Cross‑cutting topics linking diverse sources.
Drawing on contemporary accounts and historical sources, this article explores how expressway construction and the decentralization of the auto industry reshaped Detroit in the 1950s, transforming a compact industrial city into a sprawling metropolitan region and setting the stage for decades of decline.
Drawing on the diary of historian Kim Seong-chil and the oral testimonies of Seoul’s ordinary residents, this article reconstructs the three-month North Korean occupation of Seoul in 1950—the fear, the hunger, the rumors, and the daily struggle to survive in a city cut off from the rest of the world.
Drawing on contemporary accounts and period sources, this article explores how the 1950s produced the first distinct teenage culture, defined by rock ‘n’ roll, cars, and a generation gap that alarmed parents and delighted advertisers.
Drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts and suffragette speeches, this article explores how the British press covered the militant campaign for women’s suffrage in the 1910s, revealing the power of the press to influence public opinion, the suffragettes’ own use of media, and the eventual shift toward reform.
In 1947, railways became both the lifeline and the death trap for millions of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims fleeing the Partition of India. Drawing on contemporary reports and official records, this article explores how trains carried the greatest migration in history—and became sites of massacre, abduction, and rescue.
Drawing on a 1945 government film, a House of Commons debate, and archival records, this article reconstructs how British citizens experienced rationing in the final year of World War II—from the official reasons for cuts to the everyday realities of points, coupons, and queues.
Drawing on the 1910 Hapsburg census and Victorian English censuses, this article explores how census returns serve as primary sources for reconstructing the daily lives, occupations, health, and social conditions of ordinary people—especially women—in the past.
Drawing on personal letters, diaries, and contemporary commentary, this article explores how women experienced the hard-won victory of suffrage and the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in the 1920s—their hopes, fears, and expectations as recorded in their own words.
Drawing on photographs, diaries, and official records, this article reconstructs the daily routines of American children in the early 20th century—from farm chores to city street work—and reveals how they experienced school, play, and labor in an era of sweeping change.
Between 1933 and 1938, thousands of American children wrote letters to Eleanor Roosevelt, describing their hunger, their fears, and their hopes. This article draws on those letters and other primary sources to show how the Great Depression was experienced by its youngest victims.