Culture

Since the 1960s, the reference book has cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing.

On the music’s African-American tributaries, its unpredictable politics, country radio’s woman problem, and working on Ken Burns’ forthcoming doc.

How does Hammacher Schlemmer, famous for such eccentric products as the Navigable Water Park, continue to survive in the age of Amazon?

Depression-era Americans viewed urban life in America through the lens of Weegee’s camera.

How plastic bags came to rule our lives, and why we can’t quit them.

The Lincoln Memorial, the NY Public Library lions, and the senate pediment of the US Capitol Building are among their creations.

Four nineteenth-century authors offered blueprints for a better world—but their progressive visions had a dark side.

Whether they delight or disappoint, old books provide touchstones for tracking personal growth.

When conductor and soloist clash, a concerto performance can turn into a contest of wills.

The history of camping in the U.S. starts in the Adirondacks, with a guidebook that became an instant bestseller.

In a few short years, American festivals went from cultural phenomena to endangered species.

As he told a friend years later, "the kiss of Walt Whitman is still on my lips."

Sweet, filthy, and forgiving, it’s a corrective to the authoritative, we-know-better tone of most historical nonfiction.

A behind-the-scenes account of the most important company on the Internet, from grad-school all-nighters to extraordinary global power.

The food pages of newspapers were probably some of the first feminist writing many women read.

"The Best of Everything" outlined the dynamics and the costs of sexual harassment, decades before anyone talked openly about it.

No American writer has wielded such influence. So why is he so little known today?

When most people hear the term rare books, they imagine an old boys’ club of dealers seeking out first editions, mostly by men.

How Charles Murray stopped worrying and learned to love racism.

After the Civil War, African Americans in the South transformed Independence Day into a celebration of their newly won freedom.

Looking back on "American Gigolo," a love story about a wardrobe.

How Hollywood tried to fight fascism and ended up blacklisting suspected Communists.

The makers of the documentary “The King” turn to Elvis Presley to understand something about the state of the country.

The story of the Armed Services Editions.

If we want to avoid nuclear war, we'd better start imagining it again.

A strange and bittersweet ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity and unlikely stardom.

The world’s most popular fast food has ancient roots and a royal pedigree.

A Dallas restaurant owner blended tequila, ice and automation. America has been hungover ever since.

Much is at stake in understanding the history and relationship between black superheroes and black revolutionaries.

Herman Melville likely saw the panorama “Whaling Voyage,” which records the sinking of the whaler Essex, while staying in Boston in 1849.