popular culture — Bunk History

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The Vietnam War That Never Goes Away

Popular theater productions and Hollywood movies about the Vietnam War have a continued place in popular culture and memory.

by Bruce Chadwick via HNN on August 4, 2017

The TV That Created Donald Trump

Rewatching “The Apprentice,” the show that made his Presidency possible.

by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on July 31, 2017

The Umpire Strikes Out: Baseball Music and Labor

The classic baseball hit "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" has a lot more to do with U.S. history than one might think.

by Wendi Maloney via Library of Congress on July 31, 2017

Brian Tochterman on the 'Summer of Hell'

What E.B. White, Mickey Spillane, Death Wish, hip-hop, and the “Summer of Hell” have in common.

by Brian Tochterman, Sarah Cleary via UNC Press Blog on July 21, 2017

In 1947, A High-Altitude Balloon Crash Landed in Roswell. The Aliens Never Left

Despite its persistence in popular culture, extraterrestrial life owes more to the imagination than reality.

by Donovan Webster via Smithsonian on July 5, 2017

Katharine Hepburn, an iconic tomboy, cocking a gun in 1935.

Tomboys Were a Trend 100 Years Ago, but Mostly to Bring Up the Birth Rate for White Babies

Fear of diminishing broodstock got the gals going outdoors.

by Laura Smith via Timeline on June 21, 2017

How "This Land Is Your Land" Went From Protest Song to Singalong

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” has lost a bit of its protest oomph—in part because of a decades-long denial of its later verses.

by Mark Allan Jackson, Erin Blakemore via JSTOR Daily on June 15, 2017

All 213 Beatles Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

We had to count them all.

by Bill Wyman via Vulture on June 7, 2017

Great White shark

Blood in The Water: Four Dead, A Coast Terrified and The Birth of Modern Shark Mania

A series of deadly shark attacks by the Matawan Man-Eater shook New Jersey and prompted President Wilson to declare war on sharks.

by Steve Hendrix via Retropolis on May 31, 2017

The Syncopated Geography of Hip-Hop

Music scholar Katya Deve explores the history and geography of hip-hop.

by Katya Deve via ArcGIS StoryMaps on May 12, 2017

People on a rollercoaster

Are We Having Too Much Fun?

In 1985, Neil Postman observed an America imprisoned by its own need for amusement. He was, it turns out, extremely prescient.

by Megan Garber via The Atlantic on April 27, 2017

What the Guys Who Coined '420' Think About Their Place in Marijuana History

And how the term came to be code for pot-smoking in the first place.

by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on April 19, 2017

William Gropper's map of American folklore.

A Popular '40s Map of American Folklore Was Destroyed by Fears of Communism

The government saw Red when looking at William Gropper's painting of the United States.

by Kyle Carsten Wyatt via Atlas Obscura on March 27, 2017

Chuck Berry Invented the Idea of Rock and Roll

The origins of rock and roll are unknown, but no one can deny the role Chuck Berry played.

by Bill Wyman via Vulture on March 18, 2017

Let’s Not Pretend That ‘Hamilton’ Is History

America's founders have never enjoyed more sex appeal, but the hit Musical cheats audiences by making democracy look easy

by Nancy Isenberg via Zócalo Public Square on March 17, 2017

The Notorious Night Biggie Was Murdered in Los Angeles

Shaq, Baron Davis, and Nick Van Exel reflect on The Notorious B.I.G., his murder, and the city they called home.

by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on March 8, 2017

Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Hustle

Why liberals have embraced our most dangerously reactionary founder.

by Matt Stoller via The Baffler on January 1, 2017

A still from a film western depicting a fictionalized version of volunteers at the Alamo.

What a 1950s Texas Textbook Can Teach Us About Today's Textbook Fight

Texas education officials have preliminarily voted to reject a Mexican-American history textbook that scholars have said was riddled with inaccuracies.

by Nathan Bernier via KUT 90.5 on November 16, 2016

Jim Jones in 1977

Drinking the Kool-Aid at Jonestown

Did you drink the Kool-Aid? The phrase has become such a part of the vocabulary that for many its origins have been obscured.

by Rebecca Moore, Peter Feuerherd, David Chidester, James T. Richardson via JSTOR Daily on November 11, 2016

There's No Erasing the Chalkboard

Blackboards will endure as symbols of learning long after they’ve disappeared from schools.

by Kim Kankiewicz via The Atlantic on October 13, 2016

Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, and the cast of "Hamilton" at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Father Worship

Hamilton is less a new vision of the past than a translation of the sacred stories of American civil religion into the vernacular.

by Peter Manseau via The Baffler on September 6, 2016

A portrait of a woman in an crime pamphlet labeled "the beautiful victim."

The Bloody History of the True Crime Genre

True Crime is having a renaissance with popular TV series and podcasts. But the history of the genre dates back much further.

by Pamela Burger, Jack Miles, Joy Wiltenburg, Frederick Burwick, Karen S. H. Roggenkamp via JSTOR Daily on August 24, 2016

Should Prince's Tweets Be in a Museum?

Archivists are figuring out which pieces of artists' digital lives to preserve alongside letters, sketchbooks, and scribbled-on napkins.

by Sonia Weiser via The Atlantic on July 5, 2016

Drawing of two clowns holding a large ring.

Dream Reading

Interpreting dreams for fun and profit. The importance of oneiromancy (dream reading) to American betting culture.

by Ann Fabian via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 1, 2016

Liberals Love Alexander Hamilton. But Aaron Burr Was a Real Progressive Hero.

Why Broadway's biggest villain is worth a second look.

by Nancy Isenberg via Washington Post on March 30, 2016

Who Tells America's Story? 'Hamilton,' Hip-Hop, and Me

How the hit musical allows those who have been left out of the story to claim the narrative of America as their own.

by Marcella White Campbell via Baker Street Blues on March 15, 2016

Jim Crow-era postcard with illustration of a black boy in the jaws of an alligator

How America Bought and Sold Racism, and Why It Still Matters

Today, very few white Americans openly celebrate the horrors of black enslavement—most refuse to recognize the brutal nature of the institution or activ...

by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on November 10, 2015

Black and white sketch of the front of the Mississippi State asylum.

Ghosts are Scary, Disabled People are Not: The Troubling Rise of the Haunted Asylum

Tourist-driven curiosity about the so-called "haunted asylum" has led many to overlook the real people who once were institutionalized within these hospitals.

by Sarah Handley-Cousins via Nursing Clio on October 29, 2015

The Cruel Truth About Rock And Roll

A lifelong fan reflects on how sexual exploitation is part of rock's DNA.

by Ann Powers via NPR on July 15, 2015

A Little Bit Softer Now, a Little Bit Softer Now…

The gradual decline of the fade-out in popular music.

by William Weir via Slate on September 15, 2014

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