Richard Kreitner

richardkreitner

Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer and the author of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. His writings are at richardkreitner.com.

January 20, 1937: FDR Is Inaugurated for the Second Time

January 20, 1937: FDR Is Inaugurated for the Second Time January 20, 1937: FDR Is Inaugurated for the Second Time

“A thin but pleasant sort of rhetoric” suffused FDR’s second inaugural address, The Nation thought.

Jan 20, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 19, 1809: Edgar Allen Poe Is Born

January 19, 1809: Edgar Allen Poe Is Born January 19, 1809: Edgar Allen Poe Is Born

Why does Europe so love Poe? The Nation’s Simeon Strunsky asked on the writer’s 100th birthday. Because in him “she has caught the true voice of the young world b...

Jan 19, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 18, 1919: The Peace Conference Convenes at Paris

January 18, 1919: The Peace Conference Convenes at Paris January 18, 1919: The Peace Conference Convenes at Paris

The Nation’s editor reports from the conference, where he laments the absence of women, workers and communists.

Jan 18, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 17, 1961: President Eisenhower Warns of the ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ in His Farewell Address

January 17, 1961: President Eisenhower Warns of the ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ in His Farewell Address January 17, 1961: President Eisenhower Warns of the ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ in His Farewell Address

When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in January 1961 he warned against the growing menace to democracy of “the military-industrial complex,” to which The Nation devote...

Jan 17, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment Is Ratified, Prohibition of Alcohol Becomes Law

January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment Is Ratified, Prohibition of Alcohol Becomes Law January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment Is Ratified, Prohibition of Alcohol Becomes Law

The Nation’s editor and publisher Oswald Garrison Villard, whatever his radicalism on other issues, was a lifelong teetotaler, influenced by a childhood warning by his mother...

Jan 16, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born

January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born

From 1961 until 1966, King published in The Nation an annual report on the progress of the civil-rights movement during the previous year. In this installment, "Hammer of Civil Rig...

Jan 15, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

‘America Is Sinking Fast’: John Leonard and Todd Gitlin on Robert Stone

‘America Is Sinking Fast’: John Leonard and Todd Gitlin on Robert Stone ‘America Is Sinking Fast’: John Leonard and Todd Gitlin on Robert Stone

“Stone may leave the country,” the late essayist wrote of the late novelist, &ldquot;but it’s America confounded that he finds wherever he goes.”

Jan 14, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner and Back Issues

January 14, 2011: President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali Flees Tunisia, Marking the First Victory of the Arab Spring

January 14, 2011: President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali Flees Tunisia, Marking the First Victory of the Arab Spring January 14, 2011: President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali Flees Tunisia, Marking the First Victory of the Arab Spring

In the winter of 2011, a revolution begins across the Arab world when Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali resigns following protests against government abuse and corruption....

Jan 14, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 13, 1941: James Joyce Dies

January 13, 1941: James Joyce Dies January 13, 1941: James Joyce Dies

A 1917 Nation reviewer takes issue with Joyce’s “brilliant and nasty variety of pseudo-realism.”

Jan 13, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

January 12, 1991: Congress Votes to Send Troops to Expel Iraq From Kuwait

January 12, 1991: Congress Votes to Send Troops to Expel Iraq From Kuwait January 12, 1991: Congress Votes to Send Troops to Expel Iraq From Kuwait

The United States had backed Saddam Hussein in Iraq’s long war with Iran, but by the time the war ended in 1988 Iraq was deeply in debt—not least to neighboring Kuwait....

Jan 12, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac

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