technological innovation — Bunk History

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The 1893 World's Fair.

A Ghost from Kitchens Across the Nation

The 1893 World’s Fair and the origins of Aunt Jemima.

by Lindsey Stewart via HNN on July 29, 2025

A former coal miner works at a computer station at the Bit Source LLC office in Pikeville, Kentucky

The Rise and Fall of the Knowledge Worker

Knowledge workers, were supposed to be the beneficiaries of neoliberalism and globalization until AI and a hypercompetitive employment market.

by Vinit Ravishankar, Mostafa Abdou via Jacobin on July 10, 2025

Workers adjust a metal sheet on a Titan missile assembly line.

The Permanent War Economy Doesn’t Benefit Workers

Advocates of “military Keynesianism” present it as a boon for the working class. In reality, it diverts resources away from social provision.

by Hanna Goldberg via Jacobin on June 23, 2025

Coastal telegraph semaphore tower, 1799.

The Secret Signal

The semaphore towers of the Hudson.

by John Bulmer via Restoration Obscura on May 31, 2025

Aerial view of Oakland.

The Future Happens in Oakland First. That’s a Cautionary Tale for Global Cities

International trade boomed with the city’s early adoption of technological and economic changes, but Black neighborhoods became ‘sacrifice zones.’

by Lois Beckett, Alexis C. Madrigal via The Guardian on March 22, 2025

Front entrance of the abandoned Florida Solite plant.

The Machine in the Garden

After decades of unchecked hazardous waste pollution, a Florida hamlet fights the developers eager to build homes there anyway.

by Jordan Blumetti via Oxford American on March 18, 2025

The newsroom of the Mobile Press-Register, ca. 1982.

Journalists and the “Origin Story” of Working from Home

Journalists helped to pioneer what would eventually result in our mobile world.

by Will Mari, Juliette De Maeyer via The Saturday Evening Post on October 14, 2024

A computer, business documents, envelope, and a broadcast tower.

How Tech Giants Make History

AT&T’s early leaders used PR to sway public opinion, casting their monopoly as a public service and obscuring its political roots.

by Richard R. John via Pro-Market on October 10, 2024

Advertisement promoting cocaine toothache drops, 1889.

An Undulating Thrill

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?

by Douglas Small via Aeon on October 4, 2024

An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome

Why were so many early European books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions.

by Katherine Churchill via HNN on August 27, 2024

Illustration of a man typing on his laptop on a rollercoaster ride.

Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?

New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.

by Erik Baker via The New Yorker on May 1, 2024

A advertisement for the BankAmericard depicting it as a card for the American family.

How Did America Become the Nation of Credit Cards?

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?

by Sean H. Vannatta via Aeon on April 22, 2024

Margaret Mead and Joe Rogan.

Turn on, Tune in, Write Code

How psychedelics went from counterculture to grind culture.

by Geoff Shullenberger via The New Atlantis on April 12, 2024

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 presidential inauguration.

The First New Deal

Planning, market coordination, and the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.

by Sanjukta Paul via Phenomenal World on March 28, 2024

Photos and newspaper clippings connected with red string

How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs

No, aliens haven’t visited the Earth. Why are so many smart people insisting otherwise?

by Nicholson Baker via Intelligencer on January 31, 2024

Young boy receiving polio vaccine from doctor

Hesitancy Against Hope: Reactions to the First Polio Vaccine

Hesitancy and opposition to vaccines has existed in the past, and such awareness provides needed context to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine within American history.

by Stephen E. Mawdsley via Process: A Blog for American History on January 9, 2024

Pneumatic tube station

Something Old, Something Pneu

Pneumatic tubes offered a leap forward in business and communications, in the office and across the city.

by Katrina Gulliver, Day Allen Willey via JSTOR Daily on January 6, 2024

A family listening to radio in the 1930s.

Today's Media Landscape Took Root a Century Ago

Decisions made now could shape the next 100 years.

by Bruce J. Schulman via Made By History on September 27, 2023

Black and white photos of news paper headlines about computers.

When the Mac 'Ruined' Writing

Quills were once the default writing tool, when pens rose to prominence their impact on writing would be a hot debate in the literary world, and now computers.

by Louis Anslow via Newart on September 19, 2023

Black and white photo of the dressmaker union on strike

Strike Waves Across the US Seem Big, but the Number of People on Strike Remains Historically Low

Many of the reasons for strikes now mirror the motives that workers had for walking off the job in decades past.

by Judith Stepan-Norris, Jasmine Kerrissey via The Conversation on August 24, 2023

Richard Nixon on a television screen.

The Problem With Fox News Goes Way, Way Back

Richard Nixon decided a powerful new medium should appeal to the marketplace, not to citizens.

by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via The Atlantic on August 13, 2023

Cannabis being harvested by farmers, with only their hands visible.

Withering Green Rush

California cannabis breeding is at a crossroads.

by Ali Bektaş via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 5, 2023

Digital Queers: How Computers Transformed LGBTQ Life in the United States

Digital communications allowed transgender individuals and organizations the digital tools to organize and connect at a previously impossible scale and speed.

by Avery Dame-Griff via Process: A Blog for American History on June 29, 2023

Image of the University of Birmingham's campus, with the sun setting in the background.

The 'Nyasaland Bicycle' (c. 1900): A History of Technology and Empire

Tracing the histories and legacies of technology and empire through a wooden bicycle at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.

by Nathan Cardon via Midlands Art Papers on June 15, 2023

Graphic showing a gasoline tank (in green) leaking underground.

The Hidden Cost of Gasoline

Gas stations caused a $20 billion toxic mess — and it’s not going away.

by Kate Yoder via Grist on June 14, 2023

Smoke Blanketing New York City Evokes Memories of 1966 ‘Killer Smog’

The wildfire haze reminded some of the 1966 "killer smog" that wrapped New York in a toxic cloud. A woman recalled how her dad built a machine to save her mom.

by María Luisa Paúl via Washington Post on June 8, 2023

Amy Brady next to cover of "Ice" on ice background

A Profoundly Impactful Substance

"Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks – A Cool History of a Hot Commodity" reveals the history of frozen water and its impact on American life and culture.

by Ian Macallen, Amy Brady via Chicago Review of Books on June 6, 2023

Book open to pages that look like a computer desktop with "A-Z" written in file folders.

Life Is Short. Indexes Are Necessary.

In 1941 an ambitious Philadelphia pediatrician, the wonderfully named Waldo Emerson Nelson, became the editor of America’s leading textbook of pediatrics.

by Fara Dabhoiwala via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023

Bars labeled First through Fourth depicting risk levels for housing loans.

The Shame of the Suburbs

How America gave up on housing equality.

by David Denison via The Baffler on May 9, 2023

Lithograph of the 1870 Great Mississippi Steamboat Race.

When Deadly Steamboat Races Enthralled America

Already prone to boiler explosions that regularly killed scores of passengers, steamboats were pushed to their limits in races that valued speed over safety.

by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on April 26, 2023

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