Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 68

August 17, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2020-2021

[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, 44 favorite posts from the 11th year of AmericanStudying:

1)      August 24:Katrina at 15: Nature or Nuture?: I always enjoy posts that get meway out of my comfort zone, and writing about meteorology to kick off thisanniversary series definitely did the trick.

2)     August 31:Fall Semester Previews: A Policy of Care: I sure wasn’t happy with much abouthow the last academic year went—but I stand by everything I wrote in this post,and am so glad I made this my priority for each and every student.

3)     SpecialPost: The Rock Springs Massacre and Working-Class White Supremacist Violence: Thinkthis is the only time I’ve ever shared a piece outside the blog’s dailyoperations; it didn’t end up running for my SaturdayEvening Post column, so you got it here!

4)     September9: History through Games: Careers: Every piece in this series was a tonof fun to write, but none more so than this trip through American history andculture via the board game Careers.

5)     September19-20: Nazis in America: Project Paperclip and Hunters: I learned a whole lot while researching andwriting this series, all inspired by watching the problematic but compellingAmazon original show Hunters.

6)     September26-27: Crowd-sourced AutumnStudying: I won’t include every crowd-sourcedpost from the last year in this list—but I could, because I love love loveevery one of them.

7)     October 5:Recent Reads: How Much of These Hills is Gold: Gotta highlight two posts from thisseries of book recommendations: this one, on the best novel I read last year…

8)     October 9:Recent Reads: Susie King Taylor’s Memoir: And this one, on a favoritehistorical source I found (and about which I ended up recording a wholepodcast episode as well!).

9)     October15: Confederate Memory: The Shaaras: Revisiting childhood favoritesthrough an analytical lens is never easy, but it sure is important, especiallywhen it comes to topics like Civil War memory.

10)  October24-25: The World in 2020: If you look back through these bday lists,you’ll see that I hardly ever directly engaged current events in the blog’searly years. That’s been one main thread of my public scholarly evolution, asthis post illustrates.

11)  October31-November 1: Robin Field’s Guest Post on Toni Morrison & the Rape Novel: Alsomight not highlight every Guest Post in this list, which is a sign of the verynice fact that I had more than ever before in this past year. (If you want towrite one, you knowwhat to do!)

12)  November9-13: AmericanStudies’ 10th Anniversary and Online PublicScholarship: Once again gotta highlight a couple interconnected posts, theseanniversary reflections…

13)  November14-15: Anniversary Acknowledgments: And these anniversary, heartfeltthanks!

14)  November21-22: Laura E. Franey’s Guest Post on The Keepers: I dohave to highlight this Guest Post as well, since they rarely line up soperfectly and thoughtfully with the whole week’s series as Laura’s great postdid!

15)  November27: Book Thanksgivings: Y’all: Having a book coming out is a chance tothank so many folks, and I hope you’ll read every post in this series. But ifyou read just one, make it the one dedicated to you!

16)  December5-6: AIDS and COVID: I could have written many more posts aboutCOVID than I did, and I think that was the right call. But this series concludermade sense, and helped me think through some historical contexts and contrasts.

17)  December19-20: Crowd-sourced Fall 2020 Reflections: I value all my semester reflections,and I hope you’ll check them out. But this was a year for community andsolidarity, so here’s a small expression of those more vital than ever goals.

18)  December26-27: AmericanWishing: My Sons: Do I really need to say any morethan that title?

19)  December28: Year in Review: Race, Memory, and Justice: 2021 has shaped up to be even moredefined by those themes as 2020 was.

20)  January 4:Hope-full Texts: “A Long December”: Not sure I ever would havepredicted that I’d get to write about my favorite Counting Crows song in thisspace. Very glad I was wrong!

21)  January17: Emily Hamilton-Honey’s Hope-full Guest Post: I thinkthis is a first for the blog—an online friend and fellow AmericanStudier read aseries and crowd-sourced post and had so many thoughts that it turned into aGuest Post!

22)  January21: MLK Histories: Where Do We Go from Here?: We all have a lot more to learnabout and from MLK; for me, this final book of his was a striking case inpoint.

23)  February6-7: Sports in 2021: Revolutionary Change: I think it’s fair to say sports haveand haven’t lived up to this potential over the last six months—but there’sstill time!

24)  February13-14: Short Stories I Love: Ilene Railton’s Stories: If youthought I wouldn’t share this Valentine’s series post, well, you were sorelymistaken.

25)  February20-21: Crowd-sourced Non-Favorites: The annual crowd-sourced airing ofgrievances didn’t disappoint!

26)  February27-28: Adam Golub’s Guest Post on Creativity and American Studies: Adam wasone of my first online AMST colleagues (and Twitter follows), and it was a joyto finally get to share a bit of his work in this Guest Post.

27)  March 8:Spring Break Films: Spring Break: Like most universities, we didn’tget a Spring Break this year—but I took us all down to sunnier climes throughthis fun series, starting with this (rightfully) forgotten 80s film.

28)  March13-14: Of Thee I Sing Update!: OfThee I Sing was published on March 15, so I kicked off a series on itscentral concepts and my book talk plans with this special post (I hope you’llcheck out the whole series, as well as thispage with talks, podcasts, etc.!).

29)  March 29:Key & Peele Studying: Negrotown: Dedicating my annual April Fool’sseries to my favorite sketch comedy duo was a very good and very fun idea.

30)  April 6:NeMLA Recaps: Grace Sanders Johnson’s Talk: I enjoyed everything about thisyear’s virtual NeMLA conference, and hope you’ll check out the whole recapsseries—but Grace’s talk was one of the most inspiring I’ve ever heard.

31)  April 21:RadioStudying: Alan Freed: If you’re like me, you know the name AlanFreed largely if not solely through the payola scandal. Suffice to say, there’sa lot more to the man and his legacies than that!

32)  April24-25: Kate Jewell’s Guest Post: A Love Letter to College Radio: I’veteam-taught numerous AmericanStudies with Kate, which means I was super excitedto finally feature a Guest Post from her and just as excited to share it withyou again here!

33)  May 8-9:Victoria Scavo’s Guest Post on Gender Roles in Italian American Culture &Literature: Fine, maybe I am gonna share most of the year’s Guest Posts.They’re just all unique and meaningful—like this one, from an undergraduatestudent of my friend and her fellow Guest Poster Robin Field!

34)  May 10:Spring 2021 Moments: Jericho Brown and the Power of Poetry: ThisSpring was the toughest semester of my teaching career, but even amidst allthat there were moments of grace and inspiration. This one really stood out.

35)  May 18:Small Axe and America: Remembering Reggae: It was fun thinking about how toapply Steve McQueen’s wonderful film series about West Indian Englishcommunities to AmericanStudying. This was my favorite in the series.

36)  May 29-30:Sarah Satkowsi’s Guest Post on T.C. Boyle: You knew I couldn’t share one GuestPost from a student of Robin Field’s and not the other!

37)  June 5-6:A Memorial Day Tribute: War and patriotism are two topics it’s easyto caricature—but both, individually and especially together, can and should becommemorated, just not in the ways we far too often have and do.

38)  June 11:Basketball Stories: WNBA Stars: The ad campaign for the new WNBAseason was about how we should all be ashamed we haven’t been watching. Notsure about it as a marketing strategy, but, well, it’s damn accurate.

39)  June 14:American Whistleblowers: Daniel Ellsberg: For the 50th anniversaryof the Pentagon Papers, this post got Twitter engagement from none other thanEllsberg himself!

40)  June 28:Talking Of Thee I Sing: GCE Lab School: It’s been a great Spring of booktalks and conversations about my new book, and I’d love for you to check outthis whole series and then suggest some more such opportunities, please!

41)  July10-11: Pop Culture Workers: Another very fun post to plan and write,from John Sayles to Hustlers and a lot of work and works in between.

42)  July 20:Expanding Histories: United States v. Burr: I’ve long professed my love forBurr, so this was a tough but important look at the seedier sides of US historyto which he so fully connects.

43)  July26-August 1: AmericanStudiers to Highlight: Gonna cheat and make this wholeseries one highlight, as you should really check out all these great folks& voices (including Hettie Williams’ Guest Post on the weekend, natch)!

44)  August 2:AmericanStudies Websites: Steve Railton’s Trio: I couldsay the same about all the websites in this series; but I can’t help but singleout this filial focus.

Nextbirthday post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 16, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2019-2020

[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, 43 favorite posts from 2019-20 on the blog:

August 23:Cville Influences: Satyendra Huja: It was fun to learn more about andshare the story of a quietly pivotal figure from my Cville childhood.

September2: Academic Labor: Adjunctification: In place of my annual fall previewseries, for my sabbatical I wanted to think through the (now even more) crucialissues around academic labor, starting with the most fraught and fundamental suchissue.

September7-8: Academic Labor: Hire Jeff Reyne!: Sometimes the blog gets especiallypersonal, and this was one such example. I stand by every word!

September9: Slave Rebellions: The Stono Rebellion: This whole series was one of thosefrom which I learned a great deal through the research and writing, and thatwas doubly true of the South Carolina revolt that provided the anniversaryaround which the series centered.

September26: AmericanStudy a Banned Book: Heather Has Two Mommies: Some ofmy favorite posts are those on topics I literally had never thought about (atleast not in an analytical context) until the series called for it. This one ona ground-breaking 1989 children’s book fits that description to a T.

October 2:Recent Reads: There There: Let’s just say this post’s main point, aboutnecessary challenges to my critical optimism, has come to feel all tooprescient as 2020 has unfolded.

October21: The 1850 Women’s Rights Convention: Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis: I’m notsure how I went so long without knowing that the first national women’s rightsconvention was held in Worcester, but it was a lot of fun to learn about thatconvention and some of its pivotal figures.

October26-27: Ariella Archer’s Guest Post: My Scary Thoughts: The Evolution of ThreeHorror Genres: Guest Posts remain my favorite part of the blog, and Ariella’smade for perfect Halloween week reading!

November6: 9 Years of AmericanStudier: Sharing Your Voices: Speakingof, some anniversary week reflections on the best part of the blog (and how youcan add your voice to it!).

November16-17: Kent Rose’s Guest Post: How I Got to Nelson Algren: And theGuest Post trifecta concludes with singer-songwriter Kent Rose on an under-appreciatedAmerican novelist.

November23-24: Teaching Local Color: Between fall sabbatical and the clusterfuckthat was spring 2020, teaching has sure felt different over the last year—butit remains a key focus of my AmericanStudying, as of every aspect of my careerand life.

December11: 50s Musical Icons: Patti Page: Did you know that Page was the 50stop-charting and best-selling female artist? I didn’t until researching thisfun post.

December16: Book Talk Recaps: Temple Graduate English Program: My wholefall of We the People book talks waswonderful, but this return to my grad program was a special treat.

December20: Book Talk Recaps: The Boston Athenaeum: But just as special in its own waywas the chance to talk in this beautiful, historic space.

January 6:AmericanStudying Unbelievable: Sexual Assault: I’ve watched a ton of great TV overthe last year, but at the top of the list is this Netflix original police showthat’s also so much more.

January25-26: 21st Century Voices of Civil Rights: I lovedthe chance to highlight a handful of the many activists, writers, and scholarswho inspire my work every day.

January31: Sports and Politics: The Nationals at the White House: Ah,those halcyon days when a controversial appearance by the World Series champsseemed like big news.

February3: Immigration Laws: 19th Century Origins: Anotherof those whole series from which I learned a ton and which helped me continuethinking through a topic of central interest (to me and all of us).

February15-16: Fantasy Stories I Love: African Fantasy: Althoughmy spring semester didn’t go the way I hoped (to understate the case), it wasstill great to read and teach Kai Ashante Wilson’s Sorcerer of the Wildeeps as part of my larger engagement withAfrican and African American fantasy.

February22-23: Crowd-sourced Non-Favorites: Always one of my favorite posts ofthe year, and this year’s didn’t disappoint!

February24: Leap Years: 1816: I was 42 years old when I learned about theYear without a Summer, but, as with everything I write about on the blog,better late than never!

March 2:Boston Sites: The Freedom Trail: The series led to some interesting,ongoing conversations with both the various historic sites and my old friendNat Sheidley, now CEO of RevolutionarySpaces!

March 9:Last Week Recaps: SSN Boston and 2020 in Massachusetts: I had noidea the first week of March would be the last “normal” week of the year forme, but it was also a wonderfully full week for events, including this vitalpart of SSN Boston’s ongoing work.

March 18:StoweStudying: New England Local Color: I’ve strayed pretty far from myfirst book and my English PhD roots, but many of those subjects remain centralto my AmericanStudying nonetheless. This post offers a great example!

March 23:AmericanStudying the Deuce: Lori, Emily Meade, and Exploitation: Someposts practically write themselves, and that was the case with this explorationof one of my favorite TV characters and performances of the last few years.

April 4-5:Dolemite is … the Subject of This Post: Another wonderful character andperformance, and a lot of important cultural and American history to boot.

April 10:Poets We Should All Read: Robin Jewel Smith’s Suggestions: Myfavorite post in my National Poetry Month series was this group of contemporarypoetry suggestions from one of our most talented young poets!

April18-19: 21st Century Arab American Writers: Alongthose same lines, I ended my National Arab American Heritage Month series byhighlighting a handful of our many talented and vital contemporary authors.

April 22:Models of Critical Patriotism: “Eulogy on King Philip”:Critical patriotism is a central subject of my next book, and I know few betterexamples than William Apess’s stunning speech.

May 5:American Epidemics: Yellow Fever: My first series to address directlyour new 2020 realities, and a post on how such realities have influencedAmerica since our origins.

May 11:Spring 2020 Tributes: Lisa Gim and My English Studies Department: Ireplaced my annual Spring semester recaps with a series of heartfelt tributesto those who helped me get through this toughest semester of my career—nonemore heartfelt than this one.

May 16-17:Spring 2020 Reflections: And I ended that series with a few of my ownthoughts on teaching during COVID-19, which I hope might be useful for all ofus as we continue navigating those uncharted waters.

May 19:LibraryStudying: The Boston Public Library: Did you know that a Frenchventriloquist was a key factor in the development of the BPL? Me neither untilI researched this post!

June 4:MassMedia Studying: The March of Time and Newsreels: Theprominence and influence of early 20th century newsreels remainunder-appreciated, and I hope this post (like the new book I cite in it) mighthelp change that conversation.

June 12:Portsmouth Posts: The Black Heritage Trail: A rare locked-down road trip with mysons led me to this series on the many histories and stories around thePortsmouth (NH) waterfront.

June 22:BoschStudying: Harry: One of my most recent TV binges was Amazon’soriginal cop drama Bosch, whichinspired this series on the show’s five central characters.

July 4-5:Patriotism’s Contested Histories: Update on Of Thee I Sing!: A July4th series on the subject of my next book concludes with an updateon thatforthcoming project (now with a beautiful cover pictured above!).

July 6:Presidential Medals of Freedom: 1963 Recipients: It wasfun to look back through the 50+ year history of our highest civilian honor,starting with this post on some of the first recipients.

July 13:AmericanStudying Watchmen: Tulsa: When I finally got to watch HBO’s Watchmen, it more than led up to thehype, and it was fun to revisit the show for this week of posts.

July18-19: AmericanStudying Watchmen: Student Perspectives: Andespecially fun was the chance to share a few of my Spring 2020 Sci Fi/Fantasycourse’s many great student takes on the Watchmengraphic novel!

July 30:Great Movie Speeches: Jaws: I try to remain open to where historicanniversaries might take me—and the anniversary of the USS Indianapolis tragedy led me to this series on great moviespeeches, featuring Quint’s masterful monologue.

July 31:Great Movie Speeches: The American President: But also featuring one of theclearest and most inspiring statements of critical patriotism I’ve everencountered, President Andrew Shepherd’s riveting press conference speech.

August 5:Military Massacres: Balangiga: Chances are most of my readers haven’t heardof this Philippine American War massacre, which speaks to a large problem ofcollective memory that I hope posts like this can help address.

Nextbirthday post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 15, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2018-2019

[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 they are,42 favorite posts from 2018-19 on the blog:

1)     Cville aYear Later: I don’t imagine I’ll ever visit Cville without thinking about2017, but last year was particularly poignant, and I tried to capture some ofthose thoughts in this post.

2)     21stCentury Massacres and Hate Crimes: While I hope always to do justice tothe distinct histories on which many of my posts focus, I’ve becomeincreasingly insistent on connecting to our contemporary moment as well. I hopeI did so compellingly here.

3)     MassProtest Studying: The Whiskey Rebellion: Some of my favorite posts are thosewhere I know only the topic when I start, and have no idea where that topicmight take me. This was one of those!

4)     TinaPowell’s Guest Post on Refugee Literatures: Guest Posts remain one of myfavorite parts of the blog, and this was a particularly salient one.

5)     AmericanGay Studies: The Society for Human Rights: I could tell you that I already knewabout, indeed had heard of at all, America’s first, 1920s gay rightsorganization—but I’d never lie to you like that, fellow AmericanStudiers.

6)     AkeiaBenard’s Guest Post on the New Bedford Whaling Museum: It’sbeen awesome to watch my friend Akeia move into her role as the WhalingMuseum’s Curator of Social History, and it was just as awesome to get some ofher thoughts on that work here.

7)     Video GameStudying: Doom: This whole series was super fun to research and write, and thisparticular post brought me right back to late nights in my college dorm room.

8)     GhostStudying:Haunted Sites: Do I really need to sell a Halloween post on haunted historicsites around the US???

9)     MajorMidterms: 1874: Another post where I learned so much, and which really pushed meto rethink narratives of 1876 and the end of Federal Reconstruction.

10)  Finally, aBook Update!: On a professional level, the publication of my fifth andmost public book has been by far the best thing about thispast year. Still looking for any and all opportunities to talk about it thisfall!

11)  GettysburgStudying:Board Games: It’s always fun to revisit our childhoods and see what ouranalytical lenses can help us understand—and, yes, nostalgically nerd out abouthistorical board games.

12)  Pearl HarborHistories: The Varsity Victory Volunteers: The VVV are one of my favoritestories I learned for my book, and it was great to get to share a bit of thatstory here.

13)  RevolutionaryWritings: The Crisis: I love when my teaching informs my blog andvice versa, and both directions are part of this post on Tom Paine’s pamphlet.

14)  The Yearin Review: Electing America: Our current political climate continues tocause much despair, but figures like Veronica Escobar, Jahana Hayes, and DebHaaland give me reasons to hope.

15)  2019Anniversaries: President Grant: Nuance is hard, all the time anddoubly so in such a heated moment as ours. But I keep striving for it, as Ihope this post exemplifies.

16)  2019Predictions: I also strive more these days, as I said above, to connect thisblog to right now. Not sure yet whether I did so accurately here, but it wasfun to try!

17)  CubanAmerican Literature: I enjoyed writing this whole Cuban Americanseries, but engaging with three wonderful recent literary texts made for aparticularly fun endpoint.

18)  Crowd-sourcedAf Am Life Writing: It had been too long since I got to share acrowd-sourced post, and as always my fellow AmericanStudiers had a lot of greatresponses & ideas!

19)  Great(Sports) Debates: LeBron or Michael?: As my sons get older, conversationswith them make their way onto the blog a lot more often. This was one of thosetimes!

20)  ThePhilippine American War: War or Insurrection?: So many huge and crucial Americanhistories remain entirely unremembered in our collective memories. This 20-yearwar is certainly high on that list.

21)  Movies ILove: The Opposite of Sex and You Can Count on Me: Is myannual Valentine’s series an excuse to write analytical love letters tofavorite things of mine? Well, duh!

22)  Crowd-sourcedNon-Favorites: I don’t imagine my annual crowd-sourced Airing of Grievancesneeds any further introduction.

23)  The SalemWitch Trials: Tituba: Inclusive American histories don’t just highlightfigures and stories we need to remember—they open up so many vital contexts forunderstanding all of us, past and present.

24)  Rememberingthe Alamo: A Mexican Memoir: Another one of those texts and voices Imight never have learned about if it weren’t for a blog series.

25)  IrishAmerican Literature: I know, I’m always adding more compellingtexts to the Must Read list. #SorryNotSorry!

26)  YA Series:The Chronicles of Prydain, Revisited: One of my favorite personal threadsfrom the past year has been watching my older son get into fantasy series Iloved as a kid. That started here, with the wonderful Lloyd Alexander!

27)  NeMLA 2019Recaps: Homi Bhabha: Thanks to the great ClaireSommers, NeMLA 2019 featured this stunning keynote address. Read allabout it, then submit anabstract to join us at NeMLA 2020 in Boston!

28)  80sComedies: Airplane!: Not to get all Talking Heads on ya, but youmay find yourself writing about Airplane!on your public scholarly blog, and you may ask yourself, how awesome is that??

29)  StatueStudying:Christ of the Ozarks: I’m sure plenty of folks already know thatthere’s a 65.5 foot tall statue of Jesus in Arkansas. But I sure didn’t!

30)  Patriots’Day Texts: “This Land”: If you think I would miss any opportunity tobeg you to check out Gary Clark Jr.’s song and video if you haven’t yet, well,you’d be mistaken.

31)  Earth DayStudying: Animated Activisms: Not gonna lie, writing about Captain Planet and FernGully brought.me.back.

32)  RodneyKing in Context: Rodney King: There are lots of reasons to revisithistorical moments like the Rodney King riots, but doing more justice to thehuman figures at their center is very high on the list.

33)  TravelWriting: Sarah Kemble Knight: I’m not sure anyone who doesn’t take anAmerican Lit survey class (or read the NortonAnthology for fun) is likely to encounter Knight’s travel narrative. That’sa shame and one I tried to remedy here.

34)  AsAmerican as Blue Jeans: Jean Jackets: This was another unexpected and funseries overall, but any post that features both The Boss and Miley Cyrus isgonna show up in the Birthday Bests.

35)  JewishAmerican Journeys: Philip Roth and Sarah Silverman: Bloggingallows me to experiment with ideas, and connections, I might otherwise neverthink about. I think it yielded some interesting analyses here!

36)  JewishAmerican Journeys: Michael Hoberman’s Books: Blogging also allows me to paytribute to wonderful colleagues and scholars like Michael!

37)  AmericanStudiesBeach Reads: Ian Williams’s Reproduction: This whole series was a lot of funas always, but it was especially cool to learn more about my friend Ian’s debutnovel!

38)  21stCentury Lit: Jericho Brown: I wrote about Brown’s inspiring Twitter pagein this post, then he Retweeted my Tweet about the post and a ton more peopleget into the conversation. If that ain’t the best of 21C lit—well, it is, sothere.

39)  AlienAmerica: Brother from Another Planet: Everybody should see John Sayles’s1984 sci fi dramedy. I could say that about every Sayles film, but in this postI said it about that one!

40)  JeffRenye’s on The X-Files: My latest and one of my favorite Guest Postsfrom one of my favorite people!

41)  21stCentury American Anthems: It was fun to think about which recent songs(and one recent poem) would work well as new anthems. What would you nominate?

42)  RememberingMarilyn Monroe: Her American Origins: I learned a ton about Monroe in thecourse of researching and writing this series, one more reminder that this bloghas meant a great deal to my own continued growth, day in and day out!

Next birthdaypost tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 14, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2017-2018

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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, 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 legendary athletestands 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 thislist!

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 that embodiesboth the worst and best of America, the exclusionary yet inclusive sides onwhich 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 13, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2016-2017

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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, 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 The ChocolateWar.

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)  The Pulitzersat 100: Angle of Repose: I’d been looking for a chance to write aboutWallace Stegner’s moving novel for a while now. It was nice to finally 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 12, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2015-2016

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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, 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, first casualtyof the Revolution? Well, so did I until I researched and wrote this post.

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)   

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 11, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2014-2015

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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!]

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 this highlyinfluential 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: Three evocativestages of a unique Massachusetts landmark.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 10, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2013-2014

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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!]

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 sides toa New England river, part of a series on histories from this beautiful WesternMass. 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 of slaveryconcludes 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-review series,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, I highlightedinteresting Virginia authors, including the question of whether and why weshould read this once-popular writer at all.

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 9, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2012-2013

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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!]

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 in the year to come (and I nowhave at least 20 talks definitely coming up!).

Nextbirthday best post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 8, 2023: Birthday Bests: 2011-2012

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates 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!]

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

June 2-3: Rememberingor Commemorating War: Michael Kammen, Kurt Vonnegut and ClintEastwood, and big American questions—if that’s not American Studying, what is?

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

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!

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.

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!