Rob Rakove
@robrakove.bsky.social
Historian at Stanford University, author of "Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World" and "Days of Opportunity: The United States and Afghanistan Before the Soviet Invasion." It's good to have options.
Pinned
Rob Rakove
@robrakove.bsky.social
· Jan 20
Some days you wrestle with big interpretive questions. Others, you try to determine when and how a few hundred tons of lambskin hides left Karachi.
The lunacy of pretending that *any* presidential speech is devoid of political import.
Truly insane that the networks took this speech live after refusing to do the same for Biden in 2022
In a nationwide address that major US TV networks are carrying live, President Trump announces 1,450,000 military members will receive a "warrior dividend" of $1776 before Christmas.
December 18, 2025 at 5:12 AM
The lunacy of pretending that *any* presidential speech is devoid of political import.
"Experts tell us that though technical change has transformed modern warfare, the coming of the machine does not mean that we shall ever have a robot war from which the primary human elements, courage, heroism, intelligence and morale will have departed."
- FDR, June 12, 1939
- FDR, June 12, 1939
December 16, 2025 at 1:22 AM
"Experts tell us that though technical change has transformed modern warfare, the coming of the machine does not mean that we shall ever have a robot war from which the primary human elements, courage, heroism, intelligence and morale will have departed."
- FDR, June 12, 1939
- FDR, June 12, 1939
Reposted by Rob Rakove
I am a student at Brown in communication with a friend at RIBC.
There is an urgent need for blood donations to support RI. Donations in NY, NJ, MN, NB, DE or NJ can help supply RI.
Spread the word.
www.ribc.org/donate-blood/
There is an urgent need for blood donations to support RI. Donations in NY, NJ, MN, NB, DE or NJ can help supply RI.
Spread the word.
www.ribc.org/donate-blood/
Donate Blood
Check your eligibility to donate blood, learn about the process and why blood matters, and enroll in a RIBC Donor Loyalty Rewards programs.
www.ribc.org
December 13, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I am a student at Brown in communication with a friend at RIBC.
There is an urgent need for blood donations to support RI. Donations in NY, NJ, MN, NB, DE or NJ can help supply RI.
Spread the word.
www.ribc.org/donate-blood/
There is an urgent need for blood donations to support RI. Donations in NY, NJ, MN, NB, DE or NJ can help supply RI.
Spread the word.
www.ribc.org/donate-blood/
The core parts of it don't have to be that lavish. I don't see Biden needing the kind of grandeur on display at the Reagan or Kennedy libraries.
kinda think Biden could do us all a favour and have a simple library at the Uni of Delaware and show the rest up for the ridiculous vanity projects they are
December 13, 2025 at 7:58 PM
The core parts of it don't have to be that lavish. I don't see Biden needing the kind of grandeur on display at the Reagan or Kennedy libraries.
I've spent much time at presidential libraries and can occasionally see some merit to the system. At established libraries, researchers benefit from a wealth of archivist expertise. The better libraries offer research grants to early career scholars. But predicating it all on fundraising is crazy.
“The Biden staff, they ruined any type of good library for him,” Mr. Morgan said. “He’ll be lucky to have a bookmobile.”
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
Biden Has Raised Little of What He Needs to Build a Presidential Library
www.nytimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I've spent much time at presidential libraries and can occasionally see some merit to the system. At established libraries, researchers benefit from a wealth of archivist expertise. The better libraries offer research grants to early career scholars. But predicating it all on fundraising is crazy.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
To compete with superpowers like China, the U.S. military must follow the lead of America’s private sector, writes the editorial board.
To compete with superpowers like China, the U.S. military must follow the lead of America’s private sector, writes the editorial board.
Opinion | America’s Military Needs a Culture Shift
The benefits of serving have never been more appealing, but the Pentagon needs a better approach to recruiting new talent.
nyti.ms
December 13, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Rob Rakove
I am absolutely gutted to hear that Dr. William (Bill) Burr of the
@nsarchive.bsky.social passed away yesterday. Bill was so kind, so generous, and so important to the field of nuclear history. And he was just a great guy on top of everything else. It is a huge loss.
@nsarchive.bsky.social passed away yesterday. Bill was so kind, so generous, and so important to the field of nuclear history. And he was just a great guy on top of everything else. It is a huge loss.
December 12, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I am absolutely gutted to hear that Dr. William (Bill) Burr of the
@nsarchive.bsky.social passed away yesterday. Bill was so kind, so generous, and so important to the field of nuclear history. And he was just a great guy on top of everything else. It is a huge loss.
@nsarchive.bsky.social passed away yesterday. Bill was so kind, so generous, and so important to the field of nuclear history. And he was just a great guy on top of everything else. It is a huge loss.
Reposted by Rob Rakove
The historian and @shafrhistorians.bsky.social member Bill Burr died yesterday after a long fight with cancer. For 35 years he was a senior analyst at the @nsarchive.bsky.social, but this hardly begins to describe his importance to US Foreign Relations historians. nsarchive.gwu.edu/about/staff/...
Dr. William Burr
Dr. William Burr, an Archive Senior Analyst since 1990, directs the Archive's nuclear security documentation project and has led the collection and editorial work to create the award-winning online si...
nsarchive.gwu.edu
December 12, 2025 at 3:22 PM
The historian and @shafrhistorians.bsky.social member Bill Burr died yesterday after a long fight with cancer. For 35 years he was a senior analyst at the @nsarchive.bsky.social, but this hardly begins to describe his importance to US Foreign Relations historians. nsarchive.gwu.edu/about/staff/...
