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https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66292/overview	Assessment Overview This is a quiz for Chapter Five. Texas Government Chapter Five Quiz Check your knowledge of Chapter Five by taking the quiz linked below. The quiz will open in a new browser window or tab. This is a quiz for Chapter Five. Check your knowledge of Chapter Five by taking the quiz linked below. The quiz will open in a new browser window or tab.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.152202	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66292/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, The Court System of Texas, Assessment", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88106/overview	The Global War on Terror Overview War on Terror On September 11, 2001 ("9/11"), the United States was struck by a terrorist attack when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four airliners to be used in suicide attacks. They intentionally crashed two into both twin towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon, killing 2,937 victims—206 aboard the three airliners, 2,606 who were in the World Trade Center and on the ground, and 125 who were in the Pentagon. The fourth plane was re-taken by the passengers and crew of the aircraft. While they were not able to land the plane safely, they were able to re-take control of the aircraft and crash it into an empty field in Pennsylvania; this did kill all 44 people on board, including the four terrorists, and this heroic action saved whatever target those terrorists were aiming for. All in all, a total of 2,977 people perished in the attacks. Learning Objectives Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era. Key Terms / Key Concepts al-Qaeda: a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s; widely designated as a terrorist group Taliban: a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country; a group that uses terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals “War on Terror”: designation for the U.S. government’s operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, among other terrorist organizations, in the wake of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks In response to what is now referred to as 9/11, President George W. Bush on September 20 announced a “War on Terror,” focusing on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, along with the groups and countries that assisted them, which included Afghanistan and Iraq. On October 7, 2001, the United States and NATO then invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq failed to stabilize the political situation in the Middle East and contributed to ongoing civil conflicts, with counterterrorism experts arguing that they created circumstances beneficial to the escalation of radical Islamism. The U.S. government also took steps in the U.S. to prevent future attacks. The controversial USA PATRIOT Act increased the government's power to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services. A cabinet-level agency called the Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate federal counter-terrorism activities. Some of these anti-terrorism efforts, particularly the U.S. government's handling of detainees at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, led to allegations against the U.S. government of human rights violations. Iraq War Although explicitly stating that Iraq had "nothing" to do with 9/11, President George W. Bush consistently referred to the Iraq war as “the central front in the war on terror” and argued that if the United States pulled out of Iraq, “terrorists will follow us here.” The reasons for the invasion cited by the Bush administration included the spreading of democracy, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, and the liberation of the Iraqi people. The Bush administration based its rationale for the war principally on the assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and that the Iraqi government posed an immediate threat to the United States and its coalition allies. Select U.S. officials accused Sadam Hussein—the then leader of Iraq—of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end his repressive dictatorship and bring democracy to the people of Iraq. Learning Objectives Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era. Key Terms / Key Concepts Iraq War: 2003-11 conflict between the U.S. and Iraq, at the center of the U.S. "War on Terror". The U.S. invasion of Iraq began this war, and it was subsequently marked by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, replaced by a Shia-led parliamentary republic, and an insurgency against this new government, along with the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, which ended in 2011. The Bush Administration began the Iraq War in March 2003, with the United States, joined by the United Kingdom and several coalition allies, invading Iraq; this prefaced the so-called “shock and awe” bombing campaign. Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed as U.S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Ba'athist government (under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party). President Saddam Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December 2003 and executed by a military court three years later. After the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. And the rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence would later face heavy criticism within the U.S. and internationally. In the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014. The al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the country's Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. These policies and the fact that Iraq was a “nation” cobbled together by WWI allies out of already warring factions, combined with the power vacuum following Saddam's demise and the mismanagement of the occupation, led to widespread sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, as well as a lengthy insurgency against U.S. and coalition forces. The United States responded with a troop surge in 2007. Despite some initial successes early in the invasion, the continued Iraq War fueled international protests and gradually saw a decline in US domestic support, as many people began to question whether or not the invasion was worth the cost. While proponents of the war outside of the Bush Administration regularly echoed the assertion that this would reduce the chances of terrorists coming to the U.S., as the conflict dragged on, members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. public, and even U.S. troops questioned the connection between Iraq and the fight against anti-U.S. terrorism. In particular, a consensus developed among intelligence experts that the Iraq war actually increased terrorism. Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna frequently referred to the invasion of Iraq as a “fatal mistake.” London's International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2004 that the occupation of Iraq had become “a potent global recruitment pretext” for radical Muslim fighters and that the invasion “galvanized” al-Qaeda and “perversely inspired insurgent violence.” The U.S. National Intelligence Council concluded in a 2005 report that the war in Iraq had become a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists. David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, indicated that the report concluded that the war in Iraq provided terrorists with “a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills... There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries.” The Council's chairman Robert Hutchings noted, “At the moment, Iraq is a magnet for international terrorist activity.” The 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which outlined the considered judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, concluded that “the Iraq conflict has become the 'cause célèbre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq War, along with the 2008 financial crisis, contributed to the election of Barack Obama, who questioned the Iraq War. After his election, Obama reluctantly continued the war effort in Iraq until August 31, 2010, when he declared that combat operations had ended. However, 50,000 American soldiers and military personnel were kept in Iraq to assist Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces, and work on counter-terrorism until December 15, 2011, when the war was declared formally over and the last troops left the country. Aftermath of 2011 Withdrawal from Iraq The invasion and occupation of Iraq led to sectarian violence, which caused widespread displacement among Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Red Crescent organization estimated the total internal displacement was around 2.3 million in 2008, and as many as 2 million Iraqis left the country. The invasion preserved the autonomy of the Kurdish region and because the Kurdish region is historically the most democratic area of Iraq, many Iraqi refugees from other territories fled into the Kurdish land. Iraqi insurgency surged in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. Terror campaigns involving Iraqi (primarily radical Sunni) anti-government rebel groups and various factions within Iraq escalated. The events of post U.S. withdrawal have shown patterns raising concerns that the surging violence might slide into another civil war. By mid-2014, the country was in chaos with a new government yet to be formed following national elections and the insurgency reaching new heights. In early June 2014, the ISIL (ISIS) took over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit and stated it was ready to march on Baghdad, while Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of key military installations in the major oil city of Kirkuk. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked his parliament to declare a state of emergency that would give him increased powers, but the lawmakers refused. In the summer of 2014 President Obama announced the return of U.S. forces to Iraq, but only in the form of aerial support, in an effort to halt the advance of ISIS forces, render humanitarian aid to stranded refugees, and stabilize the political situation. In August 2014, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki succumbed to pressure at home and abroad to step down. This paved the way for Haidar al-Abadi to take over. In what was claimed to be revenge for the aerial bombing ordered by President Obama, ISIS, which by this time had changed its name to the Islamic State, beheaded an American journalist, James Foley, who had been kidnapped two years earlier. Despite U.S. bombings and breakthroughs on the political front, Iraq remained in chaos with the Islamic State consolidating its gains and sectarian violence continuing unabated. Consequences of the Iraq War Various scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War estimated that between 151,000 and over one million Iraqis died as a result of the conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, estimated that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. For troops in the U.S.-led multinational coalition, the death toll is carefully tracked and updated daily. A total of 4,491 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2014. Regarding the Iraqis, however, information on both military and civilian casualties is both less precise and less consistent. The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian and thousands of military casualties. The majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. The war destroyed the country and resulted in a humanitarian crisis. The child malnutrition rate rose to 28%. Some 60 – 70% of Iraqi children were reported to be suffering from psychological problems in 2007. Most Iraqis had no access to safe drinking water; a cholera outbreak in northern Iraq was thought to be the result of poor water quality. As many as half of Iraqi doctors left the country between 2003 and 2006. Poverty led many Iraqi women to turn to prostitution to support themselves and their families, attracting sex tourists from regional lands. The use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus by the U.S. military has been blamed for birth defects and cancers in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. By the end of 2015, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 4.4 million Iraqis had been internally displaced. The population of Iraqi Christians dropped dramatically during the war, from 1.5 million in 2003 to perhaps only 275,000 in 2016. The Foreign Policy Association reported that "“the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis” was that the U.S. has accepted only around 84,000 Iraqi refugees. Throughout the entire Iraq war, there have been human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict. Arguably the most controversial incident was a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These violations perpetrated by American soldiers included physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. The abuses came to widespread public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, although the soldiers received support from some conservative media within the United States. The administration of George W. Bush attempted to portray the abuses as isolated incidents, not indicative of general U.S. policy. This was contradicted by humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. After multiple investigations, these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents; rather, they were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Several scholars stated that the abuses constituted state-sanctioned crimes. Afghanistan War The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001, overlapping the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. President Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. The Taliban government refused to extradite him (or others sought by the U.S.) without evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The request was dismissed by the U.S. as a meaningless delaying tactic, and on October 7, 2001 it launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the United Kingdom. The two were later joined by other forces, including the Afghan Northern Alliance that had been fighting the Taliban in the ongoing civil war since 1996. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to assist the Afghan interim authorities with securing Kabul. At the Bonn Conference the same month, Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan interim administration, which after a 2002 loya jirga (Pashto for “grand assembly”) in Kabul became the Afghan transitional administration. In the popular elections of 2004, Karzai was elected president of the country, then named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. NATO became involved in ISAF in 2003 and later that year assumed leadership of its troops from 43 countries. NATO members provided the core of the force. One portion of U.S. forces in Afghanistan operated under NATO command. The rest remained under direct U.S. command. Learning Objectives Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era. Key Terms / Key Concepts al-Qaeda: a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s; widely designated as a terrorist group Taliban: a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country; a group that uses terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals Iraq War: 2003-11 conflict between the U.S. and Iraq, at the center of the U.S. "War on Terror". The U.S. invasion of Iraq began this war, and it was subsequently marked by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, replaced by a Shia-led parliamentary republic, and an insurgency against this new government, along with the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, which ended in 2011. The Taliban was reorganized by its leader Mullah Omar, and in 2003 it launched an insurgency against the government and ISAF. Although outgunned and outnumbered, insurgents from the Taliban and other radical groups have waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, and turncoat killings against coalition forces. The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government, among the most corrupt in the world, to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. In the initial years, there was little fighting but from 2006 the Taliban made significant gains and showed an increased willingness to commit atrocities against civilians. Violence sharply escalated from 2007 to 2009. While ISAF continued to battle the Taliban insurgency, fighting crossed into neighboring northwestern Pakistan. The Narang night raid was a raid on a household in the village of Ghazi Khan in the early morning hours of December 27, 2009. The operation was authorized by NATO and resulted in the death of ten Afghan civilians, most of whom were students and some of whom were children. The status of the deceased was initially in dispute, with NATO officials claiming the dead were Taliban members found with weapons and bomb-making materials, while some Afghan government officials and local tribal authorities asserted they were civilians. On May 2, 2011, United States Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan. A year later, NATO leaders endorsed an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. UN-backed peace talks have since taken place between the Afghan government and the Taliban. In May 2014, the United States announced that its major combat operations would end in December and that it would leave a residual force in the country. In October 2014, British forces handed over the last bases in Helmand to the Afghan military, officially ending their combat operations in the war. In December 2014, NATO formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan and transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government. Aftermath and Consequences of the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan Although there was a formal end to combat operations, partially because of improved relations between the United States and the new President Ashraf Ghani, American forces increased raids against Islamic militants and terrorists, justified by a broad interpretation of protecting American forces. In March 2015, it was announced that the United States would maintain almost ten thousand service members in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2015, a change from planned reductions. In October 2015, the Obama administration announced that U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan past the original planned withdrawal date of December 31, 2016. U.S. forces continued to conduct airstrikes and special operations raids, while Afghan forces were losing ground to Taliban forces in some regions. This continuing U.S. presence in Afghanistan was unpopular with people in both the U.S. and Afghanistan. Consequently, in 2020 – 21 the U.S. carried out a withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan. War casualty estimates vary significantly. According to a UN report, the Taliban were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009. In 2011, a record over three thousand civilians were killed, the fifth successive annual rise. According to a UN report, in 2013 there were nearly three thousand civilian deaths, with 74% blamed on anti-government forces. A report titled Body Count put together by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival, and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) concluded that 106,000 – 170,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the fighting in Afghanistan at the hands of all parties to the conflict. According to the Watson Institute for International Studies Costs of War Project, 21,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the war. An estimated 96% of Afghans have been affected either personally by or from the wider consequences of the war. Since 2001, more than 5.7 million former refugees have returned to Afghanistan but 2.2 million others remained refugees in 2013. In 2013, the UN estimated that 547,550 were internally displaced persons, a 25% increase over the 2012 estimates. From 1996 to 1999, the Taliban had controlled 96% of Afghanistan's poppy fields and made opium its largest source of revenue. Taxes on opium exports became one of the mainstays of Taliban income. By 2000, Afghanistan accounted for an estimated 75% of the world's opium supply. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar then banned opium cultivation and production dropped. Some observers argue that the ban was issued only to raise opium prices and increase profit from the sale of large existing stockpiles. The trafficking of accumulated stocks continued in 2000 and 2001. Soon after the invasion, opium production increased markedly. By 2005, Afghanistan was producing 90% of the world's opium, most of which was processed into heroin and sold in Europe and Russia. In 2009, the BBC reported that “UN findings say an opium market worth $65bn funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year.” War crimes have been committed by both sides: civilian massacres, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, use of torture, and the murder of prisoners of war. Additional common crimes include theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIGRC) called the Taliban's terrorism against the Afghan civilian population a war crime. According to Amnesty International, the Taliban commit war crimes by targeting civilians, including killing teachers, abducting aid workers, and burning school buildings. The organization reported that up to 756 civilians were killed in 2006 by bombs, mostly on roads or carried by suicide attackers belonging to the Taliban. NATO has also alleged that the Taliban has used civilians as human shields. In 2009, the U.S. confirmed that Western military forces in Afghanistan used white phosphorus as a weapon to illuminate targets or as an incendiary to destroy bunkers and enemy equipment; this has been condemned by human rights organizations as cruel and inhumane because it causes severe burns. U.S. forces used white phosphorus to screen a retreat in the Battle of Ganjgal when regular smoke munitions were not available. White phosphorus burns on the bodies of civilians wounded in clashes near Bagram were confirmed. The U.S. claims at least 44 instances in which militants have used white phosphorus in weapons or attacks. The 2001 – 21 Afghanistan War and the 2003 – 11 Iraq War were the two major efforts in the U.S.’s “War on Terrorism.” These two wars illustrated the challenges in trying to stop terrorism by radicalized religious groups with conventional military efforts conducted by coalitions of nation-states. These wars also illustrated the vulnerability of all societies to radicalization from terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Proud Boys. Attributions Images Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Title Image - War on Terror Montage. Attribution: Derivative work: PoxnarAll four pictures in the montage are taken by the US Army/Navy., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia Commons. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:War_on_Terror_montage1.png. License: Creative Commons CC0 License. Boundless World History "The Middle East and North Africa in the 21st Century" CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY Curation and Revision. Provided by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION History of the United States (1991u20132008). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1991-2008). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike WTC_smoking_on_9-11.jpeg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States#/media/File:WTC_smoking_on_9-11.jpeg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Freedom of the Press (report). Provided by: Wikipedia. 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License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.195895	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88106/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 17: Post-Cold War International Structure, The Global War on Terror", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87943/overview	Colonization of Africa Overview The "Scramble" for Africa The Industrial Revolution resulted in Western Europe’s shift from agrarian societies into urban, industrialized countries. Increasingly, England, France, Germany, and a host of other Western European nations needed natural resources to continue fueling their industrialization. Coal, mineral, and wood resources within their own boundaries were becoming scarcer. Across the Mediterranean Sea, though, rested a continent that had seemingly inexhaustible natural resources: Africa. In the late 1800s, Western European nations launched “civilizing missions” to Africa to explore its resources. Rivalry exploded between European nations, as each hurried to colonize large swaths of Africa. Exploration of the continent soon turned to exploitation and violence. Tragically, these events occurred at the moment when African nations were starting to industrialize. European colonization employed such tremendous violence that African infrastructure was crushed and hopes of modernization dashed. Learning Objectives Examine the impact of colonization on Africans. Analyze European motivations for colonization. Compare and contrast the different ways in which different European nations carried out colonization. Key Terms / Key Concepts Belgian Congo: name of the colony after Congo’s administration was taken over by the Belgian parliament Berlin Conference: 1884 conference between major European powers that divided Africa into colonies Boer: Farmers with Dutch ancestry who lived in South Africa Congo Free State: colony created in the late 1800s by King Leopold II of Belgium to harvest rubber and gum trees First Boer War: conflict between the British and Boers that ended in a Boer victory Force Publique: a military and police force organized and operated in the Congo, at the behest of King Leopold II, and later the Belgian government French Algeria: France’s most important African colony German Southwest Africa: the German colony where the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples occurred Gold Coast: British colony in present-day Ghana Herero and Nama: two indigenous groups in German Southwest Africa who were nearly exterminated by German polices in the early 1900s Kaiser Wilhelm II: Emperor of Germany who wanted to expand Germany’s influence on the global stage King Leopold II: Belgian king known for his atrocious exploitation of the Congolese people under the Congo Free State Mahgreb: northwest Africa Maxim-gun: first reliable machine gun Nigeria: the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a West African country that was once a British colony famous for its palm oil production; independence from Britain was declared in 1960 Palm oil: an essential commodity in Europe to produce soaps and machinery lubricants Scramble for Africa: European countries rush to colonize Africa in the late 1800s Second Boer War: conflict between the British and Boers that end in a British victory Social Darwinism: the pseudo-science theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals, which equates to “only the strong survive” Sphere of influence: an area in which one country has power to affect the development of other areas Suez Canal: waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas Transvaal: province of South Africa inhabited by the Boers between 1910 – 1994 Weltpolitik: policy developed by Kaiser Wilhelm II that argued Germany should be involved in world politics Africa on the Eve of Modernization: 1860s – 1870s One of the greatest tragedies of the “Scramble for Africa” that occurred in the 1880s to early 1900s, is that just prior to the European mad-grab, African nations across the continent were on the eve of modernization. Large-scale wars had mostly ceased. The Atlantic Slave Trade had ended, and by extension, slavery itself was virtually extinguished. Life expectancy was extended, a result of improved diet and reduction in disease. Simultaneously, many countries experienced significant population growth. In the 1860s and 1870s, many African nations seemed to be on the verge of transforming their societies into industrialized, developed countries. Economically, Africa nations prospered from the development of strong trade routes across the continent. With relative peace at hand, traders from Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique began exploring and trading across East Africa. Still, other voyagers braved traveling and trading across the Saharan Trade Route. And many African traders made extensive use of one of the continents greatest resources: its rivers. The Nile, White Nile, and Congo Rivers all became superhighways for trade and exploration. Relatively friendly relations between most African nations emerged from the advancements in trade and exploration. Goods such as ivory, grains, wines, and precious stones were exchanged. And from this exchange arose new social structures—ones that included an African middle class comprising of traders and merchants. Like all exchanges, the development of trade and exchange across Africa also helped the dissemination of languages, cultural customs, and beliefs. During this period, African kingdoms started to dissolve, too. In their place emerged nations that were increasingly centralized. Among these were Ethiopia, Egypt, and Madagascar. In these new, centralized states, there was also a dramatic increase in the emphasis on democratic ideas, as well as the push for improved and equal education. Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia all enacted legislature that called for the election of government officials. In Ghana, a constitution was written that included the right of education for all children, as well as the development of resources to promote unity among its people. Increasingly, schools were built so that even poorer children could receive some education. In much of the rest of Africa, an intellectual revolution occurred. It introduced the “educated African elite.” Tragically, what most Africans lacked was the benefit of an industrial revolution. Technologically, Africa lagged far behind their European counterparts, which means that commercially they did not have the machines that could produce in a competitive manner. Largely, they remained unaware of the actual scope of technological development in Europe, including advancements in weaponry and medicines that could fight diseases. When the Europeans set their minds to colonization, in most cases the Africans could not long resist them because of this lag in technology, industrialization, and medicine. Involvement in Africa before 1884 Early European expeditions concentrated on colonizing previously uninhabited islands—such as the Cape Verde Islands and São Tomé Island—or establishing coastal forts. These forts often developed areas of influence along coastal strips. But they did not venture into the mainland and the vast interior of Africa was little-known to Europeans until the late 19th century. Technological advancements—such as railways, telegraphs, and steam navigation—facilitated European expansion overseas. Medical advances also were important, especially medicines for tropical diseases. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, enabled vast expanses of the tropics to be accessed by Europeans, because they no longer faced certain severe illness or death from insect-inflicted illnesses. African Colonization in the 19th Century By the mid-19th century, Europeans considered Africa to be a disputed territory ripe for colonization. On a practical level, Europeans needed to colonize Africa for its wealth of natural resources—essential in keeping industries thriving. Psychologically, middle-class Western Europeans also believed in Social Darwinism—the belief that Darwin’s theory of natural selection could be applied to people, which equated to an acceptance that “only the strong survive.” It was a trendy, horribly inaccurate and unscientific way of explaining why some humans prospered and others did not (that some fallaciously adhere to even today). Western Europeans increasingly used this theory, started by Herbert Spencer, to argue that they were wealthier than people in Africa and Asia because they were inherently smarter and more industrious, as well as because they were white. By the end of the 1800s, this pseudo-social science, despite its inherent racism, increased in popularity among European heads of state, and they used it as justification for their imperialist practices. In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium invited British-American explorer, Henry Morton Stanley to join him in researching and “civilizing” Africa. At the time of the invitation, Stanley was already internationally renowned for his explorations in Zanzibar, and for his “discovery” of the English explorer, David Livingstone, who had searched for the source of the Nile River, then allegedly vanished. In 1871, Stanley encountered the “missing” explorer near Lake Tanganyika. Famously, he greeted Livingstone by asking, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Overnight, Stanley’s fame exploded internationally, and he became an international hero. In 1876, Stanley accepted King Leopold’s invitation. Two years later, he embarked on an extended voyage to the Congo (1878-1885). In 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo, not as a reporter but as an envoy from Leopold with the secret mission to create what would become known as the Congo Free State. French intelligence discovered Leopold’s plans, and France quickly engaged in its own colonial exploration. Portugal also claimed the area. Italy, Britain, Spain, and Germany all soon became involved in the carving up of Africa. Berlin Conference This rapid increase in the exploration and colonization of Africa eventually led to the 1884 Berlin Conference. Established empires—notably Britain, Portugal, and France—had already claimed vast areas of Africa and Asia, and emerging imperial powers like Italy and Germany had done likewise on a smaller scale. With the dismissal of the aging Chancellor Bismarck by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the relatively orderly colonization became a frantic scramble, known as the Scramble for Africa. The Berlin Conference, initiated to establish international guidelines for the acquisition of African territory, formalized this “New Imperialism.” The Berlin Conference sought to end competition and conflict between European powers during the “Scramble for Africa” by establishing international protocols for colonization. Tragically, the Africans had no voice in the proceedings. Europeans neither sought their opinions nor invited them to the Conference. The conference was convened on Saturday, November 15, 1884. The main dominating powers of the conference were France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal. They remapped Africa without considering the cultural and linguistic borders that were already established. At the end of the conference, Africa was divided into 50 colonies. And the attendants established who was in control of each of these new divisions. Between the Franco-Prussian War (1871) and the World War I (1914), Western Europe added almost 9 million square miles—one-fifth of the land area of the globe—to its overseas colonial possessions by claiming land in Africa. Consequences of the Conference The Scramble for Africa sped up after the Conference since even within areas designated as their spheres of influence, the European powers had to take possession. In central Africa in particular, expeditions were dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties, using force if necessary. Bedouin- and Berber-ruled states in the Sahara and Sub-Sahara were overrun by the French in several wars by the beginning of World War I. The British conquered territories from Egypt to South Africa. After defeating the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in 1879, they moved on to subdue and dismantle the independent Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. By 1902, 90% of all African land was under European control. The large part of the Sahara was French, while Sudan remained firmly under joint British-Egyptian rulership. Egypt, itself, was under British occupation before becoming a British protectorate in 1914. Heart of Darkness: The Congo Free State King Leopold II’s reign in the Congo became an international scandal due to large-scale mistreatment of the indigenous peoples, including frequent mutilation and murder of men, women, and children to enforce rubber production quotas. Colonization of the Congo Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who explored under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. As Europe industrialized, its need for rubber dramatically increased. A seemingly endless grove of rubber trees existed throughout Congo, and Leopold wanted it. Leopold saw the Congo as a source of unlimited wealth, particularly in the form of rubber. He procured the region by convincing the European community that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. On May 29, 1885, the king named his new colony the Congo Free State; it could not have been more of a misnomer for the Congolese. Under Leopold, they would be anything but free. Leopold extracted ivory, rubber, and minerals in the upper Congo basin for sale on the world market, without much actual concern for the human inhabitants of the land, even though his alleged purpose in the region was to uplift the local people and develop the area. Administration of the Congo Free State Beginning in the mid-1880s, Leopold first decreed that the state asserted rights of proprietorship over all vacant lands throughout the Congo territory. Leopold used the title “Sovereign King” as ruler of the Congo Free State. He appointed the heads of the three departments of state: interior, foreign affairs, and finances. These positions were, naturally, filled by Belgians who understood little about the Congolese people. As the self-installed ruler, Leopold pledged to suppress the east African slave trade; promote humanitarian policies; guarantee free trade within the colony; impose no import duties for twenty years; and encourage philanthropic and scientific enterprises. In three successive decrees, Leopold promised the rights of the Congolese in their land to native villages and farms, essentially making nearly all the Congo Free State state-owned land. And, the colonial administration initially liberated thousands of slaves. Shortly after the anti-slavery conference he held in Brussels in 1889, Leopold issued a new decree which said that Africans could only sell their harvested products (mostly ivory and rubber) to the government parts of the Free State. Suddenly, the only market Congolese people had for their products was in Belgium, which could set purchase prices and, therefore, control the amount of income the Congolese could receive for their work. Human Rights Abuses The Force Publique, Leopold’s private army, was used to enforce the rubber quotas. The Force Publique’s officer corps included only white Europeans. On arriving in the Congo, the officers recruited soldiers from Zanzibar and west Africa, and eventually from the Congo itself. Many of the black soldiers were from far-off peoples of the Upper Congo, while others had been kidnapped in raids on villages in their childhood and brought to Roman Catholic missions, where they received a military training in conditions close to slavery. Armed with modern weapons and the chicotte—a whip made of hippopotamus hide—the Force Publique routinely took and tortured hostages, slaughtered families of rebels, and flogged and raped Congolese people. They also burned non-submissive villages, and above all, cut off the hands of Congolese natives, including children. In addition, Leopold encouraged the slave trade among Arabs in the Upper Congo in return for slaves to fill the ranks of the Force Publique. During the 1890s, the agency’s primary role was to exploit the natives as laborers to promote the rubber trade, essentially continuing the practice of slavery. Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique was required to provide the hands of their victims as proof that they had used their bullets, which were imported from Europe at considerable cost. Sometimes the hands were collected by the soldiers, and sometimes by the villagers themselves. One junior European officer described a raid to punish a village that had protested. The European officer in command “ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades… and to hang the women and the children on the palisade in the form of a cross.” After seeing a Congolese person killed for the first time, a Danish missionary wrote, “The soldier said ‘Don’t take this to heart so much. They kill us if we don’t bring the rubber. The Commissioner has promised us if we have plenty of hands he will shorten our service.’” Leopold’s reign in the Congo became infamous because of the severe persecution and abuse of the Congolese. From 1885 – 1908, millions of Congolese died because of exploitation and disease. In some areas, the population declined dramatically due to diseases such as sleeping sickness and smallpox. A government commission later concluded that the population of the Congo was “reduced by half” during this period, but no accurate records exist. When news of Leopold’s policies and practices in the Congo Free State reached news outlets, the world stood outraged. Calls were issued to have Leopold stripped of his colonial possession. Instead, Belgium’s parliament annexed the Congo Free State and took over its administration on November 15, 1908. It became the Belgian Congo. Enter the French: Colonial Overlords of North and West Africa The French began their colonization efforts before the Scramble for Africa. During the mid-1800s, they launched exploration through Africa and Asia. With increasing rivalry with their Western European nations (particularly England and later, Germany) France began colonizing territory in earnest during the late 1800s. As a result, vast regions in both Asia and Africa came under French control. French West Africa As the French pursued their part in the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s, they conquered large territory in the north and west of Africa. These conquered areas were usually governed by French Army officers and dubbed “Military Territories.” In 1895, the French created the colony of French West Africa. The colony consisted of Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Côte d’Ivoire, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Dahomey (now Benin), and Niger. The Maghreb The French also focused their attention on colonizing much of Northern Africa, known as the Mahgreb. The region (present-day Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia) bordered the Sahara Desert, but also the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the region seemed defendable and gave the French access to the most important sea trade route in Europe—the Mediterranean. Ideally, this meant that the French could exploit resources from their African colonies, as well as quickly and efficiently transport the goods by water to Europe. French Algeria Of all the French colonies in Africa, Algeria proved the most significant. France and Algeria had a long history of trade, and the capital city, Algiers, was a wealthy city situated conveniently on the Mediterranean Sea. It had been governed by a ruler appointed from the Turkish army for centuries, but the indigenous Berber people had remained independent. Since the late 1700s, olive oil, grain, and other foods had poured into France from Algiers. Moreover, the city prospered from extensive trade of beautiful carpets, among other luxury goods, throughout the Mediterranean. From the French perspective, the city was the ultimate prize. In 1830, France launched a campaign to claim Algiers. However, they severely underestimated the resistance they would encounter in Algeria. Arab and Berber clans united against the French invasion. Rallying under a popular commander, the Berber and Arab troops fought fiercely, with thousands of casualties on both sides. But by the 1870s, the French had conquered Algeria. Settlers poured into the colony, and seized Algerian vineyards, farms, and crops. Initially, France prospered from possessing Algeria. However, underground resistance remained strong throughout the French rule. Violence exploded between the French colonizers and the Berbers and Arabs. Within a century, French Algeria would collapse, and a fiercely independent Algeria would rise out of the Sahara. French Colonial Practices Assimilation was one of the ideological hallmarks of French colonial policy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In contrast with British imperial policy, it maintained that natives of French colonies were considered French citizens with full citizenship rights, as long as they adopted French culture and customs. Colonial Assimilation A hallmark of the French colonial project in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the civilizing mission, the principle that it was Europe’s duty to bring civilization to “backward” people. Rather than merely govern colonial populations, the Europeans would attempt to Westernize them in accordance with a colonial ideology known as “assimilation,” which was meant to make the colonized act and think like the colonizers. France pursued a policy of assimilation throughout much of its colonial empire. In contrast with British imperial policy, the French taught their subjects that by adopting French language and culture, they could eventually become French. Natives of these colonies were considered French citizens as long as French culture and customs were adopted. And adoption of French customs was supposed to ensure the rights and duties of French citizens. French conservatives denounced the assimilationist policies as products of a dangerous liberal fantasy. Unlike in Algeria, Tunisia, and French West Africa, in the Protectorate of Morocco the French administration attempted to use segregationist urban planning and colonial education to prevent cultural mixing and uphold the traditional society upon which the French depended for collaboration, with mixed results. After World War II, the segregationist approach modeled in Morocco had been discredited and assimilationism enjoyed a brief revival. A Young Country's Quick Colonial Rise: The German Colonies German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck strongly opposed the notion of overseas colonies. He predicted rivalry, unnecessary violence, and competition. However, following his retirement from office, German politics assumed a different course. A “keep up or be left behind mentality” consumed the German public. Pressure to establish colonies for international prestige exploded. By the late 1800s, Germany had joined the Scramble for Africa, citing the need for resources to fuel its factories that emerged during the Second Industrial Revolution. Background: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Weltpolitik In 1891, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made a decisive break with former Realpolitik of Bismarck and established Weltpolitik. The aim of Weltpolitik was to transform Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, the acquisition of overseas colonies, and the development of a large navy. The origins of the policy can be traced to a Reichstag debate in December 1897 during which German Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow stated, “in one word: We wish to throw no one into the shade, but we demand our own place in the sun.” Acquisition of Colonies The rise of German imperialism and colonialism coincided with the latter stages of the Scramble for Africa. Initially, German individuals, rather than government entities, competed with other already established colonies and colonialist entrepreneurs. With the Germans joining the race for the last uncharted territories in Africa and in the Pacific, competition for colonies involved major European nations and several lesser powers. The German effort included the first commercial enterprises in the 1850s and 1860s in West Africa, East Africa, the Samoan Islands, and the unexplored north-east quarter of New Guinea with adjacent islands. German traders and merchants began to establish themselves in the African Cameroon delta and the mainland coast across from Zanzibar. Large African inland acquisitions followed, mostly to the detriment of native inhabitants. All in all, German colonies comprised territory that makes up 22 countries today, mostly in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda. However, their most significant African colony in the early twentieth century was Tanzania, in east Africa. The Herero and Nama Genocide The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of racial extermination that the German Empire undertook in their colony of German South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia) against the Herero and Nama peoples. It is considered one of the first genocides of the 20th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Herero migrated to what is today Namibia established themselves as herdsmen. In the beginning of the 19th century, the Nama from South Africa, who already possessed some firearms, entered the land and were followed by white merchants and German missionaries. During the late 19th century, the first Europeans arrived to permanently settle the land. Primarily in Damaraland, German settlers acquired land from the Herero to establish farms. In 1883, merchant Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz entered into a contract with the native elders. The exchange later became the basis of German colonial rule. The territory became a German colony under the name of German Southwest Africa. Soon after, conflicts between the German colonists and the Herero herdsmen began; these were frequently disputes about access to land and water but were also fueled by the legal discrimination that white immigrants inflicted on the native population. Additionally, the numerous mixed offspring—children of partial German heritage—upset the German colonial administration, which was concerned with maintaining “racial purity.” Between 1893 and 1903, the Herero and Nama people’s land and cattle were progressively making their way into the hands of the German colonists. In 1903, the Herero people learned that they were to be placed in reservations, leaving more room for colonists to own land and prosper. In 1904, the Herero and Nama began a large rebellion that lasted until 1907, ending with the near destruction of the Herero people. What followed in 1907 is argued by some historians as the first genocide of the 20th century. The Germans sought to eliminate the Herero and Nama people by driving them to the Namib desert at the point of a rifle or maxim gun. Once defeated, thousands of Herero and Nama were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of disease, abuse, and exhaustion. During the “war” against the Herero and Nama peoples, Eugen Fischer, a German scientist, came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race, using children of Herero people and mulatto children of Herero women and German men as test subjects. Together with Theodor Mollison he also experimented upon Herero prisoners. Those experiments included sterilization and injection of smallpox, typhus, and tuberculosis. Roughly 80,000 Herero lived in German Southwest Africa at the beginning of Germany’s colonial rule over the area, while after their revolt was defeated, they numbered approximately 15,000. In a period of four years, 1904 – 1907, approximately 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people perished. England's Grasp on Africa England, just like other Western European nations, jumped feet first into the Scramble for Africa. Like its counterparts, the tiny island nation was eager to assert its dominance on the world stage. Tragically for the African people, particularly in South Africa, the British engaged in colonization exactly as described by the poet Hilaire Belloc: “Whatever happens we have got, the maxim-gun, and they have not.” Drastically superior military technology, such as the maxim-gun and the breech-loading rifle, would determine who reigned victorious in the conquest of Africa. The British did not establish as large of colonies in Africa as the French. They did, however, procure extremely prosperous colonies in West Africa. Notably, the British colonized Nigeria, and the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Both colonies were wealthy in resources coveted by the British. Nigeria was a sprawling, subtropical country rich in plant diversity. Notably, it was home to extensive groves of palm trees. Under British rule, the palm oil industry increased a thousand-fold. Palm oil was transformed into a commodity in European life because of its uses in soaps, and as a lubricant for heavy machinery. The Royal Niger Company was established and owned by the British, giving them a virtual monopoly on palm oil. Moreover, the Nigerian coast opened to the Atlantic Ocean, giving the British easy access in global trade and shipping. Although the British officially colonized the capital city of Nigeria—Lagos —in the 1880s, it was not until the late 1890s and early 1900s that they were able to secure the rest of present-day Nigeria. Like the French and Germans, the British relied on force to subdue the Nigerian populations who resisted them. Fierce fighting erupted between the Nigerian resistance and the British, who also used Nigerian soldiers in their ranks. To overcome the Nigerian forces, the British used heavy artillery and columns of machine-gunners. One by own, towns throughout Nigeria fell to the British because of heavy bombardment. While the British hammered and suppressed the population in Nigeria, they also had to contend with resistance in their other wealthy, West African colony: the Gold Coast. Located in present-day Ghana, it was, perhaps, the most aptly named of all colonies. Significant gold deposits could be found throughout the colony. In the 1870s, Dutch and Danish companies had sold out to the British, allowing Britain to declare the Gold Coast a colony. Like Nigeria, its coast opened to the Atlantic giving the British a significant advantage in the trading and shipping of gold. Similarly, the British also faced threats of Ghanian resistance. They countered those threats with the use of excessive force, including artillery and machine guns. British Rule in Egypt Throughout the 19th century, the ruling dynasty of Egypt spent exorbitant amounts of money on infrastructural development. Consequently, despite vast sums of European and other foreign capital, actual economic production and revenue were insufficient to repay the loans. Egypt was bankrupt. As a result, European and foreign financial agencies were able to take control of the treasury of Egypt; they forgave debt in return for taking control of the Suez Canal, as well as reoriented economic development. By 1882, Islamic and Arabic Nationalist opposition to the colonizers began growing in Egypt, which was the most powerful, populous, and influential of Arab countries. A large military demonstration in September 1881 forced the resignation of the Egyptian Prime Minister. Many of the Europeans retreated to specially designed quarters suited for defense or heavily European settled cities, such as Alexandria. By June 1882 a fight for control of Egypt erupted between the Europeans and the Arab Nationalists. Anti-European violence broke out in Alexandria, prompting a British naval bombardment of the city. Later, a coalition force of British, French, and Indian troops easily defeated the nationalist Egyptian Army in September and took control of the country. With European aid, the Egyptian royal family remained in control of the country. But the control was reliant on the military and political aid of Western Europe, especially Britain. It is unlikely that the British expected a long-term occupation from the outset; however, Lord Cromer, Britain’s Chief Representative in Egypt at the time, viewed Egypt’s financial reforms as part of a long-term objective. Cromer took the view that political stability needed financial stability, and he embarked on a program of long-term investment in Egypt’s agricultural revenue sources, the largest of which was cotton. To accomplish this, Cromer worked to improve the Nile’s irrigation system through multiple large projects: the construction of the Aswan Dam, the creation of the Nile Barrage, and an increase of canals available to agricultural-focused lands. During British occupation and control, Egypt developed into a regional commercial and trading destination. Immigrants from less-stable parts of the region—including Greeks, Jews and Armenians—began to flow into Egypt. The number of foreigners in the country rose from 10,000 in the 1840s to around 90,000 in the 1880s and more than 1.5 million by the 1930s. South Africa and the Boer Wars Large-scale war was perhaps, inevitable, in South Africa, following the discovery of both gold and diamonds in the region, given the mindset of Europeans. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ethnic, political, and social tensions among European colonial powers and indigenous Africans, as well as English and Dutch settlers, led to open conflict in a series of wars and revolts between 1879 and 1915, most notably the First and Second Boer Wars. First Boer War The First Boer War was fought from December 1880 until March 1881 and was the first clash between the British and the South African Republic Boers—the Dutch and Huguenot peoples who had settled southern Africa in the late 17th century. The British, having won a war against the Zulus, attempted to impose an unpopular system of confederation in South Africa. This resulted in outrage and strong protests from Boers. In December 1880, 5,000 Boers assembled at a farm to discuss a course of action. Tired of the British treating them as second-class citizens, as well as their demands on Boer agricultural production and taxation, the Boers decided to create an independent republic within South Africa. On December 13 they proclaimed their independence and intent to establish a republican government. This resulted in war erupting between the two sides. Surprisingly, the British suffered several significant, military defeats during the First Boer War. As a result, the British government signed a truce on March 6. And in the final peace treaty on March 23, 1881 Britain gave the Boers self-government in a small part of South Africa known as the South African Republic (Transvaal), under a theoretical British oversight. Second Boer War The exact causes of the Second Boer War in 1899 have been disputed ever since the events took place. The Boers felt that the British intention was to again annex the Transvaal. Some feel that the British were coerced into war by the wealthy owners of the mining industries; others that the British government underhandedly created conditions that allowed the war to ignite. The British worried about popular support for the war and wanted to push the Boers to make the first move toward actual hostilities; this occurred when the Transvaal issued an ultimatum on October 9 for the British to withdraw all troops from their borders, or they would “regard the action as a formal declaration of war.” The Second Boer War took place from October 11, 1899 until May 31, 1902. The war was fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (referred to as the Transvaal by the British). After a protracted, hard-fought war, the two independent republics lost and were absorbed into the British Empire. The Boers fought bitterly against the British, refusing to surrender for years despite defeat. They reverted to guerrilla warfare. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, and horses. The British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, mostly due to weak immunities. In all, the war cost around 75,000 lives: 22,000 British soldiers (7,792 battle casualties, the rest through disease); 6,000 – 7,000 Boer Commandos; 20,000 – 28,000 Boer civilians (mostly women and children due to disease in concentration camps); and an estimated 20,000 black Africans, both Boer and British allies alike. The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902. The war resulted in the creation of the Transvaal Colony, which in 1910 was incorporated into the Union of South Africa. And the treaty ended the existence of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State as Boer republics, placing them within the British Empire. Significance The Scramble for Africa was, indeed, a scramble. A mad-house, free-for-all in which European countries hurried to colonize territory in Africa for two purposes: natural resources and human labor. Additionally, this event may have occured as a show of strength amidst increasingly rivalrous, nationalist European nations. Indeed, this mad period of colonization would emerge as one of the underlying causes of World War I. Britain, France, and Germany (all major combatant nations in World War I) proved the most successful in colonizing Africa. However, Italy, Spain, and Portugal also colonized, or attempted to colonize, parts of Africa. By 1914 when World War I began, only two independent countries remained in all of Africa: Ethiopia—which the Italians had tried to colonize, and Liberia—a country established for freed slaves by the United States. Across Africa, it was the many different African people who lost in the Scramble for Africa. Across the board, Europeans regularly used excessive military force to subdue resistant civilians. African cultures, languages, land, and livelihoods were all suppressed or destroyed during the Scramble for Africa. Moreover, Africans lost their chance to modernize, just as many African nations had begun the process of modernizing politically, economically, and industrially. In terms of sheer numbers, the colony which endured the worst human rights abuses was the Congo Free State under King Leopold II of Belgium. Treatment of the Congolese people by the Force Publique and other agencies was so brutal and heinous that it sparked uproar from the international community. Estimates suggest that nearly 10 million Congolese died during the period of the Congo Free State. That figure is nearly as high as the total deaths of the Holocaust (estimated 12 million), a fact largely ignored or forgotten by much of the world. Attributions Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Boundless World History “The Berlin Conference” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-berlin-conference/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ “The Belgian Congo” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-belgian-congo/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ “France in Africa” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/france-in-africa/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ “German Imperialism” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/german-imperalism/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ “Africa and the United Kingdom” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/africa-and-the-united-kingdom/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Boahen, A. Abu. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. 1-26. Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. 3rd Ed. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. 281-282; 287 288; 319-321.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.273518	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87943/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, European Imperialism and Crises 1871-1919 CE, Chapter 10: Enlightenment and Colonization, Colonization of Africa", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88115/overview	The Chameleon in the Kremlin: Contemporary Russia under Putin Overview New Millennium, New President: the Rise of Vladimir Putin, 1999-2004 In the 1990s, economic collapses and defeatist attitudes plagued Russia. Many Russian banks had collapsed due to mismanagement, as well as the rapid transfer of communist to capitalist economic systems. Russia no longer stood as a strong leader in world affairs. Instead, Russian wealth was held in the hands of a few oligarchs, while most of the country suffered from plummeting standards of living. Russia’s president, Boris Yeltsin, had been democratically elected after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But by the late 1990s, Yeltsin was in his upper 60s and ill. He increasingly relied on aides to help him with speeches, public appearances, and decision-making. In August 1999, Yeltsin appointed his Chief of the Russian Security Council as his prime minister. The maneuver surprised many within and outside Russia. At forty-six years old, Vladimir Putin was relatively young, and largely unknown to both Russians and foreigners. Four months later, Boris Yeltsin resigned as president of Russia and named Putin his successor. The following spring, Putin transformed from an obscure security agent to the leader of the largest nation on earth when he was elected the second president of Russia. Learning Objectives - Analyze Vladimir Putin’s presidency in Russia. Key Terms / Key Concepts Alexei Navalny: opposition leader to Vladimir Putin Chechnya: republic in southern Russia that has long-sought complete independence Dmitry Medvedev: president of Russia (2008 – 2012) Georgia: small, independent nation in the Caucasus region of Europe oligarchs: Russian billionaire businessmen who gained extreme wealth and political influence during the late 1980s and 1990s Vladimir Putin: president of Russia (2000 – 2008; 2012 – Present) Putin's Early Career “Any cook should be able to run the country.” So said Vladimir Lenin about the egalitarian nature of the communist Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, workers were the backbone of communism: in ideology and daily life. Therefore, any cook, any bricklayer, any shoemaker would represent the interests of and understand the people so well that they could theoretically govern the world’s largest communist state. Little did Vladmir Lenin know that his personal cook, Spiridon Putin, would one day have a grandson, named Vladimir, who would govern Russia. Background Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Saint Petersburg (then called Leningrad). In his autobiography, Putin outlined growing up in a modest, communal apartment with his working-class parents. He described himself, initially, as a poor student who was heavily interested in sports. Despite Soviet policies of the day that curbed religion, Putin also recalled that his mother had secretly baptized him as an Orthodox Christian. By his teenage years, Putin had transformed into a serious and inquisitive young man interested in Soviet politics. He excelled in the law program at Leningrad State University, and upon graduation, accepted a position as a security officer for the Russian foreign security agency: the KGB. Putin worked as a KGB agent for fifteen years. After retiring from the KGB, Putin returned to Saint Petersburg where he excelled in local politics. In the early 1990s, Putin moved to Moscow with his (then) wife and two young daughters to pursue his political career. Seemingly out of nowhere, quiet and private Vladimir Putin climbed the political ranks, serving as an advisor to Russia’s prime minister at the time: Anatoly Chubais. By 1998, Putin had developed such close connections to Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle, that Yeltsin named him director of the FSB—Russia’s intelligence agency and successor agency to the KGB. Within a year, Putin had again climbed the ranks and was appointed Secretary of the Security Council of Russia. In that capacity, Putin would regularly meet with President Yeltsin, and the heads of Russian defense. Then, in a surprising maneuver, Putin was named prime minister of Russia by Boris Yeltsin. Although Putin was unknown and enigmatic to most of Russia when he stepped into his new role, he would soon make his name known across the country. 1999:The Critical Year for Vladimir Putin In the fall of 1999, two key events occurred in Russia that launched Putin into the forefront of Russian attention. The first event occurred in August, just after Putin assumed his position as prime minister of Russia. An Islamist militant group invaded Dagestan—a Russian province in the southern Caucasus that is a mountainous region bordering the Caspian Sea. News stories in Russia proclaimed that the invading force committed atrocities against Russian soldiers. At home, Russians feared their country was weak and that it might be carved up as the former Soviet Union had been. A month later, a series of apartment bombings swept through three cities in Russia, including Moscow. Over 300 Russians were killed, with over 1,000 more injured. No perpetrators were concretely identified, and ever since the events, there has been much speculation about who carried out the bombings. Some analysts even speculate that the bombings were a false-flag operation. They suggest that the Russian FSB had planted the bombs with the intent of placing blame elsewhere and generating support for Yeltsin’s failing presidency. But despite these rumors and stories, most Russian eyes turned to a longstanding adversary: militants from Chechnya—a small republic in the Caucasus region of southern Russia, and a neighbor to Dagestan. It was the narrative the Russian government and media wanted Russians to buy. And to the average Russian, the story made sense. Russia had just fought a war against Chechnya under Yeltsin and left many people on both sides discontented. For although Chechnya operated independently, it remained a part of Russia. Chechens desperately sought complete independence. Russians, in contrast, sought more control over what they saw as a violent and unstable area. The competing ideas set Chechnya and Russia on a collision course with one another. Putin understood that Russians felt defeated in 1999. The bombings confirmed Russian fears that the world viewed their country as a place of instability and mass violence. Every stereotype and fear Russians sought to avoid rained down on them in 1999. The people desperately needed a hero. One who would give them hope for a brighter future, restore the glory of Russia, and crush their enemies. In the wake of apartment bombings, Putin stepped into the front of news cameras and overtly blamed the Chechens for the apartment bombings across Russia. Chechnya, he assured them, would pay for its crimes. He assured them that Russia would punish Chechnya and the forces that invaded Dagestan, that Russia would avenge the deaths of their soldiers, and that the country would persevere and reign triumphant. Confident, tough, but calm under pressure, Putin was exactly the leader Russians sought in their hour of crisis. Following the apartment bombings, Russia launched airstrikes on Chechnya, and then a land invasion of the northern half of Chechnya. Thousands of Chechens were killed, with thousands more displaced in the war that ensued. In December 1999, Yeltsin named Vladimir Putin the “acting president” of Russia as he resigned from the office. Facing an election that spring, Putin knew he had to demonstrate his strength as a leader. Under his order, the Russian military launched a massive campaign to capture the Chechen capital, Grozny. In February 2000, they succeeded. Although the war against Chechnya would continue for nearly a decade, Putin’s popularity exploded across Russia. Across the country, Russians turned out to vote for the next president. Unsurprisingly, and overwhelmingly, Putin was elected as president of Russia in March 2000. President Putin's First Term President Putin entered the Kremlin in March 2000 with resounding popular support because of his strong stance against Chechnya. But his popularity suffered in August because of a military disaster. The Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, embarked on a military training exercise with the Russian naval fleet in the Barents Sea off Russia’s northwest coast in the Arctic Circle. Despite its reputation as an invincible submarine, two massive explosions rocketed through the Kursk during the exercise. The explosions sunk the Kursk. Reportedly, nearly 100 of the crew were killed in the initial explosions and subsequent fires that spread throughout the submarine. But a handful of the crew made it to one of the submarine’s compartments that had survived the blasts. There, they waited for help to arrive, and undoubtedly expected it would come. The submarine had been part of a large convoy sent to perform a military exercise. Surely, the naval fleet would notice it was missing. Moreover, the Kursk had sunk in relatively shallow, if icy, water not far from Russia’s port of Murmansk. But no help came. Delays in communication extended from the military to President Putin, who was vacationing at the time. When news reached Putin, he was slow to report it to the media, and delayed help from Western navies, despite the fact Russian military reports claimed that they heard clanging sounds coming from survivors aboard the Kursk. After a week, Putin allowed Western navies to mount a rescue attempt. But it was too late. All 118 sailors had perished when the British rescue team arrived. Anger toward the new president swept through Russia. Families demanded explanations and called for Putin’s dismissal. Fears that old Soviet practices of secrecy and cover-ups returned. Moreover, the disaster and Putin’s stagnation seemed to signal that Russia was still decades behind the West in its development. The event humiliated Putin and his popularity plummeted. In response to what he deemed excessive and inaccurate media coverage of the event, Putin clamped down on the media, and regulated coverage of the Kursk disaster. He later visited the families of the sailors who had perished and provided them with financial compensation. Since 2000, memorials have been created in honor of the men who perished aboard the Kursk. Russsia Engages the World: Putin and Foreign Affairs Vladimir Putin weathered the shock his presidency received after the Kursk disaster. In part, he survived and rebounded because of his determination to make Russia strong in the eyes of the world. In particular, he concentrated on projecting Russian strength when dealing with foreign heads of state. In the early 2000s, President Putin emphasized the need for a “multipolar” world. By this, he meant a world in which there was more than one clear center of power and influence. One beyond Western Europe and the United States. He sought to connect with the West, while also remaining committed to the idea that Russia would again be a strong world power. Simultaneously, he believed that China and other regions in Asia should be strong world actors on equal footing with the West. And he was determined to develop Russia’s connection with the East, as well as the West. Putin was initially keen to work with Western nations, including the United States. He even proposed to President Bill Clinton the idea of Russia joining NATO, by presenting a new Russia free from Soviet-era policies. Naturally, the conversation went no further. Putin also kindled a relationship with President George W. Bush. One in which the younger Bush famously quipped that he had “gotten a sense of Putin’s soul.” To Americans, it signaled hope that despite their long, adversarial relationship, Russia and the United States might be entering a new era of friendship and cooperation. Hope was further kindled when, on September 11, 2001, Putin was the first head of state to contact President George W. Bush and offer his support. He pledged Russian assistance in helping the United States and the West track down and eliminate terrorists. However, he stopped short of actually aiding the U.S. and vehemently opposed the United States’ war in Iraq. Putin’s policies toward foreign countries in the first two terms of his presidency projected more than anything, the idea that Russia was a nation willing to work with others, regardless of political divides. However, he was always careful to emphasize that the new Russia, his Russia, was strong and would operate on its own terms. He would not be in the pocket of the West, as his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, was. Nor would he allow foreign governments to intimidate him or threaten Russia in any way. In 2005, he famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th Century.” While that quote has often been used to assess actions later undertaken by him, it is equally important to showcase his message at the time. For Putin, who had grown up in the communist Soviet Union, he saw the collapse of the state as a major blow to Russian strength and international prestige. He also saw it as artificially bolstering the importance of the West over all other regions of the world. At the time of his speech, Putin wanted to alter both of those outcomes by building up Russian military strength and re-establishing Russia as a major global actor in a multipolar world. For the Good of Russia?: Putin's Domestic Policies The Russia that Putin inherited from President Yeltsin in 2000 was not one that anyone would particularly relish. Spanning eleven time zones, Russia was enormous. Much of its population was impoverished, unemployed, and frustrated. Russia writhed with violence, drugs, and crime, particularly in Moscow. The life expectancy for Russian men in the 1990s was remarkably short for an industrialized nation. In 1999, the National Institute for Health reported that the life expectancy for Russian men was 58 years. The political and economic instability of the 1990s had prompted surging alcoholism rates in Russia, primarily among men. As a result, alcohol-related deaths also surged. Along with the social ills of a massive, unstable country came an explosion in all types of crime. Organized crime, violent crime, and petty crime all exploded throughout Russia during the politically chaotic 1990s and into the early 2000s. Politically, Russia also was rife with corruption at every level. Indeed, when Putin stepped into the role as president of Russia, his work was cut out for him. And it was far from attractive. The question on everyone’s mind was simple: would Putin hold out a hand for the common, impoverished, working Russian; or, would he align with the wealthy, corrupt oligarchs whose shady business endeavors resulted in their unprecedented wealth? Ever enigmatic, few people could guess Putin’s next move, and many underestimated the political skill of their new president. Putin Tackles the Russian Economy First on Putin’s agenda of domestic affairs was stabilizing and improving the Russian economy. The task was as enormous as the country itself. From 1917 – 1991, Russia had been a communist society in which trade and industry were strictly controlled by the government. Wealth was distributed by the government to individuals and families based on need and ability. Then, almost overnight, a dramatic shift in economic policies occurred. