1919: Franco-American Relationship Begin to Cool (The North American Review, 1919)During the closing months of the American presence in France, one element can be found in the majority of the letters written to loved ones at home: "The French aren't treating us as nice". In the war's aftermath, writer Alexander Woollcott (1887 - 1943) attempted to explain the situation to his readers; what follows were his observations. Christianity vs. Prohibition (The North American Review, 1918)Seeing that much of the momentum to prohibit the national sale, distribution and consumption of wine and spirits originated with a hardy chunk of the observant Christian community, the Reverend John Cole McKim decided to weigh in on the topic. McKim tended to believe that: "Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others..." He further opined: "But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian." Elihu Root on Teddy Roosevelt (The North American Review, 1919)Eight months after the death of Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919), the now defunct Rocky Mountain Club asked the former Secretary of State Elihu Root (1845 – 1937: Nobel Peace Prize 1912), to "say a few words" of remembrance regarding his old friend and colleague: "No one ever misunderstood what Theodore Roosevelt said. No one ever doubted what Theodore Roosevelt meant. No one ever doubted that what he said he believed, he intended and he would do. He was a man not of sentiment or expression but of feeling and of action. His proposals were always tied to action."
The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Theodore Roosevelt at number 17 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned - click here to understand his reasoning...
The Bible and Slavery - Part 1 - (The North American Review, 1864)This is a book review written during the American Civil War, of a British work titled, Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery by a well known anti-imperialist of the time named Goldwin Smith (1823-1910). "The Southern people tell us, that, under their training, the African has become a Christian. When they receive their runaway negroes, who are sent back to them in obedience to the law, as fellow-Christians, "not as servants, but as brothers beloved", the mission of St. Paul and his Master to both will be accomplished". The Trail of Tears (The North American Review, 1912)Twenty five years after the long march that has come to be known as the 'Trail of Tears', an account of that sad injustice was written by one of the first archeologists of the American south-west, O.K. Davis. "The troops and Indians marched side by side for two days for Fort Bowie. Then, Geronimo, Natchez, and about twenty men...escaped..." The second half of the article is available upon request. Post-World War I France (The North American Review, 1920)In the later years of the First World War, the American journalist Alexander Woollcott (1887 - 1943) served as a writer for the Doughboy newspaper The Stars & Stripes. In this roll he was able to travel far afield all over the American sectors of the front where he saw a great deal of the war: flattened villages, ravaged farmland, factories reduced to ruble. In the attached article from 1920, Woollcott reported that the war-torn provinces of France looked much the same, even two years after the Armistice. He was surprised at the glacial speed with which France was making the urgent repairs, and in this article he presented a sort-of Doughboy's-eye-view of post-war France.
More on this topic can be read here
John Brown Examined (The North American Review, 1910)A 1910 book review of Oswald Garrison Villard's biography of John Brown (1800 - 1859). Believed to be one of the more honest biographies on Brown, Villard's effort is said to have five chapters dealing only with Brown's activities in "Bloody Kansas", including the slaughter at Pottawatomie.
Chemical War (The North American Review, 1922)The article attached concerns the past and future of chemical warfare (at least as this was understood in 1922) and was written by Captain J.M. Scammell, Brit who wrote a good deal on the matter throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties. Like so many other articles we find from the immediate post-war period, Captain Scammell argued that chemical warfare can be one of the most humane options available to a general: "The really significant figures are those showing that while gas caused 27.3 percent of all casualties, of these only 1.87 percent died! That is less than one-twelfth the percentage that died from the effects of other wounds. Gas, moreover, does not mutilate or disfigure..." The Bible and Slavery (The North American Review, 1864)This is a book review written during the American Civil War of a British work titled, "Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery" by a well known anti-imperialist of the time named Goldwin Smith (1823-1910). "Is African slavery, as it exists in our Southern states, an evil or a good thing? Is it, or is it not, consistent with a high sense of duty to man and to God, and with the requirements of that state of Christian civilization which the foremost nations of the world have reached?" The second part of the article is available upon request. Titanic Didn't Have to Sink (The North American Review, 1912)As an architect of U.S. Navy battleships and a popular New York politician,
Lewis Nixon (1861 - 1940), maintained throughout this article that the full array of 1912 technology was ignored in the planning of Titanic's first (and only) voyage: "We have in our battle-ships devices to show when water enters compartments, and by simple and economical devices it would be possible to have the depth to which water has risen indicated on the bridge, and on merchantmen as well as on our men-of-war searchlights should be carried." Israel Zangwill and the Great War (The North American Review, 1916)Israel Zangwill (1864 - 1926) was a member of the Jewish literary society in Britain; he was an prominent lecturer, journalist, novelist and playwright. Today, however, he is mostly remembered for his efforts on behalf of the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland. The following is a luke-warm book review from 1916 covering his collection of essays about World War I, The War for the World . Christianity Versus Prohibition (The North American Review, 1918)Seeing that much of the momentum to prohibit the national sale, distribution and consumption of wine and spirits originated with a hardy chunk of the observant Christian community, the Reverend John Cole McKim decided to weigh in on the topic. McKim tended to believe that: "Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others..." He further opined: "But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian."
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era
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