A New Home for "Briefly Noted"

For 20 years, Found History has served as both a workshop for my longer writing and a place to collect links, ideas, and marginalia in occasional “Briefly Noted” posts.

Friends from social media will know that I've wrestled lately with some technology issues, including increasing headaches with WordPress and the question of whether to move the site to Substack. It was abundantly clear from the feedback I received on LinkedIn that Substack wasn't a good choice and that I should keep Found History on a free and open-source platform.

At the same time, and despite Substack's many downsides—it's a proprietary platform that countenances some extremely vile speech among its users—I still think there are some good reasons to have a presence on Substack. When I think about Substack as a place to publish my scholarship, those downsides seem dispositive. I agree with my LinkedIn friends: I don't want my work there.

Yet when I think about it as a social media site, Substack doesn't seem quite so different than any other social media site. In fact, it seems better than most. Specifically, the kind of engagement that happens on Substack around long-form writing is something I really like and want to cultivate.

So, is Substack a publishing platform or a social media site? The answer is, of course, it's both.

For that reason, I've decided to split the baby. A few weeks ago, I moved the Found History blog and newsletter from WordPress to Ghost, a free and open-source platform, where I will continue to publish under the same open access license I've always used. The main Found History site will remain the home for my long-form essays and substantial updates.

But I have decided to move the stream of discovery—the links, the quick thoughts, the "briefly noted" items—to Substack. The additional newsletter, Found History (Briefly Noted), will provide a weekly roundup of:

• Things I’ve Written: Links to new long-form essays posted here on the main blog or things I've published elsewhere, in hopes they'll drive the Substack audience to my work.
• Things I’ve Said: Highlights from my conversations on social media (LinkedIn, Mastodon, Bluesky, Substack, etc.), gathered in one place so I don't have to cross-post, so friends don't have to sift through repeat postings, and for my own record-keeping purposes.
• Things I’ve Read: A curated selection of the books, articles, and websites that are shaping my thinking that week—the heart of the original "Briefly Noted" concept.

This shift allows Found History to do what it does best—publish distinct, narrative-driven, open access scholarship—while providing a dedicated, inbox-friendly space for the ongoing conversation that surrounds it.

I hope you will join me in this new venue. You can read more and subscribe at foundhistory.substack.com.