Second Presentation

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Her Life and Work

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a very interesting woman. Her life was unique and her work influential. Her views on life and society were extreme and rather progressive. Gilman was born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut and she spent most of her life in Rhode Island. In 1884 she married Charles Walter Stetson and they had a daughter but Gilman was not up to living the life of housewife. Her attempt at doing so sent her into a deep depression of which she only started to come out of when she left her husband. Gilman moved to California with her daughter. Here Gilman became active in several feminist and reformist organizations such as The Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association, the Woman's Alliance, the Economic Club, the Ebell Society, the Parents Association, and the State Council of Women. Gilman’s husband later remarried with a friend of hers, with Gilman’s blessing of course. She sent her daughter to live with them which brought on her characterization as “an unnatural mother.” She continued her work and later remarried.
Gilman wrote a series of utopian works that were originally published in the journal The Forerunner (1909-1916), which she wrote, edited, and published all by herself. Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Ourland are works that show Gilman’s feelings about the condition of women and her proposed solution. In all three works Gilman continuously mentions that the new advanced societies were a result of the awakening of women. Women can reach their full human potential and make the world a better place only if they are allowed to fend for themselves. The works were personal on different levels. They expressed her beliefs and there are some instances where little events in the works parallel Gilman’s. Perhaps these were mere coincidences but her works were her outlet so its possible she thought her way of life was ideal.

In reading several of her works of fiction I found that Gilman had some very interesting views on the world and she was very successful in her intent to get people thinking about the world. It was strange to read a utopian work where one of the new radical ideas was that a woman was able to have a career and a family, but one has to remember that they were written a very long time ago.

It is easy for us to understand and accept all these accomplishments of a woman, but they are so much more meaningful because Gilman accomplished all of this at a time when women were not even allowed to vote. Women were just empowering themselves and Gilman is an example of all that women were capable of and more.

Second Presentation

My paper will be about the Washington Public Power Supply System. Richard White mentions it in the latter stages of The Organic Machine. The WPPSS was part of a plan by the Bonneville Power Administration to construct 5 nuclear power plants in the Pacific Northwest. The project was believed to be necessary in the late 1960's because of the expected increase in demand and the fact that the Columbia had been used to its maximum potential. As the 70's passed however, it became clear that the power demands predicted would not come to pass but the project continued anyway. Costs spiralled out of control and the project defaulted on 2.2 billion dollars worth of bonds in 1983.



The lawsuits to settle the disputes between the investors and the WPPSS as well as the State of Washington lasted throughout the 80's and were only settled in 1995. The failure of the WPPSS which began with a voter referendum in 1981 that prohibited the WPPSS from seeking more bonds in the name of the people of the State of Washington. The story of the WPPSS is a good example of the conflict that can arise from public utilities operating in a market based industry. The public mission of the the BPA and the WPPSS required that it Continually develop both the capacity and use of electric power in the Pacific Northwest. The BPA's hydroelectric dams were funded by the Federal Government and thus the cost per kilowatt for electricty in the Northwest was the lowest in the country. As rates rose to fund the new WPPSS plants, demand dropped dramatically almost completely eliminating the need for the new capacity the WPPSS sought to build.

The early 1980's were the beginnings of the Deregulation movement and the WPPSS was an easy target for pundits and politicians as an example of big government intervening in an industry that it should have never taken part in.

Second Presentation

Morality and science is a never ending issue. Along with progress comes a deeper discussion of ethics surrounding the issue. Nuclear bombs yielding the power to exterminate the human race in a matter a seconds pushes the ethics of science to a breaking point. Morality is not absent from Copenhagen, in fact, it is one of the central issues surrounding the wartime meeting between Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. One possible reason why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen in the first place was to ask Bohr if a scientist had the moral right to work on a nuclear a bomb. There are no absolutes about the controversial meeting during that September night in Copenhagen. The only certainty is that the meeting took place. What was said, and the reasons for the visit are still as bleak as they were fifty years ago. This aspect of Fryan’s play proves to be the most interesting. How is it that we know what we know?
Werner Heisenberg states in the beginning of Act One, “Everyone understands uncertainty. Or thinks he does. No one understands my trip to Copenhagen…the more I’ve explained, the deeper the uncertainty has become” (4). Uncertainty is at the core of the play and Heisenberg’s actual life. His own principle of uncertainty asserted that the more precisely one measures one variable, the less precise the measurement of the second variable may be. (98) Bohr’s idea of complementarity says that light might be either a wave or a photon depending on perception. History is deeply rooted in these ideas of uncertainty and complementarity. How we know what we know is not as concrete as one thinks. In Copenhagen, Bohr asserts that, “Particles are things, complete in themselves. Waves are disturbances in something else. We must choose one of the two ways of seeing, but as soon as we do we can’t know everything about them.” Historians have spent countless hours examining documents, reading transcripts, and conducting interviews attempting to reach hard facts. Just like the principle of uncertainty history involves multiple variables, and like the idea of complementarity history can be viewed differently through different eyes, making it hard to know the full scale of information. People might not have been truthful in interviews, historians may interpret documents completely differently, and previously unreleased evidence may surface. Overtime facts can become distorted and skewed, loosing substance after each generation. What starts out as clear and concise may become garbled and foreign over time like a game of telephone.
As historians we are certain of some things, but these certainties do not always lead to absolutes. It is near impossible to be sure of things we believe are true because just like Heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty there are too many variables to focus on at once. This is what caused Max Born to call Heisenberg and Bohr’s story not so much “a straight staircase upwards, but a tangle of interconnected alleys” (96). Frayn’s attempt to look down each one of the alleys yields bigger questions than simply why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen. Manifestly, Copenhagen is a play that tries to uncover truths about a little known meeting between two of the worlds greatest physicists during the Second World War. On a bigger scale Copenhagen raises questions surrounding historical certainty and morality in science. As a work of fiction Copenhagen attempts to fuse historical records about a fuzzy subject and speculate further what might have happened on that September night in Copenhagen, 1941.

