The 60's

There has never been a decade quite like the sixties; the diversity, conflicts, hope, anger, the music. The 60s decade was a decade of change. Not only were those changes evident in pop culture, music, & fashions;  they changed the course of history.

As you watch the film in class read the corresponding sections in the text:

41.3 Marriage Families and a 'Baby Boom'

44  Civil Rights Revolution: "Like A Mighty Stream"

45.1 Redefining Equality: From Black Power to Affirmative Action

47 The Age of Camelot

49 Emergence of a Counterculture

50 - The United States Gets Involved in Vietnam

51.4 Growing Opposition to the War

Answer these questions in your final essay.  One paragraph per answer.

I. Why did the counterculture fall apart?

II. Were the 60's good or bad for America? Why?

III.  What lessons did the 60's teach us?

IV,  Which character in the film did you relate to most?  If you were them what would you have done differently?

V. Would you have wanted to live during the 60's?  Why or Why not?

  

Women Demand Equality: NOW!

 

In 1966, the National Organization for Women established that a key goal of the feminist movement was the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. It had been introduced in Congress in 1923, then passed in 1972 with the condition that 38 states had to ratify it for it to become part of the Constitution. Support was bipartisan and ratification seemed like a sure thing, needing only eight more states.

Then came a housewife and mother of six from St. Louis named Phyllis Schlafly. She believed that the amendment would damage the role of women and the American family and had to be stopped. She took her cause on the road to political rallies, TV talk shows and state assemblies, where she plied legislators with fresh bread and pie.

By 1977, she had built a coalition – rooted in evangelical Christians, Catholics and political conservatives – that eventually stopped the E.R.A. three states short of ratification.

That coalition also provided a base for Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory in 1980, and established Schlafly’s reputation among friends and foes as one of the most effective political organizers in modern American history.

Despite Schlafly’s victory against the ERA, many of the causes she railed against – abortion rights, same-sex marriage, women serving in the military – become realities of American life, protected by law. But Schlafly continued to plead her cause, right up until she died at age 92 in 2016.

The ERA has not passed, despite recent attempts to revive it.

1) What were the arguments for and against the Equal Rights Amendment?
2) What strategies were the most effective at defeating the E.R.A.?
3) How did the defeat of the E.R.A. relate to the rise of conservatism in the 1980s?
4) How was the concept of American womanhood being redefined throughout the 1970s?
5) The video makes it clear that not all American women held the same beliefs about the role of women within society during the 1970s. Why do you think women in the U.S. held different perspectives on the Equal Rights Amendment? What does this debate reveal to us today about the unique pressures women faced in the 1970s?

Civil Rights: Like a Mighty Stream

 

Brown v. Board of Education inspired hopes that African Americans could achieve equal rights in American society. After decades of segregation and discrimination, African Americans were willing to take incredible risks to stand up against unfair laws. But just what types of risks would they and other civil rights activists be willing to take? Read the seven statements that follow, and record whether you believe each is true or false.

The Civil Rights Movement: True or False? 1. On the first day of a bus boycott to protest segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, 90 percent of the city's African American riders stayed off the buses. 2. Leaders of the Montgomery busy boycott brought their case before the Supreme Court, which declared segregation unconstitutional. 3. On the first day of desegregation at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African Americans students faced an angry White mob that tried to stop them from attending school. 4. After college students staged a "sit-in" at an all-White lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation, the city became the first large Southern city to end segregation. 5. The protests led by children in Birmingham, Alabama, were considered successful because police arrested few participants. 6. Around 250,000 people traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C., to participate in a 1963 demonstration protesting racial discrimination. 7. In 1964, Freedom Summer participants in Mississippi faced violence, including beatings, bombings, and shooting, and at least six people were murdered.

TV Values

What cultural norms and values did television reflect during the 1950s? 

What cultural values does television programming reflect today?

Leave It To Beaver is a show remembered by some as an example of a simpler time in America. A time before today's modern anything-goes mentality and it's culture of crassness. A time when traditional family values ruled the day. It is remembered by others as seemingly taking place in an alternate universe that bore no resemblance to reality evenwhen it was new.

I watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver in my childhood, as it was on every afternoon in re-runs, but it wasn’t until seeing it in adulthood that I appreciated to what extent the show does not merit its reputation as a phony part of a repressive Fifties monoculture. Yes, it depicts a world that probably never existed, and yes, like most of what was on television at the time, it under-represents diversity. There are no homosexuals (although who can be entirely sure about Mr. Rutherford?), few black people, and very limited controversy. Within its contained world, however, Leave it to Beaver promotes honesty and personal responsibility over the values of social status or self-interest. It also overturns (usually, anyway) the assumption that dishonesty is an accepted, and even expected, mode of behavior.

The Prisoners Dilemma

 During the Cold War the opposing alliances of NATO and the Warsaw Pact both had the choice to arm or disarm. From each side's point of view, disarming whilst their opponent continued to arm would have led to military inferiority and possible annihilation. Conversely, arming whilst their opponent disarmed would have led to superiority. If both sides chose to arm, neither could afford to attack the other, but at the high cost of developing and maintaining a nuclear arsenal. If both sides chose to disarm, war would be avoided and there would be no costs. Although the 'best' overall outcome is for both sides to disarm, the rational course for both sides is to arm, and this is indeed what happened. 'Mutually Assured Destruction' was the idea that waging war would be so destructive to both sides that neither could possibly win. Both sides poured enormous resources into military research and armament in a war of attrition for the next thirty years until reform in the Soviet Union caused ideological differences to abate.

The Cold War and arms race can be modeled as a Prisoner's Dilemma. The Prisoner's Dilemma is the story of two criminals who have been arrested for a heinous crime and are being interrogated separately. Each knows that if neither of them talks, the case against them is weak and they will be convicted and punished for lesser charges. If this happens, each will get 20 years in prison with the possibility of parole. If both 'rat' on each other, its a slam dunk case for the prosecution and they both face death sentences. If only one person 'rats' and testifies against the other, the one who did not cooperate will get the death sentence while the other will go free.

1) What would you do? Why?

2) What did your partner do? What was the result?

3) What was the surprising outcome of the Hollywood version we watched in class?

4) What is M.A.D. and how has it kept us safe from nuclear annihilation?

5) What are the risks of nuclear war in the future if more countries get the A-bomb?

How is this famous variation different from our class example? What was the surprising outcome?

Whatever happened to the 'Daisy Girl' from the 1960's commercial?

Zero Sum Game

The friendliness of Tic-tac-toe games makes them ideal as a pedagogical tool for teaching the concepts of good sportsmanship and the branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the searching of game trees. It is straightforward to write a computer program to play Tic-tac-toe perfectly, to enumerate the 765 essentially different positions (the state space complexity), or the 26,830 possible games up to rotations and reflections (the game tree complexity) on this space.

An early variant of Tic-tac-toe was played in the Roman Empire, around the first century BC. It was called Terni Lapilli and instead of having any number of pieces, each player only had three, thus they had to move them around to empty spaces to keep playing. The game's grid markings have been found chalked all over Rome. However, according to Claudia Zaslavsky's book Tic Tac Toe: And Other Three-In-A Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer, Tic-tac-toe could originate back to ancient Egypt.^[1] Another closely related ancient game is Three Men's Morris which is also played on a simple grid and requires three pieces in a row to finish.^[2]

The different names of the game are more recent. The first print reference to "Noughts and crosses", the British name, appeared in 1864. The first print reference to a game called "tick-tack-toe" occurred in 1884, but referred to "a children's game played on a slate, consisting in trying with the eyes shut to bring the pencil down on one of the numbers of a set, the number hit being scored".

Use the Tic Tac Toe handouts at the front of the room to challenge your classmates and then answer these questions:

1) What strategies did you use to win?

2) Why does Tic Tac Toe lose its appeal the more you play?

3) Is Tic Tac Toe an example of a Zero Sum Game?

4) What comparisons can we make between Tic Tac Toe and Global Thermal Nuclear War?

5) What is the only way to win?


