Happy birthday to RiAH

Paul Harvey



Religion in American History turned five last week! Happy birthday to us, especially happy as we have long since met and surpassed our goal of 1,000 facebook and 500 (close to 600 now) Twitter followers. Do not ask for whom the vuvuzela blows; it blows for thee. 

"Like" us at facebook here, and follow us on Twitter here. 


Those of you in the field who have been following the blog for a while -- please consider becoming a contributor. The more fresh blood we have here, the more the sharks can continue circling! Those of you who don't want to be a contributor but are dying to post on a particular subject germane to our interests, let me know, we're always happy to host guests for a short visit. 

We've kept you abreast of some of the accomplishments of our contributors as well as friends/followers of the blog, and we look forward to many more of those in the coming days.

We have some big plans coming up down the road for the blog.

As my old age, advanced dementia, and inability to hit a layup, much less a jump shot, obviously have caught up with me, I've been having discussions with our blog contributors and others about moving into a "new era," RiAH 2.0, ideally one with a little less conversation (with me) and a lot more action (from everyone else), to paraphrase Elvis. Later this year we hope to put this into effect, with a fairly regular roster of scheduled posts (somewhat on the model of what the folks at the much-admired U.S. Intellectual History do), occasional "takeovers" of the blog by groups of recruited guest posters, and a renewed focus on this blog's original mission of providing a scholarly forum for research and teaching in the field of American religious history.

More on all that anon. Until then, we'll keep on keeping on. Thanks for your support.

Update: Thanks for all who have asked after me during the fires around the Colorado Springs area. I am fine, but keep us in your thoughts as some of my faculty members have evacuated, and unpredictable wind gusts can still create more havoc and destruction, as happened today when 65 mph wind gusts blew the fire from the forest lands down towards and then into the northwest quadrant of the city. If any of you, as kids, visited the Flying W Ranch, as I did: it is gone. You can view a fantastic slideshow of the #waldocanyonfire here.