Bathsheba Demuth
@brdemuth.bsky.social
Writer & environmental historian of cold places, now writing about the Yukon River. Author of FLOATING COAST. Prof at Brown University. Post mostly about animals, Arctic things & books. Heart is on a dogsled. #envhist #naturewriting
Pinned
Bathsheba Demuth
@brdemuth.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Where the Dogs Run | Bathsheba Demuth
The best days to work a salmon net are dry and bright. Bankside willows tilt from summer green to autumn gold. Light wind, no longer warm, riffles the
www.nybooks.com
“Deep relationship is a sensation of the particular, held in the eager tilt of a lead dog’s ears before a run or the feel of an old scar left by a salmon’s tooth.”
An essay on the mighty but sometimes overlooked chum salmon & dogs & rivers & love
#envhist #rivers
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
An essay on the mighty but sometimes overlooked chum salmon & dogs & rivers & love
#envhist #rivers
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
“I find myself in the middle of translation, of overlapping colonial and anticolonial projects, as well as the learning of new/old languages. The Blind Man and the Loon illuminates the labors of language and the promise of story”
A @sprucehen.bsky.social stunner
placesjournal.org/article/blin...
A @sprucehen.bsky.social stunner
placesjournal.org/article/blin...
Blind Man and Loon
A tale shared by Native peoples across the circumpolar Arctic reveals the elusive nature of language, and has come to shape many Native connections to place.
placesjournal.org
September 17, 2026 at 1:30 PM
“I find myself in the middle of translation, of overlapping colonial and anticolonial projects, as well as the learning of new/old languages. The Blind Man and the Loon illuminates the labors of language and the promise of story”
A @sprucehen.bsky.social stunner
placesjournal.org/article/blin...
A @sprucehen.bsky.social stunner
placesjournal.org/article/blin...
Not a novel observation, but digging back into research full time is a real reminder that internet searching has deteriorated so much. My kingdom for Google circa 2014.
August 20, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Not a novel observation, but digging back into research full time is a real reminder that internet searching has deteriorated so much. My kingdom for Google circa 2014.
I have seen & learned & felt so many things this summer, including watching more black bears along the Yukon River than I can remember ever encountering before.
August 13, 2026 at 11:28 PM
I have seen & learned & felt so many things this summer, including watching more black bears along the Yukon River than I can remember ever encountering before.
Great review of a book I devoured in a few days 📚
“To the extent that the ELF was a political project, it did not give much thought to long-term goals or building power. Its focus was action… but its members’ eventual disillusionment with their own tactics—& failure to achieve lasting change—seems to speak for itself.”
Bleak, important review here
Bleak, important review here
The Eco-Sabotage Group That Went Up In Smoke
The Earth Liberation Front grew impatient with legal forms of protest. Then they turned on each other.
newrepublic.com
July 16, 2026 at 10:28 AM
Great review of a book I devoured in a few days 📚
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
These photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic
(Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”)
www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
(Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”)
www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
July 15, 2026 at 3:18 PM
These photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic
(Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”)
www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
(Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”)
www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
I am apparently in my Dad Disaster History summer reading-wise: so far, we have the Challenger space shuttle, Chernobyl, several shipwrecks, 1929, range of Nazis, and the mess at Waco. Other recommendations very welcome.
July 10, 2026 at 9:52 PM
I am apparently in my Dad Disaster History summer reading-wise: so far, we have the Challenger space shuttle, Chernobyl, several shipwrecks, 1929, range of Nazis, and the mess at Waco. Other recommendations very welcome.
Storm brewing on a Yukon River side channel in the delta — and some expert boating.
July 7, 2026 at 8:46 PM
Storm brewing on a Yukon River side channel in the delta — and some expert boating.
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
Excited to announce the (very swiftly) upcoming tour dates for the East Coast leg of my book tour! Can't wait to talk with all of these brilliant folks—including @brdemuth.bsky.social and @sandyernestallen.bsky.social—about tree-climbing and 'tree-thinking'.
July 6, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Excited to announce the (very swiftly) upcoming tour dates for the East Coast leg of my book tour! Can't wait to talk with all of these brilliant folks—including @brdemuth.bsky.social and @sandyernestallen.bsky.social—about tree-climbing and 'tree-thinking'.
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
absolute stunner from @brdemuth.bsky.social on greenland + american empire; i was today years old when i learned grandpapa trump got his start as an extremely-used-horse salesman in the arctic www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Strategic Amnesia | Bathsheba Demuth
Denying that history could have been otherwise or making conquest subject to some unwritten statute of limitations are both ways of cloaking not just the US’s imperial past but its continuation into t...
www.nplusonemag.com
June 29, 2026 at 5:20 PM
absolute stunner from @brdemuth.bsky.social on greenland + american empire; i was today years old when i learned grandpapa trump got his start as an extremely-used-horse salesman in the arctic www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
Demuth has become one of the essential historians.
On the long American tradition of buying sovereignty, Greenland, colonialism, an AI penguin, and the grimy history of the president’s grandfather in the far north
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Strategic Amnesia | Bathsheba Demuth
Denying that history could have been otherwise or making conquest subject to some unwritten statute of limitations are both ways of cloaking not just the US’s imperial past but its continuation into t...
www.nplusonemag.com
June 26, 2026 at 1:28 AM
Demuth has become one of the essential historians.
