T. J. Stiles
@tj-stiles.bsky.social
American historian and biographer.
Pulitzer Prize for History for "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America"
Pulitzer Prize for Biography & National Book Award for Nonfiction for "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt”
Pulitzer Prize for History for "Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America"
Pulitzer Prize for Biography & National Book Award for Nonfiction for "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt”
Trump must wake up every afternoon and ask himself, “What’s the most evil way I can carry out the most evil policies imaginable?”
November 29, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Trump must wake up every afternoon and ask himself, “What’s the most evil way I can carry out the most evil policies imaginable?”
The Stiles Thanksgiving tradition of squash buns continues.
November 26, 2025 at 10:39 PM
The Stiles Thanksgiving tradition of squash buns continues.
My father, Cliff Stiles, with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carleton College, beginning of fall semester, 1952. He arranged to bring Ike to Carleton to speak to America’s you—one of his proudest moments. I still have the poster Ike signed for him.
November 25, 2025 at 11:32 PM
My father, Cliff Stiles, with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carleton College, beginning of fall semester, 1952. He arranged to bring Ike to Carleton to speak to America’s you—one of his proudest moments. I still have the poster Ike signed for him.
This is insane. The judge asked the defense attorney in the Comey case about how the defense was characterizing the prosecutor, the Insurance Lawyer Until Just Now. And the Insurance Lawyer Until Just Now went to the press to denounce the judge for attacking her…by asking the question. From WaPo:
November 23, 2025 at 7:48 AM
This is insane. The judge asked the defense attorney in the Comey case about how the defense was characterizing the prosecutor, the Insurance Lawyer Until Just Now. And the Insurance Lawyer Until Just Now went to the press to denounce the judge for attacking her…by asking the question. From WaPo:
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
When the gales of November come early
November 23, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
When the gales of November come early
Next the administration will order Jews to wear an external identifier, say a Star of David. You know, to help protect them from discrimination.
November 23, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Next the administration will order Jews to wear an external identifier, say a Star of David. You know, to help protect them from discrimination.
Oh what a surprise.
Like I said, we’re one Alito flag-raising away from SCOTUS’s ruling that all districts *must* be gerrymandered to eliminate minority representation.
Like I said, we’re one Alito flag-raising away from SCOTUS’s ruling that all districts *must* be gerrymandered to eliminate minority representation.
November 22, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Oh what a surprise.
Like I said, we’re one Alito flag-raising away from SCOTUS’s ruling that all districts *must* be gerrymandered to eliminate minority representation.
Like I said, we’re one Alito flag-raising away from SCOTUS’s ruling that all districts *must* be gerrymandered to eliminate minority representation.
If you want to read a truly fascinating first-person account of Reconstruction in Mississippi, here it is. Union vet Albert T. Morgan settled in Yazoo County to farm and got drawn into politics. Changed state law to marry a Black woman. Forced out in the 1875 insurrection. Free:
tinyurl.com/2ptp67ck
tinyurl.com/2ptp67ck
November 22, 2025 at 12:22 AM
If you want to read a truly fascinating first-person account of Reconstruction in Mississippi, here it is. Union vet Albert T. Morgan settled in Yazoo County to farm and got drawn into politics. Changed state law to marry a Black woman. Forced out in the 1875 insurrection. Free:
tinyurl.com/2ptp67ck
tinyurl.com/2ptp67ck
Please, calm down. The Trump administration’s position is simple:
If you criticize a specific policy of a specific Israeli prime minister, you’re no different than someone calling for the annihilation of Israel.
If you have a swastika tattoo, well, boys will be boys.
Hope that clears things up.
If you criticize a specific policy of a specific Israeli prime minister, you’re no different than someone calling for the annihilation of Israel.
If you have a swastika tattoo, well, boys will be boys.
Hope that clears things up.
November 20, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Please, calm down. The Trump administration’s position is simple:
If you criticize a specific policy of a specific Israeli prime minister, you’re no different than someone calling for the annihilation of Israel.
If you have a swastika tattoo, well, boys will be boys.
Hope that clears things up.
If you criticize a specific policy of a specific Israeli prime minister, you’re no different than someone calling for the annihilation of Israel.
If you have a swastika tattoo, well, boys will be boys.
Hope that clears things up.
...a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. Not only did Cleveland fire the Black Republican political appointees, his Southern underlings sacked Black civil servants, many of them women, who were hired under the merit system. TR investigated this as civil service commissioner. It was naked racism...
November 20, 2025 at 7:45 PM
...a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. Not only did Cleveland fire the Black Republican political appointees, his Southern underlings sacked Black civil servants, many of them women, who were hired under the merit system. TR investigated this as civil service commissioner. It was naked racism...
