Gentleman in Blue: A Sentimental Sketch by Laurence Stallings
A wounded Marine becomes a writer and produces the definitive drama of World War I. In this story, he writes of honor, chivalry, and the... More
About: Jeff Nilsson
Jeff Nilsson is the director of Post archives and a website editor. He is a specialist in American History, with graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, University of New Mexico, and Eastern Michigan University. He writes our website's weekly Retrospective feature, and is directing the program of digitally converting the magazine's 190 years of issues.
Posts by Jeff Nilsson:
The Ability and the Duty to Be Heroic
What do we owe Americans like Rodger Young? How do we repay an average soldier who saved his comrades at the cost of his own... More
The Troubles of an American Ideal
America was tired of manufactured heroes — movie stars; politicians, bootleggers; flagpole sitters — and then came Lindbergh, the real thing: modest, courageous, ingeneous, and quietly self-confident.... More
Mother, Come Back from the Echoless Shore
A famous Mother's Day tribute from the 1860s.... More
“I’m Going To Step Inside Where I Cannot See It”
If you look closely at this famous photograph, now 73 years old, you can see one era end and another begin.... More
The Royal Role of Grace Kelly
If she hadn't won an Academy Award and married the Prince of Monaco, would the media still be writing about Grace Kelly after all these... More
The Inevitable Politics of the High Court
The President must appoint a new judge for the Supreme Court. Politically speaking, the circus has come to town.... More
How America Is Falling To Pieces Around Us: 1928 Version
An excerpt from Booth Tarkington's memoirs "The World Does Move", which explains why, in some people's eyes, our grandparents were a bunch of vain, shallow,... More
Protecting Animals from Beasts
Post editorials of the 1860s reflect a long campaign for animal rights, which helped establish the ASPCA in New York 144 years ago this month.... More
The Fall of the American Hat
Once a fashion necessity, the hat has become an archaic accessory, worn only on special occasions.... More
“If I Couldn’t Tell These Stories, I Would Die”: Lincoln and Laughter
April is National Humor Month, and a good time to remember how one valuable sense of humor played a critical role in our history.... More
The Classic Books of America, by W. Somerset Maugham
This week, rather than fiction or poetry, we offer a 1940 appraisal of American literature by Somerset Maugham. The noted English author comments on a... More
“Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge”
Albert Einstein wants you to know that everything is NOT relative, America is a great country, and he might have been a happy, mediocre fiddler... More
The Short, Noisy Life of the Vigilance Committee
For all its display, all the weapons seized, all its show of force, and all the laws it broke, did the 1856 Vigilance Committee of... More
The Wild Heart of Sam Houston
The successes of Sam Houston's life were as remarkable as its failures. Again and again, as Houston saw his fortunes collapse, he looked for solace—retreating... More
Longfellow in the Post
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—a contemporary of Sam Houston—is one of the most American of our poets. Certainly he is better known than most, even if all... More
The Book of Numbers
Those of you who joined us in the last 20 years probably don't know how much previous generations relied on telephone directories.... More
