August 1-2, 2015: July 2015 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

June 29: The 4^th in Focus: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”: A July 4^th series starts with the stunning speech that challenges us as much today as it did a century and a half ago.

June 30: The 4^th in Focus: Born of the 4^th of July: The series continues with three telling evolutions of a classic American phrase.

July 1: The 4^th in Focus: Fireworks: The history, symbolism, and limitations of an American tradition, as the series rolls on.

July 2: The 4^th in Focus: “Speaking of Courage”: The July 4^th setting and climax of one of my favorite American short stories.

July 3: The 4^th in Focus: “Sandy (4^th of July, Asbury Park)”: The series concludes with how Bruce captured the more intimate sides to Independence Day.

July 4-5: The 4^th in Focus: The Adams Letters: A special weekend post on the myths and realities of the founding revealed in the couple’s letters.

July 6: Secret Service Stories: The JFK Assassination: A series on the 150^th anniversary of the Secret Service’s founding starts with an article that raises new, frustrating questions.

July 7: Secret Service Stories: In the Line of Fire: The series continues with a scene that humanizes the agency’s most famous failure, and the shortcomings of the film that surrounds it.

July 8: Secret Service Stories: The Lincoln “What If?”: Unanswered questions, the timing of the agency’s founding, and historical frustrations, as the series rolls on.

July 9: Secret Service Stories: Guarding Tess: What a comic melodrama can tell us about the unique reality of a lifelong Secret Service detail.

July 10: Secret Service Stories: 21^st Century Scandals: The series concludes with what’s not new about the recent spate of scandals, and what is.

July 11-12: Samuel Southworth’s Guest Post: In Honor of the 150^th Anniversary of the US Secret Service: In my latest Guest Post, Samuel Southworth highlights the complex, controversial, and impressive histories of the government agency.

July 13: Trinity Sites and Texts: Los Alamos: A series on the 70^th anniversary of the Trinity atomic test starts with three ways to AmericanStudy the bomb’s laboratory.

July 14: Trinity Sites and Texts: Historical Novels: The series continues with two very different fictional respresentations of the test and its contexts.

July 15: Trinity Sites and Texts: Scientific Spies: What we can’t know about histories of espionage, what we can, and how we can understand them, as the series rolls on.

July 16: Trinity Sites and Texts: The Enola Gay Controversy: Three telling moments in the history of a controversial exhibit on the bomb.

July 17: Trinity Sites and Texts: On Faith and the Bomb: The series concludes with what the name Trinity can help us analyze about the site and its histories.

July 18-19: Trinity Sites and Texts: Hiroshima Mon Amour: But wait, a special weekend post on what a foreign film can help us AmericanStudy about Trinity and war.

July 20: Billboard #1s: “I’ll Never Smile Again”: A series on the 75^th anniversary of Billboard’s pop music charts starts with what’s different, and what’s not, about the first #1 hit.

July 21: Billboard #1s: “The Battle of New Orleans”: The series continues with the most unique #1 hit, and what we can learn from it.

July 22: Billboard #1s: “Bridge over Troubled Water”: A surprisingly quiet #1 hit and the possibilities and limitations of art, as the series rolls on.

July 23: Billboard #1s: “Gangsta’s Paradise”: The #1 hit that changed, portrayed, and perhaps exploited the game.

July 24: Billboard #1s: “Tik Tok”: The series concludes with the artistic and ethical flaws in Ke$ha’s trashy hit, and the one more of treasure that redeems it.

July 25-26: Crowd-sourced Chart-toppers: In my latest crowd-sourced post, fellow AmericanStudiers share their responses and thoughts on pop music—add yours in comments, please!

July 27: Scholars on Fire: Luke Dietrich: A series on young scholars on fire starts with the service, online, and scholarly work of Luke Dietrich.

July 28: Scholars on Fire: Vetri Nathan: The series continues with why a professor of Italian can and should be included on AmericanStudier.

July 29: Scholars on Fire: Christine Yao: Three exemplary projects from a grad student poised to take the next step, as the series rolls on.

July 30: Scholars on Fire: Paul Edwards: Three compelling blog posts from a grad student who’s in the process of updating and expanding that blog—so keep an eye on it!

July 31: Scholars on Fire: Temple Colleagues: The series concludes with three Temple grad colleagues of mine doing great work—as well as a comment highlighting another young scholar on fire. Add your own, please!

Next series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to write? Lemme know!