Recent Articles

U.S. Congress Approves Naval Expansion
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

In 1934, the members of the U.S. Congress were able to see how ugly the world was becoming – and with this forethought they approved the Vinson Act. This legislation did not violate any of the restrictions agreed to under the Washington Naval Treaty and provided funds for 102 additional ships to be added to the American fleet by 1942.

Nanking Falls
(The Literary Digest, 1937)

Exactly four months after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities on the Shanghai peninsula’ a New York Herald Tribune correspondent cabled from Shanghai last week, ‘Nanking, China’s abandoned capital, for the third time in it’s more than 2000 years of history, was captured by an alien foe when the Japanese military forces completely occupied the city.’ …To this, Quo Taichi, Chinese ambassador to England, replied defiantly: ‘Capture of Nanking will by no means mark the end of China’s resistance.’

The Armory Show of 1913
(Literary Digest, 1913)

In this article, The Mob as Art Critic, an anonymous reviewer gathered excerpts from assorted negative reviews concerning the New York Armory Show of 1913 in an attempt to show the often violent reaction the exhibit inspired.

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W.E.B. Du Boise and the Documents of U.S. Army Prejudice
(The Crises, 1919

This historic article first appeared in a 1919 issue of The Crisis and served to document the official discrimination against African-Americans who served both in the ranks and as officers in the American Army during the First World War. The article includes the communications from high-ranking American officers to the French military authorities, conveying their suggestions as to how America’s black Doughboys were to be treated.

In the War’s Aftermath Came Spiritual Disillusion
(Current Opinion Magazine, 1919)

At the thirty-fifth annual Church Congress of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1919), clergy members seemed to agree that Christian leaders were needlessly complicitstyle=border:none concerning their support for the First World War and were guilty of substituting Christian principles for patriotism:


Christianity has betrayed itself body and soul.


If you would like to read about the spirit of disillusion that permeated post-war literature, click here.

Victory and Paris Fashion
(Vogue Magazine, 1919)

The Paris Victory Parade celebrating the end of the 1914 – 1918 war was a long awaited and much anticipated fashion event and Mme. Parisienne was not going to miss it for all the crepe de Chin in China. This VOGUE correspondent contrasted the Paris that existed a short time earlier, the gray, deserted Paris with the Paris of the 1919 Victory Parade and notes how eager the natives were to recreate that mirthful, light-hearted Paris of 1913 that they all remembered so well. There is a great sense of joie de vivre throughout the article, but it very rapidly becomes a laundry list concerning who-wore-what-where.

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Anticipating the Titanic Disaster
(The Nation, 1912)

A couple of years prior to the sinking of Titanic the president of the International Seaman’s Union of America presented a petition before the U.S. Congress declaring that the issue of safety at sea is widely ignored on all levels. In his address he remarked:

There is not sailing today on any ocean any passenger vessel carrying the number of boats needed to take care of the passengers and crew…

German Submarines in American Waters
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

This article is composed of a couple of paragraphs recalling the damages caused to American shipping as a result of the U-Boat menace on the East Coast of the United States during the First World War. Written at a time when the U.S. was once again having to deal with the same threat, this time by Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891 – 1980), the journalist wished that Henry J. James, the author of German Subs In Yankee Waters
be properly credited for having devised many of the more successful countermeasures.

Musslolini And The Pope: Friction
(Newsweek Magazine, 1939)

On June 29, 1931, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical letter that condemned Italian fascism’s “pagan worship of the State” and “revolution which snatches the young from the Church and from Jesus Christ, and which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence and irreverence.” The Pope irritated Mussolini to a further degree by labeling the Italian Fascist government as anti-Catholic after Il Duce put the kibosh on numerous Catholic youth organizations throughout the land. A Truce was agreed upon but as Mussolini grew closer to the Nazis later in the decade, and the battle reemerged.

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The Famous One: The Burberry Trench Coat
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The trench coat, the submarine and the machine-gun were just a few of the innovations bequeathed to the modern world following the bloody brawl of 1914-1918. All three are still with us today, and one could even argue that, given the bitter peace that followed, these three were the only victors that emerged from that war. If that is the case, three cheers for Field Marshal Burberry and his legion of trench coats that have marched on every capitol city since that first autumn on the Marne!

The Famous One: The Burberry Trench Coat
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The trench coat, the submarine and the machine-gun were just a few of the innovations bequeathed to the modern world following the bloody brawl of 1914-1918. All three are still with us today, and one could even argue that, given the bitter peace that followed, these three were the only victors that emerged from that war. If that is the case, three cheers for Field Marshal Burberry and his legion of trench coats that have marched on every capitol city since that first autumn on the Marne!

The Clothing of Abraham Lincoln
(Coronet Magazine, 1950)

The attached article is a segment from a longer one about the history of Brooks Brothers and it confirms that the Great Emancipator was one of their customers, as were the Union Army Generals Grant, Sherman and Hooker.


Click here if you would like to read the entire article about the first 132 years of Brooks Brothers.

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The Foundation Garments that Were Needed for ”The New Look”
(See Magazine, 1948)

Since The New Look sought to overhaul the fashion silhouette of the female form it was quickly understood that women would need different foundation garments to complete this look. Fashion’s cry has always been: When nature doth deny, let art supply – and the rocket scientists of the ladies underwear subculture did just that. The attached photo-essay from See Magazine shows three pictures of the new under-lovelies.


Click here to learn about the lingerie and pajamas that had to be hand-crafted on the W.W. II American home front…

The Foundation Garments that Were Needed for ”The New Look”
(See Magazine, 1948)

Since The New Look sought to overhaul the fashion silhouette of the female form it was quickly understood that women would need different foundation garments to complete this look. Fashion’s cry has always been: When nature doth deny, let art supply – and the rocket scientists of the ladies underwear subculture did just that. The attached photo-essay from See Magazine shows three pictures of the new under-lovelies.


Click here to learn about the lingerie and pajamas that had to be hand-crafted on the W.W. II American home front…

What To Do About Diem?
(United States News, 1963)

Here is an article by a respected American journalist who was dispatched to South Vietnam in order that he might see for himself what the problems were as to why the Republic of Vietnam seemed so incapable of maintaining military dominance in the field. Everywhere he went he got the same answer:

A highly respected professor at Saigon University [remarked]:
‘If you have to make a choice between supporting the Ngo family
and withdrawing from South Vietnam, you might as well pull out.

You cannot win with the family.’

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Babe Ruth’s Record
(Gentry Magazine, 1952)

Compiled four years after the Babe’s death, the attached list will provide you with a compilation of all the various, assorted mosts that Babe Ruth racked up during his baseball career:


Most home runs, lifetime…………………………….714

Most home runs, American League………………708

Most home runs, World Series…………………….15

Most home runs, season…………………………….60

Most years leading in home runs………………….12

etc…etc…

Our French Inheritance
(United States News, 1954)

The U.S. is going to shoulder the job of saving what is left of Indo-China from the Communists…Congress is unlikely to approve additional funds. South Vietnam isn’t a good-enough risk to be worth much bigger American investment. Everything may go down the drain in 19 months.

African-Americans During the Great Depression
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

Written during the later years of the Great Depression, these columns summarize the sad lot of America’s Black population – their hardships, ambitions, leadership, and where they tended to live.

When the Depression struck, Negroes were the first to lose their jobs. Today, 1,500,000 colored adults are unemployed.


A 1938 article about the hardships of the Southern States during the Great Depression can be read here…


Click here to learn about the origins of the term Jim Crow.

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