Chiang Kai-Shek

Chiang Kai-Shek, for those who had done the reading, was the leader of the Chinese nationalist party during the war with Japan and World War II. Born in 1887, Chiang attended the Paoting Military Academy in 1906. Ironically, Chiang then continued to prepare for a military career in Japan, even serving in the authoritarian Japanese army for 2 years. While serving in Tokyo, Chiang was influenced to align against the Qing Dynasty, becoming a revolutionary.

After returning to China in 1911, Chiang assisted the usurpation of the Manchu regime. Chiang joined Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Chinese nationalist party in 1918. As Sun was organizing the party, Chiang studied the Red Army, and he established a military academy based on what he observed in the Soviet Union. Up until 1927, Chiang was able to suppress the growth of the Communists while still being supported by the Soviets. Chiang then rejected the communists in a coup in 1927, forming a new Nationalist government centered at Nanjing. Despite this apparent consolidation, Chiang’s power above the warlords was still dubious, while the communists had formed their own government.

To further complicate the situation, Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, which made war with Japan a certainty. Chiang controversially chose to hold off on dealing with Japan until he suppressed the communist insurgents. The unpopularity of Chiang’s decision was made clear when one of Chiang’s own generals held Chiang captive, forcing Chiang to agree to cooperate with The Mao against Nippon. Chiang’s own reluctance showed when immediately after his release, he arrested Zhang and executed cooperating generals.

Chiang’s ambivalence between perceiving Japan or the communists as the bigger threat showed during his policy at the same time as World War II. Chiang pursued a policy of “protracted resistance” against the Japanese. Similar to Washington during the American Revolution, this policy relied on avoiding decisive battles in order to wear the Japanese out. In particular, Chiang relied on the use of scorched earth tactics, even going as far to kill 20,000 civilians in the devastating fire of Changsha, foreshadowing the declining popularity of the Chinese nationalist party in favor of the communists. Indeed, throughout the course of the second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang was reluctant to commit troops against the Japanese, instead withholding his full army until the Allies were able to defeat Japan, so that he could use his strength against the communists once the civil war resumed. Chiang’s passivity constituted a major loss in public support, culminating in the conspiracy theory that Chiang secretly struck a deal with the Japanese, providing property protection in exchange for Japanese assistance against the communists. In fact, the only thing stopping Chiang from actually striking such an agreement was his desire to maintain a good relationship with the United States.

Since the rest of Chiang’s story was after World War II, to make a long story short, Chiang was ousted by the Communists into Taiwan.

Chiang’s role in the Sino-Japanese war provides a different perspective on the conflict with Japan in World War II. For example, although this is just speculation, perhaps Chiang’s evident ambivalence between focusing against the Japanese or the Communists was one of the many reasons behind the United States’ lack of commitment towards helping China’s war efforts. If this was indeed the case, then America’s half-hearted attitude towards China was somewhat vindicated by Chiang’s own attitude in the war with Japan, as American generals ended up criticizing Chiang for being noncommittal. Freedom from Fear’s chapter “To the Brink” remarks that “As for direct aid to China, the simple facts were that China was not Britain, and Chiang Kai-shek was no Churchill.” Through the corruption in Chiang’s regime, Chiang’s noncommittal towards the Japanese, and the dubious tactics employed by the Chinese nationalist party, we can certainly see why.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek

https://www.history.com/topics/china/chiang-kai-shek

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/chiang_kaishek.shtml

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chiang-Kai-shek

http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinawealthpower/chapters/chiang-kai-shek/

How the airplane became a tool of war

Since the Ming dynasty, the concept of aircraft as a tool for war has been a work in progress. In the early days of aircraft, they were used in a reconnaissance role. The ancient chinese militaries would strap unarmed soldiers to large kites to survey the battlefield for enemy troop movements. This eventually turned into airships and other lighter-than-air aircraft as helium and propane gasses became available. This went on unchanged until the wright brothers perfected their 1906 design for commercial use. The US army air corps began to make tweaks to their designs aided heavily by the wright-martin and later the curtis-wright corporations. Eventually, designs like the Curtis JN-4 and the Wright model L rose to compete with the german albatros. Although these planes were revolutionary to military planners, giving them a new insight into troop movements, their limited payload, range, and combat capability made them a logistical challenge that many commanders did not want to deal with. However, private sector companies like the wright corporations and sopwith began to make substantial progress in the development of the airplane to make it the dogfighting workhorse that we all associate with the great war. First of these being aerodynamic discoveries that made the development of more efficient wings possible. This solved many of the payload challenges that were seen in many of the earlier designs. Doing this allowed for more fuel, equipment/payload, and aviators on airplanes. The range that aircraft could travel without refueling increased drastically. As did the mission capabilities of the aircraft themselves. Reconnaissance planes were able to carry a second crewman who could operate a camera. This quickly gave way to another hurdle however. The effectiveness as a reconnaissance too made aircraft a high priority target. Advances in anti aircraft technology made low level aerial photography too dangerous to risk. However, by this point pilots who were itching to make a difference on the battlefield began to carry handguns and several hand grenades in the cockpit with them. Those pilots who risked flying the very low and very fast passes over enemy trenches began dropping grenades and small arms fire. While the direct effects of this were minimal at best, the concept of using airpower in a combat role revolutionized how wars were fought. Military armorers fitted rear facing machine guns like the american Browning model 1913 air cooled machine gun to aircraft to be operated by a secondary crewman. However this did not allow for much ground attack capability. This problem was later solved by the invention of the synchronization gear. This large engine component allowed manufacturers to mount forward facing machine guns. The synchronization gear was revolutionary because it allowed pilots to fire the weapon through the blades of the propeller without striking the blades. Synchronized machine guns were devastating on the battlefield. Pilots began to strafe enemy trenches killing hundreds of soldiers. In turn came the necessity of commanders to secure air superiority. Thus the fighter was born. Designed specifically for the purpose of gunning down enemy attack aircraft, these fighters were light, agile, and armed to the teeth in order to gain  the upper hand on their enemy. Over the course of history, airplanes developed to into the reconnaissance, ground attack, and fighter roles that we are all familiar with. No longer were airplanes small wood and fabric contraptions, but fast, aluminum machines designed to shape how war itself was fought.

Kristallnacht- The night of broken glass

Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, occurred on November 9th, 1938. Before we can understand what went on that night it is important to understand what was going on at this point in time. At this point in Germany, and other Nazi-occupied countries, the Jews were hated by most. The Nazis had taken away many of the rights that Jews possessed and had begun to put them in ghettos and send them to concentration camps.

