tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39399097754052203452024-03-19T00:00:33.318-07:00AmericanStudiesOne interesting American thing (a technical term, meaning a moment or event, a text, a controversy, an idea, a figure, or whatevertheheckelse I think of) per day, from Ben Railton, a professor of American literature, culture, history, and, natch, Studies.AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.comBlogger4123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-35880473125576027972024-03-19T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-19T00:00:00.139-07:00March 19, 2024: American Magic: Thurston and Kellar <p>[This
coming weekend marks <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/harry-houdini-and-the-art-of-escape">Harry
Houdini’s</a> 150<sup>th</sup> birthday! So this week on the blog I’ll perform
some AmericanStudying magic of my own, leading up to a special post on that
legendary prestidigitator.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On a pair
of magicians who help us think about both competition and collaboration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m one of
those film buffs who think that Christopher Nolan has gotten a little overexposed
in recent years, but I’ll stand by many of his early films as truly
groundbreaking and great in equal measure. That’s especially <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/02/february-14-2019-movies-i-love-memento.html">true
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Memento</i></a> (2000), which as I
wrote in that post occupies a spot very high on my list. But not too far below
it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/">The Prestige</a></i> (2006), a
very intricate and clever historical drama that also happens to be for my money
the best film about magic ever made (as well as very much a magic trick in its
own right, and if you haven’t seen it I won’t spoil the trick!). And while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Prestige</i> is about many things within
and around the world of 19<sup>th</sup> century magic (including electricity as
its own magic trick, courtesy of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgyZDo20Lh0">David Bowie’s performance as
Nikola Tesla</a> [some SPOILERS in those clips]), at its heart it is a story of
a lifelong conflict and competition between two equally talented magicians and
showman and equally bitter rivals, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden
(Christian Bale). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Late 19<sup>th</sup>
century America was home to its own famous pair of rival magicians, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/howard-thurston-magician-who-disappeared-180969952/">Howard
Thurston</a> (1869-1936) and <a href="https://www.magician.org/blog/kellar--the-dean-of-magic?blogid=47">Harry
Kellar</a> (1849-1922). As I highlighted in yesterday’s post, both Thurston and
Kellar claimed to be the true heir to the origin point for 19<sup>th</sup>
century American magic, the Fakir of Ava; Kellar literally worked for years <a href="https://throwingcards.blogspot.com/2018/04/harry-keller-real-wizard-of-oz.html">as
the Fakir’s apprentice</a> starting at the age of 12, so he might well have the
better claim, but as with all things magic the question is at least a bit shrouded
in mystery, natch. And in any case, the competition between the two men went
beyond their relationship to this professional progenitor, with both for
example claiming to be the true master of a very famous specific illusion known
as the “<a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/10/13/it-took-many-years-for-master-magician-harry-kellar-to-perfect-the-levitation-of-princes-karnac/">Levitation
of Princess Karnac</a>” (neither man seems to have originated the trick, as
that honor apparently goes to English magician and inventor <a href="https://www.victorian-cinema.net/maskelyne">John Nevil Maskelyne</a>). As
Nolan’s film nicely explores, the world of magic is often defined by these
questions over what performer truly “owns” a particular illusion, both in the
literal sense of proprietary concerns but even more in terms of mastery, and
Thurston and Kellar embodied that competitive conflict in spades.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Or was it
all just an act? (Not in Nolan’s film, to be clear—again, no spoilers, but
those two characters really, really don’t like each other.) After all, Kellar
was a generation older than Thurston, served in at least some ways as another
mentor to the younger performer, and the two men toured together for many years
with their <a href="https://auctions.potterauctions.com/THURSTON__Howard__1869___1936___Thurston__Kellar_s-LOT74631.aspx">Thurston-Kellar
Show</a> (which as that advertisement reflects billed the act as “Thurston,
Kellar’s Successor). While any performer faces genuine questions about their
legacies after they’re gone, questions which would certainly be connected to
who “owns” a famous illusion, every performer also and perhaps especially wants
an audience while they’re alive. Both of these magicians unquestionably learned
from the Fakir about how to generate publicity, not only in one moment but
across a long career, and presenting themselves as rivals (even, if not particularly,
when they shared a stage) was quite possibly an elaborate way to do just that. As
with any great magic trick, we’ll never know the answer for sure! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
MagicStudying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Magicians or magic histories or contexts you’d highlight? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-67931420400169027612024-03-18T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T00:00:00.135-07:00March 18, 2024: American Magic: Fakir of Ava <p>[This
coming weekend marks <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/harry-houdini-and-the-art-of-escape">Harry
Houdini’s</a> 150<sup>th</sup> birthday! So this week on the blog I’ll perform
some AmericanStudying magic of my own, leading up to a special post on that
legendary prestidigitator.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On three
ways that the <a href="https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/secrets-of-the-fakir-of-ava/">first
famous American magician</a> paved the way for the profession. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Persona: <a href="https://www.geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Fakir_of_Ava">Isaiah Harris
Hughes</a> (1813-1891) was born in England and immigrated to the U.S., but the
Fakir of Ava, Chief of Staff of Conjurers to His Sublime Greatness the Nanka of
Aristaphae, was born sometime later. I don’t think too many future magicians
have gone to quite the lengths that Hughes did to imagine and inhabit their
constructed persona, as besides creating an entire fictional backstory
(although not the character’s geographic origin, as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Ava">Ava was the Anglicized name of a
real city</a> in Burma [now Myanmar]), he also put on blackface, wore elaborate
costumes, and claimed that his tricks were “Oriental feats.” But at the same time,
it seems clear to me that Hughes expected his audience to be in on the act, or
at least to recognize it as a performance—“Fakir” is a pretty telling name for
an invented role, after all. And once Hughes got successful enough, he apparently
ditched most of the costume, but not the name—a persona is a persona. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Publicity: The Fakir achieved that level of
success not only because of his impressive bag of tricks, but also because he
was equally adept at making people aware of them and him. He did so through a
variety of techniques beyond <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakir_of_Ava#/media/File:Fakir_of_Ava.png">his
own elaborate advertising</a> (although that was impressive as well, as that
hyperlinked broadside illustrates), including befriending reporters to gain
favorable newspaper coverage, joining popular existing shows <a href="https://travsd.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/the-fakir-and-faker-of-ava/">like
P.T. Barnum’s</a> to tap into their audiences, and coming up with new promotional
ideas like <a href="https://www.thebeliever.net/the-forefather-of-charm/">the “gift
show</a>” (offering lucky audience members prizes in the course of the act). Magic
isn’t much without the show that accompanies it, and those shows aren’t much without
an audience to trick and misdirect and amaze. Hughes’ mastery over connecting
to and amplifying his audience certainly modeled that skill for future
magicians. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Passing it on: Some of those future magicians
learned from Hughes quite literally, as his apprentices. I’ll write more about
the two most famous, Howard Thurston and Harry Kellar, in tomorrow’s post, but
will note here that both overtly claimed to be Hughes’ heirs: <a href="https://www.thebeliever.net/the-forefather-of-charm/">Thurston by arguing</a>
“The historian of magic can trace an unbroken line of succession from the Fakir
of Ava in 1830 to my own entertainment”; and Kellar by performing under the
Fakir of Ava name when Hughes became too old to travel and retired to <a href="https://www.buffalorising.com/2011/02/buffalos-magic-man-the-fakir-of-ava/">his
Buffalo home</a>. It’s easy to think of magicians’ helpers as the stereotypical
pretty girls in spandex—and maybe they too should be seen as apprentices
instead—but the truth is that both persona and publicity are often intended to
live on beyond the performer’s career, and heirs are a vital part of that goal.
One more way that the Fakir set the standard! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
MagicStudying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Magicians or magic histories or contexts you’d highlight? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-40897180761438290442024-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-16T00:00:00.134-07:00March 16-17, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: A Special Organization<p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It
was a great time as it always is, so this week I’ve featured <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a
series of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared
there! Leading up to these additional reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Much of
what I’d want to say about NeMLA is summed up in two posts that I’ll ask you to
check out if you would and then come on back here:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2017/04/april-8-9-2017-my-five-years-on-nemla.html">This
one from 2017</a> when I left the NeMLA Board for the first time (only because
my service time was up, as I’d happily and stayed on forever);<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/04/april-16-2018-nemla-recaps-back-to-board.html">this
one from 2018</a> when, proving my above point, I rejoined the Board. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Welcome
back! As of a couple years ago I am once again done with my service on the
Board, and while I’ll never say never when it comes to anything and all things
NeMLA, I think it’s likely that I will only be a conference attendee and participant
from now on. (Or, putting this out into the Universe, maybe one day a <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-22-2016-nemla-recaps-public.html">keynote
speaker</a>?!) But on that note alone, my annual attendance at most if not all
of the conference (which has been the case since 2013 and I hope will be in the
future as well) is a very telling thing—I’m not so much of a conference person
(I enjoy them whenever I get to go, but I just mean I’m not someone who seeks
out and attends a ton of them), and as any reader of this blog likely knows it
takes a lot to take me away from my sons for any length of time. So this
history of annual and thorough NeMLA attendance, and a pledge to do the same
moving forward, is high praise indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If I had
to sum up why that’s the case, I would use two words that appear in those prior
NeMLA posts and other places I’ve written about the organization: community and
solidarity. Community is the more obvious one, and the focus of much of what I’ve
said previously about this particular community and all that it means to me. So
to say a little more about what I mean by solidarity: at worst, academia can
feel quite competitive, like others are our rivals for jobs or publishing slots
or attention or etc.; and even at best, it can feel quite isolated, like we’re
in those things on our own. Of course individual colleagues and friends and
loved ones can be company for the journey, as with everything in life. But to
find a whole scholarly community that feels very consistently like it’s got
your back rather than is either turning its back or stabbing you in yours? That’s
a very very rare thing in my experience, and that’s what I feel with and at
NeMLA. Makes me want to keep coming back for sure! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next series
starts Monday,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-4762175456837405722024-03-15T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-15T00:00:00.138-07:00March 15, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: Community Connections <p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It was a
great time as it always is, so as usual here’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a series
of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared there! Leading
up to a few more reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On three ways
the NeMLA conference connected to local communities and its host city.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/specialevents/boston-poetry-slam.html">Boston
Poetry Slam</a>: In my experiences NeMLA conferences tend to find good ways to
get attendees out into the local community, but this year the conference brought
local communities to the conference space itself in two compelling ways. One
was these three performances by local poets connected to <a href="https://bostonpoetryslam.com/">Boston Poetry Slam</a>, a weekly performance
that features some of the most talented voices in the city’s poetry and
cultural scenes. I don’t know who in particular was behind getting this very
cool group connected to and present at the conference, but I definitely give
them a standing ovation!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/specialevents/choreotexts.html">Choreopoems/Choreotexts</a>:
The conference’s other unique poetic performance was a bit more scholarly, and
thus perhaps more familiar for a conference and organization like NeMLA. But
nonetheless, this trio of performances inspired by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/arts/dance/for-colored-girls.html">Ntozake
Shange’s choreopoem</a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Colored Girls</i>
bridged the seeming (but far from genuine) gaps between scholarship, poetry and
art, and performance, featuring five local scholars whose own work, voices, and
careers likewise challenge our sense of these areas as distinct or separate
silos. As someone who worked hard in my time as NeMLA President to diversify
