ACT-l Signature-xxiii

Transcription

In everyday speech the term "double-talk" is also used in two other senses: it is used to refer to sentences in
which sounds have been injected which seem as if they might be meaningful but really are not; it is used to
refer to protectively ambiguous answers to questions for which the asker desired a clear-cut reply [Erving
Goffman, The Presentation of Self (New York: Anchor Press, 1959), p. 194fn].
I - xxiii - Loose Leafs from the Hall of Heretics.
Lucifer obtains permission to send Prince O’Darkness to the end of the line. Sasha Van Etnabaron, confronting Rex
Ampersand and Sergei Kalamparumple, is deflected by the latter’s ebullience. The neuro-Niceans fall into Snorggi’s
Noses, albeit consoled by shadow puppet. Only their proto-orca escapes this fate. Sergei silences Sasha’s protests with a
tale of mutual culpability. Ostrand’s own recollections of remorse are stifled by his cousin, Sangreal Bustamente.
Inspector Lemert, swooping in to bust Sergei’s cabal, is quickly compelled to release them and to investigate the recent
death of Ylferim. Leaning on Marta Meringue and Sasha, he establishes the presence of a hitherto unnamed guest.
~ page 294 ~
omega
Act I, Signature xxiii - (1)
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come,
the Almighty (Revelations 1:8 [KJV]).
Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write promptly what you see (your vision) in a book
and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia – to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira
and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea (Revelations 1:11 [Amplified]).
And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who
thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost (Revelations 21:6 [NAS]).”
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelations 22:13 [NIV]).”
Orville J. Nave, Nave’s Topical Bible: A Digest of the Holy Scriptures, S. Maxwell Coder, rev., (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1974); The Comparative Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: The Zondervon Corporation, 1984).
~ page 295 ~
A Philips N1500 video cassette recorder, with wooden cabinet.*
VCR
In full videocassette recorder. Electromechanical device that records, stores on a videotape cassette, and plays back
on a TV set recorded images and sound. The first commercial VCRs were marketed by Sony Corp. in 1969. VCRs
are used to record broadcast TV programs for later viewing and to play commercially recorded cassettes. They have
from two to seven tape heads that read and inscribe video and audio tracks on magnetic tape. Home movies can be
made with a camcorder system, a VCR connected to a simple video camera.
*[Image & caption credit and following text courtesy of Wikipedia]:
History: Early machines and formats. The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape
recording in general. Ampex introduced the Ampex VRX-1000, the first commercially successful videotape
recorder, in 1956. It used the 2" Quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape ["Ampex VRX-1000 - The First
Commercial Videotape Recorder in 1956," Cedmagic.com, April 14, 1956,
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ampex-commercial-vtr-1956.html]. Due to its US$50,000 price, the Ampex VRX1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations [Richard N. Diehl,
"Labguy's World: The Birth Of Video Recording," http://www.labguysworld.com/VTR_BirthOf.htm].
In 1963, Philips introduced their EL3400 1" helical scan recorder (aimed at the business and domestic user) and
Sony marketed the 2" PV-100, their first reel-to-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational
use ["Sony Global - Sony History," http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/1-11/h1.html].
First home video recorders. The Telcan, produced by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company in 1963, was the
first home video recorder. It could be bought as a unit or in kit form for £60. However, there were several
drawbacks: it was expensive, not easy to put together and it could only record 20 minutes output at a time in blackand-white ["The quest for home video: Telcan home video recorder," Terramedia, October 22, 2001,
http://www.terramedia.co.uk/media/video/telcan.htm; "Total Rewind," http://www.totalrewind.org/revolution
/R_telwes.htm; "BBC History: June 24,
1963,"http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/aNhfBgCgSByEMns5XPxXqA] .
The Sony model CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, was their first VTR intended for home use and was based on half
inch tape ["Sony CV Series Video," http://www.smecc.org /sony_cv_series_video.htm]. Ampex and RCA followed
in 1965 with their own reel-to-reel monochrome VTRs priced under US $1,000 for the home consumer market. The
EIAJ format was a standard half-inch format used by various manufacturers. EIAJ-1 was an open reel format. EIAJ-2
used a cartridge that contained a supply reel, but not the take-up reel. As the take-up reel was part of the recorder, the
tape had to be fully rewound before removing the cartridge, a slow procedure.
The development of the videocassette followed the replacement by cassette of other open reel systems in consumer
items: the Stereo-Pak 4-track audio cartridge in 1962, the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in
1963, the 8-track cartridge in 1965, and the Super 8 home movie cartridge in 1966.
Sony U-matic. Sony demonstrated a videocassette prototype in October 1969, then set it aside to work out an
industry standard by March 1970 with seven fellow manufacturers. The result, the Sony U-matic system, introduced
in Tokyo in September 1971, was the world's first commercial videocassette format. Its cartridges, resembling larger
versions of the later VHS cassettes, used 3/4-inch (1.9 cm) tape and had a maximum playing time of 60 minutes,
later extended to 90 minutes. Sony also introduced two machines (the VP-1100 videocassette player and the VO1700 videocassette recorder) to use the new tapes. U-matic, with its ease of use, quickly made other consumer
videotape systems obsolete in Japan and North America, where U-matic VCRs were widely used by television
newsrooms, schools and businesses. But the cost — US$1,395 for a combination TV/VCR, or $7,069 in 2007
dollars — kept it out of most homes [Sony sold 15,000 U-matic machines in the U.S. in its first year ("Television on
a Disk," Time Magazine, September 18, 1972)].
Philips "VCR" format. An N1500 video recorder, with wooden cabinet. In 1970 Philips developed a home
videocassette format. Confusingly, Philips named this format "VCR" (although it is also referred to as "N1500", after
the first recorder's model number). The format was also supported by Grundig and Loewe. It used square cassettes
and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, mounted on co-axial reels, giving a recording time of one hour. The first model,
available in the United Kingdom in 1972, was equipped with a crude timer that used rotary dials. At nearly £600
($2087), it was expensive and the format was relatively unsuccessful in the home market. This was followed by
digital timer version in 1975, the N1502. In 1977 a new (and incompatible) long-play version ("VCR-LP") or
N1700, which could use the same tapes, sold quite well to schools and colleges.
Avco Cartrivision. The Avco Cartrivision system, a combination television set and VCR from Cartridge Television
Inc. that sold for US $1,350, was the first videocassette recorder to have pre-recorded tapes of popular movies
available for rent. Like Philips' VCR format, the square Cartrivision cassette had the two reels of half-inch tape
mounted on top of each other, but it could record up to 114 minutes. It did so using a crude form of video
compression that recorded only every third video field and played it back three times. Cassettes of major movies
such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner were ordered via catalog at a retailer,
delivered by parcel mail, and then returned to the retailer after viewing. Other cassettes on sports, travel, art, and
how-to topics were available for purchase. An optional monochrome camera could be bought to make home videos.
Cartrivision was first sold in June 1972, mainly through Sears, Macy's, and Montgomery Ward department stores in
the United States. It was abandoned thirteen months later after poor sales.
Monroe Doctrine
U.S. foreign-policy statement first enunciated by Pres. James Monroe on Dec. 2, 1823, declaring the Western
Hemisphere off-limits to European colonization. Concerned that the European powers would attempt to restore
Spain's former colonies, he declared, inter alia, that any attempt by a European power to control any nation in the
Western Hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act against the U.S. It was reiterated in 1845 and 1848 by Pres.
James K. Polk to discourage Spain and Britain from establishing footholds in Oregon, California, or on Mexico's
Yucatán Peninsula. In 1865 the U.S. massed troops on the Rio Grande to back up demands that France withdraw
from Mexico. In 1904 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt added the Roosevelt Corollary, stating that in the event of flagrant
wrongdoing by a Latin American state, the U.S. had the right to intervene in its internal affairs. As the U.S. became a
world power, the Monroe Doctrine came to define the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence. See also
Good Neighbor Policy.
[Following text courtesy of Wikipedia]:
The Monroe Doctrine is a United States policy that was introduced on December 2, 1823, which stated that further
efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the
United States of America as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention [Rodrigue Tremblay, The New American
Empire (2004), pp. 133-134]. The Monroe Doctrine asserted that the Western Hemisphere was not to be further
colonized by European countries, and that the United States would not interfere with existing European colonies nor
in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued at the time when many Latin American
countries were on the verge of becoming independent from the Spanish Empire, and the United States, reflecting
concerns echoed by Great Britain, hoped to avoid having any European power take Spain's colonies [Herring,
George C., From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (2008) pp. 153-155].
The doctrine's authors, chiefly future-President and then secretary-of-state John Quincy Adams, saw it as a
proclamation by the United States of moral opposition to colonialism, but it has subsequently been re-interpreted and
applied in a variety of instances. President Theodore Roosevelt asserted the right of the United States to intervene to
stabilize the economic affairs of small nations in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay their
international debts. This interpretation, intended to forestall intervention by European powers that had lent money to
those countries, has been termed the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine [Herring (2008), p. 371].
In 1863, French forces under Napoleon III invaded and conquered Mexico, giving the country to Austrian-born
Emperor Maximilian. Americans proclaimed this as a violation of "The Doctrine," but were unable to intervene
because of the American Civil War. This marked the first time the Monroe Doctrine was widely referred to as a
"Doctrine." After the civil war came to an end, the U.S. brought troops down to the Rio Grande in hopes of
pressuring the French government to end its occupation. Mexican nationalists eventually captured the Emperor and
executed him, reasserting Mexico's independence.
In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant and his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish endeavored to replace European
influence in Latin America with that of the United States. Part of their efforts involved expanding the Monroe
Doctrine by stating "hereafter no territory on this continent [referring to Central and South America] shall be
regarded as subject to transfer to a European power [Herring (2008), p. 259]."
President Grover Cleveland through his Secretary of State, Richard Olney cited the Doctrine in 1895, threatening
strong action against the United Kingdom if the British failed to arbitrate their dispute with Venezuela. In a July 20,
1895 note to Britain, Olney stated, "the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law
upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition [Herring (2008), p. 307]." British Prime Minister Lord
Salisbury took strong exception to the American language. The United States objected to a British proposal for a
joint meeting to clarify the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. Historian George Herring wrote that by failing to pursue
the issue further the British "tacitly conceded the U. S. definition of the Monroe Doctrine and its hegemony in the
hemisphere [Herring (2008), pp. 307-308]."
The Drago Doctrine was announced on December 29, 1902 by the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Luis María Drago.
Drago set forth the policy that no European power could use force against an American nation to collect debt.
President Theodore Roosevelt rejected this as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, declaring "we do not guarantee
any state against punishment if it misconducts itself [Herring (2008), p. 370]."
In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy cited the Monroe Doctrine as a basis for America's
"eyeball-to-eyeball" confrontation with the Soviet Union that had embarked on a provocative campaign to install
ballistic missiles on Cuban soil ["The Durable Doctrine," Time Magazine, September 21, 1962].
~ page 296 ~
Utilitarianism
Ethical principle according to which an action is right if it tends to maximize happiness, not only that of the agent but
also of everyone affected. Thus, utilitarians focus on the consequences of an act rather than on its intrinsic nature or
the motives of the agent (see consequentialism). Classical utilitarianism is hedonist, but values other than, or in
addition to, pleasure (ideal utilitarianism) can be employed, or—more neutrally, and in a version popular in
economics—anything can be regarded as valuable that appears as an object of rational or informed desire
(preference utilitarianism). The test of utility maximization can also be applied directly to single acts (act
utilitarianism), or to acts only indirectly through some other suitable object of moral assessment, such as rules of
conduct (rule utilitarianism). Jeremy Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) and
John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism (1863) are major statements of utilitarianism.
History. The origins of utilitarianism are often traced as far back as the Greek philosopher Epicurus, but, as a
specific school of thought, it is generally credited to Jeremy Bentham [Rosen, Frederick, Classical Utilitarianism
from Hume to Mill (Routledge, 2003), p. 28: "It was Hume and Bentham who then reasserted most strongly the
Epicurean doctrine concerning utility as the basis of justice"]. Bentham found pain and pleasure to be the only
intrinsic values in the world: "nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and
pleasure [Jeremy Bentham, Ch. I, "On Principle of Utility," in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation (1789)]." From this, he derived the rule of utility: the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to
the greatest number of people.
Bentham's foremost proponent was James Mill, a significant philosopher in his day and the father of John Stuart
Mill. The younger Mill was educated according to Bentham's principles, including transcribing and summarizing
much of his father's work while still in his teens ["Editor's Introduction," to Mill, John Stuart, On Liberty,
Himmelfarb, ed. (Penguin Classics, 1974), p. 11].
In his famous work, Utilitarianism, the younger Mill argues that cultural, intellectual and spiritual pleasures are of
greater value than mere physical pleasure because the former would be valued higher than the latter by competent
judges. A competent judge, according to Mill, is anyone who has experienced both the lower pleasures and the
higher. His famous quote found in Utilitarianism (book) was, "it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied [John Stuart Mill, Ch. II, "What Utilitarianism Is," in
Utilitarianism]" demonstrating Mill's distinction between higher and lower pleasures. He justified this distinction by
the thought that "few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of
the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures [ibid]." In distinguishing between types of pleasure, Mill distanced
himself from Bentham, who famously said [Bentham, Jeremy, The Rationale of Reward (London: Robert Heward,
1830), p. 206] that the child's game of push-pin is as good as poetry (assuming that the two bring equal quantities of
pleasure).
Like Bentham's formulation, Mill's utilitarianism deals with pleasure and happiness. However John Stuart Mill made
a clear distinction between happiness and pleasure; and made it evident that "Weak Rule Utilitarianism" was focused
on maximising happiness rather than pleasure; for the naturalistic fallacy made it clear that what one desires and
what is good are not always the same thing. For example a pleasure/desire may be to bully a lonely child, which may
produce pleasure, however happiness comes from following virtues rather than desires.
The classic utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill influenced many other philosophers as well as the development of the
broader concept of consequentialism. As a result, there now exist many different accounts of the good, and,
therefore, many different types of consequentialism besides utilitarianism. Some philosophers [see Edward
Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, Vol. I, II] reject the sole importance of well-being,
arguing that there are intrinsic values other than happiness or pleasure, such as knowledge and autonomy.
Other past advocates of utilitarianism include the Chinese philosopher Mozi, William Godwin, and Henry Sidgwick.
Modern-day advocates include R. M. Hare, Peter Singer and Torbjörn Tännsjö.
Up to and including John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism was mainly the province of practical reformers. The publication
of Henry Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics (1874) can be viewed as the date utilitarianism began to be more
commonly associated with academic philosophy.
Utilitarianism has been used as an argument for many different political views. In his essay On Liberty, as well as in
other works, John Stuart Mill argues that utilitarianism requires that political arrangements satisfy the "liberty
principle" (or harm principle), according to which "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised
over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others [Himmelfarb (1974), p.
68]." Prevention of self-harm by other persons was considered expressly forbidden. Instead, Mill states that only
persuasion can be rightfully used to prevent self-harm [citation needed].
Ludwig von Mises advocated libertarianism using utilitarian arguments. Likewise, some Marxist philosophers have
used utilitarianism as arguments for communism and socialism [citation needed].
polyphony
Main Entry: po£lyph£o£ny
Pronunciation: p„-‚li-f„-n‡
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek polyph‹nia variety of tones, from polyph‹nos having many tones or voices, from poly- + ph‹n‡
voice— more at ban
Date: circa 1864 : a style of musical composition in which two or more independent melodies are juxtaposed in
harmony.
Xenon in shaped Geissler tubes.*
xenon
Chemical element, chemical symbol Xe, atomic number 54. One of the noble gases, it is colourless, odourless,
tasteless, and nearly inert, combining only with fluorine and oxygen and in complexes (see bonding). Xenon occurs
in slight traces in Earth's atmosphere and in rocks. Obtained by fractional distillation of liquefied air, it is used in
luminescent tubes (see electric discharge lamp), flash lamps, lasers, and tracer studies and as an anesthetic.
Xenon was discovered in England by William Ramsay and Morris Travers on July 12, 1898, shortly after their
discovery of the elements krypton and neon. They found it in the residue left over from evaporating components of
liquid air [W. Ramsay and M. W. Travers, "On the extraction from air of the companions of argon, and neon,"
Report of the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1898): 828; Gagnon, Steve, "It's
Elemental – Xenon," Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, retr. on 07-06-16)]. Ramsay suggested the
name xenon for this gas from the Greek word ξένον [xenon], neuter singular form of ξένος [xenos], meaning 'foreign
(er)', 'strange(r)', or 'guest [Anonymous, The New International Encyclopædia, Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston
Peck, Frank Moore Colby, ed. (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904), p. 906].' In 1902, Ramsay estimated the
proportion of xenon in the Earth's atmosphere as one part in 20 million [Ramsay, William, "An Attempt to Estimate
the Relative Amounts of Krypton and of Xenon in Atmospheric Air," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 71
(1902): pp. 421–426].
During the 1930s, engineer Harold Edgerton began exploring strobe light technology for high speed photography.
This led him to the invention of the xenon flash lamp, in which light is generated by sending a brief electrical current
through a tube filled with xenon gas. In 1934, Edgerton was able to generate flashes as brief as one microsecond with
this method [Burke, James, Twin Tracks: The Unexpected Origins of the Modern World (Oxford University Press,
2003), p. 33; Anonymous, "History," Millisecond Cinematography (retr. on 2007-11-07); Paschotta, Rüdiger,
"Lamp-pumped lasers," Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology (RP Photonics, Nov. 1, 2007].
In 1939 Albert R. Behnke Jr. began exploring the causes of "drunkenness" in deep-sea divers. He tested the effects
of varying the breathing mixtures on his subjects, and discovered that this caused the divers to perceive a change in
depth. From his results, he deduced that xenon gas could serve as an anesthetic. Although Lazharev, in Russia,
apparently studied xenon anesthesia in 1941, the first published report confirming xenon anesthesia was in 1946 by
J. H. Lawrence, who experimented on mice. Xenon was first used as a surgical anesthetic in 1951 by Stuart C.
Cullen, who successfully operated on two patients [Marx, Thomas, Schmidt, Michael, Schirmer, Uwe, Reinelt,
Helmut, "Xenon anesthesia," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 93 (2000), pp. 513–517].
In 1960 physicist John H. Reynolds discovered that certain meteorites contained an isotopic anomaly in the form of
an overabundance of xenon-129. He inferred that this was a decay product of radioactive iodine-129. This isotope is
produced slowly by cosmic ray spallation and nuclear fission, but is produced in quantity only in supernova
explosions. As the half-life of 129I is comparatively short on a cosmological time scale, only 16 million years, this
demonstrated that only a short time had passed between the supernova and the time the meteorites had solidified and
trapped the 129I. These two events (supernova and solidification of gas cloud) were inferred to have happened
during the early history of the Solar System, as the 129I isotope was likely generated before the Solar System was
formed, but not long before, and seeded the solar gas cloud with isotopes from a second source. This supernova
source may also have caused collapse of the solar gas cloud [Clayton, Donald D, Principles of Stellar Evolution and
Nucleosynthesis (2nd Ed., University of Chicago Press, 1983), p. 75; Bolt, B. A., Packard, R. E., Price, P. B., "John
H. Reynolds,” Physics (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press 2000)].
non sequitur
Main Entry: non se£qui£tur
Pronunciation: ‚nän-‚se-kw„-t„r also -ƒt˜r
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, it does not follow
Date: 1540 1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically : a fallacy resulting from a simple
conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent 2 : a
statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from anything previously said.
