Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 37

August 10, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2015-2016

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

Here theyare, 39 favorite posts from the 2015-2016 year on the blog:

1)     Cape CodStories: The Changing Cape: One of my favorite things about bloggingremains the chance to explore in depth topics about which I thought I knew alot already—Cape Cod certainly qualifies, and this whole series was a wonderfulreminder of how much I have to learn.

2)     AmericanStudying9/11: The Siege: I can’t imagine a work of art, in any genre, that more Americansshould see and engage with in 2016 than Ed Zwick’s prescient 1998 film.

3)     GivenDays: The Great Molasses Flood: I never expected a Dennis Lehanenovel would give me a week’s worth of topics, but The Given Day did, and this largely forgotten historical momentstands out.

4)     SeptemberTexts: See You in September: Little inside blog-baseball here: sometimesI create a series and then see what might fill it. The results are alwayssurprising, and I hope as interesting to read as they are to search and write!

5)     AMST in2015: The chance to share great AmericanStudies voices and sites isalways welcome, and these three are just as worth your time in 2016!

6)     Before theRevolution: Crispus Attucks: Think you know all about Mr. Attucks, firstcasualty of the Revolution? Well, so did I until I researched and wrote thispost.

7)     SiobhanSenier’s Guest Post on Dawnland Voices: Voicesis one of the most important American anthologies ever published, and it was anhonor to share these thoughts by its editor.

8)     21stCentury Villains: Wilson Fisk: If I couldn’t write about an Americancharacter and performance as rich as Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, whymaintain this blog??

9)     American Inventors:Eli Whitney’s Effects: But at the same time, the cotton gin is justas crucial to a blog called AmericanStudies as is a streaming Netflix superheroshow!

10)  SHA FollowUps: Little Rock and Race: My first visit to Little Rock, for theSouthern Historical Association conference, was just as inspiring as you wouldexpect.

11)  CulturalThanks-givings: Longmire: Am I sharing this post only because I gotinto a Twitter conversation with Lou Diamond Phillips thanks to it? No, butthat doesn’t hurt!

12)  AmendmentStudying:On Not Taking the 13th Amendment for Granted: It’s noteasy to really think through all the paths American history could have taken,and why each moment is so complex and central. But it’s important that we try,as I did in this post.

13)  Circles ofFriends: The Darker Side of Friends: It’s also not easy to critique worksof art that give us pleasure, but just as important that we do so.

14)  Wishes forthe AmericanStudies Elves: Ida B. Wells’ Crossroads: There’sa reason this moment will be at the heart of my next book—there are few moreinspiring ones in our history.

15)  AmericanStudying2015: Trump: Hard to remember the way we felt about candidate Trump back inlate December—but even more crucial to AmericanStudy his unprecedented andhistorically horrific campaign now, of course.

16)  DisneyStudying:Tom Sawyer Island: If you guessed that my first trip to DisneyWorld would yield some rich AmericanStudies topics, well, you guessed right!

17)  21stCentury Civil Rights: An MLK Day series concluded with some of themany current fronts in the ongoing battle for civil rights and equality forall.

18)  ColonialWilliamsburg: The Governor’s Palace Maze: There’s nothing quite likeresearching and writing a blog post about a favorite childhood place.

19)  FootballDebates: Missouri Activism Update: Our 24-hour news cycle culture movesway too quickly past stories on which we should linger—and the Missourifootball team’s inspiring activism is one such story to be sure.

20)  TeacherTributes: My Fiancé: Every post in this week of teacher tributeswas special to me—but this Valentine’s Day post remains one of my favorites inthe blog’s history.

21)  AmericanStudyingNon-favorites: “Africa” and Graceland: Paul Simon fans didn’t appreciatethis one so much, and I got some reasoned and convincing pushback—but I stillwould call Simon’s album dangerously close to cultural appropriation.

22)  RapReadings: Macklemore, J. Cole, and #BlackLivesMatter: This wasa seriously fun series to think about and write, and these are songs andartists well worth your time.

23)  MontrealMemories: Anglais and French: I took a lot away from my first trip toMontreal, but perhaps most striking was the multi-lingual model the city offersus in the US.

24)  PuertoRican Posts: The Statehood Debate: We’ve recently seen anothertroubling moment in this evolving and too-often-overlooked American history.

25)  NeMLARecaps: Many Thanks: I loved everything about my NeMLA conferencein Hartford, and about writing this recap series. But I have to highlight hereone more time my overwhelming gratitude for all those who made it happen andsupported it.

26)  19thCentury Humor: Melville’s Chimney: This deeply weird short story hadstuck with me for decades, and AmericanStudying it offered some much-neededanalytical therapy.

27)  RememberingReconstruction: The Civil Rights Act of 1866: The battle for whether and how weshould remember Reconstruction during its sesquicentennial will likely continuefor a good long while—and I fully expect to keep adding my voice to thatdebate.

28)  AmericanOutlaws: Bonnie and Clyde: One of those posts where I started in atotally different place from where the research and histories took me.

29)  21stCentury Patriots: Deepa Iyer: Highlighting contemporary critical patriotswas a lot of fun, and I’d emphasize in particular this increasingly vital newbook.

30)  ClassicalMusic Icons: Florence Foster Jenkins: Before you see the Meryl Streep movie,read the Ben Railton post!

31)  SemesterReflections: A Writing Associate in Major Authors: Theopportunity to share inspiring favorite FSU students is always a bloghighlight.

32)  AmericanStudying60s Rock: Jimi Hendrix’s Covers: From Florence Foster Jenkins to JimiHendrix—the six degrees of AmericanStudier!

33)  NewScholarly Books: Finding Light between the Pages: Youshould read all the wonderful books in this series—but for my birthday week,I’ll share this one on my own forthcoming project!

34)  The 1876Election and 2016: If you need any more reason to see thiselection as a crucial one, history offers us a compelling such argument.

