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Shantytown, USA: Interview with Lisa Goff

The Harvard University Press recently published Lisa Goff's new book Shantytown, USA: Forgotten Landscapes of the Working Poor. There's a chance that one of your American ancestors lived in an American shantytown. While we may not realize it now, shantytowns were a common feature of 19th century America. Goff's book explores not only how shantytowns became a prominent feature of America's towns and cities, but why middle class Americans eventually turned on them and their residents. Read more...

Did Theodore Roosevelt really save Football?

The headline at the top of the right hand column in The Chicago Sunday Tribune on November 26, 1905 screamed, "Football Year's Death Harvest - Record Shows That Nineteen Players Have Been Killed; One Hundred Thirty-seven Hurt - Two Are Slain Saturday." [1] Contemporary numbers differ on the exact number of football fatalities suffered on the playing field in 1905, but young men were dying playing football. Read more...

Hodges' Scout: Interview with Len Travers

Johns Hopkins University Press has recently published Len Traver's new book Hodges' Scout: A Lost Patrol of the French and Indian War. Travers' book examines a group of colonial scouts who were ambushed on a patrol in upstate New York by French and Native American soldiers during the French and Indian War. Travers uses this massacre to explore the lives of the colonists who fought, died and even survived this massacre. Read more...

The Hays Code, Gangsters, and Prohibition: How did 1934 change Hollywood?

1934 was a pivotal year for the United States. Americans were enduring the fifth year of the Great Depression and the rural population was in an extreme state of suffering that had begun prior to the stock market crash in October 1929. Urban citizens fared little better, yet those who had a nickel to spare spent it at the moves. Read more...

The Nazi triumph: how did Adolf Hitler become the Fuehrer of Germany?

With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became absolute dictator of Germany under the title Fuehrer or “Leader”. The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich. Read more...

Why was Alexander the Great So Successful In His Conquests?

In the public's mind, few well known conquerors in history match the exploits of Alexander the Great. In just a few years, from 334-330 BC, Alexander would go on to conquer the largest empire the world had known and establish his own empire that eventually stretched from Greece to India. Read more...

How did Winston Churchill become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in World War Two?

Winston Churchill led a remarkable life, but perhaps the most remarkable element in his life was how he became prime minister in 1940. Just a few years earlier he was widely seen as politically isolated and was widely ridiculed for his views. Yet in 1940, he was appointed his nation’s Prime Minister at its darkest hours and became the leader of the fight against Nazi Germany. Read more...

What Factors Led to the Creation of the First Cities?

The rise of cities in the ancient Near East during the fourth millennium BC (4000-3000 BC) is a key event in the history of the world, as urban patterns that first arose there became patterns inherited in many societies, including in the West. Cities in the ancient Near East were the first to develop major temples, palaces, large urban dwelling areas, city walls, governments, and religious authorities that become features seen in later cities. Read more...

Why did the United States and Soviet Union Reach Detente During the Cold War?

Detente was a period lasting approximately from 1972 to 1981 in which there was a thaw in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was punctuated by major and surprising events, including the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, a large economic downturn in the West, and the opening of relations with China. Read more...

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