Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 6

August 10, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2017-2018

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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, 41 favorite posts from the 2017-2018 year on the blog:

1)     FamousVirginians: Arthur Ashe: I enjoyed researching all the posts in lastyear’s post-Cville series, but this one on three influences on the legendaryathlete stands out for me.

2)     #NoConfederateSyllabus: Workingon this document with my colleague and friend Matthew Teutsch was a highlightof the last year—it’s still evolving, so check it out and contribute, please!

3)     PledgePosts: Protesting the Pledge: Both of my sons have continued their acts ofcivil disobedience, and to say that they are now more salient than ever is tounderstate the case.

4)     The Worstand Best of Allegiance: Salient enough, even, that I’m highlightinga second post from that same series!

5)     Crowd-sourcedLegends of the Fall: Some of the best crowd-sourced posts arethose that feature multiple topics and threads, as this great one on bothautumn and falls from innocence reflects.

6)     EarlyCivil Rights Histories: The Little Rock Nine: Better remembering American heroeslike the Little Rock Nine is more crucial than ever, and here I highlightedthree complementary ways we can do just that.

7)     LongmireStudying:Standing Bear: Not the last time the wonderful TV show will appear on this list!

8)     IndigenousPerformers in Popular Culture: Two of these folks I knew virtually nothingabout before researching this post—and the third is Graham Greene!

9)     GuestPost: Nancy Caronia on Italian Americans and Columbus Day: Acomplex and crucial topic, handled with thoughtfulness and passion by acolleague and friend—describes all of my great Guest Posts, and doubly so thisone!

10)  Children’sHistories: The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball: A newyoung adult novel that can add importantly to our collective memories of theChinese Exclusion Act era.

11)  7 Years ofScholarly Blogging: Matthew Teutsch: Connecting to fellow public scholarshas been one of the very best parts of this blog for me, so I’m gonna highlightall of the posts in this week’s series to try to return that favor!

12)  7 Years ofScholarly Blogging: Emily Lauer on NYsferatu

13)  7 Years ofScholarly Blogging: Robert Greene II

14)  7 Years ofScholarly Blogging: Rob Velella

15)  7 Years ofScholarly Blogging: AmericanStudier

16)  VeteransDays: The Harrisburg Veterans Parade: One of those stunning moments thatembodies both the worst and best of America, the exclusionary yet inclusivesides on which I’m focusing in my new book project.

17)  Curry,LeBron, and Sports in the Age of Trump: Another one of those posts that hasbecome only (if frustratingly) more relevant since I wrote it.

18)  80sAlbumStudying: Thriller and Dualities: Any time you have the chance towrite, and then to highlight, a post on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, you do so!

19)  ReconstructionFigures: The Fisk Jubilee Singers: Some of my favorite posts here haveallowed me to learn a great deal more about topics for which my knowledge wasshamefully lacking. This is a very good example of that phenomenon!

20)  LongmireLessons: Walt and Cady: Back to Longmire one more time, for a(SPOILERiffic) examination of where we leave some of the show’s wonderfulcharacters.

21)  ReviewingResistance: Fitchburg State University: For a series on the year in #Resist,it was fun to think about some of the many ways my campus is doing its part!

22)  Gay RightsHistories: The Society for Human Rights (1924): Speaking of shamefullylacking knowledge, I knew exactly nothing about this pioneering activistorganization before researching this post and series.

23)  Gay RightsHistories: Fitchburg State’s Exhibition: Much closer to now and to home, itwas fun to think about why this FSU exhibit impressed me as much as it did.

24)  Famous BoyScouts: Michael Jordan and Hank Aaron: Did you know that these twolegendary but contrasting athletes were both Boy Scouts?

25)  Learningto Love Mariah Carey: My annual Valentine’s series concluded withmy newfound and deep admiration for the musical icon.

26)  Anti-Favorites:The Geary Act: We really, really really, need to better remember the horrificexcesses of the Chinese Exclusion Act era.

