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Drawing of two clowns holding a large ring.

Dream Reading

Interpreting dreams for fun and profit. The importance of oneiromancy (dream reading) to American betting culture.
by Ann Fabian via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 1, 2016

Liberals Love Alexander Hamilton. But Aaron Burr Was a Real Progressive Hero.

Why Broadway's biggest villain is worth a second look.
by Nancy Isenberg via Washington Post on March 30, 2016

Who Tells America's Story? 'Hamilton,' Hip-Hop, and Me

How the hit musical allows those who have been left out of the story to claim the narrative of America as their own.
by Marcella White Campbell via Baker Street Blues on March 15, 2016
Jim Crow-era postcard with illustration of a black boy in the jaws of an alligator

How America Bought and Sold Racism, and Why It Still Matters

How the objects in the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia can help us understand today's prejudice and racial violence.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on November 10, 2015
Black and white sketch of the front of the Mississippi State asylum.

Ghosts are Scary, Disabled People are Not: The Troubling Rise of the Haunted Asylum

Tourist-driven curiosity about the so-called "haunted asylum" has led many to overlook the real people who once were institutionalized within these hospitals.
by Sarah Handley-Cousins via Nursing Clio on October 29, 2015

The Cruel Truth About Rock And Roll

A lifelong fan reflects on how sexual exploitation is part of rock's DNA.
by Ann Powers via NPR on July 15, 2015

A Little Bit Softer Now, a Little Bit Softer Now…

The gradual decline of the fade-out in popular music.
by William Weir via Slate on September 15, 2014
Firecracker box with "Santa Claus" theme

Kaboom! 10 Facts About Firecrackers That Will Blow You Away

Firecrackers are essentially un-American, even though we associate them with our most deeply patriotic celebration, the Fourth of July.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on July 3, 2014
A collage of a still from "All in the Family" on a stylized television with another television in the background.

Fandom's Great Divide

The schism isn't between TV viewers who love a show and those who hate it—it’s between those who love it in very different ways.
by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on March 31, 2014

How Barry Levinson’s Diner Changed Cinema, 30 Years Later

With Diner, Barry Levinson turned a film about nothing into a male-bonding classic, launched careers, and spawned hits from Seinfeld to The Office.
by S. L. Price via HWD on February 10, 2012
Woody Guthrie.

This Land Is Our Land

The Popular Front and American culture.
by Michael Kazin via Humanities on May 1, 2011
Hard hats on Nixon's cabinet conference table.

When Blue-Collar Pride Became Identity Politics

Remembering how the white working class got left out of the New Left, and why we're all paying for it today.
by Jefferson Cowie, Joan Walsh via Salon on September 6, 2010
Advertisement for a "Little Orphan Annie" comic book collection. The protagonist, Annie and her dog are in the foreground of the advertisement.

Little Ideological Annie

How a cartoon gamine midwifed the graphic novel—and the modern conservative movement.
by Ben Schwartz via Bookforum on November 30, 2008
John Harvard statue by Daniel Chester French.

Reading Puritans and the Bard

Without the bawdy world of Falstaff and Prince Hal and of Shakespeare’s jesters, there would have been nothing for those dissenting Puritans to dissent from.
by Mark A. Peterson via Commonplace on October 1, 2006
A bronze statue of Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson at 70

"The Essential Willie Nelson" compilation demonstrates the continuity of Nelson's style across a variety of musical genres.
by Gene Santoro via The Nation on October 30, 2003
Computer mouse connected to the word "blog."

Play With Your Words

How the term "blog" came into being.
by Peter Merholz via peterme.com on May 17, 2002
Elvis Presley dancing.

How Long Will We Care?

A music critic assesses Elvis Presley's influence on popular culture.
by Lester Bangs via Village Voice on August 29, 1977
Two bikers ride through the desert in Easy Rider, a 1969 film.

See America First

Two movies, 'Easy Rider' and 'Alice's Restaurant,' reveal the ideals of counterculture and act as vehicles for social commentary.
by Ellen Willis via New York Review of Books on January 2, 1970
Sheet music cover for "I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier," 1915.

"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier"

The sound of antiwar protest in 1915.
via Voices & Visions
Federal encampment on Cumberland Landing, Virginia.
partner

How the Union Lost the Remembrance War

The victors of the American Civil War failed to write their story into the history books, leaving a gap for the mythologizing of the Confederacy.
by Matthew Wills, Robert J. Cook via JSTOR Daily on October 5, 2025
Books lined up.

How Translations Sell: Three U.S. Eras of International Bestsellers

A translation renaissance in US publishing just ended. And you probably missed it.
by Jed Kudrick, Sean DiLeonardi ‪ via Public Books on September 16, 2025
Trump's Chipocalypse Now meme, featuring Trump as Lt. Kilgore attacking Chicago with helicopters.

Trump’s ‘Chipocalypse Now’ Meme Sends a Message With Deep Historical Roots

What could be more purgative, more exhilaratingly American to the MAGA base than avenging the nation with racial warfare?
by Joe Lowndes via New Lines on September 12, 2025
Clint Eastwood.

The Enigma of Clint Eastwood

Is he merely a reactionary, or do his films paint a more complicated picture?
by Adam Nayman via The Nation on September 4, 2025
Illustration of Jack Kerouac and his editor Malcolm Crowley with the manuscript "On the Road."

Scrolling Through

Jack Kerouac, Malcolm Cowley, and the difficult birth of "On the Road."
by Gerald Howard via The American Scholar on September 2, 2025
Art work of a hand holding Mars by string in the midst of the universe.

The Long History of Life on Mars

A new book explores how Americans came to believe in an advanced Martian civilization at the turn of the twentieth century.
by Jon Allsop via The New Yorker on August 29, 2025
Women from the 1890s wearing white dresses.

Common Threads: Wearing White After Labor Day

At one time, wearing white after Labor Day was not just considered a fashionable “faux pas,” but a mark of bad manners and bad taste.
by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via The Saturday Evening Post on August 28, 2025
25 small photos of Bruce Springsteen playing the guitar or photos of him.

Noir City vs. The Opera on the Turnpike

As Bruce Springsteen’s "Born to Run" turns 50, its most underrated track deserves some love.
by Kirk Curnutt via Clio and the Contemporary on August 26, 2025
A hand draws a smiley face on a vinyl.

How Music Criticism Lost Its Edge

Music writers were once known for being much crankier than the average listener. What happened?
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on August 25, 2025
Collage of punk coverage in zines.

Why America Still Needs Punk Rock

A brief history of our most rebellious musical genre, as seen through its DIY zines.
by Grant Wong via Current Affairs on August 19, 2025
Collage of images including spacecrafts, the moon and President Kennedy surround a jumping Elon Musk.

How NASA Engineered Its Own Decline

The agency once projected America’s loftiest ideals. Then it ceded its ambitions to Elon Musk.
by Franklin Foer via The Atlantic on July 28, 2025
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