July 8-9, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: Talking Of Thee I Sing

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to this special request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

I hope this week’s series has illustrated the continuing, crucial relevance of Of Thee I Sing and the contested history of American patriotism. I’m always a big fan of talking about my projects and ideas, but in this case I genuinely believe that our future depends on these conversations, and that I have a small but real role to play in helping us have them. I’ll keep looking for such opportunities of course, but I’d really love to hear from you all with ideas as well, and I am quite literally open to everything: from the more familiar (libraries, museums, historic sites) and the educational (classes/students/institutions of all kinds) to what might seem like a longer shot but I promise is of interest as well (book/discussion groups of all types, for example). Got an idea for a place/community/conversation where we could talk about Of Thee I Sing and the contested history and contemporary relevance of American patriotism? You know what to do!

Summertime series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 7, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: “Patriotic Education”

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to a request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

In my main book talk for Of Thee I Sing, I start with two January 2021 events that together reflect the contemporary relevance of debates over American patriotism. One is obvious, and was the subject of another Saturday Evening Post Considering History column inspired by the book’s ideas as well as the one-year anniversary of that insurrection. But I would argue that another January 2021 event foreshadowed just as fully what has happened over the two and a half years since: the release (on MLK Day, no freaking less) of the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission report. I’m sure there had been other right-wing voices calling for a return to “patriotic education” before that document made its vision of that concept a centerpiece; but it’s far from coincidental that the 2.5 years since the report have been dominated by state laws and other efforts to reshape American education (or rather, attack American education) under the aegis of that “patriotic education” frame. One of the main ideas of my own project is that for far too long and much too fully we have ceded definitions of American patriotism over to the particular version that I call mythic patriotism, the propagandistic, exclusionary, often overtly white supremacist form that is clearly driving these extremist educational efforts. To challenge them, we have to be aware of the long histories of both this particular vision and of debates and alternatives—so, as I’ll say again this week, let’s keep talking about them!

Special request this weekend,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 6, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: Critical Patriotism and the Court

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to a request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

One of the very best parts about teaching adult learning courses is that the students feel very free to continue the conversation by email after the class is officially done (often years down the road, in fact, which are some of my favorite emails to receive). As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, that happened again with this Spring’s BOLLI course on patriotism, and with a particularly thoughtful and helpful idea at that. The student (whom I won’t name as I haven’t gotten her permission, but she was a great contributor throughout the course) shared a New York Times article entitled “Supreme Court Justices Don’t Like Being Criticized in Public, Which is a Good Reason to Keep Doing It,” calling it “a beautiful illustration of critical patriotism at its best.” As someone who has directly criticized a Supreme Court Justice in order to advance my ideas about the worst and best of American ideals, I wholeheartedly agree; but until she shared the article and this perspective I really hadn’t thought of that practice as an embodiment of critical patriotism. I’m definitely convinced, however, and this additional and important application of our class conversations really drove home how much Of Thee I Sing can help us analyze in our contemporary politics, debates, and culture.

Last patriotic post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 5, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: Adult Learning Conversations

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to a request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

Podcasts and columns are both great ways to share a book project, but for me nothing beats a true conversation with a full audience, a community that serves more as active fellow conversants than just passive listeners. As I’ve discussed countless times in this space, I’ve never found a better such conversational community than adult learning courses and programs, which is why I’ve taught for multiple such programs for more than a decade now. This Spring I had the chance to return to one of those programs, Brandeis’ BOLLI, after many years away, and decided to focus the five-week course on different layers to Of Thee I Sing (I called the class “What We Talk about When We Talk about Patriotism,” natch). It was a phenomenal series of conversations as always, but for its instructor was especially inspiring as a way in which we—and I do mean we, myself entirely included—consistently found new and compelling contemporary applications for the book and its different categories of patriotism. I’ll highlight in tomorrow’s post one specific example that a student shared with me after the class was officially completed, so here will just make clear the overarching takeaway: that, to my mind, we’ve never had a moment more defined by our debates over patriotism than the last 2.5 years have been. Sounds like a job for me!

Next patriotic post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 4, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: Black Legislators, Past and Present

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to a request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

I’ve talked in many different settings, including on this blog, about the role that online writing has played over the last 15 years of my career in helping me develop pretty much all of my ideas, including those that became my books (at least books three through six, and probably a good bit of book two as well). In the case of Of Thee I Sing, I can trace that process specifically through a series of Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns: from this one in January 2020 on Martin Luther King Jr. and critical patriotism; to this one exactly a year later on critical patriotism and the American Revolution; to this one right when the book was coming out in March 2021 on critical patriotic women. So it was fun to circle back to my project’s ideas and categories for a new column this past April, using that moment’s controversy around two Black state legislators in Tennessee to discuss our contrasting but interconnected histories of racist imagery and critical patriotism. I believe that’s a great example of how a frame like critical patriotism can help us understand and analyze current events, one more reason I’m determined to continue sharing this project everywhere I can!

