You think one vote doesn’t matter? Hah!

I have told this story here on the Margins before.  But with the presidential election upon us and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment swishing past, I think it’s important to remember right now that in the end the 19th Amendment was ratified thanks to one man’s vote.   In August, 1920, 35 states…

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Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds and the History of Radio Broadcasting

You’ve probably heard this story before: On October 30, 1938, a 23-year-old theatrical boy-wonder named Orson Welles caused panic among radio listeners with the Halloween episode of his Mercury Theatre on the Air (1): an adaptation of H.G. Well’s The War of the Worlds.(2) Actors played the roles of correspondents who broke into an on-going…

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Royal Witches

Long before women’s history became a thing, two types of women held a place in the public imagination: queens (or more accurately, princesses) and witches. In Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth Century England, historian Gemma Hollman considers a point at which two subjects of women’s history intersect—the political roles played by royal…

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