Twentieth Century
“Farmerettes” Fed the Nation at War
In the fall of 1917, manpower was short in the fields of America. When the United States entered the Great War, millions of men had left farm work to join the army or do other war-related jobs. Even with farm labor wages skyrocketing, farmers faced difficulties hiring men to harvest the crops that were needed…
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Mrs. Laura Birkhead and the French Medal of Honor
Back in June, I was poking around in newspapers.com* looking for examples of May Birkhead’s war reporting in World War I. In the process, I stumbled across a fascinating story about her mother, Laura Birkhead (1858-1938) Mrs. Birkhead was visiting her daughter in Paris when Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914. Despite…
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Word with a Past: Quisling
In her April 9 report on the German invasion of Norway, Sigrid Schultz reported that Major Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian Nazi leader, had taken power as premier and foreign minister only hours after Oslo surrendered. In a radio proclamation that evening, he “called upon the people to cease resistance to the German army and avoid…
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