popular culture — Bunk History

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New York workers, angered by the Mayor's apparent anti-Vietnam-War sympathies, wave American flags as they march in a demonstration near City Hall in New York City on May 15, 1970.

The 'Hard Hat Riot' of 1970 Pitted Construction Workers Against Anti-War Protesters

The Kent State shootings further widened the chasm among a citizenry divided over the Vietnam War.

by Angela Serratore via Smithsonian on May 8, 2020

Coronavirus Has a Playlist. Songs About Disease Go Way Back.

Coronavirus songwriting has gone as global as the pandemic itself, creating a new genre called pandemic pop. It’s a tradition with a long history.

by Anthony DeCurtis via Retro Report on April 17, 2020

The History of the Hawaiian Shirt

From kitsch to cool, ride the waves of undulating popularity of a tropical fashion statement.

by Teddy Brokaw via Smithsonian on April 16, 2020

Sasha Geffen next to their book

Pop Music Has Always Been Queer

Sasha Geffen’s debut book reveals that the history of pop music is a history of gender rebellion.

by Tal Milovina via The Nation on April 8, 2020

Freddie Bartholomew in fighting stance as Little Lord Fauntleroy for the film.

The Masculinization of Little Lord Fauntleroy

The 1936 movie Little Lord Fauntleroy broke box office records, only to be toned down and masculinized amid cultural fears of the “sissified” male.

by Kristin Hunt, U. C. Knopfelmacher via JSTOR Daily on March 26, 2020

In the Time of Monsters

Watchmen is a sophisticated inquiry into the ethical implications of its own form—the flash and bang, the prurience and violence of comic books.

by Namwali Serpell via New York Review of Books on March 19, 2020

Comic Gold

The Gold Rush introduced a new figure into the American imagination – the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune.

by Alex Andriesse via The Public Domain Review on March 12, 2020

Superman comic illustration

Why Superheroes Are the Shape of Tech Things to Come

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?

by Iwan Rhys Morus via Aeon on March 5, 2020

Foolish Questions

Screwball comics wage a gleeful war on civilization and its discontents—armed mostly with water-pistols, stink bombs, and laughing gas.

by Art Spiegelman via New York Review of Books on February 25, 2020

The Noise of Time

What does the past sound like – and can listening to it help us understand history better?

by Sanjana Varghese via New Statesman on February 19, 2020

The Real Calamity Jane Was Distressingly Unlike Her Legend

A frontier character's life was crafted to be legendary, but was the real person as incredible?

by Sam Leith via The American Spectator on February 6, 2020

Why are Pop Songs Getting Sadder Than They Used to Be?

The most popular songs today are sadder than they were 50 years ago: can cultural evolution explain this negative turn?

by Alberto Acerbi, Charlotte Brand via Aeon on February 4, 2020

The Domestication of the Garage

J.B. Jackson’s 1976 essay on the evolution of the American garage displays his rare ability to combine deep erudition with eloquent and plainspoken analysis.

by Jeffery Kastner, John Brinckerhoff Jackson via Places Journal on February 1, 2020

The History of the StairMaster

The 1980s brought about America's gym obsession—and a machine that demands a notoriously grueling cardio workout

by Michelle Delgado via Smithsonian on January 31, 2020

Photographs of Lilian Smith and Frank Yerby.

Frank Yerby and Lillian Smith: Challenging the Myths of Whiteness

Both Southerners. Both all but forgotten. Both, in their own ways, questioned the social constructions of race and white supremacy in their writings.

by Matthew Teutsch via The Bitter Southerner on January 9, 2020

It's 2020 and You're in the Future

Some people are young, just not you.

by Tim Urban via Wait But Why on January 2, 2020

Before And After

The allegations against Michael Jackson make listening to his songs a struggle, one that resists the comfort those songs once provided.

by Ann Powers via NPR on December 11, 2019

Advertisement commemorating 25 years of video games since the release of Oregon Trail.

Playing in the Past

Gameplay can be useful in history classrooms – but manufacturers have to think about how children will be affected by the competition.

by Robert Whitaker via Play Stuff Blog on December 9, 2019

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Batuu

To work, a theme park needs to collapse the mythic pasts that it depicts with the pasts of our own lives.

by Deanna Day via Contingent on December 6, 2019

Richard Pryor

A Nigger Un-Reconstructed: The Legacy of Richard Pryor

Comedian Richard Pryor's performance of Blackness throughout his career.

by Mark Anthony Neal via NewBlackMan (in Exile) on December 1, 2019

“Big Elliott” Wright at the Big Apple Night Club.

Set the Country to Stamping

The origins of the Big Apple dance.

by Robert Greene II via Oxford American on November 19, 2019

Trump through a television camera.

How TV Paved America’s Road to Trump

“A brand mascot that jumped off the cereal box”: a TV critic explains the multimedia character Trump created.

by Sean Illing, James Poniewozik via Vox on November 7, 2019

Popeye's chicken sandwich meal.

Why Popeyes Markets Its Chicken Sandwich to African Americans

Popeyes has long cultivated a black customer base — which has positive and negative ramifications.

by Marcia Chatelain via Made By History on November 2, 2019

Managing Our Darkest Hatreds And Fears: Witchcraft From The Middle Ages To Brett Kavanaugh

America has a history of dealing with witches - and it has culminated in a modern movement of politically active ones.

by Diane Purkiss via Athenaeum Review on October 14, 2019

Big Tobacco, Jim Crow, and Commercial Imperialism

A review of Nan Ensted's "Cigarettes, Inc.: An Intimate History of Corporate Imperialism."

by Johnny Fulfer via The Economic Historian on October 12, 2019

Lost World movie poster

The 1925 Dinosaur Movie That Paved the Way for King Kong

During a slow day at work, a young marble cutter named Willis O’Brien began sculpting tiny T-Rex figurines.

by Kristin Hunt via JSTOR Daily on October 10, 2019

What the LAPD Recruitment Ad on Breitbart Says About the Department’s History

Becoming an agency that wouldn't dream of advertising on Breitbart will require deep changes.

by Max Felker-Kantor via Made By History on October 9, 2019

The Debt That All Cartoonists Owe to "Peanuts"

How Charles Schulz's classic strip shaped the comic medium.

by Chris Ware via The New Yorker on September 24, 2019

The End of the Golden Era of Chess

The recent passing of Pal Benko and Shelby Lyman draws the curtain on an American period that produced some of the game’s most sparkling play.

by Peter Nicholas via The Atlantic on September 5, 2019

How Davy Crockett Became an American Legend

Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?

by Phil Edwards, Coleman Lowndes via Vox on August 7, 2019

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