The History of the Power Suit for Women
As women entered the white-collar world, experts told them to dress like men, without being too threatening.
How the New Deal Documented Southern Food Cultures
Photographers and writers hired by the US government presented the foodways of the South to a wide audience.
How Crime Stories Foiled Reform in Victorian Britain
Harsh punishments were declining in the nineteenth century. Then came sensationalist news coverage of a reputed crime wave.
The King of Mail-Order Muscles
Flab, begone! Earle Edwin Liederman wanted men to learn his vaudeville-strongman secrets—for a not-so-low price.
When Paper Was Fashion’s Favorite Material
It’s hip, it’s happening, it’s wow, it’s now, it’s gone: RIP the paper dress, 1966–1968.
The Zoot Suit Riots Were Race Riots
In 1943, white servicemen attacked young people of color for wearing the ultimate in street style—on the pretext that they were shirking wartime duty.
Indigenismo in the United States
The adoption of Aztec cultural iconography by modern activists has roots in Mexican nationalist policies of the 1920s.
Knights and Kings: Medieval Chess as Male Bonding
Scholar Jenny Adams examines the homosocial facets of the game through literature of the Middle Ages.
Whence the White Horse of Uffington?
A white horse of chalk both defines and defies a common understanding of what English heritage is, and is not.
How Wet-Nursing Stoked Class Tensions
“[N]o man can justly doubt, that a childs mind is answerable to his nurses milk and manners.”