Recently a long-time blog reader, named Jack French, reached out to me with a story for a blog post:  “Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie Phillips, the real inventor of Monopoly, not Charles Darrow, the guy history incorrectly credits as inventing this game”.  As anyone who has read more than a few posts here on the Margins can…

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If you’ve been hanging out here on the Margins for very long, you’ve read stories about nurses in the American Civil War. I am fascinated by their stories: the reasons they volunteered, the lives they left behind, the way they dealt with the common challenges that all nurses faced, what they did after the war.…

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At the moment, the Vietnam War is on America’s collective minds once more, thanks to Ken Burns’ amazing documentary. Burns dealt briefly on the story of the women who served–just enough to make those of us who are interested in the roles of women in war want to know more. Luckily, I knew the right…

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