Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 25

December 30, 2024: 2025 Anniversaries: King Philip’s War

[A NewYear means another blog series dedicated to historic anniversaries we’ll becommemorating this year. Leading up to a special weekend post on five filmscelebrating their 50th this year!]

For its350th anniversary, a couple important ways to push past ourmemories of a tragic conflict.

In thispost on the Pequot War’s horrific massacre at Mystic, I noted that that 1630swar represented a painful and definitive shift in therelationship between English settlers and Native American communities inNew England. Of course settler colonialism and violencehad always been part of that relationship, but so too had the possibility ofcross-cultural alliances like those traced by historian Cynthia Van Zandt inher excellent book Brothers Among Nations: The Pursuit of InterculturalAlliances in Early America, 1580-1660. But across the 17thcentury, that relationship in New England became more and more overtly andcentrally hostile and violent—and if the Pequot War marked a significant stepin that destructive direction, it was KingPhilip’s War forty years later which really reflected the worst of European-indigenousencounters and set the stage for (for example) the unfolding history of scalpbounties that I tracedin this column.

As with somany of our most painful histories, we’ve done a pretty terrible job includingKing Philip’s War in our collective memories. When we have done so, at leasthere in New England, it seems to me that it’s been entirely through the lens ofMaryRowlandson’s captivity narrative, the story of an English woman takenhostage by the Wampanoag who witnesses much of the war during her time withthat community. As I argued in that hyperlinked post, and at length in a chapterof my book RedefiningAmerican Identity, Rowlandson unquestionably experiences cross-culturaltransformations that reflect the possibility of more mutual relationshipsbetween these communities. But her narrative begins with an extended depictionof the violent attack on her home and town by Wampanoag warriors, and it endswith her grateful return to her white world and sense of the entire experienceas a challenge presented by her Christian God. Which means that in too manyways, remembering the war through Rowlandson’s lens deepens our sense of thedivisions and hostility between these two communities.

There’sanother possible lens through which our collective memories of this conflictcan be viewed, though, and that’s the Wampanoag chief (known to his people asMetacomet) after whom we’ve named the war. I’ve written manytimes in this space about one of my favorite critical patriotic texts,William Apess’s “Eulogy onKing Philip” (1836). Apess doesn’t just ask his audiences—both whiteBostonians in the 1830s and all Americans at all times—to remember Philip/Metacometwith more nuance and more sympathy, although he certainly does that. He alsomakes the case for thinking of this figure as an ancestor of all Americans, andthus for “every patriot” to see him as a revolutionary leader akin to GeorgeWashington himself. I agree entirely, but would add this: even if 21stcentury white Americans might struggle to get to that perspective, they and allof us could at least since this war as a civil conflict, a tragic battlebetween multiple, interconnected American communities. That’d be an important reframingas we work to commemorate the war’s 350th.

Nextanniversary tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

December 28-29, 2024: December 2024 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

December2: McCarthy’s America: Mythic Patriotism: A series for the 70th anniversaryof the Senate’s censure of McCarthy starts with an excerpt from my most recentbook.

December3: McCarthy’s America: Chambers, White, and Hiss: The series continues withespionage, railroading, & the true complexity of historical nuance.

December4: McCarthy’s America: Edward R. Murrow: The special report that helped beginMcCarthy’s fall & embodies the best of journalism, as the series rolls on.

December5: McCarthy’s America: Roy Cohn: The figure who embodies American hypocrisies—andsomething even worse.

December6: McCarthy’s America: Censure: For the 70th anniversary of thatcensure vote, three quotes that sum up the process that led up to it.

December7-8: McCarthy’s America: 21st Century Echoes: The seriesconcludes with throughlines, overt and overarching, and what we must learn fromthem.

December9: Hawaiian Histories: Three Shifts: For the 150th anniversaryof a Hawaiian King’s state visit, a HawaiianStudying series kicks off withthree moments through which the islands’ history shifted.

December10: Hawaiian Histories: King Kalākaua’s Visit: The series continues with threestriking moments in the course of that state visit.

December11: Hawaiian Histories: Annexation: Two prior pieces through which I highlightedthe worst of America’s involvement with Hawaii, as the series surfs on.

