David Silkenat
@davidsilkenat.bsky.social
Milbauer Chair of Southern History, University of Florida
https://history.ufl.edu/directory/david-silkenat/
https://history.ufl.edu/directory/david-silkenat/
Reposted by David Silkenat
Two great Americans.
November 7, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Two great Americans.
Reposted by David Silkenat
For all you fans of the new @netflix.com series “Death by Lightning,” here’s the table of contents for my book “The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880.” It covers much of the ground the series explores.
It’s published by the University Press of Kansas.
It’s published by the University Press of Kansas.
November 10, 2025 at 10:38 PM
For all you fans of the new @netflix.com series “Death by Lightning,” here’s the table of contents for my book “The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880.” It covers much of the ground the series explores.
It’s published by the University Press of Kansas.
It’s published by the University Press of Kansas.
Reposted by David Silkenat
Get
a load
of this . . .
Formal publication date May 1, 2026 (mayday, mayday)
Festivities will launch at OAH (Philadelphia, where else?) in March.
@ugapress.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @agordonreed.bsky.social @nhannahjones.bsky.social and more
a load
of this . . .
Formal publication date May 1, 2026 (mayday, mayday)
Festivities will launch at OAH (Philadelphia, where else?) in March.
@ugapress.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @agordonreed.bsky.social @nhannahjones.bsky.social and more
November 10, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Get
a load
of this . . .
Formal publication date May 1, 2026 (mayday, mayday)
Festivities will launch at OAH (Philadelphia, where else?) in March.
@ugapress.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @agordonreed.bsky.social @nhannahjones.bsky.social and more
a load
of this . . .
Formal publication date May 1, 2026 (mayday, mayday)
Festivities will launch at OAH (Philadelphia, where else?) in March.
@ugapress.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @agordonreed.bsky.social @nhannahjones.bsky.social and more
Reposted by David Silkenat
Pleased to share this *Opium Slavery* Author’s Corner on The Way of Improvement Leads Home. Thanks @johnfea1.bsky.social for featuring the book! 🗃️ thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/11/10/t...
The Author’s Corner with Jonathan S. Jones
Jonathan S. Jones is Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University. This interview is based on his new book, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis (…
thewayofimprovement.blog
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Pleased to share this *Opium Slavery* Author’s Corner on The Way of Improvement Leads Home. Thanks @johnfea1.bsky.social for featuring the book! 🗃️ thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/11/10/t...
Senate Democrats
a cartoon girl in a blue dress is kneeling in a field holding a bag
ALT: a cartoon girl in a blue dress is kneeling in a field holding a bag
media.tenor.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Senate Democrats
Despite my low expectations, this generation of politicans continues to disappoint me with their lack of creativity and moral courage.
November 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Despite my low expectations, this generation of politicans continues to disappoint me with their lack of creativity and moral courage.
Reposted by David Silkenat
We've got a cover. Coming your way next June!
November 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
We've got a cover. Coming your way next June!
Reposted by David Silkenat
Very pleased to have my @oxfordacademic.bsky.social book, An Unholy Traffic, reviewed in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Thanks to James Oakes for taking the time to engage with it!
James Oakes on the South’s attempts to maintain the domestic slave trade during the Civil War
Speculation in Human Property | James Oakes
The survival of slave trading during the Civil War suggests that enslaved people remained valuable commodities in a time of economic upheaval.
www.nybooks.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Very pleased to have my @oxfordacademic.bsky.social book, An Unholy Traffic, reviewed in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Thanks to James Oakes for taking the time to engage with it!
Reposted by David Silkenat
While we do not agree on all issues, I want to publicly thank UNC-CH Chancellor Lee Roberts for clearly stating today in Faculty Council that UNC cannot and will not sign Trump's Compact, because it raises irresolvable issues of academic freedom. That was important for faculty & students to hear.
November 7, 2025 at 9:23 PM
While we do not agree on all issues, I want to publicly thank UNC-CH Chancellor Lee Roberts for clearly stating today in Faculty Council that UNC cannot and will not sign Trump's Compact, because it raises irresolvable issues of academic freedom. That was important for faculty & students to hear.
