Case Study: Toni Morrison ("The Bluest Eye")

I am a huge fan of Toni Morrison. Morrison is the last American to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1993. The Swedish committee that gave her the prize cited her many works of fiction, especially "The Bluest Eye," her first novel. (If you get a chance and you like ~~magical realism, please read it. "The Bluest Eye" is really life changing-- without exaggeration.) (**WARNING: in order to understand how her literature connects to the Civil Rights Movement, I have to spoil some of the books, so if you plan on reading them and would like to be surprised, stop reading here.)

"The Bluest Eye" is set in Lorain, Ohio in the years following the Great Depression and before World War II. Pecola Breedlove, a little black girl who is considered by many to be monstrously ugly, wishes beyond anything that she could have blue eyes so that she can be considered pretty like all the white girls. She wishes and prays, and she even goes to her local priest to make a bargain with God. In the end, though, a gut-wrenching twist of fate flips her life on its head, and she's raped by her father. When he splits, she has the child and goes mad.

How does any of this, you may wonder, connect to civil rights?

One of the aspects of "The Bluest Eye" that makes it absolutely brilliant is the way the Morrison analyzes and shows why Pecola is raped by her father. She delves deep into the history of slavery and the segregated South and crafts a story-line for Pecola's father in which he is born to a single mother and goes on a search for his estranged father in Ohio. When his father rejects him (a practice common in the African American community at the time), Pecola's father turns to alcohol. The night he stumbles home drunk, some 20 years later, and finds Pecola cleaning the dishes is when everything spirals out of control.

Morrison is bold in her analysis of Pecola's father's character. She links his abandonment to the dynamics of slave culture that were popular in the South. One of Morrison's conclusions is that because of the way that fathers were separated from their children when slave-owners traded slaves (but mothers were more often allowed to keep their children), a dynamic of paternal abandonment took hold in the African American community.

She then goes on to say that the way he abused her is a result of a psycho-sexual desire that is, in itself, a result of confusion. Black men were taught by white men to hate sex for fear that black men would impregnate white women. On the other hand, black men are humans, and, as humans, desire sex to the same degree as anyone else.

What sets Morrison apart from her contemporaries is her brash and often non-linear command of time in her novels. "The Bluest Eye" opens at the end of the crisis with Pecola, and then goes back in time, goes forward in time, and then back again. The furthest back the novel goes is into 1901, when Pecola's father runs away from a sharecropping collective to try and find his father. What this allows her to do is the assign each horrible thing that happens to Pecola some sort of historical origin.

Morrison does not just say that these things happen. She brings every negative part of segregation and racism to an extreme and shows how these extremes are a result of behavior and social dynamics popular during the times of slavery and Jim Crow.

If you're interested in how the Civil Rights Movement has influenced and is conveyed in popular culture, you should definitely check out Morrison's books. Most, if not all, of her stories explore the roots of racism in America and how that racism drives social dynamics.

Friday, February 28th Podcast

If anyone wasn't here during 1st period or 5th period, I was able to record the audio of the movie and Mr. Stewart's lecture.  The whole thing should take around 48 minutes.  Let me know if it's unable to play because I marked them as unlisted.
Here are the youtube links (btw they overlap a bit):

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lm6j0wxB94&feature=youtu.be (19:52 minutes)
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c383prv6T4s&feature=youtu.be (13:55 minutes)
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWj3K1yfmEU&feature=youtu.be (14:43 minutes)

Is Everything Black and White (in the Civil Rights Movement)?

Whenever I see or read anything about the civil rights movement of the sixties, there seems to be only black and white people involved.  For instance, the documentary we watched in class today did not mention Latinos, Asians, or people of other biological origins fighting for civil rights in America.  Or take a look at how we have discussed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  We have never studied in detail a similar organization for any other minority race.  Other minority races mysteriously disappear from context, and I wonder if they were relevant at all to the civil rights movement.  After some research, I've identified what was perhaps the second largest civil rights movement in the twentieth century.

