March 2-3, 2024: February 2024 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

February5: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Bad News Boys and Bears: This year’sSuper Bowl series focused on sports films, starting with our problematicobsession with lovable losers.

February6: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Hoosiers and Rudy: The series continuedwith the untold histories behind stories of underdog champions.

February7: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: The Longest Yard(s): What the changesbetween a film and its remake can tell us about American narratives, as the seriesplays on.

February8: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook:The interesting results when an unconventional filmmaker works in a deeplyconventional genre.

February9: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Remember the Titans: The seriesconcludes with the over-the-top scene and speech that really shouldn’t work,but somehow do.

February10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch!: A special follow-up withmy pitch for a sports movie adapting one of our most inspiring histories!

February12: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “At Last”: With love in the air, thisyear’s Valentine’s series focused on love songs, kicking off with thebiographical and cultural layers to a timeless classic.

February13: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Wake Up Little Susie”: The seriescontinues with the boundary between innocence and sex in early rock and roll,and a song that cut across it.

February14: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “You Can’t Hurry Love”: What’s specialabout one of Motown’s countless classic love songs, as the series serenades on.

February15: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Storybook Love”: A beautiful example of afilm love song that’s about both the movie and the romance.

February16: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Happy”: Couldn’t get through the weekwithout some Bruce, and here’s my favorite of his many great “adult love songs.”

February17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics: The series concludeswith five 21st century love songs sure to become classics!

February19: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Jefferson and Banneker: For this year’snon-favorites series I focused on moments when generally impressive figuresgave in to white supremacy, starting with a Framer’s frustratingly racistresponse.

February20: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Lincoln’s Mass Execution: The seriescontinues with two ways in which our greatest president gave in to whitesupremacist violence and exclusion.

February21: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Anthony’s Priorities: A collective and an individualfrustration with an inspiring figure’s worst quote, as the series gripes on.

February22: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Harlan’s Exclusions: A history and acontemporary lesson from an iconic Justice’s prejudices.

February23: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: London’s Fighting Words: The series concludeswith an ugly moment when white supremacy trumped athletic supremacy.

February24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives: A special follow-up post,highlighting a thread where I critiqued our current president’s embrace ofxenophobia.

February26: Leap Years: 1816: For this once-every-four-years occasion, a Leap YearStudying series kicks off with three 1816 trends.

February27: Leap Years: 1848: The series continues with how three distinct eventswithin a 10-day period in early 1848 changed the world.

February28: Leap Years: 1904: Five of the many cultural legacies of the 1904 World’sFair, as the series leaps on.

February29: Leap Years: 1948: A couple significant 1948 election contexts beyond thejustifiably famous “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

March1: Leap Years: 1984 in Film: The series and month conclude with how three1984 blockbusters reflect 80s debates.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topicsyou’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!