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In the late 1870s, two San Francisco sandlots featured and embodied two central strains of American history and identity. In one, Irish immigrant turned businessman and labor leader Denis Kearney gave demagogic speeches to angry mobs, helping make anti-Chinese fears and narratives truly national in the lead-up to the Chinese Exclusion Act. In the other, the Celestials, the baseball team featuring students from the Hartford Chinese Educational Mission, played a triumphant but tragic final game against an Oakland team. In this course, we’ll discuss these two interconnected moments and stories, as well as the many American contexts to which they connect
INSTRUCTOR: Ben Railton is a Professor of English and American Studies at Fitchburg State University and the author of six books. Recently he published Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism, 2021. He maintains a daily blog, contributes articles to many sites including Saturday Evening Post Considering History column and is a Boston chapter leader of the Scholars Strategy Network organization at https://scholars.org/ .
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Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE)Assumption University, 500 Salisbury Street, Worcester MA 01609 wise@assumption.edu 508-767-7513
