Saturday, December 22, 2018

December 22-23, 2018: A Wish for the Elves


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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