Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 60

November 18-19, 2023: Sandra Hamilton’s Guest Post on the Blues in American Culture

[is one of our star Senior English Studies Majors at Fitchburg State, gettingready to move into the next stages of her professional writing career. I’ve hadthe chance to work with her in this semester’s EnglishStudies Capstone course, and am beyond excited to share her Guest Post inresponse and addition to this week’s BluesStudying blog series!]

On the topic of the Blues, I am reminded of the 2006 film, BlackSnake Moan, with Samuel L Jackson and Christina Ricci, music by the late90’s bluesman, Bill Withers and then the songs referenced by Frederick Douglassin his narrative published in 1845.

The film Black Snake Moan opens with a blues musiciandiscussing the blues as “[being between] two people, supposed to be in love,when one or the other deceives the other through their love.” He said he wrotelyrics saying, “love hides all fault and make you do things you don’t wanna do.Love sometimes will leave you feeling sad and blue.”

The plot for the film is about a woman with an overwhelmingaddiction and a religious ex-bluesman who attempts to cure her. Within fiveminutes of the film, the audience knows both characters have been left by theirpartners. One has just gone off to war, and the other to be with another man. Withinthe plot are beautiful sentiments, dominated by music that captures the emotionand moves the audience from one scene to the next.

Samuel L Jackson sings in the film. One such song has lyricsthat ring out, “Just a bird without a feather” by the American blues singer andsongwriter R.L. Burnside, leaving the audience with a sense of longing. “Youknow I’m lost without your love”.

The sentiment behind these songs reminded me of the Narrativeof the Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick was born into slavery in theearly 1800’s and after running away, he spoke towards anti-slavery and wroteprolifically on the subject.

On page 7 of his narrative, Fredrick talks about the GreatHouse Farm, and how the slaves often favored being assigned to this house overany others. “Few privileges were esteemed higher, by the slaves of theout-farms, than that of being selected to do errands at the Great House Farm.It was associated in their minds with greatness.”

On the next two pages, Frederick talks about the slaveschosen for the Great House Farm and the songs they would make up along the way.Listen to Frederick describe them.

“The slaves selected to go to the Great House Farm, for themonthly allowance for themselves and their fellow-slaves, were peculiarlyenthusiastic. While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, formiles around, reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highestjoy and the deepest sadness.”

In the next few paragraphs Frederick talks about the lyricsof the songs.

“I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning ofthose rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; sothat I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear.”

“They told a tale of woe…”

“Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer toGod for deliverance from chains.”

In the film Black Snake Moan, Samuel L Jackson’s characterliterally has Christina Ricci’s character locked in his house with a chainaround her waist.

Still on page 8, Frederick goes on. “The hearing of thosewild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. Ihave frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrenceto those songs, even now, afflicts me…”

The memory of the songs is enough to bring Frederick totears. But why?

“To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception ofthe dehumanizing character of slavery.” He said.

“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy.” He adds, “Thesongs of the slave represent the sorrow of his heart; and he is relieved bythem, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is myexperience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express myhappiness.”

The songs give movement and expression to the lives of theslaves, just like the songs in the film add to the plot and move it along. DoesSamuel L Jackson’s character feel like a bird without a feather? Or is hetrying to reach Christina Ricci’s character, empathizing that she is a slave toher substance. A slave to an idea. Maybe these songs enable Samuel L Jackson’scharacter to meet her where she is at. Maybe that can be more powerful than throwingdown a ladder for someone to climb out of the darkness alone.

A quick film reference is Disney Pixar’s, Inside-out.Have you seen it? It’s hilarious but one scene in particular emphasizes thatsometimes all you need is a good cry.

Back to Samuel L Jackson, towards the end of the film, heunbottles his anger and is playing the blues again while Christina Ricci danceswith a newfound freedom.

Maybe it’s in the differences between, “Ain’t no sunshinewhen she’s gone” and “Lovely day”. Two songs by bluesman Bill Withers and bothan expression of emotion.

