Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 314

August 12, 2015: Birthday Specials: 2013 Birthday Best

[For a week that includes both my Dad’s birthday and mine, a special series of blog birthday posts, old and new. Cel … ebrate AmericanStudier birthdays, come on!]For my 36th birthday I highlighted 36 of my favorite posts from the blog’s third year:1)      Bad Memories, Part Four: As part of a series on how we could better remember our darkest histories, I considered memoir, photography, and fiction of the Japanese Internment.2)      Crowd-Sourcing Bad Memories: Perhaps my favorite of the crowd-sourced posts to date, as many fellow AmericanStudiers weighed in on the week’s theme.3)      Books That Shaped AmericanStudier, Childhood: I began a series on books that have hugely impacted me with one of my first favorites, the Hardy Boys series.4)      Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Gardner Museum-inspired series began with a post on Gardner herself, one of my favorite Americans.5)      John Singer Sargent: Posts on Gardner and Sargent go together as perfectly as, well, Gardner and Sargent did!6)      Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Any post that allows me to write more about the greatest American sculptor, and one of the most inspiring Americans period, is well worth sharing again.7-11) The five posts in this series on American hope remain perhaps my most definitive statements of the complexities, contexts, and crucial importance of this elusive emotion.12) Up in the Air, Part Five: Summer camps, childhood memories, and nostalgia—one of my more universal and, I believe, broadly relevant posts.13) Ezra Jack Keats: This post, in a series on children’s books, expressed the importance of this pioneering author—and was linked to by the Keats Foundation!14-18) Another series in which I need to highlight all five posts—this has been the longest and hardest year of my life, and writing these posts on how Americans have responded to adversity helped me get through it.19) American Spooking, Part 3: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Grant Wood, and American Horror Story help me think about whether America can have homegrown horror, and where we might find it.20) Extra Thanks: A Thanksgiving series concludes with a few reflections on one of my most unexpected and inspiring moments of the year.21) American Winter, Part Four: The very different but equally American perspectives at the heart of two winter classics.22) AmericanStudying the Pacific, Part Four: On the limitations and lessons of a childhood spent building models.23) Lincoln, Culture, and History: Some of my thoughts on Steven Spielberg’s popular and important historical film (with this additional post after I saw it!).24) Making My List (Again), Part Five: A series of wishes for the AmericanStudies Elves ends with the educational experience I wish all children could have.25) AmericanStudying Our Biggest Issues: Climate Change: As I’ve shifted more fully to an emphasis on public scholarship, I’ve worked hard to find ways to connect my subjects to contemporary concerns—and this post exemplifies that goal.26) American Homes, Part Four: The American narratives inside (perhaps deep inside) one of our silliest films.27) Remembering Wheatley and Washington: A Black History Month series on conversations begins with the time the poet met the (future) president.28) I Love Three Pages in Ceremony: I’ve always wanted to write about my single favorite moment in American fiction. Here I did!29) Popular Fiction: Christian Novels: It’s always fun to write (and so learn) about subjects I myself know too little about, and this post definitely qualifies.30) Supreme Contexts: Santa Clara County and Revision: Few Supreme Court decisions are as relevant to our contemporary moment, and thus worth remembering, as this one.31) Spring in America: Children’s Stories: Two pioneering children’s classics that captures two opposing sides to a new season.32) Baseball in America: The Black Sox: This whole baseball series was fun to research and write, so I’ll just highlight one of its posts (yes, the one that includes John Sayles!).33) Comic Book Heroes: Wonder Woman: Ditto for this comic book series, but this post was the one for which I learned the most and had my eyes opened most completely.34) Roopika Risam’s Guest Post: I could include any and all guest posts in this list—but Roopika’s was certainly a wonderful addition to the blog.35) American Swims: Cheever’s Swimmer: Part of the fun of this blog is sharing American texts that I think we should all read, and Cheever’s short story is a great example.36) Book Release Reflections, Part Four: I have to end the list with one of the things I’m most     excited about in the year to come (and I now have at least 20 talks definitely coming up!).Next bday special tomorrow,BenPS. Anything you’d add (bday wishes or otherwise)?

