He was known for throwing elaborate parties, known as freak dinners—perhaps most notably the Gondola Party he hosted in 1905 at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he filled the hotel’s courtyard with wa...
Had become friends and met often
Banquet of glimpses—
Within Room 40 itself, however, management of day-to-day operations fell largely, if informally, to Cdr. Herbert Hope, recruited in November 1914 to bring naval expertise to the interpretation of inte...
The reference to the Lusitania was obvious enough, he recalled later, but personally it never entered my mind for a moment that the Germans would actually perpetrate an attack upon her. The culpabilit...
Schultz told stories of violence against Jews, communists, and anyone the Nazis saw as unsympathetic to their revolution. In some cases the victims had been American citizens. Martha countered that Ge...
Recalling his first impression of Hitler, Hanfstaengl wrote, Hitler looked like a suburban hairdresser on his day off.
One portion of the lakefront, named Burnham Park in his honor, contains Soldier Field and the Field Museum, which he designed.
Once built, the Montauk was so novel, so tall, it defied description by conventional means. No one knows who coined the term, but it fit, and the Montauk became the first building to be called a skysc...
Intended to sound the alarm and raise England’s level of naval preparedness, the story was entertaining, and frightening, but was widely deemed too far-fetched to be believable, for Captain Sirius’s b...
I must confess a shameful secret: I love Chicago best in the cold.
General Electric rather miraculously came back with a bid of $554,000. But Westinghouse, whose AC system was inherently cheaper and more efficient, bid $399,000. The exposition went with Westinghouse,...
For the first time he began to wonder whether he should jettison his transatlantic dream and settle for something more quotidian, perhaps focus his company on ship-to-shore communication. There was
British currency was configured in pounds, shillings, and pence. One pound equaled twenty shillings, written as 20 s., which in turn equaled 240 pence, or 240 d. A new pound is equal to 100 pennies, w...
As a rule, I am very skeptical of tying books to anniversaries. I don't think readers care. I also feel that it just about guarantees that somebody else will be writing a book on the same subject, but...
Dodd acknowledged Congress's reluctance to become entangled abroad but added, "I do, however, think facts count; even if we hate them.
Seemed like jewels on a skull.
THE DATE WAS APRIL 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63–65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.
She asked, what would he do if a lady happened to insist? Turner replied, Madam, do you think that would be a lady?
Perhaps, Herr Ditzen, it is less important where one lives than how one lives.