Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 67

August 29, 2023: Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1957 Prelude

[August 28th marks the60th anniversary of the March onWashington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the single mostimportant events in 20th century American history.So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of contexts for and from thatevent—not including MartinLuther King Jr.’s iconic speech, about which I’ve written agood bit already!]

On how a1957 march directly foreshadowed 1963, and how it differed.

As part ofmy 2021 MLK Day series Ishared a paragraph from my most recent (then forthcoming) book, Of Thee I Sing (2021), where I analyzedKing’s 1957 speech “GiveUs the Ballot” as an example of critical and active patriotism. That speechwas delivered at the 1957 PrayerPilgrimage for Freedom march on Washington, so check out that post (thefirst hyperlink above) if you would and then come on back here for more on that1957 event.

Welcomeback! King delivering a potent headlining speech at both the 1957 and 1963 marcheswasn’t a coincidence, and it’s not simply a reflection on his incredibleoratorical gifts (although yes, that too). The 1957 march built on theplanned 1941 one I discussed yesterday (logically enough, as it too was plannedby A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, although this time the amazingactivist and leader EllaBaker played a central role as well), but it even more directlyforeshadowed 1963: a gathering of tens of thousandsof protesters (the largest civil rights demonstration in American historyto that point) at the Lincoln Memorial, featuring both speeches andmusical performances, culminating in that powerhouse closing speech from King. Ofcourse the Civil Rights Movement, like any social movement, repeated similar tacticsin multiple moments and settings; and as I mentioned yesterday, Randolph andcompany quickly realized the power of marches on Washington (whether just plannedas in 1941 or executed), so it stands to reason they’d keep using thatstrategy. But it is nonetheless striking how parallel the 1957 and 1963 marcheswere.

Parallelisn’t identical, however, and I’d highlight two subtle but significantdistinctions between the two marches. One was the central role of a politician,Democratic Congressman AdamClayton Powell Jr. (a minister turned representative from Harlem) in bothplanning the 1957 march and delivering another speech.Like any politician, Powell had to keep politics in mind, and so for example heasked the march’s planners to do what they could to keep from embarrassing PresidentEisenhower (an understandable but still fraught request). Perhaps inresponse to that request (although a genuine element of the event to be sure),the 1957 march was framed not as a social protest but as areligious occasion, a “Prayer Pilgrimage” as the official name indicated. Comparedto the 1963 march, for example, the musical performances in 1957 leaned moreinto spirituals and less into contemporaryfolk music (although 1963 certainly featured spirituals as well, as I’lldiscuss later in the week). Both Powell and King were ministers, so this corereligious thread was hardly a surprise—but it did reflect a somewhat distincttone from the 1963 march, and helps us consider another layer to such eventsand the Civil Rights Movement as a whole.

Next Marchcontext tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 28, 2023: Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1941 Origins

[August 28th marks the60th anniversary of the March onWashington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the single mostimportant events in 20th century American history.So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of contexts for and from thatevent—not including MartinLuther King Jr.’s iconic speech, about which I’ve written agood bit already!]

On twoimportant contexts illustrated by a planned 1941 march.

Theconcept of a march on Washington to push the government toward certain actionsis a longstanding one in American history, going back at least to examples like“Coxey’sArmy” in 1894 and the Bonus Army in 1932. Thelatter in particular seems to have been one inspiration for labor leaderA. Philip Randolph and civil rights activist BayardRustin’s developing early 1941 plans for a march on Washington to protestthe Franklin Roosevelt administration’s segregation and discrimination inwartime hiring practices. Randolphand NAACP leader Walter White had met with Roosevelt in September 1940 toargue for integrating all levels of the armed forces and war efforts but hadgotten nowhere, with the White Houseissuing a statement that “The policy of the War Department is not tointermingle colored and white enlisted personnel.” So in January Randolphproposed the concept (with the formal name of the Marchon Washington Movement) of a collective march on Washington to put pressureon the administration, and he began working with Rustin to plan the logisticsfor an early July march which they hoped would bring at least 100,000protesters to DC.

Just aweek before the march’s scheduled date President Roosevelt signed ExecutiveOrder 8802, establishing a federal FairEmployment Practices Committee (FEPC) that both desegregated wartimeindustries specifically and prohibited discrimination in federal vocational andtraining programs more broadly. Perhaps Roosevelt was genuinely convinced thatthis was the right step, or perhaps he was fearful of the bad press that asizeable protest would generate just as the US was ramping up its war efforts;Randolph seems to have feared the latter, as he maintainedthe March on Washington Movement throughout the war to keep the pressureon. And in any case, these March on Washington contexts remind us of theconsistent racial segregation that plagued the Roosevelt Administration’ssignature (and in many ways progressive) programs likethe New Deal. Whoever was in the White House, civil rights leaders knewthat they had to push and pressure to achieve any and all steps toward equalityand justice, and Randolph and Rustin revealed that a march on Washington couldbe one important tool in that arsenal.

