[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 48th birthday. So as I do each year, I’ve featured a series sharing some of my favorite posts from each year on the blog, leading up to this new post with 48 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, 48 favorite posts from my 15th year (!) of AmericanStudying:
1)
August 19:
NashvilleStudying: Three Origin Points: A son at Vanderbilt gave me the
opportunity to learn a lot more about his new home city, starting with this
post.
2)
August 30:
American Catholics: Carlo Acutis: I couldn’t resist ending a series on
American Catholics with this nominee for sainthood who “became very angry when
he encountered young people who trod on lizards.”
3)
September
6: Fall Semester Previews: Aidan at Vanderbilt!: If you
thought I’d resist including any and every post featuring my sons in this
birthday list, well, hi, I’m Ben.
4)
September
12: Classic TV Studying: Lassie: I learned a lot about the classic
canine for this post, including the batshit crazy details in the third section
(seriously, check ‘em out!).
5)
September
18: Summer Reads: The Cold Millions: Sharing my summer pleasure reads was
almost as much fun as reading ‘em, including Jess Walter’s powerful historical
novel.
6)
September
27: MrBeast and 21st Century Folk Heroes: Like a
lot of my blog posts over the last year+, this one, concluding a series on folk
figures from American history and culture, was directly inspired by
conversations with my wife!
7)
October 1:
19th Century Baseball: Henry Chadwick: It was
really fun to complement my new podcast with a series on 19th
century baseball, including this pioneering figure.
8)
October
5-6: My New Podcast!: And here’s a post on that podcast in
progress (at that point), which is now complete and you can check out here!
9)
October
12-13: Contested Holidays: Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day: I really
like when the blog can reflect how my ideas have evolved, which we can see
clearly in the comparison of this post to the 2015 Talking Points Memo column I
cite.
10)
October
19-20: An AmericanStudier Tribute to the Phone: Not the
most analytical post in my series on famous phone calls in American history and
culture, but a very heartfelt one!
11)
October
26-27: A PrisonStudying Reading List: I always enjoy the chance to
highlight the work of fellow AmericanStudiers, as I did in this conclusion to a
PrisonStudying series.
12)
November
1: The Politics of Horror: Recent Films: Not my favorite HorrorStudying
series of the year (that would be the Sinners series in July), but a fun
Halloween series that concluded with these recent additions to the pantheon.
13)
November
9-10: 2024 Election Reflections: I really didn’t want to write this
post, any more than I wanted to wake up on Wednesday November 6th.
But la lucha continua, my friends.
14)
November
11: AmericanStudies’ 14th Anniversary!: Foregrounding Favorites: I could
really highlight any post from my anniversary series, and hope you’ll check
them all out!
15)
November
25: Podcast Thanks: A Serendipitous Conversation: Ditto
for this series on my gratitude to lots of folks for helping make my first
podcast happen.
16)
December
7-8: McCarthy’s America: 21st Century Echoes: I
drafted this post before the election, and it aired well before Trump 2.0
began, but let’s just say it hasn’t become less relevant in the months since.
17)
December
9: Hawaiian Histories: Three Shifts: I love how much I still learn from
researching and writing this blog. A major case in point here!
18)
December
25: 2024 in Review: The Celtics: The 2025 Playoffs didn’t go nearly
as well for the Celtics, and next season looks precarious to boot. Which makes
it that much more important to lean into and reflect on the best that sports
can give us, together.
19)
December
30: 2025 Anniversaries: King Philip’s War: 2025 has been a big year for
historic anniversaries, but I stand by my argument that we need to remember
this moment and figure at least as well as we do the Revolution’s.
20)
January 6:
Great Society Laws: Civil and Voting Rights: There’s no way I could have
imagined, when I drafted and published this series on the Great Society’s 60th
anniversary, how fully every one of these laws would be under assault in 2025.
Makes it that much more important to AmericanStudy them!
21)
January
18-19: Spring Semester Previews: My Scholarly Work and You: I’d
still love y’all’s input on what’s next for me, including a second season of my
podcast and more.
22)
January
22: Misread Quotes: The Constitution: Am I suggesting we need a refresher
course in the Constitution here in 2025? Yes, yes I am.
23)
January
30: Musical Activism: Artists United Against Apartheid: If you
had “Fighting against South African white supremacy” on your “Becomes Relevant
Again in 2025” Bingo Card, congrats to you, and sorry to all of us.
24)
February
8-9: Inspiring Sports Stories: Aidan and Kyle Railton: What did
I say about any and every chance to share posts highlighting the boys?!