Standing in the kitchen, Samuel L Jackson tugs on the chain,“Come here”. Christina Ricci walks over and he puts a key into the lock. Thechains are rattling. “It ain’t on me to change your life or nobody else’s.Shit, people gunna do what the hell they wanna do anyway.” Christina’scharacter stays silent as she watches the chains fall to the ground and with eyeswide-open, lifts her gaze to meet Samuel L Jackson’s. “You ain’t got but onelife. Ya’ll live it the way you want.”

[Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?]

November 18-19, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: 21st Century Artists

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handywas born. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied Handy and other icons of theBlues, leading up to this special weekend post on some contemporary Bluesgreats!]

Onetelling song from each of a handful of 21st century Bluesmen &-women.

1)     Gary Clark Jr.’s “12 BarBlues”: I’m obviously far from an expert (and welcome responses in commentsas always), but from what I can tell no 21st century American artistis more grounded in the Blues tradition than Gary Clark Jr. (about whom I’ve writtena good bit through one of my favorite21st century songs). And for proof, check out that hyperlinkedvideo of Clark playing, teaching, & analyzing the genre’s core elementsthrough his “12 Bar Blues.”

2)     Barbara Carr’s “If You Can’tCut the Mustard”: As I highlighted in Friday’s post, female Blues artists likeMa Rainey and Bessie Smith have long pushed the boundaries of sexuality, and soit’s only fitting that one of the 21st century’s most successfulBlues singers has consistently done the same. I could have chosen any number ofCarr’s classics, but who can resist the line “If you can’t cut the mustard, I don’twant you licking around the jar”?

3)     Buddy Guy’s “Blues Don’t Lie”:A protégé of another of my Friday post subjects, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy hasbrought the Chicago Blues into the 21st century. And despite being87 years old, he hasn’t slowed down in the slightest—this song was the titletrack from his acclaimed 2022 album TheBlues Don’t Lie, which won 2023Blues Music Awards for both Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

4)     Lil’ Ed & the BluesImperials’ “Bluesmobile”: Another Chicago Blues legend from the generationafter Guy’s, Lil’ Ed Williams has two Blues Music Awards of his own (and sixother nominations), all for Band of the Year with the Blues Imperials. TheImperials have released ten albums over the last thirty-five years, so thereare plenty of songs to choose from in this spot—but at the risk of repeatingmyself, who can resist a great metaphor for how the Blues can transport us toanother place?

5)     Jaspects’ “Peachtree Blues”(featuring Janelle Monáe): Monáe is one of our most unique contemporaryartists, a reflection (like Gary Clark Jr. certainly is as well) of how all ourmusical genres have become more interconnected and cross-pollinating here inthe 21st century. But I’m highlighting this particular song not onlybecause it’s a collaboration with another contemporary Blues group, but alsobecause of a central lyric that implies the important question of where theBlues go from here: “A lonely night on Peachtree/clubs are closed; it’s onlythree.”

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

November 17, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: Five More Icons

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handywas born. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of theBlues, leading up to a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

On justone telling detail each for five more iconic artists (in no particular order):

1)     Son House(1902-1988): What’s perhaps most interesting about the long and influential careerof foundational Bluesman Edward“Son” House is that he resisted the genre on two distinct occasions: in hisearly professional life as a preacher, for whom secular music was blasphemous;and for nearly two decades between the 1940s and 60s, when he abandoned hiscareer and seemingly retired for good. But the Blues were not done with House,and his inspiring late-career partnership with the young white musicianAlan Wilson led to new and perhaps even more influential recordings.

2)     MaRainey (1886-1939): August Wilson’s MaRainey’s Black Bottom (1985) is one of the great 20thcentury American plays, and serves as an excellent introduction to both themusic and the struggles of this iconic American artist. But because it’s setrelatively late in her career, it doesn’t include much engagement with her verycomplicated and interesting professional origins: 18 year old Gertrude Pridgettmarried 31 year old performer Will “Pa”Rainey in 1904, became known as Ma, and toured with Will as Raineyand Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Without intending any besmirchingof Will through the association, there’s at least a bit of Ike and Tina Turnerin that story, I’d say.

