Manisha Sinha

@profmsinha.bsky.social

20K followers 840 following 2.5K posts

Past President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, author most recently of The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic, Draper Chair at UConn

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Manisha Sinha is an Indian-born American historian, and the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 (2024). .. more

Political science 49%

Sociology 20%

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Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · Apr 11

Historian here posting for no reason at all.

U.S. Constitution, Article II Section 4:

"The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 8h

And dictatorship!

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 7 more Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Johan P. Olsen, Michael Zimmer, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Dean Eckles, Thomas Masterson, Oliver Mason, Manisha Sinha

Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 9h

I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story

www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...

Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?

Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.

www.readtpa.com

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Bruce D. Baker, Hisham Zerriffi , and 1 more Rosemary A. Joyce, Bruce D. Baker, Hisham Zerriffi, Manisha Sinha

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 9h

There seems to be a lot of confusion between “lots of professors who lack merit are being hired” (false) and “lots of people with merit are unable to find jobs as professors” (true).

Rebecca Dean @rmdean.bsky.social · 11h

This article advocates for the “Faculty Merit Act” that would — get this — require all faculty applicants to submit their *SAT* scores. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Holy shirts that’s hilarious.

A screenshot of a National Review article by George Leef. The title is “Let’s Hire Professors Purely on Merit”. The first paragraph reads: the diversity media that has swept over American education for the last 50 years or so has had a align effect on the quality of professors. Many of those hired to fill quotas for certain groups are, to be blunt, not especially qualified. Moreover, such hiring violates the law against discrimination. What should we do?”

It’s the usual thing about white men not being able to get jobs because women and minorities are given preference. Despite all evidence to the contrary.

Reposted by Alan Richardson, James Goodwin, Manisha Sinha

Malcolm Nance, Leading Resister @malcolmnance.bsky.social · 10h

Dementia is a helluva drug

Reposted by Peter Thorne, Richard Price, Rosemary A. Joyce , and 9 more Peter Thorne, Richard Price, Rosemary A. Joyce, Bruce D. Baker, Scott A. Imberman, James Goodwin, Sebastian Karcher, Brian Keegan, Manisha Sinha, James A. Benn, Susan D. Amussen, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Rebecca Dean @rmdean.bsky.social · 11h

This article advocates for the “Faculty Merit Act” that would — get this — require all faculty applicants to submit their *SAT* scores. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Holy shirts that’s hilarious.

Reposted by Manisha Sinha

Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere.bsky.social · 11h

Why are these people so goofy lol

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 12h

OMG what a small world! Good to get to know you virtually, one of the few saving graces of social media!

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 12h

Not related to Bernard Semmel are you? He was my sisters doctoral advisor.

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 13h

A simply fantastic thread! All the bemoaning over cursive really sounded idiotic to me!

Reposted by Manisha Sinha

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 14h

Came across this on Instagram and was immediately annoyed - most people currently alive can’t read most historical documents for a myriad of reasons that far exceed handwriting. That’s why people who actually do read those documents (historians) learn palaeography!

Tweet: my niche conspiracy theory is that they stopped teaching cursive so that we can’t read historical texts

Tweet: this is actually true. This article from the Atlantic by the former president of Harvard said 2/3rds of her undergrad history class couldn’t read cursive which hindered their ability to read historical manuscripts

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

History is not woke and yes that’s true and peonage servitude have persisted after the end of chattel slavery but emancipation is still an important moment in the history of abolition.

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

Huh?

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks for sharing!

Reposted by Manisha Sinha

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 1d

Fascism is essentially at its core a form of conspiracy theory wielded by the capitalist class to misdirect from the exploitation and harm they inflict upon us.

Et voila.

For decades, the structure of US society, by intent and design, was remade to redistribute wealth, resources, property and opportunity from Americans to non-Americans.

These looted assets were then used to finance the Democrat Party and all its subsidiary schemes and structures.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Rosemary A. Joyce, James Goodwin , and 2 more Anna O. Law, Rosemary A. Joyce, James Goodwin, Andréas Nilsson, Manisha Sinha

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

Reagan, 1981: “In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Clinton, 1996: “I say again, the era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to the era of fending for yourself.”
Mamdani, 2026:

Begin g today we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.
To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.

Reposted by Manisha Sinha

Steven Nelson @stevenel.bsky.social · 1d

A new year, but the same concerns for democracy dating back to the Civil War (and before). To better understand the connections and to take lessons for today, I spoke with an expert on Reconstruction: @profmsinha.bsky.social . We covered a lot so I broke it up into two episodes. Here’s part 1.

