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A woman lights a candle at a memorial for the Buffalo shooting victims, May 2022.
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The Mass Shooting in Buffalo Reflects Deeply Rooted American Ideas

Until we grapple with our history, white supremacist terrorism will keep happening.
Street Painter among paintings in Rome, Italy

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Aesthetics of Emancipation

“I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty and for Beauty to set the world right,” W.E.B. Du Bois said in his June 1926 lecture.
Dancing at the spring festival at St. George in 1984.

'The World Was Ukrainian'

A stubborn and surprising immigrant enclave, hiding in plain sight on the Lower East Side.
“Mrs. Lavin coming out of shul in fur,” 1952.

At the Lower East Side Passover Parade, Immigrants Created New American Identities

Some accounts suggest that the Passover Parade was even more glamorous than its famous counterpart, the Easter Parade.
Illustration of a mid-life crisis by Ruth Basagoitia. A man looking into the mirror imagining a cooler version of himself.

Climacteric!

Taking seriously the midlife crisis.
Franz Boas adopts the pose of a wild Hamat̓sa, crouching with outstretched arms and mouth open.

On the Influence of Indigenous Knowledge on Modern Thought

We often associate dance with art and performance, but it is also a way that humans document, interpret, and create history.
Outdoor funeral service area

Piecing Together the Green Burial Movement

Green burials — the long-ago practice of laying loved ones to rest in biodegradable wooden caskets or shrouds, without embalming — are gaining in popularity.
This 1925 painting depicts an idealized version of an early Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth.

How to Tell the Thanksgiving Story on Its 400th Anniversary

Scholars are unraveling the myths surrounding the 1621 feast, which found the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag cementing a newly established alliance.
The cover of the book Her Stories by Elana Levine

Guiding Lights: On “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History”

Annie Berke reviews Elana Levine's book on a pivotal genre and its diverse fandom.
A family photo shows Balqes Jassem with her late husband, Abdul Ameer Alwan, and their daughter, Aman Alwan, at home in Richardson, Tex. The older Alwan was an Iraqi painter who passed away in 2015. The family came to the United States as Iraqi refugees in 2007.

New Americans

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis displaced by war have settled in the U.S., their journeys spurred by tragedy and loss in the wake of 9/11.
Oscar Wilde

How Oscar Wilde Won Over the American Press

When the U.S. first encountered the “Aesthetic Apostle."
Old cars piled up under a bridge overpass.

New York: The Invention of an Imaginary City

How nostalgic fantasies about the “authentic” New York City obscure the real-world place.
Artist's rendering of the proposed Disney's America theme park in Prince William County, Virginia.

Disney and Battlefields: A Tale of Two Continents

The conflict between commercialization and historic preservation.
A mosaic of freedom and associated ideas

How Americans Lost Their Fervor for Freedom

The New Yorker critic's new book is a sequel of sorts to "The Metaphysical Club."
Vincent Price.

The Strange Undeath of Middlebrow

Everything that was once considered lowbrow is now triumphant.
A plaster cast of an early 1900s jack-o’-lantern, known as a “ghost turnip.”

The Twisted Transatlantic Tale of American Jack-o’-Lanterns

Celtic rituals, tricks of nature, and deals with the devil have all played a part in creating this iconic symbol of Halloween.
A city skyline at night

The City That Never Stops Worshipping

Though some have likened it to Sodom and Gomorrah, New York City has a long history of religious vibrancy.
A nose smelling.

What Smells Can Teach Us About History

How we perceive the senses changes in different historical, political, and cultural contexts. Sensory historians ask what people smelled, touched and tasted.
From left, actors Bernnadette Stanis, John Amos and Ja'Net Dubois accept the Impact Award for “Good Times” at the 2006 TV Land Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Television Is Already Moving to Address Racism — But Will the Effort Last?

Past network efforts to address racism faded as uprisings stopped dominating headlines.
Seal of the CIA nestled against a background of modern art.

Was Modern Art Really a CIA Psy-Op?

The number of MoMA-CIA crossovers is highly suspicious, to say the least.
People standing on the sidewalk and walking by Rick Allmen’s Café Bizarre on Third Street, November 11, 1959. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images.

Wanna-Beats: In 1959, Café Bizarre Gave Straights an Entree Into Beatnik Culture

“At the remove of time, it’s really hard to tell the difference between beat and beatsploitation.”

Nationalist Anthems

Remembering a time when composers mattered more.
Two tacos.

The True Story of How National Taco Day Was Invented — Then Appropriated

As seemingly all of the American food media tripped over itself to create listicles around National Taco Day, I shook my head in disgust.
Union troops of 5th and 9th Corps receiving Thanksgiving rations during the American Civil War, c. 1864.

For Decades, Southern States Considered Thanksgiving an Act of Northern Aggression

In the 19th century, pumpkin pie ignited a culture war.
Items from the collection of the French National Conservatory of Video Games.

The Beautiful, Genuine Artistry of Retro Video Games

Amidst so much politics and tribalism, they can provide portals into thoughtfully rendered alternate worlds.

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Inside the Band's Complicated History With the South

The Southern-rock group is much different than the one Ronnie Van Zant led in the Seventies.
Map of the arms trade.

The Roots of America’s Gun Culture

How 18th-century British arms sales, the slave trade, and the Revolutionary War contributed to the mess we have today.
Irish immigrants at Ellis Island.

Why Irish America Is Not Evergreen

Changes to US immigration rules have largely closed the door to new entries, leading inexorably to a “graying” of Irish America.

Agriculture Wars

On country music as a lens through which to trace the corporatization of American farming.
North Street, Boston, in 1894.

Secrets of a Brothel Privy

An archaeologist reconstructs the daily lives of 19th-century sex workers in Boston.

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