I submitted a ms to a uni press, and a colleague at a "fancy" school said "Oh, really think you should have sent that to a more academic press like X." Seriously?

The last book I used from ivy press X, grad students spent the whole discussion riffing on the errors they found throughout the book.

Folks, branding is not the same as academic quality.

An interesting analysis on where violence really comes from.

https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/violent-extremism-in-america-is-a

Jennie Purnell wrote her book on the Cristeros, got good reception, and then retired not long after so that her approach and ideas sort of faded.

These grand-narrative histories are great, but at times I miss the micro, grassroots, and local histories of previous years.