the conference’s program in every sense, I love this excellent example of that
ongoing goal! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Archival Spaces: While NeMLA 2024 thus did a particularly
good job bringing local voices and communities to the conference, it still also
featured its share of communal connections in the other direction. As someone
who’s had the opportunity to give multiple book talks at both the <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/12/december-20-2019-book-talk-recaps.html">Boston
Athenaeum</a> and the <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2020/03/march-7-8-2020-boston-sites-my-talk-at.html">Massachusetts
Historical Society</a>, I was especially excited that NeMLA made sure to <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/local-events.html">connect any
interested attendees</a> to those phenomenal local archives and spaces. Both of
these kinds of communities, local archives and scholarly organizations, depend
on support and solidarity from one another, and I’ve always loved the ways in
which NeMLA models those interconnections. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Special
post this weekend,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-24694306941884597532024-03-14T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-14T00:00:00.135-07:00March 14, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: Guilty Pleasures Panels<p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It was a
great time as it always is, so as usual here’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a series
of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared there! Leading
up to a few more reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On two
interesting throughlines I took away from a pair of provocative panels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Before the
Saturday morning panel of my own about which I wrote in yesterday’s post, I had
the chance to attend a pair of interconnected sessions organized by literary
scholar </span><a href="https://twitter.com/roschmachine?lang=en"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Melodie
Roschman</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> around the same topic: Guilty Pleasures: Sexy Stories, Female
Desire, and Resistance. A number of the talks understandably focused on aspects
of the Romance genre (and related subgenres like Paranormal Romance, Romantasy,
etc.), which is not a topic about which I know a great deal (although I did
write a Grad school paper analyzing audience expectations and experiences
through the lens of Janice Radway’s influential 1984 book </span><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807843499/reading-the-romance/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Reading the Romance</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">) and so I
was happy to learn more from these scholars of it and the particular authors
and works they discussed. But as with all of the NeMLA panels I’ve attended in
my multi-decade association with the conference and organization, I also found
ways to connect these conversations to my own work and ideas, and wanted to
mention two of those thought-provoking throughlines from these sessions here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One debate
which came up in a number of the talks across both sessions, as you might
expect with this overarching topic, was whether it’s a good/productive or
bad/destructive thing to use literary/cultural works as escapism (or related
frames like enchantment). To be clear, none of the presenters bought into the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/07/books/moral-fiction.html#:~:text=Puritans%20castigated%20novels%20as%20lurid,male)%20business%20of%20running%20society."><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">longstanding
narratives</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that novels and other cultural works are themselves “bad,” not
for women and not overall; but there was a great deal of thoughtful analysis of
the potentially limiting but also potentially liberating effects of getting
lost in such works. In particular, the chair of the second session, Babson
College </span><a href="https://www.babson.edu/about/our-leaders-and-scholars/faculty-and-academic-divisions/faculty-profiles/samantha-wallace.php"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Professor
Samantha Wallace</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, provocatively used a J.R.R. Tolkien essay to
frame these questions in her talk on Romantasy novelist Sarah Maas and the
dangers and benefits of becoming enchanted by such books and their worlds. Which
was especially thought-provoking for this audience member as I’ve been having
very similar conversations throughout my current section of </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/01/january-17-2024-spring-semester.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Introduction
to Science Fiction and Fantasy</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, beginning with our first reading,
Tolkien’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fellowship of the Ring</i>.
I always love when a NeMLA panel can inform my current semester and teaching,
and this was an excellent example of that effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
frequently glean such lessons for my teaching at NeMLA, but I always learn a
great deal about American literature, culture, and history—there’s a reason why
I decided to serve a three-year term as the organization’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/03/march-29-2019-nemla-2019-recaps-three.html">American
Area Director</a>, after all. And in this case, it was an excellent paper from
the chair of my own panel (about which and whom I wrote yesterday), <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/01/january-13-14-2024-vaughn-joys.html">Vaughn
Joy</a>, that offered the most fascinating lessons about American history and
culture. Vaughn’s paper discussed <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/early-hollywood-and-hays-code/">the
Hays Code</a>, the multi-code policy (first created as a set of
recommendations, but shortly thereafter and for many years an enforced set of restrictions)
through which Hollywood authorities sought to control and censor film
productions. I had long seen reference to the Code as a part midcentury
Hollywood histories, but Vaughn went into significantly more detail about its
origins, evolutions, specific provisions, effects, and, most inspiringly, the manifold
acts of resistance through which artists and filmmakers (including none other
than <a href="https://www.afi.com/news/its-a-wonderful-life-afi-catalog-spotlight/">Frank
Capra himself</a>) challenged and eventually helped end the Code. I’ve never
attended a NeMLA conference without coming away thoroughly impressed by at
least one scholarly presentation, and this was the paper that did it for me in
2024. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Last
reflection tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-85865002155684049132024-03-13T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-13T00:00:00.147-07:00March 13, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: My Panel on Nostalgia & the 50s<p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It was a
great time as it always is, so as usual here’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a series
of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared there! Leading
up to a few more reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On three
takeaways from <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/01/january-13-14-2024-vaughn-joys.html">Vaughn
Joy’s</a> excellent panel on “nostalgic extremism” on which I was lucky enough
to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Compelling Concept: I’ve thought a lot
over the last decade or so about the role that nostalgia plays in contemporary
political narratives like “<a href="https://werehistory.org/i-want-my-country-back/">I want my country back</a>!”
and “<a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/12/december-8-2016-fall-2016-reflections.html">Make
America Great Again</a>,” and since my dissertation/first book my most defining
<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Contesting_the_Past_Reconstructing_the_N/hK4DG04EDh4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">overarching
scholarly interest</a> has been in our collective visions of the past. But
there’s always more to think about and add into my sense of these topics, and Vaughn’s
concept of nostalgic extremism represents a particularly well-developed and
helpful perspective on those questions, especially when it comes to idealized visions
of the 1950s specifically in late 20<sup>th</sup> & early 21<sup>st</sup>
century American culture and society. I look forward to spending a lot more
time diving into all the ways this concept can help illuminate both individual cultural
works, broader social and political debates, and our overall narratives of past
and present alike. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My Complex Connection: For this panel, I
applied that concept to an analysis of my favorite film, John Sayles’
masterpiece <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/03/march-6-2019-remembering-alamo-lone-star.html">Lone
Star</a></i> (1996; SPOILERS in that hyperlinked post, as there were in my
NeMLA talk as well). Most of the flashbacks at the heart of Sayles’ 1990s film
focus on 1950s histories, and more exactly on an extremely nostalgically celebrated
figure from that earlier era, Sheriff Buddy Deeds. But as I thought about what
this new concept could help me analyze in this most-familiar film, I realized that
(without getting into as many spoilers here) what its protagonist Sam Deeds learns
about his father and the past both challenge some nostalgic myths yet also make
the case for embracing others if they can help protect more vulnerable members
of the community. Which is to say, I’d argue that there are distinct varieties of
nostalgia, <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538143438/Of-Thee-I-Sing-The-Contested-History-of-American-Patriotism">like
patriotism</a>, and that some are likewise more critical and constructive than
others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our Continuing Conversations: Besides Vaughn
as chair and my talk, the panel also featured two other papers, <a href="https://wp.rutgers.edu/people/writing-program-faculty/people-details/790-magrino-william">William
Magrino</a> on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Back to the Future</i>
films and <a href="https://englishcomplit.unc.edu/grad-student/eleanor-rambo/">Eleanor
Rambo</a> on the 21<sup>st</sup> century Russian musical (about a 1950s
subculture) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://costumesociety.org.uk/blog/post/stilyagi-fashion-youth-counterculture-and-individuality-in-the-communist-so#:~:text=Stilyagi%20was%20a%20youth%20counterculture,%2C%20or%20'style%20hunters'.">Stylyagi</a></i>.
Each offered a unique lens on the 50s, nostalgia, and late 20<sup>th</sup> and
early 21<sup>st</sup> century cultural works, but what was most interesting to
me was the way that all three of our papers, as well as Vaughn’s concept and
introduction, intersected around questions of where and how we can trace as
well as challenge idealized visions of the past, from a fictional suburban
community like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Valley_(Back_to_the_Future)">Hill
Valley</a> to the unique and striking Russian trend known as “<a href="https://www.x-rayaudio.com/x-rayaudiohistory">bone records</a>” to the
connections between familial and civic myths in Sayles’ film. As I’ve thought
about throughout my career, narratives of the past are created and challenged
in specific cultural conversations, and this panel helped me and all of us
think through particular versions of that trend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
reflection tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-71426731371039264032024-03-12T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-12T00:00:00.237-07:00March 12, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: NeMLA Reads Together <p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It was a
great time as it always is, so as usual here’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a series
of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared there! Leading
up to a few more reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On two
takeaways from the latest example of a wonderful communal endeavor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Almost
exactly four years ago, I wrote a <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2020/03/march-11-2020-nemla-recaps-andre-dubus.html">NeMLA
reflection post</a> highlighting the first iteration of the organization’s then-newest
conference idea, NeMLA Reads Together (which that year featured Andre Dubus III
and his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone So Long</i>). Before I
say a couple things about this year’s Read and author, I’d ask you to check out
that post if you would and then come on back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Welcome
back! This year’s NeMLA Reads Together book was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Land_of_Love_and_Drowning/l_EBDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Land
of Love and Drowning</a> </i>(2014), the debut novel from our <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/specialevents/keynote.html">keynote
address speaker</a> Tiphanie Yanique. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Land
of Love and Drowning</i> is a wonderful example of one of my very favorite
genres: a <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/04/april-25-2016-short-story-cycles-love.html">multigenerational
family novel</a>, spanning <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/04/april-26-2016-short-story-cycles-joy.html">decades
in the lives</a> of (in this case) a family on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin
Islands. Many of the novels I’ve read in that genre could be described as
social realism, but while Yanique’s certainly includes those layers, it also
features more supernatural elements in a prominent and particularly powerful
role (putting in conversation with another great multigenerational Caribbean
American novel from a now <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/09/september-6-2018-fall-2018-previews.html">frustratingly
fraught author</a>, Junot Díaz’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao </i>[2008]). I’ll have to think more about how
I’d analyze those supernatural elements, and look forward to the chance to do
so while teaching Yanique’s novel at some point; but I know they added
something striking and meaningful to her work in this familiar literary genre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The most important
benefit of the NeMLA Reads Together initiative is not just the chance to have and
read this shared text ahead of the conference, wonderful as that opportunity
is. It’s also and especially the opportunity to follow up that collective reading
by hearing from the author at the conference, in this special keynote address.