Thecentral roles and relationship between those two men in these 1941 eventslikewise illustrates another important context for the 1963 march and CivilRights Movement histories overall: the interconnections between labor and civilrights. As I highlighted inthis post, far too often the American labor movement has featured whitesupremacist forces in defining roles; that trend unquestionably played a rolein Randolph’s and others’ formationof a 1920s labor union specifically for Black workers. As I hope this wholeweeklong series will indicate, there are many layers to the 1963 March that weneed to better remember, but very high on the list has to be its full name: theMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I’ve often seen Martin Luther KingJr.’s turn in the late 1960stoward economic and laborissues described as a shift in priorities, but in truth the entire CivilRights Movement was founded on a recognition that those issues wereinterconnected with—not the sole emphasis by any means, but an integralcomponent of—ideals like freedom, equality, and justice. Just one more reason toremember the aborted but essential 1941 March on Washington.

Next Marchcontext tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 26-27, 2023: Cville Places: The Public Schools

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ve focused on a handful of representative places aroundtown. Leading up to this tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

First,here are some of the many prior posts in which I’ve paid tribute to my amazingCharlottesville public school teachers:

Thesemultiple postson my single favorite teacher (and without question the most evocatively andpitch-perfectly named), Proal Heartwell;

Thisone on the iconic figure who taught me to swim in the public schools, WilliamByers;

Thisone on an 8th grade English teacher and a high school Mathteacher who both helped me become the teacher I am today;

And thisone on a bunch of other inspiring Cville public schools teachers with whomI was fortunate enough to work along the way .

In thatlast hyperlinked post, I wrote about attacks on public schools and especiallypublic school teachers. That was from 2011, and let’s just say that theattacks have notexactly decreased in the 12 years since. There are lots of ways to resistand challenge those attacks, but I believe one of the strongest is for those ofus who are the products of public schools, who work in public schools, whosechildren attend public schools, who are supporters of and advocates for publicschools in every way to raise our voices, share our stories, express oureternal gratitude to what these spaces have meant to and for us. So I knew Icouldn’t conclude a series on Cville places without saying clearly and proudlythat I love the Charlottesville public schools!

Next seriesstarts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’dhighlight?

August 25, 2023: Cville Places: The Paramount Theater

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ll focus on a handful of representative places aroundtown. Leading up to a tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

On threetelling details about the city’s mosthistoric movie theater.

1)     The Golden Age: Charlottesville’s ParamountTheater opened on the day before Thanksgiving in November 1931. It was designed bythe Chicago architectsRapp & Rapp, who were the architects behind the entire Paramount chainof theaters (including the most famous one in Times Square),and so it was located squarely in the traditions of that iconic period incinematic and Hollywood history. But to honor Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, C.W. and George Rapp gave thisParamount Theater a level of opulence far beyond their norm, includingbrass chandeliers, painted tapestries, an octagonal auditorium, and the justlyfamous Greek façade. Such luxuries might seem ironic in a building that openedtwo years into the Great Depression, and they certainly reflect image ratherthan reality (as the next paragraph will illustrate even more clearly). But a beautifulbuilding is a beautiful building, and the Paramount was and remains one ofCville’s most beautiful buildings.

2)     A Segregated Space: If such details made theParamount stand apart from the rest of Charlottesville’s landscape, however, inone crucial way it was precisely the same as everywhereelse in 1930s (and 40s, and 50s) Cville: it was racially segregated.African American audience members had to enter the theater by aseparate door (on an entirely different street from the front entrance) andsit in the balcony. The theater’sofficial website notes that Rapp & Rapp gave this segregated entrance “alevel of decoration and elegance sized for the smaller scale,” making “thedesign of the Third Street Entrance complementary to—not divorced from—that ofthe building as a whole.” Maybe that’s true—these 21stcentury pictures seem to capture some sense of that, at least—and I supposeis a space is going to be segregated (as virtually all of them were in 1930sCharlottesville and Virginia), at least each part of it can still beattractive. But at the same time, who the fuck cares what the “Colored” entranceof a theater looked like, y’know?

