Fighting Words

Books about foreign correspondents in the first half of the twentieth century are popular at the moment, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned.* I am happily reading them as part of my deep background reading for the current book.  (It’s nice to have a reason to choose one book from the…

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Champion’s Day: The End of Old Shanghai

I will admit that I approached historian James Carter’s book Champion’s Day: The End of Old Shanghai with seriously mixed feelings. On the one hand, I spent some time last year reading about the International Settlement in Shanghai in the 1930s while I was working on a piece on self-styled “girl reporter” Peggy Hull  I…

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In which I recommend a women’s history newsletter

I had planned to tell you another story from the Weimar Republic  in today’s post, but quite frankly the post is at the Hot Mess stage*, a regular part of my process for writing articles and books but one I usually manage to avoid in blog posts.  I’ve been working at it for the better…

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