Category: Overseas
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The Three Dictators of Europe
A 1923 New York Times Magazine article said three men essentially controlled Europe: France’s Raymond Poincaré, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, and Czechoslavakia’s Edvard Beneš. Today, the average person only knows Mussolini. So who were the other two? Poincaré had previously served as president of France, and in 1923 was serving the second of what would ultimately be three…
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Mussolini and a New Renaissance
A 1923 New York Times Magazine profile of Benito Mussolini, in his first months as Italy’s Prime Minister, predicted the political party he founded would far outlast him. Mussolini died in 1943, his party was disbanded in 1945, and banned outright in 1947. The article projected: [It is incorrect] the notion that Fascism is Benito Mussolini. Mussolini…
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An American Viceroy For Europe?
In 1922, four years after World War I ended, P.W. Wilson wrote a New York Times Magazine column advocating for American occupation of Europe — like how the Allies would later occupy Japan and Germany for several years after World War II. Mere military, money, and moralities will never save Europe. Like the Phillippines, she…
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Who’ll Be Head of the Family?
In February 1923, New York Times Magazine asked: who should be considered the preeminent moral leader of the western world? For various reasons, writer Anne O’Hare McCormick cast doubt on then-leaders in the U.S., U.K., France, and even the pope. Where is the spokeman strong enough to speak for us — the more flexible Wilson,…
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Is the World Going Dry?
A 1923 New York Times Magazine article detailed the contemporary efforts of other countries to ban alcohol, just as the U.S. did with Prohibition in 1919. Like the U.S., most of those nations also ended the experiment within years. Actual prohibition has been adopted by the entire Dominion of Canada, except the Provinces of Quebec…
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English and American Women in Politics
A 1922 New York Times Magazine column surmised reasons why women had earned a higher share of political seats in the U.K. than the U.S. The same discrepancy holds true today, with women comprising larger shares of Parliament than Congress. In 1922, women had only recently gained the right to vote in both countries: in…
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Berlin Is Back Again in Touristia
World War I utterly devastated Germany. The war ended in 1918. Four years later, in 1922, the New York Times Magazine reported that tourism could finally be said to have returned to Berlin in earnest. Berlin has managed, after fading completely in 1919, after two hard but discouraging attempts in 1920 and 1921, to reinstate…
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Vodka or Ruin
Did you know that Russia had a Prohibition Era for alcohol during some of the same years as the U.S. did? In the U.S., Prohibition took effect in 1920. In Russia, it started a few years earlier, during World War I. But during the first half of the 1920s, the country desperately needed the money…
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Trotzky Explains New Red Capitalism
A 1922 New York Times Magazine profile spelled the Soviet Union revolutionary’s name Leon Trotzky, with a ‘z.’ When did the predominant spelling become Leon Trotsky, with an ‘s’? Google Books’ Ngram Viewer allows you to search for the relative popularity of different words or phrases in books over time. The ‘s’ spelling actually first became more…
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Politics a l’Italienne
A September 1922 New York Times Magazine article quoted a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies calling the body “the voice of a democracy.” Future dictator Benito Mussolini would become Prime Minister the next month. In fact, Mussolini would actually abolish the Chamber of Deputies entirely from 1939 to 1943, when he was deposed. The…
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