February 2011 Recap

February 1: Erased Riots: The end of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and the New York draft riots.February 2: Stealing Home: A repeat of the November post on the Chinese Exclusion Act and my two favorite American histories/stories.February 3: Ex-tremely Inspiring: Renaissance American James Weldon Johnson, and his complex and interesting novel The Autobiography of a Ex-Colored Man.February 4: Getting Past Grief: Constance Fenimore Woolson, whose greatest and oft-anthologized short story shouldn't blind us to her incredibly diverse and impressive body of work.February 5 [Tribute Post 3]: Happy Campers: A tribute to my elementary school history teacher Mr. Kirby and his unique and inspiring historical summer camp.February 6: Fit Audience, Though Few: A response to one of my recently published articles, and some thoughts on writing (at times) for relatively specialized scholarly audiences.February 7: Border Lens: The incredibly complicated histories of the Mexican American border, and the equally complicated book (Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera) that embodies them.February 8: The Fierce Urgency of Nowhere: On largely fictional and triumphalist 1980s wars, cinematic and actual.February 9: Lifting the Embargo: The specific and broad, historical and contemporary, benefits of defining Cuban revolutionary and poet José Martí as a cross-cultural American.February 10: Fanny Packs a Punch: The witty, sarcastic, biting, and yet hugely serious and meaningful writing and career of Fanny Fern.February 11: Alternative Treatments of the Depression: Repeat of a November post on John Dos Passos, Pietro di Donato, and novels of the urban Great Depression.February 12 [Guest Post 3]: Irene's Nominee: Dr. Irene Martyniuk nominates Clara Barton for the Hall of American Inspiration.February 13: Why We're Here: Glenn Beck's Beck University, American "historian" David Barton, and some of my most central goals for this blog and my public scholarship.February 14: Love Lessons: A Valentine's Day special post on the influential and inspiring books (and sons) I have loved.February 15: Null Set: William Apess, John Calhoun, and two 1830s nullification crises.February 16: Half Lives: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, and engaging with the depths of American poverty.February 17: Times Like These: Tori Amos, Lara Logan, and confronting and remembering brutal stories of rape.February 18: Mi Casas Should Be Everybody's Casas: A repeat of the November post on the most inspiring European explorer, Bartolome de las Casas.February 19 [Tribute post 4]: Office, Ours: A tribute to my grad school friend and colleague Jeff Renye, and our shared first teaching experiences.February 20: Grade-ations: On the disadvantages, benefits, and realities of grading student work.February 21: Precedents Day: My modest proposal for how we could celebrate future President's Days.February 22: Coming to Be Family: In America, The Visitor, and the fictional and forced but very significant cross-cultural family relationships created by immigration.February 23: Authentic Voices: William Styron, William Justin Harsha, Sarah Winnemucca, and the question of fictional and "authentic" representations of American voices.February 24: Those Who Wander: John Woolman and the inspiring possibility of wandering with no fixed path or destination and a truly open mind.February 25: War and Peace: Woodrow Wilson, A. Mitchell Palmer, and the contradictions and complexities of American foreign and domestic policy during and after World War I.February 26 [Tribute post 5]: It Takes a Village: A tribute to seven other teachers and mentors who have been influential and inspiring in the course of my education, career, and life.February 27: Time Sensitive: Some thoughts on my evolving plans for and work toward the fall 2011 New England ASA conference [which ended up going amazingly—see the early November follow-up posts!].February 28: Cowboy Update: Nat Love and the myths and realities of the Western frontier.[image error]