Thursday, April 25, 2024

Fighting WWII



Throughout 1943 the leaders of the Allied Forces squabbled over when they would start a second front in France.  Up to that point Soviet troops had done most of the fighting in Europe.  At the historic meeting of the 'Big 3' in Tehran, Stalin had insisted that Britain and the United States carry more of the military burden by attacking Germany in the west.


General Dwight D. Eisenhower was promoted over 350 other more qualified generals to lead the operation.  He  called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Europe. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.








Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Word Power

There is no stronger bond of friendship than a mutual enemy.
-Frankfort Moore

At a time when America's best cryptographers were falling short, the Navajo Indians  were able to fashion the most ingenious and successful code in military history. They drew upon their proud warrior tradition to brave the dense jungles of Guadalcanal and the exposed beachheads of Iwo Jima. Serving with distinction in every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945, their unbreakable code played a pivotal role in saving countless lives and hastening the war's end.


2) How does is this idea reflected in the mysterious message on the back of our penny?

3) Write your name using the Navajo Code Talker Dictionary.




Monday, April 22, 2024

Doris Miller


In 1941, Miller was a 22-year-old mess attendant on the USS West Virginia. At the time, black sailors were consigned to roles in the messman branch — work that entailed swabbing decks, cooking and shining officers' shoes.

He had awoken at 6 a.m. and was collecting laundry when the Japanese attack began and an alarm sounded on the ship, according to the Navy. Miller headed to the antiaircraft battery magazine, but it had already been destroyed by torpedo damage. He proceeded to the deck, where he was assigned to carry his wounded comrades, including the ship's captain. Miller was strong: a former high school football player in Waco, Texas, he was the ship's heavyweight boxing champion.

"Miller went topside, carried wounded on his shoulders, made several trips up and down, wading through waist-deep water, oil-slicked decks, struggling uphill on slick decks," Navy Rear Adm. John Fuller said in 2016.

The young sailor then took over a .50-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun and fired it until the ammunition ran out. No matter that he'd never been trained on the weapon.






Friday, April 19, 2024

Go for Broke!


The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was “go for broke.” It’s a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win big. The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big. They were Nisei - American-born sons of Japanese immigrants. They fought two wars: the Germans in Europe and the prejudice in America.

Thursday, April 18, 2024

The Face of the Enemy?

While many groups of Americans faced hardships during WWII, none had it harder than Japanese Americans.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor Americans were understandably fearful of further attacks and spies. In early 1942, by Presidential executive order 9066, Japanese-Americans living primarily on the west coast were taken to internment camps as a security measure following the massive Pearl Harbor raid that temporarily incapacitated the Pacific fleet. A national sense of outrage consumed Americans. Strangers on the streets looked at one another with a new awareness.

The US Government claimed internment camps were vital to American security and that every effort was made to provide for their Japanese guests.

Compare the Government claims to actual photos of the camps taken from Ansel Adams famous book Born Free and Equal.

Watch this video to see what life in the camps was really like.

Listen to the song Kenji by Fort Minor.

1) Were American fears justified?
2) Can you tell who the enemy is just by looking at them?
3) Why weren't German's and Italians also sent to 'camps?'
4) Did all Japanese Americans go willingly? Who was Fred Korematsu?
5) What lessons did we learn from this mistake? 
6) Did the United States ever apologize?

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Rationing


After the shock of Pearl Harbor many Americans wondered what would happen next?
Everyone would have to make sacrifices in support of the Armed Forces.  This included accepting 
Rationing:  a system of limiting the distribution of food, gasoline, and other goods so the military could have the equipment and supplies it needed.

What challenges and hardships did 'rationing' create?  

Did everyone accept it willingly?  Why was it necessary?



'Prices Unlimited 1944'

Monday, April 15, 2024

Two Days, and One Week, That Will Live in Infamy


Like Pearl Harbor, the attacks on 9/11/01 forever changed us as a country. Not since December 7, 1941 had our nation suffered such a devastating defeat by a foreign power on our own soil. In the days after 9/11 comparisons to Pearl Harbor were frequently made. Both attacks resulted in a spirit of American unity. A common enemy was identified. A national government galvanized American energies to combat and destroy the forces that attacked the homeland.

