As the notorious commitment-phobe Charles Dickens once said, it was the best of times, it was the worst times.

Psyche. It’s still the worst of times.  The editorial team at Tropics of Meta had a rough election night, but perhaps not as bad as the folks over at Chapo Trap House.  The political outlook seems a bit sunnier a week or two out from the election, even if the Democrats did not score the decisive blow against Trumpism that many of us hoped for.  The fine-tuned metronome of the gears of the Founders’ carefully woven constitutional patchwork quilt of pendulous…. oh, never mind.  Let’s just say we’ve taken a firm step back from the abyss.

But the abyss still beckons!  Haven’t you always wanted to try out an abyss? Live a little.

This week, we’ve got the usual heaping helping of great writing and other content from public-oriented scholars (however much Professor Lepore might gripe about it) and the wide world of new media.

Martha S. Jones on The Hidden History of Birthright Citizenship (Atlantic)

LGBT Caravan Splinter Group Is The First To Arrive In Tijuana (NPR)

A series on the life of the late rapper Prodigy: The Realness (WNYC)

Reimagining Norman Rockwell’s America (NYT)

The Accidental Perfection of the Beatles’ White Album (New Yorker)

How Women Candidates Changed American Politics in 2018 (Time)

Republicans used redistricting to build a wall around the House. Trump just tore it down. (Politico)

Trump Is Beginning to Lose His Grip (NYT)

Nancy MacLean on the Democrats’ way forward: Democrats were once invisible in state politics. Those days are over (Guardian)

Sayf hilariously volunteered to do a talk on “managing an online presence,” and Academic Twitter stepped up with a lot of great recs (Twitter)

Roadmap to the Brave New (Transmasculine) World: An Interview with Arlene Stein (Nursing Clio)

A New Book Reveals a Colorful Side to Vivian Maier’s Renowned Street Photography (Colossal)

Peer Review: The Worst Way to Judge Research, Except for All the Others (NYT)

The Tiny Town with a Big Heart: When Kindertransport Arrived in Llanwrytd Wells (BBC)

Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on Anger, Forgiveness, and What Maturity Really Means (Brain Pickings)

We Taste Every Flavor of Zapp’s Potato Chips (Serious Eats)