Reposted by David Silkenat
Exciting news. We’ve got a pub date for the 2nd edition of No Common Ground & it’s in paperback! It’ll be out Feb. 1, 2026 & there’s a 30% discount on preorders by using the code 01SOCIAL30. @uncpress.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Exciting news. We’ve got a pub date for the 2nd edition of No Common Ground & it’s in paperback! It’ll be out Feb. 1, 2026 & there’s a 30% discount on preorders by using the code 01SOCIAL30. @uncpress.bsky.social
Reposted by David Silkenat
The History Department at Gettysburg College invites applications for the Robert C. Fluhrer Distinguished Professor in Civil War Studies.
gettysburg.peopleadmin.com/postings/6040
gettysburg.peopleadmin.com/postings/6040
Robert C. Fluhrer Distinguished Professor of Civil War Studies
The History Department at Gettysburg College invites applications for the Robert C. Fluhrer Distinguished Professor in Civil War Studies beginning August 2026. The successful candidate will be a recog...
gettysburg.peopleadmin.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:25 PM
The History Department at Gettysburg College invites applications for the Robert C. Fluhrer Distinguished Professor in Civil War Studies.
gettysburg.peopleadmin.com/postings/6040
gettysburg.peopleadmin.com/postings/6040
Reposted by David Silkenat
Important story in today's Los Angeles Times. Preservationists also need to mobilize now to save the Ben Shahn frescoes in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, which is scheduled to be sold off by the end of 2025.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
A small army is racing against time and Trump to preserve U.S. history
Like 'monks' in the Middle Ages, volunteers are working to preserve cultural treasures they fear are under threat from President Trump’s war against 'woke.'
www.latimes.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Important story in today's Los Angeles Times. Preservationists also need to mobilize now to save the Ben Shahn frescoes in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, which is scheduled to be sold off by the end of 2025.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Reposted by David Silkenat
Need travel reading for #2025SHA? The latest issue of the JSH is open-access and free to read: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55697
We will see you in St Pete Beach @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
thesha.org/meeting
We will see you in St Pete Beach @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
thesha.org/meeting
Project MUSE - Journal of Southern History-Volume 91, Number 4, November 2025
muse.jhu.edu
November 4, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Need travel reading for #2025SHA? The latest issue of the JSH is open-access and free to read: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55697
We will see you in St Pete Beach @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
thesha.org/meeting
We will see you in St Pete Beach @thesouthernsha.bsky.social
thesha.org/meeting
Reposted by David Silkenat
Friends, I could not be more excited to let you know that my book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, is out today from Penguin. I’m super proud of it and super grateful to all the scholars whose work informs it. I hope you’ll take a peek and spread the word!
amzn.to/4nHkziG
amzn.to/4nHkziG
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World [Bell, Richard] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
amzn.to
November 4, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Friends, I could not be more excited to let you know that my book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, is out today from Penguin. I’m super proud of it and super grateful to all the scholars whose work informs it. I hope you’ll take a peek and spread the word!
amzn.to/4nHkziG
amzn.to/4nHkziG
Reposted by David Silkenat
After emancipation, Black schoolteacher & future Alabama state legislator William V. Turner reported to the Freedmen's Bureau that local officials were illegally withholding food assistance from Black mothers, telling them it "is not for negroes, but for the poor white women."
Alabama Black Teacher to the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of Education, February 5, 1867; and Headquarters of the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner to the Government Relief ...
www.freedmen.umd.edu
November 3, 2025 at 8:22 PM
After emancipation, Black schoolteacher & future Alabama state legislator William V. Turner reported to the Freedmen's Bureau that local officials were illegally withholding food assistance from Black mothers, telling them it "is not for negroes, but for the poor white women."
