[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 45th birthday. So as I do each year, I’ve shared a series highlighting some of my favorite posts from each year on the blog, leading up to this 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, 45 favorite posts from my 12th year of AmericanStudying:
1)
August 27:
American Teens: John Hughes Films: A series inspired by my pair of high
schoolers concluded with this fun way to reconsider classic 80s films.
2)
September
11-12: Tayna Roth’s Guest Post on “The Real Miss America”: I’ve
had a ton of great Guest Posts this year, and you’d better believe I’m gonna
highlight them all, starting with this one drawn from Tanya’s excellent new
book!
3)
September
18-19: Domestic Terrorism: 9/11 and 1/6: I’ve spent a lot of time this year
thinking and talking about January 6th, 2021, including in this
comparative weekend post.
4)
September
24: American Modernists: F. Scott Fitzgerald: Want to read Fitzgerald beyond Gatsby? This phenomenal short story is a
good place to start.
5)
October 8:
AmericanFires: The Great Chicago Fire: I promise I won’t use much of this
space to promote my Saturday Evening Post
columns, but this one lined up really well with a blog series.
6)
October
15: SitcomStudying: We Love Lucy: Getting to revisit and rethink
familiar subjects is one of the real perks of this blog, and I enjoyed the
chance to AmericanStudy I Love Lucy.
7)
October
19: Work in Progress: Lesson Plan for CT Humanities: A fun
story of the long afterlife of one of my first online pieces—and now I can
share the lesson
plan itself!
8)
November
3: Action Figures: Charles Bronson and Death Wish: In a
series inspired by Bronson’s 100th birthday, it was fun to explore
and challenge my preconceptions about his seminal film.
9)
November
13-14: 11th Anniversary Tributes: Gotta share my tribute to what the
Railton family have meant to this blog (and beyond)!
10)
November
20-21: The Montgomery Bus Boycott: 21st Century Legacies & Echoes: There
are lots of good reasons to learn history, but high on the list has to be what
it can help us understand in our own moment.
11)
November
27-28: Emily Lauer’s Guest Post on Afrofuturism in Museums: Emily is
my first three-time Guest Poster, and since she keeps doing such great work, I
couldn’t be happier about that!
12)
December
4-5: Crowd-sourced Online Reading List: I ended a series for Project
Gutenberg’s 50th birthday by sharing these recommendations from
fellow OnlineAmericanStudiers.
13)
December
13: Fall Semester Recaps: First Year Experience Seminar: FYE was
a tough class to teach and an even tougher one to get right—but when I did, it
sure felt extra meaningful and helpful.
14)
December
20: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Higher Ed Funding: This
whole series was fun to write as ever, but this is the most universally
relevant for my week’s wishes to be sure.
15)
December
27: Year in Review: The Braves: Celebrating yet also critiquing the
surprising success of a favorite team—that’s the AmericanStudier way!
16)
December
31: Year in Review: New Novels: I don’t get to read for pleasure too
much these days, but these are books well worth finding time for.
17)
January 5:
2022 Anniversaries: 1872 and Henry Wilson: I always learn a lot when I research
specific years for the blog, and this discovery about Grant’s second vice
president was no exception.
18)
January
14: Women in Politics: Shirley Chisholm’s Campaigns: Running
for president was just the tip of the iceberg of Chisholm’s impressive
political and activist career.
19)
January
25: American Gangsters: Capturing Capone: Any time I get to write about
Tintin, I promise to share it in these series!
20)
January
31: Bill MurrayStudying: Tootsie: Ditto any time I get to write about
one of my favorite 80s films and how it (mostly) still holds up.
21)
February
12-13: Kurtis Kendall’s Guest Post on Athlete Activism: And
really really ditto when I’m sharing a Guest Post from an FSU English Studies alum!
22)
February
19-20: More Podcasts We Love: Please check out all the podcasts
highlighted in this weeklong series—and now here’s my own
episode of Drafting the Past!
