At the turn of the 20th century the world was facing a host of changes- industrialization, urbanization, mechanization, and a revolution in the role of women in society. And not everyone was on board with the changes. The conflict came to a head in January, 1908, when the New York City Board of Aldermen banned women smoking in public, sparking a debate that seems at once both remarkably anachronistic and shockingly familiar today.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.