DIY Democracy: Lessons from American Reconstruction for a New Founding, Pt. 1

For this episode, I spoke with Prof. Manisha Sinha of the University of Connecticut, historian and author of the recent book . We spoke about what a "new founding" of American democracy has looked lik...

diydemocracy.libsyn.com

Reposted by Victor Pickard, Manisha Sinha

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/n...

The Full Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration Speech

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Silvia Secchi , and 7 more Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Silvia Secchi, Scott A. Imberman, Daryl Adair, Mark Rice, Magda Teter, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Monisha Bajaj

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

The first in the Americas, Portugal abolished it in 1773, and the northern states of the United States before Haiti but that’s not the nation.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Rosemary A. Joyce, Manisha Sinha

Rufus Hickok @rufus-hickok.bsky.social · 1d

It's striking that progressives like Tim Walz and Zohran Mamdani evoke the middle American attitude that, "Yes, we can fix these social problems because we're Americans and it's the right thing to do!" While the "America first" right only emulates failed and failing nation-states elsewhere.

Reposted by Kori Schake, Robert C. Richards

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

Historian of abolition here on this day Haiti became an independent republic in 1804, the African slave trade was abolished by the United States and Britain in 1808, and President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Reposted by Mark D. White, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

DHS publicly fantasizing about massive state violence should be taken seriously, and warrants labels such as fascist and white supremacist. But don't lose sight of the fact that it's beyond their capabilities.

The regime's desire for authoritarian repression is bottomless. Its capacity isn't close.

Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 2d

They want to wipe out almost a third of the country. It’s got nothing to do with illegal immigration.

It’s white nationalism pure and simple. They’re fascists, and there’s no reason to doubt it.

Homeland Security *
@DHSgov
X.com
The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.
America After

Terrible AI image of classic car on a beach with text that reads “America after 100 million deportations”

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Marc Lynch, Juan Cole , and 4 more Stephen M. Walt, Marc Lynch, Juan Cole, Carlos Nunes Silva, Bessma Momani, Dean Eckles, Manisha Sinha

Rudbeckia @rudbeckia.bsky.social · 1d

uh holy SHIT?

Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 1d

Curtis Yarvin, JD Vance’s friend & ideological influence, ended 2025 by claiming “only Hitler spoke the truth” about “too many subjects” & “Hitler was a genius.”

Extremism isn’t fringe on the right. Once marginal online extremists like Yarvin are influential at the highest levels of government.

Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you! That’s good to know!

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Robert C. Richards, Laurent Dubois , and 3 more Anna O. Law, Robert C. Richards, Laurent Dubois, Kevin Kenny, Catherine J. Frieman, Manisha Sinha

Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 1d

Thomas Paine began 1776 with _Common Sense_ and the call to reject monarchy, and ended with _The American Crisis_, warning that "these are the times that try men's souls."

Like many in my field, I've spent the last dozen years preparing for 2026, sure that the fullest histories serve us best. 1/

The tattered red and white stripes and white stars on blue field of the "star spangled banner" hanging vertically showing what remains of the original flag of the war of 1812 (about 2/3). Taken in 1964, from the Smithsonian Archives.

Reposted by Manisha Sinha

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

JACK SMITH: “The attack that happened at the Capitol does not happen without Trump. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit.”

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Mark Rice, Manisha Sinha , and 1 more Aaron Sojourner, Mark Rice, Manisha Sinha, Aviel Roshwald

Tristan Lee @tristanl.ee · 2d

This ICE post is a reference to a Rhodesian Army recruiting poster ("Be A Man Among Men") that's very popular with white supremacists.

"BE A MAN AMONG MEN" Rhodesian army recruiting poster

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Manisha Sinha, Dan Immergluck , and 1 more Aaron Sojourner, Manisha Sinha, Dan Immergluck, Dunlap

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 2d

DHS now says it's aiming for 100 million deportations. In an amazing coincidence, there are 104 million Black and Hispanic people living in the U.S. right now.

@DHSgov on X: The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.

[Image of a beach] America after 100 million deportations

Reposted by Robert Black, John Collins, Anne Norton , and 3 more Robert Black, John Collins, Anne Norton, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dan Immergluck

Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 2d

HERE Jack Smith sets out Trump’s direct culpability and complicity in the federal election interference case, including January 6th:

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