[16 years ago this week, I launched this AmericanStudies daily blog. For this year’s anniversary series, I thought I’d revisit some significant months across those 16 years, leading up to my usual weekend thank-full post paying tribute to some of the countless folks who’ve helped along the way.]
Plenty of things evolved on the blog between December 2011 and November 2016, of course; but there are only so many moments I can highlight in one series like this, and I would say that the latter month did reflect a couple of the most striking and significant changes to this space since its origins half-a-dozen years earlier. If you know anything about America in 2016 (and unless you just woke up from a coma, you do; if you did just wake up from a coma, for the love of god go back under), you’ll know what was the motivation behind each of those changes, in distinct but parallel ways: in the November 5-6 weekend post, I followed up a series on historic elections with one of my most clearly contemporary topics yet, the role of the media in the 2016 presidential election; and in a special Thanksgiving week post, I made the case for some of the many ways that public scholars could and should be connecting our work to aspects of that present moment. While I hope and believe that my weekly series have continued to focus on historical, cultural, literary, and other AmericanStudies topics, those two additions—weekend posts that connect my subjects to the present even more fully; and far more overt and consistent connections of this space to my overarching public scholarly goals—have stayed central to this blog and project ever since.
Next monthly moment tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Whether you’re a recent or long-time reader, say hi in comments, please!
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