Jason A. Higgins, Ph.D

Rest in peace, Country Joe McDonald. youtu.be/CXuSQcyuPU8?...

$$ is always a concern. Hope you can make it.

I hope so! Are you going to be there?

I’ve been revising a digital humanities publication after some helpful and engaged peer-reviewers’ feedback. This has been an ongoing student-involved, community centered-oral history project that we started during my first year at Virginia Tech. I plan to share it at the NCPH/AASLH conference.

Reading “Until the Last Gun is Silent” by Matthew Delmont and let me tell you it’s a good time to be reading a book about the overlap between the anti-war and civil rights movements.

Job opening for a 2-year Postdoc in #OralHistory and Social Justice at Duke University: networks.h-net.org/jobs/69830/d...

Thanks, Gabriel! I hope you are well!

Thank you! And genuinely, I am delighted to know that anyone will read my book!

Me signing books at an event at the University of Chicago, hosted by the Office of Military-Affiliated Communities, which purchased 200 copies of the book and gave them to attendees, students, and veterans in Cook County Jail, and Veterans Treatment Courts. This was the highlight!

To sum up, it takes time to see the “impact” of a scholarly book. Keep grinding. Keep writing. Pay it forward: write book reviews, leave Amazon reviews, email authors, invite them to talk with your students, cite your sources. And most authors would be delighted to know that anyone reads our books!

It would be impossible to calculate how many hours of research, interviewing, writing, editing, the miles driven, the number of supporters, mentors, and friends who supported me in the publication of this book. I am most grateful that 60 veterans shared their stories with me.

Oral History Association Book Award Ceremony: image shows me and Troy Reeves. I am wearing a Jimi Hendrix shirt, blazer, black jeans, and Vans.

Giant poster of book cover in VT University Libraries

National book awards: 1 winner, 1 finalist, 3 decisions pending, 2 “ghosted”
Podcasts: 5
Author talks: 8
Guest lectures: 6
Giant poster: 1

Screenshot of Amazon metrics

Today’s (evil corporation) Amazon Best Seller Ranking: #186,440 in Books, #98 in Social Services & Welfare, #145 in United States Military Veterans History, #275 in Vietnam War History.

Image from the UPLOpen site with trends of downloads over time, and which nations are reading the book.

Book reviews: 8, including featured stories in national news or magazines, (Jacobin, Inquest, The War Horse)
Downloads and online reads: 879 downloads, 443 online reads in 40 countries so far!

QR code to the open-access edition

I had heard that an author is their own best publicist, but I didn’t really understand it at the time. I still feel weird about self-promoting. But now I understand that if you want people to read your book, you must be proactive.

PS: It's open-access and free: here:https://uplopen.com/books/m/356

Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Jason A. Higgins book cover, shows the shadow of a person behind bars.

Today marks the second-year publication anniversary of Prisoners after War. I had no clue how anti-climactic publishing a book would be, so I thought I would put together a thread about the trickling effects of book publishing. Maybe it’ll be interesting to first-time authors.

Awards Nursing Clio Prize for Best Journal Article The Nursing Clio Prize for Best Journal Article is awarded annually for the best peer-reviewed academic journal article on the intersection of gender and…

Did you know that Nursing Clio has an article prize? It's awarded annually for the best peer-reviewed academic journal article on the intersection of gender & medical histories in English. The author(s) of the winning article will receive $300 and a featured interview on the blog about the article.

This looks fantastic, Selena! Congratulations!

Thrilled to finally be sharing my Densho blog post on disabled Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. #DisabilitySky #skystorians Glad it made it in time for #DayOfRemembrance #EO9066 #AcademicSky

densho.org/catalyst/ask...

Agreed. I won’t be watching. It’s too hard on the soul, for lack of a better word.

Sonya Bonczek Gives Us the Scoop on Book Publicity Podcast Episode · Drafting the Past · February 24 · 53m

a great listen @sonyabonczek.bsky.social @uncpress.bsky.social @katecarp.bsky.social @draftingthepast.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

I literally wrote about this for @nursingclio.bsky.social! The draft included a section on hazing and the military in the 1990s, which conservatives opined was essential to being made into a man. (I originally bragged about my blood wings and E5 party.)
nursingclio.org/2025/06/04/n...

OSU history professor teaches American studies in Vietnam - Oklahoma State University When Dr. John Kinder, professor of history and American studies at Oklahoma State University, traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, this past December, he wasn’t just delivering a guest lecture. He was partic...

Thanks to Sarah Griswold for this story about my recent trip to Vietnam.

@okstate.edu #AmericanStudies

news.okstate.edu/articles/art...

Bastards.

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2026/01/cons...

A book: Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy by Judith Resnik.

So glad to see Judith Resnik's crucial new book.

During Black History Month, Monticello reflects on America’s founding Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello commemorated Black History Month with a series of events centered around sharing the history of Monticello's enslaved community.

“Jefferson’s life and legacies cannot be fully understood without understanding American chattel slavery, nor can it be understood without understanding the lives of the hundreds of enslaved individuals that lived and labored at Monticello,” ~Andrew Davenport www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2026...

W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause | Official Trailer | American Masters | PBS YouTube video by American Masters PBS

Coming this May. A documentary about WEB Du Bois - www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMs...

#ScholarSunday Thread 263 (2/15/26) – Black and White and Read All Over Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add mor...

+ Please share the thread widely to get all this great public scholarship to all the folks, & enjoy, all!

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

#ScholarSunday Thread 263 (2/15/26) – Black and White and Read All Over Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add mor...

Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ +

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Black Men Endured Sexual Exploitation Under Slavery. Their Story Is Rarely Told. Historian Thomas A. Foster discusses his new book Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men.

An interview w/Thomas Foster (au of Rethinking Rufus) on enslavers' sexual predation on the people they held in bondage. truthout.org/articles/bla... "This reality speaks to just how bad slavery was, how pervasively sexually violent it was toward both enslaved Black women [& girls] & men [& boys]."

Covers of Fear and Fury by Heather Ann Thompson and Until the Last Gun is Silent by Matthew Delmont on a marble top table

Truly a great library day today.