Jason Heppler

a. piece. of. software. is. not. the. type. of. entity. that. can. gain. consciousness.

The Bygone Era of Supreme Court Support for Voting Rights Sixty years after upholding the Voting Rights Act, the Court has dismantled most of it.

Tomorrow marks the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. It also marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court first upholding the Voting Rights Act.

We have gotten so, so far away from a Court that cares about democracy.

New from me at @brennancenter.org:

You should ask @amandamadden.bsky.social -- she's been doing a lot of transcription work with 16th c. Italian documents. I think she's seen similar reasoning with Gemini, IIRC.

(We're about to undertake batch transcription work on a RRCHNM project, I'll try to remember to keep you posted).

A Western That Goes Where Cormac McCarthy Wouldn’t Álvaro Enrigue’s Now I Surrender scraps the simplistic binary of cowboys and Indians in favor of a wild, multifaceted war story.

"Today, the southern U.S. border is depicted by right-wing figures as a hard line between us and them, two groups with irreconcilable interests. In fact, it is—and has always been—a polyglot meeting point."

I review Álvaro Enrigue's latest for @theatlantic.com:

www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

someone set this to the closing of a veep episode

This is a great article and got too little attention when it first came out. @propublica.org is doing amazing work.

For funsies, my comp exams were in

1. U.S. since 1860
2. Modern Mexico
3. North American West

I had both written and oral exams.

As for region, I'm interested north and south so no real emphasis there. As I move my research focus away from California onto the Plains I'm looking to re-ground myself in the historiography.

I haven't! Thanks!

I always buy my friend's books so I've got you covered :) I guess I'm thinking 20th century but I'm generally interested as well. I haven't read much on it really since comps, and I'd like to brush up on it.

If I wanted to brush up on my borderlands historiography where should I start? 🗃️

He might as well be talking to Micky Mouse because that’s all this is, a cartoon.

A white book with black letters: The Public Scholar: A practical handbook. It's in front of a red background with a megaphone in white outline.

"If you're a writer—any sort of a writer, really—in search of an audience, you will find so much that's invaluable in this candid, spirited, and openhearted handbook." - @bcdreyer.social on #ThePublicScholar.

Which you can pre-order here: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Thank you Sonya!

Thanks for all this, Hayden!

This made me chuckle, thank you.

If I wanted to brush up on my borderlands historiography where should I start? 🗃️

GW would never have left his house in that t shirt

Sorry to screenshot @jasonheppler.org but I want it all in.

This is more than a joke. Under the hierarchical 18th-century culture of deference, political leaders were often expected to be landed gentry, above the scrum of commerce. For GW, clothes were a necessary marker. AI ain't getting that.

GW would never have left his house in that t shirt

Yes! I made a similar point a couple months back. The productive struggle is the point.

Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 - Richmond, Virginia, United States Title: Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 State Role Title: Library Specialist III Hiring Range: $78,000 - $88,000 Pay Band: 5 Agency: The Library of Virginia Location: The Library of Virgini...

Apply to join my team by 3/16!

Be the Library of Virginia's born-digital collections coordinator, leading planning and management of electronic gov/manuscript records. We're looking for a techie archivist type who can help improve access to our born-digital wonders.

$78k-$88k in Richmond VA.

Yep. Can confirm it has remarkably changed the way I think about (and write) software, and in a good way I think.

It's had almost no impact on how I do history except, sometimes, it's really really good at OCR.

Declaration of Independence - The Papers of Thomas Jefferson This exhibit invites exploration of two elements of the Declaration’s creation. Drafting the Declaration illuminates the successive stages of the text. Building Blocks traces the paths by which some p...

For 2026, my project (the Jefferson Papers) put together a new exhibit on the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and its connections to some earlier documents. Check it out! jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/declaration-...

Probably the most nuanced and thoughtful take on using LLMs for historical research that I have read:

Yes! I made a similar point a couple months back. The productive struggle is the point.

We would really, really like to highlight the scale of Dan's achievement here. We've always hosted some great AMAs, but Dan has been single-handedly responsible for a huge outreach campaign to authors and forging ongoing partnerships with scholarly presses.

In my capacity as an employee of the Commonwealth of Virginia I cannot accept gifts valued at over $100.

What the National Park Service Has Flagged Thus Far. It's Much Worse Than I Thought. Note: This is a long post.

I spent hours looking through hundreds of files of materials that have been flagged for review by National Park Service sites around the country. Here is just a small sample of what I found. #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...