In 1972, Julie L. Davis and her grandmother discuss the merits of good storytelling. BY JULIE L. DAVISAssociate professor of history at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University In the last years of her life, a conversation with my grandmother inevitably led to her asking me, “So how is The Book coming?” Each time, … More Telling true stories about the past
In the 1930s, the dragnet came to refer to the use of radio as the key technology to combat criminal mobility.This image from 1935 is of a radio program being recorded at KTAR (AM), Phoenix, Arizona. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. BY KATHLEEN BATTLESAssociate professor of communication and journalism at Oakland University … More The history of government surveillance in the U.S.: From the dragnet to Prism
Penny A. Petersen is author of Minneapolis Madams, the surprising and riveting account of the Minneapolis red-light district in the late nineteenth century and the powerful madams who ran it. In their heyday Minneapolis brothels constituted a substantial economic and political force in the city. Penny digs deep into city archives, newspapers, and other sources … More Vignettes: 19th-century brothels and the lost history of prostitution on the Minneapolis riverfront.
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The St. Paul Union Depot was among the busiest and best-known places in the city—one of the largest depots in the nation and St. Paul’s link to the world. Here, John W. Diers, author of St. Paul Union Depot, recounts a piece of that history, illustrated with images that appear in the book. Look to … More Mixed enthusiasm, fast growth: The early history of the St. Paul Union Depot.
A party of four women canoeing near an island on Burntside Lake, August 4, 1940. Here, author Aaron Shapiro recalls his own memorable North Woods experiences and elaborates on the efforts and collaboration that went into making the area such a popular tourist destination. (Believe it or not, north-Midwesterners, this weather will be ours once … More How the great North Woods became such a huge tourist attraction—through planning and of course, obstacles in the road.
What is this billboard not asking us to question? BY DIANNE HARRISArchitectural historian and director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign At a prominent intersection in my city, a billboard presents the face of a white woman, her furrowed brow and sad eyes conveying a state … More Housing and race: More than meets the eye
Courtyard of the Pan American Union, Washington, DC, 1943. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection (LC-USW36-734). Photograph by John Collier. Among the buildings on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., only the Pan American Union (PAU) houses an international organization. The first of many anticipated “peace palaces”constructed in the early twentieth century, … More Archival analysis and cold war Pan Americanism
Cited for contempt of Congress, nine Hollywood men give themselves up to U.S. Marshal on December 10, 1947, after refusing to answer questions about their alleged involvement with the Communist Party. From left: Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter; Edward Dmytryk, director; Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter; Lester Cole, screenwriter; Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director; Albert Maltz, screenwriter; … More Remembering the Hollywood blacklist and those artists who were silenced more than sixty years ago.
Q&A with Leigh FondakowskiEmmy-nominated coscreenwriter for the adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO Leigh Fondakowski spent three years traveling the U.S. to interview survivors of the Jonestown massacre, many of whom have never talked publicly about the tragedy. Using more than two hundred hours of interview material, Fondakowski creates intimate portraits of these survivors … More Most things written about the Jonestown saga end on Nov. 18, 1978, the day more than 900 Americans died. "Stories from Jonestown" begins on that day.
