Navigating the Heartache WWI Brings
What would you purchase if you had more money than you knew what do with? A private island? A fleet of personal jets? A sports team? Gilded Age industrialist Andrew Carnegie purchased a dinosaur skeleton. Carnegie became interested in dinosaurs in 1898 after reading an article in the New York Journal that detailed the discovery…
Visitors to zoos today see animals housed in large enclosures where the creatures have room to play, exercise and interact with their own kind. This wasn’t always the case. More than a century ago, animals were kept behind bars in small cages. Sometimes the situation was even worse, as with Gunda the elephant, an inmate…
We don’t call the soft drink Coca-Cola “Coke” for nothing. The original formula contained cocaine, but how much is debatable. The beverage’s syrup was manufactured with an extract of coca leaves – it’s the leaves that contain cocaine – and the caffeine rich kola nut. The beverage was one of several coca drinks on the…
Can something be simultaneously genius and vilely racist? This is the question posed by D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film Birth of a Nation. Silent film star Mary Pickford called it the first movie that made people take the motion picture industry seriously. The film debuted in a politically charged atmosphere, full of anti-immigrant bias, racial tensions,…
In World War II, a group of Navajo enlisted in the Marines with the sole purpose of developing unique communication codes. These Marines came to be known as the “code talkers,” soldiers who developed signals and messages based on native languages that when translated into English spelled out specific messages. The Navajo became famous for…
Historical events are captured, recorded, and interpreted in numerous ways. Primarily remembered in academic fields, history is emanated through popular culture as well. Films, TV shows, plays, books, and artwork tell the story behind some of history’s most significant events and people. (This post was written by guest blogger Thomas Richardson.) For World War I,…
President Woodrow Wilson struggled to maintain United States neutrality when war broke out in 1914. Strong social and political forces lobbied specific arguments supporting intervention or isolation. With the declaration of war in April 1917, Wilson understood that in order to maintain public support for the war, the U.S. government needed to create an agency…
The global impact of the Great War reverberated throughout world history. In the United States, the outbreak of the war brought about a significant event impacting every citizen. The conflict didn’t just influence how the United States recognized its place internationally, but how it behaved socially. (This post was written by guest blogger Thomas Richardson.)…
European armies were larger than they had been even before the outbreak of World War I. Millions served on both sides and with them were the most technologically sophisticated and advanced military machinery of the day. (This post was written by guest blogger Thomas Richardson.) More than 13 million men served in the German Army…
The home front directed factory production, agricultural output, and local community energies to the war effort in World War I. President Woodrow Wilson stated that “it is not only an army we must shape and train, but also a nation.” (This post was written by guest blogger Thomas Richardson.) National sentiment leaned mostly to isolation,…