The Literary Digest

Articles from The Literary Digest

Social Differences Among the Lighter Skinned and Darker Skinned Blacks (Literary Digest, 1922)

The varying degrees of color found among American Blacks has been, and still is, a sensitive topic and it was addressed in 1922 with some wit by an African-American journalist whose work is attached. Its a good read and speaks of a social structure that, we like to think, is gone with the wind; words appear in this article that seem queer in our era – there is much talk of


yellow gals
golden-skinned slave girls
tawny-skinned maids
midnight
stove-pipe

-all originating from African-American verse and popular song.


During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women;
click here to read about the men who needed it, too.


Click here to read about black women who pass for white.


Click here to read a history of African-Americans between the years 1619 through 1939.

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The Maginot Line Will Save Us (Literary Digest, 1938)

The Maginot Line will permit calm French mobilization, experts say, in the event of a crisis. It may be noted, from a study of these forts on a map, that the chief point of concentration is approximately opposite the reoccupied Rhine zone. The Paris newspaper, Le Soir, says that no army can break down the Maginot Line.


Click here to read an article about French confidence in the Maginot Line.

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The Career of General George Gordon Meade (Literary Digest, 1912)

A brief article on the military career of Civil War General George Gordon Meade (1815 – 1872) with particular attention paid to his leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Meade will not be ranked by the historians with the great commanders, but his career is that of a well-trained, capable, and patriotic soldier, and he must always be remembered in the history of the war and of the country as the General who, for the longest period in its history, held the command of the Army of the Potomac, and to whom came the well-deserved good fortune of winning with this army the decisive battle of the war.

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The KKK Influence on U.S. Politics (The Literary Digest, 1922)

Attached is a 1922 report from THE LITERARY DIGEST regarding how remarkably close two KKK candidates for governor came to winning their respective state primaries. The two political contests in question, Oregon and Texas, caught national attention and became popular subjects for concern across the United States:

The closeness of the vote ought to be a warning…If the Ku Klux Klan insists on entering politics, good citizens must show it the way out.

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‘Harvard Talks About Jews” (Literary Digest, 1922)

This is an article about Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856 – 1943) who attempted to avoid the topic concerning his deep desire to admit Jews by quota and keep their numbers limited to a particularly low proportion.

In 1923 President Lowell came up with a politically palatable solution: he limited the size of the incoming class to one thousand, which meant incorporating an evaluation of each candidate’s non-academic qualities into the admissions decision. How manly was the candidate, for instance? How congenial and clubbable? What promise, what potential for future leadership?


Over time meritocracy won out – until Asians began applying in large numbers…


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Preparing for War with Motorcycles (Literary Digest, 1937)

A short news piece from The Literary Digest reported on an investment that the Nazi forces were making to insure a lightening-fast attack:

Motorcycles, a cool million of them, have become a German army specialty. The new Wehrmacht specializes in them. (it knows it will be short of horses; as when in March, 1918, the Teuton cavalry arm was virtually abolished, west front and east.) The British and French have only half a million machines apiece.


Read about the mechanics of W.W. II German motorcycles…

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Myths About Lincoln (Literary Digest, 1929)

Myths After Lincolnstyle=border:none is a book that documented many of the assorted tall tales that have, through the years, evolved in such a way as to have us all believe that Lincoln was a mystic who was blessed with dreams of foreboding.


The myth of Lincoln’s funeral train appearing as an apparition once a year is discussed, as are the legends that John Wilkes Boothe, like Elvis, survived the Virginia barn fire, where he is believed to have died and escaped into the Western territories.

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Elmer Wheeler, Word Chemist (Literary Digest, 1938)

For ten years it has been Elmer Wheeler’s profession to find out for his clients what words, spoken across the counter, will sell merchandise. It is shrewd psychology applied to a neglected link in the chain of business…:

Don’t ask if, ask which. Don’t ever give the customer the choice between something and nothing.


Wheeler knows he alone is not the gate keeper of successful sales pitches – he recalled seeing a blindman with a sign reading, It’s spring, and I am blind.

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