department stores

Built on the momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of workers and consumers to promote black freedom.

What is now an object of nostalgia was once a symbol of soulless corporate creep.

On the life and times of Jason Epstein, cofounder of “The New York Review of Books.”

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?

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.

Separate areas with sofas, vanities, and even writing tables used to put the “rest” in women’s restrooms. Why were these spaces built, and why did they vanish?

The indoor suburban shopping center is a special kind of abandoned place.

By mass-marketing social aspiration, the brand toed the line between exclusivity and accessibility—and established prep as America’s visual vernacular.