[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrates his 49th 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 a new post with 49 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, 47 favorite posts from my 14th year of AmericanStudying:
- August 28: Contextualizing the March on Washington: 1941 Origins: I love finding and sharing forgotten sides to familiar histories, and this whole anniversary series qualified.
- September 8: Fall Semester Previews: Departmental Program Review: Being part of Program Reviews is one of the hardest but most rewarding elements of my job, and I highlighted this year’s in one of my Fall preview posts.
- September 15: AmericanStudying The Rising: “My City of Ruins” and “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”: I love revisiting one of my favorite Springsteen albums, building to this particularly complex post.
- September 23-24: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections: History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.
- October 4: LGBT Histories: 1950s Discriminations: Finding light in our darkest histories is an incredibly difficult but important goal, and I hope I modeled it here.
- October 11: Vice President Studying: Henry Wilson’s Book: We’ve thought a lot about VPs recently; I’m a big Walz fan, but I don’t think any will ever equal what Henry Wilson did in the same year he was nominated.
- October 19: Basketball Stories: The Harlem Globetrotters: I don’t generally link to my Saturday Evening Post Considering History columns here, but I’m always glad when it makes sense to share that other online writing!
- October 23: New Scholarly Books: A Seat at the Table: Every book in this series is well worth your time, but I was especially glad to share this one co-edited by my frequent Guest Poster Hettie Williams.
- November 3: Contested Elections: 2000: There are lots of origin points for our own moment, but none looms larger than the 2000 election.
- November 11-12: Kyle Lockwood’s Guest Post: Exploration and the Human Spirit: I’ll always include Guest Posts in these recaps, but doubly so when they’re from FSU students!
- November 14: AmericanStudying the Blues: Robert Johnson: Quite simply one of my favorite posts of the year.
- November 18-19: Sandra Hamilton’s Guest Post on the Blues in American Culture: My cup runneth over with Guest Posts from FSU students this month!
- November 20: Thankful for Scholarly Communities: Fitchburg State: Speaking of the community at which I’ll be starting my 20th year in September.
- November 25-26: My Biggest Thanks-giving: But no community is more meaningful than the intimate one my sons and I have built for the last 18.5 years.
- December 1: Gun Control Histories: Jim Jefferies: Getting to write about favorite texts is a perk of this gig, and Jim Jefferies’ stand-up special is a great example.
- December 9-10: Crowd-sourced Board Game Studying: I don’t get to share as many Crowd-sourced Posts as I used to, but I always love the chance!
- December 14: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Peggy Stewart: Did you know there was a second Tea Party in October 1774? Me neither!
- December 16-17: A Tribute to BostonStudiers: Really enjoyed paying tribute to a handful of the many folks from whom I’ve learned about my home city.
- December 23-24: Hamza Suleiman’s Guest Post on Mohja Kahf: My friend Robin Field has shared a great deal of student work for Guest Posts, with this as the latest example.
- December 29: Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol: Another favorite text, and thus another extremely fun blog post.
- January 2: 2024 Anniversaries: The First Continental Congress in 1774: I learn so much from my New Year’s anniversary series, including this one on forgotten 1774 delegates.
- January 12: AmericanStudying Columbia Pictures: Matt Helm and Casino Royale: Columbia Studios missing out on James Bond led to some very interesting creative choices.
- January 13-14: Vaughn Joy’s Hollywood Histories: Loved the chance to pay tribute to one of our very best up-and-coming Film and AmericanStudiers.
- January 20-21: Ava DePasquale’s Guest Post on Grey Dog: And to share a third FSU student Guest Post!
- January 26: AmericanStudying Groundbreaking Women: Shirley Chisholm: I had no idea Kamala would be our nominee when I included this post on Chisholm’s campaigns, but I love the connection.
- January 29: Quirky American Traditions: Pumpkin Chunkin: Sometimes it’s just fun to research and write these posts.
- February 10-11: AmericanStudying Sports Movies: My Pitch!: My current project has evolved into a podcast (for more on which watch this space), but we can all agree it would also work great as a sports film, no?
- February 17-18: AmericanStudying Love Songs: Five New Classics: Love was in the air for me all year, and on the blog this week in particular.
- February 24-25: Biden and Anti-Immigrant Narratives: Everybody can stand to learn more about our history, including politicians I support.
- March 7: National Park Studying: Mesa Verde: Some childhood moments really define our interests and lives. This was one of mine.
- March 13: NeMLA Reflections: My Panel on Nostalgia & the 50s: I’ve had so many great experiences at NeMLA conferences, but this was at the top of the list.
- March 20: American Magic: Orson Welles: One of the most surprising posts I’ve ever had the chance to share.
- March 25: What is Game Show Studying?: 30s and 40s Origins: Another one for which I learned so much, and from which I hope you will too.
- April 6-7: Emily Lauer on Comics Analysis & Editing as Public-Facing Scholarship: Another great post from my most frequent Guest Poster.
- April 11: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Two 1967 Classics: Has there ever been a better pair of films from one actor in the same year?
- April 20-21: Mythic Patriotisms in 2024: Nothing is more central to this year’s presidential campaign than debates over patriotism, a subject on which I know a little bit.
- April 26: Climate Culture: Climate Songs: Really loved the chance to highlight Midnight Oil’s last album among other great climate music.
- May 11-12: Beach Blogging: Guest Posts from Elsa Devienne and Jamie Hirami: Don’t think I had ever featured two Guest Posts in the same post before!
- May 17: Spring 2024 Stand-Outs: Special Guests!: My three favorite people visited my classes this Spring!
- May 21: Criminal Duos: Leopold & Loeb: Historic anniversaries have driven much of this blog for its last decade, and this was a particularly interesting one to investigate.
- June 4: The Indian Citizenship Act: Joseph K. Dixon and Rodman Wanamaker: On the Act’s 100th anniversary, remembering the pair of complex white dudes who were instrumental in its journey.
- June 15-16: Ocean State Histories: Further Reading: I don’t do bibliographic posts as often as I should, and this one was a very fun one.
- June 22-23: Kyle Railton’s Guest Post on the Simpson Trial: I’ve had the chance to share Guest Posts from both of my sons now, and man do I love that.
- June 24: WesternStudying: Hopalong Cassidy: Come for the first licensed image on a children’s lunch box, stay for a vital cultural history.
- July 6-7: Critical Patriotism in 2024: A vital complement to the earliest post on mythic patriotism in 2024.
- July 19: ElvisStudying: First and Last: I haven’t always done Elvis Presley justice in this space, so this whole series felt like a nice addition to the conversation.
- July 31: Martin Sheen Studying: Estévez Legacies: And I’ll end with one of the most fun series I got to write all year!
Next bday post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You know what to do!
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