Rhode Island – General

Pleasure the means, the end virtue.[1]

Once upon a time, and in living memory, at least for some of us, there were a number of movie houses in the downtown …
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Pleasure the means, the end virtue.[1]

The theater in Providence has a long and rich history. Fledging attempts to establish a theatre in Providence go back to the late eighteenth …
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At the current time, informed by our shared experience with Covid-19, most Americans now have more than just a passing familiarity with how our government and health-care system responds to …
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LaSalle Academy, as most readers know, is a Catholic college preparatory school located in Providence. It began in 1871 as a result of discussions among Bishop Francis McFarland, Rev. Michael …
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The Roaring Twenties started out leisurely.  The first couple of years were pretty slow, almost a recession although the country hadn’t really experienced anything it could recession from.  But things …
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A book review: The City State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865. By Mark Peterson. Princeton University Press, 2019.

Once upon a time there was …
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Rhode Islanders have produced some of America’s greatest patriotic songs. Julia Ward Howe, who composed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a Civil War anthem, was descended from two Rhode …
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Two of Rhode Island’s greatest companies in its history are Brown & Sharpe and the Gorham Manufacturing Company.  Each company showed remarkable innovation, produced incredible products, employed thousands of Rhode …
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In light of the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, I thought it might be somewhat of a mildly amusing diversion to tell a few stories of my …
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[Note from the author: This article is a slightly edited reproduction of my September 2019 welcoming address to the National Conference of the American Speakers of the House held in …
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