popular culture

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• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  9/15/2022
  

  "I'm Not Racist, I'm Just Mad Amazon is Destroying Tolkien's Middle Earth with Black Hobbits"

  by Mary Rambaran-Olm

  Viewer complaints that Amazon Prime has defiled the author's fantasy vision with "wokeness" ignore the historical diversity of the medieval society on which Tolkien based his works. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/16/2022
  

  How True is the History in "The Woman King"?

  "'The Woman King' chooses to make resistance to slavery its moral compass, then misrepresents a kingdom that trafficked tens of thousands as a vanguard in the struggle against it."

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• 9/11/2022
  

  Songs for Sale: Tin Pan Alley (Excerpt)

  by Bob Stanley

  American popular music didn't start with Elvis. It emerged when musical fads onstage converged with a new mass market for in-home record players to make song publishing big business. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/7/2022
  

  "Rings of Power" Speaks to a War-Hungry Audience

  by Daniel Bessner

  Inspired by Tolkien's experiences in the Great War, his fantasy books have been taken as allegories for the fight against Nazism, the Cold War, and the War on Terror. The new series reflects the anxieties of an American empire with neither a clear enemy nor the imagination to abandon militarism. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/7/2022
  

  Stories of Women's Comeuppance Expose Cruelty at Heart of Modern Society

  by Sarah Horowitz

  Like Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes today, the 1909 trial of Marguerite Steinheil in Paris focused on an ambitious woman as a villain, but revealed a wider climate of impunity and self-dealing among elite men. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/4/2022
  

  The Real Medieval Civil War that Inspires "House of the Dragon"

  by Gillian Brockell

  The Anarchy, an English war of succession that lasted from 1138 to 1153, is part of the narrative inspiration for the new fantasy series. 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  8/29/2022
  

  Fantasy Series Take a Selective Approach to Historical Accuracy as an Excuse for Sexual Violence

  Medievalist Eleanor Janega wonders whether the creators of the "Game of Thrones" universe use historical accuracy as a justification to show graphic violence; their insistence on verisimilitude flags in other areas. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/10/2022
  

  Eve Babitz's Archive Reveals the Person Behind the Persona

  by Kevin Dettmar

  "What could the personal documents of a writer who was so public about her private world teach us about her work? How much of that persona was a performance and how much a reflection of her real anxieties and ambitions?"

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  8/9/2022
  

  "Bridgerton" and Its Blind Spot for Colonialist History

  by Trishula Patel

  In nodding to contemporary British diversity by casting actors of color in roles originally written as "white," the program misses the bigger opportunity to examine the histories of colonialism that brought people of Indian and African descent to Britain during the Regency period. 

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• 8/14/2022
  

  Despite the Cultural Differences, There's Common Ground Between Boomers and Zoomers

  by Joseph Preston Baratta

  Despite the differences in their cultural touchstones, Gen Z faces the yet-incomplete challenge of the Baby Boom generation: uniting the world in novel ways to solve global problems. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  8/9/2022
  

  Lamont Dozier, Part of Legendary Motown Songwriting Team, Dies at 81

  With Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier formed the formidable "HDH" songwriting partnership that turned out many of the biggest hits of the 1960s for The Supremes and The Four Tops among other Motown acts. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/1/2022
  

  At 100, Norman Lear's Transformative Influence is Still Felt on TV

  by Oscar Winberg

  "All in the Family" capitalized on the culture wars of the 1960s to show that television networks could depart from safe, inoffensive programming and acknowledge social divisions. 

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• SOURCE: Texas Standard
  7/22/2022
  

  Texas State Prof. Launches Harry Styles History Course

  Louis Dean Valencia realized during the pandemic that icebreaking conversations with students about pop music opened up many avenues for discussing historical subjects including the politics of celebrity. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/20/2022
  

  Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?

  by Carlo Rotella

  Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music. 

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• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  6/9/2022
  

  The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show

  The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.

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• 6/19/2022
  

  Will Artificial Intelligence be the Agent of Capitalism's (and Humanity's) Creative Destruction?

  by Jim Castagnera

  Between science fiction and the political economy of the present, the author wonders if artificial intelligence will constitute humanity's successor species. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/30/2022
  

  Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward's Relationship at the Center of the New Hollywood

  Mark Rozzo's "Everybody Thought We Were Crazy" tells the story of artistic encounters that ran through the couple's home. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/19/2022
  

  Ukraine's Eurovision Victory Not the First Time Politics Has Been on Stage

  by Tess Megginson

  Since its beginnings in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been a stage for statements about the politics of the continent, from the Cold War to the growth of the EU to the invasion of Ukraine. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  4/22/2022
  

  The History Behind "The Northman"

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  The new epic has been billed as the most historically accurate Viking epic to play on screen, but it's accuracy comes from its effort to capture the subjective nature of Norse spirituality and supernatural belief and the narrative forms recognized by medieval audiences.

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  4/26/2022
  

  How Dennis Hopper Ran the Wildest Party House in Hollywood

  The house of the actor and his wife Brooke Hayward was a gathering place of fertile movements in film, arts and music that made the 1960s.