Category Archives: history

Abel Meeropol and his sons Robert and Michael play with a train set. Once upon a time, when I was a young teen, the public high schools of New York City were the crown jewels of public education in America.  … Continue reading →

The great stock market crash of 1929 brought an abrupt end to the “roaring twenties” and brought us the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Unemployment rates reached 25% and immigration, both legal and illegal plunged.  It was the only time … Continue reading →

No city on the planet was growing faster than New York. By 1845 it was home to 70,000 Irish immigrants, 65,000 immigrants born elsewhere and 235,000 American born residents.  From 1783 to 1845 the city’s populations had grown by 50% … Continue reading →

It was New Years Eve, December 31, 1891 and New York was celebrating. Thousands were in the bars and taverns drinking too many whiskeys or hot  toddies, egg nog or cheap wine according to their tastes and pocketbooks.  Seemed like … Continue reading →

And so the King and Queen were dead as well as thousands of other “Enemies of the republic.”  There were now two governments in France; the Commune or the government of Paris and the Convention, the elected government o France. … Continue reading →

The National Assembly had written a constitution for France and, after two years, considered its work at an end.  It was for others to implement the details. The Assembly voted to dissolve itself and in doing so made one final … Continue reading →

The Estates General, which declared itself the National Assembly began work on a Constitution for France while still in Versailles and before its move to the Tuileries which occurred only days after the King and Queen were “invited to live … Continue reading →