35)  Crowd-sourcedBeach Reads: Crowd-sourced posts are always great, but the beach reads seriesbrings out a particularly wide and deep group of voices and nominees.

36)  ApologyStudying:Lessons from Canada: It can be tough to let current events impactthe blog when I’m trying to write and schedule them in advance—but it’s alwaysworthwhile, and this post and series are great illustrations of that.

37)  SummerStudying:Irony and “Summertime Sadness”: Cleanth Brooks, Emily Dickinson, T.SEliot, and Lana Del Rey—ain’t that AmericanStudies!

38)  Gone withthe Wind Turns 80: Revisiting Rhett Butler: I enjoyed the chance to revisit thesubject of my first article, and to see where my ideas have shifted and wherethey’ve endured.

39)  ModelingCritical Patriotism: Frederick Douglass’ July 4th Speech: Nobetter place to end this list than with a figure and text that offerpitch-perfect exemplification of all that I’m trying to do, here andeverywhere.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 9, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2014-2015

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

In honorof my 38th birthday, 38 favorite posts from 2014-2015 on the blog!

1)     August 18:Films for the Dog Days: Dog Day Afternoon: A part of a sweltering summerseries, I analyzed the gritty crime drama that’s sneakily subversive.

2)     September5: Fall Forward: A New Teaching Challenge: My Fall 2014 semester included abrand new course on a brand new (to me) topic, and that was a very good thing.

3)     September11: More Cville Stories: Fry’s Spring: Four exemplary stages to the Virginiahotspot where I spent many a summer’s day.

4)     September15: Country Music and Society: Gender and Identity: OnJohnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and gender-bending in one of our most traditionalcultural genres.

5)     September23: Women and War: Rosie the Riveter: Two ways to complicate and enrichour collective memories of an enduring American icon.

6)     October 8:AmericanStudying Appalachia: Murfree’s Mountains: AnAppalachianStudying series gave me a chance to write about one of our mostcomplex and talented authors.

7)     October25-26: De Lange Follow Ups: My Fellow Tweeters: My wholeexperience as a Social Media Fellow at the De Lange Conference was amazing, andI’d love for you to check out the weeklong series of follow ups. But I can’tnot focus on my amazing fellow Fellows!

8)     October29: AmericanSpooking: The Birds and Psycho: For my annual Halloween series, Iconsidered defamiliarization, horror, and prejudice.

9)     November7: Exemplary Elections: 1994: My election week series ended with thishighly influential recent election—and with this Lawyers,Guns, and Money post discussing and greatly amplifying my ownthoughts.

10)  November14: Veterans Days: Miyoko Hikiji: The veteran and book that helpbroaden and enrich our concept of American veterans—and now she’srunning for the Iowa State Senate!

11)  November28: 21st Century Thanks: E-Colleagues: AThanksgiving series concludes with five colleagues I haven’t had the chance tomeet in person, yet!

12)  December3: AmericanWinters: The Blizzard of 78: Two AmericanStudies contexts for anepic winter storm (which little did I know in December we’d end up surpassingin terms of total Boston snowfall in one winter!).

13)  December13-14: Andrea Grenadier’s Guest Post on Charles Ives: Anothergreat year for Guest Posts, including this gem from Andrea on a difficult andimportant composer.

14)  December24: AmericanWishing: Chesnutt’s “Wife”: Charles Dickens, one of my favoriteAmerican short stories, and holiday introspection were on my wish list thisyear.

15)  December31: End of Year Stories: The Immigration Debate: Twoonline pieces of mine that have contributed to an ongoing political andAmerican debate.

16)  January 6:Waltham Histories: The Waverly Trail: Three profoundly American moments inthe history of a beautiful natural wonder.

17)  January20: MLK Stories: Selma: What’s important and inspiring, and what’s abit more problematic, about the wonderful recent film.

18)  January26: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Bad News Bears and Boys: A SuperBowl series starts with our obsession with lovable losers.

19)  February2: American Conspiracy Theories: Roswell: Historical and cultural contexts forone of our craziest American conspiracy theories.

20)  February20: American Studying Non-Favorites: Low Five: Five historical figures with whom Ihave a bone—or a whole skeleton—to pick!

21)  February26: Western Mass. Histories: The Bridge of Flowers: Threeevocative stages of a unique Massachusetts landmark.

22)  March 2:Forgotten Wars: The Second Barbary War: The anniversary of a forgotten EarlyRepublic conflict inspired this post and series on wars we should betterremember.

23)  March14-15: All That Crowd-sourced Jazz: Crowd-sourcing at its finest, withfellow AmericanStudiers adding wonderful nominations to my week’s series onjazz.

24)  March 24:American Epidemics: The Measles: An all-too-timely post, on three stagesin the history of a frustratingly persistent disease.

25)  April 2:April Fools: Minstrel Shows: What we do with comic art that’s just notfunny any more.

26)  April 6:Baseball Lives: Hank Greenberg: Why we should remember one of ourgreatest Jewish American athletes—and an inspiring icon.

27)  April18-19: Crowd-sourced Reading List: Another great crowd-sourced post,this one on nominations for an AmericanStudies reading list.

28)  April 27:Communist Culture: “The Palace-Burner”: What one of my favorite Americanpoems can teach us about difference, empathy, and identity.

29)  May 11:Semester Conclusions: I Can’t Breathe: Remembering one of my most radicalclassroom moments, and why it wasn’t.

30)  May 19:BlockbusterStudying II: Ghostbusters: Science, the supernatural, and WeirdTales in one of our funnier and more original summer blockbusters.

31)  May 26:Decoration Day Histories: Frederick Douglass: As part of a series on MemorialDay’s origins, I highlighted Douglass’s amazing 1871 Decoration Day speech.

32)  June 2:Mount Auburn Connections: Blanche Linden: Three inspiring sides to a hugelyinfluential AmericanStudier, scholar, and teacher.

