Another work week has come to a close. You’re tired. You simply can’t answer another e-mail, send another fax, field another phone call, or format another spreadsheet. We know how you feel. You’re in full-blown Friday frenzy and frantically searching for an intelligent means of idling away the afternoon hours. Well, you came to the right place because it’s time for another installment of…

This Week in History

November 11, 1918: Germany signed an armistice with the allies to bring an end to the fighting in World War I.
Want to read a personal take on the Great War? Check out An American Soldier in World War I by George Browne, edited by David L. Snead, a collection of more than one hundred letters that Browne wrote to his fiancée, Martha “Marty” Johnson, describing his experiences during World War I as part of the famed 42nd, or Rainbow, Division.

November 12, 1815: American women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born.
How far has the cause of women’s rights come in the United States government since Stanton’s times?  Read Women, Elections, and Representation, Second Edition by R. Darcy, Susan Welch, and Janet Clark to find out.

November 13, 1956: The United States Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
Eager to learn how the civil rights movement played out in the American West? Pick up a copy of Matthew C. Whitaker’s Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West to read the story of Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale, two of the most influential black activists of the post–World War II American West.

November 14, 1889: New York World reporter Nellie Bly set out to travel around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne. She beat her goal, making the trip in 72 days.
For your own dose of Verne inspiration, read William Butcher’s new translation of Lighthouse at the End of the World, the first English translation of Verne’s original manuscript. It just might inspire you to make your own trip to the end of the world…

November 15, 1887: American poet Marianne Moore was born.
For innovative, entertaining, and thought-provoking verse from an emerging American poet, check out Notes for My Body Double by Whiting Writers’ Award for Poetry winner Paul Guest.

November 16, 1959: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "The Sound of Music" opened on Broadway.
Read the real-life story of Captain Georg von Trapp, the man whose family served as the inspiration for "The Sound of Music," in the pages of To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp, translated and with an introduction by Elizabeth M. Campbell (von Trapp’s granddaughter).