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Rob Parkinson

@rparkinson.bsky.social

Prof. of History, Binghamton University. Author, Thirteen Clocks & Heart of American Darkness. Go Vols, Go Steelers.

created November 12, 2024

923 followers 217 following 254 posts

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Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I just sent a message to my very influential Am Lit teacher to tell her how important she was, but I’m afraid I may have waited too long… :(

31/8/2025, 12:44:33 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

At my wife’s school, they brought in some OpenAI exec to come proselytize to faculty. Among her comments — AI isn’t bad for the environment. After she left they had a student panel comment. Students said: we hate it, please ban it.

30/8/2025, 8:43:03 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Co-sign the ruler. Very helpful.

30/8/2025, 6:21:55 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Management, not labor.

30/8/2025, 1:48:38 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Several of his books remain essential reading.

30/8/2025, 1:03:26 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Just recreate the CCC and be done with it.

29/8/2025, 11:52:56 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

How do you depose a king? Asking for a friend.

28/8/2025, 8:59:55 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

: The Hunt for Cotton Mather

28/8/2025, 2:20:09 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Tom Clancy’s The New England Mind

28/8/2025, 2:18:45 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alec Zuercher Reichardt (@aleczreichardt.bsky.social) reposted

A day late to bluesky, but yesterday was the official pub day for 'Roads to Power, Roads to Crisis' with @pennpress.bsky.social Interested in infrastructure, war, revolution and the rise (and fall) of the British Empire in North America? Get your own copy from www.pennpress.org/978151282828...

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28/8/2025, 1:47:49 AM | 23 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

If only

26/8/2025, 10:01:07 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

My honors class is running the 8 weeks before independence in real time. We are spending 30% of class time reading 1776 newspapers. If only I could serve lager in this tavern…

26/8/2025, 6:52:08 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I terrified the cat

25/8/2025, 9:06:35 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Ooh, I’ll get on that. I’m on a 1865 bender. Giesburg next.

25/8/2025, 12:25:17 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I’d love to agree with this, but I just finished Janney’s excellent , and I left it feeling pretty frustrated with USG. Way too much negotiation & respect & not nearly enough holding traitors accountable. Fostered the defiance & nonsense that is growing yet again. Come on USG.

24/8/2025, 4:37:02 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Two words: course. packets. Those were the days.

24/8/2025, 4:06:07 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Love it

21/8/2025, 9:50:30 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

What books in war & society class?

18/8/2025, 3:11:34 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

A lovely man. It was a privilege to be a teaching assistant for him. At the end of term he gave a workshop on how to sit-in.

17/8/2025, 2:26:26 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Great ending but felt Klopp-y to me. So open at back.

15/8/2025, 9:45:31 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

The runner up name for West Virginia was “Loyal Virginia.” What an opportunity lost.

15/8/2025, 9:06:14 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Light Zeppelin

13/8/2025, 9:01:45 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

With a little help from my friends

12/8/2025, 4:55:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Book submitted! Look for _Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence_ out from Norton next June!

12/8/2025, 2:49:21 PM | 17 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

You’re going to want to read this.

11/8/2025, 10:40:53 PM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Gil and Ron up front. :)

10/8/2025, 9:08:42 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Beatrice Burton did 2 of mine on race. You can dm me for her email.

10/8/2025, 6:36:45 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Summer grades due in 4 days, book due in 6, fall semester starts in 10. So, yes, of course my yard & patio look the best they have looked all summer.

9/8/2025, 9:48:38 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Cool!

8/8/2025, 1:58:31 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Another banger coming out!

7/8/2025, 9:40:00 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Big co-sign

5/8/2025, 3:46:35 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Adam "Ask Me about the Scopes Trial" Laats (@adamlaats.bsky.social) reposted

Thanks to Cassie & @mhs1791.bsky.social for asking about the children that created America's public schools. If you'd like to take 25% off your copy of the book version, use code HSUM25:

4/8/2025, 8:53:26 PM | 4 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Emily Conroy-Krutz (@econroykrutz.bsky.social) reposted

Just got home from a few weeks away and I found the very best mail waiting for me. Congratulations again @jlepler.bsky.social

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2/8/2025, 7:10:45 PM | 15 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

How is it possible that this is your first review for WMQ?!

26/7/2025, 12:11:52 AM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Look at those cute kids

25/7/2025, 10:13:13 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

They were just all cartoons when I was 13.

25/7/2025, 1:55:37 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I distinctly remember being 13 (86) & having a conversation about Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, and Donald Trump. They were the same guy.

24/7/2025, 11:00:59 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Co-sign

21/7/2025, 8:19:59 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Annette Gordon-Reed (@agordonreed.bsky.social) reposted

Jefferson on Race A Reader Edited by Annette Gordon-Reed Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2026 by Princeton University Press

21/7/2025, 12:51:53 AM | 207 35 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Frank Cogliano (@frankcogliano.bsky.social) reposted

Honored to be on this list with some fine historians (and friends!). www.mountvernon.org/about/news/n...

18/7/2025, 12:11:23 PM | 23 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Congrats!!!!

18/7/2025, 12:30:27 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Fun to help out on this one. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-...

16/7/2025, 2:38:13 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Congrats!

14/7/2025, 6:52:28 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

"First from the Right: Massive Resistance and the Image of Thomas Jefferson in the 1950s." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 112.1 (2004): 2-35.

14/7/2025, 2:50:59 PM | 6 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I wrote my MA thesis on this. Segregationists were early to wrap themselves in Jefferson.

14/7/2025, 2:46:06 PM | 7 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks for reading!

9/7/2025, 9:43:02 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Booooo.

