Monthly Archives: March 2011

03/30/11

Assignment due 4/4

1) Read Foner, Chapter 23.
2) Read the Wikipedia entry about Dr. Strangelove: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove (skip past paragraphs discussing the ending if you don’t want to know how it ends)
3) Write at least one brief (2-3 sentence) comment in response to this post expressing your expectations for the movie based on what you have read or already know about the movie.
4) Write a post on a person, place, or event discussed in Foner’s chapter 23 that has not yet been covered on the blog.  Include 1-2 paragraphs explaining how history might have been different had this person, place, event, or idea not occurred when it did?  How might American society be different today?  How about your life?  Include an image or a video (just paste the URL from a YouTube video into a post and it should convert to an embedded video; I can help correct it if there is a problem).

03/30/11

Arranged Marraige: Africa

A cause of World War I not often discussed is the intense competition to rape Africa. A simple google search of “Scramble for Africa” would return you with plenty results citing the time period of the scramble as 1881-1914. There is no coincidence that World War I started in 1914. It is easily proving that tensions at during that time period were high among the European nations that wanted to colonize Africa for themselves. The Berlin conference was an effort put forth by several of these countries in order to try and ward off a war over Africa. So Action was taking similiar to when a prince chooses a princess to bring to countries together. The princess has no choice in the matter and neither did Africa. At the Berlin Conference the countries drew lines on a map of Africa and thus determined who was allowed to satomize which seection of Africa. France got most of West Africa, Belgum the Congo, Britian East and South Africa, Portugal 2 Colonies in South Africa, and Germany a small colony in each region. I Dont think it is a coincidence that Germany lost all four of its colonies after it lost WWI.

Scramble for Africa

03/21/11

“Federal Aid Weakens the Sturdiness of Our National Character”

I know that someone already used this cartoon, and that I also spoke about it during class, but i think that it helps to make a point that I happen to feel quite strongly about….
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Much the same as what people have become increasingly afraid might today if the Federal Government becomes too involved in economic affairs by ‘over-regulating’ big business and the economy as a whole, this cartoon implies that some of the steps taken by FDR in the New Deal may have come dangerously close to a socialist state. Most notably, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) that was created to promote cooperation between big business and the government by implicating codes to regulate output, prices, and work conditions. Through the NRA, Roosevelt “Had repudiated the older idea of liberty based on the idea that the best way to encourage economic activity and ensure a fair distribution of wealth was to allow market competition to operate unrestrained by the government.”  – pretty much a survival of the fittest type of situation.
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I think that President Grover Cleveland’s the idea that “The government should not support the people” and that, “Federal aid… weakens the sturdiness of our national character” speaks volumes about what true capitalism, for better or for worse, is really about. Actually, I believe quite strongly that many of the policies enacted by the New Deal are, today more than ever, serving as a crutch for the weak and lazy (for lack of a better term).
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Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that we might not all have what it takes to become billionaires, and that much of it can sometimes be out of our hands, but things like social security, and welfare – which were created to help a devastated population during the Great Depression – seem to actually be hurting more than they’re helping by “weakening the sturdiness of not only our national cgaracter, but more importantly our character as individuals… And that’s why I decided to expound on the point that I made during class earlier today.

-C. Salama

03/21/11

Assignment due 3/23

Reading: Read Foner, Chapter 22
Written: Carefully look through the tag cloud (located on right side of home page) on our course site.  Click on at least a few tags and read the posts that come up.  Leave at least 2 brief comments, either on this post or others, arguing why a certain theme or topic is worthy of appearing on the midterm exam.

03/21/11

The ending of prohibition

On March 22 1933, FDR ended one of the most controversial issues of the 1920’s, “prohibition.”  He ratified the 21st amendment to allow prohibition.  This was a muh needed amendment that gave people suffering the depression jobs, as well as bringing revenue into the cities.  The abolishion of prohibition gave Roosevelt a good name and helped him earn support from cities that supported the abolishion of prohibition.  The political cartoon above depicts a man who just opened a bar in 1933 shortly after alcohol was legalized.  Legalizing the sale of alcohol was clearly not a mistake as it has been nearly 80 years since the legalization and we rarely see protestors.  The repealing of prohibiton was one of the first efforts and a giant step to ending the depression.

03/21/11

FDR to the rescue.

The country was facing an economic depression and they needed to be saved from the failed national policies attempted during the Hoover administration. As if things could not get worse, three weeks into taking office, the country was hit with a banking crisis. People raced to the banks to withdraw money and slowly banks were running out of money! A national bank holiday was declared and all banks were closed to be examined. Only the financially sound banks were given money by the government to reopen.

In order to aid citizens in this time of distress, FDR implemented the New Deal. This created jobs for people building city/state infrastructure. Soon the country would get back on its two feet. In addition, a new program called Social Security helped people in old age. This program yielded benefits after retirement. Last but not least, who can forget the discomfort many Americans experienced under prohibition. Soon after taking office FDR made a beer with a low concentration of alcohol accessible and legal.

