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Signage for Hachette Book Group is displayed at BookExpo America in New York.

When You Buy a Book, You Can Loan It to Anyone. This Judge Says Libraries Can’t. Why Not?

The lawsuit against Controlled Digital Lending is about giving corporations—rather than readers, buyers, borrowers, or authors—control over content.
by Michelle M. Wu via The Nation on April 20, 2023
Early phonograph.

How the Phonograph Created the 3-Minute Pop Song

And how streaming is changing it again.
by Clive Thompson via Medium on February 25, 2023
Illustrated figure standing in front of a massive wall of classified documents.

The Cult of Secrecy

America’s classification crisis.
by Patrick Radden Keefe via Foreign Affairs on February 13, 2023
Buckminster Fuller looking at a model of a geodesic dome.

Buckminster Fuller’s Hall of Mirrors

Alec Nevala-Lee’s new biography assesses the complicated legacy of an architect better known for his image than his work.
by Daniel Luis Martinez via The Nation on February 1, 2023
Bike helmets and traffic signs.

The Cult of Bike Helmets

The history—and danger—of a modern safety obsession.
by Marion Renault via Slate on January 16, 2023
Alexander Graham Bell wearing headphones circa 1910.

The Smithsonian Will Restore Hundreds of the World's Oldest Sound Recordings

They were made by Alexander Graham Bell and his fellow researchers between 1881 and 1892
by Molly Enking via Smithsonian on January 13, 2023
Detail of atlas of the city of Boston, Boston Proper and Back Bay, Plate 9.

Building Blocks

An exhibition exploring the connections between the environment and social justice, using maps and visual materials.
by Laura Lee Schmidt via Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center on January 13, 2023
Painting of 19th century British schoolgirls walking in a group

Hearts and Minds

What we fight about when we fight about schools.
by Paul Tough via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 31, 2022
Woman standing on a wall of books, holding a megaphone, 1919.

Choice Reading

Nineteenth-century New York City was filled with books, bibliophilia, and marginalia.
by Denise Gigante via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 21, 2022
Keyboard, microphone, and mixer in a music studio.

How the Billboard Hot 100 Lost Interest in the Key Change

One of the key changes—pun intended—to the pop charts in the last 60 years is the demise of key changes. What happened?
by Chris Dalla Riva via Tedium on November 9, 2022
Image of a woman sitting in front of the computer

The Intimate and Interconnected History of the Internet

A new book offers a picture of an early Internet defined by community, experimentation, and lack of privacy. 
by Kevin Driscoll, Jacob Bruggeman via The Nation on October 14, 2022
Black and white photograph of person using binoculars to look at whales.

“Weather Bad and Whales Un-Cooperative”

Looking back at the misadventures of mid-century whale cardiology expeditions.
by Anna Guasco via Nursing Clio on October 13, 2022
Robert F. Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail in 1968.

Beyond GDP: Changing How We Measure Progress is Key to Tackling a World in Crisis

Amid the global threats posed by climate change, energy costs, unemployment and inequality, the need to rethink progress is now an urgent priority.
by Paul Allin, Diane Coyle, Tim Jackson via The Conversation on August 18, 2022
Photo of two kids, on African American one white, at a computer ca. early 1980s.

Framing the Computer

Before social media communities formed around shared concerns, interests, politics, and identity, print media connected communities.
by Kelcey Gibbons via Charles Babbage Institute on August 1, 2022
Black and white photo of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in Los Angeles

When Cities Treated Cars as Dangerous Intruders

To many urban Americans in the 1920s, the car and its driver were tyrants that deprived others of their freedom.
by Peter Norton via The MIT Press Reader on July 25, 2022
Man training under water with scuba gear.

Remembering the World War II Frogmen Who Trained in Secret off the California Coast

Recruits learned the arts of infiltration, sabotage, and survival at a hidden base on Santa Catalina Island.
by Andrew Dubbins via Atlas Obscura on June 30, 2022

Why Roller Coaster Loops Aren’t Circular Anymore

Just over 100 years ago, loop-the-loops were painful, not sturdy, and much more dangerous than they are today.
by Edward Vega via Vox on June 29, 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
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
Enemy monsters in first-person shooter game

A History of 'Hup,' The Jump Sound in Every Video Game

You can hear it in your head: the grunt your character makes when hopping a fence or leaping into battle. Its sonic roots trace all the way back to 1973.
by Bryan Menegus via Wired on March 26, 2022
Illustration of John von Neumann surrounded by mathematical formulas, by Valentin Pavageau

John von Neumann Thought He Had the Answers

The father of game theory helped develop the atom bomb—and thought he could calculate when to use it.
by Samanth Subramanian via The New Republic on March 8, 2022
People gathered around an electronic contraption with lightbulbs.

Ideas of the PMC

A review of three new books that in various ways track the rise of the "Professional Managerial Class."
by Michael J. Kramer via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on March 6, 2022
Decorative glass ash tray.

Mementos Mori

What else is lost when an object disappears?
by Sophie Haigney via The Baffler on January 27, 2022
Drawing of a CIA agent and a Judy sex doll.

Trickster, Traitor, Dummy, Doll

How the CIA tried to trick the Soviets with sex dolls (but ultimately got screwed).
by Triple Dream Comics via The Nib on January 10, 2022
Split image - half a 1980s computer, other half a modern laptop; on the screen for both, an hourglass icon that symbolizes loading.

54 Years Ago, a Computer Programmer Fixed a Massive Bug — and Created an Existential Crisis

A blinking cursor follows us everywhere in the digital world, but who invented it and why?
by Sarah Wells via Inverse on December 3, 2021
Photograph of Joe Biden speaking at a podium with a sign for vaccines.gov in the background.

In Praise of One-Size-Fits-All

Critiques of vaccine mandates continue a neoliberal tradition of idolizing private choice at the expense of the public good.
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Boston Review on December 2, 2021
"American Independent Inventors" book cover

No Geniuses Here

A new book challenges the notion that independent inventors were shunted aside in the 20th century by anonymous scientists in corporate research laboratories.
by W. Patrick McCray via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 21, 2021
An public work space

The Idea of Work, From Below

Ideas about working from the employee perspective.
by Joel Suarez via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on September 6, 2021
A Historian looking at a document

An Archivist Sneezes on a Priceless Document. Then What?

What, exactly, does history lose when an archive-worthy text is destroyed?
by Olivia Campbell via The Atlantic on July 13, 2021
Picture of a computer.

The Internet Is Rotting

Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone.
by Jonathan Zittrain via The Atlantic on June 30, 2021
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