Presentation - In Defense of History

Richard Evans begins his defense of history by giving the reader a history of history. Above all, Leopold von Ranke – the German historian – shifted history from a religious based endeavor to a more scientific approach. Ranke’s influence was three-fold. First, he established history as an independent discipline, separate from philosophy or literature. Second, he wanted people to understand the past through the people who lived in it and understood it. Third, he introduced a method to extrapolate texts in order to get usable facts. Through Ranke, Evans defense of an objective approach to history takes form. The author fairly and conservatively examines other historical outlooks including postmodernist, revisionist, and deconstructionalist, yet views all of them inadequate in one way or another to an objective viewpoint. His defense and objective approach are not totally original. Evans draws heavily from E.H. Carr’s book What is history? to formulate his thesis and bring about relevant examples.
Evans leaves little to the reader to ponder addressing morality, factual evidence, primary and secondary sources, and causation in a historical context. In general, Evans views the rise of postmodernism as a subjective approach that does not give enough credit to the past and the documents that define it. For example; morality, postmodernists say, are central to understanding history and giving the past a more colorful and definitive viewpoint. Evans believes a more successful way of accessing the past is to leave morality out of the equation, instead giving the reader examples of a situation. Explaining how slave ownership came to be, its effects on slaves, and the country is the true task of the historian, as opposed to a lesson of morality.
In chapter six, Society and the Individual, Evans examines the movement of political dominated history to that of more diverse disciples including social history, cultural history, and psychohistory to name a few. There is no such thing as a definitive history anymore and the ideas of a complete synthesis of historical knowledge are dwindling. Evans sees the result of this as two-fold. History is becoming more eclectic and less Eurocentric,but also allows specialists through modern communication to interact and trade ideas. Economic, Social, and Intellectual historians might differ on methodology, yet agree that postmodernisms linguistic turn is for the worse. Evans takes this postmodern critique of social history as being dead and pointless and helps to reinforce his own point. He concludes though that postmodernisms emphasis on the individual in history actually is a positive thing for historical research restoring a much needed balance between society and the individual.
For most of the book Evans uses Carr on his side, but at times disagrees with his views. For example, in chapter seven E.H. Carr states that those who had contributed little or nothing to creation of historical change as he saw it were not really deserving of historian’s attention. Evans gives a lengthy defense of the losers, conquered, and minorities who do in fact leave their mark on history and deserve the attention of the historians as much as the winners that allegedly write history.
By the final chapter, Evans has given his reader a thorough explanation of not only the objective history that he is defending, but a concise history of other historical disciplines that are attacking the former viewpoint. Evans concludes by the end, and proves through his examples, that “ when postmodernist principles are applied to itself many of its arguments begin to collapse under the weight of their own contradictions.” This may be the case but Evans is quick to assert that along with the negative aspects of postmodernism, positive ones have risen. “One thing the postmodernist treatment of history as a form of literature has done is to reinstate good writing as legitimate historical practice.” In defense of history may be dense and wordy at times making Evan’s claims difficult to follow. It is important to remember that his main point is that postmodernism might have boomed in recent years, but eventually it will fall into a sub discipline of history such as cultural history, social history, or political history.

2nd Presentation

The German invasion of Poland is often viewed as the beginning of World War II, but long before Germany’s transgression, the imbalance between Japan’s growing militarism and China’s internal weaknesses arguably sparked the series of events that turned a regional conflict into an international war. The northern China region of Manchuria had been a traditionally contested territory both for its strategic location and for its natural resources. Although Japan had gained the essential railroad rights from the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, it was forced to give up much of its territorial gains; concessions that Japan deemed necessary to support its growing militarism and colonial expansion. The Mukden railroad incident, then, was the Japanese government’s justification to the war, no matter how blatantly fictitious it was. According to the Japanese, the Chinese bandits’ success was reason enough to invade Manchuria in the following year and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo. The incident extended beyond a territorial conflict between Japan and China, however, because of the international response that seemed to dismiss the obvious conclusion that Japan had provoked the incident. Tension over Manchuria continued to dominate the East Asian front of the Pacific War and was reflective of a number of cultural and political relations of the period.

 

In The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Jonathon D. Spence provides a comprehensive history of Chinese domestic life during this period. Through the characters of Kang Youwei and Lu Xun, Spence specifically reflects the growing tension in Japanese-Chinese relations and the internal division within China over regaining even the most limited degree of autonomy. Both Lu Xun and Kang Youwei shared a frustrated outlook on China’s development since the late 19^th century. China had radically changed by 1931, but as Kang reflected earlier before his own death in 1927, China needed to transform entirely: it was “necessary to dismantle the building and build anew if we want something strong and dependable.” (49). Spence repeatedly cites Lu Xun’s contempt for the trajectory of government reform. Although these are only two voices, they reflect China’s struggle to adapt to Western and Japanese imperialism that by 1931 and through the War period radically altered the lives of Chinese in the Manchurian region.

 

Hergé created the Adventures of Tintin comic book series as an international perspective on world events. The Blue Lotus is about Tintin’s, the main character, adventures in pre-war Manchuria through the Manchurian railroad incident, and the Japanese decision to leave the League of Nations. As a satirical commentary on war-hungry Japan, Hergé’s cartoon provides a good example of Japanese-Chinese relations as well as the cultural context of contemporary China.

 

Kazuko Kuramoto’s Manchurian Legacy: Memoirs of a Japanese Colonist, is another primary source that reflects the important social and political conflicts within Japan. Her memoir begins before the War but best portrays what life was like for Japanese colonists in Manchuria immediately after Japan’s surrender. Kuramoto remembers living in Dairen, a port city north of Port Arthur, where Japanese pre-war ideas of ultimate sacrifice and national supremacy became “a big joke, where Japanese privileges no longer existed.” (71). The Russian military, Chinese nationalists, and other oppressed minorities under Japanese colonial rule relished in punishing the defeated Japanese.

 

As viewed through the lens of a world history, these documents demonstrate the views of so many conflicted parties whose concerns over Manchuria testified to the historical importance of the region in the development of World War II. 

Second presentation

Richard White’s The Organic Machine breaks from traditional approaches to Environmental history, providing the reader with a unique account of the interdependent relationships that affect the Columbia River. White organizes his work into the four key elements that coincide to shape the lives of the people who have interacted with the river for centuries. Labor, work, power and salmon are these elements but they are not distinct in their roles. Rather they intersect and overlap in their relationships to each other. The Organic Machine provides an extensive history of the river from its thriving salmon population and native American inhabitants, to the dwindling numbers of salmon that exist today and the many technological advances that indirectly led to their demise. White explores the Columbia from social, cultural, political and scientific standpoints offering an extremely thorough look at its history. The author does not seek to glorify the past like many declensionist environmentalists before him, instead he offers an objective and value-neutral history. In doing so, White maintains credibility allowing him to change his tone and take a subjective and passionate stance in the final chapter.
The interdependent relationships between human history and nature as well as those between the rivers major elements illustrate the central thesis of the book. While White reinforces his thesis through out the work, one need not look further than the title itself. The title, The Organic Machine, speaks of the correlation between energy and work or nature and machines. The chapters themselves are organized as labor, power, work and
salmon, but each element is discussed in the other chapters showing a sort of dependency. White establishes that work is dependent on energy, which in turn dictates the organization of labor. The author later goes on to define labor through its relationship to energy and work; that of energy to the power of the river, work to the salmon through solar energy and labor to the humans who catch and eat the salmon and construct fisheries.
To further strengthen his thesis, the author introduces Ralph Waldo Emerson’s approach to the relationship between humans and technology. Emerson called for people to see technology and nature not as being parasitic to one another, but instead sharing a favorable relationship in which each benefits from dependency. Emerson argued that new technology such as steamboats and railroads would not destroy nature, instead they would provide new opportunities for labor in building machines and doing manual labor.
Steamships would also be the first technology that had the power to counter the river and in conjunction with the construction of canneries, salmon would be preserved for extended periods of time and could be shipped around the world. Emerson’s argument fit in a world dominated by capitalism stressing the dependency of nature on technology and vice versa. White thesis is made stronger through his providing the reader with the Emersonian view of the relationships between nature and human labor.
In the final chapter, White’s analytical lens is discarded in exchange for a moral lens. The reader trusts and may be persuaded by the author because he has been so value-neutral and is so well-informed on the subject. Because White has gained this credibility, it gives much more weight to the argument he now makes in the final chapter. Although White has proven that salmon play an instrumental role in labor, work and power, he devotes an entire chapter to them. The tone in this chapter is very different; the author lists possible threats, failures of humans and technologies, and seeks to make the reader more aware of the seriousness of the situation. White’s tone is powerful and appeals to the reader on an emotional level when he demands that the situation is seen not from an economic standpoint but rather from a moral standpoint. salmon face in the future. What the reader thought was a completely neutral history book, is in reality a discussion of the consequences of human actions and an appeal to the audiences conscience on a moral level. The Organic Machine explores the full scope of the forces acting on the Columbia. The author’s extremely thorough thesis in addition to the persuasiveness of his argument work together to shape his research methodology and contribute to its success.