03/21/11

360 Degrees of Power


(Carlisle in the Atlanta Constitution)

The Artist was saying by the next voting session all of congress would be ran by the democrats. The artist wanted to illuminate that because of Republicans standing in the way of the New Deal they will all be voted out by the public.  The artist depicted this by showing the “Republican Obstruction” being kicked out the way my by the public in order to make way for “Roosevelt Reorganizational Power” as the Democratic Congress ushers the bulldozer along the way. The Bulldozer is on a path to pave the government cost rearing out of control.  This cartoon was drawn at the time of a huge expansion of the role of the Government.

03/21/11

The Redistribution of Wealth

By Robert Day, appeared in September 1935

This cartoon, by Robert Day, appeared in September 1935. The key to the gag is that the speaker seemingly can no longer afford to maintain her enormous yard, fill her swimming pool, or repair her crumbling walls and front gate. Roosevelt argued that taxation according to ability to pay was ‘the American principle’. There was a huge gap between the richest and the poorest people in America. Roosevelt wanted to redistribute the wealth among people through the taxation of incomes in order to end the Great Depression.

03/21/11

Old nine vs. New six

The title of this cartoon was “Furnish the Court…Assistant”, which was published on 2/6/37,by Elderman in Washington. This cartoon responded to the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, also known as Court packing plan. His purpose was to regulate the New Deal legislation that was ruled unconstitutional before. According to the plan, the President could nominate maximum of six Justices to the Supreme Court.

The six people on the top were the Justices that nominated by Roosevelt and those nine people were the old Justices. Those nine Justices looked serious and those six were not. I think the cartoonist tried to imply those six were just listen to President and support every decisions made by Roosevelt. So they were not taking thing serious.

03/21/11

Just Married!

The caption reads, “Wonder how long the honeymoon will last.”  This phrase is to relate to the non ‘aggression pact’ (Nazi- Pact 1939) signed by Hitler and Stalin.  The Soviet Union agreed to provide raw materials and food products to Germany in exchange for furnished products (such as machinery) from the Germans.  In addition to these arrangements, there was an alliance not to attack each other.   The pact was supposed to last for ten years however, it was only upheld for two.

03/21/11

Time to Stimulate the Economy

This image depicts Anti-New Deal sentiment. This cartoon accuses Roosevelt of spending beyond his means to deal with the Depression. The primary point of criticism of the New Deal is that it increased the deficit of the US government due to massive spending to bolster the economy. The Government ran large deficits (kind of like now after the Great Recession), which had to be financed by increased taxes and/or borrowing, leading to national debt reaching all-time highs. The government spending in 1916 was $697 million, while in 1935 the government spending was $9 billion. Which shows massive increase in Govt. expenditures.

03/21/11

Don’t worry Uncle Sam, Santa will help!

Washington Post, 1933 by Clifford K. Berryman

The artist was trying to convey the message that FDR wanted to get many different things done in a short period of time.  He also leans toward the idea that it isn’t possible to get such a massive amount of relief and legislation passed that quickly. In order for it to be done you would need “magic” or some other worldly force.  This is shown by the iconic image of a child putting out a stocking over the fireplace at Christmas in the hopes for some treat to be delivered by Santa overnight.  On the stockings themselves, are many different agencies that FDR created to provide jobs, such as the: CCC, TVA, FCA, TWA etc.  It can be interpreted that these programs were the primary ideas to get America back on its feet.  The “gifts” that would be received would hopefully make everything return to normal, and get America back to its former glory. FDR is the child and he seems to be reassuring “Uncle Sam” that everything will be okay in the end because his New Deal will work.

03/21/11

The Depressed Economy and Happy Food

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

During the Great Depression most were very poor and could barely afford food which they needed to survive. The picture shows a very long food line in New York City. In the video I have chosen Clara who lived through the great depression showed us how her mom made pizza. On nights when mom made bread she will take a piece of the bread dough and they will have dinner for the night. Their budget conscious pizza makes my pizza look very high class. My first cooking book actually was a book full of recipes from the Great Depression era and I notice that they try to substitute anywhere they can for cheaper products and they used lard to replace butter and oil. I feel like the messages that these two sources communicate about the Depression is that although times where tough people still found away to make it thru and they looked forward to the little things like the way Clara describes about how her family gathered around the lamp.

03/21/11

FDR’s Favorite Sock Puppet : Supreme Court

February 12, 1937, New York Herald-Tribune, “Qualifying Test For Supreme Court Jobs”

Many people were very critical about the Supreme Court’s willingness to accept the New Deal. This cartoon was drawn at the time when FDR won his second term as president with a landslide victory.The cartoon shows FDR saying a command and the Supreme Court Justices abiding by what he said. The artist of the cartoon depicts the justice scales and the Constitution in the trash can.

