Rebecca Spang
@rlspang.bsky.social
Professor of History, sometimes administrator at big public university in Midwest. Writes about money, French Revolution, restaurants. Friend to vert paleo.
ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow.
once/future Mainer
ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow.
once/future Mainer
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Lee Raye: swans are one of the most commonly excavated species in medieval English sights, and flocks of mute swans on the Thames and elsewhere were owned like rabbits and sheep, and could only be eaten by their owners. 2/2
🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢
🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢
February 17, 2026 at 10:15 AM
Lee Raye: swans are one of the most commonly excavated species in medieval English sights, and flocks of mute swans on the Thames and elsewhere were owned like rabbits and sheep, and could only be eaten by their owners. 2/2
🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢
🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢🦢
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
And if you’re wondering “Why is there a blob in the back?” Well, that’s where the first woman president was supposed to go. More than a century later, it remains unsculpted.
February 17, 2026 at 3:38 AM
And if you’re wondering “Why is there a blob in the back?” Well, that’s where the first woman president was supposed to go. More than a century later, it remains unsculpted.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." –Justice Louis Brandeis
Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.
We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.
Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.
We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.
February 16, 2026 at 11:01 PM
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." –Justice Louis Brandeis
Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.
We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.
Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today.
We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.
“said to be” is the real stroke of genius here
February 17, 2026 at 3:06 AM
“said to be” is the real stroke of genius here
Saw a photo of myself (taken today) that has provoked shocked and unpleasant recognition of the ravages of time.
Telling myself that it’s okay, since I’m currently second in the Pearl League. Looks are gone but brain still works!
Telling myself that it’s okay, since I’m currently second in the Pearl League. Looks are gone but brain still works!
February 17, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Saw a photo of myself (taken today) that has provoked shocked and unpleasant recognition of the ravages of time.
Telling myself that it’s okay, since I’m currently second in the Pearl League. Looks are gone but brain still works!
Telling myself that it’s okay, since I’m currently second in the Pearl League. Looks are gone but brain still works!
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
🔔PRESS RELEASE: UT System Board of Regents to vote on new course content restrictions just days after UT Austin collapses ethnic and gender studies departments. 👇
aaup-texas.org/blog/f/ut-re...
aaup-texas.org/blog/f/ut-re...
UT Regents To Vote on Sweeping Course Restrictions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
aaup-texas.org
February 16, 2026 at 11:47 PM
🔔PRESS RELEASE: UT System Board of Regents to vote on new course content restrictions just days after UT Austin collapses ethnic and gender studies departments. 👇
aaup-texas.org/blog/f/ut-re...
aaup-texas.org/blog/f/ut-re...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
👀 Invoking Orwell, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore panels and historical acknowledgments of the history of slavery that the National Park Service removed in Philadelphia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 16, 2026 at 6:24 PM
👀 Invoking Orwell, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore panels and historical acknowledgments of the history of slavery that the National Park Service removed in Philadelphia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Greedy corporations are using your personal data to charge you more or pay you less — and they’re doing it behind your back.
It’s called “surveillance pricing,” and I introduced the first federal legislation to stop it.
Read more about our bill here:
It’s called “surveillance pricing,” and I introduced the first federal legislation to stop it.
Read more about our bill here:
NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Introduces New ‘Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act’
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas), joined by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), introduced the Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act, the first federal proposal to ban co...
casar.house.gov
February 15, 2026 at 6:23 PM
Greedy corporations are using your personal data to charge you more or pay you less — and they’re doing it behind your back.
It’s called “surveillance pricing,” and I introduced the first federal legislation to stop it.
Read more about our bill here:
It’s called “surveillance pricing,” and I introduced the first federal legislation to stop it.
Read more about our bill here:
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Feb. 16, 1776: Britain's Lord Weymouth lays before the House of Lords the three treaties signed with German principalities (Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Hanau and Brunswick) to pay for troops in America.