Second Presentation

In Richard White’s The Organic Machine, White crafts a unique perspective of the history of the Columbia River that combines the human history and environmental history of the river. In doing so, White argues that humans are intrinsically linked to the environment they live in and that in order to understand either human or environmental history, a broader, more objective view that examines both the natural and unnatural needs to be taken. White explains that man and nature share a common bond in the energy they produce. In examining the Columbia River, White finds that the work of human energy has harnessed nature’s energy for social purposes and as a result has shaped the society surrounding the river.

White’s thesis relies on the theory that natural and human history is linked. White writes in the introduction that “My argument in this book is that we cannot understand human history without natural history and we cannot understand natural history without human history.” According to white, humans are influenced by their environment and nature is influenced by the humans that inhabit it.

Perhaps the major strength of viewing history through the lens of White’s linked human and natural history is that it provides a new and broader perspective of history that has the potential to be more objective. White writes that:

…this is a river subdivided into separate spaces whose users speak to each other in a babel of discourses: law, religion, nature talk, economics, science and more…To come to terms with the Columbia, we need to come to terms with it as a whole, as an organic machine, not only as a reflection of our own social divisions but as the site which these divisions play out.[i]

White attempts to find a new perspective that is not confined to traditional ways of historical thought. If viewed from a neutral point of view, instead of an economist or fisherman’s perspective, it has the potential to be more objective and truthful.

He finds that humans and the river share a common bond through energy and work. First, White writes about the interaction between Indians that lived around the river and early settlers when he writes, “Passage along the river was…not just physical; it was social and political. Social and political rituals were as necessary as labor to move against the current. Indians expected gifts and ritual at the portages.” According to White, settlers expanded energy through labor to counter the river’s energy in its currents for safe passage on the river. As a result, social and political tension between Indians and settlers developed when settlers were forced to use Indian portages.

Ironically, while White is trying to find a more objective view of history, he takes on a critical tone towards the end of the book and admits to bias in his own research when he says, “I have purposely made the list on-sided to mirror and counter the self-congragulatory propaganda…” By choosing to omit further research about BPA projects, White becomes biased and risks turning his writing into the propaganda that he criticize. Furthermore, White uses Ralph Waldo Emerson as a source to explain the relationship between nature and man when he writes, “Emerson could simultaneously rejoice in the ability of the machine to subjugate and control nature and in the spiritual truth nature provided.” The danger of using Emerson as a main source is that he was a poet; he did not have the credibility of a scientist nor did he write about the Columbia.

Conclusively, White’s thesis is apt. He shows the connection between man in nature through examining how man attempts to harness energy from the river – through fishing salmon or building dams – and how the unnatural becomes the natural. By blurring the lines between natural and unnatural, White is able to show the Columbia River as a symbol for fractured society.

Second Presentation

I decided to do my second presentation on the same topic as my final paper, which is The Conquest of Cool. While writing my paper, I noticed (like Zoe below me) the parallels between the counterculture movement of the sixties that Frank writes about, and the rise of today's "hipsters." The counterculture of Frank's study flouted tradition by ignoring the traditional values of power, stability, and conformity, preferring to strike out on their own and adopt a more free-spirited approach, in the process creating a new identity for themselves distinctly outside of that of mainstream culture. Today's Hipster Handbook notes that hipsters, by definition, "walk among the masses in daily life, but [are] not a part of them, and shun or reduce to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream." Hipsters, like Frank's countercultural movement, associate firmly with liberal political view, and also tend to be young, relatively affluent consumers with plenty of disposable income.

The advertising industry of the sixties first recognized the marketing potential of the targeting the "cool," and of using product association to reflect a certain opinion or stance. Perhaps the most successful example of this in modern advertising are the famous Apple commercials, in which a young, trendy actor represents the hip, sleek Mac, while an old, conservative man plays a stodgy PC. Macs, the commercials claim, are cutting-edge and visionary; PCs are outdated and resoundingly dry and mainstream. Though plenty of people have their own reasons for choosing their brand of computer, generally, whether it's the effect of the commercials, or the inspiration of them, or some combination of the two, Macs are associated with artsy hipsters, while PCs are the stuff of computer geeks and Linux fans. Apple has successfully co-opted the new "hipster" trend for its own image.

Presentation (Catholics in Maoist and Post Mao China)

My online presentation is about my paper. I will be discussing about the communist policy on religion. I will mostly be focusing on Christianity particularly Catholicism. My claim that that through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Communist policy was forced to change and this is done through Document 19.

The missionaries during the 17th and 18th centuries tried to convert the lowly people but failed because Catholic doctrine defied the right of the emperor. The idea that they had to abide to a Pope being higher than their own emperor worried those who ruled and therefore religion did not universally spread. Before the communists took over, the missionaries that still resided in the country side developed Christendoms that still exist today. In these towns the church was intertwined with all aspects of daily life.

The Great Leap forward was a time when famine was widespread. Famine was caused by the pushed for everyone to be in the industrial revolution but along the country side on their own properties. This push left farms to become overgrown and the people to starve. There are even stories like one family who had seen a few rotten potatoes floating down a steam and rushed in the middle of winter out to grab them so they could actually eat something that day. The Great Leap was followed swiftly by the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was a time where all people, especially children, were encouraged to tell any and all violations that their parents, teachers, friends, and coworkers committed. They then could face a variety of penalties. Following these two events came a rise in religious following because of the uncertainty of what could come next.

The rise of religion was too great just to eliminate it. Therefore the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) created Document 19 that states that the religion will faze out when true communism is reached and it cannot be forced out. Therefore the CCP established government agencies to control the church like the CCPA (Chinese Catholic Patriot Association). This was a way for citizens to still be in the country and follow the religion. This association takes charge in electing new bishops and cardinals which goes against Catholic Doctrine and therefore is not recognized at the time (80s) by the Vatican. This has created the accepted church and the underground church. The underground church is Vatican followers that are going against Catholic doctrine but still not seeked out like they had been in Maoist China.

