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A fast food worker working a drive thru hands a bag to a customer in a car.

A History of the Drive-Thru, From California to Coronavirus

COVID-19 has recast the often-maligned restaurant drive-thru window as both a critical amenity and a basic comfort.
by Adam Chandler via Serious Eats on April 1, 2023
A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.
by Amy Mackin via Assay Journal on March 25, 2023
Oscar statues.

What the Oscars Represent: Meritocracy Without Merit

How the institution’s reactionary origins still leak into today’s film culture.
by David Hajdu via The Nation on March 8, 2023
J. Edgar Hoover and two other men pose with guns.

The Cult of J. Edgar Hoover

A zealot through and through, he ran the FBI like a religious sect.
by Adam Hochschild via The Nation on March 7, 2023
Four characters from "Dazed and Confused."

The “Dazed and Confused” Generation

People my age are described as baby boomers, but our experiences call for a different label altogether.
by Bruce Handy via The New Yorker on March 2, 2023
Cover of "Gravity's Rainbow," depicting a orange-red sky over a small city.

History Is Hard to Decode

On 50 years of Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
by M. Keith Booker via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 28, 2023
Old computer with its mouse over the AOL logo.

America Online: A Cautionary Tale

On the rise and fall of the quintessential ’90s online service provider—and a warning about today’s social-media giants.
by Joanne McNeil via The Nation on December 15, 2022
original

The Life of Song

What the surprising career of Bob McGrath teaches us about popular music.
by Kathryn Ostrofsky on December 14, 2022
Collage of yoga, palm tree, police tape

The Birth of a New Brand of Exercise Fetish

From Bikram yoga to Tae Bo, the 1990s exploded with exoticized consumer fitness products.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via The Nation on December 13, 2022
Crowds and escalators in the Mall of America.

The Rise and Fall of the Mall

Alexandra Lange's "Meet Me by the Fountain" recovers the forgotten past and the still hopeful future of the American shopping mall.
by Melvin Backman via The Nation on December 12, 2022
Ollie Brown holding Rolling Stone magazine.

What Was the Music Critic?

A new book exalts the heyday of music magazines, when electric prose reigned and egos collided.
by John Semley via The New Republic on November 18, 2022
Chuck Norris as Sergeant Cordell Walker in Walker: Texas Ranger.

Walkers and Lone Rangers: How Pop Culture Shaped the Texas Rangers Mythology

Texas’s elite police force has long played the hero in film and television, although the reality is far more complex.
by Sean O'Neal via Texas Monthly on November 16, 2022
Black and white photo of Woody Guthrie holding a guitar labeled "this machine kills fascists"

I've Got Those Old Talking-Blues Blues Again

The Folkies and WWII, Part Two.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on October 13, 2022
A line of G.I. Joe action figures, in various military-style uniforms as well as scuba gear.

How G.I. Joe Jump-Started the Action Figure Craze

In the late 1970s, smaller 'Star Wars' action figures took over.
by Becky Little via HISTORY on October 11, 2022
Flag of the Confederacy

The United States of Confederate America

Support for Confederate symbols and monuments follows lines of race, religion, and education rather than geography.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on October 4, 2022
A person holds up a "Don't Tread on Florida" poster at an August rally in Tampa featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio.
partner

The ‘Florida Man’ is Notorious. Here’s Where the Meme Came From

The practice of seeing Florida’s people, culture and history in caricature form is deeply rooted in the state’s colonial past.
by Julio Capó Jr., Tyler Gillespie via Made By History on September 14, 2022
Actor Tom Hanks and President George W. Bush stand on stage at the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2004.

Destructive Myths

Romanticized stories about the Second World War are at the heart of American exceptionalism.
by Jeff Faux via Dissent on August 30, 2022
A picture of the author as a teenager with his parents, in his bedroom decorated with rock music posters.

My Dad and Kurt Cobain

When my father moved to Taiwan, a fax machine and a shared love of music bridged an ocean.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on August 15, 2022
Illustration of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

Sex, Scandal, and Sisterhood: Fifty Years of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

They’re global icons who have left a lasting imprint on American culture. But do recent controversies threaten the squad’s future?
by Sarah Hepola via Texas Monthly on August 15, 2022
Vintage photograph of two little girls sitting on a mid-century television set.

The Lost Art of Striking a Pose With Your TV Set

In midcentury America, the machine itself became a character.
by Lynn Spigel via Slate on August 14, 2022
Black and white photo of a 1920s flapper girl.
partner

Flappers: Precursors to Modern-Day Social Media Influencers?

A 1923 article in a fashion magazine shows the connection between flappers and social media youth organizers today.
by Jason Ulysses Rose via HNN on August 7, 2022
Weird Al Yankovic, Lizzo, and Beyonce with their mouths covered by black bars indicating censorship.

The Surprising History of the Slur Beyoncé and Lizzo Both Cut From Their New Albums

How did the controversial term go from middle-school slang to verboten? The answer lies on the other side of the Atlantic.
by Ben Zimmer via Slate on August 3, 2022
A great white shark swims just under the surface of the water.

U.S. Shark Mania Began With This Attack More Than a Century Ago

On July 1, 1916, a young stockbroker from Philadelphia headed into the surf at Beach Haven, N.J.
by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on July 25, 2022
Four women (L7) sit on a bench together wearing jeans and jackets.

The Women Who Built Grunge

Bands like L7 and Heavens to Betsy were instrumental to the birth of the grunge scene, but for decades were treated like novelties and sex objects.
by Lisa Whittington-Hill via Longreads on June 29, 2022
Drawing of a group of young boys around a table, entitled "Mischievous Matt," from a story paper.
partner

Dime Novels and Story Papers for Kids

The rise of popular literature for children put a story, a role model, and a set of values in a young boy’s pocket.
by Michael Denning, Betsy Golden Kellem, Sara Lindey, Margaret Cassidy via JSTOR Daily on June 23, 2022
Drawing of onomatopoetic words, exclamation points, and objects used to make noises.

The Weird, Analog Delights of Foley Sound Effects

E.T. was jello in a T-shirt. The Mummy was scratchy potpourri. For Foley artists, deception is an essential part of the enterprise.
by Anna Wiener via The New Yorker on June 23, 2022
Black and white photo of Elvis Presley in a recording studio.

Was There Anything Real About Elvis Presley?

Presley never wrote a memoir. Nor did he keep a diary. His music could have been a window into his inner life, but he didn’t even write his songs.
by Michael T. Bertrand via The Conversation on June 22, 2022
Black and white photo of Gertrude Stein writing at desk.
partner

Gertrude Stein's Pulp Fiction

It has taken decades for an appreciation of Stein’s crime fiction to really take hold.
by Gertrude Stein, Cornelius Fortune, Mark McGurl, Brooks Landon via JSTOR Daily on June 22, 2022
Sheet music cover for "My Old Kentucky Home."

Emily Bingham on the Material Culture of White America’s Song to Itself: “My Old Kentucky Home”

A haunting exploration of “My Old Kentucky Home” reveals how a minstrel song rooted in slavery became a nostalgic American icon embedded in consumer culture.
by Emily Bingham via Literary Hub on May 16, 2022
Illustration of Asian woman surrounded by flowers

Sex, Death, and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women

The line from America’s earliest empire in the Philippines to Japan, Korea, Vietnam—and anti-Asian violence at home—is straight, clear, and written in blood.
by Panthea Lee via The Nation on April 18, 2022
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