culture — Bunk History

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Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

‘It Reminds You of a Fascist State’: Smithsonian Institution Braces for Trump Rewrite of US History

Normally staid historians sound alarm at authoritarian grasping for control of the premier US museum complex.

by David Smith via The Guardian on March 30, 2025

Neil Postman in front of a collage of the cover of "Amusing Ourselves to Death."

The One Book That Explains Our Current Era Was Written 40 Years Ago

NYT pundits and NBA writers alike can't stop recommending this four-decade-old book.

by Laura J. Miller via Slate on March 25, 2025

The Sum of Our Wisdom

We are told that we are a Calvinist culture, which means very little, and none of that good.

by Marilynne Robinson via The Hedgehog Review on March 18, 2025

Cartoon of well-dressed arm holding a lit match

The Gilded Age Never Ended

Plutocrats, anarchists, and what Henry James grasped about the romance of revolution.

by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on February 24, 2025

Protestors use the celebrated Hamilton lyric, “Immigrants: We Get the Job Done” to protest the first inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“The Premise of Our Founding”: Immigration and Popular Mythmaking

On the tension between celebratory rhetoric and restrictive policy surrounding immigration.

by Connie Thomas via The Panorama on February 24, 2025

The title card of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

George Romero’s Pittsburgh

City of the living dead.

by Victoria Timpanaro via The Metropole on February 20, 2025

The New Yorker and the American Voice

Tales of the city and beyond.

by Ed Simon via The Hedgehog Review on February 19, 2025

A welder in protective gear works on a metal frame in an industrial setting.

Trump's Punitive Approach to Drug Addiction is Nothing New

For a century, Americans have embraced a punitive approach to addiction—one that has undermined treatment efforts.

by Holly M. Karibo via Made By History on February 10, 2025

Edward C. Banfield and What Conservatism Used to Mean

Hard thinking on difficult and uncomfortable questions about how to keep everything from falling apart.

by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on February 1, 2025

Meme of white Gen X voters in their ironic cynicism.

We Care a Lot: White Gen Xers and Political Nihilism

Since the 2024 election, liberals, progressives, and the left has been wringing our collective hands over why Trump won yet again.

by Mindy Clegg via 3 Quarks Daily on December 20, 2024

The Griffith Observatory, constructed by the Works Progress Administration, on a hill overlooking Los Angeles.

A New Deal for Architecture

What it conveys is quite specific: grandeur, beauty, dynamism, and power.

by David Schaengold via Compact on December 20, 2024

he obverse (right) and reverse (left) of the James H. Hyde Medallion, designed by Paul H. Manship, on the Janvier reduction machine.

Tokens of Culture

On the medallic art of the Gilded Age.

by James Panero via The New Criterion on December 12, 2024

Collage of Edna Ferber, a still from the film "Giant," and symbols of Texas.

The Carpetbagger Who Saw Texas’s Future

The notion of political realignment in the Lone Star State is older than you think. It goes back to Giant, an acidic novel by Edna Ferber.

by Chris Vognar via The Atlantic on December 9, 2024

John Harvard statue in Harvard Yard.

American Marxism Got Lost on Campus

At universities, American Marxism has led to good scholarship, but it’s also encouraged hyper-specialization and the use of impenetrable jargon.

by Russell Jacoby via Jacobin on December 8, 2024

The World of Tomorrow

When the future arrived, it felt…ordinary. What happened to the glamour of tomorrow?

by Virginia Postrel via Works In Progress on December 5, 2024

A group of indigenous Pacific Islanders forced to work on a sugar plantation, with a white overseer in the background.

How ‘Blackbirders’ Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of Southern industries paved the way for plantations in Fiji and Australia, where victims of “blackbirding” endured horrific working conditions.

by Shoshi Parks via Smithsonian on December 5, 2024

Judith Jones, center, with James Beard and Julia Child.

The Queen of Cookbooks

You’ve got one unsung editor to thank for many of your all-time favorite recipes.

by Sara B. Franklin via Slate on November 20, 2024

"REM" musicians pose in front of a mirror.

How R.E.M. Created Alternative Music

In the cultural wasteland of the Reagan era, they showed that a band could have mass appeal without being cheesy, or nostalgic, or playing hair metal.

by Mark Krotov via The New Yorker on November 13, 2024

A masked man with a sword waves an American flag at the face of a masked man with a stick on the anniversary of the January 6 riot.

Hyperpolitics In America

When polarization lacks clear consequences, Americans are left with "a grin without a cat: a politics with only weak policy influence or institutional ties."

by Anton Jäger via New Left Review on October 31, 2024

Crowded and brightly-lit Beale Street in Memphis.

Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.

by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on October 18, 2024

A car in a dark night on an empty road with a ghostly apparition.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Legend Is an Ancient Tale That Keeps Evolving

The classic creepy story—a driver offers a lift to a stranger who is not of this world—has deep roots and a long reach.

by Mark Hay via Atlas Obscura on October 10, 2024

Uncle Sam gestureing "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil,"

How the US Military Ditched Merit

A military consumed by identity politics threatens the integrity of the republic.

by William Thibeau via Compact on October 9, 2024

Cover of American Scary by Jeremy Dauber.

The Historical Seeds of Horror in "American Scary"

Jeremy Dauber's new book explores the themes and origins of the American horror genre.

by Gianni Washington via Chicago Review of Books on October 7, 2024

Assyrian relief depicting person holding bread.

On Recipes: Changing Formats, Changing Use

Wayfinding through history and design of the cookbook.

by Julia Skinner via Mold on August 29, 2024

A screenshot from "Red Dead Redemption 2" of cowboy protagonist Arthur Morgan riding a horse in a western landscape.

What Red Dead Redemption II Reveals About Our Myths of the American West

On the making of a centuries-old obsession at the heart of American national identity.

by Tore C. Olsson via Literary Hub on August 28, 2024

Foggy hills in Appalachia.

Love in the Time of Hillbilly Elegy: On JD Vance’s Appalachian Grift

Justin B. Wymer knows a snake when he sees one.

by Justin B. Wymer via Literary Hub on August 27, 2024

Alain Locke.

A Century of Cultural Pluralism

How an unlikely American friendship should inspire diversity, equity, and inclusion.

by David Weinfeld via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on August 21, 2024

Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, ca 1492–95

How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums

We take for granted the Titians and Botticellis that hang in galleries across the U.S., little aware how and why they were acquired.

by Ashley Couto via JSTOR Daily on August 14, 2024

A drawing of a playground slide painted like a road.

What Adults Lost When Kids Stopped Playing in the Street

In many ways, a world built for cars has made life so much harder for grown-ups.

by Stephanie H. Murray via The Atlantic on July 29, 2024

A man tacks applications to Princeton University on a bulletin board

The Rise of the College Application Essay

The essay component of American college applications has a long history, but its purpose has changed over time.

by Sarah Stoller via Made By History on July 11, 2024

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