Rachel Singleton's 2nd Presentation: The Great Cat Massacre

For my second presentation I would like to talk about The Great Cat Massacre And Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton and to focus in my discussion on the first chapter of the book where Darnton studies the folktales of French peasants.

The Great Cat Massacre is a series of essays in which Darnton attempts to get a picture of pre-revolutionary French popular culture by doing anthropological research of the past-reading the words of the people, listening to the stories they loved and decoding their humor. I was immediately impressed by Darnton?s thoroughness and insight as a historical researcher in reading the first chapter, Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose. He successfully tackles a challenging and relatively unexplored topic: the meaning behind and purpose of the folktale to eighteenth century French peasants.

Unlike many other historians and scholars who have analyzed folktales, Darnton attempts to find the original tale, the version(s) of the tale that was known to the peasant. He does not try to psychoanalyze the tale to add symbolism that simply is not there and would have had no place in what the tale meant to the eighteenth century peasant. He tries, instead, to approach the tales from the perspective of a French peasant, or at least as close as he can get to it, not allowing any modern Western mores skew his understanding. Most of the original versions of what are now popular fairy tales were extremely gruesome and full of taboos. It is easy for a modern reader to judge these details based on present day conventions but Darnton emphasizes the importance of discovering how the peasant viewed this violence and what purpose the telling of these tales served for them.

Throughout the chapter he systematically examines the seventeenth and eighteenth century versions of popular French folktales and makes well informed conclusions about why peasants were so interested in these stories and the meaning behind them based on what is known about the daily life of the French peasant class. He concludes all in all that the peasant folktale reflects their shared world view and lessons on how to get through a life of hardship, death and social injustice. The tales on a whole, according to Darnton say "?that life is hard, that you had better not have any illusions about selflessness in your fellow men, that clear-headedness and quick wit are necessary to protect what little you can extract from your surroundings, and that moral nicety will get you nowhere." (pg. 61)


Below I have included a website with various versions of "Cinderella" from France, Germany, Italy, etc. as an example of how many different versions of one of these tales there are. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html#jacobs

2nd Presentation

In In Defense of History, Richard J. Evans attempts to the defend the modern tradition of history against its post modern criticisms. Evans begins his defense of history by describing the history of history itself. Evans introduces Leopold Von Renke as the father of the modern history. Von Renke argued that the past should be portrayed "how it essentially was." Von Renke also believed that historians had rely on primary sources in order to avoid bias. Historians were also responsible for proving the legitimacy of their sources. Evans also explains the tendency of historians in the 19th century to approach history as a science. Evans seems to believe that history is both "weak science" in that it must be objective, but cannot provide general laws, and an art, in that it utilizes some of the techniques of literature.

Evans argues against postmodernist interpretations of history, which argue that language makes it impossible to objectively present the facts. Postmodernists believe that it is impossible to write a history without insert some sort of bias into it. Postmodernists support the idea that each group should be responsible for writing its own history in order to avoid majority bias. Ultimately Evans believes that the "hyperrelativism" of the postmodernists is not in itself enough to really provide an accurate view of history. Although it may be impossible to provide a completely accurate truth, that is no reason not to attempt reach as close to the truth, through sound research, as possible. Although objectivism has its flaws, Evans believes some sort of concept of the truth is necessary in order to understand history.

Evans is unable to completely disprove the postmodernist take on history. Instead, he argues that there must be a dialogue between the modernists and the postmodernists in order to find the best way to analyze history.

2nd Presentation

For my second presentation I wanted to focus on Conquest of Cool by Thomas Frank. I thought it would be interesting to examine whether the issues Frank talks about in his study are at all applicable to the fashion or advertising industry today. In his study Frank claims that the business world and the counter-culture world did not follow a basic cooptation theory but rather that the business world actually embraced the values and images of the counter-culture--that in fact advertising and menswear enjoyed a kind of "hip" revolution of their own. Since we explored these theories at a rather in depth level in class, i thought it might be interesting to look at the advertising and fashion industry today and see if a similar relationship exists. While i don't think its any secret that advertisers look for trends that are "hip" and "cool" in order to move products, Frank was attempting to show that advertisers could in fact predict these trends--and didn't merely adopt counter-culture values but in fact helped to shape them. While looking around for information on today's fashion industry i found an article in Forbes about the rise of "hipster" culture and its influence on the industry. The article points out that Marc Jacobs (the designer) draws on his experience as a hipster to draw in older and younger crowds; he is essentially what Frank is talking about in his study--members of the business class anticipating and encouraging the creation of a counter-culture movement.

Ultimately the article points to the fact that "hipsters" are the new counter-culture movement--and coincidentally they are also the children of the "baby boomers" who Frank examines in his book.

The article is HERE

2nd Presentation-Sweetness and Power

For my second presentation, I will be discussing Sweetness and Power by Sidney Mintz. I'll mainly be talking about Mintz's discussion on the production of sugar in the Caribbean islands. I believe were one of the strongest parts of the book. I also enjoyed this part because it gave the reader a better idea of what was going on in terms of sugar production and trade during that time.

In the second chapter of Sweetness and Power, Mintz begins by breaking down the production of sugar on the plantation colonies of the Caribbean. Although he begins with a broader overview of earlier French and Spanish colonies, Mintz eventually turns his focus to the British “sugar islands”. He takes the reader through the entire process of sugar production and in my opinion, succeeds in giving his audience a clear idea of how production in particular, changed over time. Mintz effectively uses statistical data showing the link between production rates and consumption. In doing so, Mintz demonstrates the increasing economic demand between colonies and their mother country.
There is a point where Mintz crystallizes how, as sugar became economically significant, “its consumption by the powerful came to matter less; at the same time, the production of sugar acquired that importance precisely because the masses of English people were now steadily consuming more of it, and desiring more of it than they could afford it” (Mintz 1985, 45). Mintz leads into “Consumption” by pointing out how increased sugar production directly influenced the change of consumers from aristocracy to the general public as well as the manner in which sugar was consumed in England.

Paper Topic

I plan to base my paper on Richard White's Organic Machine. In that book, He discusses the failure of the Washington Public Power Supply System. The failure of the WPPSS remains the largest government bond default in the history of the United States.  The fall of the WPPSS is an example of overzealous government intrusion in the affairs of the Electricity Suppliers and overconfidence in nuclear power for the Pacific Northwest. 

Two of the primary sources i will be using are:

1. The Northwest Power and Conservation Act of 1980- An act of the federal government requiring the users of the Columbia to seek alternative methods of producing energy.  Also required that extensive conservation measures be taken eliminating the need for extra generation capacity that the WPPSS was going to produce. 

2.  The Financial Crisis Confronting Nuclear Power in the Pacific Northwest. A Congressional Research Service report written in 1981 explaining the situation as it stood in the Pacific Northwest during that time. 

final paper

1. Gate of Heavenly Peace

2. I will talk about the communist policy on religion (specifically Christianity with larger focus on Catholicism) and how the cultural revolution and persistence changed the government's perspective on it.

3. I will use:
An article by C.P. Fitzgerald from the Australian University titled "Religion and China's Cultural Revolution" which was written and published in the Pacific Affairs Spring-Summer 1967 edition

Document 19 - a government document released on March 31 1982 stating that religion is a touchy subject and while communism does not allow religion it is only eliminated naturally over time and that a government doctrine to eliminated does not good and those who do it that way are wrong

Paper Topic

I will be writing on Herland for my final paper. I will be focusing on how Gilman's feminists views in both Herland and her sequel With Her in Ourland exemplify the growing feminist movement in the 20th Century. I will also be examining the works of DH Lawrence and his views on female sexuality and its ties to female empowerment. I will be tying these two writers together in their efforts to empower women during the late 19th and early 20th century both in America and the UK.

Sources
1. Herland
2. With Her in Ourland-I will be using this work as a follow-up of Gilman's feminist views as they developed over time and how they contributed to the overall movement in the early 20th Century
3. Lady Chatterley's Lover-This book was groundbreaking at the time because of its sexual content, particularly how the main character, Lady Chatterley, is a sexually empowered woman. I will be discussing how DH Lawrence's character and message of sexual empowerment contributed to the feminist movement.

Ruth Vizcaino

Paper Topic

For my final paper I'd like to do Herland and to study what kind of impact the feminist literature of Gilman and others had on the literature and art which comprised the feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's. I want to focus on the differences between Gilman and her contemporary counterparts and what that says about the changes in American society and perception of women and equality.

1) i will focus on Herland as well as Gilman's sequel Ourland as examples of feminist literature at the turn of the 20th century

2) i will also draw from articles written by femininsts in the 1960's and 1970's (i.e. "No More Miss America", "Double Jeopordy: To Be Black and Female", "Poor White Woman", "Why I Want a Wife", and "The Bitch Manifesto")

Brian's Paper Topic

1. Gate of Heavenly Peace

2. I want to focus on the period leading up to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Spence does a really good job setting the tone for the many conflicts of the period and I would like to look at the relationships between the Japanese and the Chinese individual citizens living in the region.

3. My first source is The Blue Lotus (The Adventures of Tintin) by the Belgian writer Herge. It's a comic book but has a story line that says a lot about international perspective on the Manchurian occupation as well as the Chinese perspective.

4. My other source, Manchurian Legacy: Memoirs of a Japanese Colonist by Kazuko Kuramoto, is a primary source from the Japanese perspective. The memoir gives a good view of colonization as a duty to the Japanese nation and support for its expansionist policies.

Manchurian Legacy: Memoirs of a Japanese Colonist

Final Paper Topic

1. The Conquest of Cool

2. My thesis will focus on businesses extreme co-optation of the values of those rebelling against them. My paper will examine the ways in which the countercultural rebellion became corporate ideology and its impact on advertising in the sixties.

3. I will be looking at Commodify Your Dissent, a work by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland that offers a variety of articles from their magazine "The Baffler". Specifically I will be referring to the article "Why Johnny Can't Dissent" by Frank which delves further into the ways in which corporate America assimilated the ideas of the rebellious youth and sook to absorb and promote the counterculture rather than isolate it.

I will also be referring to Leslie Savan's The Sponsored Life:Ads, TV, and American Culture. Savan wrote a column for the Village Voice on advertisements and culture for 13 years. Savan describes our traditional quest for individualism which advertisers are able to market through conformity.

Final Paper

1) Copenhagen

2) Paper will focus on the morality of using the atomic bomb. Specifically focusing on how the scientists working on both the German and American programs felt, upon hearing about the bomb dropped in Japan and after the completion of the bomb in America respectively.

3) Operation Epsilon: Farm Hall transcripts- the German scientists had discussions about the truthfulness of the bomb being dropped in Japan and also about who was responsible and how glad they were not to be the ones to cause such destruction.

A compilation of letters written by or to Leo Szilard about his feelings of the bomb being used. Includes memorandum to FDR and later Truman and the petition of scientists to the President to advise against the use of the bomb.

Final Paper Topic

1) The Conquest of Cool.

2)I'd like to focus specifically on the introduction of irony into advertising and the evolution of advertising as a creative art form that occurred with the creative revolution in the sixties and trace how this affected ads in subsequent decades. I would especially like to analyze how the the art of advertising explains the social background of the United States during and after the creative revolution.

3) I would like to use From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-line dispatches from the Advertising War, Jerry Della Femina's memoir about his experiences as an adman during the creative revolution. 

Also, I would like to look at specific ads from the decade, especially the DDB volkswagen ads, and compare them to more modern ads to see how the creative revolution influenced the way in which ads were produced.

Final Paper Topic

1. My final paper topic will be on The Conquest of Cool.

2. I plan to focus on the creative revolution in the advertising industry in the fifties, specifically on the formation of the concept of identifying with youth and counterculture, and the resulting effects on both the advertising world and general consumer culture.

3. I plan to use George Lois' memoir George, Be Careful, which discusses his experiences as one of the forces influencing advertising's evolution on Madison Avenue. (He has written several other books on the subject which I may also find helpful).
I'll also use Rosser Reeve's book Reality in Advertising, which exemplified the standard for advertising in the 1950s - that is, before the creative revolution.

Cassie's Paper Topic post

1. Herland
2. I plan on examining the methods of early twentieth century feminism and their influence/differences on the feminism movements of the later twentieth century. (eg: utopian novels to incite social reform.)
3. Sources:
• With Her in Ourland, Gilman’s follow-up novel to Herland, which follows Ellador and Van through the “normal” world during World War I contrasted with The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
• Letter from Lucretia Mott to Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1855 discussing the positions and feelings of women in the movement, Stanton’s plan for a book, etc.

Final Paper

1) Herland

2)My paper will focus on utopian novels by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and how those novels show Gilman's developing utopian ideas.

3)Moving the Mountain-a work in which Gilman creates a perfect society in the U.S. where men and women are equal as a result of women realizing their full potential

With Her in Ourland- a sequel to Herland that follows Van and Ellador as they travel after leaving Herland. This is more of a satirical critique.

Final Paper Topic

1) Copenhagen

2) My paper will focus on the German bomb program during the war and specifically how much knowledge was available to the Germans and whether or not Heisenberg attmepted to sabotage the program with his figuring of equations

3) Farm Hall transcripts - originally recordings of the conversations between German physicists detained in England after the war, makes potentially secret information heard.

David Irving interview with Werner Heisenberg - For his book The Virus House about the Hitler's WWII Bomb program, Irving conducted a lengthy interview with Heisenberg about his part in the program. Note - this document might be hard to find.

