Perle S. Mesta

2019 ◽  
pp. 78-103
Author(s):  
Philip Nash
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Musical Comedy ◽  
National Woman's Party ◽  
Party Activist ◽  
International Status

This chapter tells the story of Perle Mesta, US minister to Luxembourg (1949–1953). A wealthy widow, Mesta was a political fundraiser, businesswoman, and National Woman’s Party activist before becoming Washington, DC’s leading society hostess after World War II. She was close to President Harry S. Truman, who, lobbied by India Edwards, sent her to Luxembourg as a reward for her important work for his 1948 campaign. Her appointment became the butt of jokes and inspired the hit musical comedy Call Me Madam, but she performed fairly well considering her limitations and the sometimes fierce hostility she faced from career diplomats. She applied her party-giving instincts to her post, reaching out to average Luxembourgers and becoming a major celebrity to them. Official Luxembourg was ambivalent, finding it difficult to take her seriously and yet enjoying the attention, top-level access, and enhanced international status that her appointment provided.

Bones of Contention: China’s World War II Military Graves in India, Burma, and Papua New Guinea

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linh D. Vu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
International Status

Abstract Exploring the construction and maintenance of Nationalist Chinese soldiers’ graves overseas, this article sheds light on post-World War II commemorative politics. After having fought for the Allies against Japanese aggression in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Chinese expeditionary troops sporadically received posthumous care from Chinese veterans and diaspora groups. In the Southeast Asia Theater, the Chinese soldiers imprisoned in the Japanese-run camps in Rabaul were denied burial in the Allied war cemetery and recognition as military heroes. Analyzing archival documents from China, Taiwan, Britain, Australia, and the United States, I demonstrate how the afterlife of Chinese servicemen under foreign sovereignties mattered in the making of the modern Chinese state and its international status.

Florence Jaffray Harriman

2019 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Philip Nash
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
York City ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
World War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Party Activist ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt

This chapter looks at the tenure of Florence Jaffray Harriman, minister to Norway (1937–1941). Harriman was a prominent New York City socialite and Democratic Party activist. President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to send the sixty-six-year-old Harriman to Norway because it was a small, neutral country unlikely to become involved in a European war. When World War II broke out in 1939, Harriman was caught in the midst of it. She performed admirably in the episode involving the City of Flint, a US merchant vessel captured by the Germans, and even more so when the Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940. Harriman risked her life trying to keep up with the fleeing Norwegian leadership, which was being pursued by German forces. Her performance in the face of such danger earned her widespread praise, further strengthening the case for female ambassadors.

“For Broadway one must be clever and Catherine Littlefield is very clever.”

2020 ◽  
pp. 223-234
Author(s):  
Sharon Skeel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
Musical Play ◽  
Musical Comedy

Catherine earns Sonja Henie’s trust and helps make her skating more balletic. She also adapts ballets to ice for the Center Theatre shows. She moves to Manhattan and dates barrel jumper Jimmy Caesar for several years. She choreographs more Broadway shows, including Follow the Girls, a musical comedy starring Jackie Gleason and Russian ballerina Irina Baronova. Follow the Girls is a hit, but its revue-like formula will soon be eclipsed in popularity by the musical play genre as represented by Agnes de Mille’s Oklahoma! In 1944, Ballet Theatre revives Barn Dance. It is not successful, as the vogue for ballet Americana has begun to fade. The Littlefields open a studio in New York, where Dorothie teaches. Carl flies seventy combat missions as a pilot in World War II and receives medals for his heroism.

Spark Plugs in Every Neighborhood: Clara Lemlich Shavelson and the Emergence of a Militant Working-Class Housewives’ Movement, 1913–1945

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelise Orleck
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
World War ◽  
Labor Activism ◽  
Party Activist ◽  
Price Gouging

From the early 20th century through World War II, labor activism and women’s subsistence activism around tenants’ rights, food prices and education was central to industrial feminism and working-class women’s activism. This chapter traces the career of Clara Lemlich Shavelson after the 1909 uprising as she became a Communist Party activist and a leader in decades of rent strikes, kosher meat boycotts and the creation of working-class women’s neighbourhood councils. By 1935 her work had helped to spark a nation-wide meat boycott to protest price gouging.

scholarly journals Pioneering International Women’s Rights? The US National Woman’s Party and the 1933 Montevideo Equal Rights Treaties

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-437
Author(s):  
Paolo Amorosa
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
National Woman's Party ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Alice Paul

Abstract Histories of equal rights for women in international law normally begin with post-World War II initiatives. Such an approach leaves out two treaties signed at the 1933 Montevideo Pan-American Conference, the Equal Nationality Treaty and the Equal Rights Treaty, which remain forgotten among international lawyers. By reconstructing their inception and intellectual background, this article aims to raise awareness about debates on international law among feminist activists in the interwar years. In turn, the focus on activist work allows for the recovery of the contribution of women to the development of the discipline in that seminal period, a contribution usually obfuscated by men’s predominance in diplomatic and academic roles. By outlining the contribution of two key promoters of the Montevideo treaties – Doris Stevens and Alice Paul of the National Woman’s Party – the article takes a step towards the re-inclusion of women’s rights activists within the shared heritage of international law and its history.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document