3)     Muddy Waters(1913-1983): One of the most compelling layers to the 20th centurydevelopment of the Blues is the way that the genre followed the GreatMigration, moving from Southern (and often Deep South) origins to its growthand increasing prominence in urban centers throughout the North and Midwest. Noindividual artist better reflects that arc than Muddy Waters, who was born McKinleyMorganfield in Mississippi, became there a leading figure in the foundationalsubgenre of the DeltaBlues, and then moved to Chicago at the age of 30 where he would come to beknown as the “Father ofModern Chicago Blues.”

4)     Bessie Smith (1894-1937): Thetowering and prolific artist who became known as the “Empressof the Blues” was also one of the more divisive artists of her era, atleast when it came to how she was perceived by the industry. When Smithauditioned for the influential Harlem company BlackSwan Records (which featured W.E.B. Du Bois on its board) in the 1920s, forexample, she was rejected because she supposedly stopped singing in order tospit and was seen as “too rough.” Yet that roughness also defined many of thequalities that made both Smith and her music so influential and enduring,including a sense of independenceand sexuality that were far ahead of her time.

5)     B.B. King(1925-2015): Riley “B.B.” King was a generation later than any of the otherartists highlighted in this post, and could be said to represent not just the mid-20thcentury evolution of the Blues, but also the ways that genre began to intersectwith other emerging forms like R&B, rockabilly, and rock ‘n roll. Indeed,King’s first Billboard #1 hit, “3 O’Clock Blues,”charted in February 1952, just a year after the release of a song often definedas the first rock ‘n roll hit (but one with a lot of the Blues in it as well),Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats’ “Rocket 88.” While thereare important characteristics that distinguish and define particular genres, asthe end of the day they all also intersect and cross-pollinate and evolvetogether, and perhaps no Blues artist better embodiesthose interconnections than B.B. King.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

November 16, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: W.C. Handy

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handywas born. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of theBlues, leading up to a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

On threevital texts through which we can trace the legacy of thebirthday boy and “Father ofthe Blues.”

1)     “The Memphis Blues” (1909/1912):I could easily highlight different influential Handy songs for all three ofthese, but wanted to include a couple other texts that reflect his trulymultilayered work and legacy. “Memphis” was his first hit, initially written asa 1909 campaign song for Memphis mayoral candidate Edward“Boss” Crump and then released on its own (through the sheet music,how songs tended to be released in the early 20th century) in 1912.It established some of Handy’skey characteristics, such as his incorporation of Black folk musicalongside other forms like ragtime and classical and his hugely influentialthree-line stanzas, of which helater wrote, “I adopted thestyle of making a statement, repeating the statement in the second line, andthen telling in the third line why the statement was made.” If thatsounds like quintessential blues songwriting, that’s precisely the point—and akey layer of Handy’s legacy.

2)     Blues—AnAnthology (1926): Again, I could easily dedicate all three of these entriesto Handy songs, many of which were likewise named for cities (such as his evenbigger follow-up hit, 1914’s “Saint Louis Blues”). Butwhat made Handy so truly influential and so accurately the “Father of the Blues”was that he was as much a collector and compiler and advocate for this emerginggenre as he was a founding practitioner of it, and we can see that clearly inhis 1926 anthology, in which he published the “complete words and music of 53great songs.” As Wall Street lawyer and ally and champion of Black artists AbbeNiles writes in the opening paragraph of his Introduction to the anthology,the Blues “is a subject as to which Handy remains the source and fountainheadof information,” and we’re very fortunate that he set down so much of thatfoundational info in this text.

3)     UnsungAmericans Sung (1944): Handy’s multilayered career as bothartist/songwriter/performer and archivist/advocate continued for his remainingthree decades of life, but as time went on he also became more and more clearlya leader of and spokesperson for the African American community more broadly.That was never more apparent than in his unique and stunning 1944 editedcollection Unsung Americans Sung,which like the anthology collected the music and lyrics to a number ofimportant songs, but which in this case complemented those songs with extensiveliterary tributes to important African American figures from Crispus Attucksand Phillis Wheatley to Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman to Paul LaurenceDunbar and Langston Hughes. That I only learned about this book while researchingthis post is both frustrating and a reminder that there’s still so much tolearn and share, about hugely influential individuals like W.C. Handy and aboutthe whole of American history.

