Former reporter pursuing the past. Writing book on language history. Substack on history, economics, stuff. 2020 Pulitzer finalist for investigative journalism. jayhancock.substack.com
Jay Hancock
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Saturday evening! Talking to @melaniedgkaplan.bsky.social at The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore about her book, Lab Dog, describing animal experiments for medical research and her investigation into the background of her adopted lab beagle. Come hear the talk & buy books! www.facebook.com/events/20091...
Suburbs weren't always fashionable leafy neighborhoods for the well-off. @joesaunders1.bsky.social tells all, including the etymology of "extramural" @howtohistory.bsky.social how-to-history.com/2026/02/25/s...
Financing roads has always been a challenge for communities & governments. In the 1600s the English started putting up barriers -- turnpikes -- and charging fees. @genejean.bsky.social and @howtoreadthisch.art tell all. N.E. USA still calls toll roads turnpikes. how-to-history.com/2026/05/27/t...
Pam Smith Turnpike roads were a system of road management used in England. They were first established in the seventeenth century but not used extensively until the eighteenth. The first turnpike w…
how-to-history.com
"Gentlemen, you can't report in here! This is the press office!"
Exactly
Jay Hancock
Jay Hancock
Antiquaries like to potter around cool stuff left by people from the past! Long on observation and short on theory, they get looked down on by academic historians. @joesaunders1.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social gives them their due. how-to-history.com/2026/01/28/a...
"You were given the choice between endorsing the quack RFKjr and losing your seat. You chose the quack. And you will lose your seat."
lol @mchinn.bsky.social finds EJ Antonini & the Heritage Foundation creating excellent econometrics teaching material by making many stupid mistakes that beginners should avoid. econbrowser.com/archives/202...
Photography is art mediated/ assisted by technology. So why aren't AI novels art?
Thought I knew something about English history but I never heard of Church Courts, which enforced local morality and registered wills. Great resource for genealogists and social historians, as @joesaunders1.bsky.social @howtohistory.bsky.social explain. how-to-history.com/2026/04/29/c...
