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A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?
by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025
A drawing of a man riding a train and laying down train tracks in front of him.

The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on January 27, 2025

How Jukeboxes Made Memphis Music

When R.E. Buster Williams ruled jukeboxes and jukeboxes ruled music.
by Robert Gordon via Oxford American on December 10, 2024
White settlers traveling west in Conestoga wagons.

America as Filibuster Society

American expansionism goes beyond territory.
by Nick Burns via American Affairs on August 20, 2024
Henry Ford

1922: Henry Ford on the Road to Riches

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.
by Henry Ford via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 16, 2023
Mary Kay Ash photo with pink filter.

How Mary Kay Contributed to Feminism – Even Though She Loathed Feminists

Ash derided women’s liberation as “that foolishness” – but her success story is very feminist.
by Cassandra L. Yacovazzi via The Conversation on August 30, 2022
Ronald Reagan pointing at a graph explaining his proposed tax policy.

Ronald Reagan and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur

Why a policy agenda adopted in the name of entrepreneurs hurt entrepreneurs more than it helped them.
by Steven K. Vogel via The Economic Historian on October 5, 2021

The Small Business Myth

Small businesses enjoy an iconic status in modern capitalism, but what do they really contribute to the economy?
by Benjamin C. Waterhouse via Aeon on November 8, 2017

The Tater Tot Is American Ingenuity at Its Finest

The genius move that turned potato scraps into a frozen-food empire
by Kelsey McKinney via Eater on August 28, 2017

The Old West’s Muslim Tamale King

How a South Asian immigrant became a Wyoming fast-food legend and received American citizenship - twice.
by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on June 6, 2016
William Merritt Chase with Parsons School of Design students.
partner

William Merritt Chase, the Accidental Ally

Painter William Merritt Chase opened an art school for a new generation of women, teaching them how to draw as well as how to advocate for themselves.
by Anne Halsey via JSTOR Daily on August 6, 2025
Irving Thalberg and his wife, with Louis Mayer.

The Wizard Behind Hollywood’s Golden Age

How Irving Thalberg helped turn M-G-M into the world’s most famous movie studio—and gave the film business a new sense of artistry and scale.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on June 9, 2025
African American baseball team photo.

How Baseball Shaped Black Communities in Reconstruction-Era America

On the early history of Black participation in America's pastime.
by Gerald Early via Literary Hub on May 1, 2025
A pile of guns and rifle magazines on top of bullets.

More Guns, More Money: How America Turned Weapons Into a Consumer Commodity

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.
by Andrew C. McKevitt via Literary Hub on September 12, 2024
Wilt Chamberlain with young people holding Nixon signs.

How the World’s Biggest Basketball Star Helped Richard Nixon Woo Black Voters

It was a bold plan to win over Black voters skeptical of the Democratic Party. But it turned out to be an illusion.
by Shaun Assael via Politico Magazine on July 7, 2024
A collage of suggestive images of women, a woman holding a camera, and a red letter X.

How Candida Royalle Set Out to Reinvent Porn

As a feminist in the adult-film industry, she believed the answer wasn’t banning porn; it was better porn.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on March 18, 2024
Painting of babies sitting at a table, holding spoons, with a can of condensed milk in the middle
partner

The Sweet Story of Condensed Milk

This nineteenth-century industrial product became a military staple and a critical part of local food culture around the world.
by Katrina Gulliver, Joe B. Frantz, Khairudin Aljunied, Yavuz Koese via JSTOR Daily on February 20, 2024
Charles Tiffany superimposed on handwriting and map of the transatlantic cable.

How the Tiffany & Co. Founder Cashed In on the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Craze

Charles Lewis Tiffany bought surplus cable from the venture, turning it into souvenirs that forever linked his name to the telecommunications milestone.
by Robert Klara via Smithsonian on February 15, 2024
Butter churn by a kitchen fireplace.

Mexican Freedom, American Slavery

Mexico's resistance to the institution of slavery made it a land ripe for African American immigration in the 1800s.
by María Esther Hammack via Black Perspectives on February 12, 2024
Lined-paper illustration of Tom Watson Jr. and Sr.

The Rise and Fall of the ‘IBM Way’

What the tech pioneer can, and can’t, teach us.
by Deborah Cohen via The Atlantic on December 13, 2023
Girl holding a pile of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls

The Droll Capitalist Parable of Cabbage Patch Kids

A new documentary, “Billion Dollar Babies,” shows how a product of Appalachian folk art drew the blueprint for all holiday toy crazes to come.
by Jessica Winter via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023
Close-up of the safety trigger on a handgun

“Come and Take It”: How the Aftermath of Sandy Hook Led to More AR-15s Being Sold Than Ever Before

Chris Waltz was appalled. He felt Democrats were using the Sandy Hook tragedy to tell him he wasn’t responsible enough to own an AR-15.
by Cameron McWhirter, Zusha Elinson via Literary Hub on October 2, 2023
A Silicon Valley office building.

Better, Faster, Stronger

Two recent books illuminate the dark foundations of Silicon Valley.
by Ben Tarnoff via New York Review of Books on August 31, 2023
Painting of Noritoshi Kanai and Harry Wolff Jr. and various sushi preparations, by Yuko Shimizu.

How Two Friends Sparked L.A.’s Sushi Obsession — and Changed the Way America Eats

An unlikely pair of Southern California businessmen paved the way for the sushi revolution in Los Angeles, upending American dining — and their own lives.
by Daniel Miller via Los Angeles Times on May 3, 2023
Samuel Cummings holding a gun in a lab.

The Last Honest Mercenary in the Business

International arms dealer Samuel Cummings blanketed the Western Hemisphere with guns.
by Jacqui Shine via Well, Actually on March 28, 2023
Cover of The Silver Palate Cookbook

‘The Silver Palate Cookbook’ Changed Home Cooking (and Pesto Consumption) As We Know It

Published in 1982, 'The Silver Palate Cookbook' taught a generation of American cooks to trust in bold flavors, fresh herbs, and the joys of improvisation.
by Aimee Levitt via Eater on December 7, 2022
Corner store in Detroit.

Murder At the Corner Store: Immigrant Merchants and Law and Order Politics in Postwar Detroit

With seventeen holdups in the past few months, something had to be done. “We will talk to the mayor and the police commissioner. We need more protection".
by Kenneth Alyass via The Metropole on November 17, 2022
Sean Sherman, a co-owner of Owamni restaurant.

How Owamni Became the Best New Restaurant in the United States

In this modern Indigenous kitchen, every dish is made without any ingredient introduced to the continent after Europeans arrived.
by Carolyn Kormann via The New Yorker on September 12, 2022
Colorful bar graph.

‘Wallets and Eyeballs’: How eBay Turned the Internet Into a Marketplace

The story of the modern web is often told through the stories of Google, Facebook, Amazon. But eBay was the first conqueror.
by Ben Tarnoff via The Guardian on June 16, 2022
Images of European Immigrants arriving to America on Ellis Island.

The Myth of the Rapid Mobility of European Immigrants

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan on the data illusion of the rags-to-riches stories.
by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan via Literary Hub on June 1, 2022
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