3)     Preservation and Performance: So in both thebest and the worst ways, the Paramount Theater was an iconic slice ofCharlottesville history throughout the mid-20th century. Althoughthe growth in alternative theaters and entertainment options forced the theaterto closein 1974, the city’s and late 20th century’s interests inhistoric preservation led to immediate and sustained efforts to save thebuilding from demolition and restore it to some level of operation. Thirtyyears after that closure the preservationists finally and fully succeeded, withthe Paramount reopening as aworking theater in 2004; it took another decade for the famous sign to berestored, but it was illuminatedagain in 2015. Yet while the theater has hosted numerous performances sincethat reopening, it is itself enacting a different kind of performance, as thereis (to my knowledge) no recognition on site of the segregated entrance andseating, of that fraught layer to the Paramount’s and community’s histories. Aswith so much Cvillecollective memory, then, there’s more work to be done.

Tributepost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’dhighlight?

August 24, 2023: Cville Places: The Jefferson School

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ll focus on a handful of representative places aroundtown. Leading up to a tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

On what a historic educational place cantell us about three distinct 20th century eras.

1)     The 1920s: As I’ve written about at lengthboth inthis space and elsewhere,it was in the 1920s that Charlottesville erected its infamous white supremaciststatues, one of many illustrations of how the secondKu Klux Klan and all it represented had most definitely come to town (ormore exactly had beenthere all along). But the ‘20s were also the era of the Harlem Renaissance,of the continuing legacies of the GreatMigration (which meant not only movement between regions but also thesearch for opportunities and freedoms all over the country), and overall of an AfricanAmerican community willing and able to stand up for its communal rights andneeds. And in Charlottesville, members of that community successfully petitionedthe City Council in 1926 to create a high school for Black students, whopreviously had had no educational option beyond 8th grade in town.That school, the product of the best of Cville (and America) in an era toooften defined by the worst, was the Jefferson School.

2)     The 1940s: It took some time for the school tobecome a full community of its own (although even a bare bones high school wasa vast improvement to be sure), but by the 1940s it was as thrivingand vibrant a community as any high school could be. It had a Dramatics Clubwith over 100 members, a music department with a full band (that performed in1941 at tomorrow’s focal place, the Paramount Theater) and a trio of choralensembles, multiple sports teams that traveled the state (with the bandtraveling with the football team), and its own newspaper The Jeffersonianthat included not only writers and editors but advertising and circulationmanagers. It also of course had a high school yearbook, Crimsonand Black, and I believe that yearbook’s 1944 dedication reflects justhow much this (by which I mean both the school and the African Americancommunity) was both an inspiring community in its own right and a powerful partof the era’s American landscape: “To the boys of Jefferson High School who havewillingly answered the call of our country and who are serving in the armedforces to bring to our land once more a lasting peace.”

3)     1958: I need to be very, very clear, however:even the most vibrant segregated school was still a segregated school, still aparticularly striking embodiment of Jim Crow’s discrimination against youngAfrican Americans. Clearly Charlottesville’s African American community feltthe same, as in September 1958, in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education and Little Rock, a number of JeffersonSchool students and their families appliedto white-only schools (high schools and elementary schools) across thecity. As I’ve writtenabout at length, the Charlottesville schools literally shut down, closed toall students, rather than admit these African American students, one of thenation’s most extreme examples of massive resistance. They remained closed fora year, but the writing was on the wall, both for segregated education in thecity and thus (happily, but nonetheless) for the Jefferson School. But it hasremained standing, used occasionally as a substitute school in the city andalways as a historic site, one featuring for example placards that commemorate “The Triumph of the CharlottesvilleTwelve” (the first dozen students who pushed for integration). One morevital and inspiring memory housed in the Jefferson School.

LastCville place tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’dhighlight?

August 23, 2023: Cville Places: Vinegar Hill

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ll focus on a handful of representative places around town.Leading up to a tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

I saidmost everything I wanted to say about the compelling histories, tragic andhorrific destruction, and enduring legacies of Charlottesville’s Vinegar Hillneighborhood in this SaturdayEvening Post Considering History column.But it’s far too significant and representative of a Cville place not toinclude in this week’s series, so please check out that column if you would!

NextCville place tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’d highlight?

August 22, 2023: Cville Places: Fry’s Spring

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ll focus on a handful of representative places around town.Leading up to a tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

On fourexemplary stages of one of Charlottesville’s most enduring sites.

