American History
Back for one last section of the Great River–and a post from the archives
In November, 2015, My Own True Love and I began what turned into a multi-year adventure, driving the Great River Road along the Mississippi from where the river begins in Minnesota to where it ends in Louisiana. * We envisioned doing the entire trip in three weeks—a totally unrealistic assessment given the fact that between…
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From the Archives–Word with a Past: Gerrymander
This post originally ran in 2018. Unfortunately, some stories never go out of date. If Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) had played his cards right, he could have been a minor but respected figure in American history. He signed the Declaration of Independence, helped draft the Bill of Rights, served two terms in Congress, and was the…
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Word with a Past: Muckrakers
While I was writing about Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910), I started off thinking of her as a proto-muckraker, working a generation before people like Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946),* Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) and Ida B. Wells (1862-1931). But the closer I looked, the more I realized that the realism for which she was…
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