Sam Klug
@samklug.bsky.social
Historian and teacher. Author of THE INTERNAL COLONY: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo238821158.html
The countdown is on for Schlock Tuah to become a crypto scammer
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.
December 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The countdown is on for Schlock Tuah to become a crypto scammer
Reposted by Sam Klug
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
Criticism Is Literature. Why Is It Vanishing?, by Adam Morgan
What do the best book reviews do? What is the current state of the critical ecosystem? Chicago Review of Books founder Adam Morgan takes stock of book reviewing in the US.
worldliteraturetoday.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
“You still think you can control them?”
December 21, 2025 at 10:05 PM
“You still think you can control them?”
A lot of people are not being honest about how some of the most successful historians of our day use research assistants, or about how much they truly read, and that’s all I’ll be saying on the matter.
December 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
A lot of people are not being honest about how some of the most successful historians of our day use research assistants, or about how much they truly read, and that’s all I’ll be saying on the matter.
Reposted by Sam Klug
it’s good to be interested in the world, even if you’ll never get a job at yale for it
December 21, 2025 at 7:56 PM
it’s good to be interested in the world, even if you’ll never get a job at yale for it
Reposted by Sam Klug
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
I think there’s a broad hunger for this kind of shift and journalists/writers/podcasters should evangelize it aggressively. And we should say that it doesn’t need to be total: You don’t need a print newspaper to tone down the algorithm’s role in your life. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
December 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts Want to Get Under Your Skin
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Sam Klug
Democrats were so worked up about young people seeing the genocide happening in Gaza that they paved the road for TikTok becoming owned by Trump family members and cronies.
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
TikTok U.S. Deal to Close Next Month: Oracle and Silver Lake Confirmed in Buyer Consortium
Abu Dhabi's state investment fund will also be a managing investor.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Democrats were so worked up about young people seeing the genocide happening in Gaza that they paved the road for TikTok becoming owned by Trump family members and cronies.
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
Reposted by Sam Klug
Reposted by Sam Klug
2/2 🧵 ✨ The entire Frantz Fanon special issue is available to read and download for free — the perfect festive deep dive 🎄🔥
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
December 18, 2025 at 9:10 AM
2/2 🧵 ✨ The entire Frantz Fanon special issue is available to read and download for free — the perfect festive deep dive 🎄🔥
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
👉 buff.ly/6ZACRRN
💡 You can also suscribe to support #ROAPE as an fully open-access journal.
#Fanon100 #AfricanLiberation #Decolonisation
Reposted by Sam Klug
My book _I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom_ (@yalepress.bsky.social) has been out for 6 months! I’m thrilled that in 2026, it will be available as an audiobook (March) and a paperback (July)!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
I Have Avenged America
A moving and humane portrait of the abolitionist revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haiti’s fight for independence from French colonial rule ...
yalebooks.yale.edu
December 17, 2025 at 2:13 PM
My book _I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom_ (@yalepress.bsky.social) has been out for 6 months! I’m thrilled that in 2026, it will be available as an audiobook (March) and a paperback (July)!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Since it's the season for year-end list-making, here are my favorite books I read this year (books by friends not eligible)
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
December 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Since it's the season for year-end list-making, here are my favorite books I read this year (books by friends not eligible)
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Fiction: Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
Non-fiction (work-related): Richard Beck, Homeland
Non-fiction: (non-work-related): Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat
Reposted by Sam Klug
HARD BOILED DETECTIVE: another cruel sunrise over the city of the damned. another corpse. another widow. another cup of black coffee to drag my sorry ass back to life- *sputtering*
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
December 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
HARD BOILED DETECTIVE: another cruel sunrise over the city of the damned. another corpse. another widow. another cup of black coffee to drag my sorry ass back to life- *sputtering*
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
ME: do you like it? it's an ethiopian washed process single origin
DETECTIVE:
ME: are you getting apricot notes
When I teach the War on Terror I emphasize how “WMD” always was a strange and unstable concept, encompassing both battlefield chemical weapons and nuclear weapons developed explicitly to cause maximum civilian harm. It never made any sense as a category and now it has fully jumped the shark
NEW — Trump has signed an executive order "designating illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemical as weapons of mass destruction (WMD)." www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
As a reminder, The Handbasket had the scoop that this was coming back in MARCH:
As a reminder, The Handbasket had the scoop that this was coming back in MARCH:
Trump to declare 'illicit' fentanyl 'Weapon of Mass Destruction,' per draft EO
A copy of the draft was obtained and reviewed by The Handbasket.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 16, 2025 at 12:34 AM
When I teach the War on Terror I emphasize how “WMD” always was a strange and unstable concept, encompassing both battlefield chemical weapons and nuclear weapons developed explicitly to cause maximum civilian harm. It never made any sense as a category and now it has fully jumped the shark
In Michael Denning's Culture in the Age of Three Worlds -- a marvelous book that I sadly lost my copy of in a move a few years ago & have still failed to replace -- there's an incredible list of left intellectuals and activists born between c. 1925 and c. 1935 (1/2)
I sometimes wonder where the left would be if James Baldwin had been the one who got another 30 years rather than Chomsky.