Two years ago the US surgeon general described the upcoming grim period of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States as a "Pearl Harbor moment" and a "9/11 moment.

Do you agree?  Why or why not?




Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Interstellar Dust Bowl

In “Interstellar,” humanity is endangered by a blight that is gradually eliminating the number of crops that are viable on Earth. The world economy and national governments have shrunk dramatically. Drones race through Midwestern skies, abandoned by the intelligence programs that set them aloft, and crash into fields where they are scavenged by entrepreneurial farmers like Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former pilot who still dreams of flying. Violent dust storms, straight out of documentary footage of Dust Bowl storms, rise like mountains in the skies, and the particles fill children’s lungs, killing them. If it is not made explicit that the disaster is man-made, the use of testimony from actual Dust Bowl survivors  does. 

“This really happened. It’s just a question of could it happen on a global scale, or in such a way that our existence on the planet would be imperiled?"

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Alphabet Soup



John Green teaches you about the New Deal, which was president Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to pull the united States out of the Great Depression of the 1930's. Did it work? Maybe. John will teach you about some of the most effective and some of the best known programs of the New Deal. They weren't always the same thing. John will tell you who supported the New Deal, and who opposed it. He'll also get into how the New Deal changed the relationship between the government and citizens, and will even reveal just how the Depression ended. (hint: it was war spending)

Critics of FDR's programs called them an 'Alphabet Soup' of confusing acronyms.  Conservatives felt FDR's government had no business regulating crop prices or digging ditches.  Radicals on the other hand felt that the President's New Deal hadn't gone far enough in redistributing the wealth.

What role should the government have in our lives?  Should the Government provide schools and roads?  Military?  Welfare? Health care?  Paid work leave?  Retirement?

What does our current POTUS think about the future of these programs?




Thursday, March 21, 2024

Black Tuesday


The Great Depression in the United States began on October 29, 1929, a day known forever after as “Black Tuesday,” when the American stock market–which had been roaring steadily upward for almost a decade–crashed, plunging the country into its most severe economic downturn yet. Speculators lost their shirts; banks failed; the nation’s money supply diminished; and companies went bankrupt and began to fire their workers in droves. Meanwhile, President Herbert Hoover urged patience and self-reliance: He thought the crisis was just “a passing incident in our national lives” that it wasn’t the federal government’s job to try and resolve. By 1932, one of the bleakest years of the Great Depression, at least one-quarter of the American workforce was unemployed.

1) Why was it called 'Black Tuesday?'

2) What is 'Black Friday?'

3) In economics what does 'being in the black' mean?

4)  How is this name misleading?

5) Who took the blame for the market crash?  Why?  Was it fair?

6) What measures were taken by the Government in the aftermath of the Crash?'

7) What actions should they have taken?

8) Could another crash like this happen again?  What would be the effects?

Thursday, March 14, 2024

1920's Consumerism


In the 1920's the economy shifted from wartime to peace and began an era of consumerism. Prices dropped and what people couldn't afford they began buying on credit.

Advertisers, now reaching millions of consumers on a daily or weekly basis, hired movie stars and sports figures to persuade Americans to buy all types of products, from washing machines to chewing gum. Business had become America's secular religion, thanks to advertising. Bruce Barton's 1925 book comparing religion and business, The Man Nobody Knows, declared Jesus Christ's parables as "the most powerful advertisements of all time.... He would be a national advertiser today."

Barton's philosophy was that good advertising appealed to consumers and created desire for a product. According to Barton, " The American conception of advertising is to arouse desires and stimulate wants, to make people dissatisfied with the old and out-of-date."  Barton told his employees that their ads should have a theme, an interesting headline, and a purpose to direct consumers to act in a particular way (usually to buy a product).  His ads often used catch slogans.

In 1919 Bruce Barton co-founded his own advertising firm whose clients included General Electric, General Motors, and US Steel.  His advertising firm was also one of the first agencies to use radio, rather than newspapers and magazines, for advertising.  Barton grew to be one of the most successful advertising executives of the 1920s.

