[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 48th birthday. So as I do each year, I’ve featured a series sharing some of my favorite posts from each year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 48 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, 47 favorite posts from my 14th year of AmericanStudying:
1)
August 28:
Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1941 Origins: I love
finding and sharing forgotten sides to familiar histories, and this whole
anniversary series qualified.
2)
September
8: Fall Semester Previews: Departmental Program Review: Being
part of Program Reviews is one of the hardest but most rewarding elements of my
job, and I highlighted this year’s in one of my Fall preview posts.
3)
September
15: AmericanStudying The Rising: “My City of Ruins” and “Superman (It’s Not
Easy)”: I love revisiting one of my favorite Springsteen albums,
building to this particularly complex post.
4)
September
23-24: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections: History
doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.
5)
October 4:
LGBT Histories: 1950s Discriminations: Finding light in our darkest
histories is an incredibly difficult but important goal, and I hope I modeled
it here.
6)
October
11: Vice President Studying: Henry Wilson’s Book: We’ve
thought a lot about VPs recently; I’m a big Walz fan, but I don’t think any
will ever equal what Henry Wilson did in the same year he was nominated.
7)
October
19: Basketball Stories: The Harlem Globetrotters: I don’t
generally link to my Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns
here, but I’m always glad when it makes sense to share that other online
writing!
8)
October
23: New Scholarly Books: A Seat at the Table: Every book in this series is well
worth your time, but I was especially glad to share this one co-edited by my
frequent Guest Poster Hettie Williams.
9)
November
3: Contested Elections: 2000: There are lots of origin points for our own
moment, but none looms larger than the 2000 election.
10)
November
11-12: Kyle Lockwood’s Guest Post: Exploration and the Human Spirit: I’ll
always include Guest Posts in these recaps, but doubly so when they’re from FSU
students!
11)
November
14: AmericanStudying the Blues: Robert Johnson: Quite
simply one of my favorite posts of the year.
12)
November
18-19: Sandra Hamilton’s Guest Post on the Blues in American Culture: My cup
runneth over with Guest Posts from FSU students this month!
13)
November
20: Thankful for Scholarly Communities: Fitchburg State: Speaking
of the community at which I’ll be starting my 20th year in
September.
14)
November
25-26: My Biggest Thanks-giving: But no community is more meaningful
than the intimate one my sons and I have built for the last 18.5 years.
15)
December
1: Gun Control Histories: Jim Jefferies: Getting to write about favorite
texts is a perk of this gig, and Jim Jefferies’ stand-up special is a great
example.
16)
December
9-10: Crowd-sourced Board Game Studying: I don’t get to share as many
Crowd-sourced Posts as I used to, but I always love the chance!
17)
December
14: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Peggy Stewart: Did you
know there was a second Tea Party in October 1774? Me neither!
18)
December
16-17: A Tribute to BostonStudiers: Really enjoyed paying tribute to a
handful of the many folks from whom I’ve learned about my home city.
19)
December
23-24: Hamza Suleiman’s Guest Post on Mohja Kahf: My
friend Robin Field has shared a great deal of student work for Guest Posts,
with this as the latest example.
20)
December
29: Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol: Another favorite text, and thus
another extremely fun blog post.
21)
January 2:
2024 Anniversaries: The First Continental Congress in 1774: I learn
so much from my New Year’s anniversary series, including this one on forgotten
1774 delegates.
22)
January
12: AmericanStudying Columbia Pictures: Matt Helm and Casino Royale: Columbia
Studios missing out on James Bond led to some very interesting creative
choices.
23)
January
13-14: Vaughn Joy’s Hollywood Histories: Loved the chance to pay tribute to
one of our very best up-and-coming Film and AmericanStudiers.
24)
January
20-21: Ava DePasquale’s Guest Post on Grey Dog: And to
share a third FSU student Guest Post!
25)
January
26: AmericanStudying Groundbreaking Women: Shirley Chisholm: I had no
idea Kamala would be our nominee when I included this post on Chisholm’s
campaigns, but I love the connection.
26)
January
29: Quirky American Traditions: Pumpkin Chunkin:
Sometimes it’s just fun to research and write these posts.
27)
February
10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch!: My
current project has evolved into a podcast (for more on which watch this
space), but we can all agree it would also work great as a sports film, no?
28)
February
17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics: Love was
in the air for me all year, and on the blog this week in particular.
29)
February
24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives: Everybody can stand to learn more
about our history, including politicians I support.
30)
March 7:
National Park Studying: Mesa Verde: Some childhood moments really define
our interests and lives. This was one of mine.
31)
March 13:
NeMLA Reflections: My Panel on Nostalgia & the 50s: I’ve had
so many great experiences at NeMLA conferences, but this was at the top of the
list.
32)
March 20:
American Magic: Orson Welles: One of the most surprising posts I’ve ever
had the chance to share.
33)
March 25:
What is Game Show Studying?: 30s and 40s Origins: Another
one for which I learned so much, and from which I hope you will too.
34)
April 6-7:
Emily Lauer on Comics Analysis & Editing as Public-Facing Scholarship: Another
great post from my most frequent Guest Poster.
35)
April 11:
I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Two 1967 Classics: Has
there ever been a better pair of films from one actor in the same year?
36)
April
20-21: Mythic Patriotisms in 2024: Nothing is more central to this
year’s presidential campaign than debates over patriotism, a subject on which I
know a little bit.
37)
April 26:
Climate Culture: Climate Songs: Really loved the chance to highlight
Midnight Oil’s last album among other great climate music.
38)
May 11-12:
Beach Blogging: Guest Posts from Elsa Devienne and Jamie Hirami: Don’t
think I had ever featured two Guest Posts in the same post before!
39)
May 17:
Spring 2024 Stand-Outs: Special Guests!: My three favorite people visited my
classes this Spring!
40)
May 21:
Criminal Duos: Leopold & Loeb: Historic anniversaries have driven
much of this blog for its last decade, and this was a particularly interesting
one to investigate.
41)
June 4:
The Indian Citizenship Act: Joseph K. Dixon and Rodman Wanamaker: On the
Act’s 100th anniversary, remembering the pair of complex white dudes
who were instrumental in its journey.
42)
June
15-16: Ocean State Histories: Further Reading: I don’t do bibliographic posts as
often as I should, and this one was a very fun one.
43)
June
22-23: Kyle Railton’s Guest Post on the Simpson Trial: I’ve had
the chance to share Guest Posts from both of my sons now, and man do I love
that.
44)
June 24:
WesternStudying: Hopalong Cassidy: Come for the first licensed image on
a children’s lunch box, stay for a vital cultural history.
45)
July 6-7:
Critical Patriotism in 2024: A vital complement to the earliest post on
mythic patriotism in 2024.
46)
July 19:
ElvisStudying: First and Last: I haven’t always done Elvis Presley justice
in this space, so this whole series felt like a nice addition to the
conversation.
47)
July 31:
Martin Sheen Studying: Estévez Legacies: And I’ll end with one of the most
fun series I got to write all year!
New bday
post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
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