December 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
In Michael Denning's Culture in the Age of Three Worlds -- a marvelous book that I sadly lost my copy of in a move a few years ago & have still failed to replace -- there's an incredible list of left intellectuals and activists born between c. 1925 and c. 1935 (1/2)
Reposted by Sam Klug
December 2, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, Ronin, and Heist are all good-to-great movies with great scripts. I think with Mamet we’re dealing with a post-9/11 (and post-Second Intifada) derangement situation
his politics are bad and they seem to get worse every year but here is a list of screenplays he has written since 1997. whatever else you can say about him, he stopped being a good writer long before he started having bad takes
December 12, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, Ronin, and Heist are all good-to-great movies with great scripts. I think with Mamet we’re dealing with a post-9/11 (and post-Second Intifada) derangement situation
Reposted by Sam Klug
This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.
Proposed Model Bill Would Change College Tenure, Teaching, & Research
Three conservative groups have proposed model legislation that would dramatically change faculty tenure paths, teaching loads, research activities and hiring authority
www.forbes.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:45 PM
This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.
Reposted by Sam Klug
Fairly remarkable article here: ICE's acting director is publicly demanding that a parish in Massachusetts remove its nativity scene because it offends the administration.
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
ICE director demands Mass. church remove ‘ICE was here’ nativity scene
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons is calling for the removal of a nativity scene at a Catholic church in Mass. that protests U.S. immigration policies.
www.masslive.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Fairly remarkable article here: ICE's acting director is publicly demanding that a parish in Massachusetts remove its nativity scene because it offends the administration.
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
www.masslive.com/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Sam Klug
Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y
December 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y
Reposted by Sam Klug
Tascha didn’t just build a volunteer team of more than 100,000 people, she built a community across our city.
And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her.
thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...
And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her.
thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...
Three Million Doors w/ Tascha Van Auken
Featuring Tascha Van Auken on how Zohran’s campaign mobilized an army of 100,000 volunteers to knock three million doors. Van Auken has been an architect of NYC-DSA’s field operation and its general e...
thedigradio.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Tascha didn’t just build a volunteer team of more than 100,000 people, she built a community across our city.
And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her.
thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...
And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her.
thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...
Reposted by Sam Klug
Those who have admitted that they were wrong: Andrew Miller
Those who haven't admitted they were wrong then but now claim they would do things differently today: Jake Sullivan, Jon Finer, and Phil Gordon
Those who haven't admitted anything, wouldn't change anything, & praise Trump: Blinken, McGurk
Those who haven't admitted they were wrong then but now claim they would do things differently today: Jake Sullivan, Jon Finer, and Phil Gordon
Those who haven't admitted anything, wouldn't change anything, & praise Trump: Blinken, McGurk
Yet another Biden administration official admits, after the fact, that the Biden administration's and more broadly America's policy of supporting Israel unconditionally does not work and needs to change.
The End of the Israel Exception
A new paradigm for American policy.
www.foreignaffairs.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Those who have admitted that they were wrong: Andrew Miller
Those who haven't admitted they were wrong then but now claim they would do things differently today: Jake Sullivan, Jon Finer, and Phil Gordon
Those who haven't admitted anything, wouldn't change anything, & praise Trump: Blinken, McGurk
Those who haven't admitted they were wrong then but now claim they would do things differently today: Jake Sullivan, Jon Finer, and Phil Gordon
Those who haven't admitted anything, wouldn't change anything, & praise Trump: Blinken, McGurk
Reposted by Sam Klug
Ironic. Having opened the door to making everything unregulated gambling, crypto seems to be getting left behind as it becomes easier to bet on just about anything (prediction markets) and to get less regulated exposure to traditional assets (tokenization).
finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-...
finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-...
Crypto Reels From a $200 Billion Crash as Casino Crowd Moves On
Cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin have been hit hardest in the market downturn that kicked off early October. A MarketVector index tracking 50 mid- and micro-cap tokens has fallen nearly 70% this year,...
finance.yahoo.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Ironic. Having opened the door to making everything unregulated gambling, crypto seems to be getting left behind as it becomes easier to bet on just about anything (prediction markets) and to get less regulated exposure to traditional assets (tokenization).
finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-...
finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-...
Very honored that my essay, "Who's Afraid of Frantz Fanon?" was selected as a notable essay in the Best American Essays 2025!
Congratulations to contributors @joelleabirached.bsky.social and @samklug.bsky.social, whose 2024 essays “The View from Besieged Beirut” & “Who’s Afraid of Frantz Fanon?” are recognized as notable essays in the Best American Essays 2025, edited by Jia Tolentino and series editor Kim Dana Kupperman.
December 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Very honored that my essay, "Who's Afraid of Frantz Fanon?" was selected as a notable essay in the Best American Essays 2025!