Thanks for visiting The Column Store--our page for editors
Use
our easy form to buy the individual
columns--or ask Bruce for the full texts if the material is not
online. You can also use the form to sign up for his weekly service.
Email Bruce instead
if for some reason the Net is acting up and the form doesn't work.
For our page listing only columns online, click here.
Jan. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec.
- The Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863. Today it is considered the greatest act of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. In 1863 it was considered the most controversial and hypocritical. Column #1. Buy or request full text.
- Germany Unleashes the U-Boat--Loses the War, Jan. 9, 1917. At the height of WW I, the Germans resumed their U-boat attacks on England, thinking it would win them the war. Instead this guaranteed Germany’s defeat. Column #2. Buy or request full text.
- JFK’s Historic Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961. John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address has gone down in history as one of the best. But it had one flaw that would haunt his administration in the days to come. Column #3. Buy or request full text.
- Winston Churchill Meets His Maker, Jan 24, 1965. The greatest man of the 20th Century goes on to his just reward--a place among the angels for all of his many faults and shortcomings. Column #4. Buy.
- The Tet Offensive, January 30, 1968 The Tet offensive was the turning point of the Vietnam war. Even though the U.S. and its ally the South Vietnamese decisively defeated the Vietcong in that battle, it ensured they would lose the war. Column #5. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- Joseph McCarthy’s Wild Ride, Feb. 4, 1950. Just how did a one-term junior senator from Minnesota launch the greatest witch hunt in American history and add the phrase “McCarthyism” to the American lexicon? Column #6. Buy or request full text.
- Fidel Castro--The Survivor, Feb. 16, 1959. After Castro became Cuba’s leader for life in 1959, the U.S. engaged in, or considered, every kind of assassination attempt you can imagine (and some you couldn’t possibly imagine), none successful. Column #7. Buy.
- The Man Who Would Not be King, Feb. 22, 1732. George Washington would grow up to be offered the chance to become America’s first king. He turned it down, and foiled a revolutionary plot to take over the country at the same time. Column #8. Buy or request full text.
- Mohammed Ali: Float Like a Butterfly, Feb. 25, 1964. Cassius Clay, aka Mohammed Ali, shocked the world by defeating Sonny Liston for the heavyweight crown. He also shocked the U.S. government by defeating it to resume his career. Column #9. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- The Evil Empire, March 8, 1983. President Reagan gave the most controversial speech of his career when he called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.” He was right. It was evil, and it was an empire. Column #10. Buy or request full text.
- Our Most Underrated Founding Father, March 16, 1751. Almost alone he wrote America’s Constitution and Bill of Rights, two of the three pillars--along with the Declaration of Independence--of our nation. Yet no one gives him a second thought. Column #11. Buy or request full text.
- Flawed Giant, March 31, 1968 Lyndon Johnson was a giant among men and his dreams of a “great society” of Americans were partly realized, but mostly undone by a war in a little country in Southeast Asia called Vietnam. Column #12. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- Death of a King, April 4, 1968. As he had all but predicted the night before, Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed, becoming an American martyr. Column #13. Buy or request full text.
- The Voice of an Angel is Finally Heard, April 9, 1939. Martin Luther King’s fine baritone was the second African-American voice to stir an audience and move a nation from atop the Lincoln Memorial. His predecessor had the voice of an angel. Column #14. Buy.
- "Houston: We Have a Problem,” April 13, 1970. Defying both superstition and common sense, NASA gives the unlucky number “13” to one of its Apollo moon missions. On the 13th day of the month, Apollo 13 faced catastrophe. Column #15. Buy.
- April Fools, April 15 Republicans are usually the ones to complain about taxes, but the income tax that Americans pay every April 15 came about because of a too-clever-by-half strategy by Republicans that came back to haunt them--and us. Column #16. Buy or request full text.
