[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]
September
30: 19th Century Baseball: A Contested Origin: Inspired by a
bicentennial birthday and connected to my new podcast, a series on 19C baseball
kicked off with two interesting details about the contested story of the sport’s
origins.
October
1: 19th Century Baseball: Henry Chadwick: For his 200th
birthday, the series continues with three ways the “Father of Baseball” helped shape
the sport and its stories.
October
2: 19th Century Baseball: The Massachusetts Game: Three places
that can help us better remember an alternative form of baseball, as the series
plays on.
October
3: 19th Century Baseball: The First Professionals: Four figures
who together help us chart the evolution of professional baseball in the late
19th century.
October
4: 19th Century Baseball: The Celestials: The series concludes
with two 19th century baseball context for the 1870s team at the
heart of my podcast.
October
5-6: My New Podcast!: And speaking of that podcast, a special weekend post
on three takeaways from my first experience with the medium!
October
7: Contested Holidays: Memorial/Decoration Day: Ahead of Columbus/Indigenous
Peoples’ Day, a series on contested holidays kicks off with a couple additional
thoughts on my annual Memorial and Decoration Day post.
October
8: Contested Holidays: The 4th of July: The series continues
with whether and how there’s a place for celebratory patriotism in our national
commemorations.
October
9: Contested Holidays: Labor Day: The bare minimum for how we should
celebrate Labor Day and a couple steps beyond, as the series parties on.
October
10: Contested Holidays: Thanksgiving/Day of Mourning: With Thanksgiving just
a few weeks away, two ways we can be thankful while mourning.
October
11: Contested Holidays: “The War on Christmas”: The series concludes with
three voices who can help us see through the “War on Christmas” canard.
October
12-13: Contested Holidays: Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day: And for the
holiday, a special weekend post on how my thinking on it has evolved over the
last decade, and one thing I’d still emphasize.
October
14: Famous Phone Calls: The Great Gatsby: For the 75th anniversary
of a key stage in the technology, a series on American phone calls kicks off
with three phone calls at the heart of Fitzgerald’s portrayal of early 20C
America.
October
15: Famous Phone Calls: The Scream Films: The series continues with one
thing that’s really changed since the first of these phone-focused films, and
one that hasn’t.
October
16: Famous Phone Calls: Phone Songs: Five pop songs that call upon this
technology, as the series rings on.
October
17: Famous Phone Calls: “Madam and the Phone Bill”: A funny and fun poetic character,
and the layers of meaning she reveals.
October
18: Famous Phone Calls: The 2024 Election: With the election now just days
away, the series concludes with how phone calls symbolize the striking contrast
at the heart of this campaign.
October
19-20: An AmericanStudier Tribute to the Phone: And on a more fully
positive note, what the phone has meant to me over the last decade of my life
and relationships.
October
21: Prison Stories: Dorothea Dix: For the 30th anniversary of a
sobering statistic, a PrisonStudying series kicks off with the activist from
whom we still have a lot to learn.
October
22: Prison Stories: Alcatraz: The series continues with why it’s okay to
turn a prison into a tourist attraction, and what we can remember instead.
October
23: Prison Stories: Ian Williams and Teaching in Prisons: Re-sharing one of
my earliest posts, on a colleague and friend doing vital work in our prisons.
October
24: Prison Stories: Johnny Cash: The message the Man in Black still has for
us, if we can ever start to hear it, as the series rolls on.
October
25: Prison Stories: The Inside Literary Prize: The series concludes with three
quotes that together sum up why one of our newest prizes is also one of the
most important ever.
October
26-27: A PrisonStudying Reading List: And speaking of writing and reading,
a weekend reminder that there’s always more we can read and learn.
October
28: The Politics of Horror: Psycho and The Birds: We all know this year’s
Halloween is interconnected with a very scary political season, so a series on
the politics of horror films kicks off with defamiliarization and prejudice in
Hitchcock.
October
29: The Politics of Horror: Last House on the Left: The series continues
with a horror film that’s more disturbing in what it makes us cheer for.
October
30: The Politics of Horror: Hostel and Taken: The horrifying xenophobia at
the heart of two of the 21st century’s biggest hits, as the series
screams on.
October
31: The Politics of Horror: The Saw Series: Different visions of morality
in horror films and franchises, and whether they matter.
November
1: The Politics of Horror: Recent Films: The series and month conclude with
quick political takeaways from five new horror classics.
Election
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Topics
you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!
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