Posts by Pamela
From the Archives: Word With a Past -Vaudeville
In 1648, revolution broke out in the streets of Paris. Known at the time as the Fronde ,* it was in many ways a rehearsal for the French Revolution(s) that would follow. Barricades went up in the streets. Aristocrats were pulled out of their carriages and shot at. Militias paraded in the public squares. There…
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The Weeping Widow
The world’s first female prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of what was then Ceylon, is the archetypical example of what political scientists sometimes refer to as the “widow’s walk to power,” in which a woman steps into a position of political power after the often-violent death of her husband.The assumption is such women will carry on…
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From the Archives: Did Civil War Nurses Wear Uniforms?
Dear Marginalia: I’m coming close to the deadline and close to the end of the book. I’m also in Kenosha, Wisconsin, speaking at a Civil War medicine weekend at the Civil War museum here. ( Saturday, 2/17, 1 PM–stop on by if you’re in the neighborhood!) It’s a lovely way to hit the road for…
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