August 11, 2015: Birthday Specials: 2012 Birthday Best

[For a week that includes both my Dad’s birthday and mine, a special series of blog birthday posts, old and new. Cel … ebrate AmericanStudier birthdays, come on!]35 of my favorite posts from my blog’s second year!August 16: Me Too: In which I follow up the birthday favorites by highlighting five posts that make clear just how much I too continue to learn about America.August 23: Virginia, Cradle of American Studies: The first post in what I believe was my first series (now of course the blog’s central format), on a few of Virginia’s American Studies connections.September 1: First Questions: A back to school post, highlighting both the role that teaching plays in my American Studying and my (continued!) desire for your input on my topics here.September 2: Not Tortured Enough: On torture, American ideals and realities, and how contemporary politics and overarching American questions intersect.September 12: The Neverending Story: Perhaps the most vital American Studies response I can imagine to September 11th and its decade-long aftermath.October 6: Native Voices: Linking the NEASA conference at Plimoth Plantation, the hardest part of my dissertation and first book, and a key American question.October 11: Remembering an Iconoclastic Genius: One of my most important jobs here, I think, is to help us better remember important (and often inspiring) people and histories and stories that we’ve forgotten; Derreck Bell is one such person.October 19: The Importance of Reading Ernest: Making the case for an under-read American great, and remembering to keep my literary interests present in this space at the same time.November 7: Moments That Remain 1: The fall’s NEASA conference was one of the best weekends of my life, and it was very exciting to be able to bring a bit of it to the blog.November 14: Kids Say the Darnedest Things 1: Of the few different ways I’ve tried to grapple with the Penn State scandal in this space, I think this series, using student voices and ideas to remember the best of what college should be, is my favorite.November 28: Bond, Racist Bond?: It’s not easy to analyze something we love—but I tried that here, with one of my favorite films in my favorite series.December 5: Defining Diversity: Transitioning from a topical post (one responding to other American commentators) to the continued development of my own ideas about American culture and identity.December 12: Cross-Culture 1: It’s Not Only Rock and Roll: And then extending those ideas to one of the many different media, genres, and disciplines that American Studies helps us analyze.December 19: Making My List 1: Memory Days: The Memory Days have become a separate and ongoing project and page here, but this is where they began.December 29: Year in Review 4: School for Scandal: Another stab at Penn State—not searching for answers so much as highlighting some of the key American Studies questions.January 4: Gaga for American Studies: What American Studies can help us see in and say about Lady Gaga. Enough said.January 21: American Studies for Lifelong Learning: A series that helped me plan the spring semester, connect my teaching to this blog, and, in this case, move me toward both a new experience and what would turn out to be my third book.January 23: Mexican American Studies: I’m maybe most proud of this series out of all that I’ve done in this space this year, and this is where it started.February 2: The Three Acts of John Rocker: Trying to do complex justice to a figure and story that are both close to my heart (or at least the Atlanta Braves are) and easily over-simplified.February 16: Remembering Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Another far-too forgotten figure, and a post inspired by an idea from a friend (which was the origin for the now-frequent crowd-sourced posts).February 24: Detroit Connections: I think it’s fair to say that I hadn’t thought about this topic at all prior to coming up with the series and writing the post. That’s part of what a blog allows us to do, and while the results have to speak for themselves, I love the opportunity.March 6: Celebrating Zitkala-Sa: The whole Women’s History series was a lot of fun, but any time I get the chance to recommend this unique and amazing author, I take it.March 21: Balboa Park: Family vacations will never be the same, now that they’re part of my American Studying and blogging too. That’s fine by me.March 27: Race and Danny Chen: Like the prior day’s subject, Trayvon Martin, Chen is a tragically killed American whose story we should all know and with which we have to engage.April 4: Melville’s Confidence Man: A good reminder that both literature and laughter have their place on the blog too.April 19: How Would a Patriot Act? Part Three: This post on the amazing and inspiring Yung Wing helped me continue developing book three.April 26: Great American Stories, Part Four: One of the very best American short stories, by one of my very favorite authors. May 10: Maurice Sendak: Sometimes I feel locked into a week’s series, but Sendak’s death reminded me that sometimes I need to shift gears and write about a topical and important subject.May 29: Remembering Pat Tillman: I hope I did justice to the complexities and ambiguities in this American life and death; this remains by far my most-read post on the Open Salon version of this blog, so it seems like it struck a chord with folks.June 2-3: Remembering or Commemorating War: Michael Kammen, Kurt Vonnegut and Clint Eastwood, and big American questions—if that’s not American Studying, what is?June 12: Playing with America, Part 2: But this is American Studying too—analyzing some of the cultural and historical causes behind the hula hoop fad.June 16-17: Crowd-sourced Post on Material Culture: My first crowd-sourced post, now one of my favorite aspects of the blog. Add your thoughts for this week’s!July 6: Newton’s Histories, Part 5: To come full circle to the August 16thpost, Jonathan Walker reminds me of how much I still have to learn about American history and culture.July 27: Jennings on the Long Haul: And the inspiring life and career of Frances Jennings reminds me of why continuing to learn, study, analyze, teach, and write about America is so important and so rewarding.Next bday special tomorrow,BenPS. Anything you’d add (bday wishes or otherwise)?