What is the 'formula' for successful advertising?

What other techniques did advertisers use?

How do commercials get us to buy stuff we don't need?

Pick a product from the 1920's.

Create your own ad.

See some sample ads. 

Inflation Calculator:  How much would my product cost in 1920's?

How have perceptions of many of these products (i.e. cigarettes) changed over time?

The most important part of an AD is its 'signature' or 'logo'.  How many of these famous brands do you recognize?

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Original O.G.


Dillinger and Capone were the 'Original' Original Gangstas. How 'Gangsta' are you?

However 'well-intentioned,'  the 18th Amendment had some rather unintended consequences.

Gangland violence in Chicago captured headlines and attention across the nation the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 14, 1929, and fueled rumors in Butler County. The crime later was called "the most spectacular of the decade in Chicago." There were more than 500 gangland murders in the Windy City in the 1920s.

The 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre took the lives of seven men by machine-gun and shotgun fire at about 10:30 a.m. in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago. The mass shooting climaxed a struggle for control of Chicago's North Side. It pitted the powerful gang of Al Capone against the faltering group led by George (Bugs) Moran. Capone ordered his lieutenants to annihilate the entire Moran gang -- and they almost did it. Moran and two other gang members approached the garage, but fled when they believed police were raiding the building.

Moran had been lured to the massacre site by the prospect of buying bonded whisky. At stake was the security of Capone's illicit liquor business, estimated at more than $60 million a year by federal authorities. The killings solidified the 30-year-old Capone's control over the Chicago whisky trade and other criminal activities.

The Chicago crime still dominated conversations four days later when three strange men checked into the Anthony Wayne Hotel at High Street and Monument Avenue in Hamilton. They aroused suspicion by arriving in an expensive car with Illinois license plates and asking for the hotel's highest priced room.

Who were these mystery men and why did they come to Hamiltion, Ohio?

What connection did other notorious gangsters like John Dillinger have to this area?

How were gangsters of the '30s different from gangsters today?

Bet you didn't know Mr. Kelly is related to a notorious 20s gangster either.


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Prohibition



The 'nobel experiment' as it was called in the 1920s was intended to reduce alcohol abuse, strengthen families and make America a better place.

But it didn't stop people from drinking, it just criminalized them, and it brought violence and corruption to our streets.

On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages.

On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment for good.

1) Could Prohibition happen again?  Why or why not?

2) Should the government be able to tell you what you can drink or what drugs you can or can't take?  Explain with evidence from the links.

3) How about if you can smoke?  Why or why not?
 
4) Can the government decide what you should eat?  Give examples.

5) What responsibility does the government have to protect the health of its citizens?

6) What Federal agency regulates our food & drugs?  How does the President want to change it?

7) When does your individual freedom as an American over-ride that responsibility?

Monday, March 11, 2024

And the Envelope Please....




The first Academy Awards in 1929 were a far cry from the suspense, glamour and endless press coverage surrounding the Oscars today: The first award recipients’ names were printed on the back page of the academy’s newsletter. A few days later, Variety published the information--on page seven.

Spearheaded by movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, the Academy was organized in May 1927 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and improvement of the film industry. The first awards went to movies produced in 1927 and 1928. Though the announcements were made in February 1929, the actual awards weren’t given out until May 16, 1929, in a ceremony and banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Some 270 people attended the dinner, many paying $5 each for a ticket.

The first Academy Award winners also received gold statuettes but the awards weren’t nicknamed “Oscars” until 1931, when a secretary at the Academy noted the statue’s resemblance to her Uncle Oscar, and a journalist printed her remark. The Academy’s first president, the silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks, handed out the statuettes to the winners, who included Janet Gaynor for Best Actress (for three different films: Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise) and the German-born Emil Jannings (The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh) for Best Actor. Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone both won Best Director awards, for Seventh Heaven and Two Arabian Knights, respectively. Best Picture honors went to "Wings," the World War I drama directed by William Wellman. Special recognition was given to actor/ director Charlie Chaplin and the movie "The Jazz Singer" which was excluded for being a 'talkie.'