Last Bluesicon tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

PPS. On Twitter, Blues musician and writer Brien McMullen shares this excellent thread of thoughts on Handy!

November 15, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: Billie Holiday

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handywas born. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of theBlues, leading up to a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

OnAmericanStudies takeaways from the two versions of Lady Sings the Blues, and one important additional layer to both ofthem.

Billie Holliday (1915-1959) was only 41years old when she published her autobiography LadySings the Blues (ghost written by journalist WilliamDufty) in 1956, but she had already been performing and recording, livingher fraught life in the public eye, for nearly three decades by that time. Thatcan mean a couple very different things for an autobiography, I’d say: it canrepresent a chance to radically revise public perceptions; or it can offer anopportunity for the famous person to capitalize on that public interest byleaning into the more mythic images. Holliday and Dufty seem to have done moreof the latter, at least as biographer John Szwed argues in his 2015 book BillieHoliday: The Musician and the Myth, leaving out a number of morecomplicated and potentially controversial stories (such as Holliday’s affairwith Orson Welles) that would have certainly shifted public perceptions. Ifso, that puts Holiday squarely in the tradition of some of America’sfoundational, mythmaking autobiographers, from BenFranklin on down the line.

Whatneither Ben Franklin nor most of those other autobiographers did (nor were ableto do of course) was put out an album with the same title to accompany theirbook, however. Also released in 1956, Holiday’s album LadySings the Blues featured four new songs (including a title track) and newrecordings of eight prior hits, including mypersonal favorite (and a contender for the most important American song) “Strange Fruit.” In thatnew title track Holiday sings that “She tells her side/Nothing to hide/Now theworld will know/Just what her blues is about,” and while that might seem tocontradict what I said about her autobiography, I would argue somethingdifferent: that this song makes clear that it is through her music, rather thanher book or perhaps even her life, that Holliday has shared “her side” and “herblues,” the most meaningful layers to her perspective and life. If so, thatwould make Holiday a musical version of aconfessional poet (much likeSylvia Plath, who was just beginning her own publishing career around thisexact moment), an artist whose identity can be found in complex but crucialways in their works.

Every partof those works and that career and life were Holiday’s own, and a reflection ofher unique and prodigious talents. But it is interesting to add into the conversationthe role of other artists in helping create many of these texts, from Duftywith the autobiography to songwriters like AbelMeeropol, the Jewish teacher from the Bronx who adapted his own poem aboutlynching into“Strange Fruit.” I’ve written a number of times in this space about the counter-culturalorigins and influenceson a genre likerock ‘n roll, and of course the blues itself was one of those influences. Butblues likewise developed in a cross-cultural and combinatory way, with amazingAfrican American artists like Holiday and the rest of this week’s focal figuresat the heart but with important contributions from many others as well,including lots of white artists. Highlighting those histories doesn’t takeanything away from Holiday, and instead makes clear how much she was an iconicpart of longstanding and ongoing trends in American music, popular culture, andsociety.

Next Bluesicon tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

November 14, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: Robert Johnson

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handy was born.So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of the Blues, leading upto a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

On onereason I really like the RobertJohnson & the Devil mythos, and one way I’d push back.

I wrote abit about the story of Robert Johnson & the Devil as part of thispost on the wonderful TV show Hap &Leonard’s fictionalized retelling, and in lieu of a first paragraph herewould ask you to check out that post and then come on back for more on that folktaleand its focal Blues icon. (You should check out that show as well, but maybenot before reading the rest of this post!)

