Culture

CityLab Daily: The Long, Lethal History of Mail Bombs

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Return to sender: With this week's attempted bombings of prominent Democrats, CNN, and high-profile critics of President Trump, the mail once again became a vector for violence. While these mail bombs vaguely resemble threats like the Unabomber or the 2001 anthrax attacks, a historian tells CityLab’s Kriston Capps that another moment in U.S. history rhymes more closely with our current political scare. “When I was watching the news yesterday, all I could keep saying is, ‘1919! 1919!’” says Nancy Pope, who works at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. “It’s all happening all over again.”