the world of american legion magazine: the war on somebody's notion of standards
NOTE : This December, I'm challenging myself to prepare a post a day here. This is partly an attempt to use up materials I've hoarded lately, partly a writing exercise, partly a test of how disciplined I can be. The posts may be quick discoveries, writing experiments, scattered thoughts, or whatever else pops into my brain. Previous personal challenges like this have petered out quickly, so consider yourself warned! For the past few months, the Internet Archive has been my giant rabbit hole. I've spent many hours exploring its magazine collections, including random selections of major periodicals, titles I loved as a kid, and microfilms of trade journals that will be useful for future projects. It's been equally enlightening and head-scratching. Falling into the latter category is a run of The American Legion magazine from the 1990s. Serving the largest veterans organization in the US, the magazine focused on sensationalistic right-wing content during this period. Hi...