Popular Culture
In Pursuit–Version 1
I only found out about a wonderful documentary series titled In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America because the show’s writer and co-producer, Nathaniel Popkin, was dogged about tracking me down via email.[1] I am so glad he did. The ten-episode series uses the specifics of Philadelphia’s story to explore the broader story of…
Read More
Another Book That Sat on the To-Be-Read Shelves for Far too Long: Fast-Talking Dames
Fast-Talking Dames by Maria DiBattista is both a study of and homage to the fast-talking heroines of Hollywood comedies in the 1930s and 1940s. Like me, DiBattista discovered the women she writes about in her early teens, when she watched old movies after school and late at night. Like me, she saw them as a…
Read More
Uncle Sam Wants You: The Man Behind the Poster
Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960) keeps popping up in places where I don’t expect him. Each time I have to look him up, because I don’t remember who he is. Each time he looks a little more interesting. Most recently I stumbled across him on HathiTrust. I had given into the temptation to search for…
Read More