...majority. In Reconstruction it had a thriving biracial government led by Republicans. It was overthrown in a shrewd and highly lethal armed revolution masterminded by L. Q. C. Lamar. When Democrat Grover Cleveland won election, he brought in many white supremacists from the South & made Lamar...
November 20, 2025 at 7:45 PM
...majority. In Reconstruction it had a thriving biracial government led by Republicans. It was overthrown in a shrewd and highly lethal armed revolution masterminded by L. Q. C. Lamar. When Democrat Grover Cleveland won election, he brought in many white supremacists from the South & made Lamar...
My final thought is of Blanche K. Bruce, who in DBL stands in for all the Black politicians in Gilded Age America. Why, you ask, would a U.S. Senator want to move down to be Register of the Treasury? Because the federal government stopped protecting Black voters' rights. Mississippi had a Black...
November 20, 2025 at 7:45 PM
My final thought is of Blanche K. Bruce, who in DBL stands in for all the Black politicians in Gilded Age America. Why, you ask, would a U.S. Senator want to move down to be Register of the Treasury? Because the federal government stopped protecting Black voters' rights. Mississippi had a Black...
It was actually Platt's idea. To get elected senator (by the state legislature at the time), he promised Chauncey Depew, power broker & counsel for the mighty New York Central Railroad, he'd vote to confirm all of Garfield's appointments. That put him in a bind when Garfield defied Conkling...
6/14
6/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
It was actually Platt's idea. To get elected senator (by the state legislature at the time), he promised Chauncey Depew, power broker & counsel for the mighty New York Central Railroad, he'd vote to confirm all of Garfield's appointments. That put him in a bind when Garfield defied Conkling...
6/14
6/14
Let's start with the real story behind why he and Conkling resigned. Many historians get this wrong, because contemporaries did. The show has Conkling dragooning a hapless Platt into resigning. Newspapers gave him the mocking nickname "Me Too" at the time. Kansas City Star, July 6, 1881:
5/14
5/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Let's start with the real story behind why he and Conkling resigned. Many historians get this wrong, because contemporaries did. The show has Conkling dragooning a hapless Platt into resigning. Newspapers gave him the mocking nickname "Me Too" at the time. Kansas City Star, July 6, 1881:
5/14
5/14
But now we come to the ballad of Thomas C. Platt. The depiction of Roscoe Conkling's fellow senator was bonkers. It was total fiction—as if someone depicted Lyndon B. Johnson as an agreeable doofus who mostly played with kittens. Platt was one of the smartest, toughest politicians in history.
4/14
4/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
But now we come to the ballad of Thomas C. Platt. The depiction of Roscoe Conkling's fellow senator was bonkers. It was total fiction—as if someone depicted Lyndon B. Johnson as an agreeable doofus who mostly played with kittens. Platt was one of the smartest, toughest politicians in history.
4/14
4/14
The depiction of the shooting & medical malpractice was accurate. In fact, it could have played up the doctor's ineptitude even more. It was years since Dr. Joseph Lister discovered a carbolic acid solution could prevent infection. Candice Millard's "Destiny of the Republic" is great on this.
3/14
3/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The depiction of the shooting & medical malpractice was accurate. In fact, it could have played up the doctor's ineptitude even more. It was years since Dr. Joseph Lister discovered a carbolic acid solution could prevent infection. Candice Millard's "Destiny of the Republic" is great on this.
3/14
3/14
First, again, you're right to love DBL. In this episode, Betty Gilpin's amazing performance at Lucretia Garfield stole the show. Historically she wasn't as much of a face-slapping F-bomb-dropper as the show would have it, but that's fine. Guiteau shrank into dangerous lunatic. It's inevitable.
2/14
2/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
First, again, you're right to love DBL. In this episode, Betty Gilpin's amazing performance at Lucretia Garfield stole the show. Historically she wasn't as much of a face-slapping F-bomb-dropper as the show would have it, but that's fine. Guiteau shrank into dangerous lunatic. It's inevitable.
2/14
2/14
Death by Lightning conclusions: Episode 4!
It wrapped up nicely. I've got no beef with changing facts to suit the storytelling needs of an adaptation. I am not criticizing the show—more historically based dramas of this quality, please!
In terms of history—hoo boy. Did it diverge. Yow.
1/14
It wrapped up nicely. I've got no beef with changing facts to suit the storytelling needs of an adaptation. I am not criticizing the show—more historically based dramas of this quality, please!
In terms of history—hoo boy. Did it diverge. Yow.
