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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
A group of five wealthy women in Victorian dress.

A Pool of One’s Own

Group biographies and the female friendship vogue.
by Noelle Bodick via The Drift on January 28, 2021
A WPA poster styled man in a field with a Mac laptop and earbud instead of farm implements.

The New National American Elite

America is now ruled by a single elite class rather than by local patrician smart sets competing with each other for money and power.
by Michael Lind via Tablet on January 20, 2021
painting of Henry Adams

What Henry Adams Understood About History’s Breaking Points

He devoted a lifetime to studying America’s foundation, witnessed its near-dissolution, and uncannily anticipated its evolution.
by Dan Chiasson via The New Yorker on November 30, 2020
George Padmore

Black Americans in the Popular Front Against Fascism

The era of anti-fascist struggle was a crucial moment for Black radicals of all stripes.
by Mohammed Elnaiem via JSTOR Daily on November 12, 2020
Painting of the rocky mountains

How ‘America the Beautiful’ was Born

The United States’ unofficial anthem, a hymn of love of country.
by Jill Lepore via National Geographic on November 3, 2020
Black women, oil painting

Rebellious History

Saidiya Hartman’s "Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments" is a strike against the archives’ silence regarding the lives of Black women in the shadow of slavery.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on October 1, 2020

The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

The modern-day human-resources practice is rooted in avant-garde philosophy.
by Beth Blum via The New Yorker on September 24, 2020

Lamb to the Slaughter

The rise and fall of the Brooks Brothers name.
by Samuel Goldman via First Things on September 18, 2020

The Racist History of Celebrating the American Tomboy

Tomboys and the endless privileges accorded to white girls.
by Lisa Fagin Davis via Literary Hub on August 11, 2020
A printed advertisement for "The Bookman" depicting a fish reacting to "The Bookman" on a hook.

The Power of Flawed Lists

How "The Bookman" invented the best seller.
by Elizabeth Della Zazzera via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 27, 2020

All the World’s a Page

Paper was never simply a writing surface, but a complicated substance that folded itself into the fabric of culture and consciousness.
by Gill Partington via Public Books on July 16, 2020
Covers of issues of One magazine, featuring line drawings and article titles including "I am glad I am homosexual," and "I Just Had to Write".

ONE: The First Gay Magazine in the United States

ONE is a vital archive, but its focus on citizenship and “rational acceptance” ultimately blocked it from being the safe home for all that it claimed to be.
by Mairead Case via JSTOR Daily on July 15, 2020
Zora Neale Hurston in a bookstore with a copy of 'American Stuff'

How Did Artists Survive the First Great Depression?

What is the role of artists in a crisis?
by David A. Taylor via Literary Hub on June 29, 2020
Virus seen through a microscope.

How Pandemics Change History

The historian Frank M. Snowden discusses the politics of restricting travel during epidemics and more.
by Frank M. Snowden, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on March 3, 2020

‘A Doubtful Freedom’

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.
by David W. Blight via New York Review of Books on January 14, 2020
Elizabeth Pryor

Why It's So Hard to Talk about the N-word

A professor explains the trauma of encountering "an idea disguised as a word."
by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor via TED on December 1, 2019
African-American cowboys in Bonham, Texas, circa 1913

The Real Texas

What is Texas? Should we even think about so large and diverse a place as having an essence that can be distilled?
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on October 24, 2019
Illustration of WWI soldiers hiking thorugh a field; the painting uses light pastel colors and surrounds the soldiers with mist

On the Sexist Reception of Willa Cather’s World War I Novel

From Hemingway to Mencken, no one thought a woman could write about combat.
by Rebecca Onion via Literary Hub on October 21, 2019

Black Sox Forever

Reflections on the centennial of America’s greatest sports scandal.
by Harry Stein via City Journal on September 26, 2019

Moral Courage and the Civil War

Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present.
by Elizabeth D. Samet via The American Scholar on September 3, 2019
Margaret Mead in front of a bookshelf, with a book in hand

How Cultural Anthropologists Redefined Humanity

A brave band of scholars set out to save us from racism and sexism. What happened?
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on August 29, 2019

From the Battlefield to 'Little Women'

How Louisa May Alcott found a niche in observing the world around her.
by Jennifer Wilson via New York Review of Books on August 28, 2019
The secret message in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug"

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843)

Poe’s story of a treasure hunt, revealing the fantastical writer’s hyper-rational penchant for cracking codes.
via The Public Domain Review on July 18, 2019

A Lost Work by Langston Hughes Examines the Harsh Life on the Chain Gang

In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race. It has never been published in English—until now.
by Steven Hoelscher via Smithsonian on July 1, 2019
Glowing white "No" against a red background.

“Perhaps We’re Being Dense.” Rejection Letters Sent to Famous Writers

Some kind, some weird, some unbelievably harsh.
by Emily Temple via Literary Hub on June 19, 2019
Workers with a steam plough on a sugar plantation in Puerto Rico.

How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean

The expansion of banks like Citigroup into Cuba, Haiti, and beyond reveal a story of capitalism built on blood, labor, and race.
by Peter James Hudson via Boston Review on June 18, 2019
Portrait of Anne Lister

The 19th Century Lesbian Made for 21st Century Consumption

Jeanna Kadlec considers Anne Lister, the center figure of HBO’s Gentleman Jack, and the influence of other preceding queer women.
by Jeanne Kadlec via Longreads on June 6, 2019
Book cover of Upton Sinclair's book, featuring text and his profile

Mankind, Unite!

How Upton Sinclair’s 1934 run for governor of California inspired a cult.
by Adam Morris via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 13, 2019
A nurse standing by a patient's bed during the Spanish Flu.

Did We Forget to Memorialize Spanish Flu Because Women Were the Heroes?

Sure, it came on the heels of World War I, but it was way more deadly.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on February 18, 2019
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