Slice of pecan pie.

Guess Which Brand Popularized Pecan Pie

This delicious sticky treat has quite the American origin story.
Female costars in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" next to a picture of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins.

The Pioneering Black Sci-Fi Writer Behind the Original Wakanda

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins invented the setting that eventually became Wakanda in her science fiction, but her name isn't widely known.
Woman standing on a wall of books, holding a megaphone, 1919.

Choice Reading

Nineteenth-century New York City was filled with books, bibliophilia, and marginalia.
Painting of classical ruins, called the 'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina,' by John Rollin Tilton.

18th- and 19th-Century Americans of All Races, Classes & Genders Looked to the Ancient Mediterranean for Inspiration

In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.
Octavia E. Butler.

The Spectacular Life of Octavia E. Butler

The story of the girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, loved her mom and grandmother, and wrote herself into the world.

Liquor on Sundays

A new book sets out to discover how Americans became such creatures of the seven-day week.
Chuck Norris as Sergeant Cordell Walker in Walker: Texas Ranger.

Walkers and Lone Rangers: How Pop Culture Shaped the Texas Rangers Mythology

Texas’s elite police force has long played the hero in film and television, although the reality is far more complex.
Book cover of "Grain and Fire: A History of American Baking."

A Fresh Look at the History of Pecan Pie

The pecan pie as we know it is very much a twentieth-century creation, so if you ever see a recipe entitled “Old South Pecan Pie,” you know it’s bogus.
"Washington Crossing The Delaware" superimposed on NASA image of the Pillars of Creation in space

The Age of Planetary Revolution: Remembering the Future in Science Fiction

Nothing dates our vision of the future like how we remember the past.
A.I. image of Benjamin Franklin, Audrey Hepburn and Al Capone if they were alive today.

Photographer Uses AI to Imagine What Historical Icons Would Look Like Today

Some of the stars depicted in Yesiltas’ portraits are instantly recognizable as modern-day sirens, while others are less obvious at first glance.
Drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, of the "Inside View of the Public Library," Cambridge, 1809.

A Library by the Book

For its ubiquity and richness, the American library building stands as a reflection of the country’s enlightened calling.

Lydia Maria Child Taught Americans to Make Do With Less

A popular writer’s 1829 self-help book ‘The Frugal Housewife’ was based on the same democratic principles that made her a champion of the abolitionist cause.
Keyboard, microphone, and mixer in a music studio.

How the Billboard Hot 100 Lost Interest in the Key Change

One of the key changes—pun intended—to the pop charts in the last 60 years is the demise of key changes. What happened?
Charlie Brown and his friends at a store with a Christmas sale.

When Christmas Started Creeping

Christmas starts earlier every year — or does it?
Illustration of Harold drawing the moon, from "Harold and the Purple Crayon"

On "Harold of the Purple Crayon" and the Value of an Imaginative Journey

Considering the lessons and history of Crockett Johnson’s classic.
Cosplayers dressed as All the way May and Greta Gill from “A League of Their Own” attend New York Comic-Con on Oct. 6.
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‘A League of Their Own’ Chronicles Life for LGBTQ Women in the 1940s

Even at a time of repression, these women found ways to create a culture and life for themselves.
Edith Wharton.

Why Do Women Want?: Edith Wharton’s Present Tense

"The Custom of the Country" and its unique relationship with ideas of feminism and the culture of the early 20th century elite.
A photo of three young girls smiling seated around a table with dolls next to them.

Reading Disability History Back into American Girl

The author's personal history with the dolls, and an argument for American Girl to make a new doll with a disability.
"White Zombie" in white font on green background, with illustration of eyes over the text and clasped hands below the text

Colonialism Birthed the Zombie Movie

The first feature-length zombie movie emerged from Haitians’ longstanding association of the living dead with slavery and exploited labor.
Jerry Lee Lewis backstage in 1982.

Jerry Lee Lewis Was an SOB Right to the End

Jerry Lee Lewis was known as the Killer, and it wasn’t a casual sobriquet.
Photograph of an African American family buying ice cream at a segregated ice cream shop

Gordon Parks' View of America Across Three Decades

Two new books and one expanded edition of Gordon Parks' photographs look at the work of the photographer from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Children in costume looking out a window by the light of a jack o' lantern.

Halloween: A Mystic and Eerie Significance

Despite the prevalence of tricks and spooky spirits in earlier years, the American commercial holiday didn’t develop until the middle of the twentieth century.
A close up black and white image of a clown face showing a sinister smile.

The Creepy Clown Emerged from the Crass and Bawdy Circuses of the 19th Century

Today’s creepy clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.
Pubs and Bars having colorful lights and decorations in the French Quarter

Sex, Race, and Gender in Bounce Music Culture

Bounce is defined by its “up-tempo, call-and-response, heavy base, ass-shaking music” and by its transgressively liberatory power.
Diorama of a cluster of houses and people along a waterfront, with a ship in the foreground.

On the Rich, Hidden History of the Banjo

The banjo did not exist before it was created by the hands of enslaved people in the New World.
A father and son stand in front of an illustration of a circular target, while the son holds a small gun.

American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.
Lobby card for film titled "Ritzy" starring Betty Bronson, featuring Betty on the left in a gold dress, and a central image of a man holding Betty's hand as they look at each other

See the Stunning Lobby Cards Keeping Silent Movies Alive

Thanks to a collector, thousands of lobby cards from the silent film era will soon be digitized.
Display of banned books in a bookstore.
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Today’s Book Bans Echo a Panic Against Comic Books in the 1950s

When a climate of fear exists, people don’t scrutinize the evidence behind claims about children’s reading material.
A mural of a Black musician wearing a pinstripe suit, hat, and playing guitar.

The Devil, the Delta, and the City

In search of the mythical blues—and their real urban origins.
Black and white photo of Woody Guthrie holding a guitar labeled "this machine kills fascists"

I've Got Those Old Talking-Blues Blues Again

The Folkies and WWII, Part Two.