In every generation, one kid gets tapped to carry the family story. The podcast and blog below explore the courtship of the author’s immigrant grandparents during the 1920s through a set of 100 letters bequeathed to her over twenty years ago. Blending scholarly and personal perspectives, the result is a surprising story of sexual, family and workplace politics that speak as powerfully to our culture today as they do to their own moment in New York City, when modern times were still young.
The blog is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#1 Love Letters
Patricia A. Schechter
Historians regularly read peoples’ mail and personal diaries. With the knowledge gained comes responsibility—and more than a few surprises.
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#2 Cracking the Code: School Days at Metropolitan Hospital
Patricia A. Schechter
Sexual harassment, boredom, office romance—the workplace of the 1920s had it all. My grandparents barely coped.
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#3 Navigating the Islands: Getting Around New York
Patricia A. Schechter
Commuting was both fun and no fun, a bustling slice of life that played out on the rivers as much as on the roads and the rails in New York City before the Great Depression.
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#4 A Medical Man and a Smart Girl: Self Improvement
Patricia A. Schechter
How to grow up and be somebody is a particularly modern and American question. Young New Yorkers in the 1920s were surrounded with fresh stories about “making it” from the entertainment boom in theater, radio, and talking film.
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#5 Greek or Not? Playing with Theater
Patricia A. Schechter
Rather than write a break-up song to get over his sweetheart, my grandfather copyrighted a play to work out his troubles with romance—except that it backfired.
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/
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#6 Unrecognizable
Patricia A. Schechter
The only constant is change. But do women change more than men? If so, why? And what does that teach us about women and gender in history?
The blog posting is available here: http://fannyandsamnewyorklovestory.blogspot.com/