Robert Paulett
@robertpaulett.bsky.social
Historian of early America and bits of Britain. Apostate southerner. Yells about maps, St. Louis, and higher ed.
Pinned
Quick intro for new followers: I teach broadly in the histories of early modern North America and the world. I study the visual and material underpinnings of imperial political systems in 18th-century Britain/North America. In general, the weirder the argument, the happier I am.
Many years ago Wonkette summed DC as “the city of the almost pretty and the almost famous” and nothing has continued to provide more insight.
November 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Many years ago Wonkette summed DC as “the city of the almost pretty and the almost famous” and nothing has continued to provide more insight.
This morning’s breakfast companion at the cafe. Ideal company.
November 22, 2025 at 9:44 AM
This morning’s breakfast companion at the cafe. Ideal company.
How’re you going to get all that product across the water?
November 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
How’re you going to get all that product across the water?
And they are also obsessed with those places. Morning, noon, and night on Facebook probing every rumor, commenting on every news story to make themselves mad again and again.
Yep, it’s funny when you travel and meet people, and somehow every state and region has a funny quirk of hating the place that has the most Black people nearby.
shit, speaking as a missiouri resident, if theres two places republicans despise in this state its Kansas City and St Louis
November 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
And they are also obsessed with those places. Morning, noon, and night on Facebook probing every rumor, commenting on every news story to make themselves mad again and again.
Always a special day in a nerd’s life when you get invited to the staff entrance at your favorite museum.
November 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Always a special day in a nerd’s life when you get invited to the staff entrance at your favorite museum.
Now it’s a real trip.
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Now it’s a real trip.
That “sustainable” age (for me the 1990s) did have deep, buried costs we need to reckon with, though.
the world that was stolen from us is difficult to even imagine, for folks living now
the cheapness of rent, the ability to support yrself and yr ambitions, or to go to school, on a single low wage job
the sustainability of life that we haven't had in generations
the cheapness of rent, the ability to support yrself and yr ambitions, or to go to school, on a single low wage job
the sustainability of life that we haven't had in generations
there were periods where you could have a part time service job that covered college classes and rent! so often i'd read about artists in the 60s and 70s who also paid for studio spaces they could stock with supplies, who had the leisure time to party and create their great works. robbed, i tell ya!
November 19, 2025 at 10:43 AM
That “sustainable” age (for me the 1990s) did have deep, buried costs we need to reckon with, though.
Back on some bullshit.
November 18, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Back on some bullshit.
I should really log off Bluesky before I get this ETA revoked by the Home Office.
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I should really log off Bluesky before I get this ETA revoked by the Home Office.
Historiographically speaking, one of the most convenient outcomes of the American Revolution was it allowed each nation to blame the other for this great human crime.
holy shit: “Among the 2,000 UK adults surveyed, 85% were unaware that Britain forcibly transported more than 3 million Africans to the Caribbean, 89% did not know that Britain enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Caribbean reparations leaders in ‘historic’ first UK visit to press for justice
CRC mission will seek to deepen public understanding of Britain’s colonial legacy and its lasting impact
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Historiographically speaking, one of the most convenient outcomes of the American Revolution was it allowed each nation to blame the other for this great human crime.
When you’ve spent a lifetime internalizing 3rd Way’s core proposition that “leadership sometimes requires cruelty” it makes sense you come to believe its reciprocal that “being cruel means you sometimes get to be leader.”
The Sun has been told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will on Monday propose confiscating jewellery, watches, necklaces from asylum seekers to meet asylum costs
This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
This reflects the most controversial aspect of the Danish scheme - the Jewellery Law. The toughest Labour MPs thought this was OTT
November 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
When you’ve spent a lifetime internalizing 3rd Way’s core proposition that “leadership sometimes requires cruelty” it makes sense you come to believe its reciprocal that “being cruel means you sometimes get to be leader.”
I for one could never follow a nepo baby of the bourgeois elite. I’d rather follow a true revolutionary like a Lenin, a Guevara, a Castro, a Robespierre, or at the very least an FD Roosevelt.
downwardly mobile educated alienated elite-adjacents clearly are a large part of the contemporary american left's constituency, but it's such a stupid thing to have a complex about or considering particularly damming. read like any history book ever about who starts political movements.