Next patriotic post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 3, 2023: Patriotism in 2023: What the Gerrymander? Podcast

[It’s been two and a half years since my book on the contested history of American patriotism was published, and let’s just say it doesn’t feel less relevant at the moment. So for this year’s July 4^th series, I wanted to highlight a handful of places and ways I’ve been thinking about the book and patriotism here in 2023. Leading up to a request for any and all further such opportunities to share the project!]

One of the best things about giving a series of book talks is that every one, every setting and audience and conversation, opens up distinct and significant angles on the project. That’s doubly true with podcasts, of course, where the entire conversation is driven by the questions, perspectives, interests of the podcast hosts. Over these two and a half years I’ve had the chance to talk Of Thee I Sing on overtly political podcasts like Burt Cohen’s Keeping Democracy Alive, journalistic ones like Axelbank Reports History and Today, AmericanStudies scholarly ones like Impressions of America, and many more. A couple months back I got to return to the political realm with a conversation about all things patriotism on Stephanie Gerber Wilson and the Hooser Victory Alliance’s excellent What the Gerrymander? Podcast. It was a great conversation in all sorts of ways, but I was particularly inspired by the chance to connect my two most recent books, both from Rowman & Littlefield’s American Ways series: putting Of Thee I Sing and those contested patriotisms in direct conversation with We the People and the battle between exclusionary and inclusive visions of America. I think it really helped me frame my ongoing work and goals even more explicitly, and I highly recommend checking it out if you get a chance!

Next patriotic post tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Ideas for places/ways I could share Of Thee I Sing?

July 1-2, 2023: June 2023 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

June 5: Environmental Activisms: Aldo Leopold: A series inspired by my older son’s summer opportunity to work with a current environmental activist kicks off with the pioneering conservationist who helped develop three important concepts.

June 6: Environmental Activisms: Mardy Murie: The series continues with three factors that help explain the unique life and legacy of the “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement.”

June 7: Environmental Activisms: Animated Activism: Three examples of the longstanding link between animation and the environment, as the series rolls on.

June 8: Environmental Activisms: 21^st Century Voices: Three recent books that carry the legacy of environmental writing into our current moment.

June 9: Environmental Activisms: All of Us: And speaking of us, the series concludes with three ways we can all be environmental activists.

June 10-11: Environmental Activisms: The Climate Just Cities Project: A special weekend post on a few ways to learn more about the vital project with which my son is working this summer.

June 12: Women in War: The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act: On the 75^th anniversary of its passage, a series on women in war starts with three women who embody the arguments for the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.

June 13: Women in War: Molly Pitcher: The series continues with the why the iconic war hero who didn’t really exist still matters. 

June 14: Women in War: The Civil War: Three of the complicated and compelling women who managed to serve in the Civil War, as the series fights on.

June 15: Women in War: World War II:  Three groundbreaking organizations that helped turn the tide of history.

June 16: Women in War: Miyoko Hikiji: The series concludes with a book and soldier that can help bring our conversations into the 21^st century.

June 17-18: Women in War: Tanya Roth’s Guest Post: A repeat of a wonderful Guest Post from September 2021, drawn from Roth’s book on women in the military.

June 19: Beach Reads: New to Liberty: Focused the annual Beach Reads series on books by colleagues and friends, starting with DeMisty Bellinger’s debut novel.

June 20: Beach Reads: Katharine Covino’s Books: The series continues with my colleague Katy’s co-authored books for teens.

June 21: Beach Reads: Ian Williams’ Latest: A pair of 2021 releases from my super-talented friend Ian, as the series reads on.

June 22: Beach Reads: Illmatic Consequences: Many of my friends I haven’t met in person yet, like Walter D. Greason, co-editor of this new collection.

June 23: Beach Reads: Forthcoming (for Next Summer, Natch): The series concludes with a trio of forthcoming books for which you’ll need to keep room in the beach bag.

June 24-25: Crowd-sourced Beach Reads: As usual, one of my favorite crowd-sourced posts of the year!

June 26: Germany and America: Kennedy in Berlin: A series on German American histories kicks off with Kennedy’s influential speech on its 60^th anniversary.

June 27: Germany and America: Ben Franklin: The series continues with what we can all learn from Franklin’s anti-German xenophobia.

June 28: Germany and America: 19^th Century Figures: What four 19^th century German Americans can tell us about the century, as the series rolls on.

June 29: Germany and America: The German American Bund: Three distinct but complementary ways to contextualize a Nazi American organization.

June 30: Germany and America: The Lives of Others: The series concludes with how a film that’s very much about 1980s East Germany can still tell us a lot about 21^st century America.

July 4^th series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!