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Collage of popular culture references from 2008 onward.

That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.

The 2008 election sparked an outburst of brightness and positivity across pop culture. Now hindsight — and cringe — is setting in.
by Nate Jones via Vulture on August 20, 2024
Leonard Bernstein smoking a cigarette

The Bernstein Enigma

In narrowly focusing on Leonard Bernstein’s tortured personal life, "Maestro" fails to explore his tortured artistic life.
by Philip Clark via New York Review of Books on January 17, 2024
Tom Wolfe in profile against the New York City skyline.

The Electric Kool-Aid Conservative

Tom Wolfe was no radical.
by Osita Nwanevu via The New Republic on January 5, 2024
Woman leading a group of twelve other women in floor exercises.

Fit Nation

A conversation about "the gains and pains of America’s exercise obsession."
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Lara Freidenfelds via Nursing Clio on September 27, 2023
Image of the "I Voted" sticker.

A Brief History of the "I Voted" Sticker

Who designed the first sticker? And does anyone care about it anymore?
by Rhea Nayyar via Hyperallergic on November 7, 2022
Rob McKuen infront of a background composed of spines of his books.

Fifty Years Ago, He Was America’s Most Famous Writer. Why Haven’t You Ever Heard of Him?

He sold 60 million books and 100 million records. Then he disappeared.
by Dan Kois via Slate on October 10, 2022
1950s American family watching TV.

How American Culture Ate the World

A new book explains why Americans know so little about other countries.
by Dexter Fergie via The New Republic on March 24, 2022
Vincent Price.

The Strange Undeath of Middlebrow

Everything that was once considered lowbrow is now triumphant.
by Phil Christman via The Hedgehog Review on March 25, 2021

Serial Killers: A New Breed of Celebrity

Pop culture's surreal embrace of the serial killer.
by Julia Ingalls via CrimeReads on April 24, 2018
Collage by pop artist Tom Wesselmann depicting a kitchen table with food

Pop Art in the US

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.
by Virginia B. Spivey via Digital Public Library of America on September 29, 2017
Erie Canal, Lockport, New York, c.1855
partner

The Erie Canal at 200

Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.
by Danny Robb, Roger Ransom, Justin Nordstrom, Donald F. Vitaliano, Carol Sheriff via JSTOR Daily on October 25, 2025
Kitchen workers moving a paper-mache Statue of Liberty in 2009 Kabul, Afghanistan.

Pervasive Impunity

How four presidential administrations managed to evade moral responsibility for the “war on terror” by hiding behind legality and process.
by Cora Currier via New York Review of Books on October 16, 2025
Illustration of Rip Van Wrinkle.

Wake Up, Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving’s story isn’t just about a very long nap. It’s about the making of America.
by John Swansburg via The Atlantic on October 10, 2025
An acrobatic water skier performs during a show.
partner

The Wonderful World of the Water Ski

Invented in 1922, water-skiing quickly became shorthand for American ideas on beauty, athleticism, and affluence.
by Dorothy A. Mays, Betsy Golden Kellem, Stephen E. Branch, Sondra Reierson via JSTOR Daily on August 27, 2025
A portrait of Davy Crockett in formal attire is imposed next to an actor in a Davy Crockett costume surrounded by raccoons.

How Davy Crockett, the Rugged Frontiersman Killed at the Alamo, Became an Unlikely American Hero

During his lifetime, Crockett—who went by David, not Davy—shaped his own myth. In the 20th century, his legacy got a boost from none other than Walt Disney.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian Magazine on August 18, 2025
A copy of Billboard features an image of Michael Jackson on the cover.

Bring Back Recurrents

How a decision sparked by the death of one of the world’s biggest pop stars knocked the Billboard 200 out of alignment.
by Ernie Smith via Tedium on August 1, 2025
Thomas Kinkade

The Painter of the Right

Thomas Kinkade’s paintings show conservatives a world they have already won.
by Sarah Jones via Dissent on July 16, 2025
A collage of men with different hairstyles.

Bad Curls, Bad Character

The charged meaning of hair in 19th-century America.
by Sarah Gold McBride via Literary Hub on June 9, 2025
Collage of women's faces in outlines of women's bodies

What Did the Pop Culture of the Two-Thousands Do to Millennial Women?

“Girl on Girl,” by the critic Sophie Gilbert, is the latest in a series of consciousness-raising-style reappraisals of the decade’s formative texts.
by Dayna Tortorici via The New Yorker on June 9, 2025
Abstract painting depicts faces staring at each other from either end of the canvas.

Bridging the Gap

A new book portrays five American historians who published popular books that sacrificed neither intellectual depth nor political bite.
by Michael Kazin via New York Review of Books on June 5, 2025
A line of Marines firing from behind a barricade.

Neither Marine nor Maggot

"Full Metal Jacket" and the crisis of masculinity.
by Christopher Deutsch via Nursing Clio on June 4, 2025
Robert Crumb

He’s Lewd, Problematic, and Profoundly Influential

R. Crumb’s cartoons plumb the grotesque corners of the American unconscious.
by Jeremy Lybarger via The New Republic on May 20, 2025
An illustration depicts Dorothy holding her dog Toto while interacting with an Ozian.

L. Frank Baum’s Literary Vision of an American Century: "The Wizard of Oz" at 125 Years

On grifters, the Chicago World Fair, and Oz as symbol of a modern USA.
by Ed Simon via Literary Hub on May 16, 2025
LAPD building dedicated to William H. Parker.

The World Darryl Gates Made: Race, Policing, and the Birth of SWAT

The very features that made the LAPD appear more professional also expanded its reach and capacity for violence.
by Aaron Stagoff-Belfort via The Metropole on May 7, 2025
Science fiction landscape.

75 Years Ago, "The Martian Chronicles" Legitimized Science Fiction

On Ray Bradbury’s underappreciated classic.
by Sam Weller via Literary Hub on April 28, 2025
Mary MacLane.

“I Am Making the World My Confessor”: Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman from Butte

In 1902, a woman named Mary MacLane from Butte, Montana, became an international sensation after publishing a scandalous journal at the age of 19.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on April 23, 2025
Eugen Sandow flexing his bicep.

The Evolution of the Alpha Male Aesthetic

If you've noticed a certain look common to the manosphere, you're not mistaken. A visual identity has taken hold, with roots that trace back decades.
by Derek Guy via Bloomberg on April 22, 2025
Green light in a dark sky.

On My Grandfather’s Novel: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" at 100

Reflections on the literary legacy of a timeless American novel.
by Eleanor Lanahan via Literary Hub on April 7, 2025
English looking at the word "croatoan" carved in a tree.

The Lingering Mystery of the 'Lost Colony' of Roanoke

From historians to horror writers to white nationalists, attempts to explain the settlement's fate reveal a great deal about our own attitudes.
by Colin Dickey via Atlas Obscura on April 2, 2025
Leonard Bernstein practices with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1967.

How Leonard Bernstein Changed the Canon

In 1966, the conductor arrived in Vienna with a mission: to restore Gustav Mahler’s place in 20th-century music.
by David Denby via The Atlantic on April 1, 2025
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