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The four Harper Brothers, founders of the namesake publishing giant.
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The 200 Year History of American Virtue Capitalism

Despite the recent backlash against DEI, there is a longstanding tradition of virtue capitalism in the United States.
by Joseph P. Slaughter via Made By History on July 23, 2025
Alexander Hamilton, with superimposed map of Atlantic world.

The Return of Hamiltonian Statecraft

A grand strategy for a turbulent world.
by Walter Russell Mead via Foreign Affairs on August 20, 2024
Marketplace in New Orleans, 1936.

New Orleans as a Nexus of Power

American empire, bananas, and the Crescent City.
by Glenn Chambers Jr. via 64 Parishes on June 1, 2024
Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX at a House hearing in 2021.
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‘Effective Altruism’ Isn’t As Newfangled As It Seems

Times have changed since the days of Carnegie and Rockefeller, but much in philanthropy has remained the same.
by John R. Thelin, Richard W. Trollinger via Made By History on February 6, 2023
Mitch McConnell
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The Fissure Between Republicans and Business is Less Surprising Than it Seems

Business groups have always worked with both parties to support globalization and free trade.
by Jennifer Delton via Made By History on June 7, 2021
Handcuffs with chain of $

The Men Who Turned Slavery Into Big Business

The domestic slave trade was no sideshow in our history, and slave traders were not bit players on the stage.
by Joshua D. Rothman via The Atlantic on April 20, 2021
Photo of Claudine gay testifying to Congress.

What a 1964 Book About American Anti-Intellectualism Can Teach Us About the Trump Era

On Richard Hofstadter and the current assault on academia.
by Peter Balakian via Literary Hub on July 9, 2025
A mouse hovers over a screen filled with buttons for purchase choices that all look the same.

Americans Are Tired of Choice

How did freedom become synonymous with having lots of options?
by Gal Beckerman via The Atlantic on June 23, 2025
A woman peering into the cave of Sarah Bishop c. 1900.

The Curious History of New England’s Hermit Tourism

From Revolutionary War-era recluses to 1920s roadside attractions, meet the solitary figures who turned isolation into a destination.
by Ryan Shea via Atlas Obscura on June 13, 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
A magnifying glass on C. Wright Mills's book "The Power Elite."

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite?

The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.
by Peter Dreier via The New Republic on May 5, 2025
A drawing of human eyes behind a variety of consumer goods, including milk, shoes, and toothpaste.

The Surprising History of the Ideology of Choice

How endless options became our only option.
by Andrew Lanham via The New Republic on April 11, 2025
An illustration of a government building holding up an American home with a stylized hand.

The Good Society Department

Once upon a time, there was a federal government department that helped design and distribute tools for living the good life. What happened to that vision?
by John Last via Noema on April 3, 2025
The title card of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

George Romero’s Pittsburgh

City of the living dead.
by Victoria Timpanaro via The Metropole on February 20, 2025
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
A painting of a large camera on a film set, surrounded by green screens.

Casual Viewing

Why Netflix looks like that.
by Will Tavlin via n+1 on December 16, 2024

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
A painting of Roland G. Hazard.

The Hazards of Slavery

Scott Spillman reviews Seth Rockman’s “Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery.”
by Scott Spillman via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 2, 2024
Farm for sale in Kansas, 1938.
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The Early History of “Selling America to Americans”

Using film and advertising to sell capitalism and nationalism to immigrants in the early 20th century.
by Caroline Jack via HNN on November 26, 2024
A masked man with a sword waves an American flag at the face of a masked man with a stick on the anniversary of the January 6 riot.

Hyperpolitics In America

When polarization lacks clear consequences, Americans are left with "a grin without a cat: a politics with only weak policy influence or institutional ties."
by Anton Jäger via New Left Review on October 31, 2024
A still from the Apprentice of Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn inside a car.

The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump

A new film examines Trump's formative years under the tutelage of Roy Cohn.
by David Klion via The Nation on October 21, 2024
Black and white photo of Boston’s Old Corner bookstore (1900).

Bookselling Out

“The Bookshop” tells the story of American bookstores in thirteen types. Its true subject is not how bookstore can survive, but how they should be.
by Dan Sinykin via The Baffler on October 16, 2024
Europeans bearing chests of fineries are met on the coast by Native Americans.

Indigenous Agency: How Native Americans Put Limits on European Colonial Domination

"It is only stereotypes of Indians as primitive that make their power to transform markets surprising."
by Kathleen DuVal via Literary Hub on September 11, 2024
A boy sitting inside of an enclosed porch while his mother looks in from outside the door.

Inside Out

The magical in-betweenness—and surprising epidemiological history—of the porch.
by David Owen via The New Yorker on July 27, 2024
Jason Epstein.

The Man Who Created the Trade Paperback

On the life and times of Jason Epstein, cofounder of “The New York Review of Books.”
by Michael Castleman via Literary Hub on July 18, 2024
Edward Blum superimposed on the Supreme Court building.

The People Who Dismantled Affirmative Action Have a New Strategy to Crush Racial Justice

In throwing up new roadblocks to the use of private money to redress racial and economic inequality, the Fearless Fund ruling is antihistorical.
by David H. Gans via Slate on June 11, 2024
Whitehall, designed by Carrère & Hastings for Henry Morrison Flagler, 1902.

Building Palm Beach

On the town’s history & architecture.
by Benjamin Riley via The New Criterion on May 22, 2024
Star-Herb Medicines and Teas for all Diseases, 1923.
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How Government Helped Birth the Advertising Industry

Advertising went from being an embarrassing activity to a legitimate part of every company’s business plans—despite scant evidence that it worked.
by Livia Gershon, Daniel Navon via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2024
Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
by Erik Baker via The New Yorker on May 1, 2024
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