Josh Specht
@joshspecht.bsky.social
Historian at the University of Notre Dame, author of Red Meat Republic, a book about 🍖. Almost done with another book, still not sure what it's about.
I've been making some videos with advice for grad students / first time TAs and teachers. They're mostly based on old blog posts for my website, but I've found it helpful to record something I can share. My first one is advice for running a discussion section...
Teaching advice: how to survive your first class discussion
YouTube video by Joshua Specht
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
I've been making some videos with advice for grad students / first time TAs and teachers. They're mostly based on old blog posts for my website, but I've found it helpful to record something I can share. My first one is advice for running a discussion section...
Reposted by Josh Specht
Really enjoyed recording this discussion with David Runciman, covering threats to democracy, early 20thc theories of oligarchy, how algorithmic social media is changing politics, the problem with 19thc approaches to suffrage - and much, much more!
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
In today’s episode David & @dmk1793.bsky.social try to answer some of the hundreds of questions, comments and suggestions we have had about this series. How do we know if democracy is broken? Have we ever had a real democracy anyway?
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
In today’s episode David & @dmk1793.bsky.social try to answer some of the hundreds of questions, comments and suggestions we have had about this series. How do we know if democracy is broken? Have we ever had a real democracy anyway?
Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Really enjoyed recording this discussion with David Runciman, covering threats to democracy, early 20thc theories of oligarchy, how algorithmic social media is changing politics, the problem with 19thc approaches to suffrage - and much, much more!
Reposted by Josh Specht
In 1904, Henry Dwight Sedgwick imagined America plagued by corruption, riots, and economic collapse in The Atlantic. Jake Lundberg revisits Sedgwick’s writing in Time-Travel Thursdays:
A Frightening American Fable
The Atlantic writer who previewed an unmoored country
bit.ly
October 25, 2025 at 8:15 AM
In 1904, Henry Dwight Sedgwick imagined America plagued by corruption, riots, and economic collapse in The Atlantic. Jake Lundberg revisits Sedgwick’s writing in Time-Travel Thursdays:
What a loss :(
American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies at age 29
No cause of death was given in a statement from the family of Naroditsky, who became a grandmaster in 2013 and was known as a popular commentator
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:48 PM
What a loss :(
Reposted by Josh Specht
The winner of the JHI’s 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize for the best first book in intellectual history is Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for Required Reading: The Life of Everyday Texts in the British Empire!
@princetonupress.bsky.social
@princetonupress.bsky.social
Congratulations to Priyasha Mukhopadhyay, winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize!
Announcing the winner of the JHI's 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize.
web.sas.upenn.edu
October 16, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The winner of the JHI’s 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize for the best first book in intellectual history is Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for Required Reading: The Life of Everyday Texts in the British Empire!
@princetonupress.bsky.social
@princetonupress.bsky.social
Reposted by Josh Specht
The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade the American mind, Jake Lundberg writes in Time-Travel Thursdays.
The Birth of the Attention Economy
The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century remade how Americans engaged with the world.
bit.ly
August 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade the American mind, Jake Lundberg writes in Time-Travel Thursdays.
We are hiring in 20C U.S. political history (tenure track)! Feel free to get in touch with questions. Deadline: Oct 1. networks.h-net.org/jobs/68888/u...
University of Notre Dame - Assistant Professor, 20th-Century U.S. Political History (tenure track) | H-Net
networks.h-net.org
July 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
We are hiring in 20C U.S. political history (tenure track)! Feel free to get in touch with questions. Deadline: Oct 1. networks.h-net.org/jobs/68888/u...
Reposted by Josh Specht
In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex.
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
July 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex.
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
They're practically giving this thing away!!
In Red Meat Republic, Joshua Specht tells the story of how beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex.
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
For a limited time, you can get this compelling and unfailingly enjoyable #audiobook for just $2.99/£2.99: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
#History #ListenUP
July 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
They're practically giving this thing away!!