8/7/2025, 5:01:19 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh no

8/7/2025, 4:56:38 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

My mom lives in Gtown & I’m going in 2 weeks. I’ll have to find it! Hopefully not washed away.

6/7/2025, 7:02:53 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Happy to

5/7/2025, 5:35:19 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Blackstone is one of my “rogues” in the new book. (Re: his codification of Parliamentary supremacy in Commentaries). Jefferson really does worry about his “tory hue”

5/7/2025, 4:54:55 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s been 118 years since a thorough exam of grievances, which is unbelievable.

4/7/2025, 5:14:12 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks!

4/7/2025, 3:30:03 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Just finished book draft on grievances. It was an interesting year to do that.

4/7/2025, 3:16:38 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Nice! Congrats!

1/7/2025, 12:40:06 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Jack saying “the Constitution has failed” is 😳

27/6/2025, 10:30:12 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

This is going to be excellent. Great things are worth waiting for.

27/6/2025, 1:57:10 PM | 6 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I found it takes a little patience & then bam it hooks you good. High favorite.

10/6/2025, 9:19:40 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

It is the first book length treatment of the grievances in 100 years.

4/6/2025, 5:13:35 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Book is drafted! Contract signed! Look for out from W.W. Norton next year!

4/6/2025, 4:55:52 PM | 82 7 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks for reading!

2/6/2025, 1:51:32 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Just got contract for more Declaration content from me, 2026. I can’t quit you, Jefferson.

1/6/2025, 3:04:38 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks!

1/6/2025, 2:14:50 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

😍

1/6/2025, 1:25:17 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Frank Cogliano (@frankcogliano.bsky.social) reposted

Coming your way next May. The title's a placeholder. Writing with Peter has been a joy. (We laughed a lot more than the subject matter warrants.)

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25/5/2025, 7:10:45 AM | 14 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Congrats, Andrew!

15/5/2025, 7:41:29 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

!!!

12/5/2025, 3:12:01 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Holy moly!

12/5/2025, 11:05:12 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Steve Sarson (@stevesarson.bsky.social) reposted

The Course of Human Events: The Declaration of Independence and the Historical Origins of the United States is available for preorder (to be shipped in November) from @uvapress.bsky.social www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10151/...

8/5/2025, 2:42:41 PM | 24 11 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Frank Cogliano (@frankcogliano.bsky.social) reposted

Honored to edit this. An international cast of more than twenty leading historians offer their reflections on what the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence means to them. Coming your way in the spring of 2026!

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7/5/2025, 7:48:43 PM | 23 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Eric Columbus (@ericcolumbus.bsky.social) reposted

This is how those of us of a certain age first learned about April 19, 1775. Still inspires. youtu.be/Y6ikO6LMxF4?...

19/4/2025, 1:10:57 PM | 1331 329 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Come to OAH Philly next year for lots of reasons (like an AGR prez address) but here’s another one!

17/4/2025, 3:36:56 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I was thrilled everyone on this list immediately said yes. Going to be outstanding.

17/4/2025, 3:35:25 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Funeral March?

8/4/2025, 3:29:02 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Karen Cox, Nick Guyatt too

5/4/2025, 12:42:17 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

They only have electronic versions of mine, which is how I figured I survived.

5/4/2025, 12:41:07 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh terrible

4/4/2025, 9:54:24 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

So the break didn’t help? Ugh.

2/4/2025, 10:40:40 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Can’t watch. How bad is it?

2/4/2025, 8:30:24 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

My dad would say: I ain’t mad at nooooooobody.

2/4/2025, 2:44:32 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Very nicely done

2/4/2025, 2:12:43 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) reposted

Just try stuff!

1/4/2025, 11:39:28 PM | 8081 508 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Catharsis, Corey Booker. Thank you for saying these things out loud. So many of us needed someone to say these things on our behalf.

1/4/2025, 11:48:01 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Terrible. Lovely man & tremendous historian

1/4/2025, 9:55:41 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

This is going to be so so good, folks. Already a smashing dissertation, can’t wait for the book.

1/4/2025, 12:48:38 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Yay!!!!!!!!! Thrilled for you!

1/4/2025, 12:46:56 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Promise. Cooperstown. Rev Backlash. Battle Cry. Women of the Republic. Foner. I mean, come on.

1/4/2025, 4:19:28 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

My first would never have been possible without NEH postdoc.

1/4/2025, 4:18:23 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Back in 2017 when Trump 1 wanted to zero out NEH I spent half an hour in my office looking for books that got NEH support. These books. These titles. Another 30 minutes & I could’ve reached the ceiling. Now they’ve actually done it.

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1/4/2025, 4:17:44 AM | 58 22 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Every Congressional district by rule

31/3/2025, 10:53:49 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social)

Very sad news. Fantastic historian and a lovely person. Went out of his way to say kind things about and to me early on. People in Rev remains on my grad syllabus for the fall.

31/3/2025, 9:59:54 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Is that still allowed?

31/3/2025, 2:13:35 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I end survey with GA & 2nd inaugural & has always made me tear up in class. This year there could be ugly crying.

31/3/2025, 1:12:44 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh no!

30/3/2025, 7:25:21 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner.

30/3/2025, 3:09:09 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Congrats!!

29/3/2025, 11:54:16 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Is the story just below about RFK firing 20,000?

28/3/2025, 4:38:10 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

I once had a student who was forced to memorize it & was SO PISSED when I told her Wirt basically made it up.

28/3/2025, 1:50:26 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh I love this!

27/3/2025, 10:56:36 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Parkinson (@rparkinson.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, stepping up my timeline on this Declaration grievances book because we suddenly have a king now. Let’s get that contract signed.

26/3/2025, 11:24:55 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view