August 10, 2015: Birthday Specials: 2011 Birthday Best

[For a week that includes both my Dad’s birthday and mine, a special series of blog birthday posts, old and new. Cel … ebrate AmericanStudier birthdays, come on!]In honor of this AmericanStudier’s 34th birthday in 2011, here (from oldest to most recent) were 34 of my favorite posts from the blog’s first year:1)      The Wilmington Massacre and The Marrow of Tradition: My first full post, but also my first stab at two of this blog’s central purposes: narrating largely forgotten histories; and recommending texts we should all read.2)      Pine Ridge, the American Indian Movement, and Apted’s Films: Ditto to those purposes, but also a post in which I interwove history, politics, identity, and different media in, I hope, a pretty exemplary American Studies way.3)      The Shaw Memorial: I’ll freely admit that my first handful of posts were also just dedicated to texts and figures and moments and histories that I love—but the Memorial, like Chesnutt’s novel and Thunderheart in those first two links, is also a deeply inspiring work of American art.4)      The Chinese Exclusion Act and the Most Amazing Baseball Game Ever: Probably my favorite post to date, maybe because it tells my favorite American story.5)      Ely Parker: The post in which I came up with my idea for Ben’s American Hall of Inspiration; I know many of my posts can be pretty depressing, but hopefully the Hall can be a way for me to keep coming back to Americans whose stories and legacies are anything but.6)      My Colleague Ian Williams’ Work with Incarcerated Americans: The first post where I made clear that we don’t need to look into our national history to find truly inspiring Americans and efforts. 7)      Rush Limbaugh’s Thanksgiving Nonsense: My first request, and the first post to engage directly with the kinds of false American histories being advanced by the contemporary right.8)      The Pledge of Allegiance: Another central purpose for this blog is to complicate, and at times directly challenge and seek to change, some of our most accepted national and historical narratives. This is one of the most important such challenges.9)      Public Enemy, N.W.A., and Rap: If you’re going to be an AmericanStudier, you have to be willing to analyze even those media and genres on which you’re far from an expert, and hopefully find interesting and valuable things to say in the process. 10)   Chinatown and the History of LA: At the same time, the best AmericanStudiers likewise have to be able to analyze their very favorite things (like this 1974 film, for me), and find ways to link them to broader American narratives and histories.11)   The Statue of Liberty: Our national narratives about Lady Liberty are at least as ingrained as those about the Pledge of Allegiance—and just about as inaccurate.12)   Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” and Parenting: Maybe the first post in which I really admitted my personal and intimate stakes in the topics I’m discussing here, and another of those texts everybody should read to boot.13)   Dorothea Dix and Mental Health Reform: When it comes to a number of the people on whom I’ve focused here, I didn’t know nearly enough myself at the start of my research—making the posts as valuable for me as I could hope them to be for any other reader. This is one of those.14)   Ben Franklin and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: As with many dominant narratives, those Americans who argue most loudy in favor of limiting immigration usually do so in large part through false, or at best greatly oversimplified and partial, versions of our past.  15)   Divorce in American History: Some of our narratives about the past and present seem so obvious as to be beyond dispute: such as the idea that divorce has become more common and more accepted in our contemporary society. Maybe, but as with every topic I’ve discussed here, the reality is a good bit more complicated.16)   My Mom’s Guest Post on Margaret Wise Brown: The first of the many great guest posts I’ve been fortunate enough to feature here; I won’t link to the others, as you can and should find them by clicking the “Guest Posts” category on the right. And please—whether I’ve asked you specifically or not—feel free to contribute your own guest post down the road!17)   JFK, Tucson, and the Rhetoric and Reality of Political Violence: The first post in which I deviated from my planned schedule to respond directly to a current event—something I’ve incorporated very fully into this blog in the months since.18)   Tribute Post to Professor Alan Heimert: I’d say the same about the tribute posts that I did for the guest posts—both that they exemplify how fortunate I’ve been (in this case in the many amazing people and influences I’ve known) and that you should read them all (at the “Tribute Posts” category on the right). 