Bibliography for the Next Two Episodes
Added 2025-03-21 17:53:54 +0000 UTCHello lovely Patrons!
I'm just coming to the end of my research phase for the next two episodes and I thought you'd appreciate a peek at the bibliography. This is everything I've read and it'll form the backbone of the episodes - I might supplement them with a few more things between now and filming but this is what's going to form the bulk of the scriptwriting phase.
My plan is to do two shorter episodes, similar to the double episode on Nietzsche though not quite so closely entwined. At the moment my vision is that both will focus in on a specific question and tie into a broader one, so
PART ONE:
Surface Question: Why is the US landscape gridded?
Bigger Question: Why is it so hard to write good educational books and make good educational video essays?
PART TWO:
Surface Question: What did Thomas Jefferson say about Native Americans?
Bigger Question: Can we judge historical figures by modern standards?
Biggest Question: Why is America Like That?
Part 2 still needs some outlining and drafting but that's where I'm at with it right now. I think there might be an opportunity to bring in some of the notes I made at the end of 2023 about Gaza and settler colonialism, but I don't have an exact plan for that yet.
I think titles and thumbnails will be a challenge for these ones, but that's okay - I can get help from the Nebula team in that department. These ideas might change as I go on with the writing, but for now that's the plan! I don't have dates for filming in mind yet, I'm still early stages on writing and I'd like to get a first draft of both scripts before I book a studio.
Abi XX
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kathryn Akipa, Gladys Hawk, Craig Howe, Lanniko Lee, Kim Tallbear, and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, “Reflections in Mnisose After Lewis and Clark,” in This Stretch of the River ed. Kim Tallbear
Amir Alexander, Liberty’s Grid
Maggie Blackhawk, “Federal Indian Law as Paradigm Within Public Law,” in Harvard Law Review
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, “Jefferson, Thoreau, and After,” in Landscape in Sight: Looking at America
Robert C. Bosanquet, “Greek and Roman Towns I,” in Town Planning Review
Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
John Dunne, “Measuring Locke’s Shadow”
Harrold Hellenbrand, “Not ‘To Destroy But To Fulfil,’ Jefferson, Indians, and Republican Dispensation,” in Eighteenth-Century Studies
Mark Andrew Holawchek, Thomas Jefferson on American Indians
Matthew H. Edney, “Review of Liberty’s Grid,” in Imago Mundi
Anthony Hobert, “Locke’s “Wild Indian,” in United States Supreme Court Jurisprudence,” in American Indian Law Journal
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia Queries VI and XI
Thomas Jefferson, “Notes Concerning Boundaries,” 1784
Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to Benjamin Hawkins,” August 1786
Thomas Jefferson,” Letter to Henry Dearborn,” August 1802
Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to Benjamin Hawkins,” February 1803
Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to William Henry Harrison,” February 1803
James Lewis, “Review of Liberty’s Grid,” in William and Mary Quarterly
Steven Shapin, “On Gods and Kings: Natural Philosophy and Politics in the Leibniz-Clarke Disputes,” in Isis
Dan Stanislawski, “The Origin and Spread of the Grid-Pattern Town,” in Geographical Review
Martyn Thompson, “Locke’s Contract in Context,” in The Social Contract From Hobbes to Rawls
James Tully, “Rediscovering America”
Charmaine White Face, “Where Are They?” in This Stretch of the River ed. Kim Tallbear
Joe Whittle, “The Case for Returning U.S. Public Lands to Indigenous People,” in Time
Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” in Journal of Genocide Research
Comments
Yeah seems odd that Abigail would be messaging winners of an unannounced giveaway on a 5 month old thread?
Jaclyn
2025-11-05 22:52:49 +0000 UTCWatch out for the phishing. Unless I'm missing an inside joke.
Kristen
2025-11-05 15:57:05 +0000 UTCJust finished watching the latest episode with my partner on her Nebula. I'm so inspired and on board with this new direction. Been watching since 2018, and I totally agree with your points about video essays vs. reading. If you included discussion questions in your upcoming videos, I would be That Nerd and watch having read the assigned reading and ready to discuss 🤓
Jaclyn
2025-06-16 05:46:55 +0000 UTC"Bigger Question: Can we judge historical figures by modern standards?" I feel like this is the only way we progress.
Cosmic Frog
2025-03-24 16:26:51 +0000 UTCThank you so much for sharing this with free patrons!
grateful grapefruit
2025-03-22 23:14:25 +0000 UTCrecommend checking out historian James W. Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong"
LeBonk
2025-03-22 04:16:42 +0000 UTCPart Two (Bigly): And, would Thomas Jefferson (and his 'relationships' fit in well with MAGA today? O:-)
RouxTheDay
2025-03-22 02:15:43 +0000 UTC"Biggest Question: Why is America like that?" Finally, an answer! As a US citizen, I'm dying to know!
Jon Skoog
2025-03-21 20:08:06 +0000 UTCIt might be interesting to contrast what Jefferson said about native Americans with what Benjamin Franklin said.
David Mankins
2025-03-21 19:37:57 +0000 UTCI so appreciate your sharing this list of sources. Thank you, Abi
Abby C
2025-03-21 18:47:04 +0000 UTCHave you read "The New Jim Crown" by Michelle Alexander that could help with answering "why is America like that?"
Soapbayz
2025-03-21 18:42:29 +0000 UTCThe US is insane. I was working there and the kids knew the pledge of allegiance, line for line, unprompted. I naturally taught them to yell "for king and country" before they did any sporting activities. Gotta fight fire with fire
JesseKansas101
2025-03-21 18:28:29 +0000 UTCGee, and I always thunked you just made stuff up... :-) Keep up the good work!
Emily Meyerding
2025-03-21 18:03:38 +0000 UTCHave you looked at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City? IMO, it is the purest ideological expression of America’s land use organization, and a valuable look back into how things got to where they are today. Also recommend James Howard Kunstler’s “Geography of Nowhere.”
Gordon
2025-03-21 17:59:09 +0000 UTCAre we going to get a Rollie cameo?!
Kristen
2025-03-21 17:58:54 +0000 UTCAn important thing to remember about the USA is that it's not one country. It's 50 states occasionally cosplaying as a country. As such, the "United" in "United States of America" is very much aspirational.
Kelemvor
2025-03-21 17:56:41 +0000 UTC