Zachary Schrag
@zacharyschrag.bsky.social
Professor of History, George Mason University. Currently researching history of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. Views my own.
zacharyschrag.com.
historyprofessor.org
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-1420-551X
zacharyschrag.com.
historyprofessor.org
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-1420-551X
More time has elapsed since the release of Mel Brooks's Silent Movie (1976) than elapsed from the release of The Jazz Singer (1927) to Silent Movie.
January 4, 2026 at 4:15 PM
More time has elapsed since the release of Mel Brooks's Silent Movie (1976) than elapsed from the release of The Jazz Singer (1927) to Silent Movie.
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/
January 2, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/
In 2025, I listened to 54 audiobooks that covered history, broadly defined. Standouts this year include The Occasional Human Sacrifice, Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse, 1967, Buckley, and Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical.
historyprofessor.org/reading/hist...
historyprofessor.org/reading/hist...
History audiobooks, 2025 edition
In 2025, I listened to 54 audiobooks that covered history, broadly defined. Some of these I had skimmed earlier, but this was my first time reading them straight through. This list mainly serves to…
historyprofessor.org
January 1, 2026 at 2:21 PM
In 2025, I listened to 54 audiobooks that covered history, broadly defined. Standouts this year include The Occasional Human Sacrifice, Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse, 1967, Buckley, and Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical.
historyprofessor.org/reading/hist...
historyprofessor.org/reading/hist...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
There's no end to the list of reasons why this is very dumb, but I've not read any yet that mention that it will destroy one of the best vistas in DC, as you come up the Memorial Bridge toward VA and see the Military Women's Memorial as the conclusion of the axis.
December 31, 2025 at 8:49 PM
There's no end to the list of reasons why this is very dumb, but I've not read any yet that mention that it will destroy one of the best vistas in DC, as you come up the Memorial Bridge toward VA and see the Military Women's Memorial as the conclusion of the axis.
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Matthew Brady, "The Dead at Santietam," 1862.
December 30, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Matthew Brady, "The Dead at Santietam," 1862.
Happy to start the day with a glimpse of the great Ken Cobb. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/n...
Will Mamdani Be the 111th or the 112th Mayor of New York? It Depends.
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Happy to start the day with a glimpse of the great Ken Cobb. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/n...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”
Generative AI and History
Generative AI lacks the ability to understand context, …
writing.jasonheppler.org
December 26, 2025 at 1:17 PM
A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
In the early 1920s the US armed forces tested the vulnerability of battleships in the age of air power. Here's a clip I've used in lecture showing the test bombing of the ALABAMA, with Gen Billy Mitchell briefly in it
🗃️
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December 23, 2025 at 10:32 PM
In the early 1920s the US armed forces tested the vulnerability of battleships in the age of air power. Here's a clip I've used in lecture showing the test bombing of the ALABAMA, with Gen Billy Mitchell briefly in it
🗃️
🗃️
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Last call to tell me your favorite history book that you read this year!
I need your help! I want to put together a year-end episode, and I want to know what you read this year. Go here: www.speakpipe.com/DraftingtheP... and record a short message telling me who you are and the best history book you read this year. Doesn't have to be published this year!
Send a voice message to
DraftingthePast
A podcast devoted to the craft of writing history.
www.speakpipe.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Last call to tell me your favorite history book that you read this year!
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Thinking of changing textbooks, and I have to say that I’m really enjoying @zacharyschrag.bsky.social’s The Princeton Guide to Historical Research!
December 22, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Thinking of changing textbooks, and I have to say that I’m really enjoying @zacharyschrag.bsky.social’s The Princeton Guide to Historical Research!
"Free Speech and Unfree News . . . helps us make better sense of the crises that beset the press in an age of aggressive corporate consolidation in media industries, an increasingly secretive national security state, and the daily newspaper’s continued decline." www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
Free Speech and Unfree News — Harvard University Press
Does America have a free press? Many who answer yes appeal to First Amendment protections that shield the press from government censorship. But in this comprehensive history of American press freedom ...
www.hup.harvard.edu
December 22, 2025 at 1:17 PM
"Free Speech and Unfree News . . . helps us make better sense of the crises that beset the press in an age of aggressive corporate consolidation in media industries, an increasingly secretive national security state, and the daily newspaper’s continued decline." www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
If this is already the normal procedure everywhere, i.e. a google scholar import, universities’ library catalogues will be useless tomorrow.
When viewing the fake article in Google scholar on my university network, there is a link to access the article via my uni's library. That link sends me to a library page that makes fake article appear real... Turns out library page is made programmatically from info on Google scholar 🤦
December 21, 2025 at 7:39 AM
If this is already the normal procedure everywhere, i.e. a google scholar import, universities’ library catalogues will be useless tomorrow.
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Question: When the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division tweets out a false statement about an individual that results in them being barraged with death threats based on their religion and ethnicity, which governmental agency would look into whether that student’s Civil Rights had been infringed?
December 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Question: When the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division tweets out a false statement about an individual that results in them being barraged with death threats based on their religion and ethnicity, which governmental agency would look into whether that student’s Civil Rights had been infringed?
