Benjamin Railton
Professor of English and American Studies, Fitchburg State University
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Benjamin
Railton is author of six books on American identity; national narratives; and collective memory; most recently Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism (2021). He writes the daily American Studier blog; contributes the bimonthly Considering History column for the Saturday Evening Post; and is a frequent public scholarly tweeter @AmericanStudier.
Contributions
The Roots of Multicultural Diversity in Revolutionary America
Key Findings Brief,
No Jargon Podcast
In the News
Regular contributions by Benjamin Railton to The Celestials' Last Game: Baseball, Bigotry, and the Battle for America.
"Considering History," by Benjamin Railton to The Saturday Evening Post.
Opinion: "The 500-Year Battle over 'Who is American' Continues," Benjamin Railton, CNN, July 20, 2019.
Regular contributions by Benjamin Railton to Huffington Post.
Opinion: "Brexit, Trump, and the Dangers of Global 'Jihad'," Benjamin Railton, Huffington Post, June 24, 2016.
Opinion: "Progressive Populism: The Historical Contexts for a Vital New Book," Benjamin Railton, Huffington Post, April 1, 2016.
Opinion: "Trump and the Klan: A New Controversy with Old Roots," Benjamin Railton, The American Prospect, March 7, 2016.
Opinion: "Black History Month is More American and Relevant than Ever," Benjamin Railton, Huffington Post, February 22, 2016.
Opinion: "The Supreme Court Has Always Been Political," Benjamin Railton, Huffington Post, February 18, 2016.
Opinion: "Occupation, Resistance, and History in Malheur," Benjamin Railton, We're History, January 20, 2016.
Opinion: "Un-American? Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban is Sadly All Too American," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, December 8, 2015.
Opinion: "Why It's Time to Reassess Walter Mondale's Place in History," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, October 20, 2015.
Guest on Sputnik News, October 5, 2015.
Opinion: "Today's Anti-Muslim Sentiment is Yesterday's Fear of Catholics," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, September 30, 2015.
Opinion: "Ahmed Mohamed and the American Myth of the Individual White Inventor," Benjamin Railton, September 18, 2015.
Opinion: "The Forgotten Radical History of Labor Day," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, September 7, 2015.
Opinion: "The Long History behind Renaming Mt. McKinley," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, September 1, 2015.
Opinion: "What the 2016 Candidates Can Learn from Jimmy Carter," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, August 21, 2015.
Opinion: "The Unsettling Truth about America's Attack on Nagasaki," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, August 10, 2015.
Opinion: "How Fox News and Donald Trump are Impacting the GOP," Benjamin Railton, The Conversation, July 16, 2015.
Opinion: "Trump Has It Backwards: White Criminals Stole from Mexicans," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, July 7, 2015.
Opinion: "The Paragraph on Slavery That Never Made It into the Declaration of Independence," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, July 3, 2015.
Opinion: "McKinney, Tamir Rice and the Liability of Playing While Black," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, June 8, 2015.
Opinion: "The Surprising History of Memorial Day," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, May 25, 2015.
Opinion: "Environmentalism Doesn’t Have to be Elite: How History Can Help the California Drought," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, May 14, 2015.
Opinion: "Beyond Marathon Monday: How to Make Patriots' Day Relevant," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, April 20, 2015.
Opinion: "The Historical Roots of Jeb Bush's 'Hispanic' Gaffe," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, April 8, 2015.
Opinion: "Behind UVA's Violent Arrest, a Racist Past in Charlottesville," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, March 25, 2015.
Opinion: "Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and America's Double Standard," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, March 17, 2015.
Opinion: "America’s 150-Year-Old War on Activist Women," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, March 6, 2015.
Opinion: "If This 1780s Southern Politician Fought Islamophobia, We Can Too," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo Café, February 13, 2015.
Opinion: "Sorry, Freedom Lovers: America's Hero Worship is Just as Bad as North Korea's," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, January 6, 2015.
Opinion: "Conservatives Just Forgot Nearly 150 Years of History with Cuba," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, December 19, 2014.
Opinion: "Mark Wahlberg's Ill-Timed Pardon Bid is the Epitome of White Privilege," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, December 8, 2014.
Opinion: "What We Talk about When We Talk about 'Race Riots'," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, November 25, 2014.
Quoted by in "The President’s Executive Order: What Difference Will It Make for Immigrants?," The Conversation, November 21, 2014.
Opinion: "No, Your Ancestors Didn’t Come Here Legally," Benjamin Railton, Talking Points Memo, November 20, 2014.
Opinion: "Yung Wing, the Chinese Educational Mission, and Transnational Connecticut," Benjamin Railton, ConnecticutHistory.org, 2013.
Publications
We the People: The 500-Year Battle Over Who Is American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
Analyzes inclusive and exclusive visions of who gets to be considered American, from the beginning of European settlement until today.
"Side by Side: Locating Dissenting Voices in New England Public Spaces", American Studies Association Conference, October 2013.
Uses Plymoth Plantation and the Salem Witch Trials Memorial to argue for how public spaces can become vital tools through which Americans learn about our multi-layered histories.
"The Even Bigger Read: Making American Literature National", Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, February 2013.
Argues for works that all Americans should read, to help us engage collectively with our identity and community, in conjunction with the in-development American Writers Museum.
The Chinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America (Palgrave Macmillan Pivot, 2013).
Highlights three lessons we can learn if we better remember the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and its contexts: a lesson about the history of immigration laws; one about diversity in America; and one about inspiring stories and identities. Each lesson has vital applications to our present debates and community.
Redefining American Identity: From Cabeza de Vaca to Barack Obama (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Argues for a new definition of American identity: a vision of cross-cultural transformation, of encounters and conversations between different cultures and communities and of the changes and new identities that they produce, as an experience that has been fundamental to America since its origin points and from which we are all descended in this 21st century moment.