culture — Bunk History

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

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

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

A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.

by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 12, 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

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

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

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

1958 photo of an Arab American father and daughter on a sidewalk.

From the Colts' Stadium to The Statehouse, Indianapolis Has a Rich Arab American History

From the Statehouse to Lucas Oil Stadium, Arab American immigrants have made contributions across Indianapolis, according to IUPUI's Edward Curtis.

by Rashika Jaipuriar via IndyStar on July 22, 2022

The Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images .

Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen

What honor required of men.

by Joseph Farrell via National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on April 21, 2022

Illustration of a bookshelf at CYCO with a bust of I.L. Peretz.

The Joy of Yiddish Books

The language sustained a Jewish diasporan secular culture. Today, that heritage survives in a gritty corner of Queens to be claimed by a new generation.

by Molly Crabapple via New York Review of Books on February 26, 2022

Man holding a Jack-O-Lantern.

Why Do We Carve Pumpkins Into Jack-O'-Lanterns For Halloween?

It's a tale thousands of years in the making.

by Edgar B. Herwick III via WGBH on October 29, 2021

CNN studio with monitor in the foreground and anchor at desk in the background.

From TV News Tickers to Homeland: The Ways TV Was Affected By 9/11

There is a long list of ways America was transformed by the terrorist attacks. But the question of how TV itself was changed is more complicated.

by Eric Deggans via NPR on September 10, 2021

Richard Jean So and the cover of his book "Redlining Culture"

The History of Publishing Is a History of Racial Inequality

A conversation with Richard Jean So about combining data and literary analysis to understand how the publishing industry came to be dominated by white writers.

by Richard Jean So, Rosemarie Ho via The Nation on May 27, 2021

A collage of significant people from the time like the Beatles and Elvis.

How Americans Re-Learned to Think After World War II

In ‘The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War,’ Louis Menand explores the poetry, music, painting, dance and film that emerged during the Cold War.

by Carlos Lozada via Washington Post on April 16, 2021

brought to you by

© Bunk History