1/14
November 20, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Death by Lightning conclusions: Episode 4!
It wrapped up nicely. I've got no beef with changing facts to suit the storytelling needs of an adaptation. I am not criticizing the show—more historically based dramas of this quality, please!
In terms of history—hoo boy. Did it diverge. Yow.
1/14
It wrapped up nicely. I've got no beef with changing facts to suit the storytelling needs of an adaptation. I am not criticizing the show—more historically based dramas of this quality, please!
In terms of history—hoo boy. Did it diverge. Yow.
1/14
"Death by Lightning" offers me a chance to go deep on machine politics in the Gilded Age. The gangster depiction of Conkling is wrong, but it would fit Fatty Welsh, leader of the Dead Rabbits, key Democratic Party enforcer, and New York City inspector of manure at $3 a day.
NY Tribune, 2/14/1859:
NY Tribune, 2/14/1859:
November 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM
"Death by Lightning" offers me a chance to go deep on machine politics in the Gilded Age. The gangster depiction of Conkling is wrong, but it would fit Fatty Welsh, leader of the Dead Rabbits, key Democratic Party enforcer, and New York City inspector of manure at $3 a day.
NY Tribune, 2/14/1859:
NY Tribune, 2/14/1859:
Here's the last little bit of that article. My point in including the whole thing is to show how there was a serious intellectual defense of patronage. It supported Black politicians in the South when racist terror stopped Black voting. Civil-service reform was good, but still complicated.
14/14
14/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Here's the last little bit of that article. My point in including the whole thing is to show how there was a serious intellectual defense of patronage. It supported Black politicians in the South when racist terror stopped Black voting. Civil-service reform was good, but still complicated.
14/14
14/14
Platt wrote his article (Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 11, 1889, here) more than seven years after Garfield's assassination, which resulted in passage of the Pendleton Act, the start of a merit-based civil service. So it was a long fight.
More on Platt when I comment on ep. 4.
13/14
More on Platt when I comment on ep. 4.
13/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Platt wrote his article (Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 11, 1889, here) more than seven years after Garfield's assassination, which resulted in passage of the Pendleton Act, the start of a merit-based civil service. So it was a long fight.
More on Platt when I comment on ep. 4.
13/14
More on Platt when I comment on ep. 4.
13/14
The real weapons Conkling wielded were favors, loyalty, money, not kidnappings. In ep. 3 we haven't yet met his right-hand man, fellow NY Senator Thomas Platt. In 1889, Platt defended patronage from reformers: Anything—even a monetary reward—that drives political participation is good!
12/14
12/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
The real weapons Conkling wielded were favors, loyalty, money, not kidnappings. In ep. 3 we haven't yet met his right-hand man, fellow NY Senator Thomas Platt. In 1889, Platt defended patronage from reformers: Anything—even a monetary reward—that drives political participation is good!
12/14
12/14
• The civil-service reform movement gained strength in the 1870s, fed by scandals like the Whisky Ring, a conspiracy of liquor-tax collectors who took bribes from distillers to underreport their output. A cut went to Orville Babcock, Grant's secretary, who used it to bribe newspaper editors.
10/14
10/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
• The civil-service reform movement gained strength in the 1870s, fed by scandals like the Whisky Ring, a conspiracy of liquor-tax collectors who took bribes from distillers to underreport their output. A cut went to Orville Babcock, Grant's secretary, who used it to bribe newspaper editors.
10/14
10/14
• In the show, Arthur says he built the Custom House. No. Twas always so. In 1859, e.g., Augustus Schell was New York Collector. He gave his political partner, Rep. Horace Clark, some jobs to hand out. But Clark opposed Pres. Buchanan on the Lecompton Constitution (tl;dr), & lost his patronage.
7/14
7/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
• In the show, Arthur says he built the Custom House. No. Twas always so. In 1859, e.g., Augustus Schell was New York Collector. He gave his political partner, Rep. Horace Clark, some jobs to hand out. But Clark opposed Pres. Buchanan on the Lecompton Constitution (tl;dr), & lost his patronage.
7/14
7/14
• The biggest unifier was jobs, or "patronage." You worked for the party, you got a job—or the right to hand out jobs. This is why the NY Custom House was so important. It both processed huge amounts of money (ripe for both legal & illegal skim) & employed 1,000 men, hired by the Collector.
6/14
6/14
November 19, 2025 at 7:22 PM
• The biggest unifier was jobs, or "patronage." You worked for the party, you got a job—or the right to hand out jobs. This is why the NY Custom House was so important. It both processed huge amounts of money (ripe for both legal & illegal skim) & employed 1,000 men, hired by the Collector.
6/14
6/14