27)  BostonMassacre Studying: My Sons’ Thoughts: You didn’t think I’d miss a chanceto share this Guest Post of sorts featuring my sons’ takes on the BostonMassacre, didya?

28)  BlackPanther Studying: Erik Killmonger: I haven’t stopped thinking aboutMichael B. Jordan’s Black Panthercharacter since I saw the film.

29)  GreatAmerican Novel Studying: Recent Contenders: There’s no such thing as The GreatAmerican Novel—but it makes for a fun debate, and an even funner way tohighlight deserving books like this handful of recent classics.

30)  NeMLARecaps: Back to the Board: I’m so glad to have returned to theNortheast MLA Board that I have to share this post on my reasons for doing soone more time!

31)  AssassinationStudying:Squeaky Fromme: Why a seemingly silly potential assassin was anything but.

32)  ScholarlyTribute: Erik Loomis: A series on the Haymarket Affair concludedwith a tribute to one of our best labor historians and public scholars.

33)  Hap &Leonard Studying: Redefining Lynching: As of this writing the wonderfulSundanceTV show Hap & Leonard hasbeen cancelled—but no matter what we have three amazing seasons to return to,highlighted by season two as I detail in this post.

34)  NursingHistories: Medal of Honor Medics: The chance to highlight a few of theamazing Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipients made for a great end to thispre-Memorial Day series.

35)  BlockbusterStudying:The Last Jedi: The latest in a series of posts through which I critique Yoda,praise Luke, and rethink the American mythos that is Star Wars.

36)  McCarthyismContexts: McCarthy’s Lies and Rise: Joe McCarthy rose to destructivepower by lying all the time, and nearly destroyed the country with hiscontinued falsehoods. Seems worth remembering.

37)  TheSupreme Court and Progress: Loving v. Virginia: LovingDay is one of my favorite American moments, and has so much to teach us aboutboth our past and our present.

38)  SummerClass Readings: “Of the Passing of the First-Born”: Thischapter from Du Bois’s The Souls of BlackFolk is one of the toughest and most important American texts I know.

39)  RepresentingRace: Seven Seconds: If you haven’t yet seen this Netflixoriginal show, I highly recommend it, for all these reasons and more.

40)  KennedyStudying:Chappaquiddick: Posts that challenge my own ideologies and perspectives are onesI always try to highlight in these series, and this one did just that.

41)  17thCentury Histories: Jamestown’s First Slaves: But so too are posts that help usunearth American histories and stories we all need to better remember, whichremains my #1 priority in this blog and one I can’t wait to continue in theyear to come!

Newbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 9, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2016-2017

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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, 40 favorite posts from the 2016-2017 year on the blog:

1)     VirginiaPlaces: Fairfax Court House: Learning more about things I thought Ialready knew has been one of the blog’s enduring pleasures, and that was mostdefinitely the case with this post and series on Virginia sites.

2)     CulturalWork: Miner Texts: Any post in which I get to analyze JohnSayles and Steve Earle is bound to be fun, but Diane Gillam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom might be the richest texthere.

3)     MusicalStudying:Allegiance and Hamilton: Perhaps not surprisingly, Hamilton has been the subject of moreposts than any other text in the past year. This was the first.

4)     RhodeIsland Histories: Beavertail Lighthouse: Learning about things I knewprecisely nothing about has been another enduring blog pleasure. Case in pointhere.

5)     Legends ofthe Fall: Young Adult Lit: Returning to middle school is always a riskyproposition, but I loved the chance to revisit A Separate Peace and TheChocolate War.

6)     AmericanStudyingThe Americans: “Illegals”: Writing about one of my favorite TV showsmade for a great week of posts, and this kicked them off.

7)     BirthControl in America: Esther at the Doctor: I’ve taught Sylvia Plath’s The Bell-Jar many times, but analyzingit through this week’s lens offered new insights on a key sequence.