As illustrated by countless interviews like <a href="https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/tiphanie-yanique-talks-to-noreen-tomassi/">this
one</a> on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Land of Love and Drowning</i>
with Noreen Tomassi of Brooklyn’s Center for Fiction, Yanique is a thoughtful
and compelling voice far beyond her fiction, one who can connect her formal,
stylistic, and genre choices to thematic questions of place and community,
culture and heritage, the history of the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean, spirituality,
and more. To hear directly from such a voice offers distinct yet complementary
pleasures and inspirations to reading their work, and I came away from Yanique’s
talk as moved and inspired as I’ve been from every NeMLA Reads Together author
and work alike. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
reflection tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-90367745526454437772024-03-11T00:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T00:00:00.134-07:00March 11, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: Opening Address<p>[This past
weekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html">the Northeast MLA</a>. It was a
great time as it always is, so as usual here’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-3-2023-nemla-reflections-my-panel.html">a series
of reflections</a> on some of the great work I heard, saw, and shared there! Leading
up to a few more reflections on <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html">NeMLA as an organization</a>!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On three
important layers to <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/specialevents/opening.html">opening
speaker</a> Dr. Rickie Solinger’s public scholarly work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Books: Like every scholarly keynote speaker
I’ve ever encountered at NeMLA, <a href="https://nyupress.org/author/rickie-solinger/">Dr. Solinger</a> brought a
long and prolific publishing career with her to that podium. In this case, that
career has centered on a range of different publications tracing the history
and significance of reproductive politics in the United States, from monographs
like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Wake_Up_Little_Susie/rRhYAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Wake
Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before <span style="font-style: normal;">Roe
v. Wade</span></a></i> (1992) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Abortionist/aWOcDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">The
Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law</a></i> (2019) to textbooks like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reproductive_Justice/Yyw2DgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Reproductive
Justice: An Introduction</a></i> (2017, co-authored with Loretta Ross). We
can’t talk about reproductive politics in our own moment without engaging with
those multilayered histories and issues, and Dr. Solinger’s publications offer
a great starting point for that work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Exhibitions: As I know everyone reading this
blog would agree with, scholarly publications are far from the only way to get
our voices and ideas to audiences and into our conversations, and in her work
as a curator Dr. Solinger has also consistently done so through another medium:
museum exhibitions, both installed and traveling. A great example is 2013’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://news.umich.edu/mothers-behind-bars-featured-in-u-m-art-exhibit-lecture/">Interrupted
Life: Incarcerated Mothers in the United States</a></i>, a traveling exhibition
which as that write-up describes featured five mixed-media installations that
offered a variety of ways to present the voices, perspectives, identities,
experiences, and communities of its focal women. I had the chance many years
back to be part of a planned traveling exhibition for the then-in-development <a href="https://americanwritersmuseum.org/">American Writers Museum</a>, I can
attest to the incredible work that curators as well as artists put into these
exhibitions, making them very much a form of collaborative public scholarship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Engagement: As the NeMLA talk itself reflected
of course, Dr. Solinger, like most of us interested in public scholarship,
finds many opportunities to share her work beyond those more formal forms. That
includes not only more familiar forms like this compelling NeMLA keynote
address, but other and more unusual opportunities like the chance to <a href="https://familypreservation.blogspot.com/2007/07/rickie-solinger-speaks-on-adoption.html">talk
with an adoption rights blogger</a>, or a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1532578106833669">lunchtime
conversation (alongside her co-author Loretta Ross) with a student group</a>
like UMass Students for Reproductive Justice. Every NeMLA keynote speaker I’ve
seen has been distinct in important ways, but one linking thread has been their
desire to connect with audiences, including but far beyond that conference
community, and Dr. Solinger embodies that goal to be sure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
reflection tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. If you
were at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizations
you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-22774877428662747992024-03-09T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-09T00:00:00.134-08:00March 9-10, 2024: National Park Studying: National Historic Parks <p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ve celebrated Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday
by AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to this post on
National Historic Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;">On one
particularly impressive thing each at three of America’s many wonderful <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/heritagetravel/national-parks.htm">National
Historic Parks</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.nps.gov/apco/index.htm">Appomattox
Court House</a>: I visited Appomattox with my sons on a number of our annual <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/08/august-22-2016-virginia-places-lynchburg.html">Virginia
trips</a>, and each time I was struck by the same thing: the incredibly
impressive short informational film at the visitors center. That might be a
strange thing to highlight at a site surrounded by such history, but at the
same time the informational film is a key part of any historic site visit and
experience. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better one than Appomattox’s: in
just a few minutes it manages to feature not only the specific military and
diplomatic contexts of the Civil War’s closing moments, but also broader
histories of the build-up to the war, the war overall, and (most importantly
and impressively) the aftermaths of peace and abolition for African Americans
and the nation as a whole. If you’re ever in the Lynchburg, Virginia area, I
recommend Appomattox Court House National Historic Park for that wonderful
film alone (and a lot more, but the film by itself is enough to get you there)!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.nps.gov/apco/index.htm">Lowell</a>:
I’ve been to the Lowell Mills National Historic Park a handful of times, including
two wonderful visits with my sons’ respective 5<sup>th</sup> grade class field
trips. That has given me a unique appreciation for how the site teaches its
histories and stories to elementary school kids, and I have nothing but great
things to say about those educators and their tours and programs. But on those
two visits, just as on my prior and subsequent ones, I was most struck by one
particular exhibit: <a href="https://www.nps.gov/lowe/planyourvisit/upload/mgi_05.pdf">Mill Girls
& Immigrants</a>, an exhibit that makes perfect use of one of the mill’s
early 19<sup>th</sup> century boardinghouses. There’s a lot of great stuff in
that exhibit, but it features perhaps my favorite single museum space: a
recreated boardinghouse bedroom where, at the press of a button, the voices of
a group of mill workers (quoting from actual letters and journals) emerge from
different corners of the bedroom, overlapping and fading and reemerging in a
combination of individual identities and communal experience. I can’t possibly
do it justice, so if you’re ever in Lowell, be sure to visit the second floor
of that Mill Girls & Immigrants exhibit and see and hear it for yourself!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm">Minute
Man</a>: My sons’ other big 5<sup>th</sup> grade field trips were to Concord’s
Minute Man National Historic Park, but I didn’t get to tag along on those.
I’ve been to Minute Man a few times, however, and have each time been
particularly struck by one core element of the park. While the park features a
visitors center and a number of individual sites, its main attraction is the
long winding path on which visitors can follow the trail of the colonial <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp">Minute Men and the British Redcoats
on that historic April 1775 day</a>. While the highway is visible from certain
spots along the path, from many others it’s not; and overall the path, the
surrounding historic buildings, and even I believe the woods and other natural
landmarks have largely been preserved as they were in 1775. The effect reflects
the best kind of immersive experience that these National Historic Parks can
create, a sense that we have truly entered into a historic world and are
experiencing a partial but powerful version of that place and time. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
series starts Monday,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks, Historic or otherwise, you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PPS. After scheduling this post, I published a <a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/02/considering-history-national-parks-help-us-grapple-with-our-hardest-histories/"><i>Saturday Evening Post</i> Considering History column</a> inspired by our newest National Historic Site and looking at a range of others beyond these three!</span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-29871503679698276072024-03-08T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T00:00:00.148-08:00March 8, 2024: National Park Studying: Acadia<p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday by
AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National
Historical Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On a few
telling moments in the strikingly French history of the Maine National Park.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><a href="https://umaine.edu/canam/publications/st-croix/champlain-and-the-settlement-of-acadia-1604-1607/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">French
explorer Samuel de Champlain named Maine’s Mount Desert Island</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> when he
sailed past it on his second voyage to the Americas, in September 1604;
Champlain noted that “the tops of [the island’s mountains] are bare of trees,
because there is nothing there but rocks,” and so Mount Desert it was. Nine
years later, in 1613, the </span><a href="http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-078/summary/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jesuit priest Father Pierre Biard</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and forty
settlers established the first French missionary colony on the island, in the
area of Southwest Harbor; but later that same year, the </span><a href="http://www.virginiaplaces.org/settleland/frenchafterjamestown.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">English
Captain Samuel Argall sailed north from Jamestown</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and
destroyed the settlement, taking two priests back to Jamestown as prisoners. As
that last hyperlinked article illustrates, the early 17<sup>th</sup> century
was full of such back and forth conflicts between the French and English up and
down the Eastern seaboard, and the earliest history of what would become Acadia
was defined largely by those shifting European American winds (while the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/historyculture/wabanakilife.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">region’s
Wabanaki people</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> were of course an established part of that history as well and
remained a vital </span><a href="https://visitmaine.com/quarterly/acadia/wabanaki"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">part of it through each evolution</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The island
changed hands between the two nations at least a few more times over the next
century and a half, but a late 18<sup>th</sup> century moment reflects a very
different international relationship as of the period of the American
Revolution. Mount Desert Island had been under the control of the English Royal
Governor of Massachusetts, </span><a href="http://www.revolutionarycharacters.org/francis-bernard/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sir
Francis Bernard</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, since 1760, and in 1780 the newly independent state of
Massachusetts granted the western half of the island to (or, I suppose, kept it
in the possession of) </span><a href="http://maineanencyclopedia.com/mount-desert-island/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Bernard’s
son John</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. But the eastern half was granted instead to </span><a href="https://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/historical-records-early-island-ownership"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Marie
Therese de Gregoire</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, a Frenchwoman and granddaughter of the
French explorer and island’s 17<sup>th</sup> century titleholder </span><a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/antoine-de-la-mothe-cadillac"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Antoine de
la Mothe Cadillac</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Both John Bernard and Marie de Gregoire were
of course the descendants of elite families, reflecting a continuation of
landed gentry roles even in Revolutionary and post-Revolution America. But at
the same time, this joint US and French ownership of the island was from what I
can tell a first in its history, and illustrates both </span><a href="http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-1-2013-revolutionary-realities.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">France’s
vital role in the American Revolution</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and the ongoing relationship between
the two nations (one that, of course, would be </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-3-2010-alien-nation.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">severely
tested</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> before the end of the 18<sup>th</sup> century).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When much
of Mount Desert Island was first preserved by the federal government in the
early 20<sup>th</sup> century, the two initial such efforts overtly honored
these Franco-American histories. In July 1916 President Woodrow Wilson
established </span><a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/98687174/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sieur de
Monts National Monument</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, naming it after an early French explorer and
compatriot of Champlain’s (</span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/sacr/learn/historyculture/pierredugua.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pierre
Dugua, Sieur de Mons</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">). Three years later, when the area was upgraded
to full National Park status, it was named </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/historyculture/history-of-acadia.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lafayette
National Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in honor of the Revolutionary War hero the </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-1-2013-revolutionary-realities.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Marquis de
Lafayette</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Even Acadia, the name given to the park instead in 1929, is a
tribute to the French legacy in the area, as </span><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-acadia/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Acadia was
a French colony</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in northeastern North America that included Maine. But Sieur de
Monts and Lafayette more directly highlight and embody those Franco-American
figures and stories, and better remembering them as part of the establishment
and development of Acadia National Park helps us keep those contested,
conflicted, crucial Maine and American histories in our collective memories. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">National
Historical Parks this weekend,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-47441152072768733632024-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T04:50:13.606-08:00March 7, 2024: National Park Studying: Mesa Verde <p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday by
AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National
Historical Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On two
distinct but complementary effects to a foundational AmericanStudier moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I was
in 7<sup>th</sup> grade, my family and I took a trip out West to visit a number
of </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2017/06/june-20-2017-mysterious-beach-reads.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Southwestern
National Parks</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. We saw Zion, Bryce, Four Corners, and the Grand Motherfucking
Canyon (pardon my French, but I’m pretty sure that’s the full official name),
and even checked out </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-21-2012-big-easy-and-friends.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a bit of
Las Vegas</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> when we flew in and out of the city. But there’s no doubt at all
that it was </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Colorado’s
Mesa Verde National Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that most affected this 12 year old
AmericanStudier. There were lots of spaces and moments in Mesa Verde that hit
me, but by far the most moving was a post-sunset encounter with a coyote as we
explored an aboveground (ie, not a cliff dwelling) Pueblo ruin in the park.