Mexican American Civil Rights Movement - This movement began in the 1940s.  Like African Americans, Latin Americans were discriminated against.  An example of this discrimination was segregation in schools.  In 1945, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) won against the Orange County School System in court, resulting in a ruling to integrate schools.  Also like African Americans, Latin Americans were charged poll taxes that prevented them from gaining political power.
They fought against this by raising money in poll tax drives, gaining enough votes to elect some Latino representatives in the late fifties and early sixties.  The movement was also largely supported by young people.  They participated through student walkouts and youth organizations. (Sources: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6582/, http://lulac.org/about/history/)

After placing this in context, I have drawn a conclusion as to why the African American Civil Rights movement is the most celebrated and remembered one in American history.  My conclusion consists of two main reasons:

1) History - Unlike other minorities, African Americans have the longer and more bitter history of slavery and discrimination.  Even after they were emancipated, black Americans were always at the bottom of the social order.  Their more tragic history makes their climb to equality all the more epic.

2) Population - African Americans were the largest minority.  In the 1940 there were 12,865,518 blacks living in the United States.  Hispanics, the second largest minority, had only 1,858, 024 living in the United States.  By having a larger population, blacks could have a larger impact.  For example, one of their protest strategies was to destroy city infrastructure by being arrested.  Overwhelming quantities of protestors willing to be arrested was essential to this strategy. (Source: http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab01.pdf )

There are many similarities between the Mexican American and African American Civil Rights Movements.  However, the history and large population of black Americans make their movement better remembered today.

Have you ever thought about other minority civil rights movements?  What are your thoughts about my conclusion?

The Ballot Or the Bullet Speech

If you click here, you can see "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech I talked about in my last blog post.

This speech is really long. Tl;dr: the main point Malcolm X is trying to make is that the black man needs to rise up and fight for suffrage. If the African American community doesn't fight for civil liberty, then their struggle for equality will quickly turn into a violent affair.

X is a lot different from King, both in his writing and in his message. King has more of a peaceful-protest approach (which white people responded okay to), while X was sort of a bit more direct with his words (which scared white people and elicited much more negative reactions than King received). X was assassinated in 1965.

The 1950s Outside of America

Even though today we spent the period talking about the Civil Rights Movement and all the hardships that African American's faced I feel like it is also important to look at what was happening in other areas of the world. I know we are in an American history class but I feel that all nations have interesting history that sometimes is left out because of the lack of media coverage and lack of information in texts books. Also America and other European powers usually have something to do with it.

First off after the War although America had escaped the grasp of the Great Depression the rest of the world was not having too much fun. Most of Europe was forced into the conditions that mirror medieval times, Russia had lost 13 million people, and Germany and Japan were no longer self governing nations. This just shows the awful conditions that proceeded a war.

At the end of the War Japan had fallen and with it all of its territories had fallen as well. This was a green light for many allies as the French returned back to Indochina and tried to recolonize the territory they had lost. We all know what happened to Korea but what happened to Indochina or Veitnam was just as significant. From the Wars end to 1954 France was fighting Vietnamese soldiers known as the Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh. These soldiers had tried to fight off Japanese occupation and continued fighting when it came to occupation by the French. The war lasted for seven years until France recognized that they had lost. However after this America got involved which started the know very well known Vietnam war which lasted for 20 years (from 1955-1975). This was one of the worst wars that America was involved with mostly because many people didn't even know what we were fighting for. Truman's doctrine was not as powerful as the idea of a safer world for democracy which we fought for during the first war. Anyway the wars in Indochina completely devastated the region and killed millions of people. Most Veterans alive today come from this war and have been greatly effected by it.

Another even that in my opinion shattered the 50's was the Coup D'etat in Iran in the year 1953. The story here dates from the early days of the 20th century where Iran a monarchial nation created a constitutional revolution establishing great power in the branches of government as well as the king. However, In 1953 the prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown and the current king Mohammad Reza Shah presumed absolute power. Now during this time period Putsches happened in many countries including Syria and Guatemala but what make this significant is what happened behind the scenes. It is evident that the CIA and America supported this Coup and actually help make sure it occurred. Why you ask would the CIA be interested in America. The answer is very simple oil, and in a time in which the soviets were no longer our ally oil was an important commodity.

I hope this gives you a pretty nice description of Americas foreign affairs during this time period and somethings happening outside our continent. I believe it is important to understand all history to better understand why things happen.

