Major occurrences documented by contemporary accounts.
Explore the Russian Revolution as it unfolded through the letters, diaries, newspapers, and eyewitness reports of those who lived it. Drawing on Project 1917, the Bodleian Library’s Petrograd 1917, and Harvey Pitcher’s collected testimonies, this article reconstructs the chaos, fear, and hope of 1917 in real time.
Drawing on the front-line dispatches of the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, this article reconstructs the Romanian Revolution of 1989 as it unfolded—through the eyes of journalists who risked everything to document the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Drawing on contemporary reports, eyewitness accounts, and radio broadcasts, this article reconstructs the 1925 Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’ as a national spectacle that pitted faith against science, and reveals what Americans knew, feared, and expected as a Tennessee schoolteacher stood accused of teaching evolution.
Drawing on contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts, this article explores how Winston Churchill’s wartime heroism proved insufficient against Labour’s promise of social reform, leading to one of the biggest electoral swings in British history.
Drawing on letters and diaries from American, British, and Canadian soldiers, this article reconstructs the Battle of Normandy from the D-Day landings to the breakout, revealing the fears, hopes, and daily realities of the men who fought.
Drawing on the dispatches, notebooks, and photographs of the journalists who remained in Saigon during the final days of April 1975, this article reconstructs the fall of South Vietnam’s capital as it was experienced and reported at the time—from the eerie calm of the deserted streets to the arrival of North Vietnamese troops.
Drawing on the first AP bulletin, BBC dispatches, and eyewitness accounts, this article reconstructs how the world learned of President Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, and how contemporaries experienced the shock, confusion, and grief of that day.
In February 1958, thousands of sugar workers in Hawaii walked off the job under the ILWU banner, demanding a 25-cent hourly raise. The strike, which stretched into 1959, was marked by the unusual sight of strikers continuing to water the cane fields they had abandoned. Drawing on union newsletters, industry reports, and contemporary press coverage, this article reconstructs the conflict as it was experienced and reported at the time.
Drawing on BBC broadcasts, personal diaries, and the recollections of Londoners, this article reveals how ordinary people experienced the Blitz—the fear, the resilience, and the myths that grew around it.
Drawing on letters, diaries, and eyewitness reports from 1938–1939, this article reconstructs how Kindertransport refugee children experienced displacement, identity, and belonging through their own written words.