33)  June 12:North Carolina Stories: Moral Mondays: Two historical parallels for thecrucial contemporary protests and activism.

34)  June 19:AmericanStudies Beach Reads: A Tragic, Compelling Life: Why weshould get serious at the beach, and the perfect book to help us do so.

35)  June 26:Gordon Parks and America: Portrait Photos and the Past: A seriesinspired by a wonderful (and ongoing) MFA exhibit concludes with some thoughtson what portraits can’t teach us about the past, and what they can.

36)  July 1:The 4th in Focus: Fireworks: The history, symbolism, andlimitations of an American holiday tradition.

37)  July11-12: Samuel Southworth’s Guest Post: In Honor of the 150thAnniversary of the US Secret Service: In my most recent Guest Post, Samconsiders the organization’s history, role, and importance, with a fascinatingfoonote in comments to boot.

38)  July 20:Billboard #1s: “I’ll Never Smile Again”: A series on Billboard hits startswith what’s hugely different about 1940’s #1 hit, and what’s not so differentat all.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 8, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2013-2014

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

Thirty-sevenfavorites from the 2013-2014 year on the blog!

1)     August 23:Still Studying: Known Unknowns: A series on things I’m stilllearning concludes with a post on three recent takeaways from that 21stcentury resource, Twitter.

2)     August 30:Fall Forward: Three Years: In honor of the blog’s upcoming thirdanniversary, three of my favorite memories from those first three years.

3)     September13: Newport Stories: To Preserve or Not to Preserve: A serieson stories and histories surrounding The Breakers wonders whether and how weshould preserve such historic homes.

4)     September17: Gloucester Stories: The Sense of the Past: As part of a series on theMassachusetts fishing town, why it’s so important to better remember thatcommunity.

5)     September25: Justice Is Not Color Blind: Duke: The most complex post in my serieson race and justice in America, on expectations, realities, and the role ofpublic scholars.

6)     October14: John Sayles’ America: Secaucus and the 60s: A seriesAmericanStudying my favorite filmmaker starts with the movie that echoes butalso challenges our narratives of a turbulent decade.

7)     October21: Book Talk Thoughts: MOCA: With my year of book talks underway, a poston the inspiringly pitch-perfect New York museum that helped inaugurate thosetalks.

8)     October28: Symbolic Scares: The Wendigo: A Halloween series starts with thesupernatural legend that offers cultural and cross-cultural commentaries.

9)     November7: Berkshire Stories: The Housatonic: Three complex and compelling sidesto a New England river, part of a series on histories from this beautifulWestern Mass. Region.

10)  November12: Veteran’s Week: Band of Brothers: As part of a Veteran’s Day series,nostalgia and nuance in one of our best recent depictions of war.

11)  November19: Times Like These: 1935: The debates over Social Security and how theydo and don’t echo our own divided moment.

12)  November29: Giving Thanks: Future AmericanStudiers: A Thanksgiving series concludes withan inspiring moment where past and future were in conversation.

13)  December20: Representing Slavery: 12 Years a Slave: A series on cultural images ofslavery concludes with two takes on the wonderful recent film, my own…

14)  December21-22: Representing Slavery: Joe Moser’s Guest Post: And thatof my friend and colleague (and Irish film expert) Joe Moser!

15)  December24: AmericanStudies Wishes: Reform Now!: My annual series of wishes for theAmericanStudies Elves included this post on the very American reasons why weneed immigration reform.

16)  January4-5: Ani DiFranco and Slavery: A special addition to a year-in-reviewseries, on a couple historical contexts for a very current controversy.

17)  January23: Civil Rights Histories: George Wallace: Why we shouldn’t judge a lifetime byits worst moments, but why we do have to focus on them nonetheless.

18)  January27: Football Focalizes: Concussions and Hypocrisy: A SuperBowl series opens with the gap between what we know and what we do, in footballas in history.

19)  February7: House Histories: Our Own Broad Daylight: A series on the House of the SevenGables concludes with a post on the literary and communal presences of thepast.

20)  February11: I Love Du Bois to His Daughter: My Valentine’s Day series includedthis tribute to an amazing letter from my American idol to his teenagedaughter.

21)  February17: YA Lit: Little House on the Prairie: What we can and can’t learn abouthistory from young adult lit kicks off a chapter-book-inspired series.

22)  March 8-9:Crowd-sourced Non-Favorites: One of my most epic crowd-sourced posts everrounded out a series on American things that don’t quite do it for us.

23)  March 21:Cville Stories: 21st Century Tensions:Nostalgia, fear, and the current divisions that threaten communities likeCharlottesville and America.

24)  March 27:Caribbean Connections: Bob Marley: On whether it’s entirely possiblefor an artist to cross cultural borders, and why the crossing matters in anycase.

25)  April 2:Baseball Stories: Field of Dreams and The Brothers K: MyOpening Day series included this post on divisive decades and histories, andwhether baseball can bring us together.

26)  April 16:Animated History: The Princess and the Frog: On race, representation, and seeingourselves and our histories on screen.

27)  April 28:Reading New England Women: Catharine Maria Sedgwick: A serieson 19th century New England women kicks off with a funny, tellingstory that was way ahead of its time.

28)  May 7:NeMLA Follow Ups: Roundtable on Contingent Faculty: Threemeaningful ways we can move forward with a crucial issue.

29)  May 12:Spring 2014 Recaps: 21st Century Writing: Asemester recap series starts with three wonderful student papers from myWriting II course.

30)  May 22:AmericanStudying Harvard Movies: Love Story: On the enduring appeal of fantasies,romantic and communal, and what it means to share them with future generations.

31)  June14-15: War Stories: Board Games: A D-Day series concludes with a specialpost on three board games from which I learned a good deal about histories ofwar.

