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Thomas Edison with a model of his concrete house, ca. 1911

Concrete Poetry: Thomas Edison and the Almost-Built World

A real (but mostly forgotten) patent conjures a world that could have been.
by Anthony Acciavatti via The Public Domain Review on December 1, 2022
Pew Research chart showing rising earnings disparity between young adults with and without college degrees

Pushing Everyone Into College Was a Policy Response to Other Policy

None of it happened by mistake.
by Freddie deBoer via Freddie deBoer on November 21, 2022
Illustration of a man hunched over a computer at work and another leaning back relaxing; the two drawings are positioned so that it looks like the relaxing man is leaning on the working man.

Why Isn’t Everybody Rich Yet?

The twentieth century promised prosperity and leisure for all. What went wrong?
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on September 12, 2022
Interior of car dealership.

Why Car Shopping is So Bizarre in the United States

The reasons have to do with the complexity of the transaction, but also with the industry’s explosive growth in its early years.
by Peter Valdes-Dapena via CNN on May 9, 2022
Men engaged in the various stages of making glass bottles in London, 1888.

Workers Have Been Fighting Automation Ever Since Capitalism Began

Automation didn’t start in the age of robots and microchips, but can be traced back to the late 19th century glass industry and its skilled glass workers.
by Alison Kowalski via Jacobin on April 8, 2022
Robot with group of people at poker table

The Automation Myth

To what degree can we blame automation for deindustrialization and class decomposition?
by Clinton Williamson via The Baffler on April 6, 2022
An oil rig on the ocean.

Spillovers from Oil Firms to U.S. Computing and Semiconductor Manufacturing

Smudging state–industry distinctions and retelling conventional narratives.
by Cyrus C. M. Mody via Reviews In American History on February 22, 2022
Early 20th century black-and-white photograph of workers harvesting kelp.

Burning Kelp for War

World War I saw the availability of potash plummet, while its price doubled. The US found this critical component for multiple industries in Pacific kelp.
by Peter Neushul, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on January 13, 2022
Magazine advertisement for United States Steel, highlighting a kitchen countertop, lawn furniture and playground equipment, and a suspension bridge.

Making Steel All Shiny and New

When it seemed that steel had lost its gleam with American consumers, the industry turned to marketing to make it shine again.
by Matthew Wills, Nicolas P. Maffei via JSTOR Daily on January 10, 2022

How Bad Are Plastics, Really?

Plastic production just keeps expanding, and now is becoming a driving cause of climate change.
by Rebecca Altman via The Atlantic on January 3, 2022
An old water tower stands near abandoned outhouses on the former site of a Firestone plantation in Liberia.

Corporations Are Hiding Vast Troves of History From the Public

You can work around some of the holes this lack of access creates, but it takes years.
by Gregg Mitman via Slate on November 2, 2021
Four soldiers in World War I uniforms pose eating Maillard's Eagle Sweet Chocolate. An eagle is illustrated on the candy bar wrapping.
partner

It Wouldn’t Be Halloween Without Candy. We Have World War I to Thank for That.

Candies of the Halloween season have roots in the sweet treats and real horrors of the Great War.
by Lora Vogt via Made By History on October 31, 2021
Rural front lawn with a Trump sign.
partner

Our Urban/Rural Political Divide is Both New — And Decades In The Making

Policies dating to the 1930s have helped shape the conflict defining today’s politics.
by Guian McKee via Made By History on October 8, 2021
Collection of photographs ranging including shareholders' meeting protests, the city of Rochester, and Kodak founder George Eastman.

The Rise and Fall of an American Tech Giant

Kodak changed the way Americans saw themselves and their country. But it struggled to reinvent itself for the digital age.
by Kaitlyn Tiffany via The Atlantic on June 16, 2021
Mitch McConnell
partner

The Fissure Between Republicans and Business is Less Surprising Than it Seems

Business groups have always worked with both parties to support globalization and free trade.
by Jennifer Delton via Made By History on June 7, 2021

How PEZ Evolved From an Anti-Smoking Tool to a Beloved Collector's Item

Early in its history, the candy company made a strategic move to find its most successful market.
by Theresa Machemer via Smithsonian on December 15, 2020

The World Henry Ford Made

A new history charts the global legacy of Fordist mass production, tracing its appeal to political formations on both the left and the right.
by Justin H. Vassallo via Boston Review on October 9, 2020
Christopher Columbus statue being removed from Grant Park in Chicago.
partner

Americans Put Up Statues During the Gilded Age. Today We’re Tearing Them Down.

Why the Gilded Age was the era of statues.
by Katrina Gulliver via Made By History on July 26, 2020

Whose Century?

One has to wonder whether the advocates of a new Cold War have taken the measure of the challenge posed by 21st-century China.
by Adam Tooze via London Review of Books on July 22, 2020

When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided

The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last major pandemic. Here’s the full story.
by Cal Winslow via Jacobin on May 1, 2020
Propaganda poster from World War II showing a gloved hand holding a wrench and reading "America's answer!".

The Coronavirus War Economy Will Change the World

When societies shift their economies to a war footing, it doesn’t just help them survive a crisis—it alters them forever.
by Nicholas Mulder via Foreign Policy on March 26, 2020

It Doesn't Have to Be a War

The Trump administration appears ready to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed manufacture of essential goods like face masks.
by Tim Barker via Dissent on March 10, 2020

A Short History of Minimalism

Donald Judd, Richard Wollheim, and the origins of what we now describe as minimalist.
by Kyle Chayka via The Nation on January 14, 2020

The Power of the Black Working Class

In order to understand America, we have to understand the struggles of the black working class.
by Keisha N. Blain, Joe William Trotter Jr. via Jacobin on December 4, 2019

Ross Perot, Populist Harbinger

Views that were fringe in Perot’s day had, by the 2016 election, taken center stage.
by Jacqueline Brandon via Dissent on July 10, 2019
A broken key with a fist

The Road Not Taken

The shuttering of the GM works in Lordstown will also bury a lost chapter in the fight for workers’ control.
by Sarah Jaffe via The New Republic on June 24, 2019

The Square Deal

Some people called it "Welfare Capitalism." George F. Johnson called it "The Square Deal."
by Nellie Gilles, Sarah Kate Kramer, Joe Richman via Radio Diaries on June 20, 2019

Uniforming the Nation

Standard clothing sizes don’t exist.
by Jordana Rosenfeld via Popula on April 3, 2019

A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy

The Green New Deal’s mastermind is a precocious New Yorker with big ambitions. Sound familiar?
by Robinson Meyer via The Atlantic on February 19, 2019
Trump looks at border wall construction prototypes.
partner

The Hole in Donald Trump’s Wall

As long as Americans continue to flood into Mexico, the wall will do little to deter crossings.
by Tore C. Olsson via Made By History on January 9, 2019
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