Probably didn’t hurt that I had been </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2017/06/june-20-2017-mysterious-beach-reads.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">reading a
bunch of Tony Hillerman</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> mysteries on the trip, as the moment felt
right out of such evocative Southwestern thrillers (although luckily we didn’t
stumble upon a dead body or awaken an ancient curse or the like). But I would
say that the moment affected me, and indeed was foundational for my lifelong
AmericanStudying, in a couple key ways that go well beyond Leaphorn & Chee
mysteries and that also reflect essential elements to a site like Mesa Verde.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For one
thing, the moment made crystal clear something that a know-it-all 12 year old
(or 46 year old…) can sometimes have difficulties remembering: just how much I
didn’t and don’t know. As I wrote in that same </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2017/06/june-20-2017-mysterious-beach-reads.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">blog post
on Hillerman</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, Mesa Verde has long been defined by a couple central mysteries
of its own: the question of </span><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/riddles-of-the-anasazi-85274508/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">why the
Anasazi people</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> abandoned </span><a href="https://www.livescience.com/27360-mesa-verde.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">their
cliff dwellings</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and what happened to them after they left. It appears that </span><a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.17/features-archaeology-indigenous-knowledge-untangles-the-mystery-of-mesa-verde"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">some
significant recent progress</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> has been made in answering those questions,
which of course is part of the historical and cultural process as well. But in
truth, the mystery of Mesa Verde is just a more extreme version of a
fundamental but all too easily forgotten fact about all historical
knowledge—there’s a lot more that we don’t know than we’ll ever know, and most
of the things we do know we only kinda know (to get </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiPe1OiKQuk"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">all Rumsfeldian</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on ya).
And that’s never more true than when it comes to the simple but crucial
question of what it meant, or really what it felt like, to live in these
historical periods and places. I love the interpretations of the past at places
like </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-16-2013-americanstudies-daytrips.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Plimoth
Plantation</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and </span><a href="http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-29-2016-colonial-williamsburg.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Colonial
Williamsburg</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, but that’s all they are, interpretations; we’ll never really
know what life was like for those folks in those worlds, and I felt that
divide, acutely and potently, as I stood atop that darkened Mesa Verde ruin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But at the
same time, I felt something else, something I’d call not contradictory so much
as complementary: I wanted to bridge that divide. I wanted to learn as much as
I could about periods and places and peoples, really all of ‘em but most
especially all those that felt most distinct from me and mine. I wanted to read
about them and talk about them and, perhaps most of all, write about them, help
create stories that could, not exactly bring them back to life of course, but
make them a part of our own moment and world as fully as those unavoidable gaps
would allow. I don’t think that was the first time I felt that desire so
acutely (I’m sure I did on my </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2014/06/june-23-2014-americanstudier-camp-camp.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Camp
Virginia trips</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, for example), but it was one of the strongest such moments, and
it has stuck with me to be sure. I’ve visited and been inspired by a lot of
cultural and historic sites in the decades since, including a number of federal
National Historic Parks, and will write about some of my favorites in that
latter category in the weekend post. But Mesa Verde remains striking and
perhaps singular in that regard, a place and moment with which I was confronted
with especial force with both the challenges and the call of all that I’ve
tried to spend my career doing. So, y’know, it’s well worth a visit if you’re out
that way!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Last Park
tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-26261664659416470812024-03-06T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T00:00:00.244-08:00March 6, 2024: National Park Studying: Everglades <p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday by
AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National
Historical Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the
very American story of the woman who helped save the Everglades.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since
2018, the name Marjory Stoneman Douglas has likely and tragically become
synonymous with the </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/tags/586217256/marjory-stoneman-douglas-high-school"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Parkland, Florida
mass shooting</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in February at the </span><a href="https://www.browardschools.com/stonemandouglas"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">high school named for her</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. But
while of course we can and should continue remembering the Douglas High
shooting (and celebrating the </span><a href="https://www.axios.com/go-deeper-where-the-parkland-student-activists-are-now-879a912f-3e99-45bf-a36b-041617891a66.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">amazing
group of Parkland students</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> who have turned that tragedy into an occasion
for activism), Marjory Stoneman Douglas deserves separate and full
commemoration as well. In </span><a href="https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/marjory-stoneman-douglas/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a 108-year
life</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that spanned nearly all of the 20<sup>th</sup> century (she was
born in April 1890 and passed away in May 1998), Marjory Stoneman experienced a
number of striking and very telling moments, including many by the time she
turned 25: from watching her </span><a href="http://scholar.library.miami.edu/msdouglas/early_years.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">mother,
concert violinist Florence Lillian Trefethen, get committed</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> to a
mental hospital in Providence for being “high-strung” to </span><a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/news/2018/stories/node/142831"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">attending
Wellesley College</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and helping form its first suffrage club;
from a brief marriage to charming con artist Kenneth Douglas (who was already
married at the time and subsequently attempted to defraud Marjory’s father) to </span><a href="https://lithub.com/on-the-many-braveries-of-marjory-stoneman-douglas/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a
groundbreaking 1915 divorce</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and move to Miami (then a small town of less
than 5000) to rejoin her father and join the staff of his </span><a href="http://historymiamiarchives.org/guides/?p=digitallibrary/digitalcontent&id=389">decade-old
newspaper <i>The Miami Herald</i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;">For the
next few decades, Douglas (she continued to go by her married name for the rest
of her life) made quite a name for herself as a South Florida (and national)
journalist and literary figure. (After serving in both the <a href="http://prospect.org/article/who-was-marjory-stoneman-douglas"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">navy and
the Red Cross during World War I</span></a>.) Besides her <a href="http://scholar.library.miami.edu/msdouglas/miami.html">work for
the <i>Herald</i></a>, which included long stints as Book Review Editor and Assistant
Editor, she also worked extensively as a freelance and creative writer; she
published <a href="http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/02/26/history/marjory-stoneman-douglas-saturday-evening-post.html">forty
stories in the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i></a>, for example, and also wrote a number
of one-act plays for the Miami Theater as well as the <a href="https://livingnewdeal.org/be-a-nuisance-where-it-counts-the-legacy-of-marjory-stoneman-douglas/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">foreword
to the WPA’s 1941 guide to Miami</span></a>. Around that same time, however,
Douglas became involved with the cause that would define her second
half-century of life, and all of America, very fully. The publisher <a href="http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Farrar_%26_Rinehart"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Farrar & Rinehart</span></a>
approached her to write a book on the Miami River for their new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_America_Series"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rivers of
America series</span></a>; as she began her research Douglas found herself unimpressed by
the river but profoundly moved by the Everglades, and convinced F&R to let
her research and write a book on them instead. She spent five years researching
and writing, working closely with <a href="https://sofia.usgs.gov/memorials/parker/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">geologist Garald Parker</span></a>, and the
result was<i> </i><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Everglades.html?id=yymmDQhYmzgC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>The
Everglades: River of Grass</i></span></a> (1947), a monumental achievement that sold
out its initial printing in a month and remains one of the most significant and
influential works of American naturalism.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">River of Grass</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was just
the beginning, however (and not even that, as Douglas had been fighting for
local environmental causes for decades by that time). Over the next
half-century, Douglas would more than earn her nickname “</span><a href="https://womeninfloridahistory.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/marjory-stoneman-douglas-the-grande-dame-of-the-everglades/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Grande
Dame of Everglades</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,” waging continual war to protect and
preserve the wetlands from developers, politicians, corporations, sport hunters
and fishermen, and just about every other adversary one could imagine. Douglas
titled the last chapter of </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/08/opinion/the-editorial-notebook-marjory-douglas-s-everglades.html"><i>River of
Grass</i> “The Eleventh Hour</a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,” warning that the region was on the brink of
destruction; but in December of that same year </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Everglades National Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was
dedicated, and thanks to those federal protections and Douglas’s lifelong
efforts, the area instead has become the largest tropical wilderness in the US
and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi. No individual
can achieve such milestones single-handedly, of course; but at the same time,
American history reminds us time and again of the power a determined and
impressive individual can have to help shape the future. Marjory Stoneman
Douglas most definitely did so for the Everglades and South Florida—and having
had the good fortune to visit the Glades a few times as a kid (my maternal
grandparents had retired to South Florida), I can testify that she helped
preserve a truly unique and amazing American space.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next Park
tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-82181587404007113112024-03-05T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T00:00:00.243-08:00March 5, 2024: National Park Studying: Blackstone River Valley <p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday by
AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National
Historical Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 106.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On two
interesting comparisons for one of our newest National Parks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 106.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Just a few
years ago, as a small part of a very large Congressional bill (the National
Defense Authorization Act of 2015), the </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/blac/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">longstanding Blackstone River Valley
National Heritage Corridor</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was upgraded, </span><a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20141212/NEWS/312129827/1116"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">becoming
(after a decade of efforts and activism) the Blackstone River Valley National
Historical Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. As that second linked article suggests, the change is far more
than semantic—gaining National Park status brings with it a great deal of
development and support, linking the area to the National Park Service and
turning it into much more of a organized and coherent entity than had been
possible in the prior incarnation. The self-proclaimed (American) “</span><a href="https://www.clarku.edu/bwhc/images/Web_Pages/Historical%20Perspective.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Birthplace
of the Industrial Revolution</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,” an area running along the potent Blackstone
River from Worcester all the way to Providence, Rhode Island (making it one of
the few National Parks to span multiple states), will now be </span><a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-113srpt62/html/CRPT-113srpt62.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">presented
and interpreted in all its historical and social significance</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> for
generations to come.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 106.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This new
park’s multi-state span is one of a few things that differentiate it from most
of its fellow National Parks, but I would still highlight a couple of
comparisons that can shed light on what and how this park might achieve its
goals most effectively. </span><a href="http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-19-20-2012-neasa-colloquium.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Salem,
Massachusetts is home</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> to a wonderful park, the </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/sama/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Salem Maritime National Historic Site</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.
Featuring a dozen buildings, multiple wharfs, </span><a href="http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-26-2011-post-of-seven-links.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a
reconstructed tall ship</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and a number of other elements, the Salem
Maritime park does an excellent job interpreting multiple centuries and stages
of work, community, and life in the city and region. The </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/sama/historyculture/wharves.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Derby Wharf
section</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> alone includes all those centuries and stages in its different
buildings and placards. Compared, for example, to battlefield national parks
such as </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gettysburg</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> or </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/york/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yorktown</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, which
focus on a few days’ worth of historical events and issues, the Blackstone
River Valley Park will have to cover more than a century of industrial and
social history and culture, and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site
provides an excellent model for doing so successfully.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 106.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the
other hand, Salem Maritime occupies an area of a few square miles; the
Blackstone River Valley Park will cover (as has the Heritage Corridor) a
distance of some forty-five miles, to say nothing of how far it extends on both
sides of the river. For a comparison with that element, I would turn to one of
the national parks around which I grew up: Virginia’s </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/shen/index.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Shenandoah National Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. The </span><a href="http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/driving-skyline-drive.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Skyline
Drive</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, a winding, scenic road atop the Blue Ridge Mountains, travels
more than 100 miles, and yet is all part of the same unified national park
identity and interpretation, with its many distinct stops and areas comprising
their own unique identities yet tied together consistently and coherently.
