popular culture — Bunk History

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

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

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

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 Chris 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

“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

Graydon Carter sitting next to stacks of ornate, empty chairs.

Vanity Fair’s Heyday

I was once paid six figures to write an article—now what?

by Bryan Burrough via The Yale Review on March 14, 2025

Collage of Elon Musk, anti-apartheid protesters, and anti-Musk protesters.

Elon Musk, Apartheid, and America's New Boycott Movement

If you think mass protests can’t combat evil, remember what we did in the 1980s.

by Clara Jeffrey via Mother Jones on February 27, 2025

Wooden mannequin propped up with head hung low.

How a Scientific Consensus Collapsed

The curious case of social psychology.

by Jacob Mikanowski via The Chronicle of Higher Education on February 20, 2025

David Bowie singing into a microphone wearing a feather boa and tights.

How Pop Came Out of the Closet

Jon Savage’s “The Secret Public” traces the influence of queer artists on a hostile culture.

by Samuel Clowes Huneke via The New Republic on February 14, 2025

Three identical pictures of the explosion of an atomic bomb with different coloring.

How Literature Predicted and Portrayed the Atom Bomb

On Pierrepoint B. Noyes, H.G. Wells, and the “Superweapons” of early science-fiction.

by Dorian Lynskey via Literary Hub on January 28, 2025

Screen shot of artillery in the video game Fallout 4.

Fallout 4 and the Erasure of the Native in (Post-Apocalyptic) New England

It is not attempting to tell a story about Native erasure. It is not trying to tell a story about Native Americans at all. And that tells the real story.

by Thomas Lecaque via Age of Revolutions on January 27, 2025

A drawing of a person staring at two different smartphones, with robotic arms holding their head in place.

What If the Attention Crisis Is All a Distraction?

From the pianoforte to the smartphone, each wave of tech has sparked fears of brain rot. But the problem isn’t our ability to focus—it’s what we’re focusing on.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on January 20, 2025

Noam Chomsky illustration by Joe Ciardiello.

The Worlds of Noam Chomsky

If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.

by Daniel Bessner via The Nation on January 13, 2025

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