Culture

Was the author and poet best known for 'The Jungle Book' and 'Kim' truly a racist imperialist?

How "Behold a Pale Horse" found its way to the Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, Busta Rhymes, Tupac Shakur, NAS, and more.

Why historians should stop worrying and embrace the rise of history podcasts by non-scholars.

No one else sang as well as her, and no other singer changed popular music as much as her.

The ethical formation of citizens was once at the heart of the US elite college. Has this moral purpose gone altogether?

During the Cold War, nuclear weapons were a frequent plot point on television shows. Fearful depictions in the 1950's became more darkly comedic in the 1960s.

Hidden tattoos captured soldiers' pride and patriotism, but also had a practical use.

The oldest object on view shows on brown paperboard one of the earliest known images of a slave in the U.S.

Overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, the visionary behind “The Wonder Show of the Universe” left a far-reaching legacy.

The four-piece lived with the New York Dolls and played with Sid Vicious, but they’ve been largely written out of cultural history.

In the late 19th century, more women were becoming librarians. Experts predicted they would suffer ill health and breakdowns.

Agnes Scott vs. Princeton, GE College Bowl, 1966.

Since the 1960s, the reference book has cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing.

On the music’s African-American tributaries, its unpredictable politics, country radio’s woman problem, and working on Ken Burns’ forthcoming doc.

How does Hammacher Schlemmer, famous for such eccentric products as the Navigable Water Park, continue to survive in the age of Amazon?

Depression-era Americans viewed urban life in America through the lens of Weegee’s camera.

How plastic bags came to rule our lives, and why we can’t quit them.

The Lincoln Memorial, the NY Public Library lions, and the senate pediment of the US Capitol Building are among their creations.

"I pledge to laugh / At the Flag / Of the United States of America..."

Four nineteenth-century authors offered blueprints for a better world—but their progressive visions had a dark side.

Whether they delight or disappoint, old books provide touchstones for tracking personal growth.

When conductor and soloist clash, a concerto performance can turn into a contest of wills.

The history of camping in the U.S. starts in the Adirondacks, with a guidebook that became an instant bestseller.

In a few short years, American festivals went from cultural phenomena to endangered species.

As he told a friend years later, "the kiss of Walt Whitman is still on my lips."

Sweet, filthy, and forgiving, it’s a corrective to the authoritative, we-know-better tone of most historical nonfiction.

A behind-the-scenes account of the most important company on the Internet, from grad-school all-nighters to extraordinary global power.

The food pages of newspapers were probably some of the first feminist writing many women read.

"The Best of Everything" outlined the dynamics and the costs of sexual harassment, decades before anyone talked openly about it.

No American writer has wielded such influence. So why is he so little known today?