Who is the on the Academy?  Could you be a member?  What movies do you think were the best?

Which movie won 'Best Picture' this year? How many of these 'Best Pictures' have you seen?  Have these movies stood the test of time?

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

To Tell the Truth



Three contestants claim to be the same person. Four celebrities question the contestants, then vote for the one they think is the real person. This simple game has endured as a TV classic for over 45 years. Today's assignment pays tribute to the show that asked the burning question... 

"Will the real ________ please stand up?" 

 With your group you are each to choose a fact for the historical figure assigned you. Use your Biography Handout as a resource. All of your facts should be made false except one. After presenting  your facts in front of the class they will try to guess which is true.  The more realistic/ believable your facts the better chance you have of fooling your classmates and winning the game. 
 
 Do you have what it takes TO TELL THE TRUTH?







Tuesday, February 27, 2024

"Wise Up:" 1920's Slang



The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations, and the flapper sub-culture had a tremendous influence on main stream America. Many new words and phrases were coined by these liberated women and are still used today!

Find the words in the puzzle and then write a sentence using each word correctly. If Mr. Kelly hears you using these words in the hall you may get extra credit.

1) What conclusions can we draw about the 'Roaring '20s' from this list?

2) What can we learn about a Generation from their slang?

3) What will historians think about you 100 years from now based on your slang?

How has the Evolution of Dance also reflected the 'Generation Gap?'

Learn how to do the 'Charleston!'


Monday, February 26, 2024

AAAAAaaa....CHOO!


I had a little bird, 
Its name was Enza, 
I opened the window, 
And IN-FLEW-ENZA. 

True or False: You are more likely to die from the flu than you were in the trenches of WWI.

In the spring of 1918, as the nation mobilized for war, Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease doctors knew little about. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 — more than in all the wars of this century combined — before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

The 1918 pandemic had profound impacts on life in the United States. Thousands of children were orphaned. So dire was the situation that many cities including Boston, Richmond, St. Louis and others mandated quarantines and social-distancing measures. In San Francisco and Seattle, laws were passed forcing people to wear masks covering their mouths and noses while in public. The public health commissioner in Chicago told police to arrest anyone seen sneezing without covering their face in public.



Thursday, February 22, 2024

I Want A New Club


 
Imagine you are creating a new club. What kind of club would it be? Would it be an athletic club or team? Would it be intellectual? What would the purpose or goal of your club be? How would you recruit new members? What are the membership requirements or rules?

Following WWI President Wilson sought to create a 'League of Nations,' or club, where countries could gather peacefully and resolve their quarrels. At the Treaty of Versailles in France he outlined his '14 points' promoting openness, encouraging independence, and supporting freedom. At it's heart was his idea of 'peace without victory;' a peace inspired by noble ideals, not greed and vengeance.

What is Fight Club? What are the '8 Rules of Fight Club?' How was Wilson's club different? What did critics think of his ideas?


Who were the RESERVATIONISTS? IRRECONCILIABLES? INTERNATIONALISTS?  

WHICH SIDE WERE YOU ON?

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

1917: Behind Enemy Lines


'Trench Warfare' became synonymous with battle during WWI.  Soldiers on the Western Front spent months living in the muddy, rat-infested, dreary channels dug deep into the ground.  Above the trenches was only sky exposing armies to the weather and the constant barrage of artillery and poison gas shells, as well as machine gunners and snipers.  




Thursday, February 15, 2024

Propaganda



This propaganda leaflet was dropped by German airplanes behind American lines during World War I. Nearly 370,000 African Americans were drafted into the U.S. Army starting in the fall of 1917 (they were not allowed to join the Marines, and the Navy took African Americans only as cooks and kitchen help). Although more than half of the black troops were in combat units, they remained segregated from white troops. Subjected to racist harassment (including demeaning insults from white officers), black troops were continually reminded of their second-class citizenship. By stressing racist conditions in the United States, leaflets such as this attempted to destroy morale and encourage desertion among African-American troops.

1) To whom is the document addressed?

2) Who do you think wrote the document? Why?

