Monday, October 31, 2011

October 31, 2011: October Recap

October 1-2: American Wedding: My sister’s wedding inspires some thoughts, both personal and AmericanStudies.

October 3: Join Us, Pleas: The first of a week’s worth of posts on or around the upcoming (now just four days away!) New England American Studies Association conference—this one just extends a couple invitations.
October 4: NEASA Follow Ups:  The second of the week’s NEASA-inspired posts, this one with additional information and links on the conference and its speakers and participants.

October 5: Of Plimoth Plantation: The third of the week’s NEASA-inspired posts, on three AmericanStudies goals and elements of the living history museum at Plimoth Plantation.
October 6: Native Voices: The fourth of the week’s NEASA-inspired posts, on some of the complex and crucial AmericanStudies questions surrounding Native American writing and scholarship.

October 7-9 [Link-Tastic Post 3]: NEASA Conference: The fifth and final NEASA-inspired post brings together some key conference-related links.
October 10: Columbus Days: A Columbus Day special, highlighting six prior posts in which I tried to capture some of the complexities of the exploration and settlement era.

October 11: Remembering an Iconoclastic Genius: While thinking about Steve Jobs in order to write a couple posts inspired by his passing, I came across the story of the death of another, even more unquestionably impressive and inspiring American, Professor Derrick Bell.
October 12: The Messy, Troubling, Democratizing Machine: The first Jobs-inspired post, on the duality of the machine and the garden in American history, culture, and identity.

October 13: Gospel Musings: The second Jobs-inspired post, on the Gilded Age’s robber barons and their Gospel of Wealth narrative.
October 14: Gilded Age Addendum: A follow up to the Gilded Age post, focused on the self-made man narrative and its continuing contemporary presence and salience.

October 15-16: Information, Please:  As part of my ongoing work on a proposal (for an American Writers Musuem traveling exhibition) focused on contemporary immigrant American authors, a request (which still stands!) for suggestions for interesting such writers.
October 17: Finding the Right Plath: A week of posts on authors for whom our dominant narratives are over-simplified or even inaccurate begins with a case for re-reading Sylvia Plath.

October 18: Uncle Re-read: The week continues with a post on Song of the South (to which we shouldn’t necessarily return) and Joel Chandler Harris (to whose works we should).
October 19: The Importance of Reading Ernest: As the week rolls on, I admit that Ernest Hemingway wasn’t the nicest of guys but make the case for reading his fiction nonetheless.

October 20: The Wright Readings: The week’s final new post argues that Richard Wright’s two best books remain as resonant and vital for AmericanStudiers as any American works.
October 21: Out of His Hands [Repeat]: A repeated post rounds out the week by noting that Jonathan Edwards was a lot more than just a fire-and-brimstone preacher.

October 22-23 [Tribute Post 24]: A New Favorite Songwriter: Civil War historian and blogger Kevin Levin points me to an amazing song about African American Union troops and its (anonymous but impressive) songwriter.
October 24: Every Day I Write the Book? (or the Website?): Pondering my next options for this blog and its work, and asking for your input as I continue to do so.

October 25 [Scholarly Review 6]: An Exemplary Voice: First of four posts on exemplary digital AmericanStudies scholarship, this one on the “Voice of the Shuttle” digital archive.
October 26 [Scholarly Review 7]: How Great is This Valley?: Second digital scholarship post, on the “Valley of the Shadow” Civil War history site.

October 27 [Scholarly Review 8]: Cross Purposes: Third digital scholarship post, on the Virginia AmericanStudies program’s “Xroads” site.
October 28 [Link-Tastic Post 4]: Literary Links: Fourth digital scholarship post, on Donna Campbell’s thorough and helpful collection of American literary links.

October 29-30: Boo(ks)!: Halloween special, on five of the scariest works in American literary history.
More tomorrow,

Ben
PS. Any topics, themes, events, figures, texts, or other subjects you’d love to see here as we move into November? Just let me know!

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