Major occurrences documented by contemporary accounts.
In 1945, nearly four million British servicemen and women returned from war to a homeland transformed by bombing, rationing, and social change. Drawing on contemporary accounts, this article explores the hopes, fears, and upheavals of demobilisation—the journey from khaki to ‘civvy street.’
Based on official records and contemporary accounts, this article reconstructs the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, where the Allied leaders set the terms for Germany’s occupation and the postwar order, revealing the hopes, tensions, and fears of the era.
Drawing on the wire reports of the Associated Press, the front page of the New York Times, and the testimony of ground crew member Frank Ward, this article reconstructs the Hindenburg disaster of May 6, 1937 — the fireball at Lakehurst, the confusion of the first reports, and the end of the airship era.
Drawing on letters, diaries, oral histories, and documentary collections, this article reconstructs how the Vietnam War was experienced and understood by those who lived through it—from American soldiers ‘in country’ to Vietnamese civilians and antiwar protesters.
Drawing on official reports, newspaper accounts, and eyewitness descriptions, this article reconstructs how Americans saw, felt, and remembered the 1900 Paris Exposition—a world’s fair that dazzled with technology while stirring deep anxieties about the new century.
In June 1948, Soviet forces blockaded West Berlin, and the United States and Britain launched a massive airlift to sustain the city. The crisis demonstrated the West’s resolve, and its aftermath led directly to the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949.
Drawing on contemporary reports from TIME, The New Yorker, and the press corps itself, this article reconstructs the chaotic, hopeful atmosphere of the 1945 San Francisco Conference and the extraordinary media circus that surrounded it.
Drawing on contemporary letters, newspapers, and official statements, this article reconstructs how the Suez Crisis of 1956 was seen, reported, and understood at the time—from the anxious streets of London to the triumphant Cairo of Nasser.
Drawing on the recently published memoir of Kiyoshi Tanimoto, the photographs of Yoshito Matsushige, and the testimony of Chieko Kiriake, this article reconstructs the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as experienced by those who lived through it—revealing what they knew, feared, and understood in the immediate aftermath.
Based on UPI dispatches and front-page reports from July 27, 1953, this article reconstructs the tense, uncertain hours of the Korean War ceasefire as journalists on the ground described them—from the last artillery shells to the eerie silence that followed.
