SCHOLARSHIP
The Elements of Style: Aspiration and the Writing Life in the Early Years of Esquire
The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies 14.1 (2023): 1-23
The hidden link between stylish writing and stylish living in 1930s-era Esquire magazine.
Western Fiction
The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics. Ed. Bryan M. Santin. Cambridge University Press, 2023. 160-173.
On the evolving politics of the Western.
Darwin’s Anachronisms: Liberalism and Conservative Temporality in The Son of the Wolf
The Oxford Handbook of Jack London. Ed. Jay Williams. Oxford University Press, 2017. 259-276
Jack London claimed to be an ardent socialist. He didn’t always sound like it, though.
“My dear Judge”: The Virginian, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and Natural Law Conservatism
Western American Literature 51.3 (2016): 279-311
On the many connections between writer Owen Wister, western novels, and conservatism in the early twentieth century.
Closing Deals with Hamlet’s Help: Assessing the Instrumental Value of an English Degree
Coauthored with Sheryl I. Fontaine. College English 76.4 (2014): 357-378
Do English alumni see a link between their undergraduate education and their careers? You might be surprised.
The Roots of “Wilding”: Black Literary Naturalism, the Language of Wilderness, and Hip Hop in the Central Park Jogger Rape
African American Review 46.1 (2013): 101-115
How widespread ignorance of Black literature and popular culture helped create a social panic in the wake of a horrific crime.
Toward a Transnational Liberalism of the Left: Positive Liberties and the West in Carlos Bulosan’s “America”
Regionalists on the Left: Radical Voices from the American West. Ed. Michael Steiner. University Press of Oklahoma, 2013. 303-326
On Filipino American writer Carlos Bulosan’s unique brand of liberalism and his expansive vision of America.
The Starbucks Myth: Measuring the Work of the English Major
Coauthored with Sheryl I. Fontaine. ADE Bulletin 152 (2012): 36-46
What do English majors do for a living? Nearly anything.
Recovering a Lost Voice of the American West: Liberalism and Historical Narrative in the Short Fiction of Noah Brooks
ESQ 58.4 (2012): 566-600
Appreciating the long-overlooked fiction of Noah Brooks: an early editor of Mark Twain, the first publisher of Henry George, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln—and an important western writer.
The Fiction of History: The Da Vinci Code and the Virtual Public Sphere
Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers from Charlotte Temple to The Da Vinci Code. Eds. Sarah Churchwell & Thomas Ruys Smith. Continuum, 2012. 341-358
A lightly revised republication of “Realism, Narrative History, and the Production of the Bestseller.”
Realism, Narrative History, and the Production of the Bestseller: The Da Vinci Code and the Virtual Public Sphere
The Journal of Popular Culture 44.5 (2011): 1085-1101
What do people’s reactions to a bestselling work of popular fiction tell us about their commitment to factual history?
Two Ways to Yuma: Locke, Liberalism, and Western Masculinity in 3:10 to Yuma
The Philosophy of the Western. Eds. Jennifer L. McMahon & B. Steve Csaki. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. 69-87
What the 1957 and 2007 versions of the film 3:10 to Yuma say about how we use the far west to imagine liberalism in America.
The Logic of Liberalism: Lorenzo de Zavala’s Transcultural Politics
MELUS 32.2 (2007): 79-106
In 1830, a Mexican aristocrat and politician traveled to the United States to learn about its politics. Here’s what he learned.
Material Knowledge: Democracy and the Digital Archive
English Language Notes 45.1 (2007): 123-135
For libraries, digital archives just might mean democratic archives.
SpectacularSpectacular!: Underworld and the Production of Terror
Studies in the Novel 36.3 (2004): 318-335
What Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld tells us about the relationship between terrorism and mass media.
Consuming Cities: Hip-Hop’s Urban Wilderness and the Cult of Masculinity
Eco-Man: New Perspectives on Masculinity and Nature. Ed. Mark Allister. University of Virginia Press, 2004. 235-247
What does it mean when rappers and writers talk about the city as a wilderness?