Profile avatar
robertpaulett.bsky.social
Historian of early America and bits of Britain. Apostate southerner. Yells about maps, St. Louis, and higher ed.
1,834 posts 3,758 followers 878 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 26 Comments 24

Casually mention that my kid is interested in percussion and everyone here immediately asks “Ooh, battery or front ensemble?” and man my paltry two years on a Virginia trumpet line were not enough preparation for Midwestern marching band culture.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Being a historian is to have at the ready a full spectrum of social, economic, cultural methodologies to use in combination to explain the cross-pressures behind human choice and then find a document where someone says “Gentlemen? Let’s be evil. Let’s just be evil.”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

So sad when an elder is murdered by their progeny.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Still 90% sure Trump thinks tariffs are fees that countries pay the president for the right to trade within the US.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

RIP to one of my favorite fun facts.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

“We’re running this university like a business” “Great, so we can interview candidates until the position is filled?” “Ha, no, not like that.”

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Political instability, pandemics, inflation, economic stagnation, an emboldened plutocracy, housing crisis, generational disillusionment… Yeah, maybe this is all the end of capitalism or maybe it’s the exact same pattern we typically see when nations end a long and expensive war.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Just two high-profile media figures, talking to each other about how none of this is their fault.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Moving day and the kid and I packed the Honda like we’re a 2010s indie duo hitting the road for a ten-city swing.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

If you really want to stymie your movers, get yourself one of these. #🗃️ #C18th

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Grateful to “Andor” for the reminder that there will always be a threat of fascism so long as veteran British character actors exist.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

You’ll know white people have truly abandoned Christianity only when Guitar Center goes out of business and not a moment sooner.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Um, did I just turn left at a tornado?

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

“Just one more. Just one more app to promote student retention by gamifying the college experience,” panted the desperate college administrator. “Just one more and then I can quit. Please.”

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Ok now that we have an Illinois pope, we need his commentary on this:

submitted 27 days ago • 19 comments

Somewhere, Rod Blagojevich is feverishly working all the angles here.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

The Chicago-St. Louis rivalry could take on a whole new schismatic edge now, just saying.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Everything about this packaging label is a goddamn delight.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 29 days ago • 3 comments

The average American has three friends.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Just spent an hour procrastinating on a task I already finished, so win-win

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Folks, it’s May 1. If you don’t already have your garden in, you’re eating preservatives this winter. And even if you do, you’re still probably eating preservatives this winter.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Nah, we’ll just crib it from a moderately well circulating newspaper essay, same as we always do, and then we’ll get down to our real business of arguing a) when it began b) if it ended and c) whether it existed at all. #/🗃️

submitted 45 days ago • 2 comments

With a cover and a listing on Amazon, it's official. ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS will be published in October by the University of Oklahoma Press. Pre-orders now available! www.amazon.com/Ethanol-Hemi... 🗃️ 💡🔌🌽🇧🇷

submitted 45 days ago • 4 comments

Jfc, people, just read the first five pages of Braudel’s “The Mediterranean” like everybody else and come back tomorrow if that doesn’t answer enough of your questions about individual agency vs. structural forces.

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

The nihilistic end point of Rufo/white nationalism’s whole project is freeing white people from all constraints, even those of personal morality or ethics.

submitted 49 days ago • 2 comments