Culture

The gourmet’s real genius wasn’t in his recipes but in his packaging. He knew how to serve up the authenticity that his audiences craved.

That’s why the privileged White novelist’s work is still worth reading, Michael Gorra argues.

A McDonald’s breakfast buffet. An all-you-can-eat Taco Bell. This isn’t the stuff dreams are made of, but a real yet short-lived phenomenon.

Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Federal Theatre Project

An excerpt from a new book that explores the threat of made-up monsters in the age of imperial conquest.

The Museum of Modern Art was among several institutions that aided the CIA in its propaganda efforts, according to the new book ArtCurious.

The modern-day human-resources practice is rooted in avant-garde philosophy.

The enchanted terms in which F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed modern America still blind us to how scathingly he judged it.

Cameron Laux looks at how The Age of Innocence – published 100 years ago – marked a pivotal moment in US history.

The rise and fall of the Brooks Brothers name.

Delivering the mail used to be sexy and thrilling. It can be once more.

“Ride of the Valkyries” has been featured in hundreds of films, including 'The Birth of a Nation,' 'Jarhead,' and most famously, Apocalypse Now.'

Reading the literature of past plagues and suddenly seeing our present reflected in a mirror.

Newly added to Netflix, the Civil War movie reminds the nation that black Americans fought for their own emancipation.

What I relearned (about well-meaning liberalism, race, my late father, and my young gay self) rewatching the TV cop shows of my 1970s youth.

Langston Hughes, "poet laureate of Harlem," dreamed of an America that lived up to its ideals.

How masks became gendered during the 1918–1919 Flu Pandemic.

Since its invention in 1743, roller skating has been tied to Black social movements.

Generations of readers have chosen to emphasize Thoreau's spiritual communion with Nature, but Walden begins with trenchant critique of “progress.”

A new book presents an expansive vision of soul music.

Remembering the woman who outsang Ray Charles.

For Faulkner, all of time existed as a moment, during which all could be changed: past, present, and future.

When most people hear the word “punk,” they think of drug addled, nasty behavior. The truth is, it was driven by a visceral hatred for the president.

Leon Uris's bestselling book "Exodus" portrayed the founding of the state of Israel in terms many Americans could relate to.

The polarized dialogue over Vietnam and the civil rights movement convinced Ginsberg that America was teetering on the precipice of a fall.

If your childhood vision of police is all pet rescues and tinfoil badges, Friendly’s “copaganda” did its job.

On William Gibson, Sonic Youth, and the genesis of the American suburb.

The 1850 novel reveals disturbing continuities between the 19th century cholera pandemics and global health crises today.

The blockbuster "Jaws" (1975) provoked fear by portraying sharks as "mindless eating machines." But what did people think of sharks before then?

The answer may lie in the ear of the beholder.