In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the history of summer break in the United States.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
The idea that a long summer vacation originated in “the agrarian calendar” is a persistent myth. Niki referred to our Episode 40, in which we discussed the history of summer camps Natalia referred to historian Kenneth Gold’s book School’s In: The History of Summer Education in American Public Schools and historian Jonathan Zimmerman’s Los Angeles Times opinion piece, “How We Got Interminable Summer Breaks From School – And What We Can Do About It.”
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
Natalia discussed Max Meyer’s Free Press article, “Welcome to the MAGA Hamptons.”
Neil and Niki, for the first time in our history, chose the same WMH! They discussed Jason Aldean’s country music song and video, “Try That in a Small Town.” Neil recommended Chris Willman’s Variety article, “Jason Aldean Already Had the Most Contemptible Country Song of the Decade. The Video is Worse.”