19)   Martin Luther King: How do we remember the real, hugely complicated, and to my mind even more inspiring man, rather than the mythic ideal we’ve created of him? A pretty key AmericanStudies question, one worth asking of every truly inspiring American.20)   Angel Island and Sui Sin Far’s “In the Land of the Free”: Immigration has been, I believe, my first frequent theme here, perhaps because, as this post illustrates, it can connect us so fully to so many of the darkest, richest, most powerful and significant national places and events, texts and histories.21)   Dresden and Slaughterhouse Five: One of the events we Americans have worked most hard to forget, and one of the novels that most beautifully and compelling argues for the need to remember and retell every story.22)   Valentine’s Day Lessons: Maybe my least analytical post, and also one of my favorites. It ain’t all academic, y’know.23)   Tori Amos, Lara Logan, and Stories of Rape: One of the greatest songs I’ve ever heard helps me respond to one of the year’s most horrific stories.24)   Peter Gomes and Faith: A tribute to one of the most inspiring Americans I’ve ever met, and some thoughts on the particularly complicated and important American theme he embodies for me.25)   The Treaty of Tripoli and the Founders on Church and State: Sometimes our historical narratives are a lot more complicated than we think. And sometimes they’re just a lot simpler. Sorry, David Barton and Glenn Beck, but there’s literally no doubt of what the Founders felt about the separation of church and state the idea of America as a “Christian nation.”26)   Newt Gingrich, Definitions of America, and Why We’re Here: The first of many posts (such as all those included in the “Book Posts” category on the right) in which I bring the ideas at the heart of my second book into my responses to AmericanStudies narratives and myths.27)   Du Bois, Affirmative Action, and Obama: Donald Trump quickly and thoroughly revealed himself to be a racist jackass, but the core reasons for much of the opposition to affirmative action are both more widespread and more worth responding to than Trump’s buffoonery. 28)   Illegal Immigrants, Our Current Deportation Policies, and Empathy: What does deportation really mean and entail, who is affected, and at what human cost? 29)   Tribute to My Grandfather Art Railton: The saddest Railton event of the year leads me to reflect on the many inspiring qualities of my grandfather’s life, identity, and especially perspective.30)   My Clearest Immigration Post: Cutting through some of the complexities and stating things as plainly as possible, in response to Sarah Palin’s historical falsehoods. Repeated and renamed with even more force here. 31)   Paul Revere, Longfellow, and Wikipedia: Another Sarah Palin-inspired post, this time on her revisions to the Paul Revere story and the question of what is “common knowledge” and what purposes it serves in our communal conversations.32)   “Us vs. them” narratives, Muslim Americans, and Illegal Immigrants: The first of a couple posts to consider these particularly frustrating and divisive national narratives. The second, which also followed up my Norwegian terrorism response (linked below), is here. 33)   Abraham Cahan: The many impressive genres and writings of this turn of the century Jewish American, and why AmericanStudiers should work to push down boundaries between disciplines as much as possible.34)   Terrorism, Norway, and Rhetoric: One of the latest and most important iterations of my using a current event to drive some American analyses—and likewise an illustration of just how fully interconnected international and American events and histories are.Next bday special tomorrow,BenPS. Anything you’d add (bday wishes or otherwise)?