Welcomeback! I’m a big fan of the Johnson/Devil story, and particularly of the uniqueand vital work it does in creating a rooted American folklore (work that ourartists have been trying to do since at least WashingtonIrving). No offense to the likes of PaulBunyan and PecosBill, the stories of whom young AmericanStudier greatly enjoyed reading,but that’s precisely the problem: to my mind much of our folklore feelsdistinctly childish, aimed at youthful audiences and as a result without a lotof the multilayered darkness that the best folktales tendto include. Or there are American folktales like those featuring theWendigo, which are purely supernatural and terrifying. Whereas I’d arguethat the RobertJohnson & the Devil folktale really balances those various elements—ableto appeal to young audiences but with some seriously adult complications,supernatural to be sure but connected to a very real historical and culturalfigure (and to broader socialissues of race and region as well, of course). Indeed, if I were to makethe case for one American folktale as exemplifying that complex genre, I thinkthis is the one I’d choose.

Butnothing in American culture is simple (that could be a motto for this blog andmy whole online public scholarly career), and there are also some realdownsides to the prominence of this folktale version of Johnson. I don’tdisagree with the arguments in the last hyperlinked article above, that theDevil story both demonizes Johnson and demeans the whole genre of the Blues.But even if we don’t go that far, there’s no doubt that the focus on thefolktale can make it more difficult to remember and engage with the very humanlayers to Johnson’slife and story. For example, Johnson only took part in two recordingsessions before his tragicallyearly death in August 1938 at the age of 27, recording a total of 29 songsin those 1936and 1937 sessions. Yet in that far too brief period he helped establish thegenre of theDelta Blues, and he did so at least in part through precisely the elementthat is turned into something supernatural by the folktale: his unique guitar playingand sound. Apparently he did learn that craft remarkably quickly, since his mentorSon House noted that when they first met Johnson wasn’t much of aguitarist. But that’s a striking artistic and human success story, and one weshouldn’t allow a compelling folktale to minimize.

Next Bluesicon tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

November 13, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: Scott Joplin

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handy was born.So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of the Blues, leading upto a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

On the musicaland the cultural legacies of the hugely influential composer.

I’ve writtenbefore about the unavoidablycross-cultural origins of rock and roll in America, the ways in which thehistories of even anindividual hit song (much less artists, groups, recording studios, and soon) were connected to African American blues singers, Jewish Americansongwriters, European American guitarists and performers, and so on. When itcomes to the in America, on the other hand, there’s afar more close relationship between the musical genres and a particularAmerican community: African Americans, and specifically the artistictraditions and legacies present within that community as of the late 19thand early 20th centuries. Yet while a history of the blues and jazzthus cannot ignore or minimize these communal and cultural connections, neithershould it focus on such cultural or historical issues at the expense of anengagement with the genres’ musical influences, innovations, and importance.

An excellentcase in point is an analysis of ScottJoplin (1868-1917), the “King of Ragtime Writers” and perhaps the singlemost influential predecessorof 20th century blues and jazz music in America. Joplin was withoutquestion an African American artist, one stronglyinfluenced by his heritage, his North Texas family and late 19thcentury upbringing, and contemporary African American artists such as Ben Harney. Yet I wouldargue that we don’t need to know any of that to appreciate Joplin’s titanictalent and the success and significance of his works: from the most famous,such as “The Maple LeafRag” (1899) and “TheEntertainer” (1900); to his longer works, such as the opera A Guestof Honor (1903, inspired by BookerT. Washington’s 1901 dinner with Teddy Roosevelt!); and including worksthat have been almost entirely forgotten, such as the moving ragtime waltz “Bethena” (1904),written after the tragic death of his second wife only 10 weeks after theirwedding. Indeed, I think Joplin and classicalcomposer Aaron Copland make for a very compelling, complementary pair,highlighting the early 20th century development of an American musicthat was both unique and in conversation with international traditions andtrends.

