How WWII servicemen dreaded “Dear John” letters

Plus: Art Spiegelman on book bans |

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By Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer As counter programming to Valentine’s Day this week, an adapted excerpt from a recently-published book, Dear John: Love and Loyalty in Wartime America by author Susan L. Carruthers, details the emergence of “Dear John” breakup letters during World War II. Some in the military thought the notes from American women were dangerous—and even traitorous—because of how much they affected lovelorn recipients. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.D. Snodgrass, a Navy typist during the war, once wrote that servicemen thought “Dear John” letters were a curse: “Mail call was the best, or worst, moment of each day; you approached carefully any man whose name had not been called. Only a ‘Dear John’ letter was worse—we felt, mawkishly, no doubt, that with no one to come back to, a man was less likely to come back.” Click here to read the full story.

HISTORY ON TIME.COM ‘They’re Authoritarians, Dammit!’ Art Spiegelman On the School Board That Cancelled ‘Maus’ By Karl Vick The cartoonist spoke to TIME after a Tennessee school board voted to remove his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel 'Maus' from the middle school curriculum Read More » The Speech That Launched Frederick Douglass's Life as an Abolitionist By Linda Hirshman Not three years after Douglass escaped from enslavement, he gave a speech that "pierced" the hearts of the white abolitionists listening Read More » The U.S.-Mexico Border Has Long Been a Magnet for Far-Right Vigilantes By Patrick Strickland Armed groups have flocked to the borderlands for decades, searching for migrants and harassing border communities up and down the line Read More » Black Lives Matter Is Changing What Students Learn During Black History Month By Olivia B. Waxman Black History Month lessons have been 'stagnant' for years, educators say. Here's how some are changing Read More » Column: Why Los Angeles Failed to Build a Better City After the Rodney King Violence in 1992 By Elizabeth Hinton Leading gangs in Los Angeles were making peace as the city burned. How the city failed them rewrites our understanding of that moment Read More »

FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1961: NBA player Oscar Robertson “Robertson on the prowl is grace itself. He flows down the court, head bobbing, shoulders feinting, every part of his body blended into one rhythmical pattern of deception. At his side, controlled by a sensitive hand, bounces a basketball that seems to accompany him like an old and trusted friend…The instant his opponent lets his weight fall on the wrong foot, Robertson takes a giant step and starts to move like a sports car slamming into gear. Crouched over the ball, his left arm thrust out as a shield, Robertson maneuvers through the melee under the hoop until, in one blurred motion, he rises from the floor to hang alone in mid-air like a puppet on a string. At last he shoots—a precise, gentle release of the ball that is cocked behind his right ear, a final flick of his fingers. The mark of Robertson's shot is the hiss of the net as the ball falls cleanly through.”(Feb. 17, 1961) Read More » This week in 1979: Albert Einstein “He was a modern Merlin, conjuring up astonishing new notions of space and time, changing forever man's perception of his universe —and of himself. He fathered relativity and heralded the atomic age with his famed formula E=mc2. Yet his formidable reputation never undermined his simple humanity. He spoke out courageously against social injustice. In his later years, dressed in baggy clothes, his white hair as unkempt as a sheep dog's, he helped youngsters with their geometry homework, still loved to sail, play Mozart melodies on the violin and scribble reams of doggerel. Though he has been dead nearly a quarter of a century, there are few people who do not recognize the face or name of Albert Einstein.” (Feb. 19, 1979) Read More » This week in 1988: Olympic medalist Debi Thomas “Thomas, 20, is a Stanford premed student with an out-of-fashion perspective. ‘Maybe I have different values, I don't know,’ she says. ‘But I think my outlook on life has been my advantage. Things like the importance of an education and being whatever you can be give me an inner strength to pull things off on the ice'…When she hears the term role model, she cringes. ‘I never felt I had to have a role model,’ she says. ‘It was like, 'O.K., I want to be a doctor, and I want to be a skater, and I'm going to.' I didn't think I had to see a Black woman do this to believe it's possible.’ Her burgeoning mail tells her that in spite of herself, she has been an inspiration to young Black women and is about to become a nationwide, if not a worldwide, symbol. ‘If so,’ she says, ‘I have to be glad.’” (Feb. 15, 1988) Read More »

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Black History Month: In a New York Times essay, historian Tiya Miles looks at stories of resilience in Black History, including the story of an enslaved woman named Rose and how she dealt with the impending sale of her daughter. International news: For Politico, journalist Casey Michel writes about how the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland can put the current Russia-Ukraine border crisis in historical context. Health: For the History News Network, journalist Daniel S. Levy writes about the lessons for today’s COVID pandemic that can be learned from the 1832 cholera epidemic in New York City. Education: For Chalkbeat Chicago, education historian Michael Hines profiles local educator Madeline Morgan, whose innovative Black history curriculum received national attention in the World War II era. Love stories: Historian Meghan Roberts traces the roots of Instagram PDA back to the Enlightenment for Slate.

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