August 8-9, 2015: My Virginia

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. That has led up to this special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]A handful of past posts that help define my Virginia.1)      Public teachers: My whole life in Charlottesville was spent in the city’s public schools, and I wouldn’t change a thing about those experiences. The folks on whom that post folks are the main reason why!2)      Camp Virginia: I think that post says it all!3)      Friends: As I wrote in this post expressing thanks for Facebook (seriously!), I graduated high school with a truly exceptional group of peers. They, and especially my lifelong best friend Steve, are hugely constitutive of my Virginia, now as then.4)      My sister and her family: From her Martha’s Vineyard wedding to her newborn (well, 9 month old, but who’s counting?!) twins, my sister and her growing family have played a prominent role in this space—just as they did in every one of my Virginia years after she joined our own growing family way back in 1982.5)      The Railtons: Some of the Railtons highlighted in that tribute post have lived for more than four decades in Virginia; others have only visited, brought there by yours truly. But they’re all part of what home means to me, and so is the Old Dominion for sure. Virginia is for Railtons!Next series starts Monday,BenPS. Virginia connections (or meaningful people) you’d share?

August 7, 2015: Virginia Connections: Writing Deafness

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]On the seminal scholarly book that helped usher in one discipline, and broadened many others.During my last visit to Virginia, I finally had the chance to read a book I’ve been meaning to look at for a good while: Christopher Krentz’s Writing Deafness: The Hearing Line in 19th-Century American Literature (UNC, 2007). In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that Krentz worked on his dissertation with my Dad, Stephen Railton, and has since been hired as a colleague of my Dad’s in the University of Virginia English Department; he also helped create the university’s American Sign Language (ASL) program. But while those facts reflect the development of Krentz’s ideas and project, as well as their clear significance to broader academic communities like UVa, they don’t have anything to do with how impressed I am by his book—that’s entirely due to what it offers to AmericanStudies conversations, both evolving and longstanding.Most obviously, Krentz’s book represents a pioneering entry in the evolving academic discipline of Deaf Studies (sometimes but not always defined as a sub-category of Disability Studies). Indeed, when taken in tandem with Krentz’s edited anthology A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing 1816-1864 (Gallaudet, 2000), Krentz’s work in Writing Deafness offers a foundational template for an American Deaf Studies, a discipline that analyzes representations and realities of deafness, hearing, and related issues across the scope of American literature, culture, and society. That is, this discipline, as exemplified by Krentz’s complementary and interconnected projects, is not the slightest bit contained to deaf authors or characters (or the like)—instead, it touches on themes and histories, identities and stories, that span a wide range of texts, communities, and time periods. As Krentz himself makes clear, other scholars have also contributed significantly to the creation of that new discipline—but his book and his work are vital parts of those efforts to be sure.As with all of the best scholarly work, however, Krentz’s book also offers valuable insights into conversations and disciplines well beyond its specific focus. The “hearing line” of Krentz’s subtitle is a purposeful echo of W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of the “color line” in American culture and society, and Krentz likewise positions his book as a parallel to Toni Morrison’s groundbreaking Playing in the Dark (arguing that deafness and hearing have functioned not at all unlike black and white in the American imagination and psyche). It’s a hugely bold comparison, and Krentz acknowledges the many differences and complexities within and across the concepts in play—but it also works very well, not only to develop Krentz’s readings of deafness and hearing in culture and literature but also to help us think about the presence and role of such dualities more broadly in our conversations and histories. As is so often the case with great scholarship, that is, Krentz’s book enters into and participates in many other disciplinary conversations, not because it does not sufficiently develop its own focus but rather precisely because that new, well-researched and -grounded, and compelling focus has a great deal to offer many other perspectives as well. I can’t recommend the book highly enough, and I look forward to seeing what’s next for Krentz’s work and career.Special post this weekend,BenPS. What do you think?

August 6, 2015: Virginia Connections: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]Three telling exhibits and pieces from Williamsburg’s amazing folk art museum.1)      An exhibition of quilts: Through December 6th, the museum’s McCarl Gallery will feature “A Celebration of Quilts,” an exhibition featuring 12 noteworthy American quilts from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The exhibit includes pieces by African American, Hawaiian, and Amish quiltmakers (among other artisans), and likewise runs the gamut of techniques and styles. Serving as both utilitarian household item and artistic products, as both material and artistic culture, quilts are a perfect example of the complexity and value of folk art (compared to the more obvious “fine arts”).2)      Pueblo jewelry: Through September 5th, 2016, the museum’s Peebles Gallery will feature “Thunderbirds: Jewelry of the Santo Domingo Pueblo,” an exhibition that highlights a particular, Depression-era jewelry style from a New Mexico pueblowith a longstanding artistic tradition. Mass-produced (compared to the pueblo’s norms, at least) in response to the Depression’s economic exigencies, and using any and all available materials for the same reason, these jewelry pieces are thus both distinct from the pueblo’s traditions and yet represent a stage and evolution of those histories—and are vital American folk art in any case.3)      Baby in Red Chair: And then there’s that baby, one of the perennial representations of the museum’s collections and spirit. Currently exhibited as part of an American folk portraits collection in the Clark Foundation Gallery, the baby embodies the practice and appeal of folk art—simple yet eloquent, anonymous yet enduring, everyday yet reflecting our reality in the way that only the arts can. There’s a reason why the baby has been one of the museum’s most popular pieces, and it’s the same reason why the museum has been so successful—because folk art is a vibrant and vital part of our national community and identity.Last Virginia connection tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think?