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 came the collapse of Russian communism. In its place, a capitalist economic system was installed. The lightspeed transition produced shockwaves across Russia. Capitalism stood in direct opposition to communism. Instead of strict government regulation, capitalism favored the individual, private property, private wealth, and fierce economic competition. The transition left many ordinary Russians confused, and wondering how, and from where, they would earn enough money to support themselves. The economic crisis deepened during the rise of a group of Russian oligarchs. Hyper-wealthy, fiercely intelligent and ruthless businessmen, these individuals had obtained their wealth during the mid-1980s and early 1990s under the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who allowed limited privatization of the Russian economy. These businessmen often lived abroad and brought Western products to Russia to be sold on the black market for astronomical prices. The same group of men also created vast oil and natural gas companies. As their wealth soared, so too did their political influence. Many scholars claim that the oligarchs were the actual government in the 1990s, and Boris Yeltsin a simple figurehead president. In any case, one thing about the Russian economy in the 1990s was true: it floundered. Power and vast wealth remained in the hands of a very few, shady Russian businessmen, most of whom lived abroad and had foreign bank accounts. For the remaining 99% of Russians, life proved exceptionally difficult. Putin Brings "Improvement" to the Russian Economy Vladimir Putin had to improve Russia’s economy to remain in power. One of his first acts of business was to nationalize much of Russia’s energy sector. This maneuver allowed for the growth of Russian industries for the first time in over a decade. It created jobs and dramatically reduced unemployment in Russia. Global demand and prices for Russian oil and natural gas skyrocketed, in part due to the West’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, Putin was firm in his deals with the West. If Western nations wanted Russian gas and oil, they must pay Russia fairly. Much of the West complied, and to-date, Russia continues to supply most of Europe with natural gas and oil. By 2004, Russia’s economy thrived due to Putin’s regulation of the energy sector, and a massive tax reform he undertook. Unemployment dropped, and the standards of living rose sharply. With these social gains, Russian people began investing in the economy, and consumerism boomed. The middle class expanded, and wealth slowly began to be more evenly distributed. It appeared that after a relatively short time of trials, capitalism seemed destined to triumph in Russia. In 2004, Vladimir Putin also seemed destined to triumph in Russia, as he won re-election and began his second term as president. Restoration of a Dictator? Putin and the Oligarchs Much of Putin’s popularity can be boiled down to two things: strengthening Russian prestige abroad and strengthening the Russian economy at home. But his relationship with the oligarchs was complicated from the earliest days of his presidency. Behind the scenes, they facilitated his political rise and win of the presidency. But they were enormously unpopular with the Russian people. To remain popular, Putin needed to be seen challenging them. A closed-doors deal was struck between him and the billionaire businessmen. He would allow them to keep their personal wealth, assets, and companies in exchange for complete loyalty and nonintervention in government affairs. The agreement seemed, initially, to work. The oligarchs retained their wealth and pledged loyalty, and often millions of international dollars to Putin. It was corruption on a grand scale. Putin warned that any oligarch who broke away from him would be severely disciplined. Very likely, his threat seemed laughable to the oligarchs at the time who were accustomed to dealing with the malleable Yeltsin. They, like so many others, underestimated the strength and skill of their new president. Famously, Russia’s wealthiest oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, broke with Putin. Underestimating Putin as a politician and former KGB agent, Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint on charges of fraud and tax evasion. He was later tried and sentenced to ten-years in prison. After eight years, and much political campaigning on his behalf, Khodorkovsky was released and allowed to live in exile in the United States. He would not be the last of the oligarchs to pay a price for breaking with Vladimir Putin. Putin's Second Term (2004-2008) From the onset of his presidency, Vladimir Putin was intensely secretive about much of his private life. His daughters were all but unknown to the world, having been only very rarely photographed. He would provide evasive answers to reporters about the sources of his wealth or how much wealth he had. Increasingly in his second term, Westerners and Russians alike pointed to his service as a KGB agent as formative experience. He would conceal much about himself, while simultaneously, (and often subtly) getting others to reveal information. He could transform himself to become who he thought his audience needed him to be. Like a chameleon, he could disguise and alter his persona to suit the situation at hand. While this might have worked well for Putin personally, it sparked unease among Russians and foreigners alike. Although Putin had enjoyed an overwhelming re-election in 2004, his second term would usher forth new fears at home that he was increasingly becoming an authoritarian leader. Mr. Putin's Wars During his time as a KGB agent, and as a young politician in Saint Petersburg, Putin witnessed the dissolution of both the Soviet Union, and the former communist state Yugoslavia. It is likely that these events impacted him deeply. From the beginning of his presidency, restoration of Russia as strong world leader has proved one of his primary goals. On the opposite side of the coin, the carving up of Russia in a manner like Yugoslavia is likely one of his great fears. Therefore, he has historically reacted harshly to any perceived threat to Russia’s progression as a world leader, be it an internal or external threat. The Beslan Hostage Crisis On September 1, 2004, a group of Islamist militants from the Caucasus region of North Ossetia, a neighbor of Chechnya, entered a school in the town of Beslan in southern Russia. They quickly took over 1,100 hostages, including teachers, students, and parents who had accompanied their children to school for a day of planned festivities. They drove the hostages into the school gym, and proceeded to rig explosives to the basketball goals, and throughout the gym. Outside the school, Russian forces mounted by the thousands, and a siege began. For three days, the captors held their hostages, shooting some of male teachers, and refusing food and drink to anyone. During the crisis, the militants demanded Russia recognize complete independence of Chechnya—a request Putin would never grant. On the third day of the siege, Russian forces were able to overwhelm the terrorists. With the help of tanks, Russian forces stormed the school. Their action defeated the terrorists, but not without heavy loss of life. At the end of the siege, more than 300 hostages had perished, most of them children. The Beslan hostage crisis provided Putin with the context he needed to further crack down on internal dissent. His response was swift and sharp. Direct election of municipal officials was removed throughout Russia. Instead, officials would be appointed directly by the Kremlin. Increasingly, Russian media reported on Putin’s crackdowns and asserted that his power stretched too far. In response, Putin launched a new crackdown that targeted the media, which, he believed, spread lies and misinformation about the government. Putin's Crackdowns: The Media and Political Opponents Following the Kursk incident in 2000, Putin launched a campaign to severely restrict all independent media outlets in Russia. The campaign was undertaken in the name of ending “misinformation” spread by these news agencies. In Putin’s view, most news reports that diverged from official, state-sponsored media outlets, constituted misinformation. Media crackdowns persisted and intensified following every major crisis experienced within Russia. In some cases, Putin ordered the arrest and imprisonment of owners of media outlets, including Russian oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky. One by one, independent news agencies were shut down or brought under the direct control of the Russian government. For journalists who remained committed to investigating Putin and the Kremlin, their fates were frequently worse than imprisonment. Among the most famous journalists to be silenced in Russia was a woman who investigated Putin and his policies extensively, Anna Politkovskaya. Since Putin’s first invasion of Chechnya in 1999, she had reported on human rights abuses committed by Russians against the Chechens. In 2004, she published her book, Putin’s Russia, and laid bare the corruption and oppression within Putin’s presidency. Two years later, she was discovered murdered in the elevator to her apartment. Ironically, her murder occurred on October 7, 2006—Putin’s 54th birthday. Less than two months after Politkovskaya’s death, another high-profile death rocked Russia. This time, the death occurred in London. A middle-aged, former Russian security officer, Alexander Litvinenko, had died under mysterious circumstances in a London hospital. Investigations into his death by the British revealed that he was a vocal critic of Putin and that he had also leaked information from his days as a FSB security officer. Moreover, on the day he fell violently ill, Litvinenko had met with two men, proven to be Russian security agents, in a London hotel. A postmortem investigation revealed that Litvinenko had been poisoned with a radioactive element: polonium-210. One probable theory argues that the Russian agents slipped the element into Litvinenko’s tea, as traces of the substance were found in a tea pot where they had met. High levels of polonium-210 were also discovered in the hotel bar. Further investigation proved that the two Russian agents were indeed responsible for Litvinenko’s death but investigators could not link the murder directly to Putin. It would not be the last death nor high-profile poisoning conducted by Russian agents. Putin's Changing Attitude toward the West In Putin’s second term, the Russian President began to shift his tone in working with the West. He had felt for years that the West treated Russia as second class, as well as backward. These attitudes, he believed, resulted in little genuine effort from the United States or Western Europe to work with Russia. Their lack of respect and aid deeply weighed on Putin. Over the years, he increasingly distanced himself from the Western nations. As early as 2003, Putin was enormously critical of the United States’ invasion of Iraq. He spoke of flaws of Western dominance in global affairs. In 2007, Putin delivered a speech in Munich in which he sharply criticized the United States use of what he called excessive military force to enforce diplomacy with other countries, specifically those in the developing world. Similarly, icy tensions emerged between Putin and the United Kingdom. The British frequently gave asylum to political exiles from Russia, notably some of the country’s oligarchs. This policy irritated Putin. Simultaneously, the British became frustrated and concerned with Putin because of events such as the Litvinenko poisoning that had occurred within British borders. Putin and NATO Most irritating to Putin was the expansion of NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had been formed in 1949, four years into the Cold War between Russia and the West. It was created as a peacetime, military alliance between Western nations. Among other things, it promised that if any NATO country were attacked, the other NATO nations would consider it as an attack upon themselves and provide military aid. Practically, NATO was an alliance designed to protect Western nations from attacks by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was a very visible sign of solidarity and strength among Western Europe and the United States. The Soviet Union had responded by the creation of their equivalent: the Warsaw Pact. But after the Cold War, the Soviet Union had collapsed. Communism was defeated in Europe, and the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. Russia hoped that the West would respond by a similar dismantling of NATO. Instead, NATO membership soared in the 1990s and 2000s. Since 1999, many former Soviet Bloc countries, such as Poland and Romania, have joined NATO. The Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all of which share a border with Russia, joined NATO. These Eastern European nations joined NATO for two reasons: memory of life under the communist Soviet Union and security against encroachment/attacks from what they perceived as growing Russian aggression in Europe during the 2000s. From Putin’s perspective, the rapid expansion of NATO, a Cold War-era entity, was a further sign that Europe was distancing itself from Russia. Why, he argued, would a Cold War-era alliance be expanding after the end of the Cold War? From whom, did they expect an attack? And why was Western Europe so quick to accept former Soviet countries into NATO membership? The spark that further ignited Putin’s fury was that NATO built military bases in Eastern European countries, namely Poland. For Putin, that was practically in Russia’s backdoor. The building of such bases, he argued, threatened the security of Russia and amplified tensions between Russia and the West to Cold War levels. Exit, Mr. Putin? The Russian constitution limited the president to two consecutive terms of four years each. In 2008, Putin’s time in office was nearly over. He could not run a third term, or extend his presidency, without risking strong opposition from the Russian people. So, Putin set out to find a suitable protégé. He found one in his long-time ally, former chief of staff, and deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev. More than a decade younger than Putin, Medvedev was comparatively young. He spoke with a professional courteousness that Putin lacked. Unlike Putin, he delivered speeches that resonated with Russian intellectuals, which pulled in support from that demographic. His boyish face was warm and ingratiating—a stark contrast to austere, glacial Putin. And unlike Putin, Medvedev was inexperienced and malleable. The only problem arose from a small, but vocal minority of Russian people. In 2008, the popular chess master, Garry Kasparov, entered his candidacy for the presidency against Putin’s man, Medvedev. He ran on the campaign that Putin and his inner circle were extremely corrupt. Among other charges, he implied that Putin was an autocratic president that was severely restricting freedoms in Russia. For a small percentage of Russians, Kasparov’s claims struck home. Even Putin-supporters could not deny that he had worked to severely restrict and regulate the media in Russia. Moreover, Russians had concerns about voter fraud and the legitimacy of Russian elections. During his campaign, Kasparov gained a strong following. But his campaign was often halted by his periodic arrests for demonstrating against Putin. Late in 2007, Kasparov withdrew from the race, frustrated by the endless roadblocks he faced in campaigning against Putin’s government. Although he failed to successfully run for the presidency, he had succeeded in raising awareness of Putin’s increasing corruption and authoritarianism in two critical ways: firstly, larger numbers of Russians were questioning Putin and his policies; and secondly, Kasparov’s failed campaign pointed to the severe authoritarianism in the state. At the time, Kasparov was handsome, wealthy, and internationally famous. If the Russian government could create such hurdles to stop his campaign, Kasparov’s point was spot-on. Russia was far from free. According to voter records, Putin left the presidency in 2008 with overwhelming popular support. It was therefore unsurprising that his hand-picked successor also experienced strong support during his election campaign and ultimately won the presidential election. In 2008, Russia and the World welcomed the new president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev. But within hours of his oath-taking, Medvedev named Putin his prime minister. The act resulted in many asking, “Who is the real Russian president?” The Cozy President and the Glacial Prime Minister: Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (2008-2012) From the moment Dmitry Medvedev stepped into the presidency it became impossible to separate him from Vladimir Putin. At home and abroad, people described Medvedev’s presidency as a “tandem” presidency in which decision-making was shared between the two men. Speculation arose that Medvedev had never had presidential aspirations, that he simply bent to Putin’s plan. The Russo-Georgian War Regardless of how he had come to power, Medvedev faced his first crisis only months after coming to power. Just south of the Russian Caucasus was the small, independent country of Georgia. In August 2008, there were longstanding tensions between Georgia and Russia over small provinces in the Caucasus, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. Violence erupted between South Ossetian troops and Georgian troops. Russian troops soon joined the conflict on the side of South Ossetia and launched an attack on Georgia. Within five days, the war was over. Georgia had been beaten into submission by Russian forces that had illegally invaded their country, and the Caucasus provinces remained firmly in Russian hands. Despite the briefness of the war, it resulted in mass displacement for Georgian civilians. Moreover, the lack of international response to Russia’s illegal invasion emboldened Russia. Medvedev was at the helm, with Putin pulling his strings. And prime minister Putin would not forget the lack of Western response to their invasion of Georgia. The Global Financial Crisis and Medvedev's Foreign Diplomacy Medvedev’s second challenge arrived in 2008 during the global economic recession. Russian GDP dropped sharply. For Russia, the recession proved a preview of the dangers of a mono-industry nation. Russia relied heavily on its gas and oil exports to drive its economy. But if those industries collapsed, Russia would suffer enormously. For his part, Medvedev spoke of diversifying the Russian economy. He advocated for development in the sectors of information and medical technology. But in his four years as president, little was done to promote a diversified economy. Russia weathered the 2008 economic crisis but it was not until two years later that the economy began to recover and grow. In many ways, Medvedev mimicked Putin. Some noted that even in his speaking, Medvedev’s intonation was like Putin’s. In policy, Medvedev was like Putin, also. During his presidency, he increasingly turned away from the West and toward the East. In 2009, his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, famously received a “present” from United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton—a box with a bright red button. Inaccurately written in Russian, the button was supposed to say “Reset.” Lavrov quickly pointed out that the Americans had used an inaccurate Russian word, and that it said “overcharge.” But despite the brief humiliation, the intention was clear to both parties. The United States recognized that the two countries were at odds. A “resetting” of relations needed to occur. It was clear, at that time, that Russia was turning eastward instead of to the West. And President Medvedev developed working relationships with some of the world’s most notorious heads of state, including Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro. The Forgotten President? President Medvedev announced in 2012 that he would not run for re-election. Instead, he threw his support to his prime minister. Vladimir Putin, he proclaimed, would be an excellent choice of candidates for president. No one in Russia or abroad seemed surprised by the announcement. But in Russia, thousands protested what they deemed an increasingly corrupt government. Among those leading protests was a thirty-five-year-old lawyer and YouTube blogger, Alexei Navalny. Very successfully, he labeled Putin’s political party, United Russia, the party of “crooks and thieves.” He used the internet to broadcast evidence of Putin’s “stolen” wealth—vast palaces and yachts. He also advocated for a free and democratic Russia, something unknown in Putin’s Russia. Through his media platforms, Navalny garnered millions of supporters. For the first time since 1999, Putin had a strong political opponent. It was a momentous start for Navalny. Within two years, he would lead the Russian opposition against Vladimir Putin, as well as become an international household name. In 2012, Medvedev exited the presidency and became Vladimir Putin’s prime minister. While it is still debated to what extent Medvedev’s presidency was really his own, overwhelming opinion speculates that Putin was heavily involved all along. As Medvedev left the presidency, so too did public memory of him. Within five years of his exiting the presidency, Medvedev was largely forgotten by most of the world. Return of President Putin: 2013-Present Vladimir Putin returned to the president’s office in May 2012. Mass protests occurred during his installation as president. Protestors decried the election and claimed rampant voter fraud took place. In response to the protestors, Russian police arrested thousands. The arrests resulted in dozens of international organizations declaring that human rights were being violated en masse in Russia. Over the next decade, organizations and countries around the world would cry that Russia erased basic human freedoms. Indeed, during his third and fourth terms, Putin would increasingly implement measures to crack down on dissension in his autocratic Russia. Ever at the forefront of his thoughts was a great coin. On one side was the goal of promoting Russia as a major power in global affairs, on equal standing with the West. On the flip side of the coin was the fear that Russia would retreat from the world stage, and/or be dismantled as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had been. Together, these thoughts created a strong, unyielding Russian nationalist in Putin. A characteristic that would set him on a collision course with Western powers in 2014, and again in 2022 when he launched invasions of Ukraine. Attributions Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Gessen, Masha. The Man without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. Penguin Books, New York: 2014. Lourie, Richard. Putin: His Downfall and Russia’s Coming Crash. Thomas Dunne Books, New York: 2017.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.340346	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88115/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 17: Post-Cold War International Structure, The Chameleon in the Kremlin: Contemporary Russia under Putin", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87960/overview	Death Knell on the Eastern Front Overview World War I on the Eastern Front: 1914-1916 World War I is today best remembered most for the campaigns and battles waged in France and Belgium on the Western Front. However, the Eastern Front proved as essential to winning the war as the Western Front. The Eastern Front was a more fluid line of combat in present-day Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. It pitted some of the most powerful nations against one another. Fighting on the side of the Central Powers were Austria-Hungary and Germany. For the Allies, the Russian Empire led the charge. Unfortunately for Russia, the charge would prove futile, and the largest land-based empire in the world would be brought to its knees. Learning Objectives - Examine how battles and events on the Eastern Front contributed to the collapse of the Russian Empire. - Evaluate why the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies proved more successful than the Russian Army on the Eastern Front. - Examine the legacies of Russia’s losses and defeat in World War I. Key Terms / Key Concepts Eastern Front: mobile combat zone that occupied much of present-day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic countries between 1914 and 1918 Battle of Tannenberg: major German victory on the Eastern Front in August 1914 Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff: officers of the German High Command during World War I on the Eastern Front The Brusilov Offensive: the last significant Russian victory on the Eastern Front, occurring in 1916 Tsar Nicholas II: last tsar of Russia who took personal charge of the Russian army in 1916 to disastrous effect Background: A War Between Cousins Nicky and Willy It is difficult to imagine that World War I was a war fought between heads of state who were also cousins. Two of the most powerful heads of state during World War I were Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia; they were close cousins who had attended family events together, sailed, hiked, and even dressed in one another’s dress uniforms for photographs. However, when news of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination erupted, Germany and Russia found themselves pressured to join a larger war among European nations and the two cousins became enemies. In late July 1914, the Tsar and the Kaiser sent one another a series of telegrams in which they addressed each other as “Nicky” and “Willy” and attempted to avert a war between their nations. Each appealed to the other to halt the mobilization of their respective armies. Within days, though, their respective governments had overpowered the voices of their monarchs. Ever easily manipulated, Nicholas succumbed to the pressure to mobilize Russia’s army on behalf of their small ally, Serbia. And on August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. Early Days of the War in the East Background When Germany declared war on Russia, two main concerns erupted for them. Firstly, Germany recognized it would have to serve on a two-front, European war (a fact to be repeated in World War II). It would engage in combat against the French and British along the Western Front and Russia along the Eastern Front. Secondly, most of Europe regarded Russia as a country with innumerable resources, particularly in manpower. For this reason, Germany employed the Schlieffen Plan in Western Europe with the goal of knocking France out of the war before England could fully deploy its strength. Then Germany could turn its full strength toward defeating Russia. For its part, Russia sought to regain territory that had once belonged to it. In particular, they sought to reclaim parts of Eastern Prussia in Northern Germany. Fatally, the Russians incorrectly believed that German forces proved less of a threat to them than those of Austria-Hungary. Therefore, they deployed enormously insufficient troops to assault the German forces near Northern Prussia. Most of their troops were, instead, sent further south to fight against the Austro-Hungarian army in Galicia—a territory in the present-day areas of eastern Poland and western Ukraine. Unlike the Western Front, which was iconic for its use of trench warfare, the Eastern Front was largely a war of mobility. This involved troops attacking one other’s borders and territory by launching large supply chains and armies. Logistics and Russia’s dramatic lack of resources account for the different style of warfare. While strong in its human resources, Russia remained a century behind the rest of Europe in terms of its technological and military developments. Because of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany was initially under-defended on their eastern borders. As a result, Russia experienced early, small success with their attacks. But by the third week of August, things would shift to favor Germany. The Battle of Tannenberg In late August 1914, the German High Command sent two officers, Paul von Hindenberg and Erich Ludendorff, to take command of their forces in East Prussia. They quickly earned a reputation as the “brains” of the German Army that extended through the rest of the war. Making use of the superior German artillery and the element of surprise, the German army encircled the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg (present-day northeast Poland). Caught entirely by surprise, the battle resulted in the destruction of multiple Russian units with nearly 200,000 Russian casualties in less than a week. In comparison, the Germans lost only 12,000 men. The disparity in the battle casualties between Russia and Germany remained enormous for the next three years. Adding insult to the enormous injury that the Russian army sustained at Tannenberg, the Austro-Hungarian army had achieved a strong victory against the Russians further south at the Battle of Lemberg (Lviv) in present-day Ukraine. By the end of August, the Central Powers had kicked Russia out of East Prussia and pushed the Eastern Front toward Russian territory. The fall of 1914 marked an ominous beginning for the Russian war effort and set in motion events that would bring down the mighty Russian empire. The Great Russian Retreat: 1915 In the spring of 1915, the better organized and equipped German Army came to the aid of the struggling Austro-Hungarian Army. Their arrival marked the beginning of the end for the Russian Army, despite the fact it would take more than three years before the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was signed, officially ending Russia’s involvement in the war. From May to September 1915, the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies repeatedly attacked and advanced against the Russian Army. Suffering from disorganization and severe lack of supplies the Russians suffered enormous casualties, with Russian prisoners of war numbering in the hundreds of thousands. In August, the Germans captured the city of Warsaw—a city that had been under Russian control for a hundred years. By September, the Russian Army was pushed entirely out of Galicia (present-day Poland and Ukraine) and forced to retreat toward Russia. In their retreat, Russia lost access to grain-growing regions; villagers in the region succumbed to starvation and disease as the German Army occupied the lands. Worse news was yet to come for Russia. In September 1915, Tsar Nicholas II dismissed his senior military chiefs to lead and oversee the Russian Army himself from his headquarters at Stavka. This was a choice undertaken by Nicholas to inspire Russian troops to continue fighting. Moreover, it suited Nicholas’ personal fascination with the military. However, the tsar entirely lacked knowledge in military matters, and his decision to lead the army proved disastrous. Russia Fights Back: The Brusilov Offensive In June 1916, Russia found its most successful general of World War I: Alexei Brusilov. A seasoned war commander, he led the attack against the Austro-Hungarian Army. In June 1916, the Russians launched the Brusilov Offensive--a short artillery bombardment on the enemy positions. Brusilov’s units then launched a coordinated offensive attack up and down the Eastern Front. The Russians achieved initial victories from Lutsk to Czernowitz (present-day Ukraine). Despite their initial successes, the Russians sustained enormous casualties by the end of July 1916, when German forces were sent to bolster the Austro-Hungarian Army. By the end of the campaign, the Russian Army had lost nearly half a million men. Moreover, vast shortages of army supplies continued to plague the Russian Army. Many soldiers were under-equipped. Accounts reported that many Russian soldiers had to wait for a comrade to die before they could find a rifle. In comparison to the Central Powers, particularly the German Army, Russia remained critically under-prepared to fight in a modern war. World War I on the Eastern Front: Russia in Tumult Learning Objectives - Examine how battles and events on the Eastern Front contributed to the collapse of the Russian Empire. - Evaluate why the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies proved more successful than the Russian Army on the Eastern Front. - Examine the legacies of Russia’s losses and defeat in World War I. Key Terms / Key Concepts Tsarina Alexandra: German-born wife of Tsar Nicholas II who was enormously unpopular in Russia Grigory Efimovich, “Rasputin”: a Russian “monk” and “holy man” from Siberia whose seemingly “mystical, healing powers” won over the support of the Russian royal family February Revolution: first of two revolutions waged in Russia in 1917 Provisional Government: the poorly constructed, democratic governing body in Russia created after the abdication of the tsar, headed by Alexander Kerensky Alexander Kerensky: democratic leader of the Russian provisional government Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: peace treaty signed in early 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers that marked the end of Russian involvement in World War I Background Nicholas and Alexandra. Their story is far more compelling than any Hollywood film. A true love match formed against the desires of Nicholas’ parents, the tsar and tsarina remained unshakingly devoted to one another for their entire married lives. Their wealth far exceeded comprehension. But it is best exemplified by the gift Nicholas bestowed upon his niece at her wedding—a bag of diamonds ranging from one to seven carats in size. At its height, Nicholas’ empire included one-sixth of the world. And his union with Alexandra yielded five hauntingly beautiful children—four daughters and a son. But it was their family life, and Nicholas’ determination to rule as an eighteenth-century autocrat in a twentieth century world, that would bring about the collapse of the Russian Empire and ultimately lead to their brutal execution. At age twenty-six, Nicholas was crowned tsar. Even in his naivety, the tsar knew he had inherited the role too young. His large and powerful father, Tsar Alexander III, had died prematurely, and left his heir with only one guiding principle: rule with an iron-fist. For short-statured, easily-manipulated “Nicky,” this order proved impossible to carry-out well. And he lacked the sense or foresight to adjust his administration to meet the modern needs of the Russian people. Moreover, his wife was immediately disliked for being born a shy and exceedingly private “German” princess. One that was observed to have “come into Russia behind a coffin,” for Tsarina Alexandra had wed Nicholas just before his father’s death. In private, Nicholas and Alexandra carried a terrible secret. Their only son, Alexei, suffered from hemophilia—a genetic disease that affects the blood’s ability to clot. And while the royal couple had four beautiful daughters—Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, they could not, by Russian law, inherit the throne. Therefore, Alexei’s precarious health remained at the center of the family’s activity and actions. Any bump or bruise could result in immense, internal swelling and excruciating pain for the young heir. Indeed, Alexei suffered many such incidents that resulted in his temporarily being crippled, and two that nearly claimed his life. And yet, Nicholas and Alexandra never publicly revealed the tsarevich’s (crown prince’s) illness. As any parent might, they turned to unconventional methods of controlling Alexei’s disease when modern doctors and medicine failed. For Alexandra in particular, the solution arrived in the form of a “holy man” from Siberia who could seemingly slow her son’s bleeding through a type of hypnosis. It is, perhaps, no surprise that the Russian people wondered at the royal family’s endorsement of this man Grigory Efimovich, or “Rasputin,” who, to everyone but Nicholas and Alexandra, was a lewd, womanizing, and physically dirty “mad monk from Siberia.” Tsarina in Charge During WWI, with the tsar at his military headquarters near the front, Tsarina Alexandra was responsible for overseeing the daily functions of Russia. Inside their palace, however, Alexandra remained reclusive and wrapped entirely around the health of her frail son. And, following Alexei’s nearly fatal hemorrhage, Alexandra relied increasingly on the mystical words of the “holy man” Rasputin. Rasputin Historians still debate who “Rasputin” really was. A self-trained “holy man” from Siberia, he was born Grigory Efimovich. People around him noted his uncanny, piercing eyes and hypnotic voice. But outside of these intriguing qualities, the man who would later be dubbed “Rasputin” (“dissolute” in Russian) by the Russian people, was a serial womanizer, famous for his modest and often filthy appearance. His other vice was Russian vodka, which he often enjoyed in the company of women. And yet he cast a powerful spell over the royal family, particularly Alexandra, for his ability to soothe Tsarevich Alexei during one of the boy’s hemorrhages. Moreover, Rasputin was exceptionally shrewd and knew how to behave around the tsar and tsarina. Undoubtedly power-hungry and comfortable in the tsar’s palace, he was cautious and humble, and maintained the illusion he was a devout servant of God. Undoubtedly this was essential to winning the support of the extremely religious tsar and tsarina. The Romanov Royal Family with Rasputin. Row one (seated): Grand Duchess Marie, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Olga Alexandrovna (tsar’s younger sister). Row two: Grand Duchess Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei, Rasputin, Tsarina Alexandra. Grand Duchess Olga stands in the background. Circa 1910-1911 inside the tsarina’s room at the Alexander Palace, Saint Petersburg. For the Russian people, though, it appeared as if the royal family was tied closely to a man nearer to the Devil than God. And indeed, Rasputin became Alexandra’s right-hand man during the tsar’s absence in World War I. It was a recipe ripe for disaster. Russian poster produced of Rasputin controlling the tsar and tsarina. Note that Nicholas and Alexandra are depicted as small and malleable as Rasputin looms over them. For her entire tenure as tsarina of Russia, Alexandra had connected very little with the needs and wants of the Russian people. She remained consumed by concerns for her son, and enjoyed only the company of her husband, children, and a select number of acquaintances. Shy and unfamiliar with Russia, she was intensely disliked, particularly when World War I erupted and the people called her, “The German spy.” Alexandra chose to ignore the popular comments about her but remained convinced she could little trust the advisors and ministers around her. In the tsar’s absence, she increasingly relied on the one outside voice she believed she could trust—Rasputin’s. His advice to her became increasingly self-serving and ultimately horrendous for the Russian war effort. His presence in the royal court revolted both peasant and noble alike. From outside the palace walls, everyone, even members of the tsar’s extended family, could see their time running out. For while the royal family lived in nearly incomprehensible luxury, the rest of Russia was starving, riddled with cold and disease, and lacking fuel. In a desperate bid to save the autocracy and the Romanov family, two young nobles, Prince Dmitri and Felix Yusupov, decided to take matters into their own hands. Under a clever pretense, they invited Rasputin to supper—one that they fully intended should be the mad monk’s last. On December 30, 1916, they served their guest a luxurious dinner, complete with poisoned tea and cakes. But the poison seemed to affect Rasputin very little. In an attempt to finally kill Rasputin, Yusupov shot him several times outside the house. Amazingly though, Rasputin was still alive. The nobles then beat him with iron chains and threw his body into the frozen Neva River. Several days later, an autopsy confirmed that Rasputin had died from drowning. Photo of Rasputin’s corpse after he was found in the Neva River, Jan. 1917. The February Revolution By 1917, it was evident to even the humblest peasant that the war was not going well for Russia. Hundreds of thousands of families across the country had lost family members in the war. Daily life became a brutal struggle, particularly for the people in the cities, as the war exacted higher and higher human and resource costs. Living conditions plummeted for all but the wealthiest members of society. In February 1917, riots erupted across the capital city of Saint Petersburg over food and fuel shortages. Rioters demanded bread, grain, and coal. With the tsar at the front, responsibility for quelling the riots fell to the tsarina. But Alexandra remained huddled inside her palace with her children. Soldiers and guards sent to end the riots instead, joined on the side of the rioting peasants. This left the royal family with only a handful of guards ensuring their safety. Their capital city in shambles, a group of political leaders from various parties formed a Provisional Government to govern the city, and soon Russia as a whole. Among other demands, they called for the unconditional abdication of the tsar—who had failed both the people and his army. On March 15, 1917, three hundred years of Romanov rule ended inside a train car with the stroke of a pen when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on behalf of himself and his ill son, Alexei. Nicholas then returned home, entirely defeated. The Provisional Government, headed by Alexander Kerensky, set to work establishing order in Saint Petersburg and transferring power to the Russian parliament. Their goal was to establish a democratically elected government and constitution similar to England’s. It was not to be. For a massive, multi-ethnic, country governed by an autocratic government cannot be transformed into a democratic society overnight. Eager to win the respect and support of British and French Allies, the Provisional Government remained committed to fighting in the war. But the decision proved fatal for them. Frustrated by a war they little understood, the people were exhausted by the hardships that came with it. And they felt the new government did not understand their concerns. Alexander Kerensky, head of the Russian Provisional Government. Kerensky (in foreground) was an intellectual man who had served in the Russian Duma (Parliament), and who was sought to restructure the Russian Government in the style of England—a democracy with a parliament which held the power, a constitution with rights, and a figurehead monarch. Before he could successfully enact these measures, however, Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Provisional Government and Kerensky was forced to flee for his life. Then in April, a man emerged from the shadows of a train station who assured the Russian people their time was at hand; that man was Vladimir Lenin. He would not only lead the people in the largest communist revolution of the early twentieth century, but also negotiate an end to Russia’s part in World War I through the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk in 1918. From there, Lenin would go on to establish the largest communist union in the world: the Soviet Union. Russian victories against the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies were limited on the Eastern Front. The fear of a “Russian steamroller” proved unfounded due to lack of transportation, deficient military resources, outdated military equipment, and general disorganization at home and at the front. Troops were captured by the hundreds of thousands. Thousands more were killed, wounded, or deserted as the Russian war effort collapsed. And yet, it is perhaps because of Russia’s participation in the war that the Allies ultimately won World War I. Had the Germans only fought against the British and French on the Western Front, they would have had significantly larger resources to wage their Western campaign. It is quite possible, too, that they would have been supported by the Austro-Hungarian Army. Regardless, the Germans defeated the Russians on the Eastern Front. And, under the new communist government installed by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution of 1917, Russia signed the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk in the spring of 1918. The peace treaty forced Russia’s unconditional surrender and ceded many of their lands over to Germany and Austria-Hungary. Both sides exhausted, Russians returned from the war to rebuild their country from the inside out, while German units were sent to the Western Front to fight in the final months of World War I against the British, French, and newly arrived Americans. Primary Source: "Kerensky Pleads for the Help of the Allies" (Nov. 3, 1917) The New York Times (3 November 1917) Kerensky Pleads for Help of the Allies Insists Russia has No Thought of Quitting War, but is Worn Out Economically PETROGRAD, Thursday, Nov. 1 (via London, Nov. 2)—In view of the reports reaching Petrograd that the impression was spreading abroad that Russia was virtually out of the war, Premier Kerensky discussed the present condition of the country frankly today with the Associated Press. He said that Russia was worn out by long strain, but that it was ridiculous to say Russia was out of the war. The Premier referred to the years in which Russia had fought her campaigns alone, with no such assistance as has been extended to France by Great Britain and now, by America. He said he felt that help was needed urgently, and that Russia asked it as her right. The Premier urged that the United States give aid, in the form of money and supplies, and appealed to the world not to lose faith in the Russian revolution. Russia, M. Kerensky added, was taking an enormous part in the struggle, and those who said she was out of it must have short memories. Says Russia Saved Allies “Russia has fought consistently since the beginning,” he said. “She saved France and England from disaster early in the war. She is worn out from the strain, and claims as her right that the Allies now shoulder the burden.” The correspondent called attention to widely contradictory reports on Russian conditions, and asked the Premier for a frank statement of the facts. “It has been said by travelers returning from England and from elsewhere to America, the opinion among the people, not officially but generally, is that Russia is virtually out of the war,” was explained. “Is Russia out of the war?” Premier Kerensky repeated the words and laughed. “That,” he answered, “is a ridiculous question. Russia is taking an enormous part in the war. One only has to remember history. Russia began the war for the Allies. While she was already fighting, England was only preparing, and America was only observing. Russia at the beginning bore the whole brunt of the fighting, thereby saving Great Britain and France. People who say she is out of the war have short memories. We have fought since the beginning, and have the right to claim that the Allies now take the heaviest part of the burden on their shoulders.” Asks, “Where is British Fleet?” “At present, Russian public opinion is greatly agitated by the question, ‘Where is the British fleet now that the German fleet is out in the Baltic?’ “Russia,” the Premier repeated, “is worn out. She has been fighting one and one-half years longer than England.” “Could an American army be of use if sent to Russia?” was asked. “It would be impossible to send one,” said Kerensky. “It is a question of transportation. The difficulties are too great.” “If America cannot send troops, what would be the most useful way for her to help Russia?” was the next question. “Have her send boots, leather, iron, and,” the Premier added emphatically, “money.” Premier Kerensky here drew attention to the fact that Russia has fought her battles alone. “Russia has fought alone—is fighting alone,” he said. “France has had England to help her from the start and now America has come in.” The Premier was asked regarding the morale of the Russian people and army. He answered: “The masses are worn out economically. The disorganized state of life in general has had a psychological effect on the people. They doubt the possibility of the attainment of their hopes.” Pleads for Faith in Revolution “What is the lesson to the democracies of the world of the Russian revolution?” “This,” Premier Kerensky replied, “is not for them to find out. They must not lose faith in the Russian revolution because it is not a political revolution, but an economic one, and a revolution of facts. The Russian revolution is only seven months old. No one has the right to feel disillusioned about it. It will take years to develop.” “In France, which is only as large as three Russian departments (States), it took five years for their revolution to develop fully.” Asked what he expected from the Constituent Assembly, the Premier said: “The Constituent Assembly begins a new chapter in the history of the revolution. Its voice will certainly be the most important factor in the future of Russia.” “What future for Russia do you picture after the war?” “No one can draw any real picture of the future,” Kerensky said. “Naturally a man who really loves his country will hope for all good things, but that is only his viewpoint, which may or may not be accepted by others.” Premier Kerensky, pale and earnest, sat at the end of a carved table in the former private office of the Emperor in the Winter Palace and emphasized the points of his statement by tapping the table with his fingers. He wore a brown, undecorated uniform buttoned closely. The Premier appeared to be fatigued from his many trips to the front and his constant audiences. Note from the textbook author (2022): This article was published in the New York Times on November 3, 1917. Four days after this article’s publication (Nov. 7, 1917), Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks would seize power in Russia with the arrival of their “October Revolution.” The name, "October Revolution" is reflective of the fact that Russia still used the Julian calendar at the time, which was roughly three weeks behind the Gregorian calendar used by the United States and most of Europe. Attributions Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Willmott, H.P. World War I. D.K. Ltd., New York: 2009. 46-48; 114-119; 146-50; 226-7. The New York Times. "Kerensky Pleas for the Help of the Allies." November 3, 1917. Hosted by University of Louisiana at Monroe.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.402151	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87960/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, European Imperialism and Crises 1871-1919 CE, Chapter 12: World War I in the West, East, and Colonies, Death Knell on the Eastern Front", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88105/overview	Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Postwar Era Overview Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Cambodian Genocide As the news and scope of the Holocaust came to public light following World War II, and especially in the 1960s, it seemed that the world would never again engage in such barbaric and inhumane treatment. Surely, the death of 6 million Jews had taught humanity that we must never again engage in genocide. And yet, tragically, the moral lessons of the Holocaust all-too-soon faded. The promise of “Never again!” transformed into a crude reality, “Not again!”, as genocide unfolded in the Pacific, Asia, Europe, and Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century. Learning Objectives - Identify the importance of the Cambodian Genocide. Key Terms / Key Concepts Cambodia: country in Southeast Asia between Vietnam and Thailand Cambodian Genocide: 1975 – 1979 event in which large portions of the middle and upper classes, as well as minorities, were exterminated in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge Ethnic cleansing: forced removal of a population from an area, usually violently Genocide: term created by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, and taken from Greek and Latin roots, to mean literally the “killing of people” Khmer Rouge: communist party in Cambodia from 1975 – 1979 that was responsible for the Cambodian Genocide Killing fields: sites throughout Cambodia in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodian civilians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge Pol Pot: Communist leader of Cambodia from 1963 – 1981 Ethnic Cleansing vs Genocide: Background Nearly eighty years have passed since the end of World War II when the world first learned of the Holocaust. Since then, multiple cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing have occurred around the world. The term genocide is relatively young. After much effort, Polish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944. Genocide literally translates to the “killing of people.” In particular, the term implies a deliberate, centralized attempt to systematically destroy an entire race, ethnic group, or group of people. The Holocaust is the most commonly agreed-upon genocide in history. Nations and governments are often skeptical of applying the word “genocide” to other events, such as the Armenian Genocide, because it implies that a government was deliberately involved in the planning and murder of a group of people. For this reason, many genocides are still contested. Closely tied to genocide is the concept of ethnic cleansing. In contrast to genocide, which is intent on the systematic destruction of a specific group of people, ethnic cleaning is a term used to describe the forced removal of a group of people from a specific area to make the area homogenous. Under international law, ethnic cleansing constitutes a war crime because the targeted groups are often subjected to brutal treatment, poor living conditions, physical abuse, and destruction of property. Cambodian Genocide During the Cold War, Chinese leader Mao Zedong supported communist leaders throughout the world. In the 1970s, he strongly supported neighboring leader, Pol Pot, who came to power in Cambodia with his political party: the Khmer Rouge. The goal of the new, communist government was the creation of an entirely self-sufficient agrarian society. To achieve this, the Khmer Rouge launched a campaign of eradication. Men, women, and children of the middle and upper classes were targeted. Among the groups targeted were individuals connected to the previous government, intellectuals, monks, and professional people such as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and journalists. Racial and religious minorities were also targeted. All of these groups were considered “subversive” by the Khmer Rouge and a potential threat to their communist state. Victims were arrested, and frequently summarily killed. Most famously, the Khmer Rouge took their victims to the killing fields where mass murders unfolded. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, often by pickax or machete to conserve ammunition. Across the country, dozens of sites have been discovered where these mass murders occurred. Based on the findings, historians estimate that 1.5 – 2 million people were systematically murdered by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 – 1979. The killings finally ceased in 1979 when the Vietnamese Army invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian Genocide remains one of the most definitive examples of genocide since the Holocaust. It was a four-year campaign to not only systematically eradicate specific groups of people but also can be considered a classicide in which there were attempts to destroy the educated and professional, middle and upper classes. Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Bosnian Genocide Learning Objectives Identify the importance of the Bosnian Genocide Key Terms / Key Concepts Balkans: group of countries in southeast Europe bordering the Aegean, Black, and Adriatic Seas Bosniak: Bosnian-Muslim Croatian War of Independence: 1991 – 1995 conflict between Croatia and Serbia Dayton Accords: 1995 cease-fire agreement that established the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina Republika Srpska: political territory established inside Bosnia Herzegovina’s southern and eastern regions that is predominately inhabited by Serbs Slobodan Milošević: Serbian leader 1989 – 2000 who was instrumental in facilitating the Yugoslav Wars and Bosnian Genocide Srebrenica: site of one of the most infamous mass murders in the Bosnian Genocide Tito: communist leader of Yugoslavia from 1944 – 1980 Yugoslavia: communist nation comprised of six Balkan countries from 1945 – 1991 Yugoslav Wars: series of conflicts following between Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and other Balkan nations from 1991 – 2001 Vukovar: city in eastern Croatia that experienced heinous war crimes in the Croatian War of Independence The Yugoslav Wars If the Holocaust introduced the world to the concept of genocide, the Yugoslav Wars of the late 1980s and 1990s made the world more aware of ethnic cleansing. Background In southeast Europe there are a stretch of countries collectively known as the Balkans. These countries include Greece, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and a handful of others. These countries historically are rich in language, religion, and culture. Because of their ethnic and religious diversity, as well as territory squabbles, countries in the Balkans also have a long history of conflict in and among themselves. During the Cold War, political strongman, Tito, came to power and the Balkans were united under the communist banner. Six countries formed the Cold War state of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia. While under Tito’s rule, Yugoslavia remained united, despite religious and ethnic tension. Predominately, the Serbs had been Eastern Orthodox, the Croats were Catholic, and the Bosnians were Muslim. These religious differences would set the stage for the Yugoslav wars. While Tito remained in power, the six nations cooperated. Anyone who dissented was summarily dismissed from their post by Tito. Tito’s policy of “state above all else” was extremely popular. And when he died in 1980, millions throughout Yugoslavia mourned his death. Tito’s successors tried desperately to keep the Yugoslav state together. Despite their efforts, old rivalries and tensions soon emerged. As one of Tito’s successors remarked, “Will we all just go back to shooting each other?” In 1987, a Serbian socialist politician entered the forefront of the Balkan stage: Slobodan Milošević. More than any other man, he divided people in the Balkans by promoting Serbian nationalism. Slowly, he transformed the Yugoslav Army into a predominately Serbian Army, and he refueled old hatreds between groups. To achieve his purpose of promoting Serbian dominance in the Balkans, and Serbian nationalism at home, Slobodan Milošević masterfully employed the use of television. He broadcast messages to the Serbian people, showing images of the developing Serbian military. Famously, when Serbian people were beaten by policemen from Kosovo and Albania, the videographer caught Milošević’s response as he lifted a Serb to his feet, “You will not be beaten again.” The image of the downtrodden Serbs being physically lifted by Milošević before their rivals sent a power signal throughout Serbia. At home, Milošević’s popularity skyrocketed, and he was hailed the next Tito. But Milošević had bigger ambitions for Serbia than unity with its neighbors. His chance to elevate Serbia’s place in the Balkans came in 1991 when the Soviet Union, and by extension, the Yugoslav state, collapsed. The Yugoslav Wars Begin The collapse of the Soviet Union struck Serbia and Milošević hard. Serbia and Russia had a deep history of economic and political alliances. And for Milošević, it became clear he would never become the next Tito. He would have to settle for president of Serbia. But he would make sure the Balkans remembered him too. In 1991, Croatia voted for independence. A year later, Bosnia did the same. The acts infuriated Milošević because both countries had large Serbian populations. He would not allow them to become independent nations with so many of “his people” without a fight. Croatian War of Independence In the spring of 1991, skirmishes between the Serbs and the Croats began, mostly in Croatian territory where there was a strong Serbian minority. By the summer, Croatia had officially declared independence. In response, the Serbian army escalated the conflict. They launched violent attacks against the Croats on the battlefields, but also launched furious bombardments of their cities, including Dubrovnik. In November 1991, the Serbian forces surrounded the Croatian city of Vukovar. Soldiers and citizens were subjected to heavy artillery bombardment from the advancing Serbian army. Severely outnumbered, the Croatian forces were quickly overrun. Inside the city, Serbian soldiers executed the Croatian soldiers and civilians at will. Many soldiers and civilians had sheltered in the Vukovar hospital. The Serbian army secured the hospital and quickly seized two hundred people, mostly civilians. They were then transported to a pig farm outside the city and shot. Additional mass murders followed. The non-Serbian civilians who survived the massacres were forced from the city by the Serbians who drove them into ramshackle concentration camps lined with barbed wire. Deplorable conditions existed inside the camps, and thousands of Croats perished either from disease and malnourishment, or executions. The removal of all non-Serbian peoples was undertaken to ethnically cleanse the city. Vukovar, which sustained heavy damage, was the first European city to be mostly destroyed in war since 1945. The Croatian War for Independence, the first major Yugoslav War, ended in 1995 after two successful offensive campaigns launched by the Croats. In four years, Croatia had lost 20,000 people and roughly a quarter of their economy was devastated. It appeared as if their experiment as an independent, democratic nation was off to a shaky start. The Bosnian War The Bosnian War far exceeded the violence of the Croatian War for Independence. In the Bosnian War, the Serbian army launched an all-out campaign to eradicate the Bosniaks—Bosnian Muslims. In the summer of 1992, Europe again saw genocide, less than fifty years after the end of World War II. Serbian nationalists promised to “liberate” towns and cities throughout Bosnia. In this mission, they employed thousands of Serbian troops. In addition to the army, they recruited paramilitary forces, including the highly feared Arkan’s Tigers. Under the command of the popular, Željko Ražnatović (Arkan)—an international mobster on Interpol’s Most Wanted List—the Tigers were feared because of their readiness to carry-out excessively brutal murders against both Croats and Bosniaks. Overnight, Serbians living in Bosnia turned against their Bosniak neighbors. Many joined the Serbian armed forces and paramilitary groups. These neighbors later participated in the round up and mass murder of the Bosniaks. Ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, rapes, looting, and prolonged sieges of major cities, like Sarajevo, reigned in Bosnia. Across the country, deplorable concentration camps sprang up to contain the Bosniak and Croat prisoners. Across Bosnia, Serbians engaged in mass executions, primarily of Bosniaks. The most famous of the mass murders occurred at Srebrenica, on the eastern border of Bosnia near Serbia. An estimated 8,000 Bosniak boys and men were murdered and then thrown into mass graves. The conflict in Bosnia ended in 1995 with the Dayton Accords. The peace treaty was signed at Warren Air Force Base outside of Dayton, Ohio. Chief to the success of the treaty was U.S. peace negotiator, Richard Holbrooke, and the American Secretary of State. The treaty established a separate, largely Serbian region in Bosnia, the Republika Srpska. Located on Bosnia’s southern and eastern sides, Republika Srpska remains largely inhabited by Serbians. The other side of Bosnia Herzegovina is home predominately to Croats and Bosniaks. Kosovo The Yugoslav Wars did not end until the early 2000s. In 1998 – 1999, war erupted in Kosovo—to the southeast of Bosnia. While Kosovars declared autonomy, they were challenged and attacked by forces from Serbia and Montenegro. Fears that Kosovars were being persecuted by the attacking forces escalated. In 1999, NATO launched a series of airstrikes over Serbia. For nearly three months, NATO forces bombed parts of Serbia and Montenegro until Serbian and Montenegrin forces withdrew. The NATO actions remain controversial because their airstrikes were never approved by the UN Security Council, having been vetoed by China and Russia. Moreover, the maneuver was technically illegal because no NATO nation had been directly attacked. Instead, the NATO airstrikes were conducted in the name of protecting humanity, without official approval from the United Nations. Tension and insurgencies persisted in Kosovo and Montenegro into the early 2000s. Today, the region remains unsettled, and comprised of six independent nations. For their parts in the Yugoslav Wars, Slobodan Milošević and his inner circle were charged with war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. Before Milošević could stand trial, he died in prison of a heart condition. His close associates Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić were convicted of war crimes by The Hague and sentenced to life in prison. Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide since World War II: The Rwandan Genocide Learning Objectives Identify the importance of the Rwandan Genocide. Key Terms / Key Concepts Hutu: ethnic, majority group in Rwanda in the 1990s Rwanda: landlocked country east of Congo in Africa Rwandan Genocide: mass slaughter of Tutsis by Hutus and their collaborators in 1994 Rwandan Patriotic Front: Tutsi-led force that fought against the Hutus during the Rwandan Genocide Tutsi: ethnic, minority group in Rwanda in the 1990s The Rwandan Genocide The Rwandan Genocide was the mass slaughter of Tutsi people in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government in 1994. An estimated 500,000 to one million Rwandans were killed during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, constituting as many as 70% of the Tutsi population and 20% of Rwanda’s overall population. Preparation for Genocide Historians do not agree on a precise date on which the idea of a “final solution” to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda was introduced. The Rwandan army began training Hutu youth in combat and arming civilians with weapons, such as machetes, in 1990. Rwanda also purchased large numbers of grenades and munitions starting in late 1990. The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) also expanded rapidly during this time, growing from fewer than 10,000 troops to almost 30,000 in one year. Throughout 1993, far right nationalists imported machetes from China on a scale far larger than required for agriculture, as well as other tools that could be used as weapons, such as razor blades, saws, and scissors. These tools were distributed around the country, ostensibly as part of the civil defense network. And, in March 1993, the Hutu Power group began compiling lists of “traitors” who they planned to kill. In October 1993, the President of Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye, who had been elected in June as the country’s first ever Hutu president, was assassinated by extremist Tutsi army officers. The assassination caused shock waves throughout the country, reinforcing the notion among Hutus that the Tutsi were their enemy and could not be trusted. The idea of a Tutsi “final solution” now occupied the top of Hutu party agendas and was actively planned. The Hutu Power groups were confident of persuading the Hutu population to carry out killings given the public anger at Ndadaye’s murder, the persuasiveness of propaganda, and the traditional obedience of Rwandans to authority. Power leaders began arming militia groups with AK-47s and other weapons, whereas previously they possessed only machetes and traditional hand weapons. Assassination of Habyarimana On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi—was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, killing everyone on board. Responsibility for the attack was disputed. Despite disagreements about the perpetrators, the attack and deaths of the two Hutu presidents served as the catalyst for the subsequent Tutsi genocide. Genocide The genocide itself began on April 7, 199. The commanders announced the president’s death, blamed the Tutsis, and then ordered the crowd to begin killing Tutsi people. The genocide quickly spread throughout the country. For the remainder of April and early May, the Presidential Guard—gendarmerie —and youth militias continued killing at very high rates. These groups were aided by local populations, as Hutu neighbors turned on their Tutsi neighbors. Historian Gerard Prunier estimates in his book, The Rwanda Crisis, that up to 800,000 Rwandans were murdered during the first six weeks of the genocide. That statistic represents a rate of killing that was five times higher than the Holocaust in terms of time. The goal of the genocide was to kill every Tutsi living in Rwanda, and except for the advancing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), there was no opposition force to prevent or slow the killings. Escape proved nearly impossible. Each person who encountered a roadblock was required to show their national identity card that included ethnicity, and anyone carrying a Tutsi card was slaughtered immediately. Many Hutus were also killed for a variety of reasons, including demonstrating sympathy for moderate opposition parties, being a journalist, or simply appearing Tutsi. The RPF made slow and steady gains in the north and east of the country, ending killings in each area they occupied. Impact Given the chaotic nature of the situation, there is no consensus on the number of people killed during the genocide. Unlike the genocides carried out by Nazi Germany or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, authorities made no attempts to document or systematize deaths. The succeeding RPF government has stated that 1,071,000 were killed in 100 days, 10% of whom were Hutu. Based on those statistics, it could be derived that 10,000 people were murdered every day. End of Rwandan Genocide The infrastructure and economy of Rwanda suffered greatly during the genocide. Many buildings were uninhabitable, and the former regime had taken all currency and movable assets when they fled the country. Human resources were also severely depleted, with over 40% of the population having been killed or fled. Many of the remainder were traumatized: most had lost relatives, witnessed killings, or participated in the genocide. In 1994, the UN established a criminal tribunal to try Rwandan war criminals. It convicted 85 individuals. Rwandan courts also tried individuals for their participation in war crimes during the genocide. Attributions Images Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Boundless World History “Rwandan Genocide” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-rwandan-genocide/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The Holocaust and other Genocides: History, Representation, and Ethics. Helmut Walser Smith, Ed. Vanderbilt Publishing; Nashville, TN: 2002.