Dr. Jessica Lepler
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jlepler.bsky.social
Dr. Jessica Lepler
@jlepler.bsky.social
2.7K followers 2.1K following 230 posts
Historian at UNH. Teaches early America, capitalism, & animals. 1st Book (2013): "The Many Panics of 1837." 2nd Book (August 2025): "Canal Dreamers" https://uncpress.org/book/9781469690551/canal-dreamers/
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jlepler.bsky.social
Dr. Jessica Lepler @jlepler.bsky.social · 6d
So grateful for this generous review of Canal Dreamers, which situates my “eloquent” and “expansive history” in recent context. 🗃️
@uncpress.bsky.social
jlepler.bsky.social
Last night, I was awarded a College Teaching Excellence Award from UNH. I count it amongst the highest honors of my career, and am so grateful for the more than 1,000 UNH students who have made teaching a joy for me for my 17 years here.
November 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
So grateful for this generous review of Canal Dreamers, which situates my “eloquent” and “expansive history” in recent context. 🗃️
@uncpress.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
sonyabonczek.bsky.social
Terrific review of @jlepler.bsky.social's "eloquent history of Nicaragua’s canal proposals during the 1820s."
November 5, 2025 at 5:48 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
It's not every day an author enjoys a phenomenal book review from a leading historian who also happens to be a descendant of one of the subjects of her book. Thank you for taking us on this walk with you @benjaminepark.bsky.social! 🗃️
@uncpress.bsky.social
www.facebook.com/share/p/19oo...
November 4, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
kbruisch.bsky.social
We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books.
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
Move over for AI - DRB
Katja Bruisch writes: I recently completed a scholarly monograph – an environmental, economic and energy history of peat in imperial and Soviet Russia. After years of thinking and writing, I approache...
drb.ie
October 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
littlemissvrb.bsky.social
I feel absolutely heartbroken over the demolition of the East Wing. This wasn’t even a full year ago 💔
October 22, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
miblogestublog.bsky.social
ok who did this? ☹️
a doctored photo of the back of a $20 bill featuring the White House being demolished by an excavator
October 22, 2025 at 9:52 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
I was delighted to be invited by @johnfea1.bsky.social to answer some questions about "Canal Dreamers." The blog post went live today: thewayofimprovement.blog/2025/10/21/t...
It's great timing because the book is currently on sale on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Canal-Dreame...
🗃️ @uncpress.bsky.social
The Author’s Corner with Jessica M. Lepler
Jessica M. Lepler is Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. This interview is based on her new book, Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific i…
thewayofimprovement.blog
October 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
The Canvas outage today made me think about that episode of "Arthur" when the internet goes out and, horror of horrors, the kids have to play with analog toys like Polaroid cameras. They end up having a blast. Here's hoping my students picked up the awesome book due next week. #academicsky
Cartoon of a photograph with a group of characters from the show Arthur in front of a tree.
October 21, 2025 at 1:34 AM
jlepler.bsky.social
I know Amazon's "Best Seller's Rank" is a fraught measure, but teenage me, who dreamed of becoming a US historian, would be so tickled to learn that, for a moment, she had authored a number one best-selling book in Nicaraguan history.
@uncpress.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 1:50 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
On Friday, I get to share a lecture from my History of Animals course with participants in a Free Library of Philadelphia online program. The topic is "Dinosaurs: Animal History Before Humans (And After)." 🦕🦖It is free to join the webinar. Register here:
libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/eve...
🗃️
Events: Dinosaurs: Animal History Before Humans (and After).
Join us on October 17th for a free Zoom presentation as Jessica Lepler, a historian at the University of New Hampshire, will offer a compelling program that may change the way you view both animals an...
libwww.freelibrary.org
October 15, 2025 at 11:50 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
At 7 PM tonight, I will be talking at Water Street Books in Exeter, NH. So excited to share my research! 🗃️
@uncpress.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
I am excited to teach The Memory of '76 by @michaelhattem.bsky.social in my early American grad seminar tomorrow. It will be a new staple for the course because it is concise, eloquent, provocative, and a survey of popular and academic historiography. 🗃️
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
The Memory of ’76
The surprising history of how Americans have fought over the meaning and legacy of the Revolution for nearly two and a half centuries  Finalist, George Wash...
yalebooks.yale.edu
October 7, 2025 at 12:58 AM
jlepler.bsky.social
Tonight’s full moonrise is breathtaking. What a lovely and slightly haunting end to an 82 degree day in October in New Hampshire. I appreciate the free trip to Florida, but global warming much?
October 6, 2025 at 10:26 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
Following this discussion. I need to update my sense of the field. The transition to coal seems super important these days.
jeffmanuel.bsky.social Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · Oct 6
Historians: if you had to pick one accessible text for an undergraduate student starting to explore the early British Industrial Revolution, what would you recommend? TIA
🗃️
October 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
joshrgreenberg.bsky.social
With news that Trump wants to be put on a $1 coin, here is the $.05 fractional currency featuring Spencer Clark, Superintendent of the US National Currency Bureau that led to outrage over putting living people on currency. PA Rep Russell Thayer’s 1866 appropriations amendment forbid this practice.
October 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
"Swim beyond your school!" And other hilarious and fishy advice from the @shearites.bsky.social program committee! 🗃️
shearites.bsky.social SHEAR @shearites.bsky.social · Oct 1
Are you feeling Eel at ease about what you should include in your CV and Diversity Statement for #SHEAR2026? Program Committee Co-Chair Mark Boonshoft is here to give you tips on luring in the Program Committee. Check this space weekly for more tips and tricks for a successful proposal. #GRWS
October 1, 2025 at 6:01 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
Delighted to see Canal Dreamers featured on UNH Today, um, today. @uncpress.bsky.social 🗃️
www.unh.edu/unhtoday/202...
History Professor Pens “Canal Dreamers”
Associate professor of history Jessica Lepler's new book "Canal Dreamers" tells the story of an 1820s attempt to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Nicaragua.
www.unh.edu
October 1, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
aupresses.bsky.social
All are invited to the first in Publishing with University Presses Webinar Series, "Turning Your Dissertation into a Book," Oct 9 at 1pm ET. Organized by our Faculty Outreach Committee with the Rutgers Ctr for Minority Serving Institutions.

