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A yuppie surrounded by money and luxury items.

When Yuppies Ruled

Defining a social type is a way of defining an era. What can the time of the young urban professional tell us about our own?
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 22, 2024
Montage of 1980s Yuppies and a Trump rally.

How 1980s Yuppies Gave Us Donald Trump

If it weren’t for the young urban professionals of the 1980s, we’d never have MAGA.
by Tom McGrath via Politico Magazine on June 4, 2024

How Boomers Changed American Family Life (By Getting Divorced)

Jill Filipovic on the generation that changed everything.
by Jill Filipovic via Literary Hub on August 13, 2020

The Misconception About Baby Boomers and the Sixties

Other than being alive during the 1960s, the baby boomers had almost nothing to do with the era's social and political upheaval.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on August 18, 2019

Gump Talk

25 years later, what does Gump mean?
via Contingent on July 1, 2019
Chart of the names given to generations at different times.

Your Generational Identity Is a Lie

You are not Gen X. You are not a Millennial. Unless you are a Baby Boomer, you are nothing.
by Philip Bump via Washington Post on April 1, 2015
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

The Springsteen Generation

How the Boss provided a 50-year-long soundtrack for the last of the Baby Boomers.
by David Corn via Mother Jones on August 21, 2025
Donald Trump and RFK Jr. shaking hands.

The Magic Thinking of Kennedy-ism

The hero worship of the family of American royalty has a dark side: a tendency toward conspiracism that fits with the MAGA movement.
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on December 5, 2024
Collage of The Golden Girls, a suitcase, a golf ball, viagra pills, and a Welcome to Florida sign.

How Old Age Was Reborn

“The Golden Girls” reframed senior life as being about socializing and sex. But did the cultural narrative of advanced age as continued youth go too far?
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on November 25, 2024
Four characters from "Dazed and Confused."

The “Dazed and Confused” Generation

People my age are described as baby boomers, but our experiences call for a different label altogether.
by Bruce Handy via The New Yorker on March 2, 2023
In 1972, Ray Womack, wearing an “Explo 72" shirt, begins a 900-mile run to Dallas, for an evangelical rally.
partner

An Evangelical Youth Event Could Offer Clues About the Movement’s Future

TOGETHER ’22 aims to mimic EXPLO ’72 — which provided hints about the rising conservative evangelical tide.
by Benjamin J. Young via Made By History on June 24, 2022
Image of two people (one old and one young) playing tug of war with an elephant over an American flag.

End the Generation Wars

Lazy assumptions about young and old cloud our politics.
by James Chappel via The New Republic on November 15, 2021
Middle finger that says "Millenial" and Fist that says "Gen Z"

It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations”

From boomers to zoomers, the concept gets social history all wrong.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on October 7, 2021
A small cabin in the woods; Laird Sutton, a man with a thick white beard.

The Last Glimpses of California's Vanishing Hippie Utopias

A legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land. Here's a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the end of the social experiment.
by David Jacob Kramer via GQ on September 9, 2021
Prison cells

The Economic Origins of Mass Incarceration

Everything you knew about mass incarceration is wrong.
by John Clegg, Adaner Usmani via Catalyst on September 1, 2019

1968’s Chaos: The Assassinations, Riots and Protests that Defined Our World

On the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary year, historians consider 1968’s meaning and global context.
by Michael S. Rosenwald via Washington Post on January 1, 2018
Protester with a #MeToo sign
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#MeToo is Undoing the Devil’s Bargain of the 1990s

Men accepted women’s rise to prominence, but used sexual coercion to maintain control.
by Anne M. Blaschke via Made By History on December 7, 2017
A crowd of Vietnamese civilians stare at fires burning in the distance.

I Guess I’m About to Do a Highly Immoral Thing

On "The Vietnam War."
by Richard Beck via n+1 on December 1, 2017

Neutron Sunday

In 1956, Ed Sullivan showed America what nuclear war looks like. We were never the same again.
by Donald Fagen via Slate on October 14, 2016

The Corrupted American Innocence of Archie Comics

Behind the veil of middle-class acceptability, Archie comics shaped the conception of virtue in postwar America.
by Emma Cline via The New Yorker on July 7, 2016
A portrait of Davy Crockett in formal attire is imposed next to an actor in a Davy Crockett costume surrounded by raccoons.

How Davy Crockett, the Rugged Frontiersman Killed at the Alamo, Became an Unlikely American Hero

During his lifetime, Crockett—who went by David, not Davy—shaped his own myth. In the 20th century, his legacy got a boost from none other than Walt Disney.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian Magazine on August 18, 2025
Old man and young boy.

The Perils of Generational Thinking

By assigning personal attributes to birth cohort, generationism tends to undermine personal responsibility.
by Richard Gunderman via Law & Liberty on May 16, 2025
David Bowie singing into a microphone wearing a feather boa and tights.

How Pop Came Out of the Closet

Jon Savage’s “The Secret Public” traces the influence of queer artists on a hostile culture.
by Samuel Clowes Huneke via The New Republic on February 14, 2025
A medieval drawing of a stork.
partner

Exit, Pursued by a Stork

When the 1930 Hays Code banned pregnancy in film, birds took over the business of birth.
by Victoria Sturtevant via HNN on December 17, 2024
A standardized test and a pencil, with answers bubbled in.

The Rotting of the College Board

Testing is necessary. The SAT’s creator is not.
by Naomi Schaefer Riley via Commentary on November 13, 2024
Bruce Springsteen on July 19, 1988 at his concert in East Berlin on the cycle track Weissensee.

Can the 1980s Explain 2024?

The yuppies embodied the winning side of America’s deepening economic divide. Bruce Springsteen spoke for those left behind.
by Nicholas Lemann via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024
James Dobson speaking in front of a sign for his organization, Focus on the Family.
partner

The Surprising Roots of James Dobson's Political Power

The evangelical psychologist gained influence with millions of families through decades of parenting advice focused on strict discipline.
by Sarah McCammon via Made By History on July 25, 2024

Why Generational Thinking Isn't Bull

Reflections on Pavement, Nirvana, the very meaning of history, and the end of neoliberalism.
by Charles Petersen via Making History on October 8, 2023
Young demonstrators protesting with signs that say "Our Generation Our Choice."

Is It Useful to Analyze Politics in Terms of Generations?

Keir Milburn argues that generational analysis can explain class operation while Adolph Reed Jr. writes that it obscures historically specific social relations.
by Adolph Reed Jr., Keir Milburn via The Nation on July 14, 2023
Collage of a shirtless performer and a cutaway image of an egg.

My Generation

Anthem for a forgotten cohort.
by Justin E. H. Smith via Harper’s on June 9, 2023
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