Back from an amazing week on the lower Yukon River and the Bering Sea, with so much dancing and talking and boating and sunshine and rain and even a few summer chum salmon from the test fishery. Many thanks to the people of Emmonak, St Mary’s, and Pilot Station for the welcome
July 2, 2026 at 1:14 PM
Back from an amazing week on the lower Yukon River and the Bering Sea, with so much dancing and talking and boating and sunshine and rain and even a few summer chum salmon from the test fishery. Many thanks to the people of Emmonak, St Mary’s, and Pilot Station for the welcome
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
Well this is just bloody brilliant from @brdemuth.bsky.social on American empire and the Arctic. Was gob-smacked to read that 40% of US territory was purchased. Totally shifts the context for trying to buy Greenland.
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Strategic Amnesia | Bathsheba Demuth
Denying that history could have been otherwise or making conquest subject to some unwritten statute of limitations are both ways of cloaking not just the US’s imperial past but its continuation into t...
www.nplusonemag.com
June 29, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Well this is just bloody brilliant from @brdemuth.bsky.social on American empire and the Arctic. Was gob-smacked to read that 40% of US territory was purchased. Totally shifts the context for trying to buy Greenland.
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
On the long American tradition of buying sovereignty, Greenland, colonialism, an AI penguin, and the grimy history of the president’s grandfather in the far north
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Strategic Amnesia | Bathsheba Demuth
Denying that history could have been otherwise or making conquest subject to some unwritten statute of limitations are both ways of cloaking not just the US’s imperial past but its continuation into t...
www.nplusonemag.com
June 24, 2026 at 5:26 PM
On the long American tradition of buying sovereignty, Greenland, colonialism, an AI penguin, and the grimy history of the president’s grandfather in the far north
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Look what book is now *available* for preorder!! @rebecca-altman.bsky.social’s SONG OF STYRENE coming next April. Important and gorgeous. Also that cover!!
#envhist #envhum #plastics
www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-So...
#envhist #envhum #plastics
www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-So...
The Song of Styrene
A personal history of plastics, written by a plastic-maker’s daughter turned environmental sociologist who, for the past decade, has searched for t...
www.simonandschuster.com
June 19, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Look what book is now *available* for preorder!! @rebecca-altman.bsky.social’s SONG OF STYRENE coming next April. Important and gorgeous. Also that cover!!
#envhist #envhum #plastics
www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-So...
#envhist #envhum #plastics
www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-So...
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
Great bookmail to return home to! @robertmoor.com’s newest — and I’m very much anticipating discussing this gorgeous work with him on July 12 at RiffRaff in Providence 🌳🌲
June 15, 2026 at 6:12 PM
Great bookmail to return home to! @robertmoor.com’s newest — and I’m very much anticipating discussing this gorgeous work with him on July 12 at RiffRaff in Providence 🌳🌲
Great bookmail to return home to! @robertmoor.com’s newest — and I’m very much anticipating discussing this gorgeous work with him on July 12 at RiffRaff in Providence 🌳🌲
June 15, 2026 at 6:12 PM
Great bookmail to return home to! @robertmoor.com’s newest — and I’m very much anticipating discussing this gorgeous work with him on July 12 at RiffRaff in Providence 🌳🌲
A gorgeous and exacting piece by Max Liboiron, on plastics and science and birds and much more
placesjournal.org/article/thro...
placesjournal.org/article/thro...
Through the Guts
What can plastic fragments found in an animal’s digestive tract tell us about the waters it has traversed?
placesjournal.org
June 12, 2026 at 6:19 PM
A gorgeous and exacting piece by Max Liboiron, on plastics and science and birds and much more
placesjournal.org/article/thro...
placesjournal.org/article/thro...
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
Hi pals! I've got something I'm REALLY excited about in the works... I'll be editing a nonfiction anthology about the Yukon River. Timelines are tight so I'm mostly seeking out existing work (in your publication archive, sitting on your hard drive...) Please submit / share! forms.gle/Q622LYHExe7x...
June 9, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Hi pals! I've got something I'm REALLY excited about in the works... I'll be editing a nonfiction anthology about the Yukon River. Timelines are tight so I'm mostly seeking out existing work (in your publication archive, sitting on your hard drive...) Please submit / share! forms.gle/Q622LYHExe7x...
Fox hunting on the banks of the Yukon in Whitehorse this morning
June 5, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Fox hunting on the banks of the Yukon in Whitehorse this morning
Reposted by Bathsheba Demuth
En voilà un excellent article. La thèse ? Arrêtons avec « agentivité » à toutes les sauces en histoire environnementale et intéressons nous plutôt à la continuité : « rien n’est peut-être plus radical que d’identifier dans le passé les conditions nécessaires à la continuité. »
Comment écrire l’histoire environnementale aujourd'hui ?
Bathsheba Demuth · Baleines, virus, sols... Quelle rôle attribuer aux non-humains dans la pratique de l'histoire ? Analyse d'une question cruciale.
www.terrestres.org
May 29, 2026 at 4:24 PM
En voilà un excellent article. La thèse ? Arrêtons avec « agentivité » à toutes les sauces en histoire environnementale et intéressons nous plutôt à la continuité : « rien n’est peut-être plus radical que d’identifier dans le passé les conditions nécessaires à la continuité. »
Midway through the three feet of snow that came to Providence in the last 24 hours, overtaking the Blizzard of ‘78 record. My
February 23, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Midway through the three feet of snow that came to Providence in the last 24 hours, overtaking the Blizzard of ‘78 record. My
The world is so very bad, but this week we hung in our house a tapestry my mother wove, my father made the wooden hanger for with salmon-shaped hardware my brother cast out of copper, based on a photo I made on the middle fork of the Koyukuk River. It feels like the confluence of many homes.
February 16, 2026 at 11:22 PM
The world is so very bad, but this week we hung in our house a tapestry my mother wove, my father made the wooden hanger for with salmon-shaped hardware my brother cast out of copper, based on a photo I made on the middle fork of the Koyukuk River. It feels like the confluence of many homes.