Fry’s Springearned its name through one of the area’s early 19th centuryblue-bloods. James Francis Fry, grandson of JoshuaFry (one of the two men who patented Albemarle County in the mid-18thcentury), received 300 acres of land in the area from his father-in-law, theequally prominent local NelsonBarksdale, in 1839. Fry built the estate Azalea Hall on the site but alsodiscovered a nearby spring, which he christened Fry’s Spring and which bymid-century had become well-known throughout the region. This was the era inwhich President Buchanan maintained a “Summer White House”at Pennsylvania’s Bedford Springs, and Fry’s Spring offered those furthersouth their own such escape.

By the end ofthe century, the spring had changed hands and become part of a far moreelaborate resort community, one connected to the nearby Jefferson Park Hotel. Thiswas the height of the Gilded Age, an era defined both by conspicuousconsumption and by the rise of marketing and advertising to appeal to thosewealthiest Americans, and the Hotel offered it all: access to waters advertised as “the third mostpowerful of their kind in the world”; an on-site menagerie known asWonderland; and two different train lines (a small “dummy-line” and a largersteam locomotive) to bring visitors to the site. Resorts and spas were nolonger simply for first families and presidents—they were part of a network ofsites linked to the upper stratum of Gilded Age America, such as Newport’smansions, Lenox’s VentfortHall, and many others.

The Hotel burneddown in 1910 (with salvaged wood being used to construct nearby homes,including one in which a certain AmericanStudier grew up!), and the land wassold to a trolley company that focused on adding to the Wonderland amusements. Amongother ways in which Wonderland was developed in this era, the company added thecity’s first moving picture shows. This was the period in which this new formof entertainment was sweeping the nation, but to my mind the movies signaledmore than just a new technology—they represented, along with therise of professional sports and the popularity of places like ConeyIsland, RevereBeach, and other so-called “trolleyparks,” a democratization of leisure, a broadening of sites like Fry’sSpring to include more than Virginia blue bloods or the nation’s upper classes.

The next stageof that democratization of leisure and of Fry’s Spring began soon thereafter,and has continued into this AmericanStudier’s life and the 21stcentury. Local businessmanJ. Russell Dettor bought the site in 1920 and built a swimming pool, whichhe opened in 1921 as Fry’sSpring Beach Club. The century since has seen plenty more history andevolution, including those related to segregation that I detailed in this essayfor the Activist History Review, butthey’ve all been connected to the Beach Club. The Beach Club where I kept thebeach ball up and swam laps and played tennis throughout my youth, and where Ijust took my boys for the next stage of their own Charlottesville histories andstories. Their lips got a lot bluer than their blood, and the only water theytried was heavily chlorinated, but the story of Fry’s Spring continues into the21st century nonetheless.

NextCville place tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’d highlight?

August 21, 2023: Cville Places: Barracks Road

[For thisyear’s installment of my annualCharlottesville series—following the boys and my annual trip to mychildhood home, natch—I’ll focus on a handful of representative places around town.Leading up to a tribute to the public schools that nurtured thisAmericanStudier!]

On the elidedbut still evocative histories all around us.

In thislong-ago post AmericanStudying cities to which I’ve had the chance totravel, I mentioned how impressed I was by the presence and intimacy of Rome’shistories, the way in which you could turn any corner and find yourselfconfronted by the Colosseum, the Forum, or any number of less famous butequally historic sites. To my mind, that element contrasts noticeably with ourtendency in America to separate the historic sites from the present citiesaround them, to demarcate their existence as an area to be visited (or,saliently, to which to take tourists and other visitors to our city, butprobably not venture ourselves) but not a part of the place’s ongoing life andidentity. Such separations and demarcations are far better than not rememberingor maintaining the histories at all, of course—and that has been an option inAmerica far too often, so I’m always happier to see the maintained sites inwhatever form—but it nonetheless makes it easier to treat thepast as a foreign country, rather than as integral to and interconnectedwith ours.

Moreover, thereare reminders of those histories all around us, if we know where and how tolook for them. Throughout my life I have frequented the area of Charlottesvilleknown as Barracks Road: the shoppingcenter was home to the Shoney’s (aka Bob’s Big Boy) that was a favoritechildhood restaurant the Baskin Robbins that was a favorite dessert site, andthe toy store that was, well, just a favorite spot, as well as to the Barnes& Noble where I worked for eight months between college and grad school;Barracks Road itself was close enough to my high school that my bus and carroutes often included it, and a longtime high school girlfriend lived just offthe road; and so on. Yet I had virtually no sense of the history comprised by thatname: that a group of more than 3000 British and German prisoners of warwere housed a site along the road for nearly two years during the RevolutionaryWar (after the Continental Army’s 1777 victory at the Battleof Saratoga), in what came to be known as the Albemarle Barracks (the siteitself is just outside of the city limits, in Albemarle County). Like the name,the shoppingcenter’s sign obliquely gestures at that history, featuring aRevolutionary-era horseman.

