In Jezebel’s newest series Rummaging Through the Attic, we interview nonfiction authors whose books explore fascinating moments, characters, and stories in history. For this episode we spoke with Bea Koch, author of Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency, a work that unearths the triumphant stories of the women…

Once upon a time, writing a children’s book was a task only undertaken by the most valiant of heroes—or, at the very least, men and women who dedicated their writing careers to the service of entertaining children and appeasing parents. It was difficult work, but it was a calling. Now, any celebrity—be they A-list or…

In Jezebel’s newest series Rummaging Through the Attic, we interview nonfiction authors whose books explore fascinating moments, characters, and stories in history. For this episode we spoke with Tana Wojczuk, author of Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First Celebrity, a…

With the approach of Labor Day, chain stores across America fill with decor and foods that evoke a “traditional,” idealized experience of rural autumn, one heavy on hay bales and flannel and, of course, pumpkin spice. Looming over it all: A very New England image of the bright, shining, plump red apple, with a…

In March 2020, one week before most major cities in America shut down due to covid-19 concerns, WWD reported that Fall 2020 fashion was going to be dominated by sweater vests. The divisive layering piece—is it only for nerds? Or preps? Country club WASPs? Is it too antiquated to be modernized?—appeared on the runway…

On Thursday evening, an estimated 5,500 people packed into a Freeland, Michigan aircraft hanger to see President Trump in the flesh. Just before the president debarked from Air Force One, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival blared on the rally speakers, amusing reporters on the ground. Whether the timing…

Countless retailers have filed for bankruptcy due to economic disruption caused by the ongoing global health pandemic, and as of this week, New York City’s iconic Century 21 discount department store chain is the latest victim. According to Bloomberg, Century 21—not to be confused with the prodigious real estate…

The story of women’s political activism in America and their battle for voting rights has often pivoted around the 19th Amendment. But in her powerful new work of history, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, Professor Martha S. Jones of Johns Hopkins dramatically…

Hunched over my laptop in the middle of my very beige kitchen in whatever leggings I picked up off the floor this morning, I feel the need for some glamour. A specific sort of at-home glamour, one that involves silken loungewear and fussy lamps and toiletries with art decor lines. I want a boudoir. Fortunately, the…

Ellen Terry wanted to look like a snake. She wanted her body to glimmer on stage, hard and soft at once, as though she were wearing the finest chainmail, the lightest armor. She was going to play Lady Macbeth, and Terry could be fussy about what she wore onstage. Not because she was vain, but because she understood…

It’s come to this: the longrunning cookie contest between the spouses of presidential candidates won’t happen this year. That’s because the institution that hosted it—Family Circle, one of the legendary “seven sisters” of women’s magazine publishing—shut down last year. But it’s hard to imagine an election tradition…

One of my fondest memories is having tea with a friend at the Jane Austen Center in Bath, under a portrait of Colin Firth in character as Mr. Darcy. While I actually prefer the 2005 movie adaption of Pride and Prejudice, starring Matthew Macfayden looking like a smoke-show, when it comes to perfectly camp Jane Austen…

In Jezebel’s newest series Rummaging Through the Attic, we interview nonfiction authors whose books explore fascinating moments, characters, and stories in history. For this episode we spoke with Alexis Coe, author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, a biography that examines the life of…

It’s March, but also September, and therefore somehow already Halloween. Normally I’d decry the early arrival of pumpkin merch as more consumer culture fiddling with the calendar, but this whole year has felt like one big jack-o-lantern with a rotten face collapsing on itself, so if anything it’s a nice chance to…

A few pages into Chasten Buttigieg’s just-published memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, he conjures an image that justifies his husband Pete’s campaign to become the president of the United States, and, by extension, this book that spends a lot of time focusing on said campaign. It occurs when Chasten and Pete, are…

Despite Donald Trump famously being a man who does not read, his time in office has been an incredible boon to the publishing industry, which seems to churn out a book about his presidency every hour, on the hour. As the New York Times reported, more than a thousand books have been published about Trump and his…

Christian Dior’s haute couture collection for the Spring/Summer 1992 season was not genre-defining per se. Named In Balmy Summer Breezes, it was “a very feminine collection, for a Parisian woman feeling the Parisian breeze, its colors and its flowers,” as the creative director Gianfranco Ferré told the Italian press.…

One of the lesser-known tactics employed by the American women’s suffrage movement: crowdsourced pro-suffrage cookbooks. They’re the subject of a new book, All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food, and the Battle for Women’s Right to Vote, which collects many of the recipes that were included and adapts them for the…

Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate is trying to claim ownership over the version of the character featured in Netflix’s upcoming movie Enola Holmes because the Sherlock Holmes featured has ~feelings~.

On Election Day in 2016, visitors covered Susan B. Anthony’s Rochester, New York grave in “I Voted” stickers, a tribute to the woman whose name has been most associated with the cause of women’s suffrage in America. It was in keeping with the Clinton campaign’s repeated use of suffragist imagery and history, like her…