Folks I'm three hops away from:
Bill Gates
W.E.B. DuBois
Howard Zinn
Marilyn Monroe
Vladamir Putin
Donald Trump
Bill Gates
W.E.B. DuBois
Howard Zinn
Marilyn Monroe
Vladamir Putin
Donald Trump
Off the top of my head, in terms of degrees of separation I managed to get from myself to *Jimi Hendrix* in "three hops," this is a WILD assertion to make
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
November 2, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Folks I'm three hops away from:
Bill Gates
W.E.B. DuBois
Howard Zinn
Marilyn Monroe
Vladamir Putin
Donald Trump
Bill Gates
W.E.B. DuBois
Howard Zinn
Marilyn Monroe
Vladamir Putin
Donald Trump
Reposted by David Silkenat
Off the top of my head, in terms of degrees of separation I managed to get from myself to *Jimi Hendrix* in "three hops," this is a WILD assertion to make
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
November 1, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Off the top of my head, in terms of degrees of separation I managed to get from myself to *Jimi Hendrix* in "three hops," this is a WILD assertion to make
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Reposted by David Silkenat
A series on southern history from @uncpress.bsky.social, co-edited by @drkarenlcox.bsky.social. 🗃️
uncpress.org/series/bound...
uncpress.org/series/bound...
Boundless South
Series Editors: Karen L. Cox, University of North Carolina, Charlotte & Françoise N. Hamlin, Brown University
The Boundless South series publishes books that are regional, readable, an...
uncpress.org
October 30, 2025 at 7:09 PM
A series on southern history from @uncpress.bsky.social, co-edited by @drkarenlcox.bsky.social. 🗃️
uncpress.org/series/bound...
uncpress.org/series/bound...
Reposted by David Silkenat
Tolkien is not perfect but he did, in fact, hate the fucking Nazis.
DHS just posted a Lord of the Rings meme as an appeal to join ICE
October 29, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Tolkien is not perfect but he did, in fact, hate the fucking Nazis.
Reposted by David Silkenat
This is exactly the same argument — and, in parts, even the same language — that segregationists advanced to argue that white people had a “right” not to live next to people who were different from them.
Vance says it is "totally reasonable and acceptable" for people to not want to live next door to people who speak a different language than they do
October 29, 2025 at 4:43 PM
This is exactly the same argument — and, in parts, even the same language — that segregationists advanced to argue that white people had a “right” not to live next to people who were different from them.
Reposted by David Silkenat
Lots of you have been asking for the syllabus for the lecture course -- "America at 250" -- that I'm teaching with David Blight and Beverly Gage.
Here you go:
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
Here you go:
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
president.yale.edu
October 28, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Lots of you have been asking for the syllabus for the lecture course -- "America at 250" -- that I'm teaching with David Blight and Beverly Gage.
Here you go:
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
Here you go:
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
Reposted by David Silkenat
It’s officially pub day for Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America‘s First Opioid Crisis! Available at a bookshop near you. Thanks to everyone who made it possible to bring this research to life! 🗃️ @uncpress.bsky.social uncpress.org/978146968953...
October 28, 2025 at 11:27 AM
It’s officially pub day for Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America‘s First Opioid Crisis! Available at a bookshop near you. Thanks to everyone who made it possible to bring this research to life! 🗃️ @uncpress.bsky.social uncpress.org/978146968953...
Nobody makes a $130 million donation without expecting something in return. www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members | CNN Politics
The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Dep...
www.cnn.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Nobody makes a $130 million donation without expecting something in return. www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...
Reposted by David Silkenat
Get in, nerds. The records of Truman's Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion (1949-1952) have been digitized.
www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/fede...
www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/fede...
Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions and Boards: Records of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion (Record Group 220) | Harry S. Truman
The records of the Commission on Renovation of the Executive Mansion include meeting minutes and correspondence about the renovation of the White House during the administration of President Harry S. ...
www.trumanlibrary.gov
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Get in, nerds. The records of Truman's Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion (1949-1952) have been digitized.
www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/fede...
www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/fede...
Reposted by David Silkenat
Jefferson ordered the demolition of the outdoor privies at the White House. Checkmate, libs!
www.whitehousehistory.org/jeffersons-w...
www.whitehousehistory.org/jeffersons-w...
Jefferson's White House Upgrades
Thomas Jefferson gave orders for the demolition of the outdoor wooden privy and had two water closets installed upstairs, one on each end of the house. He also had a...
www.whitehousehistory.org
October 23, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Jefferson ordered the demolition of the outdoor privies at the White House. Checkmate, libs!
www.whitehousehistory.org/jeffersons-w...
www.whitehousehistory.org/jeffersons-w...