Register here: https://buff.ly/UiOAr5M
Turning You Dissertation into a Book webinar promotional tile
September 29, 2025 at 7:15 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
I love teaching my intro-level course on the History of Animals. I'm excited to share my lecture on "Dinosaurs: Animal History Before Humans (And After)" through a free online program sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia on October 17. Register here: 🗃️
libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/eve...
Events: Dinosaurs: Animal History Before Humans (and After).
Join us on October 17th for a free Zoom presentation as Jessica Lepler, a historian at the University of New Hampshire, will offer a compelling program that may change the way you view both animals an...
libwww.freelibrary.org
September 23, 2025 at 8:27 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
I really needed a sign today that what I do as a historian matters. I did not expect to literally see a sign. On the sidewalk. And in the window. Hooray for local bookstores! Water Street Bookstore totally made my day! 🗃️
@uncpress.bsky.social @sonyabonczek.bsky.social
September 19, 2025 at 4:51 PM
jlepler.bsky.social
A quarter century ago, I had an amazing year as a visiting student at Mansfield College of Oxford University. I am so honored that Canal Dreamers is featured on the alumni book review page of @ox.ac.uk. @uncpress.bsky.social 🗃️

www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/article/off-...
OFF THE SHELF: SEPTEMBER 2025
The Panama Canal, our late Queen, teachers, stained glass and liturgy
www.alumni.ox.ac.uk
September 10, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
jamellebouie.net
getting fired from your job because some dipshit student who missed their calling in the Stasi filmed you talking about gender in a class about gender
weedenkim.bsky.social Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · Sep 10
I agree but this case is even worse: it appears that the detailed course description* explicitly mentions that it will explore how gender and sexuality are depicted in YA literature.

*As the reddit poster mentions, there's some confusion and possible misreporting of which course she's teaching.
Screenshot of reddit post from user Wang_Lung_1921. Begin quote: I understand that ENG 360 is Children's Literature, and that's what has been reported, but she's not in the Course Schedule for 360. Instead, look at ENG 394, which does show as her course. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But that's what my search pulled up. You can still find her syllabus, with a detailed course description, that falls within the range of the general description given in the Catalog. "COURSE DESCRIPTION Did you read what we now call “young adult literature” as a young adult? What exactly is a young adult? Does the term refer to an age category or a marketing tool, a personality type or a genre? What differentiates adult from young adult from teenager from child? How do we understand the genre of literature for and about this blurry, shifting group? In this course, we will explore a range of young adult or YA literature in English, including poetry, contemporary fiction, graphic memoirs, historical fiction, and fantasy, from a diverse group of authors with many varied perspectives on race, gender, sexuality, disability and other realms of human difference. Our task is to think critically about what these books can tell us about how we (and others) understand adolescence, how those definitions have changed over time, and how these books participate in larger movements of history, culture, and literature." End quote
September 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Dr. Jessica Lepler
victorerikray.bsky.social
Not only is this coming for you, it is here and we are collectively behind in preparing.
September 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM