<p><span class="deck"> Animals a-coming two by two: Up went the lid and you could stuff them in, Noah and all. Or you could throw them at Brother. A toy is pretty adaptable.</span> </p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A collection of little-known early-twentieth-century photographs of St. Louis recalls the author’s unfashionably happy childhood</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">A lot of people still remember how great it was to ride in the old Pullmans, how curiously regal to have a simple, well-cooked meal in the dining car. Those memories are perfectly accurate, and that lost pleasure holds a lesson for us that extends beyond mere nostalgia.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">50 years ago, these rough-and-ready tin soldiers were sold from bins cheap and by the handful. Today, collectors are seeking them for their bright, simple vitality.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">“Why hasn't the stereotype faded away as real cowboys become less and less typical of Western life? Because we can't or won't do without it, obviously.”</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">New Yorkers recall 1939 as the year of the great World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow. But that’s just more Eastern provincialism. Take a look at what was going on in San Francisco.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Revisiting the seas where American carriers turned the course of history, a Navy man re-creates a time of frightful odds and brilliant gambles.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">America looked good to a high school senior then, and that year looks wonderfully safe to us now, but it was a time of tumult, and there were plenty of shadows, along with the sunshine.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Have Americans slid backward since the sunny, prosperous years after World War II, as so many feel? To find out, an English-born historian compares our recent past with earlier times, and, in the process, learns something about our likely course into the next century.</span></p>
