When Ward Cleaver Caused Social Anxiety
In the early 1960s, an Illinois Children and Family Services worker tried to figure out how TV dads were impacting contemporary American fathers.
The Real-Life Story Behind Number the Stars
An interview with Lois Lowry reveals that the popular children's novel Number the Stars was based on a true story of resistance to the Nazis.
How Thrift Stores Were Born
According to the Association of Retail Professionals, about 16 to 18 percent of Americans shop at thrift stores in any given year.
Is a Fair Trial Possible in the Age of Social Media?
Is it possible to have a fair trial or an impartial jury in an age when anyone is just a viral tweet or a Facebook search away?
Jane Addams’s Crusade Against Victorian “Dancing Girls”
Jane Addams, a leading Victorian-era reformer, believed dance halls were “one of the great pitfalls of the city.”
Edith Stein, the Jewish Woman Who Became a Catholic Saint
In 1998, Pope John Paul II made one of his most contentious canonizations, elevating a Jewish woman named Edith Stein to the status of saint.
Alice Roosevelt: The Original First Kid
Alice Roosevelt set the tone for a more public first kid and laid the foundation for post-White-House activism like Chelsea Clinton’s.
How 19th Century Women Were Taught to Think About Native Americans
In nineteenth-century American women's magazines, Native American women were depicted as attractive, desirable, and pious.
Weirdly Enough, Movies about TV Prepared America for TV
Ironically, it was movies that helped accustom American viewers to television in the first place, writes Richard Koszarski.
America’s Unlikely Cold War Weapon
During the Cold War years, the distribution and selection of American books had to change with changing objectives overseas.