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What Maketh a Man

How queer artist J.C. Leyendecker invented an iconography of twentieth-century American masculinity.

A Short History of Country Music’s Multicultural Mishmash

Or everything that came before Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus walked down that “Old Town Road.”

The Definitive Oral History of TiVo

How the original DVR paved the way for Netflix and the cord-cutter movement.
Newspaper clipping featuring giant championship bat being presented to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Turned Baseball into a National Sensation

Meet the team that transformed baseball from a pastime to an industry.
Drawing of people dancing on a dance floor

A Data-Led Theory to Generationally Divided Dance Floors

Some age groups are more likely to recognize certain songs than others.
Still from the Golden Girls.

Deconstructing HIV and AIDS on The Golden Girls

In 1990, one of America's most beloved sitcoms took on the HIV epidemic with humor and sensitivity.

Frederick Douglass Forum

An online forum on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass.

The Surprising History (and Future) of Dinosaurs

For well over a hundred years, paleontology has done double duty as mass entertainment.
Illustration of Howard Thurston, gazing into a skull while surrounded by supernatural creatures

Howard Thurston, the Magician Who Disappeared

Overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, the visionary behind “The Wonder Show of the Universe” left a far-reaching legacy.
"Black Panther" comic book cover.

Black Panther and the Black Panthers

Much is at stake in understanding the history and relationship between black superheroes and black revolutionaries.

A New Golden Age for the Tiki Bar

Half a century after the tropical craze of the 1960s, the modern age of escapism is taking cues from the past.

A Timeline of Working-Class Sitcoms

Over the years, there have been surprisingly few of them.
A man demonstrating television to another.

This Futuristic Color TV Set Concept From 1922 Was Way Ahead of Its Time

Back in the earliest days of imagining what TV looked like, the appliance was a magic technology.

Hysterical Cravings

How “pickles and ice cream” became the iconic “crazy” snack for pregnant women.
Still of Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez from The Breakfast Club.

What About “The Breakfast Club”?

Revisiting the movies of my youth in the age of #MeToo.

The Ambivalence of Appropriation

A new book by Eric Lott frames white appropriation of blackness as containing the possibility of greater racial solidarity.
Intricately painted Easter eggs.

Why Easter Never Became a Big Secular Holiday like Christmas

Hint: the Puritans were involved.

What Makes Jewish Comedy Jewish?

In the latter half of the twentieth century, American comedy just was Jewish comedy, tamped down to appease audiences.

I Grew Up as a Black Southerner Idolizing Robert E. Lee

I didn't know the Confederate general owned slaves. I didn't even know he was part of the Confederacy.
Charlie Chaplin and another mustachioed character in a film.

The Meaning of a Mustache

To shave or not to shave? At the start of the twentieth century, a trend away from facial hair reflected dramatic social and economic shifts.

The 1960s Photographer Who Documented the Peace Sign as a Political Symbol

Jim Marshall photographed the spread of the peace sign between 1961 and 1968, with his images now published for the first time by Reel Art Press.

Is Ron Chernow's Ulysses S. Grant biography "OK"?

On October 15th, a tweet by Bunk contributing editor Kevin Levin touched off this fascinating exchange between several historians on the subject of popular history. Among the topics it covered were novelty, craft, context... and the musical Hamilton.

40 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1977

A visual trip back in time to 1977.

When Cardigans Were Battle Attire

Your favorite light sweater was worn to war, before getting picked up by academics, Mr. Rogers, and Kurt Cobain.
Lithograph book illustration of pirates of America.

A Treasure Trove of Trials

This collection of piracy trials comprises documents that were published before 1923 and that are part of the holdings of the Law Library of Congress.
Lin Manuel Miranda and fellow actor dressed in colonial era clothing

How to Love Problematic Pop Culture

Revisiting the contradictions in "Hamilton" – and in the pushback to criticisms of the beloved musical.
Lizzie Borden.

Why We’re So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden’s 40 Whacks

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were brutally murdered, possibly by Lizzie herself, in August 1892. Why are we still dissecting the crime?

Combatting Stereotypes About Appalachian Dialects

Language variation is just as diverse within Appalachia as it is outside of the region.

Looking Back to Lincoln

During the Great Depression, Americans found solace in history.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

The Story of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America's First Black Pop Star

The 19th century singer forced critics and audiences to reconcile their ears with their racism.

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