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Friends and Enemies

Marty Peretz and the travails of American liberalism.
Ms. Magazine cover, 1972.

We Are Not Alone: 50 Years of Ms. Magazine

Gloria Steinem on the making of America's first feminist publication.
The cover of The Black Mask magazine, June 1, 1923, featuring a hooded Klan member.
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The Gumshoes Who Took On the Klan

In the pages of "Black Mask" magazine, the Continental Op and Race Williams fought the KKK even as they shared its love of vigilante justice.
Cover of Ms. Magazine titled "Rage + Women = Power"

Ms. Magazine Turns 50

Looking back at half a century of truth-telling and rebelling.
Photograph of a newsstand selling magazines

What Are Magazines Good For?

The story of America can be told through the story of its periodicals.
A magazine cover featuring a man with a rocket launcher.
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Fear of the "Pussification" of America

On Cold War men's adventure magazines and the antifeminist tradition in American popular culture.
Covers of issues of One magazine, featuring line drawings and article titles including "I am glad I am homosexual," and "I Just Had to Write".
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ONE: The First Gay Magazine in the United States

ONE is a vital archive, but its focus on citizenship and “rational acceptance” ultimately blocked it from being the safe home for all that it claimed to be.

Editorial Visions

When editors believed their magazines could change lives.

The Unlikely Pulp Fiction Illustrations of Edward Hopper

When the iconic painter drew cowboys for the pulp-fiction magazine, 'Adventure.'

Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship.
Edythe Eyde

She Risked Jail to Create A Magazine for Lesbians

Decades before "The L Word," Edythe Eyde knew her magazine for lesbians — Vice Versa — was illegal.
Lithograph of ladies' fashions from Godey's Lady's Book magazine.
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The Women’s Magazine That Tried to Stop the Civil War

Godey’s Lady’s Book, one of the most influential American publications of the nineteenth century, tried to halt the Civil War.
Sports Illustrated cover featuring a model in a swimsuit.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

An intellectual history.
Skateboarder doing trick on ramp.

How a Generation of Women and Queer Skateboarders Fought for Visibility and Recognition

On defying gender norms and expectations in extreme sports.

A First Case at Common Law

The case of Robinson and Roberts v. Wheble provides legal historians with the most thorough documentation of an eighteenth-century trademark dispute.
Jack Conroy

Jack Conroy and the Lost Era of Proletarian Literature

In the midst of the Depression, Conroy helped encourage a new generation of working-class writers.
A pile of hand-written zines in colorful designs.

Queer Teenage Feminists on the Printed Page, 1973 to 2023

How lesbian teenagers forged community bonds and found connection through magazines.
Covers from Lippincott's and Harper's from the 1890s.

Advertising as Art: How Literary Magazines Pioneered a New Kind of Graphic Design

Allison Rudnick on the rise and fall of the 19th century "Literary Poster."
Virginia Kraft holding a hunting rifle, sitting on a dead elephant.

Sports Illustrated's Forgotten Pioneer

In the Mad Men era of magazine journalism, Virginia Kraft was a globe-trotting writer and a deadly shot with a rifle. Why hasn't anyone heard of her?
Collage of Ebony cover, makeup ad, and card catalogue.

Rebrand

"Ebony" strives to become a one-stop shop.
William F. Buckley Jr.

The Evolution of Conservative Journalism

From Bill Buckley to our 24/7 media circus.
Collage of people in "preppy" clothing.

We’re All Preppy Now

How a style steeped in American elitism took over the world.
Tweet by Josh Hawley of a quotation he falsely attributes to Patrick Henry.

Senator Josh Hawley Tweeted a Christian Nationalist Quote Falsely Attributed to Patrick Henry

It was actually from a 1950s antisemitic and white supremacist magazine. Who cares?
Goofus and Gallant characters and quotations.

The Comic Strip That Explains the Evolution of American Parenting

What eight decades of "Goofus and Gallant" illustrate about society’s changing expectations of children.
Two women fighting
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How to Fight Like a Girl

Women have been punching each other in the face (during boxing matches) since the early 1700s.
Zoe Anderson Norris.

Meet Zoe Anderson Norris, the "Nellie Bly You've Never Heard Of"

Norris, who dubbed herself the "Queen of Bohemia," exposed the injustices of post-Gilded Age New York City—by going undercover.
A photograph of James Eads How superimposed over a photograph of vagrant workers at a train station.

St. Louis' Wealthy "King of the Hobos"

Labeled a local eccentric, millionaire James Eads How used his inherited wealth to support vagrant communities.
Female costars in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" next to a picture of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins.

The Pioneering Black Sci-Fi Writer Behind the Original Wakanda

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins invented the setting that eventually became Wakanda in her science fiction, but her name isn't widely known.
Ollie Brown holding Rolling Stone magazine.

What Was the Music Critic?

A new book exalts the heyday of music magazines, when electric prose reigned and egos collided.
A father and son stand in front of an illustration of a circular target, while the son holds a small gun.
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American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.

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