Rachel's post

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.bu.edu/stable/1211973?seq=12&Search=yes&term=Hollywood&term=Vietnam&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DHollywood%2Band%2BVietnam%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3DVietnam%2Bin%2BFilm%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=6&ttl=2431&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doBasicResultsFromArticle


This is an article by Peter McInerney from the Film Quarterly magazine published in 1979. McInerney, in around ten pages, describes the emergence of the ?Vietnam War genre? in American film and focuses primarily on several major Vietnam War films released in the late 1970s including the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. He explores the challenges faced by filmmakers in attempting to portray this subject and all its controversies on screen and still make a movie with profitable success. McInerney also examines how filmmakers, in making war films, seek to influence the public?s attitude toward and view of the war itself. The evolution of the Vietnam War film is especially unique in the history of war film because Hollywood had to deal with an unprecedented amount of controversy which surrounded the war. Hollywood, during the war, did not dare make movies with antiwar sentiment but found it difficult to make films as completely pro-war when the situation in Vietnam was not reporting much success. After the war, McInerney says, Hollywood has portrayed the war as a ?nightmare for individuals and a collective hell for the nation?, and has taken real war veteran testimonies and stylized them so that ?Hollywood hasn?t been Vietnamized: these films have Hollywoodized Vietnam?. Most of these movies end with redemption and rehabilitation which was in reality absent from the average American soldier?s experience. McInerney, all in all, criticizes Hollywood?s addition of suspense, heroism, adventure etc. for entertainment value when motivations behind American involvement in Vietnam and the soldier?s experience are hard enough to understand. He concludes that the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now fail at demonstrating what the war was to those who experienced it.

I think that the questions Peter McInerney brings up in this article are extremely important in analyzing the successes and failures of film in portraying the horrors of war. I do agree that Hollywood, in stylizing and adding to the real experiences of Vietnam veterans in order to create an entertaining and satisfying two hour film, sacrifices its ability to accurately depict the war. But, in reality, it is impossible anyway to condense all that occurred in a war that lasted for more than a decade into a film that lasts a few hours. And although most films attempt to overcome this problem of condensing by focusing on one event or the experience of one individual, unless you were there, you can never know what was really felt and seen or understand the suffering experienced by the American soldiers in Vietnam. However, I do believe that film can be a successful medium by which to raise awareness for war and atrocities as long as people, in viewing them, should remember that what they are watching is not actually history only a director?s representation of it.

History According to Hollywood

The following article appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in September, 2001. The article discusses the implications of society driven by information from film. With this, argues the author, comes a new responsibility from filmmakers and Hollywood executives to take more care in depicting history accurately. It is no doubt film is currently the number one entertainment medium and people base a lot of their information of what appears on screen. The author gives examples of failed attempts at showing particular historical characters in a not only generous but accurate light. From their she moves her critical eye to another issue of how exactly to depict history correctly, if one can at all. Tom Hanks aids her discussion by arguing that it is impossible to be completely accurate, but a lot of the time directors and producers aim for authenticity above correctness and facts. Whether or not this is attributable enough to the past remains inconclusive. The article is clear and concise, bringing up relevant points about the ongoing issue.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0928/p13s1-almo.html

Genocide Films vs. Holocaust Films

Here is an article from the IDRC about the portrayal of genocide in film:http://www.idrc.ca/rwandagenocide/ev-108307-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#

The article attempts to make a distinction between genocide films and holocaust films. I don't know if I agree that you can separate the two types of films. The article seems to make a distinguish between the two based on race, which ties into another point that the article makes. Some of the most popular genocide films, like Schindler's List, choose not to focus on the victims of the genocides themselves, but instead make their hero's people that "white viewers" can relate too. I think that whenever you turn something into an industry, like the article suggests genocide films have become, its impossible to truly be faithful to the source material without some commercial biases slipping in.

How movies deal with the Holocaust

This article talks about the how, Hollywood first tried not to offend Nazi Germany and later, tried not to confront the Holocaust by making any films on the subject. As the article continues, it recounts the successes and failures of many famous Holocaust films. In general, Holocaust movies were always both criticized for their message and delivery and praised for it's bravery and honesty. I believe that the author, Stephen Applebaum is right in saying that there will always be two contrasting opinions to Holocaust movies. Although the bottom line may be how much a movie makes, the message these films send out are generally the same, the only thing that changes is the delivery. I believe there will always be a group of people who are offended and another glad someone told this story. No film will ever encapsulate the true experience of the Holocaust, but with so much ignorance in this world, some knowledge is better than none. The good thing about Holocaust films is that the subject matter is so serious, that the finished product usually always delivers the best it can give the audience. I believe that in the end, these films are important for younger generations to see so that even if they may not read or hear about it as years pass and survivors die, at least they can see a movie and be aware.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/01/15/the_holocaust_on_film_2003_article.shtml

Filming the Unfilmable- The Challenge of the Genocide Movie.

This article written by Katrina Onstad of the CBC in Canada was written following the release of Hotel Rwanda. She interviews several promeinent film makers about there experiences making genocide films such as life is beautiful. She notes the increasing graphicness of these depcitions and the delicate balancing act film makers must play in order to keep the violence from becoming "routine"

Chuck Giroux

Film and History

Marc Ferro published an article (jstor) about the place of history and film, specifically in political and social commentary films. His main point is that film should not be viewed simply as a reflection of history, but as an additional source and agent within history- "Grasping film in its relation to history... must look at the historical function of film, as its relationship with the societies that produce and consume it, at the social processes involved in the making of the works, at cinema as a source of history. As agents and products of history, films and the world of films stand in a complex relationship with the audience..." 

Ferro brings up a good point in how influential film can be. On the other side of the spectrum from holocaust portrayals, we can see from the iconic movie Deepthroat how much film can act as an agent of cultural history. "Deep Throat, strange as it may seem, changed America's sexual attitudes more than anything since the first Kinsey Report in 1948," argues movie critic Joe Bob Briggs. I remember my mom telling me that she went to see the movie with friends as a casual night out... if nothing else, this has convinced me that Deepthroat was influential in redefining sexuality. 

For this reason, I think Ferro has a very good point in suggesting that film can advance historical understanding if we recognize how powerful it can be. With that, however, must come the understanding that this power can just as easily distort our historical understanding. 

The Rwandan Genocide In Film

This article describes the reactions of survivors of the Rwandan genocide to recent films, including Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda. Generally, it says, while survivors are pleased that the atrocities of the genocide are being recognized, they are upset that the stories are inaccurately portrayed, to the point that they don't count them as their own.

I think the article raises a particularly important issue in pointing out that we cannot assume that what we see, even in a "historical" movie, is necessarily accurate. For instance, Sometimes in April downplays the government's own role in the genocide. While this may somehow more convenient for the studio, or make the movie flow more smoothly, but it does not truly reflect the regimented, systematic work of the Hutu radicals in power. In a film's quest to portray a dramatic story complete with the expected heroism, the truth is often distorted in ways that do survivors' experiences severe injustice. While I am glad that the horrific events of the this genocide, which have often been ignored and glossed over, are brought to light, it would be an even more important step to take pains to portray the stories as accurately as possible.

Cassie's blog post

I found a columnist's site who examines history in movies and takes questions on historical accuracy.
Here's her column on Cold Mountain:

http://www.stfrancis.edu/historyinthemovies/coldmountain.htm

I definitely agree with the writer's critique of the inaccuracies of Gone With the Wind—the idealized Southern belles and soldiers definitely don't lend themselves to a comprehensive understanding of the period. Cold Mountain, although a tad melodramatic at times, I felt was a pretty consistent portrayal of little-told stories of the people living south of the appalachians.