New Hampshire
State (pop., 2000: 1,235,786), northeastern U.S. One of the New England states, it is bordered by Canada and the
U.S. states of Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont; the Atlantic Ocean lies to the southeast. New Hampshire covers
9,283 sq mi (24,043 sq km); its capital is Concord. The Connecticut River forms its western boundary with Vermont.
The White Mountains in its central part contain Mount Washington. The region was inhabited by Algonquin Indians
(see Algonquian languages) when the first English people settled near Portsmouth in 1623. The area came under the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1641 and became a separate crown colony in 1679. It was the first colony to declare
its independence from Britain in 1776. Following the nation's establishment, the state grew rapidly. Agriculture
flourished and manufacturing developed along the rivers. Portsmouth became a major shipbuilding centre. The
economy is now based primarily on manufacturing and tourism, although dairy farming and granite quarrying are
also important. Because it holds the nation's earliest presidential primary, it has furnished the first testing ground for
many candidacies. Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire are two of the state's prominent educational
institutions.
~ page 297 ~
U.S. Army PSYOP Force structure (extracted from a DOD report on the effectiveness of PSYOP during OEF and
OIF).*
psychological warfare
Use of propaganda against an enemy, supported by whatever military, economic, or political measures are required,
and usually intended to demoralize an enemy or to win it over to a different point of view. It has been carried on
since ancient times. The conquests of Genghis Khan were aided by expertly planted rumours about large numbers of
ferocious Mongol horsemen in his army. Specialized units were a major part of the German and Allied forces in
World War II and the U.S. armed forces in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Strategic psychological warfare is mass
communications directed to a very large audience or over a considerable expanse of territory; tactical psychological
warfare implies a direct connection with combat operations (e.g., the surrender demand). Consolidation
psychological warfare consists of messages distributed to the rear of one's own advancing forces for the sake of
protecting the line of communications, establishing military government, and carrying out administrative tasks within
such a government.
Psychological operations are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences
to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments,
organizations, groups, and individuals [JCS Joint Publication 1-02, "DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated
Terms," 12 April 2001 (as amended through 12 July 2007)].
The purpose of United States psychological operations (PSYOP) is to induce or reinforce behavior favorable to U.S.
objectives. They are an important part of the range of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic activities
available to the U.S. They can be utilized during both peacetime and conflict. There are 3 main types: strategic,
operational, and tactical. Strategic PSYOP include informational activities conducted by the U.S. government
agencies outside of the military arena, though many utilize Department of Defense (DOD) assets. Operational
PSYOP are conducted across the range of military operations, including during peacetime, in a defined operational
area to promote the effectiveness of the joint force commander's (JFC) campaigns and strategies. Tactical PSYOP
are conducted in the area assigned to a tactical commander across the range of military operations to support the
tactical mission against opposing forces.
PSYOP can encourage popular discontent with the opposition's leadership and by combining persuasion with a
credible threat, degrade an adversary's ability to conduct or sustain military operations. They can also disrupt,
confuse, and protract the adversary's decision-making process, undermining command and control [Air Force
Doctrine Document 2-5.3 "Psychological Operations," 27 August 1999]. When properly employed, PSYOP have the
potential to save the lives of friendly or enemy forces by reducing the adversary's will to fight. By lowering the
adversary's morale and then its efficiency, PSYOP can also discourage aggressive actions by creating dissafection
within their ranks, ultimately leading to surrender.
PSYOP is a component of information operations [JCS Joint Publication 1-02]:
The integrated employment of the core capabilities of electronic warfare, computer network operations,
psychological operations, military deception, and operations security, in concert with specified supporting and
related capabilities, to influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while
protecting our own. Also called IO.
Process. In order to create a successful PSYOP the following must be established: 1) clearly define the mission so
that it alignes with national objectives; 2) need a PSYOP estimate of the situation; 3) prepare the plan; 4) media
selection; 5) propaganda development; 6) pretesting - determines the probable impact of the PSYOP on the target
audience; 7) production and dissemination of PSYOP material; 8) implementation; 9) post-testing - evaluates
audience responses; 10) feedback.
Before these steps can occur, intelligence analysts must profile potential targets in order to determine which ones it
would be most beneficial to target. In order to figure this out, analysts must determine the vulnerabilities of these
groups and what they would be susceptible to. The analysts also determine the attitudes of the targets toward the
current situation, their complaints, ethnic origin, frustrations, languages, problems, tensions, attitudes, motivations,
and perceptions, and so on. Once the appropriate target(s) have been determined, the PSYOP can be created.
Psychological operations should be planned carefully, in that even a tactical message, with modern news media, can
spread worldwide and be treated as the policy of the United States. The US Army is responsible for military
psychological warfare doctrine [US Army Field Manual 3-05.30/USMC Revised Publication 3-40.6, "Psychological
Operations," April 2005, http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-05-30.pdf]. See the World War I section [in
Wikipedia cite] for an example of how a tactical leaflet, not properly coordinated, can cause national-level harm.
The message to be delivered can be adapted to tactical situations, but promises made must be consistent with
national policy.
U.S. PSYOP forces are forbidden to target (i.e., attempt to change their opinions) U.S. citizens at any time, in any
location globally, or under any circumstances [10 USC 167, "Unified Combatant Command for Special Operations
Forces"]. However, commanders may use PSYOP forces to provide public information to U.S. audiences during
times of disaster or crisis. The use of PSYOP forces to deliver necessary public information to a U.S. audience was
established in relief activities after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Tactical Psychological Operations teams (TPTs) were
employed to disseminate information by loudspeaker on locations of relief shelters and facilities. Information support
to a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) by PSYOP forces to provide evacuation information to U.S. and
third-country nationals would also adhere to the order [FM 3-05.30/USMCRP 3-40.6].
As an example of the use of PSYOP in a humanitarian relief operation Major General Anthony Zinni, Director of
Operations for Unified Task Force Somalia, said [ibid]:
Psychological operations were a key Battlefield Operating System used extensively to support Unified Task Force (UNITAF)
Somalia operations. In order to maximize the PSYOP impact, we established a Joint PSYOP Task Force under the supervision of
the Director of Operations, integrated PSYOP into all plans and operations, and limited the PSYOP focus to the operational and
tactical levels. Psychological operations do not accomplish missions alone. They work best when they are combined with and
integrated in an overall theater campaign plan. In Operation RESTORE HOPE, we were successful in doing that.
See also "Paper Prepared by the Operations Coordinating Board: Principles to Assure Coordination of Gray
Activities," in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955: The Intelligence Community (United States
Department of State, May 14, 1954, FRUS document 181), http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/96785.pdf
habit
In psychology, any regularly repeated behaviour that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate.
Some habits (e.g., tying a shoelace) may conserve higher mental processes for more demanding tasks, but others
promote behavioral inflexibility or are unhealthy. Five methods are commonly used to break unwanted habits:
replacing the old response with a new one, repeating the behaviour until it becomes unpleasant, separating the
individual from the stimulus that prompts the response, habituation, and punishment.
“Organizational as well as individual effectiveness requires development and renewal of all four dimensions
[physical, socio-emotional, spiritual, mental] in a wise and balanced way. Any dimension that is neglected will create
negative force field resistance that pushes against effectiveness and growth [S. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People (New York: Fireside, 1990), p. 303].
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a self-help book written by Stephen R.
Covey. It has sold over 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication, which was marked by the release of
a 15th anniversary edition in 2004. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning
oneself to what he calls "true north" principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless [Bill
Gordon, "A Closer Look At Stephen Covey And His 7 Habits," Apologetics Index,
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c13.html].
The 7 Habits. Each of the chapters is dedicated to one of the habits, which are represented by the following
imperatives:
The first three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (self mastery): 1) Be Proactive, 2) Begin
with the End in Mind, 3) Put First Things First; the next three are to do with Interdependence: 4) Think Win/Win, 5)
Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood, 6) Synergize; the Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation: 7)
Sharpening the Saw.
Abundance mentality. Covey coined the term abundance mentality or abundance mindset, a business concept in
which a person believes there are enough resources and success to share with others, when looking at optimistic
people. It is commonly contrasted with the scarcity mindset, which is founded on the idea that, given a finite amount
of resources, a person must hoard their belongings and protect them from others. Individuals with an abundance
mentality are supposed to be able to celebrate the success of others rather than be threatened by it [English, L., "The
7 Habits of Highly Effective Information Professionals: Part 7," DM Review (September/October 2004): 60–61,
http://www.sirim.my/techinfo/P3/Management/Sept-Oct04/sept-oct04_article19.pd f].
A number of books appearing in business press since then have discussed the idea [see for instance Carolyn
Simpson, High Performance through Negotiation]. The abundance mentality is believed to arrive from having a high
self worth and security, and leads to the sharing of profits, recognition and responsibility [Covey, S., The Power of
Character (Unlimited Publishing, 2004), p. 103]. Organizations may also apply an abundance mentality while doing
business [Krayer, Karl J., Lee, William Thomas, Organizing Change: An Inclusive, Systemic Approach to Maintain
Productivity and Achieve Results (San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer, 2003), p. 238].
The Upward Spiral. Covey explains the "Upward Spiral" model in the sharpening the saw section. Through our
conscience, along with meaningful and consistent progress, the spiral will result in growth, change, and constant
improvement. The Upward Spiral model consists of three parts: learn, commit, do. According to Covey, one must be
increasingly educating the conscience in order to grow and develop on the upward spiral. The idea of renewal by
education will propel one along the path of personal freedom, security, wisdom, and power [Covey, S. R.,
Organizing Change: Upward Spiral (Free Press, 1989].
Theodore Roosevelt commanding two large bears, "Interstate Commerce Commission" and "Federal Courts," upon
Wall Street, in Puck Magazine, May 8, 1907 (available at Library of Congress), artistic concept by Udo J. Keppler,
1872-1956, (based on II Kings 2:23-24).*
Interstate Commerce Commission
(1887–1995) First regulatory agency established in the U.S. and a prototype for independent government regulatory
bodies. An agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, it was responsible for the economic regulation of
interstate surface transportation, including railroads, trucking companies, and buslines. It certified carriers, regulated
rates, oversaw mergers, and approved railroad construction. The ICC was dissolved in 1995.
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate
Commerce Act of 1887, which was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. The agency was abolished in
1995, and the agency's remaining functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board.
The Commission's five members were appointed by the President with the consent of the United States Senate. This
was the first independent agency (or so-called Fourth Branch). The ICC's original purpose was to regulate railroads
(and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common
carriers.
Creation. The creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission was the result of widespread and longstanding antirailroad agitation. Western farmers, specifically those of the Grange Movement, were the dominant force behind the
unrest, but Westerners generally — especially those in rural areas — believed that the railroads possessed economic
power that they systematically abused. A central issue was rate discrimination between similarly situated customers
and communities. Other potent issues included alleged attempts by railroads to obtain influence over city and state
governments and the widespread practice of granting free transportation in the form of yearly passes to opinion
leaders (elected officials, newspaper editors, ministers, and so on) so as to dampen any opposition to railroad
practices. Some behavior was presumably less common; the reporter Charles Edward Russell claimed that the
railroad that served his hometown had refused to ship newsprint to a newspaper editor because the editor had
attacked the railroad in print.
Various sections of the Interstate Commerce Act banned "personal discrimination" and gave the Commission the
power to determine maximum "reasonable" rates. Equally significant, the Elkins Act required that rates be published.
Eventually, when this piece of (economic) anti-discrimination legislation was constitutionally challenged, the United
States Supreme Court ruled it to be constitutional [Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113]. And significantly (for the future of
anti-discrimination legal challenges), the Court founded its ruling upon the existence of the then-new 14th
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, and its equal protection clause.
In the Supreme Court's view, the U. S. Congress through legislation could outlaw an act of (economic)
discrimination against an individual or corporation if the act of discrimination constituted for the affected person(s) a
failure by the discriminator to afford the affected person(s) the equal application (protection) of the rules or laws.
The Commission had a troubled start because the law that created it failed to give it adequate enforcement powers.
Its powers were later expanded and subsequent legislation permitted the ICC to set minimum as well as maximum
rates. Later legislation removed railroad safety from the states. A long-standing controversy was how to interpret
language in the Act that banned charging more for a shorter "haul" than a longer one. Enforced in a literal manner,
this clause could have driven many railroads out of business.
"The Commission is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government
supervision of the railroads, while at the same time that supervision is almost entirely nominal." - William H. H.
Miller, US Attorney General, circa 1889 [Thomas Frank, "Politics will undermine regulation plan," Marketplace:
American Public Media, June 18, 2009,
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/18/pm_frank_commentary /].
Between 1910 and 1934, the ICC had the authority to regulate interstate telephone services (the very name of the
agency suggests that lawmakers may have planned for it to become the "single roof" over many disparate regulatory
efforts). In 1934, this authority was transferred to the new Federal Communications Commission.
Paraguay
Officially Republic of Paraguay
Country, south-central South America.
Area: 157,048 sq mi (406,752 sq km).
Population (2002 est.): 5,744,000. Capital: Asunción.
Most of the people are mestizos (mixed Spanish and Guaraní Indian); there are much smaller groups of Indians and
other groups of African, European, and Asian ancestry. Languages: Spanish and Guaraní (both official). Religion:
Roman Catholicism (great majority). Currency: guaraní.
Paraguay is a landlocked country of plains and swampland. The Paraguay River, flowing from north to south, divides
the country into two geographic regions: the eastern region, which is an extension of the Brazilian Plateau; and the
western region, which forms the northern part of the Gran Chaco plains. Paraguay has a developing market economy
that is based largely on agriculture, trade, and light industries. It is a republic with two legislative houses; its head of
state and government is the president. Semi-nomadic tribes speaking Guaraní were in the area long before it was
settled by Spain in the 16th–17th century. Paraguay was part of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata until it became
independent in 1811. It suffered from dictatorial governments in the 19th century and was devasted by the War of the
Triple Alliance (1864, 1865–70), which it fought against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. The Chaco War (1932–
35), with Bolivia over territorial rights in Gran Chaco, was settled primarily in Paraguay's favour by the peace treaty
of 1938. Military governments, including that of Alfredo Stroessner, predominated from the mid-20th century until
acivilian president, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, was elected in 1993. The country suffered from a financial crisis
beginning in the late 1990s.
~ page 298 ~
Antigua and Barbuda
Island state, Lesser Antilles.
It consists of three islands, Antigua, Barbuda, and Redonda. Area: 171 sq mi (443 sq km).
Population (2002 est.): 76,400. Capital: St. John's (on Antigua). The majority of the population are descendants of
African slaves brought in during colonial times. Language: English (official). Religion: Christianity. Currency:
Eastern Caribbean dollar.
The largest of the islands is Antigua (108 sq mi [280 sq km]), which lacks forests, mountains, and rivers and is
subject to droughts. The main anchorage is the deepwater harbour of St. John's. Barbuda, 25 mi (40 km) north of
Antigua, is a 62-sq-mi (161-sq-km) game reserve inhabited by a variety of wildlife, including wild deer; its only
settlement is Codrington, on its western coast. Redonda, an uninhabited rock (0.5 sq mi [1.3 sq km]), lies southwest
of Antigua. Tourism is the mainstay of the country's economy; offshore banking is growing. Christopher Columbus
visited Antigua in 1493 and named it after a church in Sevilla, Spain. It was colonized by English settlers in 1632,
who imported African slaves to grow tobacco and sugarcane. Barbuda was colonized by the English in 1678. In 1834
the islands' slaves were emancipated. Antigua (with Barbuda) was part of the British colony of the Leeward Islands
from 1871 until that colony was de-federated in 1956. The islands achieved full independence in 1981.
Aerial view of Columbia University (photo by Gryffindor, 2010).*
Columbia University
Private university in New York City, a traditional member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 as King's College, it
was renamed Columbia College when it reopened in 1784 after the American Revolution. It became Columbia
University in 1912. Its liberal arts college began admitting women in 1983. Neighbouring Barnard College, founded
in 1889 and part of the university since 1900, remains a women's liberal arts school; most courses are open to
students of both colleges. From the outset, Columbia differed from other private Eastern universities in its emphasis
on such subjects as nature study, commerce, history, and government. It has strong graduate programs in the arts and
sciences and several notable research institutes. Among its professional schools are those of architecture, business,
education (Teachers College, Columbia University), engineering, international and public affairs, journalism, law,
medicine (including affiliations with Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital),
nursing, public health, and social work.
Publications. Columbia University is home to a rich diversity of undergraduate, graduate, and professional
publications. The Columbia Daily Spectator is the nation's second-oldest student newspaper
[http://www.columbiaspectator.com]; and The Blue and White [http://www.theblueandwhite.org/], a monthly literary
magazine established in 1890, has recently begun to delve into campus life and local politics in print and on its daily
blog, dubbed the Bwog.
Political publications include The Current [http://www.columbiacurrent.org], a journal of politics, culture and Jewish
Affairs; the Columbia Political Review [http://www.cpreview.org], the multi-partisan political magazine of the
Columbia Political Union; and AdHoc [http://www.adhocmag.com], which denotes itself as the "progressive"
campus magazine and deals largely with local political issues and arts events.
Arts and literary publications include the Columbia Review [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/review], the nation's oldest
college literary magazine; Columbia, a nationally regarded literary journal; the Columbia Journal of Literary
Criticism [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/cjlc/]; and The Mobius Strip [http://www.mobiusmag.com], an online
arts and literary magazine.
Inside New York [http://www.insidenewyork.com/about] is an annual guidebook to New York City, written, edited,
and published by Columbia undergraduates. Through a distribution agreement with Columbia University Press, the
book is sold at major retailers and independent bookstores.
Columbia is home to numerous undergraduate academic publications. The Journal of Politics & Society
[http://www.helvidius.org], is a journal of undergraduate research in the social sciences, published and distributed
nationally by the Helvidius Group; Publius is an undergraduate journal of politics established in 2008 and published
biannually; the Columbia East Asia Review allows undergraduates throughout the world to publish original work on
China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam and is supported by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute; and The Birch
[http://www.thebirchonline.org], is an undergraduate journal of Eastern European and Eurasian culture that is the
first national student-run journal of its kind; and the Columbia Science Review is a science magazine that prints
general interest articles, faculty profiles, and student research papers.
The Fed [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/thefed] a triweekly satire and investigative newspaper; and the Jester of
Columbia [http://www.jesterofcolumbia.com], the newly (and frequently) revived campus humor magazine both
inject humor into local life.
Other publications include The Columbian, the second oldest collegiate yearbook in the nation; the Gadfly, a
biannual journal of popular philosophy produced by undergraduates; and Rhapsody in Blue, an undergraduate urban
studies magazine.
Professional journals published by academic departments at Columbia University include Current Musicology
[http://music.columbia.edu/%7Ecurmus/] and The Journal of Philosophy [http://www.journalofphilosophy.org/].
During the spring semester, graduate students in the Journalism School publish The Bronx Beat, a bi-weekly
newspaper covering the South Bronx. Teachers College publishes the Teachers College Record, a journal of
research, analysis, and commentary in the field of education, published continuously since 1900 [Michael Rennick,
"About the Journal," TCRecord, January 14, 2008, http://www.tcrecord.org/About.asp].
Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) [http://www.cjr.org/index.php]. Its mission is to encourage and stimulate
excellence in journalism in the service of a free society. It is both a watchdog and a friend of the press in all its
forms, from newspapers to magazines to radio, television, and the Web. Founded in 1961 under the auspices of
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, CJR examines day-to-day press performance as well as the
forces that affect that performance. The magazine is published six times a year, and offers a deliberative mix of
reporting, analysis, criticism, and commentary. CJR.org, its Web site, delivers real-time criticism and reporting,
giving CJR a vital presence in the ongoing conversation about the media. Both online and in print, Columbia
Journalism Review is in conversation with a community of people who share a commitment to high journalistic
standards in the U.S. and the world.