While Shenandoah and Skyline focus much more on natural rather than historical
or cultural subjects, this large yet linked and coherent park community offers
a rich and successful model for how a park as spacious and far-reaching as
Blackstone River Valley can move through its many different places and
communities yet maintain that overarching sense identity and history. I’ll be
interested to see how Blackstone River Valley takes its next steps!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next Park
tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-88669283942181030752024-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-04T00:00:00.240-08:00March 4, 2024: National Park Studying: Yosemite<p>[On <a href="https://www.doi.gov/about/history#:~:text=It%20wasn't%20until%20March,Else%3A%20Highlights%20of%20Interior%20History.">March
3<sup>rd</sup>, 1849</a>, Congress created a new federal government agency, the
Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal
points has become the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm">National Park
System</a>, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175<sup>th</sup> birthday by
AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National
Historical Parks!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On six
figures who help narrate the unfolding history of an early National Park.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Chief Tenaya and Lafayette Bunnell: The first
European Americans that we know for sure entered California’s Yosemite Valley were
a battalion of US Army soldiers led by </span><a href="http://www.yosemitetales.com/hiking-biking/james-d-savage-1817-1852/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Major
James Savage</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; the so-called Mariposa Battalion were chasing </span><a href="http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_indians/history.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ahwahneechee
Chief Tenaya</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and his forces as part of </span><a href="http://www.militarymuseum.org/Mariposa.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1851 military efforts</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> to
destroy the area’s Native American communities. That’s a pretty bleak starting
point for a US relationship to Yosemite, but it didn’t go entirely
unchallenged—traveling with the battalion was </span><a href="http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/5/v05i02p124-129.pdf"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dr.
Lafayette Bunnell</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and the physician would go on to interview
Tenaya at length, learn the region’s name and history from him, and eventually
author the book<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span><a href="https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/discovery_of_the_yosemite/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Discovery
of the Yosemite and the Indian War of 1851 which Led to that Event</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (1880).
Bunnell of course was wrong to call it a “discovery,” a choice that reflected
and reinforced a Eurocentric view of the region to be sure. But his book helped
make more Americans aware of this beautiful and important space, and was a
crucial step toward conservation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson: As
with virtually all of the late 19<sup>th</sup> century’s conservation efforts,
the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/muir.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">push to
preserve Yosemite</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was led by the Scottish-born </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2014/01/january-9-2014-san-fran-sites-muir-woods.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">naturalist,
scientist, and activist John Muir</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Muir became enamored of Yosemite at
a young age, writing frequently about the region’s wonders and even helping
develop (</span><a href="https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/yosemite_glaciers.aspx"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">in his
first published work</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">!) the controversial (and now widely accepted)
theory that they had </span><a href="https://www.nemoequipment.com/the-story-of-john-muir-and-his-beloved-glaciers/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">been
created by alpine glaciers</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. But Muir alone could not persuade the
federal government to help conserve Yosemite, and thankfully he had help from
other prominent Americans who shared his views. Chief among them was </span><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4078958/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Robert
Underwood Johnson</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, one of the era’s most famed literary figures
(he edited <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Century Magazine</i> among
many other roles); </span><a href="https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/people/johnson.aspx"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Johnson
camped in Yosemite with Muir</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in 1889 and went on to help him successfully
lobby Congress to pass the October 1, 1890 Act that created Yosemite National
Park. Their partnership exemplifies the best of the nascent Progressive Era and
of how allies from different communities can help advance causes of
environmental justice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ansel Franklin Hall and Rosalie Edge: National
Park status ensures a certain level of conservation and protection, but of
course doesn’t necessarily guarantee enough travel and support to keep a park
thriving beyond that starting point. One of the most important figures in the
park’s early years, Park Naturalist (and later the National Park Service’s
first Chief Naturalist) </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/sontag/hall.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ansel
Franklin Hall</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, was crucial in </span><a href="https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/guide_to_yosemite/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">moving the
park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in those directions: he founded the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/yosemite-museum.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yosemite
Museum</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (which featured Native American craftspeople and interpreters),
developed numerous interpretive programs, and edited the </span><a href="https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/handbook_of_yosemite_national_park/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1921
Handbook of Yosemite National Park</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Complementing Hall’s efforts from
inside the park were those of external advocates like </span><a href="https://www.biography.com/news/rosalie-edge-biography-facts"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rosalie
Edge</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, creator and head of the </span><a href="https://training.fws.gov/History/ConservationHeroes/Edge.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">National
Audobon Society’s Emergency Conservation Committee</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (ECC); in
1937, </span><a href="https://greengroundswell.com/rosalie-edge-hawk-of-mercy-book-review/2013/08/22/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Edge
lobbied Congress</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> to purchase 8000 acres of forest on the
park’s edge that were scheduled to be logged, making them part of the park’s
expanding identity instead. Thanks to Hall, Edge, and their peers, Yosemite not
only endured but expanded and thrived throughout the 20<sup>th</sup> century,
and remains a vital American space and destination into the 21<sup>st</sup>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next Park
tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-68636517847009917182024-03-02T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-02T00:00:00.130-08:00March 2-3, 2024: February 2024 Recap<p>[A Recap
of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-5-2024-americanstudying-sports.html">February
5: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Bad News Boys and Bears</a>: This year’s
Super Bowl series focused on sports films, starting with our problematic
obsession with lovable losers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-6-2024-americanstudying-sports.html">February
6: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Hoosiers and Rudy</a>: The series continued
with the untold histories behind stories of underdog champions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-7-2024-americanstudying-sports.html">February
7: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: The Longest Yard(s)</a>: What the changes
between a film and its remake can tell us about American narratives, as the series
plays on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-8-2024-americanstudying-sports.html">February
8: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook</a>:
The interesting results when an unconventional filmmaker works in a deeply
conventional genre. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-9-2024-americanstudying-sports.html">February
9: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: Remember the Titans</a>: The series
concludes with the over-the-top scene and speech that really shouldn’t work,
but somehow do. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-10-11-2024-americanstudying.html">February
10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch</a>!: A special follow-up with
my pitch for a sports movie adapting one of our most inspiring histories! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-12-2024-americanstudying-love.html">February
12: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “At Last”</a>: With love in the air, this
year’s Valentine’s series focused on love songs, kicking off with the
biographical and cultural layers to a timeless classic. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-13-2024-americanstudying-love.html">February
13: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Wake Up Little Susie”</a>: The series
continues with the boundary between innocence and sex in early rock and roll,
and a song that cut across it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-14-2024-americanstudying-love.html">February
14: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “You Can’t Hurry Love”</a>: What’s special
about one of Motown’s countless classic love songs, as the series serenades on.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-15-2024-americanstudying-love.html">February
15: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Storybook Love”</a>: A beautiful example of a
film love song that’s about both the movie and the romance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-16-2024-americanstudying-love.html">February
16: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Happy”</a>: Couldn’t get through the week
without some Bruce, and here’s my favorite of his many great “adult love songs.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-17-18-2024-americanstudying.html">February
17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics</a>: The series concludes
with five 21<sup>st</sup> century love songs sure to become classics!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-19-2024-prejudicial-non.html">February
19: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Jefferson and Banneker</a>: For this year’s
non-favorites series I focused on moments when generally impressive figures
gave in to white supremacy, starting with a Framer’s frustratingly racist
response. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-20-2024-prejudicial-non.html">February
20: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Lincoln’s Mass Execution</a>: The series
continues with two ways in which our greatest president gave in to white
supremacist violence and exclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-21-2024-prejudicial-non.html">February
21: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Anthony’s Priorities</a>: A collective and an individual
frustration with an inspiring figure’s worst quote, as the series gripes on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-22-2024-prejudicial-non.html">February
22: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Harlan’s Exclusions</a>: A history and a
contemporary lesson from an iconic Justice’s prejudices. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-23-2024-prejudicial-non.html">February
23: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: London’s Fighting Words</a>: The series concludes
with an ugly moment when white supremacy trumped athletic supremacy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-24-25-2024-biden-and-anti.html">February
24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives</a>: A special follow-up post,
highlighting a thread where I critiqued our current president’s embrace of
xenophobia. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-26-2024-leap-years-1816.html">February
26: Leap Years: 1816</a>: For this once-every-four-years occasion, a Leap Year
Studying series kicks off with three 1816 trends. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-27-2024-leap-years-1848.html">February
27: Leap Years: 1848</a>: The series continues with how three distinct events
within a 10-day period in early 1848 changed the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-28-2024-leap-years-1904.html">February
28: Leap Years: 1904</a>: Five of the many cultural legacies of the 1904 World’s
Fair, as the series leaps on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-29-2024-leap-years-1948.html">February
29: Leap Years: 1948</a>: A couple significant 1948 election contexts beyond the
justifiably famous “Dewey Defeats Truman.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/03/march-1-2024-leap-years-1984-in-film.html">March
1: Leap Years: 1984 in Film</a>: The series and month conclude with how three
1984 blockbusters reflect 80s debates. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
series starts Monday,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. Topics
you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? </span><a href="mailto:brailton@fitchburgstate.edu"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lemme know</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">!<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-24542987569655208022024-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:002024-03-01T00:00:00.249-08:00March 1, 2024: Leap Years: 1984 in Film<p>[In honor
of this <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html">once-in-four-years
phenomenon</a>, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap
years from American history.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How three
of the year’s many </span><a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1984/?ref_=bo_cso_table_135"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">blockbuster
films</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> reflect 1980s debates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/04/april-2-2019-80s-comedies-ghostbusters.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ghostbusters</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: I said
much of what I’d want to say about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghostbusters</i>’
fraught relationship between science and the supernatural in that hyperlinked
post. But it’s also worth stressing, as I did briefly there too, that the
film’s conflicts also and perhaps ultimately boil down to the government vs.