So thereminders, like the “IndianNames” on the landscape about which LydiaSigourney wrote so beautifully, remain. On the one hand, those slightechoes might make the overall elision of the past more frustrating: BarracksRoad was for a time one of the South’s most significant Revolutionary Warsites, and now I would wager that most Charlottesville residents know it solely(as I did for all those years) for the shopping center. But on the other hand,the echoes represent a continued presence, indeed an illustration of theinfluence the past has in creating the present—and as such as they also offeran opportunity to begin to connect with and learn about those histories, aslong as we recognize and follow their clues. Which is to say, Sigourney waswrong to mourn the vanishing past in her poem, not only because NativeAmericans didn’t vanish (although that too to be sure), but also because thepast never goes anywhere. It’s always there, quietly but crucially constitutingour world, waiting to be discovered and better understood.

NextCville place tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Defining places—from your hometowns or anywhere else—you’d highlight?

August 19-20, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2022-2023

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 46th birthday.So as I do each year, I’ve featured a series sharing some of my favorite postsfrom each year on the blog, leading up to this new post with 46 favorites fromthe last year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to sayhi and tell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found orenjoyed here, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

Here theyare, 46 favorite posts from my 13th year of AmericanStudying:

1)     August 22:Virginia Profs: Alan Feldstein: For my annual Cville series (thenext of which starts when these bday posts conclude), I focused on inspiringUVa professors, starting with an impressive one from the Civil Rights era.

2)     September5: APUSH Studying: Mrs. Frankel: It was fun to reflect on my own APUS History experiences as my older son began his, and especially to think aboutone of my favorite teachers of all time.

3)     September10: Michael Walters’ Guest Post: Chaos, Order, and Progress in the First NorthAmerican Nation: By far my favorite thing about this year’s bday best is that itincludes the most Guest Posts ever, starting with this excellent one fromMichael Walters.

4)     September17-18: War is Hella Funny: M*A*S*H: For the 50th anniversaryof the TV show’s pilot, I learned a lot about the novel and film as well asthat iconic show.

5)     September24-25: Faulkner at 125: Digital Yoknapatawpha: I couldn’t end a series forFaulkner’s 125th birthday without paying tribute to my Dad SteveRailton’s third and most impressive digital humanities project.

6)     September28: Asian American Leaders: Patsy Mink: On the 20th anniversaryof Patsy Mink’s passing, I really enjoyed the chance to learn more about justhow impressive and influential her political career was.

7)     October1-2: Kelly Marino’s Guest Post: The “American Queen”: “Sweetheart” Bracelets,Jewelry Trends, and the World Wars: The next of those many great GuestPosts featured Kelly Marino on all we can learn from material culture.

8)     October 3:Bad Presidents: James Buchanan: My bad presidents series ended whereyou’d expect, but it also allowed me to think through some of the worst of hispredecessors, starting with a very competitive entrant in the category.

9)     October8-9: Anita Siraki’s Guest Post on Interview with the Vampire: Theawesome Guest Posts rolled on with Anita Siraki on a new TV adaptation of AnneRice.

10)  October11: RunningStudying: The Boston Marathon: Despite living in the Boston areafor the majority of my 46 years, I still had a lot to learn about its iconicroad race.

11)  October15-16: RunningStudying: Aidan Railton’s Guest Post on Strava: All theyear’s Guest Posts were fantastic, but nothing can top sharing my older son’swriting for the first time!

12)  October18: HUAC Histories: The Blacklist: One of my favorite things to do onthe blog is take a subject I and we know a bit about and add a ton more detailand context, which I felt I was able to do throughout this series on HUAC andMcCarthyism.

13)  October28: PBS People: Bob Ross: But another favorite thing is to blog abouttopics I never imagined I’d be writing about, and the peaceful painter Bob Rossis high on that list.

14)  November5-6: Anya Jabour’s Guest Post on Legionnaire’s Disease: The nextexcellent Guest Post, Anya Jabour contextualizing a very challenging medicalcrisis.

15)  November12-13: 12 Years of AmericanStudying: My Reflections: The bestpart of my annual anniversary series is the chance to reflect on all that thisblog and you all have meant to me.

