The American Menu

Detroit,  1940 In 2011, eighty-three-year old Philip Levine was named Poet Laureate of the United States. A native of Detroit, Levine ...

New York City,  1885 When the English actor Henry Irving completed his highly-acclaimed American tour in April 1885, a group of promi...

Cincinnati, 1853 & 1884 When the Burnet House opened in Cincinnati in 1850, the London Illustrated News called it “the finest ho...

New York City, 1905 While the word “ carnivore” is now used to describe flesh-eaters, modern society may still find use for the obscur...

1873-1894 This essay was published  on Lapham’s Quarterly website in July 2011. T he first populist tea party movement came in ...

Richmond, Virginia 1883 O ne hundred and eighty-nine Union veterans from Newark, New Jersey boarded a train in October 1883 heading fo...

Winter Haven,  1949-1952 When Cypress Gardens opened near Winter Haven, Florida in 1936, it was billed as the state's first commer...

Glassboro, New Jersey 1967 In early June 1967, the Six-Day War was fought by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and S...

Atlantic City,  1964 Some believe the adversarial relationship between t he press and the White House started with Watergate, the po...

Oregon & California,  1976-1978 The anti-nuclear movement has been revived by the recent catastrophe in Japan, “putting government...