Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
November 2020
Editor's Note: H. W. Brands is a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written thirty books, including the just published The Zealot and the Emancipator, a dual biography of the abolitionist John Brown and President Abraham Lincoln, in which portions of this essay appeared.
Editors' Note: Gil Klein, author of Tales from the National Press Club, is former president of the Club and a frequent contributor to American Heritage.
Every president since Theodore Roosevelt has spoken at some point at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
With his election this month, I thought I would check out Joe Biden’s record. Since the President-elect has been a fixture of Washington politics for nearly 50 years, it was not surprising that he has spoken many times at the Club.
Masks. Social Distancing. Avoid crowds.
In 1918 Americans struggled against an especially lethal pandemic without vaccines or therapeutic drugs.
Here is some advice and news we culled from newspapers of the time.
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Federal authorities distributed advice that was widely published.
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,Newspapers published instructions on how to sew your own masks.
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,What happened if you caught the flu?
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,There was a severe shortage of nurses because so many medical staff were with the troops in Europe.
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,Volunteer nurses were sought for emergency zones. An enterprising druggist sold oil to disinfect (and polish!) telephones.
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Editor's Note: The nine Thanksgiving recipes linked to below are reprinted from The American Heritage Cookbook, which was published in eight editions from 1964 to the mid-1980s.
This menu for a New England Thanksgiving dinner is taken from a letter written in 1779 by Juliana Smith to her “Dear Cousin Betsey.” 