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On language and modes of communication.

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Covers of paperbacks by white journalists who tried living as African Americans.

The Strange History of White Journalists Trying to “Become” Black

"To believe that the richness of Black identity can be understood through a temporary costume trivializes the lifelong trauma of racism. It turns the complexity of Black life into a stunt."
by Alisha Gaines via Nieman Lab on June 17, 2024
Victorian telegraph operator.

What Mark Zuckerberg Should Learn From 19th-Century Telegraph Operators

No, really.
by Megan Ward via Slate on May 27, 2024
Syntactic trees filled with words and numbers.

American Grammar: Diagraming Sentences in the 19th Century

A pre-history of the sentence diagrams that were once commonplace in the American classroom.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on June 19, 2024
Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.
by Chloe Lizotte via Mubi on August 1, 2024

Exhibits

Mary Cassatt painting of a nurse reading to a little girl.
Exhibit

Reading About Reading

Read up on the history of books.

Exhibit

Truth and Truthiness

Americans have been arguing over the role and rules of journalism since the very beginning.

George Gallup reenacting his polling methods on a talk show.

The Problems with Polls

Political polling’s greatest achievement is its complete co-opting of our understanding of public opinion, which we can no longer imagine without it.
by Samuel Earle via New York Review of Books on September 26, 2024
Phil Donahue.

Phil Donahue’s Cold War Legacy

The late telejournalist was a pioneer of informal diplomacy between American and Soviet citizens.
by Adriel Kasonta via The American Conservative on September 25, 2024
The silhouette of a colonial American man overlayed on the front page of Publick Occurrences.

Why the Debut Issue of America’s First Newspaper Was Also the Publication’s Last

The paper angered colonial officials by repeating a scandalous rumor and condemning a British alliance with the Mohawk.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on September 25, 2024
Kamala Harris on stage at a campaign rally

The Polling Imperilment

Presidential polls are no more reliable than they were a century ago. So why do they consume our political lives?
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on September 25, 2024
Homepage of Freedom Seekers website.

Freedom Seekers: Stories of Black Liberation in the American Revolutionary Era and Beyond

A new digital project shows how those who escaped slavery were important actors in the challenge not just to their own enslavement but to slavery more broadly.
by Billy G. Smith, Simon Newman, Antonio T. Bly, Gloria McCahon Whiting via Commonplace on September 24, 2024
A newspaper headline that reads "Ask Congress' Ban on Fake Pictures: White Slaver's Photograph Taken Apparently with President Taft Arouses Senator.""

The 1912 War on Fake Photos

Fake photographs of the US president sparked calls for regulation of analog photo editing.
by Louis Anslow via Pessimists Archive on September 24, 2024
Political cartoon of a politician with his clothes removed, revealing tattoos showing corruption.
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Campaign Missteps: Gaffes on the Trail

How a single phrase or blunder can end up dominating our political discourse.
via Retro Report on September 20, 2024
Police officer in front of a playground and school.

The Historical Precedents to Trump’s Attacks on Haitian Immigrants

An expert on white nationalism explains how such demonizing rhetoric incubates and spreads—and what sets this particular episode apart.
by Kathleen Belew, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on September 18, 2024
Trump at the debate in Philadelphia.

Why Republican Politicians Keep Claiming Immigrants Eat Cats and Dogs

"They’re eating the pets of the people that live there," former President Trump claimed — with no basis — at the first presidential debate.
by Bettina Makalintal via Eater on September 11, 2024
Abstract painting of Black people.

The Messiness of Black Identity

Can language unify the people?
by Doreen St. Félix via The New Yorker on September 7, 2024
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How 'The Campus' Captured Our Imaginations—And Our Politics

At least since the 1960s, a warped vision of college life has shaped U.S. culture and politics.
by Adrian Daub via Made By History on September 3, 2024
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An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome

Why were so many early European books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions.
by Katherine Churchill via HNN on August 27, 2024
Kamala Harris stands in front of a crowd of voters holidng "Freedom" signs.