23)
February
22: Non-Favorite Myths: The Supreme Court: One of those times I really wish I
had been less prescient in my analyses and predictions about our current
climate.
24)
March 5-6:
Megan Kate Nelson’s New Book on Yellowstone: Always great when I can end a series
by highlighting a wonderful new book from a friend!
25)
March 11:
The Pacific Theater: “I Shall Return”: Douglas MacArthur, quite the
asshole but still a powerfully inspiring leader as well. Such is the
AmericanStudying dance!
26)
March 21:
Rock and Roll Groundbreakers: The Moondog Coronation Ball: If you
thought I was going to miss a chance to write “Moondog Coronation Ball” a
couple more times—well, you thought wrong.
27)
March 28:
Stand-Up Studying: Anthony Jeselnik: Few things better than getting to
analyze a cultural work you love, and finding new layers in the process.
28)
April
9-10: Arbor Day Activists: One of the people most responsible for Arbor
Day’s existence was Birdsey Northrop. I feel like we all need to know that.
29)
April 18:
Boston Marathon Studying: The First Marathon: There’s a lot of pretty fascinating
stuff about the 1897 Boston Marathon—here’s just some of it.
30)
April
23-24: Tiffany Chenault’s Guest Post: Boston Marathon RECAP: My
friend and SSN Boston co-leader Tiffany ran her first Boston this year, and had
a lot of great thoughts about the experience!
31)
April 26:
Ulysses Grant Studying: His Book: Dedicating a whole series to the
underappreciated Grant was fun, and I learned a lot, as illustrated by this
post on his wonderful memoirs.
32)
May 7-8:
Scholarship on Internment: I’ll never pass up a chance to re-up
highlights of favorite scholarly voices and works!
33)
May 14-15:
Spring Semester Reflections: Adult Ed and Two Sandlots: Getting
to teach adult learning classes centered around a book in progress was a new,
and very rewarding, experience.
34)
May 21-22:
Aviation Histories: Amelia Earhart: There’s so much more to Earhart than
just her most famous flights.
35)
May 28-29:
Sydney Kruszka’s Guest Post: Why We Should All Read Maus: I’ve
been able to share three Guest Posts now from students taught by my friend
Robin Field—and I’d love to share ones from y’all’s students too!
36)
June 9:
Judy Garland Studying: Judgment at Nuremberg: I had completely forgotten that Judy
Garland was in Judgment—much less how
stunningly good her performance was.
37)
June
11-12: LGBTQ Icons: Garland was also an icon and inspiration to
the LGBTQ community—as we the other four women I highlighted in this post.
38)
June 13:
Revisiting Beach Reads: Tony Hillerman: With the excellent new Hillerman
adaptation Dark Winds recently out,
it was fun to dip back into a childhood favorite.
39)
June
25-26: Las Vegas Studying: Vegas in Song: This whole Vegas series was a
blast, but I especially enjoyed the chance to write about The Killers and so
many other Vegas songs.
40)
July
9-10: 4th of July Contexts: Patriotism in 2022 America: Do I
need to say more about why this is an all-too relevant topic?
41)
July
12: Investigative Journalists: Nellie Bly: Another one where I learned so
much about my subject for the day.
42)
July
19: UtahStudying: National Parks: Lots in this one I enjoyed learning, but
I’m sharing mostly for the unforgettable quote about Bryce Canyon and cows.
43)
July
26: Christmas (Songs) in July: “Winter Wonderland” and “Jingle Bells”: You
know you want to read about how I AmericanStudied those holiday classics—in
July!
44)
August
1: AmericanPhones: The Great Gatsby: Had a Gatsby post in my first few in this
list, gotta have one in my last few as well. Rules are rules.
45)
August
6-7: Hettie Williams’ Guest Post on Beyoncé’s Renaissance: Always excited
when I can end a list like this with my newest Guest Post!
Annual
Cville series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
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