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How Spam Went from Canned Necessity to American Icon

Out-of-the-can branding helped transform World War II’s rations into a beloved household staple.

No 'King of Kings'

Edits that colonists made to prayer books during the American Revolution embodied the shift to independence.
Gilbert Motier, the Marquis De La Fayette

Why Has America Named So Many Places After a French Nobleman?

The Marquis de Lafayette's name graces more city parks and streets than perhaps any other foreigner.

How "This Land Is Your Land" Went From Protest Song to Singalong

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” has lost a bit of its protest oomph—in part because of a decades-long denial of its later verses.

The Most Successful First 100 Days Of An Administration Didn't Belong To Who You Think

Dwight Eisenhower did more in his first hundred days than change laws—he changed a culture.

Walt Whitman—Patriotic Poet, Gay Iconoclast, or Shrewd Marketing Ploy?

Americans tend to think of Walt Whitman as the embodiment of democracy and individualism, but have you ever considered Walt Whitman, the brand?
A painting of Boston harbor, where women in dresses stand on a hill, watching ships
partner

Invisible Cities, Continued

The 19th century recovery of John Winthrop's sermon, "A City on a Hill."
A drawing from a 1908 cookbook of an aspargus shortcake, a savory cake made with leftover aspargus and topped with hardboiled eggs.

An Economic History of Leftovers

Americans’ enthusiasm for reheating last night’s dinner has faded as the nation has prospered.
Photograph of Boston Corbett

The Insane Story of the Guy Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln

Meet Boston Corbett, the self-castrated hatmaker who was John Wilkes Booth's Jack Ruby.
Typewriter with keys that have the letters "IA" on each of them.

How Iowa Flattened Literature

With help from the CIA, Paul Engle’s writing students battled Communism and eggheaded abstraction. The damage to writing still lingers.

Thanks a Lot, Ken Burns

Because of you, my Civil War lecture is always packed with students raised on your romantic, deeply misleading portrait of the conflict.
A collage graphic featuring the couple from "American Gothic" at a cookout.

Labor Day in America: Or, the Day That is Not in May

America’s ambivalence about labor is nothing new. In the colonial era the ruling class had nothing but contempt for anything that could be justly called "work."
A picture of a woman at a protest against Islamophobia.

The Most Patriotic Act

A warning from September 2001 about government overreach in the name of national security.
Cartoon depictinf a man pouring a bowl of sugar babies in front of a group of onlookers.

Birchismo

Culture-shocked Americans in the 1960s were all too happy to take directions from the John Birch Society: take an extreme right and drive forever.
Antiwar protest against the Vietnam War outside the White House.

Viet Guilt

Were the real prisoners of war the young Americans who never left home?
Mel and Norma Gabler.

The Guardians Who Slumbereth Not

Textbook watchdogs Mel and Norma Gabler are good, sincere, dedicated people, who just may be destroying your child’s education.
Black and white photograph of James Baldwin

A Report from Occupied Territory

These things happen, in all our Harlems, every single day. If we ignore this fact, and our common responsibility to change this fact, we are sealing our doom.
Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, standing next to a portrait of the group's namesake, Captain John Morrison Birch.

December 9, 1958: The John Birch Society Is Founded

“Together with other ‘know nothing’ organizations scattered through the country, it represents a basic, continuing phenomenon in American society.”
The date "1619" bolded against a gray background.

Engaging The 1619 Project

A collection of resources challenging the notion that the U.S. was built on nothing but injustice and subjugation.

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