August 5, 2015: Virginia Connections: Confederate Memorials

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]On two obvious Confederate commemorations in Charlottesville, and one less obvious and more telling one.On the other side of the University of Virginia Cemetery from the African American burial site about which I wrote yesterday is an even more complicated historic site: a Confederate Monument and Cemetery. Dedicated in 1893 by the Ladies’ Confederate Memorial Association (a predecessor of the Daughters of the Confederacy), and featuring a statue that pays tribute to nearly 2000 Confederate soldiers who lost their lives while at Charlottesville’s hospital, the Confederate cemetery is considered part of the larger university cemetery and is thus maintained by staff and money from the university. That’s a complex and in some ways unsettling reality, for a 21stcentury public university to support the upkeep of a Confederate memorial—but in truth the university, like the city and the rest of the South, was entirely intertwined with the Confederacy during the war, and the cemetery reflects and asks us to engage with those interconnections.It’s far from the only Charlottesville space that does so, of course. Surrounding the city’s historic Downtown Mall are three prominent Confederate commemorations: two parks dedicated to Robert E. Leeand Stonewall Jackson respectively (with accompanying statues of each general on horseback), and an overarching memorial to the Confederacy located in front of the city’s historic courthouse. These sites are no different from the parks, statues, and memorials in numerous other Southern cities and towns, of course, and the point lies precisely in their commonality: to grow up in a Southern city in the late 20th century, as I did in Charlottesville, was to be surrounded by such commemorations of the Confederacy, to see this attitude toward the pasts of slavery and Civil War as a matter of accepted, shared routine. It’s only recently that we have seen prominent, public pushback on such memorials, which in Charlottesville has taken the form both of a City Councilor’s proposal to remove the statues and of a graffiti addition to the Lee statue in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting.I don’t believe that Confederate statues and memorials should be removed or vandalized—I understand the impulses, and do believe that the signage on most could use some additions; but I’m with Kevin Levin and others who argue that it’s important for us to remember the histories, both of the Confederacy and of the efforts to commemorate it, and that memorials offer a particularly clear way to engage with both. Yet the truth, of the memorials and the city and the histories, is far deeper than statues and cemeteries, and in Charlottesville it can be linked to one Paul G. McIntire. McIntire, a Charlottesville native (born in 1860, no less) who made a fortune on the Stock Exchange and gave much of it back to his hometown, is known as one of the city’s most prominent and beloved citizens. But when we look further into McIntire’s goals, his emphasis on Confederate memorials (he donated both the Lee and Jackson statues) becomes clearer and uglier: in donating the land for the public green space still known as McIntire Park, McIntire stipulated that it would be “held and used in perpetuity … for a public park and play ground for the white people of the City of Charlottesville.” Which is to say, Confederate memorials are never simply about heritage or history—they are always caught up in histories of race and racism, the racist cause for which the Confederacy fought and that far too often embodied in its commemorations. That’s a truth as unavoidable in Charlottesville as it is everywhere.Next Virginia connection tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think?