On the night of November 9th, violent anti-jewish riots broke out across Germany, and part of Czechoslovakia. Over the next 48 hours, thousands of Jews were terrorized by the Nazis and Nazi supporters this night over 1,000 synagogues (Jewish prayer spaces) were burned, and over 7,500 Jewish businesses, homes, and schools were destroyed. 91 Jews were murdered. Another 30,000 men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, which was basically a death sentence. The Nazis justified this violence as reactions to the assassination of German Foreign official Ernst vom Rath, who was shot 2 days earlier by a 17-year-old Polish Jew who was upset about the deportation of his family. The also claimed that the Jews themselves were to blame for the riots and should be fined one billion Reichsmarks (about 400 million dollars).

The night came to be known as Kristallnacht, "the night of broken glass" because of all the shattered windows and glass the filled the streets. After this night the many of the Jews who had not already realized it realized it was time for them to leave, but they had nowhere to go. This was also a big turning point for the Nazi regime. It signified the change from antisemitic laws and discrimination to violent antijewish measures which would become what we now call the Holocaust. 

Susan's story

Susan was only 15 years old on November 9th, 1938. She recounts that that night she woke up to noise and shouting and screaming. About 8 men came in a smashed Susan's home. After destroying many of the other rooms of the house and locking Susan's parents in the bathroom, the men came into the room that Susan shared with her younger sister. She says that they ripped her night dress to shreds. She was embarrassed and terrified. They tend threw her heavy dresser over her and left, assuming that the dresser would have killed her. Luckily another table that was overturned stopped the dresser from crushing Susan and she was able to get out. After the men left she got her sister out from under the bed and they released their parents from the bathroom. Their maid, who was a Hitler admirer, was shocked that he would do something like this. They also had had a friend staying with them who begged them to come and live with her so that they could avoid any future attacks, but they said no. The next morning Susan went out on her bike to go check on her family friends to see if they had survived the horrors of the previous night. After that night everyone wanted to get out of Nuremberg. They were terrified and traumatized and knew it was time to leave. Susan's family left for Munich where the British council had promised her family shelter at the consulate. However, they were never able to reach the consulate as they were stopped by soldiers and told to go back to Nuremberg. Susans says that the memory of that night will stay with her forever.

Thousands more experienced the horrors that Susan experienced that night. Many were not as lucky as Susan and did not make it out alive. Other lost loved ones and were unable to escape. Many ended up in concentrations camps were they suffered and died. Everything these people suffered was because of the hate of one very powerful man and all of his followers. 







https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=FioLTqdL&id=07C0B4CF904482CD1BEAC020A5C0F4632B442048&thid=OIP.FioLTqdLDE6SC4xuPkQxUQHaHa&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.skibbereeneagle.ie%2fweb%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2015%2f11%2fKristallnacht.jpg&exph=1000&expw=1000&q=Kristallnacht%2c&simid=608001148023146923&selectedIndex=5&ajaxhist=0
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=uDxY5BB0&id=71F3B45ADB8376E430174017FA46AF472344D842&thid=OIP.uDxY5BB04M-m2EtpZxQYnwHaHa&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2ffarm8.staticflickr.com%2f7517%2f16337089031_486c5053bf_o.jpg&exph=450&expw=450&q=Kristallnacht%2c&simid=608039188570375354&selectedIndex=16&ajaxhist=0
https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/kristallnacht
http://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/kristallnacht/kristallnacht-november-9-10/
http://timewitnesses.org/english/%7Esusan.html

The Industrialization of War

World War 1 revolutionized the way that wars were fought. From tactics on the battlefield to technological advancements, WW1 changed the way that the world viewed wars. Because of the massive scale of the flighting and the heavy reliance on industry, WW1 marked the first time that the workforces of entire nations were mobilized for a war effort. In 1916, the federal government began to increase spending to raise an army for the war in europe. Massive amounts of young men were drafted in to the military. This came with the necessity to clothe, feed, and arm tens of thousands of men. Logistical challenges began to arise. The government began to create contracts for manufacturers for things like guns, ships, uniforms, and rations, awarding the contracts to the highest bidders. The economy ultimately shifted to accommodate this competition. Factories began to receive large orders for goods for the soldiers. The high demand and the high paying military contracts made companies build more factories and opened thousands of new jobs. Unskilled workers were hired at record rates to meet the demand for munitions and goods. Weapons which had previously been made by the hands of skilled gunsmiths were now being produced with mechanical efficiency by factory workers, pumping out firearms at a rate of thousands a day in some cases. In addition, the demand for automobiles, armor, and aircraft for military use created manufacturing opportunities for companies. For the first time in history, civilian companies began to innovate in military technology. Notable example of this include the ford motor company, who began to design aircraft engines in the later part of the war, and springer, a sewing machine manufacturer who modified, perfected, and in limited quantities produced the model 1911 pistol. The united states emerged as a economic superpower by the end of the war due to its efficiency with manufacturing and the motivation to serve the needs of the war effort. To conclude, the industrialization of WW1 changed the way that we approach wars at home.

Hedy Lamarr: She Could Have Helped End the War

           Hedy Lamarr, "The World's Most Beautiful Woman" and overlooked inventor, was born in Vienna in 1914.  She was born into a wealthy Jewish family, but had to escape with her mother to America when Austria fell to the Nazis.  It is reported that she put "Hebrew" as her race on her naturalization forms, due to the quota system involving Jewish immigrants escaping Europe.  After an American film education, she moved to Czechoslovakia and had a starring role in the controversial film Ecstasy, which was considered "overly sexual" and received backlash.  There, she married an Austrian arms dealer with whom she played the "arm candy" while at dinners with powerful international leaders.  Hedy was also known to tinker, and had a great interest in inventing.  She invented small household items such as a similar to tab to modern-day Alka-Seltzer and an attached trash container for tissue boxes.
          A few years later, after divorcing her husband, Lamarr moved to Paris to pursue her film career.  There she starred in several movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood.  She even got a deal with MGM that included several hundred thousand dollars and was a significant boost for her career.  While working on a movie set, she met George Anthiel, a professional inventor.  Together, they invented a "Secret Communications System" that allowed one to hop between frequencies to help American torpedos to take down German U-Boats.  This was also helpful because while similar technology had already been invented, this new method was impossible for enemies to jam.  She pitched it to the government, but they took no interest.  Infuriated, Lamarr went to Inventors Court because she thought that the US acting too cavalier when thousands of fellow European refugees were being killed in the Atlantic ocean due to U-Boats. 
         And though she was ignored during her time, Hedy Lamarr's invention of the "spread-spectrum" was rediscovered during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1950s.  They then thanked her for her invention and implemented it into ships.  Her invention was critical and pathed the way for modern-day essentials such as wireless phones, bluetooth, and GPS.  It also may have helped the Allies win the war sooner if they had implemented Lamarr's critical invention.

Sinking Of The Lusitania

After reading a book called the Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, the book showed the different sides of the conflict both form the U-boat captain and the people onboard the Lusitania. This made excited to look into this more.

