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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.
by Abigail Hauslohner via Washington Post on September 9, 2021
Oscar Wilde

How Oscar Wilde Won Over the American Press

When the U.S. first encountered the “Aesthetic Apostle."
by Nicholas Frankel via Literary Hub on July 19, 2021
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.
by Yasmin Nair via Current Affairs on June 13, 2021
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.
by Niels Eichhorn via Muster on April 20, 2021
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."
by Evan Kindley via The New Republic on April 14, 2021
Vincent Price.

The Strange Undeath of Middlebrow

Everything that was once considered lowbrow is now triumphant.
by Phil Christman via The Hedgehog Review on March 25, 2021
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.
by Blane Bachelor via National Geographic on October 27, 2020
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.
by Heath W. Carter via Christianity Today on October 1, 2020
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.
by Shayla Love via Vice on September 16, 2020
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)
partner

Television Is Already Moving to Address Racism — But Will the Effort Last?

Past network efforts to address racism faded as uprisings stopped dominating headlines.
by Kate L. Flach via Made By History on June 11, 2020
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.
by Lucie Levine, Jonathan Harris, Christine Sylvester, Russell H. Bartley, Frank Ninkovich via JSTOR Daily on April 1, 2020
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.”
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on January 2, 2020

Nationalist Anthems

Remembering a time when composers mattered more.
by Sudip Bose via The American Scholar on December 2, 2019
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.
by Gustavo Arellano via L. A. Taco on October 4, 2019
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.
by Ariel Knoebel via Atlas Obscura on November 22, 2018

The Beautiful, Genuine Artistry of Retro Video Games

Amidst so much politics and tribalism, they can provide portals into thoughtfully rendered alternate worlds.
by Addison Del Mastro via The American Conservative on May 18, 2018

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.
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine via Rolling Stone on May 15, 2018
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.
by Priya Satia, Isaac Chotiner via Slate on April 19, 2018
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.
by Sadhbh Walshe via New York Review of Books on March 16, 2018

Agriculture Wars

On country music as a lens through which to trace the corporatization of American farming.
by Nick Murray via Viewpoint Magazine on March 12, 2018
North Street, Boston, in 1894.

Secrets of a Brothel Privy

An archaeologist reconstructs the daily lives of 19th-century sex workers in Boston.
by Anna Goldfield via Sapiens on March 6, 2018

The Latin American Aesthetic of L.A. Music Culture

Understanding the immense reach and cultural implications of Latin American music.
by Benjamin Cawthra via Boom California on February 7, 2018

Everyday Soviet Nostalgia

Retracing the 1947 journey that John Steinbeck and Robert Capa took to introduce America to Soviet life.
by Laura Reston via The New Republic on January 2, 2018

How a Recording-Studio Mishap Shaped '80s Music

You know that punchy percussive sound popularized by Phil Collins and Prince? This is where it came from.
by Estelle Caswell via Vox Earworm on August 18, 2017
Walt Whitman's death mask with his eyes closed.

Out From Behind This Mask

A Barthesian bristle and the curious power of Walt Whitman’s posthumous eyelids.
by D. Graham Burnett via The Public Domain Review on July 27, 2017
Drawing of two clowns holding a large ring.

Dream Reading

Interpreting dreams for fun and profit. The importance of oneiromancy (dream reading) to American betting culture.
by Ann Fabian via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 1, 2016
Photograph of a children's choir singing within the outlines of the United States.

How “Fifty Nifty United States” Became One of the Greatest Mnemonic Devices of All Time

How you, your friends, and Lin-Manuel Miranda all learned this catchy, state-naming tune.
by L. V. Anderson via Slate on November 30, 2015
Fats Domino's restored white piano in a museum in New Orleans.

An Object Lesson: What The Restoration of Fats Domino's Piano Means to New Orleans

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the legend’s showpiece symbolizes the city's resilience.
by Mary Niall Mitchell via The Atlantic on August 26, 2015
Portrait of Edward Gibbon

Bonfire of the Humanities

Historians are losing their audience, and searching for the next trend won’t win it back.
by Samuel Moyn via The Nation on January 21, 2015

A Little Bit Softer Now, a Little Bit Softer Now…

The gradual decline of the fade-out in popular music.
by William Weir via Slate on September 15, 2014
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