private citizens, with the film’s sympathies entirely resting with the latter
community. In that way, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghostbusters </i>can
be seen as an extension of </span><a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes-speeches/news-conference-1/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ronald
Reagan’s famous quote</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, “The nine most terrifying words in the
English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” With
which, when it comes to </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-tYZkJ2p54"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">William Atherton’s</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> deeply annoying
EPA agent Walter Peck, it’s difficult to argue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTIjIC00VwI"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Beverly
Hills Cop</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: The central conflicts in Eddie Murphy’s star-making
action-comedy are distinct from, and to my mind a lot more complicated than,
those in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghostbusters</i>. On the
surface, those conflicts are the titular ones related to class and setting, as
Murphy’s working-class cop (Axel Foley) from the working-class </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-24-2012-detroit-connections.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">mecca of
Detroit</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> finds himself pursuing criminals in the nation’s most famously
wealthy, elite location. But it’s impossible to separate those contrasts from
issues of race, not least because Murphy’s character focuses a good bit on how
he is perceived and treated as a black man in the largely white world of
Beverly Hills. And yet, he eventually achieves his goals by partnering with a
white Beverly Hills cop (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjWxyJtUdo"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Judge Reinhold’s Billy Rosewood</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">), a
relationship that crosses all these boundaries and (in the long tradition of </span><a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/best-buddy-cop-movies-ever.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">buddy cop
films</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">) models a more productive form of community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4narQca4Oc"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Footloose</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: Kevin
Bacon’s star-making film presents a somewhat similar fish-out-of-water
scenario, but in a very different direction: in this case the boy from the big
city finds himself in a far more isolated and conservative small town, one
where concerns of morality (guided by </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_C4fK94-c"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">John Lithgow’s minister</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
character) have led to bans of both rock and roll music and dancing. Lithgow is
a talented actor and so imbues that character and perspective with more depth
and humanity than might otherwise have been the case, giving us a sense of why
someone (and thus why an entire community) might pursue these extremist
practices. More broadly, I think the film reflects an emerging division that
has only become more pronounced in the 35 years since, a vision of a nation in
which urban and rural communities seem defined by not only distinct but
contrasting values and identities. If only we had Kevin Bacon’s charismatic Ren
to teach us all to dance together!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">February
Recap this weekend,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-88232702353282313612024-02-29T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-29T00:00:00.253-08:00February 29, 2024: Leap Years: 1948<p>[In honor
of this <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html">once-in-four-years
phenomenon</a>, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap
years from American history.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 315.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On a
couple significant election contexts beyond “Dewey Defeats Truman.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 315.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Don’t get me
wrong—</span><a href="http://www.deweydefeatstruman.com/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Dewey
Defeats Truman”</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was a unique historical moment, and the shot of a jubilant </span><a href="http://www.deweydefeatstruman.com/truman-dewey-c.jpg"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Truman
holding a copy of that November 3<sup>rd</sup> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicago Tribune</i></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> is one of the more rightfully iconic 20<sup>th</sup>
century photographs. The moment also reminds us of just how much American
newspapers have always been affiliated with partisan politics: the </span><a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/275.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tribune</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was a solidily Republican-leaning
paper</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> with no love lost for the incumbent Democrat, and its choice to
allow veteran political analyst </span><a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794540,00.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Arthur
Sears Henning’s</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> electoral prediction to determine their next day’s front page
(the paper went to press prior to the close of polls on the West coast) was no
doubt due at least in part to editorial wishful thinking. It’s easy to decry
the partisanship of contemporary newspapers and news media (for more on which </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/11/november-5-6-2016-electionstudying-media.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">see this
post</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">), but in truth that’s been part of their identity throughout
American history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 315.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But even
if the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribune</i> had gotten its
prediction right, the 1948 presidential election would still be a hugely
significant one. For one thing, there was South Carolina Senator </span><a href="http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/dixiecrats.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Strom Thurmond and his third-party run
as a Dixiecrat</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (or, officially, States’ Rights Democrat). Few American histories
have been more influential than the long, gradual realignment of politics,
race, and region, a story that starts as far back </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/11/november-1-2016-electionstudying-1864.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">as Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and extends </span><a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/cmaukonen/2011/08/02/the-tea-party-caucus-the-demographics/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">right up
to our present moment</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Yet despite that century and a half long
arc, the splintering of the Democratic Party at </span><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/1948-democratic-convention-878284/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the 1948
national convention</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> represents a striking and singular moment, a
fulcrum on which those political and social realities permanently shifted.
There were all sorts of complicating factors, not least </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Senator-Memoir-Daughter-Thurmond/dp/B001PO68XS"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thurmond’s
own secrets and hypocrises</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> when it came to race—but at the broadest
level, few election-year moments have echoed more dramatically than did the
Dixiecrat revolt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 315.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
another thing, both Truman and Dewey used the mass media in an unprecedented
way in the campaign’s closing weeks. The </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=8fp1A2s6aQwC&pg=PA829&lpg=PA829&dq=harry+truman+1948+newsreel+film&source=bl&ots=6e7Jbjavac&sig=dNqv3cHe31CLdQa2HjrQ3nzXmF4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=POsAVOKYCZKQyATyj4GYDA&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=harry%20truman%201948%20newsreel%20film&f=false"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">two
campaigns created short newsreel films</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that were played in movie theaters
across the country, reach an estimated 65 million filmgoers each week. The
first </span><a href="https://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Kennedy-Nixon_Debates"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">televised
1960 debate</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon
is often described as the first </span><a href="http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/sixties/essays/great-debate-kennedy-nixon-and-television-1960-race-for-presidency"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">national
political moment of the media age</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—or even as </span><a href="http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2021078,00.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a moment
that “changed the world”</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—and certainly its live broadcast to a
national audience represented something new in American electoral politics. But
since so much of politics in the media age has not been live, has instead
comprised constructed and produced media images and narratives, it’s fair to
say that Truman’s and Dewey’s competing movies likewise foreshadowed a great
deal of what was to come in the subsequent half-century and more of elections.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Last leap
year studying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-56061499742599243332024-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-28T00:00:00.138-08:00February 28, 2024: Leap Years: 1904<p>[In honor
of this <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html">once-in-four-years
phenomenon</a>, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap
years from American history.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On five of
the many cultural legacies of the </span><a href="https://explorestlouis.com/itinerary/all-the-worlds-a-fair/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1904
World’s Fair</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in St. Louis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 20.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Fair Foods: As is often the case with large
public events like fairs, the 1904 World’s Fair didn’t necessarily debut many
of its striking innovations, but it did feature them and thus bring them to
more widespread attention. That was never more true than with </span><a href="https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/01/food-history-1904-worlds-fair-st-louis.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">its
culinary highlights</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, a partial list of which includes: hamburgers
and hot dogs, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/magazine/who-made-that-ice-cream-cone.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ice cream cones</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, cotton
candy, </span><a href="https://www.stlmag.com/history/st-louis-sage/ask-the-st-louis-sage-were-dr-pepper-and-7up/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dr. Pepper
and 7Up</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> sodas, and </span><a href="https://invention.si.edu/alexander-anderson-and-cereal-shot-guns"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Puffed
Wheat cereal</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Visitors to this epic fair could truly eat their way into
American history!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 20.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Flight: The </span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/115-years-ago-wright-brothers-make-history-at-kitty-hawk/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wright
Brothers’ first manned flight</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> had taken place less than six months before
the fair’s April 30<sup>th</sup> opening, and as you’d expect flight became a
central focus for the fair’s exhibits. That included the famous “</span><a href="https://atthefair.homestead.com/Misc/Aeronauticconcorse.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Airship
Contest</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,” which promised a $100,000 prize (nearly $3 million in our
current society) to any flying machine which could successfully navigate the
“Aeronautic Concourse” while traveling at 15 miles per hour or higher. Although
no vehicle won the prize, the fair did feature a ground-breaking act of flight,
as </span><a href="https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/kings-of-the-air-3437428/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thomas
Scott Baldwin and Roy Knabenshue’s dirigible</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> became the first such airship to fly
in public. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 20.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.olympic.org/st-louis-1904"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Summer
Olympics</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: The modern version of the Olympic Games began in </span><a href="https://www.olympic.org/athens-1896"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1896 in Athens</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and the
second games were held in conjunction with </span><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/paris-1900-games-at-the-centre-of-the-world"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the 1900
Paris Exposition</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. So it made sense that the first games held
outside of Europe would be similarly paired with the 1904 Fair, but in fact </span><a href="https://www.history.com/news/8-unusual-facts-about-the-1904-st-louis-olympics"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Chicago
was initially awarded the 1904 games</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and they were only moved to St. Louis
when the fair organizers threatened to hold an alternate contest. Partly for
that reason, and partly because St. Louis was more difficult to reach, </span><a href="https://www.olympic.org/pierre-de-coubertin"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Olympics founder Baron Pierre de
Coubertin</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> did not attend, nor did many international athletes (nearly 600
of the 651 competing athletes came from North America). But holding the games
outside Europe at all, and in the US specifically, was a significant step
nonetheless, and one tied to the 1904 World’s Fair.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 20.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><a href="https://www.katechopin.org/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kate
Chopin</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: Chopin, one of America’s most talented turn of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century authors and both a native and longtime resident of St. Louis, was only
54 when she attended the fair on August 20<sup>th</sup> (she had bought a season
ticket and had attended many prior times as well). That day was one of the
hottest of the summer, however, and that night Chopin called her son
complaining of a severe headache. It is believed that she had a cerebral
hemorrhage; the next day she fell unconscious, and </span><a href="https://www.katechopin.org/biography/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">she died without waking</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on August
22<sup>nd</sup>. She would be prominently buried in the </span><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4166/kate-chopin"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">city’s
Calvary Cemetery</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, one more reflection—as was the World’s Fair
itself—of the deep interconnections between St. Louis and this ground-breaking
literary voice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 20.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 142.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis”: I don’t want to
end on that tragic note, so here’s one more way the World’s Fair continued to
echo into American culture long after it closed its gates on December 1<sup>st</sup>.
The aforementioned song was written in response to the fair and recorded by
many artists over the years (perhaps the first being </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf_DvVW1q1g"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Billy Murray’s version</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, recorded
while the fair was still ongoing), but became especially prominent through </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqezXDgObWE"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Judy Garland’s performance</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in the
1944 movie </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdEouRM7Xv8"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Meet Me in St. Louis</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Thanks
to that film, and the </span><a href="https://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_m/meet_louis.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">late 20<sup>th</sup>
century Broadway musical</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> adaptation of the same title, the 1904
World’s Fair seems destined to stay in our collective memories beyond even
these various, striking influences. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next leap
year studying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-7273231136003132482024-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-27T00:00:00.261-08:00February 27, 2024: Leap Years: 1848<p>[In honor
of this <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html">once-in-four-years
phenomenon</a>, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap
years from American history.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On how
three distinct events within a 10-day period helped change America and the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On </span><a href="https://www.coloma.com/california-gold-discovery/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">January 24<sup>th</sup>,
1848</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/marshall.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">James
Wilson Marshall</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> found gold on the property of </span><a href="https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sutter.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Johann/John
Sutter</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">’s in-construction sawmill on the American River near the small
town of Coloma, California. Marshall had been gradually migrating West from his
New Jersey birthplace since 1834, and in 1845 reached the settlement of </span><a href="https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=485"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sutter’s Fort</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, a cross-cultural
outpost in the Mexican territory of Alta California. Sutter, the town founder
and alcalde, employed Marshall to help run his businesses, although that work
was interrupted by Marshall’s 1846-1847 service in </span><a href="http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/youngamerica/exhibits/show/fremont/the-california-battalion-"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">John C.
