Your Shelf or Mine

Becky and Jakob discuss two important American political essays:  "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau (1849) "Letter From Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) They are available from the library in the book "Writing Politics: An Anthology" edited by David Bromwich, published by the New York Review of Books.

Becky and Austin explore the myth of the American Pioneer through Little House on the Prairie. We discuss "Little House on the Prairie" and "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder" by Caroline Fraser, "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich, "Prairie Lotus" by Linda Sue Park, and the new Little House on the Prairie Netflix series. 

Becky, Shelley, and Austin explore the Founding myths through musical theater. This is the first in a six-part series exploring American mythology through different texts. We discuss 1776 (music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, book by Peter Stone) and Hamilton (music, lyric, book by Lin-Manuel Miranda). Other work referenced: "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution" by Jill Lepore, "A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America" by Richard Slotkin, and the essay "Race-Conscious Casting and the Erasure of the Black Past in Lin-Manual Miranda's Hamilton" by Lyra D. Monteiro.  https://online.ucpress.edu/tph/article/38/1/89/90687/Review-Essay-Race-Conscious-Casting-and-the?__cf_chl_f_tk=RYgtNhx8xBI4oM1lbTJWq.vpN8FWjMQmCiZ91vf4euU-1783030175-1.0.1.1-vToaORa2QQj0TiJ5U9.4FCSpCIaP_CS_PS864EnlqEA