Today gamblers can challenge a Tic Tac Toe Playing Chicken.

Can you beat the bird?

War Games

WarGames follows David Lightman, a high school student who unwittingly hacks into WOPR (War Operations Planned Response), a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III.

The movie illustrates the very real fear of an 'imminent' nuclear attack during the late Cold War and teaches a valuable lesson in the end.

How was High School different in 1983?

How have computers and the internet changed our lives since then?

Would you like to play the game?

Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disaster. Originally, the Clock, which hangs on a wall in the Bulletin's office in the University of Chicago, represented an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change. The most recent officially announced setting—three minutes to midnight (11:57)—was made in January 2015 due to "[un]checked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals". This setting was retained in January 2016.

When was the clock closest to the End of the World?

When was the clock the farthest back?

Where is the clock set at now?

Why do we hope the Russians loved their children too?

Is it the End of the World As We Know It?

What can we do to turn back time?

The Wall

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Within a short period of time after the war, living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. With the help and support of its occupying powers, West Germany set up a capitalist society and experienced such a rapid growth of their economy that it became known as the "economic miracle." With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were able to live well, buy gadgets and appliances, and to travel as they wished. Nearly the opposite was true in East Germany. Since the Soviet Union had viewed their zone as a spoil of war, the Soviets pilfered factory equipment and other valuable assets from their zone and shipped them back to the Soviet Union.

When East Germany became its own country, it was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union and thus a Communist society was established. In East Germany, the economy dragged and individual freedoms were severely restricted. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. Although some of them would be stopped on their way, hundreds of thousands of others made it across the border. Once across, these refugees were housed in warehouses and then flown to West Germany. Many of those who escaped were young, trained professionals. By the early 1960s, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population. Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus.

The obvious leak was the easy access East Germans had to West Berlin. With the support of the Soviet Union, there had been several attempts to simply take over West Berlin in order to eliminate this exit point. Although the Soviet Union even threatened the United States with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, the United States and other Western countries were committed to defending West Berlin. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border.

WATCH THE MOVIE HERE

 How was the Wall both a physical and ideological barrier?

Silver Parachute

We are probably all familiar with the Silver Parachutes from Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games.

The parachutes bearing meds or food float down, courtesy of Panem sponsors, and they are considered last-minute, unforeseen gifts.

What would your 'Silver Parachute' bring?  Who would sponsor you?

Post War Germany was divided into three sections--the Allied part was controlled by the United States, Great Britain and France, and another part by the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, although located in the eastern Soviet half, was also divided into four sectors --West Berlin occupied by Allied interests and East Berlin occupied by Soviets. In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to control all of Berlin by cutting surface traffic to and from the city of West Berlin. Starving out the population and cutting off their business was their method of gaining control. As part of the Marshall Plan the Truman administration reacted with a continual daily airlift which brought much needed food and supplies into the city of West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift lasted until the end of September of 1949---although on May 12, 1949, the Soviet government yielded and lifted the blockade.

How did the airlift affect West German attitudes toward the United States and 'contain' the spread of Communism?

Imagine you are a child in Postwar West Berlin.  Write a 'Thank You' like the ones in the story to "Uncle Wiggly Wings."

Does the End Justify the Means?

The survivors of the atomic bombing were scarred for life, mentally and physically. No passage of time, however long, can relieve their memories. The scars on their faces, hands, and legs bear witness to that. In the vicissitudes of the last forty years, they must have struggled with recurring memories of their fears. The event at Hiroshima did not end in 1945; but began a new historical era leading toward the twenty-first century. It is certain that Hiroshima still exists in each one of us.

Given that the Atomic Bomb literally vaporized thousands of people its amazing that anything survived. These items found amidst the ruins of Hiroshima offer a startling reminder of the destructiveness of the bomb; not just on buildings and bridges but on real people.

1) What did you learn from listening to the survivors?

2)Was the attack on Hiroshima a crime against humanity?

3) Does this story change your original opinion about the bomb? Why/ not?

4) How many nuclear attacks have happened since?

5) Why are these stories and images important in preventing future nuclear attacks?

