Culture

On Pierrepoint B. Noyes, H.G. Wells, and the “Superweapons” of early science-fiction.

Elon Musk’s defenders were quick to claim that his hand motion was actually an ancient “Roman salute” — but that gesture never existed.

Dinner parties in the capital have long been a path to power, but Perle Mesta had her eye on a different prize.

In the late 1960s, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, jazz legends were playing the best music you’ve never heard.

Rap beef is form of capitalist accumulation that enriches artists—and, most of all, the corporate suits that run their record labels.

Which public figures impacted baby naming trends?

On Jazz Age gay culture and its backlash.

When Barney's is selling Black Sabbath shirts for $175, does it change the cultural credibility of your favorite vintage band tee?

Humans love to imagine their own demise.

At 50, the game is more popular than ever, but its core appeal is still a great secret.

While America was fighting on the ground, the Federation was fighting in space.

The Bob Dylan film forefronts a conflict between acoustic and electric music, while ignoring how the Vietnam War divided folk musicians.

What kind of Christmas did we used to know? To hear some critics and historians tell it, the holiday used to be a lot more religious than it is now.

Bob Dylan decided he wanted to subvert the expectations of his fans – and rebel against industry forces intent on pigeonholing him and his work.

Since the 2024 election, liberals, progressives, and the left has been wringing our collective hands over why Trump won yet again.

When the 1930 Hays Code banned pregnancy in film, birds took over the business of birth.

Publishing needs his democratic spirit.

On the medallic art of the Gilded Age.

Ed Hardy's historic tattoo parlor is closing. A lot more than that stands to be lost.

The closeted right-wing operative has become a tragic character in the American repertory.

Why rock overtook every other genre to define our understanding of America at war.

Gladiator and Gladiator II have little to do with the Roman past. But they have a great deal to do with the American present.

When dancer Loïe Fuller’s spinning garment reflected the stage lights, it took on a life of its own, beguiling those in New York, Berlin, and Paris.

Pryor's use of the word represented something valiant.

“The Golden Girls” reframed senior life as being about socializing and sex. But did the cultural narrative of advanced age as continued youth go too far?

The actress, screenwriter, and novelist’s reviews and essays from 1918-19 display a comprehensive grasp of movie art and a visionary sense of its future.

NYC subway etiquette reflects socio-economic divides.

A reading list tracing the history of the birth control movement through novels.

The postwar moment of a distinctive new American novel—Nabokov’s "Lolita"— is also the moment in which William Faulkner finally gained recognition.

Fire!! was a pathbreaking showcase for Black artists and writers “ready to emotionally serve a new day and a new generation.”