Audio Recording
Programming note: Tomorrow a special Sunday edition of our Clubland Q&A live around the planet will air at 3pm North American Eastern - that's 7pm GMT/8pm British Summer Time.
Welcome to this week's Hundred Years Ago Show. September 1922 continues with carnage in Smyrna and riots in New York - the hardcore version of "Don't wear white after Labor Day". The bonds of marriage loosen for Episcopalian women, and for the first time in two thousand years a Jew rules the ancient land of Israel.
Also: Is America now a "world power"? And, if so, should Rudyard Kipling be quite so rude about it? Global warming rampages out of control thanks to a mercurial temperature reading in Tripolitania. And, incredible as it seems, an unfortunate nation is set to lose its prime minister and its monarch in the same week...
Plus all the other headlines from Kars to tires - and the sounds of the era from Al Jolson to Victor Herbert. Click above to listen.
The Hundred Years Ago Show began in the first few weeks of lockdown as an occasional feature on The Mark Steyn Show. It proved so popular that it's now a stand-alone show every weekend - with plenty of lessons for our own time. Thank you, as always, for your kind comments about this part of our programming. Josh Passell, a First Weekend Founding Member from Massachusetts, writes:
Any thought to making The Hundred Years Ago Show into a teaching curriculum? Following the 'messy aftermath of the Great War' month by month, the rise of communism and fascism in Europe, the rise and fall of the Irish Free State (which I suppose was insufficiently any of the three): that's a lot (and there's a lot more) on which to hang one's mortarboard. This not-so-young 'brain full of mush' (per Rush Limbaugh) learns something new every episode.
If my old high school history teacher, Mr. Larson, were still teaching (still alive?), and not such a loony leftist, this would have been right up his alley. Watching history from two perspectives--as it happens and at a century's remove--is revelatory. Not just as history, but as a primer on human behavior that still instructs today. Anyone can just pluck events that happened a century ago; your real time reporting brings them to life. I don't know who takes the first step, Steyn or the teachers, but you've already done the hard work. And you don't take summers off.
Although to be fair, Capone also probably forgot his name too, and at a much younger age than Joe Biden.
Thank you, Josh. Getting any history (not merely Steynian) into the American schoolhouse is a very long shot these days.
As with our audio adventures, video poetry and musical specials, we've created a special Hundred Years Ago home page in handy Netflix-style tile format to enable you to set your time machine for the precise week or month you're in the mood for.
The Hundred Years Ago Show is a special production of The Mark Steyn Club. As we always say, Club membership isn't for everyone, but, if you're interested, you can find more information here.