Yet at the sametime, an analysis of Joplin’s musical mastery and legacy doesn’t have to—andshouldn’t—mean an elision of his cultural and racial influences and themes.Take his final, never fully performed opera, Treemonisha (1910).Set in 1884, on a former slave plantation in the Texarkana/Red River region ofJoplin’s childhood, theopera’s title character is a young African American woman who is taught toread and helps her community resist a band of wicked conjurers. If that storyand its themes are in conversation with contemporary AfricanAmerican artists like Charles Chesnutt, Joplin’s musical choices in theopera were likewise among his most informed by African American traditions andstyles, from spirituals and the blues to a call-and-response sequence. Thereare many possible reasons why the opera was never fully published or performedin its era (and was lost until arediscovery in 1970), but among them might well be the fact that it linksJoplin’s musical talents to his cultural and racial heritage and perspectivefar more fully than many of his other works. Understanding Joplin isn’t solelyabout such links, but we should certainly remember them as well.

Next Bluesicon tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?

November 11-12, 2023: Kyle Lockwood’s Guest Post: Exploration and the Human Spirit

[I lovethe chance to share each and every Guest Post, but the opportunity to featurethe writing and voice of a Fitchburg State English Studies alumnus is alwaysextra special. KyleLockwood is a recent FSU graduate who has begun to move into a journalisticand professional writing career, and someone whose work and writing Ihighly recommend to anyone out there! He's also a veteran of our armed services, so I'm particularly proud to share his work here on Veterans Day weekend.]

Since the beginning of time manhas left his home in search of something new. Early humans wandered the plainsin search of food and shelter, now we spend billions of dollars in an effort toexplore outer space. While our methods and efforts may have evolved, our driveand will to find new and better places has not.

The human experience is a uniqueconcept. At our core we are not so far from those other primates with whom weshare the Earth with, yet we have developed this heightened sense ofconsciousness. This state of awareness has allowed us to advance farther thanother species and excel as a society into new living conditions. Though we eachare surrounded by advanced technologies and comforts unknown before weconstructed them, we have retained our most basic needs; food andshelter. 

Before apartment buildings andminivans we had to build our homes from the ground up with our bare hands.Although this task is quite difficult, it is still in our core. Many of us willstill prefer to sleep on our fluffy mattresses and wash in hot showers, wecannot deny the thrill and enjoyment of outdoor activity. Many of us stillenjoy camping and hiking as well as hunting and fishing. This connection ushumans hold tightly with the outdoors should not be considered recreational, itremains necessary to who we are as a species. 

It is clear that some of theseactivities can be conducted alone; they are more enjoyable and effective withothers, friends and family. Take hunting for example, many Americans hunt allacross the United States each year. Most of them go at it alone, which againsta whitetail deer or turkey is quite safe. However, our ancestors knew no suchluxury. Hunting the beasts which roamed the Earth in their time was no easytask, they had no conservation land and high powered range finders. They hadwhat they could fashion from the forests and carry in their hands. Theirstrength and safety was in their numbers. This element of trust is stillimportant to us today, within tight circles of friends and family. 

However, the land cannot alwaysprovide for those who occupy it. Eventually overpopulation will lead to a lackof resources. Limited supply often leads to will to leave for more. For manythousands of years humans explored on foot and by sea in search of many things.Whether it was for treasure, food, an enemy or a new home, us humans havealways craved more. Although it came out of necessity for many, some exploredout of boredom. 

The old idea that the “grass isalways greener” has convinced many humans to leave what they know for what theydidn’t. Our state of consciousness seems to require a certain amount ofstimulation to remain content. This stimulation used to be satisfied throughhunting and tribal wars and adventure. It is a tale as old as time, the youngbored man leaving home in search of adventure and excitement. 

In our modern time outer space isour last odyssey. While every man or woman may wish to feel the thrill ofadventure, the pride of survival, the glory of exploration; not all of us canbe astronauts. For most of us, our last frontier remains within us. How far canwe push ourselves in the suffocation of our own self-created environment?

[Next series starts Monday,

Ben 

PS. What do you think?]

November 11, 2023: 13 Years (!) of AmericanStudying: Influential Folks

[This weekAmericanStudier celebrates its 13th anniversary! For this year’sanniversary series, I wanted to highlight a handful of key moments and piecesin my development as an online public scholar, leading up to this specialweekend tribute to some key influences on that evolving career!]

