Some Things Remain Much the Same. . .

As America commemorates the sesquicentennial of its Civil War, we at MKI are poring over the materials in our collections to illuminate how the events of this era were documented by German speakers in America and in Europe. The following comes from the Geschichte des Tages (Events of the Day) section of the August 4, 1855 Illustrirte Abend-Schule, published in Buffalo, New York. While still several years before the outbreak of armed conflict, this summary of the mood in German America is telling:
America: Party politics, temperance litigation, murders, railroad and steamship disasters – and that's it.