August 31, 2011: August Recap

August 1: What's the Point: Pivoting off an online argument to consider the purposes and potential effects of a blog like thisAugust 2 [Tribute Post 20]: Inspiring Public School Teachers: Matt Damon gets me thinking about my many such inspirations, and public school teachers more generallyAugust 3: Two Talented, Troubling Americans: Speaking of Matt Damon, his two best, and two very American, roles—Tom Ripley and Jason BourneAugust 4: First to Go: What it really means that educational and social programs, like my Mom's Bright Stars program, are usually the first to be sacrificed on the altar of budget cutsAugust 5 [Scholarly Review 4]: Lawrence Rosenwald: On the political and scholarly efforts of a friend and very impressive AmericanStudierAugust 6-7 [Link-Tastic Post 2]: Blogroll: 6 of the blogs that most engage and inspire meAugust 8: Multi-talented: Norman Mailer and the kind of artistic genius that can produce a wide variety of impressive worksAugust 9: Narrating Our Battles: More Norman Mailer, this time The Armies of the Night and the value of narrating historiesAugust 10: Not Yet E-raced: Historical and contemporary realities that reveal the silliness of current narratives of reverse, anti-white racismAugust 11: Born This Day: My Dad's birthday inspires me to highlight three other interesting and important Americans born on August 11thAugust 12: Click Through: A request for reading and responses over at the NEASA pre-conference blog—and since the blog continues, the request holds!August 13-14 [Tribute Post 21]: Ezra Jack Keats: One of our most culturally and artistically significant children's authors—and one of the late 20th century's most important American artists periodAugust 15: Birthday Best: In honor of my 34th birthday, 34 of my favorite posts from this blog's first 9 monthsAugust 16: Me Too!: An important follow-up, using 5 other posts to make clear how much I continue to learn and change in response to these kinds of topics and themesAugust 17: Cotton Mather's Invisible Tragedy: A link to my latest Boston.com Salem "History Time" column, the first of two on Cotton Mather and the witch trials [I also posted separately on August 17th to ask folks to vote for me in the CBS Boston Most Valuable Blogger awards—see the link at right]August 18: Why We're Here, Tea Party Edition: A new study on contemporary political attitudes reveals just how fully the Tea Party subscribes to the Christian narrative of American identity, and reminds me of one of the main goals for my recent scholarly workAugust 19: Writing Wrongs: On social movements, social realistic fiction, and the late 19th century author Elizabeth Stuart PhelpsAugust 20-21: Legends of the Fall: 5 things I'm excited about as my professional and familial life, like our year, moves toward September and autumnAugust 22: Virginia Is For Bloggers: My plan and schedule for blogging during our week in Virginia with the folksAugust 23: Virginia, Cradle of American Studies: Five reasons, one per post-contact century, why Virginia is central to AmericanStudiesAugust 24: Cotton Mather's American Legacy: The link to the second of those Boston.com Mather pieces, this one on his more inspiring legacyAugust 25: Not Just Any John Smith: On one of early Virginia and America's most interesting, and most egotistical, figuresAugust 26: The Indian Princess: Image, reality, and the stories of PocahontasAugust 29: Paying His Bill Forward: Why George Mason shouldn't be a forgotten FounderAugust 30: Elected Representatives: Two recent, and very politically and culturally representative, Virginia senatorial campaignsThat's it! More tomorrow, a special post for the first day of a new semester,BenPS. Any topics, texts, figures, themes, or events you'd like to see in this space?