February 16, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Feb. 16, 1776: Britain's Lord Weymouth lays before the House of Lords the three treaties signed with German principalities (Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Hanau and Brunswick) to pay for troops in America.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
I'm enjoying these micro elephants. The ears are reminiscent of an African species but the hind legs are all wrong for that. Another #DatabaseDistraction
February 16, 2026 at 3:38 PM
I'm enjoying these micro elephants. The ears are reminiscent of an African species but the hind legs are all wrong for that. Another #DatabaseDistraction
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
My message remains the same a year later.
We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.
We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.
February 16, 2026 at 12:58 AM
My message remains the same a year later.
We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.
We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
My theory of the moment: The extraordinary courage of ordinary people in places like Minneapolis is reawakening us to our social and economic ties to immigrants. It's making "love thy neighbor" cool again. That's the ultimate antidote to MAGA hate.
Thoughts on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Thoughts on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
February 16, 2026 at 1:21 PM
My theory of the moment: The extraordinary courage of ordinary people in places like Minneapolis is reawakening us to our social and economic ties to immigrants. It's making "love thy neighbor" cool again. That's the ultimate antidote to MAGA hate.
Thoughts on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Thoughts on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
On this day in 1847, Missouri passed an act that prohibited Black people from learning to read and write and assembling freely for worship services. The act also forbade free Black people from migrating to the state.
Feb. 16, 1847 | Missouri Prohibits Education of Black People
Learn more about our history of racial injustice.
calendar.eji.org
February 16, 2026 at 2:02 PM
On this day in 1847, Missouri passed an act that prohibited Black people from learning to read and write and assembling freely for worship services. The act also forbade free Black people from migrating to the state.
Great thread of books for Black History Month. I haven’t read all of them but I can vouch that this one is genuinely remarkable
Vincent Brown, TACKY'S REVOLT: THE STORY OF AN ATLANTIC SLAVE WAR
Tacky’s Revolt — Harvard University Press
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardWinner of the Frederick Douglass Book PrizeWinner of the Elsa Goveia Book PrizeWinner of the James A. Rawley Prize in the History of Race RelationsWinner of the ...
www.hup.harvard.edu
February 16, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Great thread of books for Black History Month. I haven’t read all of them but I can vouch that this one is genuinely remarkable
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
In honor of Black History Month, here's a thread with one book recommendation a day.
February 1, 2026 at 7:05 PM
In honor of Black History Month, here's a thread with one book recommendation a day.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Now on the Long Run: 'The Consumer Revolution Measured: What A New Price Index Reveals About Early Modern Industrialization And Industriousness'.
Bas Spliet (Utrecht) and Anne E.C. McCants (MIT) introduce their research, currently available in Early View in the Economic History Review.
Bas Spliet (Utrecht) and Anne E.C. McCants (MIT) introduce their research, currently available in Early View in the Economic History Review.
February 16, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Now on the Long Run: 'The Consumer Revolution Measured: What A New Price Index Reveals About Early Modern Industrialization And Industriousness'.
Bas Spliet (Utrecht) and Anne E.C. McCants (MIT) introduce their research, currently available in Early View in the Economic History Review.
Bas Spliet (Utrecht) and Anne E.C. McCants (MIT) introduce their research, currently available in Early View in the Economic History Review.
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
First look of the ₹100 coin featuring the Ol Chiki script created by Pandit Raghunath Murmu, bearing the ‘K’ mintmark (first-time) signifying the Kolkata Mint. More Info: bit.ly/4bYWotW
#Olchiki #Santhali #100YearsofOlchiki #Numismatics
#Olchiki #Santhali #100YearsofOlchiki #Numismatics
February 16, 2026 at 1:07 PM
First look of the ₹100 coin featuring the Ol Chiki script created by Pandit Raghunath Murmu, bearing the ‘K’ mintmark (first-time) signifying the Kolkata Mint. More Info: bit.ly/4bYWotW
#Olchiki #Santhali #100YearsofOlchiki #Numismatics
#Olchiki #Santhali #100YearsofOlchiki #Numismatics
Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Maine peeps: please try to stay healthy! Vaccines and masks are your friends
PMC COVlD Report, Week of Feb 16, 2026 (U.S.)