According to Foner, “the court’s willingness to accept the New Deal marked a permanent change in judicial policy” and many begin to worry that FDR was becoming more of a dictator and making way for presidents after him to become dictators. Some felt that the court became more supportive of the New Deal because of FDR’s “court packing” proposal that he made to Congress (which was rejected). I think that some of the justices felt that FDR might replace them.

03/20/11

Socialist Plan?

In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was at desk as the 32nd president of the United States, he introduced a series of programs called the New Deal to relieve the economic problems within the nation responded to the Great Depression. FDR’s goal was to achieve the “3Rs” relieve, recovery, and reform. He vowed that Americans would see changes within the first 100 days of his presidency. At this time about two million Americans were homeless, ¼ of the workforce were unemployed and failure of the banking system led America into chaos. America was panicking; the nation was desperately in need of help. Many believed that the New Deal would aid the nation’s current situation. Whereas others felt that they were being dealt a bad hand and that the government was experimenting in Socialism. This political cartoon depicts believe of FDR’s Socialist plan to the U.S.

03/20/11

Hoover got Hoovered

Cliff Berryman, Washington Evening Star (1932)

The cartoon above was published during the presidential election in 1932 between the popular Franklin D. Roosevelt who gained recognition as the governor of New York, and his unpopular rival Herbert Hoover. This cartoon shows Roosevelt asking Hoover to leave his seat with an implication that Roosevelt will finish the rest of his job. Consequently Roosevelt won the election and began his attempt to solve the nation’s problem. Unlike Hoover, who’s action plan was to wait for the country to fix itself, Roosevelt on the other hand, drastically made changes with all his programs known as the New Deal. Some of these new programs include Works Projects Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Administration (PWA), the National Youth Administration (NYA), Farm Security Administration (FSA), National Recovery Administration (NRA) and Public Works Administration (PWA). The cartoon below illustrates Roosevelt’s active action and rapid progress during his first term as presidency.

Cliff Berryman, Washington Evening Star

03/20/11

Ventroliquist Supreme Court

The caption of this political cartoon during the New Deal Era is called “Do We Want A Ventriloquist Act In The Supreme Court?” This caption was made to mock President Roosevelt’s court packing strategy. Since we know that the president appoint the Supreme Court justice, he can appoint a justice that is in favor of his many New Deal Acts. The cartoon also showed the packed court justice are like dummies who are under FDR’s control. They can’t speak for themselves but speak for FDR when they all say ” Yes, Yes, Yes, we all vote yes!” in front of uncle Sam. It shows how FDR used America government system well to support his New Deal plan. He wanted to make sure that all his acts can be carried out to help the poor effectively.

03/20/11

NRA: Negroes Ruined Again

L. Rogers, Chicago Defender, 1934

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal created many controversies where some were optimistic about the new programs and others were left in doubt. One particular cartoon artist L. Rogers expressed his stance of the latter by publishing a series of political cartoon that direct towards anti-New Deal sentiments. As a prominent writer for a black Chicago newspaper he published the cartoon above, in 1934, conveying his discern of the first New Deal establishment, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was created to abolish corrupt business practices and to induce rights for workers by setting standards of minimum wage and maximum hours.

The cartoon above displays a joyful family where the father is telling his wife news about his company becoming a member of the NRA, and his presumptions about better wages and better hours. On the second half of the cartoon it shows that the father later learns that the company has cut his job and his fellow workers by exclusively hiring whites only. The factory discriminated blacks because they did not want to promote more black rights. The cartoon shows that white racists were using the New Deal as a way of furthering discrimination against the blacks. Lynching and wage discrimination were still very much prevalent in the 1930s, and eventually the NRA was even referred to as “Negroes Ruined Again.” L. Rogers created this cartoon to illustrate Roosevelt’s fail recognition of the blacks and his sentiments that the New Deal was only created to aid the whites.

03/20/11

The New Deal to the Rescue!

Library of Congress (1934)

In this political cartoon, there are three important figures: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress, and Uncle Sam. Each of them assumes a role in the cartoon, with FDR as the doctor, Congress as the caretaker, and Uncle Sam as the patient. Uncle Sam represents a sickly America. FDR is the doctor, who has the responsibility to cure or relieve the symptoms of the depression that struck America and its people.  FDR gives Uncle Sam many different kinds of “medicine,” including programs like the National Industry Recovery Act, the Civil Works Administration, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. In addition, FDR is carrying a bag of New Deal “remedies,” which can provide even more relief for America. FDR reassures Congress that the “remedies” do not necessarily guarantee success and changes can be made.

At the time, FDR approved and passed many legislations, in hopes to fix America. Many people were doubting whether these programs would actually help or even make things worst. This political cartoon supports FDR and his policies and puts the New Deal in a positive light. This is because Uncle Sam is shown to be in good spirits, after trying the New Deal medicines. Additionally, the cartoon depicts FDR as a man, who is understanding because he knows that the programs might not work and has a bag of solutions prepared.