Scott Sandage
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scottsandage.bsky.social
Scott Sandage
@scottsandage.bsky.social
History isn’t reality, it’s methodology.

Historian. Husband. Iowan. Pittsburgh 🏳️‍🌈🐕🪕⚾️ Wrote a book long ago. Writing another on the Métis Rez in Nebraska. Most useful thing I’ve done is probably https://commonplace.online/article/how-to-read-a-book/
Reposted by Scott Sandage
Exciting news. We’ve got a pub date for the 2nd edition of No Common Ground & it’s in paperback! It’ll be out Feb. 1, 2026 & there’s a 30% discount on preorders by using the code 01SOCIAL30. @uncpress.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism by Charles L. Ponce de Leon

The definitive history of the magazine and a compelling story of how counterculture and capitalism got into bed together and changed American media forever. uncpress.org/978146969439...
Rolling Stone and the Rise of Hip Capitalism
In its early years, Rolling Stone stood out on the magazine rack: an iconoclastic bimonthly aimed at young Americans, dedicated to music, culture, and politi...
uncpress.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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Thy Will Be Done by @johngmarks.com

George Washington’s legacy as both enslaver and emancipator has haunted Americans for nearly 250 years. Marks shows how every generation has rewritten that story to suit its own vision of the nation. uncpress.org/978146969352...
Thy Will Be Done
How should we remember George Washington’s entanglement in slavery? Americans have argued over that question for nearly 250 years. More than any other Foun...
uncpress.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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Cribbed from @scottsandage.bsky.social's great "X-Ray" method, gives you a clear idea from the start what battles the author is fighting and with whom:
How to Read a Book: The X-Ray Method for Achieving a Sustainable “Book-Life Balance” - Commonplace
This is why you need a plan: to read attentively but efficiently, and sustainably, without surrendering your book-life balance.
commonplace.online
November 3, 2025 at 1:29 PM
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An old post from late in my Twitter days. I'm going to have to update this in some fashion for the post-generative AI context, but in that context I think something like it remains important -- perhaps is even more so. I do not think these are skills that should be outsourced, even if they could be
Reading advice for young historians
This is a sheet of reading tips I’ve developed over the past few years for my first-year students in history. I posted it on Twitter yesterday, as a png image and a tweet thread, and it got q…
memoriousblog.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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The framing of this article is deeply anti intellectual, anti Black, antisemitic and islamophobic. There was no sinister a cabal of (((intellectuals))) who magically “influenced” Mamdani, because in college, and I don’t know if the reporter knew this, students choose what courses to take
October 29, 2025 at 12:59 PM
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THANK YOU, LESLIE HARRIS!!!!!!!!!
October 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
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Wonderful remarks at last night's Northwestern faculty assembly by history professor Leslie Harris, urging Northwestern to fight back against $700M+ in (still unexplained!) cuts by the Trump administration.

youtu.be/5xotITMNAaU?...
Leslie Harris, Northwestern University Faculty Assembly, Oct. 15, 2025
YouTube video by Michael Peshkin
youtu.be
October 17, 2025 at 1:42 AM
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Thomas Jefferson,,the founder of UVA professed “hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." The federal “compact” is a form of tyranny. Do the right thing, UVA.
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
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Many, many alums like myself are opposed to UVA signing the "compact," which is designed to destroy the university as a space of free inquiry. It will be a sad day for UVA if the admin goes against the will of its students, faculty, staff, & alums.
Thomas Jefferson,,the founder of UVA professed “hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." The federal “compact” is a form of tyranny. Do the right thing, UVA.
October 17, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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October 16, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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"Don't bite the hook": Northwestern History Professor Leslie Harris tells a gathering of faculty, students and staff that universities including her own need to stand together against the Trump administration's 'fascist, authoritarian takeover' #highered #chicago
October 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
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One of the most interesting methods I've seen.

As a slow reader I've come to something similar through the close reading of structure. (Part of the reason I'm obsessed w/ pics, chronology & index.)

Sandage's x-ray method is fully fleshed out, next level & sympathetic to the process of learning. 🫀
July 28, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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rereading rochelle davis for a thing this afternoon and omfg does it ever hit hard right now
October 16, 2025 at 4:39 PM
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Don’t believe it that faculty members are the problem. Many of them with the most to lose are they very ones putting themselves on the line to directly speak truth to power.

youtu.be/xqLsgqOwNBM?...
Leslie Harris, Northwestern University Faculty Assembly, Oct. 15, 2025
YouTube video by Michael Peshkin
youtu.be
October 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
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Oh, this is so exciting! Thank you @lizcovart.bsky.social for the invitation. And while I'm here, pleased to announce that @uchicagopress.bsky.social is bringing out a paperback in Spring 2026!!!
Today is @bfworld.bsky.social’s 11th Podversary. The first 4 episodes debuted 11 years ago.
So it’s fitting we have a great new episode to celebrate!

How did Northern manufacturers support Southern slavery?

Seth Rockman joins us to talk about “plantation goods” and slavery’s hidden supply chain.
Episode 422: Seth Rockman, Plantation Goods: How Northern Factories Fueled the Plantation Economy
Discover how hoes, shoes, and cloth linked New England factories to Southern slavery in early America with historian Seth Rockman.
benfranklinsworld.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Teaching a favorite session today on #FrederickDouglass #Narrative — after decades of scrounging cheap original printings (1799 - 1832) of the #ColumbianOrator … I finally have enough to give one to each student & say, DISCUSS: What kinds of things could an enslaved teenager learn with this book?
September 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
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Excited to hear that Jeff Hiller won an Emmy for his work in Somebody, Somewhere. He was so fantastic in that show. What a charmer, too. A beautiful show that was all about small stuff and small moments in a small town that felt real and lived in.
September 15, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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If Jeff Hiller's charming Emmy acceptance speech is the first you're hearing about SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, you really owe yourself to check it out. It's been my show of the year two years running: newrepublic.com/article/1875...
The Glorious Swan Song of Somebody Somewhere
The HBO show, in its third and final season, is a a miniature epic about grief and acceptance.
newrepublic.com
September 15, 2025 at 6:23 PM
www.npr.org/2025/09/06/g... Drum rolls and fanfares for Lt. James Reese Europe and his Harlem Hellfighters Band, which I learned all about in the amazing book Stomp & Swerve by @davidwondrich.bsky.social
🎶🎺🪕🥁🎷🎵
Amid debate about U.S. history, Harlem Hellfighters receive Congressional Gold Medal
The Harlem Hellfighters, who became legends for their service during World War I, were honored this week with a Congressional Gold Medal.
www.npr.org
September 6, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Tomorrow morning on my live podcast, “History Matters:”

Standing Up Matters!

We’ve seen a lot of push back this week from people in high places.

And it matters—more than you might think.

Join us for some reckoning.

Friday 10AM ET
NCHEteach.org/conversations
Conversations
NCHEteach.org
August 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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That’s exactly the point why faculty claim syllabi are their intellectual work. If you need AI to build a syllabus for you, you shouldn’t be teaching a class.

Syllabi represent YOUR pedagogical approach (or one built *hopefully* by your department with thought to building student knowledge). 6/🧵
August 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM