Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 8

August 26, 2025: Alien Nation: E.T. and Aliens

[30 yearsago this week, the pseudo-documentaryfilm Alien Autopsy aired. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that momentand others that reflect our enduring fascination with the possibility of alienlife, leading up to a post on recent revelations!]

Onfriendly and hostile extraterrestrials, and the real bad guys in any case.

In theshape of his head, E.T. (star of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film of thesame name) looks a tiny bit like a distant cousin of the mother alien (the “bitch,” that is)from James Cameron’sAliens (1986).But that slight comparison is about the only possible way in which these twosummer blockbusters aren’t wholly distinct from one another. E.T. is perhaps Spielberg’s mostkid-centered film, from its youthful protagonists to its product placements forReese’s Pieces and thegood ol’ Speak andSpell, its drunken slapstick to its underlying theme of growing up in asingle-parent household. While Alienshas to be one of the most adult, hard-R-rated summer blockbusters ever,featuring one nightmare-inducing,graphically violent and horrifying sequence and image after thenext (to say nothing of the Space Marines’ extremelysalty repartee).

E.T. and Aliens aren’t just at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comesto their ratings and intended audiences, however. They also embody two entirelydifferent perspectives on the question not of whether there is lifeother than our own in the universe (both films agree that there is), but ofwhat attitude toward Earth and humanity those extraterrestials might hold. Thesummer blockbuster Independence Day (1994),about which I bloggedhere, explicitly engages with these contrasting perspectives,featuring a number of characters who believe the aliensmight come in peace before their true, hostile intentions arerevealed. Because of its status as a sequel to a film in which the alien creaturecould not be more hostile and destructive to humans, Aliens can dispense with the debate and move immediately into thestory of how its human characters will combat the extraterrestrial threats. Andby tying his extraterrestrial’s first entrance into the film to the creature’slove of Reese’s Pieces, Spielberg similarly signals from the start that hisalien will be friendlyto—indeed, overtly parallel to—his young protagonist Elliot.

E.T. isn’t without antagonists, though—butthey’re of the human variety, the community of threatening scientists andgovernment officials who seek to capture and (if necessary) kill E.T. to learnhis secrets (and who in the original film carryguns, not walkie talkies, in that pursuit). And in that sense, E.T. and Aliens aren’t quite as far apart as they might seem—because in thelatter film’s major reveal (SPOILER alert), it turns out that Paul Reiser’s corporate scientist CarterBurke is far more overt of a villain than the aliens, who are after all onlyfighting for their own survival (rather than driven by greed and manipulation,and a willingness to sacrifice anyone who gets in their way, as Burke and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation for whichhe works are revealed to be). If there’s one thing on which such disparatesummer blockbusters can apparently agree, it’s that the powers that be—whethercorporate or governmental—represent a far greater threat, to humans andextraterrestrials alike, than any alien invaders.

Next alienstomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 25, 2025: Alien Nation: Roswell

[30 yearsago this week, the pseudo-documentaryfilm Alien Autopsy aired. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that momentand others that reflect our enduring fascination with the possibility of alienlife, leading up to a post on recent revelations!]

On thelongstanding, contemporary, and problematic sides to an otherworldly theory.

Despitespending his whole life in Europe (nearly all of it in his native France),pioneering authorJules Verne seems to have understood quite well a longstanding Americantendency: our obsession with space, and our ability to use that alien world asan escape when things are especially difficult or fearful here at home. Verneset his groundbreaking science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865)and its sequel Around the Moon (1870) in a post-Civil War America, one inwhich the adventurers of the Baltimore Gun Club hope to create a vehicle thatcan take them away from this troubled place and toward that extraterrestrialbody. 150 years later, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s groundbreaking sciencefiction film Interstellar (2014)represents the latest version of this trend, using space travel and thepossibilities of escape to other worlds as an alternative to climate change andinevitable destruction here on Earth.

Nohistorical moment better encapsulated this trend than the first decades of theCold War. There’s a reason why PresidentJohn F. Kennedy emphasized in a 1962 speech a successful American journey tothe moon as a central goal for the decade—while that ambition was partlybased on the practical fears of Soviet space domination inspired by Sputnik and the Space Race, I wouldargue that it also gave the nation yet another way to focus on the heavens asan escape from such terrestrial fears and concerns. Fifteen years prior toKennedy’s speech, in the first years of the Cold War, a routine incident—thecrash of an Air Forcesurveillance balloon near Roswell, New Mexico—had produced an even more elaborateescapist space fantasy, the suspicions and stories of a covered-up alienlanding that would become one of the nation’s most extendedand enduring conspiracy theories. From TV shows like the X-Files and Roswell(1999-2002) to a central sequence in the film IndependenceDay (1996), the Roswell theory has become a staple of Americanpopular culture, a shorthand for both the belief in extraterrestrials and thisbroader fascination with the mysteries of space.

Thatfascination seems silly and harmless at its worst, and (as with the verysuccessful culmination of Kennedy’s and NASA’s 60s goals)productive and meaningful at its best. But NASA’s successes notwithstanding, Iwould argue that there is a more problematic side to the escapist spacefantasies exemplified by the Roswell theory (besides the suspiciousanti-government rhetoric it can engender and amplify, which is arecurring theme across many conspiracy theories). As he has done so often, DonHenley nicely summed up my thoughts on the matter, in the song “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming” from hisalbum Inside Job (2000). Henley notesthat such theories of alien encounters “carry our highest hopes and our darkestfears,” but recognizes them for the escapist fantasies that they are: “Now youlong to be delivered from this world of pain and strife/That’s a sorry substitutionfor a spiritual life.” That last line is a bit more preachy than I would like,but I would agree with Henley’s concluding recommendation for what we must doinstead, now more than ever: “Turn your hopes back homeward/Hold your children,dry their tears.”

Next alienstomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 23-24, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Kyle’s Plans

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ve shared a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to thisspecial post on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

As thispost drops, we will likely be moving Kyle into his first-year dorm at the Universityof Michigan (the exact move-in timing will vary a bit, but you get the idea!).One of my very favorite things ever was just how much my older son Aidan’sfirst year at Vanderbilt took me by surprise, featuring so many moments andexperiences that I never could have predicted. I hope and believe that the samewill be true for Kyle, so I don’t want to spend too much time here in theprediction business; but here are three quick things I’m excited fornonetheless:

1)     Pre-law:Kyle’s professional future is of course entirely up in the air, and he’ll be hugelysuccessful at whatever he eventually figures out. But I can’t lie, I’ve beenimagining my passionately argumentative younger son as a lawyer for a longtime, and I’m excited to see how he finds the worlds of both Political Science(his incoming Major) and Pre-Law (the advising track he’s starting on). You knowI’ll keep y’all posted!

2)     Football: I included football in this week’sseries not only because it’s been such a defining part of Michigan sports and culturefor 150 years, but also because one of the most surprising and best elements ofAidan’s first year was his connection to the Vanderbilt community through theirsports successes. Everyone at Michigan talks about the first time they entered “TheBig House” with 110,000 of their closest friends, and you best believe I’mstoked to hear about Kyle’s first such experience!

3)     Community: That’s one definite way he’ll startto find and build community at Michigan. But I’m even more excited for the waysI can’t predict or even imagine yet. Last summer, Kyle took part in an ACLUsummer institute in DC, and he ended up forming a boy band with fellow attendees—thecalled themselves The Bamboo Boys and performed an incredible a cappellarendition of “I Want It That Way” for their fellow students. Whatever the futureholds for Kyle, I hope it includes many more such communal connections!

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Advice you’d give Kyle as he starts his Michigan journey?

August 22, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Uncle Peter

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ll share a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to a specialpost on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

I couldn’tdedicate a weeklong series to the University of Michigan without highlightingmy other favorite member of its community, my uncle PeterRailton. Peter is just 15 months younger than his oldest brother, my late DadSteve Railton (they also have two younger siblings, my uncle Mark and auntJanet), and so for me he will always be first and foremost a wonderful reminderof so much of what I love about my Dad as well. But Peter is also one of our most important philosophers,not only academically but also in our public conversations—never more so thanin his justifiably famous 2015 DeweyLecture on his lifelong struggle with depression. I’m honored to call himmy uncle, and very excited that Kyle will be joining him in the Michigancommunity!

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 21, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Famous Alums

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ll share a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to a specialpost on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

Inalphabetical order, here are five particularly notable entries among theuniversity’s countless famousalumni:

1)     Clarence Darrow:As that article notes, Darrow didn’t complete his degree from the law school,as he was apparently already ready after just one year (1877-78) to pass thebar and get to work. But even a one-year association with the early 20thcentury’s mostfamous and influentiallawyer is worth highlighting, I’d say.

2)     GeraldFord (class of 1934): Considering how many presidents attendedIvy League institutions (spoiler: a whole lot of them), it’s pretty coolfor one of the nation’s oldest public universities to call a president an alum.But it’s even cooler that he was also a football star there, named the team’sMVP in hissenior season during which he started at the crucial position of center inevery game.

3)     Tom Hayden(class of 1961): At the other end of the political spectrum in the 1960s and70s was TomHayden, who co-founded Studentsfor a Democratic Society (SDS) while a student at Michigan, authored thehugely influential PortHuron Statement that served as a manifesto for the student activistmovement around the country, and went on to marryJane Fonda (!) among many other achievements (yes, I called that anachievement).

4)     DorothyMcFadden Hoover: Like Darrow, Dorothy McFadden Hoover started but didn’t finisha graduate degree program at Michigan (in her case, a PhD in Physics). But thatwas because she was hired by the U.S. Weather Bureau for a hugely important positionin the groundbreaking Joint NumericalWeather Prediction unit, one of countless striking moments the life andcareer of a woman who was born the granddaughter of enslaved people and went onto serve as one of NASA’s“human computers” and to become the first Black woman to achieve the rankof Aeronautical Research Scientist.

5)     Jesmyn Ward(MFA class of 2005): I’ve written aboutJesmyn Ward, one of my couple favorite 21stcentury American authors, multipletimes in this space, but I didn’t realize she was a Michigan alum (from itsgraduate MFA program) until researching this post. We all know who my favoritealum is always gonna be, but Ward definitely occupies the coveted #2 spot!

LastMichiganStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 20, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Football

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ll share a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to a specialpost on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

Threemoments that help chart the rise of a perennial pigskin powerhouse.

1)     Pond’s score: One of the many innovations ofPresident Angell (for much more on whom see yesterday’s post) was to bring footballto the university, and in May 1879 the team played its firstintercollegiate game, against Wisconsin’s Racine College. Hosted at Chicago’sWhite Stocking Park, the groundbreaking contest was, accordingto the Chicago Tribune, “the first rugby-football game to be playedwest of the Alleghenies.” Civil engineering major and future architect IrvingKane Pond scored the team’s firsttouchdown (and the game’s only one, as Michigan triumphed 1-0) on a longrunning play, and the crowd—already die-hards, it seems—responded with cheersof “PondForever.”

2)     Birthing a rivalry: As that Tribunequote indicates, Michigan was instrumental in extending this new collegiate(and buddingprofessional) sport beyond its Northeasternorigins, and it likewise helped spread the sport to other colleges in thearea. Perhaps the most striking such moment took place in 1887: traveling toanother game in Chicago (this one apparently against a high school team—the pickingsremained pretty slim in the 1880s), the Michigan team made a stop in SouthBend, Indiana, and introducedfootball to students at the University of Notre Dame. Apparently theylearned fast, as in November of that same year Michigan played itsfirst game against the Fighting Irish (winning 8-0, natch), inauguratingone of the sport’s oldest and most fierce rivalries.

3)     A happy hire: In 1899 Michigan football went8-2, and in 1900 they were 7-2-1; those might seem like perfectly acceptablerecords, but only if you didn’t know Michigan fans. After the 1900 season, theuniversity’s first athleticdirector Charles Baird wrote to one of the nation’s most famous youngcoaches, Fielding Yost, notingthat “Our people are greatly roused up over the defeats of the past twoyears” and offering Yost (then the head coach at Stanford) a job. Fortunatelyfor Michigan, Yost accepted, and the results speak for themselves: by the1902 season Michigan was outscoring its opponents 644-12 en route to an 11-0record, and the NewYork Times would write of one ofits victories (a 128-0 trouncing of the University of Buffalo) that it was “oneof the most remarkable ever made in the history of football in the importantcolleges.” Let’s just say that the fans haven’t been satisfied with much lessever since.

NextMichiganStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 19, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Three Presidents

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ll share a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to a specialpost on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

On takeawaysfrom the tenures of the three 19th century university presidents.

1)     Henry Philip Tappan(pres from 1852-1863): Although there had technically been universitypresidents since the 1817 founding (as I discussed in yesterday’s post), until 1851the university was under control of the territorial/state legislature and sothose leaders had very little actual power. But anApril 1851 act gave the university independence and established a presidentialposition selected by the regents, and the first such independent president wasthe philosopher and educational innovator Henry PhilipTappan. Known as “Johnthe Baptist of the age of the American university,” Tappan took a hugenumber of influential actions during his decade as president, from establishinga law school to constructing anobservatory, adding BS degrees to organizing aGlee Club and student newspaper. As the first hyperlinked article aboveillustrates, he was also divisive due to his lack of overt religion, which eventuallyled to his forced resignation in 1863; but by that time every aspect of the universitybore his imprint.

2)     ErastusOtis Haven (pres from 1863-1869): The university’s second independentpresident had followed a very winding path before assuming that role: Erastus OtisHaven had been a seminary principal and Methodist minister before servingas a professor and chair of Latin and English at Michigan in the early 1850s;in 1856 he left the university and moved to Massachusetts, where he edited the MethodistnewspaperZion’s Herald, served in the State Senate, and worked as HarvardUniversity overseer; but when Tappan resigned he was coaxed back to becomeMichigan’s . The ongoing Civil War and other challenges led to significantfunding difficulties at the state level, however, and Haven only served for ahalf-dozen years before he resigned in 1869 to become presidentof Northwestern, a private Methodist university. The fate of thisgroundbreaking public institution seemed at that moment very uncertain.

3)     James Burrill Angell(pres from 1871-1909): Enter then-University of Vermont President and longtimeeducator, reformer, and diplomat JamesBurrill Angell. While Angell would positively affect every aspect of theuniversity during his nearly four decades as president, nowhere was hisinfluence more clear and important than in its international presence. Thatmeant much more than just the university’s standing and reputation (although hischanges affected those to be sure): appointed Minister toChina in 1880, Angell helped bring a number of Chinese students to theuniversity; named EnvoyExtraordinary to Turkey in 1897, he built a relationship with that nation;and so on. Even those nations with which he did not have a direct diplomaticconnection became connected to the university during Angell’s tenure, such asthe 80Japanese students who came to study law around the turn of the century. Angellretired in 1909 but lived his remaining seven years in the President’s House, atestament to this most influential University of Michigan President.

NextMichiganStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 18, 2025: University of Michigan Studying: Founding Histories

[Laterthis week, we’ll be moving my youngerson Kyle into his first-year dorm at Michigan. So this week, through proudDad tears, I’ll share a handful of UMichigan contexts, leading up to a specialpost on some of Kyle’s plans there!]

Threeinteresting and telling moments in the early history of a groundbreaking publicuniversity.

1)     A Crucial Conversation: The oldest institutionof higher ed in Michigan was the brainchild of a number of early 19thcentury figures, including the territory’s acting governor William Woodbridge,but at the top of the list was AugustusBrevoort Woodward, an emigrant from New York who had become the first ChiefJustice of the Michigan Territory. Woodward believed that knowledge could becategorized and thus taught more easily to others, and in 1814 he exchangedcorrespondence with afamous friend who had a similar perspective (and in-development plans for hisown public university): former President Thomas Jefferson. As a result of boththat conversation and his own evolving perspective, Woodward coined a new term,Catholepistemiad, a blend of Greek and Latin words by which he meant “Schoolof Universal Knowledge.”

2)     An 1817 Act: His role as Chief Justice meantthat Woodward could put that idea into legislative action, and in late August 1817 hedid so, crafting a territorial act that formally created the University ofMichigania, featuring thirteen distinct professorships (what he calleddidaxiim) that embodied Woodward’s goal of universal knowledge. The law alsonamed the university’s first president (the Methodist minister, abolitionist,and educator JohnMonteith) and vice president (the French Catholic priest and educationalpioneer Gabriel Richard),a pairing that nicely connected this new institution to key communities in theterritory. In late September 1817 the cornerstone for the first buildingwas laid, at the intersection of Detroit’s Bates and Congress Streets, and lessthan a year later the university was in operation.

3)     A Distinct Campus: For twenty years theUniversity of Michigan was located in Detroit, but by the 1830s it wasstruggling to survive. So when Michigan Territory was admittedto the union as a state in January 1837, the time was ripe for a change,and fortunately one was very much in the offing: the small but growing town of Ann Arbor(located about forty miles west of Detroit) had proposed that the universityrelocate, and the university’s regents met and acceptedthe invitation. The move allowed the university to develop a much moredistinct and comprehensive campus than had been possible in the bigger city,and to reinforce that goal, the talented and innovative young architect AlexanderJackson Davis drafted a plan to build a number of buildings in his GothicRevival style. In 1841, the University of Michigan opened its first Ann Arborbuilding, MasonHall, and the rest is history.

NextMichiganStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?

August 17, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2024-2025

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 48th 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 48 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, 48 favorite posts from my 15th year (!) of AmericanStudying:

1)     August 19:NashvilleStudying: Three Origin Points: A son at Vanderbilt gave me theopportunity to learn a lot more about his new home city, starting with thispost.

2)     August 30:American Catholics: Carlo Acutis: I couldn’t resist ending a series onAmerican Catholics with this nominee for sainthood who “became very angry whenhe encountered young people who trod on lizards.”

3)     September6: Fall Semester Previews: Aidan at Vanderbilt!: If youthought I’d resist including any and every post featuring my sons in thisbirthday list, well, hi, I’m Ben.

4)     September12: Classic TV Studying: Lassie: I learned a lot about the classiccanine for this post, including the batshit crazy details in the third section(seriously, check ‘em out!).

5)     September18: Summer Reads: The Cold Millions: Sharing my summer pleasure reads wasalmost as much fun as reading ‘em, including Jess Walter’s powerful historicalnovel.

6)     September27: MrBeast and 21st Century Folk Heroes: Like alot of my blog posts over the last year+, this one, concluding a series on folkfigures from American history and culture, was directly inspired byconversations with my wife!

7)     October 1:19th Century Baseball: Henry Chadwick: It wasreally fun to complement my new podcast with a series on 19thcentury baseball, including this pioneering figure.

8)     October5-6: My New Podcast!: And here’s a post on that podcast inprogress (at that point), which is now complete and you can check out here!

9)     October12-13: Contested Holidays: Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day: I reallylike when the blog can reflect how my ideas have evolved, which we can seeclearly in the comparison of this post to the 2015 Talking Points Memo column Icite.

10)  October19-20: An AmericanStudier Tribute to the Phone: Not themost analytical post in my series on famous phone calls in American history andculture, but a very heartfelt one!

11)  October26-27: A PrisonStudying Reading List: I always enjoy the chance tohighlight the work of fellow AmericanStudiers, as I did in this conclusion to aPrisonStudying series.

12)  November1: The Politics of Horror: Recent Films: Not my favorite HorrorStudyingseries of the year (that would be the Sinners series in July), but a funHalloween series that concluded with these recent additions to the pantheon.

13)  November9-10: 2024 Election Reflections: I really didn’t want to write thispost, any more than I wanted to wake up on Wednesday November 6th.But la lucha continua, my friends.

14)  November11: AmericanStudies’ 14th Anniversary!: Foregrounding Favorites: I couldreally highlight any post from my anniversary series, and hope you’ll checkthem all out!

15)  November25: Podcast Thanks: A Serendipitous Conversation: Dittofor this series on my gratitude to lots of folks for helping make my firstpodcast happen.

16)  December7-8: McCarthy’s America: 21st Century Echoes: Idrafted this post before the election, and it aired well before Trump 2.0began, but let’s just say it hasn’t become less relevant in the months since.

17)  December9: Hawaiian Histories: Three Shifts: I love how much I still learn fromresearching and writing this blog. A major case in point here!

18)  December25: 2024 in Review: The Celtics: The 2025 Playoffs didn’t go nearlyas well for the Celtics, and next season looks precarious to boot. Which makesit that much more important to lean into and reflect on the best that sportscan give us, together.

19)  December30: 2025 Anniversaries: King Philip’s War: 2025 has been a big year forhistoric anniversaries, but I stand by my argument that we need to rememberthis moment and figure at least as well as we do the Revolution’s.

20)  January 6:Great Society Laws: Civil and Voting Rights: There’s no way I could haveimagined, when I drafted and published this series on the Great Society’s 60thanniversary, how fully every one of these laws would be under assault in 2025.Makes it that much more important to AmericanStudy them!

21)  January18-19: Spring Semester Previews: My Scholarly Work and You: I’dstill love y’all’s input on what’s next for me, including a second season of mypodcast and more.

22)  January22: Misread Quotes: The Constitution: Am I suggesting we need a refreshercourse in the Constitution here in 2025? Yes, yes I am.

23)  January30: Musical Activism: Artists United Against Apartheid: If youhad “Fighting against South African white supremacy” on your “Becomes RelevantAgain in 2025” Bingo Card, congrats to you, and sorry to all of us.

24)  February8-9: Inspiring Sports Stories: Aidan and Kyle Railton: What didI say about any and every chance to share posts highlighting the boys?!

25)  February15-16: One More Love Letter to the Big Easy: Following up my wife and my Januarytrip to New Orleans with this series was a very fun way to reflect on both thevisit and my favorite American city.

26)  February17: Places I Love and Hate: Cville: It’s impossible to separate our bestfrom our worst here in 2025, so this year’s post-Valentine’s non-favoritesseries felt very apt.

27)  February28: AlaskaStudying: McKinley or Denali?: What’s in a name? A lot, as thispost hopefully helps us recognize and analyze.

28)  Marcy 7:Hockey Histories: Team Trans: There’s a lot of noise about trans athletesthese days, most of it deeply misinformed. Here’s a chance to be betterinformed about an actual community of trans athletes.

29)  March15-16: Reflections of a College Dad: You knew I had to end a Spring Breakseries with some thoughts on my first year as a College Dad!

30)  March 21:ScopesStudying: “Part Man, Part Monkey”: I already loved this post on mywife’s favorite Bruce song, and then a student used it to put me and Bruce inconversation as part of their first-year writing research analysis paper!

31)  March 28:Patriotic Speeches: Alexander Vindman: When I shared this post on Bluesky,Vindman read and responded thoughtfully and gratefully, which was definitely apublic scholarly highlight of the year for me.

32)  April 1:Foolish Texts: “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: Writing about a British rock anthemin an AmericanStudies blog series is exactly the kind of thing that helps keepthis blog fresh, at least for me (and hopefully for y’all too!).

33)  April 10:A Great Gatsby Centennial: Gatsby’s American Dreams: I reallyenjoyed revisiting Fitzgerald’s novel for its 100th anniversary,including this post on its most famous themes.

34)  April 14:Kyle Contexts: Younger Siblings: You know I could have included thiswhole series inspired by my younger son’s 18th birthday, and I hopeyou’ll read them all in tribute to my awesome not-so-young man!

35)  April26-27: EarthquakeStudying: Charles Richter: Look, I could try to tell you thecrazy places this post on Mr. Earthquakes goes, but you really gotta read itfor yourself.

36)  May 1:Ending the Vietnam War: “Galveston Bay”: I will never pass up a chance towrite about one of my favorite, and definitely one of the most underrated,Bruce songs!

37)  May 10-11:A Works Progress Administration for the 21st Century: Is itcrazy to argue for a new WPA, here on its 90th anniversary andamidst unprecedented attacks on federal workers and the federal government(from within)? Then call me crazy, ‘cause I did it.

38)  May 16:Spring Semester Reflections: Student Tributes to Dad: Idedicated my whole Spring reflections series to my late Dad, and especiallyloved the chance to share these tributes from former students of his.

39)  May 20:Malcolm X’s 100th: An Opera: Did you know that three AfricanAmerican brothers collaborated on a Malcolm X opera in the 1980s? Me neitheruntil I researched and wrote this post!

40)  June2: GraduationStudying: George Moses Horton’s Poem: I really enjoyed planningand writing every post in this special series for my younger son’s high schoolgraduation, but this poem by one of our most inspiring literary figures wasespecially fun to examine.

41)  June11: Revolutionary War Figures: The “Black Regiment”: Speaking of AfricanAmerican figures and histories, I didn’t know about this Revolutionary War unituntil I highlighted them for a series inspired by the Continental Army’sanniversary.

42)  June27: Sound in Film: Meaningful Music: Any chance I get to highlight theamazing Film- and AmericanStudies work of Vaughn Joy, I’m going to take it!

43)  July5-6: Keeping the Critical Patriotic Conversations Going!: I’d really lovethe chance to talk with any and all audiences about my most recent book and thecontested history of American patriotism, and y’all can help make that happen!

44)  July11: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Women Who Rock: This whole series on early rock ‘nrollers was a lot of fun, but I was really glad to have the chance to highlightnot only these rocking women, but the equally badass women who wrote aboutthem.

45)  July15: AmericanStudying Sinners: Hoodoo: Sinners is our favorite filmwe’ve seen this year, and this whole weeklong series made me love it even more.

46)  July23: The U.S. Postal System: Stamps: So many great trivia answers in thispost on a small but crucial aspect of the USPS on the service’s 250thbirthday.

47)  July26-27: A Tribute to the U.S. Postal Service: Will that vital federalresource endure this catastrophic administration? I made the case here for whyit should and must.

48)  July31: Echoes of Bad Presidents: Andrew Johnson: And speaking of thiscatastrophic administration, my series on how our worst presidents echo in thismoment featured this post on our very worst on the 100th anniversaryof his passing.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!

August 16, 2025: Birthday Bests: 2023-2024

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 48th 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 a new post with 48 favorites from thelast year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hiand 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, 47 favorite posts from my 14th year of AmericanStudying:

1)     August 28:Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1941 Origins: I lovefinding and sharing forgotten sides to familiar histories, and this wholeanniversary series qualified.

2)     September8: Fall Semester Previews: Departmental Program Review: Beingpart of Program Reviews is one of the hardest but most rewarding elements of myjob, and I highlighted this year’s in one of my Fall preview posts.

3)     September15: AmericanStudying The Rising: “My City of Ruins” and “Superman (It’s NotEasy)”: I love revisiting one of my favorite Springsteen albums,building to this particularly complex post.

4)     September23-24: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections: Historydoesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.

5)     October 4:LGBT Histories: 1950s Discriminations: Finding light in our darkesthistories is an incredibly difficult but important goal, and I hope I modeledit here.

6)     October11: Vice President Studying: Henry Wilson’s Book: We’vethought a lot about VPs recently; I’m a big Walz fan, but I don’t think anywill ever equal what Henry Wilson did in the same year he was nominated.

7)     October19: Basketball Stories: The Harlem Globetrotters: I don’tgenerally link to my Saturday Evening Post Considering History columnshere, but I’m always glad when it makes sense to share that other onlinewriting!

8)     October23: New Scholarly Books: A Seat at the Table: Every book in this series is wellworth your time, but I was especially glad to share this one co-edited by myfrequent Guest Poster Hettie Williams.

9)     November3: Contested Elections: 2000: There are lots of origin points for our ownmoment, but none looms larger than the 2000 election.

10)  November11-12: Kyle Lockwood’s Guest Post: Exploration and the Human Spirit: I’llalways include Guest Posts in these recaps, but doubly so when they’re from FSUstudents!

11)  November14: AmericanStudying the Blues: Robert Johnson: Quitesimply one of my favorite posts of the year.

12)  November18-19: Sandra Hamilton’s Guest Post on the Blues in American Culture: My cuprunneth over with Guest Posts from FSU students this month!

13)  November20: Thankful for Scholarly Communities: Fitchburg State: Speakingof the community at which I’ll be starting my 20th year inSeptember.

14)  November25-26: My Biggest Thanks-giving: But no community is more meaningfulthan the intimate one my sons and I have built for the last 18.5 years.

15)  December1: Gun Control Histories: Jim Jefferies: Getting to write about favoritetexts is a perk of this gig, and Jim Jefferies’ stand-up special is a greatexample.

16)  December9-10: Crowd-sourced Board Game Studying: I don’t get to share as manyCrowd-sourced Posts as I used to, but I always love the chance!

17)  December14: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Peggy Stewart: Did youknow there was a second Tea Party in October 1774? Me neither!

18)  December16-17: A Tribute to BostonStudiers: Really enjoyed paying tribute to ahandful of the many folks from whom I’ve learned about my home city.

19)  December23-24: Hamza Suleiman’s Guest Post on Mohja Kahf: Myfriend Robin Field has shared a great deal of student work for Guest Posts,with this as the latest example.

20)  December29: Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol: Another favorite text, and thusanother extremely fun blog post.

21)  January 2:2024 Anniversaries: The First Continental Congress in 1774: I learnso much from my New Year’s anniversary series, including this one on forgotten1774 delegates.

22)  January12: AmericanStudying Columbia Pictures: Matt Helm and Casino Royale: ColumbiaStudios missing out on James Bond led to some very interesting creativechoices.

23)  January13-14: Vaughn Joy’s Hollywood Histories: Loved the chance to pay tribute toone of our very best up-and-coming Film and AmericanStudiers.

24)  January20-21: Ava DePasquale’s Guest Post on Grey Dog: And toshare a third FSU student Guest Post!

25)  January26: AmericanStudying Groundbreaking Women: Shirley Chisholm: I had noidea Kamala would be our nominee when I included this post on Chisholm’scampaigns, but I love the connection.

26)  January29: Quirky American Traditions: Pumpkin Chunkin:Sometimes it’s just fun to research and write these posts.

27)  February10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch!: Mycurrent project has evolved into a podcast (for more on which watch thisspace), but we can all agree it would also work great as a sports film, no?

28)  February17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics: Love wasin the air for me all year, and on the blog this week in particular.

29)  February24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives: Everybody can stand to learn moreabout our history, including politicians I support.

30)  March 7:National Park Studying: Mesa Verde: Some childhood moments really defineour interests and lives. This was one of mine.

31)  March 13:NeMLA Reflections: My Panel on Nostalgia & the 50s: I’ve hadso many great experiences at NeMLA conferences, but this was at the top of thelist.

32)  March 20:American Magic: Orson Welles: One of the most surprising posts I’ve everhad the chance to share.

33)  March 25:What is Game Show Studying?: 30s and 40s Origins: Anotherone for which I learned so much, and from which I hope you will too.

34)  April 6-7:Emily Lauer on Comics Analysis & Editing as Public-Facing Scholarship: Anothergreat post from my most frequent Guest Poster.

35)  April 11:I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Two 1967 Classics: Hasthere ever been a better pair of films from one actor in the same year?

36)  April20-21: Mythic Patriotisms in 2024: Nothing is more central to thisyear’s presidential campaign than debates over patriotism, a subject on which Iknow a little bit.

37)  April 26:Climate Culture: Climate Songs: Really loved the chance to highlightMidnight Oil’s last album among other great climate music.

38)  May 11-12:Beach Blogging: Guest Posts from Elsa Devienne and Jamie Hirami: Don’tthink I had ever featured two Guest Posts in the same post before!

39)  May 17:Spring 2024 Stand-Outs: Special Guests!: My three favorite people visited myclasses this Spring!

40)  May 21:Criminal Duos: Leopold & Loeb: Historic anniversaries have drivenmuch of this blog for its last decade, and this was a particularly interestingone to investigate.

41)  June 4:The Indian Citizenship Act: Joseph K. Dixon and Rodman Wanamaker: On theAct’s 100th anniversary, remembering the pair of complex white dudeswho were instrumental in its journey.

42)  June15-16: Ocean State Histories: Further Reading: I don’t do bibliographic posts asoften as I should, and this one was a very fun one.

43)  June22-23: Kyle Railton’s Guest Post on the Simpson Trial: I’ve hadthe chance to share Guest Posts from both of my sons now, and man do I lovethat.

44)  June 24:WesternStudying: Hopalong Cassidy: Come for the first licensed image ona children’s lunch box, stay for a vital cultural history.

45)  July 6-7:Critical Patriotism in 2024: A vital complement to the earliest post onmythic patriotism in 2024.

46)  July 19:ElvisStudying: First and Last: I haven’t always done Elvis Presley justicein this space, so this whole series felt like a nice addition to theconversation.

47)  July 31:Martin Sheen Studying: Estévez Legacies: And I’ll end with one of the mostfun series I got to write all year!

New bdaypost tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!