August 4, 2015: Virginia Connections: UVa’s African American Cemetery

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]On an inspiring attempt to right a historic wrong, and its limits and possibilities.Mr. Jefferson’s University was largely built, and for its first half-century largely maintained and run, by slaves. As illustrated by the topic of yesterday’s post, that’s far from the only, nor even necessarily the most telling, such contradiction and hypocrisy in Jefferson’s life, work, and identity, and those of the nation he helped found. Yet it’s a particularly glaring example, not only because this beacon of educational progress (the nation’s first secular institution of higher education and one of the accompishments Jefferson was most proud of) was constructed by enslaved labor, but also and even more tellingly because that history was swept under the rug so fully and for so, so long. It was only very recently that some UVa tours began addressing slavery at all, and I would argue that it’s still entirely possible to visit the grounds, indeed to spend multiple days at the university, and encounter no sign whatsoever of those dark, complex, vital histories.That sad fact is less true now than at any prior point in the university’s history, however, and that’s due entirely to the newly commemorated African American burial site and accompanying memorial. Dedicated as part of the fall 2014 national symposium “Universities Confronting the Legacy of Slavery,” this memorial highlights an actual but long forgotten burial site for African American laborers (likely both enslaved and free), one located adjacent to yet tellingly apart from the existing University of Virginia Cemetery. Accidentally discovered in 2012 as part of an archaeological survey, the burial site contains 67 unmarked grave shafts; only a tiny percentage of the African Americans who worked and lived at, and contributed immeasurably to, the university, of course, but a representative community and space to be sure. I can think of few images more potent nor more pitch-perfect than those accompanying this article on the memorial’s dedication—all those lamps, each located over and representing one of the graves, each shedding its light on these people and histories far too long left in the dark.Those lamps aren’t permanent parts of the memorial and site, though—and while I certainly understand the practicalities of that choice, the truth is that the site is (to this observer at least) a bit too understated and thus easy to miss as a result. As of my June visit, at least, it’s simply a fenced-in grassy area next to the main cemetery; there is a clear and compelling placard near the entrance that communicates the relevant histories and details, but again I can see visitors easily overlooking the space or missing entirely what it includes and symbolizes. Since the graves were unmarked, it’d be impossible to provide identifying headstones or the like; and it’s my understanding that there are concerns about destroying or damaging the graves, which I get as well. But nonetheless, I believe something more is needed—more around the grounds of the university, highlighting this new site and pointing visitors in its direction; more at the site itself, to pay tribute at least to those 67 people and their forgotten stories; and perhaps, to echo my points on the Slavery at Monticello app in yesterday’s post, more in the way of highlighting and sharing the burial site’s histories digitally. The site is a wonderful and vital addition to the university, but there’s more to be done!Next Virginia connection tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think?

August 3, 2015: Virginia Connections: Slavery at Monticello App

[If it’s August, it must be time for my annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual series AmericanStudying the Old Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really signify “Virginia” to me!]On the technology that’s helping bring a historic site into the 21stcentury.In one of those prior Virginia series I blogged about Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and how it has evolved into the 21stcentury, including the creation of a “Slavery at Monticello” tour that confronts head-on that central contradiction inherent in the place, as well as in the life of its creator and the identity of the nation that he helped found. To their great credit, the folks who run Monticello have also done a wonderful job restoring and making use of Mulberry Row, the plantation’s central street and home to most of its slaves, as well as indentured servants, free blacks and whites, and other plantation workers and residents. In those and other ways, Monticello has modeled a longstanding, famous historic site engaging with some of its and our darkest histories, and sharing them with the public at every stage of the process.Just a few months ago, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, partnering with a new initiative known as The Mountaintop Project, took another step in engaging with and sharing those histories publicly: the creation of a new SmartPhone app, Slavery at Monticello: Life and Work on Mulberry Row. While the app will in some ways parallel the Slavery at Monticello tours (making them accessible to both Monticello visitors who choose a different tour and those unable to visit the site, audiences who of course might have missed out on those tours and their information and perspective otherwise), it will also offer a number of innovative and important additions to that lens: highlighting the stories of individual Mulberry Row residents; recreating spaces and buildings from the Row, including many that have not been recreated on the actual grounds; and seeing examples of the work that enslaved and free workers did on a plantation like Monticello, among other features. “We’ve developed a digital experience that deploys familiar technology to explore a lost world,” argues Monticello’s Director of Digital Media and Strategy Chad Wollerton, and the app indeed offers precisely that combination of the digital and historical, the familiar and the innovative.I would particularly emphasize the “familiar technology” part of Wollerton’s framing and the app’s goals. In recent months, we’ve seen one kind of response to SmartPhone technology at public sites, with Disney’s parks banning selfie sticks in an attempt to limit that use of phones by their visitors; many museums have done the same. I completely understand those bans, and of course a selfie stick isn’t just a SmartPhone—it’s a literal and figurative extension of the device, even further into the world around the user. Yet at the same time, the simple 21st century truth is that SmartPhones are here to stay, and that the experiences of many Americans—of everything in their lives, including, yes, historic and cultural sites—will be mediated by and through those devices to a significant extent. Sites can seek to limit that use and its effects, or they can, as Monticello has done, embrace it, and work to make the SmartPhone into an evolving, meaningful part of their visitors’ experiences and education. I guess it’s clear where I stand on those options!Next Virginia connection tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think?