(Side note* My Grandmother met Eisenhower when he came to Iran in 1956 on a visit my family and I speculate it had something to do with the Coup but we are not completely sure)

The Civil Rights Movement Today in Rap Culture

In another episode of a white boy trying desperately to understand the nuances and complexities of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM), I will try to connect the CRM to modern rap culture. Bear with me. (*Disclaimer: some of the content I go over is explicit, so just be warned).

Last year, Lil Wayne apologized to the family of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old, African American Chicago native who was brutally murdered by white aggressors in the South. Till's death helped to spark the CRM sixty years ago, and, when Lil Wayne compared his sex skills in the "Karate Chop" remix to Till's horrific death, an understandable uproar ensued.

Wayne, considered by many to be a paragon of the modern rap movement, was harshly criticized by political and social figures for appropriating Till's death into an accessory, a rap lyric that was as tawdry as it was unnecessary. You can be the judge: "Pop a lot of pain pills/Bout to rims on my skateboard/Beat that p**** up like Emmett Till/Yeah..."

Wayne is not the only famous rapper guilty of marginalizing the CRM. Kanye West, well known for his eccentric and narcissistic idiosyncrasies and lyrics also likened an integral part of the CRM to sex. In the song, "I'm in It," West croons, "Uh, black girl sippin' white wine/Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign..."

Unlike Wayne, though, West also boasts his pride in his African American lineage and in the (arguable) success of the CRM of the 60's. In the song, "New Slaves," West opens with the painfully accurate, "My momma was raised in the era when/Clean water was only served to the fairer skinned," and he goes on to say, "They'll [likely white people] confuse us with some b*******/Like the New World Order/Meanwhile the DEA/Teamed up with the CCA/They tryna lock n***** up/They tryna make new slaves."

These lyrics harken back to the often defamed and forgotten Civil Rights activist Malcolm X in his speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" (which everyone should definitely read). In it, Malcolm X warns his brethren about the white man bringing drugs to the black community, making blacks drug addicts, and then convicting the black man. (The DEA is the substance control agency.) The "New World Order" lyric is likely a reference to X's critique of the Double Victory that was fought for by black and white soldiers in the hopes of bringing in a new world of freedom and equality that was quickly abandoned after WWII was won.

Additionally, in "Blood on the Leaves," West laces in clips of a hymn, "Strange Fruit," (sung by Nina Simone) from the times of Jim Crow era that beckons, "Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees/... /black bodies swayin' in the summer breeze/blood on the leaves." These lyrics evoke the imagery of recurrent lynchings that were commonplace in the Jim Crow south.

So, in a way, we analyze ourselves to a contradiction. On one hand, we have rap artists boasting about their seemingly rambunctious and promiscuous lifestyles and comparing these lifestyles to the CRM. On the other hand, we have self-conscious rappers, using rap as a medium for expressing a thorough and deep understanding of black history and the CRM.

This may stem from the confusing nature of humanity in the face of brutality and subjugation. When a race or a people is taught to hate itself by everyone, they themselves begin to hate themselves and their history. Imagine being told in the home that you should be proud of who you are and then going to school and listening to white kids talk about how the shouldn't let "illegal immigrants" into the country and that anyone who isn't white is just automatically inferior. It's hard to be exposed to history and not feel a bit shameful for your people when you learn the worst about what has happened to them.

Perhaps this mixture of racial pride and degradation stems from an uncertainty of how these rappers feel about their histories. On one hand, they have been programed to hate themselves, and so they liken the martyrs of their people to sexual acts that are deemed disgusting by the modern media. On the other hand, they have been taught that they should be proud, and so they run circles around the white man in their rebellious prose and complex lyrics.

I will say that I don't fully understand the CRM, and this is just a theory. I will also apologize, because this is a really long blog post. I don't think I'll ever truly understand the manifestation of the CRM in modern culture in the same way I wouldn't expect someone to understand how the Holocaust has indirectly driven the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The nuances of an entire culture are too hard to capture in less than a novel or a lifetime.

BUT! That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about them. We should learn about history because it opens the opportunity for discussion and maybe just a bit of understanding. There is always value in the prospect of understanding something, even if it's just a pixel of the entire picture.

The Desire to be Different - Human Nature?

I can't help noticing similarities between the American Beatnik of the fifties to sixties and French flâneur of the nineteenth century.  Both types of people reacted against to the type of modernization that resulted in conformity.

