A Safe, Easy, Illegal Abortion

In a 1965 article for The Atlantic, a woman wrote about a relatively seamless experience that was—and still is—largely limited to white women of a certain economic status.

Is There Room for a 'Southern Point of View' on Gay Marriage?

In 1960, an Atlanta writer criticized lingering Southern support for segregation in The Atlantic—but today, both sides of the gay-marriage debate want to claim the mantle of the civil-rights movement.

Children’s TV—Left Behind

A 1969 article in The Atlantic is a reminder of how Sesame Street started a revolution—and how it failed to change America’s educational status quo.

The Captivity of Motherhood

What has—and hasn’t—changed since The Atlantic published a 1961 essay on the plight of the housewife

Did Rock and Roll Pacify America?

In 1964, an Atlantic writer argued that the new youth sound was anything but revolutionary.

The Death of the Hippies

The photographer Joe Samberg remembers how drugs destroyed the Telegraph Avenue scene.