16)  November17: Public Art: The Harriet Wilson Statue: There’s so much amazing public artin New England, and one of my favorite is Southern New Hampshire’s tribute toHarriet Wilson.

17)  November19-20: Lily Hart’s Guest Post on Voices of the River: It’sespecially cool to share Guest Posts from folks who reached out to me, and thatwas the case with Lily Hart and this post on a vital new journal and project.

18)  November25: Thanks-givings: Young Voters: My Thanksgiving posts this year wereshort but sweet, and none sweeter nor more significant than my tribute to theyouthful voters who saved the 2022 election and just might save us all.

19)  December7: Constitutional Contexts: Delaware: For the 235th anniversaryof Delaware’s historic ratification of the Constitution, it was fun tocontextualize that crucial moment.

20)  December19-25: A Defining Wish: For this year’s wish for the AmericanStudiesElves, I focused on a defining hope for both the blog and America.

21)  December28: 2022 in Review: Hot Girl Music: I’d be lying if I said I everexpected to blog about Nicki Minaj and Lizzo—but that’s one of many reasons whyI keep doing this!

22)  January 5:2023 Anniversaries: 1923 and Hollywood: Did you know that the Hollywood signand Disney Studios debuted in the same year?

23)  January7-8: Einav Rabinovitch-Fox’s Guest Post on Senatorial Fashion: The nextcompelling Guest Post featured fashion historian Einav Rabinovitch-Fox on JohnFetterman’s suit.

24)  January14-15: Five Years of Considering History: Two Tributes and a Request: Ienjoyed the chance to look back on my first five years writing for the Saturday Evening Post, culminating inthis tribute to my editor, a loyal reader, and you all!

25)  January24: AbortionStudying: Sarah Grosvenor: I don’t normally feature two postsfrom the same series, but in this case the pairing of one 18thcentury historical figure...

26)  January26: AbortionStudying: Dirty Dancing: … and one late 20thcentury romantic film reflects the breadth I’m really trying for on theblog. 

27)  January30: Travel Stories: Around the World in Eighty Days: On the150th anniversary of Jules Verne’s novel, it was fun to think aboutthree American figures who inspired or tried out the travel feat.

28)  February11-12: Football (and Sports) Studiers: After Guest Posts, my secondfavorite thing to share on the blog is tributes to fellow AmericanStudiers—likethis list of folks doing great work in Sports Studies.

29)  February16: Songs I Love: “The Barka-Darling River”: Discovering an amazing new albumfrom an all-time favorite band was one of the best parts of 2022, so I was gladto share one of those songs in my Valentine’s series.

30)  February18-19: Hettie Williams’ Guest Post on Black Writers & AIDS:Returning Guest Posters are a particular delight, and so I was very glad toshare another from Hettie Williams.

31)  February25-26: Crowd-sourced Non-favorites: My favorite crowd-sourced post ofthe year didn’t disappoint, with lots of righteous airing of grievances.

32)  March 1:Temperance Milestones: Three Reformers: Yes, the anti-masturbation inventorof the Graham Cracker stands out, but all three of these 19thcentury temperance reformers are compelling subjects.

33)  March 8:American Cars: Rebel Without a Cause: I don’t get to stretch my closereading muscles too often in this case, but I always love when I do, as was thecase here with the iconic “chicken run” scene from the James Dean film.

34)  March 17:Wild West Stories: True Grit: And the close readings continued with anin-depth examination of Charles Portis’ excellent 1968 novel.

35)  March25-26: Bruce in 2023: Getting to see Springsteen in concert withmy sons was a life highlight, and the fact that the whole show was about agingand memory, loss and persistence, the past and the future? So much betterstill.

36)  April15-16: Remembering Reconstruction: Kidada Williams’ I Saw Death Coming: Anotherfavorite thing is to get to highlight scholarly books, and one of the best ofthe year to date is Kidada Williams’ history of Reconstruction.

37)  April 17:Soap Opera Studying: 1930s Origins: If you’re like me, you probablyhaven’t heard of any of these five pioneering women—so read the post andrectify the situation!

38)  May 5:Hemispheric Histories: The Panama Canal: There have been conversations andefforts toward a waterway through Panama for nearly 200 years, and I enjoyedtracing that history through three treaties.

39)  May 19:Watergate Figures: Jill Wine-Volner: This post on one of Watergate’s mostprominent investigators was already a favorite, and then she generously sharedand responded it to Twitter and took it to the next level.