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
While I do think that demolition is plausibly not subject to the National Capital Planning Act they are transparently doing foundation work, which is for sure covered.
Agenda is here:
The other thing that caught my attention is the change to the submission guidelines. I wonder if something shady is going on there.
Also it looks like they’re replacing the district steam system with natural gas?
The other thing that caught my attention is the change to the submission guidelines. I wonder if something shady is going on there.
Also it looks like they’re replacing the district steam system with natural gas?
Agenda & Materials
The agendas and materials for the upcoming Commission meeting are posted to this page. The materials shown on this page will change based on whether the Tentative Agenda or Final Agenda is available.
www.ncpc.gov
December 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM
While I do think that demolition is plausibly not subject to the National Capital Planning Act they are transparently doing foundation work, which is for sure covered.
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
I wrote about some of 2025's big generative AI developments and their implications for historians: multimodal generation, deep research, and handwriting transcription. In short, we need to stop dismissing this as nothing more than "autocomplete on steroids." cblevins.github.io/posts/gen-ai...
Generative AI and History in 2025 | Cameron Blevins
Personal website for Cameron Blevins, Associate Professor, Clinical Teaching Track at University of Colorado Denver
cblevins.github.io
December 19, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I wrote about some of 2025's big generative AI developments and their implications for historians: multimodal generation, deep research, and handwriting transcription. In short, we need to stop dismissing this as nothing more than "autocomplete on steroids." cblevins.github.io/posts/gen-ai...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
After 2 years of trying to track down a specific historic photograph for my next project, I have finally secured the rights to republish it.
December 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
After 2 years of trying to track down a specific historic photograph for my next project, I have finally secured the rights to republish it.
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Carter G. Woodson.
Woodson was born December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, 35 miles south of my home.
In my work as a historian, no historian’s example has served me better than Woodson’s. ...
Woodson was born December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, 35 miles south of my home.
In my work as a historian, no historian’s example has served me better than Woodson’s. ...
December 19, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Carter G. Woodson.
Woodson was born December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, 35 miles south of my home.
In my work as a historian, no historian’s example has served me better than Woodson’s. ...
Woodson was born December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, 35 miles south of my home.
In my work as a historian, no historian’s example has served me better than Woodson’s. ...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
The small, mean world our leaders are building isn’t inevitable. It’s a choice to see immigration as a source of threat rather than possibility. That was part of the story of the lottery that I love, that the admin is trying now to kill.
uncpress.org/978146967304...
uncpress.org/978146967304...
Dreamland
In a world of border walls and obstacles to migration, a lottery where winners can gain permanent residency in the United States sounds too good to be true. ...
uncpress.org
December 19, 2025 at 1:12 PM
The small, mean world our leaders are building isn’t inevitable. It’s a choice to see immigration as a source of threat rather than possibility. That was part of the story of the lottery that I love, that the admin is trying now to kill.
uncpress.org/978146967304...
uncpress.org/978146967304...
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
We are seeking high school counselors and teachers currently teaching humanities subjects in grades 9-12 for a 1 ½ hour online focus group in January--exploring how students make their way into humanities majors. Use this link to take a short eligibility survey by January 5, 2026: bit.ly/4s9KO4Q
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bit.ly
December 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
We are seeking high school counselors and teachers currently teaching humanities subjects in grades 9-12 for a 1 ½ hour online focus group in January--exploring how students make their way into humanities majors. Use this link to take a short eligibility survey by January 5, 2026: bit.ly/4s9KO4Q
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
Beyond proud that Virginia is now represented in the Capitol by Barbara Rose Johns, a trailblazer who led protests against conditions in her school that helped end segregation in the U.S.
December 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Beyond proud that Virginia is now represented in the Capitol by Barbara Rose Johns, a trailblazer who led protests against conditions in her school that helped end segregation in the U.S.
Thinking of the 1990s, when my mother, Emily Fenichel, got to work with Rob Reiner on early childhood development advocacy. Having grown up in the 1950s, she was so proud to be collaborating with "Carl Reiner's son."
December 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Thinking of the 1990s, when my mother, Emily Fenichel, got to work with Rob Reiner on early childhood development advocacy. Having grown up in the 1950s, she was so proud to be collaborating with "Carl Reiner's son."
Reposted by Zachary Schrag
From the Oklahoma U student paper: the school is now saying it will automatically suspend faculty (with pay) in response to student complaints
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
December 13, 2025 at 3:39 PM
From the Oklahoma U student paper: the school is now saying it will automatically suspend faculty (with pay) in response to student complaints
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
www.oudaily.com/news/ou-poli...
Have these people tried putting in a bike lane? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | America Can’t Make What the Military Needs
The U.S. defense industry has lost the ability to build quickly and effectively.
www.nytimes.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Have these people tried putting in a bike lane? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Proud to get an inscribed copy from my friend and colleague @goberle.bsky.social I feel more informed already
December 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Proud to get an inscribed copy from my friend and colleague @goberle.bsky.social I feel more informed already