The incident started on May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British-owned steamship, Lusitania, killing 1,128 people, but importantly including 128 Americans. This brought tension to the already strenuous relationship between the US and Germany during WW1. After WW I began in 1914, Lusitania was a passenger ship, although it was modified for war. But this did not fool the Germans as they soon came to realize that much of the armaments that kept Britain in the war came from trade with the US. By February 1915, German commanders knew the British were secretly arming their ships and that both merchant and passenger ships were transporting weapons and supplies from the United States to Europe. Germany declared the waters surrounding the England as a war zone and "stopped following international naval “prize laws,” which warned ships of a submarine’s presence. "(McDermott)

The passengers aboard this boat were warned about the possibility of a strike because they were passing through a warzone. But from previous treaties it was understood that the Germans would signal the boat and tell them they are about to strike and let the people onboard into lifeboats before they try to sink it, thus many people were not worried about the cautions. On May 7, 1915, Lusitania took a direct hit from a U-boat (without the warning that was previously expected) and sunk within 20 minutes. Similar to the Schlieffen plan, this aggression was also able to make it look like that the fault of the war was on the Germans. Germany defended its aggressive play, claiming Lusitania had carried weapons and war supplies and was fair game for sinking.

But after Germany signed more treatys to end this warfare, President Wilson seemed fine with the deal and did not feel that he need to go to war. The sinking of the Lusitania was a public relations nightmare for Germany, public opinion in the United States turned against them which was once neutral. But the Americans were then able to intercept the Zimmerman telegram which stated that Germany planned to return to unrestricted submarine warfare and would sink all ships, and was wishing for Mexico to start a war with the US.

The sinking of Lusitania did not directly start the United States to deploy troops and start the all out war with Germany. It fuel anti-German ideas in Britain and the United States and ruined diplomatic relations between Germany and the United States.

(McDermott)https://www.history.com/news/how-the-sinking-of-lusitania-changed-wwi
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/lusitania
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lusitania-British-ship

The Schlieffen Plan

After hearing about the the Schlieffen plan, when learning about the second world war, I wanted to look into it further. Germany like many other countries sit on different battle plans, for if they are brought into war so they are ready for everything. Alfred, Graf (count) von Schlieffen who was the architect of this plan first in 1905, tried to give Germany the most advantageous in a two sided war, which was becoming more imminent even in 1905.

Schlieffen's plan did not come out of the air, he was a military scholar and researched many different battle plans through history. But this specific plan was inspired by the battle of Cannae during the second Punic war. At Cannae the Carthaginian general Hannibal defeated a the larger Roman force with a double envelopment strategy, turning on the Roman army’s flanks and destroying it. He realized that the two different contries thatwere the strongesy contenders for the warfare, was France and Russia. Schlieffen's larger plan was to try to take France out of the fight as early as possible, by mounting a flank through Belgium.

Schlieffen's plan was very different than others at this time because the prevailing idea of warfare in Germany was to have a heavy center of mass (Schwerpunkt), and changed the ideas that other military scholars had of a war of attrition in which Germany would win because of their man power. Schlieffen's plan was never used from when it was first made, because at the outbreak of war in 1914, Schlieffen’s plan would be altered by Moltke(high ranking officer in the German army), and it would never be fully implemented as Schlieffen's envisioned.

At the end of the war, many of the Allies used the aggression that the Schlieffen plan offered as a way to blame the war on the German people. As the Germans get stuck in their debt and the war reparations, I can conclude that this hyper aggressive tactic can be seen as one of the causes for WW2.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Schlieffen-Plan
https://www.history.com/news/was-germany-doomed-in-world-war-i-by-the-schlieffen-plan
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/the-schlieffen-plan

Buck v Bell

Now considered one of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court, Buck v Bell permitted the forced sterilization of the "unfit," most notably the mentally disabled.

First, it is important to understand the concept of eugenics. Eugenics is a science that deals with improving the human population by controlling breeding in order to increase the likelihood of "desirable" traits to be inherited. Social Darwinism, once rampant in American society, helped advance eugenics.

On September 10, 1924, Dr. Albert Sidney Priddy filed a petition to his Board of Directors at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded to sterilize Carrie Buck, an eighteen-year-old patient at his institution that he claimed had the mental age of a nine-year-old. He stated that Buck represented a genetic threat to society.

Carrie was one of the three children her mother, whom Priddy also said had the mental age of an eight-year-old and a record of prostitution and immorality, had. As a child, her mother was committed to an institution for feeble-mindedness and Carrie was taken in by an adoptive family. Eventually, she had a child and was committed to that same institution by her adopted family. Both Emma and Carrie were deemed to be promiscuous because they had children before marriage. (Though it was later discovered that her pregnancy was not caused by any wrongdoing or "immorality" on her part. In the summer of 1923, her adoptive mother's nephew raped Carrie and her commitment was later seen as an attempt to save their reputation). Emma, Carrie, and her child, Vivian were then used as an example of three generations of "imbeciles" that Virginia officials would use as a test case in favor of a eugenic sterilization law.

While the litigation was working its way up the court system, Priddy died and Dr. John Hendren Bell, his successor, took up the case. The Board of Directors whom Priddy had appealed to issued an order for Buck's sterilization but her guardian appealed the case to the Circuit Court of Amherst County which ended up sustaining the decision of the Board. The case then made its way up to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia who decided the sterilization law was compliant with state and federal constitutions. From there it went to the Supreme Court.

Buck and her guardian believed that the due process clause guarantees all adults the right to procreate and that that right was being violated. They also said that the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment was being violated because not all similarly situated people were being treated the same (the sterilization law was only for the "feeble-minded" at certain state institutions and did not pertain to people at other state institutions or those that weren't in one).

On May 2, 1927, the Court accepted (in an 8-1 decision) that Buck, both the mother and daughter, were "feeble-minded" and "promiscuous" and that it was in the state's best interest to have her sterilized. They stated that the interest of "public welfare" outweighed the interest of individuals in their bodily integrity.

In 1933 Germany, a law much like this, the Eugenic Sterilization Law, allowed for the involuntary sterilization of German citizens who possessed hereditary afflictions (like blindness), epilepsy, mental illnesses like schizophrenia, and physical handicaps. To present-day Americans, a decision like this, which is so similar to one made by Nazi Germany, is atrocious and almost unbelievable. Yet, to this day, the Supreme Court has yet to expressly overturn the ruling made in Buck v Bell.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell
http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6505/650507.html
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/39.html

A modern day argument for the New Deal and Government intervention

In order to pull America out of one of the worst financial crises in history, the Federal government expanded its powers and abandoned, its Laizzes Faire policy toward economics. But it seems that Americans have short memories and even shorter attention spans.

