Jurretta Heckscher
@jurretta.bsky.social
Cultural historian & writer; ret. Early American Specialist, Main Reading Rm., Lib. of Congress. Orthodox Christian; politics follow Matt. 25:31-46. Lover of arts & natural world (N. America & Brit. Isles). Stop climate change, or little else will matter.
Pinned
Have historians made a huge mistake? We assume we know how people felt in past times: pretty much the way we would under the same circumstances. These maverick scholars make a powerful case that our assumption is fundamentally unwarranted.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
A Radical New Approach to Human History
The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow
www.theatlantic.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Have historians made a huge mistake? We assume we know how people felt in past times: pretty much the way we would under the same circumstances. These maverick scholars make a powerful case that our assumption is fundamentally unwarranted.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
NEW: Infectious diseases like malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis are considered to pose a major challenge to global health.
The study warns that climate change, poverty, and drug resistance are combining to create a rising crisis - a potential 'creeping catastrophe' if ignored.
The study warns that climate change, poverty, and drug resistance are combining to create a rising crisis - a potential 'creeping catastrophe' if ignored.
New study warns of 'creeping catastrophy' as climate change drives a
Infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis are considered to pose as great a challenge to global health as new or emerging pathogens, according to a major international study led
www.ox.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 1:43 PM
NEW: Infectious diseases like malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis are considered to pose a major challenge to global health.
The study warns that climate change, poverty, and drug resistance are combining to create a rising crisis - a potential 'creeping catastrophe' if ignored.
The study warns that climate change, poverty, and drug resistance are combining to create a rising crisis - a potential 'creeping catastrophe' if ignored.
Busted!
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 24, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Busted!
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
What if Mamdani was *too* charming and Trump starts calling him all the time and inviting him to parties at Mar A Lago and he has to go hang out with him constantly because otherwise Trump will nuke NYC.
November 21, 2025 at 10:30 PM
What if Mamdani was *too* charming and Trump starts calling him all the time and inviting him to parties at Mar A Lago and he has to go hang out with him constantly because otherwise Trump will nuke NYC.
So it’s now okay to display swastikas and nooses in the Coast Guard.
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 PM
So it’s now okay to display swastikas and nooses in the Coast Guard.
Oh, no.
From the Washington Post:
From the Washington Post:
November 20, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Oh, no.
From the Washington Post:
From the Washington Post:
Morning on North Carolina’s Outer Banks….
November 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Morning on North Carolina’s Outer Banks….
Was I the only one who read this headline and thought, “What?!? The music he wrote is glorious!”
November 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Was I the only one who read this headline and thought, “What?!? The music he wrote is glorious!”
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
Browse and save on all books and journal issues in #AmericanStudies or any other discipline! Through Jan 1, 2026, save 40% when you use code ASA25 at checkout on our website or that of our UK partner, MNG. #ASA2025 buff.ly/qKlJ459
November 20, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Browse and save on all books and journal issues in #AmericanStudies or any other discipline! Through Jan 1, 2026, save 40% when you use code ASA25 at checkout on our website or that of our UK partner, MNG. #ASA2025 buff.ly/qKlJ459
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
Beautiful Tulip Staircase at the Queen’s House in London
November 11, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Beautiful Tulip Staircase at the Queen’s House in London
I did not know that Oxford now has a center (centre) called the Environmental Humanities Research Hub.
Its existence delights me.
Its existence delights me.
Our inaugural flagship lecture with @brdemuth.bsky.social was an absolute banger: co-working between humans and dogs, fish who punish humans for their hubris, and the political work of advocating for a transboundary landscape caught in the cross-hairs of US-Canada relations. We all learned so much.
November 8, 2025 at 7:18 AM
I did not know that Oxford now has a center (centre) called the Environmental Humanities Research Hub.
Its existence delights me.
Its existence delights me.
Women guarding the Earth! What a powerful inspiration!
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indi...
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indi...
Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her woo...
news.mongabay.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Women guarding the Earth! What a powerful inspiration!
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indi...
news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indi...
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
"Traditional" cultural criticism feels like a dying art, Will Gottsegen writes in The Atlantic Daily. He talks with Spencer Kornhaber about where the medium goes from here:
The Forces Changing Music and Film Criticism
The industry is being transformed in the era of YouTube video essays and TikTok screeds.
bit.ly
October 26, 2025 at 9:15 AM
"Traditional" cultural criticism feels like a dying art, Will Gottsegen writes in The Atlantic Daily. He talks with Spencer Kornhaber about where the medium goes from here:
Reposted by Jurretta Heckscher
What makes Canadians different?
Here's an example: excited fans celebrate the Blue Jays' victory by pouring onto one of the busiest intersections in our biggest city (Toronto), then politely moving to the sidewalks to allow traffic to continue by unimpeded.
