August 18, 2024: Birthday Bests: 2023-2024

[On August15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 47th birthday.So as I do each year, I’ve featured a series sharing some of my favorite postsfrom each year on the blog, leading up to this new post with 47 favorites fromthe last year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to sayhi and tell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found orenjoyed here, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]

Here theyare, 47 favorite posts from my 14th year of AmericanStudying:

1)     August28: Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1941 Origins: I love finding andsharing forgotten sides to familiar histories, and this whole anniversaryseries qualified.

2)     September8: Fall Semester Previews: Departmental Program Review: Being part of ProgramReviews is one of the hardest but most rewarding elements of my job, and Ihighlighted this year’s in one of my Fall preview posts.

3)     September15: AmericanStudying The Rising: “My City of Ruins” and “Superman (It’s NotEasy)”: I love revisiting one of my favorite Springsteen albums, buildingto this particularly complex post.

4)     September23-24: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections: History doesn’trepeat, but it rhymes.

5)     October4: LGBT Histories: 1950s Discriminations: Finding light in our darkesthistories is an incredibly difficult but important goal, and I hope I modeled ithere.

6)     October11: Vice President Studying: Henry Wilson’s Book: We’ve thought a lot aboutVPs recently; I’m a big Walz fan, but I don’t think any will ever equal whatHenry Wilson did in the same year he was nominated.

7)     October19: Basketball Stories: The Harlem Globetrotters: I don’t generally link tomy Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns here, but I’m alwaysglad when it makes sense to share that other online writing!

8)     October23: New Scholarly Books: A Seat at the Table: Every book in this series iswell worth your time, but I was especially glad to share this one co-edited by myfrequent Guest Poster Hettie Williams.

9)     November3: Contested Elections: 2000: There are lots of origin points for our ownmoment, but none looms larger than the 2000 election.

10)  November11-12: Kyle Lockwood’s Guest Post: Exploration and the Human Spirit: I’llalways include Guest Posts in these recaps, but doubly so when they’re from FSUstudents!

11)  November14: AmericanStudying the Blues: Robert Johnson: Quite simply one of myfavorite posts of the year.

12)  November18-19: Sandra Hamilton’s Guest Post on the Blues in American Culture: Mycup runneth over with Guest Posts from FSU students this month!

13)  November20: Thankful for Scholarly Communities: Fitchburg State: Speaking of thecommunity at which I’ll be starting my 20th year in September.

14)  November25-26: My Biggest Thanks-giving: But no community is more meaningful than theintimate one my sons and I have built for the last 18.5 years.

15)  December1: Gun Control Histories: Jim Jefferies: Getting to write about favoritetexts is a perk of this gig, and Jim Jefferies’ stand-up special is a greatexample.

16)  December9-10: Crowd-sourced Board Game Studying: I don’t get to share as manyCrowd-sourced Posts as I used to, but I always love the chance!

17)  December14: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Peggy Stewart: Did you know there was asecond Tea Party in October 1774? Me neither!

18)  December16-17: A Tribute to BostonStudiers: Really enjoyed paying tribute to ahandful of the many folks from whom I’ve learned about my home city.

19)  December23-24: Hamza Suleiman’s Guest Post on Mohja Kahf: My friend Robin Field hasshared a great deal of student work for Guest Posts, with this as the latestexample.

20)  December29: Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol: Another favorite text, and thusanother extremely fun blog post.

21)  January2: 2024 Anniversaries: The First Continental Congress in 1774: I learn somuch from my New Year’s anniversary series, including this one on forgotten 1774delegates.

22)  January12: AmericanStudying Columbia Pictures: Matt Helm and Casino Royale:Columbia Studios missing out on James Bond led to some very interestingcreative choices.

23)  January13-14: Vaughn Joy’s Hollywood Histories: Loved the chance to pay tribute toone of our very best up-and-coming Film and AmericanStudiers.

24)  January20-21: Ava DePasquale’s Guest Post on Grey Dog: And to share a third FSU studentGuest Post!

25)  January26: AmericanStudying Groundbreaking Women: Shirley Chisholm: I had no ideaKamala would be our nominee when I included this post on Chisholm’s campaigns,but I love the connection.

26)  January29: Quirky American Traditions: Pumpkin Chunkin: Sometimes it’s just fun toresearch and write these posts.

27)  February10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch!: My current project hasevolved into a podcast (for more on which watch this space), but we can allagree it would also work great as a sports film, no?

28)  February17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics: Love was in the airfor me all year, and on the blog this week in particular.

29)  February24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives: Everybody can stand to learnmore about our history, including politicians I support.

30)  March7: National Park Studying: Mesa Verde: Some childhood moments really defineour interests and lives. This was one of mine.

31)  March13: NeMLA Reflections: My Panel on Nostalgia & the 50s: I’ve had somany great experiences at NeMLA conferences, but this was at the top of thelist.

32)  March20: American Magic: Orson Welles: One of the most surprising posts I’veever had the chance to share.

33)  March25: What is Game Show Studying?: 30s and 40s Origins: Another one for whichI learned so much, and from which I hope you will too.

34)  April6-7: Emily Lauer on Comics Analysis & Editing as Public-Facing Scholarship:Another great post from my most frequent Guest Poster.

35)  April11: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Two 1967 Classics: Has there everbeen a better pair of films from one actor in the same year?

36)  April20-21: Mythic Patriotisms in 2024: Nothing is more central to this year’spresidential campaign than debates over patriotism, a subject on which I know alittle bit.

37)  April26: Climate Culture: Climate Songs: Really loved the chance to highlightMidnight Oil’s last album among other great climate music.

38)  May 11-12: BeachBlogging: Guest Posts from Elsa Devienne and Jamie Hirami: Don’t think Ihad ever featured two Guest Posts in the same post before!

39)  May17: Spring 2024 Stand-Outs: Special Guests!: My three favorite peoplevisited my classes this Spring!

40)  May21: Criminal Duos: Leopold & Loeb: Historic anniversaries have drivenmuch of this blog for its last decade, and this was a particularly interestingone to investigate.

41)  June4: The Indian Citizenship Act: Joseph K. Dixon and Rodman Wanamaker: On theAct’s 100th anniversary, remembering the pair of complex white dudeswho were instrumental in its journey.

42)  June15-16: Ocean State Histories: Further Reading: I don’t do bibliographicposts as often as I should, and this one was a very fun one.

43)  June22-23: Kyle Railton’s Guest Post on the Simpson Trial: I’ve had the chanceto share Guest Posts from both of my sons now, and man do I love that.

44)  June24: WesternStudying: Hopalong Cassidy: Come for the first licensed image ona children’s lunch box, stay for a vital cultural history.

45)  July6-7: Critical Patriotism in 2024: A vital complement to the earliest poston mythic patriotism in 2024.

46)  July19: ElvisStudying: First and Last: I haven’t always done Elvis Presleyjustice in this space, so this whole series felt like a nice addition to theconversation.

47)  July31: Martin Sheen Studying: Estévez Legacies: And I’ll end with one of themost fun series I got to write all year!

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Youknow what to do!