The New Deal, whether you are for more or less government intervention was an unarguable success that coupled with the War Effort put millions of Americans back to work and created the post-war boom. Government jobs well paying and infrastructure was improving and expanding at an unprecedented rate. It's because of the New Deal that we have many of our Highways. However, today it seems that the Government does almost nothing and development in America has come to almost a standstill. This is in part due to the fact that Americans once again deregulated the market. This was also a major reason for the 2008 financial crisis that affected so many Americans.

Perhaps one of the best examples of a regulation of the Market in place was the Glass-Steagall act. Passed by the FDR administration, in the Banking Act of 1933. What is the Glass Steagall Act (or GSA for short)? Basically, it was a piece of legislation that ensured that commercial banks and investment banks could not mix. This meant that a bank couldn't use consumer money to invest in something. This makes money for the bank but if the bank fails then the consumer cannot get their money back. After the crash of 1929 many private individuals lost their money as many banking firms invested consumer money into investments that tanked when the market failed when the banks too failed then the consumer's who themselves had not invested in anything lost money because the bank declared bankruptcy and couldn't pay the consumer back. The GSA was passed to make sure that this never happened again.

It represented good Federal regulation that protected citizens and kept big corporations at bay. However, American's have short memories and the prolonged post-war economic boom left many to believe regulation was not only useless but outdated. As a result, the GSA was slowly eroded by loopholes and legislation, until it was finally repealed in 1999. The war on regulation has had disastrous effects. The same GSA that was meant to protect American Citizens from financial ruin had the ability to save many from debt or massive financial losses in the 2008 recession if had only not been repealed. The ability for consumer and investment banks to combine allowed for the nefarious lending terms that lead to the housing bubble's collapse. Yet it seems like once again people are pushing for more and more deregulation. Our president promises to deregulate, "We will get rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes your time and your money."

I can see where many of these people come from but instead of scrapping beneficial legislation that are outdated, simply update it so that it fits our modern standards of economics. We are surprised at the growth of staggering wealth inequality in this nation yet forget that we managed to bridge this gap when the government stepped into the economy and it has subsequently stepped back out. Updated government intervention is the answer to many of our economic problems today. We must step back in before the bear market and learn from the 2 devistating economic recisions, that we have already had and make sure our economy is safe and secure.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-delivering-deregulation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Banking_Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_GlassSteagall_Act

https://www.britannica.com/topic/deregulation

Modern Day Monopolies

You would think that all that has happened in the past with monopolies, they wouldn't still exist. However, there are still a lot of monopolies, or at least "near-monopolies" existing in the US. There are more than these, but I wrote about the ones that I found more interesting.

Waste Management
Garbage is heavy and holds little economic value, so it makes more sense to send to just send one provider down the same street vs having multiple providers down the same street. Transportingtash is also expensive, so haulers always seek the cloosest landfill they can find. Waste Management owns and operates several hundred recycling centers, landfills, and transfer centers in North America.

AB InBev
This company produces and distributes over 200 types of beer around the world. They do this by owning a number of the best-selling beer brands like Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Beck's, Stella Artois, Bass, and etc. They also recently bought SABMiller (the industry's second largest player) for 100 billion dollars. They have now an estimated control of about 46% of global beer profits and produce about 27% of the world's total beer supplies. Their net income in 2013 as over 14.3 billion dollars.

Illumina
This company has consistently brought to market new products that have significantly driven down the cost curve of genetic testing. It appears that Illumina will continue to dominate the genetic testing market thanks to the lauch of its NovaSeq Series. This will allow researchers to sequence a genome for as little as 100 bucks. That low pirce is attractive from insurers and consumers and in turn help this company remain in its industry leading position.

Intuitive Surgical
This company launched its da Vinci robotic surgical system in 1999. This tool assisted surgeons with general laparoscopic procedures and enabled smaller incisions and led to less blood loss, which also helped the  patient recover faster. The company has mre than 4,000 da Vinci systems in use around the world.

Google
Google controls about 67% of the web search market. They have competitors like Microscoft and Yahoo, but they own just 18% and 11% of the market. Google makes most of its money from advertising.

Facebook
Over 71% of online adults use facebook. They ahve around 900 million unique monthly visitors compared to Twitter's 310 million. They have a net income of about $1.5 billion and even bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion dollars.

Luxottica
Luxottica is the biggeset manufacturer of glasses in the world. They are international and have attempted to buy every other eyewear company it could afford. Their sunglasses are sold through a number of different bands: Ray Ban, Killer Loop, Vogue, T3 and Persol. They also manufacture eyewear for Chanel, Bulgari, Armani, Ungro, Anne Klein and Moschino. THey also control the leading vision care providers in the US: Eye Med and Vision Care (produces 130,000 frames per day). They produce over 80% of eyewear worldwide and have made over $9.7 billion dollars. Strange enough the sunglasses you buy for 30$ are often similar to the 350$ pair because they are made by the same company.

Netflix
NOT A MONOPOLY YET, but one in the making. People don't really use DVDs anyore and isntead stream movies and TV shws from the INternet. Netflix has over 50 million subscirbers and is becoming an Internet superpower. They have other competitors, but don' seem to lose ground.

Microscoft
Microsoft controls the personal cmputer market by owning over 75% of the market share.

Farmers in the Great Depression

The Great Effect
At this time, about 1/4 population was working in agriculture. When the great depression came, people were hit with unemployment and long food lines. Fear spread and nearly everyone was affected by early 1930s. It was a time of desperation that often left individuals vulnerable, but there was not much they could do but try to survive. Some farm families even began burning corn rather than coal in their stoves because corn was cheaper. Farmers were unable to pay for their loans and foreclosures and bankruptcy sales became daily events.

The Farm Strike
One event resulting from this was the farm strike. Farmers banded together like a labor union and threated to prevent any milk from getting from farms to towns and cities. They hoped this would raise the price that farmers were paid for their products. However, their effort did not have any effect on prices.

What happens to food prices?
When prices fell, farmers tried to produce even more to pay their debts, taxes and living expenses. Farmers were producing too much and driving down its price. This resulted in the creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which set limits on the size of the crops and herds farmers could produce. They would pay a subsidy to those that followed the act.

New Deal
FDR undertook the most far-reaching land reform and planning program in USA history. He formed the farm security administration. This came to the aid of agricultural workers and tenant and family farmers

Pros?
Farmers could produce much of their own food while city residents could not. They had large gardens with fruit and vegetable, milk from cattle, chicken for meat and eggs, and four and sugar in 50 poud sacks to bake bread with.

Oscar Micheaux

After seeing a snippet of one of Oscars movies I decided to learn a little more

about his movies and were he gained his inspiration from. Oscar was one of the first

major African-American filmmakers.

He is known for his works in movies such as “Within our Gates”.

Oscar originally came from humble beginnings of being an author and selling
around 1,000 copies from his first book. Oscar book was anonymous but he
also made the book primarily autobiographical which was about his failed marriage
and being a black homesteader.