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a U.S. government agency created during World War II to
consolidate government information services. It operated from June 1942 until September 1945. It coordinated the
release of war news for domestic use, and, using posters and radio broadcasts, worked to promote patriotism, warned
about foreign spies and attempted to recruit women into war work. The office also established an overseas branch
which launched a large scale information and propaganda campaign abroad.
The OWI was established by Executive Order 9182 on June 13, 1942, to consolidate the functions of the Office of
Facts and Figures, OWI's direct predecessor; the Office of Government Reports, and the division of information of
the Office for Emergency Management. The Foreign Intelligence Service, Outpost, Publication, and Pictorial
Branches of the Office of the Coordinator of Information were also transferred to the OWI (the Executive order
creating OWI, however, stated that dissemination of information to the Latin American countries should be
continued by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs). Elmer Davis, who was a CBS newsman, was
named director of OWI.
Among its wide-ranging responsibilities, OWI sought to review and approve the design and content of government
posters. OWI officials felt that the most urgent problem on the home front was the careless leaking of sensitive
information that could be picked up by spies and saboteurs.
OWI directly produced radio series such as This is Our Enemy (spring 1942), which dealt with Germany, Japan, and
Italy; Uncle Sam, which dealt with domestic themes; and Hasten the Day (August 1943), which was about the Home
Front. In addition, OWI cleared commercial network scripts through its Domestic Radio Bureau, including the NBC
Blue Network's Chaplain Jim. In addition, radio producer Norman Corwin produced several series for OWI,
including An American in England, An American in Russia, and Passport for Adams, which starred actor Robert
Young.
In addition, the OWI produced a series of 267 newsreels in 16 mm film, The United Newsreel which were shown
overseas and to U.S. audiences. These newsreels incorporated U.S. military footage (from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia).
Frank Capra cuts Army film as a Signal Corps Reserve major during World War II (this photo taken circa 1943)*
http://www.gordon.army.mil/AC/fall01/APSWW2.htm
Capra, Frank
Born May 18, 1897, near Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Died Sept. 3, 1991, La Quinta, Calif., U.S.
U.S. film director. At age six he immigrated with his family to the U.S. After holding various jobs in the film
industry, he emerged as a major director with That Certain Thing (1928) and Platinum Blonde (1931). He won
Academy Awards for It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), stories that portray naive
idealists who triumph over more worldly types. He chose the same theme for his next film, Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (1939) but departed from his usual style in Lost Horizon (1937) and Meet John Doe (1941). Capra also
won a third Academy Award for You Can't Take It with You (1938). He made the documentary series Why We Fight
during World War II and the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Film career. Capra began as a prop man in silent films [Capra, Frank, Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An
Autobiography (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971), pp. 17, 20]. However, Capra's first exposure to films
occurred in 1915 while he was attending Manual Arts High School. At Manual Arts, Capra's teacher, Rob Wagner,
directed Our Wonderful Schools, a documentary on the Los Angeles Unified School District. Capra worked on the
film as an editor. The film was produced by Reliance Film Company and released by Mutual Film. The film won a
medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition fair in San Francisco. Later, Capra wrote and directed
silent film comedies starring Harry Langdon and the Our Gang kids. Capra went to work for Mack Sennett in 1924
and then moved to Columbia Pictures, where he became the top director at the small studio, and eventually one of
the most honored directors in Hollywood. During his years there he also formed a close association with screenwriter
Robert Riskin (husband of Fay Wray) and cameraman Joseph Walker.
For the 1934 film It Happened One Night, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were originally offered the roles, but
each felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it as one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the
final version bore little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered [Kotsabilas-Davis, James and
Loy, Myrna, Being and Becoming (New York: Primus, Donald I Fine Inc., 1987), p. 94]. After Loy, Miriam Hopkins
and Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part [Wiley, Mason and Damien, Bona, Inside Oscar: The Unofficial
History of the Academy Awards (New York: Ballantine Books, 1987), p. 54]. Constance Bennett wanted to, but only
if she could produce it herself. Then Bette Davis wanted the role [Weems, Erik, "It Happened One Night - Frank
Capra," http://eeweems.com/capra/_it_happened_one_night.html], but she was under contract with Warner Brothers
and Jack Warner refused to loan her to Columbia Studios [Chandler, Charlotte, The Girl Who Walked Home Alone:
Bette Davis, A Personal Biography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), p. 102]. Capra was unable to get any of
the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with
only two costumes [Boyes, Laura, "'It Happened One Night,'"
http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDItHappenedOneNight.htm]. Harry Cohn suggested Claudette
Colbert to play the lead role. Both Capra and Clark Gable enjoyed making the movie; Colbert did not. After the 1934
film It Happened One Night, Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia Pictures, intended to be
inspirational and humanitarian [citation needed].
The best known of Capra's films are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the original Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It with You,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful Life. His ten-year break from screwball comedy ended with the
comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Among the actors who owed much of their early success to Capra were Gary Cooper,
Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and Donna Reed. Capra called Jean Arthur "[his]
favorite actress."
Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed success at the Academy Awards. It Happened One Night was the first film to win
all five top Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). In 1936, Capra won
his second Best Director Oscar for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; in 1938 he won his third Director Oscar in five years
for You Can't Take It with You, which also won Best Picture. In addition to his three directing wins, Capra received
directing nominations for three other films (Lady for a Day, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful
Life). On May 5, 1936, Capra was also host of the 8th Academy Awards ceremony.
World War II. Frank Capra was commissioned as a major in the United States Army Signal Corps during World War
II. He produced State of the Union and directed or co-directed eight documentary propaganda films between 1942
and 1948, including the seven-episode U.S. government-commissioned Why We Fight series—consisting of Prelude
to War (1942), The Nazis Strike (1942), The Battle of Britain (1943), Divide and Conquer (1943), Know Your
Enemy: Japan (1945), Tunisian Victory (1945), and Two Down and One to Go (1945)—as well as produced the
African-American targeted The Negro Soldier (1944). Why We Fight is widely considered a masterpiece of
propaganda and won an Academy Award. Prelude to War won the 1942 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
Capra regarded these films as his most important works. As a colonel, he received the Distinguished Service Medal
in 1945.
Post-war. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) was considered a box office disappointment but it was nominated for the
Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Sound Recording and Best Editing. The
American Film Institute named it one of the best films ever made, putting it at the top of the list of AFI's "100
Years... 100 Cheers," a list of what AFI considers to be the most inspirational American movies of all time. The film
also appeared in another AFI Top 100 list: it placed at 11th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list of the top
American films.
Capra directed two films at Paramount Pictures starring Bing Crosby, Riding High (1950) and Here Comes the
Groom (1951). It was eight years before he directed another theatrical film, A Hole in the Head with Frank Sinatra,
which was his first feature film in color.
Capra's final theatrical film was with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, named Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a remake of
his 1933 film Lady for a Day. In the mid-1960s, he worked on an adaptation of Martin Caidan's novel Marooned, but
budgetary constraints made him eventually shelve it in pre-production [http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?
cid=151873&mainArticleId=151863]. Capra produced several science-related television specials in color for the
Bell Labs, such as Our Mr. Sun (1956), Hemo the Magnificent (1957), The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957),
and Meteora: The Unchained Goddess (1958). These educational science documentaries were popular favorites for
showing in school science classrooms.
In 1982, the American Film Institute honored Frank Capra with television film The American Film Institute Salute to
Frank Capra, hosted by Jimmy Stewart. In 1986, Capra received the National Medal of Arts.
Eisenstein, Sergei
born Jan. 23, 1898, Riga, Latvia
died Feb. 11, 1948, Moscow, U.S.S.R.
Russian film director and theorist.
He began his career at a workers' theatre in Moscow in 1920, designing costumes and scenery. After studying stage
direction with Vsevolod Meyerhold, he turned to filmmaking. In Strike (1924) he introduced his influential concept
of film montage, adding startling and often discordant images to the main action to create the maximum
psychological impact. He further developed the style in The Battleship Potemkin (1925), a commissioned
propaganda film that is one of the most influential films of all time. Among his other films are October (Ten Days
That Shook the World; 1928) and The General Line (1929). After a frustrating period in Hollywood and Mexico
(1930–33), he returned to the Soviet Union and made two more classics, Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the
Terrible (2 parts, 1945–46).
See also Act I, Signature i - (3).
Stamp issued by the United States Postal Service commemorating D. W. Griffith.*
Griffith, D. W.
Born Jan. 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Ky., U.S.
Died July 23, 1948, Hollywood, Calif.
U.S. film director.
After acting in touring stage companies, he sold film scenarios to the Biograph Co., which hired him as a director
(1908–13). In over 400 films for Biograph he developed filmmaking as an art form with techniques such as the
close-up, the scenic long shot, and crosscutting, and he collaborated with cinematographer Billy Bitzer to create
fade-out, fade-in, and soft-focus shots. He nurtured the careers of future stars such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish,
Mack Sennett, and Lionel Barrymore. His epic dramas The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) greatly
influenced later filmmakers. After co-founding United Artists Corp. in 1919, he directed Broken Blossoms (1919),
Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). His last films were Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The
Struggle (1931). He is regarded as one of the seminal figures in the history of motion pictures.
Film career. In 1907, Griffith, still having goals for becoming a successful playwright, went to New York and
attempted to sell a script to Edison Studios producer Edwin Porter [D. W. Griffith,
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgriffith.htm]. Porter rejected Griffith's script, but gave him an acting part
in Rescued from an Eagle's Nest [ibid] Finding his way into the motion picture business, he soon began to direct a
huge body of work. In 1908, Griffith accepted an acting job for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
commonly known as Biograph, in New York City. At Biograph, Griffith's career in the film industry would also
change forever ["D. W. Griffith Biography," http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Griffith,_D.W./Biography/]. In 1908,
Biograph's main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon, Jr., took his place
["Who's Who of Victorian Cinema," http://www.victorian-cinema.net/mccutcheon.htm]. McCutcheon, Jr., however,
was not able to bring the studio success [www.starpulse.com]. As a result, Biograph head Henry Marvin decided to
give Griffith the position [ibid]; Griffith then made his first movie for the company, The Adventures of Dollie.
Biograph was the first company to shoot a film in Hollywood, California, the film In Old California (1910).
Influenced by the Italian feature film Cabiria (1914), Griffith was convinced that feature films were commercially
viable. He produced and directed the Biograph film Judith of Bethulia (1914), one of the earliest feature films to be
produced in the United States. However, Biograph believed that longer features were not viable. According to
actress Lillian Gish, "[Biograph] thought that a movie that long would hurt [the audience's] eyes".
Because of this, and the film's budget overrun (it cost US$30,000 dollars to produce), Griffith left Biograph and took
his whole stock company of actors with him. He joined the Mutual Film Corporation and formed a studio, with
Majestic Studio manager Harry Aitken ["D. W. Griffith: Hollywood Independent,"
http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/dwgriffith.htm] known as Reliance-Majestic Studios (which was later
renamed Fine Arts Studio) ["Fine Arts Studio," http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/finearts.htm]. His new production
company became an autonomous production unit partner in Triangle Film Corporation along with Thomas Ince and
Keystone Studios' Mack Sennett; the Triangle Film Corporation was headed by Griffith's partner Harry Aitken, who
was released from the Mutual Film Corporation [www.cobbles.com/] and his brother Roy. Through RelianceMajestic Studios, he produced The Clansman (1915), which would later be known as The Birth of a Nation.
Historically, The Birth of a Nation was the first blockbuster. It is considered important by film historians as one of
the first feature length American films (most previous films had been less than one hour long), and arguably it
changed the industry standard to one still recognized today [Dan DeVore, "Film review of The Birth of a Nation
(1915)," http://www.moviejustice .com/vault/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=4&item_id=27]. It was enormously
popular, breaking box office records, but aroused controversy due to its depiction of slavery race relations in the
Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Like its source material, Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s 1905 novel The Clansman, it
depicts Southern pre-Civil War slavery as benign, the enfranchisement freedman as a corrupt Republican plot, and
the Ku Klux Klan as a band of heroes restoring the rightful order. This view of the era was popular at the time, and
was endorsed by historians of the Dunning School for decades, although it met with strong criticism from the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups. However, attempts by the NAACP
to stop showings of the film failed, and it went on to become the most successful box office attraction of its time.
"They lost track of the money it made," Lillian Gish once remarked in a Kevin Brownlow interview. Among the
people who profited by the film was Louis B. Mayer, who bought the rights to distribute The Birth of a Nation in
New England. With the money he made, he was able to begin his career as a producer that culminated in the creation
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone with the Wind, was also inspired by Griffith's
Civil War epic [citation needed].
However, after seeing The Birth of a Nation, audiences in some major northern cities also responded by rioting over
the film's racial content [PBS, "Jim Crow Stories: The Birth of a Nation," The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow,
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_birth.html]. After The Birth of a Nation had run its course in
theaters, Griffith would also respond to the negative reception a vast amount of critics gave the film through his next
film Intolerance, which dealt with the effects of intolerance in four different historical periods: the Fall of Babylon;
the Crucifixion of Christ; the Massacre of the Huguenots; and a modern story. During its release, however,
Intolerance was not a financial success; although it had good box office turn-outs, the film did not bring in enough
profits to cover the lavish road show that accompanied it ["Griffith's 20 Year Record," Variety, September 25, 1928,
as edited by David Pierce for The Silent Film Bookshelf, http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/7_dwg_
2.htm]. Like The Birth Of A Nation, Griffith put a huge budget into the film's production, which was also a key factor
in its failure at the box office ["Film review of Intolerance,"
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/film.nsf/reviews/intolerance]. The production partnership was dissolved in 1917,
so Griffith went to Artcraft (part of Paramount), then to First National (1919–1920). At the same time he founded
United Artists, together with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. At United Artists, Griffith
continued to make films, but never could achieve box office grosses as high as either The Birth of a Nation or
Intolerance [PBS, "American Masters: D. W. Griffith,"
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/griffith_d.html].
See also "David W. Griffith, Film Pioneer, Dies: Producer Of Birth Of A Nation, Intolerance, and America Made
Nearly 500 Pictures, Set Screen Standards: Co-Founder Of United Artists Gave Mary Pickford And Fairbanks Their
Starts," New York Times, Saturday, July 24, 1948; PBS, American Experience, "People & Events: Mary Pickford,"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh /amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_griffith.html.
~ page 299 ~
German Democratic Republic postal stamp marking the 40th anniversary of the 1949 founding of the Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance.*
Warsaw Pact
Or Warsaw Treaty Organization
Military alliance of the Soviet Union, Albania (until 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary,
Poland, and Romania, formed in 1955 in response to West Germany's entry into NATO. Its terms included a unified
military command and the stationing of Soviet troops in the other member states. Warsaw Pact troops were called
into action to suppress uprisings in Poland (1956), Hungary (1956), and Czechoslovakia (1968). The alliance was
dissolved in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and Soviet troops departed. Several Warsaw Pact members
later joined NATO.
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Совет экономической взаимопомощи, Sovet
ekonomicheskoy vsaymopomoshchi, СЭВ, SEV, English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, or CAME), 1949–1991,
was an economic organization comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states
elsewhere in the world. The Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation of the Organization for European
Economic Co-operation in western Europe [Library of Congress Country Study, "Germany (East)," in Appendix B:
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/gx_appnb.html].
The descriptive term Comecon was often applied to all multilateral activities involving members of the organization,
rather than being restricted to the direct functions of Comecon and its organs [for example, this is the usage in the
Library of Congress Country Study that is heavily cited in the present article]. This usage was sometimes extended as
well to bilateral relations among members, because in the system of socialist international economic relations,
multilateral accords—typically of a general nature—tended to be implemented through a set of more detailed,
bilateral agreements [http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/].
Foundation. The Comecon was founded in 1949 by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland,
and Romania. The primary factors in Comecon's formation appear to have been Joseph Stalin's desire to enforce
Soviet domination of the lesser states of Central Europe and to mollify some states that had expressed interest in the
Marshall Plan [http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/], and which were now, increasingly, cut off from their
traditional markets and suppliers in Western Europe [Robert Bideleux and Ian Jeffries, A History of Eastern Europe:
Crisis and Change (Routledge, 1998), p. 536]. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland had remained interested in
Marshall aid despite the requirements for a convertible currency and market economies. These requirements, which
would inevitably have resulted in stronger economic ties to Western Europe than to the Soviet Union, were
absolutely unacceptable to Stalin, who in July 1947, ordered these communist-dominated governments to pull out of
the Paris Conference on the European Recovery Programme. This has been described as "the moment of truth" in the
post-World War II division of Europe [Bideleux and Jeffries (1998), p. 534–5].
However, as always, Stalin's precise motives are "inscrutable [ibid, p. 535]." They may well have been "more
negative than positive," with Stalin "more anxious to keep other powers out of neighbouring buffer states ... than to
integrate them [W. Wallace and R. Clarke, Comecon, Trade, and the West (London: Pinter, 1986), p. 1, quoted by
Bideleux and Jeffries (1998), p. 536]." Furthermore, GATT's notion of nondiscriminatory treatment of trade partners
was incompatible with notions of socialist solidarity [Bideleux and Jeffries (1998), p. 536]. In any event, proposals
for a customs union and economic integration of East Central Europe date back at least to the Revolutions of 1848
(although many earlier proposals had been intended to stave off the Russian and/or communist "menace") [ibid, p.
536] and the state-to-state trading inherent in centrally planned economies required some sort of coordination:
otherwise, a monopolist seller would face a monopsonist buyer, with no structure to set prices [ibid, p. 536–7].
Comecon was established at a Moscow economic conference January 5–January 8, 1949, at which the six founding
member countries were represented; its foundation was publicly announced on January 25; Albania joined a month
later and East Germany in 1950 [ibid, p. 535].
At first, planning seemed to be moving along rapidly. After pushing aside Nikolai Voznesensky's technocratic, pricebased approach (see further discussion below), the direction appeared to be toward a coordination of national
economic plans, but with no coercive authority from Comecon itself. All decisions would require unanimous
ratification, and even then governments would separately translate these into policy [ibid, p. 539–541]. Then in
summer 1950, probably unhappy with the favorable implications for the effective individual and collective
sovereignty of the smaller states, Stalin "seems to have taken [Comecon's] personnel by surprise," bringing
operations to a nearly complete halt, as the Soviet Union moved domestically toward autarky and internationally
toward an "embassy system of meddling in other countries' affairs directly" rather than by "constitutional means."
Comecon's scope was officially limited in November 1950 to "practical questions of facilitating trade [ibid, p. 541–
2]."
One important legacy of this brief period of activity was the Sofia principle, adopted at the August 1949 Comecon
council session in Bulgaria. This radically weakened intellectual property rights, making each country's technologies
available to the others for a nominal charge that did little more than cover the cost of documentation. This, naturally,
benefited the less industrialized Comecon countries, and especially the technologically lagging Soviet Union, at the
expense of East Germany and Czechoslovakia and, to a lesser extent, Hungary and Poland (this principle would
weaken after 1968, as it became clear that it discouraged new research—and as the Soviet Union itself began to have
more marketable technologies) [ibid, p. 542–3].
How Comecon exchanges worked. Working with neither meaningful exchange rates nor a market economy,
Comecon countries had to look to world markets as a reference point for prices, but unlike agents acting in a market,
prices tended to be stable over a period of years, rather than constantly fluctuating, which assisted central planning.