Beatniks - They were the beginning of the 1960's counterculture.  Beatniks did not see any reason to conform and criticized mainstream values, especially materialism.  In context, the fifties was a period of conformity and stability.  Socializing, purchasing, and ultimately modernizing, revolved around the family home.  This resulted in materialism, such as "Keeping up with the Joneses", as well as extreme conformity (i.e. tract homes).  The Beatniks were rebels against such values and promoted rising above those values.

Flâneurs - They were the urban explorers (literal translation is "stroller").  Flâneurs looked for individualism in the crowds that wore mass-produced, factory-made clothing.  Before modernization brought conformity, there had been more discerning social identities.  A major event that exemplified this loss of difference was the modernization of Paris in the nineteenth century.  A new city space, and uniform standard of dress leveled social identities.  The flâneur's goal was to recognize details that revealed the individual.  In this way, they were rebels against conformity.

Is the desire to be different part of human nature?  Or is it more natural to conform?

I used info about the Beatniks from the documentary we watched in class.  If you're interested in learning more about the flâneurs (quite irrelevant to U.S. History but a very interesting movement), I recommend reading The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White.

The Beat Movement

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical
     naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
     dynamo in the machinery of night . . .
     --Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" 1956

To this day, Allen Ginsberg is recognized as one of the fathers of Beat poetry. He was accompanied by Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder and Gregory Curso. These men helped lead the Beat movement, which encompassed the 1950’s, in its defiance of conventional culture.

         The Beats aimed to question popular politics and culture through encouraging consciousness. Through their oral medium consisting of chaotic, impulsive verse, the Beats advocated personal release through heightened sensory awareness. This sensory awareness was most often achieved through hallucinogenic drugs, jazz, sex, and the practices of Zen Buddhism, popular among Beat leaders. Often apolitical and apathetic towards social issues, the Beats acted to challenge the materialism and consumerism of the 1950s.          Beat poets found runaway capitalism to be destructive to the human spirit and unethical in regards to the pursuit of social equality. Interestingly, the Beatniks adapted unconventional dress, manners and slang despite their educated, middle class backgrounds. In fact, the ‘founders’ of Beat culture first met at Columbia University in the 1940’s.

         Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, which still operates today, was a major hub for Beat culture. Los Angeles’ Venice West and New York City’s Greenwich Village were also popular destinations for Beatniks.

         Although the Beatniks died out in the 1960’s, today the repercussions of their movement are still tangible. The Beats challenged the foundation of censorship, broadened the definition of acceptable literature, and introduced ecology to the public eye.  

Fun Fact: Not surprisingly, the Beats were condemned by Joseph McCarthy to be communists that were a threat to the nation’s security.

Little Rock Nine

Just some more personal details regarding the desegregation of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas.

            In 1952, five separate cases regarding the constitutionality of state-sponsored public schools came before the Supreme Court, which bundled the cases under the name Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP argued that segregated schools were inherently unequal, which not only caused African American students to feel inferior, but also violated the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. With the leadership of Justice Warren, Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned and segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional.

            In 1955, the Little Rock School Board adopted the Blossom Plan, which outlined the program for desegregation. Integration was scheduled to begin in the fall of 1957 at Central High, and then filter into the lower grades throughout the succeeding six years. However, there was a caveat: students were only allowed to transfer if they came from a school in which their race was a minority, which limited true integration.

            September 4^th, 1957, the Little Rock Nine were confronted with white mobs and the Arkansas State Militia upon trying to enter the school. It was not until September 25^th that the nine returned for a full day of school under the supervision of the National Guard. The nine endured nine months of continuous harassment- even with 101^st Airborne escorts, the students were bullied in restrooms and locker rooms. Minnajean Brown, one of the nine, was expelled from Central High due to retaliation (she poured chili on two white boys and called a girl ‘white trash,’ all power to her).

            Despite all the trauma, the groundbreaking episode ended in a local resolution to close all the Little Rock high schools to avoid further desegregation issues.

