My summer reading list is usually kind of a bummer; during the warmer months I naturally gravitate towards stories of disease and disaster and suffering.

John F. Kennedy Jr. died young; whatever his promise, he never achieved it. He wasn’t a popular politician, or a successful actor, or a musician with a closet full of Grammys. And yet, his death two decades ago prompted wall-to-wall media coverage, absolutely dominating the news cycle for days upon days.

Here’s a bad look: A radio segment by three men on the history of America’s government-fostered tobacco dependence, without once mentioning by name the woman whose book formed the basis for the entire segment.

The Chicago Defender, a century-old institution and pillar of African American journalism, is going online-only.

Wanna buy a lightly used vintage sweatshirt? You could probably snag one at Goodwill for cheap—or you could shell out several thousand dollars for one with the Virgin Atlantic logo, which was personally gifted to Princess Diana by founder and all-around media personality Richard Branson. It’s too small for me, so you…

Reading Judith Krantz is like running errands around town in a Lamborghini driven by somebody coked to the gills and very, very bad at figuring out the most straightforward route, but the running gossip monologue is so entertaining it distracts from the fact that you’re careening through every single red light.

How do you write a column about reading that publishes right at the moment when you’ve stopped reading? 

What’s your most outlandish dream for your day-to-day fashion choices? Is it fashion jumpsuits, seven days a week? Ballgowns for brunch? Neon 80s workout wear, at work, at your office job? Well just go ahead and make the leap, with this 25-year-old British man who wears Regency clothing every damn day.

Judith Krantz, a towering figure in American popular culture who defined her era in a series of bestselling novels filled with sexual escapades and over-the-top luxury, has died at 91.

When Laura R. Fisher began the research that would become her recently released book, Reading for Reform: The Social Work of Literature in the Progressive Era, she thought she was looking for something precious and illuminating: an overlooked manuscript, an instance of brilliance almost lost and now found.

The story begins as too many stories starring women do: Daphne didn’t want to have sex. She was a nymph, a minor goddess of sorts, daughter of a river god, and beautiful to boot. According to Ovid, her father wanted grandchildren, but Daphne wanted to stay free, her body untouched by lust, forever her own. “Dearest…

The intersection of social media and feminism can at times be a dark, depressingly hypocritical place. The temptation to capitalize on viral liberal sentiments in the Trump era, combined with a desire to make everything cute and Instagrammable, leads to a sea of hollow progressive-sounding tweets and photos of smiling…

The phrase “midcentury kitchen” conjures an array of images, each more dazzling than the last: Needlessly complex gadgets designed to appeal to technoptimistic Americans of the 1950s! Formica in a bewildering array of colors! An outrageous landscape of avocado and—heaven help us—harvest gold!

Before everyone heads off to the nearest body of water to show off their cute new swim looks, you should know that a century ago, many visitors to Coney Island rented their bathing suits.

The Victorians have been notoriously stereotyped as a staid bunch. Feast your eyes upon a magnificent piece of evidence to the contrary: A replica of Prince Edward’s lavish, custom-made sex chair.

Watching Tyrion and Varys argue on a recent Game of Thrones episode about whether a cock is a necessary qualification for a monarch in the universe of Westeros, I wondered how this argument had played out in medieval England, which provided much of George R.R. Martin’s source material. While the highly successful show…

One of the last remaining great Hollywood stars of the midcentury, Doris Day, has died.

The British television network ITV has announced that it’s partnering with the BBC and Aardman Animations to develop a massive theme park around their various properties, such as Thunderbirds, a scifi show from the 1960s featuring puppets, and also Doctor Who.

Cambridge University is embarking on a two-year investigation into the extent to which it benefitted from the slave trade over the centuries. The question is: What are they going to do when they inevitably discover their institutional ancestors were up to their necks in it?

If, for some inexplicable reason, you are a Margaret Thatcher superfan and reading this website, I’m about to make your day: Christie’s is auctioning off a bunch of her personal effects, largely related to her time at 10 Downing Street.