8)     BlackPanther Posts: Guns and Breakfasts: One of my favorite post titles, andan attempt to address the multiple, contradictory sides of an importantcommunity.

9)     AmericanKillers: Bundy and Dahmer: Not sure I would have ever imagined I’d bewriting about serial killers in made for TV movies, but we go where the blogtakes us!

10)  ElectionStudyingthe Media: Ah, that halcyon final pre-election weekend. Everything may havechanged the following Tuesday, but I think this post is still relevant.

11)  Jeff Renyeon Stranger Things: The New Weird Made Old?: A Stranger Things series concluded with this great Guest Post, and atruly inspiring student conversation in comments!

12)  Thanksgivingand Supporting an Inclusive American Community: This wasthe first post in which I dealt directly with the election’s aftermath, andalso the first in which I began to move toward my fifth book project.

13)  JamesMonroeStudying: Remembering Monroe: A series on the 5thPresident concluded with these reflections on whether and how to betterremember Monroe.

14)  Fall 2016Reflections: Conversations with My Sons: Maybe my favorite single post fromthe six and two-thirds years of blogging.

15)  Basketball’sBirthday: LeBron and Activism: My sons have just gotten into the NBA in thepast year, and it was fun to take a closer look at this side of the league’sbiggest star.

16)  2016 inReview: The Cubs Win!: There were far more serious 2016 newsstories, and I engaged with them in this end of year series as well. But c’mon,the Cubs won the Series!

17)  21stCentury Ellis Islands: A 125th anniversary seriesconcluded with three very distinct ways to connect the famous immigrationstation to our present moment.

18)  SpecialGuest Post: Oana Godeanu-Kenworty on Thomas Haliburton and 19thCentury Populism: Readers, take note—nothing makes me happierthan when I’m contacted by someone who wants to share a Guest Post, and I wasvery excited at the chance to share this one!

19)  Luke CageStudying: #BlackLivesMatter on TV: A series on another greatcontemporary TV show concluded with this multitextual analysis.

20)  NASAStudying:Sputnik and von Braun: Another example of a post for which Ilearned a ton, and which fundamentally shifted my perspective on the week’ssubject.

21)  Women andSports: Title IX: With the groundbreaking law under siege fromTrump’s Department of Education, this post is more important than ever.

22)  Historyfor Kids: Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker: The best book I read in the pastyear might well be this Young Adult novel the boys and I read together.

23)  AmericanStudierHearts Justified: Appalachian Action: Man, I wrote a lot this year aboutTV shows I love. And I’m not the slightest bit sorry!

24)  Crowd-sourcedNon-Favorites: The annual series concludes, as always, with my favoritecrowd-sourced post of the year, the airing of grievances! Not too late to shareyours!

25)  : On Arnaz’s 100th birthday, he helped us consider adifferent side to Cuban American histories.

26)  AmericanStudiesEvents: Why We Teach at BOLLI: Expanding my adult learning opportunitieshas been one of the best parts of the last year. Here’s one prominent example!

27)  AndrewJackson and Donald Trump: Sometimes a planned series of my ownintersects with where the public conversations are going. This was one of thosetimes.

28)  TelevisedFools: Archer: I can’t say I was expecting to enjoy Archer as much as I have—but surprises are a good thing, in lifeand in blogging!

29)  NeMLARecaps: Forum on Immigration Executive Orders and Actions: Thiscould be the most important thing NeMLA ever does—but it needs your help to getthere!

30)  AviationHistories: Charles Lindbergh: For my own sake as much as anyone else’s,trying to dig past the controversies to recover the history behind the history.

31)  AnimatingHistory: Earth Day Animations: I hadn’t thought about Captain Planet or FernGullyin a couple decades. It was fun to do so again!

32)  CivilDisobedience: Muhammad Ali: Commemorating anniversaries has become animportant part of this blog, and the 50th of Ali’s draft resistancewas an important one for sure.