3) What arguments are used to make those points? Do you find the arguments convincing? Why or why not?

4) What was more dangerous: propaganda or machine guns? Explain.

5) Write a letter in response to the document? What would you say in reply? (1 paragraph)

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Harlem Hellfighters


More than 2 million Americans served in Europe during World War I. Eager to promote democracy around the world, many entered the war with great enthusiasm. But their first taste of battle left them more realistic about the horrors of war.

After reading the excerpt from Max Brooks The Harlem Hellfighters answer these questions in your Interactive Student Notebook:

1) Why did so many men, especially African Americans, enlist to go 'Over There?'

2) Would you stay or would you go?  Why?

3) Why is the large number of casualties during World War I typically not discussed?

4) Many of the 369th Regiment decided to stay in France after the war. Why might they have done this?

5) What comparisons can you make between the Harlem Hellfighters and the Buffalo Soldiers?

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Over There

1. Listen to "Over There," a song written during World War I by George M. Cohan, an American composer and entertainer. Then answer these questions:

• What is the mood of this music? Does the mood match the lyrics? Explain.

• According to this song, why should young men fight in the war?

• What do you think Cohan's purpose was in writing this song?


2. Listen to "On Patrol in No-Man's Land," a song written by James Reese Europe in 1919 about his experience as a lieutenant in the 369th Regiment of the U.S. Army. Then answer these questions:

• What is the mood of this music? Does the mood match the lyrics? Explain.

• According to this song, what dangers do soldiers have to look out for?

• What do you think Europe's purpose was in writing this song?


3. What differences are there between "Over There" and "On Patrol in No-Man's Land"? Which song gives a more realistic version of what the war was like for combatants?



Sunday, February 4, 2024

Zimmermann Telegram




In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. The telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message." In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24 to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson. The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.

Can you decode the message?

The first 'wall' along our southern border with Mexico was started during WWI 100 years ago; not because we feared the Mexicans or radical Islam, but because we feared the Germans!

What is the legacy of the Zimmerman Telegram today?


Thursday, February 1, 2024

You Sank My Battleship!


Battleship wasn't always a board game. The original version, reportedly created as a French World War I game, was played on square grids, and each player drew in where their battleships were located. It wasn't until 1931 when the Milton Bradley Company turned what was a simple two-player, paper-and-pen game into the popularized children's board game. The gist of the game -- both then and today --is to capture or sink the other person's battleships through a series of strategic moves.

Many variations have appeared over the years from the distinctive plastic ships and pegboards of the classic board game to numerous online versions. Our classroom version brings us full circle to World War I: the large 'aircraft carrier' has been replaced with the historic Lusitania and the submarines with German U-boats. Can you sink American neutrality?

1) Which boat do you think is the most valuable? The least? Why?

2) What strategies did you develop as you played the game?

3) Why did the Germans target a defenseless passenger ship like the Lusitania? How did the attack pull America closer to war?

4) What was the Sussex Pledge? How did the German U-Boats change the 'rules of engagement?'

5) What modern weapons have changed the way we fight wars today?

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The Lusitania


On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, rival of the Titanic, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. Of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198 died, including 128 Americans. The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans (even though they had been warned) and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I.

1) Would you know how to escape a sinking ship? List 5 steps you could take to ensure your survival.

2) What did the passengers of the Lusitania do wrong?

3) Titanic vs Lusitania: Who survived and why?

4) Was anyone on board both Titanic and Lusitania when they sank?


Monday, January 29, 2024

What's So Great About the GREAT WAR?


Woodrow Wilson, born in the 'Confederate States of America,' remembered the devastation, the deprivation, and the degradation that comes from losing a war. He carried that with him.

On August 4th, he wrote to the leaders of the newly warring nations that he would “welcome an opportunity to act in the interest of European peace.”

Almost from the outset of the war, Woodrow Wilson was trying to find diplomatic solutions. He believed if all the heads of state could sit at a table and confer, they could probably have ended this war. There didn’t have to be a war here...

What changed his opinion leading him to quote: "We are glad to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples...the world must be made safe for Democracy!?"