32)  June 17:AmericanStudying Summer Jams: Summertime Blues: Thesummer song that gave multi-layered voice to the experience of youth.

33)  June 24:AmericanStudier Camp: Hello Muddah: As part of a summer camp series, thenovelty song with an extended, very American afterlife.

34)  July 14:American Beaches: Revere Beach: A beach series kicks off with threetelling stages of one of our most historic beaches.

35)  July 22:American Autobiographers: Olaudah Equiano: The controversial personal narrativethat should be required reading whatever its genre.

36)  August 1:Uncles and Aunts: Uncle Elephant: A series inspired by my sister’sbirthday concludes with the children’s book that’s as sad and as joyous as lifeitself.

37)  August 5:Virginia Voices: Thomas Nelson Page: For my latest return to VA, Ihighlighted interesting Virginia authors, including the question of whether andwhy we should read this once-popular writer at all.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 7, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2012-2013

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

For my 36th birthday I highlighted 36 of my favorite posts fromthe blog’s third year:

1)     BadMemories, Part Four: As part of a series on how we could betterremember our darkest histories, I considered memoir, photography, and fictionof the Japanese Internment.

2)     Crowd-SourcingBad Memories: Perhaps my favorite of the crowd-sourced posts to date, as manyfellow AmericanStudiers weighed in on the week’s theme.

3)     Books ThatShaped AmericanStudier, Childhood: I began a series on books that havehugely impacted me with one of my first favorites, the Hardy Boys series.

4)     IsabellaStewart Gardner: A Gardner Museum-inspired series began with a post on Gardnerherself, one of my favorite Americans.

5)     JohnSinger Sargent: Posts on Gardner and Sargent go together as perfectly as, well,Gardner and Sargent did!

6)     AugustusSaint-Gaudens: Any post that allows me to write more about the greatestAmerican sculptor, and one of the most inspiring Americans period, is wellworth sharing again.

7-11) The five posts in thisseries on Americanhope remain perhaps my most definitivestatements of the complexities,contexts, and crucial importance of this elusive emotion.

12) Up in theAir, Part Five: Summer camps, childhood memories, and nostalgia—one of my moreuniversal and, I believe, broadly relevant posts.

13) Ezra JackKeats: This post, in a series on children’s books, expressed theimportance of this pioneering author—and was linked to by the Keats Foundation!

14-18) Anotherseries in which I need tohighlight all five posts—this hasbeen the longest and hardest year of my life, and writing theseposts on how Americanshave responded to adversity helped me get through it.

19) AmericanSpooking, Part 3: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Grant Wood, and American Horror Story help me thinkabout whether America can have homegrown horror, and where we might find it.

20) ExtraThanks: A Thanksgiving series concludes with a few reflections on one ofmy most unexpected and inspiring moments of the year.

21) AmericanWinter, Part Four: The very different but equally Americanperspectives at the heart of two winter classics.

22) AmericanStudyingthe Pacific, Part Four: On the limitations and lessons of achildhood spent building models.

23) Lincoln,Culture, and History: Some of my thoughts on Steven Spielberg’spopular and important historical film (with thisadditional post after I saw it!).

24) Making MyList (Again), Part Five: A series of wishes for the AmericanStudiesElves ends with the educational experience I wish all children could have.

25) AmericanStudyingOur Biggest Issues: Climate Change: As I’ve shifted more fully to anemphasis on public scholarship, I’ve worked hard to find ways to connect mysubjects to contemporary concerns—and this post exemplifies that goal.

26) AmericanHomes, Part Four: The American narratives inside (perhaps deepinside) one of our silliest films.

27) RememberingWheatley and Washington: A Black History Month series onconversations begins with the time the poet met the (future) president.

28) I LoveThree Pages in Ceremony: I’ve always wanted to write about my singlefavorite moment in American fiction. Here I did!

29) PopularFiction: Christian Novels: It’s always fun to write (and so learn)about subjects I myself know too little about, and this post definitelyqualifies.

30) SupremeContexts: Santa Clara County and Revision: Few Supreme Court decisions are asrelevant to our contemporary moment, and thus worth remembering, as this one.

31) Spring inAmerica: Children’s Stories: Two pioneering children’s classics thatcaptures two opposing sides to a new season.

32) Baseballin America: The Black Sox: This whole baseball series was fun toresearch and write, so I’ll just highlight one of its posts (yes, the one thatincludes John Sayles!).

33) Comic BookHeroes: Wonder Woman: Ditto for this comic book series, but thispost was the one for which I learned the most and had my eyes opened mostcompletely.

34) RoopikaRisam’s Guest Post: I could include any and all guest posts inthis list—but Roopika’s was certainly a wonderful addition to the blog.

35) AmericanSwims: Cheever’s Swimmer: Part of the fun of this blog is sharingAmerican texts that I think we should all read, and Cheever’s short story is agreat example.

36) BookRelease Reflections, Part Four: I have to end the list with one ofthe things I’m most     excited about inthe year to come (and I now have at least 20 talks definitely coming up!).

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 6, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2011-2012

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

35 of myfavorite posts from my blog’s second year!

1)     August 16:Me Too: In which I follow up the birthday favorites by highlighting fiveposts that make clear just how much I too continue to learn about America.

2)     August 23:Virginia, Cradle of American Studies: The first post in what I believe wasmy first series (now of course the blog’s central format), on a few ofVirginia’s American Studies connections.

3)     September1: First Questions: A back to school post, highlighting both therole that teaching plays in my American Studying and my (continued!) desire foryour input on my topics here.

4)     September2: Not Tortured Enough: On torture, American ideals and realities,and how contemporary politics and overarching American questions intersect.

5)     September12: The Neverending Story: Perhaps the most vital American Studiesresponse I can imagine to September 11th and its decade-longaftermath.

6)     October 6:Native Voices: Linking the NEASA conference at Plimoth Plantation, the hardestpart of my dissertation and first book, and a key American question.