40)  May 27-28:Barrett Beatrice Jackson’s Guest Post on Norman Rockwell, Robert Butler, andHer Grandfather: The last of the Guest Posts in this list was this fun one fromBarrett Beatrice Jackson—make sure to propose your own to keep the seriesgoing!

41)  June 6:Environmental Activisms: Mardy Murie: There are countless impressive andinspiring Americans to learn about, including the “Grandmother of theConservation Movement.”

42)  June 12:Women in War: The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act: Wedefinitely need to better remember Truman’s 1948 racial integration of the USArmed Forces—but we likewise have to add this vital gender integration law fromthe same year.

43)  June29: Germany and America: The German American Bund: A series inspired byKennedy’s inspiring Berlin speech turned to one of the most horrific &telling moments in American history, the February 1939 Nazi rally in MadisonSquare Garden.

44)  July17: Seneca Falls Studying: Quaker Communities: It was really fun to learnmore about the Seneca Falls Convention--& its very surprising origins in particular—forthis 175th anniversary series.

45)  July26: Korean War Studying: Films: Did you know that more than 20 Korean Warfilms were released between 1951 and 1953? Here are three that help us see howthat cultural genre evolved.

46)  August4: SiblingStudying: The Eaton Sisters: No American siblings inspired memore than Edith Maude & Winifred Eaton.

AnnualCville series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 18, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2021-2022

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 46th 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 46 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, 45 favorite posts from my 12th year of AmericanStudying:

1)     August 27:American Teens: John Hughes Films: A series inspired by my pair of highschoolers concluded with this fun way to reconsider classic 80s films.

2)     September11-12: Tayna Roth’s Guest Post on “The Real Miss America”: I’vehad a ton of great Guest Posts this year, and you’d better believe I’m gonnahighlight them all, starting with this one drawn from Tanya’s excellent newbook!

3)     September18-19: Domestic Terrorism: 9/11 and 1/6: I’ve spent a lot of time this yearthinking and talking about January 6th, 2021, including in thiscomparative weekend post.

4)     September24: American Modernists: F. Scott Fitzgerald: Want to read Fitzgerald beyond Gatsby? This phenomenal short story is agood place to start.

5)     October 8:AmericanFires: The Great Chicago Fire: I promise I won’t use much of thisspace to promote my Saturday Evening Postcolumns, but this one lined up really well with a blog series.

6)     October15: SitcomStudying: We Love Lucy: Getting to revisit and rethinkfamiliar subjects is one of the real perks of this blog, and I enjoyed thechance to AmericanStudy I Love Lucy.

7)     October19: Work in Progress: Lesson Plan for CT Humanities: A funstory of the long afterlife of one of my first online pieces—and now I canshare the lessonplan itself!

8)     November3: Action Figures: Charles Bronson and Death Wish: In aseries inspired by Bronson’s 100th birthday, it was fun to exploreand challenge my preconceptions about his seminal film.

9)     November13-14: 11th Anniversary Tributes: Gotta share my tribute to what theRailton family have meant to this blog (and beyond)!

10)  November20-21: The Montgomery Bus Boycott: 21st Century Legacies &Echoes: There are lots of good reasons to learn history, but high on thelist has to be what it can help us understand in our own moment.

11)  November27-28: Emily Lauer’s Guest Post on Afrofuturism in Museums: Emily ismy first three-time Guest Poster, and since she keeps doing such great work, Icouldn’t be happier about that!

12)  December4-5: Crowd-sourced Online Reading List: I ended a series for ProjectGutenberg’s 50th birthday by sharing these recommendations fromfellow OnlineAmericanStudiers.

13)  December13: Fall Semester Recaps: First Year Experience Seminar: FYE wasa tough class to teach and an even tougher one to get right—but when I did, itsure felt extra meaningful and helpful.

14)  December20: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Higher Ed Funding: Thiswhole series was fun to write as ever, but this is the most universallyrelevant for my week’s wishes to be sure.

15)  December27: Year in Review: The Braves: Celebrating yet also critiquing thesurprising success of a favorite team—that’s the AmericanStudier way!

16)  December31: Year in Review: New Novels: I don’t get to read for pleasure toomuch these days, but these are books well worth finding time for.

17)  January 5:2022 Anniversaries: 1872 and Henry Wilson: I always learn a lot when I researchspecific years for the blog, and this discovery about Grant’s second vicepresident was no exception.

18)  January14: Women in Politics: Shirley Chisholm’s Campaigns: Runningfor president was just the tip of the iceberg of Chisholm’s impressivepolitical and activist career.