December12: Hawaiian Histories: Pablo Manlapit: The Filipino American labor leaderwho reflects Hawaii’s defining diversity.

December13: Hawaiian Histories: The Varsity Victory Volunteers: The seriesconcludes with a post-Pearl Harbor group who embody the best of the war, Hawaii,and America.

December14-15: Hawaiian Histories: Hawaii in American Culture: A special weekendpost on a handful of cultural representations of the islands.

December16: Fall Semester Reflections: 20C Af Am Lit: For my Fall semester reflectionsI wanted to focus on moments that embody the best of our conversations andcommunities, starting with an inspiring semester-long moment in Af Am Lit.

December17: Fall Semester Reflections: First-Year Writing: The series continueswith the frustrations of generative AI and a moment in which we engaged withthem together.

December18: Fall Semester Reflections: Senior Capstone: A Halloween moment thatreminded me of why I do what I do, as the series reflects on.

December19: Fall Semester Reflections: Online American Lit: A great example of whyI use creative exam prompts in my literature courses.

December20: Fall Semester Reflections: Women’s Circle Breakfast: The series concludeswith the latest example of my always inspiring experiences with public talks.

December21-22: Spring Semester Previews: A special weekend post on a few of themany reasons why I’m looking forward to the Spring semester (but not quite yet).

December23: 2024 in Review: The Climate Crisis: 2024 was one hell of a year, moreor less literally. So I wanted to start my annual year in review series with acouple of the most challenging crises, including the one that scares me themost.

December24: 2024 in Review: AI: The series continues with another trend that scares& frustrates me in equal measure.

December25: 2024 in Review: The Celtics: Turning to more positive topics, aChristmas special on my favorite family moment from 2024.

December26: 2024 in Review: Women Rock: How badass women in music defined the year’scultural stories.

December27: 2024 in Review: Moo Deng: The series and year conclude with the babyhippo who’s better than we deserve, but what we desperately need.

New Year’sseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topicsyou’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!

December 27, 2024: 2024 in Review: Moo Deng

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

“Becausehe’s a better hippo than America deserves, but he was the one we needed rightnow. So we’ll harass him. Because he can take it, although he shouldn’t have to.”Not sure I need to say anything more than that paraphrased, misquoted yet stillto my mind pitch-perfectly applicable, allusion to Commissioner Gordon’sclosing speech in The Dark Knight. From what I can tell, a ton of peopletreated this cute baby hippo like crap for social media views and clout, andthat’s unquestionably one level of reflection of where we all here at the endof 2024. But at the same time, the intertubes gave us all (most of us, I hopeand believe, better than that worst) a chance to meet this delightfulbaby hippo. And also to watch this equally delightful SNL portrayal of him. Let’s carry that energy into 2025,and see if we can’t leave some of the worst behind as we do.

DecemberRecap this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 26, 2024: 2024 in Review: Women Rock

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

In my lastYear in Review blog series (2022’s, as the schedule meant I didn’t get to shareone last year), I dedicateda post (on the birthday of one of the two most badass women I know, my Mom,who over the last two years has become somehow even more inspiring, and alsohas become wonderfully connected to the second such badass woman and subject ofmy personalfavorite event of 2024, my wife) to the trend of “Hot Girl Music.” As bigas female musical artists were in that year, I think it’s fair to say that theywere perhaps even a bit bigger this year, from the absolute ubiquity of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour to the chart-toppingdominance of songwriters, performers, and artists like Sabrina Carpenterand Chappell Roan and Dasha, among others (although I have to admit being veryexcited to see one of the boys’ and my favorite male artists, BensonBoone, high on that list too). Moreover, while I was of course especiallymoved by Bruce Springsteen’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz ticket, I don’tthink any endorsements moved the needle more than T-Swift’s and Beyoncé’s. Swift’swas an especially striking moment in both the evolution of thatworld-conquering artist and the deepening intersections of politics, culture,and every aspect of our communities—including our most badass women.

