popular culture — Bunk History

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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

Firecracker box with "Santa Claus" theme

Kaboom! 10 Facts About Firecrackers That Will Blow You Away

Firecrackers are essentially un-American, even though we associate them with our most deeply patriotic celebration, the Fourth of July.

by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on July 3, 2014

A collage of a still from "All in the Family" on a stylized television with another television in the background.

Fandom's Great Divide

The schism isn't between TV viewers who love a show and those who hate it—it’s between those who love it in very different ways.

by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on March 31, 2014

How Barry Levinson’s Diner Changed Cinema, 30 Years Later

With Diner, Barry Levinson turned a film about nothing into a male-bonding classic, launched careers, and spawned hits from Seinfeld to The Office.

by S. L. Price via HWD on February 10, 2012

Woody Guthrie.

This Land Is Our Land

The Popular Front and American culture.

by Michael Kazin via Humanities on May 1, 2011

Hard hats on Nixon's cabinet conference table.

When Blue-Collar Pride Became Identity Politics

Remembering how the white working class got left out of the New Left, and why we're all paying for it today.

by Jefferson Cowie, Joan Walsh via Salon on September 6, 2010

Advertisement for a "Little Orphan Annie" comic book collection. The protagonist, Annie and her dog are in the foreground of the advertisement.

Little Ideological Annie

How a cartoon gamine midwifed the graphic novel—and the modern conservative movement.

by Ben Schwartz via Bookforum on November 30, 2008

John Harvard statue by Daniel Chester French.

Reading Puritans and the Bard

Without the bawdy world of Falstaff and Prince Hal and of Shakespeare’s jesters, there would have been nothing for those dissenting Puritans to dissent from.

by Mark A. Peterson via Commonplace on October 1, 2006

A bronze statue of Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson at 70

"The Essential Willie Nelson" compilation demonstrates the continuity of Nelson's style across a variety of musical genres.

by Gene Santoro via The Nation on October 30, 2003

Computer mouse connected to the word "blog."

Play With Your Words

How the term "blog" came into being.

by Peter Merholz via peterme.com on May 17, 2002

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