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Harry Silberstein driving a Paper-Calmenson scrap metal pick-up wagon, ca. 1900. (Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest)
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Scrapping in the Streets

A discussion of the booming 19th-century trade in scrap metal.
via BackStory on August 4, 2016

Straight Razors and Social Justice: The Empowering Evolution of Black Barbershops

Black barbershops are a symbol of community, and they provide a window into our nation's complicated racial dynamics.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Quincy Mills via Collectors Weekly on May 30, 2014
Map of Mexico
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Birth of a Trade War

The Mexican origins of the birth control pill, and the trade dispute with the U.S. it generated.
via BackStory on January 7, 2014
Ice cubes.
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The Ice King

The story of the man who introduced ice cubes into our beverages.
via BackStory on August 17, 2012

The Ketchup Conundrum

Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?
by Malcolm Gladwell via The New Yorker on September 6, 2004
A group of men in 19th-century clothing groom their beards.

The First Time America Went Beard Crazy

A sweeping new history explores facial hair as a proving ground for notions about gender, race, and rebellion.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on July 21, 2025
Magazine ad of raccoons playing computer games.

The Raccoons Who Made Computer Magazine Ads Great

In the 1980s and 1990s, PC Connection built its brand on a campaign starring folksy small-town critters. They’ll still charm your socks off.
by Harry McCracken via Technologizer on April 22, 2025
A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.
by Joe Zadeh via Noema on February 20, 2025
A moving truck on cinder blocks.

How Progressives Froze the American Dream

The U.S. was once the world’s most geographically mobile society. Now we’re stuck in place—and that’s a very big problem.
by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on February 10, 2025
A painting of a large camera on a film set, surrounded by green screens.

Casual Viewing

Why Netflix looks like that.
by Will Tavlin via n+1 on December 16, 2024
Burglar sneaking into the bedroom of a sleeping woman.

True Crime: Allan Pinkerton’s “Thirty Years a Detective”

Am 1884 guide to vice and crime by the founder of the world’s largest private detective agency.
by Sasha Archibald via The Public Domain Review on December 5, 2024
Iranian leaders.

Who Benefits From Sanctions?

According to authors of a new book on how Iran has coped with economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., no one does.
by Zep Kalb via Phenomenal World on August 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
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
Elon Musk's face edited onto Apple advertisements.

A Bullshit Genius

On Walter Isaacson’s biographical project.
by Oscar Schwartz via The Drift on March 12, 2024
Keith Haring spray painting

Keith Haring, the Boy Who Cried Art

Was he a brilliant painter or a brilliant brand?
by Jackson Arn via The New Yorker on March 4, 2024
1924 map of Baltimore city. An orange circle marks the location of Burton's store

Samuel L. Burton’s Remarkable Comeback Story

In one of the most unique cases in the history of race riots, the African American businessperson sued his birthplace of Onancock, Virginia, in September 1910.
by Emmanuel Mehr via Baltimore Histories Weekly on January 27, 2024
A group of women sitting under hooded hair dryers at a salon.
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A Short History of Hairdryers

The beauty parlor became a place of sociability for women in the twentieth century, partly aided by modern technology of hair drying.
by Katrina Gulliver, Jennifer Scanlon via JSTOR Daily on September 25, 2023

What Even Is "Leadership"?

And why won't all the worst people stop talking about it?
by Charles Petersen via Making History on September 21, 2023
Lebanese auto worker Eva Habib in her work coveralls in 1929.

Arab American Labor

On the centrality of the working classes to the Arab American immigrant experience and the pivotal roles Arab Americans played in American labor.
by Akram Khater, Chelsea Lundquist-Wentz, Nicole Ackman, Ginni Leeman, Lindsey Waldenberg via Khayrallah Center For Lebanese Diaspora Studies on September 4, 2023
Cover of the book "24/7 Politics," featuring photos of Nixon and Carter.

The Battlefields of Cable

How cable TV transformed politics—and how politics transformed cable TV.
by Jesse Walker via Reason on August 15, 2023
Men view stalagmites and stalactites in a cave.

How the Kentucky Cave Wars Reshaped the State's Tourism Industry

Rival entrepreneurs took drastic steps to draw visitors away from Mammoth Cave in the early 20th century.
by Eliza McGraw via Smithsonian on July 25, 2023
Side profile painting of James Forten, dressed in a black coat and a white collar

James Forten, Revolutionary: Forgotten No More

James Forten was one of Philadelphia’s most distinguished and important citizens.
by Adam E. Zielinski via Journal of the American Revolution on June 13, 2023

Activist Businesses: The New Left’s Surprising Critique of Postwar Consumer Culture

Activists established politically informed shops to offer alternatives to the consumer culture of chain stores, mass production, and multinational corporations.
by Joshua Clark Davis via Process: A Blog for American History on May 2, 2023
Syrian children, possibly in Little Syria, Manhattan.

Remembering New York’s Little Syria

The ethnic enclave in Lower Manhattan was home to refugees fleeing civil war and entrepreneurs taking advantage of a globalizing economy.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on April 25, 2023
Fisk University Class of 1888.

"The South": The Past, Historicity, and Black American History (Part II)

Exploring recent debates about the uses–and utility–of Black history in both the academic and public spheres.
by Adolph Reed Jr. via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on April 10, 2023
1970s commercial airplane flying over a mountain range

How 1970s California Created the Modern World

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and globally.
by Francis J. Gavin via Engelsberg Ideas on April 3, 2023
People outside the entrance to Luna Park on Coney Island, New York, 1890.
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Luna Park and the Amusement Park Boom

The fortunes of Coney Island have waxed and waned, but in the early twentieth century, its amusement parks became a major American export.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on March 29, 2023
two men, with one holding a basket on his basket, climb up sharp rocks on the Farallon Islands.

How a War Over Eggs Marked the Early History of San Francisco

Competition over eggs on the Farallon Islands in the midst of the California Gold Rush in San Francisco led to an all out war between eggers.
by Lizzie Stark via Literary Hub on March 29, 2023
An elephant holding a broom with its trunk.

Lions and Tigers and Cameras!

How the movies gave Los Angeles a zoo.
by D. J. Waldie via KCET on March 16, 2023
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