14 states are still experiencing High/Very High COVlD levels amid a lingering 12th wave.
Minnesota may be at an all-time high.
THREAD 1 of 4 🧵
14 states are still experiencing High/Very High COVlD levels amid a lingering 12th wave.
Minnesota may be at an all-time high.
THREAD 1 of 4 🧵
February 16, 2026 at 5:47 AM
Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Maine peeps: please try to stay healthy! Vaccines and masks are your friends
“Fixed price” stores— with labeled prices that were the same for all—were one of the great wonders of commercial life in the democratizing 19C. We will miss them when they’re gone!
(5/11) Walmart, Whole Foods, and Kohls are switching to electronic shelf labels that can display dynamic prices. Kroger deployed them with Microsoft AI—a setup a 2024 Senate inquiry warned could enable “surge pricing” via facial recognition. (Kroger claims it will only lower prices.)
February 16, 2026 at 4:52 AM
“Fixed price” stores— with labeled prices that were the same for all—were one of the great wonders of commercial life in the democratizing 19C. We will miss them when they’re gone!
Shocking (to me) discovery:
The Library of Congress website displays a French print of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and explains the 1789 context in which it was written. EXCEPT THAT the document shown isn't the 1789 version (17 articles) at all. It's 1793 (35). www.loc.gov/item/2021668...
The Library of Congress website displays a French print of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and explains the 1789 context in which it was written. EXCEPT THAT the document shown isn't the 1789 version (17 articles) at all. It's 1793 (35). www.loc.gov/item/2021668...
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Adopted by the National Assembly during its Sessions on August 20, 21, 25 and 26, 1789, and Approved by the King.
On June 17, 1789, the members of Third Estate (those members of the pre-revolutionary French parliament, the Estates-General, who were not from the First Estate, the nobility, or the Second Estate, th...
www.loc.gov
February 16, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Shocking (to me) discovery:
The Library of Congress website displays a French print of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and explains the 1789 context in which it was written. EXCEPT THAT the document shown isn't the 1789 version (17 articles) at all. It's 1793 (35). www.loc.gov/item/2021668...
The Library of Congress website displays a French print of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and explains the 1789 context in which it was written. EXCEPT THAT the document shown isn't the 1789 version (17 articles) at all. It's 1793 (35). www.loc.gov/item/2021668...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
thats an attack ad
February 15, 2026 at 10:20 PM
thats an attack ad
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
Defunding the BBC World Service & shutting it down would be an incredible loss & very shortsighted indeed. The BBC has broadcast for nearly 90 years in foreign languages, battlind disinformation & propaganda globally. Serious journalism is more needed than ever.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial
Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported
www.theguardian.com
February 15, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Defunding the BBC World Service & shutting it down would be an incredible loss & very shortsighted indeed. The BBC has broadcast for nearly 90 years in foreign languages, battlind disinformation & propaganda globally. Serious journalism is more needed than ever.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Rebecca Spang
2/2 Cecilia Gonzaga in 1447, also looking very fine and also by Pisanello, because he was also a medallist.
February 15, 2026 at 10:35 PM
2/2 Cecilia Gonzaga in 1447, also looking very fine and also by Pisanello, because he was also a medallist.
Notice that even through the Great Recession/Financial Crisis, the ultra super rich just kept getting richer and richer. All the stock market gains of the last 15 months have exacerbated wealth inequality even more.
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
February 15, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Notice that even through the Great Recession/Financial Crisis, the ultra super rich just kept getting richer and richer. All the stock market gains of the last 15 months have exacerbated wealth inequality even more.
