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Ben Railton Profile picture
@AmericanStudier
Apr 12 • 5 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Happy Ronald Takaki Day! On my short list for the greatest & most influential American historians. #History #twitterstorians

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/april-nomine…
I wrote about one of my single favorite Takaki moments, from the intro to his magisterial A Different Mirror, as part of this post on Carlos Bulosan & redefining American identity:

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2014/07/july-2…
It's no coincidence that Takaki grew up in WWII Hawaii, home to a Japanese American community who embodied the very best of American critical patriotism & identity:

saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/12/consid…
America's founding featured some important ideas & inspiring ideals, even if we've failed to live up to them far too often. But by far the most significant foundational element is our defining diversity. & no historian has traced that better than Takaki.
zinnedproject.org/materials/diff…
PS. I made the case for that foundational, revolutionary American diversity in my @SSNScholars brief:
scholars.org/brief/roots-mu…

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More from @AmericanStudier

Ben Railton Profile picture
Apr 12
The authoritarian, demeaning, & racist attacks on @brotherjones_ & @Justinjpearson are a troubling reflection of where our political & democratic debates stand in 2023, but they're also nothing new. Indeed, such attacks originated with the first Black legislators in US history.
One of the most familiar images & tropes of the propagandistic, white supremacist narratives of Reconstruction created in US educational & pop culture spaces alike for more than 100 years was precisely such racism targeting the era's groundbreaking Black legislators.
The reality, as ever, is not just distinct from those white supremacist myths but quite the opposite: the stories & legacies of Reconstruction-era Black legislators are among the most striking, inspiring, & critical patriotic in American history.
Read 6 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
Apr 10
150 years ago this week, the small Louisiana town of Colfax was the site of one of the Reconstruction era's most violent acts of racial terrorism (a far too competitive category), with more than 100 Black militia members killed by a white supremacist mob.
That specific sesquicentennial, like Reconstruction's broader 150th anniversary, still needs a more central place in our collective memories. So this week I'll blog about a handful of Reconstruction histories we could better remember, including Colfax & many more.
Starting with today's post on why the Freedmen's Bureau failed (fuck you very much, Andrew Johnson), & lasting & important legacies of that organization nonetheless. #twitterstorians

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-…
Read 10 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
Feb 3
The main reason I wanted to do short stories in my adult learning courses this semester was that it's been a long time since I've really just sat in a classroom & talked about literary works with a community of fellow readers (that's part of undergrad teaching, but just part).
That's what it felt like the other times I taught lit-focused adult learning classes, but I didn't want to do so over Zoom so it's been about 4 years since I had the chance. I knew it would feel good to be back in that space, & at last week's 1st class it most definitely did.
But what I wasn't really expecting was how good it would feel even just to read the stories this way--not simply reading for pleasure, but also not reading with all the hats we have to wear to teach classes that involve assignments, grading, skills. Just reading to talk together.
Read 7 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
Feb 1
There are no shortage of horrific & fascistic elements to the attacks on education from the De Santis administration & around the country. But when it comes to Black history, there's also a stunning irony: we still collectively teach, learn, & know so frustratingly little of it.
A telling example is Boston's Black Heritage Trail, which begins at the same spot as the Freedom Trail, winds past a number of amazing historic sites & spaces in Beacon Hill, & features a great museum (@MAAHMuseum) yet receives far fewer annual visitors than the Freedom Trail.
So for my #BlackHistoryMonth @SatEvePost Considering History column, on all that we have to learn from the Black Heritage Trail--& all the Black history we still desperately, collectively need. #twitterstorians
saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/02/consid…
Read 5 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
Feb 1
Happy Langston Hughes Day! One of my favorite Memory Day Calendar details is that #blackhistorymonth2023 begins with not just one of our greatest poets, but a vital voice on Black & American histories. #twitterstorians

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/february-nom…
He offered that vital voice through poems like "American Heartbreak" that reflect on the gap between our national ideals & the histories of enslavement, racism, & white supremacy.

acylme.com/2014/02/26/ame…
He did it through poems like "I, Too" that express a collective, impassioned & inspiring African American response & alternative to those histories.
poetryfoundation.org/poems/47558/i-…
Read 6 tweets
Ben Railton Profile picture
Jan 30
150 years ago today, the English-language edition of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days was published. While Verne's book is a work of fiction, it both inspired a great deal of travel writing & helps us think about complex questions of how authors depict travel stories.
Starting today with three American travelers who were connected to and/or created their own versions of Verne's travel story:

William Perry Fogg, the Ohio businessman & adventurer whose travels & book helped inspire Verne;
Nellie Bly, the investigative journalist who beat Verne's record in her own Around the World in Seventy-Two Days;

& James Willis Sayre, the theatre critic who circled the globe in a mere 54 days in 1903! #twitterstorians

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2023/01/januar…
Read 10 tweets

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