Recent Articles

Arranged Marriages to Seal the Peace in the Balkans (Dress and Vanity Fair Magazine, 1913)

When the attached article first appeared in print the Balkan War (1912 – 1913) was over, however some of the swells of Europe put their crowned heads together and collectively came up with the best Medieval plan they could think of in order to insure the promise of peace in the region.


It was agreed that the Czar’s daughter, Grand Duchess Olga (1895 – 1918), would wed Serbia’s Crown Prince Alexander (1888 – 1934); while the Czar’s second daughter, Grand Duchess Tatiana (1897 – 1918) was promised to Romania’s Crown Prince Charles (1893 – 1959). All concerned felt that Romania’s Princess Elizabeth (1894-1956) and Crown Prince George of Greece (1890 – 1947) would make a simply splendid couple (they divorced in 1935).

Closing The Golden Door (American Legion Weekly, 1922)

If you’ve been in search of an historical article that clearly indicated that Americans were irked by white immigrants just as much as they’ve been bugged by non-white immigrants – then search no more. The journalist who penned this 1922 column chides the U.S. Government, and the people who granted them authority, for the difficulties that were placed in the path of all the various poor European migrants yearning to breathe free:

Whilst it does seem most expedient to curtail immigration, it ought to be done in a way which would impose least hardship on those who after all have had a supreme belief in America. One of America’s weaknesses lies in red tape, did it need to be said; another lies in a sort of contempt for the poor whites of Europe – the ‘Wops’ and the ‘K*k*s’ and the ‘Dagoes’ and ‘Hunkies’ and the rest. They are unfortunate – after all, that is the chief thing against them.

The Feminist Rebellion of the Twenties (The Dilineator, 1921)

It was estimated that there were as many as two million empty seats around the collective family dinner tables in Post World War One Britain. Such an absence of young men could not help but lead to a new social arrangement:

England is the great human laboratory of our generation – England with her surplus of two million women, her restless, well-equipped, unsatisfied women.


Too many European women were unable to find husbands and moved to America.

Liquid Fire (Literary Digest, 1916)

– A well-illustrated article which sought to explain to American readers the workings of one of the most heinous inventions of the First World War:

This idea of projecting upon the adverse trenches and their occupants a rain of liquid fire was no sudden afterthought of the German mind. It was conceived, studied, and perfected for several years before the war, and its history may be traced in the German patent office.

College Essentials (Quick Magazine, 1952)

Here are a few short paragraphs accompanied by nine images concerning what the college girls of the early Fifties were wearing:

A girl can still get into college with a sweater and skirt, but for full credit she needs quantities of gadgets. For campus, girls stick to classic Brooks Brothers sweaters, pleated skirts, blue jeans – but go wild on accessories and underwear novelties…


The journalist then went to some effort listing many of the fashionable essentials: stamp bracelets, rhinestone handcuff bracelets, silk pleated turtleneck sweaters and harness-neck bib fronts – all to die for.

The American Army Occupies Coblenz, Germany (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

On the afternoon of December 8, 1918, the troops of the Third American Army entered Koblenz. This was the goal of the occupation. The Yankees had reached the Rhine.

Probably never in all its stressful history did enemy troops enter it so in quite the matter-of-fact manner which marked the American entry last Sunday. There was no band. There were no colors. ‘We’re just going in sort of casual like,’ one of our generals had said the day before, and he was right.

The Case for Cavalry (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919)

Numbered among the many Monday-morning-quarterbacks who appeared in print throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties were the old horse soldiers of yore, bemoaning the fact that industrial warfare had deprived their kind of the glory that was their birthright. This was not the case on the Eastern Front, where Imperial Russian generals had seen fit to launch as many as 400 cavalry charges – while American troopers were ordered to dismount (along with most other cavalry units in the West) and suffer postings with the Service of Supply, among other assorted indignities.

The Case for Cavalry (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919)

Numbered among the many Monday-morning-quarterbacks who appeared in print throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties were the old horse soldiers of yore, bemoaning the fact that industrial warfare had deprived their kind of the glory that was their birthright. This was not the case on the Eastern Front, where Imperial Russian generals had seen fit to launch as many as 400 cavalry charges – while American troopers were ordered to dismount (along with most other cavalry units in the West) and suffer postings with the Service of Supply, among other assorted indignities.

The German View of the Next War (Literary Digest, 1912)

Attached is a short review of a book that turned many heads in the diplomatic circles of Europe in 1911: Germany And The Next War, written by Germany’s General von Bernhardi (1849 – 1930):

A very influential military writer in Germany declares that Germany must win her place as a world power through warfare.

The book sales in Germany were quite meager up until the first shot was fired in August of 1914, when they picked up considerably.

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