January 2011 Recap

January 1: No Day but Today: Tony Kushner, Philadelphia, Rent, and how controversial issues enter our national conversations and popular culture.

January 2: Off the Trail: The Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Memorials, and how we remember national tragedies.

January 3: Rebel Against the Cause:  Lee, Longstreet, and the aftermath and memories of the Civil War.

January 4: Passed By: Nella Larsen’s brief but impressive literary career.

January 5: Kids on the Couch: Good Will Hunting, Ordinary People, and cinematic representations of psychoanalysis.

January 6: Workers Write: Herman Melville, The Lowell Offering, and literary work.

January 7: Merci Beaucoup: What the American Revolution and its greatest triumphs owe to the French.

January 8 [Guest Post 1]: One Hundred Thirty Words: Ilene Railton on Margaret Wise Brown and Goodnight Moon.

January 9: Words Will Never Hurt Me?: My first post in response to a current event—Gabrielle Giffords, John F. Kennedy, and extreme political rhetoric and violence.

January 10: Anarchy in the USA: Haymarket, the labor movement, and a late 19^th century American revolution.

January 11: Love, Puritan Style: Revisiting the Puritans through John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity.”

January 12: Ambitious Cycle: William Faulkner, August Wilson, and ambitious literary failures.

January 13: Blue America: John Hiatt and the perils and benefits of biographical analysis.

January 14: To Hull and Back: My nomination of Jane Addams for the Hall of American Inspiration.

January 15 [Tribute Post 1]: Staying in the Room: A tribute to Professor Alan Heimert, one of my most demanding and inspiring college teachers.

January 16: Working on Hope: My first work-in-progress post, on my plans and goals for my third book.

January 17: The Real King: An MLK Day repeat of my post on remembering the real, complex, vital King.

January 18: Knick of Time: Washington Irving’s postmodern History of New York.

January 19: Love in Color: Jungle Fever, Mississippi Masala, and pop culture interracial romances.

January 20: Honorable Work: Helen Hunt Jackson’s multi-genre Native American literary activism.

January 21: Touched by an Angel: Angel Island and the untold stories and unheard voices of American history.

January 22 [Tribute Post 2]: Getting Through: A tribute to Proal Heartwell, my best and most inspiring high school teacher.

January 23: Master Class: My goals, hopes, and fears for a special authors course on Henry James I was about to start teaching.

January 24: Outside the Box: On reexamining Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s relationship with Emily Dickinson, and more importantly remembering the rest of his inspiring life.

January 25: So It Goes?: Slaughterhouse Five and the horrors at the heart of every war.

January 26: Repetition, Repetition: The value of getting through Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans.

January 27: Your Song: My nominee for a new national anthem.

January 28: Out of His Hands: Steven King, Jonathan Edwards, and authors who get unfairly pigeon-holed into a certain genre or tone.

January 29 [Guest Post 2]: White Growing Pains: Mike Parker on contemporary white America’s challenges and fears.

January 30: Accounting: On my experiences with accountability, assessment, and other contemporary narratives about higher ed.

January 31: Ghost Stories: Three interconnected American perspectives on the Ghost Dance.