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.457458	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88105/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 16: Globalization, Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Postwar Era", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88080/overview	Chinese Revolution Overview Introduction Shortly after the conclusion of World War II, the Chinese Communist Party seized power in China in 1949. Under the leadership of the party dictator, Mao Zedong, the Communists in China developed their own version of Marxist-Leninism in the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually challenged the Soviet Union for leadership of the worldwide Communist Revolution. Learning Objectives - Assess how the conflict between the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communist Party was affected by external and internal developments in China. - Identify factors that contributed to the Chinese Communist Party's victory in the Civil War. - Examine the economic, political, and cultural changes resulting from the Chinese Revolution. - Examine the Nationalist Party in the Chinese Revolution and settlement in Taiwan. Key Terms / Key Concepts Chinese Civil War: a civil war in China fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China, and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China (CPC) (The war began in August 1927 with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition and ended when major hostilities ceased in 1950.) Five Year Plan: a nationwide centralized economic plan in the Soviet Union developed by a state planning committee that was part of the ideology of the Communist Party for the development of the Soviet economy (A series of these plans was developed in the Soviet Union while similar Soviet-inspired plans emerged across other communist countries during the Cold War era.) Great Chinese Famine: a period in the People’s Republic of China between the years 1959 and 1961 characterized by widespread famine that resulted in deaths ranging from 20 million to 43 million (Drought, poor weather, and the policies of the Communist Party of China (Great Leap Forward) contributed, although the relative weights of these contributions are disputed.) Great Leap Forward: an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China (CPC) that took place from 1958 to 1961 and was led by Mao Zedong aimed at rapidly transforming the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through quick industrialization and collectivization (It is widely considered to have caused the Great Chinese Famine.) Hundred Flowers Campaign: a period in 1956 in the People’s Republic of China during which the Communist Party of China (CPC) encouraged its citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime (Differing views and solutions to national policy were encouraged based on the famous expression by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong: “The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science.” After this brief period of liberalization, Mao abruptly changed course.) Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech”: a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956 in which Khrushchev was sharply critical of the reign of deceased General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin, particularly with respect to the purges which marked the late 1930s Kuomintang: a major political party in the Republic of China founded by Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen shortly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911; currently the second-largest political party in the country, often translated as the Nationalist Party of China or Chinese Nationalist Party (Its predecessor, the Revolutionary Alliance, was one of the major advocates of the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republic.) Maoism: a political theory derived from the teachings of Chinese political leader Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976); developed from the 1950s until the Deng Xiaoping reforms in the 1970s, the guiding political and military ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and revolutionary movements around the world The Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War, fought between forces loyal to the Nationalist Kuomintang-led government (KMT) and those loyal to the Communist Party of China (CPC), represented an ideological split between the CPC and the KMT and resulted in the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the exodus of the nationalists to Taiwan. It continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two parties came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Japanese threat and prevent the country from crumbling. However, the alliance of the CPC and the KMT was in name only. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the two parties during World War II was at best minimal. In the midst of the Second United Front, the CPC and the KMT still vied for territorial advantage in “Free China” (i.e., areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments). In general, developments in the Second Sino-Japanese War were to the advantage of the CPC, as its guerrilla war tactics won them popular support within the Japanese-occupied areas, while the KMT had to defend the country against the main Japanese campaigns since it was the legal Chinese government. Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender dictated by the United States, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not to the CPC, which was present in some of the occupied areas. In Manchuria, however, where the KMT had no forces, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their posts to receive the Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the Communists. However, in the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched a huge strategic offensive operation to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border. Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. A fragile truce between the competing forces fell apart on June 21, 1946, when full-scale war between the CPC and the KMT broke out. On July 20, 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory, marking the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. After three years of exhausting military campaigns, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China, with its capital in Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately two million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan after the loss of Sichuan (at that time, Taiwan was still Japanese territory). In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China. During the war, both the Nationalists and the Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants deliberately killed by both sides. Benjamin Valentino has estimated atrocities resulted in the deaths of between 1.8 million and 3.5 million people between 1927 and 1949. Atrocities included deaths from forced conscription, as well as massacres. The United States and the Chinese Civil War During World War II, the United States emerged as a major actor in Chinese affairs. As an ally, it embarked in late 1941 on a program of massive military and financial aid to the hard-pressed Nationalist government. In January 1943 the United States and Britain led the way in revising their treaties with China, bringing to an end a century of unequal treaty relations. Within a few months, a new agreement was signed between the United States and China for the stationing of American troops in China for the common war effort against Japan. In December 1943 the Chinese exclusion acts of the 1880s and subsequent laws enacted by the United States Congress to restrict Chinese immigration into the United States were repealed. The wartime policy of the United States was initially to help China become a strong ally and a stabilizing force in postwar East Asia. As the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists intensified, however, the United States sought unsuccessfully to reconcile the rival forces for a more effective anti-Japanese war effort. Toward the end of the war, United States Marines were used to hold Beiping and Tianjin against a possible Soviet incursion, and logistic support was given to Nationalist forces in north and northeast China. Through the mediatory influence of the United States a military truce was arranged in January 1946, but battles between Nationalists and Communists soon resumed. Realizing that American efforts short of large-scale armed intervention could not stop the war, the United States withdrew the American mission, headed by General George C. Marshall, in early 1947. The civil war, in which the United States aided the Nationalists with massive economic loans but no military support, became more widespread. Battles raged not only for territories but also for the allegiance of cross sections of the population. The Nationalist government sought to enlist popular support through internal reforms. The effort was in vain, however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the accompanying political and economic chaos. By late 1948 the Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined Nationalist troops proved no match for the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The Communists were well established in the north and northeast. Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers of men and weapons, controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyed considerable international support, they were exhausted by the long war with Japan and the attendant internal responsibilities. In January 1949 Beiping was taken by the Communists without a fight, and its name changed back to Beijing. Between April and November, major cities passed from Guomindang to Communist control with minimal resistance. In most cases the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. After Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Nationalist troops fled from the mainland to the island of Taiwan, there remained only isolated pockets of resistance. In December 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of China. Taiwan or the Republic of China? The resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC’s loss of the mainland to the Communists and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to Han Chinese immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, which was the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the First Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. Although the ROC claimed to be the legitimate government of “all of China” until 1991, its effective jurisdiction since 1949 has been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its territory. The official name of the entity remains the Republic of China although its political status is highly ambiguous. The ROC was a charter member of the United Nations. Despite the major loss of territory in 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was established by the Communists, the ROC was still recognized as the legitimate government of China by the UN and many non-communist states. However, in 1971 the UN expelled the ROC and transferred China’s seat to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In addition, the ROC lost its membership in all intergovernmental organizations related to the UN. Most countries aligned with the West in the Cold War terminated diplomatic relations with the ROC and recognized the PRC instead. The ROC continues to maintain relations with the UN and most of its non-governmental organizations. However, multiple attempts by the Republic of China to rejoin the UN have failed, largely due to diplomatic maneuvering by the PRC. The ROC is recognized a small number of United Nations member states and the Holy See—the Catholic Pope and territories that he governs. It maintains diplomatic relations with those countries, which means they recognize the ROC government as the representative of China but not the independent status of Taiwan as a state. The PRC refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any nation that recognizes the ROC, but does not object to nations conducting economic, cultural, and other exchanges with Taiwan that do not imply diplomatic relations. Therefore, many nations that have diplomatic relations with Beijing maintain quasi-diplomatic offices in Taipei. Similarly, the government in Taiwan maintains quasi-diplomatic offices in most nations under various names, most commonly as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. The ROC participates in most international forums and organizations under the name “Chinese Taipei” due to diplomatic pressure from the People’s Republic of China. For instance, it has competed at the Olympic Games under this name since 1984. Taiwan's Political System Taiwan is currently the 21st-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development. This status was not always the case in the history of Taiwan. On February 28, 1947, an anti-government uprising in Taiwan was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang-led ROC government, which killed thousands of civilians. The massacre, known as the February 28 Incident, marked the beginning of the Kuomintang’s White Terror period in Taiwan, in which tens of thousands more inhabitants vanished, died, or were imprisoned. The White Terror, in its broadest meaning, was the period of martial law that lasted for 38 years and 57 days. Chiang Ching-kuo—Chiang Kai-shek’s son and successor as the president—began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui—a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat—to be his vice president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan. After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president and continued to democratize the government. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint, in contrast to earlier KMT policies that promoted a Chinese identity. The original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly, elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and holding the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was thus brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China and vice versa. Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui being re-elected in 1996, during the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC. By the same token, Taiwan transformed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations either refuse it membership or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, although both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. Cross-Strait Relations The English expression “cross-strait relations” refers to relations between the PRC and the ROC by the two sides concerned and many observers, so that the relationship between China and Taiwan would not be referred to as “(Mainland) China–Taiwan relations” or “PRC–ROC relations.” The Chinese Civil War stopped without signing a peace treaty, and the two sides are technically still at war. Since 1949, relations between the PRC and the ROC have been characterized by limited contact, tensions, and instability. In the early years, military conflicts continued while diplomatically both governments competed to be the “legitimate government of China.” On January 1, 1979, Beijing proposed the establishment of the so called Three Links: postal, commercial, and transportation. The proposal was greeted in ROC’s President Chiang Ching-kuo’s with the Three-Nos Policy (“no contact, no compromise and no negotiation”). In 1987, the ROC government began to allow visits to China. This benefited many, especially old KMT soldiers who had been separated from their families in China for decades. This also proved a catalyst for the thawing of relations between the two sides, although difficult negotiations continued and the Three Links were officially established only in 2008. Cross-strait investments have greatly increased since 2008. Predominantly, this involves Taiwan-based firms moving to or collaborating in joint ventures in the PRC. China remains Taiwan’s top trading partner. Cultural exchanges have also increased in frequency. The National Palace Museum in Taipei and the Palace Museum in Beijing have collaborated on exhibitions. Scholars and academics frequently visit institutions on the other side. Books published on each side are regularly republished on the other side, although restrictions on direct imports and different orthography somewhat impede the exchange of books and ideas. Religious exchange has also become frequent. Frequent interactions occur between worshipers of Matsu and Buddhists. Maoism The ideologies of the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China have significantly evolved since it established political power in China in 1949. Mao Zedong’s revolution that founded the PRC was nominally based on Marxism-Leninism with a rural focus (based on China’s social situations at the time). During the 1960s and 1970s, the CPC experienced a significant ideological breakdown with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and their allies. Mao’s peasant revolutionary vision and so-called “continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat” stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist revolution seemed to be complete, giving way to the Cultural Revolution. This fusion of ideas became known officially as Mao Zedong Thought or Maoism outside of China. It represented a powerful branch of communism that existed in opposition to the Soviet Union’s Marxist revisionism. The essential difference between Maoism and other forms of Marxism is that Mao claimed that peasants should be the essential revolutionary class in China because they were more suited than industrial workers to establish a successful revolution and socialist society in China. Maoism was widely applied as the guiding political and military ideology of the CPC. It evolved with Chairman Mao’s changing views, but its main components are “New Democracy”, “People’s war”, “Mass line”, “cultural revolution”, “three worlds”, and “agrarian socialism”. The “New Democracy” aims to overthrow feudalism and achieve independence from colonialism. However, it dispenses with the rule predicted by Marx and Lenin that a capitalist class would usually follow such a struggle, claiming instead to enter directly into socialism through a coalition of classes fighting the old ruling order. The original symbolism of the flag of China derives from the concept of the coalition. The largest star symbolizes the Communist Party of China’s leadership, and the surrounding four smaller stars symbolize “the bloc of four classes”: proletarian workers, peasants, the petty bourgeoisie (small business owners), and the nationally-based capitalists. This is the coalition of classes for Mao’s New Democratic Revolution. Maoism emphasizes the “revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures,” which Mao termed “People’s war.” The “People’s war” maintains that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Mobilizing large parts of rural populations to revolt against established institutions by engaging in guerrilla warfare, Maoism focuses on “surrounding the cities from the countryside.” It views the industrial-rural divide as a major division exploited by capitalism, involving industrial urban developed “First World” societies ruling over rural developing “Third World” societies. The” Mass line” theory holds that the communist party must not be separate from the popular masses, either in policy or in revolutionary struggle. This theory runs contrary to the view of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution that the intellectual elite in the party lead the masses. To conduct a successful revolution, according to Maoism, the needs and demands of the masses must be paramount. The “Cultural revolution” theory states that the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat does not wipe out bourgeois ideology. The class struggle continues, and even intensifies, during socialism. Therefore, a constant struggle against these ideologies and their social roots must be conducted. The revolution’s stated goal was to preserve “true” Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The concept was applied in practice in 1966, which marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward (a 1958 – 1961 failed economic and social campaign aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization). The movement paralyzed China politically and negatively affected the country’s economy and society to a significant degree. The “Three Worlds” theory states that during the Cold War, two imperialist states formed the First World: the United States and the Soviet Union. The Second World consisted of the other imperialist states in their spheres of influence. The Third World consisted of the non-imperialist countries. Both the First and the Second World exploit the Third World, but the First World more aggressively so. In its concept of “agrarian socialism”, Maoism departs from conventional European-inspired Marxism in that its focus is on the agrarian countryside rather than the industrial urban forces. This is known as agrarian socialism. Although Maoism is critical of urban industrial capitalist powers, it views urban industrialization as a prerequisite to expand economic development and socialist reorganization to the countryside, with the goal of rural industrialization that would abolish the distinction between town and countryside. The People's Republic of China On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally established, with its national capital at Beijing. "The Chinese people have stood up!" declared Mao as he announced the creation of a "people's democratic dictatorship." The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie, and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led by the CCP, which was meant to be the vanguard of the working class. At that time the CCP claimed a membership of 4.5 million, of which members of peasant origin accounted for nearly 90 percent. The party was under Mao's chairmanship, and the government was headed by Zhou Enlai (1898 – 1976) as premier of the State Administrative Council (the predecessor of the State Council). The Soviet Union recognized the People's Republic on October 2, 1949. Earlier in the year, Mao had proclaimed his policy of "leaning to one side" as a commitment to the socialist bloc. In February 1950, after months of hard bargaining, China and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance, valid until 1980. The pact also was intended to counter Japan or any power's joining Japan for the purpose of aggression. In the first year of Communist administration, moderate social and economic policies were implemented with skill and effectiveness. For the first time in decades a Chinese government was met with peace, instead of massive military opposition, within its territory. The new leadership was highly disciplined and, having a decade of wartime administrative experience to draw on, was able to embark on a program of national integration and reform. The leadership realized that the overwhelming task of economic reconstruction and achievement of political and social stability required the goodwill and cooperation of all classes of people. Results were impressive by any standard, and popular support was widespread. By 1950 international recognition of the Communist government had increased considerably, but it was slowed by China's involvement in the Korean War. In October 1950, sensing a threat to the industrial heartland in northeast China from the advancing United Nations (UN) forces in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), units of the PLA—calling themselves the Chinese People's Volunteers—crossed the Yalu Jiang River into North Korea in response to North Korea's and the Soviet Union’s request for aid. Almost simultaneously the PLA forces also marched into Xizang (Tibet) to reassert Chinese sovereignty over a region that had been in effect independent of Chinese rule since the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. In 1951 the UN declared China to be an aggressor in Korea and sanctioned a global embargo on the shipment of arms and war material to China. This step foreclosed any possibility that the People's Republic might replace Nationalist China (on Taiwan) as a member of the UN and as a veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, at least for the time being. After China entered the Korean War, the initial moderation in Chinese domestic policies gave way to a massive campaign against the "enemies of the state," actual and potential. These enemies consisted of "war criminals, traitors, bureaucratic capitalists, and counterrevolutionaries." The campaign was combined with party sponsored trials attended by huge numbers of people. The major targets in this drive were foreigners and Christian missionaries who were branded as United States agents at these mass trials. The 1951 – 52 drive against political enemies was accompanied by land reform, which had actually begun under the Agrarian Reform Law of June 28, 1950. The redistribution of land was accelerated, and a class struggle against landlords and wealthy peasants was launched. An ideological reform campaign requiring self-criticisms and public confessions by university faculty members, scientists, and other professional workers was given wide publicity. Artists and writers were soon the objects of similar treatment for failing to heed Mao's dictum that culture and literature must reflect the class interest of the working people, led by the CCP. These campaigns were accompanied in 1951 and 1952 by the san fan ("three anti") and wu fan ("five anti") movements. The former was directed ostensibly against the evils of "corruption, waste, and bureaucratism"; its real aim was to eliminate incompetent and politically unreliable public officials and to bring about an efficient, disciplined, and responsive bureaucratic system. The wu fan movement aimed at eliminating recalcitrant and corrupt businessmen and industrialists, who were in effect the targets of the CCP's condemnation of "tax evasion, bribery, cheating in government contracts, thefts of economic intelligence, and stealing of state assets." In the course of this campaign the party claimed to have uncovered a well-organized attempt by businessmen and industrialists to corrupt party and government officials. This charge was enlarged into an assault on independent businesspeople (the “bourgeoisie”) as a whole. The number of people affected by the various punitive or reform campaigns was estimated in the millions. The Transition to Socialism, 1953-1957 The period of officially designated "transition to socialism" corresponded to China's First Five-Year Plan(1953 – 57). The period was characterized by efforts to achieve industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization. The First Five-Year Plan stressed the development of heavy industry on the Soviet model. Soviet economic and technical assistance was expected to play a significant part in the implementation of the plan, and technical agreements were signed with the Soviets in 1953 and 1954. To facilitate economic planning, the first modern census was taken in 1953; the population of mainland China was shown to be 583 million, a figure far greater than had been anticipated. Therefore, among China's most pressing needs in the early 1950s were food for its burgeoning population, domestic capital for investment, and purchase of Soviet-supplied technology, capital equipment, and military hardware. To satisfy these needs, the government began to collectivize agriculture. Despite internal disagreement as to the speed of collectivization, which at least for the time being was resolved in Mao's favor, preliminary collectivization was 90 percent completed by the end of 1956. In addition, the government nationalized banking, industry, and trade. Private enterprise in mainland China had been virtually abolished. Major political developments included the centralization of party and government administration. Elections were held in 1953 for delegates to the First National People's Congress, China's national legislature, which met in 1954. Only communist party members could run as candidates in these elections. The congress declared the state constitution of 1954 and formally elected Mao chairman (or president) of the People's Republic; it elected Liu Shaoqi (1898 – 1969) chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress; and named Zhou Enlai premier of the new State Council. In the midst of these major governmental changes, and helping to precipitate them, was a power struggle within the CCP leading to the 1954 purge of Political Bureau member Gao Gang and Party Organization Department head Rao Shushi, who were accused of illicitly trying to seize control of the party. The process of national integration also was characterized by improvements in party organization under the administrative direction of the secretary general of the party Deng Xiaoping (who served concurrently as vice premier of the State Council). There was a marked emphasis on recruiting intellectuals, who by 1956 constituted nearly 12 percent of the party's 10.8 million members. Peasant membership had decreased to 69 percent, while there was an increasing number of "experts", who were needed for the party and governmental infrastructures, in the party ranks. As part of the effort to encourage the participation of intellectuals in the new regime, in mid-1956 there began an official effort to liberalize the political climate. Cultural and intellectual figures were encouraged to speak their minds on the state of CCP rule and programs. Mao personally took the lead in the movement, which was launched under the classical slogan "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend." At first the party's repeated invitation to air constructive views freely and openly was met with caution. By mid-1957, however, the movement unexpectedly mounted, bringing denunciation and criticism against the party in general and the excesses of its party members in particular. Startled and embarrassed, leaders turned on the critics as "bourgeois rightists" and launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign. The Hundred Flowers Campaign, sometimes called the Double Hundred Campaign, apparently had a sobering effect on the CCP leadership. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960 The anti rightist drive was followed by a militant approach toward economic development. In 1958 the CCP launched the Great Leap Forward campaign under the new "General Line for Socialist Construction." The Great Leap Forward was aimed at accomplishing the economic and technical development of the country at a vastly faster pace and with greater results. The shift to the left that the new "General Line" represented was brought on by a combination of domestic and external factors. Although the party leaders appeared generally satisfied with the accomplishments of the First Five-Year Plan, they—Mao and his fellow radicals in particular—believed that more could be achieved in the Second Five-Year Plan (1958 – 62) if the people could be ideologically aroused and if domestic resources could be utilized more efficiently for the simultaneous development of industry and agriculture. These assumptions led the party to an intensified mobilization of the peasantry and mass organizations, stepped-up ideological guidance and indoctrination of technical experts, and encouraged efforts to build a more responsive political system. The last of these undertakings was to be accomplished through a new xiafang (down to the countryside) movement, under which cadres inside and outside the party would be sent to factories, communes, mines, and public works projects for manual labor and firsthand familiarization with grassroots conditions. Although evidence is sketchy, Mao's decision to embark on the Great Leap Forward was based in part on his uncertainty about the Soviet policy of economic, financial, and technical assistance to China. That policy, in Mao's view, not only fell far short of his expectations and needs but also made him wary of the political and economic dependence in which China might find itself. The Great Leap Forward centered on a new socioeconomic and political system created in the countryside and in a few urban areas—the people's communes. By the fall of 1958, some 750,000 agricultural producers' cooperatives, now designated as production brigades, had been amalgamated into about 23,500 communes, each averaging 5,000 households or 22,000 people. The individual commune was placed in control of all the means of production and was to operate as the sole accounting unit; it was subdivided into production brigades (generally identical with traditional villages) and production teams. Each commune was planned as a self-supporting community for agriculture, small-scale local industry (for example, the famous backyard pig-iron furnaces), schooling, marketing, administration, and local security (maintained by militia organizations). Organized along paramilitary and laborsaving lines, the commune had communal kitchens, mess halls, and nurseries. In a way, the people's communes constituted a fundamental attack on the institution of the family, especially in a few model areas where radical experiments in communal living— large dormitories in place of the traditional nuclear family housing—occurred. (But those large dormitories were quickly dropped.) The system also was based on the assumption that it would release additional manpower for such major projects as irrigation works and hydroelectric dams, which were seen as integral parts of the plan for the simultaneous development of industry and agriculture. The Great Leap Forward was an economic failure and resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. In early 1959, amid signs of rising popular restiveness, the CCP admitted that the favorable production report for 1958 had been exaggerated. Among the Great Leap Forward's economic consequences were a shortage of food (in which natural disasters also played a part); shortages of raw materials for industry; overproduction of poor-quality goods; deterioration of industrial plants through mismanagement; and exhaustion and demoralization of the peasantry and of the intellectuals, not to mention the party and government cadres at all levels. Throughout 1959 efforts to modify the administration of the communes got under way; these were intended partly to restore some material incentives to the production brigades and teams, partly to decentralize control, and partly to house families that had been reunited as household units. Political consequences were not inconsiderable. In April 1959 Mao, who bore the chief responsibility for the Great Leap Forward fiasco, stepped down from his position as chairman of the People's Republic. The National People's Congress elected Liu Shaoqi as Mao's successor, though Mao remained chairman of the CCP. Moreover, Mao's Great Leap Forward policy came under open criticism at a party conference at Lushan, Jiangxi Province. The attack was led by Minister of National Defense Peng Dehuai, who had become troubled by the potentially adverse effect Mao's policies would have on the modernization of the armed forces. Peng argued that "putting politics in command" was no substitute for economic laws and realistic economic policy; unnamed party leaders were also admonished for trying to "jump into communism in one step." After the Lushan showdown, Peng Dehuai, who allegedly had been encouraged by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to oppose Mao, was deposed. Peng was replaced by Lin Biao, a radical and opportunist Maoist. The new defense minister initiated a systematic purge of Peng's supporters from the military. Militancy on the domestic front was echoed in external policies. The "soft" foreign policy based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to which China had subscribed in the mid-1950s gave way to a "hard" line in 1958. From August through October of that year, the Chinese resumed a massive artillery bombardment of the Nationalist-held offshore islands of Jinmen and Mazu, controlled by Taiwan. This was accompanied by an aggressive propaganda assault on the United States and a declaration of intent to "liberate" Taiwan. Chinese control over Tibet had been reasserted in 1950. The socialist revolution that took place thereafter increasingly became a process of imposing Chinese culture on the Tibetans. Tension culminated in a revolt in 1958 – 59 and the flight to India by the Dalai Lama—the Tibetans' spiritual and de facto temporal leader. Relations with India, where sympathy for the rebels was aroused, deteriorated as thousands of Tibetan refugees crossed the Indian border. There were several border incidents in 1959, and a brief Sino-Indian border war erupted in October 1962 as China laid claim to Aksai Chin—nearly 103,600 square kilometers of territory that India regarded as its own. The Soviet Union gave India its moral support in the dispute, thus contributing to the growing tension between Beijing and Moscow. The Sino-Soviet dispute of the late 1950s was the most important development in Chinese foreign relations. The Soviet Union had been China's principal benefactor and ally, but relations between the two were cooling. The Soviet agreement in late 1957 to help China produce its own nuclear weapons and missiles was terminated by mid-1959. From that point until the mid-1960s, the Soviets recalled all of their technicians and advisers from China and reduced or canceled economic and technical aid to China. The discord was occasioned by several factors. The two countries differed in their interpretation of the nature of "peaceful coexistence." The Chinese took a more militant and unyielding position on the issue of anti-imperialist struggle, but the Soviets were unwilling, for example, to give their support on the Taiwan question. In addition, the two communist powers disagreed on doctrinal matters. The Chinese accused the Soviets of "revisionism"; the latter countered with charges of "dogmatism." Rivalry within the international communist movement also exacerbated Sino-Soviet relations. An additional complication was the history of suspicion each side had toward the other, especially the Chinese, who had lost a substantial part of territory to Tsarist Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. Whatever the causes of the dispute, the Soviet suspension of aid was a blow to the Chinese scheme for developing industrial and high-level (including nuclear) technology. The Sino-Soviet Split Relations between the USSR and the PRC had begun to deteriorate in 1956 after Khrushchev revealed his “Secret Speech” at the 20th Communist Party Congress. The “Secret Speech” criticized many of Stalin’s policies, especially his purges of Party members, and it marked the beginning of Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization process. This created a serious domestic problem for Mao, who had supported many of Stalin’s policies and modeled many of his own after them. With Khrushchev’s denouncement of Stalin, many people questioned Mao’s decisions. Moreover, the emergence of movements fighting for the reforms of the existing communist systems across East-Central Europe after Khrushchev’s speech worried Mao. Brief political liberalization introduced to prevent similar movements in China, most notably lessened political censorship known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign, backfired against Mao, whose position within the Party only weakened. This convinced him further that de-Stalinization was a mistake. Mao took a sharp turn to the left ideologically, which contrasted with the ideological softening of de-Stalinization. With Khrushchev’s strengthening position as Soviet leader, the two countries were set on two different ideological paths. Mao’s implementation of the Great Leap Forward, which utilized communist policies closer to Stalin than to Khrushchev, included forming a personality cult around Mao, as well as instituting Stalinist economic policies. This angered the USSR, especially after Mao criticized Khrushchev’s economic policies through the plan while also calling for more Soviet aid. The Soviet leader saw the new policies as evidence of an increasingly confrontational and unpredictable China. At first, the Sino-Soviet split manifested indirectly as criticism towards each other’s client states. China denounced Yugoslavia and Tito, who pursued a non-aligned foreign policy, while the USSR denounced Enver Hoxha and the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, which refused to abandon its pro-Stalin stance and sought its survival in alignment with China. The USSR also offered moral support to the Tibetan rebels in their 1959 Tibetan uprising against China. By 1960, the mutual criticism moved out in the open, when Khrushchev and Peng Zhen had an open argument at the Romanian Communist Party congress. Khrushchev characterized Mao as “a nationalist, an adventurist, and a deviationist.” In turn, China’s Peng Zhen called Khrushchev a Marxist revisionist, criticizing him as “patriarchal, arbitrary and tyrannical.” Khrushchev denounced China with an 80-page letter to the conference and responded to Mao by withdrawing around 1,400 Soviet experts and technicians from China, leading to the cancellation of more than 200 scientific projects intended to foster cooperation between the two nations. After a series of unconvincing compromises and explicitly hostile gestures, in 1962, the PRC and the USSR finally broke relations. Mao criticized Khrushchev for withdrawing from the Cuban missile crisis (1962). Khrushchev replied angrily that Mao’s confrontational policies would lead to a nuclear war. In the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, nuclear disarmament was brought to the forefront of geopolitics. To curb the production of nuclear weapons in other nations, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the U.S. signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. At the time, China was developing its own nuclear weaponry and Mao saw the treaty as an attempt to slow China’s advancement as a superpower. This was the final straw for Mao, who from September 1963 to July 1964 published nine letters openly criticizing every aspect of Khrushchev’s leadership. The Sino-Soviet alliance then completely collapsed, and Mao turned to other Asian, African, and Latin American countries to develop new and stronger alliances and further the PRC’s economic and ideological redevelopment. Readjustment and Recovery, 1961-1965 Meanwhile in the early 1960s, Mao faced criticism within China as well. In 1961 the political tide in China began to swing to the right, as evidenced by the ascendancy of a more moderate leadership. In an effort to stabilize the economic front, for example, the party—still under Mao's titular leadership but under the dominant influence of Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo, and others—initiated a series of corrective measures. Among these measures was the reorganization of the commune system, with the result that production brigades and teams had more say in their own administrative and economic planning. To gain more effective control from the center, the CCP reestablished its six regional bureaus and initiated steps aimed at tightening party discipline and encouraging the leading party cadres to develop populist-style leadership at all levels. The efforts were prompted by the party's realization that the arrogance of party and government functionaries had engendered only public apathy. On the industrial front, much emphasis was then placed on realistic and efficient planning; ideological fervor and mass movements were no longer the controlling themes of industrial management. Production authority was restored to factory managers. Another notable emphasis after 1961 was the party's greater interest in strengthening the defense and internal security establishment. By early 1965 the country was well on its way to recovery under the direction of the party apparatus or, to be more specific, the Central Committee's Secretariat headed by Secretary General Deng Xiaoping. The Cultural Revolution Key Terms / Key Concepts Cultural Revolution: a sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until 1976; set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China Down to the Countryside Movement: a policy instituted by Mao Zedong in the People’s Republic of China in the late 1960s and early 1970s, instigated by what was perceived as anti-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution and resulting in certain privileged urban youth being sent to farming villages to work Gang of Four: a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials that came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 76) and was later charged with a series of treasonous crimes Red Guards: a fanatic student mass paramilitary social movement mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967 during the Cultural Revolution struggle sessions: a form of public humiliation and torture used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao Zedong era, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, to shape public opinion and humiliate, persecute, or execute political rivals and class enemies. Origins of the Cultural Revolution In the early 1960s, Mao was on the political sidelines and in semi seclusion. By 1962, however, he began an offensive to purify the party, having grown increasingly uneasy about what he believed were the creeping "capitalist" and antisocialist tendencies in the country. As a hardened veteran revolutionary who had overcome the severest adversities, Mao continued to believe that the material incentives that had been restored to the peasants and others were corrupting the masses and were counterrevolutionary. To stop the so-called capitalist trend, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement, for which the primary emphasis was on restoring ideological purity, reinfusing revolutionary fervor into the party and government bureaucracies, and intensifying class struggle. There were internal disagreements, however, not on the aim of the movement but on the methods of carrying it out. Opposition came mainly from the moderates represented by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who were unsympathetic to Mao's policies. The Socialist Education Movement was soon paired with another Mao campaign, the theme of which was "to learn from the People's Liberation Army." Minister of National Defense Lin Biao's rise to the center of power was increasingly conspicuous. It was accompanied by his call on the PLA and the CCP to accentuate Maoist thought as the guiding principle for the Socialist Education Movement and for all revolutionary undertakings in China. In connection with the Socialist Education Movement, a thorough reform of the school system, which had been planned earlier to coincide with the Great Leap Forward, went into effect. The reform was intended as a work-study program, a new xiafang movement—in which schooling was slated to accommodate the work schedule of communes and factories. It had the dual purpose of providing mass education less expensively than previously offered and of re-educating intellectuals and scholars to accept the need for their own participation in manual labor. The drafting of intellectuals for manual labor was part of the party's rectification campaign, publicized through the mass media as an effort to remove "bourgeois" influences from professional workers—particularly, their tendency to have greater regard for their own specialized fields than for the goals of the party. Official propaganda accused them of being more concerned with having "expertise" than being "red". The Militant Phase, 1966-1968 By mid-1965 Mao had gradually but systematically regained control of the party with the support of Lin Biao—Jiang Qing (Mao's fourth wife)—and Chen Boda—a leading theoretician. In late 1965 a leading member of Mao's "Shanghai Mafia," Yao Wenyuan, wrote a thinly veiled attack on the deputy mayor of Beijing—Wu Han. In the next six months, under the guise of upholding ideological purity, Mao and his supporters purged or attacked a wide variety of public figures, including State Chairman Liu Shaoqi and other party and state leaders. By mid-1966 Mao's campaign had erupted into what came to be known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution—the first mass action to have emerged against the CCP apparatus itself. Considerable intraparty opposition to the Cultural Revolution was evident. On the one side was the Mao-Lin Biao group, supported by the PLA; on the other side was a faction led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, which had its strength in the regular party machine. Premier Zhou Enlai, while remaining personally loyal to Mao, tried to mediate or to reconcile the two factions. Mao felt that he could no longer depend on the formal party organization, convinced that it had been permeated with the "capitalist" and bourgeois obstructionists. He turned to Lin Biao and the PLA to counteract the influence of those who were allegedly “‘left’ in form but ‘right’ in essence.” The PLA was widely extolled as a “great school” for the training of a new generation of revolutionary fighters and leaders. Maoists also turned to high school students for political demonstrations on their behalf. These students, joined by some university students, came to be known as the Red Guards. Millions of Red Guards were encouraged by the Cultural Revolution group to become a “shock force” and to “bombard” with criticism both the regular party headquarters in Beijing and those at the regional and provincial levels. Red Guard activities were promoted as a reflection of Mao's policy of rekindling revolutionary enthusiasm and destroying "outdated," "counterrevolutionary" symbols and values. Mao's ideas, popularized in the Quotations from Chairman Mao, became the standard by which all revolutionary efforts were to be judged. The "four big rights"—speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters—became an important factor in encouraging Mao's youthful followers to criticize his intraparty rivals. The "four big rights" became such a major feature during the period that they were later institutionalized in the state constitution of 1975. The result of the unfettered criticism of established organs of control by China's exuberant youth was massive civil disorder, punctuated also by clashes among rival Red Guard gangs and between the gangs and local security authorities. The party organization was shattered from top to bottom. (The Central Committee's Secretariat ceased functioning in late 1966.) The resources of the public security organs were severely strained. Faced with imminent anarchy, the PLA—the only organization whose ranks for the most part had not been radicalized by Red Guard-style activities—emerged as the principal guarantor of law and order and the de facto political authority. And although the PLA was under Mao's rallying call to "support the left," PLA regional military commanders ordered their forces to restrain the leftist radicals, thus restoring order throughout much of China. The PLA also was responsible for the appearance in early 1967 of the revolutionary committees—a new form of local control that replaced local party committees and administrative bodies. The revolutionary committees were staffed with Cultural Revolution activists, trusted cadres, and military commanders, the latter frequently holding the greatest power. The radical tide receded somewhat beginning in late 1967, but it was not until after mid-1968 that Mao came to realize the uselessness of further revolutionary violence. Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and their fellow “revisionists” and “capitalist roaders” had been purged from public life by early 1967, and the Maoist group had since been in full command of the political scene. Viewed in larger perspective, the need for domestic calm and stability was occasioned perhaps even more by pressures emanating from outside China. The Chinese were alarmed in 1966 – 68 by steady Soviet military buildups along their common border. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 heightened Chinese apprehensions. In March 1969 Chinese and Soviet troops clashed on Zhenbao Island (known to the Soviets as Damanskiy Island) in the disputed Wusuli Jiang (Ussuri River) border area. The tension on the border had a sobering effect on the fractious Chinese political scene and provided the regime with a new and unifying rallying call. The Ninth National Party Congress to the Demise of Lin Biao, 1969-1971 The activist phase of the Cultural Revolution—considered to be the first in a series of cultural revolutions—was brought to an end in April 1969. This end was formally signaled at the CCP's Ninth National Party Congress, which convened under the dominance of the Maoist group. Mao was confirmed as the supreme leader. Lin Biao was promoted to the post of CCP vice chairman and was named as Mao's successor. Others who had risen to power by means of Cultural Revolution machinations were rewarded with positions on the Political Bureau; a significant number of military commanders were appointed to the Central Committee. The party congress also marked the rising influence of two opposing forces, Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, and Premier Zhou Enlai. The general emphasis after 1969 was on reconstruction through rebuilding of the party, economic stabilization, and greater sensitivity to foreign affairs. Pragmatism gained momentum as a central theme of the years following the Ninth National Party Congress, but this tendency was paralleled by efforts of the radical group to reassert itself. The radical group—Kang Sheng, Xie Fuzhi, Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen—no longer had Mao's unqualified support. By 1970 Mao viewed his role more as that of the supreme elder statesman than of an activist in the policy-making process. This was probably the result as much of his declining health as of his view that a stabilizing influence should be brought to bear on a divided nation. As Mao saw it, China needed both pragmatism and revolutionary enthusiasm, each acting as a check on the other. Factional infighting would continue unabated through the mid-1970s, although an uneasy coexistence was maintained while Mao was alive. The rebuilding of the CCP got under way in 1969. The process was difficult, however, given the pervasiveness of factional tensions and the discord carried over from the Cultural Revolution years. Differences persisted among the military, the party, and left-dominated mass organizations over a wide range of policy issues, to say nothing of the radical-moderate rivalry. It was not until December 1970 that a party committee could be reestablished at the provincial level. In political reconstruction two developments were noteworthy. As the only institution of power for the most part left unscathed by the Cultural Revolution, the PLA was particularly important in the politics of transition and reconstruction. The PLA was, however, not a homogeneous body. In 1970 – 71 Zhou Enlai was able to forge a centrist-rightist alliance with a group of PLA regional military commanders who had taken exception to certain of Lin Biao's policies. This coalition paved the way for a more moderate party and government leadership in the late 1970s and 1980s. The PLA was divided largely on policy issues. On one side of the infighting was the Lin Biao faction, which continued to exhort the need for “politics in command” and for an unremitting struggle against both the Soviet Union and the United States. On the other side was a majority of the regional military commanders, who had become concerned about the effect Lin Biao's political ambitions would have on military modernization and economic development. These commanders' views generally were in tune with the positions taken by Zhou Enlai and his moderate associates. Specifically, the moderate groups within the civilian bureaucracy and the armed forces spoke for more material incentives for the peasantry, efficient economic planning, and a thorough reassessment of the Cultural Revolution. They also advocated improved relations with the West in general and the United States in particular—if for no other reason than to counter the perceived expansionist aims of the Soviet Union. Generally, the radicals' objection notwithstanding, the Chinese political tide shifted steadily toward the right of center. Among the notable achievements of the early 1970s was China's decision to seek reconciliation with the United States, as dramatized by President Richard M. Nixon's visit in February 1972. In September 1972 diplomatic relations were established with Japan. Without question, the turning point in the decade of the Cultural Revolution was Lin Biao's abortive coup attempt and his subsequent death in a plane crash as he fled China in September 1971. The immediate consequence was a steady erosion of the fundamentalist influence of the left-wing radicals. Lin Biao's closest supporters were purged systematically. Efforts to depoliticize and promote professionalism were intensified within the PLA. These were also accompanied by the rehabilitation of those persons who had been persecuted or fallen into disgrace in 1966 – 68. End of the Era of Mao Zedong, 1972-1976 Among the most prominent of those rehabilitated was Deng Xiaoping, who was reinstated as a vice premier in April 1973, ostensibly under the aegis of Premier Zhou Enlai but certainly with the concurrence of Mao Zedong. Together, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping came to exert strong influence. Their moderate line favoring modernization of all sectors of the economy was formally confirmed at the Tenth National Party Congress in August 1973, at which time Deng Xiaoping was made a member of the party's Central Committee (but not yet of the Political Bureau). The radical camp fought back by building an armed urban militia, but its mass base of support was limited to Shanghai and parts of northeastern China—hardly sufficient to arrest what it denounced as “revisionist” and “capitalist” tendencies. In January 1975 Zhou Enlai, speaking before the Fourth National People's Congress, outlined a program of what has come to be known as the Four Modernizations for the four sectors of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. This program would be reaffirmed at the Eleventh National Party Congress, which convened in August 1977. Also in January 1975, Deng Xiaoping's position was solidified by his election as a vice chairman of the CCP and as a member of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee. Deng also was installed as China's first civilian chief of PLA General Staff Department. The year 1976 saw the deaths of the three most senior officials in the CCP and the state apparatus: Zhou Enlai in January, Zhu De (then chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and acting head of state) in July, and Mao Zedong in September. In April of the same year, masses of demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing memorialized Zhou Enlai and criticized Mao's closest associates, Zhou's opponents. In June the government announced that Mao would no longer receive foreign visitors. In July an earthquake devastated the city of Tangshan in Hebei Province. These events, along with the deaths of the three Communist leaders, contributed to a popular sense that the “mandate of heaven” had been withdrawn from the ruling party. At best the nation was in a state of serious political uncertainty. Deng Xiaoping, the logical successor as premier, received a temporary setback after Zhou's death, when radicals launched a major counterassault against him. In April 1976 Deng was once more removed from all his public posts, and a relative political unknown, Hua Guofeng—a Political Bureau member, vice premier, and minister of public security—was named acting premier and party first vice chairman. Even though Mao Zedong's role in political life had been sporadic and shallow in his later years, it was crucial. Despite Mao's alleged lack of mental acuity, his influence in the months before his death remained such that his orders to dismiss Deng and appoint Hua Guofeng were accepted immediately by the Political Bureau. The political system had polarized in the years before Mao's death into increasingly bitter and irreconcilable factions. While Mao was alive—and playing these factions off against each other—the contending forces were held in check. His death resolved only some of the problems inherent in the succession struggle. The radical clique most closely associated with Mao and the Cultural Revolution became vulnerable after Mao died, as Deng had been after Zhou Enlai's demise. In October, less than a month after Mao's death, Jiang Qing and her three principal associates—denounced as the Gang of Four—were arrested with the assistance of two senior Political Bureau members, Minister of National Defense Ye Jianying (1897 – 1986) and Wang Dongxing, commander of the CCP's elite bodyguard. Within days it was formally announced that Hua Guofeng had assumed the positions of party chairman, chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, and premier. The Post-Mao Period, 1976-1978 The jubilation following the incarceration of the Gang of Four and the popularity of the new ruling triumvirate (Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, and Li Xiannian) were succeeded by calls for the restoration to power of Deng Xiaoping and the elimination of leftist influence throughout the political system. By July 1977, at no small risk to undercutting Hua Guofeng's legitimacy as Mao's successor and seeming to contradict Mao's apparent will, the Central Committee exonerated Deng Xiaoping. Deng admitted some shortcomings in the events of 1975, and finally, at a party Central Committee session, he resumed all the posts from which he had been removed in 1976. The post-Mao political order was given its first vote of confidence at the Eleventh National Party Congress, held August 12 – 18, 1977. Hua was confirmed as party chairman, and Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Wang Dongxing were elected vice chairmen. The congress proclaimed the formal end of the Cultural Revolution, blamed it entirely on the Gang of Four, and reiterated that “the fundamental task of the party in the new historical period is to build China into a modern, powerful socialist country by the end of the twentieth century.” Many contradictions still were apparent regarding the Maoist legacy and the possibility of future cultural revolutions. However, the stage was set for China to move in a new direction under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Consequences of the Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution was a sociopolitical movement, set into motion by Mao, that started in 1966 and ended in 1976 and whose stated goal was to preserve 'true’ Communist ideology in China by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society and reimposing Maoism as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked the return of Mao to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward. The Revolution was launched after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these “revisionists” be removed through violent class struggle. China’s youth responded to Mao’s appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao’s personality cult grew to immense proportions. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent struggles that ensued across the country and suffered a wide range of abuses, including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Mao set the scene for the Cultural Revolution by “cleansing” Beijing of powerful officials of questionable loyalty. His approach was less than transparent. He achieved this purge through newspaper articles, internal meetings, and skillfully employing his network of political allies. The start of the Cultural Revolution brought huge numbers of Red Guards to Beijing, with all expenses paid by the government. The revolution aimed to destroy the “Four Olds” (old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas) and establish the corresponding “Four News,” which ranged from the changing of names and haircuts to ransacking homes, vandalizing cultural treasures, and desecrating temples. In a few years, countless ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by the members of the Red Guards. Believing that certain liberal bourgeois elements of society continued to threaten the socialist framework, the Red Guards struggled against authorities at all levels of society and even set up their own tribunals. Chaos reigned in much of the nation. During the Cultural Revolution, nearly all of the schools and universities in China were closed and the young intellectuals living in cities were ordered to the countryside to be “re-educated” by the peasants, where they performed hard manual labor and other work. The Cultural Revolution led to the destruction of much of China’s traditional cultural heritage and the imprisonment of a huge number of citizens, as well as general economic and social chaos. Millions of lives were ruined during this period as the Cultural Revolution pierced every part of Chinese life. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the Cultural Revolution. The Revolution aimed to get rid of those who allegedly promoted bourgeois ideas, as well as those who were seen as coming from an exploitative family background or belonged to one of the Five Black Categories (landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad-influencers or “bad elements,” and rightists). Many people perceived to belong to any of these categories, regardless of guilt or innocence, were publicly denounced, humiliated, and beaten in so-called "struggle sessions". In their revolutionary fervor, students denounced their teachers and children denounced their parents. During the Cultural Revolution, libraries full of historical and foreign texts were destroyed and books were burned. Temples, churches, mosques, monasteries, and cemeteries were closed down and sometimes converted to other uses, looted, and destroyed. Among the countless acts of destruction, Red Guards from Beijing Normal University desecrated and badly damaged the burial place of Confucius. Although the effects of the Cultural Revolution were disastrous for millions of people in China, there were some positive outcomes, particularly in the rural areas. For example, the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution and the hostility towards the intellectual elite are widely accepted to have damaged the quality of education in China, especially the higher education system. However, some policies also provided many in the rural communities with middle school education for the first time, which facilitated rural economic development in the 1970s and 80s. Similarly, a large number of health personnel was deployed to the countryside. Some farmers were given informal medical training and healthcare centers were established in rural communities. This led to a marked improvement in the health and the life expectancy of the general population. The Cultural Revolution also brought to the forefront numerous internal power struggles within the Party, many of which had little to do with the larger battles between Party leaders but resulted instead from local factionalism and petty rivalries that were usually unrelated to the Revolution itself. Because of the chaotic political environment, local governments lacked organization and stability, if they existed at all. Members of different factions often fought on the streets and political assassinations, particularly in predominantly rural provinces, were common. The masses spontaneously involved themselves in factions and took part in open warfare against other factions. The ideology that drove these factions was vague and sometimes non-existent, with the struggle for local authority being the only motivation for mass involvement. The Cultural Revolution wreaked havoc on minority cultures in China. In Inner Mongolia, some 790,000 people were persecuted. In Xinjiang, copies of the Qur’an and other books of the Uyghur people were burned. Muslim imams were reportedly paraded around with paint splashed on their bodies. In the ethnic Korean areas of northeast China, language schools were destroyed. In Yunnan Province, the palace of the Dai people’s king was torched. The massacre of Muslim Hui people at the hands of the People’s Liberation Army in Yunnan, known as the Shadian Incident, reportedly claimed over 1,600 lives in 1975. Impact of Cultural Revolution on Sino-Soviet Relations The Sino-Soviet split, seen by historians as one of the key events of the Cold War, had massive consequences for the two powers and for the world. The USSR had a network of communist parties it supported. China created its own rival network to battle it out for local control of the left in numerous countries. The divide fractured the international communist movement at the time and opened the way for the warming of relations between the U.S. and China under Richard Nixon and Mao in 1971. In China, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 76), largely to prevent the development of Russian-style bureaucratic communism of the USSR.The ideological split also escalated to small-scale warfare between Russia and China, with a revived conflict over the Russo-Chinese border demarcated in the 19th century (starting in 1966) and Red Guards attacking the Soviet embassy in Beijing (1967). In the 1970s, Sino-Soviet ideological rivalry extended to Africa and the Middle East, where the Soviet Union and China funded and supported opposed political parties, militias, and states. After the regime of Mao Zedong, the PRC–USSR ideological schism no longer shaped domestic politics but continued to impact geopolitics. The initial Soviet-Chinese proxy war occurred in Indochina in 1975, where the Communist victory of the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) and of North Vietnam in the 30-year Vietnam War had produced a post–colonial Indochina that featured pro-Soviet regimes in Vietnam (Socialist Republic of Vietnam) and Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic), and a pro-Chinese regime in Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea). At first, Vietnam ignored the Khmer Rouge domestic reorganization of Cambodia by the Pol Pot regime (1975 – 79) as an internal matter, until the Khmer Rouge attacked the ethnic Vietnamese populace of Cambodia and the border with Vietnam. The counterattack precipitated the Cambodian-Vietnamese War (1975 – 79) that deposed Pol Pot in 1978. In response, the PRC denounced the Vietnamese and retaliated by invading northern Vietnam in the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979). In turn, the USSR denounced the PRC’s invasion of Vietnam. In 1979, the USSR invaded the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to sustain the Afghan Communist government. The PRC viewed the Soviet invasion as a local ploy within Soviet’s greater geopolitical encirclement of China. In response, the PRC entered a tripartite alliance with the U.S. and Pakistan to sponsor Islamist Afghan armed resistance to the Soviet occupation (1979 – 89). Relations between China and the Soviet Union remained tense until the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Beijing in 1989. Primary Source: Editorial of the Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao) Editorial of the Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao): Mao Tse-Tung's (Mao Zedong) Thought is the Telescope and Microscope of Our Revolutionary Cause June 7, 1966 The current great socialist cultural revolution is a great revolution to sweep away all monsters and a great revolution that remoulds the ideology of people and touches their souls. What weapon should be used to sweep away all monsters? What ideology should be applied to arm people's minds and remould their souls? The most powerful ideological weapon, the only one, is the great Mao Tse-tung's thought.Mao Tse-tung's (Mao Zedong) thought is our political orientation, the highest instruction for our actions; it is our ideological and political telescope and microscope for observing and analysing all things, In this unprecedented great cultural revolution, we should use Mao Tse-tung's thought to observe, analyse and transform everything, and, in a word, put it in command of everything. We should use Mao Tse-tung's thought to storm the enemy's positions and seize victory .. . . . Our struggle against the black anti-Party, anti-socialist line and gangsters is a mighty, life-and-death class struggle. The enemies without guns are more hidden, cunning, sinister and vicious than the enemies with guns. The representatives of the bourgeoisie and all monsters, including the modern revisionists, often oppose the red flag by hoisting a red flag and oppose Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung's thought under the cloak of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung's thought when they attack the Party and socialism, because Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung's thought are becoming more popular day by day, our Party and Chairman Mao enjoy an incomparably high prestige and the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country is becoming more consolidated. These are the tactics that the revisionists always use in opposing Marxism-Leninism. This is a new characteristic of the class struggle under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat.The many facts exposed during the great cultural revolution show us more clearly that the anti-Party and anti-socialist elements are all careerists, schemers and hypocrites of the exploiting classes. They indulge in double-dealing. They feign compliance while acting in opposition. They appear to be men but are demons at heart. They speak human language to your face, but talk devil's language behind your back. They are wolves in sheep's clothing and man-eating tigers with smiling faces. They often use the phrases of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung's thought as a cover while greatly publicizing diametrically opposed views behind the word "but" and smuggling in bourgeois and revisionist stuff. Enemies holding a false red banner are ten times more vicious than enemies holding a white banner. Wolves in sheep's clothing are ten times more sinister than ordinary wolves. Tigers with smiling faces arc ten times more ferocious than tigers with their fangs bared and their claws sticking out. Sugar-coated bullets are ten times more destructive than real bullets. A fortress is most vulnerable when attacked from within. Enemies who have wormed their way into our ranks are far more dangerous than enemies operating in the open. We must give this serious attention and be highly vigilant.In such a very complicated and acute class struggle, how are we to draw a clear-cut line between the enemy and ourselves and maintain a firm stand? How are we to distinguish between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, genuine revolutionaries and sham revolutionaries, and Marxism-Leninism and revisionism? We must master Mao Tse-tung's thought, the powerful ideological weapon, and use it as a telescope and a microscope to observe all matters. With the invincible Mao Tse-tung's thought, with the scientific world outlook and methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism which have been developed by Chairman Mao, and with the sharp weapon of Chairman Mao's theory of classes and class struggle, we have the highest criterion for judging right and wrong. . . Chairman Mao teaches us, "The proletariat seeks to transform the world according to its own world outlook, so does the bourgeoisie." In the sharp clash between the two world outlooks, either you crush me, or I crush you. It will not do to sit on the fence; there is no middle road. The overthrown bourgeoisie, in their plots for restoration and subversion, always give first place to ideology, take hold of ideology and the superstructure. The representatives of the bourgeoisie, by using their position and power, usurped and controlled the leadership of a number of departments, did all they could to spread bourgeois and revisionist poison through the media of literature, the theatre, films, music, the arts, the press, periodicals, the radio, publications and academic research and schools, etc., in an attempt to corrupt people's minds and perpetrate "peaceful evolution" as ideological preparation and preparation of public opinion for capitalist restoration. If our proletarian ideology does not take over the position, then the bourgeois ideology will have free rein; it will gradually nibble away and chew you up bit by bit. Once proletarian ideology gives way, so will the superstructure and the economic base and this means the restoration of capitalism, Therefore, we must arm our minds with Mao Tse-tung's thought and establish a firm proletarian world outlook. We must use the great Mao Tse-tung's thought to fight and completely destroy the bourgeois ideological and cultural positions.Mao Tse-tung's thought is the acme of Marxism-Leninism in the present era. It is living Marxism-Leninism at its highest. It is the powerful, invincible weapon of the Chinese people, and it is also a powerful, invincible weapon of the revolutionary people the world over. Mao Tse-tung's thought has proved to be the invincible truth through the practice of China's democratic revolution, socialist revolution and socialist construction, and through the struggle in the international sphere against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys and against Khrushchev revisionism. Chairman Mao has, with the gifts of genius, creatively and comprehensively developed Marxism-Leninism. Basing himself on the fundamental theses of Marxism-Leninism, Chairman Mao has summed up the experience of the practice of the Chinese revolution and the world revolution, and the painful lesson of the usurpation of the leadership of the Party and the state of the Soviet Union by the modern revisionist clique, systematically put forward the theory concerning classes, class contradictions and class struggle that exist in socialist society, greatly enriched and developed the Marxist-Leninist theory on the dictatorship of the proletariat, and put forward a series of wise policies aimed at opposing and preventing revisionism and the restoration of capitalism. . . . Every sentence by Chairman Mao is the truth, and carries more weight than ten thousand ordinary sentences. As the Chinese people master Mao Tse-tung's thought, China will be prosperous and ever-victorious. Once the world's people master Mao Tse-tung's thought ,which is living Marxism-Leninism, they are sure to win their emancipation, bury imperialism, modern revisionism and all reactionaries lock, stock and barrel, and realize communism throughout the world step by step.The most fundamental task in the great socialist cultural revolution in our country is to eliminate thoroughly the old ideology and culture, the old customs and habits which were fostered by all the exploiting classes for thousands of years to poison the minds of the people, and to create and form an entirely new, proletarian ideology and culture, new customs and habits among the masses of the people. This is to creatively study and apply Mao Tse-tung's thought in tempestuous class struggle, popularize it and let it become closely integrated with the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers. Once the masses grasp it, Mao Tse-tung's thought will be transformed into a mighty material force. Facts show that those armed with Mao Tse-tung's thought are the bravest, wisest, most united, most steadfast in class stand and have the sharpest sight. In this great, stormy cultural revolution, the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers are playing the role of the main force -this is the result of their efforts in creatively studying and applying Mao Tse-tung's thought and arming their ideology with it. This is another eloquent proof of the fact that when the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers master the political telescope and microscope of Mao Tse-tung's thought, they are invincible and ever-triumphant. . . .The attitude towards Mao Tse-tung's thought, whether to accept it or resist it, to support it or oppose it, to love it warmly or be hostile to it, this is the touchstone to test and the watershed between true revolution and sham revolution, between revolution and counter-revolution, between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. He who wants to make revolution must accept Mao Tse-tung's thought and act in accordance with it. A counter-revolutionary will inevitably disparage, distort, resist, attack and oppose Mao Tse-tung's thought. The "authorities" of the bourgeoisie and all monsters, including the modern revisionists, use every means to slander Mao Tse-tung's thought, and they are extremely hostile to the creative study and application of Mao Tse-tung's works by the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers. They wildly attack the creative study and application of Mao Tse-tung's works by workers, peasants and soldiers as "philistinism," "over-simplification" and "pragmatism." The only explanation is that this flows from their exploiting class instinct. They fear Mao Tse-tung's thought, the revolutionary truth of the proletariat, and particularly the integration of Mao Tse-tung's thought with the worker, peasant and soldier masses. Once the workers, peasants and soldiers master the sharp weapon of Mao Tse-tung's thought, all monsters have no ground left to stand on. All their intrigues and plots will be thoroughly exposed, their ugly features will be brought into the broad light of day and their dream to restore capitalism will be utterly shattered.The class enemy won't fall down if you don't bit him. lie still tries to rise to his feet after he has fallen. When one black- line is eliminated, another appears. When one gang of representatives of the bourgeoisie has been laid low, a new one takes the stage. We must follow the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and never forget the class struggle, never forget the dictatorship of the proletariat, never forget to give prominence to politics, never forget to hold aloft the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung's thought. We must firmly give prominence to politics. We must creatively study and apply still better Chairman Mao Tse-tung's works, putting stress on the importance of application. We must consider Chairman Mao's works the supreme directive for all our work. We must master Mao Tse-tung's thought and pass it on from generation to generation. This is dictated by the needs of the revolution, the situation, the struggle against the enemy, the preparations to smash aggressive war by U.S. imperialism, of opposing and preventing revisionism, preventing the restoration of capitalism, of building socialism with greater, faster, better and more economical results and of ensuring the gradual transition from socialism to communism in China. Chairman Mao is the radiant sun lighting our minds. Mao Tse-tung's thought is our lifeline. Those who oppose Mao Tse-tung's thought, no matter when they do so and what kind of "authorities" they are, will be denounced by the entire Party and the whole nation. Source:from The Great Socialist Cultural Revolution in China (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1966), III, 11-17. This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use of the Sourcebook. © Paul Halsall, July 1998 Attributions Title Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mao_Zedong_in_1959_(cropped).jpg Mao Zedong circa 1963 - неизвестный (unknown), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Adapted from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/communist-china/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Public Domain, Library of Congress Publication	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.555037	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88080/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 15: Cold War & Decolonization, Chinese Revolution", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88094/overview	Economic Globalization Overview Economic Globalization Over the last fifty years, the world economy has experienced rapid economic growth as the world had become more economically interconnected, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Advances in information technology have driven economic innovation and spawned many new businesses and industries. Learning Objectives Examine the world economy since the 1970s. Analyze the causes, concepts, and consequences of globalization. Identify developing global political, social, and technological structures. Key Terms / Key Concepts Bretton Woods system: a monetary management system that established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan in the mid-20th century European Central Bank: consisting of 19 European Union (EU) member states, the central bank for the euro that administers monetary policy of the eurozone European Council: the institution of the European Union that comprises the heads of state or government of the member states, along with the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission, charged with defining the EU’s overall political direction and priorities European Commission: an institution of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties, and managing the day-to-day business of the EU European Economic Community: a regional organization that aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957 immigration: the international movement of people into a destination country where they do not possess citizenship to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens, sometimes to take up employment as migrant workers or temporarily as foreign workers International trade: the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories Maastricht Treaty: a treaty undertaken to integrate Europe and signed in 1992 by the members of the European Community modernization theory: a theory used to explain the process of modernization within societies using a model of progressive transition from pre-modern or traditional societies to modern society; a theory that assumes that with assistance, so-called traditional societies can be developed in the same manner as currently developed countries Schengen Area: an area composed of 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and any other type of border control at their mutual borders, which mostly functions as a single country for international travel purposes with a common visa policy supranationalism: a type of multinational political union where negotiated power is delegated to an authority by governments of member states Globalization Since the end of World War II in 1945, the world has experienced unparalleled economic and population growth. The world's population jumped from 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 7.5 billion people in 2020. The economies of the world have become increasingly integrated into a global economic system, as large corporations such a McDonald's and Walt Disney operate their businesses in multiple countries worldwide. The Consumer Revolution, which began in the United States in the 1920s, has spread around the world, resulting in the creation of a global popular culture based on consumers' demands for various goods (i.e., clothing, music, video games). In the decades following World War II in the 1950s and 1960s the world economy recovered rapidly from the war's devastation. The strong United States' economy with its vast financial resources provided the capital investment to rebuild the shattered economies of its allies in the Cold War. Unlike Europe, the United States during World War II had not suffered from the destruction of its cities, factories, roads, and railroads. In fact, the United States came out of this war economically stronger since the war had boosted industries and wages due to the demand for war materials. American consumers after the war were eager to spend their rising wages on consumer goods. In the United States and its Cold War allies Keynesian economic theory shaped policy makers' approach to handling the economy in this period, as a result of the Great Depression. These countries all were “Welfare States”; the state provided a “safety net” for its poorest citizens by providing them with supplementary incomes as well as food, housing, and healthcare. The state also boosted employment and wages through public works projects and support for labor unions. These policies served to ensure that consumers had sufficient incomes to maintain demand in this highly regulated market economy. the United States also promoted international trade through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which served to stabilize currencies and provide funds for capital investments among US allies. The United States had created and funded these organizations at the close of World War II to foster the rebuilding of the world economy (the so-called “Bretton Wood System”). In this postwar period the US also opposed trade protectionism to lessen trade barriers between nations. For example, the United States Congress in 1962 passed the Trade Expansion Act, which authorized the US president to negotiate tariff agreements between the US and other nations. This act resulted in a series of talks (the Kennedy Round) between 1964 and 1967 among nations in Geneva, Switzerland who were involved in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiation sessions. These talks resulted in the United States reducing its tariffs by at least 35%. The US, however, didn't require “developing” nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to reduce their tariffs. Consequently, these talks boosted exports from these countries to the United States and Western Europe, while these countries could protect their own emerging industries from competition from imports from the United States and Western Europe through high tariffs (“import substitution industrialization”). The “Eastern Bloc” countries (the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) at this time also experienced rapid economic growth under a command economy. This period witnessed the mass movement of people in these states from rural areas to work in new state-owned factories. The apparent success of these countries in spurring rapid economic growth was a reason why many Third World countries embraced Soviet Marxist-Leninism. In the 1970s both the “Eastern Bloc” and the “Free World” (the US and its allies) experienced economic crises as economic growth stalled and commodity prices surged resulting in high inflation. In this period oil prices increased since demand for oil exceeded supply. In 1960, a number of nations rich in oil resources formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as a cartel to regulate world oil supplies. Many members of this cartel were Muslim countries (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Iran); after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, these counties imposed an oil embargo to protest American support for Israel in the war between Israel and Muslim Egypt. Consequently, in the mid-1970s oil prices rose dramatically and resulted in a worldwide recession (economic downturn). In 1979, oil prices spiked again due to the Iranian Revolution, since Iran was a member of OPEC and its revolution posed a threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf countries that provided much of the world's oil supply. High oil prices resulted in rampant inflation worldwide since the world's production and transportation of goods all largely required oil to create energy through its factories, railroads, trucks, and planes. High oil costs, therefore, increased costs for all goods. Since consumers were thus paying higher prices for basic necessities such as gas and groceries, they were less likely to purchase non-essential consumer goods, and demand for these goods therefore declined. This “energy crisis” thus had the effect of slowing and even decreasing economic growth in countries with a market economy. The Eastern Bloc countries in the 1970s with their command economies also witnessed slowing economic growth in this period in sharp contrast to the rapid industrialization of the previous two decades. By the 1980s the standard of living in the Eastern Bloc countries had become substantially lower than the standards of living in Western Europe, in which countries such as West Germany were flourishing by exporting manufactured goods to consumers, especially in the United States. This disparity between the economies of the Eastern Bloc and Western Europe was a factor in the collapse of the Communist regimes by the end of the 1980s. In the 1980s the United States under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan and the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejected Keynesian economic theory and instead embraced the economic theories of the Chicago School of Economics, also known as Neoliberalism. According to this economic theory, “unnecessary” government regulations and high tax rates hindered capital investment, which was the key to economic growth, not Keynes’s consumer demand. Critics of this economic theory viewed it as a return to the failed Laissez-faire policy of the past. Reagan and Thatcher's administrations maintained, however, that this approach to the economy would reinvigorate their countries’ stagnant economies. In the 1980s the governments of both the United States and the United Kingdom reduced taxes and eliminated government regulations. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative (Tory) government privatized industries that had been previously nationalized by the government under the Socialist Labour Party. The vibrant economic growth of the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s convinced even formally Socialist parties, such as the Labour Party and Germany's Social Democratic Party, to embrace some Neoliberal policies in the 1990s, including free trade and the reduction of government regulations. The world’s economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s was also a result of the dramatic transformation of “Communist” China as the country after 1979 embraced a market economy. The new leader of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping began a program of privatizing state run enterprises and allowed American and European companies to build factories in China, as well as employ Chinese labor in exchange for China's access to their technology. Deng Xiaoping maintained that this new policy would modernize the Chinese economy and improve the standard of living for the Chinese people. In the decades that followed, millions of Chinese citizens migrated to the cities to work in these new factories to produce goods so as to export primarily to the United States and Europe. Incomes in China for workers did steadily increase along with the emergence of a prosperous Chinese middle class. American and European companies with factories in China generated huge profits since the cost of labor was so much lower in China than in the United States and Europe. By the second decade of the 21st century, China had emerged as the second largest economy in the world, after the United States. The adoption of Neoliberal policies by countries around the world has been quite controversial. Countries adopting these policies have often reduced taxes without necessarily reducing government spending, resulting in large amounts of government debt. Consequently, in the 1990s many countries in Latin America (i.e., Mexico) and Asia (i.e., Indonesia) declared bankruptcy and relied on loans from the IMF to stay afloat. The US supported IMF has imposed “austerity measures” as the price of receiving these loans, which required these countries to slash government spending as a way to balance their governments' budgets. Critics of these austerity programs have pointed out that millions of people have lost their government jobs, as well as food, housing, and healthcare, as a result of the budget measures that governments have had to take after accepting IMF loans. Ironically, the United States’ government debt has also skyrocketed since the 1980s, but investors in the United States and around the world have continued to finance this tremendous debt by purchasing US government bonds, which is a way to avoid the austerity measures imposed on other nations. The elimination of government regulations based on Neoliberal economic theory has also reportedly played a role in a series of spectacular, worldwide stock market collapses in and around 1990, 2000, and 2008. Critics of Neoliberalism have pointed out that the absence of proper government regulation of stock markets fueled risky speculation that resulted in these financial disasters. These critics have also pointed out that Neoliberal policies have resulted in rising inequality. Since the 1980s incomes across the world have risen substantially, but so has the percentage of wealth owned by a very small percentage of the world’s population (the so-called “one percent”). Lower tax rates on high income earners have enabled the very wealthy to accumulate more of the world’s total wealth. The European Union The political and economic integration of Western Europe since World War II, as well as much of Eastern Europe after the Cold War, has stimulated worldwide economic growth and globalization. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was born from the desire to prevent future European conflicts following the devastation of World War II. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was an international organization unifying certain continental European countries after World War II; it was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The ECSC was the first international organization based on the principles of supranationalism and would ultimately pave the way for the European Union. The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on May 9, 1950. His declared aim was to make future wars among the European nations unthinkable due to higher levels of regional integration, with the ECSC as the first step towards that integration. The treaty would create a common market for coal and steel among its member states, which served to neutralize competition between European nations over natural resources used for wartime mobilization, particularly in the Ruhr. The Schuman Declaration that created the ECSC had distinct aims: It would mark the birth of a united Europe, make war between member states impossible, encourage world peace, and transform Europe incrementally, which would lead to the democratic unification of two political blocks separated by the Iron Curtain. Its aims also included creating the world’s first supranational institution, the world’s first international anti-cartel agency, and a common market across the Community. Its first aim was to revitalize the entire European economy by similar community processes, starting with the coal and steel sector. It would then improve the world economy, as well as the economies of developing countries, such as those in Africa. In West Germany, Schuman kept close contact with the new generation of democratic politicians. Karl Arnold, the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, the province that included the coal and steel producing Ruhr, was initially spokesman for German foreign affairs. He gave several speeches and broadcasts on a supranational coal and steel community at the same time as Schuman began to propose the Community in 1948 and 1949. The Social Democratic Party of Germany, despite support from unions and other socialists in Europe, decided it would oppose the Schuman plan. This party claimed that a focus on integration would override the party’s prime objective of German reunification and thus empower ultra-nationalist and Communist movements in democratic countries. The party also thought the ECSC would end any hopes of nationalizing the steel industry and encourage the growth of cartel activity throughout a newly conservative-leaning Europe. Younger members of the party like Carlo Schmid were, however, in favor of the Community and pointed to the long tradition of socialist support for a supranational movement. In France, Schuman gained strong political and intellectual support from all sectors, including many non-communist parties. Former French president, Charles de Gaulle, then out of power, had been an early supporter of linking European economies on French terms and spoke in 1945 of a “European confederation” that would exploit the resources of the Ruhr. However, he opposed the ECSC, deriding it as an unsatisfactory approach to European unity. He also considered the French government’s approach to integration too weak and feared the ECSC would be hijacked by other nation’s concerns. De Gaulle felt that the ECSC had insufficient supranational authority because the Assembly was not ratified by a European referendum, and he did not accept Raymond Aron’s contention that the ECSC was intended as a movement away from U.S. domination. Consequently, de Gaulle and his followers in the Rally of the French People (RPF) voted against ratification in the lower house of the French Parliament. Despite these reservations and attacks from the extreme left, the ECSC found substantial public support. It gained strong majority votes in all 11 chambers of the parliaments of the six member states, as well as approval among associations and European public opinion. The 100-article Treaty of Paris, which established the ECSC, was signed on April 18, 1951, by “the inner six”: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. On August 11, 1952, the United States was the first non-ECSC member to recognize the Community and stated it would now deal with the ECSC on coal and steel matters, establishing its delegation in Brussels. First Institutions The ECSC was run by four institutions: a High Authority composed of independent appointees, a Common Assembly composed of national parliamentarians, a Special Council composed of national ministers, and a Court of Justice. These would ultimately form the blueprint for today’s European Commission, European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Court of Justice. The High Authority (now the European Commission) was the first-ever supranational body that served as the Community’s executive. The President was elected by the eight other members. The nine members were appointed by member states (two for the larger three states, one for the smaller three), but they were meant to represent the common interest rather than their own states’ concerns. The governments of the member states were represented by the Council of Ministers, the presidency of which rotated between each state every three months in alphabetical order. The task of this body was to harmonize the work of national governments with the acts of the High Authority and issue opinions on the work of the Authority when needed. The Common Assembly, now the European Parliament, was composed of 78 representatives. The Assembly exercised supervisory powers over the executive. The representatives were to be national members of Parliament (MPs) elected by their Parliaments to the Assembly, or they were to be directly elected. The Assembly was intended as a democratic counterweight and check to the High Authority. It had formal powers to sack the High Authority following investigations of abuse. The European Economic Community The European Economic Community blossomed following the successful establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, mainly from further regional integration. The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization that aimed to integrate its member states economically. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957. Upon the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993, the EEC was incorporated and renamed as the European Community (EC). In 2009, the EC’s institutions were absorbed into the EU’s wider framework and the community ceased to exist. After the establishment of the ECSC in 1951, two additional communities were proposed: a European Defense Community and a European Political Community. Both of these were meant to further regional integration. While the new treaty for the political community was drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the proposed defense community under the proposed treaty was rejected by the French Parliament. ECSC President Jean Monnet, a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from the High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities based on economic integration rather than political integration. After the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul Henri Spaak was given the task of preparing a report on the idea of a customs union. Together with the Ohlin Report, the so-called Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome. In 1956, Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse castle. The conference led to the signature on March 25, 1957, of the Treaty of Rome, establishing a European Economic Community. Creation and Early Years The Treaty of Rome created new communities, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM, or sometimes EAEC). The EEC created a customs union, while EURATOM promoted cooperation in the sphere of nuclear power. One of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment in 1962 of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs between member nations were removed on certain products. These accomplishments occurred despites some initial opposition. The formation of these communities had been met with protest due to a fear that state sovereignty would be infringed. Another crisis was triggered in regards to proposals for the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which came into force in 1962. The previous period whereby decisions were made by unanimity had come to an end, and majority voting in the Council had taken effect. Then French President Charles de Gaulle’s opposition to supranationalism and fear of the other members challenging the CAP led to an empty-chair policy in 1965 in which French representatives were withdrawn from the European institutions until the French veto was reinstated. Eventually, the Luxembourg Compromise of January 29, 1966, instituted a gentlemen’s agreement permitting members to use a veto on issues of national interest. On July 1, 1967, the Merger Treaty came into force, combining the institutions of the ECSC and EURATOM into that of the EEC. Collectively, they were known as the European Communities. The Communities still included independent personalities, although they were increasingly integrated. Future treaties granted the Community new powers beyond simple economic matters, edging closer to the goal of political integration and a peaceful, united Europe. Enlargement and Elections The 1960s saw the first attempts at enlargement of participants. In 1961, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom applied to join the three Communities. However, President Charles de Gaulle saw British membership as a Trojan horse for US influence and vetoed membership, and the applications of all four countries were suspended. The four countries resubmitted their applications on May 11, 1967, and with Georges Pompidou succeeding Charles de Gaulle as French president in 1969, the veto was lifted. Negotiations began in 1970 under the pro-European government of UK Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath, who had to deal with disagreements relating to the CAP and the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations. Nevertheless, two years later the accession treaties were signed, and Denmark, Ireland, and the UK joined the Community effective January 1, 1973. The Norwegian people finally rejected membership in a referendum on September 25, 1972. The Treaties of Rome stated that the European Parliament must be directly elected; however, this required the Council to agree on a common voting system first. The Council procrastinated on the issue and the Parliament remained appointed. Charles de Gaulle was particularly active in blocking the development of the Parliament, with it only being granted budgetary powers following his resignation. Parliament pressured for agreement and on September 20, 1976, the Council agreed part of the necessary instruments for election, deferring details on electoral systems that remain varied to this day. In June 1979, during the tenure of President Roy Jenkins, European Parliamentary elections were held. The new Parliament, galvanized by a direct election and new powers, started working full-time and became more active than previous assemblies. Maastricht Treaty Towards Maastricht The EEC continued to expand its membership in the 1980s. Greece applied to join the Community on June 12, 1975, following the restoration of its democracy, after a brief period of military dictatorship (1967-1974). Greece joined the Community effective January 1, 1981. Similarly, and after their own democratic restorations, Spain and Portugal applied to the communities in 1977 and both effectively joined on January 1, 1986. In 1987, Turkey formally applied to join the Community and began the longest application process for any country. With the prospect of further enlargement and a desire to increase areas of cooperation, the Single European Act was signed by foreign ministers in February 1986. This single document dealt with the reform of institutions, extension of powers, foreign policy cooperation, and the single European market. It came into force on July 1, 1987. The act was followed by work on what would become the Maastricht Treaty, which was agreed to on December 10, 1991, signed the following year, and came into force on November 1, 1993, establishing the European Union. Establishment of the European Union The European Union was formally established with the Maastricht Treaty, whose main architects were Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor (prime minister) and French president, François Mitterrand. The treaty established the three pillars of the European Union: - the European Communities pillar—the European Community (EC), the ECSC, and the EURATOM, which handled economic, social, and economic policies; - the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) pillar, which handled foreign policy and military matters; - and the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar, which coordinated member states’ efforts in the fight against crime. All three pillars were the extensions of existing policy structures. The European Community pillar was a continuation of the EEC. Additionally, coordination in foreign policy had taken place since the 1970s under the European Political Cooperation (EPC), first written into treaties by the Single European Act. While the JHA extended cooperation in law enforcement, criminal justice, asylum, and immigration, as well as judicial cooperation in civil matters; some of these areas were already subject to intergovernmental cooperation under the Schengen Implementation Convention of 1990. The creation of the pillar system was the result of the desire by many member states to extend the EEC to the areas of foreign policy, military, criminal justice, and judicial cooperation. This desire was met with misgivings by some member states, most notably the United Kingdom, who thought some areas were too critical to their sovereignty to be managed by a supranational mechanism. The agreed compromise was that instead of completely renaming the European Economic Community as the European Union, the treaty would establish a legally separate European Union comprising the European Economic Community and entities overseeing intergovernmental policy areas such as foreign policy, military, criminal justice, and judicial cooperation. The structure greatly limited the powers of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice. The European Union (EU) thus would emerge as a politico-economic union of 28 member states located primarily in Europe. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardized system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. The EU operates through a hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The seven principal decision-making bodies—known as the institutions of the European Union—are the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the European Court of Auditors. Move to the Euro The eurozone is a monetary union of 19 of the 28 European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender to coordinate their economic policies and cooperation. A first attempt to create an economic and monetary union between the members of the European Economic Community (EEC) goes back to an initiative by the European Commission in 1969. The initiative proclaimed the need for “greater coordination of economic policies and monetary cooperation” and was introduced at a meeting of the European Council. The European Council tasked Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, with finding a way to reduce currency exchange rate volatility. His report was published in 1970 and recommended centralization of the national macroeconomic policies, but he did not propose a single currency or central bank. In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon removed the gold backing from the U.S. dollar, causing a collapse in the Bretton Woods system that affected all the world’s major currencies. The widespread currency floats and devaluations caused a set back for European monetary union aspirations. However, in 1979, the European Monetary System (EMS) was created, fixing exchange rates onto the European Currency Unit (ECU), an accounting currency introduced to stabilize exchange rates and counter inflation. In 1989, European leaders reached agreement on a currency union with the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. The treaty included the goal of creating a single currency by 1999, although without the participation of the United Kingdom. However, gaining approval for the treaty was a challenge. Germany was cautious about giving up its stable currency, France approved the treaty by a narrow margin, and Denmark refused to ratify until they got an opt-out from the planned monetary union (similar to that of the United Kingdom’s). In 1994, the European Monetary Institute, the forerunner to the European Central Bank, was created. After much disagreement, in 1995 the name euro was adopted for the new currency (replacing the name ecu used for the previous accounting currency) and it was agreed that it would be launched on January 1, 1999. In 1998, 11 initial countries were selected to participate in the initial launch. To adopt the new currency, member states had to meet strict criteria, including a budget deficit of less than 3% of their GDP, a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP, low inflation, and interest rates close to the EU average. Greece failed to meet the criteria and was excluded from joining the monetary union in 1999. The UK and Denmark received the opt-outs, while Sweden joined the EU in 1995 after the Maastricht Treaty, which was too late to join the initial group of member-states. In 1998, the European Central Bank succeeded the European Monetary Institute. The conversion rates between the 11 participating national currencies and the euro were then established. Launch of the Eurozone The currency was introduced in non-physical form (traveler’s checks, electronic transfers, banking, etc.) at midnight on January 1, 1999, when the national currencies of participating countries (the eurozone) ceased to exist independently in that their exchange rates were locked at fixed rates against each other, effectively making them mere non-decimal subdivisions of the euro. The notes and coins for the old currencies continued to be used as legal tender until new notes and coins were introduced on January 1, 2002. Beginning January 1, 1999, all bonds and other forms of government debt by eurozone states were denominated in euros. In 2000, Denmark held a referendum on whether to abandon their opt-out from the euro. The referendum resulted in a decision to retain the Danish krone; this set back plans for a referendum in the UK as a result. Greece joined the eurozone on January 1, 2001, one year before the physical euro coins and notes replaced the old national currencies in the eurozone. The enlargement of the eurozone is an ongoing process within the EU. All member states, except Denmark and the United Kingdom which negotiated opt-outs from the provisions, were obliged to adopt the euro as their sole currency once they meet the criteria. Following the EU enlargement by 10 new members in 2004, seven countries joined the eurozone: Slovenia (2007), Cyprus (2008), Malta (2008), Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014), and Lithuania (2015). Seven remaining states remained on the enlargement agenda: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. Sweden, which joined the EU in 1995, turned down euro adoption in a 2003 referendum. Since then, the country has intentionally avoided fulfilling the adoption requirements. Several European microstates outside the EU have adopted the euro as their currency. For the EU to sanction this adoption, a monetary agreement must be concluded. Prior to the launch of the euro, agreements were reached with Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City by EU member states (Italy in the case of San Marino and Vatican City and France in the case of Monaco) allowing them to use the euro and mint a limited amount of euro coins (but not banknotes). All these states previously had monetary agreements to use yielded eurozone currencies. A similar agreement was negotiated with Andorra and came into force in 2012. Outside the EU, there are currently three French territories and a British territory that have agreements to use the euro as their currency. All other dependent territories of eurozone member states that have opted not to be a part of EU, usually with Overseas Country and Territory (OCT) status, use local currencies, often pegged to the euro or U.S. dollar. Montenegro and Kosovo (non-EU members) have also used the euro since its launch, as they previously used the German mark rather than the Yugoslav dinar. Unlike the states above, however, they do not have a formal agreement with the EU to use the euro as their currency (unilateral use) and have never minted marks or euros. Instead, they depend on bills and coins already in circulation. Technological and Social Change Since the end of the World War II, advances in technology have also spurred global economic growth. In the 1950s and 1960s the television was the technology device that most impacted the world economy. An American inventor, Philo Farnsworth fashioned together the first experimental TV in 1927, and the commercial manufacture of televisions began in the 1940s. By 1960, over 60 million TVs were sold in the United States alone. Radio networks such CBS and NBC established television stations, which featured variety shows and sporting events, as well as dramas and comedies. These networks financed these productions by selling commercial slots to companies who wanted to advertise their products to television audiences. Television thus enabled companies to promote and sell their products to a larger national and even international market. Television shows and advertising inspired consumers to purchase goods and spurred a consumer driven economy. For example, the 1956 appearance of Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show prompted millions of love-struck teenage girls to purchase the records of this musician and increased the profits of the recording industry. The development of a network of satellites in space allowed events to be broadcast on television worldwide. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik into space in 1957. In the 1950s and 1960s during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States engaged in a “space race,” a competition to explore outer space. One of the results of this Cold War competition was the development of the commercial use of space satellites to broadcast events around the world. Ironically the first live television broadcast using satellites was a performance of the song All You Need is Love by the musical group, the Beatles in 1967. Beginning in the 1980s consumers could access numerous television channels through electronic cables as well as through satellites. The computer is another electronic device that has impacted the world economy especially since the 1980s. Computers had their origins in efforts to create electronic counting devices (i.e., cash registers) to expedite mathematical calculations. International Business Machines (IBM) in the 1920s emerged as a leader in this industry in the United States. John Maunchly and J. Presper Eckert invented the first computer in 1951 at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1960s IBM emerged as the world's leading manufacturer of computers, which were large and bulky and owned by large businesses and governments. In 1977 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak unveiled the first Apple personal computer in the United States. Over the next several decades, personal computers (PCs) steadily increased their ability to store information and their speed in transmitting this information. PCs also became less bulky and expensive. By 2007 consumers could transmit and receive information through a PC via the World Wide Web (the internet) or through a phone. The World Wide Web was invented by the English computer scientist Timothy John Berners-Lee in 1989. And in 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the first “smartphone” that combined the functions of a PC and a phone and could fit into a person's pocket or purse: the Apple iPhone. The development of PCs and the World Wide Web has created a whole new industry, which is centered at “Silicon Valley” near San Francisco in the United States. This new industry has resulted in the creation of a host of new businesses and jobs. Computers have also improved efficiency and productivity in the world economy since they facilitate the transmission of information. Some historians have maintained that computers have inaugurated a new “Information Age,” which will transform the world economy. Since the advent of the PC, much of the world has experienced unparalleled, extended periods of uninterrupted economic growth (1983 – 1990, 1991 – 2000, 2001 – 2007). Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI)—off-shoots of computer advancements—could impact society and the economy to the same extent as the introduction of the steam engine and the factory system in 18th century Europe. Since the computers are a relatively new development in human history, its historical impact is still unclear and to be determined over time. World Trade Organization Recent decades have also witnessed increased efforts around the world to expand and regulate international trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on January 1, 1995, under the Marrakesh Agreement signed by 123 nations on April 15, 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The WTO deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants’ adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their legislatures. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986 – 1994). The WTO has attempted to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, which was launched in 2001 to lower trade barriers around the world with an explicit focus on facilitating the spread of global trade benefits to developing countries. There is conflict between developed countries—who desire free trade on industrial goods and services but retention of protectionism on farm subsidies for the agricultural sector—and developing countries—who desire fair trade on agricultural products. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round. As a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. Adoption of the Bali Ministerial Declaration, which for the first time successfully addressed bureaucratic barriers to commerce, passed on December 7, 2013, advancing a small part of the Doha Round agenda. Regional Integration Another aspect of economic globalization involves regional integration, which is a process by which neighboring states enter into agreements to upgrade cooperation through common institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economic to political to environmental, although it has typically taken the form of a political economy initiative where commercial interests are the focus for achieving broader sociopolitical and security objectives as defined by national governments. Regionalism contrasts with regionalization, which is, according to the New Regionalism Approach, the expression of increased commercial and human transactions in a defined geographical region. Regionalism refers to an intentional political process, typically led by governments with similar goals and values in pursuit of the overall development within a region. Regionalization, however, is simply the natural tendency to form regions, or the process of forming regions, due to similarities between states in a given geographical space Regional integration has been organized either via supranational institutional structures, intergovernmental decision-making, or a combination of both. Past efforts at regional integration have often focused on removing barriers to free trade within regions, increasing the free movement of people, labor, goods, and capital across national borders, reducing the possibility of regional armed conflict (for example, through confidence- and security-building measures), and adopting cohesive regional stances on policy issues, such as the environment, climate change, and immigration. Since the 1980s, globalization has changed the international economic environment for regionalism. The renewed academic interest in regionalism, the emergence of new regional formations, and international trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the development of a European Union demonstrate the upgraded importance of regional political cooperation and economic competitiveness. In 1994, the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed NAFTA to lower or eliminate tariffs and create a large free trade zone incorporating the North American continent. The African Union was launched on July 9, 2002, and a proposal for a North American region was made in 2005 by the Council on Foreign Relations’ Independent Task Force on the Future of North America. In Latin America, however, the proposal to extend NAFTA into a Free Trade Area of the Americas that would stretch from Alaska to Argentina was ultimately rejected by nations such as Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. It has been superseded by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which was constituted in 2008. The Developing World Although developing countries’ economies have tended to demonstrate higher growth rates than those of developed countries, they tend to lag behind in terms of social welfare targets. Economic development originated as a global concern in the post-World War II period of reconstruction. In President Harry Truman’s 1949 presidential inaugural speech, the development of undeveloped areas was characterized as a priority for the West. The origins of this priority can be attributed to the need for reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the legacy of colonialism in the context of the establishment of a number of free trade policies and a rapidly globalizing world, and the start of the Cold War with the desire of the U.S. and its allies to prevent satellite states from drifting towards communism. Changes in the developed world’s approach to international development were further necessitated by the gradual collapse of Western Europe’s empires over the following decades because newly independent ex-colonies no longer received support in return for their subordinate role to an imperial power. The launch of the Marshall Plan was an important step in setting the agenda for international development, which was combining humanitarian goals with the creation of a political and economic bloc in Europe allied to the U.S. This agenda was given conceptual support during the 1950s in the form of modernization theory as espoused by Walt Rostow and other American economists. By the late 1960s, dependency theory arose, analyzing the evolving relationship between the West and the Third World. Dependency theorists argue that poor countries have sometimes experienced economic growth with little or no economic development initiatives, such as in cases where they have functioned mainly as resource-providers to wealthy industrialized countries. As such, international development at its core has been geared towards colonies that gained independence with the understanding that newly independent states should be constructed so that the inhabitants enjoy freedom from poverty, hunger, and insecurity. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the modernists at the World Bank and IMF adopted the neoliberal ideas of economists such as Milton Friedman or Bela Balassa. They implemented structural adjustment programs, while their opponents promoted various bottom-up approaches ranging from civil disobedience and critical consciousness to appropriate technology and participatory rural appraisal. By the 1990s, some writers and academics felt an impasse had been reached within development theory, with some imagining a post-development era. The Cold War had ended, capitalism had become the dominant mode of social organization, and UN statistics showed that living standards around the world had improved significantly over the previous 40 years. Nevertheless, a large portion of the world’s population was still living in poverty, their governments were crippled by debt, and concerns about the environmental impact of globalization were rising. In response to the impasse, the rhetoric of development has since focused on the issue of poverty, with the concept of modernization replaced by shorter term visions embodied by the Millennium Development Goals and the Human Development approach, which measures human development in capabilities achieved. At the same time, some development agencies are exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships and promoting the idea of corporate social responsibility with the apparent aim of integrating international development with the process of economic globalization. Critics have suggested that such integration has always been part of the underlying agenda of development. They argue that poverty can be equated with powerlessness, and that the way to overcome poverty is through emancipatory social movements and civil society, not paternalistic aid programs or corporate charity. This approach is embraced by organizations such as the Gamelan Council, which seeks to empower entrepreneurs through micro-finance initiatives, for example. While some critics have been debating the end of development, however, others have predicted a development revival as part of the War on Terrorism. To date, however, there is limited evidence to support the notion that aid budgets are being used to counter Islamic fundamentalism in the same way that they were used 40 years ago to counter communism. Attributions Title Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McDonald%27s_in_Indianapolis_-_Everett_01.jpg Valerie Everett, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Adapted from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/european-unification/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/europe-in-the-21st-century/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/globalization/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/global-concerns/	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.640021	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88094/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 16: Globalization, Economic Globalization", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87941/overview	Colonization of Vietnam Overview Colonization of Vietnam European involvement in Southeast Asia was an important challenge and change for the peninsula. Vietnam was an important site of colonial differences between the French and the British systems of colonization. Other territories in the region also had significant political and cultural divisions that would further manifest in the late 19th century. Learning Objectives - Analyze the importance of Southeast Asia in the 19th century. - Evaluate the differences between the French and British colonial systems in the 19th century. Key Terms / Key Concepts Cochincina Campaign: an 1858 – 1862 military campaign fought between the French and Spanish on one side and the Vietnamese on the other (It began as a limited punitive campaign and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.) colony of economic exploitation: a colony conquered to exploit its natural resources and native population (The practice contrasts with the colonies of settlement conquered to establish a branch of the metropolis (Motherland) and for the exploitation of its natural resources and native population.) French Indochina: a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia consisting of three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin (north), Annam (center), and Cochinchina (south), Cambodia, and Laos, with the leased Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan added in 1898. The capital was moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin) in 1902 and again to Da Lat (Annam) in 1939 (In 1945 it was moved back to Hanoi.) War of the Insane: a Hmong revolt against taxation in the French colonial administration in Indochina lasting from 1918 to 1921 (Pa Chay Vue, the leader of the revolt, regularly climbed trees to receive military orders from heaven. The French granted the Hmong a special status in 1920, effectively ending the conflict.) Yen Bai mutiny: an uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army in 1930 in collaboration with civilian supporters who were members of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party) Indochina Indochina, originally Indo-China, is a geographical term originating in the early 19th century for the continental portion of the region now known as Southeast Asia. The name refers to the lands historically within the cultural influence of India and China and physically bound by India in the west and China in the north. It corresponds to the present-day areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and (variably) peninsular Malaysia. The term was later adopted as the name of the colony of French Indochina (today’s Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), and the entire area of Indochina is now usually referred to as the Indochinese Peninsula or Mainland Southeast Asia. Lan Xang Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang (Million Elephants), founded in the 14th century by Lao prince Fa Ngum, who with 10,000 Khmer troops took over Vientiane. Ngum made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. Within 20 years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. Following the exile of Ngum, his eldest son, Oun Heuan, came to the throne under the name Samsenthai and reigned for 43 years. During his reign, Lan Xang became an important trade center. After his death in 1421, Lan Xang collapsed into warring factions for the next 100 years. In the 17th century, Lan Xang would further expand its frontiers and in today’s history of Laos, this period is often regarded as the country’s golden age. In the 18th century, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty. Chao Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died. Lan Xang had ethnic diversity from trade and overland ethnic migrations. The multiple hill tribe peoples were grouped into the broad cultural categories of Lao Theung (which included most indigenous groups and the Mon-Khmer) and Lao Sung. The Lao Loum were ethnically dominant, and there were several closely related Tai groups. Perhaps because of the complicated ethnic diversity of Lan Xang, the structure of society was fairly straightforward, especially in comparison to the Khmer with their complex caste system and concepts of a divine kingship or devaraja. Dynastic Vietnam In 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngo Quyen defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state and achieved full independence for Vietnam after a millennium of Chinese domination. Renamed as Dai Viet (Great Viet), the state enjoyed a golden era between the 11th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Buddhism flourished and became the state religion. In the 15th century, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by the Chinese Ming dynasty, but was restored by Le Loi—the founder of the Le dynasty. The Vietnamese dynasties reached their zenith in the Le dynasty of the 15th century. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward, eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire. From the 16th century, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. Although the state remained nominally under the Le dynasty, actual power was divided between the northern Trinh lords and the southern Nguyen lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this time, the Nguyen expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands there. The division of the country ended a century later when the Tay Son brothers established a new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyen lords aided by the French, who soon took over the region. The French Protectorate in Indochina To ensure their presence in Southeast Asia, the French used the pretext of anti-Catholic persecution in Vietnam to take advantage of the internal weaknesses of Cambodia and Laos, establishing a colony with the predominant goal of economic exploitation. Background: French Imperial Ambitions in Indochina The French had few pretexts to justify their imperial ambitions in Indochina. In the early years of the 19th century, some in France believed that the Vietnamese emperor Gia Long owed the French a favor for the help French troops had given him in 1802 against his Tay Son enemies. However, it soon became clear that Gia Long felt no more bound to France than he did to China, which had also provided help. Gia Long believed he was not obliged to return any favors because the French government did not honor its agreement to assist him in the civil war—as the Frenchmen who helped were volunteers and adventurers, not government units. Vietnamese leaders were interested in reproducing the French strategies of fortification and in buying French cannon and rifles, but neither Gia Long nor his successor Minh Mang had any intention of coming under French influence. Meanwhile, the French were determined to establish their presence in the region and it was religious persecution that they eventually used as pretext for intervention. French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the 17th century and by the middle of the 19th century, there were around 300,000 Roman Catholic converts in Annam and Tonkin. Most of the bishops and priests were either French or Spanish. Many in Vietnam were suspicious of this sizable Christian community and its foreign leaders, and the French began to claim responsibility for their safety. The tension built up gradually. During the 1840s, persecution or harassment of Catholic missionaries in Vietnam by the Vietnamese emperors Minh Mang and Thieu Tri evoked only sporadic and unofficial French reprisals. In 1857, the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc executed two Spanish Catholic missionaries. It was neither the first nor the last such incident, and on previous occasions the French government had overlooked them. But this time, the incident coincided with the Second Opium War. France and Britain had just dispatched a joint military expedition to the Far East, so the French had troops on hand and could easily intervene in Annam. Seizing Control In 1858, a joint French and Spanish expedition landed at Tourane (Da Nang) and captured the town. What began as a limited punitive campaign, known as Cochincina Campaign ended as a French war of conquest. Sailing south, French troops captured the poorly defended city of Saigon in 1859. In 1862, the Vietnamese government was forced to cede three additional provinces and Emperor Tu Duc was forced to cede three treaty ports in Annam and Tonkin. Additionally, all of Cochinchina was ceded and later formally declared a French territory in 1864. In 1867, three other provinces were added to French-controlled territories. By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated in the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887. During the 19th century, the kingdom of Cambodia had been reduced to a vassal state of the kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand), which had annexed its western provinces. In the meantime, growing influence from the Vietnamese Nguyen Dynasty threatened the eastern portion of the country. In 1863, King Norodom of Cambodia, installed as a leader by Siam, requested a French protectorate over his kingdom. At the time, Pierre-Paul de La Grandière, colonial governor of Cochinchina, was carrying out plans to expand French rule over the whole of Vietnam and viewed Cambodia as a buffer between French possessions in Vietnam and Siam. The country gradually fell under the French control. In 1867, Siam renounced suzerainty over Cambodia and officially recognized the 1863 French protectorate on Cambodia in exchange for the control of Battambang and Siem Reap provinces, which officially became part of Thailand. These provinces were ceded back to Cambodia by a border treaty between France and Siam in the first decade of the 20th century. Under the treaty with the French, the Cambodian monarchy was allowed to remain, but power was largely vested in a resident general to be housed in Phnom Penh. France was also to be in charge of Cambodia’s foreign and trade relations and provide military protection. After the acquisition of Cambodia in 1863, French explorers went on several expeditions along the Mekong River to find possible trade relations for the territories of French Cambodia and Cochinchina to the south. In 1885, a French consulate was established in Luang Prabang, which along with the province of Vientiane was a vassal kingdom to Siam. Siam soon feared that France was planning to annex Luang Prabang and signed a treaty with them in 1886 that recognized Siam’s suzerainty over the Lao kingdoms. By the end of 1886, however, Auguste Pavie was named vice-consul to Luang Prabang and was in charge of expeditions occurring in Laotian territory, with the possibility of turning Laos into a French territory. Following French intervention in a conflict between Chinese forces and Siam, King Oun Kham of Luang Prabang who had received support from the French, requested a French protectorate over his kingdom. Luang Prabang became a protectorate of France in 1889. In 1893, France went to war with Siam. The kingdom was quickly forced to recognize French control over the eastern side of the Mekong River. Pavie continued to support French expeditions in Laotian territory and gave the territory its modern-day name of Laos. Following Siam’s acceptance of the ultimatum to cede the lands east of the Mekong including its islands, the Protectorate of Laos was officially established and the administrative capital moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. However, Luang Prabang remained the seat of the royal family, whose power was reduced to figureheads, while the actual power was transferred over to French officials. Outcome On paper, Cochinchina was the only region of French Indochina with direct rule imposed, as the province had been legally annexed by France. The rest of the provinces—Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia, and Laos—had the official status of French protectorate. However, the differences between direct and indirect rule were purely theoretical and political interference was equally intrusive across the entire area. French Indochina was formed on October 17, 1887, from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (which together form modern Vietnam), as well as the Kingdom of Cambodia. Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese War in 1893 The French adopted a policy of assimilation rather than association. This allowed the colonialists to rule through native rulers, while upholding their traditional cultures and hierarchy, which was similar to British rule in Malaya. However, the French chose to adopt the policy of assimilation. French was the language of administration. The Napoleonic Code was introduced in 1879 in the five provinces, sweeping away the Confucianism that has existed for centuries in Indochina. Unlike Algeria, French settlement in Indochina did not occur on a grand scale. By 1940, only about 34,000 French civilians lived in French Indochina, along with a smaller number of French military personnel and government workers. The principal reason why French settlement did not grow in a manner similar to that of French North Africa (which had a population of over 1 million French civilians) was that French Indochina was seen as a colonie d’exploitation économique (economic colony) rather than a colonie de peuplement (settlement colony). Economic and Social Impacts of Imperialism in Indochina As French Indochina was the colony of financial exploitation, economic and social development in the region aimed to benefit the French and a small group of local wealthy elites, with limited investments to produce immediate returns rather than long-term benefits for the local populations. French Indochine Society The Vietnamese, Lao, and Khmer ethnic groups formed the majority of their respective colony’s populations. Minority groups such as the Muong, Tay, Chams, and Jarai were collectively known as Montagnards and resided principally in the mountain regions of Indochina. Ethnic Han Chinese were largely concentrated in major cities, especially in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia where they became heavily involved in trade and commerce. According to a 1913 estimate, 95% of French Indochina’s population was rural and urbanization grew slowly over the course of French rule. Since French Indochina was seen as a colonie d’exploitation économique (economic colony) rather than a colonie de peuplement (settlement colony), by 1940 only about 34,000 French civilians lived in the region, along with a smaller number of French military personnel and government workers. During French colonial rule, French was the principal language of education, government, trade, and media. It became widespread among urban and semi-urban populations and among the elite and educated. This was most notable in the colonies of Tonkin and Cochinchina, where French influence was particularly prominent. Annam, Laos, and Cambodia were less influenced by French education. Despite the dominance of French among the educated, local populations still largely spoke their native languages. The French did not plan to expand the Laotian economy and geographic isolation also led to Laos being less influenced by France, compared to other French colonies. In a 1937 estimate, only 574 French civilians along with a smaller number of government workers lived in Laos, a figure significantly smaller than in Vietnam and Cambodia. Economy French Indochina was designated as a colonie d’exploitation (Colony of economic exploitation) by the French government, but both exploitation and economic development differed significantly across the main regions of the colony. The economic and social policies introduced under Governor-General Paul Doumer, who arrived in 1897, determined the development of French Indochina. The railroads, highways, harbors, bridges, canals, and other public works built by the French were almost all started under Doumer, whose aim was a rapid and systematic exploitation of Indochina’s potential wealth for the benefit of France. Vietnam became a source of raw materials and a market for tariff-protected goods produced by French industries. Funding for the colonial government came from taxes on local populations, and the French government established a near monopoly on the trade of opium, salt, and rice alcohol. The trade of those three products formed about 44% of the colonial government’s budget in 1920 but declined to 20% by 1930 as the colony began to economically diversify. Indochina was the second most invested-in French colony by 1940 after Algeria, with investments totaling up to 6.7 million francs. The exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later also rubber as the main products. Doumer and his successors up to the eve of World War II were not interested in promoting industry, which was limited to the production of goods for immediate local consumption. Among these enterprises—located chiefly in Saigon, Hanoi, and Haiphong (the outport for Hanoi)—were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries, rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. The total number of workers employed by all industries and mines in Vietnam was some 100,000 in 1930. At the turn of the 20th century, the growing automobile industry in France resulted in the growth of the rubber industry in French Indochina and plantations were built throughout the colony, especially in Annam and Cochinchina. France soon became a leading producer of rubber and Indochinese rubber became prized in the industrialized world. The success of rubber plantations in French Indochina resulted in an increase in investment in the colony by various firms. With the growing number of investments in the colony’s mines as well as rubber, tea, and coffee plantations, French Indochina began to industrialize as factories opened in the colony. These new factories produced textiles, cigarettes, beer, and cement, which were then exported throughout the French Empire. Because the aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony, but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested. Saigon became a principal port in Southeast Asia and rivaled the British port of Singapore as the region’s busiest commercial center. By 1937, Saigon was the sixth busiest port in the entire French Empire. French settlers further added their influence on the colony by constructing buildings in the form of Beaux-Arts and added French-influenced landmarks such as the Hanoi Opera House and Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. Economically, the French did not develop Laos to the scale that it did Vietnam, and many Vietnamese were recruited to work in the government in Laos instead of the Laotian people, causing conflicts between local populations and the government. Economic development occurred very slowly in Laos and was initially fueled primarily by rice cultivation and distilleries producing rice alcohol. Although tin mining and coffee cultivation began in the 1920s, the country’s isolation and difficult terrain meant that Laos largely remained economically unviable to the French. More than 90% of the Lao remained subsistence farmers, growing just enough surplus produce to sell for cash to pay their taxes. Originally serving as a buffer territory for France between its more important Vietnamese colonies and Siam, Cambodia was not initially seen as an economically important area. The colonial government’s budget originally relied largely on tax collections in Cambodia as its main source of revenue and Cambodians paid the highest taxes per capita in French Indochina. Poor and sometimes unstable administration in the early years of French rule in Cambodia meant infrastructure and urbanization grew at a much slower rate than in Vietnam, and traditional social structures in villages remained in place. However, as French rule strengthened after the Franco-Siamese War, development slowly began in Cambodia, where rice and pepper crops allowed the economy to grow. As the French automobile industry grew, rubber plantations like the ones in Cochinchina and Annam were built and run by French investors. Economic diversification continued throughout the 1920s, when corn and cotton crops were also grown. Despite economic expansion and investment, Cambodians still continued to pay high taxes and in 1916, protests broke out demanding for tax cuts. Infrastructure and public works were developed to some extent under French rule, leading to road and railroad construction in Cambodian territory. Most notably, a railway connected Phnom Penh with Battambang on the Thai border. Industry was later developed but was primarily designed to process raw materials for local use or for export. As in nearby British Burma and British Malaya, foreigners dominated the work force of the economy due to French discrimination that kept Cambodians from holding important economic positions. Many Vietnamese were recruited to work on rubber plantations and later immigrants played key roles in the colonial economy as fisherman and businessmen. Chinese Cambodians continued to be largely involved in commerce but higher positions were given to the French. Effects of Colonial Rule Whatever economic progress was made under the French, it benefited the French and the small class of the local wealthy created by the colonial regime. The masses were deprived of economic and social benefits. Through the construction of irrigation works, chiefly in the Mekong delta, the area of land devoted to rice cultivation quadrupled between 1880 and 1930. During the same period, however, the individual peasant ’s rice consumption decreased without the substitution of other foods. The new lands were not distributed among the landless and the peasants but were sold to the highest bidder or given away at nominal prices to Vietnamese collaborators and French speculators. These policies created a new class of Vietnamese landlords and a class of landless tenants who worked the fields of the landlords for rents of up to 60 percent of the crop, which was sold by the landlords at the Saigon export market. The mounting export figures for rice resulted not only from the increase in cultivable land but also from the growing exploitation of the peasantry. The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than the landless tenants. Peasants continually lost their land to the large owners because they were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and other money lenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land, while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II was estimated at half of the population. The French had imposed high taxes to finance their ambitious program of public works and recruited forced labor with no protection against exploitation in the mines and rubber plantations. Although the scandalous working conditions, the low salaries, and the lack of medical care were frequently attacked in the French Chamber of Deputies in Paris, the mild social legislation decreed in the late 1920s was never adequately enforced. Apologists for the colonial regime claimed that French rule led to vast improvements in medical care, education, transport, and communications. The statistics kept by the French, however, appear to cast doubt on such assertions. In 1939, for example, no more than 15 percent of all school-age children received any kind of schooling and about 80 percent of the population was illiterate, in contrast to precolonial times when the majority of the people possessed some degree of literacy. With more than 20 million inhabitants in 1939, Vietnam had one university with fewer than 700 students. Medical care was well organized for the French in the cities, but in 1939 there were only two physicians for every 100,000 Vietnamese. Resistance to French Rule The first wave of resistance to French rule emerged in Indochina shortly after France colonized the region, with particularly active nationalist movements in Vietnam, more limited and mostly elite-based opposition in Cambodia, and fragmented, often ethnically-divided rebellions in Laos. Nationalist Movements in Vietnam Nationalist sentiments emerged in French Indochina shortly after the colonial rule was established. By the mid-1880s, French troops established a firm grip over the northern region of Vietnam. By 1885, Phan Dinh Phung, a prominent imperial court official, led a rebellion against the colonizing power. The Can Vuong movement, which sought to expel the French and install the boy Emperor Ham Nghi at the head of an independent Vietnam, initiated the revolt in 1885 when Ton That Thuyet, another court official, launched a surprise attack against the colonial forces after a diplomatic confrontation with the French. Thuyet took Ham Nghi northwards to the Tan So mountain base near the border with Laos after the attack failed. The Can Vuong movement lacked a coherent national structure and consisted mainly of regional leaders who attacked French troops in their own provinces. It initially prospered but failed after the French recovered from the surprise of the insurgency and poured troops into Annam from bases in Tonkin and Cochinchina. The insurrection in Annam spread and flourished in 1886, reached its climax the following year, and gradually faded out by 1889. The Can Vuong movement was the first resistance movement that saw all of Vietnamese society, royalty, scholar-gentry, and peasantry, working together against the French. However, although there were some 50 resistance groups, they lacked collaboration and unifying military authority. Actions taken by the resistance were never national, but the narratives of their struggle against foreign domination were passed down to the next generations. At the beginning of the 20th century, two parallel movements emerged. The Dong Du (“Go East”) Movement started in 1905 by Phan Boi Chau. Chau’s plan was to send Vietnamese students to Japan to learn modern skills so that in the future they could lead a successful armed revolt against the French. With Prince Cuong De, he started two organizations in Japan: Duy Tan Hoi and Viet Nam Cong Hien Hoi. Due to French diplomatic pressure, Japan later deported Chau. A second movement, Duy Tan (“Modernization”), led by Phan Chau Trinh, favored a peaceful, non-violent struggle for independence. It stressed education for the masses, modernizing the country, fostering understanding and tolerance between the French and the Vietnamese, and peaceful transitions of power. The French suppressed both movements and Vietnamese revolutionaries began to turn to more radical paths, particularly after witnessing revolutionaries in action in China and Russia. Phan Boi Chau created the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi in Guangzhou, planning armed resistance against the French. In 1925, French agents captured him in Shanghai and spirited him to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Chau was spared execution and instead was placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In 1927, the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party), modeled after the Kuomintang in China, was founded. The party launched the armed Yen Bai mutiny in 1930 in Tonkin, which resulted in its chairman Nguyen Thai Hoc and many other leaders captured and executed by the guillotine. Resistance in Cambodia The first decades of French rule in Cambodia included numerous reforms into Cambodian politics, including the reduction of the monarch’s power. In 1884, the governor of Cochinchina, Charles Anthoine François Thomson, attempted to overthrow the monarch and establish full French control over Cambodia by sending a small force to the royal palace in Phnom Penh. The movement was largely unsuccessful as the governor-general of French Indochina prevented full colonization due to possible conflicts with Cambodians and the monarch became a mere figurehead. In 1885, Si Votha, half brother of king Norodom and contender for the throne, led a rebellion to dispose of the French-backed Norodom after coming back from exile in Siam. Gathering support from opponents of Norodom and the French, Si Votha led a rebellion that was primarily concentrated in the jungles of Cambodia and the city of Kampot. French forces later aided Norodom in defeating Si Votha, with agreements that the Cambodian population be disarmed and acknowledge the resident-general as the highest power in the protectorate. In 1904, King Norodom died and the French passed the succession to Norodom’s brother Sisowath, whose branch of the royal family was more submissive and less nationalistic. Norodom was viewed as responsible for the constant Cambodian revolts against French rule. Norodom’s favorite son Prince Yukanthor, his natural successor, had on one of his trips to Europe stirred up public opinion about French colonial brutalities in occupied Cambodia. Unlike in Vietnam, Cambodian nationalism remained relatively quiet during much of French rule. The population had limited access to education, which kept literacy rates low and prevented nationalist movements like those in Vietnam from widely circulating their message. However, among the French-educated Cambodian elite, the Western ideas of democracy and self-rule and French restoration of monuments such as Angkor Wat created a sense of pride and awareness of Cambodia’s powerful status in the past. Cambodian students resented the favored status of the minority Vietnamese. In 1936, Son Ngoc Than and Pach Choeun began publishing Nagaravatta (Notre cité), a French language anti-colonial and, at times, anti-Vietnamese newspaper. Minor independence movements, especially the Khmer Issarak, began to develop in 1940 among Cambodians in Thailand who feared their actions would have led to punishment if they operated in their homeland. Resistance in Laos In 1901, a revolt broke out in the south of Laos in the Bolaven Plateau among groups of Lao Theung led by Ong Kaeo—a self-proclaimed “holy man” who led a messianic cult. The revolt challenged French control over Laos and was not fully suppressed until 1910 when Ong Kaeo was killed. His successor Ong Kommadam became an early leader in the Lao nationalist movement. Between 1899 and 1910, political unrest in the northern Phongsali Province occurred as local hill tribe chiefs challenged French rule and assimilation policies being carried out in the highlands. At the height of the revolt, the unrest spread to the highlands of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and was largely concentrated among the minority groups of the Khmu and Hmong. Although the revolt initially started as a resistance against French influence and tightening of administration, it later focused on stopping the French suppression of the opium trade. Instability continued in the north of Laos in 1919 when Hmong groups, the chief opium producers in Indochina, revolted against French taxation and special status given to the Lao Loum, minorities in the highlands; this conflict became known as the War of the Insane. Hmong rebels claimed that both Lao and French officials treated them as subordinate and uncivilized groups. They were defeated in 1921. After the revolt, the French government granted Hmongs partial autonomy in the Xiangkhouang Province. Attributions Attributions Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Vua Duy Tan https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Vua_Duy_Tan_nho.jpg Boundless World History https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/indochina-2/	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.683897	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87941/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, European Imperialism and Crises 1871-1919 CE, Chapter 10: Enlightenment and Colonization, Colonization of Vietnam", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/67002/overview	Electromagnatic Induction Overview This Resourse explains the phenomenon of 'Electromagnetin Induction' in a simple manner which is useful for the high school level students. Introduction Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) is the phenomenon in which emf is induced in a coil (or conductor) due to change in magnetic flux linked with the coil. This phenomenon of Electromagnetic Induction was discovered by Michael faraday in 1831. To understand this phenomenon, we must know about magnetic flux. Magnetic Flux (Φ) Total number of magnetic lines of force passing normally through the given area is called as magnetic flux over that area. In fig.1 , Circular coin having area 'A' is placed in the magnetic field of induction 'B' and 'n' is the area normal vector which shows the direction which is normal to the given area. As magnetic field component Bcosθ is passing normally thorugh the unit area of the coil, magnetic flux for the coil having area 'A' will be Φm = BAcosθ If the cirular coil has 'N' number of turns then Φm = NBAcosθ Faraday's Laws of Electromagnetic Induction In this experiment, Faraday used one coil with its ends connected to the sensitve ammeter and one magnet pointing towards the coil. Faraday observed that, - when magnet is stationary with respect to the coil, no deflection is observed in an ammeter. - when magnet is moved towards or away from the coil, ammeter gives deflection. - If motion of the magnet is faster, deflection oberved in an ammmeter is greater. From these observations, Faraday conclude that, motion of magnet towards or away from the coil causes change in magnetic flux linked withe coil and due to change in magnetic flux linked with the coil emf is induced and current is produced in the coil. Faraday's 1st Law of EMI Whenever there is change in magnetic flux linked with the coil, EMF is induced in the coil. Faraday's 2nd Law of EMI The magnitude of induced emf \|e\| in a coil is directly proportional to the rate of change of magnetic flux ( dΦ /dt ) linked with the coil.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.705110	05/19/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/67002/overview", "title": "Electromagnatic Induction", "author": "Satyajit Kamble" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56707/overview	3.3 Macromolecule (Protein) video 3.3 Macromolecule (Protein) video 3.3 Macromolecules Protein structure and function) lecture video.The lecture corresponds with Openstax Biology 2e Chapter 3 Macromolecules. This video lecture discusses protein amino acids, structure, function and 4 levels of the organization. The lecture corresponds with Openstax Biology 2e Chapter 3 Macromolecules.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.718563	08/06/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56707/overview", "title": "3.3 Macromolecule (Protein) video", "author": "Urbi Ghosh" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56706/overview	3.2 Macromolecules 3.2 Macromolecules (lipids and fat) video 3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids) video The learning objectives of this video are;3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids) 3.2 Macromolecules (lipids and fat) video 3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids) video The learning objectives of this video are;3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids) 3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids) video The learning objectives of this video are;3.2 Macromolecules (Lipids)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.742511	08/06/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56706/overview", "title": "3.2 Macromolecules", "author": "Urbi Ghosh" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56700/overview	2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life 2,3 Chemical Foundations of Life 2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life 2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life (periodic table, Bohr Model) 2,3 Chemical Foundations of Life 2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life 2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life (periodic table, Bohr Model)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.765529	08/05/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/56700/overview", "title": "2.3 Chemical Foundations of Life", "author": "Urbi Ghosh" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85352/overview	final pretty view labelled final stick view labelled Flat Sticks References sequence Tunnel Wildtype Y298C MC1R Protein in Humans with Y298C Mutation Overview This contains visual material for the MC1R protein in humans, as well as visual material on the Y298C mutation in Spirit Bears. This contains pictures, PyMOL renderings, Inkscape files, and useable content for the MC1R protein. The images show the locations of the suggested ligand binding sites, three mutations in humans that are associated with red hair (R151C, R160W, D294H), and the zoomed in version of the Y298C mutation found in Spirit bears (Ursus americanus kermodei). There are two PyMOL renderings, one flat for ease of pointing out specific parts of the protein, one circular for a more realistic version of how the protein is shaped. Both have red residues that are the suggested ligand binding sites. The structure of the protein was based off of the following resource (Public Library of Science, 2015). The wildtype photo is the wildtype compared to the Y298C mutation. The Inkscape files have two versions of the same images in each. They are fully labelled with extra information. Lastly I have added the sequence with the structure details, and also a list of references I used to make this material.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.789408	Paige Skrypnek	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85352/overview", "title": "MC1R Protein in Humans with Y298C Mutation", "author": "Diagram/Illustration" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93322/overview	Introduction To The Law & The Legal Profession Overview Introduction To The Law & The Legal Profession Part 1 dgfgdfgdfg	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.809920	Nikki Jacobson	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93322/overview", "title": "Introduction To The Law & The Legal Profession", "author": "Case Study" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108042/overview	Education Standards NDE World Language HQIM Rubric_2023 May Overview The NDE World Language Advisory Board developed this HQIM in May 2023. It is based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards to support curriculum development or improvement to ensure instructional material quality. It is a rubric for curriculum developers and teachers to evaluate the quality of materials for instructional purposes. Description This Nebraska World Language HQIM Review rubric was developed based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. This protocol is intended to help world language educators identify high-quality instructional materials that align with Nebraska World Language Standards to allow students to engage in meaningful interaction with content and other speakers of the language. The rubric uses indicators, criteria, and gateways to organize the reviewing items sequentially. Indicator: Specific item that reviewers look for in materials. Criterion: Combination of all the individual indicators for a single focus area. Gateway: Organizing feature of the evaluation rubric that combines criteria and prioritizes order for sequential review.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.830836	Sergio Perez	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108042/overview", "title": "NDE World Language HQIM Rubric_2023 May", "author": "Chrystal Liu" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/94346/overview	Open For Anti-Racism Template Overview The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Program – co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons – emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve. The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of OER and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in the co-creation of an anti-racist classroom. The capstone project involves developing an action plan for incorporating OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught in the spring semester. OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Link to Intro Video OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Once logged in, click the remix button on this resource to make your own version of this template. Change the title to describe your project and add text, videos, images, and attachments to the sections below. Delete this section and instructions in other sections before publishing. When you are ready to publish, click next to update the overview, license, and description of your resource, and then click publish. Action Plan Describe how OER and open pedagogy help your class to be anti-racist here. Canvas Commons Course Add your course description here including the course name and number, and learning outcomes. Attach your syllabus here clicking the Attach Section paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your syllabus, and save.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.846488	Full Course	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/94346/overview", "title": "Open For Anti-Racism Template", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84539/overview	Exponential Growth & Decay: Calculus 1 Project by Ignacio Rendon Overview This Project has been completed as part of a standard 10 weeks Calculus 1 asynchronous online course with optional WebEx sessions during Summer 2021 Semester at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA. Exponential Growth & Decay INTRO Exponential growth and decay are formulas that are very commonly used in the real world to predict trends and changes of something. In simple terms Exponential growth is the increases of something at contstant rate proportional to it's size, the same applies for decay except the value would be decreasing at a constant rate. There are two key words that really define exponential growth, those are proportional and constant. Let's take a look at Exponential growth first. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ BODY Exponential Growth: When we look up Exponential Growth on the dictionary it defines it as "Growth of a system in which the amount being added to the system is proportional to the amount already present: the bigger the system is, the greater the increase." Although there is no single person credited to the discovery or creation of Exponential growth and decay, we can still give credit to the English economist and scholar Thomas Malthus who came up with the formula while trying to prove that population growth was related to the economy in the late 1700's. $$P(t)=P_0e^{rt}$$ $P_0$ = initial Population $r$ = population growth rate $t$ = time Even though this formula is still valid, we are more used to seeing this formula for calculating Exponential Growth: $$f(x)=a(1+r)^t$$ There are also other formulas used to calculate exponential growth shown below: Real World Uses of Exponential Growth: One of the most common uses of Exponential Growth is to calculate population growth, but there are still many other important uses such as: Compound Interest - Compound Interest at a constant rate provides exponential growth to capital Biology - Studying the growth at which micro-organisms reproduce in a suitable evniorment. This can help with calculating when food will start going bad to give products expiration rates. Wildfires - With the relation to the enviorment aroun it, we can calculate the exponential rate at which the fire will continue to spread Diseases - Cancer, cancer cells spread exponentially if not treated. Another example would be major pandemics, like covid 19. Invasive species - These can be any living thing that is not native to a location and causes harm to the enviormant. Some examples would be the Water Hyancith weed or the Japonese Honeysuckle _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Exponential Decay: "In mathematics, exponential decay describes the process of reducing an amount by a consistent percentage rate over a period of time." $$y=a(1-r)^x$$ $y$= final value $a$= starting value $r$= decay rate $x$= time Same as Exp. growth there are other formulas we can use to calculate Exponential Decay: Real World Uses of Exponential Decay: Compound formulas: Same as growth but this time it is measuring the loss of capital Half-Life of Radiactive substances Carbon Dating Depreciation - measuring the loss of value of something over time (car, phone ect) _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Half-Life and Radioactive Decay In Chemistry, Half-Life is an important topic that gets brought up a lot, especially when dealing when dealing with radioactive substances. What is half-life? "Half-Life is the length of time it takes an exponentially decaying quantity to decrease to half its original amount. Every radioactive isotope has a half-life, and the process describing the exponential decay of an isotope is called radioactive decay." Formulas commonly used to find half-life probelms: $$N=N_0\Big( \dfrac{1}{2}\Big)^{\frac{t}{h}}$$ $N_0$ = Initial amount $N$ = Final amount $t$= Time $h$= time for 1/2 of sample to decay Ex. Half life of Carbon-14 is 5,730 years. How much of a 10.0mg sample will we have after 4,500 years have elapsed? $N=(10.0)\Big(\dfrac{1}{2} \Big)^{\frac{4500}{5730}}\\ N=(10.0)\Big(\dfrac{1}{2} \Big)^{0.7853}\\ N=(10.0)(0.5802)\\ N=5.802~mg $ SOURCES: Human Population Growth \| Biology for Majors II	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.866868	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84539/overview", "title": "Exponential Growth & Decay: Calculus 1 Project by Ignacio Rendon", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111907/overview	CSUB Counseling Center CSUB Writing Resource Center Slave Voyages Project HIST 3630: Women and Gender in the Modern Transatlantic World Overview Debates about families, sex, and sexuality frame the outline of this course. Each of these subjects differed greatly for individuals in all parts of the Atlantic World, and immediately became points of contention in the clash of societies during the early modern era. The course traces key themes and questions in a variety of locations, mainly focused in West Africa (Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria), Europe (England and France), and North America (the U.S. and Mexico) since 1700. In addition to learning about historical subjectivities of people in the past, the course also explores historiography (that is, the history of history) as well as tools and techniques used in researching and interpreting the past. Syllabus Course Overview "Women's history does not merely add to what we know; it changes what we know and how we know it.” – Stephanie Camp, Closer to Freedom Women’s and gender history is not only a subject, but also a method. This course – a transnational and comparative examination of women, gender, and sexuality since (around) 1700 – explores both. The relevance of the subject might be apparent to college students with access to Twitter. From the Women’s March to #MeToo, just in the year and a half since I last taught this course, the landscape of women’s history has shifted dramatically. It is becoming increasingly clear that questions of women’s politics, economics, health and medicine, and autonomy are still relevant and inspire spirited discussion and debate. As individuals across the globe contend with these questions, they often turn to history to find answers. As Executive Director of the American Historical Association Jim Grossman often says, “Everything has a history.” (You can Tweet in this vein along with the AHA: #EverythingHasaHistory). For much of history’s history, some in the profession were not so sure women had a history. The field of women’s history came to the forefront alongside the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and became institutionalized in history departments in the decades following. Women themselves – some who were practitioners of women’s history, and some who were not – entered the historical profession in larger numbers, and many history departments hired their first female professors. Since then, further research has revealed that, indeed, women’s lives have changed dramatically over time. Since the 1980s, the field has expanded in multiple directions. “Gender” has entered the historical lexicon, too, as a key analytic that often but not always involves women. Though it has a different historical trajectory, in more recent years, “sexuality” has become a focal point of historical research, too. Debates about families, sex, and sexuality frame the outline of this course. Traditionally, women’s history courses tend to focus on the question of suffrage (the right to vote). For example, the two-semester U.S. Women’s History Surveys tend to break into two parts at 1848 (the date of the Seneca Falls Convention). However, for many women, in most parts of the Atlantic World and including the U.S., suffrage was not the focus of their lives or of their attention. While many other topics might have been chosen as a thematic, families, sex, and sexuality is our focus for a few main reasons. Each of these and differed greatly for individuals in all parts of the Atlantic World, and immediately became points of contention in the clash of societies during the early modern era. Therefore, it comes to the forefront in historical sources where women can be found. This theme also becomes a launching point for comparison, which is essential in a broad course of this nature. Further, debates about sexuality and bodily autonomy remain unsettled in our present moment (this is not to say that questions of political rights are somehow resolved, or that we will not be studying them). It is striking that in the major women’s movements of the present movement, sexual autonomy is at the forefront (think of the pussy hats of the Women’s March, or the advocacy of survivors of sexual violence in #MeToo). While historians have typically shied away from presentism, we can examine the history of families, sex, sexuality and find roots of these contemporary concerns. We could not possibly cover all of women’s, gender, and sexuality history in the Atlantic World since 1700 in sixteen weeks. This course is not comprehensive. Instead, we will trace out key themes and questions in a variety of locations, mainly focused in West Africa (Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria), Europe (England and France), and North America (the U.S. and Mexico). The geographic focus tends to get slippery, however, as many of these nations had empires that extended beyond their borders (we will read about Puerto Rico, for example). Finally, studying women, gender, and sexuality has also required new historical methods. In addition to learning about historical subjectivities of people in the past, we will also explore historiography (that is, the history of history) as well as tools and techniques used in researching and interpreting the past. Course Content Note The content of this course is often challenging – intellectually, methodologically, theoretically, and emotionally. Discussing women’s and gender history is not easy, but it is (I believe!) necessary. With that in mind, be sure to practice self-care while reading, discussing, and engaging with the material. As the feminists in the 1960s and 70s liked to say: “The personal is political.” The personal is also historical. In this class, we will be discussing historical events that many students may find disturbing or traumatizing for a variety of reasons. If you suspect some of the material might be emotionally challenging for you, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss concerns and accommodations before the content is covered in class. Course Objectives - At the end of the course, students will be able to: - Demonstrate knowledge of major themes in women’s and gender history - Describe the field of women’s and gender history and how research is conducted within it - Explore intersectionality as a key analytic of women’s and gender history - Analyze the concept of “gender” - Locate and identify historical sources and scholarship related to the study of women and gender - Critically evaluate these sources, both orally and in writing This is an upper-division history course that emphasizes critical reading and writing skills. Some background in history is helpful for this course. We will often use class time for discussion. Therefore, it is essential that you complete the assigned readings before the start of class and come prepared to discuss the material and ask/answer questions. Instructional Methods Lecture There are two lecture meetings per week, each lasting one hour and fifteen minutes. Lecture format will vary week to week, and may include a Power Point presentation that incorporates multimedia, interactive activities such as in-class discussions or group discussions, film presentations, guest speakers, and research tutorials. Do not expect to be lectured to for the entirety of each class! As an upper-division course, we will use class time for discussion and hands-on activities in addition to lecture. Power Points will be posted on Blackboard at least an hour before class, so you may wish to print out or download the Power Point before class in order to take notes. Please note that the Power Points are quite sparse and do not contain many words. Attendance Policy Attendance is mandatory. You are expected to arrive on time and prepared for class. In order to be prepared, you must have completed the assigned readings in advance of class. I encourage you to attend class, as you will be expected to know the material for your papers and in discussion. It is your responsibility to make up missed material. Participation You will note bellow that “Participation” comprises 15% of your final grade in the course. I calculate the participation grade based on a number of factors, including: - preparedness for class (arriving on time, with the required reading having been completed) - listening to lecture and discussion and taking careful notes - speaking up with questions during lecture - engaging with in-class activities and group work - visiting me during office hours to discuss your progress in the course, assignments, etc. If you are a shy or quiet person or are worried about participating in class for any reason, please come talk to me at the start of the term! We can find alternate arrangements to find another way for you to meaningfully engage in the course and not lose points! Meaningful discussion is a core component of learning in this course. Respect for individual viewpoints and a willingness to listen and learn from others are key parts of historical study. Indeed, historians often disagree with one another. However, respect and civility are expected at all times. A Note on Technology in the Classroom While I understand the value of using laptops, tablets, and other devices to take notes, these devices can easily become distracting – not only to you, but to your peers and to me. Please only use technology for course-related purposes during class time, and do ensure that your cell phones are on “silent” and put away. Students who engage in disruptive behavior may be asked to leave the room. Do not record class without my express permission. Readings Required books (available for purchase, and on reserve at Stiern Library): - Laura Briggs, Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico - Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America - Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America - Pernille Ipsen, Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast - Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America - C. Riley Snorton, Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity Briggs, Canaday, Ipsen, and Snorton are all available as free eBooks from Stiern Library. See: http://csub.libguides.com/ALS Additional readings will be posted on the course Blackboard site, noted as [BB]. You should bring all readings/reading notes assigned for the day with you to class, as you will want to refer to them as we discuss them. Assignments Short Papers – 45% (15% each) You will complete three short (3-4 page) papers for this course. I will give you a prompt on Blackboard in the folder labeled “Assignments” two weeks before the due date. These papers will focus on course readings and not require additional research outside of assigned materials. All three papers, unless otherwise noted, are due online via turnitin.com. You can use course ID 18849080 and password: Stango to enroll. Your assignments should be typed in Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1” margins. You must also turn in a hard copy to me at the start of class on the due date. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late, barring an emergency situation (in which case, you should confer with me ASAP). The due dates are: - September 24: Paper 1 due at 2:30pm on Turn It In and in class (hard copy) - October 22: Paper 2 due at 2:30pm on Turn It In and in class (hard copy) - November 26: Paper 2 due at 2:30pm on Turn It In and in class (hard copy) Oral Presentation – 15% Once during the term, you will be responsible for giving a brief oral presentation on a person or topic relevant to women’s and gender history. We will circulate a sign-up sheet on the second day of class to determine the date and subject of your presentation. You should expect to give a five-to-ten minute presentation on this person or topic using research you have conducted yourself (that is, in your own words). You should not read to us the Wikipedia page for the person you have chosen. Expect to consult 2-3 scholarly, reputable sources to complete your presentation (you can use Wikipedia to find links to citations, perhaps!). If you want to play some music, show an image, etc., you can upload to the Blackboard Discussion Board ahead of class time, but you are not expected to create a formal Power Point presentation. Following your presentation, which will happen at the start of class, you will turn in to me a list of sources you have used in preparation for your presentation (you can use Chicago Style, MLA, APA, etc.). Please also turn in your written remarks, even if they are in note/bulletpoint form, as well. Final Paper – 25% The culminating assignment for the course is a final paper of about 7-8 pages. This is not a research paper, but rather a reflection on the course materials and major questions we have covered throughout the term. More details about the final paper will be posted on Blackboard three weeks before the paper is due. There will be options to allow you to choose a topic to write about. The final paper is due on Turn It In on Friday, December 14 at 2:00pm. There is no need to turn in a hard copy for this final paper. Late papers will not be accepted. Assessment I will calculate grades as follows: - Participation: 15% - Short Papers (3): 45% - Oral Presentation: 15% - Final Paper: 25% I am serious about encouraging students to utilize my office hours. Any student who visits me during my office hours (or at an appointment outside of office hours) to discuss the course will receive an additional two points to their final grade for the course. \| A = 93-100 \| B- = 80-82 \| D+ = 68-69 \| \| A- = 90-92 \| C+ = 78-79 \| D = 63-67 \| \| B+ = 88-89 \| C = 73-77 \| D- = 60-62 \| \| B = 83-87 \| C- = 70-72 \| F = 59 and below \| Grade Appeals If you are unhappy with a grade you have received, you must wait 48 hours before requesting, via email, a grade appeal from me. During this time, please consider my comments and write a one-page document detailing why you believe your assignment or exam merits a different grade. In your email, please include this document. We will then meet to discuss your grade. If you did not perform as well as you would have hoped on an exam or assignment, I encourage you to come see me during office hours so that we can discuss strategies for you to improve your grade on the next exam or assignment. There is also a formal grade complaint and grievance procedure that we will follow if we cannot come to a satisfactory mutual decision about your grade. Details can be found here: https://www.csub.edu/academicprograms/Complaints%20and%20Grievances/index.html Student Accommodations Students with Disabilities I am happy to help students with disabilities succeed in this class. To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) as soon as possible. Their office is located in SA 140, and they may be reached at 661-654-3360 (voice), or 661-654-6288 (TDD). If you have an accommodations letter from the SSD Office documenting that you have a disability, please present the letter to me during office hours as soon as possible so we can discuss the specific accommodations to help you succeed in this class. Their website can be found here: https://www.csub.edu/ssd/index.html Other Important Resources on Campus These resources are free to CSUB students, and I encourage you to use them as you see fit: - Counseling Center (in the Student Health Center) https://www.csub.edu/counselingcenter/ - Multicultural Alliance and Gender Equity Resource Center (Rohan Bldg., Student Housing West, First floor) - CSUB Food Pantry and Food Distribution (near Parking Lot M) https://www.csub.edu/sustainability/food/ - Food Pantry has hours M-F throughout the term; check their website - Food Distribution dates this term for grocery bags of fresh food: September 18, October 16, November 20, December 18 - Tutoring Center (Humanities Office Building, Rm. 115) https://www.csub.edu/admissionsandaid/student_support_programs/tutoring/ - Writing Resource Center (Administration Bldg. East, Rm. 105) https://www.csub.edu/wrc/ Contacting Me I typically respond to email within 48 hours. However, please note that I will not have access to email at all times, especially at night and during weekends or holidays. A Note on Academic Honesty I take academic honesty very seriously, and I hope that you do, too. Please note that neither plagiarism nor cheating will be tolerated in this course. If caught plagiarizing or cheating, you will receive a 0 grade for the assignment or exam, and will be reported to the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities. If you are caught plagiarizing or cheating on any assignment or exam more than once in this course, you will automatically fail this course. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with what is considered plagiarism and cheating, but when in doubt, do come see me and ask. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with CSUB policies: https://www.csub.edu/studentconduct/documents/academicintegrity.pdf Course Schedule Week 1 - August 27 – Introductions: Women? Gender? Modern? Transatlantic? - August 29 – What is Women’s History? - Reading: - Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” [BB] - Elsa Barkeley Brown, “‘What Has Happened Here’: The Politics of Difference in Women’s History and Feminist Politics” [BB] - Sign-ups for oral presentation Week 2 - September 3 – No Class: University Holiday (Labor Day) - September 5 – #WomenAlsoKnowHistory - Reading: - Bonnie Smith, The Gender of History, p. 70-102 [BB] - Laura Lee Downs, Writing Gender History, p. 9-42 [BB] - Jeanne Boydston, “Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis” [BB] Week 3 - September 10 –Monogamy, Polygamy, and Families of the Atlantic World - Reading: - Ann Marie Plane, Colonial Intimacies, p. 41-66 [BB] - Selection of English laws via Gilder Lehrman Center [BB] - Adam Ferguson, “An Essay on the History of Civil Society” (excerpt) [BB] - Reading: - September 12 – Gender, Marriage, and Family in the Transatlantic Slave Trade - Reading: - Ipsen, Daughters of the Trade, p. 1-83 - Jennifer Morgan, “Some Could Suckle over Their Shoulder”: Male Travelers, Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology, 1500-1770” [BB] - In-class activity: Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, www.slavevoyages.org - Reading: Week 4 - September 17 – Sex Difference and the Gendered Division of Labor - Readings: - Ipsen, Daughters of the Trade, p. 84-140 - Kathleen Brown, “‘Changed… into the Fashion of a Man’: The Politics of Sexual Difference in a Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Settlement” [BB] - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Emile” (excerpt) [BB] - Readings: - September 19 – Masculinity, Marriage, and Empire Building - Readings: - Ipsen, Daughters of the Trade, p. 141-174 - Miroslava Chávez-García, Negotiating Conquest, p. 3-24 [BB] - Readings: Week 5 - September 24 – Women and Early Modern Authorities - Readings: - Ruth Bloch, Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, p. 126-162 [BB] - Sor Juana, “On Men’s Hypocrisy” [BB] - Testimony of Anne Hutchinson [BB] - Paper 1 due - Readings: - September 26 – Atlantic Revolutions - Readings: - Linda Kerber, “The Republican Mother: Women and the Enlightenment – An American Perspective” [BB] - Suzanne Desan, “‘War Between Brothers and Sisters’: Inheritance Law and Gender Politics in Revolutionary France” [BB] - Abigail Adams letter [BB] - Olympe de Gouges, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” [BB] - Readings: Week 6 - October 1 – The Rights of Women - Readings: - Karen Offen, “How (and Why) the Analogy of Marriage with Slavery Provided the Springboard for Women’s Rights Demands in France, 1640-1848,” in Kathryn Kish Sklar and James Bewer Stewart, eds., Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation, p. 57-81 [BB] - Mary Wollstonecraft, “Vindication of the Rights of Women” [BB] - Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes” [BB] - Readings: - October 3 – Marriage and Sexuality at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century - Readings: - Cleves, Charity and Sylvia, p. ix-109 - Letters from Addie Brown to Rebecca Primus, in Farah Jasmine Griffith, Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends, p. 18-25 [BB] - Inheritance records from colonial Liberia [BB] - Readings: Week 7 - October 8 – Slavery and Sexual Violence - Readings: - Snorton, Black on Both Sides, p. vii-54 - Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (excerpts) [BB] - Readings: - October 10 – Beyond Separate Spheres - Readings: - Cleves, Charity and Sylvia, p. 110-204 - Frances Calderón de la Barca, “Women and War in Mexico” [BB] - Cherokee women’s petitions [BB] - Readings: Week 8 - October 15 – Abolition and Women’s Rights - Readings: - Clare Midgley, “British Abolition and Feminism in Transatlantic Perspective,” in Kathryn Kish Sklar and James Bewer Stewart, eds., Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation, p. 121-142 [BB] - In-Class Activity: Patchwork readings (Your specific reading determined on Oct. 10) - Maria Stewart, “Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall” - Angelina Grimké, “Letter to Jane Smith” - Catharine Beecher, “Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism” - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “Speech at the Eleventh Women’s Rights Convention” - Readings: - October 17 – Marriage and Race-Making - Readings: - Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, p. 1-130 - Kristin Mann, “The Dangers of Dependence: Christian Marriage among Elite Women in Lagos Colony, 1880-1915” [BB] - Sarah Winnemucca, Life Among the Paiutes (excerpt) [BB] - Readings: Week 9 - October 22 – Masculinity and Empire - Readings: - Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization, p. 170-215 [BB] - Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” - Paper 2 due - Readings: - October 24 – Progressivism and the New Woman - Readings: - Briggs, Reproducing Empire, p. 1-73 - Sarah Grand, “The New Woman and the Old” [BB] - Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (excerpt) [BB] - Readings: Week 10 - October 29 – Sexuality and Citizenship - Readings: - Canaday, The Straight State, p. 1-134 - Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, p. 131-159 - Readings: - October 31 – Women’s Suffrage - Readings: - Cliona Murphy, “A Problematic Relationship: European Women and Nationalism” [BB] - Emmeline Parkhurst, “Why We Are Militant”[BB] - Mary Church Terrell, A Colored Woman in the White World (excerpt) [BB] - Readings: Week 11 - November 5 – Eugenics - Readings: - Briggs, Reproducing Empire, p. 74-161 - The Woman Rebel [BB] - Buck v. Bell documents [BB] - Readings: - November 7 – Wartime - Readings: - Canaday, The Straight State, p. 137-173 - Elizabeth Escobedo, “The Pachuca Panic: Sexual and Cultural Battlegrounds in World War II Los Angeles” [BB] - Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (excerpts) [BB] - Oral histories of women in the War [BB] - Readings: Week 12 - November 12 – No Class: University Holiday (Veteran’s Day) - November 14 – Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Cold War - Readings: - Snorton, Black on Both Sides, p. 139-175 - Canaday, The Straight State, p. 137-213 - Cookie Woolner, “LGBT – A Historiographical Survey” [BB] - Alfred Kinsey, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” (excerpt) [BB] - Readings: Week 13 - November 19 – Women, Gender, and Civil Rights - Readings: - Pascoe, What Comes Naturally, p. 205-287 - Danielle McGuire, “‘It Was like All of Us Had Been Raped’: Sexual Violence, Community Mobilization, and the African American Freedom Struggle” [BB] - Fannie Lou Hamer, “Testimony Before the Credentials Committee, DNC” [BB] - Readings: - November 21 – Online Activity (no in-class meeting) - Film: Watch She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (available online and also on reserve at Stiern Library) Week 14 - November 26 – Second Wave Feminism - Readings: - Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (excerpt) [BB] - Radicalesbians, “The Woman-Identified Woman” [BB] - Paper 3 due - Readings: - November 28 – Regulating Families in the Postwar Era - Film – No Más Bebés (in class) - Readings: - Briggs, Reproducing Empire, p. 162-209 Week 15 - December 3 – “All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave” - Readings: - Snorton, Black on Both Sides, p. 177-198 - The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement” [BB] - Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” [BB] - Leslie Marmon Silko, “Storyteller” [BB] - Readings: - December 5 – Global Politics and the American Empire - Readings: - Saba Mahmood, “Feminism, Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War of Terror” [BB] - Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera (excerpt) [BB] - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “We Should All Be Feminists” (film clip) [BB] - Readings: Week 16 - December 10 – Women, Gender, and Sex for a New Millennium - Readings: - Zoe Leonard, “I Want a Dyke for President” [BB] - Leymah Gbowee, Mighty Be Our Powers (excerpt) [BB] - Kimberlé Crenshaw, “The Urgency of Intersectionality” [BB] - Tera Hunter, “The Long History of Child-Snatching” [BB] - Readings: - Your final paper is your final exam and is due no later than Friday, December 14 at 2:00pm on Turn It In About This Resource The sample syllabus included here was submitted by a participant in a one-day virtual workshop entitled, "Teaching the Global African Diaspora" for world history teachers hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This was a draft document that may subsequently have been revised in light of feedback and discussion during the event. This resource was contributed by Dr. Marie Stango, Department of History, Idaho State University.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.925503	Alliance for Learning in World History	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111907/overview", "title": "HIST 3630: Women and Gender in the Modern Transatlantic World", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/69106/overview	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWjnkFypFA&feature=emb_logo Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire Short documentary about Paulo Freire. Seeing Through Paulo's Glasses: Political Clarity, Courage and Humility Directed and Produced by Dr. Shirley Steinberg, and Dr.Giuliana Cucinelli Philosophy of Education Lesson Overview I have used this assigned discussion with students enrolled in Education 203: Education in American Society, offered at Los Angeles Valley College. This assignment is one of several that address the philosophy of education, particularly Paolo Freire's view of critical pedagogy. The lesson was preceeded by two modules that presented the use of graphic organizers, hence the assignment involves a Thinking Map. The assignment can be modified with a different manner of demonstrating knowledge other than graphic organizers. Attribution: Thinking Maps: https://www.thinkingmaps.com/ Education 203 Educational Philosophy Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The Banking Concept of Education Most teachers have read Paulo Freire at length. His theories stand out in teacher education programs. The layers of his theory and the style of his writing encourage teachers to embrace the complexity of the act of educating the people. He believes that education must be a humanizing liberation and empowerment of the people to act authentically by their own volition. In this chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire juxtaposes the bank clerk educator with the libertarian humanist educator. He describes a bank clerk teaching approach that suffers narration sickness and oppresses a pacified population in order to preserve elite domination. He dichotomizes the bank clerk educator with a humanizing style that involves a partnership between student and teacher wherein teachers and students play both roles as learners and instructors together. The teacher encourages critical thought that empowers the population to study with the world and remake the world in a continuing process. - Watch the following videos: Paulo Freire Biography Paulo Freire Educational Theory (Links to an external site.) Paulo Freire Interview - Create a Double Bubble Map comparing and contrasting lesson ideas on a single topic. One side is taught from a banking concept of education perspective and the other side is taught from a humanist revolutionary education perspective. See my model. Read Paulo Freire, The Banking Concept of Education - Post it in this discussion as a digital upload. - View all posts. - Comment on at least 2 peer posts. attributions: 1. http://clipart-library.com/clipart/6iyoLGAin.htm 2. By Paolo Freire http://puente2014.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/87465079/freire_banking_concept.pdf 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4jPZe-cZgc&feature=emb_logo Published on Apr 30, 2012 Short documentary about Paulo Freire. Seeing Through Paulo's Glasses: Political Clarity, Courage and Humility Directed and Produced by Dr. Shirley Steinberg, and Dr.Giuliana Cucinelli 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFWjnkFypFA&feature=emb_logo Published on Dec 30, 2009 Paulo Freire's last public interview, given to Literacy.org in 1996.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.950455	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/69106/overview", "title": "Philosophy of Education Lesson", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99010/overview	Cultural Diversity in Education Overview Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona participants are invited to remix this template to share their courses, textbooks, and other OER material on our Hub. "6th grade parent day: hallway poster" by woodleywonderworks is licensed under CC BY 2.0. EDU 210: Cultural Diversity in Education Course Content & Outcomes This course prepares potential teachers to examine how race, ethnicity, and cultural differences influence students' experiences in school, and assists teachers in implementing a multicultural approach to teaching by identifying effective teaching styles and practices for a diverse student population. Content: - Critical thinking concepts. - Diverse nature of society. - Historical events that have impacted multicultural students. - Current cultural issues that impacting teaching and learning. - Appropriate teaching methods to meet the needs of diverse students. Outcomes: - Describe the elements of the critical thinking process. (1) - Describe the culturally diverse nature of society. (2) - Identify historical events that have impacted multicultural and minority students. (3) - Construct pertinent questions based on current issues that impact culturally diverse students. (4) - Create effective solutions to problems related to multicultural education. (4) - Define the concept of multicultural education and its implementation in the public-school classroom. (5) - Design lesson plans that utilize best practices, including critical thinking, to foster cultural diversity in the classroom. (5) Material Description EDU 210: Cultural Diversity in Education Context for sharing: I'm sharing this course to support other pre-service teach educators. Additional information about the resource: This course requires 10 observation hours. Material Attachment It is preferred if you include the material in multiple formats, such as a public link and an attachment. Add a public link to the material by including the text here. Please be sure the setting are for public access so others can view and/or download the material. For example, if sharing through Canvas, be sure the material is shared through the Canvas Commons. If you need help finding how to import from Canvas - here is a resource. Attach the resource by clicking the "Attach Section" paperclick image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your material(s), and save.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.973469	Textbook	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99010/overview", "title": "Cultural Diversity in Education", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70386/overview	Assignment: Exploring Careers in Child Development Overview Students will use the Occupational Outlook Handbook to explore three occupations related to child development, education and professional work with families. Students will compile information in their CANVAS Portfolium. Introduction to Careers in Child Development Lesson Topic: Exploring Child Development and Care Occupations. Lesson Description: Students will use the Occupational Outlook Handbook to explore three occupations related to child development, education and professional work with families. Students will compile information in their CANVAS Portfolium. Learning Goals Students will be able to describe three educational requirements, salary, work environment, and professional outlook for three professions in the field of child development. Student Learning Outcome Analyze career opportunities and explore educational opportunities in Child Development related to various careers. Video how to browse the Occupational Outlook Handbook website. This video will show you how to navigate the Occupational Outlook Handbook website. It is super easy and very educational! Remix title"Child Development and Care Occupations" 2019 by userMiranda Bright under license"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:53.987474	07/25/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70386/overview", "title": "Assignment: Exploring Careers in Child Development", "author": "Gloria San Jose Daims, M.S." }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105867/overview	Knee Evaluation Lab Overview This resource in an activity for sports medicine or health science students with an understanding of anatomy, physiology, common disorders and injuries to the musckeloskeletal system and techniques of assessing injuries including obtaining medical histories and evaluating techniques. This resource provided a template for students to use when practicing technical skills needed for assessment of a knee injury. Knee Evaluation This resource in an activity for sports medicine or health science students with an understanding of anatomy, physiology, common disorders and injuries to the musckeloskeletal system and techniques of assessing injuries including obtaining medical histories and evaluating techniques. This resource provided a template for students to use when practicing technical skills needed for assessment of a knee injury.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.003407	Paige Wells	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105867/overview", "title": "Knee Evaluation Lab", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108187/overview	Audition Packet for Musicals Overview This packet is a pre-fab creation I have used for multiple shows over the years. I have tweaked to fit the needs of the many companies I have worked with and for from elementary through high school. However, you could make changes to fit any level group. Break a leg on your next show and enjoy the resource! Musical Theatre Audition Packet Please click the link to the google document and make a copy before editing as this is a public file. This will take most of the work out of your pre-audition paperwork planning as it can be adjusted for the show of your choice. It can be used and formatted to fit any age group as well. Enjoy!	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.016146	Lesson Plan	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/108187/overview", "title": "Audition Packet for Musicals", "author": "Performing Arts" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/64463/overview	Learning Exercises and Remote Laboratories for Introductory Physics Overview Learning Exercises and Remote Laboratories for Introductory Physics Learning Exercises for Introductory Physics I am offering a set of physics learnng exercises. They are written to be used in Moodle LMS but may be imported into other LMS Several can function as remote laboratory exercises. Contact me at rgreeney@hcc.edu	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.027761	03/26/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/64463/overview", "title": "Learning Exercises and Remote Laboratories for Introductory Physics", "author": "Robert Greeney" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97549/overview	The Impact of Culture on Mental Health 1 & 2 PSYCH 001--Introduction to Psychology: Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Overview This is a 2-part assignment designed to help students to explore how culture can impact one's view of mental health and mental disorders. In part 1, students are invited to explore how culture impacts mental health, for example how mental disorders are regarding in different communities and the potential cultural stigmas regarding mental disorders and treatments. Using their own identified culture, students will explore how mental health & well-being are approached by that culture. In part 2, students will focus on a particular psychological disorder and how that disorder is perceived in their chosen culture. Students will provide a short write-up/recording of their findings and also create an infographic or visual targeted toward members of their culture.Students are encouraged to be creative in designing their visual and are also encouraged to create a multilingual visual, if appropriate. Course Description This course provides an introduction to the principles of human behavior, including the physiological foundations of behavior, influences of heredity and environment on psychological and behavional processes; sense-perception, attention, learning and personality; emotion and motivation; development across the life span, and psychological disorders and methods of therapy. No credit if taken after PSYC 001H. Total of 54 hours lecture. Transfer Credit: CSU; UC; C-ID: PSY 110 The impact of culture on Mental Health: A two-part assignment This is a 2-part assignment designed to help students to explore how culture can impact one's view of mental health and mental disorders. Either part can be a standalone assignment or both parts may be given together as part of a larger research project. In part 1, students are invited to explore how culture impacts mental health, for example how mental disorders are regarding in different communities and the potential cultural stigmas regarding mental disorders and treatments.Students will select their own cultural identity and then explore how mental health & well-being are approached by that culture. In part 2, students will select a psychological disorder from a short, pre-selected list of disorders and then explore how that disorder is perceived in their chosen culture. Students will provide a short write-up/recording and also create an infographic or visual targeted to members of their culture.Students are encouraged to be creative in designing their visual and are also encouraged to create a multilingual visual, if appropriate. The Impact of Culture on Mental Health: Part 1 The Impact of Culture on Mental Health: Part 1 Purpose In our module on Psychological Disorders and Treatments, you have explored several different psychological disorders, their etiologies (causes or theories about their origins), as well as mental health in general. In this assignment, you will explore how culture can impact a person’s views of mental health / mental disorders, treatment of mental disorders, and the overall stigma regarding psychological disorders. This is a 2-part assignment. Directions for Part 1 STEP 1: Please read the following articles: Mental Health First Aid from the National Council For Mental Wellbeing: 4 ways culture impacts mental health National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI): Identity & Cultural Dimensions STEP 2: Identify your culture For this assignment, you will need to select a culture that you personally identify with. "Culture" can be defined as "the distinctive customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, art, and language of a society or a community." Your "cultural identity" may be your race, gender, or ethnicity BUT your cultural identity can ALSO be: - your background (e.g. veteran, first generation college student, etc.) - your group membership (for example, musicians, athletes, being a parent) - your sexuality (etc. LGBTQ+) - your religious affiliation It is up to you to decide what your "cultural identity" is for this project. STEP 3: How does your cultural identity impact your own views on mental health/mental illness? Once you have selected your culture, consider how that cultural identity impacts your own views on mental health in a 2 page paper or 8 minute video recording. Your 2-page paper/ or 8-minute video must answer the following questions: 1. What cultural identity have you chosen to identify with for this project and why did you select this culture? 2. How is mental health/illness viewed in your chosen culture? Is there a stigma regarding psychological disorders and treatment? Provide your opinion on why you think your culture view mental health/illness this way. 3. Are there resources available for understanding mental health/illness in your culture? If there are resources, give an example or two. 4. Do you feel that your own personal views of mental health/illness are similar (align with) with the views of mental health/illness in your culture? Why or why not? Important Information - Your paper/video is meant to be an opinion piece; please feel free to express yourself! I want you to reflect on and be honest in your answers. - You do NOT need to cite sources, but you can if you want to. If you are writing a paper: - Your paper should be double-spaced, 12 point font, in Times New Roman or Arial, with no larger than 1 inch margins. MLA or APA format is fine. - There is no word count but you should have two full pages - this means 1 full page and at least 3/4 of the 2nd page should contain writing. - You MAY write more than 2 pages if you wish. If you are recording a video: - Videos should be 8 minutes. If you are a little over, that is ok too. - You may want to review your video to make sure sound is clear. Upload your 2-page write up/8 minute video to Canvas. The Impact of Culture on Mental Health: Part 2 The Impact of Culture on Mental Health - PART 2 Purpose In our module on Psychological Disorders and Treatments, you were introduced to several different psychological disorders, their etiologies (causes or theories about their origins), as well as mental health in general. In this assignment, you will explore how a particular disorder is viewed by your chosen cultural community and create an informative project that could be used to educate other individuals within your cultural community about the disorder. This project is Part 2 of the Impact of Culture on Mental Health ______________________________________ Directions for Part 2 STEP 1: Pick ONE disorder from any of the following categories to learn more about in the context of your own cultural identity (use the same culture you identified with in Part 1 of this assignment). Mood Disorders category - Major Depressive Disorder - Postpartum Depression - Generalized Anxiety Disorder - Social Anxiety Disorder - Bipolar Disorder Eating Disorders - Anorexia Nervosa - Bulimia Nervosa - Binge Eating Disorder Schizophrenia PTSD Autism Spectrum Disorder STEP 2: Find 3 articles on your disorder. - Your articles do NOT have to be academic journal articles BUT should be from reputable sources with a peer review/editorial process, such as: the American Psychological Association, NAMI, National Council For Mental Wellbeing. - You should try to find a least 1 article that discusses your chosen disorder in the context of your culture identity. STEP 3: Using information from your articles, please create the following: - A 1-page summary of how the disorder is viewed within your culture, any stigmas surrounding the disorder, and resources available to someone from your culture with the disorder. Important Information: - Your summary paper should be 1 page total, double-spaced, 12 point font, in Times New Roman or Arial, with no larger than 1 inch margins. - On a separate page, include your references in APA format. - A quick 1-page “at a glance” visual, such as an infographic, that could be used to educate other individuals within your cultural community about the disorder. Important Information: - Your visual should Include the following information: - Very brief description of the disorder (including what it is commonly called in your culture) - Prevalence of the disorder within your chosen culture - Risk Factors - make sure to include any risk factors that are culturally relevant. - Resources to help someone from your culture experiencing that particular disorder. - Your visual can be creative but should be in the style of an infographic. - You may also make your visual multilingual! (1 language must be English though). - For more information about inforgraphics (what they are, how to make one), check out: What is an infographic and how do I create one? - You can also use Microsoft Powerpoint's infographic template or Google Slides infographic templates. If you use these, please save the final visual product in a pdf. format.