Oscar progresses with his theme of African Americans realizing their

potential which is something he carried on into his movies. Oscar founded
the Micheaux Film and Book Company which allowed him to do a feature
film of the “Homesteader” which was an adaptation of his book. Oscar also
had a lot of significant films which goals were to represent African Americans
reaching for higher goals. One of his movies is called “Within our gates” it was a response to the instability after WW1. More of Oscar works combated issues of mixed
race and passing. But due to the films nature, the Film Board of Virginia
forced him to make cuts to his movies. Oscar was influential in the black community
as he employed African-American actors in his films also his movies were watched by
primarily African-Americans. Oscar continued to do silent films until the Great Depression
were making movies became too expensive which then resulted in him to return become a writer.

Sources:

https://www.naacp.org/naacp-history-oscar-micheaux/

Remains of Roosevelt's Alphabet Soup

It is amazing how the things people came up with hundreds of years ago can last into the modern era. Some things are bad like the lasting racism created by slavery and some are good like the Declaration of Independence, Baseball, and the New Deal.

One can never quite imagine life without something they never knew but in the 1920s, people had no idea what Social Security was, or the FDIC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission. These things all came out of FDR's New Deal plan to help people and they have continued to help people to this day.

Social Security was created to be a much needed safety net for the elderly and the disabled. It does this by taxing employers and employees to fund benefits. This idea is one thing that helps people in the modern era to be able to retire. The FDIC is another safety net Roosevelt created that we have maintained as a necessity to this day. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) is what allowed people to trust their banks and continue trusting their banks after the Depression. This is because the FDIC insures deposits in Federal Reserves member banks. This way, even if the banks should fail, the depositors will not lose their savings. Over the years, the amount of money insured by the banks, should they fail, has grown from $2,500 to $250,000. The Social and Exchange Commission was created so people would be able to regain confidence in the Stock Market. It regulates and oversees stock traders to ensure everybody's information is equally open and there won't be another over speculation incident as before. It is the reason you can find published information about a stock you are interested in and why you can trust that information.

The Great Depression made issues like the lack of retirement funds, as well as the dangers of uninsured banks and insider trading/ unequal access to information about stocks apparent and FDR's new deal made leaps and bounds towards solving these issues in such an efficient way, these are problems hard to imagine for modern generations because they were fixed before us and they have lasted to act as a safety net to our finances.

Sources:
https://www.thoughtco.com/new-deal-programs-still-in-effect-today-4154043

Satchmo

Maybe you've heard of Louis Armstrong in passing, or vaguely recall reading his name somewhere. Turns out, Armstrong was an incredibly successful trumpet player and singer, his career jumpstarting during the '20s, and continuing all the way until his death in 1971.
Armstrong redefined and reshaped jazz during his lifetime, even though he faced steep obstacles on his journey to musical success. Armstrong was born in 1901 in the poorest area of New Orleans, to a single mother who raised him. Rather than selling lemonade on street corners like today's youth, Armstrong made pennies by singing with a local vocal group. Armstrong also worked for a Jewish family, doing odd jobs and such. This family gave him his first cornet, a type of trumpet. Just when things finally started looking up for Armstrong, he was arrested on New Year's eve of 1912 for shooting a pistol at the sky in celebration. Armstrong was separated from his mother, who was deemed unfit to raise him, and was placed in a Waif's home for orphans at just 11 years old.

The strict rules and discipline at the orphanage led Armstrong to seek relief, which he found through music. He worked towards mastering the cornet, and by the time he was released a couple years later, he had become a talented musician. Armstrong found a fatherly figure and model for success in Joe "King" Oliver, who became his mentor. Oliver found a spot for Armstrong in Kid Ory's pacesetting band. After a couple years, Armstrong once more worked under Oliver in his band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. By the time he joined the band, Armstrong was a talented, well-rounded musician with a wide range and exciting cornet style. A pianist in the band, Lil Harden, who later became Lil Armstrong, convinced Armstrong to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, where he wouldn't have to constrain himself in order to protect his mentor's ego.
The Orchestra was stiff and rigid in its musical stylings, using staccato phrases, and hadn't learned how to "swing". This is where Armstrong began to change American Jazz- upon his arrival, the orchestra began to adopt his unique stylings. Armstrong used legato notes and blues in his music and expressed himself and his story through it. This passion fueled him, and inspired those he worked with. Armstrong's swinging solos awed those who heard them, and his emphasis on improvisation while he played furthered his unique style.
One example of his improv while playing was his use of scat during one of his concerts. Popular legend tells that Armstrong dropped his sheet music while he playing, and he hadn't memorized the words. A quick fix, Armstrong began using nonsensical words instead of stopping, which led to the popularization of scat as a new type of music.
Armstrong's career led to worldwide fame when he started regularly recording his music, which led him to become a household staple in Europe. Armstrong became a world traveler, and his lovable personality made him ever more popular. By the end of his life, Armstrong had redefined the basis of jazz and had completely invented a new style of music, scat. These accomplishments are what he leaves as a legacy today- America's favorite cornet player.

Yanow, Scott. “Louis Armstrong... and All That Jazz.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 18 Aug. 2016, www.biography.com/news/louis-armstrong-biography-facts.

Huey Long- An American Dictator

Huey Long was born 1893, the youngest of seven, in north central Louisiana. However despite growing up in one of the poorer areas, his family was relatively well off because they had livestock. He was an avid reader with no issue with stating his opinion. However despite gaining a scholarship to Louisiana State University, he did not attend, likely due to not graduating high school. He therefore became a traveling salesman.

He faced issues with gambling problems before he was married in 1913 and started attending Law School again in 1914, this time at Tulane instead of University of Oklahoma. At 21 years old, he passed the Louisiana State Bar exam.

At 30, he ran for Democratic Governor. He lost by 7,000 votes placing 3rd which he blamed on rural voters being unable to get to the voting polls. However, he ran again 4 years later (1928) with the promise of "Every man a king", and won. Soon after gaining power, he had put his allies into government agencies, centralized the power of the executive office, pressured the legislature, and effectively made his own secret police by allowing them to make arrests without a warrant. By 1930, he had passed bill so he could run for US senator while he was still governor and he won. This power grab allowed Long to push through his agenda where he transferred local powers from courts, police, elections, and licensing to state authorities. He also passed some bills to censor enemies he had made in the newspapers.

Having gained so much power in his home state, Long began gathering together a presidential bid running under his "Share Our Wealth" speech (naturally given drunk as it was one of his better speeches) and campaign, where wealth exceeding $50 million would be redistributed to poorer. This was an extremely popular idea with the impoverished and his support frightened FDR who realized how unrealistic Long's promises were and that he was likely to make the US into his own police state as he had done to Louisiana. FDR had even had the IRS and FBI investigate Long to no avail. Fortunately, FDR was never tested because Long was assassinated before he could ever run for President.