7)     October11: Remembering an Iconoclastic Genius: One of my most important jobs here,I think, is to help us better remember important (and often inspiring) peopleand histories and stories that we’ve forgotten; Derreck Bell is one suchperson.

8)     October19: The Importance of Reading Ernest: Making the case for an under-readAmerican great, and remembering to keep my literary interests present in thisspace at the same time.

9)     November7: Moments That Remain 1: The fall’s NEASA conference was one of thebest weekends of my life, and it was very exciting to be able to bring a bit ofit to the blog.

10)  November14: Kids Say the Darnedest Things 1: Of the few different ways I’ve triedto 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.

11)  November28: Bond, Racist Bond?: It’s not easy to analyze something welove—but I tried that here, with one of my favorite films in my favoriteseries.

12)  December5: Defining Diversity: Transitioning from a topical post (oneresponding to other American commentators) to the continued development of myown ideas about American culture and identity.

13)  December12: Cross-Culture 1: It’s Not Only Rock and Roll: And thenextending those ideas to one of the many different media, genres, anddisciplines that American Studies helps us analyze.

14)  December19: Making My List 1: Memory Days: The Memory Days have become aseparate and ongoing project and page here, but this is where they began.

15)  December29: Year in Review 4: School for Scandal: Another stab at Penn State—notsearching for answers so much as highlighting some of the key American Studiesquestions.

16)  January 4:Gaga for American Studies: What American Studies can help us see in andsay about Lady Gaga. Enough said.

17)  January16: The Real King: I haven’t repeated posts across years too often, but myMLK Day post has become a regular on that important occasion, and this was thestart of that tradition!

18)  January21: American Studies for Lifelong Learning: A series that helped me plan thespring semester, connect my teaching to this blog, and, in this case, move metoward both a new experience and what would turn out to be my third book.

19)  January23: Mexican American Studies: I’m maybe most proud of this series out ofall that I’ve done in this space this year, and this is where it started.

20)  February2: The Three Acts of John Rocker: Trying to do complex justice to afigure and story that are both close to my heart (or at least the AtlantaBraves are) and easily over-simplified.

21)  February16: Remembering Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Another far-too forgotten figure,and a post inspired by an idea from a friend (which was the origin for thenow-frequent crowd-sourced posts).

22)  February24: Detroit Connections: I think it’s fair to say that I hadn’tthought about this topic at all prior to coming up with the series and writingthe post. That’s part of what a blog allows us to do, and while the resultshave to speak for themselves, I love the opportunity.

23)  March 6:Celebrating Zitkala-Sa: The whole Women’s History series was a lotof fun, but any time I get the chance to recommend this unique and amazingauthor, I take it.

24)  March 21:Balboa Park: Family vacations will never be the same, now that they’re partof my American Studying and blogging too. That’s fine by me.

25)  March 27:Race and Danny Chen: Like the prior day’s subject, TrayvonMartin, Chen is a tragically killed American whose story we should all know andwith which we have to engage.

26)  April 4:Melville’s Confidence Man: A good reminder that both literature andlaughter have their place on the blog too.

27)  April 19:How Would a Patriot Act? Part Three: This post on the amazing andinspiring Yung Wing helped me continue developing book three.

28)  April 26:Great American Stories, Part Four: One of the very best American shortstories, by one of my very favorite authors.

29)  May 10:Maurice Sendak: Sometimes I feel locked into a week’s series, but Sendak’s deathreminded me that sometimes I need to shift gears and write about a topical andimportant subject.

30)  May 29:Remembering Pat Tillman: I hope I did justice to the complexities andambiguities in this American life and death; this remains by far my most-readpost on the Open Salon version of this blog, so it seems like it struck a chordwith folks.

31)  June 2-3:Remembering or Commemorating War: Michael Kammen, Kurt Vonnegut andClint Eastwood, and big American questions—if that’s not American Studying,what is?

32)  June 12:Playing with America, Part 2: But this is American Studying too—analyzingsome of the cultural and historical causes behind the hula hoop fad.

33)  June16-17: Crowd-sourced Post on Material Culture: My first crowd-sourced post, now oneof my favorite aspects of the blog. Add your thoughts for this week’s!

34)  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 aboutAmerican history and culture.

35)  July 27:Jennings on the Long Haul: And the inspiring life and career of FrancesJennings reminds me of why continuing to learn, study, analyze, teach, andwrite about America is so important and so rewarding.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 5, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2010-2011

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts fromeach year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 47 favorites from the lastyear. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi andtell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyedhere, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

In honor of this AmericanStudier’s 34thbirthday in 2011, here (from oldest to most recent) were 34 of my favoriteposts from the blog’s first year:

1)      TheWilmington Massacre and The Marrow of Tradition: My firstfull post, but also my first stab at two of this blog’s central purposes:narrating largely forgotten histories; and recommending texts we should allread.

2)      PineRidge, the American Indian Movement, and Apted’s Films: Ditto tothose purposes, but also a post in which I interwove history, politics,identity, and different media in, I hope, a pretty exemplary American Studiesway.

3)      The ShawMemorial: I’ll freely admit that my first handful of posts were also justdedicated to texts and figures and moments and histories that I love—but theMemorial, like Chesnutt’s novel and Thunderheartin those first two links, is also a deeply inspiring work of American art.

4)      TheChinese Exclusion Act and the Most Amazing Baseball Game Ever: Probablymy favorite post to date, maybe because it tells my favorite American story.

5)      Ely Parker: The postin which I came up with my idea for Ben’s American Hall of Inspiration; I knowmany of my posts can be pretty depressing, but hopefully the Hall can be a wayfor me to keep coming back to Americans whose stories and legacies are anythingbut.

6)      MyColleague Ian Williams’ Work with Incarcerated Americans: Thefirst post where I made clear that we don’t need to look into our nationalhistory to find truly inspiring Americans and efforts.