Last 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 25, 2024: 2024 in Review: The Celtics

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

Christmascame in June for the Railton household this year, as my sons and wife and I gotto watch together as our favorite shared sports team, theBoston Celtics, clinched their 18th NBA Championship. I saidmost of what I’d want to say about that team from an AmericanStudies perspectivein that hyperlinked post, but I did want to use this post to do three additionalthings:

--Sharing this video of mysingle favorite live sports moment of my lifetime, Payton Pritchard’s first-half-buzzer-beatinglonger-than-half-court shot in Game 5, as captured from every camera anglepossible;

--Highlightingthe truly awesome public service and partnership work that Jaylen Brown is doing for theBlack community and all communities in Boston, as well as sharing hisdelightful recent episodeof Hot Ones;

--And makingthe broader case, through those various layers but also through a reminder of my recently completed first podcastwhich I hope made this case at great length and which I can think of no betterChristmas present than y’all checking out and sharing widely, for all the waysthat sports can connect to our worst but also and especially our best.  

Next 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 24, 2024: 2024 in Review: AI

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

I harboreda brief plan to outsource the writing of today’s post to ChatGPT (and then tocomment on how the program did or, far more likely, did not live up to my loftygoals for my own writing, natch), but here’s the thing: generative AIprograms like that most famous one are not just shitty writers and thinkers(as that excellent hyperlinked post from the folks at the USC Libraries notes),they also are blatantly stealing fromothers’ work and, to follow up yesterday’s post (with a side of AI that Idon’t think nearly enough folks are aware of, or that at least I don’t see inour conversations about AI in higher ed nearly consistently enough), contributingdirectly to the climate crisis while they do so. (I believe that’s equallytrue for other, non-generative forms of AI, but I have far less experience withand knowledge about them.) When I talk with students about why I hope they’llavoid using generative AI for any part of their work and writing in my classes,I emphasize all those levels for sure. But I also come back to one main point,the same one I’ve always made when it comes to questions of plagiarism and thelike: I respect my students deeply, and I hope they will always likewiserespect their own work, their own time, their own money and investment of alltypes in their education, as well as our shared community together. To my mind,such respect demands at least that we talk together about AI any and every timeit might be in play—and at most, and ideally, that we avoid outsourcing anypart of our work and voice to these problematic programs.

Next 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 23, 2024: 2024 in Review: The Climate Crisis

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

What isthere to say about the climate crisis in late 2024, you might reasonably ask, otherthan a primal scream of sadness and terror and rage and etc. etc. etc.? Iwouldn’t disagree; the critical optimism I highlighted in this August2021 Saturday Evening Post Considering History column is, shall we say,trending more and more toward the critical side of that coin. In any case wecan’t and shouldn’t look away, so I couldn’t imagine creating a weeklong 2024in Review series without including the climate crisis as a subject. But I alsowanted to use today’s post to highlight two prior blog posts to express the twosides of this defining 21st century issue, at least as far as this AmericanStudieris concerned:

1)     Asheville:I haven’t had the chance to visit this famously beautiful North Carolina cityin the state’s mountainous Western region, so that post on native son Thomas Wolfe (and Wolfe’s demandingand beautiful writings themselves) are my connection to Asheville. But thatdidn’t lessen in the slightest my genuine horror and sadness at seeing what hurricane-and climate crisis-produced flooding didto that city and region earlier this year. I’m not sure how anyone can seethose stories and not feel compelled to do anything and everything to helpchange this trajectory we’re on, and I’ve got one particularly inspiring modelfor that work through my older son…

2)     Aidan:In that Fall semester preview post, I briefly mentioned the Environmental Litcourse that Aidan is taking as part of his first semester at Vanderbilt. He’snot only kicking as much ass as you would expect, but has enjoyed the coursesufficiently to add a Climate andEnvironmental Studies Minor to his Civil Engineering Major. When I thinkabout the world that we are passing along to folks his (and my younger son Kyle’s)age, well, the primal scream returns and intensifies. But if the optimism sideof the critical optimism concept has any chance with me these days, it’sbecause of what Aidan and Kyle both are doing and fighting for in their educational,professional, and personal lives and futures. Makes me that much more committedto doing whatever I can, in whatever time I have left, to fight for that futureby their sides.