Also, there was a tendency to underprice raw materials relative to the manufactured goods produced in many of the
Comecon countries [ibid, p. 537].
International barter helped preserve the Comecon countries' scarce hard currency reserves. In strict economic terms,
barter inevitably harmed countries whose goods would have brought higher prices in the free market or whose
imports could have been obtained more cheaply, and benefitted those for whom it was the other way around. Still, all
of the Comecon countries gained some stability, and the governments gained some legitimacy [ibid, p. 537], and in
many ways this stability and protection from the world market was viewed, at least in the early years of Comecon, as
an advantage of the system, as was the formation of stronger ties with other communist countries [ibid, p. 538].
Within Comecon, there were occasional struggles over just how this system should work. Early on, Nikolai
Voznesensky pushed for a more "law-governed" and technocratic price-based approach. However, with the August
1948 death of Andrei Zhdanov, Voznesensky lost his patron and was soon accused of treason as part of the
Leningrad Affair; within two years he was dead in prison. Instead, what won out was a "physical planning" approach
that strengthened the role of central governments over technocrats [ibid, p. 539]. At the same time, the effort to
create a single regime of planning "common economic organization" with the ability to set plans throughout the
Comecon region also came to nought. A protocol to create such a system was signed January 18, 1949, but never
ratified [ibid, p. 540]. While historians are not unanimous on why this was stymied, it clearly threatened the
sovereignty not only of the smaller states, but even of the Soviet Union itself, since an international body would have
had real power; Stalin clearly preferred informal means of intervention in the other Comecon states [ibid, p. 540–1].
This lack of either rationality or international central planning tended to promote autarky in each Comecon country,
because none fully trusted the others to deliver goods and services [ibid, p. 539].
With few exceptions, foreign trade in the Comecon countries was a state monopoly, and the state agencies and
captive trading companies were often corrupt. Even at best, this tended to put several removes between a producer
and any foreign customer, limiting the ability to learn to adjust to foreign customers' needs. Furthermore, there was
often strong political pressure to keep the best products for domestic use in each country. From the early 1950s to
Comecon's demise in the early 1990s, intra-Comecon trade, except for Soviet petroleum, was in steady decline [ibid,
p. 565].
See also Adam Zwass, The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance: The Thorny Path from Political to Economic
Integration (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989).
The Tupolev ANT-20 bis was used for cargo flights from Moscow to Mineralnye Vody during World War II
(Source: http://www.dkvnukovo.ru/photos/museum/photos/35.jpg).*
Aeroflot-Russian Airlines
National airline of the former Soviet Union. Founded in 1928 as Dobroflot, it was reorganized as Aeroflot in 1932.
During the Soviet era Aeroflot was the world's largest airline, with about15% of all civil air traffic. After the 1991
breakup of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot surrendered its monopoly over commercial air travel in the former Soviet
states. It was renamed Aeroflot-Russian Airlines in June 2000.
OJSC "Aeroflot — Russian Airlines" (Russian: ОАО «Аэрофлот — Российские авиалинии») (MICEX:AFLT
RTS:AFLT), commonly known as Aeroflot (Russian: Аэрофлот, translation: "air fleet"), is the flag carrier and
largest airline in Russia, based on passengers carried per year. Aeroflot operates domestic and international
passenger services to 97 cities in 48 countries, mainly from Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, using a
fleet of 91 aircraft.
Headquartered in Moscow ["Queries," Aeroflot/ mailing address: #10, Arbat street, 119002 Moscow - Обращение в
авиакомпанию - Address in Russian: "Юридический адрес / Адрес для почтовых отправлений: 119002 Москва,
ул. Арбат, д. 10], Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world, tracing its history back to 1923. In 1956, it
became the first airline to successfully operate regular jet airliner services (with the Tupolev Tu-104), Czech Airlines
being the second airline to do so in 1957.
During the Soviet era, Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline and the largest airline in the world
[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0388%29; Smith, Patrick, "Ask the pilot,"
Salon.com, March 9, 2004, http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/smith/2004/09/03/askthepilot101/index2.ht ml]. Since
the dissolution of the USSR, Aeroflot has been transformed from a state-run enterprise into a semi-privatised airline
which ranks amongst the most profitable in the world ["Russia’s Aeroflot Ranked Close to World Best Airlines,"
Kommersant, August 7, 2007, http://www.kommersant.com/p-11187/r_500/Aeroflot_top]. Aeroflot is still
considered the de facto national airline of Russia ["Thousands of Firms in Russia to Be Re-Named," Kommersant,
January 10, 2008, http://www.kommersant.com/p-11889/Rename_Aeroflot].
Aeroflot has embarked on a fleet modernisation program, extensive route restructuring, and an image overhaul. The
airline joined SkyTeam in April 2006 [Kommersant, August 7, 2007].
History. In 1921, shortly after the end of civil war in European Russia, the new government established the Chief
Administration of the Civil Air Fleet to oversee new air transport projects. One of its first acts was to help found
Deutsch-Russische Luftverkehrs A.G. (Deruluft), a German-Russian joint venture to provide air transport from
Russia to the West. Domestic air service began around the same time, when Dobrolyot (Russian: Добролёт) was
established on 9 February 1923. It started operations on 15 July 1923 between Moscow and Nizhni Novgorod.
On 25 February 1932 all civil aviation activities were consolidated under the administration of the Head Directorate
of Civil Air Fleet (Russian: Главное управление Гражданского воздушного флота (ГУ ГВФ)), and the official
abbreviated operating name of the fleet was determined to be Aeroflot [History of Aeroflot (in Russian),
http://www.aeroflot.ru/about.aspx?ob_no=429]. International flights started in 1937; before that date they had been
carried out by Deruluft.
By the end of the 1930s Aeroflot had become the world's largest airline, employing more than 4,000 pilots and
60,000 other service personnel and operating around 3,000 aircraft, of which 75% were considered obsolete by its
own standards [Kotkin, V. F., "Civil Air Fleet in the years of initial five-year plans (Гражданский воздушный флот
в годы первых пятилеток)," in Civil Aviation of USSR in the Years of the Great Patriotic War (Гражданская
авиация СССР в годы Великой Отечественной войны), Special Report, Airports - Progressive technologies No.
1, 2003, Group of companies Progresstech, p. 6]. During the war the primary types of operated aircraft became PS84 (ПС-84) from September 1942 renamed Li-2 (Russian: Ли-2) and the DC-3 Dakota manufactured under license
in USSR since before the war.
For mail delivery the U-2 (Russian: У-2), renamed from 1944 Po-2 (Russian: По-2) became the single most used
type, serving in other roles such as medical evacuation as S-1 (Russian: C-1) for sanitarny (sanitary). Serving
alongside military aviation, the Civil Air Fleet was used to ferry 2.3 million passengers, including service personnel
and partisans, and deliver 230 thousand tonnes of cargo, including ammunition [ibid, p. 7]. The other role of the
CAF was that of training, it produced 23,000 aviation specialists, including 20,907 pilots for the Li-2 and Po-2
aircraft. It was a Li-2 of the 2nd Sevastopol aviation regiment flown by its commander, Colonel A.I. Semenkov that
delivered the Act of German capitulation to Moscow on the 9 May 1945.
During the Soviet era Aeroflot was synonymous with Russian civil aviation [Russian Большой энциклопедический
словарь: Редактор - Солодовников С.Ю., http://www.jiport.com/?page=411&sname=enc&fl=1]. It became the
first airline in the world to operate regular jet services on 15 September 1956 with the Tupolev Tu-104 ["Directory:
World Airlines," Flight International, April 3, 2007, p. 47].
In January 1971 the Aeroflot Central Administration of International Air Traffic was established within the
framework of IATA, and became the sole enterprise authorised to operate international flights. Abroad, the airline
was known as Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. In 1976 Aeroflot carried its 100 millionth passenger. Its flights were mainly
concentrated around the Soviet Union, but the airline also had an international network covering five continents:
North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The network included countries such as the United States,
Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and the People's Republic of China. Since the 1970s some
transatlantic flights were flown using Shannon Airport in Ireland as an intermediate stop, as it was the westernmost
non-NATO airport in Europe.
Aeroflot service between the Soviet Union and the United States was interrupted from September 15, 1983 until
August 2, 1990, following an executive order by President Ronald Reagan, revoking the airline's license to operate
flights into and out of the United States. The reason for the order was the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 by
Soviet Air Force. At the start of the 1990s Aeroflot reorganised again giving more autonomy to territorial divisions.
By 1992, R. E. G. Davies, former air transport curator of the Smithsonian Institution, claims that by 1992 Aeroflot
had over 600,000 people operating over 10,000 aircraft [R. E. G. Davies, Aeroflot: An Airline and its Aircraft
(Paladwr Press, 1992), pp. 92-94]. By 1967, Aeroflot amassing a fleet equal to that of the largest American carriers
combined [http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/smith/2004/09/03/].
In 1992, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot was divided into more than 300 regional airlines.
International routes were operated separately as Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines (ARIA) ["Directory: World
Airlines," Flight International, April 3, 2007, p. 47]. Some airline companies which were created from the old
Aeroflot are now flag carriers of the newly independent countries - for example, Uzbekistan Airlines, and Lithuanian
Airlines. Smaller regional airlines which emerged out of the old Aeroflot - sometimes just one-plane operations were sometimes referred to as Babyflots.
In 1994, Aeroflot was registered as a joint stock company and the government sold off 49% of its stake to Aeroflot
employees. During the 1990s, Aeroflot was primarily focused on international flights from Moscow. However, by
the end of the decade Aeroflot started an expansion in the domestic market. In 2000 the company name was changed
to Aeroflot - Russian Airlines to reflect the change in the company strategy [Aeroflot Official Website,
http://www.aeroflot.ru/about.aspx?ob_no=5127&d_no=5982].
Artist's conception of a the red dwarf star CHRX 73 A and its companion object CHRX 73 B. The companion object
is around 12 Jupiter masses, and may either be a planet, a failed star or a brown dwarf [NASA, ESA and G. Bacon
(STScI)].*
Barnard
Star about six light-years away from the Sun, next nearest the Sun after the Alpha Centauri system, in the
constellation Ophiuchus.
Named for Edward Emerson Barnard (b. 1857—d. 1923), who discovered it in 1916, it has the largest proper motion
of any known star. It is gradually nearing the solar system. The star attracted astronomers' attention in the 1960s
when its proper motion was claimed to show periodic deviations attributed to the gravitational pull of two planets
(see planets of other stars). The deviations were later proved to be artifacts of measurement.
Overview. Barnard's Star is a red dwarf of the dim spectral type M4, and it is too faint to see without a telescope. Its
apparent magnitude is 9.54 [SIMBAD Query Result: "V* V2500 Oph -- Variable of BY Dra type," SIMBAD, Centre
de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=V*+V2500+Oph]. This
compares with a magnitude of −1.5 for Sirius – the brightest star in the night sky – and about 6.0 for the faintest
visible objects with the naked eye (this magnitude scale is logarithmic, and so the magnitude of 9.57 is only about
1/27th of the brightness of the faintest star that can be seen with the naked eye under good viewing conditions).
At seven to 12 billion years of age, Barnard's Star is considerably older than the Sun, and it might be among the
oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy [Riedel, A. R., Guinan, E. F., DeWarf, L. E., Engle, S. G., McCook, G. P.,
"Barnard's Star as a Proxy for Old Disk dM Stars: Magnetic Activity, Light Variations, XUV Irradiances, and
Planetary Habitable Zones," (May 2005), p. 442]. Barnard's Star has lost a great deal of rotational energy, and the
periodic slight changes in its brightness indicate that it rotates just once every 130 days (compared with just over 25
days for the Sun) [Benedict, G. Fritz, McArthur, Barbara, Nelan, E., Story, D., Whipple, A. L., Shelus, P. J.,
Jefferys, W. H., Hemenway, P. D., et al.,"Photometry of Proxima Centauri and Barnard's star using Hubble Space
Telescope fine guidance senso-3," The Astronomical Journal 116 (1): 429 (1988)]. Given its age, Barnard's Star was
long assumed to be quiescent in terms of stellar activity. However in 1998, astronomers observed an intense stellar
flare, surprisingly showing that Barnard's Star is a flare star [Croswell, Ken, "A Flare for Barnard's Star," Astronomy
Magazine (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) (November 2005), http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=
3658]. Barnard's Star has the variable star designation V2500 Ophiuchi. In 2003, Barnard's Star presented the first
detectable change in the radial velocity of a star caused by its motion. Further variability in the radial velocity of
Barnard's Star was attributed to its stellar activity [Kürster, M., Endl, M., Rouesnel, F., Els, S., Kaufer, A., Brillant,
S., Hatzes, A. P., Saar, S. H., et al, "The low-level radial velocity variability in Barnard's Star," Astronomy and
Astrophysics 403 (6): 1077 (2003)].
The proper motion of Barnard's Star corresponds to a relative lateral speed ("sideways" relative to the Sun) of 90
kilometers per second (km/sec). The 10.3 seconds of arc it travels annually amount to a quarter of a degree in a
human lifetime, roughly half the angular diameter of the full Moon [Kaler, James B., "Barnard's Star (V2500
Ophiuchi)," Stars (November 2005), http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/barnard.html].
The radial velocity of Barnard's Star towards the Sun can be measured by its blue shift. Two measurements are given
in catalogues: 106.8 km/sec in SIMBAD, which refers to a 1967 compilation of older measurements, and 110.8
km/sec in ARICNS and similar values in all modern astronomical references. These measurements, combined with
proper motion, suggest a true velocity relative to the Sun of 139.7 and 142.7 km/sec, respectively [tv = (90² +
106.8²)½ = 139.7, or tv = (90² + 110.8²)½ = 142.7 - Stars with a large proper motion naturally have large true
velocities relative to the Sun, but proper motion is also a function of the distance from the Sun. While Barnard's Star
has the largest proper motion, the largest known true velocity of another star in the Milky Way belongs to Wolf 424
at 555 km/sec].
Barnard's Star will make its closest approach to the Sun around AD 11,700, when it approaches to within about 3.8
light-years [García-Sánchez, J., "Stellar encounters with the solar system," Astronomy & Astrophysics 379: 642
(2001)]. However, at that time, Barnard's Star will not be the nearest star, since Proxima Centauri will have moved
even closer to the Sun [Matthews, R. A. J., Weissman, P. R., Preston, R. A., Jones, D. L., Lestrade, J. F., Latham, D.
W., Stefanik, R. P., Paredes, J. M., "The Close Approach of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood," Quarterly Journal of
the Royal Astronomical Society 35: 1 (1994)]. Barnard's Star will still be too dim to be seen with the naked eye at the
time of its closest approach, since its apparent magnitude will be about 8.5 then. After that it will gradually recede
from the Sun.
Barnard's Star has approximately 17% of a solar mass, and it has a radius 15% to 20% of that of the Sun
[Ochsenbein, F., "A list of stars with large expected angular diameters," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement
Series 47: 523–531 (March 1982)]. In 2003, its radius was estimated as 0.20±0.008 of the solar radius, at the high
end of the ranges that were typically calculated in the past, indicating that previous estimates of the radius of
Barnard's Star probably underestimated the actual value [Dawson, P. C., De Robertis, M. M., "Barnard's Star and the
M Dwarf Temperature Scale," Astronomical Journal 127 (5): 2909 (2004)]. Thus, although Barnard's Star has
roughly 180 times the mass of Jupiter, its radius is only 1.5 to 2.0 times larger, reflecting the tendency of objects in
the brown dwarf range to be about the same size. Its effective temperature is 3,134(±102) kelvin, and it has a visual
luminosity just 4/10,000ths of solar luminosity, corresponding to a bolometric luminosity of 34.6/10,000ths [ibid].
Barnard's Star is so faint that if it were at the same distance from Earth as the Sun is, it would appear only 100 times
brighter than a full moon, comparable to the brightness of the Sun at 80 Astronomical Units ["Barnard's Star," Sol
Station, http://www.solstation.com/stars/barnards.htm].
In a broad survey of the metallicity of M-class dwarf stars, Barnard's Star's was placed between −0.5 and −1.0 on the
metallicity scale, which is roughly 10 to 32% of the value for the Sun [Gizis, John E., "M-Subdwarfs: Spectroscopic
Classification and the Metallicity Scale," The Astronomical Journal 113 (2): 820 (February 1997)]. Metallicity, the
proportion of stellar mass made up of elements heavier than helium, helps classify stars relative to the galactic
population. Barnard's Star seems to be typical of the old, red dwarf population II stars, yet these are also generally
metal-poor halo stars. While sub-solar, Barnard's Star's metallicity is higher than a halo star and is in keeping with
the low end of the metal-rich disk star range; this, plus its high space motion, have led to the designation
"Intermediate Population II star", between a halo and disk star [Gizis (February 1997), Kürster, M., et al (2003)].
Émile Durkheim (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/d/pics/durkheim.jpg).*
Durkheim, Émile
Born April 1858, Épinal, France
Died Nov. 15, 1917, Paris
French social scientist.
He developed a vigorous methodology combining empirical research with sociological theory and is widely regarded
as the founder of the French school of sociology. Durkheim was greatly influenced by philosopher Auguste Comte,
and his sociological reflections, never remote from the moral philosophy he was schooled in, were first expressed in
The Division of Labor in Society (1893) and Suicide (1897). In his view, ethical and social structures were
endangered by technology and mechanization. The division of labour produced alienation among workers, and the
increased prosperity of the late 19th century generated greed and passions that threatened the equilibrium of society.
Durkheim drew attention to anomie, or social disconnectedness, and studied suicide as a decision to renounce life.
Following the Dreyfus affair, he came to regard education and religion as the most potent means of reforming
humanity and molding new social institutions. His Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915) is an
anthropological study—centering largely on totemism—of the origins and functions of religion, which Durkheim
saw as expressing the collective conscience of a society and producing social solidarity. He also wrote influential
works on sociological method. He taught at the Universities of Bordeaux (1887–1902) and Paris (1902–17). See also
Marcel Mauss.
Anomie is a sociological term meaning "personal feeling of a lack of norms; normlessness". It describes the
breakdown of social norms and values [http://roomfordebate.blogs .nytimes.com/2010/05/13/chinas-school-killingsand - social-despair/?ref=world]. It was popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book
Suicide (1897). Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau.
For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social
standards, or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate
aspirations. This is a nurtured condition [Susan Leigh Star, Geoffrey C. Bowker, and Laura J. Neumann,
"Transparency At Different Levels of Scale: Convergence between Information Artifacts and Social Worlds," in
Library and Information Science (Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, August 1997)]:
Anomie in common parlance is thought to mean something like "at loose ends." The Oxford English Dictionary lists
a range of definitions, beginning with a disregard of divine law, through the 19th and 20th century sociological terms
meaning an absence of accepted social standards or values. Most sociologists associate the term with Durkheim, who
used the concept to speak of the ways in which an individual's actions are matched, or integrated, with a system of
social norms and practices ... Durkheim also formally posited anomie as a mismatch, not simply as the absence of
norms. Thus, a society with too much rigidity and little individual discretion could also produce a kind of anomie, a
mismatch between individual circumstances and larger social mores. Thus, fatalistic suicide arises when a person is
too rule-governed, when there is ... no free horizon of expectation.
History. In 1893 Durkheim introduced the concept of anomie to describe the mismatch of collective guild labor to
evolving societal needs when the guild was homogeneous in its constituency. He equated homogeneous (redundant)
skills to mechanical solidarity whose inertia retarded adaptation. He contrasted this with the self-regulating behavior
of a division of labor based on differences in constituency, equated to organic solidarity, whose lack of inertia made
it differentially sensitive to need changes.
