Some History Impossible Updates
(So you all know I've not faded into the ether)
I want to first show this amazing political cartoon from the early 20th century that I used as part of a presentation that I’m giving to my class tomorrow, on April 30th, 2024. It demonstrates an awareness of American over-involvement overseas—particularly in Latin America, a legacy about which there doesn’t seem to be enough awareness—from a very long time ago, and is a helpful reminder that for all the shellacking we might want to give our forebears, they weren’t all credulous idiots some may assume.
Next, I’ve been noticing that there is a steady trickle of subscribers coming onto this here Substack, so let me say welcome! Glad to have you here. It appears that most of you are coming by from the very kind and generous recommendations of Greg Lukianoff of The Eternally Radical Idea, David Josef Volodsko of The Radicalist, and my long-time pal Daniele Bolelli of History on Fire. It’s this influx of new amazing folks who actually want to read my thoughts on things mostly related to history (though by no means exclusively) that compel me to keep doing this, and give updates like this!
And yes, updates. I’m trying to make less claims about what I plan to be doing next with History Impossible, since that rarely stays consistent, but I think I’ve formed enough of a solid plan for the next few months that I feel confident things will not change in any significant way.
First, I’ve been getting a decent amount of writing done; the kind folks at Merion West recently saw fit to publish an essay I wrote about the history of political self-immolation, where I made a qualitative comparison between Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation in protest of the Israel-Hamas War (which Bushnell, of course, classified as a “genocide”; if this disagreement animates enough folks, I would be happy to elaborate further in a future post) and those of figures like Jan Palach in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia and Thích Quảng Đức in the Vietnam ruled by the American-backed government of Ngô Đình Diệm. I also have a piece coming out—not sure when—with the awesome people of Queer Majority, where I wrote about LGBTQ rights (or lack thereof) in the Soviet Union and the unfriendliness of communism toward such rights in general. When that releases, I’ll make sure to send out a dispatch either here or in Substack notes, so keep an eye out for that. I have a few more ideas that I’m kicking around—they might appear here, they might appear elsewhere, depending on interest—that are mostly related to the conflict in the Middle East, so we’ll see what comes of that.
In terms of the show, some listeners might have noticed that there have been more conversations/interviews lately. I’m hoping to make that more of a trend. We just released the conversation I had with my friend Kristaps Andrejsons of The Eastern Border (third time returning champion!) about the “man who saved the world,” Stanislav Petrov, who, in 1983, stopped short of deploying the USSR’s nuclear arsenal against the United States after getting what turned out to be a false positive reading. I’ve also confirmed (though without a specific date as of this writing) three other brilliant writers whose work has both inspired and informed me and this show, so I’m hoping to get those out to all of you as soon as possible. Again, I want to minimize the amount of promises I make because things can change so quickly in podcasting, but I’m 90% sure these are happening. I hope to have more conversations as well. Much as I know people enjoy the long-form stories with multiple sources, conversations are clearly the lifeblood of podcasting and I want to contribute to that lifeblood. Thus, any suggestions or, even better, referrals/introductions would be more than welcome.
Finally, in terms of everyone’s favorite programming, we still have some good stuff coming. The return of the mainline series—that is, “The Muslim Nazis”—is fast approaching. There was obviously a bit of brake-pumping that was needed as I approached (and continue to approach) the end of my second semester of graduate school, and my attention needed to turn to the two 20-25 page research articles I had to write. One is complete and the other is in the process and I’m pretty proud of both of them. The first is about, what else, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically with the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 centered as a crucible of identity, and the second is about, as the image at the beginning of this update suggests, American involvement in Latin America in the early 20th century and how it shaped one man’s perception of exploitation and empire in a way that made him immune toward enticements of a fascist coup in the 1930s. I describe these papers to intrigue all of you reading because I plan to publish them here, like I did with my previous semester’s research paper, “A Storm of Decay: Institutional Trust After the Salem Witch Trials.” In addition, as a bonus, I plan to make all three papers into a mini-trilogy of episodes for the main podcast feed, so if you prefer hearing me explain these stories verbally over reading them, stay tuned for those!
Finally, grad school news: I’ve finished gathering together my thesis committee because I’ve selected a topic that apparently managed to spark a lot of interest. I originally thought I would be doing something involving environmental history—specifically the impact of disease on politics in the United States—but I rapidly began to lose interest in that topic at the beginning of this semester. In fact, it was the Salem Witch Trials that stayed rooted in my mind. When conferring with my colonial American history professor last semester, I floated the idea of connecting the witchcraft crisis to America’s First Great Awakening of the 18th century to her as my research topic for my paper in that class. “That’s really interesting, but that is well beyond the scope of a classroom research paper,” she replied. “That’s a thesis.” And sure enough, that is what has happened. I never thought I’d be doing colonial America as a topic, but here we are. If things stay on track, I should have an 80-120 page piece about this connection by the end of 2025. Though, as many grad students and professors will tell you, finishing a thesis on time is likely an optimistic pipe dream. I’m knocking on wood.
So that’s it for updates. I think. Maybe things will change. I’ll try to keep everyone updated as things continue along. Maybe one day the weekly updates will come back, but those ended up not really doing much for me or readers, so I’ll try to continue making the “hand-crafted” material more regular.
Thanks again and stay tuned!
-AVS