July 31, 2012: July 2012 Recap

[A recap of the month that was in American Studying.]

July 2: Newton’s Histories, Part 1: First in a series inspired by the Jackson Homestead and Museum, on the life and legacies of William Jackson.

July 3: Newton’s Histories, Part 2: Next in the series, on the room dedicated to Newton’s Norumbega Park.

July 4: Newton’s Histories, Part 3: On two compelling recreations in the Museum’s “Confronting Our Legacy” exhibition on slavery.

July 5: Newton’s Histories, Part 4: First of two posts on forgotten figures and histories highlighted in the Museum, this one on Henry “Box” Brown.

July 6: Newton’s Histories, Part 5: Last in the Museum series, on the second forgotten figure and history, Captain Jonathan Walker.

July 7-8: Two American Studies Requests: Asking for your contributions to two still ongoing efforts: on behalf of Tougaloo College’s endowed Civil Rights Chair; and in the conversations at NEASA’s Pre-Conference blog.

July 9: American Studies Beach Reads, Part One: The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, the week’s first recommendation for an American Studies beach read.

July 10: American Studies Beach Reads, Part Two: The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, my next beach read rec.

July 11: American Studies Beach Reads, Part Three: Two funny (really) historical and human Holocaust novels you can read at the beach.

July 12: American Studies Beach Reads, Part Four: The multi-volume sci fi epic that’s both American Studies-related and a great beach read.

July 13: American Studies Beach Reads, Part Five: Five more nominees for great American Studies beach reads.

July 14-15: Crowd-Sourcing Beach Reads: A crowd-sourced post with some great reader suggestions for other American Studies beach reads.

July 16-20: Talk Amongst Yourselves: A vacation-week post highlighting some other great American Studies sites and conversations online.

July 21-22: Rediscovering Francis Jennings: On the amazing scholarly work and voice I rediscovered in my late grandfather’s library.

July 23: Jennings on America’s Origins: First in a series on ideas and inspirations taken from Jennings’ book and connected to my own American Studies perpectives.

July 24: Jennings on Why It Matters: On what Jennings’ youthful job and experiences helped him understand about public scholarship.

July 25: Jennings on What to Read: On why we should read less mainstream and prominent works of American history and scholarship.

July 26: Jennings on Heroes and Humans: Jennings on less and more complex and productive kinds of sympathy with our historical subjects.

July 27: Jennings on the Long Haul: Finally, two hugely inspiring lessons we can take away from Jennings’ life and career.

July 28-29: Matthew Goguen’s Guest Post: Fitchburg State University graduate and budding American Studier Matt Goguen on memory and Joe Paterno.

July 30: Funny Families: First in a series on interesting American siblings, on the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.

The sibling series resumes tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Things you’d like to see featured in this space? Guest posts you’d like to write?

7/31 Memory Day nominee: Whitney Young, the Civil Rights leader whose educational, political, and social efforts to combat urban poverty, employment discrimination, and many other ills continued well beyond his tragic 1971 death.