Bibliography:
Mr. Stewart's documentary
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/huey-long

Cinema in the Great Depression

The shining new world of cinema had just arrived, with the talkies of the twenties creating history and D.W. Griffith defining cinematic storytelling for years to come. However, the Great Depression was not called Great for no reason, and affected all industries, including film. But film was a unique industry, and through the tragedy they were able to come out stronger than ever by the end of the decade.

When the depression hit, all studios suffered financially. They had to cut costs, close theaters, and reorganize everything in order to continue their work. They needed audiences, and used many tactics to get them. They incentives audiences with giveaways, sweepstakes, and drawings of raffle tickets. At that time, even a little more money was worth a lot. Tickets weren’t super expensive, so with these tactics movies were able to stay alive.

But people didn’t only come to the movies for the prizes being offered. They came for the experiences. Life was not good for most people during the depression. No jobs, little money, and a bleak atmosphere surrounded the United States. The theater was a place to escape it all. For just a small fee, people could forget the depression even existed and fall into a story. This was a chief reason movies were kept alive.

Filmmakers at the time adapted to the climate and made escapism movies, full of fantasies of high society and screwball comedy. Though some filmmakers ran with escapism, others found more balances or leaned into the darker tones of the era with their movies, reflecting the time. All sorts of movies were made during this era that each had different aspects of the depression. Rags-to-riches gangster films were very popular, such as Public Enemy and Little Ceaser in the very early 1930s. Scarface is another famous one. These films inspire gangster films to this day. Screwball comedy was also popular, as it showed the audience zany characters who could afford to laugh and be silly, when in the world outside the movies, all seemed dreary. Screwball comedy was similar to shakespeare comedy, and included films like It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby.

The stars of the films were also huge despite the depression, especially the one called Clark Gable, also known as the King of Hollywood. He starred in films all throughout the 30s, such as No Man of Her Own,  Mutiny on the Bounty, The Call of the Wild, and most famously, Gone with the Wind. Another famous name known by the public at this time was Shirley Temple, a name many know today as well. She was in a plethora of movies, such as Bright Eyes, Heidi, Curly Top, and The Little Princess. Her popularity continues to this day.

The late 1930s marked the start of something big in Hollywood. The most famous movies I’ve listed previously, such as Shirley Temple’s movies and Gone With the Wind, were produced in later years, 1935 onward, particularly 1938 and 1939. Despite the hardships of the Great Depression, it started the golden age of cinema, with movies we still watch today. What movies could be made at such a time? Well, how about The Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and Robin Hood? All still classics today. Even in the early 1930s, though there were less sales and less huge hits, movies such as Frankenstein and King Kong were made.

We see the depression as an awful time where nothing good could happen, and it was true that jobs were lost, people starved, and it was terrible. But the movies brought hope and joy into the Great Depression, where all seemed lost. They brought comedy and laughter and movie stars that we still know the names of, and the 1930s remains largely thought of as a part of Hollywood’s golden age. These movies served as a reminder that even in hard times, there’s always laughter and joy and a place to escape inside the screen. A good lesson to remember today as well.

Sources:
https://geeks.media/film-and-the-great-depression
https://www.filmsite.org/30sintro3.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/comedy/historicalcontext.html
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_16.html
Google’s extensive knowledge of what films came out in the 1930s

The KKK in the 1920s

Revival of the KKK Most Americans today think of the Ku Klux Klan as the southern, white terrorist group that lynched and threatened African Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. Others may associate the Klan with their opposition to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. In fact, the Klan was the most prominent and popular in the 1920s, with membership reaching over 2.5 million. In 1915, the film The Birth of a Nation, as well as the Leo Frank case, helped incite the reemergence of the Klan. Anti-semitism and ongoing racism prompted William J. Simmons to establish a new KKK, seizing on the wave of racist sentiment that arose from the film. In general, members were white, Protestant, and middle-class. Membership grew slowly from 1917-18 but skyrocketed in the early 1920s under the leadership of Hiram Evans. To many, the new Klan was attractive because of its militant advocacy of white supremacy, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism, and support for improved law enforcement, honest government, better public schools, and traditional family life. The Klan attempted to protect “True Americanism” from the immigrants arriving during the Great Migration, denouncing both blacks and jews. Thousands of Americans, fueled by resentment towards immigrant workers and towards black soldiers returning from the war, joined the Klan. The Klan was huge in Alabama and the South, but also found popularity in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. By 1925, the Klan had millions of official members and the support of millions more Americans. On August 8th that year, over 50,000 members of the Klan paraded down the streets of the capital, speaking to their nationwide influence and popularity. Their message spoke to those uncomfortable with the widespread economic, social, and political changes in society. The Klan presented itself as both a Christian reform organization and a way to entrench in society the power of Anglo-Saxon Protestants, promising to hold back the wave of modernity and preserve traditional Americanism. Additionally, many officials in government were Klan members, and were influenced by Klan ideals. The Klan scored major victories in municipal elections, becoming so powerful that new major political party was willing to denounce it publicly. Additionally, the Klan gained public support for their civic acts, such as organizing special events and providing funds for public facilities. However, underneath this facade lay thousands of individual acts of violence and intimidation. Though violence was not limited to any particular group, African Americans remained a major target for the Klan. In two incidents, Klan members publicly beat a black physician that had treated white patients, and murdered three black farm laborers that had left white employment in search of better opportunities. Many African Americans carried pistols for protection, but were afraid to speak up against other acts of violence that they witnessed, not wanting to spark another outbreak of lynching. The Klan’s power peaked in 1925-26, but afterwards, entered a period of decline due to internal feuding, scandals, and increased activism by their opponents. In 1926, their violent acts became a liability for affiliated politicians and businessmen, who began withdrawing their support. The threat of the Klan towards Alabama’s leading conservative order prompted them to launch a campaign against the KKK, denouncing their vigilante tactics. By 1930, Klan membership was reduced to around 30,000. Though the 1920s may seem like a time of a great social change and modernity, the nationwide popularity and existence of the KKK shows even then, bigotry was disturbingly widespread and normalized within society. Sources: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ku-klux-klan-twentieth-century http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3221 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/second-klan/509468/

The Revenue Act of 1935

The Revenue Act of 1935 was one of the bills passed for the Second New Deal. Franklin Roosevelt wanted to make a fairer taxing system since the beginning of his presidency, and when Huey Long started advocating for a redistribution of wealth, Roosevelt decided to create his own bill. Huey Long said that it was unfair that the rich men had enough money to help countless numbers of people and kept it for themselves. FDR wanted to win over Long’s supporters by creating the Revenue Act, a bill that would harshly tax the wealthy elite. The bill proposed, higher rates on corporations, a tax on bonds, and another estates tax for the rich. FDR sent his bill to Congress and hoped for the best.

