The Elbert Files

I was intrigued by the title on David Brooks’ cover story in the December issue of The Atlantic: “How the Ivy League Broke America.”

In it, he traces the history of college admission standards and …

Iowa legislators will need to start making some difficult choices when they return to Des Moines in January. 

That might seem like a strange prediction after voters returned solid Republican majorities to both the Iowa …

Iowa was the nation’s sixth-largest producer of apples a century ago before an unexpected blizzard on Nov. 11, 1940, froze the sap in trees, virtually eliminating the state’s apple industry.

The Armistice Day storm 84 …

In the summer of 1961, my transistor radio, turned to full volume, played “Runaway” by Del Shannon, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles, and “Raindrops” (my favorite) by Dee Clark. 

While the …

Valerie Van Kooten has a weird and wonderful backstory about how she came to lead the State Historical Society of Iowa, and it helps explain the society’s new project: “Weird & Wonderful Iowa.”

“Coming from …

I was passing the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park when I saw my friend K.C. standing under artist Ai Weiwei’s “Iron Tree Trunk.” 

The …

Nearly 100 years ago in the spring of 1929, when today’s medically oriented Des Moines University went by the name Still College, students at the original Des Moines University rioted. 

Upset by new owners who …

An uncomfortable connection between interest rate cuts and recessions was explored by Minneapolis-based economist James Paulsen in a recent Paulsen Perspectives newsletter.  

Seven of eight recessions between 1969 and 2020 were preceded by Federal …

When 19-year-old Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Allen arrived at Fort Des Moines in 1848, he brought with him gold coins in a burlap bag.

David Wiggins’ 2002 book “The Rise of the Allens: Two Soldiers and …

Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Allen was an early Iowa banker who built Terrace Hill, the Iowa governor’s mansion, in 1869, before business failures forced him to sell it to Frederick M. Hubbell in 1884.

Frank Allen …