“War With Paraguay and How To Sit In A Hoopskirt--America from 1848 through 1868 as told through the newspapers and magazines of the time” Journalism has been called “history’s first rough draft.” Newspapers and magazines have been the public discourse for most of American history. "The American Squadron en route to Paraguay" Harper's Magazine 1858   The “rough draft” is the only thing most people at a particular time and place have to frame their opinions and reactions.  Historians have the luxury of hindsight.   Combined with access to private journals, formerly secret or undiscovered documents, and statistical facts unknown to the average person of the time allow historians to pontificate on “what was really happening.” While writing a magazine article about my hometown, Raleigh, NC, on the eve of the Civil War, I was astonished at the difference between the “first rough draft” in the local newspapers of the time and what historians present the public with afte...