Durkheim observed that these two labour forms could not co-exist. The conflict between the evolved organic
division of labor and the homogeneous mechanical type was such that one could not long exist in the presence of the
other: "This social type rests on principles so different from the preceding that it can develop only in proportion to
the effacement of that preceding type [Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society [1893] (The MacMillan
Co., 1933; Free Press edition, 1964), p. 182]." and "The history of these two types shows, in effect, that one has
progressed only as the other has retrogressed [ibid, p. 183]."
When solidarity is organic, anomie is "impossible whenever solidary organs are sufficiently in contact or sufficiently
prolonged. In effect, being contiguous, they are quickly warned, in each circumstance, of the need they have of one
another, and, consequently, they have a lively and continuous sentiment of their mutual dependence. For the same
reason that exchanges take place among them easily, they take place frequently, and in time the work of
consolidation is achieved [ibid, p. 368]." Their sensitivity to mutual needs promotes the evolution in the division of
labor "because the smallest reaction can be felt from one part to another ... they foresee and fix, in detail, the
conditions of equilibrium ... Producers, being near consumers, can easily reckon the extent of the needs to be
satisfied. Equilibrium is established without any trouble and production regulates itself [ibid]."
Durkheim contrasted the condition of anomie as being the result of mechanical solidarity: "But on the contrary, if
some opaque environment is interposed, then only stimuli of certain intensity can be communicated from one organ
to another. Relations being rare, are not repeated enough to be determined; each time there ensues new grouping.
The lines of passage taken by the streams of movement cannot deepen because the streams themselves are too
intermittent [ibid, pp. 368-369] ... Contact is no longer sufficient. The producer can no longer embrace the market at
a glance, nor even in thought. He can no longer see its limits, since it is, so to speak limitless. Accordingly,
production becomes unbridled and unregulated [ibid, p. 370]."
Durkheim's use of the term anomie was about a phenomenon of industrialization—mass-regimentation that could not
adapt due to its own inertia—its resistance to change, which causes disruptive cycles of collective behavior (e.g.
economics) due to the necessity of a prolonged buildup of sufficient force or momentum to overcome the inertia.
Later in 1897, in his studies of suicide, Durkheim associated anomie to the influence of a lack of norms or norms that
were too rigid. But such normlessness or norm-rigidity was a symptom of anomie, caused by the lack of differential
adaptation that would enable norms to evolve naturally due to self regulation, either to develop norms where none
existed or to change norms that had become rigid and obsolete.
The importance of Durkheim's earlier definition is its specificity of the direct cause of a collective social disorder
that has great relevance in the understanding of economic imbalance, labor obsolescence, mass movements, and
many great themes in history and literature, such as those of H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell.
At the Moulin Rouge is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted
between 1892 and 1895. It is one of a number of works by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret
built in Paris in 1889. It portrays a group of three men and two women sitting around a table; a self-portrait of
Lautrec is in the background (Johnson, Ken, “Lautrec's Life, High and Low," The New York Times, March 18,
2005).*
Toulouse-Lautrec , Henri de
Born Nov. 24, 1864, Albi, France
Died Sept. 9, 1901, Malromé
French painter and graphic artist.
Born to an old aristocratic family, he developed his interest in art during lengthy convalescence after both his legs
were fractured in separate accidents (1878, 1879) that left them permanently stunted and made walking difficult. In
1881 he resolved to become an artist; after taking instruction, he established a studio in the Montmartre district of
Paris in 1884 and began his lifelong association with the area's cafés, cabarets, entertainers, and artists. He captured
the effect of the movement of dancers, circus performers, and other entertainers by simplifying outlines and
juxtaposing intense colours; the result was an art throbbing with life and energy. His lithographs were among his
most powerful works, and his memorable posters helped define the possibilities of the genre. His pieces are often
sharply satirical, but he was also capable of great sympathy, seen most poignantly in his studies of prostitutes (e.g.,
At the Salon, 1896). His extraordinary style helped set the course of avant-garde art for decades to come. A heavy
drinker, he died at 36.
Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, an area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and for being
the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Studying with Bonnat placed Henri in the heart of Montmartre, an area
that he would rarely leave over the next 20 years. After Bonnat took a new job Henri moved to the studio of Fernand
Cormon in 1882 and studied for a further 5 years, here making the group of friends he would keep for the rest of his
life. It was at this period in his life he first met Emile Bernard and van Gogh. Cormon, whose instruction was more
relaxed than Bonnat's, allowed his pupils to roam Paris, looking for subjects to paint. In this period Toulouse-Lautrec
had his first encounter with a prostitute, reputedly sponsored by his friends, and this led him to paint his first painting
of the prostitutes of Montmartre, a woman rumoured to be called Marie-Charlotte [author unknown, ToulouseLautrec (Grange Books)].
With his studies finished in 1887 he participated in an exposition in Toulouse under the pseudonym "Tréclau", an
anagram of the family name 'Lautrec'. He later exhibited in Paris with van Gogh and Louis Anquetin [ibid].
From 1889 until 1894, Henri took part in the "Independent Artists' Salon" on a regular basis. He made several
landscapes of Montmartre. It was in this era that the 'Moulin Rouge' opened [ibid]. Tucked deep into Montmartre
was the garden of Monsieur Pere Foret where Toulouse-Lautrec executed a series of pleasant plein-air paintings of
Carmen Gaudin, the same red-head model who appears in The Laundress (1888). When the nearby Moulin Rouge
cabaret opened its doors, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. His mother had left
Paris and while Henri still had a regular income from his family, making posters offered him a living of his own.
Other artists looked down on the work, but Henri was so aristocratic he did not care ["Toulouse Lautrec: The Full
Story," Channel 4, http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/T/toulouse_lautrec/lautrec.html]. Thereafter, the
cabaret reserved a seat for him, and displayed his paintings [http://www.wondersmith.com/heroes/lautrec.htm].
Among the well known works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of
the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, known as the outrageous La Goulue ("The Glutton"), who
created the "French Can-Can"; and the much more subtle dancer Jane Avril.
London. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec came from a family of Anglophiles, and while he wasn't as fluent as he
pretended to be he spoke English well enough to travel to London [Channel 4]. The business of making posters led
Henri to London, gaining him work that led to the making of the 'Confetti' poster
[http://www.sdmart.org/lautrec/Confetti.html], and the bicycle advert 'La Chaîne Simpson
[http://www.sdmart.org/lautrec/Simpson.html].'
It was during his time in London that he met and befriended Oscar Wilde [Channel 4], and when Wilde faced
imprisonment in Britain, Henri was a very vocal supporter. Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait of Wilde was the same year
as Wilde's trial [http://www.mystudios.com/art/post/lautrec/lautrec-oscar-wilde.html; Channel 4].
Art. Throughout his career, which spanned less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275
watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number
of lost works [Angier, Natalie, "What Ailed Toulouse-Lautrec? Scientists Zero In on a Key Gene," The New York
Times, June 6, 1995, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage/]. His debt to the Impressionists, in particular the more
figurative painters Manet and Degas, is apparent. His style was also influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints
which became popular in art circles in Paris. In the works of Toulouse-Lautrec can be seen many parallels to Manet's
detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas. He excelled at
capturing people in their working environment, with the colour and the movement of the gaudy night-life present but
the glamour stripped away. He was masterly at capturing crowd scenes in which the figures are highly individualised.
At the time that they were painted, the individual figures in his larger paintings could be identified by silhouette
alone, and the names of many of these characters have been recorded. His treatment of his subject matter, whether as
portraits, scenes of Parisian night-life, or intimate studies, has been described as both sympathetic and dispassionate
["Noble figure," The Guardian, November 20, 2004, http://books.guardian. co.uk/extracts/story/].
Toulouse-Lautrec's skilled depiction of people relied on his painterly style which is highly linear and gives great
emphasis to contour. He often applied the paint in long, thin brushstrokes which would often leave much of the board
on which they are painted showing through. Many of his works may best be described as drawings in coloured paint.
irredentism
Main Entry: ir£re£den£tism
Pronunciation: -‚den-ƒti-z„m
Function: noun
Date: 1883 : a political principle or policy directed toward the incorporation of irredentas within the boundaries of
their historically or ethnically related political unit –ir£re£den£tist \-‚den-tist\ noun or adjective.
Origins. The word was coined in Italy from the phrase Italia irredenta ("unredeemed Italy"). This originally referred
to Austro-Hungarian rule over mostly or partly Italian-inhabited territories such as Trentino, Trieste, Istria and
Dalmatia during the 19th and early 20th century.
A common way to express a claim to adjacent territories on the grounds of historical or ethnic association is by using
the epithet "Greater" before the country name. This conveys the image of national territory at its maximum
conceivable extent with the country "proper" at its core. It must be noted that the use of "Greater" does not always
convey an irredentistic meaning.
Principality of Transylvania (Transilvánie) circa 1606, by William Ward (1912),
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/ward_1912.html.*
Transylvania
Historic region, northwestern and central Romania. It comprises a plateau surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains
and the Transylvanian Alps. It formed the nucleus of the Dacian kingdom and was included in the Roman province
of Dacia in the 2nd century AD. The Magyars (Hungarians) conquered the area at the end of the 9th century. When
Hungary was divided between the Habsburgs and the Turks in the 16th century, Transylvania became an autonomous
principality within the Ottoman Empire. It was attached to Habsburg-controlled Hungary at the end of the 17th
century. Transylvania was the scene of severe fighting in the Hungarian revolution against Austria in 1848. When
Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, the Romanians of Transylvania proclaimed the land united with
Romania. Hungary regained the northern portion during World War II, but the entire region was ceded to Romania
in 1947.
Transylvania (Romanian: Ardeal or Transilvania; Hungarian: Erdély; German: Siebenbürgen (help·info), see also
other denominations) is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the
Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the
term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crişana, Maramureş,
and (Romanian) Banat.
Transylvania has been dominated by several different people and empires throughout its history. It was once the
nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 B.C.–106 A.D.). In 106 A.D. the Roman Empire conquered the territory and
after that its wealth was systematically exploited. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 A.D., it was overrun by a
succession of tribes, which subjected it to various influences. During this time areas of it were under the control of
the Carpi (Dacian tribe), Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars and Bulgars. It is subject of controversy whether elements
of the mixed Daco–Roman population survived in Transylvania through the Dark Ages (becoming the ancestors of
modern Romanians) or the first Vlachs appeared in the area in the 13th century after a northwards migration from the
Balkan Peninsula. There is an ongoing scholarly debate over the ethnicity of Transylvania's population before the
Hungarian conquest (see Origin of the Romanians).
The Hungarians (Magyars) conquered the area at the end of the 9th century and firmly established their control over
it in 1003, when king Stephen I, according to legend, defeated the native prince entitled or named Gyula [Gyula: it is
possible that during the 10th century some of the holders of the title of gyula also used Gyula as a personal name, but
the issue has been confused because the chronicler of one of the most important primary sources (the Gesta
Hungarorum) has been shown to have used titles or even names of places as personal names in some cases;
"Transylvania," Encyclopædia Britannica (2008), http://britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/603323/Transylvania;
Engel, Pal, Andrew Ayton, The Realm of St. Stephen (London: Tauris, 2005), p. 27; "Transylvania," Microsoft
Encarta Online Encyclopedia (2008), http://encarta.msn.com, © 1997–2008 Microsoft Corporation]. Between 1003
and 1526, Transylvania was a voivodeship of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivode appointed by the Hungarian
King. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom which, in
1571, was transformed into the Principality of Transylvania (1571–1711) ruled primarily by Calvinist Hungarian
princes. For most of this period, Transylvania, maintaining its internal autonomy, was under the suzerainty of the
Ottoman Empire.
The Habsburgs acquired the territory shortly after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The Habsburgs, however, recognized
the Hungarian sovereignty over Transylvania [U.S. Bureau of Intelligence and Research, "International Boundary
Study - No. 47 – April 15, 1965 - Hungary – Romania (Rumania) Boundary,"
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/ LimitsinSeas/IBS047.pdf] [dubious – discuss], while the Transylvanians
recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I (1687), and the region was officially attached to the
Habsburg Empire, separated in all but name [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1459175/DiplomaLeopoldinum; http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/ 603323 /Transylvania] from Habsburg controlled
Hungary [Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1804 (University of Washington Press,
1983), p. 163; John F. Cadzow, Andrew Ludanyi, Louis J. Elteto, Transylvania: The Roots of Ethnic Conflict (Kent
State University Press, 1983), p. 79; Paul Lendvai, Ann Major, The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in
Defeat (C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003), p. 146] and subjected to the direct rule of the emperor's governors [
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/ Grand+Principality+of+Transylvania]. In 1699 the Turks legally
conceded their loss of Transylvania in the Treaty of Karlowitz; however, anti-Habsburg elements within the
principality only submitted to the emperor in the 1711 Peace of Szatmár. After the Ausgleich of 1867 the region was
fully reabsorbed into Hungary [Encyclopædia Britannica (2008); Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia (2008)] as
a part of the newly established Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Following defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The ethnic Romanian majority elected
representatives, who then proclaimed union with Romania on December 1, 1918. The "Proclamation of Union" of
Alba Iulia was adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania, and supported one month later by the
vote of the Deputies of the Saxons from Transylvania. In 1920, the Allies confirmed the union in the Treaty of
Trianon. Hungary protested against the detach, as over 1,600,000 Hungarian people [Történelmi világatlasz
(Hungarian: World Atlas of History), (Cartographia, 1998)] were living in the area in question, mainly in Székely
Land of Eastern Transylvania, and along the newly created border, which was drawn through areas with Hungarian
majority. In August 1940, in the midst of World War II, Hungary regained about 40% of Transylvania by the Vienna
Award, with the aid of Germany and Italy. The territory, however, reverted to Romania in 1945; this was confirmed
in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties [Encyclopædia Britannica (2008)].
In distant regions, Transylvania is also often associated with Dracula [Transylvania Society of Dracula Information,
http://www.afn.org/~vampires/tsd.html; The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=
9F0CE6DE143BF931A1575BC0A96595 8260; Romanian Transylvania,
http://www.icromania.com/infoTransylvania.asp] (Bram Stoker's novel and its film adaptations), and the horror
genre in general, while in countries of Central and Eastern Europe the region is known for the scenic beauty of its
Carpathian landscape and its rich history.
Fidel Castro and members of the East German Politburo in June 1972. Original historic description: Berlin, Fidel Castro an der
Grenze. Berlin: Castro/ Die Partei- und Regierungsdelegationen unter Leitung des Ersten Sekretärs der KPK und
Ministerpräsidenten der Revolutionären Regierung der Republik Kuba, Fidel Castro (M), besichtigte am 14.6.1972 die
Staatsgrenze der DDR zu Westberlin. Die Delegation, von Werner Lamberz, Mitglied des Politbüros und Sekretär des ZK der
SED (2.v.l.), und anderen Persönlichkeiten, begleitet, wurde von Generalleutnant Arthur Kunath, Stadtkommandant von Berlin
(2.v.r.), informiert. Rechts: Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, Mitglied des Sekretariats des ZK der KPK und Minister der Revolutionären
Regierung.*
Castro, Fidel
Born Aug. 13, 1926/27, near Birán, Cuba
Political leader of Cuba (from 1959).
Son of a prosperous sugar planter, he became a lawyer and worked on behalf of the poor in Havana. He was a
candidate for Cuba's legislature when Gen. Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government in 1952. He organized a
rebellion against Batista in 1953, but it failed; captured, he served time in prison and then went to Mexico, where he
and others, including Che Guevara, continued to plot Batista's overthrow. Castro led an armed expedition back to
Cuba in 1956; most of his men were killed, but a dozen survivors took refuge in the mountains, where they gradually
managed to organize guerrillas throughout the island. In 1959 Batista was forced to flee the country. Castro
nationalized private commerce and industry and expropriated U.S.-owned land and businesses, vastly expanded
health services and eliminated illiteracy, and ruthlessly suppressed opposition, outlawing all political groups but the
Communist Party. The U.S. attempted to bring about his overthrow and failed (see Bay of Pigs invasion),
precipitating the Cuban missile crisis. Castro exercised total control of the government and economy, which was
increasingly dependent on subsidies from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's collapse (1991) devastated Cuba's
economy, and Castro has attempted to replace its former revenues by encouraging tourism.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician and former president
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1579166/Fidel-Castro-resigns-as-president-of-Cuba.html]. One of the
primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to
December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the president of Council of Ministers
of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He currently serves as First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba, a position he has held since its inception in 1965.
Castro was born into a wealthy family and acquired a law degree. While studying at the University of Havana, he
began his political career and became a recognized figure in Cuban politics [Thomas M. Leonard, Fidel Castro]. His
political career continued with nationalist critiques of the president, Fulgencio Batista, and of the United States'
political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of
the authorities [DePalma, Anthony, The Man Who Invented Fidel (Public Affairs, 2006)]. He eventually led the
failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated, and later released. He
then traveled to Mexico [Bockman, Larry James, "The Spirit Of Moncada: Fidel Castro's Rise To Power, 1953 1959," April 1, 1984, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/BLJ.htm2006-06-13; Sweig, Julia
E., Inside the Cuban Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2002)] to organize and train for an invasion of Cuba to
overthrow Batista's government, which began in December 1956.
Castro subsequently came to power as a result of the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-backed [Jason
Beaubien, "Cuba Marks 50 Years Since 'Triumphant Revolution,'" NPR: All Things Considered, January 1, 2009]
dictatorship of Batista ["Fulgencio Batista," Encyclopædia Britannica,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/56027/Fulgencio-Batista], and shortly thereafter became Prime Minister
of Cuba ["1959: Castro sworn in as Cuban PM," BBC News, February 16, 1959,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories /february/16/newsid_2544000/2 544431.stm]. In 1965 he became
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist
republic. In 1976 he became President of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the
supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.
Following intestinal surgery from an undisclosed digestive illness believed to have been diverticulitis [CNN,
"Spanish newspaper gives more details on Castro condition,"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/17/castro.condition/index.html], Castro transferred his
responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raúl Castro, on July 31, 2006. On February 19,
2008, five days before his mandate was to expire, he announced he would neither seek nor accept a new term as
either president or commander-in-chief [Castro, Fidel, "Mensaje del Comandante en Jefe," Granma, Februar 19,
2008, http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/pdf/pagina1.pdf; Castro, Fidel "Message from the Commander in Chief,"
Granma, February 19, 2008, http://granma.cu/ingles/2008/febrero/mar19/mensaje-i.html]. On February 24, 2008, the
National Assembly elected Raúl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7261204.stm].
Public image. By wearing military-style uniforms and leading mass demonstrations, Castro projected an image of a
perpetual revolutionary. He was mostly seen in military attire, but his personal tailor, Merel Van 't Wout, convinced
him to occasionally change to a business suit ["In brief," Arizona Daily Wildcat, February 10, 1995, http://securewildcat.arizona.edu/ /papers/old-wildcats/spring95/February/February10, 1995/01_5_m.html]. Castro is often
referred to as "Comandante," but is also nicknamed "El Caballo," meaning "The Horse," a label that was first
attributed to Cuban entertainer Benny Moré, who on hearing Castro passing in the Havana night with his entourage,
shouted out "Here comes the horse [Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History (Yale Press), p. 175]!"