Congress wasn’t very keen on passing a bill that punished the rich this much. After nearly 2 months of debating, Roosevelt received a very toned down version of his Revenue Act bill. The bill took out many parts of Roosevelt’s plans, and ended up cutting down the proposed tax rates substantially. Without many other options, Roosevelt passed the Revenue Act in 1935.

Roosevelt received lots of reactions from many people. The bill made Roosevelt very hated among the wealthy elite. The rich thought that Roosevelt was trying to rob their power, and thus decided to evade these taxes. This led to more and more cases of tax evasion throughout America as the rich tried to retain their wealth. The Revenue Act had many loopholes, so in 1937, the government started to crack down on those who didn’t comply with the law. They revised tax laws and regulations for the American people.

The issue of tax rates between the rich and FDR is similar to what we see today. The rich argue that they shouldn’t have to give up most of their money, and there are groups which want the rich to have higher tax rates. However, the most recent tax bill that our president created has reduced the tax rate nationally for all tax brackets, especially the rich. It will be interesting to see the future tax rates based off of this choice, and see if they decrease more or increase.

Sources:
https://www.worldhistory.biz/modern-history/81729-revenue-act-of-1935.html
https://apps.irs.gov/app/understandingTaxes/student/whys_thm02_les05.jsp

Carlisle Indian School

                               

      Richard Henry Pratt is whom began and founded the School of Carlisle. His story begins as an officer for the 10th cavalry, commanding the African Americans and Indian scouts unit the for eight years (1867-1875). There he became familiar with Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho who had been placed in reservations near the Red River. He along with some scouts and freed slave soldiers campaigned to keep the Indians in reservations away from the settlers. A distrust of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) grew in Pratt from seeing the poor conditions that Indians had to undergo in the reservations, such as the poor food conditions they received. This hostility led to his resignation as the superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School in 1904. 

      As the United States had failed to bring in the most recalcitrant of the Indians in, they instituted a plan to incarcerate them. In April 1875, 72 warriors of the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo nations were exiled to St. Agustine, Florida. There Pratt would be their jailer. Women would also volunteer to teach them how to read in exchange for archery lessons from them. With several New Englanders coming down to the East coast and expressing a similar interest regarding the Indians welfare it helped Pratt's philosophy of educating Indians to take shape. 

      Hampton was intended to educate African American children by training "the head, the hand, and the heart". He began to develop a similar model of Hampton Institute of Virginia but exclusively for Indians.  He was relentless in looking for a school where he would reform the children from reservations and take them far away from tribal influences. 

      By Mid 1879, Pratt had his school in Carlisle Barracks central Pennsylvania where a former cavalry post had been. Pratt instructed to have 36 students from each reservation such as Red Clouds Pine Ridge and Spotted Tails Rosebud. His main argument to get these children into his school was that they didn't understand English which was important for them to understand their treaties and the white people. After all his persuasion he got 82 children from both agencies. When the children and himself arrived at the school he was once again let down by the BIA who had failed to assist them with food and other necessary supplies. 

      The school consisted of two groups alternating classes from academics in the morning such as reading, writing, and arithmetics and trades in the afternoon. It was a school but the actual life and structure resembled a military life. The children were expected to wear shoes, march to their destination such as classes, and dining halls. They were prohibited to speak their native language. And there were severe consequences as seen in the old guardhouse which was built by the Hessian prisoners during the Revolutionary War. The School received its funding from former abolitionist and Quakers who wanted to be part of the success Pratt had achieved regarding the school. 

      Pratt was a very intimidating man who wanted so much for the Indians to resemble a white man. He defended the Indians when newspapers told their stories as savages. He conveyed that his school was reshaping the Indians into a "more favorable white brother" and so they should stop telling his old life and tell his present and future story. The Carlisle School grew from its original 82 students to 1,000 students yearly. Even with all his work over the 39-year lifespan of the school, most of the children returned to reservations and Wild West Shows.

                                             
                                                                       November 4, 1886   
                                            

                                                                     Four months later

https://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html

Carlisle-www.army.mil

The APFA, Aka The NFL

Before the year 1920, American Football was played as more of a club sport with no real organization
that headed the game nationally. Many professional teams were playing at the time but something was
needed to be done in order to get this American flagship game on its feet.

At a Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio, 4 pro teams met up in order to establish
the APFC- The American Professional Football Conference- and in their words "raise the standard of
professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to
secure cooperation in the formation of schedules".

Upon another meeting, another 4 teams were enstated within the same year. The league now had 8
teams along with it being renamed the APFA- The American Professional Football Association- with
another 6 teams joining shortly to make 14 teams total at the end of the year. Of this original lot, only
the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals remain.

It was not until 1932 the League was renamed the NFL with many more of the familiar teams we all know
and scream at on our Tv's today. Furthermore, it was not until 1967 that the first Super Bowl was held and
the Packers took home the W.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlIKS8W-BPU
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/1920_APFA/
https://www.profootballhof.com/news/sept-17-1920-the-founding-of-the-nfl/

The Roosevelt Relationship(s)

              Considered some of the most important political figures of American history, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt always had a lot of pressure on themselves and specifically their marriage.  As popular as Franklin's policies and Eleanor's activism may have been, their relationship was tenuous from the very beginning, which I believe is significant for us to understand in order to truly grasp the influences on and of some American leaders.
              Just getting married was difficult for the two icons— Franklin's mother was opposed to the union from the beginning.  But the marriage was one of love, and one for which Franklin stood up to his mother, so they married, but not without the tension that his mother had fueled into the relationship: Eleanor shifted between complacency and frustration, which she made clear to Franklin in multiple letters somewhat berating his mother's actions.  The foundation was rocky, but what would keep the two together through everything would be Eleanor's independent activism in the poor neighborhoods, far from Franklin much of the time.
              The separation was maintained and trouble stirred, however, even before Franklin assumed the presidency: according to NPR, in the late 1920s, Eleanor was with Franklin for four of the 116 weeks he was away from home, while his secretary Missy LeHand was with him for the remaining 110.  It was in 1918, in the beginning of their marriage, that Eleanor's heart first broke, when she found love letters from Franklin's first known extramarital lover Lucy Mercer.  After that, the affairs between him and a Norwegian princess or his very own daughter-in-law were just a few small frustrations.
              Given that she knew about it all, Eleanor was ready for her own extramarital relationships, which Franklin would actually accept as long as they did not become public information that might threaten his legitimacy.  Eleanor found herself loved by many, beginning with her lesbian lover Lorena Hickok, with whom she would exchange about 3500 letters from 1932 until her death in 1962.  With "Hick", Eleanor would go on trips and even live in the White House together.  At some point she even had a relationship with her bodyguard Earl Miller.  Luckily, the press rarely learned of or perhaps chose to share this information about Eleanor.  I suspect, given just how easily this information could have been attained, this might follow the press' pattern to not weaken the administration which they loved with such gossip; for example, they chose not to advertise Franklin's polio issues in order to save, well, his face.
              The beauty of their marriage is still misunderstood today by many, considering how untraditional it was, but it worked.  The two worked towards the improvement of the lives of the American people, and it seems that is one thing people have always understood about the Roosevelts.  As can be seen by them, even that which is not traditional can still work and succeed.  Their separation allowed the two to pursue their own causes, and their type of open relationship has arguably become somewhat normalized.  In essence, the Roosevelts were groundbreaking leaders in politics and society as a whole.  If you want to know more about their political efforts, I believe someone else wrote an article about that a couple days ago, or you could just pay attention to Mr. Stewart's lectures.

