[On August 15th,
this AmericanStudier discovers the meaning of life; well, I turn 42, anyway. So
as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts from each
year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 42 favorites from the last
year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi and
tell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyed
here, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]
Here they are,
40 favorite posts from the 2016-2017 year on the blog:
1)
Virginia
Places: Fairfax Court House: Learning more about things I thought I already
knew has been one of the blog’s enduring pleasures, and that was most
definitely the case with this post and series on Virginia sites.
2)
Cultural
Work: Miner Texts: Any post in which I get to analyze John Sayles and Steve
Earle is bound to be fun, but Diane Gillam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom might be the richest text here.
3)
MusicalStudying:
Allegiance and Hamilton: Perhaps not surprisingly, Hamilton has been the subject of more posts than any other text in
the past year. This was the first.
4)
Rhode
Island Histories: Beavertail Lighthouse: Learning about things I knew
precisely nothing about has been another enduring blog pleasure. Case in point
here.
5)
Legends
of the Fall: Young Adult Lit: Returning to middle school is always a risky
proposition, but I loved the chance to revisit A Separate Peace and The
Chocolate War.
6)
AmericanStudying
The Americans: “Illegals”: Writing about one of my favorite TV shows made
for a great week of posts, and this kicked them off.
7)
Birth
Control in America: Esther at the Doctor: I’ve taught Sylvia Plath’s The Bell-Jar many times, but analyzing
it through this week’s lens offered new insights on a key sequence.
8)
Black
Panther Posts: Guns and Breakfasts: One of my favorite post titles, and an
attempt to address the multiple, contradictory sides of an important community.
9)
American
Killers: Bundy and Dahmer: Not sure I would have ever imagined I’d be
writing about serial killers in made for TV movies, but we go where the blog
takes us!
10)
ElectionStudying
the Media: Ah, that halcyon final pre-election weekend. Everything may have
changed the following Tuesday, but I think this post is still relevant.
11)
Jeff
Renye on Stranger Things: The New Weird Made Old?: A Stranger Things series concluded with this great Guest Post, and a
truly inspiring student conversation in comments!
12)
Thanksgiving
and Supporting an Inclusive American Community: This was the first post in
which I dealt directly with the election’s aftermath, and also the first in
which I began to move toward my fifth book project.
13)
James
MonroeStudying: Remembering Monroe: A series on the 5th
President concluded with these reflections on whether and how to better
remember Monroe.
14)
Fall
2016 Reflections: Conversations with My Sons: Maybe my favorite single post
from the six and two-thirds years of blogging.
15)
Basketball’s
Birthday: LeBron and Activism: My sons have just gotten into the NBA in the
past year, and it was fun to take a closer look at this side of the league’s
biggest star.
16)
2016
in Review: The Cubs Win!: There were far more serious 2016 news stories,
and I engaged with them in this end of year series as well. But c’mon, the Cubs
won the Series!
17)
21st
Century Ellis Islands: A 125th anniversary series concluded with
three very distinct ways to connect the famous immigration station to our
present moment.
18)
Special
Guest Post: Oana Godeanu-Kenworty on Thomas Haliburton and 19th
Century Populism: Readers, take note—nothing makes me happier than when I’m
contacted by someone who wants to share a Guest Post, and I was very excited at
the chance to share this one!
19)
Luke
Cage Studying: #BlackLivesMatter on TV: A series on another great
contemporary TV show concluded with this multitextual analysis.
20)
NASAStudying:
Sputnik and von Braun: Another example of a post for which I learned a ton,
and which fundamentally shifted my perspective on the week’s subject.
21)
Women
and Sports: Title IX: With the groundbreaking law under siege from Trump’s
Department of Education, this post is more important than ever.
22)
History
for Kids: Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker: The best book I read in the past
year might well be this Young Adult novel the boys and I read together.
23)
AmericanStudier
Hearts Justified: Appalachian Action: Man, I wrote a lot this year about TV
shows I love. And I’m not the slightest bit sorry!
24)
Crowd-sourced
Non-Favorites: The annual series concludes, as always, with my favorite
crowd-sourced post of the year, the airing of grievances! Not too late to share
yours!
25)
CubanAmericanStudying:
Desi Arnaz: On Arnaz’s 100th birthday, he helped us consider a
different side to Cuban American histories.
26)
AmericanStudies
Events: Why We Teach at BOLLI: Expanding my adult learning opportunities
has been one of the best parts of the last year. Here’s one prominent example!
27)
Andrew
Jackson and Donald Trump: Sometimes a planned series of my own intersects
with where the public conversations are going. This was one of those times.
28)
Televised
Fools: Archer: I can’t say I was expecting to enjoy Archer as much as I have—but surprises are a good thing, in life
and in blogging!
29)
NeMLA
Recaps: Forum on Immigration Executive Orders and Actions: This could be
the most important thing NeMLA ever does—but it needs your help to get there!
30)
Aviation
Histories: Charles Lindbergh: For my own sake as much as anyone else’s,
trying to dig past the controversies to recover the history behind the history.
31)
Animating
History: Earth Day Animations: I hadn’t thought about Captain Planet or FernGully
in a couple decades. It was fun to do so again!
32)
Civil
Disobedience: Muhammad Ali: Commemorating anniversaries has become an
important part of this blog, and the 50th of Ali’s draft resistance
was an important one for sure.
33)
DisasterStudying:
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Did you know that William James
experienced and wrote about the earthquake? Me neither!
34)
The
Scholars Strategy Network and Me: Online Writing: This was a really fun
reflection to write—and then it got picked up by John
Fea’s great blog, which is even more fun!
35)
Star
Wars Studying: Yoda, Luke, and Love: I loved the chance to share one of the
boys’ and my favorite theories about one of our favorite galaxies.
36)
Matthew
Teutsch’s Guest Post: Five African American Books We Should All Read:
Getting to feature one of my favorite scholarly bloggers and five wonderful
books made for a great Guest Post.
37)
The
Pulitzers at 100: Angle of Repose: I’d been looking for a chance to write
about Wallace Stegner’s moving novel for a while now. It was nice to finally do
so!
38)
Mysterious
Beach Reads: Tana French: Ditto French’s amazing series of novels—which are
Irish, but AmericanStudies is large and contains multitudes.
39)
Representing
the Revolution: Hamilton: I promised that the smash musical would return to
this list, and return it did.
40)
Troubled
Children: Dennis the Menace: Gotta end with another one of those posts I
never would have imagined writing—and that, as always, I enjoyed a great deal.
Hope you’d say the same!
Next birthday
best post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You know
what to do!
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