Civil Rights Issues in the Present Day

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/282589177/amid-controversy-right-to-refuse-bill-hits-governors-desk

We've been learning in class about the Civil Rights revolution, and the small movements that eventually turned into big ones.  I think a parallel to this is the present day issue of LGBT rights.  The link I posted above is about a recent bill in Arizona that has now reached Governor Jan Brewer's desk, that would allow business owners to refuse service to gays and lesbians based on the business owner's religious beliefs.  To me, this seems frighteningly similar to the African American civil rights issues of the 1950s and 1960s.  

The original Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case essentially established segregation permitting it was "separate but equal."  This was eventually reversed in the Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas (1954) which stated that segregation in public schools was "inherently unequal" and thus unconstitutional.  Though border states complied with desegregation, many states in the Deep South did not.  By 1964, less than 2% of eligible blacks in Deep South were in schools with whites.  In 1957, when the governor of Arkansas used the National Guard to prevent nine black students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School, Eisenhower momentously decided to side with integration.  He sent troops down to make sure the African American children were able to get to class.  The civil rights movement didn't just happen in schools; it also happened from the bus boycotts, sit ins, and Freedom Riders.  There has definitely been backlash to the proposed bill in Arizona.  It shows there are still issues today regarding the rights of Americans.  Feel free to elaborate in the comments.

Elvis Aaron Presley

Today in class we touched upon the subject of Elvis Presley. I will admit through I have heard of him and know what he is famous for; I never took the time to fully listen to one of his songs. I merely just accepted the fact that he was simply "the King of Rock and Roll". I decided to search him up wondering how such a person achieves a tittle so great as that and found that his humble begins started Tupelo, Mississippi. He was born on January 5, 1935, but his twin brother Jessie Garon died as a still born. He and his parents moved to Tennessee where he found music influences such as the black R&B he encountered on Beale Street, the pop and country music of that time, and the church gospel music. From 1954 Elvis caught his big break when he signed on to Sun Records and then RCA Victor. Much like today's singers, Elvis also was an actor, having starred in thirty three films and even served in the US army. He died on August  16, 1977 in his home in Memphis. To the right are some of his music videos. 

Sources:http://www.elvis.com/about-the-king/biography_.aspx

P.S. sorry for the strange formatting.

Keeping Up With the Joneses

For the first time in class today I heard the phrase "Keeping Up With the Joneses" and I thought it was the strangest thing ever. Though I had never heard that phrase before, I am familiar with what it means. Keeping Up With the Joneses encompasses the idea that you always have to compare yourself with your neighbors in the sense that if you saw that they bought something new and cool then you have to buy something that was newer and cooler. We see this as an indication of social status. If we fail to "Keeping Up With the Joneses" then we are socially inferior and we must do everything we can to fix that gap.  Upon further research I was able to find that the phrase became popular when  cartoonist Arthur R. "Pop" Momand it in a comic strip (which ran for 26 years) by Associated Newspapers. Below are two of his works.

As you can see both comics make fun of the idea that a person must always find a way to somehow

be better than their neighbors. The first comic makes fun of the idea of "Keeping Up With the Joneses" because the man thinks that he is dining with someone wealthy (thinking about how impressive he will seem to his neighbors) when in reality the "mogul" is the help. Just like the second comic indicates that they are trying to one up their neighbors by saying that they dined with Swedish ambassador when they don't even know what he looks like.

American Consumerism in the 1950's

Consumerism revolved around modernizing family life in the 1950's.  Many of the most popular products sold in this time period supported pragmatism and morality, rather than luxury.  For example, televisions, washing machines, toasters, and refrigerators, some of the most desired products at this time, were all products that were used in the home for practical purposes.  I have identified two main factors that led to the rise of American consumerism:

1) Patriotism

After WWII and in the midst of the Cold War era, participating in America's economic growth was patriotic.  In addition, consumer spending had been on a hold during the war due to rationing.  Americans had money to spend and were eager to do so.  Supporting America's growth was patriotic after WWII and while the U.S. was competing with the Soviet Union.

2) Security/Stability

Family life and marriage was on the rise as soldiers returned home from the war.  According to the documentary we watched in class today, 97% of all marriageable men and women were married by 1957.  This led to a "couples society" where domestic life was prioritized.  Companies capitalized on this consumer prioritization of family life and promoted products that were useful in the home.  The new products purchased in the 1950's demonstrate how the desire for stability led to increased consumer spending.  Family life in the home was a place of security and stability.  After going through the Depression and WWII, Americans were looking to settle down.  They bought products that would help them do so.