Reposted by Josh Specht
King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus. A marvelously illustrated look at everything we now know about the fearsome king of the dinosaurs. #dinosaurs #naturalhistory
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
June 7, 2025 at 8:16 PM
King Tyrant draws on the latest discoveries to offer a modern understanding of Tyrannosaurus. A marvelously illustrated look at everything we now know about the fearsome king of the dinosaurs. #dinosaurs #naturalhistory
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Reposted by Josh Specht
The Journal of the Civil War Era will have a special issue on political economy edited by me, @maggor.bsky.social, Sofia Valeonti & Nicolas Barreyre. I'll post again when the link is up on the Muster, but wanted to get the word out now. See CFP. Submission deadline is April 25. 🗃️
March 20, 2025 at 3:47 PM
The Journal of the Civil War Era will have a special issue on political economy edited by me, @maggor.bsky.social, Sofia Valeonti & Nicolas Barreyre. I'll post again when the link is up on the Muster, but wanted to get the word out now. See CFP. Submission deadline is April 25. 🗃️
thought leader to idea doofus pipeline
March 19, 2025 at 7:47 PM
thought leader to idea doofus pipeline
One of the greatest www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/f...
Boris Spassky obituary
Russian chess world champion who lost to Bobby Fischer in the sport’s most famous match at the peak of the cold war
www.theguardian.com
March 5, 2025 at 1:03 AM
One of the greatest www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/f...
Reposted by Josh Specht
Sophie Rosenfeld’s Age of Choice is an Editors’ Choice (!) @nytimes.com:
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
February 14, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Sophie Rosenfeld’s Age of Choice is an Editors’ Choice (!) @nytimes.com:
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
Reposted by Josh Specht
please share widely!
🚨I'm thrilled to share that @wadhamoxford, in collaboration with @OxfordHistory Faculty, has established the Koch History Centre, an Institute of Advanced Studies for History. The Centre will support 12 junior and senior fellows. This year's theme: "Religion and the State." Please consider applying!
February 10, 2025 at 8:48 PM
please share widely!
Reposted by Josh Specht
In our very first episode we sit down with historian @joshspecht.bsky.social.
We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more!
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...
We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more!
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...
Joshua Specht on the History of American Beef
Episode 1 of the Animal History Podcast!
animalhistorypodcast.substack.com
February 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
In our very first episode we sit down with historian @joshspecht.bsky.social.
We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more!
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...
We discuss Native American bison hunting, Chicago meatpacking, cowboy cattle-ranching and more!
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or find a full transcript at animalhistorypodcast.substack.com/p/joshua-spe...
Very cool to see my book in Chinese!
January 30, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Very cool to see my book in Chinese!
what a title!
In Man-Devil, @johnjocallanan.bsky.social examines Bernard Mandeville & his famous fable, showing how its contentious claim—that vice was essential to the economic flourishing of any society—formed part of Mandeville’s theory of human nature.
Read a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Read a free sample: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
January 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
what a title!
-20C and we've got ice on the INSIDE of the back window...prob need some better insulation back there
January 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
-20C and we've got ice on the INSIDE of the back window...prob need some better insulation back there
Reposted by Josh Specht
for those who would like to take their minds off of ... other things today, here's a thread on the oil spillovers special issue that I guest-edited at History+Technology:
www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4...
1/x
www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4...
1/x
History and Technology
Oil Spillovers. Guest Editor: Cyrus Mody. Volume 40, Issue 3 of History and Technology
www.tandfonline.com
January 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
for those who would like to take their minds off of ... other things today, here's a thread on the oil spillovers special issue that I guest-edited at History+Technology:
www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4...
1/x
www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghat20/4...
1/x
-18C in South Bend today! Missing Melbourne for sure
January 20, 2025 at 1:19 PM
-18C in South Bend today! Missing Melbourne for sure
Also no stranger feeling than finishing a long book that has absolutely consumed your life and you don't really have anyone to talk about it with and its hard to persuade someone to read it.
January 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Also no stranger feeling than finishing a long book that has absolutely consumed your life and you don't really have anyone to talk about it with and its hard to persuade someone to read it.
Finished Grossman's Stalingrad and one of the strangest and most memorable aspects of the ending is a woman fighting on the front who receives a care package including silk stockings from American women. Was this a thing? (p. 893 NYRB edition)
January 19, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Finished Grossman's Stalingrad and one of the strangest and most memorable aspects of the ending is a woman fighting on the front who receives a care package including silk stockings from American women. Was this a thing? (p. 893 NYRB edition)
Reposted by Josh Specht
Reposted by Josh Specht