In Flew Enza

I had a little bird, its name was Enza

I opened up the window and in flew Enza

During the latter part of the first world war, around 1918, a new virus that turned soldiers
blue and had them vomiting up blood was observed in Spain. This virus had first seen in
American barracks and facilities in Europe and when stationed in Spain, the virus had
exploded in size. Being all over Spain meant it could reach the far edges of the world. 

The virus had seen up to 100 million people die worldwide with some populations being
crushed completely. No one was safe. It was like the worldwide bubonic plague. The Virus
had done thousands of soldiers in with all infected having to be absent from combat because
the symptoms were so bad. While at first in 1918, the Americans, British, and French had the
virus, the Germans had soon become infected too. This Spanish Flu was actually a very main
cause of why the German Offensive was halted and pushed back. Not only did German supply
lines and reserves dry up, but the active troops were dropping because of the Flu and the
offensive halted.

In the U.S, when the virus spread to the civilian population, many measures were put in to curb
the infection rates. Doctors were now employed to not only treat but try to vaccinate and get
rid of the disease. Nurses were always on constant shifts in American Hospitals and the draft was
put on hold so that these new soldiers would not be infected for the sake of getting infected. Not
only this, but public spitting was now arrestable on sight. The Plague took many lives, clearing out whole villages in Alaska and striking fear into those who lived in both rural and urban areas
in the U.S.

With such a massive impact on the end of the war, the Spanish Flu proved a deadly and
destructive plague. However, this is one of the least remembered plagues in history despite
its massive kill count. It is a highly discussed topic on why today we do not give enough 
credence to the Spanish Flu but many believe it to be lesser in comparison to the war, therefore
it carried less weight in the era and subsequently today. 
Sources: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnRxQjaexHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ9WX4qVxEo&t=134s

Bonnie and Clyde

        Bonnie Parker was a poor farm girl growing up in Texas during the turn of the century.  She married very young and dropped out of school to be with her then-husband, Roy Thornton.  He was 16 and she was 15.  However, they were only married a year when Thornton had numerous brushes with the law and was incarcerated.  Although the couple never truly divorced, Bonnie never really saw her husband before he died in an attempted prison break at the age of 28.  Bonnie admitted to being proud that her husband died trying to escape instead of dying in prison.
        Clyde Barrow grew up under a literal wagon.  He was the youngest of seven children and needed to farm to help his family.  However, he figured that crime would pay more.  In 1926, he started stealing cars, robbing stores, and breaking safes.  He was first arrested that same year, but killed an inmate who had allegedly sexually assaulted him.  He later escaped from that same prison using a weapon that Bonnie had snuck in for him.
        After his escape, he created a true criminal gang.  It included him, Bonnie, and a friend of his, Ralph Fults.  The group committed several robberies, including one where they killed the shop owner.  The group was then jailed but escaped.  W.D. Jones, a family friend of Clyde's, also joined the gang and assisted them in killing five police officers/sheriffs.  Despite Jones being 16, he helped commit the majority of murders that the group did.  Also joining them were a group of rotating criminals that included Raymond Hamilton and Ross Dyer.  Hamilton ended up receiving 362 years in prison at the age of just 28.
       The Barrow gang, as they were then called, the group legitimately terrorized everywhere from Texas to as far as Minnesota.  They were notoriously ruthless and frequently killed law officers.  They also kidnapped and shot civilians if they believed they were in the way of the Barrow gang.  However, in 1934, the gang was jailed for what was believed to be their last time.  Bonnie and Clyde were put on death row, and the other members were serving out lifetimes in prison despite their long list of homicides.  This was the first time that Bonnie was viewed as an equal part of the crime.  She had long been looked at as Clyde's mistress, who occasionally helped.  However, several eyewitnesses identified Bonnie as the killer of several sheriffs, and she was finally put on death row alongside her partner.  Unsurprisingly, the pair escaped but left the other members of their gang to rot in prison.
      On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed on a rural road in Louisiana.  They were both shot a total of 50 times, due to the automatic weapons that the officers were carrying.  The officers, which were a total of six men from two different states, tried to avenge the deaths of their fallen colleagues by shooting them as much as possible. 
      However terrifying Bonnie and Clyde were at the time, their crime sprees became a fixture in American pop culture.  Their relationship was highly romanticized, and their lives spurred two movies, four books, a hit Broadway musical, two TV series, and several songs.  However, should we really be romanticizing and praising this kind of behavior?
     

Mathew Brady and his contribution to Photojournalism

         Mathew Brady was born in 1823 in New York and died on January 15, 1896. He was a well-known photographer in the 19th century for his portraits of politicians and the American Civil War.
He trained as a photographer with William Page and Samual F.B. Morse.

Daguerreotypes were the first successful form of photography by Loius Jacques-Mande Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce in the 1830s. Mathew Brady began creating cases and frames which later lead to the opening of his first Daguerre studio and 2 more all in New York.

Brady had a mission to photograph as many famous people as he could. He composed many of these photographs in A Gallery of Illustrious Americans an album which contained lithographs form his Daguerreotypes. This attracted a lot of fame to his studios both from home and abroad. Brady had a collection of photographs of presidents from Jonh Quincy Adams to William Mckindly.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War Brady decided to document this event. He hired about 20 photographers but he wouldn't give them credit for their work. Most of them left because of this even well known Alexander Gardner and Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Brady's contribution to the project was mainly to supervise the studios. He did however occasionally take photographs for example on the battlefields of Bullrun, Antietam, and Gettysburg.

Brady's financial investment on the project took a lot out of him. He had hoped that the government would buy the photographs when the war was over but it didn't turn out that way. When the financial Panic of 1873 hit he was forced to declare bankrupt and even when they had finally bought his photographs in a public auction for $2,840 and was granted $25,000 by Congress, Brady was never able to gain financial solvency. All of Brady's connections and fame at the beginning of his life didn't do much as he died alone in the hospital.

Antietam, Battle of Confederate dead

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mathew-Brady/images-videos/media/76872/100102
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Remembering-the-American-Civil-War-1763580/Fighting-the-war/media/1763580/8498
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mathew-Brady