- The Death of Benito Mussolini, April 28, 1945. He made the trains runs on time, but Italy’s Fascist dictator, who put his nation on the losing wide of WW II, ran out of time in early 1945 when his countrymen killed him. He had it coming. Column #17. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- The Freedom Rider, May 4, 1961 Freedom rider Fred Leonard endured threats, beatings, and even bombings to protest segregation in the South. But when he was finally jailed in Jackson, Mississippi, that’s when things got really strange. Column #18. Buy or request full text.
- Winston Churchill Becomes Prime Minister, May 10, 1940. Seldom in the field of human history has so much been owed by so many to one man. Winston Churchill led England during its darkest hour and gave it its finest hour. Column #19. Buy or request full text.
- The Homestead Act, May 20, 1862. Congress passed the Homestead Act opening up the West for settlement, but without the plow John Deere invented to till the hard Western soil, the act might have failed and history might have changed. Column #20. Buy or request full text.
- The Constitutional Convention, May 25, 1787. The delegates reached a quorum and the greatest gathering of politicians in history set about to create a government unlike any before it. Column #21. Buy or request full text.
- Memorial Day 1966. When French President De Gaulle decided to leave NATO, and wanted all NATO troops—including American soldiers—off of French territory by a certain date, President Lyndon Johnson’s reply was classic. Column #22. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- History’s Most Important Man, June 8, 570. Who was the most important man in history in terms of his effect on the world. I say the prophet Mohammed, who created both a world religion and a vast secular empire. Column #23. Buy or request full text.
- Plucky Pioneer 10, June 13, 1983. The tiny spacecraft Pioneer 10 boldly went where no man or machine had ever gone before when it left our Solar System in 1983. If other intelligent life is out there, Pioneer 10 may well be our first contact with it. Column #24. Buy or request full text.
- Emma Lazarus, June 19, 1885. As well known as the Statue of Liberty itself is the poem that rests on its base, written by a young poet named Emma Lazarus, who had once been one of the "tired, poor, huddled masses longing to breathe free." Column #25. Buy or request full text.
- James Madison Dies a Week Early, June 28, 1836. His supporters hoped he would emulate the miraculous feat of Jefferson and Adams, who died together on the 4th of July. But Madison always shunned the limelight and refused, dying a week early. Column #26. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- The Bikini Gets Its Name, July 5, 1946. When America detonated an atomic bomb over the Bikini Atoll islands, much of the world was shocked. But that was nothing compared to the shock of the tiny bathing suit that was revealed in its wake. Column #27. Buy or request full text.
- Storming the Bastille, July, 14, 1789. The “storming” of the Bastille was in reality a relatively harmless non-event until some really good “spin-meisters” got a hold of it, turning reality into myth and fomenting the French Revolution. Column #28. Buy or request full text.
- The Eagle Has Landed, July 20, 1969. Man first landed on the moon in 1969, but the not-often-told journey of the "Eagle" landing craft was one that only someone with the training, guts and experience of Neal Armstrong could have survived. Column #29. Buy or request full text.
- Kellogg-Briand Act Outlaws War, July 24, 1929. The old '60s slogan went, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Some 50 world governments tried something like that in 1929, but it failed miserably. Column #30. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- The Whiskey Rebellion, Aug. 1, 1794. When the Eastern-dominated Congress proposed taxing whiskey in 1794, the Americans from the West, who made their living selling it, and spent a lot of time drinking it, took violent exception. Column #31. Buy or request full text.
- Nagasaki, Aug. 9, 1945. In 1945, in the closing days of WW II, the Japanese city of Nagasaki became the second city ever to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon. It also became the last city to suffer that fate. There is a reason for that. Column #32. Buy or request full text.
- Stonewall!!, Aug. 13, 1987. It wasn’t the crime but the Watergate stonewall and cover-up that brought down Richard Nixon. So why was he advising Ronald Reagan to “stonewall” on Iran-Contra!? Column #33. Buy or request full text.
- Lincoln’s Letter to Greely, Aug. 22, 1862. The most famous letter Abe Lincoln ever wrote--to newspaper editor Horace Greely--explained his real reason for waging the Civil War. Column #34. Buy or request full text.