During the revolutionary campaign, fellow rebels knew Castro as "The Giant [Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara: A
Revolutionary Life, p. 317]." Large throngs of people gathered to cheer at Castro's fiery speeches, which typically
lasted for hours. Many details of Castro's private life, particularly involving his family members, are scarce as the
media is forbidden to mention them [Admservice, "Fidel Castro's Family," August 10, 2000,
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/fidel/castro-family.htm]. Castro's image appears frequently in Cuban stores,
classrooms, taxicabs, and national television ["Americas: Ailing Castro still dominates Cuba," BBC News, August
11, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4779529.stm]. Despite this, Castro has stated that he does not
promote a cult of personality ["Fidel Castro," PBS Online Newshour, February 12, 1985].
As a comment on Castro’s recovery, U.S. President George W. Bush said: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel
Castro away," Hearing about this, Castro, who is an atheist, ironically replied: "Now I understand why I survived
Bush's plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me ["Bush
wishes Cuba's Castro would disappear," Reuters, June 28 2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2834938420070629]."
In January 2009 Castro asked Cubans not to worry about his lack of recent news columns, his failing health, and not
to be disturbed by his future death [Govan, Fiona, "Fidel Castro sends farewell message to his people," London: The
Daily Telegraph, January 23, 2009,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/ 4324128/Fidel-Castro-sendsfarewell-message-to-his-people.html]. At the same time pictures were released of Castro's meeting with the
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on January 21, 2009 ["Fidel contemplates his mortality," BBC News, January
23, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7846670.stm].
"I'm really happy to reach 80. I never expected it, not least having a neighbor - the greatest power in the world trying to kill me every day."
— Fidel Castro, July 21, 2006 [Anthony Boadle, "Fidel Castro: 20th Century Revolutionary," Reuters, February 19,
2008]
Retirement. In a letter dated February 18, 2008, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of president
and commander in chief at the February 24, 2008 National Assembly meetings, saying "I will not aspire nor accept—
I repeat I will not aspire or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief [Castro,
Fidel (February 18, 2008). "Message from the Commander in Chief," Diario Granma (Comité Central del Partido
Comunista de Cuba), Februar 18, 2008, http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu /2008/02/19/nacional /artic10.html],"
effectively announcing his retirement from official public life ["Fidel Castro announces retirement," BBC News,
February 18, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/ 7252109.stm; "Fidel Castro stepping down as Cuba's
leader," Reuters, Febrary 18, 2008, http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN929511.html; "Fidel Castro will step
down after 50 years at Cuba's helm," Miami Herald, February 19, 2008,
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/424291.html]. The letter was published online by the official
Communist Party newspaper Granma. In it, Castro stated that his health was a primary reason for his decision, stating
that "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not
in a physical condition to offer ["Fidel Castro announces retirement," BBC News, February 19, 2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7252109 .stm]."
On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously chose his brother, Raúl Castro, as
Fidel's successor as President of Cuba [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi /americas/7261204.stm] In his first speech as
Fidel’s successor, he proposed to the National Assembly of People's Power that Fidel continue to be consulted on
matters of great importance, such as defence, foreign policy and "the socioeconomic development of the country."
The proposal was immediately and unanimously approved by the 597 members of the National Assembly. Raúl
described Fidel as "not substitutable ["CUBA: Raúl Shares His Seat with Fidel," http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?
idnews=41321]." Castro also remains the First Secretary of the Communist Party ["Raul Castro Chosen to Lead
Cuba," Voice of America, February 24, 2008, http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-24-voa16.cfm].
Since his retirement, Castro has written a regular column in Granma called "Reflections", in which he writes on
world affairs, and has occasionally made pre-taped appearances on television greeting visitors such as Hugo Chavez
in his room. In July 2010, he made his first public appearance greeting workers at a science centre and gave his most
prominent television interview since falling ill, on the Cuban program Mesa Redondo (World Affairs) speaking for
an extended period about tensions between the United States, Iran and North Korea ["Fidel Castro makes rare TV
appearance," Globe and Mail, July 12, 2010].
Curly takes it in the ear in 1938's Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb. This photo remains one of the most popular publicity
shots of the team. ©Columbia Pictures, 1938.*
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for
their numerous short subject films. They were commonly known by their first names: "Larry, Moe, and Curly", and
"Moe, Larry, and Shemp", among other lineups. The act originally featured Moe Howard (born Harry [Moshe]
Moses Horwitz), brother Shemp Howard (born [Shmuel] Samuel Horwitz [http://www.stoogeworld.com/
_Biographies/Shemp.htm]), and longtime friend Larry Fine (born Louis [Levi] Feinberg). Shemp was later replaced
by brother Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester [Yehudah-Leib] Horwitz) in 1933. When Curly suffered a debilitating
stroke in 1946, Shemp rejoined the act. After Shemp's death in 1955, he was replaced by bald-headed comedian Joe
Besser, after the use of stuntman Joe Palma to record several "Shemp" shorts after his death. Eventually Joe "CurlyJoe" DeRita (born Joseph Wardell) would replace him. After Larry suffered a serious stroke in 1970 he was unable
to continue performing. Emil Sitka, a longtime actor in Stooge comedies, was contracted to replace Larry—but no
film was ever made with him in the role, although publicity photographs exist of him with his hair combed similarly
to Larry's posing with Moe and Curly-Joe. However, Larry's paralyzing stroke in 1970 effectively marked the end of
the act. He died in January 1975. Moe died of cancer a few months later. The Stooges' hallmark was physical
slapstick comedy punctuated by quickly-delivered one-liners, within outrageous storylines.
Television broadcasts and rights issues. A handful of Three Stooges shorts first aired on television in 1949, on the
American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network. It was not until 1958 that Screen Gems packaged 78 shorts for
national syndication; the package was gradually enlarged to encompass the entire library of 190 shorts. In 1959,
KTTV in Los Angeles purchased the Three Stooges films for air, but by the early 1970s, rival station KTLA began
airing the Stooges films, keeping them in the schedule until early 1994. The Family Channel (now ABC Family) ran
the shorts as part of their Stooge TV block from February 19, 1996 to January 2, 1998. In the late 1990s, AMC had
held the rights to the Three Stooges shorts, originally airing them under the Stooges Playhouse block, but replacing it
in 1999 with N.Y.U.K. (New Yuk University of Knuckleheads). Featuring host Leslie Nielsen in the form of a college
instructor, the block aired several shorts often grouped by a theme, such as similar schticks used in different films.
Although the block was discontinued after AMC revamped their format in 2002, the network still ran Stooges shorts
occasionally. The AMC run ended when Spike TV picked them up in 2004, airing them in their Stooges Slap-Happy
Hour. By 2007, the network had discontinued the block. Although Spike did air Stooges shorts for a brief period of
time after the block was cancelled, as of late April 2008, Three Stooges has disappeared from the network's schedule
entirely. The Three Stooges returned on December 31, 2009 on AMC, starting with the "Countdown with the
Stooges" New Year's Eve marathon. AMC planned to put several episodes on their website in 2010.
Since the 1990s Columbia and its television division's successor, Sony Pictures Television, has preferred to license
the Stooges shorts to cable networks, precluding the films from being shown on local broadcast TV. Two stations in
Chicago and Boston, however, signed long-term syndication contracts with Columbia years ago and have declined to
terminate them. Thus, WWME-CA in Chicago currently airs all 190 Three Stooges shorts on Stooge-a-Palooza,
hosted by Rich Koz, and WSBK-TV in Boston airs Stooge shorts and feature films. KTLA-TV in Los Angeles
dropped the shorts in 1994, but brought them back in 2007 as part of a special retro-marathon commemorating the
station's 50th anniversary. Since that time, the station's original 16mm Stooges film prints have aired occasionally as
part of mini-marathons on holidays.
Some of the Stooge films have been colorized by two separate companies. The first colorized DVD releases,
distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, were prepared by West Wing Studios in 2004. The following
year, Legend Films colorized the public domain shorts "Malice in the Palace," "Sing a Song of Six Pants," "Disorder
in the Court," and "Brideless Groom." The latter two shorts also appear on two of West Wing's colorized releases. In
any event, the Columbia-produced shorts (aside from the public domain films) are handled by Sony Pictures
Entertainment, while the MGM Stooges shorts are owned by Warner Bros. via their Turner Entertainment division.
Sony offers 21 of the shorts on their web platform Crackle, along with eleven Minisodes. Meanwhile, the rights to
the Stooges' feature films rests with the studios that originally produced them (Columbia/Sony for the Columbia
films, and 20th Century Fox for the Fox films).
Original Film Poster (source: www.impawards.com).*
Serpico
Serpico is a 1973 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the true story of New York City
policeman Frank Serpico. Serpico eventually went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after
being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and intimidation they leveled against him. It
stars Al Pacino, John Randolph and Tony Roberts.
Production. Prior to any work on the movie, producer Martin Bregman had lunch with biographical book author
Peter Maas to discuss a film adaptation. Waldo Salt, a screenwriter, began to write the script which director Sidney
Lumet deemed to be too long. Another screenwriter, Norman Wexler, did the structural work followed by play lines.
Screenwriter Sidney Kingsley also wrote and did structural work on the script.
Director John G. Avildsen was originally slated to direct the movie, but was removed from production due to
differences with producer Bregman. Lumet took the helm as director just before filming. The real-life Frank Serpico
wished to be present during the filming of the movie based on his life. Initially he was permitted to stay, but was
eventually dismissed from the filming, as director Lumet was worried that his presence would make the actors
(particularly lead actor Al Pacino) self-conscious.
The story was filmed in the streets of New York City. A total of 105 different locations in four of the five boroughs
of the city were used. No filming took place in Staten Island. An apartment at 5-7 Minetta Street in Manhattan's
Greenwich Village was used as Serpico's residence, though according to the Peter Maas book he actually lived on
Perry Street during the events depicted in the film. Lewisohn Stadium, which was closed at the time of filming, was
used for one scene.
As the storyline needed to show the progression of Frank Serpico's beard and hair length, individual scenes were
filmed in reverse order, with actor Al Pacino's hair being trimmed for each scene set earlier in the film's timeline.
Woodie King Jr., originally cast as a hoodlum, was replaced after suffering a broken leg while filming a chase scene
for this movie. He returned to the set two months later to play Leslie's friend Larry in the party scene.
The original music theme was composed by Mikis Theodorakis, nominated for both a Grammy and a BAFTA award.
Its Greek name is Dromoi Palioi.
The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Al Pacino) and Best Writing,
Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. Pacino won his first Golden Globe award for Best Actor in
1974 for his performance in the film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070666/awards].
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
(1930). U.S. legislation that raised import duties by as much as 50%, adding considerable strain to the worldwide
economic climate of the Great Depression. Despite a petition from 1,000 economists urging Pres. Herbert Hoover to
veto the act, it was passed as a protective measure for domestic industries. It contributed to the early loss of
confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. Other countries retaliated with similarly high protective
tariffs, and overseas banks began to collapse. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Trade Agreements Act,
which reduced such tariffs.
The Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff (P.L. 71-361, officially named, the Tariff Act of 1930) [Ch. 497,
46 Stat. 590, June 17, 1930, see 19 U.S.C. § 1654] was an act signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S.
tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels [Taussig, F. W., The Tariff History of the United States, 8th
Ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931), http://www.mises.org/etexts/taussig.pdf].
The overall level tariffs under the Tariff were the second-highest in US history, exceeded only (by a small margin)
by the Tariff of 1828 [Paul Krugman, "WWS 543: Class notes, 2/17/10: Presentation, Slide 4,"
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/wws-543-class-notes-21710/] and the ensuing retaliatory tariffs by
U.S. trading partners reduced American exports and imports by more than half. Some economists have opined that
the tariffs contributed to the severity of the Great Depression ["Hawley-Smoot Tariff," U.S. Department of State,
http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1921_timeline/smoot_tariff.html;
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/id/17606.htm; See Wikipedia article, Causes of the Great Depression:
Protectionism, for further discussion].
Sponsors and legislative history. The main goal was to protect American jobs and farmers from foreign competition,
especially after the global economy entered the first stages of the Great Depression in late 1929. In 1922, Congress
had passed the Fordney-McCumber tariff act, which had increased tariffs. Reed Smoot in 1929 championed yet
another tariff increase, which became the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill. In his memoirs, Smoot made it abundantly clear
[Merill, Milton, Reed Smoot: Apostle in Politics (Logan, UT: Utah State Press, 1990), p. 340]:
"The world is paying for its ruthless destruction of life and property in the World War and for its failure to adjust
purchasing power to productive capacity during the industrial revolution of the decade following the war."
Smoot was a Republican from Utah and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Willis C. Hawley, a Republican
from Oregon, was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
When campaigning for president during 1928, one of Herbert Hoover's promises to help beleaguered farmers had
been to increase tariffs of agricultural products. Hoover won, and Republicans maintained comfortable majorities in
the House and the Senate during 1928. Hoover then asked Congress for an increase of tariff rates for agricultural
goods and a decrease of rates for industrial goods.
The House passed a version of the act in May 1929, increasing tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods alike. The
Senate debated its bill until March 1930, with many Senators trading votes based on their states' industries. The
conference committee then aligned the two versions, largely by moving to the greater House tariffs ["The Battle of
Smoot-Hawley," The Economist, December 18, 2008, http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=12798595].
Opponents. In May 1930, a petition was signed by 1,028 economists in the U.S. asking President Hoover to veto the
legislation, organized by Paul Douglas, Irving Fisher, James T. F. G. Wood, Frank Graham, Ernest Patterson, Henry
Seager, Frank Taussig, and Clair Wilcox ["1,028 Economists Ask Hoover To Veto Pending Tariff Bill: Professors in
179 Colleges and Other Leaders Assail Rise in Rates as Harmful to Country and Sure to Bring Reprisals," The New
York Times, May 5, 1930, http://www.clubforgrowth.org/media/uploads/smooth%20hawley%20ny%20times%
2005% 2005%2030.pdf; "Economists Against Smoot-Hawley", Econ Journal Watch, September 2007,
http://econjwatch.org/issues/volume-4-issue-3-september-2007]. Automobile executive Henry Ford spent an evening
at the White House trying to convince Hoover to veto the bill, calling it "an economic stupidity ["Shades of SmootHawley," Time Magazine, October 7, 1985, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960038,00.html]." J.
P. Morgan's chief executive Thomas W. Lamont said he "almost went down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to
veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot tariff [Chernow, Ron, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the
Rise of Modern Finance (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990), p. 323]."
Hoover opposed the bill and called it "vicious, extortionate, and obnoxious" because he felt it would undermine the
commitment he had pledged to international cooperation. Later events would reveal Hoover was right: the
international community levied their own tariffs in retaliation after the bill had become law. However, in spite of his
opposition, Hoover yielded to influence from his own party and business leaders and signed the bill [Sobel, Robert,
The Age of Giant Corporations: A Microeconomic History of American Business, 1914-1970 (Westport: Greenwood
Press, 1972), pp. 87–88].
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke against the act while campaigning for president during 1932 [The Economist, December
18, 2008].
Retaliation. Threats of retaliation began long before the bill was enacted into law in June 1930. As it passed the
House of Representatives in May 1929, boycotts broke out and foreign governments moved to increase rates against
American products, even though rates could be increased or decreased by the Senate or by the conference committee.
By September 1929, Hoover's administration had received protest notes from 23 trading partners, but threats of
retaliatory actions were ignored [ibid].
In May 1930, the greatest trading partner, Canada, retaliated by imposing new tariffs on 16 products that accounted
altogether for around 30% of U.S. exports to Canada [Brown, Wilson B. & Hogendorn, Jan S., International
Economics: In the Age of Globalization (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 246]. Canada later also
forged closer economic links with the British Commonwealth. France and Britain protested and developed new trade
partners. Germany developed a system of autarky.
Both Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley were defeated for reelection in 1932, the controversial tariff being a major
factor in their respective losses.
Economic effects. At first, the tariff seemed to be a success. According to historian Robert Sobel, "Factory payrolls,
construction contracts, and industrial production all increased sharply." However, larger economic problems loomed
in the guise of weak banks. When the Kredit-Anstalt Bank of Austria failed in 1931, the global deficiencies of the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff became apparent [Sobel (1972), pp. 87–88].
U.S. imports decreased 66% from US$4.4 billion (1929) to US$1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from
US$5.4 billion to US$2.1 billion, both decreases much more than the 50% decrease of the GDP.
According to government statistics, U.S. imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1,334 million to just
$390 million during 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe decreased from $2,341 million in 1929 to $784 million in
1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934 ["Smoot-Hawley Tariff", U.S.
Department of State, June 21, 2003, http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1921_timeline/smoot_tariff.html].
There is not universal agreement about the effect of the tariff. According to the U.S. Statistical Abstract, the effective
tariff rate was 13.5% in 1929 and 19.8% in 1933 with 63% of all imports being duty-free. From 1821-1900, the U.S.
averaged 29.7% effective tariff rates and peaked in 1830 at 57.3% with only 8% of all imports being duty-free,
dwarfing the Smoot-Hawley rate. In addition, imports during 1929 were only 4.2% of the United States' GNP and
exports were only 5.0%. For monetarist authors who consider the Great Depression an effect of the monetary policy
of the Federal Reserve, the Smoot-Hawley's effect on the entire U.S. economy was small compared to monetary
policy. By 1937, the effective tariff rate was reduced to 15.6% when the reaction of 1937–1938 occurred,
demonstrating no statistical correlation between this economic downturn and tariff levels. Senator Robert L. Owen
testified at the hearings on HR 7230, the bill to make the Federal Reserve banks a national property, that "In 1937,
when the Federal Reserve Board called upon the banks to raise their reserves to twice what they had been before,
there was a contraction of credit of two billion dollars [Mullins, Eustace, The Federal Reserve Conspiracy
(Hawthorne, CA: Omni Publications, 1971), p. 122].
Using panel data estimates of export and import equations for 17 countries, Jakob B. Madsen (2002) estimated the
effects of increasing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers on worldwide trade during the period 1929–1932. He
concluded that real international trade contracted somewhere around 33% overall. His estimates of the impact of
various factors included about 14% because of declining GNP in each country, 8% because of increases in tariff
rates, 5% because of deflation-induced tariff increases, and 6% because of the imposition of nontariff barriers.
The new tariff imposed an effective tax rate of 60% on more than 3,200 products and materials imported into the
United States," quadrupling previous tariff rates.
Although the tariff act was passed after the stock-market crash of 1929, some economic historians consider the
political discussion leading up to the passing of the act a factor in causing the crash, the recession that began in late
1929, or both, and its eventual passage a factor in deepening the Great Depression [Beaudreau, Bernard, The First
Policy Response: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill of 1929 - How the Republicans Caused the Stock Market Crash of
1929 (New York: iUniverse, 2005), pp. 78–89]. Unemployment was at 7.8% in 1930 when the Smoot-Hawley tariff
was passed, but it jumped to 16.3% in 1931, 24.9% in 1932, and 25.1% in 1933 [U.S. Bureau of the Census: Social
Science Research Council, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington, DC:
Govt. Print. Office, 1960) p. 70].
End of the tariffs. As a result of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and other countries' responses to it, the world after World
War II saw a push towards multi-lateral trading agreements that would prevent a similar situation from unfolding.
This led to the Bretton Woods Agreement, in 1944, a great lessening of global tariffs starting in December 1945, and
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in the 1950s [World Trade Organisation, "Understand the WTO: The
GATT years: from Havana to Marrakesh," http://www.wto.org/English/thewto_e/whatis_e /tif_e/fact4_e.htm ].
However, the American Tariff League Study of 1951 which compared the effective tariff levels of 43 countries found
that only seven countries had a lower tariff level than the U.S. (5.1%). Eleven countries had effective tariff rates
higher than the Smoot-Hawley peak of 19.8% including the United Kingdom (25.6%). The 43-country average was
14.4% ± 0.9% higher than the U.S. level of 1929.
