Culture

Michael Kimmage considers "The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History" by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen.

Air guitar competitions may seem rather new, but this sport has a long, evolving, and sometimes surprising history.

The strange and convoluted history of why yellow ribbons became a symbol of the Gulf War in the 1990s.

Disco, DJs, and the impact of the 12-inch single.

The improbable success of the curveball.

An anti-imperialist network made his warning possible.

Black America talks back to "The Good Gray Poet" at 200.

Real inclusivity is based on equal access to mediocrity.

Pornographers were in many ways the innovators who fueled the rise of the internet as we know it.

The painter, who died at the age of thirty-one, vivified his Native American heritage with inspirations from modern art.

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.

Novelist Richard Wright yearned to break into film, but Hollywood's censorship of black stories left his aspirations unfulfilled.

What's the role of functionality in design?

Its meaning can change over time, and over the course of a life.

How mathematics has been shaped by wars, politics, dynasties, and nationalism.

A new production exposes the darkness that’s always been at the heart of the musical — and the American experiment.

How the original DVR paved the way for Netflix and the cord-cutter movement.

Silicon Valley veteran Mike Monteiro explains how designers destroyed the world.

The story of one of rock's most prolific poster artists.

Meet the team that transformed baseball from a pastime to an industry.

The 1989 cult classic ushered in a darker, weirder, more experimental era for teen movies.

A history of trucking in America, told through the music that has kept truckers company on the lonely road.

Examining the Age of Revolutions through one of its most familiar material markers.

Protesters at the Whitney and other museums are demanding radical changes to the way the art world is governed.

Influence, invention, and the legacy of Leon Redbone.

Blaine was never as recognizable as Elvis or Sinatra. Still, he was key to the creation of some of rock n' roll's biggest hits.

On reckoning with a fraught literary history.

The video game offers a realistic portrayal of illness and public health in the 19th-century American West.

On race, borders and belonging.

The 1994 studio film was written by a 20-something who mined her own life to tell the story of a generation that disdained 'selling out.'