Friday, January 26, 2024

Panama!



The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is a 48-mile (77.1 km) ship canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade;  the 10 hour crossing shaving 2 weeks off a dangerous trip around the tip of South America. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake (85 feet (26 m) above sea-level). The Gatun Lake was used to reduce the amount of work required for a sea-level connection. The current locks are 110 feet (33.5 m) wide. 

What was the strategic importance militarily and economically of the Panama Canal?

How did the Panama Canal fit Roosevelt's 'Big Stick' policy? Dollar Diplomacy?

How did Roosevelt change the image or reputation of the United States?

If we could build the Panama Canal why not an Ohio to Hawaii Highway?

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The Devil In the White City



The Chicago World's Fair produced a number of firsts besides Ferris’ 264-foot-tall wheel. Among the well-loved commercial products that made their debut at the Chicago World’s Fair were Cracker Jack, Cream of Wheat, Juicy Fruit gum and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Technological products that would soon find their way into homes nationwide, such as the dishwasher and fluorescent light bulbs, had early prototype versions on display in Chicago as well. The U.S. government also got in on the act, issuing the country’s first postcards and commemorative stamps and two new commemorative coins: a quarter and half dollar. The half dollar featured Christopher Columbus, in whose honor the fair had been staged, while the quarter depicted Queen Isabella of Spain, who had funded Columbus’ voyages—making it the first U.S. coin to honor a woman.

Perhaps the most famous first wasn't advertised in the fair literature:  America's First Serial Killer! Unbeknownst to festival goers, there was a mass murderer in their midst. For several years before and during the exposition, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes was busily luring victims (including a number of fairgoers) to a three-story, block-long building called the “Castle,” where they were tortured, mutilated and killed. Although H. H. Holmes’ heinous crimes weren’t discovered until after the fair ended, it’s believed that he was responsible for dozens of deaths in Chicago.

In his best selling book The Devil in the White City  Author Erik Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.

 

Daniel Burnham (Architect)           HH Holmes (Killer)

"Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this story is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow" 
1) In what ways does the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 change America? What lasting inventions and ideas did it introduce into American culture?

2) How did the 'White City' compare with Chicago, the 'Black City' or any other American City of the time?

3) How did Holmes' hotel contrast with the buildings of the World's Fair? Can architecture reflect goodness or evil, or are buildings neutral until used?

4) How was Holmes able to get away with so many murders without becoming suspect? Were you surprised by how easy it was for him to commit crimes without being caught?

5) What does the story reveal about “conflict between good and evil"? What is the essential difference between men like Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes? Are they alike in any way?

6) After the Fair ended, Ray Stannard Baker noted "What a human downfall after the magnificence and prodigality of the World's Fair which has so recently closed its doors! Heights of splendor, pride, exaltation in one month: depths of wretchedness, suffering, hunger, cold, in the next" [p. 334]. What is the relationship between the opulence and grandeur of the Fair and the poverty and degradation that surrounded it? In what ways does the Fair bring into focus the extreme contrasts of the Gilded Age?

7) At the end of The Devil in the White City, Larson writes "The thing that entranced me about Chicago in the Gilded Age was the city's willingness to take on the impossible in the name of civic honor, a concept so removed from the modern psyche that two wise readers of early drafts of this book wondered why Chicago was so avid to win the world's fair in the first place" [p. 393]. What motives, in addition to "civic honor," drove Chicago to build the Fair? In what ways might the desire to "out-Eiffel Eiffel" and to show New York that Chicago was more than a meat-packing backwater be seen as American?  In what ways were they problematic?

Monday, January 22, 2024

The Chicago World's Fair


The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was an event of immense cultural importance to America and the World nearing the turn of the century. From May 1 to October 31, 1893, Chicago and the Exposition were host to 27 million visitors--nearly one quarter of the country's population at the time. Fairs encompassed the spectrum of experience and interest of the 1800s--from sport to entertainment to high culture. To understand their importance and draw in modern terms, they could be seen as a combination of the Olympics, DisneyWorld, the Superbowl, and the National Gallery--an international entertainment and cultural event with lasting social importance.

