An Ad Campaign for Ads
Back in the 1920s and ‘30s, the magazine Women’s Home Companion tried explicitly appealing to its readers to take the ads seriously.
The Great American Game of Picking the Great American Novel
Arguing about the great American novel was perfect fodder for periodicals in the late 1800s, and it is catnip for a listicle-obsessed internet.
10 Winter Poems To Cozy Up To
Settle in to the winter season with verse from Dylan Thomas, H.D., Pushkin, and more.
Super Mario, Homer’s Odyssey, and the Meaning of Marriage
Nintendo's Mario and Homer's Odysseus have more in common than you might think.
The Cooking Classes that Americanized Jewish Immigrants
At the end of the 19th century, a Wisconsin woman named Elizabeth “Lizzie” Black Kander tried to help immigrants assimilate, through the food they ate.
How a Postage Stamp May Have Helped Create the Panama Canal
The decision to build a Panama Canal came about because of two lobbyists, one of whom thought a stamp would make a telling point.
Early America’s Troubled Relationship With Monkeys
The real and supposed resemblances between humans and non-human primates shaped American conversations about race and society.
Are Reforms Part of Saudi Arabia’s PR Campaign?
In September, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced to the world that it would begin licensing women to drive in 2018. Is it all part of a PR campaign?
How Native Americans Taught Both Assimilation and Resistance at Indian Schools
In the nineteenth century, many Native American children attended “Indian schools” designed to blot out Native cultures in favor of Anglo assimilation.
Gabrielle Berlinger
An interview with scholar and folklorist Gabrielle Berlinger, a professor of American Studies at the University of North Caroline Chapel Hill.