33)  DisasterStudying:The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Did you know that William Jamesexperienced and wrote about the earthquake? Me neither!

34)  TheScholars Strategy Network and Me: Online Writing: This wasa really fun reflection to write—and then it got picked up by John Fea’sgreat blog, which is even more fun!

35)  Star WarsStudying: Yoda, Luke, and Love: I loved the chance to share one ofthe boys’ and my favorite theories about one of our favorite galaxies.

36)  MatthewTeutsch’s Guest Post: Five African American Books We Should All Read: Gettingto feature one of my favorite scholarly bloggers and five wonderful books madefor a great Guest Post.

37)  ThePulitzers at 100: Angle of Repose: I’d been looking for a chance towrite about Wallace Stegner’s moving novel for a while now. It was nice tofinally do so!

38)  MysteriousBeach Reads: Tana French: Ditto French’s amazing series ofnovels—which are Irish, but AmericanStudies is large and contains multitudes.

39)  Representingthe Revolution: Hamilton: I promised that the smash musical wouldreturn to this list, and return it did.

40)  TroubledChildren: Dennis the Menace: Gotta end with another one of those posts Inever would have imagined writing—and that, as always, I enjoyed a great deal.Hope you’d say the same!

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 8, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2015-2016

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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)     AmericanInventors: Eli Whitney’s Effects: But at the same time, the cotton ginis just as crucial to a blog called AmericanStudies as is a streaming Netflixsuperhero show!

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 Streepmovie, 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 7, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2014-2015

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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 theVirginia hotspot 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 threestages in 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 6, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2013-2014

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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 howthey do 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 aspecial post on three board games from which I learned a good deal abouthistories of war.

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 5, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2012-2013

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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 4, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2011-2012

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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 are35 of my favorite 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 toooften, but my MLK Day post has become a regular on that important occasion, andthis was the start 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 3, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2010-2011

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 48th 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 48 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 2, 2025: July 2025 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

June30: Models of Critical Patriotism: Hannah Griffitts: For this year’s 4thof July series, I excerpted and expanded upon sections from Of Thee I Sing,starting with this post on the great poem “The Female Patriots."

July1: Models of Critical Patriotism: David Walker: The series continues with afiery work and voice that exemplify the “critical” in critical patriotism.

July2: Models of Critical Patriotism: Standing Bear: Two 2025 takeaways fromone of our most inspiring court rulings, as the series celebrates on.

July3: Models of Critical Patriotism: Carlos Bulosan: One of our most poeticand powerful patriotic passages.

July4: Models of Critical Patriotism: Thoreau: The series concludes with a July4th special on a particularly patriotic text from one of our bestprotest voices.

July5-6: Keeping the Critical Patriotic Conversations Going: And a specialweekend follow-up request for opportunities to keep talking about my book andall things American patriotism!

July7: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Bill Haley: In honor of Haley’s 100thbirthday, a series on rock ‘n roll pioneers kicks off with how Haley’s mythosis limited but still important.

July8: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Chuck Berry and Little Richard: The seriescontinues with a pair of foundational voices who represent some of the worstand best of rock and race.

July9: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens: Two ways toseparate a forever-linked pair, and one non-tragic way to pair them, as the seriesrocks on.

July10: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Fats Domino: A few iconic moments in the careerof the legendary rock ‘n roller.

July11: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Women Who Rock: The series concludes with fourof the many women who helped launch the rock revolution, through pieces byfemale journalists and historians.

July12-13: Crowd-sourced Rock Responses: My first crowd-sourced post in awhile, featuring responses to the week’s posts and further rock recs.

July14: AmericanStudying Sinners: Coogler’s Career: A series on my favoritefilm of the year kicks off with how the director’s prior (great) filmsforeshadowed this masterpiece.

July15: AmericanStudying Sinners: Hoodoo: The series continues with twoliterary predecessors to my favorite character in the film.