Here is a helpful article I came across that summarizes the causes of consumerism in the 1950's quite well.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tupperware-consumer/

What do you think about the causes I identified? Are there any other causes for the rise of consumerism?

The Olympics: Cold War and Now

Of course there are endless stories of Cold War politics entering into the Olympics.  Though the Olympics are about competition politics is never far behind (for example see Sochi 2014 Controversy over Russian Anti-gay Law or go back to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin).  If interested this article might give you a place to start your exploration.  See the following link.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-sochi-us-russia-20140215,0,5797145.story#axzz2tPqT6eYc

History of Valentine's Day

To take a slight break from the Cold War, I decided to research the history of Valentine's Day.  While I found a few different stories about the origins of today, this article seems to do a good job of summing up the various bits and pieces that I found elsewhere.

http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

These are two other articles that I found pertaining to the history of Valentine's Day.  While they both tell more or less the same story, there are some differences between the two, and with the link above.  Does anyone either have a different account of the history of Valentine's Day, or know for sure how it came about?  If not, these are just a little bit of fun food for thought.


A rather pessimistic view on Valentine's Day:

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day


An extensive (and possibly less accurate) account of the various aspects or Valentine's Day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day



Happy Valentine's Day!

Herblock Cartoons

   These are some political cartoons that were created by Herb Block.  I don't think there are many repeats from the ones Mr. Stewart has shown to us.  These cartoons are Herb's satires on communism and the Cold War, but there are also others.  If you are interested, there are links to the other archives just above the first picture.
   I thought it was interesting that you could see the notes that Herb Block had scribbled to himself on the side.  It reminded me that all of the cartoons were thought up and crafted by hand, which was something I had never really considered when Mr. Stewart showed us other cartoons in class.  Hope you find them interesting!

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblock-gallery/communism.html

History Matters

Personally I find the Korean war incredibly fascinating because I think that many of the issues that were settled during that time period are even  in 2014 very important. An example, would be the DMZ which still exists today and is considered the most heavily fortified border in the world. This is not only true for this war but all wars. WW2 was incredibly influential for the creation of the modern world as was the American Civil War. Essentially what I feel is necessary to explain is that when people argue that studying the past is useless I personally disagree because everything that happens in the past has an implication now as well.

 What do you guys think???

The Marshall Plan

In class today, we talked about the Marshall Plan some.  This is an approximate summary of what Mr. Stewart told us, supplemented by a few outside sources.  Hope it helps!

The Marshall Plan was established on June 5^th, 1947.  Also known as the Economic Recovery Program, its goal was stated to be to assist the European countries in the post-war world by helping to fund the recovery of any European nation that wanted help.  There was a second motive behind this, and that was to increase the confidence in a democratic and capitalist form of government.  The United States was worried that with the expansion of the Communist Party in Europe, the western countries would also eventually come under Stalin’s control.  The U.S. government hoped that by reminding the European nations how well capitalism worked, they could strengthen their alliance with the remaining democratic countries in Europe.  This is evident in the “advertising” the Americans put on their “donations” to Europe.  Everything was stamped with a reminder that it was the benevolent Untied States’ actions that were providing Europe with the necessary materials and funding.  The United States also improved their image in Europe by extending this offer to their new enemies, the Soviet Union.  Of course, the government knew that Stalin would reject their offer of help, so they had nothing to lose by putting up the pretense that they were trying to help all European nations recover from the war.

            Despite the hidden agenda of the Marshall Plan, its stated goal of assisting the European nations in post-war recovery was actually fairly thorough.  The Untied States decided to completely revive Germany, because it was determined that the best way to get all of Europe back on its feet was to help all the countries involved in the European economy, which most definitely included Germany.  The Untied Nations also extended a hand in humanitarian aid to many in Europe.  This program was pushed through the UN by the United States, who also paid for almost all of its expenses.  The donated funds of the United States helped the European countries to purchase the necessary items (from the Untied States, of course) needed for post-war recovery.

