Muppets, Memes, Music, and More: 8 Compelling Modern Cultural Histories

When we think of archaeology, we think of Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece. Dr. Gorman turns that on its head when thinking about the material culture of space from the past 60 years, including everything from the astronaut footprints on the moon and the debris floating around the Earth to the abandoned buildings that were critical to space exploration. It’s also a global look at the Space Age, including some discussion of Australia’s role in space exploration. 

I may be a little space-obsessed right now, but there are so many good books recently published on the topic! Lewis dives into the cultural and political meanings of the cosmonaut from the 1950s to the present day. Exploring material cultures and political propaganda, she weaves in how the Soviet government used the images of its cosmonauts, including Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, throughout Soviet history to present-day Russia. 

This book will blow you away with the incredible story of bringing Sesame Street to Russia, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rogoff writes about her experience of working with her colleagues and Russian counterparts to tackle the challenge of designing Sesame Street for Russian children during the uncertain years in the early 1990s filled with assassinations, bombings, and so much more. It’s also a great book for folks who love Sesame Street and want to learn more about its inner workings.

Now, let’s take a journey into U.S. food culture in Sen’s fascinating work. The U.S. has come a long way in the development of its rich culinary scene. In the mid-20th century, Italian food was considered exotic. Sen explores how seven immigrant women played a significant role in changing how Americans eat. Many of these names may be new to readers, but you’ll never forget how important these chefs were to what we think of as everyday food today. 

We use memes everyday often to visualize our emotions, often including images from popular culture. Russell argues that memes are more than silly cat photos and cartoon clips. She dives into the rich political and racial meaning of the meme, going back to the 1900s through the present day. Black Meme focuses on representations of Blackness, from violence against Black people epitomized in lynching postcards and the video of the LAPD beating Rodney King to the creation of the Black icon, and so much more.

It seems obvious that the worlds of fashion and hip-hop would be intertwined, but Krishnamurthy’s book shows that it was anything but. Through interviews, she brings out the stories of hip-hop creators and fashion world leaders to explore how hip-hop reinvented the world of fashion and American culture as a whole.

In Kelefa Sanneh’s monumental work, he dives into a history of seven popular musical styles in the past 50 years: country, dance-music, hip-hop, pop, punk, R&B, and rock. The work explores how these styles inform our own sense of selves, our communities, and the music medium itself. It’s a story about what is good, what is authentic and how the answer to those questions change.

Thompson’s work strives to understand why people are so concerned about public statues and why do some people get venerated in bronze while others don’t. She explains the history behind some of the controversial statues, both from the perspective of the contentious person memorialized and the history of putting up the statue in the first place. It’s also a meditation on how we move forward with public statues if we are striving to make amends.