7)      RushLimbaugh’s Thanksgiving Nonsense: My first request, and the first postto engage directly with the kinds of false American histories being advanced bythe contemporary right.

8)      The Pledgeof Allegiance: Another central purpose for this blog is to complicate, and attimes directly challenge and seek to change, some of our most accepted nationaland historical narratives. This is one of the most important such challenges.

9)      PublicEnemy, 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’refar from an expert, and hopefully find interesting and valuable things to sayin the process.

10)   Chinatownand the History of LA: At the same time, the best AmericanStudierslikewise have to be able to analyze their very favorite things (like this 1974film, for me), and find ways to link them to broader American narratives andhistories.

11)   The Statueof Liberty: Our national narratives about Lady Liberty are at least asingrained as those about the Pledge of Allegiance—and just about as inaccurate.

12)   TillieOlsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” and Parenting: Maybe the first post in which Ireally admitted my personal and intimate stakes in the topics I’m discussinghere, and another of those texts everybody should read to boot.

13)   DorotheaDix and Mental Health Reform: When it comes to a number of the people onwhom I’ve focused here, I didn’t know nearly enough myself at the start of myresearch—making the posts as valuable for me as I could hope them to be for anyother reader. This is one of those.

14)   BenFranklin and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: As with many dominant narratives,those Americans who argue most loudy in favor of limiting immigration usuallydo so in large part through false, or at best greatly oversimplified andpartial, versions of our past. 

15)   Divorce inAmerican History: Some of our narratives about the past andpresent seem so obvious as to be beyond dispute: such as the idea that divorcehas 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 morecomplicated.

16)   My Mom’sGuest Post on Margaret Wise Brown: The first of the many great guestposts 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 theright. And please—whether I’ve asked you specifically or not—feel free tocontribute your own guest post down the road!

17)   JFK,Tucson, and the Rhetoric and Reality of Political Violence: Thefirst post in which I deviated from my planned schedule to respond directly toa current event—something I’ve incorporated very fully into this blog in themonths since.

18)   TributePost to Professor Alan Heimert: I’d say the same about the tributeposts that I did for the guest posts—both that they exemplify how fortunateI’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 theright).

19)   MartinLuther King: How do we remember the real, hugely complicated, and to my mindeven more inspiring man, rather than the mythic ideal we’ve created of him? Apretty key AmericanStudies question, one worth asking of every truly inspiringAmerican.

20)   AngelIsland 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 andhistories.

21)   Dresdenand Slaughterhouse Five: One of the events we Americans have workedmost hard to forget, and one of the novels that most beautifully and compellingargues for the need to remember and retell every story.

22)   Valentine’sDay Lessons: Maybe my least analytical post, and also one of my favorites. Itain’t all academic, y’know.

23)   Tori Amos,Lara Logan, and Stories of Rape: One of the greatest songs I’ve everheard helps me respond to one of the year’s most horrific stories.

24)   PeterGomes 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 themehe embodies for me.

25)   The Treatyof 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 separationof church and state the idea of America as a “Christian nation.”

26)   NewtGingrich, Definitions of America, and Why We’re Here: Thefirst of many posts (such as all those included in the “Book Posts” category onthe right) in which I bring the ideas at the heart of my second book into myresponses to AmericanStudies narratives and myths.

27)   Du Bois,Affirmative Action, and Obama: Donald Trump quickly and thoroughly revealedhimself to be a racist jackass, but the core reasons for much of the oppositionto affirmative action are both more widespread and more worth responding tothan Trump’s buffoonery.

28)   IllegalImmigrants, Our Current Deportation Policies, and Empathy: Whatdoes deportation really mean and entail, who is affected, and at what humancost?

29)   Tribute toMy Grandfather Art Railton: The saddest Railton event of the year leadsme to reflect on the many inspiring qualities of my grandfather’s life,identity, and especially perspective.

30)   MyClearest Immigration Post: Cutting through some of the complexities andstating things as plainly as possible, in response to Sarah Palin’s historicalfalsehoods. Repeated and renamed with even more force here.

31)   PaulRevere, 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: Thefirst of a couple posts to consider these particularly frustrating and divisivenational narratives. The second, which also followed up my Norwegian terrorismresponse (linked below), is here.

33)   AbrahamCahan: The many impressive genres and writings of this turn of thecentury Jewish American, and why AmericanStudiers should work to push downboundaries between disciplines as much as possible.

34)  Terrorism,Norway, and Rhetoric: One of the latest and most importantiterations of my using a current event to drive some American analyses—andlikewise an illustration of just how fully interconnected international andAmerican events and histories are.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 3-4, 2024: A Proudly Tearful Tribute

[For thenext two weeks my blog will feature my annual Birthday Bests series, so by thetime I share my next regular post, we will have dropped my olderson Aidan off to start his first year of college. Do I need to say moreabout why I’m sharing a proudly tearful tribute post this weekend?!]

I’ve hadthe chance to pay tribute to mysons Aidan and Kyle quite a few times, both inthis space (where eachhas now also contributed a great Guest Post!) and in mySaturday Evening Post Considering History column.I’m not saying you’d necessarily be monsters if you didn’t check out thoseprior tributes to the two best dudes I know, but, well, why risk it? Check ‘emout and then come on back for more AmericanStudierDad tributes.

Welcomeback! I could dedicate a year’s worth of posts to paying tribute to my sons andnot come close to saying enough, so to keep things relatively focused (if nottear-free, obvi), I’ll just highlight one particular recent moment for each ofthem that exemplifies why they’re just the goddamn best:

--I won’tbore you with all the details, but my wedding day earlier this year turned outto be an exceptionally long and also impressively independent day for Aidan, ashe was running in a track meet that evening but wanted to be part of as much ofthe wedding as possible. So he ended up embarking on a truly multi-step odysseythat involved a variety of means of transportation and a late-night quest for away to charge his phone to get him the final few miles to his Airbnb (the firsttime he had ever spent a night entirely solo). When he did eventually get tothat resting spot, as he subsequently told us the story, he decided to take acool-down run to a nearby beach, where, and I quote, he “sat on a rockcontemplating life.” If you didn’t just gasp aloud at that line’s and moment’scombination of cuteness and sweetness, I don’t know if we can be friends.