November 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I for one could never follow a nepo baby of the bourgeois elite. I’d rather follow a true revolutionary like a Lenin, a Guevara, a Castro, a Robespierre, or at the very least an FD Roosevelt.
What all this has made clear is that we need not just more democracy-friendly media in general but more democracy-friendly tabloids, in particular.
November 13, 2025 at 5:47 PM
What all this has made clear is that we need not just more democracy-friendly media in general but more democracy-friendly tabloids, in particular.
So not so much “woke went too far” as “woke got too close.”
November 13, 2025 at 11:59 AM
So not so much “woke went too far” as “woke got too close.”
My god, after today of all days, why would you not want to look to the sky and see something rare and beautiful and worth remembering?
Please don't drag anyone for posting even not-great photos of the Northern Lights. I'm stuck inside at work tonight and wish I could see them. I'm loving these photos.
November 13, 2025 at 4:35 AM
My god, after today of all days, why would you not want to look to the sky and see something rare and beautiful and worth remembering?
Sorry to all my friends who’ve ever been associated with them, but the Ivy League has to go, too.
I have to tell you what really happened to the plums...
Elise New seems to have offered them to Woody Allen in exchange for his involvement with her edX MOOC.
One creepy slimey scammy thing after another in those files.
(via splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app)
Elise New seems to have offered them to Woody Allen in exchange for his involvement with her edX MOOC.
One creepy slimey scammy thing after another in those files.
(via splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app)
November 13, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Sorry to all my friends who’ve ever been associated with them, but the Ivy League has to go, too.
And here we all thought American elites just wanted Trump reelected because they really like tax cuts.
November 13, 2025 at 3:19 AM
And here we all thought American elites just wanted Trump reelected because they really like tax cuts.
Power doesn’t only corrupt; it infantilizes.
Seen a few of the epstein emails now, all with different people and it's not the main issue here but is everyone illiterate
November 12, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Power doesn’t only corrupt; it infantilizes.
Reagan destroyed our entire public sector so that rich people like this could lift us up with their wealth.
November 12, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reagan destroyed our entire public sector so that rich people like this could lift us up with their wealth.
I do not know who in this family ate one (1) hot dug bun without eating one (1) corresponding hot dog but if I ever find out they’re getting written out of the will.
November 12, 2025 at 12:45 AM
I do not know who in this family ate one (1) hot dug bun without eating one (1) corresponding hot dog but if I ever find out they’re getting written out of the will.
“Montclair will maintain its longstanding commitment to affordability by granting more than $42 million in institutional aid, the highest total in University history.”
I think I found your problem there, respected members of the board.
I think I found your problem there, respected members of the board.
November 11, 2025 at 8:08 PM
“Montclair will maintain its longstanding commitment to affordability by granting more than $42 million in institutional aid, the highest total in University history.”
I think I found your problem there, respected members of the board.
I think I found your problem there, respected members of the board.
Really should be clear by now that there’s a vernacular constitution that is essentially “what a majority of white men think the government is” and that is what they mean when they use that word.
Trump on Ilhan Omar: "I look at somebody who comes from Somalia...and she comes in and tells us how to run our country. 'The Constitution says this, the Constitution says that.' The whole thing is crazy."
November 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Really should be clear by now that there’s a vernacular constitution that is essentially “what a majority of white men think the government is” and that is what they mean when they use that word.
Some folks on my campus hope we can house the Durbin papers and I cannot think of a more depressing archive to read through.
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
November 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Some folks on my campus hope we can house the Durbin papers and I cannot think of a more depressing archive to read through.
Sorry, five days.
Schumer is absolutely going to announce a shutdown deal two days after Mamdani’s victory to “rescue” the party brand from associations with “radicalism.”
Q: It's election day in NYC. Did you vote for Mamdani or Cuomo?
Schumer: "Look, I voted, and I look forward to working with the next mayor to help NYC."
Schumer: "Look, I voted, and I look forward to working with the next mayor to help NYC."
November 9, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Sorry, five days.