25)
February
15-16: One More Love Letter to the Big Easy: Following up my wife and my January
trip to New Orleans with this series was a very fun way to reflect on both the
visit and my favorite American city.
26)
February
17: Places I Love and Hate: Cville: It’s impossible to separate our best
from our worst here in 2025, so this year’s post-Valentine’s non-favorites
series felt very apt.
27)
February
28: AlaskaStudying: McKinley or Denali?: What’s in a name? A lot, as this
post hopefully helps us recognize and analyze.
28)
Marcy 7:
Hockey Histories: Team Trans: There’s a lot of noise about trans athletes
these days, most of it deeply misinformed. Here’s a chance to be better
informed about an actual community of trans athletes.
29)
March
15-16: Reflections of a College Dad: You knew I had to end a Spring Break
series with some thoughts on my first year as a College Dad!
30)
March 21:
ScopesStudying: “Part Man, Part Monkey”: I already loved this post on my
wife’s favorite Bruce song, and then a student used it to put me and Bruce in
conversation as part of their first-year writing research analysis paper!
31)
March 28:
Patriotic Speeches: Alexander Vindman: When I shared this post on Bluesky,
Vindman read and responded thoughtfully and gratefully, which was definitely a
public scholarly highlight of the year for me.
32)
April 1:
Foolish Texts: “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: Writing about a British rock anthem
in an AmericanStudies blog series is exactly the kind of thing that helps keep
this blog fresh, at least for me (and hopefully for y’all too!).
33)
April 10:
A Great Gatsby Centennial: Gatsby’s American Dreams: I really
enjoyed revisiting Fitzgerald’s novel for its 100th anniversary,
including this post on its most famous themes.
34)
April 14:
Kyle Contexts: Younger Siblings: You know I could have included this
whole series inspired by my younger son’s 18th birthday, and I hope
you’ll read them all in tribute to my awesome not-so-young man!
35)
April
26-27: EarthquakeStudying: Charles Richter: Look, I could try to tell you the
crazy places this post on Mr. Earthquakes goes, but you really gotta read it
for yourself.
36)
May 1:
Ending the Vietnam War: “Galveston Bay”: I will never pass up a chance to
write about one of my favorite, and definitely one of the most underrated,
Bruce songs!
37)
May 10-11:
A Works Progress Administration for the 21st Century: Is it
crazy to argue for a new WPA, here on its 90th anniversary and
amidst unprecedented attacks on federal workers and the federal government
(from within)? Then call me crazy, ‘cause I did it.
38)
May 16:
Spring Semester Reflections: Student Tributes to Dad: I
dedicated my whole Spring reflections series to my late Dad, and especially
loved the chance to share these tributes from former students of his.
39)
May 20:
Malcolm X’s 100th: An Opera: Did you know that three African
American brothers collaborated on a Malcolm X opera in the 1980s? Me neither
until I researched and wrote this post!
40)
June
2: GraduationStudying: George Moses Horton’s Poem: I really enjoyed planning
and writing every post in this special series for my younger son’s high school
graduation, but this poem by one of our most inspiring literary figures was
especially fun to examine.
41)
June
11: Revolutionary War Figures: The “Black Regiment”: Speaking of African
American figures and histories, I didn’t know about this Revolutionary War unit
until I highlighted them for a series inspired by the Continental Army’s
anniversary.
42)
June
27: Sound in Film: Meaningful Music: Any chance I get to highlight the
amazing Film- and AmericanStudies work of Vaughn Joy, I’m going to take it!
43)
July
5-6: Keeping the Critical Patriotic Conversations Going!: I’d really love
the chance to talk with any and all audiences about my most recent book and the
contested history of American patriotism, and y’all can help make that happen!
44)
July
11: Rock-y Groundbreakers: Women Who Rock: This whole series on early rock ‘n
rollers was a lot of fun, but I was really glad to have the chance to highlight
not only these rocking women, but the equally badass women who wrote about
them.
45)
July
15: AmericanStudying Sinners: Hoodoo: Sinners is our favorite film
we’ve seen this year, and this whole weeklong series made me love it even more.
46)
July
23: The U.S. Postal System: Stamps: So many great trivia answers in this
post on a small but crucial aspect of the USPS on the service’s 250th
birthday.
47)
July
26-27: A Tribute to the U.S. Postal Service: Will that vital federal
resource endure this catastrophic administration? I made the case here for why
it should and must.
48)
July
31: Echoes of Bad Presidents: Andrew Johnson: And speaking of this
catastrophic administration, my series on how our worst presidents echo in this
moment featured this post on our very worst on the 100th anniversary
of his passing.
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
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