July 27-28, 2024: July 2024 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

July1: Models of Critical Patriotism: “What to the Slave is the 4th ofJuly?”: A July 4th series inspired by my book Of Thee I Singkicks off with a stunning speech that challenges us as much today as it did 172years ago.

July2: Models of Critical Patriotism: “Eulogy on King Philip”: The series continueswith a speech that offers two complementary models of critical patriotism.

July3: Models of Critical Patriotism: Suffrage Activists at the CentennialExposition: National divisions and critical patriotism at the nation’s 100thbirthday celebration, as the series rolls on.

July4: Models of Critical Patriotism: America is in the Heart: An author andbook that both introduce under-narrated histories and redefine American identity.

July5: Models of Critical Patriotism: MLK and Baldwin, Kaepernick and the 1619Project: The series concludes with a link to my Saturday Evening PostConsidering History column on the long legacy of African American criticalpatriotism.

July6-7: Critical Patriotism in 2024: And a special weekend follow-up onprotests that exemplify critical patriotism, protests that don’t quite, and whyit’s not as simple as that.

July8: Found Footage Stories: History of New York: For the 25thanniversary of the Blair Witch Project, a series on found footagestories kicks off with a humorous text that was way ahead of its time.

July9: Found Footage Stories: The “Introduction” to “Rip Van Winkle”: Theseries continues with a silly and a serious layer to Washington Irving’scontinued use of found footage frames.

July10: Found Footage Stories: House of Leaves: The limitations andpossibilities of scary stories, as the series discovers on.

July11: Found Footage Stories: Illuminae: Two ways to contextualize a bestsellingdystopian YA series that relies on found footage.

July12: Found Footage Stories: Horror Films: The series concludes with thelongstanding appeal and the limits of faux-realism.

July13-14: Found Footage Stories: The Blair Witch Project: For the film’s 25thanniversary, a special weekend post on three Blair Witch legacies.

July15: ElvisStudying: Elvis and Sinatra: In honor of an iconic date in his history,a series on Elvis Presley kicks off with the differences between influential andinteresting.

July16: ElvisStudying: Elvis Films: The series continues with takeaways fromthree stages in Presley’s iconic film career.

July17: ElvisStudying: Graceland: Mythic facades, the realities behind them,and a third way to look at Elvis’ historic home, as the series rocks on.

July18: ElvisStudying: The Presidential Medal of Freedom: The important nationalhonor as a unifying occasion or a partisan instrument.

July19: ElvisStudying: First and Last: For that iconic anniversary, on how wecan understand Elvis’ profound changes, and why they’re not the whole story.

July20-21: ElvisStudying: Representing the King: The series concludes withquick takeaways from a handful of the countless cultural depictions of Elvis.

July22: Revisiting the Canon: Ernest Hemingway: In honor of Hemingway’s 125thbirthday, a series on revisiting canonical authors kicks off with three phenomenalHem short stories.

July23: Revisiting the Canon: James Fenimore Cooper: The series continues withhistorical and literary reasons to revisit a challenging early bestseller.

July24: Revisiting the Canon: Nathaniel Hawthorne: How two of our mostover-taught texts can still be under-appreciated, as the series reads on.

July25: Revisiting the Canon: Mark Twain: Reading and thinking about along-past author as a contemporary commentator.

July26: Revisiting the Canon: William Faulkner: The series concludes with how aclassic author’s struggles can be as illuminating as his triumphs.

Nextseries begins Monday,

Ben

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