Particularly amazing was the fact that this futuristic view of what urban life could be grew out of the ashes of the Chicago fire just 22 years before.

Click here to begin your tour. How did the fair show America was the best?




Like the 'Gilded Age' the Columbian Exposition suspended reality. It was a fantasy.  None of it was real. The buildings of the fair were designed to be temporary and unfortunately, most of them were destroyed. The exceptions being the replica Statue of the Republic (above) and the old Palace of Fine Arts. It's since been converted into the city of  Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. The rest of the Columbian Exposition is long gone. So what happened to all the other buildings you ask? 

Like most World’s Fairs, the storied “White City” of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was mostly destroyed after the end of the Fair, and little evidence remains today. I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to experience the fairgrounds in person. Thanks to the Urban Simulation Team at UCLA, and through the wonders of technology we can, however, still take a 'virtual' stroll through the grounds by clicking here.

What was the LEGACY of the Chicago World's Fair?


Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Buffalo Soldiers


The Buffalo Soldiers were a segregated regiment of black cavalry fighters during the American campaign to rid the West of "Indians" so that "civilized" white people could gain the lands used by Native Americans. They were given their name by the Native Americans who called them Buffalo Soldiers because their short & curly hair was like the hair on the back of a buffalo's neck. They were compared with the buffalo's strength and tenacity. Duties were settling railroad disputes, building telegraph lines, repairing and building forts, helping settlers find a place to live and protecting the settlers from Indian attacks.

1) Who were the Buffalo Soldiers?

2) What was is the great IRONY of the Buffalo Soldier?

3) Who were America's forgotten cowboys?

4) Why would they want to be a cowboy?  Would you?

5) Why haven't we ever heard their stories?

6) What are their names and stories?


Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Bully! A Splendid Little War




The charge up an obscure Cuban hill on July, 1 1898 was a pivotal point in Theodore Roosevelt's political career. When war broke with Spain in April of that year, Roosevelt was serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He immediately quit his position and helped form a regiment of volunteers. The "Rough Riders" enlisted cowboys and college men led by Roosevelt under the command of Leonard Wood. They arrived in Cuba in time to take part in the Battle of San Juan Hill.

Read the actual account of the battle of San Juan Hill and compare it to the video.

1) Was the film historically accurate?

2) What is the 'bias' of both accounts?

3) What information was intentionally left out?  Why?

4) How would the story be different if the Spanish were telling it?

5) Who were the real heroes of San Juan Hill?  Why aren't they included in the accounts?

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Crucible of Empire



Teddy Roosevelt charging up the San Juan Heights, the Rough Riders and the sinking of the battleship, the U.S.S. Maine---these are what people commonly know about the United States' war with Spain in 1898. What they may not remember is that this was the war that steered the United States to center stage as a world power. Victorious over Spain in Cuba and the Philippines, the United States, a nation founded in opposition to imperialism, grappled with its new role as an imperial power.

Read more...

Remember the Maine!

"All war is based on deception." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
On February 15, 1898 an explosion ripped through the hull of the USS Maine. President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine and the sailors were given a hero's burial in Arlington National cemetery. The American people, outraged by this apparent unprovoked attack, supported the Spanish American War in large numbers.


But was this the Truth?

 Conspiracy theorists and historians have offered some other possible explanations over the years:

1) A covert operation by the US government blew up the ship (It was not a front line battleship) to make a case for war.

2) A fire in a coal bunker accidentally lit off an adjacent ammo magazine.

3) William Randolph Hearst arranged to have the ship explode so as to profit from selling his newspapers.


Get into groups of 3.  Assign one of the reports below to each member of your group and use it to fill out the document analysis worksheet.  When you are done come back together and share, choosing one of the theories above best supported by the facts.






Monday, January 8, 2024

The Yellow Kid



Learn about the impact of visual design in early newspapers and how it continues to influence media today. Discover the competitive tactics—that crossed the line into fake news—Joseph Pulitzer and William R. Hearst employed to outsell each other, particularly in their personal competition to sell newspapers during the Spanish-American War.