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"Defining the '90s Music Canon" over TLC and Spice Girls album covers.

Defining the ’90s Music Canon

Which songs will future generations use to characterize the decade?

What’s Left of Generation X

To be Gen X was to be disaffected from the consumer norms of the 1980s, but to be pessimistic about any chance for social transformation.

Are White Evangelicals Sacrificing The Future In Search Of The Past?

The religious profile of young adults today differs dramatically from that of older Americans.
An FTA button with a drawing of a raised fist holding dogtags.
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Not Bob Hope’s Idea of Troop Entertainment

Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland provide an outlet for antiwar soldiers.
Young demonstrators protesting with signs that say "Our Generation Our Choice."

Is It Useful to Analyze Politics in Terms of Generations?

Keir Milburn argues that generational analysis can explain class operation while Adolph Reed Jr. writes that it obscures historically specific social relations.
Four characters from "Dazed and Confused."

The “Dazed and Confused” Generation

People my age are described as baby boomers, but our experiences call for a different label altogether.
Artwork of trees with multicolored roots.

Yearning for Roots

We're born with a hunger for connection with our ancestors – both biological and spiritual.
James Sweet's Article, the American Historical Association publication, and the Twitter logo.

What AHA President James Sweet Got Wrong—And Right

Attacking presentism as a mindset of younger scholars doesn’t solve any of the historical profession's problems.
Hand using match to light many candles on top of a crumbling cake with white frosting, with the U.S. Capitol building aflame on top.

The Oldest Government In History

America’s gerontocracy is disconnecting Congress from the rest of the country.
Photo of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

America’s Generation Gap on Ukraine

A decade or two ago, opposing NATO expansion to Ukraine was a position espoused by pillars of the American establishment. What happened?
Middle finger that says "Millenial" and Fist that says "Gen Z"

It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations”

From boomers to zoomers, the concept gets social history all wrong.
Collage of audio-related images, records, cassettes, CDs, wav files, ipods, electronic media icons, and an ear.

What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies?

If your entire collection is on a streaming service, good luck accessing it in 10 or 20 years.
Illustration of 9/11 inside outline of girl

The Children of 9/11 Are About to Vote

What the youngest cohort of American voters thinks about politics, fear and the potential of the country they’ve grown up in.
A photograph of Congressman John Lewis.

The Way of John Lewis

Cynthia Tucker shares her hope that a new generation of activists can learn from Lewis' courageous and peaceful fight for “beloved community.”

Dead Kennedys in the West: The Politicized Punks of 1970s San Francisco

The new punk generation made the hippies look past their prime.

The Misconception About Baby Boomers and the Sixties

Other than being alive during the 1960s, the baby boomers had almost nothing to do with the era's social and political upheaval.

The Contradictions of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The Supreme Court justice may have been heralded by many of his progressive peers, but the legacy he left behind is far more ambiguous.

Haunted by the Reagan Era

Past defeats still scare older Democratic leaders — but not the younger generation.
Drawing of people dancing on a dance floor

A Data-Led Theory to Generationally Divided Dance Floors

Some age groups are more likely to recognize certain songs than others.

Does Journalism Have a Future?

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.

What Makes ‘The Living Dead’ My Film of 1968

In so many ways, George Romero's lo-budget horror film defined the year 1968.

My Fellow Prisoners

The grand lesson of John McCain's life should be that heroic politics is a broken politics.

Ten Years After the Crash, We Are Still Living in the World It Brutally Remade

A seismic reading of the financial earthquake and its aftershocks, including those that still jolt us today.

How the ‘Watergate Babies’ Broke American Politics

In an effort to open Congress, they institutionalized a confrontational style that permeates contemporary politics today.

Baldwin’s Lonely Country

After MLK's assassination, James Baldwin attempted to reconcile the divide between the civil rights movement and Black Power.
Women's liberation movement demonstrating in Washington D.C.

The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting Over Them, Explained

If you have no idea which wave of feminism we’re in right now, read this.
Women's march in front of the U.S. Capitol.

How Second-Wave Feminism Inexplicably Became a Villain in the #MeToo Debate

Talking sexism, ageism, and progress with Katha Pollitt.

1968’s Chaos: The Assassinations, Riots and Protests that Defined Our World

On the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary year, historians consider 1968’s meaning and global context.

The Kids Aren’t Alright

A crucial new work of generational analysis explores how society turned millennials into human capital.
Protester with a #MeToo sign
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#MeToo is Undoing the Devil’s Bargain of the 1990s

Men accepted women’s rise to prominence, but used sexual coercion to maintain control.

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