popular culture — Bunk History

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Football player on the ground, grabbing his head in pain.

‘Another Player Down’

How concern about injuries is changing sports.

via Retro Report on November 20, 2023

Donald Trump, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Vince McMhaon at a press conference before Wrestlemania 23, 2007.

The Misunderstood History of American Wrestling

A recent biography of Vince McMahon presents him as an entertainment tycoon who changed culture and politics. The real story is as banal as it is brutal.

by Nadine Smith via The Nation on November 10, 2023

Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Chuck D.

Hip-Hop's Black Caribbean Roots

The relationship between the DJ and his MC derived from a Jamaican “toasting” tradition and its related “sound clash” culture.

by Alex La Rotta via Made By History on November 6, 2023

Photo of a young Donald Trump greeting Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2000

Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura’s Shocking Election 25 Years Ago Previewed Trump’s

The former pro wrestler says his surprise election as Minnesota governor paved the way for Donald Trump. Now he looks back “shamefully” on their past ties.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Retropolis on November 3, 2023

Hank Williams Jr.

Whose Country?

It is impossible to talk about the blues and country without talking about race, authenticity, and contemporary America’s relationship to its past.

by Geoff Mann via New York Review of Books on November 2, 2023

Sparkles in light coming through windows of an empty room.

Signs of Ghosts

What do we do when there are whole cities full of ghosts, each one with their own unique story to tell, each one with something left undone?

by Colin Dickey via Longreads on October 26, 2023

Gremlins climbing on a World War II warplane.

How Gremlins Went From Fairy Stories to Warplanes to Hollywood Legend

Meet these slippery, mischievous reflections of our anxieties about technology.

by Hadley Meares via Atlas Obscura on October 24, 2023

Tupac shirtless in the shower, wearing gold chain and covered in soap suds

Why Tupac Never Died

It’s because the rapper’s life and work were a cascade of contradictions that we’re still trying to figure him out today.

by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on October 23, 2023

A group of women sitting under hooded hair dryers at a salon.

A Short History of Hairdryers

The beauty parlor became a place of sociability for women in the twentieth century, partly aided by modern technology of hair drying.

by Katrina Gulliver, Jennifer Scanlon via JSTOR Daily on September 25, 2023

"Spy vs. Spy" pointy-headed characters facing each other

Rethinking Spy vs. Spy: A Hand From One Page, A Bomb From Another

Like the spies themselves, the image we have of something is often what gets us in trouble.

by Gyasi Hall via Longreads on September 12, 2023

An uncredited performer with a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys in Give Me Some Skin (1946).

Jammin’ in the Panoram

During World War II, proto–music videos called “soundies” blared pop patriotism from visual jukeboxes across American bars.

by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on September 2, 2023

A man wearing sunglasses holding a sign

Kool Herc and the History (and Mystery) of Hip-Hop's First Day

Even as the world celebrates hip-hop turning 50, the debate over rap's birth date spins on.

by David Browne via Rolling Stone on August 11, 2023

Cover of the book "When Crack Was King," and Donovan X. Ranmsey.

A History of the Crack Epidemic From Below

How documenting the history of the drug war is a “community project” and reflections on 1990s rap music's anti-crack hits.

by Donovan X. Ramsey, Naomi Elias via The Nation on August 4, 2023

Barbie doll

Barbie and the Problem of Corporate Power

Stars of the movie about an iconic Mattel toy are on strike. Both the company’s history and Barbie’s plot illuminate how powerful corporations really are.

by Rithika Ramamurthy via Nonprofit Quarterly on July 31, 2023

Scenes of Stephen Speilburg on set from the filming of Jaws

‘Jaws Became a Living Nightmare’: Steven Spielberg's Ultimate Tell-All Interview

“It was made under the worst of conditions,” the filmmaker reveals in a new book. “People versus the eternal sea. The sea won the battle.”

by Steven Spielberg, Anthony Breznican, Laurent Bouzereau via Vanity Fair on July 27, 2023

Drawing from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.

by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on July 26, 2023

A woman is seated at a desk, writing.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Meet the feuding twin sisters who popularized the American advice column.

by Leopold Froehlich via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 24, 2023

Illustration of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The True History of 'Custer's Last Stand'

We're talking about the Battle of Little Bighorn all wrong.

by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on June 25, 2023

Police and bystanders at night.

Do Cartels Exist?

A revisionist view of the drug wars.

by Rachel Nolan via Harper’s on June 20, 2023

George H.W. Bush, wearing a Yale baseball uniform, receives the manuscript of Babe Ruth’s autobiography.

In Babe Ruth’s Final Steps on Public Stage, Two Brushes With History

Babe Ruth's final days revealed his mortality, and made more history, when he encountered a future U.S. president.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Washington Post on June 13, 2023

Dave Benscoter smiling in front of a one hundred year old apple tree.

On the Hunt for America’s Forgotten Apples

Apples no one has ever tasted are still out in the wild. Dave Benscoter, a retired FBI agent, has spent a decade searching for these 100-year-old heirlooms.

by Andrew Zaleski via Outside on May 18, 2023

A pole vaulter pointing the end of the pole at the camera.

Pole Vaulting Over the Iron Curtain

When it became clear that the United States and its allies couldn’t “liberate” Eastern Europe through psychological war and covert ops, they turned to sports.

by Matthew Wills, Toby Rider, Kevin Witherspoon via JSTOR Daily on May 12, 2023

Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tracing the Evolution of Celebrity Memoirs, from Charles Lindbergh to Will Smith

Creating a personal myth allows celebrities to create just that—a myth.

by Landon Y. Jones via Literary Hub on May 9, 2023

Sister Rosetta Tharpe holding a guitar

Amazing Base: A Singer Wed in a D.C. Ballpark, and 19,000 Paid to Attend

Attendees packed D.C.’s Griffith Stadium in 1951 for the wedding spectacular of gospel singer Rosetta Tharpe, who’s now the subject of a show at Ford's Theatre.

by Terence McArdle via Retropolis on May 7, 2023

Revolutionary War reenactors shooting muskets.

“Originalist” Arguments Against Gun Control Get U.S. History Completely Wrong

Gun control is actually an American tradition.

by Mary C. Curtis, Robert J. Spitzer via Slate on May 3, 2023

They Did It for the Clicks

How digital media pursued viral traffic at all costs and unleashed chaos.

by Aaron Timms via The New Republic on April 18, 2023

Roland R. Griffith and psychedelic mushrooms..

Roland Griffiths' Magical Profession

His research ushered in the psychedelic renaissance. Now it's changing how he's facing death.

by Tom Bartlett via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 10, 2023

Image of an AR-15

The Gun that Divides a Nation

The AR-15 thrives in times of tension and tragedy. This is how it came to dominate the marketplace – and loom so large in the American psyche.

by Alex Horton, Josh Dawsey, Todd C. Frankel, Shawn Boburg, Ashley Park via Washington Post on March 27, 2023

French pharmacist and self-help guru Émile Coué waves from the deck of a ship, circa 1923. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

America Was Obsessed with This Self-Help Craze 100 Years Ago

Émile Coué, a French apothecary, started an “autosuggestion” craze that was the biggest thing in America in the early 1920s, practiced by millions every day.

by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on March 13, 2023

From left to right, Langston Hughes with Charles S. Johnson; E. Franklin Frazier; Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney.

Why Harlem? Considering the Site of “Civil Rights by Copyright,” 100 Years Later

The confluence of Black modernity, self-determinism, and belongingness of Harlem's housing.

by Bo McMillan via Literary Hub on February 13, 2023

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