American History Now

Friday, December 25, 2009

Jim is observing Christmas. One of his favorite gifts that he received this year is June Skinner Sawyers's new coffee table book, Bruce Springsteen: Halfway to Heaven & Just a Mile Out of Hell.

Besides an exceptionally rich array of photographs spanning Springsteen's entire career (from 22 different collections -- clearing them must have been an immense task), the book functions as a brief, elegant, and yet comprehensive biography of Springsteen from his earliest days through his Working on a Dream tour. Of particular note are the many sidebars, which contextualize Springsteen's career in terms of well-known literal and figurative landmarks as well as literary figures like Stephen Crane (another famous Asbury Park denizen) and John Steinbeck. Sawyers, author of Tougher than the Rest (2006), a collection of mini-essays on Springsteen songs, and Racing in the Street (2004), an anthology of writings on Springsteen, is a superb tour guide. Halfway to Heaven is a terrific keepsake the for the dedicated fan as well as a fine introduction for anyone wondering what the fuss is all about. Published by Metro Books under a licensing agreement with Barnes & Noble, you're more apt to get your hands on it there than anywhere else.

In this time of rest, reflection, and savored blessings, Jim would like to thank the many friends -- some personally known to him, some not -- from around the world who took the time to visit American History Now in 2009. This blog represents an ongoing experiment in a time of tremendous upheaval for all with a stake in the fate of the written word and its intensifying orientation toward, and evolution within, the World Wide Web. Thanks to all of you who stopped in to read about Felix, Maria, and other subjects, and thanks to the engineers at Google who made blogging an idiot-proof proposition. Whatever the future may hold for a corporation that has engendered anxieties from citizen and competitor alike, it only seems fair to express thanks to a company which has created immense new possibilities and empowered individuals for self-expression and communication.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night (and weekend).

--J.C.

Welcome -- and thanks for having a look at my work.

I'm a teacher and writer about American history, education, and culture. Here's a brief bibliography of my work. For more information, please see my page at amazon.com.

BOOKS:

Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write and Think about History, third edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017)

Democratic Empire: The United States Since 1945 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)

The Secret Lives of Teachers (University of Chicago Press, 2015)

A Short History of the Modern Media (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)

Sensing the Past: Hollywood Stars and Historical Visions (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write and Think about History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, 2012)

Imperfect Presidents: Tales of Misadventure and Triumph (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Restless in the Promised Land: Catholics and the American Dream (Sheed & Ward, 2001).

Born in the USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition (HarperCollins, 1997, 2005).

The Art of Democracy: A Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States, (1996, 2002).

The Civil War in Popular Culture: A Reusable Past (Smithsonian, 1995).

ANTHOLOGIES:

Editor (with Lyde Cullen Sizer), The Civil War Era: An Anthology of Sources (Blackwell, 2005).

Editor, Popular Culture in American History (Blackwell, 2001, 2013).

ESSAYS:

"Problems and Promises of the Self-Made Myth," The Hedgehog Review 15:2 (Summer 2013).

"How Six Oscar Winners Tell the Story of America," Washington Post, Febuary 21, 2013,

"With Lincoln, A New Frontier for Day-Lewis, CNN.com, February 23, 2013.

"A Raft of Hopes: Sometimes, Half a Lesson is Better Than None," Common-Place, 11:2 (January 2011).

"The Ethnic Fork of Bruce Springsteen" History News Network, December 6, 2010

"History without Reading," History News Network, January 11, 2010

Opening the Academy: Theodore R. Sizer, 1932-2009," Common Place 10:2 (January 2010)

Closing the Books: Traversing the Electronic Frontier Isn't Easy, But It's Probably Logistically -- and Pegagogically -- Necessary," Common-Place 9:4 (July 2009)

"Artificial Light: George Washington Plunkitt Teaches a Lesson," Common-Place 9:2 (January 2009).

"The Wright Stuff: Stephen Douglas, Frederick Douglass, and the Blackened Reputation of Abraham Lincoln," Common-Place 9:1 (October 2008).

“From Honda to Civics: The Pedagogy of National Identity in a Hybrid Age,” Common-Place 8:3 (April 2008).

National Character: Daniel Day-Lewis, American Historian," Common-Place 7:4 (July 2007)

"The Declaration of Independence and the American Dream," History News Network, July 4, 2011

"The American Dream: Homeland." Forbes, June 26, 2007.

“The Greatest Catholic Poet of Our Time . . . Is a Guy from the Jersey Shore? Yup,” in The Best Catholic Writing 2007, edited by Jim Manney (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2007)

“I’s a Man Now: Gender and African-American Men,” in Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War, edited by Nina Silber and Catherine Clinton (Oxford University Press, 1992).

THE COMPLETE MARIA CHRONICLES, 2009-2010

Most writing in the vast discourse about American education is analytic and/or prescriptive: It tells. Little of that writing is actually done by active classroom teachers. The Maria Chronicles, like the Felix Chronicles that preceded them (see directly below), takes a different approach: They show. These (very) short stories of moments in the life of the fictional Maria Bradstreet, who teaches U.S. history at Hudson High School, located somewhere in metropolitan New York, dramatize the issues, ironies, and realities of a life in schools. I hope you find them entertaining. And, just maybe, useful, whether you’re a teacher or not. –Jim Cullen