Next 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 21-22, 2024: Spring Semester Previews

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.Leading up to this special post on what I’m looking forward to in the Spring!]

ThreeSpring courses that make me (somewhat) excited to come back from the holidaybreak.

1)     Graduate English Research: I’ve been teaching coursesin our MA program since the end of my first year at FSU (Summer 2006!), andhave been the Chair of the program as well for the last 3+ years. But somehow,in all that time and across all these courses, I’ve never had the chance toteach our one required class, Graduate English Research. This Spring I’llfinally have that chance, and am so excited for two specific units: one wherewe’ll read a ton of LangstonHughes’s Collected Poems and think about different research and analyticallenses on them; and one where we’ll read a number of short stories from the BestAmerican Short Stories 2018 anthologyand do the same with more contemporary texts. One key to teaching at a placefor 20 years is keeping things fresh, and this course promises to do that forme in Spring 2025 for sure.

2)     Honors First-Year Writing II: This is anotherclass I’ve never had the chance to teach—it won’t be quite as new for me as theGraduate one, as I’ve taught First-YearWriting II every year and have also taught our HonorsLiterature Seminar many times; but this will still be a variation on thosemore familiar themes, and a chance to work with our phenomenal Honors studentswhich is always a profound pleasure. And maybe I’ll have a chance to recruitone or two or all of them to add a Minor in English Studies (if they’re notalready English Studies Majors, which most of them won’t be)…

3)     MajorAmerican Authors of the 20C: This upper-level literature course willinclude a lot of such Majors and Minors already, although I also always get anumber of students from across the university in my lit courses which makes fora great balance. Some authors/texts have been present every time I’ve taughtthis class and will remain so this Spring, including opening with Dreiser’sSister Carrie (1900) and working with multiple poems from both theaforementioned Langston Hughes and SylviaPlath in two mid-semester units. But I’m especially excited to concludethis class with a favorite novel that I’ve taught many times but never on thissyllabus: JhumpaLahiri’s The Namesake (2003). Every time I come back to this novel Isee different things, and I’m sure this setting will open it up in new waysstill. Not rushing the break, but also, I can’t wait!

Year inReview posts start Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatare you looking forward to?

December 20, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: Women’s Circle Breakfast

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

Since atleast theIntroduction to my 2013 book TheChinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America, I’ve been thinkingabout public scholarship as a form of teaching (in the best, most communal andconversation senses of that work). That’s one of many reasons (but high on thelist) why I seek out every possible opportunity to present my work to audiences,and oneof the settings to which I’ve returned most often are the Women’sCircle Breakfasts at Southgate. I had the chance to do so again this Fall,talking to them about the incredibly fraught and painful and important (now atleast as much as then) topic of eugenics in early 20th century Americansociety, culture, and history. As with every talk I get to give, and certainlywith every one I’ve been able to share with the Women’s Circle, I learned asmuch from the experience as any audience member could have; and in this case,as so often, I think we were all reminded of the worst of us and, I hope and believe,inspired to keep fighting for the best. I’ll take any and all of those moments!

Lookingahead to what’s next in the weekend post,

Ben

PS.Whattaya got?

December 19, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: Online American Lit

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

I have to imagineI’ve written about them since May2011, but that’s the post I found in a quick search, so: for a good whilenow I’ve been using creative questions for the longer/mini-essay portions of myFinal Exams. I always give students the option to write a more conventionalexam essay, but of course really enjoy when they take the creative option anddo things like imagine the voices of our class authors, of characters in ourreadings, and so on. I offered that chance to the students in my online sectionof American Literature II this semester, and those that chose the creative optionrose to the occasion as wonderfully as ever. If I had to pick one particular stand-out,I’d go with the student who put Calixta (the main character of KateChopin’s “The Storm”) in conversation with Sylvia Plath’s speaker from “Lady Lazarus”to think about women’s experiences, struggles, and why death and violence arenot the only possible paths. One of my favorite pieces of student writing ever,and a great reminder of the benefits of offering such creative options forstudent work of all kinds.

Lastreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS.Whattaya got?