In addition to tariffs, many countries implemented non-tariff barriers to protect their industries in the aftermath of
World War II after experiencing the dangers of dependence on imports for vital supplies brought about by free-trade
policies. Many nations felt the negative effects of embargoes, naval blockades and submarine warfare upon their
national security. An example of this involved Britain and France importing all of their watches and clocks from
Switzerland and Germany prior to World War II. They discovered that the lack of a watch industry was a great
handicap in building defense equipment during the war. Both nations determined never to be without a watch
industry again and placed embargoes on watch imports after World War II [Lloyd, Lewis E., Tariffs: The Case For
Protection (New York: Devin-Adair, 1955), pp. 137–139].
Non-tariff barriers would become more important in the post-WW II reconstruction period. Japan for example, with
an effective tariff rate of 1.6% in 1951 would put many non-tariff barriers in place. In June 1952, Japan's "Basic
Policy for the Introduction of Foreign Investment into Japan's Passenger Car Industry" placed quotas, tariffs and
commodity taxes on imports that closed the Japanese automobile market to American manufacturers for nearly two
decades [Kaplan, Eugene J., Japan: The Government-Business Relationship (Washington, DC: Bureau of
International Commerce, February 1972), pp. 111–112]. Japan would also make extensive use of licensing
agreements which would transfer foreign technology to Japan in exchange for limited market access as in the case of
the U.S. television industry. With Japan's home market protected, Japanese manufacturers could make large profits at
home to offset the cost of selling their goods at reduced prices in foreign markets (dumping).
MfS HQ in Lichtenberg (http://www.bstu.bund.de/DE/Archiv/Archivfuehrungen/Bilder/archivfuehrung__be rlin__
1,property=default.jpg).*
Stasi
officially Staatssicherheit (“State Security”)
Secret police of East Germany (1950–90), established with Soviet help by German communists in Soviet-occupied
Germany after World War II. It was responsible for both domestic political surveillance and espionage. At its peak,
it employed 85,000 officers full-time. Using hundreds of thousands of informers, it monitored one-third of the
population. Most of its foreign operations were focused on West Germany—whose governing circles and military
and intelligence services it successfully penetrated—and West Germany's NATO allies. The Stasi was disbanded
after German reunification. In 1991 the newly reunified German government passed the Stasi Records Law, under
which East German citizens and foreigners were granted the right to view their Stasi files. By the early 21st century,
more than 1.5 million individuals had done so.
The Ministry for State Security, (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, commonly known as the Stasi (IPA:
[ˈˈtaziˈ]) (abbreviation German: Staatssicherheit, literally State Security), was the official state security service of
East Germany. The MfS was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and
several smaller facilities throughout the city. It was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive
intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The MfS motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and
Sword of the Party), that is the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).
Creation of the MfS. The MfS was founded on 8 February 1950. It was modeled on the Soviet MGB, and was
regarded by the Soviet Union as an extremely loyal and effective partner. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of
State Security of the GDR, and Erich Mielke his deputy. Zaisser, who tried to depose SED General Secretary Walter
Ulbricht after the June 1953 uprising [Peter Greider, The East German Leadership, 1946-73: Conflict and Crisis
(Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 53-85] was after this removed by Ulbricht and replaced by Ernst
Wollweber. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded by his
deputy, Erich Mielke.
Also in 1957, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) (General Reconnaissance
Administration), its foreign intelligence section. As intelligence chief, Wolf achieved great success in penetrating the
government, political and business circles of West Germany with spies. The most influential case was that of Günter
Guillaume which led to the downfall of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in May 1974. In 1986, Wolf retired
and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann.
Although Mielke's Stasi was superficially granted independence in 1957, until 1990 the KGB continued to maintain
liaison officers in all eight main Stasi directorates, each with his own office inside the Stasi's Berlin compound, and
in each of the fifteen Stasi district headquarters around East Germany [Koehler, John O., Stasi: The Untold Story of
the East German Secret Police (Westview Press, 2000), p. 74]. Collaboration was so close that the KGB invited the
Stasi to establish operational bases in Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East German tourists and Mielke
referred to the Stasi officers as "Chekists of the Soviet Union [ibid]." In 1978, Mielke formally granted KGB officers
in East Germany the same rights and powers they enjoyed in the Soviet Union [ibid].
Domestic influence. The MfS infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR life. In the mid-1980s, a network of IMs began
growing in both German states; by the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, the MfS employed 91,015 employees
and 173,081 informants [Gieseke, Jens, Die DDR-Staatssicherheit (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2001), p.
54]. About one of every 63 East Germans collaborated with the MfS – one of the most extensive police infiltrations
of a society in history. In 2007 an article in BBC stated that "Some calculations have concluded that in East Germany
there was one informer to every seven citizens ["Computers to solve stasi puzzle," BBC News, May 25, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6692895.stm]." Additionally, MfS agents infiltrated and undermined West
Germany's government and spy agencies.
The MfS monitored political behavior among GDR citizens, and is known to have used torture and intimidation to
mute dissent. During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, MfS offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before
the MfS destroyed a number of documents (approximately 5%)
[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi]. When the remaining files were published for
review, many people learned that their friends, colleagues, spouses, and relatives had regularly filed reports with the
MfS. These wounds on society have not yet entirely healed.
In 1999, an article in Der Spiegel alleged that the MfS intentionally irradiated political prisoners with high-dose
radiation, possibly to provoke cancer in them ["Dissidents say MfS gave them cancer," BBC News, May 25, 1999,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/352461.stm].
Controversy of the MfS files. With the German Reunification on 3 October 1990 a new government agency was
founded called the Office of the Federal Commissioner Preserving the Records of the Ministry for State Security of
the GDR (BStU) ["Functions of the BStU," from the English version of the official BStU website,
http://www.bstu.bund.de/cln_029/nn_710332/EN/Office/office__node.html__nnn=tr ue]. There was a debate about
what should happen to the files, whether they should be opened to the people or kept closed.
Those who opposed opening the files cited privacy as a reason. They felt that the information in the files would lead
to negative feelings about former Stasi members, and, in turn, cause violence. Pastor Rainer Eppelmann, who
became Minister of Defense and Disarmament after March 1990, felt that new political freedoms for former Stasi
members would be jeopardized by acts of revenge. Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere even went so far as to predict
murder. They also argued against the use of the files to capture former Stasi members and prosecute them, arguing
that not all former members were criminals and should not be punished solely for being a member. There were also
some who believed that everyone was guilty of something. Peter Michael Diestel, the Minister of Interior, opined
that these files could not be used to determine innocence and guilt, claiming that "there were only two types of
individuals who were truly innocent in this system, the newborn and the alcoholic." Other opinions, such as the one
of West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, believed in putting the Stasi behind them and working on
German reunification.
Others argued that everyone should have the right to see their own file, and that the files should be opened to
investigate former Stasi members and prosecute them, as well as not allow them to hold office. Opening the files
would also help clear up some of the rumors that were floating around. Some also believed that politicians involved
with the Stasi should be investigated.
The fate of the files was finally decided under the Unification Treaty between the GDR and Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG). This treaty took the Volkskammer law further and allowed more access and use of the files. Along
with the decision to keep the files in a central location in the East, they also decided who could see and use the files,
allowing people to see their own files.
In 1992, following a declassification ruling by the German government, the MfS files were opened, leading people to
look for their files. Timothy Garton Ash, an English historian, after reading his file, wrote The File: A Personal
History while completing his dissertation research in East Berlin [Information about The File,
http://www.timothygartonash.com/books.html].
Between the years 1990 and 1993, over two million individuals, mostly GDR citizens, requested to see their own
files. The ruling also gave people the ability to make duplicates of their documents. Another big issue was how the
media could use and benefit from the documents. It was decided that the media could obtain files as long as they
were depersonalized and not regarding an individual under the age of 18 or a former Stasi member. This ruling not
only gave the media access to the files, but also gave schools access.
See also Fulbrook, Mary, The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (London: Yale
University Press, 2005); Müller-Enbergs, Helmut, IM Statistik 1985-1989 (Links-Verlag, 1993, 1996).
The Birth of Old Glory by Edward Percy Moran (c. 1917), depicting the presentation by Betsy Ross of the first
American flag to George Washington.*
Old Glory (Betsy Ross)
orig. Elizabeth Griscom
Born Jan. 1, 1752, Philadelphia, Pa.
Died Jan. 30, 1836, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
American patriot.
Betsy Ross worked as a seamstress and upholsterer, carrying on her husband's upholstery business after he was killed
in the American Revolution. According to legend, in 1776 she was visited by George Washington, Robert Morris,
and her husband's uncle George Ross, who asked her to make a flag for the new nation based on a sketch by
Washington. She is supposed also to have suggested the use of the five-pointed star rather than the six-pointed one
chosen by Washington. Though Ross did make flags for the navy, no firm evidence supports the legend of the
national flag. In 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the U.S. flag.
The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the flag of the United States popularly attributed to Betsy Ross using the
common motifs of alternating red-and-white striped field with white stars in a blue canton. The flag was designed
during the American Revolution and features 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies. The distinctive feature of
the Ross flag is the arrangement of the five-pointed stars in a circle.
Although most flag historians do not believe Betsy Ross to be the maker of the first American flag, the Betsy Ross
story has become publicized and common, accepted by many Americans. According to the legend, the original Betsy
Ross flag was made on July 4, 1776, when a small committee—including George Washington and George Ross, a
relative of hers—visited Betsy and discussed the need for a new American flag. Betsy's contribution to the design
was a five-pointed star (instead of a six-pointed star, as Francis Hopkinson used), and she accepted the job to sew the
first.
An important distinction must be made between the Betsy Ross legend of the flag's origin, and the actual historicity
of the design. The flag was in use by 1777. Alfred B. Street described it at the surrender of General Burgoyne and
understood the circle of stars to represent equality among the American states [Znamierowski, Alfred, The World
Encyclopedia of Flags (Anness Publishing Ltd, 2002)]. It is one of the oldest versions of any U.S. flag known to
exist; while it is not the oldest surviving flag artifact in cloth form, its likeness appears on older physical relics,
namely, the contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale. They depict the circular
star arrangement being flown from ship masts and many other places, and thus provide the first known historical
documentation on the flag's appearance.
See also Leepson, Marc, Flag: An American Biography (2004); Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The
Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf); and http://www.united-states-flag.com/first-american-flag.html
Myth and Memory. Research conducted by the Smithsonian National Museum of America History notes that the
story of Betsy Ross making the first American flag for General George Washington entered into American
consciousness about the time of the 1876 Centennial celebrations [Lonn Taylor, Kathleen M. Kendrick, and Jeffery
L. Brodie, The Star-Spangled Banner (New York: Smithsonian Books/Collins Publishing, 2008]. In 1870 Ross's
grandson, William J. Canby, presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in which he claimed that his
grandmother had "made with her hands the first flag" of the United States. Canby said he first obtained this
information from his aunt Clarissa Sydney (Claypoole) Wilson in 1857, twenty years after Betsy Ross's death. The
historic episode supposedly occurred in late May or early June 1776, a year before Congress passed the Flag Act.
In their 2008 book The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon, the Smithsonian experts point out
that Canby's recounting of the event appealed to Americans eager for stories about the Revolution and its heroes and
heroines. Betsy Ross was promoted as a patriotic role model for young girls and a symbol of women's contributions
to American history [see further reading]. This line of enquiry is further explored by award-winning historian Laurel
Thatcher Ulrich in a 2007 article "How Betsy Ross Became Famous: Oral Tradition, Nationalism, and the Invention
of History" [http://common-place.org/vol-08/no-01/ulrich]."
Further reading: Chanko, Pamela, Betsy Ross: The Story of Our Flag (Easy Reader Biographies, 2007); Cohon,
Rhody, Stacia Deutsch, and Guy Francis, Betsy Ross' Star (Blast to the Past, 2007); Cox, Vicki, Betsy Ross: A Flag
For A Brand New Nation (Leaders of the American Revolution, 2005); Harker, John B., Betsy Ross's Five Pointed
Star (Museum Images & Exhibits, 2005); Harkins, Susan Sales and William H. Harkins, Betsy Ross (Profiles in
American History, 2006); Mader, Jan, Betsy Ross, (First Biographies, 2007); Mara, Wil, Betsy Ross, Rookie
Biographies, 2006).
~ page 300 ~
Interpol
Officially International Criminal Police Organization
International organization whose purpose is to fight international crime. Interpol promotes the widest possible mutual
assistance between the criminal police authorities of affiliated countries and seeks to establish and develop all
institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary crime. It was founded in
Austria in 1923 with 20 member countries; after World War II its headquarters moved to Paris. By the early 21st
century, its membership exceeded 180 countries. Interpol pursues criminals who operate in more than one country
(e.g., smugglers), those who stay in one country but whose crimes affect other countries (e.g., counterfeiters of
foreign currency), and those who commit a crime in one country and flee to another.
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL ["About INTERPOL,"
http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/default.asp], is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It
was established as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its
common name in 1956.
Its membership of 188 countries provides finance of around $59 million through annual contributions. The
organization's headquarters is in Lyon, France. It is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the
United Nations.
Its current Secretary-General is Ronald Noble, formerly of the United States Treasury. Jackie Selebi, National
Commissioner of the South African Police Service, was president from 2004 but resigned on 13 January 2008, later
being charged in South Africa on three counts of corruption and one of defeating the course of justice. He was
replaced by Arturo Herrera Verdugo, current National Commissioner of Policía de Investigaciones de Chile and
former vice president for the American Zone, who remained acting president until the organization meeting in
October 2008 ["INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi resigns from post,"
http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2008/PR200801.asp], and was subsequently replaced by
Commissioner of Police Singapore Police Force, Khoo Boon Hui.
In order to maintain as politically neutral a role as possible, Interpol's constitution forbids its involvement in crimes
that do not overlap several member countries [http://www.interpol. int/public/icpo/default.asp], or in any political,
military, religious, or racial crimes ["ICPO-INTERPOL Constitution and General Regulations," ICPO Constitution,
Article 3, http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/LegalMaterials/constitution/constitutionG
enReg/constitution.asp#art3]. Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized crime, crimes against
humanity, environmental crime, genocide, war crimes, piracy, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons
smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, child pornography, white-collar crime, computer crime, intellectual
property crime and corruption.
In 2008, the Interpol General Secretariat employed a staff of 588, representing 84 member countries. The Interpol
public website received an average of 2.2 million page visits every month. Interpol issued 3,126 red notices for the
year 2008 which led to the arrest of 718 people ["2008 INTERPOL Annual Report," pp. 15, 45,
http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO /InterpolAtWork/iaw2008.pdf].
~ page 301 ~
Judas Iscariot 1891 by Nikolai Ge.*
Judas Iscariot
Died ca. AD 30.
Disciple who betrayed Jesus. He was one of the original 12 disciples. Judas made a deal with the Jewish authorities
to betray Jesus into their custody; in return for 30 pieces of silver, he brought the armed guard to the Garden of
Gethsemane and identified Jesus with a kiss. He later regretted his deed and committed suicide; according to
Matthew 27, he returned the money to the priests before hanging himself. His surname may mean “man of Kerioth,”
or it may link him to the Sicarii, a band of radical Jewish terrorists.
Judas is mentioned in the synoptic gospels, the Gospel of John and at the beginning of Acts of the Apostles. Mark
also states that the chief priests were looking for a “sly” way to arrest Jesus. They determine not to do so during the
feast because they were afraid that the people would riot; instead, they chose the night before the feast to arrest him.
Satan enters Judas at this time, as described by the Gospel of Luke [BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Luke
22:3].
According to the account given in the Gospel of John, Judas carried the disciples’ money bag [John 12:6] and
betrayed Jesus for a bribe of “thirty pieces of silver [Matthew 26:14]” by identifying him with a kiss—“the kiss of
Judas”—to arresting soldiers of the High Priest Caiaphas, who then turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate’s soldiers.
These “pieces of silver” were most likely intended to be understood as silver Tyrian shekels.
There are two different canonical references to the remainder of Judas’ life:
·
The Gospel of Matthew says that, after Jesus’ arrest by the Roman authorities (but before his execution), the
guilt-ridden Judas returned the bribe to the priests and committed suicide by hanging himself. The priests were
forbidden by Jewish law from returning the money to the treasury so they used it to buy the potter’s field [(Greek,
ton agron tou kerameōs, τˈν αγρˈν τοˈ κεραµέως)] in order to bury strangers. The Gospel (Matthew 27: 9-10)
presents this as fulfilment of prophecy.
·
The Acts of the Apostles (1:18) says that Judas used the bribe to buy a field, but fell down, and burst
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. This field is called Akeldama or Field Of Blood. Acts 1 goes on
to describe how his place among the apostles was subsequently filled by Matthias.
Yet another account was preserved by the early Christian leader, Papias: “Judas walked about in this world a sad
example of impiety; for his body having swollen to such an extent that he could not pass where a chariot could pass
easily, he was crushed by the chariot, so that his bowels gushed out [(Papias, Fragment 3, 1742-1744)].”
In the Gospel of Judas, it is implied that the other Apostles stoned him to death for his perceived betrayal. Raymond
E. Brown gave the contradictory accounts of the death of Judas as an example of an obvious contradiction in the
Bible texts: “Luke’s account of the death of Judas in Acts 1:18 is scarcely reconcilable with Matt 27:3-10 [Raymond
E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, p.114].” This problem was one of the points that caused C. S.
Lewis, for example, to reject the view “that every statement in Scripture must be historical truth [letter to Clyde S.
Kilby, 7 May 1959, quoted in Michael J. Christensen, C. S. Lewis on Scripture (Abingdon, 1979), Appendix A]”.
Various attempts at harmonization have been tried since ancient times [E.g. Alfred Edersheim concluded, "there is
no real divergence," Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 5., xiv, 1883], such as that Judas hanged himself in the
field, and afterwards the rope snapped, and his body burst open on the ground ["Judas," Easton’s Bible Dictionary,
christnotes.org.], or that the accounts of Acts and Matthew refer to two different transactions ["The purchase of ‘the
potter's field,’" Appendix 161 of The Companion Bible].
Modern scholars tend to reject these approaches [Charles Talbert, Reading Acts: A Literary and Theological
Commentary (Smyth & Helwys, 2005) , p. 15; Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary (Eerdmans, 2004),
p. 703], stating that the Matthew account is a midrashic exposition that allows the author to present the event as a
fulfillment of prophetic passages from the Old Testament. They argue that the author adds imaginative details such
as the thirty pieces of silver, and the fact that Judas hangs himself, to an earlier tradition about Judas’s death [Reed,
David A. (2005), "Saving Judas - A Social Scientific Approach to Judas’s Suicide in Matthew 27:3–10," Biblical
Theology Bulletin (2005)].
Matthew’s reference to the death as fulfillment of a prophecy “spoken through Jeremiah the prophet” has caused
some controversy, since it clearly paraphrases a story from the Book of Zechariah (Zechariah 11:12-13) which refers
to the return of a payment of thirty pieces of silver [Vincent P. Branick, Understanding the New Testament and Its
Message (Paulist Press, 1998), pp. 126-128]. Many writers, such as Augustine, Jerome, and John Calvin concluded
that this was an obvious error [Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary (Eerdmans, 2004), p. 710;
Augustine, cited in the Catena Aurea: "It might be then, that the name Hieremias occurred to the mind of Matthew as
he wrote, instead of the name Zacharias, as so often happens;" Jerome, Epistolae 57.7: "This passage is not found in
Jeremiah at all but in Zechariah, in quite different words and an altogether different order;" John Calvin,
Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, 3:177: "The passage itself plainly shows
that the name of Jeremiah has been put down by mistake, instead of Zechariah, for in Jeremiah we find nothing of
this sort, nor any thing that even approaches to it"]. However, some modern writers have suggested that the Gospel
writer also had a passage from Jeremiah in mind [Donald Senior, The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
(Liturgical Press, 1985), pp. 107-108; Anthony Cane, The Place of Judas Iscariot in Christology (Ashgate
Publishing, 2005), p. 50], such as chapters 18 (Jeremiah 18:1–4) and 19 (Jeremiah 19:1–13), which refer to a
potter’s jar and a burial place, and chapter 32 (Jeremiah 32:6-15), which refers to a burial place and an earthenware
jar [see also Maarten J. J. Menken, “'The Old Testament Quotation in Matthew 27,9-10,” Biblica 83 (2002): 9-10].
