Mary Pilon

When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, people had played Monopoly for at least three decades. But the downturn proved to be an unlikely golden age for the real estate board game—and one with riddled with irony. Elizabeth J. Magie, the game’s originator, first received her ...read more

Bill Clinton‘s 1992 presidential campaign placed welfare reform at its center, claiming that his proposal would “end welfare as we have come to know it.” Four years later, with a Republican-dominated Congress, Clinton set about to deliver on his campaign promise, overhauling the ...read more

In the 1880s, women were decades away from earning the right to vote. Few owned property, if they were even permitted to do so. In addition to childcare obligations, many toiled in work that was either underpaid, or not paid at all. Essentially, the gears of progress for women ...read more

Sometimes history is made by presidents, revolutionaries, artists, or groundbreaking scientists. But at least once it was altered by a pension benefits consultant sitting at his desk in Pennsylvania studying the tax code in the late 1970s. Today, Ted Benna is known as the “father ...read more