[14 years ago this week, this blog was born. For this year’s anniversary series, I wanted to highlight a handful of the types of posts that have kept me blogging for nearly a decade and a half now, leading up to these special weekend tributes!]
Along with
the obvious, AKA my favorite people in the world—my sons, my wife, and my folks—here
are a handful of people who have helped make this blog a favorite of mine as
well.
1)
Irene Martyniuk: One of my very
first Guest Posters, my colleague and friend Irene has also become my most
consistent reader, and one who frequently takes the time to share thoughtful
responses as well (some of which I’ve gotten to feature in
Crowd-Sourced Posts). We all want to know we’re being read and read well,
and nobody has helped me feel that better than Irene!
2)
Rob
Velella: I wrote in that hyperlinked post about what Rob’s blog and work have
meant to me. But I’m not sure I said clearly enough how much it helped to have
an existing public scholarly blogger, one whose blog was a model for what I was
hoping to create, be so supportive and collaborative from the jump. I hope I’ve
paid that forward!
3)
Heather
Cox Richardson: I likewise wrote in that hyperlinked post about how much it
meant to have Heather and her excellent Historical Society website support and
share my blog at any early point (and I could say the same about her even more
excellent We’re History website, for which I was able to write many times). Now
that Heather has become one of the most prominent and successful public
scholars in American history, I can add, “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer
person!”
4)
Robin
Field: That Guest Post of Robin’s was impressive and inspiring, as was the
2023 NeMLA paper of hers I highlighted
in this post (and as is all of her work). But Robin has also connected me
with a number of her
students over the last few years, all of whom have contributed phenomenal Guest
Posts in their own right (and who collectively have largely kept the Guest
Post layer to the blog going). Am I suggesting that you all should connect me
to awesome students who also might want to Guest Post on this blog? Yes, yes I
am.
5)
You: Whether you connect me to students or not,
I’m so damn thankful for y’all. And not just in the colloquial Southern 2nd-person
sense—for each and every one of you all. I try not to dwell on blog stats, as
they’re outside my control and can and do fluctuate and in any case are just numbers.
But I get somewhere in the range of 30,000 discrete views each month, and I
really am profoundly grateful for each and every one of those folks who finds
their way to this blog. So thanks, and here’s to the next 14 years!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Give
me a great anniversary present and say hi in comments, please!
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