Historian | NYT best-selling author | UVa Prof. | Forthcoming: “A SHADOW OVER THE WORLD: FDR, the Rise of Fascism, and the Making of America’s WW2.” | American Academy in Berlin 2025https://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3mr76vdxlvs2aThere’s a lot of fascism going around these days. Unfortunately this is not new. But less well known is how many Americans were antifascists in the early 1930s, especially women, Jews, African Americans, + intellectuals. And in the end, they won the argument. It has been exciting to rediscover them:22 Jul 2026 01:39 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr76vdxlvs2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3mhnz3m3kts2aThis is good from The New School’s Jeremy Varon: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/video-game-war-iran-trump22 Mar 2026 16:53 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhnz3m3kts2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3mccpsixjvk23NYT catching up… so nearly there! https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/resistance-libs-trump-fascism.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share13 Jan 2026 14:02 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3mccpsixjvk23https://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3mbkfaahrhk2qBtw, Fascism: -Emphasizes the threat to the nation from within and without; -Proposes to cleanse the nation of “enemy/ other”; -Glorifies an imagined “lost” past of national greatness; -Seeks an anti-democratic one-party state; -Demands control of media/culture/universities;03 Jan 2026 21:49 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3mbkfaahrhk2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lvb6kr34hk2mI need a couple books on the origins of the New Deal. Is there much on tha…31 Jul 2025 12:53 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvb6kr34hk2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3ls726sj6ms26Still waiting22 Jun 2025 12:14 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3ls726sj6ms26https://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lrlgg7l3522s14 Jun 2025 17:00 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lrlgg7l3522shttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lpjkpfvlpc2aGraduation speeches in the 1930s were 🔥19 May 2025 12:21 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lpjkpfvlpc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lnyfzjrwzs2xI am fortunate to be part of this great group of colleagues and phd students in our (entirely voluntary and casual) seminar on 20th C international history. Great discussion on Berlin as a site of decolonization!29 Apr 2025 23:16 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lnyfzjrwzs2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lml467hfjs2z“Almost the first freedom to be destroyed, as dictators take control, is the freedom of learning. Tyranny hates and fears nothing more than the free exchange of ideas.” Franklin Roosevelt, Oct 5, 1940.11 Apr 2025 22:50 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lml467hfjs2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lknm73uvo22mIn 1940, the presidents of Yale, Columbia, and Harvard urged the government and country to fight fascism. It was national news.18 Mar 2025 11:52 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lknm73uvo22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3ljlqscq6bk2jLovely convo with my grad students this week, riffing with them about how to plot a book on decolonization and the Cold War. Dreadful chalk scribbles but fun intellectual exercise.05 Mar 2025 00:44 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljlqscq6bk2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lib3fny2bc2aSometimes old books can suddenly seem new again.16 Feb 2025 01:29 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lib3fny2bc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lhmdfqkus22iFortune mag, March 1940. 65% say government should care for needy even if it means more taxes or higher prices.07 Feb 2025 19:26 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhmdfqkus22ihttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lh7ez6izvc2nLook, it was never about prices. Sure, millions of people spoke those words but this is how ideology operates: it provides you with believable nonsense so you can hide your racism, sexism, and xenophobia behind happy stories about egg prices. [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Feb 2025 15:51 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lh7ez6izvc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lh5sfzs56s22Word of the moment, used during the Nazi merging of the party w the state in 1933-35: *Gleichschaltung* gleich (same) schaltung (circuit): All switches are put on the same circuit, allowing them all to be activated by throwing a single master switch. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gleichschaltung-coordinating-the-nazi-state02 Feb 2025 00:45 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lh5sfzs56s22https://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lgxg5dk7is2pHappy birthday FDR! Your New Deal state survived almost a century but some very bad people you would call “economic royalists” are going to destroy it from within.30 Jan 2025 11:49 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgxg5dk7is2phttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lfqe27u6h22hHistory doesn’t repeat itself but sometimes it rhymes with Mussolini. Read up on Italy from 1922 to 1926 for a preview of coming attractions.14 Jan 2025 22:58 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfqe27u6h22hhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lfi6zgqols2yNow do History. [contains quote post or other embedded content]11 Jan 2025 17:07 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfi6zgqols2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lf5xr6tosc26My colleague and podcast cohost @sivav.bsky.social has written an excellent piece here about the global rejection of liberal democracy. Brief and insightful! Have a look: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/07/illiberal-democracy-21st-century07 Jan 2025 15:30 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lf5xr6tosc26https://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lerro4n3oc2aSo far, my university’s policy discourages *faculty* from using any AI detector tool on student papers because the tools can be inaccurate. So the official policy message on AI is… 🤷‍♂️ [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Jan 2025 19:09 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lerro4n3oc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lerlxvxlbk2xJust saying, Denzel’s expression in his final scene in Galdiator 2 is me watching this movie02 Jan 2025 17:27 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lerlxvxlbk2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/willhitch.bsky.social/post/3lecmkivhp22uWriting is hard; and writing a book is agony, until suddenly there’s a moment when you look up and realize you’re finishing it, and it’s not terrible, and maybe you haven’t wasted years … and your heart beats a little faster. Worth bottling that feeling for use in future emergencies27 Dec 2024 18:28 +0000at://did:plc:n5mesjeffoe5eq5a4fk2ro6p/app.bsky.feed.post/3lecmkivhp22u