Kamala Harris’s “Freedom” Campaign

Democrats’ years-long efforts to reclaim the word are cresting in this year’s Presidential race.
by Peter Slevin via The New Yorker on August 23, 2024
Harris on a tv screen.

TV Still Runs Politics

Just about every major development in the current presidential campaign started as a television event.
by Paul Farhi via The Atlantic on August 22, 2024
Joe Biden waving.

Joe Biden and the Art of the Presidential Farewell

Plus: How George Washington almost ruined his own exit from the national stage.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on August 19, 2024
Reddy Kilowatt mascott emerging from an outlet.

The Energy Mascot that Electrified America

An animation historian on Reddy Kilowatt, the cartoon charged with electrifying everything in the early 20th century.
by Mike Munsell, Kirsten Moana Thompson via Heatmap on August 5, 2024
Lieutenant William Calley leaving court with his attorney George Latimer.

Tracking Down Lieutenant Calley

How I learned the story of the My Lai Massacre.
by Seymour M. Hersh via seymourhersh.substack on August 1, 2024
Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.
by Chloe Lizotte via Mubi on August 1, 2024

What It Means to ‘Willie Horton’ a Political Candidate

Donald Trump supporters run their version of the original dog-whistle attack ad against Kamala Harris. Here’s the history.
by Beth Schwartzapfel via The Marshall Project on July 31, 2024
Charles Lindbergh addressing a rally of the America First Committee in 1941.

Stop Saying "Isolationist"

It's misleading, invidious, and it obscures what's actually bad and scary about right-wing nationalist foreign policy.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on July 19, 2024
Doodles, flourishes and scribbles drawn by George Washington.

Doodle Nation: Notes on Distracted Drawing

Humans have doodled for as long as they have written and drawn, but psychoanalysis began to imagine the doodle as a key to understanding the unconscious mind.
by Polly Dickson via The Paris Review on July 17, 2024
Samuel Roth, books he sold.

Remembering Samuel Roth, the Bookseller Who Defied America’s Obscenity Laws

Samuel Roth was the sort of bookseller whose wares came wrapped in brown paper.
by Ed Simon via Literary Hub on July 3, 2024
Cover of "Cue The Sun!" featuring videographers filming people lounging in backyard.

Time to Face Reality

Charting the history of a TV phenomenon.
by A. S. Hamrah via Bookforum on July 2, 2024
An eye in the shape of the United States.

The Weaponization of Storytelling

The American public is more susceptible than ever to skewed narratives.
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on June 27, 2024
Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1857.

The Essential Emerson

The latest biography of the great transcendentalist captures the paradoxes of his Yankee mind.
by Allen Mendenhall via Law & Liberty on June 21, 2024
Syntactic trees filled with words and numbers.

American Grammar: Diagraming Sentences in the 19th Century

A pre-history of the sentence diagrams that were once commonplace in the American classroom.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on June 19, 2024
Covers of paperbacks by white journalists who tried living as African Americans.

The Strange History of White Journalists Trying to “Become” Black

"To believe that the richness of Black identity can be understood through a temporary costume trivializes the lifelong trauma of racism. It turns the complexity of Black life into a stunt."
by Alisha Gaines via Nieman Lab on June 17, 2024
Censored stills of a naked man running.

The Decline of Streaking

Naked runners used to disrupt events seemingly all the time. Why’d they stop?
by Michael Waters via The Atlantic on June 13, 2024
Samuel Pepys, by John Hayls, 1666.
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Peeping on Pepys

For more than two decades, a community of committed internet users has been chewing over the famous Londoner’s diary.
by Caroline Wazer via HNN on June 11, 2024
A drawing of a crowd watching a baseball game in 1886.

Before ‘Fans,’ There Were ‘Kranks,’ ‘Longhairs,’ and ‘Lions’

How do fandoms gain their names?
by Elizabeth Minkel via Atlas Obscura on May 30, 2024
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