Icon of John the Baptist by Theophan the Greek, c. 1400.*
John the Baptist, Saint
Born 1st century AD.
Jewish prophet revered in Christianity as the forerunner of Jesus. Sources for his life are the four Gospels, the Acts
of the Apostles, and the historian Josephus. His mother, Elizabeth, was perhaps a relative of Mary; his father was the
priest Zechariah. As a young man, John lived in the Judaean desert, either as a hermit or as part of a Jewish monastic
community such as the Essenes. He attracted much public notice c. AD 28 as a prophet in the Jordan Valley. He
preached the imminent wrathful judgment of God and called on his hearers to repent and be baptized. Jesus himself
came to be baptized by John and shortly afterward began his own mission. John was imprisoned for criticizing the
illegal marriage of Herod Antipas and was executed after Herod's stepdaughter, Salome, demanded his head as a
reward for dancing for the king's guests.
*[Image & caption credit and following text courtesy Wikipedia]:
An account of John the Baptist is found in all extant manuscripts of the Jewish Antiquities (book 18, chapter 5, 2) by
Flavius Josephus (37–100) ["Josephus, Flavius." Cross, F. L., ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
(Oxford University Press, 2005].
Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a
punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and
commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so
to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order
to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the
soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for
they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had
over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing
he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring
himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly
he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there
put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod,
and a mark of God's displeasure to him [Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 18. 5. 2. (translation by William
Whiston)].
As with other passages in Josephus relating to Christian themes, concern remains over whether the passage was part
of Josephus' original text or instead a later interpolation. Skeptical writer Frank Zindler argues that the passage is an
interpolation by a Sabian [Frank R. Zindler, The Jesus The Jews Never Knew: Sepher Toldoth Yeshu and the Quest
of the Historical Jesus in Jewish Sources (AAP, 2003)]. The passage dates to at least the early third century as it is
quoted by Origen in Contra Celsum. It was also quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century.
According to this passage, the execution of John was blamed for a defeat Herod suffered in around 36. Divergences
between the passage's presentation and the Biblical accounts of John include baptism for those whose souls have
already been "purified beforehand by righteousness" is for purification of the body, not general repentance of sin
(Mark 1:4). Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan differentiates between Josephus' account of John and Jesus:
"John had a monopoly, but Jesus had a franchise." To get baptized, Crossan writes, you went only to John. Stopping
the movement meant only stopping John. His movement ended with his death. Jesus invited all to come and see how
he and his companions had already accepted the Government of God, entered it and were living it. Such a communal
praxis was not just for himself, but could survive without him, unlike John's movement [Crossan, John Dominic, God
and Empire (HarperCollins, 2007), p. 117ff ].
Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger.*
Mary Magdalene, Saint
Flourished 1st century, Palestine; feast day July 22.
Follower of Jesus and the first person to see the resurrected Christ. According to Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9, Jesus
cleansed her of seven demons. She accompanied him in Galilee, and she witnessed his Crucifixion and burial. On
Easter morning she went with two other women to anoint the corpse, but the tomb was empty. Christ later appeared
to her and instructed her to tell the Apostles that he was ascending to God. Popular tradition has long associated her
with the repentant prostitute who anointed Christ's feet.
In Luke 8:2-3 Mary Magdalene is mentioned as one of the women who "ministered to Him [Jesus] of their
substance." The same passage also refers briefly to an act of exorcism performed on her, on an occasion when seven
demons were cast out. These women, who earlier "had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities." later accompanied
Jesus on his last journey to Jerusalem (Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:41; Luke 23:55) and were witnesses to the
Crucifixion. Mary remained there until the body was taken down and laid in a tomb prepared for Joseph of
Arimathea. In the early dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, (Matthew
28:1; Mark 16:2; Gospel of Peter 12), came to the sepulchre with sweet spices to anoint the body. They found the
sepulchre empty but saw the "vision of angels" (Matthew 28:5). As the first witness to the empty tomb, Mary
Magdalene went to tell Simon Peter and "the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved" (John 20:1–2) (gaining her
the epithet "apostle to the apostles"), and again immediately returned to the sepulchre. She remained there weeping
at the door of the tomb. According to John she was the first witness of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus, though
at first she did not recognize him. When he said her name she was recalled to consciousness, and cried, Rabboni. She
wanted to cling to him, but he forbade her: John 20:17 "Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet
ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to
My God and your God.''"
This is the last mention in the canonical Gospels of Mary Magdalene, who now returned to Jerusalem. She is
probably included in the group of women who joined the Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem after Jesus'
ascension (Acts 1:14).
Shrine of Saint Thomas in Meliapore, 18th century print.*
Thomas, Saint
Born, probably Galilee.
Died c. AD 53, Madras, India; Western feast day December 21, feast day in Roman and Syrian Catholic churches
July 3, in the Greek church October 6.
One of the Twelve Apostles of Christ. He is best known for requiring physical proof of Jesus' Resurrection before he
could believe it, hence the phrase “doubting Thomas.” When Jesus reappeared and had Thomas touch his wounds,
Thomas became the first person to explicitly acknowledge Jesus' divinity, saying “My Lord and my God.” His
subsequent history is uncertain; he is said to have evangelized Parthia (modern Khorāsān) and even India.
According to local traditions found amongst Saint Thomas Christians, Apostle Thomas reportedly arrived in India
(Kodungallur in Kerala) in 52 AD [Stephen Andrew Missick, “Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the
Assyrian Church and the Christians of St. Thomas in India,” Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies ( )] and later
moved to the east coast of South India fixing his see at Mylapore [Missick], which was then a flourishing city. The
number of converts St. Thomas made having aroused the hostility of the local priests, he reportedly fled from their
anger to the summit of what is now known as St. Thomas's Mount, situated in a direct line four miles to the
southwest of Mylapur, but was followed by his persecutors, who transfixed him with a lance as he prayed kneeling
on a stone, A.D. 72. His body was brought to Mylapore and buried inside the church built by himself. The present
Santhome Church is on this spot. Most of the sources of information on the arrival of Christianity in India are from
the Acts of Thomas and a few more oral traditions recorded on documents in later centuries [Stephen Neill, A
History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707].
From the facts that the Roman Breviary declares St. Thomas to have "crowned the glory of his Apostleship with
martyrdom at Calamina" and that no traces of any Calamina exist, various theories -- some of them probably absurd
-- have been put forward to identify Calamina with Mylapur, or with St. Thomas's Mount. One suggested that
Calamina might be a modification of Cholamandalam (i.e. the kingdom of the Cholas as the surrounding country was
in the beginning of the Christian era). On maturer reflection, he has found it far more reasonable to believe that
Calamina was an ancient town at the foot of the hill at St. Thomas's Mount, that has wholly disappeared, as many
more recent, historic Indian cities have disappeared, built as they were of mud, except for their temples arid palaces
which were of exquisitely wrought stone. This much is certain: till Europeans settled in the place there was no Indian
name even for the hill. This is shown by the present, Indian name, Faranghi Malai 'hill of the Franks', denoting both
the hill and the town around its base, a service which the English name St. Thomas's Mount equally renders.
The local hill was called as Parangi Malai owing to the fact that Red Pumpkins, called as Parangi Kai, grow
profusely in the hill even today. The stretch of Pumpkins extend from the top of the hill to the Officers Training
Academy located close to the downslope of the hill. Almost all hills and hillocks in Tamil Nadu are named only after
their shapes or other features peculiar to that mountain, or local tribal chieftains, such as the hills resembling animals
(Yaanai Malai, Elephant Hill, near Madurai), Valli Malai (Valli Hill near Vellore, named after Valli in the Murugan
lore) or Thirukazhukkundram (The holy hill of eagles, near Mahabalipuram). Alternate hypothesis of the hill being
named after Saint Bhringu have no evidence and such nomenclature based on Vedic saints or ascetics are literally
non-existent throughout that region.
Presence of Yali sculptures in the place of worship atop St. Thomas Mount indicate a Hindu past that was forcefully,
but incompletely smudged by later day believers.
On September 27th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI delivered an address in the Vatican, in which he recalled an ancient
tradition claiming that Thomas first evangelized Syria and Persia; then went on to Western India, from where
Christianity also reached Southern India [“Thomas’s visit under doubt,” The Times of India, 26 Dec 2006; see also
Catholic Times]. Syrian Christians derive status within the caste system from the tradition that they are converted
Namboodiris, who were allegedly evangelized by St. Thomas after he allegedly landed in Kerala in AD 52. But
discrepancy exists in this theory as Namboothiris started settling in Kerala only from 6th century onwards. Since
Pope Benedict XVI's statement was perceived to be a direct violation of their religious beliefs, many Saint Thomas
Christians in India condemned this statement [“Pope Pops St. Thomas bubble in Kerala,” Confederation of Human
Rights Organizations, 24 Nov 2006]. Later, based on the evidences given by Christians from Kerala, the Vatican
amended the published text of the same speech with minor modifications [“Thomas’s visit under doubt,” The Times
of India, 26 Dec 2006; see also Catholic Times].
The Pope's original statement, delivered at St. Peter's, before it was amended on the Vatican website, reflected the
geography of the Acts of Thomas, i.e. Syria, Parthia (Persia/Iran), and Gandhara (Western India/Pakistan).
Jeremiah, detail from a fresco by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, c. 1512.
Jeremiah
Born probably after 650, Anathoth, Judah
Died c. 570 BC, Egypt
Hebrew prophet and reformer, author of the book of Jeremiah. Born into a priestly family in a village near Jerusalem,
he began to preach c. 627 BC, charging his fellow citizens with injustice and false worship and calling on them to
reform. He accurately predicted the destruction of Judah by Babylonia. After Jerusalem fell in 586 and much of its
population was carried into exile, he remained behind under the protection of its new governor. When the governor
was assassinated, Jeremiah was taken to Egypt by Jews who feared reprisals, and he remained there until he died. His
most significant prophecy looked to a time when God would make a new covenant with Israel.
Jeremiah was a Kohen (member of the priestly family) called to the prophetical office when still young; in the
thirteenth year of Josiah (628 BC). He left his native place, Anathoth, to reside in Jerusalem, where he assisted
Josiah in his work of reformation. Jeremiah wrote a lamentation upon the death of this pious king (2 Chr. 35:25).
There is no reference to Jeremiah during the six month reign of Jehoahaz. But in the beginning of the reign of
Jehoiakim, the enmity of the people against the prophet was expressed with persecution.
In his various exhortations, Jeremiah made extensive use of performance art, using props or demonstrations to
illustrate points and engage the public. He walked around wearing a wooden yoke about his neck. He served wine to
a family with a vow of temperance. He bought his family estate in Anathoth while in prison and while the
Babylonians were occupying it.
He remained in Jerusalem, uttering from time to time his words of warning, but without much effect. He was there
when Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon besieged the city (Jer. 37:4, 5), 588 BC, as Jeremiah had prophesied
beforehand. The rumor of the approach of the Egyptians to aid the Jews in this crisis induced the Babylonians to
withdraw, and to return to their own land. However, this siege was raised for only a short time. The prophet, in
answer to his prayer, received a message from God, stating that "the Babylonians would come again, and take the
city, and burn it with fire (37:7, 8).” The princes, in their anger at such a message by Jeremiah, cast him into prison
(37:15-38:13). He was still in confinement when the city was taken (586 BC). The Babylonians released him, and
showed him great kindness, allowing Jeremiah to choose the place of his residence, according to a Babylonian edict.
Jeremiah accordingly went to Mizpah in Benjamin with Gedaliah, who had been made governor of Judea.
Johanan succeeded Gedaliah, who had been assassinated by an Israelite prince in the pay of Ammon "for working
with the Babylonians." Refusing to listen to Jeremiah's counsels, Johanan fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch
ben Neriah, Jeremiah's faithful scribe and servant with him (Jer. 43:6). There, the prophet probably spent the
remainder of his life, still seeking in vain to turn the people to the Lord, from whom they had so long revolted (Jer.
44:1). Some believe he was murdered in Egypt by those angered by his prophecies. It is known that he lived into the
reign of Evil-merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, and may have been about ninety years of age at his death. There is
no authentic record of his death. He may have died at Tahpanhes (he suffered martyrdom there according to the
extra-Biblical Lives of the Prophets), or, according to another tradition, may have gone to Babylon with the army of
Nebuchadrezzar.
Gustave Dore's interpretation of the prophetess Deborah.*
Deborah
Flourished 12th century BC Prophet and heroine of the Hebrew scriptures. Her story is told in the book of Judges.
With her general, Barak, she is credited with defeating the Canaanite armies led by Sisera. The Israelite victory over
the Canaanites, which was aided by a thunderstorm that Israel saw as the coming of God from Mount Sinai, was
celebrated in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), possibly the earliest portion of the Bible.
Little is known about Deborah's personal life. In the Book of Judges, it was stated that she is the wife of Lappidoth
(meaning "torches"). But since this name is not found outside of the Book of Judges, it might simply mean that
Deborah herself was a "fiery" spirit. She was a poet and she rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between
Ramah and Bethel in the land of Benjamin.
Some people today refer to Deborah as the mother of Israel because of the "Song of Deborah" found in Judges 5. In
that chapter, in Judges 5:7, the text reads, "until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." The victory to
which the Bible refers is the victory of the Israelites over the Canaanites. In this battle, Deborah called to Barak to
lead the Israelites into battle. Barak agreed to this only after Deborah agreed to accompany him into battle. Judges
4:9 recounts Deborah's assent to Barak's request: "And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the
journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And
Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh." According to the Biblical account, the Israelites went out to meet
the Canaanite army in battle. When Deborah saw the Canaanite army, she said, according to Judges 4:14: "Up; for
this [is] the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So
Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him." As Deborah prophesied, the Lord gave the
victory to the Israelites, and their leader, Sisera, fled the battle site seeking refuge in the tent of a woman, Jael, who
ultimately killed him. The Biblical account of Deborah ends in Judges 5.
See Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies (New York: Bantam, 1976), pp. 9-10.
~ page 303 ~
Medici
Italian bourgeois family that ruled Florence and later Tuscany from c. 1430 to 1737.
The family, noted for its often tyrannical rulers and its beneficent patrons of the arts, also provided the church with
four popes (Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV, and Leo XI) and married into the royal families of Europe, notably in
France (Catherine de Médicis and Marie de Médicis). The effective founder of the family was Giovanni di Bicci de'
Medici (1360–1429), a merchant who amassed great wealth in trade and was the virtual ruler of Florence from 1421
to 1429. From his two sons derived the major branches of the family. The so-called elder branch began with Cosimo
de' Medici. His grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, greatly expanded the family's power. His
son Giuliano de' Medici became duke de Nemours.
Another son, Giovanni, became Pope Leo X. Lorenzo's great-granddaughter was Catherine de Médicis. Another of
Cosimo's grandsons, Giulio de' Medici (1478–1534) became pope as Clement VII. His probable illegitimate son,
Alessandro de' Medici, a tyrant, was the last of the direct male line of the elder branch. The so-called younger branch
of the family began with Giovanni's younger son Lorenzo de' Medici. His son Giovanni married Caterina Sforza of
the powerful Sforza family, and their son Giovanni de' Medici became a noted general. His son Cosimo I became
duke of Florence, and Cosimo's son Francesco de' Medici (1541–87) was the father of Marie de Médicis. Cosimo I's
grandson Cosimo II (1590–1621) gave up the family practice of banking and commerce. Cosimo II's grandson
Cosimo III (1642–1723) was a weak ruler, under whom Tuscany's power declined. His son Gian Gastone de' Medici
(1671–1737), who died without issue, was the last grand duke of Tuscany.
~ page 304 ~
Statue of Alessandro Manzoni, with a visitor, in Milan.*
Risorigimento
(Italian: “Rising Again”)
Nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification.
Reforms introduced by France into its Italian states in the Napoleonic period remained after the states were restored
to their former rulers in 1815 and provided an impetus for the movement. Secret groups such as Young Italy
advocated Italian unity, and leaders such as Camillo Cavour, who founded the journal Il Risorgimento (1847),
Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Giuseppe Mazzini called for liberal reforms and a united Italy. After the failure of the
Revolutions of 1848, leadership passed to Cavour and Piedmont, which formed an alliance with France against
Austria (1859). The unification of most of Italy in 1861, followed by the annexation of Venetia (1866) and papal
Rome (1870), marked the end of the Risorgimento.
Italian unification (Italian: il Risorgimento, or "The Resurgence") was the political and social movement that
agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack
of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began
in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and ended sometime around 1871 with the
Franco-Prussian War. The last città irredente however, did not join the Kingdom of Italy until after World War I.
As Napoleon's reign began to fail, other national monarchs he had installed tried to keep their thrones by feeding
those nationalistic sentiments, setting the stage for the revolutions to come. Among these monarchs were the viceroy
of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais, who tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the Kingdom of Italy, and
Joachim Murat, who called for Italian patriots' help for the unification of Italy under his rule ["Proclamation of
Rimini," 1815, http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/immagine/00402.htm]. Following the defeat of
Napoleonic France, the Congress of Vienna (1815) was convened to redraw the European continent. In Italy, the
Congress restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, either directly ruled or strongly
influenced by the prevailing European powers, particularly Austria.
At the time, the struggle for Italian unification was perceived to be waged primarily against the Austrian Empire and
the Habsburgs, since they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of present-day
Italy and were the single most powerful force against unification. The Austrian Empire vigorously repressed
nationalist sentiment growing on the Italian peninsula, as well as in the other parts of Habsburg domains. The
Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich, an influential diplomat at the Congress of Vienna, stated that the word
Italy was nothing more than "a geographic expression [Astarita, Tommaso, Between Salt Water And Holy Water: A
History Of Southern Italy (2000), p. 264]."
Artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; and perhaps the most famous of proto-nationalist
works was Alessandro Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). Some read this novel as a thinly veiled
allegorical critique of Austrian rule. The novel was published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years.
The 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort by the
author to provide a language and force people to learn it.
Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the Holy See, particularly after failed attempts to broker a
confederation with the Papal States, which would have left the Papacy with some measure of autonomy over the
region. The pope at the time, Pius IX, feared that giving up power in the region could mean the persecution of Italian
Catholics [E. E. Y. Hales, Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century (P. J.
Kennedy, 1954)].
Even among those who wanted to see the peninsula unified into one country, different groups could not agree on
what form a unified state would take. Vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of
Italian states under rulership of the Pope. His book, Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians, was published in
1843 and created a link between the Papacy and the Risorgimento. Many leading revolutionaries wanted a republic,
but eventually it was a king and his chief minister who had the power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.
End Notes
Ready Reference Library from Encyclopædia Britannica Ready Reference 2005 CD-ROM
(unless otherwise indicated). Copyright 1994-2003 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
*[Image & caption credit and text (if indicated) courtesy of Wikipedia].

ACT-l Signature-xxiii

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