January 2011 Recap

January 1: No Day but Today: Tony Kushner, Philadelphia, Rent, and how controversial issues enter our national conversations and popular culture.January 2: Off the Trail: The Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Memorials, and how we remember national tragedies.January 3: Rebel Against the Cause:  Lee, Longstreet, and the aftermath and memories of the Civil War.January 4: Passed By: Nella Larsen's brief but impressive literary career.January 5: Kids on the Couch: Good Will Hunting, Ordinary People, and cinematic representations of psychoanalysis.January 6: Workers Write: Herman Melville, The Lowell Offering, and literary work.January 7: Merci Beaucoup: What the American Revolution and its greatest triumphs owe to the French.January 8 [Guest Post 1]: One Hundred Thirty Words: Ilene Railton on Margaret Wise Brown and Goodnight Moon.January 9: Words Will Never Hurt Me?: My first post in response to a current event—Gabrielle Giffords, John F. Kennedy, and extreme political rhetoric and violence.January 10: Anarchy in the USA: Haymarket, the labor movement, and a late 19th century American revolution.January 11: Love, Puritan Style: Revisiting the Puritans through John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity."January 12: Ambitious Cycle: William Faulkner, August Wilson, and ambitious literary failures.January 13: Blue America: John Hiatt and the perils and benefits of biographical analysis.January 14: To Hull and Back: My nomination of Jane Addams for the Hall of American Inspiration.January 15 [Tribute Post 1]: Staying in the Room: A tribute to Professor Alan Heimert, one of my most demanding and inspiring college teachers.January 16: Working on Hope: My first work-in-progress post, on my plans and goals for my third book.January 17: The Real King: An MLK Day repeat of my post on remembering the real, complex, vital King.January 18: Knick of Time: Washington Irving's postmodern History of New York.January 19: Love in Color: Jungle Fever, Mississippi Masala, and pop culture interracial romances.January 20: Honorable Work: Helen Hunt Jackson's multi-genre Native American literary activism.January 21: Touched by an Angel: Angel Island and the untold stories and unheard voices of American history.January 22 [Tribute Post 2]: Getting Through: A tribute to Proal Heartwell, my best and most inspiring high school teacher.January 23: Master Class: My goals, hopes, and fears for a special authors course on Henry James I was about to start teaching.January 24: Outside the Box: On reexamining Thomas Wentworth Higginson's relationship with Emily Dickinson, and more importantly remembering the rest of his inspiring life.January 25: So It Goes?: Slaughterhouse Five and the horrors at the heart of every war.January 26: Repetition, Repetition: The value of getting through Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans.January 27: Your Song: My nominee for a new national anthem. January 28: Out of His Hands: Steven King, Jonathan Edwards, and authors who get unfairly pigeon-holed into a certain genre or tone.January 29 [Guest Post 2]: White Growing Pains: Mike Parker on contemporary white America's challenges and fears.January 30: Accounting: On my experiences with accountability, assessment, and other contemporary narratives about higher ed.January 31: Ghost Stories: Three interconnected American perspectives on the Ghost Dance.