The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge
The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.
How the Indian Middle Class Came to Define Bollywood
The Hindi film industry has undergone tremendous change since the late 1940s, reflecting India's shift from a socialistic republic to a privatized democracy.
Reggae in Australia
In the 1970s, Willie Brim, a member of the Buluwai people, learned about Peter Tosh and Bob Marley from hippies who lived near his community. And the joy began.
Delts Don’t Lie
Renaissance artists routinely used men as models for their depictions of female subjects, yet only the musculatures of Michelangelo tell that story.
The Shakespeare of English Furniture?
Not much is known about eighteenth-century furniture designer Thomas Chippendale, making his life and work perfect for mythologizing after his death.
Digital Overload
How can contemporary biographers contend with the explosion of materials at their disposal?
Legacies Lost and Found
Say Anarcha tells the story of the enslaved women experimented on by a self-aggrandizing gynecologist. Its related online archive aims to reinvent the nature of bibliography.
Marion Mahony Griffin, Prairie School Architect
A founding member of the Prairie School, Mahony defined the movement’s now-familiar aesthetic for a global audience.
Remembering H.D.
Hilda Doolittle, aka H.D., had her champions among modern scholars, but she's still often left off modern poetry course syllabi.
“It’s Tight Like That”
A "dirty" song recorded by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red in 1928 launched the "hokum" blues.