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.075059	09/27/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97549/overview", "title": "PSYCH 001--Introduction to Psychology: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77675/overview	CHERNOBYL DISASTER Overview THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN MADE ON CANVA APP EXPLAINING THE PRINCIPLE BEHIND CHERNOBYL DISASTER ITS EFFECT AND AFTERMATH THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN MADE ON CANVA APP EXPLAINING THE PRINCIPLE BEHIND CHERNOBYL DISASTER ITS EFFECT AND AFTERMATH	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.090269	SHARVANI DESHPANDE	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77675/overview", "title": "CHERNOBYL DISASTER", "author": "Diagram/Illustration" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/61828/overview	AER Newsletter: Summer 2019 Overview Welcome to the first, biannual Archival Educators Roundtable (AER) Newsletter! In 2016, the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) brought together like-minded professionals who use primary sources for public programming, outreach, and education, and the AER was born. As archival education is a still-developing field, the AER created a community where people could share their successes, challenges, and works in progress through casual workshops. AER’s network of educators, archivists, and archival education allies has since expanded its culture of support beyond the biannual meetings here at the RAC through social media, event attendance, joint publications, and email correspondence. It is our hope that this AER Newsletter will further extend the table, so speak, reaching more colleagues as we spotlight educators, and showcase the projects, challenges, and successes of archival education. Just as the aim of AER meetings is to ensure that all perspectives on primary source education are honored, we encourage you, our dedicated AER audience, to reach out and contribute your insights to future AER Newsletters! Many thanks to our first issue's contributors--we couldn't have done it without you. --Marissa Vassari, Archivist and Educator, Rockefeller Archive Center Elizabeth Berkowitz, Outreach Program Manager, Rockefeller Archive Center Welcome to the first, biannual Archival Educators Roundtable (AER) Newsletter! In 2016, the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) brought together like-minded professionals who use primary sources for public programming, outreach, and education, and the AER was born. As archival education is a still-developing field, the AER created a community where people could share their successes, challenges, and works in progress through casual workshops. AER’s network of educators, archivists, and archival education allies has since expanded its culture of support beyond the biannual meetings here at the RAC through social media, event attendance, joint publications, and email correspondence. It is our hope that this AER Newsletter will further extend the table, so speak, reaching more colleagues as we spotlight educators, and showcase the projects, challenges, and successes of archival education. Just as the aim of AER meetings is to ensure that all perspectives on primary source education are honored, we encourage you, our dedicated AER audience, to reach out and contribute your insights to future AER Newsletters! Many thanks to our first issue's contributors--we couldn't have done it without you. --Marissa Vassari, Archivist and Educator, Rockefeller Archive Center Elizabeth Berkowitz, Outreach Program Manager, Rockefeller Archive Center	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.108018	Higher Education	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/61828/overview", "title": "AER Newsletter: Summer 2019", "author": "Elementary Education" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112853/overview	Water quality analysis procedure Water Quality Analysis Overview This is Experiment #4 in the Analytical Chemistry Lab sequence at MSU Denver. This experiment is divided into three parts. - The standardization of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid - Determining the alkalinity of a control and unknown sample - Determining the total cation content of a control and unknown sample Students will master titrations by performing them until the required accuracy and precision tolerances are met. A spreadsheet is used to calculate these values. Then students will bring in a water sample from home to determine its alkalinity and total cation content. For these two parts students will perform a potentiometric analysis and learn to use a pH meter. Water Quality Analysis This is Experiment #4 in the Analytical Chemistry Lab sequence at MSU Denver. This experiment is divided into three parts. - The standardization of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid - Determining the alkalinity of a control and unknown sample - Determining the total cation content of a control and unknown sample Students will master titrations by performing them until the required accuracy and precision tolerances are met. A spreadsheet is used to calculate these values. Then students will bring in a water sample from home to determine its alkalinity and total cation content. For these two parts students will perform a potentiometric analysis and learn to use a pH meter.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.125797	Alycia Palmer	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112853/overview", "title": "Water Quality Analysis", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99045/overview	Celtx Scriptwriting Software Dummies Guide to Playwriting WriterDuet Writing Software Celebrating Diversity in Theatre Overview Diversity in theatre has come a long way, and it has a long way to go. This industry has been dominated for far too long by one sector of the population and other stories have not been told. This project encourages the students to tell their stories from their varied and unique backgrounds and share that with their classmates and community. Playwriting is a unique way to tell a story, and this is an avenue that many may not have considered. This project will broaden the scope of the students view on theatre and encourage them to step up and make their voice heard. Project Scope The purpose of this project is to help students learn that they have a story to tell, and that telling that story is important to the community they reside in. Theatre needs to be diversified and this is one step. Theatre is storytelling. Everyone has a unique story to tell but they do not always get a chance to tell it. The world of theatre has been dominated for centuries by one aspect of the population. It's time that changed. This project will give each student the opportunity to tell a story about their cultural and personal experiences. The focus is to choose a story that hightlights an aspect of their individual experience and then to share that with others. Each student will write a 10-minute play based in their cultural experience. Here are some guidelines: - On average, 1 page equals 1 minute - give or take. Always read it out loud to verify it's long enough. - Avoid too much exposition - don't tell us, show us. - Write in dialogue, not prose. This is not a novel. - No more than 2 scenes - in a 10 minute play, there's not enough time to change things too often - Keep fighting (stage combat) to a minimum. If you do include a fight, just say "fight" or something like that, don't describe the fight. Leave that to the director. - No more than 5 - 6 characters. The final goal of this project is to share these plays with our department for small projects by students of other classes who need new materials. Students will be able to opt out of the sharing process if they prefer. Instructions Brainstorm 3 ideas for your play. Pull from all your personal and cultural resources. Be creative. Dig deep. One of these ideas will be the basis for your 10 minute play with at least 3 characters but no more than 6. Your play needs to have character, conflict and action. A play is written in dialogue, like a conversation, instead of narrative like a novel. Please check out the resources provided to learn more about how to format a play.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.148771	11/23/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/99045/overview", "title": "Celebrating Diversity in Theatre", "author": "Lori DeLappe" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70547/overview	Explore Career Pathways Overview Explore your interests and which career opportunities are out there for you. As you explore careers, consider the education you will need during and after high school in order to pursue your career interests. Explore Career Pathways and Assess Which Ones are Right for You Explore your interests and which career opportunities are out there for you. As you explore careers, consider the education you will need during and after high school in order to pursue your career interests. By 2018, 63% of all jobs in the United States and 90% of new jobs in growing industries will require some level of post-secondary training (Carnevale, Smith & Strohl, 2010).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.165474	07/28/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70547/overview", "title": "Explore Career Pathways", "author": "Art Witkowski" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54366/overview	Naming Flow Chart for Binary Compounds Naming Practice - select Binary (under Ionic) and Molecular Naming Binary Compounds Overview This module teaches the basic rules of naming binary compounds for general chemistry. Hydrocarbons and acids are not included. How to Name Binary Compounds Instructors vary on whether they require students to memorize polyatomic ions. It is required for the American Chemical Society General Chemistry exam and the Chemistry GRE, and a number of other standardized exams. Every good chemist needs another flow chart, so here is one for naming binary compounds (compounds made from two components). This lesson does not include hydrocarbons such as alkanes, which have a separate naming schematic. You will need to know polyatomic ions. Polyatomic Ions are charged particles (ions) that are made of more than one atom (poly-atomic). Flashcards or lists are useful methods for recalling the names, formulae, and charges of common polyatomic ions. The video mini-lecture demonstrates the rules of naming using the flow chart. I do not include electron configuration and preferred charges of transition metals or alkane naming. Naming practice tool On the Geo Exchange website, you can practice naming. Be sure to select Ionic Binary and Molecular compounds and then get started!	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.185283	05/15/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54366/overview", "title": "Naming Binary Compounds", "author": "Amy Petros" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/113905/overview	BHS 180: Child, Family, and Adult Advocacy Overview Survey of the behavioral health and social services professions, including scope of practice and training requirements. Exploration of employment opportunities in the field and self-assessment/academic planning for a career in mental health. Overview of mental health disorders and first responder skills in a mental health crisis situation. BHS 180: Child, Family, and Adult Advocacy Course Description The role of advocacy in relation to multiple systems affecting children, families, and adults. Emphasis on identifying appropriate supports, community resources, and "wrap-around" services to help foster healthy family and child development, social welfare, and recovery. General Education Competency Written Communication Course Content - Overview of behavioral health and social services professions, career opportunities, and employment trends - Self-assessment, alignment with workplace demands - Personal issues affecting the helping professional - Self-care and revitalization - Overview of mental health disorders and whole health interventions - Mental health first aid - Initial development of professional portfolio - Educational and career planning Course Learning Outcomes - Define advocacy and explain professional/ethical standards for - advocacy. (1) - Practice using common advocacy strategies and tactics and discuss when - each may be applicable/valuable. (2) - Describe the role of parental rights related to advocacy. (3) - Describe the procedures involved in due process, grievance and appeals - in behavioral health systems. (3) - Describe familial considerations involved in advocacy. (4) - Describe the importance of whole health integration in advocacy to - ensure appropriate educational access and opportunity. (5) - Describe the role and importance of whole health integration in - Describe the role and importance of whole health integration in - advocacy when working with justice-involved persons. (7) - Identify several funding sources and whole health integrated related - services that can help address the needs of individuals with behavioral - health issues. (8) - Demonstrate how to navigate multiple systems to develop an advocacy - plan relevant to a child and his/her family. (8) - Describe the importance of the wraparound process and how it relates - to child and family advocacy. (8) - Identify integrated healthcare community supports and resources for - children and families that can be made available through advocacy. (8) Required Assessment - Due dates and specific assignments for each week are posted on the Canvas Navigation Menu under SYLLABUS or MODULES. All due dates are also in the Course Calendar • Students must complete each assignment by the posted due dates and times • Students may complete assignments, if available, prior to the due dates. • Course grades are based on the 1 Quiz, 5 Discussion Boards, 2 assignments and 1 Advocacy Plan. • 1 Quiz total 10% • 5 Discussion Boards total 25% • 2 Assignments total 25% • 1 Advocacy Plan total 40% Canvas Commons Link Course Common Cartridge Download Download this file and use it to upload the course to an LMS that isn't Canvas.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.208417	03/05/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/113905/overview", "title": "BHS 180: Child, Family, and Adult Advocacy", "author": "Micah Weedman" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112026/overview	Session Recording_Building Resources, Community, and Collaboration Across Texas Through the Statewide Repository, OERTX Building Resources, Community, and Collaboration Across Texas Through the Statewide Repository, OERTX Overview Archived session from the 2023 Arizona Regional OER Conference. Session Title: Building Resources, Community, and Collaboration Across Texas Through the Statewide Repository, OERTX This resource includes the session abstract, presenters, PPT, and recording. Session Abstract, PPT, and Recording Session Abstract In September of 2020, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board launched OERTX, the state’s repository for open educational resources. Provided through a partnership with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), OERTX is made possible by an appropriation from the Texas Legislature, House Bill 3652 (86th Texas Legislature, Regular Session). Additional support to enhance the repository and strengthen institutional awareness of the resource included funding through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds. Since launching two years ago, OERTX now includes more than 240,000 global users. It provides access to over 9,000 educational resources for Texas Core Curriculum courses and career and technical courses, and materials that support effective teaching and learning. OERTX serves to build collaboration and professional development communities of practice through the creation of network hubs and groups to share collections associated with a subject, project, or organization. In 2022, OERTX received the Open Education Global Open Policy Award for its outstanding contribution to the Open Education community. In this session, presenters will discuss the development of the repository, collaboration and community building initiatives that leverage the site’s built-in tools, and research that will drive improvements for resource discovery and creation. Presenters Michelle Singh, Assistant Commissioner, Digital Learning, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Kylah Torre, Director, Digital Learning, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Elizabeth Tolman, Program Director, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.230269	OERizona Conference	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112026/overview", "title": "Building Resources, Community, and Collaboration Across Texas Through the Statewide Repository, OERTX", "author": "Megan Crossfield" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73440/overview	FEEDBACK Digital Toolkit Overview The FEEDBACK Digital Toolkit is a tool to support the implementation of arts-based feedback approaches to the learning cycle and to contribute to the improvement of learning programmes and to curricula innovation. FEEDBACK Digital Toolkit The FEEDBACK Digital Toolkit is not intended to make educators and learners become experts in feedback, but rather to inspire and provide resources that may help them understand and explore the practice of feedback to improve learning experiences. The toolkit includes 39 tools structured by their main goals: 1. Art Based Initiatives for Sustainability Carefully planning the feedback delivery allows learners to positively accept the advices and to take real advantage from them. 2. Art Based Initiatives for Inspiration Reflecting on their work brings learners to a more inspired mind set to understand what they have to relearn, improve and refocus on. 3. Art Based Initiatives for Transformation Refocusing on the initial objectives of their work helps learners to positively transform their point of view. This Toolkit is a result from the FEEDBACK project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. FEEDBACK project aims to set the foundations to define a clearer model of feedback to enhance learning and therefore act as leverage for the design of new learning programmes. More information about the project is available here: http://www.thefeedbackproject.eu/about.html	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.252118	Teaching/Learning Strategy	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73440/overview", "title": "FEEDBACK Digital Toolkit", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77196/overview	Micrograph Escherichia coli methylene blue 1000X p000001 Overview This micrograph was taken at 1000X total magnifcation on a brightfield microscope. The subject is Escherichia coli cells grown in broth culture overnight at 37 degrees Celsius. The cells were heat-fixed to a slide and stained for 1 minute with methylene blue stain prior to visualization. Image credit: Emily Fox Micrograph White background with about 100 small, blue, rod-shaped Escherichia coli cells scattered across. Click below to download the micrograph.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.269513	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/77196/overview", "title": "Micrograph Escherichia coli methylene blue 1000X p000001", "author": "Health, Medicine and Nursing" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90102/overview	cinema scenes version two Overview cinema scenes version two 2021 cinema scenes version two version two of cinema scenes. changing of some chapters. some material curtailed. some added Cinema scenes By Judith Broadbent Patsy Daniels Graham Harkness Laura Sherill Stuart Lenig Table of contents 1 Cinema One Early Film and the Business Beginnings The movie is a new art, neither a novel nor a stage play. It is analogous to the novel only in the fact that it presents a narrative story, and early on the movie was treated as if it were a photographic record of a stage play. But the movie was discovered to be neither a novel nor a stage play. The movie camera had the best seat in the house, but it did not move; instead, it presented one viewpoint only, like neither the novel nor the play. The three basic principles of the stage, unity of time, unity of place, and unity of action, would not work for a movie. In film there is no unity of time or unity of place; these basic principles of the stage do not apply. But the unity of action, another stage term, does apply: the images appear in succession and produce meaning and continuity. The movie then is like a novel in presenting a narrative story and like a stage play in its continuity of action. When sound recording was invented about thirty years after the motion picture, its analogy to the stage was also found to be false. Sound could be synchronized with images, but need not come from the images, or from the actor’s mouth. Other than the stage and novels, movies had no roots. It was a new idea founded on recent discoveries, dependent on technology for its very existence. Innovators, inventors, and scientists influenced each other immediately in their attempts at making moving pictures, each looking over the shoulder of the other, each showing off his latest gadget. This new idea of the motion picture would not exist without the technology that was invented, step by step. But the technology came in fits and spurts, so dates become important; the date of release of a movie is especially important. For example, it is difficult to compare a movie made in the 21st century with one made in 1939; technology has advanced tremendously since 1939, so movies are not made the same way that they were in the early days of cinema. It is also important to get the names right: the title of the movie (always italicized when writing about it) and the names of the professionals who have created it. Even though there are numerous professionals who have worked on a film, from the screenwriter to the editor and everyone in between, the film is considered to be the work of the director. The director is the person who keeps it all together during the production of the film and works closely with writers, cinematographers, editors, set designers, and many other professionals. The director is considered the auteur, (French for “author”), the creator of the film, the person to whom the film is credited. Next Steps As tinkerers and inventors attempted to make pictures move, scientists had been studying the human eye and the human brain and how they work together. What they 2 called “persistence of vision” had to be understood in order to make people see moving pictures, or pictures moving. Persistence of vision is the tendency of the eye to hold an image for a moment after the image is no longer visible. This tendency became very important in the quest for moving pictures. In addition, still photography had to be invented, and there was a long route to figuring out how to make a picture with light. The idea of making a picture with light is usually attributed to Leonardo daVinci, the Italian Renaissance inventor and artist. He is generally acknowledged as the originator of the camera obscura during the fifteenth century. The principle of the camera obscura, or “dark room,” is that light comes into the dark room through a pinhole and projects the image of something outside of the camera obscura. The image always appears upside down, just the way the human eye captures an image, but people were able to use it for tracing an image on paper. In the early eighteen hundreds, innovators discovered that they could make an image seem to move in various ways. In 1825, Dr. John Ayerton Paris invented the Thaumatrope, a device that made images seem to move when they were spun in a circle. It was a delight in the parlor. Then, seven years later, Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau invented what he called a phenakistiscope, which was later refined into a Zoötrope by William George Horner. This device showed a series of pictures, stages of a movement perhaps, that made the images seem to move, kind of like an early form of animation. It was fun to play with, and forty years later, the device was marketed as a toy. These toys led to similar experiments with moving images, but inventors had to create the technology to make it happen. In 1816, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce first captured an image on a metal plate. But it was twenty-three years later, in 1839, that Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was able to capture an image on silvered copperplate. This development led to the manufacture and sale of daguerreotypes, an image of a person on copperplate, a portrait. These portraits became very popular. Now that the image had been stabilized, inventors needed to make it move. William Henry Fox Talbot invented paper printing in the 1830s, and as more sensitive photographic stocks became available and the shutter was invented, by the 1860s exposure time was reduced from thirty minutes to a fraction of a second. Because of these developments, Englishman Eadweard Muybridge, a photographer and inventor, was able to perfect serial photography. Muybridge was hired by Leland Stanford, the governor of California, to set up a series of cameras to help Stanford win a bet: he had bet a friend that, as a horse runs, at some point all four hooves are in the air at the same time. Muybridge set up 24 cameras with trip wires so that when the horse would run by, the camera would take a picture. He and Governor Stanford showed that, indeed, at some point a horse can float through the air. The series of photographs, when bound into a booklet, became the flip book, a series of photos that, when the pages are turned rapidly, seem to move. Thanks to persistence of vision. 3 During the next fifteen years, many inventions came into being, and the inventors sometimes shared their work with other tinkerers, but sometimes they competed with each other. Thomas Edison came up with the phonograph in 1877 and the incandescent light in 1879. In 1882 Étienne-Jules Marey invented the Photochronograph, a camera shaped like a long gun, which could be pointed exactly and held fairly steady. This camera captured images on a glass plate instead of a metal plate, and could take as many as twelve shots on one revolving plate. In 1887, celluloid film was created by Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, but in 1888, celluloid film was invented by George Eastman. How could this have been? Not until 1913, or twenty-five years later, did the courts rule that Eastman had infringed on Goodwin’s patents on celluloid film (Mast and Kawin 22). Again in 1888, Étienne-Jules Marey created a camera that used coated paper film, which was much more inexpensive to use than metal plates. In the same year, Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince invented the paper-film movie camera, which used the same paper film; in that year, too, Le Prince integrated the camera and the projector. A movie camera which used the disputed celluloid film was invented in 1890 by Étienne-Jules Marey, who showed his work to Thomas Edison. Two years later, Marey invented a camera and projector which used celluloid film. As time passed, the technical challenges found in photography were overcome: long exposure times were shortened by inventing a faster film stock; photographers were able to transmit an image to a medium when still photography came into being; paper stock and celluloid film allowed a more flexible medium, and eventually a heat resistant stock was created. One invention led to another; one idea generated more ideas. Keep in mind that, though we speak of pictures moving, they do not. Every motion picture is made of many still pictures shown in rapid succession. Because the human eye retains an image on the retina for a moment before letting it go and focusing on another image, humans do not see the blank space between the still photographs. This phenomenon is called persistence of vision. Just like in Muybridge’s flip book, thanks to persistence of vision, humans see apparent movement of the images. Keep in mind that movies present apparent movement. Filmmakers create the illusion of real movement on the screen, but real movement is movement that has not been created from still images. Early Filmmakers The tinkerers and inventors developed the technology for moving pictures one step at a time. It was a while before some became actual filmmakers. Early innovators were the Étienne-Jules Marey, Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, Émile Cohl, E. S. Porter, Georges Méliès, and Thomas Edison. 4 Étienne-Jules Marey had also been experimenting with serial photography, and in 1881 he and Muybridge met in Paris and exchanged ideas. Marey’s Photochronograph could use coated paper film, and it became easier to manipulate when Émile Raynaud invented the perforations that would allow moving the roll of film at a steady pace. What They Had to Invent WHAT: TOYS Thaumatrope Phenakistiscope Stroboscope Zoötrope (refined Phenakistiscope) William George Horner Praxinoscope Projection Praxinoscope Théatre Optique Émile Raynaud Émile Raynaud Émile Raynaud What They Had to Invent WHAT: MACHINES Camera obscura Metal plate to capture image Silvered copperplate Paper printing Shutter, faster plates WHO Leonardo da Vinci J WHEN 15th century 1816 1860s Zoöpraxiscope, serial photography Eadweard Muybridge 1877 Phonograph Incandescent light Photochronograph (gun) Celluloid film Celluloid film 1892 Thomas Edison Thomas Edison Étienne-Jules Marey Reverend Hannibal Goodwin George Eastman Étienne-Jules Marey Coated paper film Paper-film movie camera Integrated camera, projector Movie camera for celluloid Camera and projector for celluloid Étienne-Jules Marey WHO WHEN Dr. John Ayerton Paris 1825 Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau 1832 Simon Ritter von Stampfer 1832 1834 1877 1880 1888 Reynaud should be considered the maker of the first animated movies (Mast and Kawin 18). By the end of the nineteenth century, there were hundreds of these toys and variations, all of which exploited the persistence of vision (18). oseph Nicéphore Niépce Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre William Henry Fox Talbot (Mast and Kawin 19) 1839 1830s 1877 1879 1882 1887 1888 1888 1888 1888 1890 Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince Étienne-Jules Marey 5 Marey shows his work to Edison. Edison may have seen Reynaud’s work as well (21). 1889 Courts rule that Eastman has infringed on Goodwin’s patents on celluloid film (22). 1913 Cinema one tech Technology The technology to create film was complex. There were many associated scientific issues associated with creating a workable film platform. Photography, optics, the science of sight, the way the human eye interpreted images, the speed of recognition of an image via the optic nerve, and the science of rhe brain and how the brainoperated were involved. Film was not an overnight achievement and in fact, one hundred and thirty years since the birth of film rhere are still technological innovations and improvements being made to film technology. Daguerre and photography The dream of photography had been around for millennia. Early people made copies of people via sculpture and portraits but aside from good drawing skills no one had found a secret way to keep the actual appearance of a person intact in some visual media. Paintings and sculptures captured a resemblance, but scientists and artists wanted a batter way to maintain a picture from the light and image of a person. Artists wanted some form of the real person. In the renaissance and afterwards scienctists had developed lens that could focus light and through pinhole cameras in a room like could be focused (mostly uspdie down) so that artists could raw what they saw from thew outside. Still, despite the capture of light on a surface there was still no way to permanently capture light and record the appearance of a scene or a person. Artists set up rooms with lenses so they could better see and capture a subject. The most fampus of these early artists experiemtning 6 with photography was Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch artist who possessed a technological device that was expensive but widely available to people in the art community called a camera obscura. The camera obscura used lens and reflected light from a window or outside to make an image that could be projected on a wall, paper or canvas and thus Vermeer could draw a close copy of the image projected. In essence this amounted to tracing an image and making it one’s own. In the film, the Girl with the Pearl Earring about the life of Vermeer, Vermeer shows a servant girl in his house his camera obscura, and she is so amazed, she blurts out, ‘does it tell you how to paint?’ and the bemused painter replies that, “it helps.” It was fashionable for wealthy people in 17th, 18th and 19th century to have lens and rooms dedicated to camera obscura light studies of subjects and people tracing images was a simple way for people to learn about art and drawing. But the dream for the photographic community was not only to capture light and project it on a wall, but also to capture the image on a medium. This race to capture light and images o =n some portable medium continued into the 19th century. On January 7, 1839, members of the French Académie des Sciences were shown products of a new invention that wouldforever change the way people visually represted the world. This new art was called photography and it was the work of many scientists artists and technicians who worked tirelessly through the years creating a new way of making images that could be sustained and kept through technology. The astonishingly precise pictures they saw were the work of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787– 1851), who had forged a career as a romantic painter, and printmaker and he became somewhat famous as the proprietor of the Diorama, a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects. Each daguerreotype (as Daguerre dubbed his invention) was a one-of-a-kind image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper. Deguerre developed a process of developing images using chemicals that treated a piece of metal that had been exposed to an image or light source for a limited time of exposure. Daguerre’s invention in 1839 came after years of hard work by various artists, inventors and scientists. In fact, Daguerre had been searching since the mid-1820s for a means to capture the fleeting images he saw in his camera obscura, a draftsman’s aid consisting of a wood box with a lens at one end that threw an image onto a frosted glass sheet at the other. In 1829, he had formed a partnership with Nicéphore Niépce, who had been working on the same problem—how to make a permanent image using light and chemistry—and who had achieved primitive but real results as early as 1826. By the time Niépce died in 1833, the partners had yet to come up with a practical, reliable process.Not until 1838 had Daguerre’s continued experiments progressed to the point where he felt comfortable showing examples of the new medium to selected artists and scientists in the hope of lining up investors. François Arago, a noted astronomer and member of the French legislature, was among the new art’s most enthusiastic admirers. He became Daguerre’s champion in both the Académie des Sciences and the Chambre des Députés, securing the inventor a lifetime pension in exchange for the rights to his process. Only on August 19, 1839, was the revolutionary process explained, step by step, before a joint session of the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, with an eager crowd of spectators spilling over into the courtyard outside. Deguerre was fortunate to have advocates that gave him a pension because thousands of photographic enthusiasts were waiting for a 7 sensible and capable way to take photographic pictures and to keep them in some stable fashion. Deguerre’s deguerrotypes were the big breakthrough everyone was waiting for. The process revealed on that day seemed magical. Each daguerreotype was a remarkably detailed, one-of-a-kind photographic image on a highly polished, silver- plated sheet of copper, sensitized with iodine vapors, exposed in a large box camera, developed in mercury fumes, and stabilized (or fixed) with salt water or “hypo” (sodium thiosulfate). Although Daguerre was required to reveal, demonstrate, and publish detailed instructions for the process, he wisely retained the patent on the equipment necessary to practice the new art.From the moment of its birth, photography had a dual character—as a medium of artistic expression and as a powerful scientific tool—and Daguerre promoted his invention on both fronts. Several of his earliest plates were still- life compositions of plaster casts after antique sculpture—an ideal subject since the white casts reflected light well, were immobile during long exposures, and lent, by association, the aura of “art” to pictures made by mechanical means. But he also photographed an arrangement of shells and fossils with the same deliberation, and used the medium for other scientific purposes as well. The journalist Hippolyte Gaucheraud, in a scoop that appeared the day before daguerreotypes were first shown to the Académie des Sciences, wrote of having been shown the image of a dead spider photographed through a solar microscope: “You could study its anatomy with or without a magnifying glass, as in nature; [there is] not a filament, not a duct, as tenuous as might be, that you cannot follow and examine.” Even Arago, director of the Observatoire de Paris, was reportedly surprised by a daguerreian image of the moon.Neither Daguerre’s microscopic nor his telescopic daguerreotypes survive, for on March 8, 1839, the Diorama—and with it Daguerre’s laboratory—burned to the ground, destroying the inventor’s written records and the bulk of his early experimental works. In fact, fewer than twenty-five securely attributed photographs by Daguerre survive—a mere handful of still lifes, Parisian views, and portraits from the dawn of photography. From Metal to paper Once people could resolve and stabilize an image on a meta; [plate the race was on to encourage and preserve an image on a paper medium. Scientists studied the chemicals, an iodine mixture, silver nitrate vaper and other chemicals that might resolve an image on metal to see how these procedures could be adapted to create an image on paper surface. This would make photography more portable and easier to cart around than big heavy metal plates. The early 1840s and 1850 began to see European and American photographer printing their images onto glass negatives. These prints were wet and soon scientists developed a photosensitive paper that could print directly onto paper and thus create paper prints. By the late 1850s, deguerrotypes had been replaced by glass negative paper prints and during the civil war, Matthew Brady became a dominant figure in this new process. The exposure time shrank as well. Photogaphic exposures shrunk from 15 minutes or more to make a visual exposure on metal to under one minute to expose a negative on glass. Brady’s crystal clear prints of Lincoln and other notable figures and his war photos in the newspapers assured the success of the photographic process. Of course people wanted to make pictures move and it was in the 1870s that Muybridge performed the multiple camera experiment for Leland Stanford that 8 guaranteed the arrival of moving pictures. When Muybridge set up 25 cameras on a race track the idea of a multiple camera image of multiple successive serial images laid the groundwork for cinematography. The eye the brain and cinema. There were technical issues in running a stream of images past the human eye and getting people to think they were seeing moving images. First the eye and the brain had to recognize what they had seen. Then the rate of image had to be tailored to what the brain could interpret as a clear and discernable image aseries of seconds or mi/cro portions of a second. Many fillmakers have had fun playing with the eyes visual perceptions of things. In Hitchcock’s Psycho shower scene, Hitchcock has the murderer, norman bates stabing down at the woman’s body but there is rarely a real penetration of skin by the knife. The eye interprets the stabbing from the lounge of the knife. Several aspects of eye and brain structure create the effect of movement and vision. One aspect of how we see is known as persistence of vision. That is when a vision is projected onto the retina and absorbed by the optic nerve that image is retained on the eye for a few miliseconds after being seen, thus the image persists on the eye after it is shown to the eye. Another trick in our vision is the phi phenomenon. If you see a series of electric lights light up in succession, your brain may think the lights are actually moving and are not actually lighting up individually but re moving in a sequence across a field. The phi phenomena gives the impression of movement where there is none. The way the eye sees images is rather more complicated then we imagine. When light hits the retina which is sentive to light and reacts to it. special cells called photoreceptors turn the light into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the brain. Then the brain turns the signals into the images you see. Actually apparently when the eye sees things it is actually sees things upside down and the brain has to reinterpret the image and turn the image right side up so we can see things in the normal way we see things in space. Projectors. The technical achievement of watching film that was projected was even more complex. Film projectors had to pick a frame of film out of a roll of film, push it infront of a very bright light and hold the film for a millisecond so the eye can register the image and then allow the image to move before the film became too hot and burned up the frame. Then the next image would be dragged in to be vied for a millisecond. The projector needed a motor that allowed the film to move at one continuous speed. This required a moving engine or motor with variable speed and gears and rotors that would allow the motor to crank the film at one continuously speed, no less or no more. Faster film would not register with the eye and would be meaningless, a simple blur of images going by like items flying by you as a plane takes off or flashing by in a speeding car. A slow motor would make it seem like images were hanging in space and not moving. Projectors had a special device called the latham loop, developed by a group of famr engineers and laborers in New York. The lathams developed a loop that would keep film suspended in space for a second before being pulled by sprockets into the light to be exposed to the public. 9 Another problem with projectors was the noise the big loud 35 millimeter projectors made. When they were roaring and at full speed theyir motors made loud noise so often the projection room had to be separated from audiences as in today’s theatres. Today’s projections are digital but still the computers that run digital projectors generated many lumens of light electrical power and become very hot. The fans needed to cool such projectors can also be loud and forcing air into our out of the room. Thus projecting can still be noisy. Further in the early 20th century motors could run hot and cause another technological danger: fire. Fires famously broke out in early theatres sometimes killing whole audiences. Remember people are in a dark room. They often do not know where exits are. They are disoriented. When smoke fills the room it can incapacitate people and render them unable to respond. Fire was a constant danger and earlier theatres sometimes had a fire marshall by the door to assure people that the theatre was safe. Sound was always a part of film even during the silent period. In silent films people might narrate the film or a pianist or organist might provide accompanying music. Often even in early films people would try to provide an improvised soundtrack and or a record playih the dialogue. It asn’t that sound wasn’t availabl,e but it was often that sound did not work very well. There were two problems. For one thing sound was not well amplified in the arly twentieth century. People did not have amplifiers because there were no volume increasing tubes that would increase the volume of photograph record signal. All you could hear waa scratchy record through a minimally amplified old horn speaker. Sound quality was very poor. The man who solved that problem as an electrical engineer named lee de forest. De forest created the earliest vacuum rtubes and with amplification tubes the sound of the movie or record player could be pumped through large paper cone speakers that would give off more sound. But such devices were widely available in radio sets until the early 1920s. DeForest solved the amplification problem and people could hear better through amplified speakers. The second problem was synchronization. Sound could play during a film but if you played a record with a film and it skipped the entire sound of the soundtrack might be thrown off and a person might be speaking when he is silent and music might play at the wrong time. To synchronize sound you had to have a tape that played at the same time as the film or atape embedded wit hthe film or a synchronized record player that began at the same instant as the film. Today even wit hdigital film and digital audio you can have breaks in the sound and soundsignals that run digitally ahead of the sound track and people might still wind up talking out of sync with the film. Sound synchronization wit hediting of sound and image is still a problem for editors. Often the soundtrack of music is the last thing added to the film and that’s why some soundtracks are so powerful, they are creating as a unit as a part of the film distinct from the filming and speaking of the film itself. Terms Pure cinema: The notion of pure cinema is the combination of image, music and idea that Hitchcock carefully wove together in films to gain the focus of a scene. The shower scene of psycho or the opening scene from strangers on a train or the climactic scene in Rear Window where Stewart watches Grace Kelly in the house in his view all qualify as moments of pure cinema. 10 McGuffin: A device Hitchcock used. A device in films that kept the audience interest. Usually the object the criminal or the hero is after in a film (a formula, a person, a valuable object, money, a hostage) Films: Hitchcock, Alfred: Strangers on a Train (1951) Hitchcock, Alfred: Dial M For Murder (1954) Hitchcock, Alfred: Psycho(1960) Readings: Ursell, Joe. “The Phenomenal influence of Alfred Hitchcock.” https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/hitchcock-feature Wilson, Bee. “Alfred Hitchcock,from silent film director to inventor of modern horror.” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/15/alfred-hitchcock-inventor-modern-horror Cinema one The birth of cinema Early man and cinema Obviously, cinema did not occur until the nineteenth century in anything approaching the form we know today, but it is possible that early people were active thespians and perhaps enacted events from everyday life to be entertaining. So imagine a tribe or collective people who lived and dwelled together for protection from the elements and predators established a camp where the weather was desirable, the natural food was plentiful, there was game for hunting and potable water and the basic elements of life were desirable. This particular tribe of people harnessed the wheel, general mathematic calculations to make things and achieved a degree of engineering, and had clothing made from cotton and wool and designated labor tasks to various members of their collective. Then there was the need for entertainment and storytelling. After dinner or the evening meal, people gathered around the campfire or fire pit and achieved relative comfort in soft furnishings and conversed in an ancient language unknown to us. They had language, they were sentient, and they had memory and experiences. They begin to act out events of their day and explored issues and current events of common interest. They entertained their clan via a practice of storytelling. Storytelling Presumably early people gathered all people in a communal forum and one by one the members of community begin to explore their stories. Some were better storytellers, used language in a more captivating way, had expressive gestures and 11 bodies and plotted their fables in a manner that brought enjoyment to the crowd. Some even remembered the tales and repeated them and perhaps transcribed them. Another method of telling stories might have been a primitive form of animation. Early people were fairly sophisticated artists, and they likely could draw or paint on a variety of media. Some might have found flexible leaves or leaf material that could be dried and turned into a primitive form of paper. It would then be a small step from making individual pictures to linking them together as a primitive form of animation. One could flip a series of images in relation to the other pictures and make a primitive flip book of animated pictures. Recent discoveries hint that early people were more creative and technological than we knew. The idea of cinema probably was around long before there was advanced technology. The hunt to create real moving pictures probably took centuries of civilization to develop. The concept of a series of continuous images linked together as something to see and something acted out was probably in the minds of ancient people for many centuries before our common notion of civilization. Cartooning Cartooning was a prelude to moving images and the Egyptians, the Greeks, and especially the Romans were very adept at various forms of cartoons. The Romans were quite skillful at early forms of pornography. Just like the internet today, Roman cities had gobs of pornographic graffiti. This sort of illustration was not very educational or edifying but it did show that public interest in graphic arts was a popular pastime. Beginnings Animation probably arrived in steps. If one could draw a figure using successive movements that represented movement, walking or running using one image page at a time, the illusion of a person running could be achieved by flipping through pages from the beginning of a movement to the end of a movement. The earliest recording of movement was using a device that you spun in your hand or thumbs that was called a thaumatrope. You had two images on the opposite side of a plate-like drawing surface. You might have a person taking a step on one side and completing that step on side two. By flipping the device like a coin back and forth using a string to pop the image back and forth between the two images the partial step and the completed step would merge into a complete animated moment of a person stepping forward and taking a full step. People played with this toy and the producers would create simple animations of a person stepping or dancing, a horse galloping or a bird spreading its wings and flying. Another spinning cartoon device was called the Phenakistiscope. The device was a novelty that worked like a flipbook, but in a spiral motion. The technology was discovered by Joseph Plateau who was a mathematician and physicist in Belgium. Panorama Panorama’s were early forms of moving pictures that people visited in darkened rooms. Painters made scrolled paintings of country scenes. They would place a roll bar at the end of the big scroll painting and technicians would unroll the scroll at one end and collect the large wide painting at the other end. The effect of the scroll painting panorama was like riding by a beautiful scene on an afternoon drive in the horse drawn carriage. The painting might be populated with people in the landscape and though nothing moved but the painting, the audience sometimes thought they could catch movement in the cartoon characters painted into the scrolled scene. 12 Edward Muybridge The first actual film was an attempt made by photographer Eadweard Muybridge in 1878, to put photographs of an animal running in successive order. What Muybridge did was a form of serial photography where a series of cameras were lined up to track every moment of movement of an animal. Muybridge was a 19th century British photographer best known for his photos of a horse. There is a famous story of Leland Stanford, a California racehorse breeder, who was an entrepreneur and later became governor and eventually endowed Stanford University. Stanford had money bred horses and liked betting on horse races. One of his friends argued with him that horses were bound to the ground. Stanford said that horses at full gallop were able to leave the ground and momentarily could become air born creatures. Stanford’s friend did not believe him and bet him $25,000, a fortune in nineteenth century money that a horse was never air born and the appearance of a horse leaving the ground was an optical illusion. Stanford took the bet and promised he could prove his point. He felt that a better understanding of how horses run would serve trainers, and the animals. Stanford commissioned Muybridge to take rapid, successive photos of his racer a horse named, Sally. Muybridge warned Stanford that creating cameras that could track every millisecond of a horse’s trajectory would be costly. Stanford agreed to any price to win the bet. Muybridge set about finding engineers that would make him cameras with precision shutters that could click open and close and expose film for the briefest of times. Thus Muybridge could track every small movement of the horse. A second challenge was finding a chemical mixture that would expose the film quickly with a small amount of light at high speed. At that time, some people sat still for 30 seconds or longer to produce a film exposure. The chemical process involved a chemical mixture of silver nitrate which was painted on a special photo-sensitive paper to obtain an exposure of light to the paper to produce a photographic record of an event. Muybridge’s second challenge was finding a chemist that could create a new chemical emulsion that could make the film develop a picture with only a millisecond of light exposure. That required a very specific chemical mixture that would allow the paper to resolve an image in a short period of time. Eventually, Muybridge the intrepid experimenter built 25 cameras with a sensitive quick shutter and used a new type of film that developed with small light exposure. When horses ran before the cameras and pulled very light trip wires, the cameras, all twenty five fired off in quick succession creating a series of photos this showed every movement the horses made including horses leaving the ground. Muybrdge did conclusively prove that horse’s hooves indeed fly when they were running and that at full gallop horses did in fact fly. Stanford was right. Horses do fly. Although Stanford won the $25,000 dollar bet, the cost of Muybridge’s research set Stanford back an incredible $50,000. Muybridge did prove that the horse's hooves were completely off the ground in mid-gallop. The experiment used photos that proved horses do in fact leave the ground at high speeds. Staring at all of these photographs, Muybridge soon realized that he could put them together to display the horse and the rider in motion. Muybridge transformed his scientific skill to become an early creator of medical images of patients in motion. Muybridge had an interesting and exciting life. He was born in England in 1830 and died in the US in 1904. He had started as a nature photographer in the west, and became fascinated with recording the movement of animals. He was involved in a near 13 fatal stagecoach accident that caused brain injuries and made Muybridge sullen and less communicative. People thought the injuries drove him mad. They did not, but recovery was long and arduous. He lived in the west was married and was gone photographing the wilds of Western America. Once when he returned, he found his wife in bed with another man. He promptly shot and killed the man and was found not guilty in a court. The court decided he had just cause. Muybridge was involved in a deadly stagecoach accident and almost lost his life. He had serious traumatic injuries. He recovered from that unfortunate incident and busied himself with learning about the motion of people and animals. He photographed the minute movement of animals in every stage of movement. He photographed people in motion. He received commissions from osteopathic surgeons who wanted minute studies of how people moved so they could reconstruct people’s bone’s and movement after a traumatic accident. Muybridge, himself, a beneficiary of good trauma surgeons appreciated their value. People saw Muybridge’s nude portraits of people walking as pornographic, but they were not used for that purpose, only to instruct doctors in the way normal bones and limbs moved in natural motion. He photographed the movement of men, women, monkeys, horses, dogs, cats, and many other animals and created the first record of medical movement charts used by osteopathic surgeons in the US. He also toured extensively showing his images of movement and images of the body in motion to thousands across the country. He worked with scientists and technicians to increase the speed of shutters in camera so they could take faster pictures of events at the moment the event happened. He also increased the experimentation into chemicals that would resolve images on paper faster. Thus, he was able to transform the time portrayed in photography from lengthy shots to short and speedy snaps. Modern gif images popular on the web today often reveal the dramatic achievements of Muybridge’s work 100 years after the fact. A common student can construct a clever gif image of Muybridge’s images into a complex study of animal motion. Muybridge between 1870 and 1900 perhaps did more to advance the work of photography both as an art and a science than any other artist and photographer of the age. Muybridge was the father of modern cinematography and was responsible for reanimating still images, but his work was largely forgotten during his lifetime, and he achieved little credit after his death. Only in the last fifty years has Muybridge’s work been revisited. Sadly near the end of his life, Muybridge thought his work might be forgotten but today he is revered as one of the pioneers of pre-cinema technology. Without Muybridge, there might have been no film production. A specialty of Muybridge’s work was his fascination with animals. He was fascinated by the motion of animals. This fascination came from his previous photographing at Yellowstone. Muybridge pioneered chrono photography, the filming of events over time. Muybridge's work in the famous Yosemite valley had an afterlife of its own in the new medium of cinema. He photographed horses, donkeys, raccoons, dogs, and even cats. He created the first cat film in 1887, and the first film of a dog in 1881. All the YouTubers and other video artists creating cute viral cat and dog videos have Eadweard Muybridge to thank. Besides animals he also captured the movement of athletes. Alice Guy Blanche 14 Alice Guy was one of the first women filmmakers and her career extended from 1896 to 1920. She lived into the 1960s and had a chance to give interviews near the end of her life that re-established her long forgotten work in film. Alice Guy was a French woman and her family who were poor struggled to obtain a job for her in secretarial work. She luckily found a job in an early film company in Paris working for Louis Gaumont, the chair of a division of the company that was actively producing films. In these early days of film there was little belief that film would last or be a craze or sensation for society. Films were short, thirty seconds to one minute and there were few theatres available for showing films. In fact, the first films had only debuted in public theatres in November of 1895 when the Lumiere brothers showed a film to 30 plus people in a public room in Paris. The Lumiere’s had built a camera that was not only a camera but could be used to develop film by pouring developing fluid in the camera box and could be used to project film by placing a light behind the lens and showing the projected image on the wall. It was a remarkably versatile device and it was expensive. Gaumont bought one of the Lumiere camera boxes and set to work on improving on the Lumiere technique. He hired production crews to go out and make films. Some were fiction films and some were documentary films. People came to see these Gaumont productions and soon Gaumont needed more directors and producers. He deputized Alice Guy, his secretary to supervise filming. Guy was a keen film fan, and she started producing and directing her own productions possibly creating the first narrative film in her fantastic, The Cabbage Patch Fairy in 1896. This film featured an attractive older woman plucking beautiful bouncing babies from a field of cabbages. The babies cooed and giggled and the happy woman placed them in little pod cradles and extracted more babies from the scene creating a rousing little fairy tale about the birth of babies. Alice Guy Married Max Blanche and moved to the US in 1900 first to work for Gaumont’s overseas division and then she opened her own film company that made films for ten years. She was the first independent female filmmaker in the US and the only woman in the field that ran her own company, Solax. After her marriage to Blanche failed she continued her operations eventually closing in the 1920s. Eventually she returned to France, but found no work in the industry. She returned in the US in the fifties and lived in obscurity until critics began to realize the quiet old lady down the block in New Jersey had been one of the country’s first female filmmakers. She was questioned and interviewed in the 1960s, and she told the story of her early adventures making films. In the end, Alice Guy Blanche was recognized as one of the first narrative filmmakers in the world and one of the only women filmmakers in the early field of filmmaking. Thomas Edison and his Kinetoscope Thomas Edison was a great inventor of the nineteenth century and he did not work alone. He hired a studio of engineers and technicians to help him invent and patent devices and new products. As a child Edison had partial hearing loss from an explosion that damaged his ear drum, and he was often considered lax and not intelligent in school. Edison remembered these early slights and when he became rich and famous he grimly defended his inventions including the movie camera and sued competing filmmakers out of business. He would not appear stupid in business and many people and businesses grew to fear Edison. On the plus side, Edison hired a 15 group of talented engineers and creators, and they designed not only electric lights, record players, recorders and movie cameras and projectors but also a host of other attached items that people. Edison created the incandescent electric light in 1879 which immediately revolutionized lighting. The only powered lighting that had been available for centuries was fire which was dangerous and easily went of control. Lime light was an earlier form of light created by heating a mound of lime. It was hot, dangerous, and impractical. Edison created a phonograph recorder and an early form of microphone recordings. He made better telegraphs and improved the reception and transmission of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. One of Edison’s best talents was improving on inventions made by others. Edison noticed that Europeans like the Lumieres were working on making films, and Edison saw the novelty of film as profitable. Edison witnessed early films in the labs of scientist Étienne-Jules Marey. Marey was racing to creating a device that could record visual movement. After seeing Marey’s experiments he began to work on experiments in his own lab. William K. Dickson was a photographer, who worked for Edison, and pioneered some of the first films that this laboratory produced. Two of the most notable films produced in the lab, were Dickson's greeting in 1891, and Dickson's Experimental Sound Recording in 1894. Dickson's Greeting was merely him moving his hat in his hand. Dickson’s Experimental Sound Recording was a violinist playing into one of Edison's recording devices while simultaneously being filmed with two people dancing. Edison, himself, designed and did work on the camera. He created a mechanism that would momentarily pause the film in an attempt to keep the photos from blurring. This device was derived from Latham loop that was originally developed by the Latham family in New York, halted a film long enough to be seen and then the loop would pull the film through the camera. Some of Edison’s films in the 1890s included Fred Ott’s sneeze. Fred Ott was a man who worked for Edison who could sneeze on cue. Edison recorded him sneezing. Edison also recorded the first controversial film, the Rice-Irwin kiss. Rice and Irwin were two middle aged actors in a New York stage play. In it, they kissed on stage. Edison saw the play and invited them to come to his studio to kiss on film. Although the scene they performed is like watching two grand parents kiss, two older people in a warm and tender embrace smooching, it caused public outrage and the event was considered by some as pornographic. Edison pursued all sorts of recordings at his custom-built Menlo Park, New Jersey lab. There he built a custom building with black walls and a moveable roof that could be opened to allow light in to provide more or less exposure as Edison demanded to expose his film. In his lab, he recorded strong men flexing, women dancing in colored robes (these were colored by hand a single frame at a time) and boxers were recorded boxing. Edison found a wide and endless appetite amongst viewers for all style of films about every day life. Thomas Edison introduced the Edison Home Kinetoscope, using 22mm safety film provided by Eastman Kodak. Edison devised a plan to set up kinetoscope parlors across the country for people to view new short films. The Kinetoscope parlors were an instant hit with the public, especially because they were inexpensive to use. The films were a cheap amusement that Edison targeted to the working classes. The concept of cheap short movies became popular, but projecting film on a screen took powerful 16 lights, generated a lot of heat, and threatened to burn the film. Edison’s individual style of viewers watching one film at a time gave rise to the concept of the nickelodeon. The Lumiere Brothers, Cinématographe, and the first projected movies Louis and Auguste Lumière were brothers and owners of a company that made photographic film, but they also realized that feature filmmaking might be new form of entertainment and revenue. It was something for people to watch. It was a new amusement for people’s leisure time and in the early twentieth century people had more leisure. They were good engineers and the brothers built an early movie camera that could shoot pictures in sequence, develop film by pouring in developer to the camera box and could be used as a projector to show the pictures after they had been developed. All you had to do was attach a light to one end of the camera box and crank the film past the projected light. The Lumiere Brothers saw the popularity of Edison's Kinetoscope Parlor, and they wanted their own form of cinema. Edison's machines were only good for one person at a time, and the Lumieres dreamed of many people being able to see the pictures at the same moment. Auguste and Louis used their same camera as a projector that had the capacity to project a motion picture on a wall. The men had made a device and viewing place they called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere’s showed the first projected cinema shows in a small darkened room in November of 1895, the first example of projected films. Louis Lumiere had developed a dry film emulsion process for developing photographs and the same chemicals were used for processing cinematic film. They created the process to develop the film and to show the pictures. Louis Lumiere had the foresight to make a versatile recording and projecting device. The Lumieres regarded cinema as one invention among many and in his later In later life he observed that he and his brother had shown the seeds of the film industry for others to harvest. Forbes magazine announced in 2019 that the movie industry could gross 11.5 billion dollars in 2019. Film culture and business sadly has had a short memory, and sadly, no one has ever thanked the Lumiere for their contribution. Georges Melies, and the invention of film editing Georges Melies was a well-known stage magician, who owned his stage and theater where he performed magic shows. George was a master at elaborate stage illusions, and used projectors as part of his stage act. Many of the magic sketches Melies produced used stage illusion to produce startling, and violent, comedic effects. Melies loved the work of the Lumiere Brothers and their Cinématographe Machine. He wanted to use this tech in the magic shows. Melies designed a different film camera and projecting system, and he realized the projector could stop and start during the recording. He developd the jump cut, an image jumping from one screen position to another and realized this could be used for magic effects. Melies created another technique used in magic, the double exposure. He could expose the film twice and put two separate images in one frame. He considered film to be one of the most spectacular mediums of magic. He wished to astound audiences, and his films seemed magical with their special effects. His 1902 film A Trip to the Moon was widely bootlegged in the US and Melies fought hard to obtain payment for pirated copies of his films. This ‘Trip to the moon’ was even bootlegged by Thomas Edison to be shown in his own new theaters, Melies wasn't done impressing people with his visual sorcery, he also employed a lot of people to color tint each individual frame to make the earliest colorized films. 17 New Entertainment and Hollywood Edison was a major reason that Hollywood arrived. Edison saw the popularity of projected films, so he switched from the Kinetiscope to the new medium to keep relevant. After he patented the new film projector, he actively sued his competitors, many of whom did not have patents and so were unprotected. He also sued W K. Dickson, his former employee, for trying to start his own company. Eventually, he tired of suing competitors and formed a trust with Dickson and some of his other competitors. This eventually started squeezing out smaller film producers, who ended up leaving the East Coast and moving their own production houses to Hollywood. The West Coast location had access to all types of topography and terrains which was necessary to make realistic, different types of sets. Hollywood began to get a great variety of moving picture companies. Hollywood, itself, pushed out much of the smaller competition with the variety and abundance of films being produced. Major production companies started engaging in integration of the film industry through film production, distribution, and theaters. Universal developed a form of vertical integration by producing its own films, distributing them to domestic and international markets, and then exhibiting those films in Universal-owned theaters. The Hollywood monopoly became so great that it edged Edison out and dominated the world movie market. The film industry was motived by money and ending outside competition.This allowed Hollywood dominance over world cinema for generations. Today Disney alone produces over 70% of all American films. In recent years calls have been made to regulate Hollywood and make it more fair and equitable for other companies to compete against the Hollywood system. We hopefully want more films than the simply the princesses and Marvel movies of Disney. Terms storytelling: early form of drama Animation: a form of moving pictures using drawings strung together to give the appearance of real life movement. Thaumatrope: Early simple animation device flipping pictures back and forth with a small disc or plate. Panorama: a painted scene that could be moved on a scrollbar revealing more scenery and showing a primitive form of animation or movement through space. Storytelling: the art of telling stories preceded the production of all cinema. Phenakistiscope: Another early animation device only unlike a thaumatrope the Phenakistiscope moved objects in a circle to create the sense of motion. Electric light: the essential invention for filmmaking, created by Thomas Edison’s lab in 1879. It changed the world. Films: E. S. Poster: The Great Train Robbery (1903) James Williamson: The Big Swallow (1900) T. A. Edison: The Rice Irwin Kiss (1896) Lumiere: Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895) Readings: Gunning, Tom. “Cinema of Attractions.” http://www.columbia.edu/itc/film/gaines/historiography/Gunning.pdf Kubincanek, Emily. “How Hollywood Made People Believe it Was the Dream Factory.” 