July16: AmericanStudying Sinners: The Mississippi Chinese: A 1970s book and2010s article that help contextualize one of the film’s most unique families,as the series screens on.

July17: AmericanStudying Sinners: The Blues: Two stunning scenes that together embodythe best of a foundational musical genre.

July18: AmericanStudying Sinners: Interracial Romance: The series concludeswith another layer to the film’s mid-credits scene and why I love it so much.

July19-20: AmericanStudying Sinners: Other Scholars on the Film: A specialweekend follow-up featuring responses to the film from fellow SinnersStudiers.

July21: The U.S. Postal System: Ben Franklin: A series for the USPS’s 250thanniversary kicks off with innovations from three stages in the career of thefirst Postmaster General.

July22: The U.S. Postal System: The Pony Express: The series continues withthree figures who helped shape the short-lived but iconic Western mail route.

July23: The U.S. Postal System: Stamps: Six telling stamps that help trace thehistory of this essential element, as the series continues to deliver.

July24: The U.S. Postal System: Mailed Threats: One moment when the mail was falselyperceived as threatening, other moments when it genuinely was, and how we canput them in conversation.

July25: The U.S. Postal System: Cultural Representations: The series concludeswith takeaways from five prominent cultural representations of the USPS,including Frog & Toad!

July26-27: A Tribute to the U.S. Postal Service: A brief but impassionedweekend follow-up, making the case for the USPS, its workers, and all federalworkers in 2025.

July28: Echoes of Bad Presidents: Andrew Jackson: Speaking of 2025, a seriesinspired by Andrew Johnson’s death kicks off with how Andrew Jackson echoes ourcurrent worst president.

July29: Echoes of Bad Presidents: James Buchanan: The series continues with onemore obvious and one subtler echo of the pre-Civil War baddie.

July30: Echoes of Bad Presidents: William McKinley: How tariffs reflectmultiple layers of bad presidents past and present, as the series echoes on.

July31: Echoes of Bad Presidents: Andrew Johnson: How our worst prior presidentboth does and doesn’t echo our very worst one.

August1: Echoes of Bad Presidents: The 20th Century: The series andmonth conclude with quick hits from five 20th century badnesses herein our very bad 21st century moment.

Birthdayposts start tomorrow,

Ben

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

August 1, 2025: Echoes of Bad Presidents: The 20th Century

[On July31, 1875, Andrew Johnson died. Johnson is one of our worst presidents,which means he also remindsme a lot of our current and very worst one. So this week I’ll AmericanStudyechoes of some of our worst presidents in Trump 2.0!]

Five quickhit echoes of 20th century presidential badness here in our 21stcentury moment.

1)     WoodrowWilson: The other most overtly white supremacist president segregatedthe federal government; Trump et al are just firingmost every non-white federal employee.

2)     HerbertHoover: Hoover hastened and deepened the Depression, and treated fellowAmericans shabbily at every turn in the process; Trump is plunging us intoan even more unnecessary collapse, and throwingalmost all of us under the bus as he does.

3)     RichardNixon: Nixon treated the presidency as an excuse to pursue corruption andcrimes, most especially against all those hisparanoia labeled “enemies”; Trump’s corrupt criming dwarfs every pastinstance, including Tricky Dick’s, and is itself dwarfed by his persecutioncomplex.

4)     RonaldReagan: For so many reasons, but most especially because by the end of hissecond term Reagan was in major cognitivedecline, and likely unable to execute even the most basic functions of the presidency;yet again Trump has a predecessor beat, as he’s been in decline since wellbefore his second term began, and it’s onlygetting worse.

5)     The2000 Election: Not a person, and perhaps not in the 20th century(perspectivesdiffer on that one). But the Supreme Court’s stunning abdication of the lawin favor of partisan politics frustratingly foreshadowed a greatdeal of what has created, enabled, and extended the Age of Trump, so it’sgotta make this list.

July Recapthis weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?