[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 45th birthday. So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts from each year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 45 favorites from the last year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi and tell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyed here, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]
Here they
are, 40 favorite posts from the 2016-2017 year on the blog:
1)
Virginia
Places: Fairfax Court House: Learning more about things I thought I
already knew has been one of the blog’s enduring pleasures, and that was most
definitely the case with this post and series on Virginia sites.
2)
Cultural
Work: Miner Texts: Any post in which I get to analyze John
Sayles and Steve Earle is bound to be fun, but Diane Gillam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom might be the richest text
here.
3)
MusicalStudying:
Allegiance and Hamilton: Perhaps not surprisingly, Hamilton has been the subject of more
posts than any other text in the past year. This was the first.
4)
Rhode
Island Histories: Beavertail Lighthouse: Learning about things I knew
precisely nothing about has been another enduring blog pleasure. Case in point
here.
5)
Legends of
the Fall: Young Adult Lit: Returning to middle school is always a risky
proposition, but I loved the chance to revisit A Separate Peace and The
Chocolate War.
6)
AmericanStudying
The Americans: “Illegals”: Writing about one of my favorite TV shows
made for a great week of posts, and this kicked them off.
7)
Birth
Control in America: Esther at the Doctor: I’ve taught Sylvia Plath’s The Bell-Jar many times, but analyzing
it through this week’s lens offered new insights on a key sequence.
8)
Black
Panther Posts: Guns and Breakfasts: One of my favorite post titles, and
an attempt to address the multiple, contradictory sides of an important
community.
9)
American
Killers: Bundy and Dahmer: Not sure I would have ever imagined I’d be
writing about serial killers in made for TV movies, but we go where the blog
takes us!
10)
ElectionStudying
the Media: Ah, that halcyon final pre-election weekend. Everything may have
changed the following Tuesday, but I think this post is still relevant.
11)
Jeff Renye
on Stranger Things: The New Weird Made Old?: A Stranger Things series concluded with this great Guest Post, and a
truly inspiring student conversation in comments!
12)
Thanksgiving
and Supporting an Inclusive American Community: This was
the first post in which I dealt directly with the election’s aftermath, and
also the first in which I began to move toward my fifth book project.
13)
James
MonroeStudying: Remembering Monroe: A series on the 5th
President concluded with these reflections on whether and how to better
remember Monroe.
14)
Fall 2016
Reflections: Conversations with My Sons: Maybe my favorite single post from
the six and two-thirds years of blogging.
15)
Basketball’s
Birthday: LeBron and Activism: My sons have just gotten into the NBA in the
past year, and it was fun to take a closer look at this side of the league’s
biggest star.
16)
2016 in
Review: The Cubs Win!: There were far more serious 2016 news
stories, and I engaged with them in this end of year series as well. But c’mon,
the Cubs won the Series!
17)
21st
Century Ellis Islands: A 125th anniversary series
concluded with three very distinct ways to connect the famous immigration
station to our present moment.
18)
Special
Guest Post: Oana Godeanu-Kenworty on Thomas Haliburton and 19th
Century Populism: Readers, take note—nothing makes me happier
than when I’m contacted by someone who wants to share a Guest Post, and I was
very excited at the chance to share this one!
19)
Luke Cage
Studying: #BlackLivesMatter on TV: A series on another great
contemporary TV show concluded with this multitextual analysis.
20)
NASAStudying:
Sputnik and von Braun: Another example of a post for which I
learned a ton, and which fundamentally shifted my perspective on the week’s
subject.
21)
Women and
Sports: Title IX: With the groundbreaking law under siege from
Trump’s Department of Education, this post is more important than ever.
22)
History
for Kids: Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker: The best book I read in the past
year might well be this Young Adult novel the boys and I read together.
23)
AmericanStudier
Hearts Justified: Appalachian Action: Man, I wrote a lot this year about
TV shows I love. And I’m not the slightest bit sorry!
24)
Crowd-sourced
Non-Favorites: The annual series concludes, as always, with my favorite
crowd-sourced post of the year, the airing of grievances! Not too late to share
yours!
25)
CubanAmericanStudying:
Desi Arnaz: On Arnaz’s 100th birthday, he helped us consider a
different side to Cuban American histories.
26)
AmericanStudies
Events: Why We Teach at BOLLI: Expanding my adult learning opportunities
has been one of the best parts of the last year. Here’s one prominent example!
27)
Andrew
Jackson and Donald Trump: Sometimes a planned series of my own
intersects with where the public conversations are going. This was one of those
times.
28)
Televised
Fools: Archer: I can’t say I was expecting to enjoy Archer as much as I have—but surprises are a good thing, in life
and in blogging!
29)
NeMLA
Recaps: Forum on Immigration Executive Orders and Actions: This
could be the most important thing NeMLA ever does—but it needs your help to get
there!
30)
Aviation
Histories: Charles Lindbergh: For my own sake as much as anyone else’s,
trying to dig past the controversies to recover the history behind the history.
31)
Animating
History: Earth Day Animations: I hadn’t thought about Captain Planet or FernGully
in a couple decades. It was fun to do so again!
32)
Civil
Disobedience: Muhammad Ali: Commemorating anniversaries has become an
important part of this blog, and the 50th of Ali’s draft resistance
was an important one for sure.
33)
DisasterStudying:
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Did you know that William James
experienced and wrote about the earthquake? Me neither!
34)
The
Scholars Strategy Network and Me: Online Writing: This was
a really fun reflection to write—and then it got picked up by John Fea’s
great blog, which is even more fun!
35)
Star Wars
Studying: Yoda, Luke, and Love: I loved the chance to share one of
the boys’ and my favorite theories about one of our favorite galaxies.
36)
Matthew
Teutsch’s Guest Post: Five African American Books We Should All Read: Getting
to feature one of my favorite scholarly bloggers and five wonderful books made
for a great Guest Post.
37)
The
Pulitzers at 100: Angle of Repose: I’d been looking for a chance to
write about Wallace Stegner’s moving novel for a while now. It was nice to
finally do so!
38)
Mysterious
Beach Reads: Tana French: Ditto French’s amazing series of
novels—which are Irish, but AmericanStudies is large and contains multitudes.
39)
Representing
the Revolution: Hamilton: I promised that the smash musical would
return to this list, and return it did.
40)
Troubled
Children: Dennis the Menace: Gotta end with another one of those posts I
never would have imagined writing—and that, as always, I enjoyed a great deal.
Hope you’d say the same!
Next
birthday best post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
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