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Portraits of Dean Dixon, William Grant Still, and Margaret Bonds, three African American classical musicians.

A Prophecy Unfulfilled?

What a new book and six companion videos have to say about the fate of Black classical music in America.
by Mark N. Grant via The American Scholar on April 2, 2022
Photo of Ethel Barrymore over collage of citrus, eggs, and toast.

The Golden Age Hollywood Diet That Starved Its Famous Starlets — And Then America

In 1929, Ethel Barrymore went on the ‘18-Day Diet.’ From there, it took the country by storm. Until, that is, its disciples began dying.
by Ian Douglass via MEL on March 31, 2022
Nimrod and His Companions Venerating Fire, by Rudolf von Ems, c. 1400.

Enjoy My Flames

On heavy metal’s fascination with Roman emperors.
by Jeremy Swist via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 23, 2022
Neil Young, on left, and UFC announcer and podcaster Joe Rogan.
partner

What The Neil Young-Joe Rogan Dust-Up Tells Us About The Music Industry

The music industry is thriving — but it’s not always trickling down to artists.
by Sam Backer via Made By History on February 6, 2022
Still of three characters from Young Frankenstein, parodying horror tropes.

Dun, Dun Duuun! Where Did Pop Culture’s Most Dramatic Sound Come From?

Did the iconic three-note sequence come from Stravinsky, the Muppets or somewhere else? Our writer set out to – dun, dun duuuun! – reveal the mystery.
by Amelia Tait via The Guardian on January 18, 2022
Comedian Charlie Hill on stage with a microphone.

‘Part of Why We Survived’

Is there something in particular about coming from a Native background that makes a person want to write and perform comedy?
by Ian Frazier via New York Review of Books on December 23, 2021
Don Cornelius and the Soul Train Dancers on the dance floor, with fist raised in the Black Power salute, at the end of a show.

Soul Train and the Desire for Black Power

Don Cornelius had faith that Black culture would attract a mass audience, and a belief that Black culture should be in the hands of Black people.
by Mark Anthony Neal via The Nation on December 22, 2021
Frank Sinatra singing into a microphone.

The Christmas Carol Canon That Could Have Been

Pheasants? 'Dickory dock'? Toyland? Here's how a narrow slice of American history changed the holidays forever.
by Addison Del Mastro via The Spectator on December 21, 2021
Cover of an early Superman comic book.

The Vigilante World of Comic Books

A sweeping new history traces the rise of characters caught in a Manichaean struggle between good and evil.
by Scott Bradfield via The New Republic on December 16, 2021
Image of a 1970's band invoking the imagery of the Lost Cause and the Confederacy.

Whistlin' D ----.

Why songs of the southland are really northern.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on December 15, 2021
Cast of "All in the Family"

Justice for All: The Religious Legacy of “All in the Family”

The show never took a singular position on social issues. The point was to wrestle with the story itself in hopes of sparking self-awareness and contemplation.
by L. Benjamin Rolsky via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on December 7, 2021
Front page of the Saturday Evening Post

The Persistence of the Saturday Evening Post

When George Horace Lorimer took over as editor of the Saturday Evening Post, America was a patchwork of communities. There was no sense of nation or unity.
by Amanda Darrach via CJR on November 9, 2021
The Titanic sinking.

How The Titanic Haunts Us

We have good reason to remember the story of what happened to hubristic rich people, and the imprisoned poor, in an enormous opulent floating palace.
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on October 26, 2021
The Mean Girls Game for DS

Meet the YouTubers Determined to Find Lost Media

New media meets old.
by Brendan Bell via The Verge on September 16, 2021
Big Mouth Billy Bass

Big Mouth Billy Bass

Billy Bass might be considered mere kitsch, but dismissing this singing fish would ignore some critical linkages between culture and environment.
by Sherri Sheu via Perspectives on History on August 26, 2021
Gladys Knight and the Pips performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

The Misunderstood Talent of Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight and the Pips have always been more beloved by fans than by music historians, but they are essential to the evolution of soul.
by Emily J. Lordi via The New Yorker on August 13, 2021
Cover of amateur photography handbook

Say Cheese! How Bad Photography Has Changed Our Definition of Good Pictures

The changes in popular photography.
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on July 28, 2021
Collage of audio-related images, records, cassettes, CDs, wav files, ipods, electronic media icons, and an ear.

What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies?

If your entire collection is on a streaming service, good luck accessing it in 10 or 20 years.
by Joe Pinsker via The Atlantic on July 19, 2021
Drawing of the Alamo

How Racism, American Idealism, and Patriotism Created the Modern Myth of the Alamo and Davy Crockett

Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford on the making of a misrepresented narrative.
by Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford, Bryan Burrough via Literary Hub on June 22, 2021
Almighty Kay Gee, of the Cold Crush Brothers, throwing out posters of the group at Harlem World, circa 1981.

The Photographer Who Captured the Birth of Hip-Hop

As a teen-ager, Joe Conzo, Jr., took intimate pictures of the Bronx music scene. He’s lived several lives in the time since.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on June 12, 2021
Charles Schulz sketching Peanuts comics

Charlie Brown Tried to Stay Out of Politics

Why did readers search for deeper meaning in the adventures of Snoopy and the gang?
by Scott Bradfield via The New Republic on June 2, 2021
Yuri Kochiyama holding a sign during a protest in support of waiters

Behind This Photo Is the Story of Two Asian American Folk Heroes

Remembering Asian-American activists Corky Lee and Yuri Kochiyama.
by Alice George via Smithsonian on May 20, 2021
Map of the Appalachian mountain range

The Making of Appalachian Mississippi

“Mississippi’s white Appalachians may have owned the earth, but they could never own the past.”
by Justin Randolph via Southern Cultures on May 14, 2021
Ronald Reagan and popular musicians from 1980s, black and white collage with colorful shapes

I Want My Mutually Assured Destruction

How 1980s MTV helped my students understand the Cold War.
by Tom Nichols via The Atlantic on May 8, 2021
A collage featuring pictures from the 1918 Flu Pandemic and the 1920s, including people wearing masks and nurses on one side and flappers on the other.

What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably)

As the U.S. anticipates a vaccinated summer, historians say measuring the impact of the 1918 influenza on the uproarious decade that followed is tricky.
by Lila Thulin via Smithsonian on May 3, 2021
Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Rowdy America

A new biography details the cultural jumble of literature, dirty jokes, and everything in between that went into the making of the foremost self-made American.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on April 29, 2021

The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular. But Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten.

While the Panthers have become a staple of pop culture, veteran members of the group remain invisible.
by Santi Elijah Holley via The New Republic on April 22, 2021

Decolonize Hipsters

The history of hipsters is a not-so-secret history of race in the Atlantic world.
by Grégory Pierrot via Guernica on April 20, 2021
Still from Saving Private Ryan, depicting soldiers in a landing craft.

How Saving Private Ryan's Best Picture Loss Changed the Oscars Forever

More than just an upset, "Saving Private Ryan" losing the Best Picture Oscar to "Shakespeare in Love" changed how Academy Awards are won.
by David Crow via Den Of Geek on April 13, 2021
A group of contestants at an Emeryville walkathon.

Inside the Sketchy Dance Marathon Craze SF's Women Helped Stop

Dance marathons were essentially the Netflix dating show of the Great Depression.
by Greg Keraghosian via SFGATE on April 11, 2021
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