Here's an example: excited fans celebrate the Blue Jays' victory by pouring onto one of the busiest intersections in our biggest city (Toronto), then politely moving to the sidewalks to allow traffic to continue by unimpeded.
At Yonge & Dundas Jays fans are obeying the pedestrian scramble, as is the custom & returning to sidewalk each light cycle.
October 21, 2025 at 12:11 PM
What makes Canadians different?
Here's an example: excited fans celebrate the Blue Jays' victory by pouring onto one of the busiest intersections in our biggest city (Toronto), then politely moving to the sidewalks to allow traffic to continue by unimpeded.
Here's an example: excited fans celebrate the Blue Jays' victory by pouring onto one of the busiest intersections in our biggest city (Toronto), then politely moving to the sidewalks to allow traffic to continue by unimpeded.
This is going to be a really important book, greatly enlarging the lens through which we must understand the origins and legal scaffolding that structured American slavery. So glad to learn that it’s almost here! Congratulations, @earlymodjustice.bsky.social !
Thanks. It’s in production!
Princeton university press just tweaked the title.
It’s called
“The Kings’ Slaves:
The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery”
So excited to share original research.
Honestly can’t believe how much there was to discover, and still is…
Princeton university press just tweaked the title.
It’s called
“The Kings’ Slaves:
The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery”
So excited to share original research.
Honestly can’t believe how much there was to discover, and still is…
October 16, 2025 at 4:06 AM
This is going to be a really important book, greatly enlarging the lens through which we must understand the origins and legal scaffolding that structured American slavery. So glad to learn that it’s almost here! Congratulations, @earlymodjustice.bsky.social !
I find this [free] article literally nauseating. I hope & believe I have more values in common with the Indigenous peoples of the Papua New Guinea rainforest than I do with Donald Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People
www.nytimes.com
October 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I find this [free] article literally nauseating. I hope & believe I have more values in common with the Indigenous peoples of the Papua New Guinea rainforest than I do with Donald Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
When I celebrated those terrific Atlantic articles yesterday, I neglected to give the Bluesky names for the authors who have them. They are: Clint Smith, @clintsmithiii.bsky.social; and Annette Gordon-Reed,
@agordonreed.bsky.social
Follow them!
@agordonreed.bsky.social
Follow them!
October 12, 2025 at 4:34 PM
When I celebrated those terrific Atlantic articles yesterday, I neglected to give the Bluesky names for the authors who have them. They are: Clint Smith, @clintsmithiii.bsky.social; and Annette Gordon-Reed,
@agordonreed.bsky.social
Follow them!
@agordonreed.bsky.social
Follow them!
(4) best of all, Annette Gordon-Reed’s brilliantly expansive analysis of what Black Americans have made of the American Revolution, which deserves to be a reference text for all our commemorations in the year to come: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Whose Independence?
The question of what Jefferson meant by “all men” has defined American law and politics for too long.
www.theatlantic.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
(4) best of all, Annette Gordon-Reed’s brilliantly expansive analysis of what Black Americans have made of the American Revolution, which deserves to be a reference text for all our commemorations in the year to come: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
(3) Clint Smith’s probing, painful, utterly necessary illumination of the Black presence in Colonial Williamsburg, past and present, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
What Is Colonial Williamsburg For?
Telling the full story of the town’s past is an easy way to make a lot of people mad.
www.theatlantic.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:45 PM
(3) Clint Smith’s probing, painful, utterly necessary illumination of the Black presence in Colonial Williamsburg, past and present, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
(2) Jane Kamensky’s review of Amanda Vaill’s new biography of the Schuyler sisters (yes, those Schuyler sisters), which moves out from the book to a searching appraisal of women’s history;
October 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
(2) Jane Kamensky’s review of Amanda Vaill’s new biography of the Schuyler sisters (yes, those Schuyler sisters), which moves out from the book to a searching appraisal of women’s history;
(1) Brilliant, wide-angled insights into Revolutionary-era American history and its meanings just out in the November issue of The Atlantic @theatlantic.com. Three pieces in particular stand out:
October 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
(1) Brilliant, wide-angled insights into Revolutionary-era American history and its meanings just out in the November issue of The Atlantic @theatlantic.com. Three pieces in particular stand out:
I’m a lifelong Phillies fan.
There is only one piece of writing I want to read tonight, and it is this:
mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...
There is only one piece of writing I want to read tonight, and it is this:
mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...
Giamatti: The Green Fields of the Mind
Joan Daugherty's personal home page.
mason.gmu.edu
October 10, 2025 at 2:47 AM
I’m a lifelong Phillies fan.
There is only one piece of writing I want to read tonight, and it is this:
mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...
There is only one piece of writing I want to read tonight, and it is this:
mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giama...