            Overall, the Untied States’ Marshall Plan was fairly successful.  Not only did it actually provide economic recovery and stability to the western European nations, it helped the Untied States in its more complex goals to contain the Soviet Union.  By increasing the popularity of the Untied States and its economic and political ways, the Marshall Plan safeguarded against the possibility of Stalin taking power in all of Europe, limiting Soviet power to the East.

In light of our upcoming subject involving "McCarthyism" you might want to check out some cartoons.  Only a few deal directly with "McCarthyism" but you might find the others entertaining.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/06/stars-of-political-cartooning-herb-block/

50th Anniversary of G.I. Joe

Okay, this might not seem like it has anything to do with what we're doing in class right now, but I heard a bit about it on the radio this morning and decided to do a little further research.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the GI Joe action figure! The toy was first launched in 1964 by Hasbro (not Barbie, contrary to popular belief) with the intent of honoring World War II veterans. At the time, Hasbro's staff was well-stocked with veterans. These veterans became the inspiration for (as well as the producers of) entire GI Joe sets, which eventually included not only military uniforms and small plastic guns, but also toy tanks, jeeps, and even a female GI. GI Joe was also the first ever action figure toy.

At the time, most young boys had a father or brother who had fought in World War II, so the GI action figure invoked their awe and admiration. GI Joe was immensely popular also because he exhibited strong American nationalism, which appealed to many people across generations. But as times changed, GI Joe changed too, constantly adapting in order to accurately represent an average military GI. Today, you can buy a GI Joe fully equipped with a headset and bulletproof vest.

GI Joe also serves as evidence of the post-war boom. After World War II, the Americans had so much industrial and economic strength that they could afford to mass-produce millions of plastic military toys. It also displayed the lingering warlike mentality of the United States. Even though the war was long over, the Americans continued to remember their own heroism. And as tensions increased with the Soviet Union, Americans young and old began to turn to this new idol of American virtue.

Here's the link to a news article I found if anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gi-joe-the-worlds-first-action-figure-turns-50/

FRQs for Dummies

 The FRQ seems to be an almost insurmountable mountain to climb in just 35 short minutes. However, do not fret it has be done for the past decade by students just like you. Yes, that means you can do it too. The FRQ is really just an essay, a logical brain dump of information (now that may be an over simplification, but who cares). The FRQs are dependent on the student analyzing question, not merely regurgitating a story that is somewhat relevant to the prompt. Here are some helpful tips:

1. Have a clear argument that sounds intelligent.

2.  Restate the question in the introductory paragraph and include appropriate context to frame the question in a certain time period.

3. Define important words in the prompt.

4. Use examples strictly within the time period that the question poses.

5. Know you facts and do not mix up the difference between the 19th century and the 1900s (along with any other dates).

6. Analyze. Analyze. Analyze.

7.  Make sure to connect evidence back to the your thesis statement (i.e. randomly throwing a date, person, or event does not help if you do not relate it to your thesis)

8. Relax, it is just a short essay. You have done it before, you can do it again.


 

A Holdout in the Pacific

Recently, a Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda died. Nothing special right, wrong. Onoda was stationed on the Philippines and his final order was to remain on the island and continue fighting the American forces. Interestingly this order was issued in early 1945, only months before the final surrender of Japan. Onoda, who had entered the dense forests in the Philippines, carried out his final order for 29 years after the Japanese peace accord and was finally convinced to leave his post by his former commanding officer in 1974. Hiroo Onoda's case was not an exception, there were thousands of Japanese soldiers ordered to enter the jungles of the topical islands and fight a guerilla war against the American forces. These men truely represent the Japanese ideal of "death before surrender", living a life in a constant state of war, never admitting defeat. If anything Onoda is an example of the reasoning behind the United States usage of Atomic weapons. The Japanese were prepared to go to drastic measures to protect their homeland rendering amy attempt at a invasion of Japan futile. In the case of the US the usage of the bombs was a necessary evil in order prevent further deaths on both sides.

By no means am I justifying the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, however, to completely understand the American prerogative one must understand the lengths the Japanese would attempt to defend and defeat their attackers. In the context of the war the Japanese had shown their propensity to introduce radical forms warfare, like the kamikaze and Onoda's final order, and the Americans had responded by pushing back even stronger. The Atomic bombs were the final "push" that was necessary to win the war and save countless lives. The bombings were, in an over simplification, an American attempt to save lives.