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Clipping of a newspaper article titled "Helen Keller and Socialism"

Problematic Icons

Political activists Greta Thunberg and Helen Keller have been just as misunderstood by their supporters as by their detractors.
A black and white artistic photo

A Quest to Discover America’s First Science-Fiction Writer

It’s been two hundred years since America’s first sci-fi novel was published. But who wrote it?
Cartoon that shows a man struggling to shake a woman's hand because of her wide skirt.

Lampooning Political Women

For as long as women have battled for equitable political representation in America, those battles have been defined by images.

What Ever Happened to Chicken Fat?

Comedy from Mad Magazine to The Simpsons.

Comic Gold

The Gold Rush introduced a new figure into the American imagination – the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune.

“The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming”

It’s hardly a secret, but, for a land that bills itself as a land of freedom and opportunity, America can be inhospitable to just about anyone.
Caricature of Oscar Wilde in between a sunflower in a vase with the U.S. dollar symbol on it, and a lion with sunflower petals for a mane.

The Wilde Woman and the Sunflower Apostle: Oscar Wilde in the United States

Victoria Dailey looks back at Oscar Wilde’s wild ride through the United States in the early 1880s.

Introducing the Brand-New Historic District

A company hopes its construction of a Historic District will satisfy those who are upset with its demolition of historic sites.
Donald Trump, holding microphones, surrounded by shock jocks

The Trigger Presidency

How shock jock comedy gave way to Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

The “Miscegenation” Troll

The term “miscegenation” was coined in an 1864 pamphlet by an anonymous author. It turned out to be an anti-abolition hoax.

In "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda," Ishmael Reed Revives an Old Debate

If “Hamilton” is subversive, the mischievous Reed asks, what is it subverting?

The Gender-Bending Style of Yankee Doodle's Macaroni

The outlandish "macaroni" style of 18th-century England blurred the boundaries of gender, as well as class and nationality.
The Writing Master, by Thomas Eakins, 1882. Painting of a man wearing glasses and writing with a pen.

Yawns Innumerable

The story of John Quincy Adams’ forgotten epic poem—and its most critical reader.

What Makes ‘The Living Dead’ My Film of 1968

In so many ways, George Romero's lo-budget horror film defined the year 1968.
A man alone among the rubble of a city

TV and the Bomb

During the Cold War, nuclear weapons were a frequent plot point on television shows. Fearful depictions in the 1950's became more darkly comedic in the 1960s.

Unrevolutionary Bastardy

A review of a "The Low Road," a “mordantly anti-Hamiltonian” play that made its debut at New York's Public Theater this spring.

Illustrating Carnival: Remembering the Overlooked Artists Behind Early Mardi Gras

A look at the ornate float and costume designs from Carnival’s “Golden Age."

The ‘SNL’ Sketch That Predicted Our Nerd Overlords

In 1986, William Shatner told a roomful of spoof Trekkies to "get a life."

In 1968, When Nixon Said "Sock It To Me" on 'Laugh-In,' TV Was Never Quite the Same Again

The show's rollicking one-liners and bawdy routines paved the way for cutting-edge television satire.

Trump Hasn’t Killed Comedy. He’s Killed Our Stupid Idea of Comedy.

You and I have grown up during a period in which comedy became strangely bound up with truth and virtue. Trump has cut the knot.

The Woman Whose Words Inflamed the American Revolution

Mercy Otis Warren used her wit to agitate for independence.
A young thomas edison poses next to a phonograph

How 19th Century Techno-Skeptics Ridiculed Thomas Edison

At his peak, newspapers loved to tease the inventor. They also feared him.
A white muscular man flexes confidently while sitting on a stool.
partner

Nose Knows Best

Nasology was a 19th century pseudoscience which claimed to explain personality traits based on the shape of a person’s nose.
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.
Black-and-white still image from the film "Dr. Strangelove," in which a man is shouting and waving his hat in the air while riding a missile in flight.

Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True

How Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove” exposed dangers inherent in nuclear command-and-control systems.
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.
The letters Q and A having a conversation.

The History of Advice Columns Is a History of Eavesdropping and Judging

How an Ovid-quoting London broadsheet from the late seventeenth century spawned “Dear Abby,” Dan Savage, and Reddit’s Am I the Asshole.
Political cartoon comparing office seekers to various animals.

The Spoilsman's Progress

Ambitious office seekers during the nineteenth century experienced wild swings of fortune that depended on the public’s mood and party benevolence.
rattlesnake

How the Rattlesnake Almost Became an Emblem of a Nascent America

On the centuries-long historical evolution of a serpentine symbol.
Man holding The New Yorker magazine like a telescope.

Onward and Upward

Harold Ross founded The New Yorker as a comic weekly. A hundred years later, we’re doubling down on our commitment to the much richer publication it became.

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