Jim Ambuske
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jimambuske.bsky.social
Jim Ambuske
@jimambuske.bsky.social
Historian of the American Revolution | Director of Digital History at More Perfect | Narrator of Worlds Turned Upside Down | Scotland Enthusiast | Views my own.

www.jimambuske.com
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
New book review:
Ameen on Heppler, Jason A.: _Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism_. University of Oklahoma Press, 2024. Published by H-Sci-Med-Tech.
Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20142443
Heppler, Jason A.. Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism. : University of Oklahoma Press, 2024. 224 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 9780806193748. Reviewed by Rachel Ameen (Syracuse University) Published on H-Sci-Med-Tech (February, 2026) Commissioned by Penelope K. Hardy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
networks.h-net.org
February 19, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Check out this lovely conversation between @lynnprobbins.bsky.social and Professor Mary Eyring on the history of grief in Early America. @uncpress.bsky.social @oieahc.bsky.social

youtu.be/g499aa99rEk?...
February 19, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Join us Monday, 23rd February at 1 PM for Lunch Talks: Kings of Privateering, where we’ll explore how Spanish privateers in the 18th-century Caribbean were vital instruments of imperial power—driving war, trade, smuggling, and the trade with enslaved people with remarkable agency.
February 17, 2026 at 9:01 AM
Wonderful as always to join @kawulf.bsky.social to talk about Martha Washington, the importance of doing good history, and what it takes to bring the past back to life.
@inpursuitusa.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/inpursui...
Martha Washington and In Pursuit
A recording from In Pursuit's live video
open.substack.com
February 18, 2026 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
New research from historian @brookenewman.bsky.social reveals how the British Crown directly profited from slavery - not at the margins, but at the center of imperial power.

I’ll be talking with Brooke on my YouTube channel in March about this subject.
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-...
The British Crown Enslaved Thousands at the Height of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. New Research Reveals Their Stories
A leading historian examines how the monarchy not only tolerated slavery but also administered it, profited from it and sanctioned its cruelties
www.smithsonianmag.com
February 18, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Stole an hour today to visit colonial NYC:

1. Stone marking SW bastion of Fort Amsterdam/George

2. Iron fence that guarded George III statue on Bowling Green

3. Alexander Hamilton Customs House, where Ft. Amsterdam/George stood

4. Pearl Street, where Catalina Trico & husband Joris once lived
February 17, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Happy #pubday to "The Global Age of Revolutions: A History from 1650 to Today," edited @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social and @cindyermus.bsky.social!

Redrawing the map and resetting the clock of the Age of Revolutions

www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10176/

@ageofrevolutions.bsky.social #skystorians
February 17, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Congratuations to the @incitecolumbia.bsky.social and my buddy Evan McCormick on the launch of the Obama Presidency Oral History project.

Hell of a great new collection for historians, teachers, students, and beyond!
Today, we're launching the Obama Presidency Oral History—a comprehensive record of the Obama presidency through the voices of officials, artists, organizers and people from all walks of life. 462 Interviews, 1100 hours of audio and video, 6 years in the making.

obamaoralhistory.columbia.edu
Obama Presidency Oral History
The Obama Presidency as told by 450+ officials, activists, organizers, and extraordinary people from all walks of life.
obamaoralhistory.columbia.edu
February 17, 2026 at 6:24 PM
It's hard to imagine a world in which Jane Austen didn't survive childhood. Or a world without her novels.

But that very nearly happened.

Learn about Jane's early brush with death & the women who shaped her literary tastes in the latest Finding Jane Austen.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...
Episode Three: All the Masters Necessary
Podcast Episode · Finding Jane Austen · S1 E3 · 43m
podcasts.apple.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Spent part of @inpursuitusa.bsky.social launch @nyhistory.bsky.social with teachers looking at Rev-era documents, including this early 19th c. facsimile copy of the Declaration, set against the 1773 freedom petition by Peter Bestes, Sambo Freeman, Felix Holbrook,& Chester Joie from Massachusetts.
February 16, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
The new @inpursuitusa.bsky.social project launches today for #PresidentsDay with articles on George & Martha Washington.