- The Birth of the Oil Industry, Aug. 27, 1859. America’s sperm whales were scarce, driving up the price of America’s top fuel, sperm oil. But them crude oil was found in Pennsylvania, and a new industry was born. Sperm whales were grateful. Column #35. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- Tom Jefferson and Sallie Hemings, Sept. 1, 1802. The alleged affair between Tom Jefferson and Sallie Hemings first came to light. Did he or didn’t he? Column #36. Buy or request full text.
- Death of the Kingfish, Sept. 10, 1835. Huey “The Kingfish” Long, who was the closest thing America ever got to a dictator, died today in a hail of bullets. Many Americans thought he might become president one day. Column #37. Buy or request full text.
- Day of Infamy 2001, 2001. The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, has been compared to Pearl Harbor. In many ways, its an apt comparison. Column #38. Buy or request full text.
- War and Remembrance, Sept. 23, 1813. The national day of mourning that President Bush called for after 9/11, 2001 was remarkably similar to a national day of mourning that President James Madison called for in the wake of the War of 1812. Column #39. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- Sputnik, Oct. 4, 1957. The tiny satellite that the Soviets launched in 1957, thereby beating the U.S. in the race to space, caused America to fundamentally alter its approach to math and the applied sciences. For no reason. Column #40. Buy or request full text.
- ER, Oct. 11, 1884. Arguably the greatest woman America ever produced was born on this date. She may have had as much influence on the country as her famous husband, FDR. Column #41. Buy or request full text.
- Grace Bedell and Abe Lincoln’s Beard, Oct 15, 1860. Thanks to a letter a little girl wrote our 16th president, the Abe Lincoln that graces the five-dollar bill has whiskers instead of a clean-shaven face. Column #42. Buy or request full text.
- The Volstead Act, Oct. 28, 1919. Together with the 18th Amendment the Volstead Act ushered in Prohibition, one of the more spectacular failures in social engineering in American history. Column #43. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- The Code Talkers, Nov. 1, 1941. Theirs was the only code the technologically proficient Japanese military could not break during WW II. Perhaps that was because the code was invented before there was technology--or even a Japan. Column #44. Buy or request full text.
- The Vietnam Memorial, Nov. 10, 1982 Its design was hated by many Vietnam vets, civic leaders and architects. Then the public got a look and it became the most visited piece of public American artwork created in the 20th century. Column #45. Buy or request full text.
- The Making of a Feminist, Nov. 11, 1815 Elizabeth Cady Staunton went from a girl who adored her daddy and would do anything to please him, to one of America’s most dedicated feminists. What changed her? Column #46. Buy or request full text.
- The Famous 18-Minute Watergate Gap, Nov. 21, 1973 Of all the mysteries of the Watergate break-in and cover-up, the disappearance of 18 minutes in one of Nixon’s subpoenaed Watergate tape recordings remains the most puzzling. Column #47. Buy or request full text.
- Play It Again, Uncle Sam, Nov. 26, 1942. Casablanca the movie premiered to take advantage of Casablanca the war conference, which was being held in Casablanca the city. Life imitated art and vice versa, but Bogie still didn’t win an Oscar. Column #48. Buy.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page
- Delaware: The First State, Dec. 7, 1787. Delaware quickly ratified the Constitution making it the first state of the new nation. So why was it in such a hurry? Column #49. Buy or request full text.
- Alexander Hamilton Comes Clean, Dec. 15, 1792. Accused of graft and theft of public funds, our first secretary of the treasury offers a confession that astonishes his accusers, and preserves his reputation. Column #50. Buy or request full text.
- Willard Libby: Man of Science, Dec. 17, 1908 He invented radiocarbon dating and won a Nobel Prize. Another scientist whose contribution to our lives is in inverse proportion to his recognition. Column #51. Buy or request full text.
- The Ku Klux Klan is Born, Dec. 24, 1865. Out of the ashes of the South’s defeat in the Civil War arose hate groups such as the Klan, all bent on denying black Americans their legal and civil rights though murder, torture and mayhem. Column #52. Buy or request full text.
Buy columns or request the full texts | Return to top of page