18 https://filmschoolrejects.com/old-hollywood-made-america-believe-american-dream- factory/ Cinema two Early Cameras The earliest American invention of a cinematic device was edison's kinetoscope created by one of his technicians WKL Dickson around 1890 Edison built a studio in New Jersey called the black Mariah it looked like a great big black building. Some of the earliest films that Edison produced were Fred ott's knees that arrived in 1894 and the Serpentine dances of 1894. Edison scored one of the first controversial films in 1894 with the rice Erwin kiss that actually showed two people kissing on film and upset people who believed the film contained pornographic content. What Edison had done was photographed 2 actors who were portraying lovers on stage in a New York production. Edison asked the actors to perform a scene from the play on film for him and the actors for a fee obligingly appeared and performed the scene and Edison filmed it . However Edison became aware of how controversial film could be immediately when he realized that the content of the film could make people upset. The black Mariah studio was an interesting invention in and of itself the walls of the building were black so that all the backgrounds of the images that Edison photographed with his assistance WKL Dickson and others would be foreground images against a black background light came from skylights in the building so that Edison could control the lights in the room by raising or lowering curtains over the skylights and he could control the light on the objects in the room so that the objects that would be central would be in a lighter color and the background behind objects would be black. in essence edison created the very 1st cinematic studio or studio space for For filming a film. Edison referred to his camera as the kinetoscope or a box that would contain film and could be cranked by hand to record images moving in front of it using celluloid. Celluloid film did not come out exposed and ready for viewing. Like the photographic process the film once exposed 19 had to be treated with chemicals to resolve or bring out an image this could take hours to make an image clearer so that the film could be seen and the image could be interpreted. Edison made a series of comedic films and films of boxers and films of people dancing . However Edison did not solve the problem of how to project films by 1896 many competitors with Edison in the United states were trying to achieve their own films and we're trying to project films in a live environment the projecting of films had many difficulties and challenges for film makers while individual viewers of film could watch a film in a small viewer actually projecting a film on a wall with enough light and clear lenses so that the film could be seen by others and would project at the right rate of speed so that it could be discernible as moving images proved to be very challenging for film makers. Lumiere The race to be the first people to produce a movie projector and a place to entertain audiences would be the Lumiere brothers auguste and Pierre lewmar 2 French inventors who created the cinematograph. The cinematograph was a superior invention 2 edison's kinetoscope the cinematograph developed by the Lumiere brothers was a camera a developing device and projector all in a single box in November of 1895 the Lumiere brothers created the first cinema show allowing audiences to sit in seats while the Lumiere brothers projected their images on a wall this entertainment was very popular for european audiences and it took a while for american inventors to up up with something similar where projection The Lumiere films were bright and intelligent featuring elements of life that had not been seen before including images of the loomers themselves feeding their baby and featuring elements like a train arriving at a train station . Some of the images The Lumineers chose to shoot were so astounding they frightened audiences. For example when the loomers shot the very first train arriving at the train station people in the audience thought the train was coming directly at them and they literally ducked out of their chairs for fear of being struck by the train . The image was so riveting people really thought it was a real train coming at them. The I fold the brain into a fear reaction to the early cinema. In fact many times when we have a jump reaction in a horror movie it's still our body responding to a stimulus that the body feels is real even though in our minds we know that what is on the screen is in no way near us and cannot really affect us or actually harm us in reality . Thus jumpscares are a way in which our body still responds to cinema as if we're in the room with the cinema event and we can be affected by things in the cinema. The truth is what is happening is the body is reacting to a physical stimulus it still perceives as a threat that is a jump scare where the brain eventually realizes that everything is on film and is not really a danger to the physical body. The Lumiere films piloted several innovations in the creation of films first loomers probably created the very first narrative comedy called the Gardner. In the Gardner there is a gardener who is watering plants and a boy walks along and steps on the garden hose stopping the water the gardener looks at the hose to see if something is obstructing the water the boy takes his foot off the hose and the gardener is splashed in the face with water popping out the comedic aspect of the film immediately was enjoyed by audiences who along with the boy understood the joke of the water trick. The loomers also captured real life when they actually showed their first film workers leaving 20 the mayor factory. August and Pierre lewmar had a film factory where they actually made photographic film and one of the first films they recorded was workers leaving their factory at the end of a work day and it's simply an image of workers walking out the doors of the factory at the end of the work day and lasts about 30 seconds thirdly and finally most powerfully the workers showed a train pulling into a station and arriving. People thought this was an astounding event because the train appeared to be coming directly at the audience and people in the audience actually ducked fearing that the train would actually strike them. Two theories discuss the way early cinema was seen by audiences the first theory is the actualities or cinema as realism in the early days of film film was seen as real or what actually occurred the term for this was that cinema is seen as an actuality or a reality of life and audiences took it that way there are many apocryphal stories about the first cinema showing of the train arriving at the station in France in in the first showing of of that shot in 1896 the story is that audiences actually ducked because they're afraid they would be struck by the train but they did realize they were watching a film that was projected and they realized that the film that was projected was not real life but they took the events they saw on screen as real that is they did not assume that somebody had staged the event or that actors were performing in action and not really living it so it took a while for the idea of performance in film just like performance on stage to be accepted as being fiction. The second theoretical concept about early film is the idea that cinema was treated like a form of amusement like an amusement park or carnival or circus. That film was seen as a cinema of attractions that people went to the cinema like they would go to a fair or a ride at Disney World the idea for many people attending cinema was they were going to experience an experience they had never experienced before. This cinema of attractions theory suggests that people went to film for the sensation of seeing something they had never seen before they did not go to the cinema because they wanted to see a story that experience came a little bit later. As the length of films became longer audiences moved from wanting to see actualities and a cinema of attractions to actually wanting to see films that told a story. This created more competition to make movies and it created the birth of more studios . As films became longer people wanted to see more diverse stories that told the stories of different people and people had an appetite for fantasy and reality. Narrative became the format for film over simply an actual event or a cinema of attractions where people could see something new the whole idea of a narrative film changed the basis for filmmaking in the 1890s into the 20th century Actualities: Early non-fiction short films that were often composed as static one-shots. The first films in cinema history were actualities. Cinema of attractions: Concept developed by theorist Tom Gunning to describe how early moviegoers were attracted to cinema primarily as a shocking and exciting new technology. Georges Méliès: Cinema and the magic tradition George molaise is considered one of the earliest great film makers of the early cinema era he was a magician he was an early on tour he built his own studio and he pioneered a wide range of cinematic effects . He is considered the father of fantasy and science fiction cinema. He controlled all aspects of filmmaking including production screen 21 writing directing acting producing and distribution so therefore he is now considered by many people to be one of the earliest auteurs of cinema. George Melies created his cinema using a camera he purchased in England from an English inventor. His films became famous for the use of special effects or magic tricks that popular popularized using multiple exposures dissolves stop motion and split screen photography effects amongst other techniques malaise was one of the first people to utilize many effects in his films and therefore is by many people is considered to be the father of science fiction special effects and fantasy cinema. One of his popular early films on whom date it or the four troublesome heads from 1898 actually has Malays in the frame and he actually removes his head and places it on a table in the end he places four different versions of his head on the table and each one of them is a different version of malaise head . How he creates the this effect is by using multiple exposures of the same film. Malaise in many of his films uses the technique of the dissolve or stop motion photography to create many of his special effects. Another technique molaise uses is direct address to the audience where he actually is speaking directly to the audience as as they are watching the film . Perhaps the most famous of malaise early films is a trip to the moon from 1902 and the impossible voyage from 1904 in both films molaise is telling a story of people taking a trip and he uses the technique of linear editing to actually portray the story in a specific sequence . He is one of the first film makers to utilize linear editing successfully to show the progression of the story moving forward in a narrative format. Malaise work is also important for his building of his own studio and his creation of a set design where he can control the elements of the design and the background and the special effects in his own studio he also utilized objects that would jump from one scene to another or literally jump cuts . Other film makers of the era including James Williamson began to utilize special effects in their films in 1900 James Williamson created the big swallow a film in which he is describing a man who is angry about the fact that he is being photographed so he walks up to a camera and decides to swallow the camera and the filmmaker all we see is a guy approaching the camera and opening in his mouth but the assumption is that he is actually swallowing and devouring the camera because he's tired of being photographed. The birth of classical Hollywood storytelling. James Williamson was an important filmmaker from England and in 1901 he created a 5 minute film entitled fire in which he put scenes together in a narrative format so that audiences would see one event coming after another describing the outbreak of a fire and attempts by fireman's is to end the fire and save the building. The big breakthrough in Hollywood classical editing and film story structure arrived in 1903 Edwin S Porter had been a worker for Edison and had been a projectionist and had access to a lot of films. He had seen Jane woods williamson's five minute 1901 film fire he had been witness to George molaise a trip to the moon in 1902 . Because he had been a projectionist he had a chance to see each of these films several times he created two of the most important films to the idea of film narrative and those films were the life of an American fireman in 1903 and the Great Train Robbery in 1903 both are important breakthrough films. The life of an American fireman is literally taken from James Williamson fire in 1901 it tells the story of firemen and fighting fires in nine scenes that are strung together in a narrative format that tells the story of the 22 firemen being called out to stop a fire. In nine scenes Evan S Porter actually creates the idea of cinema that is edited together in nine separate specific scenes. In 1903 he embarks on the Great Train Robbery about the robbery of the train which is even more complex and has more scenes and uses rear projection in the film there is a train station being seen with rear projection scenes of trains going by through the window a group of robbers come into the train station to hold it up they knock the train station attendant unconscious and they tie him up and they go out to the train tracks to wait for the train when it stops to refuel for water and coal when the train stops the robbers climb on board the train and subdue the crew and break into the train car containing money that is moved from one location to another the valiant train official tries to protect the money but is shot and thrown off the train by the robbers they take the money they separate the engine car from the rest of the train they robbed the passengers on the train and then they mount the engine car and drive away in the meantime we see a scene of the sheriff and his men at a dance and people are dancing in a room at a hoedown uh a dance party . The robbers separate from the engine car abandon it and go into the woods and pick up horses to make their getaway. The sheriff in the middle of the dance is told that the train has been robbed and he must mount a posse to stop the robbers . The sheriff and his men depart the dance . The next scene shows the robbers on horseback being chased by the sheriff and his men and shooting ensues the robbers get some distance away and decide to stop get off their horses and split the loot. They are surrounded by the sheriff and his men and one by one they are shot dead . The last scene of the film shows a sheriff pointing a gun in the audience and firing. The film is 8 to 10 minutes long and really does show the complex process of the robbery and the aftermath of the robbery. The value of Edwin S Porter's technique is that he places the scenes together in sequence so that we have the sense of an action being continued mentally by the audience as they watch one event followed by another event. The satisfaction for the audience is that they get to see the beginnings of the robbery the effects on the station agent who is knocked unconscious they also watch a girl who come pops into the station and rescues the agents and alerts her and the sheriff to the fact there's been a robbery and they showed the resolution of the robbery the chase by the sheriff and the capture and eventual execution of the robbers by the sheriff and his men. Both the life of an American fireman in 1903 and the Great Train Robbery in 1903 have in massive impact on American film for one thing they illustrate that American film is based on the idea of action of big complicated dramatic and oftentimes violent actions become the central thing in American film they also show that the audience is like chases the audiences like westerns the audience is like violence the audience is like killing the audience is like drama the audience is like suspense the audience is like to know what happens the audience is like to know sequence and the audience is like to know outcomes so for many many reasons the Great Train Robbery deeply impacts the way later American films are made. After the Great Train Robbery many films feature action many films feature drama many films feature violent action many films feature chases many films resolve themselves in violent conclusions of that action. One of the interesting scenes in the Great Train Robbery is where the robbers are slowly taking all of the possessions of the passengers on board the train and while they are robbing the passengers 1 passenger attempts to make a break for for it and run from the robbers and his shot in the back that sequence creates real interest for the audience because 23 they are concerned about what happens to this man and as the robbers depart the scene all of the characters who have been robbed run to the man who has been shot to see if one he's still alive and two if they can render made so there is a social and curiosity dimension to these early American films but they do set in motion the style of of filming that will be sent become significant for the next 100 years in American filmmaking The Great Train Robbery prevails as one of the Great American films from 1903 for another 10 years audiences returned to watching it again and again at 10 minutes in length audiences can watch the film six times an hour and do people literally memorize it line for line and action for action period from 1905 to 1911 there was a massive boom in what's known as the Nickelodeon a private viewing parlor where people could watch a short film for five cents these examples of short nickel films really created an audience for films. American film progresses forward in 1915 with DW griffith's breakthrough film birth of a nation birth of a nation uses many techniques that become standard in American film and provides a variety of technical innovations the three hour and 15 minute film is a major epic and an extremely sensational film and it is also deeply racist in its tone. Birth of a nation possibly singlehandedly helped to revive the klu Klux Klan in American culture DW Griffith knew exactly what he was doing when he chose the novel the klansman to make into a film . First Griffith knew the the book and the subject matter would be deeply controversial second Griffith linked these sensational topic of racism and the birth of the glucose clan to his cinema innovations third Griffith had enormous vision to envision the era of the pre civil war the civil war the death of Lincoln the Reconstruction Era and the birth of the Klan all in a single film . He utilizes a variety of techniques in the film to create empathy with characters . He uses a variety of shots cross cutting from close up to medium shot to longshot to dramatize events and take the audience with him he uses naturalistic acting from some of the best actors he could find in that era who really epitomized the characters and make the audience sympathetic to even some of the most horrific ideas such as lynching throughout the film the klu Klux Klan is seen as the epitome of order in the South the attempts to restore order to a lawless southern territory of the United states. While the film had enormous racist content the film prompted controversy and prompted public outcry about racism about lynching and about the origins and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan if nothing else despite Griffith sensationalistic motivations the birth of a nation caused the the nation to have the very first debate about issues of racism and the idea of democracy of a variety of people in the 20th century and that debate continues today. The film shows that a film can have a sociological impact on a culture in a country and how people see the world and how people even see their neighbors. While the story of women film makers was not widely told there were many women who became involved in the filmmaking business as producers and directors . In 1896 in Paris the secretary to Luis GAIL mall of the gammill studios was Alice guy blanche. Alice guy blanche was hired by gammill to create films and she ran her own film unit in the early 20th century Alice guy blanche left the gomoll organization to create her own film making business and pioneered filmmaking in the United states making films into the 1920s. In the United states one of the first female film makers to make a full length feature film was Lois Weber who in 1914 made a version of Shakespeare's merchant of 24 Venice. Lois Webber was one of the first women to achieve fame and acclaim as a director and she used her platform to talk about issues of child care abortion and women's rights . All of these ideas would remain fairly taboo until recent years many women innovated in the format of film. World War One had a massive impact in the creation of film around the world and of course influenced where and how films could be made. With Europe plunged into war The United states took the lead in film production. The United states entered World War One very late and had very few casualties from the war period therefore their film industry was intact at the end of the war and by 1919 American film had taken the lead. However art movements had enormous influence over film particularly in France where art had enormous influence over everyday life. The movement that began with ridicule but became popular by the turn of the century was the notion of French impressionism. French impressionism literally used the science of how the ises to create pointillistic images that were reconstructed by the retina into a meaningful image. In Francis impressionistic music sketches and pieces of a melody would be reconstructed in the mind of the audience into whole melodies where audiences would do some of the work of reconstructing the music into a whole and beautiful experience. Similarly expressionism in film allowed audiences to interact with the film . In impressionistic film a series of images or ideas would be presented partially and the audience would be invited to become involved in the film process by trying to connect the dots literally of the story of the character of the movement of the scenes to reconstruct a whole from the idea of the French impressionist view of the world where various discrete parts would be laid before the audience in isolation and the audiences would have to reconstruct the parts into a hole to make sense of the impressionistic elements. One of the major innovators in the French impressionistic film movement was a man named Abel gantz who literally utilized a variety of storytelling lighting and technology techniques within a frame and using frame mobility to recreate the experience in the eyes and the experience of the characters . Oftentimes gantz would use montage to put together a series of ideas or scenes to connect an audience to an image and make sense of the image. Very famously in his film Napoleon one of the last classic silent films constructed in 1927 gan's used the technique of impressionism to put together a series of images telling the story of the life of Napoleon. One of the concepts of cinema impressionism is the concept of the photo genie that is the way of making an object more profound and deeper by enhancing it with a close up that gets you inside the mind of the character. There are several scenes enable gansus Napoleon in which he uses the technique of the photo Jenny in which we see Napoleon in close-up and then we see cuts or cutaways to different things inside napoleon's mind that allows us to project from the image of Napoleon the thought process of Napoleon as he's looking at things in the world the concept of the photo Jenny is very important to the impressionist concept of building a character. A new style of cinema emerges in France under the concept of Dada filmmaking and surrealistic filmmaking. Dada film making portrays oftentimes the nonsense of life and can collide through editing images that can produce a smile or silliness or terror pure. Surrealism is a movement more wedded to psychoanalysis and surrealists believed that there were unconscious images floating in the back of our mind that if those images could be brought to life might give us deeper understanding of our 25 unconsciousness. Surrealistic filmmaking toyed with Freud's ideas of dream analysis. Probably one of the most important in the surrealist films of the 1920s was Salvador Dali and Luis banal 2 French Spanish surrealist painters made a film titled and delusion dog andalusian dog was a film that was a series of dreamlike sequences tide together with a broken narration that appeared to be like fragments of a dream. A man stares at the moon at night sharpens his razor blade and then cuts open a woman I all of these are weird strange nightmarish dream images at the beginning of the film then there is a sequence of a man wearing what looks like a nun's habit riding a bicycle down a street in Paris he goes unconscious the bicycle falls over a woman in upper upper floor of an apartment complex looks out her window and sees him lying on the ground goes running downstairs to his aid and then she is back in the apartment mysteriously and she assembles pieces of his clothing on the bed and looks at the bed and wheels the man on the on the street who has fallen over to appear in her bed the man is reconstructed in the bed and then while she's looking at the bed she notices the man has teleported to the room and he's staring at his hand in the room and she goes over to him and sees it coming out of his hand as a series of ants so the film does not make traditional sense it just gives a catalog of a series of different disconnected dream images that might appear in somebody's fitful nightmare but surrealistic film definitely had an influence on the faint way film was constructed because even though some surrealistic feelings or images might seem unreal some aspects of life might seem like a dream or deeply unreal and not realistic all of these are important ideas about films and filmmaking and all of them shaped the way modern European film arrived. When we look at French and European film we see that Dada and surrealism and impressionism probably didn't have a lot of impact in early 20th century film although all of those ideas might have had impact later in this country but we clearly see that Dada surrealism and impressionism all have a strong impact in the way French film is created again around ideas that are very different than the ideas that created American film. Finally we arrive at another style that's very important to the creation of European film and that's the style of German expressionism German expressionism was an art style that grew out of the horrors of World War One . The Germans had become involved in war in World War One thinking that they would be great militarists and leaders and winners at the war . What they didn't understand was other cultures could also martial forces against them and stop them the Germans were stunned to find themselves the losers at the end of World War One. They felt that they should be the winners of the war and when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the Germans ended up paying massive reparations to the allies in the war. The concept of German expressionism was a concept that was already available and existing in art. German expressionism depended on bright unmixed colors German expressionism also conveyed abstract images that did not look like real life locations. German expressionism also portrayed extreme violent emotions hysteria fear anxiety horror death all of those things are experienced in German expressionist expressionistic work. When Germans began to employ expressionistic techniques after World War One it came from a period of anxiety. The German psyche did not expect to lose the war period the Germans did not expect their country to be bankrupt by war reparations. The Germans did not expect to have massive inflation and instability in their culture. Therefore the films made from German expressionism are darkly psychologically 26 complicated and disturbing. The Germans become highly interested in horror fantasy science fiction and aberrational states of mind. One of the earliest films of the German expressionist. Is a film by Robert wiene entitled the cabinet of doctor caligari and in summarizes many of the anxieties in the German mind at the time . The character at the center of the film is being treated by a psychiatrist whom the character realizes has a hidden side to him he isn't just a psychiatrist but at night he is experimenting with creating dark life and he has created a homunculus a proto human creature that goes out at night and terrorizes people kills people and steals women our protagonist is terrified of the doctor because he has this hidden side to him and what he discovers overtime is that this character is dangerous and destructive. So he fears the character and believes that he's in the clutches of a madman. Finally at the very end of the film after the monstrous Dr caligari has killed people and stolen women the protagonist of the film wakes up . He realizes he's been in a dream and the dream has been a paranoid psychotic fantasy. When he awakens he realized that doctor caligari is not an evil scientist has now created a proto human has not been killing people has not been stealing women but has been treating him for psychosis and paranoia. When he awakens from his dream he realizes that everything he is seen throughout the film has been a horrible delusion and that the doctor is really a good person who has cured him from his hysteria paranoia and paranoid state. So many of the films that arrive from German expressionism have these dream states in their mind. Another film from the era is FW murnau's Nosferatu which deals with the idea of a vampire that is literally sucking people dry and is very clearly taking over the evening hours and destroying the lives of people and particularly praying on young women. German expressionism expresses the terror the Germans have about their society following the aftermath of World War One and the sense of hopelessness and bleakness that characterizes their society in such times. 27 Cinema two: Hollywood women Women of Hollywood Alice Guy Blanche, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, Sofia Coppola, Alma Reville Alice Guy Blanche Alice Guy Blanche with a secretary to Louis Gaumont in the early days cinema. In the late 19 century in 1896 Gaumont wanted to increase the productions of his film company, and he assigned a unit to his secretary who became an able filmmaker. In 1900, she made one of the earliest short films entitled The Cabbage Patch Fairy. In the short film a middle-aged woman grabs babies from a cabbage patch and present them to the audience with adoring giggles and goo-goos all the way. Alice Guy was a talented woman and she was assigned a role to open production facilities for Gaumont in in the US. When she arrived in the country, she saw opportunities for starting her own business and began her own filmmaking business, Solex that lasted until 1920. Finding little work in the film industry for women in the US, she returned to Paris and worked there for a number of years. In the late 1950s she returned United States to be with her children. Word circulated that Guy Blanche had been a filmmaker in the early days of film and in the 1950s and 60s film critics began to interview her to learn about her role in the history of film. Finally, by the end of her life she was claimed as one of the original female pioneers in the film business. Ida lupino Ida Lupino was an attractive young woman from England who had a talent for acting. In the 1930s she arrived in Hollywood and began to take roles in featured Hollywood films including parts in Gone with the Wind and roles that cast her as a beautiful engenue. But by the end of world war two she was getting steady work in mysteries and bad girls and femme fatales. By the 40s she had become in an influential and beautiful actress popular in the movies. While starring in a film noir, Not Wanted in the 1940s the Director of the production Elmer Clinton became violently ill with a heart attack. The production was threatened with closure. Lupino stepped forward and said I can direct the film and the producers not wishing to end the production accepted her offer of help. Within several weeks she completed the film and made friends of the cast and crew. Lupino went on to become a popular actress and Director of a series of film noir’s in the late 40s and early 50s. As women’s roles were further circumscribed in Hollywood in the 1950s despite her success as a director Lupino found fewer and fewer opportunities to work. She moved her talents to television where she found continued work as an actress and as a Director. Lupino never flinched at the fact that her gender held her back from receiving accolades as a Director but the cast and crew and production teams that worked with her awarded her great accolades as a devoted, attractive actress and a consummate professional. Friends called her Lupi but her name on the set was ‘mother’ and they even placed mother on the back of her director’s chair. Lupino’s long career in Hollywood illustrated the difficulties women directors had but also showed that a plucky woman with talent, skill, and diplomacy could work her way into the production side of Hollywood and could work both as an actor and as a Director. Dorothy Arzner Dorothy Arzner was a Hollywood original. She was an open lesbian who lived with a woman her entire life. She directed a variety of films that featured strong female 28 characters and discussed the problematics of heterosexual society. In Craig’s wife, based on a Pulitzer Prize play she tells the story of a woman (Rosalind Russell) who is ridiculed because she is seen as strong and her husband is regarded as weak. Such role reversals threatened their marriage. Men that were weak and women that were strong were taboo topics. She produced films about marriages plagued by unfaithfulness. She crafted 16 films as a director including many about taboo subjects. She worked with female stars like Katherine Hepburn and Rosalynn Russell and gave them intelligent complex rules. In many of her most provocative films she attacked the concept of the male gaze Maureen O’Hara had a creepy line in the 1940 film Dance Girl Dance where she responds to leering men by saying, “I know you want me to tear my clothes off so you can have your look and $.50 worth, $.50 for the privilege of staring at a girl the way your wife won’t let you. “ Azner was a powerful director and who made 16 films between 1927 and 1943. Before she quit directing, she was the first woman to join the directors guild of America in 1936 . She lived with her partner Mary Morgan for four decades many of her films revolve around the theme of courage and bravery to make difficult choices and sacrifices for a moral code of strength to be one’s own person. she was uncompromising in public and in private and lived her code of honesty and self-reliance. Jane Campion Jane Campion is an important contemporary female Director who has been directing films for over 30 years. She began directing in her native Australia and moved to other countries to produce a series of films that deal with women’s struggle and people’s struggle to be individuals and to live a life unshackled by controls and allowing people to experience the freedom that society rarely allows people. As a female directors she is deeply involved in women’s issues and her major breakthrough was 1993’s The Piano in which Holly Hunter is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to Sam Neill. She meets a land owner nearby who shares much of her passion and love for books, art, and learning played by Harvey Keitel. They fall in love, and they learn that they can can be free. She directed a powerful TV series in 2013 and a sequel to it in 2017 entitled top of the lake starring the magnetic Elizabeth Moss as a police detective trying to solve a crime involving young women who were taken to a dangerous location are enslaved and murdered. The film deals with issues of dark men with a code of violence that undermines their lives. In her 2021 film The Power of the Dog she deals with alternative lifestyles. The character of a brother, George, played by Jesse Plemons and his wife Rose played by Kristen Dunst come into conflict with his brother Phil who is a hard and masculine advocate who doesn’t support his brother’s wife and her inclination towards learning. The wife Rose has a son from a previous marriage who is thin and wiry and feminine and attending college and training to become a doctor. Cumberbatch plays the hardened masculine Phil with a hatred for anything feminine. He makes fun of Rose he ridicules her and drives her further into alcoholism. He makes fun of her son, Peter for his size and his lack of physical strength. However, over time he builds a bond with this feminized scholarly boy. But the boy sees him as rooted in toxic masculinity and mean to his mother in a danger to his family so eventually the boy uses his medical skills to acquire some anthrax and uses it to poison the pernicious Phil ending him. Campions 29 film leaves behind the theme of female empowerment and instead takes on the subject of toxic masculinity that can turn against men when actually a man’s feminine side might be his salvation. the Power of the Dog is a powerful repudiation of such toxic masculinity. Alma Reville Alma Reville was Alfred Hitchcock’s wife for 50 years and often the cowriter of many of his films. Because her husband was enormously famous and popular Reville’s contribution to the success of Hitchcock’s career was often overshadowed by her husband’s larger than life persona and his stage presence as a Director. However in times of stress it was Hitchcock who always looked at Reville to rewrite and save productions of films that had script trouble. Reville was instrumental in rewriting many of Hitchcock’s most potent films including working on the script for Psycho and helping to rewrite that structure of the story. Her contributions to the films are often obscured by the fact that Hitchcock and Reville worked in private and contributed to the work together seamlessly as a team. However, since there were no records of actually what Reville had written and what the original writer of the script had written much of her contribution to Hictchcock’s work is obscured. . It is undoubtedly Reville’s work that led to the consistency of Hitchcock’s work for the 50 years of his career, and it is undoubtedly without Reville’s help Hitchcock’s career could not have taken place. Sofia Coppola. True that Sofia Coppola had the advantage of having a famous father and Director for a guiding light and an entrée into the movie business but Sofia Coppola’s work all by itself is distinctive and original. She has her own voice and she has developed a variety of films that are insightful inquisitions into the mind and thinking of women. Coppola’s career was off to a shaky start when she appeared in her father’s godfather three as the granddaughter of Michael Colionne. However after that experience, she read the novel the Virgin suicides about young women that are deeply unhappy with their lives and some of them as virgin’s commit suicide because they are unhappy in their lives, and they can’t find any way to achieve happiness. She burst onto the scene directing this important film and a generation of young women immediately gravitated to her vision of hopeless young girls not finding a way forward in their lives. After 1999’s Virgin Suicides Coppola became involved with the 2003 film lost in translation which deals with a movie actor Bob Harris who is in between films and spending time in Japan.As a celebrity, he has a compromised sense of privacy, but he is in a foreign country and he is disoriented and lonely. Coppola catches the idea of and his estranged life. In the film lost in translation is a rye comedy about being out of place, being out of time, and not having a sense of your own direction home. Her next film was 2010’s somewhere and it deals with celebrity culture in the young star is basically thrust into situations with people where he has no interest in the things he’s doing with his life and he becomes involved in a series of vices that don’t provide any pleasure. Sometimes he spends time with his young daughter but that provides him with no pleasure as well too. It is another study of toxic celebrity and how toxic celebrity renders most of life dull and meaning meaningless. In her 2017, film the Beguiled she does a remake of a 1970s Clint Eastwood movie in which a soldier is left damaged and at the mercy of a group of girls in the girls’ school. While the girls try to 30 help him, his natural inclination toward seducing the women makes the women envious of each other and eventually they determined that the soldier’s masculinity is a toxic force in their lives, and they might just as well be rid of him and his damaging ways. Terms Toxic masculinity: a term that describes how masculine features can be destructive to men. The gaze: A term articulated by feminists that suggest that men use looking at women as a way to possess them. empowerment: In Hollywood and many places in the western cultures women have been routinely deprived of empowerment through a lack of jobs, education and creative outlets. Films: Dorothy Arzner: Craig’s Wife (1936) Dorothy Arzner. “Dance Girl Dance.” (1940) Ida Lupino. “Never Fear.” (1949) Alfred Hitchcock. “Psycho” (1960) script support by Alma Reville Sofia Coppola. “The Virgin Suicides.” (1999) Alice Guy Blanche. “The Cabbage Patch Fairy.” (1900) Readings: Liu, Rebecca. “Jane Campion’s the Power of the Dog.” https://www.anothergaze.com/ Geller, Theresa. “Dorothy Arzner.” Senses of Cinema. https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/arzner/ Cinema 3 Griffith 31 David Warwick Griffith is one of the most important filmmakers of the early twentieth century. His films were epic Biblical novels and dealt with classical literature. He pioneered many techniques that we now take for granted in cinema. He used natural acting, he rehearsed scenes, he was early in mixing a variety of camera shots, close up, medium shot and distance shot. he used to close up the point of view shot. He type cast specific roles by physical type. He created drama by moments of extreme emotion. He edited for continuity and emphasis and quicken the pace for editing in action scenes. While he may not have created all of these techniques he practiced all of them and improved them so that what Griffith did became the grammar of vocabulary of American film for the next hundred years. He made shots, he edited, he rehearsed actors, he used naturalistic acting, he created strong storylines, he was interested in epic formats, he could shoot long films with complex editing, he was interested in history, and he was interested in the development of narrative. No early filmmaker made a more comprehensive and diverse body of work and no early filmmaker was as universally interested in every aspect of the craft of filmmaking than Griffith. He was the most adventurous pioneer and explorer of the craft of filmmaking of the silent period, and without him, there would be no modern film technique. Early in his career, the format for feature films was being created. From 1900 to 1908, the length and complexity of films had grown from a few minutes to almost 60 minutes in length. Also there was a development of motion picture projection to a brand new style of motion pictures that could be shown indoors on. Big screens making the film format more impressive. These new movie palaces created very beautiful structures where people could watch films in comfort even though their homes might be small and squalid. Seeing that these early films were very successful, Griffith with an eye to an acting career determined to enter the field of film acting. He decided that he would be an actor Griffith. He was from a family of aristocratic Kentuckians, and his great grandfather had actually served in the Civil War for the South, and many people believed that DW Griffith had loyalties to the south. But throughout his film career DW Griffith is showed an evenhanded view of world history, and created a variety of films that provided different perspectives on the society that nurtured him. Griffith had a different understanding of the world and saw differing groups with a mature eye for world cultures. Due to the massive influence of The birth of a Nation, people have tried to type DW Griffith as principally a racist filmmaker. While there is certainly racist content in the novel The Klansman from which The Birth of a Nation was taken, and while there is certainly very many disturbing scenes that are very insensitive, it would be hard to describe most of Griffith’s filmmaking as racist in intent or prejudiced. Griffith’s films were governed by the subject matter of the script, and Griffith filmed the material as he supposed the author intended their work to be seen and understood. If the content was racist, the film would reflect that, but if the film was about diverse people and views Griffith also reflected progressive content just as strongly. While Birth of a Nation’s content is seen as racist today, at the time the film was made the United States was a more racist country and probably many of the racist views in the film were shared by the majority of viewers watching it. DW Griffith had a great influence on film and was an important filmmaker of the early decades of the twentieth century. 32 Griffith began his career at the Edison studios in 1908, and he worked with the American Mutoscope and Biograph companies from 1908 to 1913. During this time, in the five years that he worked for these studios he made possibly as many as 450 films. Some of them were one reel, 10-12 minutes long, some of them were two reels of film or 15 to 20 minutes long and some were three reels, approximately 30 to 35 minutes and some four reels approaching an hour in length. Griffith started off his career as an actor, and then when the studios needed an extra director around 1908, he was chosen to be a new director. He didn’t trust directing film, and he was afraid that his career as an actor would be ruined, so he asked for the ability to return to acting if his career as a director didn’t work out well. Of course, he had nothing to worry about, and Griffith was a monumental Director with many great ideas. His films were enormously popular for a decade. As to his techniques and innovations in filmmaking, he spoke of his breakthrough ideas. In later life he said, he invented the close-up. He used the set of a film as a miniaturized stage to create a variety of scenes. He claimed to have borrowed the cut back or the flashback scene from having read Dickens who had inserted flashback scenes in his novels. A narrative trick that Griffith pioneered was a character seeing or visualizing a moment within the mind. Griffith found ways to help the audience imagine what was in the mind of a character by cutting back and forth from the actor to the concept in a character’s mind. From the French filmmakers, he was known for framing what was seen using tracking shots, and he was known for the origination of modern editing. he used what he referred to as an inner frame narrative in which the master shots of the scene would provide the structure for the rest of the scene. He might preview a scene with a distant master shot to explain what was going on in the overall scene, and then introduce shorter smaller scenes interpolated into the master scene to provide details of the action within a scene. Griffith’s philosophy of a scene was complex. Within a scene, he believed in the idea of parallel action where he could use cross cutting, a cut from one thing to another scene, so you could see two stories moving forward at the same time. All of these were massive event/filming innovations that had not been done before by any director anywhere. In many ways he was the titanic new theorist in film increasing new ideas in the creation of an interframe narrative. Griffith was able to break scenes down into several shots. First, there would be a master shot to establish the scene, and then he would have inserts or close-ups of individual actors within the scene. He would match the cuts from the perspective of the audience. He would show the same line of direction. he would have an online scene match another scene. Thus, he would see characters at the same level, and he would use faces to track continuity. He would use point of view or reaction shots in scenes where actors might talk to each other. He would match scenes line-by-line or at the height of the human eye, so that the two characters would match up in terms of their own lines in their vision of where they stood in the frame. He would have Point of view reaction shots where one actor would be standing on one side of the stage and talking, and then he might insert a close up. Then he would move the action to the other side of the stage, and he would have the actor talking in close up at the side of the stage, so you would have a reaction from one active shot to another. He accelerated the art of montage using a cut to move the action from one scene to another. He focused on actors that look like the characters they played. If 33 a scene required a beautiful young girl, he cast a beautiful young girl to play her. If it was an old man required for a scene, he cast an old man to play an old man. He tried to type cast people to look like the characters they were supposed to play in the film. Perhaps his first great early film was birth of a nation from 1915. It was a film that was universally loved by many Americans despite the fact that it had racist content. Many of the characters were people of color but were played by white actors in black face due to the strongly racist content. The film deals with two families going through the pre-Civil War period, the Civil War, the death of Lincoln, and the reconstruction. It’s a titanic film lasting three hours and fifteen minutes. The film birth of a nation was based on a very racist-oriented novel entitled The Klansman that was popular in Griffith’s time. Many have criticized Griffith’s choice, because they felt the content of the novel and film was racist, but Griffith believed that picking a novel that was extremely controversial would attract audiences to the film, and indeed that was the case. Many people have considered whether Griffith himself was a racist person. It is a difficult idea to answer because there is certainly elements of Birth of a Nation that appear on the outside to be very racist but again they reflect elements of the novel which itself had racist content. Do you make a novel with racist ideas to support them or expose them to the light of day? There have been many American movies they deal with Nazism, and many have complained that the way Nazis are portrayed they make Nazism look attractive. The question of Griffith’s racism is complex because many of the films that he made later deny many elements of Birth of a Nation. In a way poor Griffith’s early experience making a controversial film makes him an early victim of cancel culture. People cannot see the man’s art because they today find that subject matter disturbing. Sadly, sometimes in many American films we have to learn to see the subject matter separately from the filmmaking art. A modern case of racism might be Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The antagonists in the film are all Asian. There are gruesome scenes of Asian cult members removing a man’s heart , holding a bleeding beating human heart in their hands, and having the man watch as he dies. This film has many racist elements, but because it is Spielberg, Indiana Jones and a popular film watched by millions of kids, it does not obtain the same negative reaction as Birth of a Nation because it is fantasy. George Lucas’s Phantom Menace from 1998 also has racist content including the silly Jar Jar Binks character, that talks in a funny accent, and the film is filled with evil characters who speak with Asian accents. So many American films have difficult subject matter, elements that could be construed as racist, but because they are made by top grossing filmmakers and the subject is fantastic they do not receive the censure that Griffith received. What we discover is some views of racism are relative to the times, the audience, and the critics. In later films like Intolerance, Griffith savagely denounces the actions of racists. In later films like Way Down East or Broken Blossoms he strongly denounces racism and violence of any kind. One might say that Griffith learns about racist ideas from making films that test changing American attitudes about racism. If anything, Griffith’s films began a discussion about racism in American society. Remember desegregation of schools in the United States did not occur until 40 years after Birth of a Nation, so maybe the film helped the debate about the United State’s racist past. 34 In BOAN we see a variety of events including the pre-Civil War families, and movement towards war, the Civil War itself, and the events following the war in the reconstruction. Two families are presented in the film, the Stoneman family and the Camerons. Ben Cameron is a principal character who is a handsome southern confederate officer who leads his men into a desperate charge against union forces but it ends tragically with the union forces wiping out most confederate troops. Cameron stops the charge to give water to a fallen union soldier and is cheered for his bravery by both union and confederate troops. In a last pyrrhic charge Cameron shoves a confederate flag down a union canon before collapsing. The union soldiers are so smitten by his bravery that instead of shooting him, they pick him up and nurture him. Later Lincoln commutes Cameron’s death sentence as a traitor. The film sends complicated messages about the post war era. One of the African American union soldiers named Gus (played by a white Actor wearing black face makeup) decides that he can now live freely in the south. he settles in Ben Cameron’s town and builds an affection for Cameron’s sister. The young woman is a simple minded nature lover. Gus proposes to her and in terror and horror she considers the offer a dangerous prelude to rape and she runs to a mountain top. Gus follows realizing that if he causes harm to white woman his life will be forfeit. Cameron searches for his sister and follows her trail into the woods. Gus attempts to talk the terrified hysterical woman off a cliff but she jumps off the cliff, mortally wounded by the fall. Cameron arrives in tme t osee her die but she proclaims she kept her honor with her last breathe. Cameron’s face changes to an image of hate and anger and afterwards he becomes determined to start a vigilante group to protect the south from radical whites, blacks and a society that wishes to punish the south. The scene of death is built on colossal misunderstandings by all, and a failure of kindness and reason for all parties. Cameron creates the Klan. The Klan executes Gus by lynching and the roots of modern extremism are laid. More worrisome is the film’s insistence that slaves were better off in the old South under slavery and the notion that someone enslavement of anyone could be justified. Griffith was tone deaf to the film’s bizarre rhetoric.. Griffith was deeply stung by the negative criticism of birth of a nation even though the film made him millions. In 1916 he made a four hour epic about prejudice and racism, in a film entitled Intolerance. That film featured four stories in a color-coded film. Griffith spent all the money he had made in BOAN and more to make Intolerance, and he thought the film would show his intention to discuss the dangers of prejudice and intolerance. In intolerance there is a story of a mother trying to support her child, a tale of Jesus and his persecution, a fight between French Catholics and French protestants ( the Huguenots), and a battle between factions in ancient Babylon. Baffled audiences didn’t understand the color coding system; they didn’t understand the four different stories throughout history, and they didn’t really understand Intolerance or Griffith’s intentions. Griffith lost virtually all the money he made in BOAN. While never having great financing again, Griffith made great movies into the 1920s. He worked with very important actors such as Lillian Gish. In Way Down East a woman is fooled into thinking she has been married to a man who leaves her with a baby. The town turns against her and there isa harrowing escape through a snow storm over a water way as the ice on the water is breaking up. Finally the town’s people realize she has been victimized by an evil man and she is 35 eventually saved by a kind man who wishes to marry her. It’s a wonderful film and many people have suggested that way down east (1919) is one of Griffiths greater later films. Broken blossoms (1921) is a love story between a white woman and a Chinese immigrant. Lilian Gish, plays the child of the alcoholic boxerfather who when drunk beats his daughter, Lucy, nearly to death. In one of his drinking frenzies, the girl is badly beaten and traumatized. She hides in the doorway of a small shop owned by a Chinese merchant, Cheung. Cheung enters his shop and sees the wounded girl on the ground, takes her to his bed, dresses her wounds and nurses her back to health. A love relationship arises built on kindness and mutual trust and admiration. However Lucy returns to her father who in another drunken frenzy beats her to death. Cheung confronts the father, shoots him, carries Lucy’s body back to his shop and commits suicide. Broken Blossoms is a marvelous film defying racism and dark ideas with notions of a perfect love and a kinder world. It’s a deeply emotional film that illustrates that in many ways Griffith did not agree with anything racist and had himself spoken strongly against racism. Ironically one of the last films Griffith made in 1930 was a sound film about the life of Abraham Lincoln. Griffith battle alcoholism and by 1940 the last work he had was in a science-fiction film, 1 million BC in which actors were playing cavemen and Griffith was brought in to direct silent scenes. Griffith was a great innovator in American film and created longshots, tracking shots, moving shots, articulate camera movements, head angle shots and a great variety of different kinds of techniques that could be intermingled in a scene. Griffith was very attracted to making films about the American experience and made some great films like the Adventures of Dolly in 1908 that dealt once again with themes of immigrants and fear of foreigners. In his early Adventures of Dolly from 1908 he actually has a mother walking her child in a baby stroller. When the mother stops to talk , and evil gypsy sneaks in and steals her baby. Eventually the baby is put in a barrel and sent down the river, but along the river a young boy fishing sees the barrel and pulls it from the water saving the baby and reuniting the family. Director Griffith was one of the first directors to work and rehearse actors before a film is produced. Griffith was one of the first directors to use naturalistic acting with less hand gestures and more simple movements that look more like real life. Griffith was one of the first directors to use a variety of different shots in a scene. Griffith was one of the first directors to use complex narrative tracking shots where we are literally inside the mind of the character, and Griffith was one of the most psychological of the early cinema film directors. He so completely understand the psychology of the characters in a scene we believed the actors were these people. Griffith remains one of the great undisputed masters of cinema provoking challenging ideas about American history, racism and the United States as a complex world culture. Terms Grammar of film: Griffith’s inventiveness created the vocabulary and grammar of film techniques we use today. Naturalism in acting: Griffith’s actors used a new style of acting that was less like stage actors and more natural and simple. Rehearsal:Griffith had actor’s rehearse prior to shooting a scene. Choreography: Griffith choreographed and mapped out large complex group scenes and battle scenes. 36 Type casting: Griffith cast actors according to their physical type. A pretty young girl was played y a pretty young girl. Films: Griffith: Adventures of Dollie (1908) Griffith: Birth of a Nation (The Clansman) (1915) Griffith: Intolerance (1916) Griffith: Way Down East (1919) Griffith: Broken Blossoms (1921) Readings: Corliss, Richard. “D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation 100 Years Later: Still Great, Still Shameful.” https://time.com/3729807/d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation-10/ Lussier, Tim. “What Was The Great Man Like?” http://www.silentsaregolden.com/articles/griffitharticle.html Cinema four: Charlie Chaplin Chaplin was one of the most remarkable talents in the history of cinema. Charlie Chaplin who is born in 1889 in South London to Hannah and Charles Chaplin Senior. Both were musical entertainers. His faher left, but his mother remained, but she was mentally unstable for the majority of his life, and he joined a group of dancers at the age of ten. He clog danced and clowned for a living as a child. Due to his father’s connections he landed a gig in a theatrical company and toured around England at the age of 15. He worked on various productions including a production of Sherlock Holmes and by 1910 when he was barely 20 years of age he began performing with a touring comedy group in England that later had the opportunity to tour in the United States. His brother Sydney Chaplin who was already connected to the theatrical community in England landed Charlie a job with the Fred Carno agency in England and from 1910 to 1913 toured the United States. Chaplin was making a good wage for a stage performer ($75 a week) with the Carno company and getting good billing, but he eventually arrived in New York and the agents thee liked him so much they offered him a job in film. Chaplin wasn’t really sure that film was going to last so he reluctantly signed on to make films for double his salary at $150 per week. He joins Keystone pictures managed and directed by the brilliant Max Sennett, a talented Canadian director who makes fitful comedies with lots of action. Sennett sees the talent in Chaplin and stars him in several short comedies. Audiences love the little funny man. One day Sennett sends Chaplin Into a costume booth to dress for a scene. He tells him to pick what he likes. Chaplin finds a small bowler hat, a fake moustache, a white shirt and tight 37 tailed jacket, baggy pants, and floppy over-sized shoes. To top off the outfit he finds an old walking cane. This tramp costume would be Chaplin’s standard outfit for the next 40 years. Chaplin was immediately successful in films for the Keystone company and he stars as the tramp character in over 35 films during his year with Max Sennett. After a year with Sennett and the Keystone company Chaplin is given an offer to work for the S and A company (Esseny films) which is a larger company, and they offer him $1000 signing bonus and $1000 a week. He is one of the most popular actors in comedy in the United States by 1915. Chaplin’s career skyrockets and by 1916 he is offered more money by the Mutual Film Company. he is given a signing bonus and a starting salary of $670,000 making him the highest paid actor in America, and his Trump character is given far more dimension and goes further than it had been before. Finally, in 1917 he signed with the First National Company for one million dollars and is able to purchase his own studio and his own land track in California with the money. Some critics argue that his finest films were made in this era. Chaplin was still under thirty and has become a millionaire in five years. He married his first wife in 1918, Mildred Harris who was 16-years-old. In 1919, with DW Griffith Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford Chaplin established the distribution company United Artists. It was a company that was fully owned by artists in the United States film industry. From this point, Chaplin was solely responsible for his own output from this point. In 1924, he married his second wife Rita Gray who was also 16 years of age, but the marriage only lasted two years, and Chaplin now had two sons. Chaplin was incredibly gifted at doing improvisational comedy, and made mini gags at the time he was on the set, including the clever potato roll dance he played with a couple of forks and a few potatoes while he’s making the film The Gold Rush in 1925 Chaplin was probably the most recognized person in the world in the 1920s. Chaplin even competed in Chaplin-look-a-like contest in the twenties and only placed third. In 1925 he made The Gold Rush, one of his funniest films about a couple of guys that prospected for gold in the Alaskan wilderness. He suffered the indignities of the bad environment, cold-weather, starvation, deprivation, and the film was a massive success. In 1927 he had another massive success for The Circus. In 1929 during the first Academy Awards he was giving a special award for his work on The Circus. Hollywood loved Chaplin and he was one of the people that created the celebrity-based star system of movie making. In 1931, in a period we’re almost all the films were already sound films, Chaplin released the completely silent film City Lights which became a massive hit. The film had sound effects and a score written by Chaplin and Chaplin provided brilliant moments of comedy, empathetic romantic comedy, silly pratfalls, and a variety of physical comedy. Chaplin remained the master of silent comedy deeply into the sound era. In 1936 Chaplin made Modern Times commenting on modern industrial society, again playing his tramp character, again composing the music, and making a fun commentary on the machine age and industrialization. Finally,in 1936 he married a third time to Paulette Goddard, a popular actress at the time. 38 Chaplin was so popular in the United States that women around the world wished they were Chaplin’s girlfriend, and in fact, when women were unwed mothers across the globe during the twenties, more often than not when they were asked the paternity of their child, they claimed Charlie Chaplin as the father. It was a joke of course, but Chaplin’s popularity particularly with women extended across the globe. In 1940 Chaplin released one of his most powerful films The Great Dictator, a massive film parody of the life and deadly ambitions of Adolph Hitler. Actually, even Hitler adored Chaplin and was angry when during the war with the allies he found he could no longer see Chaplin films. The Great Dictator sends up Hitler’s madness. Chaplin does an entire ballet in the dictator’s throne room bouncing a balloon version of the wordld on his feet, his butt and his head. He makes Hitler’s idea of world conquest look silly. Further the film ridicules Hitler’s anti-semitism as the plot revolves around a Jewish butler disguised at the dictator. The film ends with a powerful speech denouncing meanness and cruelty and espousing the virtues of civility and kindness, something that Chaplin wished could be accomplished by humor. Chaplin was overtly socialist in his ideas. He was a very wealthy man, but he believed in the little guy and he always played the character of the tramp. The great dictator was nominated for best picture and Chaplin for best actor. In 1943, Chaplin married his fourth wife, an 18-year-old protégé Oona O’Neill the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill and he remained married to her for the rest of his life. But Chaplin’s liberal politics ambush him. While traveling to London in 1952 to debut a new film about a retiring comic called, Limelight, he is warned by the US State department not to return to the United States. The House Unamerican Activities Committee wanted to question him for communist ties. Chaplin was angry and felt slighted. He deciced to relocate his enterprizes to Switzerland and spent the rest of his life as a Swiss resident, a national treasure, and an international hero. He never forgave the US after 40 years of entertainment to turn him out. Finally in 1972, after 20 years of exile from United States Chaplin was given a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars and when he arrived on stage he was given a 12-minute standing ovation. He died quietly in 1977 at his home in Switzerland. Chaplin’s influence is legendary. He was the greatest comedian of the silent era, Chaplain and perhaps the greatest comedian in American history. His career from 1913 when he first began until 1967 when he directed his last film A Contessa From Hong Kong. Th film was a romance starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando, two of the mot popular actors of the era. Sadly the film was not successful and Chaplin did not work in the last years of his life. Chaplin’s work as often brilliant as in films like one AM where he plays a drunk out after a night of drinking. Chaplin literally created a one-man performance of a drunk at 1 AM getting out of his cab, going into his house, fighting with the door, losing his key, breaking a window, finding the key inside and popping back out through a 39 window to reopen the previously locked door. He fights with the staircase, he fights with the table, he fights with a with a couple of animal rugs, he struggles to navigate stairs, he tries to open his Murphy bed (a fold up bed), he struggles to have a drink, he tries to smoke, he wrestles with every object, and devises comedy pratfalls throughout the film. While he creates complete pandemonium working through the space one realizes that Chaplin has had a 20 minute romp through the property and the audience is left laughing along with the tramp all the way through the chaos. Perhaps that was the wonder of Chaplin’s art, the sheer joy and humor found in acts of chaos. Terms The Tramp: Chaplin’s indelible character wearing a bowler hat, small moustache, tight coat, cane, baggy pants, and floppy shoes. It was a costume he wore for 40 years. Score: Chaplin was a talented musician and songwriter and could compose scores and pop tunes that were successful. In camera: Chaplin’s skill involved camera shots focused on mostly Chaplin and his antics. Films: Sennett: Tillies Punctured Romance. (1913) Chaplin: One A. M. (1916) Chaplin: the Gold Rush (1925) Chaplin: The Circus (1927) Chaplin: City Lights (1931) Chaplin: Modern Times (1936) Readings: Birdwell, Richard. “Chaplin’s Modern Times and the minstrel tradition.” https://modernismmodernity.org/articles/birdwell-chaplin-modern-times-and-minstrel- tradition Brody, Richard. “ Chaplin’s Scandalous Life and Boundless Artistry.” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/charlie-chaplins-scandalous-life-and- boundless-artistry Cinema five 40 George Melies One of the early auteurs of cinema was George Melies, a Frenchman who was born into a wealthy family and became a magician. Over the years Melies created a variety of magic acts, and then in the 1890s when the cinematograph became popular Melies decided to invest in a camera and began making movies focusing on his magic act. Melies was interested in fantasy films and in 1902 created his a trip to the moon which featured many special effects and humorous passages in which a group of scientists decide they will journey to the moon. In the film there is a clever shot of the rocket hitting the moon and kind of fracturing the moon and stabbing the moon in the eye. Melies work has been lauded in recent years as the father of science fiction and special effect movies. Melies work is seen as a juncture between the spirit of films that focuses on photographic effects nad stunts and films that wanted to tell a story. Melies wanted to do both. He wanted to tell a story and he wanted to tell stories and he liked using powerful cinematic effects in the service of his stories. He was responsible for some of the earliest special effects films created in the medium of film. He originally wanted to buy a Lumiere camera and they refused ot sell him one. They wanted to protect the copyright of the camera and they wanted to dissuade other people from making films. Eventually he bought a camera from R Paul, a British inventor. One of his most popular effects was the stop motion effect in which a subject was photographed in a specific area, and then the camera would be stopped and the subject would be removed and the filming would be continued. This gave the effect that the subject had disappeared or in the reverse, could suggest that something had magically appeared. Of course for a magician it was a great because it seemed like there was real magic afoot. Philosophically, Melies was important because he illustrated that magic and fantasy films were very popular with audiences, and that if done properly, audiences would go to see films because of the special effects and the clever technology used to create the effect. He proved that such films were popular and that audiences liked to be thrilled by photographic effects as well stories. He was born in 1861 and died in 1938. He was an inventor, actor, producer, film maker, writer and was educated in Paris. Within 9 months of buying a camera he mastered most elements of cinematography and began making a series of inventive films. Between 1898 and 1904 he made over 400 films. Only a fraction of them still exist. The Trip to the Moon in 1902 was popular worldwide and was widely copied illegally in the U.S. and Melies received little overseas revenue from the work. He used his ideas. Of magic to make films that focused on trick photography. One of his popular tricks was the use of stop motion photography where an object could be inserted or removed from a scene giving the idea that something magic occurred. A second trick he employed was super imposition of images. Melies double triple and multiple-exposed films. In one called the four troublesome heads, he inserted himself into the scene four times recording himself over and over and making his head into four separate characters. Melies went further with double exposures and concocts a scenario where his head is blown up and exploded by being overinflated. In another film he refilms himself 41 several times as various members of a band and then conducts himself and his peers altogether. Melies tried to popularize fantasy work and wanted mass audience appeal. However, after 1905 or 1906 people were less interested in those films, and wanted more narrative and Melies films had waning public demand. Sadly he ended his career bankrupt and many of his early originals were sold for industrial celluloid used in making soldiers boots. He vanished from the world scene only to be discovered by a kiosk selling candles for a living in the 1930s by French film makers. He fortunately was rediscovered and that resulted in a retirement home support for him and rehabilitation of his memory in his adventurous and important early works. Today his works are revered by cinema lovers across the globe. He was lionized in Martin Scorsese’s charming homage film Hugo from 2011. His early films a trip to the moon in 1902, the melomaniac in 1903, the damnation of files from 1904, the enchanted well in 1905, jupiter's thunderbolts in 1905, and a variety of special effects films playing with time and space made Melies one of the most adventurous and effect oriented filmmakers of his time. Sadly, most audiences never obtained the full effect of his genius. Terms Stop motion: a technique of filmmaking where motion is stopped and characters are moved about. Animation: Melies animated inanimate objects using stop motion and multiple exposure techniques. Films: Melies, George: A Trip to the Moon (1902) Melies, George: The Impossible Voyage. (1904) Readings: Ganguly, Subarna. “Early Cinema: the Magical World of Georges Melies.” https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/early-cinema-the-magical-world- of-georges-melies/ Cinema 6 world cinema in the early 20th century 42 Cinema was a world affair. Early cameras were developed in England (Paul), France (Le Prince and the Lumieres), America (Dickson), several filmmakers developed editing (Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov, Porter), and several countries created narrative cinema (Lumieres in France, Porter in the United States, Melies in France, Alice Guy in France). Many nations contributed to the growth of cinema form. Each nation created a national form that reflected the ideas and consciousness of their people. Cinema history is complex. In the first 20 years of film production, producers hammered out basic formats. Large companies capitalized on cinema and created large conglomerates that controlled the industry and still do. Filmmaking was and is a capital intensive business, and large corporations were helpful to creating early cinema. Storytelling had been evolving for centuries prior to cinema. Cinema added a long awaited technology to the art of storytelling. Cinema was a way of creating storytelling that could be retained and marketed and sold in a visual format . This engendered many technical problems in the creation of the medium. One of the first problems in creating cinema was creating a medium by which stories could be told and retained. For example storytelling through the novel was created by putting words on paper. To put visual stories in a format where people could see them and recreate them required a medium that was flexible and could be shown to mass audiences. Many substances were used to create film initially . Paper and other formats proved unworkable. Celluloid had certain advantages over other materials for making film. Celluloid was a substance that was flexible that allowed for the printing of a picture on a surface and could be spooled onto reels so that it could be projected to people in a room. Further, celluloid was heat resistant making it resistant to the powerful light used for projection. Phi Phenomenon and Persistence of vision Early film makers did not totally understand the concept of how the human eye worked when we see images we think that we see continuous images that are moving through space but in film the concept of moving images is actually incorrect what is happening in a film is that we are seeing a fast succession of still images that our mind puts together as moving images two phenomenon make this possible the first is a aspect of our visual cortex known as persistence of vision. To make our mind make sense of images that are speeding by us our brain interprets each individual image as retained in the visual cortex on the retina of the eye for a millisecond after we have seen that image this phenomenon or mistake in our visual cortex we refer to as persistence of vision images stay rooted in our I and our translated to our visual cortex through the retina too visual ganglia in the brain for a millisecond after the image has been seen . So when a succession of 24 frames per second fly by the eye the eye retains each one of those small discreet individual still images for a millisecond in the eye. The brain then interprets those images altogether as not single still images but as moving images . The way the brain does this is through a second phenomenon known as the Phi phenomenon in which the brain attempts to suture or tie together each successive image image in a way that makes sense to the brain so that if a person raises their hand to their mouth to say eat something or smoke a cigarette we interpret all the different phases of the movement of the hand as being parts of the same movement. Without persistence of vision or the fi phenomenon we would not have cinema as we know it today. 