Frémont’s California Battalion</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> during the Mexican American War (the
end of which, on which more in a moment, brought California into the United
States). When Marshall returned he began work helping construct a new sawmill
for Sutter, and in the process he found gold in the river nearby. Over the next
two years the resulting </span><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gold Rush</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> would
bring hundreds of thousands of settlers to California, both from elsewhere in
the US and from around the world, and forever change the arc of American and
world history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Just a
week after Marshall’s earth-shattering find, his former military commander
received far less positive news. Frémont, whose Mexican American War activities
were </span><a href="https://www.americanheritage.com/fremont-steals-california"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">controversial
to say the least</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, had been undergoing a military trial for
charges of mutiny, disobedience of orders, and other related offenses since his
August 1847 arrest at Fort Leavenworth, and on </span><a href="https://www.deseret.com/2016/2/3/20581683/this-week-in-history-john-c-fremont-is-court-martialed-for-mutiny"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">January 31<sup>st</sup>,
1848 he was court-martialed</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on the charges of disobedience toward a
superior officer and military misconduct. </span><a href="https://millercenter.org/president/polk"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">President James Polk</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, who had
been president and thus commander-in-chief throughout the war and Frémont’s
activities, granted him a partial pardon, commuting his dishonorable discharge
and reinstating him into the army. But Frémont found that outcome
unsatisfactory and resigned his commission, moving back to California and
continuing to lead exploratory excursions there (while also </span><a href="https://www.californiatrailcenter.org/john-c-fremont/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">profiting
from the Gold Rush</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, natch). In 1850 he became one of the first
two Senators from California, running as a </span><a href="https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Free_Soil_Party"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Free Soil Democrat</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—and that splinter
party’s evolution into the Republican Party took Frémont with it, and in 1856
he became the </span><a href="https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/54"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Republican
Party’s first presidential candidate</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, a vital step toward 1860, Abraham
Lincoln, and the coming of the Civil War.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Gold
Rush and the Civil War were without question two of the most prominent American
historical events of the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century; but just two days after
Frémont’s court-martial, another, equally influential historical event took
place: the </span><a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/guadhida.asp"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">February 2<sup>nd</sup>,
1848 signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. I’ve
written about that treaty and its pernicious (and ironic, given that the treaty
itself guaranteed citizenship and rights for Mexican Americans who remained in
the new US territories) effects for Mexican Americans many times, including in
this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Saturday Evening Post</i> </span><a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/01/considering-history-myths-and-realities-of-the-mexican-american-border/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Considering
History column</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/02/february-21-2018-anti-favorites-treaty.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">this blog
post</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (as well as </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-squatter-and-the-dona_b_11818068"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">this
HuffPost piece</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on the best literary representation of the treaty and its
effects, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s </span><a href="https://archive.org/details/squatteranddona00burtgoog"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Squatter and the Don</span></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1885]). But of course the treaty did
not just affect those American communities—it also fundamentally reshaped the
nation, not only through all the territories (and very quickly, </span><a href="https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">in California’s case</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, states)
it added to the US, but also through all the new communities (including Mexican
Americans but also numerous native nations and Chinese Americans among others)
it likewise made part of the expanding US. Few, if any, individual American
days have had more lasting national significance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next leap
year studying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-32341527673288291952024-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-26T00:00:00.369-08:00February 26, 2024: Leap Years: 1816<p>[In honor
of this <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html">once-in-four-years
phenomenon</a>, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap
years from American history.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On
significant global, cross-cultural, and national trends within a single year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You would
think that a catastrophic historic phenomenon wherein the eruption of a volcano
caused a drastic shift in global temperatures for an entire year would be at
least somewhat well known. But speaking for myself, I only learned about the “</span><a href="http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=gillen-darcy-wood-1816-the-year-without-a-summer"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Year
without a Summer</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”—in which the record-breaking </span><a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/shortcontent/mount-tambora-and-year-without-summer"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1815
eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> caused severe climate change and
freezing temperatures throughout 1816, leading to the even more evocative
nickname “</span><a href="https://www.thesocialhistorian.com/eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Eighteen
Hundred and Froze to Death</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”—just over a year ago, while researching </span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/01/january-3-2019-2019-anniversaries-panic.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">this post</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on the
Panic of 1819. But whether we remember it now or not, this global catastrophe
had drastic effects throughout the world in 1816, including a number of important
ones in the United States (along with the arc that culminated in the
aforementioned 1819 panic): from the </span><a href="http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/1816-year-without-a-summer/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">failure of
corn crops throughout New England</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> to the mass migrations to the Midwest
that led to </span><a href="https://www.in.gov/history/2477.htm"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">statehood
for Indiana</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (in 1816) and Illinois (in 1818) to the eventual founding of the
Mormon Church (as Joseph Smith’s family were one of countless residents who
left Vermont farms during this year, in their case moving to the community of
Palmyra, NY that would be </span><a href="https://www.pbs.org/americanprophet/joseph-smith.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">so
foundational in his personal and spiritual journey</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s hard
to imagine that any other 1816 story could be as significant as that global and
catastrophic one, but of course the year featured many other American events,
including ones that likewise influenced ongoing histories and trends. A number
of them reflected the complicated, evolving Early Republic relationship between
the US government and Native American nations. For the first few decades after
the Constitution, the federal government dealt with native nations in
individual and distinct ways, treating them as the unique communities they were,
and 1816 saw an exemplary (if </span><a href="https://postalmuseum.si.edu/indiansatthepostoffice/mural20.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">as ever
fraught</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">) such moment: the August signing of </span><a href="https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-treaty-of-1816-of-st-louis-and-the-treaties-of-chicago.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the Treaty
of St. Louis</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> between the US government and the nations within the </span><a href="http://absolutemichigan.com/michigan/the-three-fires-ojibwa-odawa-potawatomi/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Three
Fires Confederacy</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi). Yet
another 1816 treaty foreshadowed the drastic and tragic change in these
US-native relationships: on </span><a href="https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Treaties/TreatyWithTheCherokee1816a.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">March 22
the federal government signed a treaty with the Cherokee</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, agreeing
to return land that had been illegally seized as part of an 1814 conflict
between the US and the Creek nation; but </span><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-cherokees-vs-andrew-jackson-277394/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">General
Andrew Jackson</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, who had been involved in that 1814 war, refused to honor the
treaty, a blatant step toward his eventual, exclusionary presidential policy of
Indian Removal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jackson
would not be elected president until 1828, but 1816 saw </span><a href="https://www.270towin.com/1816_Election/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">its own influential presidential
election</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (as has </span><a href="https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/is-it-a-coincidence-that-presidential-elections-occur-on-leap-years"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">every American
Leap Year</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> since 1788). In that contest, James Monroe, who had been serving
as </span><a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/monroe-james"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Secretary
of State in the administration</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of his fellow Virginian founder James
Madison, received the Democratic-Republican nomination and handily bested the
Federalist nominee, New York Senator (and also a Constitution signer) </span><a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/convention/delegates/king.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rufus King</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. The size
of Monroe’s victory was due in part to a splintering and disappearing Federalist
Party: King would be the party’s last presidential nominee, and for the next
few years the US had only one national political party, leading to the nickname
“</span><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/11/november-5-2018-major-midterms-1826.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Era of
Good Feelings</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.” As I wrote in that hyperlinked post, there were of course tensions
and divisions beneath that seeming unity, and many of them would coalesce ahead
of Jackson’s 1828 election. Yet for at least a decade, the United States became
a one-party system, another striking legacy of this important Leap Year. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next leap
year studying tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?<o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-70209222812830489782024-02-24T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-24T00:00:00.142-08:00February 24-25, 2024: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[For this year’s </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/02/february-20-2023-non-favorite-trends.html">annual
non-favorites series</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">, I wanted to
highlight moments when important and in many ways impressive Americans gave in
to white supremacist prejudices, modeling the worst of our national community
in the process. Leading up to this special weekend post on our own moment.]</span><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I don't normally write posts here in immediate response to current events; that's somewhat more for my <i>S<a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/category/considering-history/">aturday Evening Post</a></i><a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/category/considering-history/"> Considering History column</a>. And I'm not entirely doing that in this case either. But a couple days ago I had <a href="https://x.com/AmericanStudier/status/1760689419085086853?s=20">a Twitter thread</a> go viral, and it was on a topic very much related to the week's series: on a very frustrating way in which President Biden is giving into anti-immigrant narratives and xenophobia; and on the longstanding legacy of such moments in American history. I hope you'll check out that thread, and I hope we can all resist these narratives and argue for inclusive alternatives. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Next series starts Monday,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Ben</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br />PS. What do you think? </span></div>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-48418630239009145662024-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-23T00:00:00.141-08:00February 23, 2024: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: London’s Fighting Words <p>[For this
year’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/02/february-20-2023-non-favorite-trends.html">annual
non-favorites series</a>, I wanted to highlight moments when important
and in many ways impressive Americans gave in to white supremacist prejudices,
modeling the worst of our national community in the process. Got grievances of
your own to air, about anything and everything? Share ‘em for a therapeutic
crowd-sourced post, please!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On an ugly
moment when white supremacy took precedence over athletic supremacy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I was
super excited when I was </span><a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/121/4/1292/2581671"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">invited to
review</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Cecelia Tichi’s book </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Jack_London.html?id=elm0CAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jack London: A Writer’s Fight for a Better
America</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (2015) for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Historical
Review</i>. There were lots of reasons for my excitement, including how
important Tichi’s book </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Shifting_Gears.html?id=EKb1jM_7XyUC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature,
Culture in Modernist America</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (1987) was for my development as an
AmericanStudier, and how much I appreciated her goal in this new project of
recuperating London as a public intellectual (and thus a model for that role in
21<sup>st</sup> century America as well). But I was also just super excited to
learn more about London, whom I knew largely as the author of hugely popular </span><a href="https://www.sonomanews.com/specialsections/jacklondon/5667775-181/jack-londons-passion-for-adventure"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">boys’
adventures stories</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> about wolves and sailors and that one
incredibly </span><a href="https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-build-a-fire.pdf"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">realistic
and depressing story</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> about a man who needs to build a fire in
order to keep from freezing to death and the dog who becomes a witness to the
unfolding horrors (all of which of course was a central rationale behind
Tichi’s attempt to recreate the more socially and politically engaged sides of
London as both a writer and a public figure).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I’m not
trying to dwell on my one criticism of Tichi’s book here, but it turned out
that one of the things I learned about London was a frustratingly bigoted
moment that Tichi understandably but problematically minimized in her project.
She did note (if still to my mind a bit too briefly) London’s lifelong </span><a href="http://london.sonoma.edu/students/philosophy.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">fascination
with Social Darwinism</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and that philosophy’s consistently
hierarchical and racist worldviews; but it was in response to the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/sports/jack-johnson-pardon.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">controversial
(at least for white supremacists) rise</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of early 20<sup>th</sup> century
African American </span><a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/jack-johnson"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">boxing champion
Jack Johnson</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that London would articulate much more overtly his own racism. In
December 1908 Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight
champ, defeating the reigning champ Tommy Burns, and that historic moment </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128245468"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">led London
to implore</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> a retired white champion to return to the ring and defend his
race. Covering the 1908 fight as </span><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-08/sports/sp-462_1_jack-johnson"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a
syndicated sportswriter</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, London concluded his column, “But now one
thing remains. Jim Jeffries must now emerge from his [Burbank, CA] Alfalfa farm
and remove that golden smile from Jack Johnson's face. Jeff, it's up to you.
