Randall Stephens

@randalljstephens.bsky.social

791

Followers

719

Following

548

Posts

American historian, religion, environment, pop culture, the South. Author: The Devil's Music (Harvard, 2018). Prof of Am & Brit Studies, Univ of Oslo. Fulbright alumnus. https://t.co/oGDJUwAhXL

Posts Replies Media

From the FBI last month: "data from agencies...for Jan through Mar 2023 & 2024 indicates reported violent crime decreased by 15.2%. Murder decreased by 26.4%, rape decreased by 25.7%, robbery decreased by 17.8%, & aggravated assault decreased by 12.5%." www.fbi.gov/news/press-r...

"While ah'm fixin' things here at home, he'll take care of them foreigners." Hugh Haynie, Honolulu Advertiser, 10/8/1968.

"Another killing." Morse, San Francisco Examiner, 9/21/1968.

Bob Zschiesche on neo-Confederate George Wallace's 1968 run for the presidency, Courier-News, 9/11/1968.

Maybe when Vance called him “America’s Hitler,” Trump took that as a compliment? amp.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...

JD Vance once worried Trump was ‘America’s Hitler’. Now his own authoritarian leanings come into view | JD Vance | The Guardianamp.theguardian.com Vice-presidential pick has said he would have blocked certification of 2020 results in key states won by Biden

Absolutely nothing at all?

Pottery studio work today. Mugs and vases.

"I'm going outside to check the mail...cover me!" This Dave Simpson editorial cartoon appeared in the days after the assassination attempt on Reagan, Berkeley Gazette, 4/1/1981.

Reposted by

Randall Stephens

A former teaching assistant in our program has become a major voice of Norwegian anti-woke reactionaries. His latest is a series of articles on the graves connected to Canadian residential schools. It's apparently all a hoax and a moral panic. I wonder what went on when he taught our students...

McCartney talking about Hamburg, Mersey Beat, Sept 20-Oct 4, 1962: "The first time we went to Hamburg we stayed four and a half months. It's a sort of blown up Blackpool, but with strip clubs instead of waxworks: thousands of strip clubs, bars and pick-up joints, not very picturesque."

"Our dollars are buying more—the country is in great shape—he's innocent—and this is a lovely steak dinner." Herblock, Vancouver Sun, 7/4/1974.

"O.K., guys—time to salute." CP Houston, Greenville News, 7/4/1974.

A message from the grave

A poster for a claymation series about Ziggy Stardust.

"I'm a peace-loving man! I just wear these things for 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲." Mary G. Lord, Sentinel, 4/15/1982. #ColdWar #Reagan #ArmsRace

Reposted by

Randall Stephens

I honestly don’t know what’s going on here. T-shirt for sale in Oslo.

An advert for shows—including the Beatles, Gene Vincent, and the Searchers—at the Cavern, Liverpool, from Mersey Beat, June 28-July 12, 1962.

I’m looking forward to giving this talk tomorrow. Woody Guthrie, William Allen White, and Dorothea Lange have cameos.

Some of my favorite weird old American newspaper titles: - Unterrified Democrat, MO - Canal of Intelligence, CT - Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, TN - The Bullfrog Miner, NV - The Weekly Hawk-Eye and Telegraph, IA - The Jefferson Jimplecute, TX

Reposted by

Randall Stephens

Hello kindly Blueskyers! Cambridge is hiring a twelve-month visiting assistant professor in U.S. history since 1800 for 2024-25. Any field, UK AND non-UK applicants warmly welcome Sorry this ad is so late, it takes us forever because we rely on owls rather than email www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/46922/

I made a little music video for Trump's Boat Battery vs Shark Address. youtu.be/3XwJZTCVoLk

Trump's Boat Battery vs Shark Attack Addressyoutu.be

Joseph Alsop on Nixon/Watergate, 1974: "the worst kind of old-fashioned, stop-at-nothing courthouse gang...As for the prevailing style of this pre-Watergate White House, it is not easy to convey. The back room of a second-rate advertising agency in a suburb of hell probably gives you the best idea."

"Well, chief, we've managed another historical first!" Bill Sanders, Marion Star, 6/10/1974.

"The songbird watcher." Charles Bissell, Tennesseean, 6/5/1974.

"I'm only looking after your interests." Herblock on Senator McCarthy's televised anti-communist hearings, Atlanta Journal, 5/26/1954.

Arthur Schlesinger in 1964 on LBJ's comic VP experiences. So very VEEP-y: "[LBJ] used to call [JFK's secretary] when he heard of a meeting to which he had not been invited & ask whether this was not an oversight. [Secretary] would check w/ the President, who sometimes would say yes & sometimes no."

Bespoke Niebuhr vinyl and matching t-shirt. Impress your friends at the Century Club.

I missed these recent Confederate sympathizer comments from RFK Jr. Can’t say I’m surprised. “There were heroes in the Confederacy who didn’t have slaves and, you know, I just, I just have a visceral reaction against destroying history. I don’t like it. I think we should celebrate who we are.”

JP Alley on the links between the Klan and Nazism, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 3/29/1933.

Gene Basset on civil rights and the connections between the 1860s and 1960s, Memphis Press-Scimitar, 2/12/1964.