Welcome, history cranks and fiends!
I’m Alexis Coe, an award-winning presidential historian, New York Times bestselling author and, as of 2025, the American history columnist at the New York Times Book Review and a senior fellow at New America.
Study Marry Kill is my lil’ newsletter, recently featured on PBS, where I writes essays on whatever moves me. Regular features include:
Reply Some (answers to your best questions and questions)
Wordy Wednesday (language under the knife)
Lies We Learned (myth-busting interventions)
Behind the Essay (the story behind my print pieces)
I cover the famous and the forgotten, tell overlooked stories, dismantle myths and unpack their origins, and expose how history still gets mangled. I’ll defend an underpaid interpreter, drag a lazy biographer, drop mini-biographies, and let things get weird…
Yes, there’s a lot on presidents, but I’m not your dad’s presidential historian! (No hate there; those guys are often my faves—and most loyal fans.)
This newsletter was born in the pandemic, mid-chaos, with a $nudge$ from Substack. It still runs somewhat free—my mortgage broker doesn’t accept likes! Some choice bits belong to paid subscribers.
If that’s not possible, no worries, I have a community option, too. And if you love SMK but not this venue, toss a coin to your historian on Venmo with “SMK” + your email, and I’ll do the rest. *Oprah voice* Founding members, you get a handwritten note!
No dead people have been harmed in the making of this newsletter. Well, not exactly.
x Alexis
