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Margaret Mead in front of a bookshelf, with a book in hand

How Cultural Anthropologists Redefined Humanity

A brave band of scholars set out to save us from racism and sexism. What happened?
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on August 29, 2019
A map of the United States divided into regions.

A Balkanized Federation

Without a shared civic narrative – the pursuit of liberal democratic self-government – the rival regional cultures of the United States agree on very little.
via Nationhood Lab
James Baldwin at work on his novel “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone," and smoking.

Refinding James Baldwin

A fascinating new exhibit focuses on Baldwin’s years in Turkey, the country that, in his words, saved his life.
by Doreen St. Félix via The New Yorker on December 28, 2024
Reenactors working with performance artist Dread Scott in 2019 retrace the route of an 1811 rebellion of enslaved people in Louisiana.

My Gun Culture Is Not Your Gun Culture

In Black Southern life, guns have been a sign of readiness against constant threats.
by Chantal James via The New Republic on December 28, 2024
Ballet dancers (all ages and genders)posing in christmas costumes.

How Christmas Became an All-American Holiday

What kind of Christmas did we used to know? To hear some critics and historians tell it, the holiday used to be a lot more religious than it is now.
by Samuel Goldman via Compact on December 24, 2024

"It's the Economy, Stupid" is Never Just About the Economy

Can the Clinton campaign slogan chart a path forward for Democrats? Its history tells another story.
by Jacob Rosenberg via Mother Jones on December 12, 2024
1940s era tattoo shop

How Do You Preserve Tattoo History When Skin And Memory Fail?

Ed Hardy's historic tattoo parlor is closing. A lot more than that stands to be lost.
by Casey Taylor via Defector on December 6, 2024
Photograph of Drag stars: Lady Bunny, Misstress Formika, Sweetie, Anna Conda, Tabboo!

A Nearly Complete Oral History of the Pyramid Club

The Pyramid Club is the stuff of downtown New York legend. In the 1980s, a tiny little dive bar became ground zero for the exploding New York drag scene.
by Michael Musto, Mickey Boardman, Sister Dimension, Linda Simpson, John Kelly, Scott Lifshutz, Steve Buscemi, Lypsinka, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Billy Beyond via Paper on October 24, 2024
People protesting the demolition of homes to make way for the performing arts saying "shelter before culture."

Lincoln Center Destroyed Lives for the Sake of the Arts

The terrific new doc “San Juan Hill” chronicles the 1960s land grab that gave the Metropolitan Opera a home, while scattering longtime residents.
by Elizabeth Zimmer via Village Voice on October 3, 2024

Hail Mary

In the 1970s, some athletes began questioning the alliance between sports, conservative Christianity, and politics.
by Paul Putz via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on September 9, 2024
Headlights on the road and a forest fire on the horizon.

Meaning in Decline

The surprising influence of premillennial eschatology on American culture.
by Daniel G. Hummel via Comment on September 5, 2024
Still from a "Between the Temples," showing a man and woman lying opposite each other.

How Resilient Are Jewish American Traditions?

"Between the Temples" tackles the anxieties around cultural assimilation—and finds continuity among very different generations.
by Mark Asch via The Atlantic on August 30, 2024
Gold Dust on the Air: Television Anthology Drama and Midcentury American Culture by Molly A. Schneider. University of Texas Press. 238 pages.

The Myth America Show

The anthology drama provided a venue for discourses on American national identity during the massive cultural, economic, and political changes occurring at midcentury.
by Josie Torres Barth via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 13, 2024
Normandy American Cemetery.

Who Were the Americans Who Fought on D-Day?

A new exhibition seeks to understand the young soldiers who came ashore at Normandy.
by Kami Rice via The Bulwark on June 6, 2024
Richard Slotkin.

“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin

"I was always working on a theory of America."
by Kathleen Belew, Richard S. Slotkin via Public Books on April 19, 2024
Etching of friends playing a game of chess, dated to the nineteenth century.

Get Capitalists’ Grubby Hands Off Our Hobbies

Christian moralists long promoted hobbies as a way to occupy idle hands, bringing the work ethic into free time. Today hobbies risk turning into side hustles.
by Helmer Stoel via Jacobin on March 19, 2024

The Great American Novels

136 books that made America think.
via The Atlantic on March 14, 2024
The cult-like aesthetic of technocracy, 1942.

Margaret Mead, Technocracy, and the Origins of AI's Ideological Divide

The anthropologist helped popularize both techno-optimism and the concept of existential risk.
by Benjamin Breen via Res Obscura on November 21, 2023
Snoop Dogg.

The Snoop Dogg Manifesto

A pop star’s road map to decadence.
by Armond White via National Review on November 15, 2023
Hank Williams Jr.

Whose Country?

It is impossible to talk about the blues and country without talking about race, authenticity, and contemporary America’s relationship to its past.
by Geoff Mann via New York Review of Books on November 2, 2023
Collage of Samuel Huntington, his essay "The Clash of Civilizations," and 21st-century political figure.

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong

His “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs turned 30 this year. It was provocative, influential, manna for the modern right—and completely and utterly not true.
by Jordan Michael Smith via The New Republic on October 19, 2023
The Garden Cafeteria, New York City.

Jews and Joe

From European streets to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Jews have been deeply involved in the history of coffee and the café scene.
by Orge Castellano via Tablet on August 29, 2023
American blues singer and guitarist Leadbelly performs for a room full of people, 1940.

Is the History of American Art a History of Failure?

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.
by Lynne Feeley via The Nation on July 31, 2023
Illustrated silhouette of a person writing, with handwriting layered over the photo.

How Handwriting Lost Its Personality

Penmanship was once considered a window to the soul. The digital age has closed it.
by Rachel Gutman-Wei via The Atlantic on July 11, 2023
Sedat Pakay, James Baldwin, Istanbul, 1966.

James Baldwin in Turkey

How Istanbul changed his career—and his life.
by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi via The Yale Review on June 12, 2023
Retro style American diner.

The Myth of the American Diner

Diners have always been considered a model of culinary democratization in the American public consciousness, but can they really be for everyone?
by Jaya Saxena via Eater on June 12, 2023
Collage of a shirtless performer and a cutaway image of an egg.

My Generation

Anthem for a forgotten cohort.
by Justin E. H. Smith via Harper’s on June 9, 2023
Nini Nguyen and a Bahn Mi sandwich.

How the Vietnamese Made Their Mark on Cajun Cuisine

Top Chef contestant Nini Nguyen shares the history of the Viet diaspora and how two cultures combined to create a whole new delicious Southern flavor.
by Nini Nguyen via Food & Wine on February 24, 2023
Johnny Cash.

Far From Folsom Prison: More to Music Inside

Johnny Cash wasn't the only superstar to play in prisons. Music, initially allowed as worship, came to be seen as a rockin' tool of rehabilitation.
by Morgan Godvin via JSTOR Daily on November 29, 2022
Photo of Dr. Daston Lorraine

Does Science Need History?

Why the history of science is of use to not only the sciences, but all branches of scholarship.
by Lorraine Daston, Samuel Loncar via Marginalia Review of Books on October 28, 2022
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