November 2010 Recap

November 6: A Terribly Singular Event (and a Terrific Novel): The 1898 Wilmington coup and massacre, and Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition.November 7: Their AIM is True: The American Indian Movement, the Pine Ridge shootings, and two interconnected and underrated American films.November 8: Memorial Day: The inspiring power of Saint-Gaudens' Robert Gould Shaw Memorial.November 9: Mi Casas Should Be Everybody's Casas: Why Bartolome de las Casas should be the explorer we all remember and celebrate.November 10: Sprawling, Messy, Multi-lingual, and, Yes, Great American Novels: The case for The Grandissimes and The Squatter and the Don.November 11: A Veteran Performance: A Veteran's Day tribute to The Best Years of Our Lives and especially to Harold Russell's amazing work in it.November 12: Stealing Home: Still my favorite post to date, on my favorite tragic yet inspiring, complex and crucial American stories and histories.November 13: The Emergence of the Twain: Mark Twain's turn to overt, contemporary social and political critique in "To the Person Sitting in Darkness."November 14: Declarations of Independence: Slave petitions during, and inspired by, the Revolutionary War.November 15: Deadly Personal: Dead Man Walking, Steve Earle, and how we portray and analyze an issue like the death penalty.November 16: Voices Worth Hearing: The case for my favorite American poet, Sarah Piatt.November 17: Another Nominee for the Hall: My nomination of Ely Parker for the Hall of American Inspiration.November 18: Chillingly Good: Why Ross MacDonald's hardboiled mystery novels are way more than just genre fiction.November 19: Alternative Treatments of the Depression: John Dos Passos, Pietro di Donato, and urban novels of the Great Depression.November 20: Revisiting a Thorny Problem: The worst and best of Robert Penn Warren's literary representations of segregation, race, and the South.November 21: The Doctor Is In (Print): William Carlos Williams' medical career and literary influences.November 22: Very Different Pictures: Of Plimoth Plantation, Hope Leslie, and revising the histories and stories of the Pequot War.November 23: Sayles Pitch: John Sayles' most essential (and amazing) American films.November 24: A Thankless Gig (That Really Shouldn't Be): The first of three Thanksgiving posts, this one giving thanks for my colleague Ian Williams' work with prison inmates.November 25: A Thanksgiving Turkey: This second Thanksgiving post takes on Rush Limbaugh.November 26: Child's Plan: This third and final Thanksgiving post remembers Lydia Maria Child.November 27: For Which It Stands?: The complex and significant histories of the Pledge of Allegiance.November 28: The Heart Matters: Carlos Bulosan's unique and powerful America is in the Heart. November 29: Rapped Attention: Public Enemy, N.W.A., and what rap can and does add to our scholarly and national conversations.November 30: Far From Trifling: The dramatic shifts illustrated by the Provincetown Players and Susan Glaspell's Trifles.