Frames of Evil

Here is a review of a book titled Frames of Evil. The book approaches the subject of the holocaust in films in relation to horror films. Ultimately the article says "film is viewed as being important for the creation of historical awareness and for sustaining the sense of society as moral community" and that cultural representations in film and memorials assure that it will not be forgotten. I agree with the article's argument. Film is indeed such an integral part of our culture that it can provide a base for future cultural interpretations, in this context films can advance our understanding of the event. However, it can very easily lead to distortion of the event if a person's knowledge of the event comes solely from film.

Brandon's blog post

http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=1208

This article focuses on the depiction of atrocities by American media. We often wonder why the U.S. did not do more to prevent the Holocaust and all of it seems to have to do with the fact that people did not know about it because it was not widely reported, as the article argues. It also brings up an interesting point about racism and media coverage - the minimal coverage of the genocide in Rwanda was tainted by its stereotypical portrayal of Africa and its people.

The Position of Genocide in the Film Industry

This article discusses the issue of portraying genocide in film. There are some similar remarks from the movie that also connected with are discussion following the movie. The article tousched on the balance films must seek to provide information without desensitizing and the misreppresentation that can occur as a result. I agree with the author's argument of the need to find this balance and how it can be found through different portrayals of events: through the use of a hero or an overall film of complete autrocity.

Kayla Savelli's blog post

Kayla Savelli

Blog Response

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/movies/24sovi.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

This article is about a movie made to show the atrocities of Stalin’s rule in Russia. The movie is meant to show how Stalin and Hitler were both equally ruthless killers of their own people. The movie fails to present the subject matter in a respectful way, falling far from showing how truly horrible it was to live in Russia during this time. This is an instance where film is not a effective way to show people the horrific events because in the process they belittled it. There should never be an agenda when trying to portray a historical event that caused death and pain to millions of people.

Remembering the Holocaust

I found this interesting article which directly relates to the conversation we had in class last monday. The author talks a lot about the movies/mini-series mentioned in the film (specifically Schindler's List and Holocaust). She raises an interesting point about the prevalence of Holocaust memorials and whether they, like film representations, trivialize the atrocity since they themselves are commercial enterprises. Ultimately she references statements made by historian Carl Becker--essentially stating that "without knowledge there is no memory" and concludes a well constructed argument about the importance of knowledge in order to remember (not to relive or even understand) atrocities like the Final Solution.

art & history: representing atrocities

The film we watched last week, Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust, addressed the problem of how filmmakers have attempted to portray the Holocaust and touched on the larger question, famously raised by Elie Wiesel, of whether art can ever adequately address such horrors. Your blog post assignment for this week is to find and post an article that explores the issue of how historic atrocities have been represented in literature, film, and other media, and whether these representations advance or distort our understanding of these events. As you post your article, be sure to include your own commentary on whether or not you agree with the author's argument, and why.

Brown University and History

Here is the press release from Brown re: a review of its historical ties to slavery.

Northwest debate: Is hydropower 'clean'?

In William Yardley's article "Northwest debate: Is hydropower "clean?" in the New York Times, he writes about a new debate about the Columbia River over hydroelectric dams. According to Yardley, the fishing community in the Columbia want the damns removed because they harm fishing grounds. On the other hand, however, Pacificorp, the company that built hyroelectric dams, argue that even though they pollute the river, the dams are a clean source of energy that does not pollute the air and lead to climate change.

http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T4942034551&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T4942034592&cisb=22_T4942034589&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&selRCNodeID=31&nodeStateId=411en_US,1&docsInCategory=6&csi=8357&docNo=3

WWF Pandas in Paris!

So we were just talking about this in class today. I found an article about paper mache pandas set up in Trocadero (Army and Naval Museums in Paris) by WWF members.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,585206,00.html

More in Common with the Writer of Generation Kill

Evan Wright, the embedded reporter who went on to write Generation Kill, was actually a history major in college.

Here's a set of interviews with the some of the cast of Generation Kill, some of the actual soldiers, and Evan Wright himself.

Mad Men - Selling an AD

This video shows an adman of the 1960s selling his idea for the Kodak carousel.

Reel History

I found this website through Lehigh University which is the 'Reel American History Project' which was created by students at the school to 'study the history that movies make'...i thought it was fitting considering what we talked about last week:
the link is here

pretty extensive resource for looking at the film shapes history...

Sweetness and Power

Here is a video of Sidney Mintz discussing Sweetness and Power.

John Adams Review Part. 2

Here are the links to my last post which for some reason didn't work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/arts/television/14adam.html?ref=television
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CNbQOrxQ-g

John Adams Review

"Blowhard, Patriot, President" is the title of this 2008 Review of the HBO miniseries John Adams written by Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times.



This is the full trailer from the miniseries on youtube:

Jack and Rose and History: TITANIC

This weekend, I had the pleasure of finding "Titanic" while channel surfing. I also stumbled across an article on the Titanic (I believe it was in Newsweek) that mentioned that new information has come out about how the ship sunk. Rather than breaking into two pieces, it broke into three, and did not rise out of the water nearly as high as James Cameron depicted it to have in the movie. The Titanic is definitely a stretch as a movie that depicts history because of its two lead fictional characters and all of their romantic drama, but the film also depicts many real people (like Molly Brown and Captain Smith). Ultimately, it conveys the experience and emotions of that night very well. The fear and desperation of the passengers in this clip therefore seem very true to the event, while the way the ship rose out of the water, split in two, and then sunk may not have been the case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_-sRQRPgss

I couldn't hear the sound in the computer lab so hopefully its okay.

- Brandon Stinchfield

Michael Moore, Ali G and feminism..

So I found these two clips on youtube....the first is Michael Moore, Sandra Bernhardt and a few others on the Bill Maher show having a debate about feminism--its interesting to see the huge divide between the two men talking about feminism.



The second is from the Ali G Show...he's interviewing a female (women studies..?..) professor about feminism.



I thought these clips would tie in nicely since Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel "Herland" is a book about a feminist utopia yet the female author uses a male narrator and protagonist to advance her ideas. I like that these two clips include a male voice/opinion... (even though one is kind of ridiculous)

John Adams bringing back the historical miniseries?

A poster on Associated Content wrote an article on how he thinks John Adams just might usher in a new wave of popularity for the historical miniseries in this article: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1055656/the_success_of_john_adams_prompts_a.html?page=3&cat=47
The poster seems to think that John Adams wasn't as successful on HBO as it could have been on more major networks. Does anyone else think that there is still a mainstream audience for historical TV? I don't think television is the best medium for historically accurate work. Although HBO may be able to stay true to its source, major networks have to worry about pleasing advertisers and drawing more viewers to increase ratings, which often comes at a cost to the accuracy of the source material.

History and Film: The Counterfeiters

One of my favorite movies last year was The Counterfeiters, the true story of a group of Nazi prisoners who were recruited for unusual work: to counterfeit British currency. (Incidentally, the movie won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.) Here is the New York Times review of The Counterfeiters. While the film is loosely based on Operation Bernhard (the actual plan to destabilize British currency in World War Two), it provides interesting insights into the real dilemmas of the Holocaust, and the difficulties in portraying the horrors of the Nazi camps in modern film.

