Explore early 20th century history and culture—uncovering the entertainment and social trends that shaped life in North America and Europe from 1900 to 1930
Revised April 2, 2025 A Salome story: I spent many years working with historical documents at the Library of Congress and other cultural heritage institutions. Historical documents, also known as primary sources, provide firsthand evidence about people, events, and ideas from the past. Primary sources can reveal great stories about what has—and hasn’t—changed over time….
Revised March 26, 2025 The telephone and “Hello Girls” were wildly disruptive when they arrived at the end of the 19th century. They were radical innovations that brought change, not the least for single women, both in the workplace and in the male imagination. Women dominated the ranks of telephone operators early on, starting with…
Modified March 25, 2025 Autistic characters—both in stories and real life—have always existed. What we now call autism has long been part of the human condition, even though medicine only began identifying the particular set of physical and mental traits associated with it within the last 100 years. This issue has special relevance to me….
Revised March 25, 2025 Women doctors now make up about 60 percent of practitioners under 35. The situation was very different in the past. No Women Doctors Need Apply In her book “Doctors Wanted, No Women Need Apply”: Sexual Barriers in the Medical Profession, 1835-1975, Mary Roth Walsh recounts the terrible difficulty women faced in…
Posted on February 20, 2020 by billlefurgy Updated, March 25, 2025 A viral song elbowed sex into American popular culture during the early years of the twentieth century. I learned more about this while researching my historical mystery book Into the Suffering City, which is set in 1909 Baltimore. Ragtime Music Sets the Stage for Controversial Songs Romance…