19)  January25: American Gangsters: Capturing Capone: Any time I get to write aboutTintin, I promise to share it in these series!

20)  January31: Bill MurrayStudying: Tootsie: Ditto any time I get to write aboutone of my favorite 80s films and how it (mostly) still holds up.

21)  February12-13: Kurtis Kendall’s Guest Post on Athlete Activism: Andreally really ditto when I’m sharing a Guest Post from an FSU English Studiesalum!

22)  February19-20: More Podcasts We Love: Please check out all the podcastshighlighted in this weeklong series—and now here’s my ownepisode of Drafting the Past!

23)  February22: Non-Favorite Myths: The Supreme Court: One of those times I really wish Ihad been less prescient in my analyses and predictions about our currentclimate.

24)  March 5-6:Megan Kate Nelson’s New Book on Yellowstone: Always great when I can end a seriesby highlighting a wonderful new book from a friend!

25)  March 11:The Pacific Theater: “I Shall Return”: Douglas MacArthur, quite theasshole but still a powerfully inspiring leader as well. Such is theAmericanStudying dance!

26)  March 21:Rock and Roll Groundbreakers: The Moondog Coronation Ball: If youthought I was going to miss a chance to write “Moondog Coronation Ball” acouple more times—well, you thought wrong.

27)  March 28:Stand-Up Studying: Anthony Jeselnik: Few things better than getting toanalyze a cultural work you love, and finding new layers in the process.

28)  April9-10: Arbor Day Activists: One of the people most responsible for ArborDay’s existence was Birdsey Northrop. I feel like we all need to know that.

29)  April 18:Boston Marathon Studying: The First Marathon: There’s a lot of pretty fascinatingstuff about the 1897 Boston Marathon—here’s just some of it.

30)  April23-24: Tiffany Chenault’s Guest Post: Boston Marathon RECAP: Myfriend and SSN Boston co-leader Tiffany ran her first Boston this year, and hada lot of great thoughts about the experience!

31)  April 26:Ulysses Grant Studying: His Book: Dedicating a whole series to theunderappreciated Grant was fun, and I learned a lot, as illustrated by thispost on his wonderful memoirs.

32)  May 7-8:Scholarship on Internment: I’ll never pass up a chance to re-uphighlights of favorite scholarly voices and works!

33)  May 14-15:Spring Semester Reflections: Adult Ed and Two Sandlots: Gettingto teach adult learning classes centered around a book in progress was a new,and very rewarding, experience.

34)  May 21-22:Aviation Histories: Amelia Earhart: There’s so much more to Earhart thanjust her most famous flights.

35)  May 28-29:Sydney Kruszka’s Guest Post: Why We Should All Read Maus: I’vebeen able to share three Guest Posts now from students taught by my friendRobin Field—and I’d love to share ones from y’all’s students too!

36)  June 9:Judy Garland Studying: Judgment at Nuremberg: I had completely forgotten that JudyGarland was in Judgment—much less howstunningly good her performance was.

37)  June11-12: LGBTQ Icons: Garland was also an icon and inspiration tothe LGBTQ community—as we the other four women I highlighted in this post.

38)  June 13:Revisiting Beach Reads: Tony Hillerman: With the excellent new Hillermanadaptation Dark Winds recently out,it was fun to dip back into a childhood favorite.

39)  June25-26: Las Vegas Studying: Vegas in Song: This whole Vegas series was a blast,but I especially enjoyed the chance to write about The Killers and so manyother Vegas songs.

40)  July 9-10:4th of July Contexts: Patriotism in 2022 America: Do Ineed to say more about why this is an all-too relevant topic?

41)  July 12:Investigative Journalists: Nellie Bly: Another one where I learned so muchabout my subject for the day.

42)  July 19:UtahStudying: National Parks: Lots in this one I enjoyed learning, but I’msharing mostly for the unforgettable quote about Bryce Canyon and cows.

43)  July 26:Christmas (Songs) in July: “Winter Wonderland” and “Jingle Bells”: Youknow you want to read about how I AmericanStudied those holiday classics—inJuly!

44)  August 1:AmericanPhones: The Great Gatsby: Had a Gatsby post in my first few inthis list, gotta have one in my last few as well. Rules are rules.

45)  August6-7: Hettie Williams’ Guest Post on Beyoncé’s Renaissance: Alwaysexcited when I can end a list like this with my newest Guest Post!

Newestbday post this weekend,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!