Archive

Here is something that anyone with an interest in 20th century history should check out, if you haven't already: TIME magainze has created a free online archive of all of its back issues, from its inception in 1923. Here is their account of one of the earliest major stories they covered, the death of President Harding, on August 2, 1923.

Harding's death was generally considered a great tragedy at the time. His reputation later suffered from accounts of scandals involving both graft in his administration, and personal misconduct.

In recent years, he's achieved some degree of rehabilitation among libertarians, who recognize the ways in which he returned the U.S. to smaller government after World War I. Not as much, however, as his successor Coolidge.

Harding changed the language. During his presidential campaign, in 1920, he called for a return to normality, except that he called it "normalcy", a neologism that caught on.