Person

Dorothy Thompson

Not who you're looking for? Others named Dorothy Thompson: CEO of Drax Group (born 1960) · Thompson, Dorothy Evelyn (1888–1961), mountaineer · social historian (1923-2011)

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Overview

Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and was one of the few women news commentators broadcasting on radio during the 1930s. Thompson is regarded by some as the "First Lady of American Journalism" and was recognized by Time magazine in 1939 as equal in influence to Eleanor Roosevelt. Recordings of her NBC Radio commentary and analysis of the European situation and the start of World War II (from Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939) were selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023, based on their "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage." Life and career Thompson was born in Lancaster, New York, in 1893, one of three children of Peter and Margaret (Grierson) Thompson. Her siblings were Peter Willard Thompson and Margaret Thompson (later Mrs. Howard Wilson). Her mother died when Thompson was seven (in April 1901), leaving Peter, a Methodist preacher, to raise his children alone. Peter soon remarried, but Thompson did not get along with his new wife, Elizabeth Abbott Thompson. In 1908, Peter sent Thompson to Chicago to live with his two sisters to avoid further conflict. Here, she attended Lewis Institute for two years before transferring to Syracuse University as a junior. At Syracuse, she studied politics and economics and graduated with a degree in 1914. Because she had the opportunity to be educated, unlike many women of the time, Thompson felt that she had a social obligation to fight for women's suffrage in the United States, which would become the base of her ardent political beliefs. Shortly after graduation, Thompson moved to Buffalo, New York and became involved in the women's suffrage campaign. She worked there until 1920, when she went abroad to pursue her journalism career. Journalism in Europe

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Having first robbed the Jews, the Nazis are beginning to rob the Church, and later will almost certainly expropriate what is left of the bourgeoisie property.”
— "On the Record" Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA) (March 6, 1939)
“The people were to 'awaken' and Hitler's movement was going to vote dictatorship in! In itself a fascinating idea. Imagine a would-be dictator setting out to persuade a sovereign people to vote away their rights.”
— p. 4
“A great many people say that there is a great battle going on in the world: between Fascism and Communism. Fascism is represented as Capitalism in its ultimate and final form, when it controls the state wholly. Communism is represented as the final expression of democracy. But this theory was invented by fascists and communists. To a democrat, looking on, it seems like a sham battle.”
— pp. 29-30
“The object of liberty is to give men and women a chance to be their best selves. That is its first and last purpose.”
— p. 77
“For Adolf Hitler's first hatred was not Communism, but Austria-Hungary. Read 'Mein Kampf.' And he loathed it for what? For its tolerance! He wanted eighty million Germans to rule with an iron hand an empire of eighty million 'inferiors' — Czechs, Slovaks, Magyars, Jews, Serbs, Poles and Croats.”
— p. 136, "Write it Down" February 18, 1938)
“No citizen should be permitted to become a member of or contribute to any organization whose members are pledged, or have ever been pledged, to tender prior loyalty to any state other than the United States, or to defend any state other than the United States in case of war, except as in such a war the United States might formally be allied with another power.”
— p. 16

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

On IJR

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Not who you're looking for? Others named Dorothy Thompson: CEO of Drax Group (born 1960) · Thompson, Dorothy Evelyn (1888–1961), mountaineer · social historian (1923-2011)

Notable quotes

“Having first robbed the Jews, the Nazis are beginning to rob the Church, and later will almost certainly expropriate what is left of the bourgeoisie property.”
— "On the Record" Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, PA) (March 6, 1939)
“The people were to 'awaken' and Hitler's movement was going to vote dictatorship in! In itself a fascinating idea. Imagine a would-be dictator setting out to persuade a sovereign people to vote away their rights.”
— p. 4
“A great many people say that there is a great battle going on in the world: between Fascism and Communism. Fascism is represented as Capitalism in its ultimate and final form, when it controls the state wholly. Communism is represented as the final expression of democracy. But this theory was invented by fascists and communists. To a democrat, looking on, it seems like a sham battle.”
— pp. 29-30
“The object of liberty is to give men and women a chance to be their best selves. That is its first and last purpose.”
— p. 77
“For Adolf Hitler's first hatred was not Communism, but Austria-Hungary. Read 'Mein Kampf.' And he loathed it for what? For its tolerance! He wanted eighty million Germans to rule with an iron hand an empire of eighty million 'inferiors' — Czechs, Slovaks, Magyars, Jews, Serbs, Poles and Croats.”
— p. 136, "Write it Down" February 18, 1938)
“No citizen should be permitted to become a member of or contribute to any organization whose members are pledged, or have ever been pledged, to tender prior loyalty to any state other than the United States, or to defend any state other than the United States in case of war, except as in such a war the United States might formally be allied with another power.”
— p. 16

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and was one of the few women news commentators broadcasting on radio during the 1930s. Thompson is regarded by some as the "First Lady of American Journalism" and was recognized by Time magazine in 1939 as equal in influence to Eleanor Roosevelt. Recordings of her NBC Radio commentary and analysis of the European situation and the start of World War II (from Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939) were selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023, based on their "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage." Life and career Thompson was born in Lancaster, New York, in 1893, one of three children of Peter and Margaret (Grierson) Thompson. Her siblings were Peter Willard Thompson and Margaret Thompson (later Mrs. Howard Wilson). Her mother died when Thompson was seven (in April 1901), leaving Peter, a Methodist preacher, to raise his children alone. Peter soon remarried, but Thompson did not get along with his new wife, Elizabeth Abbott Thompson. In 1908, Peter sent Thompson to Chicago to live with his two sisters to avoid further conflict. Here, she attended Lewis Institute for two years before transferring to Syracuse University as a junior. At Syracuse, she studied politics and economics and graduated with a degree in 1914. Because she had the opportunity to be educated, unlike many women of the time, Thompson felt that she had a social obligation to fight for women's suffrage in the United States, which would become the base of her ardent political beliefs. Shortly after graduation, Thompson moved to Buffalo, New York and became involved in the women's suffrage campaign. She worked there until 1920, when she went abroad to pursue her journalism career. Journalism in Europe

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).