Tuskegee Institute Nurse Eunice Rivers Laurie. (Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration Southeast Region Records of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention) Eunice Verdell Rivers was born on November 12, 1899, in Jakin, Georgia. She was best known as “Nurse Rivers” during her…
On this Veterans’ Day, Shirley Graham Du Bois might be remembered in her own right as a veteran of some important battles in a long war.
Daniel Berrigan first met Dorothy Day during his Jesuit formation in the early ’50s, bringing his Brooklyn Prep students to her place near the Bowery. “It was life-changing for all of us,” he remembered. In 1961 Day attended a talk of Berrigan’s on Catholic social teaching and the influence of John XXIII. “Just like a priest!” she snapped afterward, leaving no time for others to discuss, but the next day she requested a copy of his talk for possible publication.
It is impossible to draw a direct causal link from November 1989 to all that came in its wake, but by making the unthinkable thinkable, the fall of the Berlin Wall set off a much larger cascade of events.
On the anniversary of his departure, a tip of the hat to Uncle Norman, whose latter-day appeal to the contemporary MAGA crowd ought not be held against him.
Diem’s assassination made an impossibly bad situation mind-numbingly, impossibly worse. Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastazio Somoza, “Yes, he is a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.” No one said that about Diem.
My esteem for Peter Jackson has limits even if, in my judgment, he remains a remarkable poet-director. Commemorating his birthday calls forth warm feelings and happy memories, but, to understand his artistic strengths, we must also acknowledge his weaknesses.
A review of multiple scientific studies showed that individuals with ASD consistently struggled harder with problematic internet use and showed more symptoms of internet addiction—depression, inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, opposition, and escapism. Another review found children and adults with ASD to be more vulnerable to the problematic use of video games.
Calling the Spirits is a nifty survey of the western world’s supposed interactions with the spirits of the dead. Lisa Morton's book reveals that our quest for ghosts is an expression of humanity, a way to cope with how overwhelmed we are when we lose someone close to us, how unbearable it is to think that the person is gone forever.
Reagan’s speech on behalf of Goldwater in 1964 was an 11th-hour attempt to breathe life into the campaign, which, in fact, it briefly did. Reagan was taking a risk coming out for Goldwater, who was considered outside the political mainstream, for some, an extremist. But Reagan, knowing, as everyone did, that Goldwater was going to lose, stood to inherit a political constituency.