Mother Do You Think They'll Drop the Bomb?

The United States government secretly spent billions of dollars on a program code-named the Manhattan Project.  Its highest national priority: developing an atomic bomb.  The project was encouraged by Albert Einstein himself and led by J Robert Oppenheimer.   In a barren desert in New Mexico, on the morning of July 16, 1945,  the bomb was tested.  The flash of light could be seen 180 miles away.

President Truman did not agonize over the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. For the President abstract ethical issues did not outweigh very real American lives and an opportunity to end the war. Later some historians would condemn Truman's decision. What would you have done?

"Little Boy" was the codename for the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. TheHiroshima bombing was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test, and the first uranium-based detonation. It exploded with an energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ). The bomb caused significant destruction to the city of Hiroshima.

Did the pilots regret their role in the mission?  How would they live with the guilt?

Did the Japanese immediately surrender? What happened next?

Bushido

 How do you defeat an enemy who will not surrender?

There are countless stories of the Japanese 'kamakazi' pilots who would rather die themselves than give up. On Iwo Jima, a 5-mile-long desolate island rock 650 miles southeast of Tokyo, more than 23,000 marines became casualties.  The fight for Okinawa was even deadlier as many Japanese troops readily killed themselves. The Japanese fought by a code they thought was right: 'Bushido' The way of the Samurai warrior.

 How was this code different from the more Western idea of 'Chivalry?'

 Who was Hiroo Onoda?

 Who would win:  Knight vs. Samurai?

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.

1) Who was our 'mutual enemy' during WWII?

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.

4) How had the Navajo been treated by the US Government in the century before WWII?

5) Why is this ironic?

6) What is happening to the Navajo Language today?

7) What does Star Wars sound like in 'Din'e,' the official language of the Navajo?

8) What other movies have been translated into 'Din'e'?'

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.

1) Would you have joined the 442nd and risked your life for a country that had discriminated against you?

2) How did the 442nd ultimately prove themselves on the battlefield?

3) Were theses soldiers ever recognized for their service?

4) Were they ever considered 'equals' by their countrymen?

Fighting WWII

Can you name these men?

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.

Why?

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.

What was Eisenhower's message to the troops?

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'

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?

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.

1) What is an 'Unsung Hero?'

2) Who was Third Class Cook Doris Miller?  Why was he given this stamp?

3) What opportunities did the war offer African Americans?   What Hardships did black soldiers still endure?

4) What was the 'Double V' campaign?

5) What even greater honor has Doris Miller received?  Do you agree?

Days Of 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?

Complete this Venn Diagram. 

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?"

What do you think?

List 3 specific steps we can take to prevent future human/ environment disasters like the dust bowl.

Dear Mrs. Harrison

 

During your tour of the country, you learned about ordinary Americans who experienced the Great Depression. Like Lorena Hickok, you will now report your discoveries. Use the information in your scrapbook to write a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt describing the hardships people endured during the Depression.

Your letter must have the following:

1. An appropriate date, salutation, and closing.
2. A brief introduction summarizing the states you visited and the types of people you met.
3. A description of your visit to at least two states. For each state, include:

• information on the hardships people faced during the Depression and the ways in which they endured those hardships.
• a quotation and one or more facts from the reading.
• any relevant Vocabulary Terms.

4. At least four of these words: betrayal, change, depressed, desperation, destitute, dreadful, encourage, honorable, hope, ideals, plague, pride, self-respect, shame, stress, suffer, worth.
5. A conclusion summarizing your thoughts about how ordinary Americans endured the hardships they faced during this time period.

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?

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?

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?

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.

Who would win:  Al Capone or Blackbeard the Pirate?

Would you want to live in a 'Gangster's Paradise?'

Prohibition

Who were these women?

The 'noble 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) Was Prohibition a success or failure?  Explain.

2) How has the government continued to prohibit other health risks like smoking? Why?

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

4) What Federal agency regulates our food & drugs? Who is in charge?

5) Should the Government ban fast food? Why/ not?

6) What American foods have been banned in other countries?

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?