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Shelby Foote with a drawing of a Civil War battle superimposed over him.

The South’s Jewish Proust

Shelby Foote, failed novelist and closeted member of the Tribe, turned the Civil War into a masterpiece of American literature.
by Blake Smith via Tablet on September 6, 2023
The stairs leading to the segregated section of a cinema in Belzoni, Mississippi, in 1939.

The Writers Who Went Undercover to Show America Its Ugly Side

In the 1940s, a series of books tried to use the conventions of detective fiction to expose the degree of prejudice in postwar America.
by Samuel G. Freedman via The Atlantic on July 10, 2023
Ronald Squire, Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.

Against Race Essentialism

Black identity is a reality, not an idea.
by Tomiwa Owolade via New Statesman on May 15, 2023
Winnifred Eaton

The First Asian American Screenwriter

The woman with the pen name Onoto Watanna had a stunningly productive literary career as a cookbook writer, novelist, and screenwriter.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on May 9, 2023
A skeleton woman in a black dress floating in a cemetery.

The Elusive, Maddening Mystery of the Bell Witch

A classic ghost story has something to say about America—200 years ago, 100 years ago, and today.
by Colin Dickey via Atlas Obscura on May 2, 2023
Illustration by Cristina Spano, picturing rulers and colorful shapes and designs coming out of the neck of a collared shirt

The Origins of Creativity

The concept was devised in postwar America, in response to the cultural and commercial demands of the era. Now we’re stuck with it.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on April 17, 2023
Cover of "Gravity's Rainbow," depicting a orange-red sky over a small city.

History Is Hard to Decode

On 50 years of Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
by M. Keith Booker via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 28, 2023
Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe Had a Promising Military Career. Then He Blew it Up.

Netflix’s “The Pale Blue Eye” portrays Edgar Allan Poe as a young West Point cadet. Here’s the true story of his brief, failed military career.
by Dave Kindy via Retropolis on January 19, 2023
Books from the 1990s.

What Literature Do We Study From the 1990s?

The turn-of-the-century literary canon, using data from college syllabi.
by Matthew Daniels via The Pudding on January 11, 2023
Female costars in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" next to a picture of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins.

The Pioneering Black Sci-Fi Writer Behind the Original Wakanda

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins invented the setting that eventually became Wakanda in her science fiction, but her name isn't widely known.
by Alison Lanier via Ms. Magazine on November 23, 2022
Claude McKay speaking at the Kremlin, as printed in the December 1923 issue of the Crisis.

The Proletarian Poet

A new book on Claude McKay is part of an effort to place the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance within the Black radical tradition.
by Jennifer Wilson via Dissent on July 25, 2022

A Tale of Two Toms

The uses and abuses of history through the "diary" of Thomas Fallon.
by Jenny Hale Pulsipher via Commonplace on July 12, 2022
Picture of two early cosplayers at a convention.

How Costumes and Conventions Brought Sci-Fi Fans Together in the Early 20th Century

Andrew Liptak on the origins of cosplay.
by Andrew Liptak via Literary Hub on June 29, 2022
At the filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico, in October 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA/Library of Congress.

Cowboy Progressives

You likely think of the American West as deeply conservative and rural. Yet history shows this politics is very new indeed.
by Daniel J. Herman via Aeon on April 8, 2022
Illustration of “Twenty-eight fugitives escaping from the eastern shore of Maryland”

The Supernatural and the Mundane in Depictions of the Underground Railroad

Navigating the line between historical records and mystic imagery to understand the Underground Railroad.
by Andrew K. Diemer via The Panorama on April 4, 2022
Photo of Jack Kerouac, 1956

Jack Kerouac’s Journey

For "On the Road"’s author, it was a struggle to write, then a struggle to live with its fame. “My work is found, my life is lost,” he wrote.
by Joyce Johnson via New York Review of Books on March 2, 2022
Painting of events and characters in the book Bambi, with a scared deer surrounded by violent acts of a person and dog hunting and predators capturing and eating prey.

“Bambi” Is Even Bleaker Than You Thought

The original book is far more grisly than the beloved Disney classic—and has an unsettling message about humanity.
by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on January 17, 2022
Plantation house in the snow.

The Grim History of Christmas for Slaves in the Deep South

"If you read enough sources, you run into cases of slaves spending a lot of time over Christmas crying."
by Olivia B. Waxman, Robert E. May via TIME on December 21, 2021
A picture of armed militias

What the Term “Gun Culture” Misses About White Supremacy

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.
by Chad Kautzer via Boston Review on December 17, 2021
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
by Tanya Melendez via Vox on October 14, 2021
Hands holding a cell phone
partner

Even Before the Internet, We Forged Virtual Relationships — Through Advice Columns

These communities allowed for blending fact and fiction in creating new identities.
by Julie Golia via Made By History on October 3, 2021
Abstract drawing of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, Crank Scientist

The great discoveries of the age captivated Poe’s imagination. He almost always misunderstood them.
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on July 21, 2021
Illustration of microphones and newspaper cutouts

Men in Dark Times

How Hannah Arendt’s fans misread the post-truth presidency.
by Rebecca Panovka via Harper’s on July 14, 2021
The autobiography of Lucy West

Lucy Brewer and the Making of a Female Marine

An account of the first female to serve in the U.S. Navy.
by Maria Connors via Past Is Present on June 8, 2021
Stephen Kinzer

The Untold Story of the CIA’s MK Ultra: A Conversation with Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer discusses his new biography, “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.”
by Stephen Kinzer, James Penner, Ed Prideaux via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 19, 2021
A women with her hands on the car horn
partner

Her Crazy Driving is a Key Element of Cruella de Vil’s Evil. Here’s Why.

The history of the Crazy Woman Driver trope.
by Genevieve Carpio via Made By History on April 2, 2021
engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe
partner

A Forgotten 19th-Century Story Can Help Us Navigate Today’s Political Fractures

Reconciliation is good — but not at any cost.
by Ellen Gruber Garvey via Made By History on March 23, 2021
Veteran and militia during 1919 Chicago Race Riot

Rereading 'Darkwater'

W.E.B. DuBois, 100 years ago.
by Chad Williams via National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on February 22, 2021
A walk-up customer at the door of a minister's marriage license booth in Elkton, Md. during the 1920-30s.

How Elkton Became the Marriage Capital of the East Coast

The story of one small Maryland town that became the Marriage Capital of the East Coast in the 20th century.
by Melissa August via TIME on February 11, 2021
Cartoon of Philip Roth at a typewriter, with the typescript turning into himself looking back at him

The Possessed

Joshua Cohen imagines how Philip Roth would review his own biographer.
by Joshua Cohen via Harper’s on February 9, 2021
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