March 28-29, 2015: March 2015 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]March 2: Forgotten Wars: The Second Barbary War: A series on under-remembered American wars starts with the anniversary of an Early Republic conflict.March 3: Forgotten Wars: The First Barbary War: The series continues with three longstanding legacies of the late 18th century conflict.March 4: Forgotten Wars: The Aroostook War: National history, local history, and lumberjacks, as the series rolls on.March 5: Forgotten Wars: The Occupations of Nicaragua: Two 20thcentury conflicts that are all too representative, and how to remember them specifically nonetheless.March 6: Forgotten Wars: Remembering the Sand Creek Massacre: The series concludes with three sites that can help us remember a complex Civil War massacre.March 7-8: James Fallows on Forgotten 21st Century Wars: But wait, a special weekend post follows up a fellow AmericanStudier’s take on our current, ironically forgotten wars.March 9: Jazzy Connections: Scott Joplin: A JazzStudying series starts with the musical and cultural legacies of the hugely influential composer.March 10: Jazzy Connections: Jazz Literature: The series continues with three engaging and important examples of jazz’s influence on American literature.March 11: Jazzy Connections: Whites and the Harlem Renaissance: White America’s troubling and exploitative yet important relationship to black culture, as the series rolls on.March 12: Jazzy Connections: Charlie Parker’s Death: On the anniversary of the tragic event, reflections on what is lost and what endures when an artist dies young.March 13: Jazzy Connections: Jazz in the 21st Century: The series concludes with three ways to argue for the genre’s contemporary relevance.March 14-15: All That Crowd-sourced Jazz: Additions of mine and the thoughts of fellow AmericanStudiers round off the series—add yours in comments, please!March 16: AmericanThaws: Eliot and Williams: A Spring series starts with two very different images of the season in two great Modernist poems.March 17: AmericanThaws: The US and the UK: The series continues with when and how America’s oldest antagonism warmed up.March 18: AmericanThaws: William Mahone: Late-life evolutions that don’t impress me much, and those that do, as the series rolls on.March 19: AmericanThaws: Humanity in War: An amazing moment of humanity amidst the horrors of war.March 20: AmericanThaws: Nixon Goes to China: The series concludes with two ways to contextualize an undeniable historical turning point.March 21-22: AmericanThaws: Cuba: A special weekend post on two pieces of mine that can help us understand one of our most recent warmings.March 23: American Epidemics: Influenza and Ebola: A series on past and present epidemics starts by comparing and contrasting two of the most potent.March 24: American Epidemics: The Measles: The series continues with three stages in the history of a frustratingly persistent disease.March 25: American Epidemics: Yellow Fever: The Early Republic outbreak that nearly changed everything, and why it didn’t, as the series rolls on.March 26: American Epidemics: Smallpox and Mather: Two prior posts of mine that highlight the worst and best of American perspectives through Cotton Mather and smallpox.March 27: American Epidemics: Typhoid Mary: The series concludes with how an anniversary can help us remember a complex and important figure.Next series starts Monday,Ben
PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to write? Lemme know!