consumerism — Bunk History

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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

Evelyn Nesbit Thaw dodging a camera, 1909.

Overexposed

What happened to privacy when Americans gained easy access to cameras in the Gilded Age?

by Sohini Desai via HNN on July 2, 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.

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

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

Margaret Mead and Joe Rogan.

Turn on, Tune in, Write Code

How psychedelics went from counterculture to grind culture.

by Geoff Shullenberger via The New Atlantis on April 12, 2024

A group of birds with one standing on top of the rest.

Rules for the Ruling Class

How to thrive in the power élite—while declaring it your enemy.

by Evan Osnos via The New Yorker on January 22, 2024

Photo of a female jogger drinking water out of a pink metal water bottle.

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

A photograph of the back of a woman's head, superimposed over a photograph of a body of water as if looking out over it.

What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?

As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.

by Thomas Mallon via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023

The War on Ecoterror

Environmental radicalism, left and right.

by Gaby del Valle via The Drift on November 8, 2023

Walt Rostow testifying in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., February 1962.

The Real Washington Consensus

Modernization theory and the delusions of American strategy.

by Charles King via Foreign Affairs on October 24, 2023

Part of a Xerox poster with the words "punk with copymachine" in front of a face

Xerox and Roll: The Corporate Machine and the Making of Punk

On the 85th anniversary of the first xerographic print, a collection of punk flyers from Cornell University provides an object lesson on anti-art.

by Alex Houston via JSTOR Daily on October 22, 2023

The Ultimate Road Trip

On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.

by H. W. Brands via The Washington Free Beacon on August 27, 2023

George Kennan sitting at his desk.

George Kennan, Loser

The American foreign policy sage was driven as much by pessimism about the US as antipathy to the Soviet Union.

by Ivan Krastev, Leonard Benardo via New Statesman on August 10, 2023

American flag sign that reads "NWRO," "I support a guaranteed adequate income for all Americans"

Escape from the Market

Far from spelling the end of anti-market politics, basic income proposals are one place where it can and has flourished.

by Simon Torracinta via Boston Review on May 19, 2023

Jimmy Carter at a podium against the backdrop of an American flag.

Is Jimmy Carter Where Environmentalism Went Wrong?

Carter’s austerity was part of a bigger project. It didn’t really have much to do with environmentalism.

by Kate Aronoff via The New Republic on April 18, 2023

A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.

by Amy Mackin via Assay Journal on March 25, 2023

The WalMart Supercenter sign glowing over shopping carts in a deserted parking lot at night.

Charting the Murky Prehistory of the Retail Supercenter

Walmart did not invent or import the idea. In fact, it was among the last of the discount department stores to experiment with the concept.

by Addision del Mastro via The Bulwark on March 2, 2023

Photograph of protesters and text from a 1944 edition of "Are You An American?"

The Failure of a Public Philosophy

How Americans lost faith in the possibility of self-government.

by Win McCormack via The New Republic on November 23, 2022

Charlie Brown and his friends at a store with a Christmas sale.

When Christmas Started Creeping

Christmas starts earlier every year — or does it?

by Bill Black via Contingent on November 8, 2022

Student loan debt activists rally outside the White House a day after President Biden announced a plan that would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 a year in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 25, 2022.

The 50-Year Path That Left Millions Drowning in Student Loan Debt

How new student loan programs turned students into consumers — and ignited a competition among universities that left them drowning in debt.

by John R. Thelin via Made By History on September 13, 2022

Stock traders watching Jerome Powell in conference on screens in the New York Stock Exchange.

Seeing Americans as Consumers Threatens the Fairness of Our Economy

The Federal Reserve keeps increasing interest rates to try to bring prices down — but that may erase gains by non-White workers.

by Suzanne Kahn via Made By History on August 11, 2022

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on stage giving a presentation below a screen showing pictures of people connected by the Facebook network.

How Capitalism—Not a Few Bad Actors—Destroyed the Internet

Twenty-five years of neoliberal political economy are to blame for today's regime of surveillance advertising, and only public policy can undo it.

by Matthew Crain via Boston Review on August 3, 2022

Collage of a hand raised up toward major conservative Christian figures throughout American history.

The Evangelical Question in the History of American Religion

The disturbing conclusion might just be that evangelicalism does not exist.

by Kirsten Sanders via The Hedgehog Review on July 23, 2022

Photograph of women from the Women's Christian Temperance Union gathered at a bar wearing protest signs.

The Forgotten Temperance Movement of the 1950s

Despite the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption was an enormous political issue for many white American Protestants.

by Livia Gershon, Pamela E. Pennock via JSTOR Daily on July 5, 2022

Francis Fukuyama

Last Man Standing

Francis Fukuyama pines for that old-time liberalism.

by Michael Brenes via The Baffler on June 27, 2022

Overhead view of people walking around in the Mall of America

The Most American Form of Architecture Isn’t Going Anywhere

A new book challenges the dominant narrative that malls are dying.

by Kristen Martin via The Atlantic on June 21, 2022

On Floating Upstream

Markoff’s biography of Stewart Brand notes that Brand’s ability to recognize and cleave to power explains a great deal of his career.

by W. Patrick McCray via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 22, 2022

Protester in a march, holding a sign that reads "Bank on the future."

The Way We Talk About Climate Change Is Wrong

The language of “sacrifice” reveals we’re stuck in a colonial mindset.

by Priya Satia via Foreign Policy on March 11, 2022

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