Posts by Pamela
From the Archives: A Word with a Past: Kidnap
In the mid-seventeenth century, the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean were suffering from a labor shortage. The colonies had originally attracted Britain’s surplus population: dreamers, fortune-hunters, religious nuts, younger sons, prisoners of war, political failures, vagrants, criminals, the homeless, and the desperate. Some came with a small financial stake. Many came as…
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Charles Dana Gibson and the Great War
Seven days after the United States entered the Great War in April 1917, Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public information, a semi-official propaganda agency headed by journalist George Creel. The goal of the committee was to use mass communication to build support for the war effort. While much of the committee’s work was aimed…
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“When in the course of human events”–you know how it goes from here
Here in the United States, we are celebrating the 4th of July. It’s a hot day in Chicago, where I live. The city is hosting a NASCAR race and Mensa’s Annual Gathering—two events that may never have been in such close proximity before. There will be official fireworks in suburbs throughout the area, though none…
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