Ben Alpers

@benalpers.bsky.social

2971 Followers 1543 Following

Professor of US History. Author of HAPPY DAYS: IMAGES OF THE PRE-SIXTIES PAST IN SEVENTIES AMERICA (Rutgers University Press, 2024). Opinions are entirely my own. He/him.

Cover of the Criterion Collection box set of Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy
The cover of BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES by James Bond, whose name Ian Fleming borrowed for his hero.
Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) brandish sabers in the duel scene from THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943).
Photograph of a jar of that delectable English breakfast staple, Marmite.
Bella (Maya Hawke) and Elliot (Victoria Pedretti) chat in a car in the short "The Non-Actor"
Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) makes her appearance in a flashback in OUT OF THE PAST.
Screenshot of a C-SPAN broadcast showing Lindsey Graham speaking in the Senate chamber as a House Impeachment Manager during Bill Clinton's trial in the Senate.
Two characters in 28 YEARS LATER run to the Holy Island on the causeway, pursued by an Alpha.
Far Side cartoon in which a man has painted "the dog" on the dog, "the cant" on the cat etc. Caption: " Now!...That should clear up a few things around here!"
Poster for Rob Schneider's DEUCE BIGALOW MALE GIGOLO
British poster for AGE OF CONSENT (1969), featuring a drawing of Helen Mirren, naked, in the foreground with a white dog, a palm tree, and the ocean in the background.
A broadside printed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The zookeeper explains to Marge that some animals are just jerks.
Cover of "Seven at One Blow" by Jay Williams with pictures by Friso Henstra, an adaptation of the Grimm's fairytale "The Brave Little Tailor" in which the title kills seven flies and then convinces the world that he's a great hero for killing "seven with one blow."
Screenshot of the NYT headline for Ezra Klein's colloquy with fascist propagandist Chris Rufo: "Which Is More Powerful, the MAGA Right, or 'Woke' Left?"
The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Poster for Ari Aster's HEREDITARY (2018)
The Bicentennial logo.
Jack Lambert as Sugar Smallhouse, Marian Carr as Friday, and Jack Elam as Charlie Max in KISS ME DEADLY (1955)
Cover of Octavia Butler's novel DAWN.
Poster for Osgood Perkins's most recent film KEEPER (2025).
Grumpy Cat pouting.
That "A Decent Man" Keir Starmer thing. Be glad you are not getting a more thorough alt text!
1930s Soviet propaganda poster showing the GPU eradicating a "counterrevolutionary wrecker."
A "Meet the Turk" magazine ad for Camel cigarettes.
Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln in a scene from NOTHING BUT A MAN (1964)
Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbinder) sitting at a table, shirtless, smoking talks with Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham) in the Maze, in a scene from Steve McQueen's 2008 film HUNGER.
Poster for the Steven Spielberg film A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The actual 1908 logo of what was likely Oklahoma's first film production company. The image shows the way in which "wolves" (apparently actually coyotes) were caught in the Wichita Mountains (subject of one of the companies first films, "The Wolf Hunt" (1908).
Homer Simpson imagines of what he thinks ballet is: a bear wearing a fez driving a tiny car in circles.
Cover of the March 1991 issue of THE ATLANTIC, featuring a deeply racist image illustrating Dinesh D'Souza's piece on "Illiberal Education."
Pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has a cup of coffee with informant Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) in Sam Fuller's PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953)
Picture of a man holding a "VOTE FOR THE CROOK: IT'S IMPORTANT" bumpersticker from the 1991 Edwin Edwards gubernatorial campaign.
Picture of a burning memorial candle.
The concluding paragraph of Hannah Arendt's essay "Ideology and Terror": "But there remains also the truth that every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning; this beginning is the promise, the only "message" which the end can ever produce. Beginning, before it becomes a historical event, is the supreme capacity of man; politically, it is identical with man's freedom. Initium ut esset homo creatus est-"that a beginning be made man was created" said Augustine. (Civitas Dei, Book 12, ch. 20) This beginning is guaranteed by each new birth; it is indeed every man."
Still from the "Yuki-Onna / The Woman of the Snow" sequence from the Japanese horror anthology film KWAIDAN (1964): and man is walking through an expressionistic, snow-covered woods
Poster showing a drawing of Richard Nixon smiling, an American flag and the US Capitol dome with the caption "THANKS! DICK"
Photograph of an Etch A Sketch, with a hand on each of its two buttons.
Red-eyed forest creatures in a deep green forest from the film UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES
A masked figure sneaks up behind Jess (Melissa George) in a still from the film TRIANGLE.
A nun rings a bell on a cliff overlooking the green valley below from Powell and Pressburger's BLACK NARCISSUS (1947)
GIF of a shot from THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955): At night, a boat sits in a river in front of two buildings.
A photograph of Istanbul.
Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, with the following text highlighted: "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"
Quote from the linked FT piece: "The lesson of the past is clear: seeing racism as the reaction to events overseas, or to economic dislocation, is wrong-headed."
Screengrab of NY Times headline: "Labor Secretary's Departure Provides Trump an Agenda Reset."
Thomas Nast's 1871 cartoon "The American River Ganges." It's Nast's most famous anti-Catholic cartoon, featuring bishops as crocodiles coming ashore in New York ant threatening school children.
Poster for BIRDMAN.
Detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) asks scheming multimillionaire Noah Cross (John Huston) what he needs more money for: "How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?" Cross answers: "The future, Mr. Gitts"
Washington Post push notification: "Breaking News: Trump's profane post threatening Iran's power plants underscores tensions over Strait of Hormuz."
Jordan Cowan inspects the bathroom of the trailer in the Australian horror film You'll Never Find Me (2023).
Cover of King Crimson's debut album, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING (1969)
Jeff (Robert Mitchum) tells Kathie (Jane Greer) that there's a way to lose more slowly, while standing in front of a roulette table, in OUT OF THE PAST.
Xeet from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI): "I have a theory: what works in the middle of the country will work on the coasts, but not in reverse. That's why we need to hear from people in places like Michigan, Idaho, and Kansas City. Because I'm in the business of winning elections. And we're all seeing what happens when Democrats lose focus on the middle class."
The poster for Ralph Bakshi's post-apocalyptic, sff animated film WIZARDS (1977).
Picture of a crowd at a movie theater, clearly enjoying themselves.
Picture of a face of a woman at the 2004 Republican National Convention wearing a bandaid with a purple heart on it.
Xeet from today from Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams: "Cmon England!!!" (If England beats France, Ireland wins the Six Nations this year.)