What are goalposts anyway and why keep them in just one place?
lol wut. dropping from 42 percent approval to 36 percent approval seems pretty significant. apnews.com/article/trum...
December 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
What are goalposts anyway and why keep them in just one place?
I hadn't pegged him as a font partisan. It's almost quirky.
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 4:49 AM
I hadn't pegged him as a font partisan. It's almost quirky.
The end of the Cold War was a heady time.
December 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
The end of the Cold War was a heady time.
It's one of those shows that yields new details each time you revisit it.
HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right
December 2, 2025 at 2:06 PM
It's one of those shows that yields new details each time you revisit it.
Improbably, the best Christmas film is a Bret Easton Ellis adaptation.
December 1, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Improbably, the best Christmas film is a Bret Easton Ellis adaptation.
Half off all the books in the Global America series!
Shop big savings! Cyber Monday sale is here! 70% off select books + all others 50% off. Deal ends at midnight ET. @agendapub.bsky.social @columbiabusiness.bsky.social @fernpub.bsky.social @transcript-verlag.bsky.social @barbarabudrich.bsky.social @columbiagsapp.bsky.social @Columbia
Cyber Monday | Columbia University Press
2025 Cyber Monday Sale The sale begins on December 1, 2025, at 12:00 AM EST and ends at 11:59 PM EST, December 1, 2025. Discounts will be automatically applied at checkout. Sale prices cannot be combined...
buff.ly
December 1, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Half off all the books in the Global America series!
Reposted by Rob Rakove
Exactly 80 years ago this precise moment (8:40am Hamburg time, Nov. 30, 1945), German submarine commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck and two of his former subordinates on the U-852 were shot by Allies in Hamburg for killing the survivors of a ship they had sunk. Pete Hagueseth needs to lawyer up immediately.
The Peleus War Crimes Trial
After sinking the Greek steamer Peleus in 1944, the captain ordered his crew to attack the survivors, three sailors survived and faced their attackers in a war crime trial.
www.usni.org
November 30, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Exactly 80 years ago this precise moment (8:40am Hamburg time, Nov. 30, 1945), German submarine commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck and two of his former subordinates on the U-852 were shot by Allies in Hamburg for killing the survivors of a ship they had sunk. Pete Hagueseth needs to lawyer up immediately.
Reposted by Rob Rakove
Forthcoming in February 2026, my new book Replaying the Second World War: Soviet Parallels and Inspirations for Russian Atrocities in the Russo-Ukrainian War, 2014-25, out with ibidem Press and distributed by Columbia University Press. cup.columbia.edu/book/replayi...
Replaying the Second World War | Columbia University Press
Oleksa Drachewych argues that Russia’s instrumentalization of its memory of WWII has played a significant role in leading Russian forces to commit similar ... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
November 13, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Forthcoming in February 2026, my new book Replaying the Second World War: Soviet Parallels and Inspirations for Russian Atrocities in the Russo-Ukrainian War, 2014-25, out with ibidem Press and distributed by Columbia University Press. cup.columbia.edu/book/replayi...
Nor is it a deal. Laundering it is a dubious choice.
The Russia-Ukraine peace deal is not a loss. Nor is it a victory | Stephen Wertheim
The Russia-Ukraine peace deal is not a loss. Nor is it a victory | Stephen Wertheim
The conflict is neither a clear-cut defeat nor a feel-good victory, but an in-between outcome that contains profound elements of each
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Nor is it a deal. Laundering it is a dubious choice.
Dispensing with the entire sequel trilogy would be fine.
I would wipe Rise of Skywalker from continuity and make tony gilroy write the new end to the sequel trilogy. It can be as bleak as he wants it to be bsky.app/profile/benj...
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Dispensing with the entire sequel trilogy would be fine.
Reposted by Rob Rakove
30% off at Yale Press, including my book, Immigration + Apocalypse
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November 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
30% off at Yale Press, including my book, Immigration + Apocalypse
Encountering the Peninsula Times Tribune in the archive:
a man with a beard says now that 's a name i ve not heard in a long time
ALT: a man with a beard says now that 's a name i ve not heard in a long time
media.tenor.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Encountering the Peninsula Times Tribune in the archive:
Biggest case since Mabo.
Australian murderer sues for right to Vegemite behind bars
Andre McKechnie argues the Vegemite ban in Victoria's jails denies him the right to "enjoy his culture".
www.bbc.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Biggest case since Mabo.
Reposted by Rob Rakove
So much of our current era can be explained by the fact that the national press is filled with idiots.
Press is doing a great job of basically doxxing potential jurors
Belatedly: Judge Merchan dismissed Juror #2 this morning (just before the press admonishment at the top of my thread) after she said that on reflection she didn't think she could "avoid outside pressures." She said friends and colleagues had been asking her if she was a juror.
April 18, 2024 at 4:14 PM
So much of our current era can be explained by the fact that the national press is filled with idiots.
Something priceless was lost when we stopped using abstract codenames.
(nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...)
(nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...)
November 23, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Something priceless was lost when we stopped using abstract codenames.
(nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...)
(nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...)
I have a strange hunch about his embassy of choice.
"Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested at his villa in the capital, Brasília, amid suspicions he was poised to abscond to a foreign embassy to avoid going to prison for masterminding a military coup."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Brazilian police arrest Bolsonaro amid suspicions he was about to flee
Politician reportedly taken from his villa into custody at a federal police base about 7 miles from presidential palace
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I have a strange hunch about his embassy of choice.