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Cartoon of a person squished upside-down in a city high-rise.

The Death and Life of Progressive Urbanism

Blue America lacks a Gov. Ron DeSantis: someone remaking a state or major city in the image of a well-articulated ideology.
by Ross Barkan via Compact on October 2, 2024
A ragpicker collects recyclable materials at a landfill.

Why Recycling Is Mostly Garbage

In two new books, the rise of recycling is a story of illusory promises, often entwined with disturbing political agendas.
by Daniela Blei via The New Republic on September 27, 2024
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
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 klaxon car horn.

A Loud Warning From the Past About Living With Cars

Klaxon horns, once standard safety equipment, disappeared from the roads after World War I. But the tensions they exposed about urban noise still echo.
by David Zipper, Matthew F. Jordan via CityLab on August 26, 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
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
Old advertisements selling cars to women.

Driving While Female

Is the car our most gendered technology?
by Leann Davis Alspaugh via The Hedgehog Review on July 31, 2024
Rick Beato on the left, and John Philip Sousa, on the right.

Separated By More Than A Century, Two Musicians Share A Complaint

What happens when the automation of music makes it too easy to create and too easy to consume?
by Mark R. DeLong via 3 Quarks Daily on July 15, 2024
A Caesar salad, the restaurant where it originated, a salad being prepared at a restaurant table, and a lettuce farm.

How the Caesar Salad Changed How We Eat

A look at this iconic salad’s origin story and its evolution into a cornerstone of accessible American cooking.
by Jessica Carbone via Serious Eats on July 2, 2024
Cover of "Gun Country" by Andrew McKevitt.

America, the Dumping Ground

A new book frames America's gun culture as the consequence of the U.S.'s post-World War II decisions to favor consumerism over safety.
by Noah Shusterman via The New Rambler on June 27, 2024
The presidents featured on Mt. Rushmore holding ice cream cones.

How Ice Cream Made America

Over the centuries, the beloved treat has become an integral part of our national identity.
by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie via The Saturday Evening Post on June 19, 2024
The recycling symbol.

How the Recycling Symbol Got America Addicted to Plastic

Corporations sold Americans on the chasing arrows — while stripping the logo of its worth.
by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 12, 2024
Star-Herb Medicines and Teas for all Diseases, 1923.
partner

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
Art installation of cardboard pieces with the Amazon arrow logo, arranged in the shape of a cresting wave.

World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination

Cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning that spans from Amazon to the Container Corporation of America.
by Shannon Mattern via Places Journal on May 15, 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
A advertisement for the BankAmericard depicting it as a card for the American family.

How Did America Become the Nation of Credit Cards?

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?
by Sean H. Vannatta via Aeon on April 22, 2024
Still from Say Anything (1989) with a man holding a boom box above his head.

When Do We Stop Finding New Music? A Statistical Analysis

When does our taste in music stagnate?
by Daniel Parris via Stat Significant on April 10, 2024
A gun shop in Dunedin, Florida.

America Fell for Guns Recently, and for Reasons You Will Not Guess

The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history.
by Megan Kang via Aeon on April 9, 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
An assortment of Girl Scout cookies.

The Truth Behind the Girl Scout Cookie Graveyard

Even popular cookies can end up permanently cut from the roster.
by Anne Ewbank via Atlas Obscura on March 18, 2024
People walking around buildings destroyed by the Johnstown Flood.
partner

A Flood of Tourism in Johnstown

Days after a failed dam led to the drowning deaths of more than 2,200 people, the Pennsylvania industrial town was flooded again—with tourists.
by Matthew Wills, Emily Godbey via JSTOR Daily on March 1, 2024
Ferris wheel at Cony Island.
partner

Spending My Free Time Researching Free Time

One academic tells the story behind his new book -- and his next one.
by Gary Cross via HNN on February 27, 2024
A nearly gutted department store escalator in Owings Mills Mall in Owings Mills, Maryland.

The Life and Death of the American Mall

The indoor suburban shopping center is a special kind of abandoned place.
by Matthew Christopher via Atlas Obscura on January 10, 2024
Tom Wolfe in profile against the New York City skyline.

The Electric Kool-Aid Conservative

Tom Wolfe was no radical.
by Osita Nwanevu via The New Republic on January 5, 2024
Photo of a female jogger drinking water out of a pink metal water bottle.
partner

Your New Year's Resolution to Drink More Water Has a History

Our water bottle obsession speaks to deeper historical trends.
by Emily J. H. Contois via Made By History on January 2, 2024
The front of a large truck.

We’ve Hit a Grim Milestone We Haven’t Seen Since 1981. Why Can’t We Do Anything About It?

An irresistible trend took hold 50 years ago, and we’re all paying the price.
by David Zipper via Slate on December 18, 2023
Shipwreck nicknamed the "Christmas Tree Boat," which disappeared beneath Lake Michigan waters in November 1912.

The ‘Christmas Tree Boat’ Shipwreck That Devastated 1912 Chicagoans

Marine archaeologists are beginning to understand what really happened to Captain Santa's ill-fated ship, nicknamed the Christmas Tree Boat.
by Jonathan Feakins via Atlas Obscura on December 13, 2023
Person holding a blonde American Girl doll and American Girl bag

All Dolled Up

How American Girl transformed the doll world—and why millennials love it so.
by Jayne Ross via The American Scholar on November 30, 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
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