George W. Bush on George: www.inpursuit.org/lessons/for-...

@kawulf.bsky.social on Martha: www.inpursuit.org/lessons/befo...
🗃️
February 16, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Remembering Martha Washington

In a fitting piece for Presidents' Day, Brown University history professor Karin Wulf explores the life of Martha Washington. Here is a taste of her piece at In Pursuit: Did she encourage her husband’s better angels? In one respect we know she emphatically did not.…
Remembering Martha Washington
In a fitting piece for Presidents' Day, Brown University history professor Karin Wulf explores the life of Martha Washington. Here is a taste of her piece at In Pursuit: Did she encourage her husband’s better angels? In one respect we know she emphatically did not. She was casually cruel about slavery and her expectations of enslaved people. Confounded when seventeen fled with the British, who were promising freedom during the revolution, she was infuriated when one of her maids fled from Philadelphia decades later and wanted her tracked down and then brought back (she never was).
thewayofimprovement.blog
February 16, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
A new project launched this morning -- on the history of presidents and the presidency. And First Ladies. With a pointed essay on George W(ashington) by George W (Bush) --about presidential humility. Oh, and me about Martha Washington! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/a...
From One President to Another, a Love Letter With an Edge
www.nytimes.com
February 16, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
I’m honored that The New Yorker has published a feature on my book by @samknightwrites.bsky.social examining the monarchy’s historical entanglement with slavery — and how patterns of exploitation and institutional silence echo into the present.
Read here: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
What the Royal Family’s Links to Slavery Mean in the Age of Epstein
Just as the former Prince Andrew will always be royal, so will the trafficking of African people.
www.newyorker.com
February 16, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Interesting that the NYT story linked to my @smithsonianmag.bsky.social essay on Washington and the twinned legalities of genealogy -- land and wealth for GW and enslavement for people he "inherited." Shows the complexity of the project-- of this history. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what...
February 16, 2026 at 11:35 AM
@inpursuitusa.bsky.social is now live!

Check out @kawulf.bsky.social's essay on Martha Washington, the first First Lady, and a plantation mistress shaped by lineages of power, revolutionary politics, and slavery.

inpursuit.substack.com/p/martha-was...

Hear Karin read her essay as well.
February 16, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Today's the day!

@inpursuitusa.bsky.social is now live. We kick off the series with former president George W. Bush on George Washington's willingness to surrender power:

inpursuit.substack.com/p/george-was...

We've also included an audio version of the essay read by Mr. Bush himself.
February 16, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
I’m excited to announce that I’ve started a position with @archivesfdn.bsky.social! I’m part of a new team working to bring civic education and programs to visitors to the National Archives Museum in DC and to people across the country.
February 11, 2026 at 10:07 PM
I was delighted to join Dr. Katie Crawford-Lackey
@jmmontpelier.bsky.social on Consider the Constitution to talk about Loyalists, Patriots, and the Reality of Revolution in James Madison's Virginia (and beyond).

Thanks to Katie for an excellent conversation!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Loyalists, Patriots, and the Reality of Revolution
Podcast Episode · Consider the Constitution · 02/11/2026 · 36m
podcasts.apple.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Check out the latest episode of Revolutions in Retrospect featuring the excellent @juliagaffield.bsky.social and the remarkable story of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian Revolutionary who swore to avenge America.

Now playing on your favorite podcast app.
February 5, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
Historian friends, I'm trying to organize an AHA panel that uses haunting as a way to think through issue of the dead's consent to have their memories repurposed. Do you have material that might work? If so or if you want more info, message me!
February 10, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Jim Ambuske
We are officially less than one week away from the launch of In Pursuit, a landmark initiative celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.

Our Substack will serve as a digital home for a year-long exploration of leadership, character, and the American Experiment.
February 10, 2026 at 2:24 PM