John Garrison Marks
@johngmarks
Historian and writer exploring how Americans engage with the past. **Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory** out now. www.johngmarks.com
When I put myself on the waiting list for this game, I was NOT expecting it to be this big or fancy. Thanks, @constitutionctr.bsky.social! Can’t wait to pilot this with my kids, niece, and nephew this weekend.
The SHEAR session getting live streamed yesterday really exposed me. I’ve got a couple years at most before I gotta start buzzing my head.
Not sure how my book ended up on the radar of a reviewer for a newspaper in tiny Hood County, TX, but don’t let anyone tell you people don’t want full and complex history.
You know you’re doing good history when your 700sf exhibit has 3 separate surveillance cameras and 5 armed Park Police guards.
Need I remind you of the lengths Norwegian athletes will go to prepare for hot, humid conditions?
Done with my book talk in Baltimore time to catch the bus… ah crap. He’s everywhere!!
The broad strokes of this have barely changed since the 1980s. Claim the founders were divinely inspired/chosen specifically by God, count the number of times they're mentioned, complain about a lack of patriotism if they aren't there as often (or in the way) they'd like. From chapter 6 of my book:
If you're in the Baltimore area, I'll be at the Maryland Center for History and Culture tomorrow to talk about George Washington, slavery, and public memory. www.mdhistory.org/calendar/thy...
This is the *subject* of the one I just got! Then: “I want you to know from the very first line of this email: I am not writing to you out of routine. I am not sending you a mass-generated template.”
Every single person who has purchased one of these is currently there
Finding this stuff is like a curse now, but this one at Sheetz seems particularly low effort. ”Free for 250 years and will remain free” is terrible, translated-from-a-foreign-language syntax, and absolutely no one thinks this is our golden age. The “1776 to infinity” is a unique flourish though.
Uh, this is a LOT of flyovers scheduled for Saturday. Maybe the helicopters will cool people off.
It’s a shredded reproduction of Washington’s ad trying to recapture Ona Judge. It’s by the artist Titus Kaphar. www.interviewmagazine.com/art/titus-ka... www.kapharstudio.com/absconded-fr...
My book about Americans’ centuries-long fight over George Washington, slavery, and public memory is on sale for $17.76 this weekend from @uncpress.bsky.social. Learn about the deep roots of today’s fight over slavery’s place in Washington's legacy. uncpress.org/250-2/
Trump started Freedom 250 after he couldn't execute a hostile takeover of America250, basically. Left is from the article above, right is how I put it in my piece yesterday.
The one piece of Semiquincentennial merch I did voluntarily buy but didn't mention in the piece: my hometown minor league team in NJ is playing this weekend as the "Somerset Semiquincentennials." My requests to throw out the first pitch were ignored.
You can buy AI-designed coins for when you swap gifts with your identical twin at the 4th of July cookout.
This hat is everywhere, but its not QUITE as detailed in person.
There’s a ton of insane AI generated stuff when you look online. I get into it in the piece, but it’s really astounding. Enjoy this AI couple in matching hats walking in Costco’s RAT aisle.
According to extensive research from @aaslh.org and @frameworks.bsky.social, the best way to explain this process to non-historians is to say it‘s like detective work. Gets people to understand better than any other way how we use sources, different methods, and need to revise our story over time.
Freedom 250 just opened their application form for the “Patriot Games,” an athletic competition pitting two students from each state against each other. But it’s supposed to happen in 6 weeks! And who is televising this thing? Sure to be another marquis event.
In April I published a book about Americans' centuries-long effort to come to terms with slavery's place in George Washington's legacy. I'm also taking on more writing and speaking gigs about history, museums, and how Americans are engage with the past. I could use your help spreading the word!
This dog is 14 and has learned we can no longer punish him so whenever we turn our backs he goes hunting for scraps wherever they might be.
Glad to see SAP, a company whose logo i recognize but whose product/service remains a total mystery to me, is proudly commemorating the nation’s 250th.