Shin-Kickers From History
Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President, Over and Over Again
Labor organizer Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855. He left home when he was fourteen to work for the railroad—not unusual for the time. In 1875, he helped organize a local lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman, a fraternal benefit society which gradually took on the role of a…
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Dorothy Sayers, Lord Peter Whimsey, and The Mutual Admiration Society
I am a long-time fan of Dorothy Sayers’ mystery novels. With the exception of The Nine Tailors,* I’ve read all of them many times. I would go so far as to say that her picture of educated women’s lives helped shape my image of the life I wanted. I was thrilled when I got a…
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Road Trip Through History: The Genoa National Fish Hatchery and the Black Hawk War
Here’s what I knew about the Black Hawk War at the beginning of our most recent travels along the Great River Road: it was a small scale war between Native American tribes and American settlers in the upper Midwest prior to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln fought in it as a member of the…
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