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Jump-Rope Songs Were Once a Cornerstone of American Folklore. Now It’s Memes.

The Library of Congress is turning to the internet for a new generation of shared culture.
by Jacob Brogan via Slate on September 4, 2017

The Mystique of the American Diner, From Jack Kerouac to “Twin Peaks”

Freedom, fear and friendliness mingle in these emblematic eateries.
by Ryan P. Smith via Smithsonian on August 31, 2017

Old West Theme Parks Paint a False Picture of Pioneer California

As the nation debates monuments and public memory, it’s important to understand how other cultural sites help people learn (false) history.
by Amanda Tewes via The Conversation on August 30, 2017
Picture of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the film, "Dirty Dancing."

The Back-Alley Abortion That Almost Didn't Make it into 'Dirty Dancing'

For the 30th anniversary of "Dirty Dancing," we spoke to the film's screenwriter about her revolutionary decision to include a depiction of an illegal abortion.
by Marisa Crawford, Eleanor Bergstein via Vice on August 27, 2017

Every Song of the Summer Since 1958

Each year there is one undeniable 'song of summer.'
by MetroLyrics via YouTube on August 24, 2017
Robert E. Lee monument.

Falling Out of Love with the Civil War

America's unconditional love of the Civil War has blinded us to its true meaning.
by Sarah Handley-Cousins via Nursing Clio on August 21, 2017

Think This Solar Eclipse Is Getting a Lot of Hype? You Should Have Seen 1878

The darkness of the eclipse lit up American minds more than a century ago.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on August 18, 2017

From Boy Geniuses to Mad Scientists

How Americans got so weird about science.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on August 4, 2017
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The Vietnam War That Never Goes Away

Popular theater productions and Hollywood movies about the Vietnam War have a continued place in popular culture and memory.
by Bruce Chadwick via HNN on August 4, 2017

The TV That Created Donald Trump

Rewatching “The Apprentice,” the show that made his Presidency possible.
by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on July 31, 2017

The Umpire Strikes Out: Baseball Music and Labor

The classic baseball hit "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" has a lot more to do with U.S. history than one might think.
by Wendi Maloney via Library of Congress on July 31, 2017

Brian Tochterman on the 'Summer of Hell'

What E.B. White, Mickey Spillane, Death Wish, hip-hop, and the “Summer of Hell” have in common.
by Brian Tochterman, Sarah Cleary via UNC Press Blog on July 21, 2017

In 1947, A High-Altitude Balloon Crash Landed in Roswell. The Aliens Never Left

Despite its persistence in popular culture, extraterrestrial life owes more to the imagination than reality.
by Donovan Webster via Smithsonian on July 5, 2017
Katharine Hepburn, an iconic tomboy, cocking a gun in 1935.

Tomboys Were a Trend 100 Years Ago, but Mostly to Bring Up the Birth Rate for White Babies

Fear of diminishing broodstock got the gals going outdoors.
by Laura Smith via Timeline on June 21, 2017
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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.
by Mark Allan Jackson, Erin Blakemore via JSTOR Daily on June 15, 2017
Great White shark

Blood in The Water: Four Dead, A Coast Terrified and The Birth of Modern Shark Mania

A series of deadly shark attacks by the Matawan Man-Eater shook New Jersey and prompted President Wilson to declare war on sharks.
by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on May 31, 2017

The Syncopated Geography of Hip-Hop

Music scholar Katya Deve explores the history and geography of hip-hop.
by Katya Deve via ArcGIS StoryMaps on May 12, 2017
People on a rollercoaster

Are We Having Too Much Fun?

In 1985, Neil Postman observed an America imprisoned by its own need for amusement. He was, it turns out, extremely prescient.
by Megan Garber via The Atlantic on April 27, 2017

What the Guys Who Coined '420' Think About Their Place in Marijuana History

And how the term came to be code for pot-smoking in the first place.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on April 19, 2017
William Gropper's map of American folklore.

A Popular '40s Map of American Folklore Was Destroyed by Fears of Communism

The government saw Red when looking at William Gropper's painting of the United States.
by Kyle Carsten Wyatt via Atlas Obscura on March 27, 2017

Chuck Berry Invented the Idea of Rock and Roll

The origins of rock and roll are unknown, but no one can deny the role Chuck Berry played.
by Bill Wyman via Vulture on March 18, 2017

Let’s Not Pretend That ‘Hamilton’ Is History

America's founders have never enjoyed more sex appeal, but the hit Musical cheats audiences by making democracy look easy
by Nancy Isenberg via Zócalo Public Square on March 17, 2017

The Notorious Night Biggie Was Murdered in Los Angeles

Shaq, Baron Davis, and Nick Van Exel reflect on The Notorious B.I.G., his murder, and the city they called home.
by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on March 8, 2017
Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Hustle

Why liberals have embraced our most dangerously reactionary founder.
by Matt Stoller via The Baffler on January 1, 2017
A still from a film western depicting a fictionalized version of volunteers at the Alamo.

What a 1950s Texas Textbook Can Teach Us About Today's Textbook Fight

Texas education officials have preliminarily voted to reject a Mexican-American history textbook that scholars have said was riddled with inaccuracies.
by Nathan Bernier via KUT 90.5 on November 16, 2016
Jim Jones in 1977
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Drinking the Kool-Aid at Jonestown

Did you drink the Kool-Aid? The phrase has become such a part of the vocabulary that for many its origins have been obscured.
by Rebecca Moore, Peter Feuerherd, David Chidester, James T. Richardson via JSTOR Daily on November 11, 2016

There's No Erasing the Chalkboard

Blackboards will endure as symbols of learning long after they’ve disappeared from schools.
by Kim Kankiewicz via The Atlantic on October 13, 2016
Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, and the cast of "Hamilton" at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Father Worship

Hamilton is less a new vision of the past than a translation of the sacred stories of American civil religion into the vernacular.
by Peter Manseau via The Baffler on September 6, 2016
A portrait of a woman in an crime pamphlet labeled "the beautiful victim."
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The Bloody History of the True Crime Genre

True Crime is having a renaissance with popular TV series and podcasts. But the history of the genre dates back much further.
by Pamela Burger, Jack Miles, Joy Wiltenburg, Frederick Burwick, Karen S. H. Roggenkamp via JSTOR Daily on August 24, 2016

Should Prince's Tweets Be in a Museum?

Archivists are figuring out which pieces of artists' digital lives to preserve alongside letters, sketchbooks, and scribbled-on napkins.
by Sonia Weiser via The Atlantic on July 5, 2016
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