Depicting History in films

So Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut of course) is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, I really don't know why but I love it. This movie is about a blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) who joins a Crusade. It is set during the height of Saladin's campeigns to regain Jerusalem.

Although this movie gives the audience a general idea of what was going during those times. I think that the tensions between Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas is pretty accurate. As for everything else, well Hollywood exaggerates as always. I believe it is nearly impossible for movies to be historically accurate because there is a need to generally please the audience through entertainment NOT educate them with facts.

I found this article that talks about the Kingdom of Heaven which is pretty good because the author is a historian whose expertise if Muslim history. Although Timothy Furnish does give the movie some credit for keeping to historical facts, he pretty much disapproves of the main message the hero (Bloom) is trying to put forth-religious tolerance.

http://hnn.us/articles/11933.html

Hanford and Presidential Politics?

I did not expect to find a connection between Richard White's "The Organic Machine" and campaign politics, but this article discusses a visit Barack Obama paid to Washington back in May, When asked about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (which White spends a substantial amount of time on), Obama admitted that he knew little of the situation but promised he would research it. What I found most striking was that the government spends $2 bil on cleanup in the Hanford area. Does that mean that taxpayers and their money are now a part of the "organic machine"?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics/2008/05/obama_stumped_by_question_abou.html

- Brandon Stinchfield

The New Yorker's take on HBO's John Adams

Jill Lepore reviewed HBO's "John Adams" mini-series... She had some issues with the bias toward Adams, especially the title the show gives him- "he United the States of America." But she praised the series for it's realistic depictions of 18th Century Boston and life during the war.

Here's the Guy

Leopold von Ranke
12 December 1795 - 23 May 1886

"But it is not for the past as a part of the present, but for the past as the past, that man is properly concerned" (Diaries, 1814)


Biography

In Defense of History

I provide you with two things to view, and the first is a webpage. This web page is about the book In Defense of History written by Richard Evans. It takes the major criticisms in the book and the defense provided by Evans to each question.

The second item is a youtube video


He used cited resources to talk about neutrality in history and uses many items that Evans himself uses such as how there is a checks and balances in the study that keeps inaccuracies from doing too much damage.

John Adams Review

According to the washington post John Adams wasn't that much of a hero

Sweetness and Power-Book Review

Hi,
So the book I chose to write about in the first paper was Sweetness and Power, here's a review from JSTOR. I found it pretty interesting, it's very clear and concise which is always makes for a good review. Mark Wilde does a great job summarizing the book for us, giving a brief but detailed outline of Mintz's main points.

http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-165X(198701)28%3A1%3C141%3ASAPTPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

Diaries of John Adams

I found this cool link from the Mass Historical Society that has a HUGE archive of John Adams' diaries. This is the link to the index of the site, which is sorted by date. If you click on one of the dates, it will direct you to a page which includes all the text. What's even more interesting is that this site includes pictures from his actual diary, and the pictures of the pages are next to their coordinating dates.

Starbucks Counterculture

Michael Hoover wrote an article for Monthly Review about Starbucks, advertising, and the link to counterculture. He brings up a lot of the same points Frank does regarding "hip" and co-optation. With a Starbucks on every corner, the company hardly represents the "authentic" coffee shop experience, prompting Hoover to ask why it is so popular. Just as Frank defended business culture's co-optation of the counterculture, Hoover has some defense for the thriving company... Starbucks is "capitalism with a "humane face" that leaves one "feeling groovy."

A Connection to the Conquest of Cool

This article in the Independent describes the evolution of British advertising from the 1960s through the 1980s, which mirrored the American advertising revolution of catering to a young, hip audience. It also mentions a reversal in the 1990s, moving away from creative advertising and more towards the modest, scientific approach used in the 1950s.

McCullough Cited for Selling "Himself to the Celebrity Culture"

No historical representation in media will be one hundred percent correct, but Alex Beam takes a vicious stab at McCullough's John Adams and the HBO series' representation. I especially like his implications for the series being used in the classroom. Click here for the article.

Women's Fantasies and Feminist Utopias

Women's Fantasies and Feminist Utopias
This JSTOR article explores the works of a handful of feminist authors during the 19th Cnetury and contemporary Women's Movements. In her analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland among others, author Carol Pearson finds that while these works may appear to be different they possess many similar characteristics. In each of the works, a feminist utopia exists in which women are free from the limits typically set by a patriarchal society; Pearson finds a striking consensus in each fantasy work involving such a utopia.

• Carol Pearson
  
• Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Autumn, 1977), pp. 50-61
• Published by: University of Nebraska Press
• http://www.jstor.org/stable/3346349?&Search=yes&term=herland&term=movement&term=women%27s&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dherland%2Band%2Bwomen%2527s%2Bmovement%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26wc%3Don&item=4&ttl=172&returnArticleService=showArticle

John Adams Review

A Review of the miniseries by the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120544948247734833.html

Dams of the Columbia Basin

Pictures of dams and effects on Native Fishery

http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/dams7.htm

Sugar Industry is Changing

In the last part of Mintz's book, Sweetness and Power, he focuses on how sugar has been extended in American culture, through increased sugar-intake, stranger eating habits, and obesity. This article in The Economist points out that sugar sales have decreased, while artificial sweetener sales have increased even though they may be potentially worse for you. More people seem to be more conscience of what they eat, and it is impacting the sugar industry.

The Conquest of Cool and the Pepsi Generation

For my first paper I wrote on The Conquest of Cool. What really bothered me about the book is that though Frank claimed to explain how advertising was in tune with the counterculture and social change that occurred in the sixties, he never once mentioned the Civil Rights Movement or the integration of minorities into advertising. Pepsi actually tried to be racially diverse with a lot of its late 60's and 70's Pepsi Generation ads. So here is an example of Pepsi trying to be young, multicultural, and fun with one of their You've Got a Lot to Live ads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h56Qq2rlqo (Youtube says it ran from 1969-1972)

Another Link to the Organic Machine

Not only are salmon endangered, but their dwindling numbers have begun to endanger the orcas in the Columbia River basin. Click here for the article.

History and Film

I found this link on an article titled "Movies to Make Your High School Teacher Cry". Here is the link historically bad movies. As we see within the links provided from the webpage, we hit a lot of these movies in our discussion, with several of these being Mel Gibson flicks.

Sweetness and Power; Slate.com photo essay on sugar plantations

Here it is.

Environmentalism and Technology

As we saw with Richard White's Organic Machine, many environmental thinkers see the old dichotomy between nature and technology as a false one. Among environmental activists, the emphasis on 'green technology' (see above video) is a case in point.

Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger on Environmentalism and Religion

& here is a link to the book; & here is a critical piece on Nordhaus & Shellenberger by clean energy advocate Joseph Romm.

end of history

thanks to ktom for sending this video:




& here is the Francis Fukuyama article