Episode 384: The History of Summer Break

In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the history of summer break in the United States. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast 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.”