--Aidan’sthe one heading off to college (sob), whereas Kyle just completed his junioryear of high school—AKA the hardest year in high school (at least in both oftheir experience), as well as one of the most exhausting any of us could everhave. Many of those challenges culminated with the three AP exams Kyle took,after which things calmed down a bit. Or at least they should have, but hestill had plenty to do even for those classes, including the very extensiveJunior Issues Research Paper (JIRP) about Aidan’s version of which I wrote abit inthis column. Kyle would have been well within his rights to mail that onein a bit, but my amazingly dedicated and inspiring younger son did the opposite—choosinga topic that’s deeply meaningful to him (climate and environmental activism,through the specific lens of Electric Vehicles) and putting in truly exemplarywork on it (including pulling one of his many junior-year all-nighters). I’vesaid it before and I’ll damn well say it again—no one and nothing inspires memore than my sons, in these specific moments and in every part of their identitiesand lives.

BirthdayBests start Monday,

Ben

August 2, 2024: Martin Sheen Studying: Grace and Frankie

[Thiscoming weekend, the greatMartin Sheen celebrates his 84th birthday. Sheen’s life has been asimpressiveand inspiring as his iconic career, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handfulof threads to both. Leading up to a special tribute to a pair of even moreinspiring Americans!]

[NB. Thispost originally appeared in 2015, but I would argue all of its points onlydeepened with all the G&F seasonssince that early point.]

On twoways the Netflix sitcom pushes our cultural boundaries, and one way it happilydoes not.

TheNetflix original sitcom Graceand Frankie (2015) features one of the more distinctive and yet appropriately2015 premises I’ve seen: two lifelong male friends and law partners come out totheir wives as gay, in love with each other, and leaving their wives for eachother and a planned gay marriage. The premise alone would make the show one ofthe more groundbreaking on our cultural landscape, but the fact that the twomen are played by two of our most prominent and respected actors, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, makesthis nuanced, complex, warm, and so so thoroughly human portrayal of a same-sexrelationship even more striking. It seems to me that a greal deal more has beenwritten about Transparent and Jeffrey Tambor’s portrayal of thatshow’s transgender protagonist than about Sheen and Waterston in Grace and Frankie—and without takinganything away from Tambor’s equally nuanced and impressive performance [ED: althoughhe sure took a lot away from it himself with hisown actions], I would argue that seeing Sheen and Waterston in these rolesrepresents an equally significant step forward in our cultural representationsof the spectrums of sexuality, sexual preference, and identity in America.

What’sparticularly interesting about Grace andFrankie, moreover, is that Sheen and Waterston’s characters and storylinerepresents only half of the show’s primary focuses—and the other half, focusedon the responses and next steps and identities and perspectives of their formerwives Grace and Frankie, is in its own ways just as ground-breaking. Played tocomic, tragic, human perfection by legendary actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, thesetwo characters represent to my mind two of the most in-depth and multi-layeredportrayals of older women in television history. That there has been somebehind the scenes controversy about the paychecks of Fonda and Tomlin incomparison to those of Sheen and Waterston, while of course frustrating andtied to broadercurrent issues and arguments, also seems to add one more pitch-perfectlayer to the ways in which the show asks us to think about the experiences,lives, and worlds of older women in a society that tends (as this scene highlights withparticular clarity) not to include them in our cultural landscape much at all.In a year when the single leading candidate for the presidency (I refuse toconsider Donald Trump for that title; [2024 Ben: man I wish I had been right])is herself a woman over 65, Grace andFrankie engages with our current moment in this important way as well.

At thetime that it’s four main characters and their storylines are thus sogroundbreaking, however, I would argue (to parallel things I said about Longmire in thispost) that in its use of the conventionsand traditions of the sitcom form Graceand Frankie feels very comfortably familiar. That might be one reason why Transparent, which blends genres muchmore into something like adramedy, has received more critical attention and popular buzz (of coursethe parallelsto the Caitlyn Jenner story are another such reason). Yet just because Grace and Frankie stays more withinthose familiar sitcom lines (featuring everything from physical comedy andwacky misunderstandings to recurring catchphrases and jokes) doesn’t make itless stylistically successful—indeed, I might argue that using such familiarforms yet making them feel fresh and funny is itself a significant aestheticsuccess, and one that Grace and Frankie mostdefinitely achieved for this viewer. Moreover, there’s a reason why the sitcom is one of television’s oldestand most lasting forms—it taps into some of our most enduringaudience desires, our needs for laughter and comfort that not only continueinto our present moment, but have an even more necessary place alongside theantiheroes and dark worlds that constitute so much of the best ofcurrent television. Just one more reason why I’m thankful for Grace and Frankie.

Tributepost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 1, 2024: Martin Sheen Studying: The West Wing

[Thiscoming weekend, the greatMartin Sheen celebrates his 84th birthday. Sheen’s life has been asimpressiveand inspiring as his iconic career, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handfulof threads to both. Leading up to a special tribute to a pair of even moreinspiring Americans!]

On theiconic actor who was almost the fictional President Bartlett, and two ways toAmericanStudy the one who was.