The White Man must be rescued.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Initially
reticent, Jeffries did eventually emerge from retirement, facing Johnson in a </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzAS-wihuVI"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">July 4<sup>th</sup>, 1910 championship
bout</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in Reno. Jeffries was by this time so out of shape that “bout”
probably isn’t the word, though, as he was quickly knocked down for the first
time in his career and threw in the towel at that point. Given that white
Americans often find reasons to riot in both sporting events and racism
(although not usually at the same time), it’s unfortunately no surprise that
Johnson’s victory led to </span><a href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=11959"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">riots around the country</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that left
a handful of African Americans dead and many more injured (riots, I’ll note,
that to this day, when they’re remembered at all, are usually and all too
typically described with that </span><a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/race-riots"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">deeply loaded phrase “race riot</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”).
Perhaps it should be no more surprising that when an African American athlete
reached the pinnacle of his sport, theories of physical prowess and the
survival of the fittest gave way to white supremacist bigotry and ignorance,
even from an otherwise intelligent and (as Tichi convincingly argues) socially
progressive figure like Jack London. But it’s still frustrating to see how
powerful such white supremacist nonsense can be—although, to send this series
on a positive note, it’s also deeply satisfying to see it literally and
figuratively knocked on its ass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Crowd-sourced
post this weekend,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. So one
more time: what do you think? Other non-favorites (of any and all types) you’d
share? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-46353333222306713482024-02-22T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-22T00:00:00.133-08:00February 22, 2024: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Harlan’s Exclusions<p>[For this
year’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/02/february-20-2023-non-favorite-trends.html">annual
non-favorites series</a>, I wanted to highlight moments when important
and in many ways impressive Americans gave in to white supremacist prejudices,
modeling the worst of our national community in the process. Got grievances of
your own to air, about anything and everything? Share ‘em for a therapeutic
crowd-sourced post, please!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On a
historical and a contemporary lesson from an iconic Justice’s prejudices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2018/06/june-13-2018-supreme-court-and-progress.html">this
post</a> on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States v. Wong Kim
Ark</i> (1898) Supreme Court decision, I highlighted Justice John Marshall
Harlan’s ugly and apparently lifelong exclusionary racisms (both in and beyond
his work on the Court) toward Chinese Americans. As I’ve done often in this week’s
series (I guess when your blog is past 4100 posts over 13.5 years you often have
thought already about the things you’re continuing to think about!), I’d ask
you to check out that post for the key quotes and details about Harlan’s
ideology to which I’m responding here, and then come on back for a couple
further thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Welcome
back! Two years ago, historian Peter S. Canellos published a new biography of
Harlan, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Dissenter/Peter-S-Canellos/9781501188213">The
Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero</a></i>
(2022). I haven’t read Canellos’ book yet, so I don’t want to assume anything
about any aspect of it, but that hyperlinked official Simon & Schuster description
calls Harlan “the nation’s prime defender of the rights of Black people,
immigrant laborers, and people in distant lands occupied by the US.” In many
ways, especially in his frequent Supreme Court dissents that are apparently Canellos’
principal subject, Harlan did indeed play that role. But the historical lesson
here is that white supremacy is a multi-tentacled thing, and I mean that not
only about the great legal mind who also had such a racist blindspot toward
Chinese Americans (including, as I noted in my above post, in his most famous
such dissent), but also about the implicit exclusion of Chinese Americans from
Simon & Schuster’s phrase “the nation’s prime defender.” Not for that part
of our national community, he wasn’t. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">About a
month ago, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/on-camera-nancy-pelosi-tells-pro-palestine-protesters-to-go-back-to-china-4958679">was
caught on camera</a> telling a group of protesters advocating for a ceasefire
in Gaza that they should “go back to China.” While there were and are some
specific and complicated contexts for Pelosi’s comments related to the funding
sources for this prominent protest movement, the bottom line is that a national
political leader—and one who during her career in the House <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/warrior-the-real-history-of-the-race-riot-that-shook-san-francisco/">represented
San Francisco</a> at that—using the <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/09/september-22-2023-americanstudying.html">phrase
“Go back to China</a>” in any context is a very, very bad look, one that echoes
much of the worst of anti-Chinese American prejudices and exclusions (including
Harlan’s). As we’ve seen time and again in recent years, most especially in the
responses to Covid, such anti-Chinese American attitudes and narratives are
very much still with us, and indeed seem shared across much of the political
spectrum in striking ways (compared to how fully Trump and the MAGA movement
exemplify certain other longstanding prejudices in our current moment, that
is). One more reason why Justice Harlan’s racisms are not only a non-favorite
moment, but one from which we can and must learn a great deal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Last
non-favorite tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other non-favorites (of any and all types) you’d share? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-91776694120963095372024-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-21T00:00:00.138-08:00February 21, 2024: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Anthony’s Priorities<p>[For this
year’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/02/february-20-2023-non-favorite-trends.html">annual
non-favorites series</a>, I wanted to highlight moments when important
and in many ways impressive Americans gave in to white supremacist prejudices,
modeling the worst of our national community in the process. Got grievances of
your own to air, about anything and everything? Share ‘em for a therapeutic
crowd-sourced post, please!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On a
collective and an individual frustration with an inspiring figure’s worst
quote.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In a <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/patricia-arquette-ignored-feminisms-history-racism-and-collaboration">long-ago
column</a> for my gig at Talking Points Memo on white feminism’s frequently and
frustratingly racist histories, I highlighted <a href="https://www.wesleyan.edu/mlk/posters/suffrage.html">a particularly crappy
line</a> from legendary suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony: “I will cut off
this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the
Negro and not the woman.” Check out both that hyperlinked column of mine and
that excellent hyperlinked story on race and the suffrage movement if you
would, and then come on back for a couple further thoughts on this quote and
moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Welcome
back! As I traced in that column, far too often both particular activist
organizations and the suffrage movement as a whole echoed Anthony’s perspective
and <a href="https://women.ca.gov/women-of-color-and-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage/">excluded
African Americans</a>. And that’s a significant layer to what makes that
perspectives so profoundly frustrating and counter-productive—as with so many
issues in American history (indeed, as with all of them, like <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/black-history-month-is-american-history-month/">all
of our history overall</a>), there was no actual way to separate out African
Americans from the community as a whole, as African American women were just as
much part of the push for women’s suffrage as any other group. The only
possible arguments for treating race and gender as separate <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage">came
down to blatant racism and white supremacy</a>, and for a movement dedicated to
equality and justice to endorse those ideologies so consistently and fully was
nothing short of tragic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s also
tragic, on a smaller but not insignificant scale, that a figure as impressive
as Susan B. Anthony took part in those practices and perspectives. I know that
she knew better, especially when it comes to her long-term relationship with
Frederick Douglass, to whom she was connected through <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/fraught-friendship-susan-b-anthony-and-frederick-douglass.htm">their
shared community of Rochester</a> among many other ways. As I highlighted <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/07/july-19-2023-seneca-falls-studying.html">in
this post</a>, right at the end of Douglass’ life (literally on his last day),
he and Anthony met to try to bury the hatchet and strategize about the women’s
rights movement of which he was such a lifelong ally. But as far as I’ve seen,
Anthony never publicly took back her quote about race and suffrage, and she
certainly never became a public advocate for African American voting rights (in
the way, again, that Douglass was such an impassioned advocate of women’s
voting rights). That makes this one telling quote an even more frustrating non-favorite
moment for sure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
non-favorite tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What
do you think? Other non-favorites (of any and all types) you’d share? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3939909775405220345.post-72182763596379980302024-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:002024-02-20T00:00:00.135-08:00February 20, 2024: Prejudicial Non-Favorites: Lincoln’s Mass Execution<p>[For this
year’s <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/02/february-20-2023-non-favorite-trends.html">annual
non-favorites series</a>, I wanted to highlight moments when important
and in many ways impressive Americans gave in to white supremacist prejudices,
modeling the worst of our national community in the process. Got grievances of
your own to air, about anything and everything? Share ‘em for a therapeutic
crowd-sourced post, please!]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I said
much of what I’d want to say about this non-favorite moment in Chapter 3 of my
book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538143438/Of-Thee-I-Sing-The-Contested-History-of-American-Patriotism">Of
Thee I Sing</a></i>, so will quote that section here:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“</span><span style="color: #211e1f; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Such mythic patriotisms did not only target African
Americans, and indeed the Early Republic myths of expansion and Manifest
Destiny remained in force during the Civil War, as illustrated by another
horrific historical event: the <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/execution-dakota/">December 26th,
1862 execution</a> of 38 Dakota Sioux Native Americans in Mankota, Minnesota,
the <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/the-largest-mass-execution-in-us-history">largest
mass execution</a> in American history. Throughout 1862 white settlers continued
to pour into Minnesota (which had <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/minnesota-admission-anniversary.html#:~:text=Minnesota%20was%20admitted%20to%20the,identified%20as%20%22unorganized%20Dakota.%22">become
a state in May 1858</a>) and onto native lands, while the U.S. government
violated treaties with multiple tribes and left many such communities starving
after failing to deliver food in “payment” for that stolen land. In August, <a href="https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/taoyateduta-little-crow">Dakota Sioux
Chief Little Crow</a> led a six-week uprising against these invaders, a revolt
framed throughout the U.S. not as an echo of the American Revolution nor as an
oppressed people’s quest for liberty and justice, but as an illegal war against
the expanding nation. When the uprising was put down more than 300 Dakota men
were sentenced to death by <a href="https://www.mnhs.org/sibley/learn/henry-hastings-sibley">Governor Henry
Hastings Sibley</a>; while President Lincoln commuted a number of the
sentences, many of those men nonetheless remained imprisoned for life, and 38
others were executed on Lincoln’s orders. The Sioux and Winnebago nations <a href="https://healingmnstories.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/this-day-in-history-winnebago-removal-act-and-the-little-known-history-of-the-knights-of-the-forest/#:~:text=The%20Winnebago%20Removal%20Act%20passed,their%20reservation%20lands%20to%20settlers.">were
subsequently removed</a> from the state to distant reservations, once again on
Lincoln’s authority. The era’s mythic patriotisms did not just divide North
from South, but continued to divide the expanding United States into those
communities perceived as part of that idealized nation and those overtly and
violently excluded from it. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="color: #211e1f; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lincoln’s
prominent role in both that horrific mass execution and the subsequent extension
of the Jacksonian Indian Removal policy reminds us that even Civil War era
celebratory patriotisms which embraced the United States in opposition to the
Confederacy could too easily be wedded to their own mythic patriotisms, with
the same potential to discriminate and exclude. That’s an important rejoinder
to any attempt to entirely distinguish the period’s Union and Confederate
celebratory patriotisms.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Obviously
this horrific moment connects to deeper and broader (and far more longstanding
and ongoing) American issues and histories than just President Lincoln, and
Lincoln did commute a number of the death sentences. But to my mind neither of
those things absolves Lincoln of his role in America’s largest mass execution,
and one entirely linked to white supremacy (as it was to the subsequent removal
policy for which Lincoln likewise bears responsibility). Ain’t none of us
clean, to quote <a href="https://americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/02/february-12-2019-movies-i-love-glory.html">one
of my favorite lines</a> from one of my favorite cultural works about American
history and white supremacy, and this non-favorite moment is a frustrating but important
reminder that that maxim applies to even our most best president. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next
non-favorite tomorrow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ben<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 142.5pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">PS. What do
you think? Other non-favorites (of any and all types) you’d share? <o:p></o:p></span></p>AmericanStudierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06483077716534996778noreply@blogger.com0