Erik B. Alexander's avatar

Erik B. Alexander

@erikalexander.bsky.social

72 followers 56 following 19 posts

Associate Professor of American history at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Father of 2 boys, dog person, University of Illinois sports fanatic.

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Rachel Shelden's avatar Rachel Shelden @rachelshelden.bsky.social
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🗃️ Y'all I appreciate the Lincoln quote but we have to stop telling the story this way. Lincoln was not just reacting to a heinous decision, he was telling a vital truth about how people of the era understood constitutionalism. Near universal acceptance of judicial supremacy is a 20th c phenomenon 1/

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Wow—I find that unbelievable! Very sorry that’s been your experience. I’ve never seen that any of the places I’ve been.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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That’s very frustrating! So, hypothetically, you might say “We need a TT prof to teach the modern world history survey with expertise for upper level course in East Asia or Latin America” and admin responds “Your search will be for a historian of medieval France.”

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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(Also, I realize I mean to say searches, not hires.)

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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We may not get many hires approved, but when we do, it is at least the sub field we put forward and request. Admin does at least defer to departmental expertise about their fields and curricular needs (and not just for history). But there isn’t much hiring one way or the other!

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Perhaps I misunderstood your original post—I took it to say that you send a list of potential hires to admin and then they ignore it, and perhaps even choose a different sub field altogether? That seems totally unthinkable to me.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Oh, absolutely not, sorry if I was unclear. It is of course incredible frustrating—our department is half the size of what it was when I started 10 years ago. But, the rare times we have had hires approved (just twice), it is exactly what we requested.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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My experience is quite the opposite. Our department very carefully considers curriculum to determine fields we need before requesting hires from admin. Whether it is approved is entirely out of our hands, but the idea that admin would dictate the field for a hire is unthinkable.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Historian of 19th cent politics here. Unfortunately, this is not how 19th cent elections worked! Ballots were printed and distributed by the parties—not state governments. Thus, nobody kept Lincoln off the ballot—there simply was no Republican organization on the ground to support him in the South.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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As Rachel already mentioned, it absolutely was! Even though books, articles, and textbooks tend to use the two labels (Republican and Union) interchangeably, the reality was far more complex. Lincoln and other Republicans who embraced the Union party very much wanted to expand the party’s base.

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Adam H Domby, PhD's avatar Adam H Domby, PhD @adamhdomby.bsky.social
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My favorite moments so far are: Thomas tries to name drop McPherson and the lawyer just points out that McPherson filed an Amicus brief. And when Thomas asked why Confederates were not banned at the state level after 1876. Hint: because by a 2/3 majority Congress passed the amnesty act in 1872!

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Extremely honored to have been included and helped author this brief (and I second Adam’s sentiments about being humbled to be alongside so many stellar historians).

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Believe me I share the Sesame Street sentiment! Very honored to have been included, and appreciate the good work you did as we pushed it to the finish line.

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Adam Rothman's avatar Adam Rothman @adamrothman.bsky.social
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This was inspired by reading Shelden & Alexander's "Dismantling the Party System" in the latest Journal of American History, which is a must-read for 19th century US historians, by the way.
academic.oup.com/jah/article-...

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Scott Lemieux 's avatar Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social
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The Times not only has a whole section devoted to Harvard firing its president, it's done two stories about the president of MIT not being fired, all while the strangling of the local public university system that teaches far more students gets ignored

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Thank you, William, this is so very kind.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Thank you so much, Richard, for the kind words about our essay and reflections. Donald remains one of my favorite historians of the era, and I have not looked back at that survey of his in some time. Agreed it is overlooked—you’ve prompted me to pull it off my shelf this week!

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William Adler's avatar William Adler @williamadler78.bsky.social
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This is a fantastic piece of scholarship that should be read by every scholar of parties. Really important.

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Richard R. John's avatar Richard R. John @rrjohnr.bsky.social
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Rachel Sheldon’s fine new coauthored essay in the _JAH_ is helping 19th c. US historians to move beyond the “party period” synthesis (championed among others by my mentor David Donald). Party competition for Donald helped to promote unity (along with faith in the Constitution and popular oratory).

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Karin Wulf's avatar Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social
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Love this whole thread fr @rachelshelden.bsky.social offering both a model of deep and essential historiographical context, but also of generous acknowledgement. Such a great representation of how historians develop interpretive argument that advances knowledge eg always in intellectual community. 🗃️

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Would definitely agree with this, though my colleague @jeffmanuel.bsky.social pointed out to me that when you drill down into local and grassroots politics, the 20th century takes on a multiparty look too. But as Rachel notes, we still see the 19th century as structurally different.

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Erik B. Alexander's avatar Erik B. Alexander @erikalexander.bsky.social
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Just want to echo @rachelshelden.bsky.social here on our new piece in the Dec JAH, with a great discussion of some of the different work that shaped our thinking. I have a longer thread at the other place about the piece, but excited to hear feedback and engagement now that it’s out in the world.

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