For many
years now I’ve made holiday wishes
for the AmericanStudies Elves, that mischievous crew of interdisciplinary
imps who make American(Studies) Dreams come true. I’ve got lots more wishes I
could make this year, including very personal ones for my
sons and my
parents, for the people
I care most about, for my forthcoming book and other projects.
But I’m gonna
make just one very public wish instead: that we better remember our history. It
doesn’t quite say it in the description up top, but if there’s been one
constant goal in my 8+ years of blogging in this space, as well as my books and
online writing and most everything else in my evolving career, it’s been to add
to our collective memories. To highlight and think about the histories and
stories, the figures and voices, the texts and contexts without which our
contemporary conversations are so impoverished. They offer lessons, they offer
warnings, they offer inspirations, and most of all they offer us a better sense
of who and what we’ve been, who and we are, and who and what we might be.
So Elves, I’m
doing what I can, but this is a collective wish and it needs all of us. Help us
better remember our history in 2019.
Year in review
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Wishes you’d
share?
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