August 1-2, 2015: July 2015 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]June 29: The 4th in Focus: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”: A July 4th series starts with the stunning speech that challenges us as much today as it did a century and a half ago.June 30: The 4th in Focus: Born of the 4th of July: The series continues with three telling evolutions of a classic American phrase.July 1: The 4th in Focus: Fireworks: The history, symbolism, and limitations of an American tradition, as the series rolls on.July 2: The 4th in Focus: “Speaking of Courage”: The July 4thsetting and climax of one of my favorite American short stories.July 3: The 4th in Focus: “Sandy (4th of July, Asbury Park)”: The series concludes with how Bruce captured the more intimate sides to Independence Day.July 4-5: The 4th in Focus: The Adams Letters: A special weekend post on the myths and realities of the founding revealed in the couple’s letters.July 6: Secret Service Stories: The JFK Assassination: A series on the 150thanniversary of the Secret Service’s founding starts with an article that raises new, frustrating questions.July 7: Secret Service Stories: In the Line of Fire: The series continues with a scene that humanizes the agency’s most famous failure, and the shortcomings of the film that surrounds it.July 8: Secret Service Stories: The Lincoln “What If?”: Unanswered questions, the timing of the agency’s founding, and historical frustrations, as the series rolls on.July 9: Secret Service Stories: Guarding Tess: What a comic melodrama can tell us about the unique reality of a lifelong Secret Service detail.July 10: Secret Service Stories: 21st Century Scandals: The series concludes with what’s not new about the recent spate of scandals, and what is.July 11-12: Samuel Southworth’s Guest Post: In Honor of the 150thAnniversary of the US Secret Service: In my latest Guest Post, Samuel Southworth highlights the complex, controversial, and impressive histories of the government agency.July 13: Trinity Sites and Texts: Los Alamos: A series on the 70thanniversary of the Trinity atomic test starts with three ways to AmericanStudy the bomb’s laboratory.July 14: Trinity Sites and Texts: Historical Novels: The series continues with two very different fictional respresentations of the test and its contexts.July 15: Trinity Sites and Texts: Scientific Spies: What we can’t know about histories of espionage, what we can, and how we can understand them, as the series rolls on.July 16: Trinity Sites and Texts: The Enola Gay Controversy: Three telling moments in the history of a controversial exhibit on the bomb.July 17: Trinity Sites and Texts: On Faith and the Bomb: The series concludes with what the name Trinity can help us analyze about the site and its histories.July 18-19: Trinity Sites and Texts: Hiroshima Mon Amour: But wait, a special weekend post on what a foreign film can help us AmericanStudy about Trinity and war.July 20: Billboard #1s: “I’ll Never Smile Again”: A series on the 75thanniversary of Billboard’s pop music charts starts with what’s different, and what’s not, about the first #1 hit.July 21: Billboard #1s: “The Battle of New Orleans”: The series continues with the most unique #1 hit, and what we can learn from it.July 22: Billboard #1s: “Bridge over Troubled Water”: A surprisingly quiet #1 hit and the possibilities and limitations of art, as the series rolls on.July 23: Billboard #1s: “Gangsta’s Paradise”: The #1 hit that changed, portrayed, and perhaps exploited the game.July 24: Billboard #1s: “Tik Tok”: The series concludes with the artistic and ethical flaws in Ke$ha’s trashy hit, and the one more of treasure that redeems it.July 25-26: Crowd-sourced Chart-toppers: In my latest crowd-sourced post, fellow AmericanStudiers share their responses and thoughts on pop music—add yours in comments, please!July 27: Scholars on Fire: Luke Dietrich: A series on young scholars on fire starts with the service, online, and scholarly work of Luke Dietrich.July 28: Scholars on Fire: Vetri Nathan: The series continues with why a professor of Italian can and should be included on AmericanStudier.July 29: Scholars on Fire: Christine Yao: Three exemplary projects from a grad student poised to take the next step, as the series rolls on.July 30: Scholars on Fire: Paul Edwards: Three compelling blog posts from a grad student who’s in the process of updating and expanding that blog—so keep an eye on it!July 31: Scholars on Fire: Temple Colleagues: The series concludes with three Temple grad colleagues of mine doing great work—as well as a comment highlighting another young scholar on fire. Add your own, please!Next series starts Monday,BenPS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to write? Lemme know!