January 26, 2026 at 11:36 PM
Embracing middle age.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember:
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
January 26, 2026 at 4:17 PM
The people of Minnesota have executed one of the most impressive civil resistance campaigns I can remember:
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
- Organized a city wide general strike
- Maintained nonviolent discipline amidst violence
- Mobilized 10,000s in subzero temps to protest and watch ICE
- Flipped public opinion against ICE
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
January 26, 2026 at 1:07 PM
We need to get it broadly understood that Stephen Miller's ethnic cleansing will result in a permanent metastasized immigrant carceral state and paramilitary warfare on US streets that goes on *for years.*
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
The internal logic of his agenda dictates this of necessity.
newrepublic.com/article/2041...
Eric Severaid on the brutal repression of the 1934 Teamsters' strike in Minneapolis.
January 26, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Eric Severaid on the brutal repression of the 1934 Teamsters' strike in Minneapolis.
Also get to watch me fumble with my pipe for the better part of an hour.
recorded asynchronous lecture with @davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social so our conspiracy students can snuggle up in the comfort of their nice warm (hopefully) dorms rooms & get cozy with post-WW2 anticommunist hysteria, nato's stay-behind armies, & operation northwoods
January 26, 2026 at 3:50 AM
Also get to watch me fumble with my pipe for the better part of an hour.
A key distinction between the Minnesota National Guard and ICE is that the NG *might* not fire on a crowd of protesters if they were given the order.
ICE definitely will.
ICE definitely will.
January 25, 2026 at 3:54 PM
A key distinction between the Minnesota National Guard and ICE is that the NG *might* not fire on a crowd of protesters if they were given the order.
ICE definitely will.
ICE definitely will.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
I've been studying the history of US, and indeed, global policing my whole career and I can't make it more clear to law makers that this isn't a bastardization of policing, it is its purest form and logical conclusion. The impunity, militarization, deference, legitimacy, racial targeting, etc.
January 25, 2026 at 2:20 AM
I've been studying the history of US, and indeed, global policing my whole career and I can't make it more clear to law makers that this isn't a bastardization of policing, it is its purest form and logical conclusion. The impunity, militarization, deference, legitimacy, racial targeting, etc.
Well, today has been terrible. Time to get drunk, wait for this snowstorm to hit, and make some goddamn boeuf bourguignon.
January 25, 2026 at 12:10 AM
Well, today has been terrible. Time to get drunk, wait for this snowstorm to hit, and make some goddamn boeuf bourguignon.
If Floyd Olson could send in the National Guard in 1934 after the Minneapolis police and the Citizens Alliance killed two striking Teamsters, Tim Walz can send in the National Guard today now that ICE has summarily executed two Minneapolitans in the span of two weeks.
January 24, 2026 at 9:02 PM
If Floyd Olson could send in the National Guard in 1934 after the Minneapolis police and the Citizens Alliance killed two striking Teamsters, Tim Walz can send in the National Guard today now that ICE has summarily executed two Minneapolitans in the span of two weeks.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
The way to reconcile this is their aspiration was always to put down a slave revolt, not fight in one. bsky.app/profile/osit...
We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.
January 24, 2026 at 6:19 PM
The way to reconcile this is their aspiration was always to put down a slave revolt, not fight in one. bsky.app/profile/osit...
Federal agents just fucking summarily executed a guy in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses on fucking Nicollet Avenue.
January 24, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Federal agents just fucking summarily executed a guy in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses on fucking Nicollet Avenue.
Just got an alert that my syllabus is being FOIAed by some right-wing thinktank, and since I welcome constructive criticism here it is in full. (I redacted my office number/classroom meeting space.)
January 23, 2026 at 9:31 PM
Just got an alert that my syllabus is being FOIAed by some right-wing thinktank, and since I welcome constructive criticism here it is in full. (I redacted my office number/classroom meeting space.)
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
fun to read this while the author sits behind me in our shared office!
Important asterisk to my latest in
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
Socialism in One City
The ultimate test for Mamdani’s vision will be successful governance—and so far, it appears to be working.
www.bostonreview.net
January 23, 2026 at 6:13 PM
fun to read this while the author sits behind me in our shared office!
Important asterisk to my latest in
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
Socialism in One City
The ultimate test for Mamdani’s vision will be successful governance—and so far, it appears to be working.
www.bostonreview.net
January 23, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Important asterisk to my latest in
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
@bostonreview.bsky.social: Mamdani has a unique opportunity to prove that sewer socialism works, but the crucial first test is going to be not fucking up the snowstorm this weekend. www.bostonreview.net/articles/soc...
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
Inordinately exciting about my custom-made Oxford cloth tab collar shirt that came in the mail today.
January 21, 2026 at 11:16 PM
Inordinately exciting about my custom-made Oxford cloth tab collar shirt that came in the mail today.
I don't think I realized just how angry I am seeing my hometown, where my family still lives, under occupation by federal troops from 1,000 miles away and being unable to do anything about it.
January 20, 2026 at 2:19 PM
I don't think I realized just how angry I am seeing my hometown, where my family still lives, under occupation by federal troops from 1,000 miles away and being unable to do anything about it.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
fantastic piece from my colleague @polgreen.bsky.social that gets at something i have been thinking about. what, exactly, is the administration's strategic goal in minnesota? what does "victory" look like for trump and miller?
Opinion | In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 6:41 PM
fantastic piece from my colleague @polgreen.bsky.social that gets at something i have been thinking about. what, exactly, is the administration's strategic goal in minnesota? what does "victory" look like for trump and miller?
Thinking about the AHA, and it really is remarkable how simultaneously popular and neglected the study of the right -- and especially the far right -- is by history as a discipline.
January 19, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Thinking about the AHA, and it really is remarkable how simultaneously popular and neglected the study of the right -- and especially the far right -- is by history as a discipline.
One of my frustrations working at UVA is that I really don't have an intellectual community here.
January 18, 2026 at 5:21 PM
One of my frustrations working at UVA is that I really don't have an intellectual community here.
Reposted by David Austin Walsh
ICE and MAGA really did bet the farm on all of Minneapolis’s white people going “oh yes, please take away our disgusting, evil non-white-foreigner neighbors, oh thank you so much.”
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.
January 18, 2026 at 2:39 AM
ICE and MAGA really did bet the farm on all of Minneapolis’s white people going “oh yes, please take away our disgusting, evil non-white-foreigner neighbors, oh thank you so much.”
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.