As both aserious West Wing fan (especially in its particularly stellar first fewseasons) and someone possessing a wealth of useless pop culture knowledge, I’lladmit to being surprised that I didn’t know until researching this post thatthe role of President Josiah “Jed” Bartlett was initiallyoffered to Sidney Freakin’ Poitier.As that article notes, negotiations apparently didn’t get too far, but we canstill imagine not just this particular show with Poitier in that lead role, butalso and even more importantly a fictional Black President on television in1999. On that latter note, it was only two years later that 24 debuted,featuring presidential candidateDavid Palmer (the great Dennis Haysbert) who beginning in Season 2 (2002-2003)would in fact become the nation’s first Black President. Butimportant as Palmer was to 24, in season 1 and throughout his time onthe show, he was always a supporting character to Kiefer Sutherland’s iconicand badass protagonist Jack Bauer, and so it still would have been quite differentand far more significant for the President at the heart of The West Wingto be portrayed by a Black actor. What might have been!

When negotiationswith Poitier fell through, the show’s creator Aaron Sorkin and his fellowproducers decided to go with an actor with whom Sorkin had already worked on apresidential project from just a few years earlier: MartinSheen, who had played Presidential Chief of Staff A.J. MacInerneyin The American President (1995, and written by Sorkin). While it mayhave been simply the existing working relationship between the two men that ledto this choice, it’s really interesting to think about President Bartlett as aWest Wing promotion for Sheen from that earlier role, and I would say thatthere’s an ethnic American undercurrent to that trajectory (if not nearly as dramatic,or at least not as visible, of one as Poitier would have been). That is, as I’vetraced at length in this series, Martin Sheen’s birth and legal name of RamónEstévez, and the Hispanic heritage through his Spanish immigrant fatherreflected in that name (as well as the multi-ethnic heritage and familialhistory of cross-culturaltransformation contributed by his Irish immigrant mother and their marriage),make his President Bartlett very much an American first in his own right.

And yet (aphrase with which I’ve started many third paragraphs in this blog’s history, Ibelieve). It’s not just that Sheen, through the name change I wrote about inyesterday’s post among other elements, could be described as white-passing (orat least not overtly Hispanic in any identifying ways for folks who don’t knowhis biography). It’s that the character of Josiah Bartlett is explicitlydefined as part of a foundational and elite New Hampshire familythat dates back to at least the time of the American Revolution (which we knowbecause none other than Paul Revere designed their carving knife),and thus that both the family and the individual are almost certainly not intendedto be Hispanic. If Sheen’s heritage and multi-generational family are defininglyAmerican in some of the best ways, I’d say that a politician having to minimizeor even disguise ethnic heritage to be perceived as more of an “AmericanPresident” is definingly American in some of the worst. Would The West Winghave been as successful or long-running if its President were overtly Hispanic(or Black, or any identity other than white non-Hispanic)? I’m not at all sureit would, and that’s a frustrating thing to recognize.

LastSheenStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

July 31, 2024: Martin Sheen Studying: Estévez Legacies

[Thiscoming weekend, the greatMartin Sheen celebrates his 84th birthday. Sheen’s life has been asimpressiveand inspiring as his iconic career, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handfulof threads to both. Leading up to a special tribute to a pair of even moreinspiring Americans!]

On two importantways that Sheen’s birth and legal name have carried on.

As thegreat-grandchild of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States in thelate 19th century and almost certainly had their names changed (orat least significantly shortened) when they did so (although likely not onEllis Island, despite to the contrary), I’m very familiar with that longstanding andfraught tradition for American families and individuals whose names seem to putthem outside the white (and all-too-often racist) mainstream. When he wastrying to make it as a young actor, Ramón Estévez took part in that tradition(one that have often felt pressure to repeat), only professionallybut still apparently painfully for his father. As he put it in his 2003 Inside the Actor’sStudio interview (and has repeated in other interviewssince), “So I thought, I gotenough problems trying to get an acting job, so I invented Martin Sheen. It'sstill Estévez officially. I never changed it officially. I never will. It's onmy driver's license and passport and everything. I started using Sheen, Ithought I'd give it a try, and before I knew it, I started making a living withit and then it was too late. In fact, one of my great regrets is that I didn'tkeep my name as it was given to me. I knew it bothered my dad.”

Talking openlyabout that choice and change in his later years is of course one way that Sheenhas made sure to keep his birth (and again, legal) and father’s surname alive. Butthere are other important ways, and here I want to highlight two connected to hisfour children with his wife of more than 60 years, the actress JanetTempleton Sheen, all of whom are likewise artists and three of whom haveused Estévez professionally (about the fourth, CharlieSheen, the less said the better). By far the most well-known of those threeis Emilio Estévez, the very prominent and successful 1980s actor who hasgradually moved more fully into a directing career as well. Emilio’s career overallreflects adifferent emphasis on name and identity than his father’s, as the twodiscussed frankly and movingly in this interview.But I’d especially emphasize a film that Emilio wrote and produced as well asdirected, The Way(2010), which stars his father as a doctor who walks the Camino de Santiagopilgrimage route after the tragic death of his son. Given the relationshipbetween that project’s writer-director and star, and the relationship of bothof them to the Spanish immigrant Francisco Estévez, I’d say this filmbeautifully reflects and extends the family legacy on multiple levels (andEmilio hassaid the same).

The othersuch extension I want to highlight isn’t as specific nor as compelling as thatone, to be clear. But I really like that the production company behind thatfilm was Estévez Sheen Productions,a company created in 2002 by Sheen’s (who has thesame first and last names as his father, but a different middle name so he’snot a Jr.). And that company was behind another inspiringly multi-generational2010 production, a staging of Frank Gilroy’s Pulitzer-winning play TheSubject Was Roses (1964). Martin Sheen had co-starred in that play’s1964 debut as the young character Timmy, and then received a Best SupportingActor Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the 1968 film adaptation. Inthe 2010staging Martin Sheen played the father character, John, with his son and thisversion’s producer Ramón in attendance at the February debut. Both of thesechildren seem determined to keep both their father’s and their family’slegacies alive in purposeful and thoughtful ways, and I have to believe that’smore meaningful to their grandfather’s memory than a surname.

NextSheenStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?