I’ve endedmany of these anniversary reflections series with tribute posts, and wanted todo the same this year, this time focusing on a handful of folks who have beeninstrumental in my evolving online public scholarly career overall:

1)     Heather Cox Richardson: AsI detailed in Tuesday’s post, Heather’s support and connection to multiplesites were vital as I began to transition from the blog to a broader onlinepublic scholarly voice and presence and career. But she’s also just been andremains a model for that work, from her individual writing to her use ofTwitter to support fellow scholars to many other layers to her own evolvingcareer. Very proud to call her a friend as well as influence!

2)     Avi Green:In Wednesday’s post, I talked about the key role that Avi (then the ScholarsStrategy Network’s Communications Director) played in helping me land the 2014Talking Points Memo column that really shifted my online public scholarlycareer to another stage. That was just a microcosm of what Avi and SSN (and thetwo were entirely inseparable for me in my first years of working with both)meant for not only me, but all the public scholars who were fortunate enough toget connected to them.

3)     NonaWillis Aronowitz: As the Talking Points Memo editor with whom I worked formost of my 18 months writing that column, Nona was a true model for that role,which to my mind works very differently with online public scholarship than itdoes in other forms of journalism, academic publishing, and so on. This versionrequires speed yet depth, collegial cheerleading yet rigorous revision,solidarity yet challenge when appropriate, and in all those and other ways Nonahelped my writing and voice grow and improve immeasurably.

4)     Jen Bortel: Nonawas my first great editor, but I mean absolutely no disrespect to her when I saythat Jen has been the best. As I wrote in Thursday’s post, I’ve been writingthe Considering History column for the SaturdayEvening Post for nearly six years, and Jen (having initially recruited meto do so) has been with me every column and step of the way. Her thoughtful andcareful editing has greatly improved my style, her reminders about Post audiences have helped me thinkthrough what public engagement truly means, and her consistent support andsolidarity have made this by far the best gig of my career. I like to thinkthat my support for fellow online public scholars with the #ScholarSundaythreads is me paying forward at least a bit of what Jen has meant for my owncareer.

5)     You!: Yeah, you. And also you. And definitelyyou too. Really, every last one of you. As I start at the start of this week’sseries, a great deal has changed since that November 6, 2010 blog post—but onething that has remained the same, in this space and in every one I’ve connectedto, has been my desire to engage audiences, to enter and help shape ourconversations. That means no one has been more influential to and important forthat evolving online public scholarly career than you—and I can’t thank youenough! Here’s to all of us, and all our conversations, over these 13 years andover all those to come.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Online writing or work of yours I can highlight and share?

November 10, 2023: 13 Years (!) of AmericanStudying: #ScholarSunday Threads in 2020

[This weekAmericanStudier celebrates its 13th anniversary! For this year’sanniversary series, I wanted to highlight a handful of key moments and piecesin my development as an online public scholar, leading up to a special weekendtribute to some key influences on that evolving career!]

I’vewritten a good deal in different places about my Twitter #ScholarSundaythreads, including in introducing thisGoogle Doc thread of threads and in this 2022year-end piece for the great Clio & the Contemporary site. But I haven’ttalked too much here on the blog about these weekly Twitter threads (yes, Istill call it Twitter and always will), which are now well past the 150 mark andmark (alongside yesterday’s subject, my Considering History columns) mylongest-running online public scholarly commitment outside of the blog. Andthat’s what I want to stress about them here, as part of this series on keymoments in my evolving online public scholarly career: that while I have longtried to support other public scholars (such as in my role as a Scholars Strategy Network BostonChapter co-leader), creating these threads and becoming closely associatedwith them (as I believe I now have been, and happily so) has represented asignificant step forward in my role not just as an individual online publicscholar, but as a force for spreading that work overall. I’ve always intendedthis blog to be that too (hence my eternal emphasis on GuestPosts and Crowd-sourcedPosts), but the blog will always also have a core individual component,while the threads are 1000% about the community and solidarity and collectivework. I love that that’s become such a part of this stage of my evolving onlinepublic scholarly career, and here’s to the next baker’s dozen!

Specialtribute post this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Online writing or work of yours I can highlight and share?