43 Pre-cinematic technologies (6th c – 1980) The Magic Lantern and Camera Obscura Europe had a technological awakening during the renaissance when scholars began to rediscover the technologies of the Romans and the Greeks. But even during the middle ages technologists were involved in developing story telling technologies. Several proto-cinematic phenomenon we're precursors to the idea of film. For example in the 6th century, we know there may have been examples of early camera obscura. The camera obscura was a light box that allowed light to enter a box on one side and had a primitive lens on the other side. This allowed the light to be contained, and permitted projection on the inside of a box or an opposing wall. Camera obscuras allowed artists to trace objects projected with a pencil or a crayon or other drawing device. Magic lantern Europe developed many devices to capitalize on the invention of optical glass lens. The magic Lantern was an early form of slide projector in which a concave mirror with a light behind it projected an image on a wall with a lens. The slide medium might be a glass slide or a paper slide containing a drawn or painted image. Between magic lanterns and camera obscuras there was already a basis for primitive projected entertainment. What was lacking was true motion. Further there was no apparatus for maintaining images. The magic Lantern was a permanent projection of an actual slide but only drawings or paintings, not the real world. Both aided artists in drawing objects. Phantasmagoria Perhaps the first theatrical innovation utilizing magic lanterns and a camera obscura was the 18th century device known as the phantasmagoria. This device added limited movement to entertainment, The phantasmagoria mixed slides and projections using transparent curtains and horrific demon images to frighten audience. Phantasmagoria projectors could be moved around in portable boxes so that people presumed that demons were actually moving around the room. The mechanism was an operator with a lens projecting a slide and moving the light box around the room. These horror shows were popular with audiences and had the potential to induce fear. The phantasmagoria were the first examples of entertaining projections and were early precursors to cinema. Marionettes and Puppets The puppet show had existed since the classical era, but marionette shows became major attractions in the medieval era. Talented craftsmen could craft realistic wooden puppets that could be manipulated with joints and complex facial features; Traveling players journeyed across the continent retelling bible stories, folk tales, moral fables and pantomimes for children. With a trestle stage, effective costuming, jointed puppets and skilled actors and narrators puppet shows could compete with live actors and offer cinematic special effects. Photography 44 Another innovation from Europe was the concept of photography. Photography arrived in the 1820s. People were experimenting with ways to resolve an image maintaining that image on a medium. Once accomplished different devices worked at creating a moving picture show. One such was the zoetrope in 1834. This device basically stacked a variety of still images on a circular slide device playing them in succession and creating the concept of moving images. In the 1870s Edward Moybridge, a celebrated nature photographer began to concoct serial images of people and animals that he assembled in slideshows. A second innovator was Frenchman French physiologist Etionne Jules Marey. Both were born in 1830 and both died in 1904. Muybridge’s work involved setting up multiple cameras to record serial images of movement of objects . When linked together all of the moving objects created a sequence that resembled the frames in later motion pictures. Muybridge created a device in 1879 known as the zoopraxtescope. It showed images in rapid succession similar to s film for the first time. Muybridge is credited with making early moving images. His rival in creating new technology was Marey who created a new format called chrono photography. Marey used a camera gun or photographic gun that allowed the user to take individual shots that combined these multiple exposures in a single image. This allowed photographers to record sequential movements in a single image. Muybridge with his multiple cameras, and Marey with his chrono photography pushed the art of photography towards actual filmmaking. The Mystery of Le Prince A sidelight to the invention of cinematography was the story of Louis le Prince Louis le Prince was an inventor who supposedly was making early films in 1888 to 1890. At the time that his first public demonstration was to be made in 1890 he mysteriously disappeared with all of the applications for his early cinema device the the disappearance of les Prince and his demonstrations of cinema in those early pivotal years has always been a mystery that has never been solved. Terms Persistence of vision: The effect of an afterimage on the retina persisting after an image has been shown. This allows for sequential images, as in optical toys or in film, to blend together to appear to be in motion. Photography: The creation of permanent images with light on a light-sensitive material, often an emulsion on paper or celluloid. Chronophotography: Photography that captures a quick succession of movements in several images. Originally used for scientific study of body movement. Zooepraxescope:Muybridge’s device for showing sequential slides. Celluloid: A malleable thermoplastic. Used in cinema as photographic film stock. Persistence of vision: The effect of an afterimage on the retina persisting after an image has been shown. This allows for sequential images, as in optical toys or in film, to blend together to appear to be in motion. Photography: The creation of permanent images with light on a light-sensitive material, often an emulsion on paper or celluloid. Chronophotography: Photography that captures a quick succession of movements in several images. Originally used for scientific study of body movement. Celluloid: A malleable thermoplastic. Used in cinema as photographic film stock. 45 Films: Hitchcock, Alfred: Strangers on a Train (1951) Hitchcock, Alfred: Dial M For Murder (1954) Hitchcock, Alfred: Psycho(1960) Readings: Ursell, Joe. “The Phenomenal influence of Alfred Hitchcock.” https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/hitchcock-feature Wilson, Bee. “Alfred Hitchcock,from silent film director to inventor of modern horror.” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/15/alfred-hitchcock-inventor-modern-horror 7 cinema French film 1920-1940 French cinema between World War I and World War II was one of the most productive styles of cinema. Cinema in this era was influenced of art. Two forms of art influenced films in the 1920s. First, was the theory of impressionism and secondly the theory of surrealism. Both were prominent art movements in France. Impressionism became popular in the art world in the 1870s and arrived with a relationship to photography. French impressionist painters were interested in the way the eye saw the world and light. Photography took light and registered it on a medium (paper) to make photographs. French artists of the 1870s were fascinated by the idea of light striking the eye and creating photography. They created a form of art doing the same thing that was jokingly referred to in the press as impressionism. Impressionism was an insult to the artists. It’s suggested that the artist were unable to make a good impression or a good likeness of a scene or a person. The impression assumed that the artists were incompetent to draw or paint better so their work was labeled impressionism to suggest that they were giving a fleeting impression of a scene rather than an accurate description of a scene. What the critics got wrong was that impressionism did not care about making an accurate portrayal of a scene. It wanted to photograph the scene the way a camera would look at a scene with light striking the lens. The influence of the impressionist image was that it reflected how the lens picked up light. It did not try to be photo realistic. Impressionist film of the 1920s was deeply influenced by the impressionist idea of creating a film that shows the way light strikes the human eye. This gave the scenes a wispy quality where extensive dialogue and complicated realistic shooting was replaced with scenes in which a few words and a few fleeting 46 glimpses of characters would fill in details. The audience would have to make summations and ideas about the scene. The filmmaker was not required to paint everything in photo realistic format. The filmmaker tried to make scenes that would allow for the audience to involve themselves in the scene. For example one of the popular French films in the 1920s was Theodore Dreyers the passion of Joan of arc. This 1928 film described the trial and a few days in the life of the famous French Saint who had led French troops against the British and was betrayed and brought up for trial by a court of both countries. In Joan of arc we see intense close-ups of Joan’s face during the trial, and we see her anguish at being asked questions about her religion and her View of God. Joan is unable to answer these deeper questions because she simply considers herself a poor girl who is a vehicle for God’s will. The British and French clergy seem relieved to get rid of Joan because her religious nature and her devotion make her a danger to reasonable politics including the war between the two nations. Joan is something of a zealot but her suffering is conveyed in intense close-ups by Dreyer so that we have a deeper understanding of the character of Joan. However dialogue and specifics about Joan are not that important to the film. The impressionist style simply gives us impressions of Joan and what she feels by long intense close-ups that linger on Joan and her face. This film is not a standard biography but a passion play portrayed in tragic human faces. Another classic example of the impressionist style in French film is the 1927 epic by Abell Gance entitled Napoleon. 1927’s Napoleon is an epic three-hour journey through the mind and thinking of the great French leader. Gance is like Theodore dreyer in the passion of Joan of arc. He does not dewell in intense close-ups on his subject of Napoleon although there are great close shots in the film. Instead Abel Gance combines a group of images quickly in a fast furry of montage scenes in which we see napoleon’s life acted out through images from his mind and in his imagination. We are looking inside the mind of Napoleon in light of the film. We are given these fleeting insights into the mind of a great genius and a great leader. In one scene there is one brilliant montage the Gance creates in which Napoleom and fellow youthful children are fighting a snowball fight and Gance becomes enormously intoxicated by shooting back- and-forth from one child to another as each of the kids is throwing volleys of snowballs at each other. In time, the scene becomes a chaotic blur of white snowballs flying through the air and nobody can quite figure out the action of where the balls are going, who is being hit, and who is throwing at each other. Film montage creates the sense of chaos. Napoleon dreams of ending the French revolution to bring order and justice to society. Napoleon decides the only way to end the carnage is for Napoleon himself to take over the country and to remove the people from self-slaughter towards a war against the rest of the Europe to unify Europe under French rule. Napoleon’s dream is portrayed in a series of montage scenes showing the destruction of the French revolution and Napoleon’s image of how the society would look in the future under his leadership. The film uses montage to build these impressionistic views of napoleon’s life his career his battles and his view of the world. By the end of three hours we seem to have a great understanding of the leader and a great understanding of how Gance as a filmmaker has compiled a series of images to bring us to a deeper understanding of how the leader’s mind works. Gance’s Napoleon is an epic film with spectacular production ideas in which three scenes are often showing simultaneously on the same 47 screen to keep the audience completely engaged and to constantly be surveying the screen for new information. Gance even photographed a segment of the film in 3-D back in 1927 to show that 3-D might be a way of showing the story of Napoleon more powerfully. Ironically Gance never used the 3-D ending sequence of Napoleon because he felt it was unnecessary. Gance was famous for using longshots medium shots close- ups, massive and incredibly complex montages, interesting introspective shots of each character involved in Napoleon’s rise, and a pivotal performance of Napoleon at center. The master general is portrayed as a complex thoughtful and idealistic figure who only wants to unite Europe to end the chaos of self-slaughter and the French revolution. The other format that gained adherence in 1920s France was the format of surrealistic film. Again the French were probably more influenced by art movement than Americans who had a more prosaic naturalistic realistic tone in their films. However, in French films the influence of art was apparent and changed the way French films were made, making the French style film deeply different than American films. In 1929’s Andalusian dog or Un Chien Andalou the concept was constructed by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali two artists from Spain living in Paris at the time. The concept of surrealism was based on ideas and notions of Freudian psychology, dream states, the unconscious, and the way people believed the mind works. Surrealism unlike impressionism. Impressionism was a movement concerned with science and how the eye sees light. Surrealism was also scientific but a different style of science engaged with psychology. Surrealists were deeply involved in psychology and what we think and what is inside our minds. Andre Breton, one of the fathers of the surrealistic movement believed that much of surrealism had to do with concepts within the mind. Freud had written in 1900 his famous book The interpretation of dreams and a lot of the ideas of surrealism dealt with the idea of dream states. Surrealists believed that dream states were ideas repressed or controlled by waking consciousness. When a person went to sleep many of the unconscious thoughts that were assumed to be a part of our consciousness during the day would be released, and people will begin to act out those unconscious thoughts in a dream state. The dream state allowed people to do all sorts of fantastic things that they couldn’t imagine in the daytime. Other varities of dreamworlds, dream actions, carnal thoughts, violent thoughts, all sorts of images that wouldn’t be acceptable in waking life flourished and could be entertained in the dream state. Our dream state was a way of liberating the mind. The surrealists believed that in the dream state we could harness those energies by projects like automatic writing. Individual dream states could show surrealistic consciousness in surreal artworks such as Salvador Dali’s the persistence of memory in which we see a scene of a weird infinite horizon, merged with melting clocks and in strange dormant creatures in the foreground. But Dali and Bunuel in writing an Andalusian Dog went further and decided that they could put dream states on on film. An Andalusian dog has little overt meaning and doesn’t make sense in a conventional plot way. It is a series of surreal events that takes place one after another. First we start by seeing a barber looking out at the moon as clouds roll by. It is a full moon he pulls out a razor blade and slices open a woman’s eye. it’s a very disturbing horrible violent scary scene. The next scene is a woman sitting in her room in an apartment alone she is staring strongly at a wall and looking like she is concentrating on something. In the street below a man dressed in a nun or a nurse’s uniform is riding a bicycle down the street towards her 48 building. At some point he simply collapses and falls off the bike. She recognizes something is wrong and goes to the window looks down to the street below and sees the man on the bike. She decides to go down to the man and offer him aid. People are standing around. He is lying on the ground next to his bike. On the back of his bike was a box and something has fallen out of the box. People are staring at the object and moving it around with a cane. It turns out that object that’s in the box in the back of the bike is a human hand that has been severed. The scene changes to the woman’s apartment. she takes the nurse’s outfit the man was wearing and adorns the bed with the parts of his nurse’s female outfit, and then she sits in a chair next to the bed and stares at the bed. Slowly his body begins to materialize in the clothing she placed on the bed. While she is looking at the bed, she notices that the man has materialized on the other side of the room. He is looking distractedly at his hand when the woman comes over to visit with him. She can’t get his attention because he is obsessed with the image in his hand. Inside his palm there are a group of ants that are emerging from a hole in his hand, and he and the woman are both fascinated and horrified by the sight. What these few fragmentary scenes tell us about Andalusian dog is that it is a fantasy art film, like a day dream state. Nothing seems to make sense and that appears to be Dali and Bunuel’s idea. Things do not make sense in a dream state, and we need to accept dream states as a part of our waking consciousness. This was a theory and idea of the surrealists that real events or non-realistic events could happen to us at any time and we need to become aware of them and accept them and incorporate them into our artistic life. Surrealists believed that dream states were the key to a deeper understanding of reality. Others thought they were merely extravagant fantasies. French film of the 1920s is obsessed with artistry and not with wealth and power. French films are made to be watched to edify the public not so much to make money although the best of the films are some of the best films ever made in the world. Before he made Napoleon in 1927 Abel Gance made another epic in 1923 La roue or the wheel. This is a film that deals with an entire life of a family. Sisif is a railroad engineer and after a horrible accident he rescues a little girl from the wreckage and raises her as his daughter along with his son Elie. Overtime safe Sifif falls in love with his adopted daughter, named Norma. His son thinks that Norma is his sister from natural childbirth. Since his wife had perished not long after Elie’s birth. Sifif admits to Hersan that he has fallen in love with his own daughter. Hersan threatens Sifif and tells him if he cannot marry the daughter, he will reveal to her that sifif has romantic feelings for her. Sifif allows the marriage to take place, although he knows it will not make Norma happy. After some months Norma writes to Sifif to tell him she is unhappy. Elie discovers that Norma is not his natural sister and that he himself might have married her but now she is in the hands of Hersan. He fights a jealous dual with Hersan, shooting Hersan but falling from a high precipice and dying. In the end Sifif who is suffering from blindness is cared for by Norma who returns home. Together they build a fatherly/daughter relationship again. One day there is a festival and Norma is sent out by Sifif to dance. In the end of the festival Norma is happy and sifif quietly dies at home alone. The film describes cycles of life. In the 1930s French films become even more passionate. In 1937 John Renoir produces one of his greatest films the grand illusion. It tells the story of two officers during the first world war.One is French and one is German in a failed campaign a 49 French officer is captured by the German officer and they build a close camaraderie. Though the German officer sees the two as we officially enemies, in real life the two are very much alike, members of the upper class, possessing aristocratic and heroic and noble tendencies and a strong sense of duty. Both men are similar. He tells his French counterpart, we are both men of the aristocracy and after the war, our time will pass. Towards the end of the film the French officer tries to escape and the German officer tells him to stop or he will shoot. He warns him, that though I like you and I don’t want to shoot, I must because it is my duty. The French officer continues his escape and is shot and killed. Finally, at the end of the film two lower class Frenchmen escape from the prison camp and are aided by a country woman and cross the alps into French territory. Many people have seen Le grand illusion as perhaps the greatest film about war ever made. Rules of the game is a study of French cultural behavior. There are a series of romantic liaisons in a household in the country amongst the upper class wealthy people who are disregarding the impending war and the fear that envelops the whole country. Instead they spend their time in the romantic dalliances, but towards the end of the film the character of Octave sends his friend Andre out to meet his girlfriend Christine at the greenhouse. Th greenhouse is one of the many locations on the property where people send their time making love. But unknown to Andre or Octave, Andre is mistaken for another man and shot by one of the angered lovers in the residence. All he was attempting to do was to have a love affair, and ironically it brought his death. The film is filled with ironies. In a French life the thoughts of the fragility of life, the fragility of love, and how French society values some issues highly and disregards other important issues. Films like rules of the Game comment of puzzling aspects of French culture. French films are extremely social and deal with relationships between people who are living in small towns and villages. The films of the French film makers from 1920 to 1940 progress from impressionistic films that deal with wispy images of life filled with sounds and music to surrealistic images that are far more concrete, but very dream like to an emerging style of social realist films that analyze odd French social codes. French film which emerges in the 1930s is involved with social issues and relationships amongst different people of different classes in French and world society. People are often puzzled by how French society see’s the world, but watching the French films of the early twentieth century might dispel some puzzlement over an evolving French society. Terms Montage: the connecting of scenes in different ways by editing. Impressionism: A style of art popular particularly in rance from 1870-1900. French art influenced the process of filmmaking and many French films were influenced by this concept of art that was based on the science of how the eye and the retina picked up light and images. Films: Renoir, Jean. Rules of the Game. (1939) Renoir, Jean. The Grand Illusion (1937) Melies, George: The Impossible Voyage. (1904) Dreyer, Theodore. The Passion of Joan Du Arc 50 Gance, Abel: La Roue (The Wheel) (1923) Gance, Abel. Napoleon (1927) Dali, Salvadore and Bunuel, Luis. Andalusian Dog (1929) Readings: Frenchfilms.org. “The Essential Guide to French Cinema.” http://www.frenchfilms.org/ A Woman’s Paris. “Portraying France Through Cinema.” https://awomansparis.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/portraying-france-through-cinema- myth-vs-reality/ Cinema 8 Early german cinema What country gave us early vampires, science fiction worlds and dark psychological drama? Germany! Early German cinema was prompted by a variety of traumas that affected the German people in the early 20th century. First there was the rise of militarism in Germany under Bismarck and the belief that the German people could be a great military power. Bismarck promised the people that they would be military leaders of Europe, and he led them into battle in World War I. Germany was soundly defeated and the price for militarism and aggression were high reparation costs. The German people were punished with high repayment costs after the war. They were blamed for causing the war. The people were horrified that they lost the war, were more horrified of the huge cost of war they would have to pay back. The costs bankrupted the society and ruined the German economy. Their economy was in chaos for most of the next 10 years. There was massive fighting between fascists and communists. The military industrial complex collapsed. The new government, the Weimar Republic government was riddled with corruption. Germany couldn’t accomplish very much. People lived in abject poverty for 10 years between the end of World War I and the 1930s, and then they had to cope with a worldwide depression in the 1930s. However, fascism and the rise of Hitler brough new perils. The German people became involved in the second world war due to the influence of the dangerous dictator Adolf Hitler. Life for the first half of the twentieth century was chaotic and uncertain for most Germans. This instability created an odd artistic climate for making films. First there was little money for film production. A style that emerged and flourished in the 1920s was a style known as Expressionism. Expressionism was a a style of film that erupted out of the art movement of expressionism and was noted for heightened color, extreme exaggeration, distortion of figures, abstracting of space, so that nothing appeared realistic. The worlds created by expressionism were manufactured worlds in which 51 abstract, extreme, unusual vistas became the norm. Unusual angles and exotic landscapes peppered this extreme style. Many of the images of of expressionism in cinema appear abstract, ghostly, and haunting. Prior to World War I German cinema was on the road to great success. There were over 1500 theaters by 1914, but the European cinema went into a slump because of the massive production of American cinema that out produced Europe and catered to popular tastes. The American film business was more concerned with volume and profits then art and style. Further American cinema developed star system actors and this attracted more people to movies. German cinemas an art and business suffered greatly due to the war and the costs of World War one. There were huge economic shortages. Still people in Germany thoroughly enjoyed the field of cinema and attended the movie theatres regularly. Weimar cinema existed in a completely different place than cinema in the rest of Europe. Expressionism as an art movement influenced film as well as art. Abject poverty, political chaos, and instability created a tentative art. Unable to afford huge sets, big costumes, extensive sets, big props, and the massive production facilities of the US, German filmmakers had to find new ways to provide a mood, create a feeling, and grab emotions in a film. They explored much darker themes then Hollywood films. They showed more sexuality, crime, immorality, social decadence, government destruction, financial decline, a mistrust of concepts of progress, and a fear of technology. Therefore films in Germany became darker, claimed a darker subject matter and maintained an obsession with gothic, dark, and mysterious. Germany embraced the Gothic horror film, the graphic crime film noir style, and deeply pessimistic views of the human condition. After Hitler came to power, most of the major filmmakers immigrated to the United States to avoid the horrors of Hitler. They brought with them extensive skills. Many German artists created horror films for universal studios and nurtured the dark form of crime movies, film noir, that peppered American theaters in the 1940s and 50s. German filmmakers were not only important in Germany, but they were also important in world cinema particularly in the United States producing the American films of the thirties, forties and fifties and transforming American scenography with their expressionist visual sense. Many of the German films in the 1920s had a massive effect on American films that came later. Amongst them were 1920 Robert Weine production of The cabinet of Dr. Caligari.In Caligari a man who is being treated for a massive paranoia and psychosis believes that his doctor, Dr. Caligari actually has a secret life as a mad scientist sending out a monster at night that is killing women and holding people hostage. He believes that the doctor is evil and means to do harm to him. He sneaks out of his room at night and watches the doctor release his robotic man, a half human monster that menaces and murders women. At Caligari’s command the monster plagues the city by kidnapping women and killing people. By the film’s end, he realizes he is the doctor’s next intended victim. The twist ending hs him awaken from a fever dream to understand that the good doctor has been treating him all along, and that the entire film has been his own paranoid psychotic dream. The doctor is not a horrible monster, but a very nice person who has been treating him through his psychotic episode. In the end he discovers there is no evil doctor, no conspiracy, no kidnapped women, no murders. it has all been his paranoid delusion. It’s a film about literally the appearances versus reality of everyday situations. 52 The American studios were watching this new brand of film emerging from Germany. The next big feature was F. W. Murnau 1922 epic, Nosferatu, a symphony of horror. It was one of the earliest horror films based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula from the 1890s. Nosferatu literally means vampire and Murnau referred to it as a symphony to tie it to its romantic novel origins. It is a symphonic and operatic work where characters glide in and out of the scene. Though Murnau has a miniscule budget, he uses light and shadow, time and movement to build suspense and show the vampire. Using these marginal means to portray the horror rather than complex sets or special effects, he captivates and chills the viewer. Here the vampire is Count Orlack because Murnau could not obtain permission to use Bram Stoker’s novel as the basis for his film. Stoker’s widow refused to sell rights to the novel to a German company. Many of the best scenes are simply shadowy sequences where Orlack lurks and menaces the cast. His silhouette descending a staircase became one of the film’s iconic moments and one of the most iconic moments in cinema history. The film comes to a crescendo when Nosferatu smitten for lust for a young woman over stays his feast on her blood. As the sun rises he realizes he is in jeopardy and thought he tries to escape, he is caught and incinerated by sunlight. Another important film from 1922 is Murnau’s lesser known film Phantom in which a man is haunted by the image of a woman that he has seen and then he spends money trying to track this woman down. Underneath is a metaphor for financial obsessions. He obsesses over spending and not over living a good life. Another important film from the same era in 1924 is Murnau’s The Last Laugh, another financial parable about a country facing debt, spiraling inflation and decreased buying power of the German currency, the marc. Laugh is the story of a doorman who works for a fancy hotel. When times turn financially unstable, the hotel closes and he loses his job. The man is obsessed with his role as a doorman and without his beautiful frock coat and his uniform and his ability to make money he withers. The film is provocative showing the hero is reduced to working as a bathroom cleaning attendant. He is derided by his family. They make fun of him and chide him for losing his job. At the end he wins a fortune at a lottery, and his fortunes reverse through money. He has status and power again. The film shows that the only thing people respect is his station in life and his money not his actual qualities as a human being. The last laugh is ironic since he only gets the last laugh because of money. In 1927 Fritz Lang. produces one of the greatest German films of the era, Metropolis. It came at the very end of the German silent film era, and it’s a science- fiction film about a future world in which the people are controlled by a desperate government very reminiscent of what was to happen to Germany five years later when Nazi rule became reality. In the film, workers work long and brutal hours, and they often sufer hardship, pain and death on the job. They live and die tending the great machines that run the society. There is a scientist seeking new ways to control the people. The forces of oppression capture a freedom fighter, a girl named Maria who is organizing and motivating the workers to rebel. The autocrats in the city realize that to control the people they must control Maria so they build a robot to replace her. They transfer Maria’s life energy and consciousness into the robot and make the robot a weird parody of the girl. The robot is revealed, Maria is restored and the society is eventually freed. The film uses extensive special effects, animation affects, robots, flying cars, weird 53 dreams, weird machines, and all the elements of german expressionist distortion. In on frightening sequence, when the engineer goes to sleep at night he sees a giant skeleton coming out of the city clock and using a scythe to kill him. The film is nightmarish and frightening. Metropolis is also a historical film that has been recently rediscovered. It is also an important film for film restoration fans. The film was thought to be only two hours in length, but in recent years a two and one half hour version was uncovered in Germany and restored. Today we have a new version with 30 minutes of restored footage. The unknown version of Metropolis had been missing for 70 years. Metropolis brings up the issue of film restoration. Without film restorers many classic films of the past could be lost and particularly films in foreign countries where film restoration was not been widely adopted and film institutes had little money to conduct restoration projects. In 1931, one of the last films completed by Fritz (Metroplis) Lang before he departed Germany and Hitler assumed power was a film entitled M which told a creepy story of a child molester and murderer. It describes a pedophile and murderer who is wanted by the underworld as well. It featured the great character actor, Peter Lorrie who was also a German citizen who fled Germany for the freedom of Hollywood. Lorrie started acting as a player for Bertolt Brecht in the twenties, immigrated to the states in the 1930s and became very popular for exotic characters in films. He played Japanese detectives (Mr. Moto), monsters and freaks (Cormen’s Poe films), and seasoned criminals in Warner Brothers features (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca One of his major starring roles was in The Mask of Demetrious in which he plays a writer and detective seeking a criminal who escaped from the law. Lorre was compelling in The Best with Five Fingers, a retelling classic hands of Orlac in which a pianist loses his hands but has the hands of a murderer grafted onto his arms turning the quiet pianist into a murderer. His work with Lang is frenetic and Lorre holds the screen with a glitchy nervous manner unmatched by most of his peers. German cinema had a lasting influence especially on expressionistic aspects of cinema. In 1923 Hollywood’s universal studios embraced the German aesthetic in a series of horror films produced by German directors and craftsmen working in the US. This genre began with 1923’s version of Victor Hugo’s gothic classic, The hunchback of Notre Dame and in 1925 Universal created the original Phantom of the Opera and also an early vampire film, London after Midnight and Dracula in 193. All featured German technicians and aesthetics derived from ideas in expressionism or surrealism. These workers were hired from Germany to utilize their technical abilities and expressionistic style. Some German directors crossed the Atlantic and make their mark in America such as Paul Leni who directed The cat and the canary in 1927. The most notable ex-patriots including singer/actress Marlene Dietrich (John Wayne’s girlfriend during the second world war), playwright and screenwriter, Bertolt Brecht and director/actor Erich Von Stroheim. Hitler’s Director: Leni Riefenstahl One director stayed in Germany. Her name was Leni Riefenstahl. She had been a talented and beautiful actress in the 1920s. Hitler admired her work and asked her to Berlin to work on propaganda films for the German government, She agreed and made a series of powerful films to propagandize the Nazi regime. She was an important 54 filmmaker for Adolf Hitler because she liked Hitler. She was ready to make the films that Hitler wanted. She had a long life (lived to be 103) and was productive for most of her career. After World War II, people tried to prosecute her for being a Nazi but her argument was that she was a good film director, not a Nazi, and the fact that she had been a good filmmaker for Hitler wasn’t a crime. It was just that she was an excellent filmmaker and she happened to relate to hitler and they were friends. She denied she was a Nazi and claimed she was a filmmaker first and last. She said she was an artist in service to a dictator. She simply made the films he wanted her to make. There was little evidence of any crimes Reifenstahl had committed except for publicizing the Nazi regime. However Reifenstahl did produce successful films for the Nazi regime that supported the notion of Hitler as a national hero. The first was her staged documentary of the Nazi Nuremburg rally of 1934 entitled Triumph of the Will(1936). Hitler is treated like a God. The film starts with hitler flying into the rally on a plane and he literally descends from heaven to the crowd of adoring fans. World audiences seeing Triumph of the Will were in awe of the people’s love and veneration for Hitler. They were impressed and fearful of this new unifying German force, the Nazi movement. Hitler is shown flying in like a god descending from the heavens. He strides amongst the troops who greet him with cheers. They salute. He modestly enters a car and thousands cheer and throng him as he strides down the streets as a conquering hero. He gives a magnetic speech and everyone is in rapt attention to the charming and dynamic leader. the truth is none of that really happened. There was a rally, but everything was staged. Actors were chosen and placed in the crowd. People were brought in to cheer Hitler. The magnificent parades and set pieces were choreographed and people were drilled on how to react and what to do. Nothing was spontaneous. True hitler did have followers and many devout followers, but the massive crowds, the mesmerized wonder about hitler and the public love of t he man was entirely the work of Leni Reifenstahl and her complex directorial hand. Her greatest achievement was making this wholly unnatural event look natural and unplanned. For this, she was a genius. She could make the staged film look like a real event. Today people see Triumph of the Will and think this was the reality of the era and that Hitler was loved and adored. This was not the case. Hitler’s regime was brutal and manipulative and protest or rejection of hitler was not tolerated and opponent were jailed, beaten or killed. Sadly the only way that Hitler could have a film made about him that flattered him was to have it manufactured and staged. Riefenstahl effectively used camera angles and tracking shots to make Hitler look like a powerful magnetic leader. Many times the shots were from a low angle to make things look bigger more powerful and more colorful than they really were at the time. Riefenstahl made a second film for Hitler in1938 entitled Olympiad which covered the German Summer Olympics in 1936. The filming was very innovative with camer shots from balloons, underwater and ariel images. The film was in two parts, both about 2 hours long and was controversial because at the Olympics Hitler refused to shake hands with American track star Jessie Owens, an African American runner sho soundly defeated the German team. Hitler was a racist and didn’t want to acknowledge that an Afrian American could beat a team of German Aryan athletes. In truth, Owens was the real star of the Olympics but Olympiad obscures his achievement because hitler refused 55 to be seen as wrong. For the most past, the film she portrays the greatness of German athletes against other athletes in a world stage, but it doesn’t show that Adolf Hitler was a racist and when American track runner Jesse Owens had won many awards at the competition, Hitler refused to shake hands with him. Owens achievement was monumental. He was one of the greatest athletes in American history and did a fantastic job under tremendous pressure in Nazi Germany. There have been several films about his achievement. Nonetheless, Riefenstahl made a movie about the Olympics that Hitler approved, but that lied about events at the Olympics, maintaining the image of Hitler as a hero. The Olympics film was made to look like a justification of the policies of prejudice and the idea of an Aryan nation, putting a blonde haired blue eyed people above everyone else. After the war and hitler’s suicide, Riefenstahl was put on trial for war crimes. Though she supported hitler and made pro hitler films, little evidence could be found to convict her. She lived another 60 years after the war and made films in Africa fearturing the lives and accomplishments of African tribesmen. It was a bizarre turn of events for a filmmaker that was associated with Nazism and Hitler. Some thought it was Riefenstahal’s repudiation of her past and some thought it was her service and penance for espousing Nazi ideas during the war, but Riefenstahl’s conversion to being a naturalist and a supporter of indigenous people and recording their lives seemed a real and genuine conversion from one of the most hated filmmakers of the world war two era to one of the rel masters of documentary filmmaking in later life. In the later half of the twentieth century, she left Germany after the war and spent the rest of her life making ethnographic films amongst the African people in the years after the war. Some people think that perhaps she did this to make up for her horrible purpose her early films for hitler were put to, and were intended to make up for her horrible experiences of helping the Nazis during World War II, but Riefenstahl never admitted to having done anything wrong in the war. She spent the rest of her life in Africa making films with the African people. The history of German cinema is very important to the west especially the films that were made in the 1920s in in the German expressionist movement. Social disruptions and economic shortages of the Weimar Republic gave rise to new techniques, and new styles of German filmmaking that became associated with the expressionistic art movement, extreme color, extreme emotion, extreme angles, extreme distortion, extreme abstraction of human values, extreme transformation of themes, extreme distortion of reality, so that many of the non-human or non-realistic films reflected the ideas of fantasy, horror, crime, or science fiction. The outgrowth of German films in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s was that the society was unable to sustain the sorts of large cast spectacles popular in other lands. Directors in Germany had to find different ways of creating production techniques to create their own style and character, atmosphere, and emotion to make a form for German film in the 1920s. Also expressionistic filmmakers like Murnau and Laing were also concerned with darker storylines where science-fiction and psychologically-disturbed characters espoused expressionist emotions as directors developed innovative techniques to support their work. The German methods appealed to American audiences in the 1930s and 40s they used light and contrast to rescue film effects, camera angles, and movement to create a new original darker abstracted form of film then had been seen before in Western 56 Europe. The German style supported the efforts to create horror movies and film noir projects in the United States. These directors and their innovations didn’t just stay in Germany, but had a huge impact on American film and world film. Many German directors and technicians were trying to remain relevant in the aftermath of Hitler and a wave of hatred of all things German that lasted throughout the the rest of the twentieth century. Further Germany was divided and weakened throughout the majority of the last half o of the twentieth century and had to fight to rebirth its economy and arts. German film had to stay alive and infuentail during a disastrous century, but German filmmakers prevailed against the politics and disasters of world wars. Terms Expressionism: Expressionism was a format of art that utilized heightened emotions, distortion, bright colors and abstraction to illustrate a distorted world view. Expressionism transferred extreme emotional angst onto film or canvas. Nazism: The National socialist movement or the Nazi movement was a fascist form of government popular in Germany and parts of Europe and Asia in the early twentieth century. It derived from central control of the economy and businesses by a strong central government, Films: Murnau, F. W.: Nosferatu (1919) Murnau, F. W. The Last Laugh (1924) Lang, Fritz. Metropolis (1925) Lang, Fritz. M (1931) Riefenstahl, Leni. Triumph of the Will (1936) Riefenstahl, Leni. Olympiad. (1938) Readings: Delaney, Darby. “A Beginner’s guide to German Cinema.” https://filmschoolrejects.com/beginners-guide-to-new-german-cinema/ AC Staff. “German Cinema Comes to Hollywood, 1930” https://ascmag.com/articles/german-cinema-comes-to-hollywood 11 cinema Soviet/Russian cinema Russian cinema in the early days of the revolution was an important format of new cinema in Europe that had a great impact on The United States and the West. Russians utilized an expressive way of editing and new forms of film cutting to increase the impact of film’s impact on audiences. The Russians had been allies with the West against the Germans in the First World War period, however during the war discontent with the Russian government broke out and the tsar was attacked and overthrown by 57 the Bolshevik communist forces. Russians rejected the old style of the world they knew and dropped out of the war and isolated themselves from the West. The French the British and the Americans blamed the Russians for leaving their coalition and disregarded the fact that they were having an internal revolution . The United states the British and the French were angry at the Russians and cut them off from trade. For the Russian people there were very few film factories making film, so making movies became more difficult. The film schools in Russia had to determine a way to educate students about film without supplies of new film. They arrived at a strategy that focused on editing over the actual creation of films. Thus, instructors in Russian film schools used pre-existing films from many cultures to teach students about film production and editing. The process worked by instructors giving students existing films and having them recut the scenes into a different structure. This allowed them to reedit the film to create a different meaning. This technique was consistent with Marxist philosophy. Marxist thinkers belived the west and capitalism robbed the people and had them addicted to a false consciousness. Thus they believed socialism freed people from ideologies of greed and philosophies where rich autocrats at the pinnicle of society while others stayed trapped in poverty. To Marxists the keys to success in capitalism always alluded the common people and favored the wealthy. Communism or socialism freed populations from false beliefs of capitalist greed and delusions that the poor could pull out of poverty. So Marxist film theory argued that films sold the public a delusion of wealth and happiness and Marxist filmmaking told audiences more truthful stories of collectivism and hard work to make all people more responsible and productive. Russian Bolshevik communists believed that the West and its messages of propaganda and its messages of capitalism were destructive to the common people. The Russians wanted to revise and redraw the messages the West had been sending to people about greed and commerce and growth in the capitalistic system. Therefore they were interested in making films that could contain new messages and it made perfect sense to the Russians to re-write films to re-edit films to give them a different message. The Russians were very theoretical about the creation of films, and they came up with a lot of theories and ideas about films. One of the first Russian film makers and professors to create new theories was Lev Kuleshov. Kuleshov performed an experiment that later became known as the kuleshov experiment . Kuleshov would show two scenes juxtaposed together side-by-side and then he would show another scene to try to determine what people would think of the first two scenes. This technique was related to the Hegelian dialectic, a German idea from the 19th century that stated that human thinking progressed by steps. According to Hegel we initially have an idea this becomes the thesis or the main idea. This idea is often supplanted by a new idea which we call the antithesis or the new idea. Then often times we realize that the first idea and the second idea weren't successful on their own, so we devise a third idea we call the synthetic/new idea Thus a thesis and anti thesis creates a synthesis, a combination of the first two ideas. By dialectical processes, we create new ideas and society moves forward. Russians adopted this thinking. They assumed the west was a feudal system oppressing common workers. Capitalism was only modified feudalism still benefiting wealth and power. The third system, communism, shared amongst everyone benefited the poor more and equalized the means of monetary distribution. 58 Through film editing Lev kuleshov tried to make this idea a reality. He would show an image of something a man a man face and then he would juxtapose that image with a portrait of a mother and a baby, The third image returned to the man in the first image. He seemed now to be smiling at the mother an child. Kuleshov argued the audience identified the first image with the second and third image. Audiences would immediately associate the first two images with the third image. The experiment showed the thesis/anti thesis combined by audiences to arrive at a synthetic third idea. In reality, Kuleshov manipulated audiences psychologically with the images. The third image merely repeated the original image. After the juxtaposition of images one has conditioned the audience to respond to the original Image according to conditions the editor has concocted. Hitchcock explained the Russian idea to a reporter in an interview. He showed an image of himself and then juxtaposed the Hitchcock image with a picture of a baby. The effect is that Hitchcock is a kindly old man looking at a baby. Hitchcock repeats the experiment this time substituting a beautiful girl in a bikini for a baby. The effect is that now Hitchcock is seen as a dirty old man leering at young girls. In reality, people are responding to the same image with intermediary image interposed between the first and third image. The Kuleshov experiment was successful in showing audiences could have their consciousness changed by film. One of the big film makers of the early Soviet period was Sergei Eisenstein. He agreed that film could alter thought. Ideological film altered the way films were built and constructed. Eisenstein created a film called Battleship Potemkin (1925) to exploit the potential of this ideological film process. The film portrays an attack on the Russian people by the czar’s men during the tsarist era.. In the film the people are attacked by the Russian tsarist soldiers and the people run to the battleship potemkin which is Harbored in the Odessa harbor. The people appeal to the Russian sailors on board the ship to help them against the soldiers on the ground. The sailors mutiny, overthrow their Tzarist commanders and help the people by firing on the Tzarist soldiers. Eisenstein employed the Hegalian idea with shots of the soldiers separate and then he made shots of the people running separate so there was a thesis/antithesis idea established. The third shot returned to the soldiers suggesting the soldiers oppressing the people. In essence the soldiers never hurt anyone, but the notion of harm is created by juxtaposition. Eisenstein shaped the minds of the audience.. Many of the films that utilize the Eisenstein idea of film editing have little to do with politics and more to do with psychologically manipulating audience emotions. For example one of the famous examples of the Kuleshov effect occurs in The Sixth Sense. The kid can see ghosts, but through juxtapositions we don’t know that the people in the film that appear alive may be ghosts too. The use of montage or the Kuleshov effect creates the sensation of hiding and revealing things to the audience. The Kuleshov effect of manipulating audience attention or misleading the audience is common. An assumption of reality is often used and under cut by cutting in new information. What may be seen may mislead. The Butterfly Effect uses this idea to undermine our beliefs through the notion of chaos theory. In 2021, Joe Wright;s production for Netflix, The woman in the window with Amy Adams has a similar effect of seeing two things juxtaposed. The audience assumes because both are presented in 59 sequence both bits of information are true. Wright feeds the audience some information that seems trustworthy which allows the audience to be manipulated. There were other people that had different theories of editing in Russia. One of the most important film makers was Pudovkan who believed in a different form of editing. His editing style was more consistent with the ideas of the film. His form of editing was known as constructive editing. Eisenstein's form of editing was considered collision editing or a more violent form where two ideas compete for centrality. Two ideas are brought together creating a third complicated idea. Pudovkin’s idea simply constructs two coherent ideas together like building blocks in architecture. You build on those ideas and you build on the story by putting ideas that are consonant together. One of Pudovkin’s most important films was called Mother. In the film a mother has a son who is not a member of the Communist Party and doesn't adhere to the Communist Party principles. She tries to find a way to save him. She determines the only way to save him is to turn him in to the Communist Party so they can save him from a life of false A third film maker did not trust the dangers of constructive editing and collision editing. He was afraid that his films might be misinterpreted. His name was Vertov and he made a film called man with a movie camera. Vertov’s film was a documentary film. Vertov did not trust editing to tell the story for fear the editing might be in re interpreted or misinterpreted in a film. Therefore, he claimed his films only showed real life and while he could put scenes together in a film in a wild strangely edited collision fashion, he claimed that everything in the film was real life and that he only recorded real life despite how speedy and clever the editing of scenes was. He used editing to increase or slow down the pace, to create interest in the film. He argued that editing was not used for the political purpose, and that the political purpose was simply the subject matter. Man with a movie camera simply shows day-to-day life for the working class communist people living in Moscow during the early days of the Russian Revolution. Soviet cinema had a brief flowering from 1920 to 1930 when many experiments occurred and were allowed. By 1930 Joseph Stalin consolidated power. Stalin was insane, paranoid and feared any sort of experiment he didn’t understand. He killed thousands of artists and condemned millions to death in Siberia. He supported a form of film and art he liked and understood, Soviet Realism. If Stalin didn’t get the form, it was banned and often the perpetrator was killed. This form was simple, direct, and told the story of the Russian people working towards the ends of the Soviet regime. From the thirties to the fifties during Stalin’s reign Russian film was static. After Stalin died, Soviet film slowly revived. The twenties allowed a brief window for experiment. Eisenstein practiced collision editing, Pudovkin offered constructivist editing, and Vertov used a style of editing that offered wild speedy shot but he disavowed editing as a tool to invoker film meaning. Today the ideas of collision editing are used to disorient the audience. Japanese horror films have used this technique to great effect in generating fear. Editing influenced by Russian theorists was strongly influential in American television of the later twentieth century. MTV pioneered exotic editing to market pop music and pop groups and defined codes of behavior and dress for young audiences during the eighties. MTV showed that Eisenstein and Kuloshov were correct in assuming behavior could be altered via film editing. 60 Terms Constructivism: An art movement that arrived from the freedom found in the Russian Revolution. Constructivist forms were tied to cubism and abstracted images by reducing them down to similar forms. Montage: Montage had a special place in Russian film in that Russian filmmakers believed that montage was a way to create meaning by constructing hegalian dialectical arguments in film. Russian filmmakers constructed scenes of opposing images, a thesis and anti-thesis that was reconstructed as a new argument by the viewer. Western European and American films were constructed in a more straightforward argumentative pattern. Films: Eisenstein, Sergei. Battleship Potemkin (1925) Pudovkin, Vladimir. Mother (1927) Vertov. “Man With a Movie Camera.” (1929) Tarkovsky, Vessily. Solaris (1972) Readings: Delaney, Darby. “A Beginner’s guide to German Cinema.” https://filmschoolrejects.com/beginners-guide-to-new-german-cinema/ AC Staff. “German Cinema Comes to Hollywood, 1930” https://ascmag.com/articles/german-cinema-comes-to-hollywood Cinema 11 sound in film There is a mistaken belief that many early films were silent but the truth is that from the beginning of film production almost all films had a form of sound. While early films did not have a sound track and dialogue accompanying them, sound was always a part of film culture from the beginning. Many early films had piano or organ 61 accompaniment simply to emphasize emotional and sensational scenes in the film Sometimes narrators would narrate a film or amateur actors would include dialogue in a film in a live fashion. Early synchronization of film and sound was attempted using phonograph records. Phonograph records were created before films so the technology existed. A problem with phonograph records as an accompaniment to a film soundtrack meant that the sound had to be recorded ahead of time and synchronized properly with the film. if there was a mechanical skip in the record, it was possible for the sound to go way off. The two principal problems for creating sound film were synchronization of the sound with the actual frames of the film and amplification of the sound. The motor that drove film projectors was very loud so being able to hear sound from a scratchy phonograph record with very poor amplification was very difficult and many people were unable to hear sound in film because of this. Therefore, amplification was difficult and was a problem to overcome the second problem was synchronization actually having the film and the sound play at the same time. The answer to amplification in film came in the early twentieth century when Lee De Forest create the first amplification tubes in 1906. RCA and other companies were producing radios and the tube amplifiers allowed the sound from rados to be heard clearly and loudly. Companies like RCA developed paper cone speakers that gave better sound quality, but a bigger problem was amplifying the sound of the radio waves so that it could be heard in in the home. The need for a new technology to be able to amplify sound was a difficult problem. De Forest developed a vacuum tube that would take the signal from a record and literally turn up the volume or amplify that sound so the amplification tube literally pulled more electrical power out of the sound and amp using amplitude signals to create more sound so that the sound would be louder. Initially with the sound came a good degree of distortion but over time the engineers developed cleaner sound systems. They found ways to reduce the distortion so there would be a clearer sound coming from the amplification tube and quickly amplification tubes took off. By the 1920s, radio receivers had amplification tubes that glowed a bright orange or yellow light and had cone speakers that gave beautiful synchronized sound. The very first radio station that signed on in 1920 was KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA. By the time they had created amplification tubes and cone speakers it wasn't long until people would apply that to film. The second issue was synchronization. Synchronization was difficult because it was hard to place the sound at the same time as the film. Different methods were used for starting a film at exactly the same moment as a phonograph record, and finally The Western Electric company developed a system of linking a phonograph to a film that worked reasonably well. They called this system the vitaphone system, and they tried in vain to sell the system to several film companies that rejected it because of the costs and the fears that outfitting a lot of theaters with this new system would be very costly. Eventually in 1926, the Warner Brothers film company bought the vitaphone system and began to use it in a series of shorts.Finally in 1927, for a big premiere of a popular film by a popular artist Al Jolson, vitaphone and Warner Brothers decided to make an entire film featuring vitaphone sound. This film from 1927 was entitled The Jazz Singer. The Jazz Singer became a big hit for a number of reasons even though there were still title cards in the film, and much of the film was silent. There were segments of 62 the film in which people spoke using microphones and sung on stage specific songs. The Jazz Singer was a mixture of title cards and silent film and sound film put together. It was the first talkie because it was the first film where people actually spoke and sung in a film along with music in the film. The jazz singer was popular because it featured live singing and speaking as well. But the jazz singer was popular for other reasons as well. It was a very controversial film of its time. It told the story of a Jewish family who had a son that they hoped would be a Cantor in the synagogue in the Jewish church. Their son was enamored of Broadway musicals and wished to sing on Broadway for gentiles or non-Jews. While he was in rehearsal for a play on Broadway, he fell in love with a non-Jewish girl and this upset his family as well. Finally by the film's end his father who is a cantor in the synogogue is very sick and wishes his son to return home to sing in the church, but he refuses to follow his father's wishes until he realizes his father is very sick. So while his father is on his deathbed, the young son returns to his family's church and sings as a Cantor in the church. His father dies happy that his son has returned to the church. But the son is still enamored of a non-Jewish girl which upsets the family because they do not want him marrying outside the faith. But he is young and headstrong and wishes to pursue a relationship with a girl who is not of the Jewish faith. His saving grace is a doting mother that indulges everything he wants. His mother believes that he should be the man he wants to be even if it means being a different person than his father and faith desire him to be. She encourages him. He eventually sings on Broadway to his mother (song Mammie) and becomes a famous star. He marries the girl he wishes to marry, and all ends happily with his adoring mother by his side. But the film is extremely controversial . The film dealt with Jews and immigrant peoples. The film dealt with a young man who defied both of his parents to have the career of his dreams. The film dealt with a Jewish man marrying outside his own faith. The film dealt with mixture of different peoples from different parts of the world. The film dealt with immigrants coming into American Society and wanting to integrate into American Society. All of these elements labeled the film is highly controversial. These elements created a very,very popular film that was attractive to a wide range of diverse audiences. The fact that it was sound as well also made the film extremely popular and people went to the film simply to see the extravaganza of people singing live on stage in a film. The jazz singer was a breakthrough in many ways aside from the fact that it was one of the first synchronized sound films of its era. Not long after the jazz singer debuted the great controversy arose in the film community as to whether all the film community would move to sound film or whether sound film would simply be a gimmick to get people into the theaters. The answer was very quick. Within two years or 18 months after the jazz singer despite the high costs of adding speakers and an amplification sound system and new projectors that ran on a different film speed, the new systems at enormous costs were installed in nearly every theatre in the country by popular demand. The public demanded sound and refused to go to films without sound. By 1928 the public would not patronize silent films and by 1929 virtually all films being made were sound. By 1930, silent films were dead. The only silent filmsthat made profit in the thirties were films by Chaplin. Chaplin continued to do films that had sound that had soundtracks and music made by Chaplin. They had live sound in them, but Chaplin generally felt that he could make bitter films by simply using silent movie methods and Chaplin made City Lights in 1931, modern times in 1936 and the great 63 dictator in 1940 that were mostly silent films with small elements of sound effects soundtracks and some dialogue when necessary. For the most part Chaplin was the only artist during the sound era that could actually make a silent film that people might still go to see. Sound prevailed very quickly in the field of film technology . One of the great problems of sound films was that the actors had to stand near a microphone to be heard. Thus sound created films with less movement that were more static. People did not have to worry about sound in silent films. People could move anywhere they wanted to on the stage however when actors had to stand near microphone to be heard, movement in films virtually came to a standstill, and the talkies literally became the standstill talkies or the stockies as people jokingly called them. There were several major film directors in Hollywood that set about solving that problem, and they used different devices to solve the problems that were created by sound films. One of the first directors to solve the problem with sound films and make movement come back to theaters was Rueben Mammelian. Mammelian was the director of the Oscar winning 1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Frederic March based on the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mammelian was formerly a Broadway stage director. The film literally dealt with the issue of how to get sound and movement in the same film by using a solution that mammelian had seen done in Broadway. On Broadway film producers decided that people wanted good sound and to do so, they provided a sound system with microphones on the stage, but instead of simply putting a single microphone for everyone to group around as they had in film producers in Broadway. They had placed different microphones on different sides of the stage in the center of the stage and above the stage. They used an audio mixer which was a device that allowed them to bring up the sound on one microphone and bring it down in another microphone so it wasn't picking up extraneous foot traffic during a scene. Mammelian said why don't we incorporate the idea of using microphones on various parts of the stage in our sound films which is exactly what he did. So in Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde there were microphones placed around the stage so that wherever March moved on the stage there would be sound that could easily be heard. Also they began to do post production mixing of sound into the film so that sound that wasn't recorded at the time the film was made, could be recorded later. Mammelian’s efforts were rewarded in 1932 with the superb attendance at the version of Jekyll and Hyde that he created with March. sound was very clear, very audible, and the actor March when the Oscar for best performance, because as Hyde, he could move across the stage and make sounds and use dialogue from anywhere. The other director that worked very hard to make sound successful was Victor Fleming. Fleming was famous for a number of films that he directed, including 1939 Oscar nominees Wizard of Oz that he directed and Gone with the Wind of which he was one of a team of four directors for the film. Fleming actually won the Oscar for best director in 1939 for GWTW and then in 1940, he made another great film, a second version of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman. Victor Fleming had made a lot of movies with western stars and liked making westerns. He also wanted to make western films with live sound in the West. A lot of people thought it was impossible to have a truck with a Dolly (a raised platform device) and a boom microphone ( a boom was a pole on which microphones were hung above actors as they rode on horses to make sound that could be heard and could be audible and could 64 be done properly. Fleming figured that he could get a quietly running low speed truck to be alongside the actors on horses with a boom operator operating a boom held above the horses. He believed you could hold a microphone over the actors as they rode on horses so the two actors could be riding on horses and having a conversation, and they could be clearly heard. People thought the sound of the noise from the horses and their hooves and riding on the ground and the sound of a truck and the sound of a boom operator noise coming from the truck would be too loud, and that you could not isolate the sound of the voices of the actors and you could not record westerns in this manner with live sound. Fleming proved them wrong. He put special baffling in the truck to make to make the sound of the truck's engine quieter. He put special baffling around the boom microphone so that it only picked up the sound of the voices of the actors and not the competing sound of the truck or the competing sound of the horses and the actors spoke clearly and loudly. Their voices came through loud and clear, so Fleming was one of the few directors that solved the problem of sound in the outdoors. One of the other innovators in sound in 1940 was Orson Welles who had already worked in radio and worked on stage and was making his first movie Citizen Kane. Welles always laughed at the fact that most sound films from the first ten years of sound film did not have ceilings in the scenes because they had to use boom microphones and the boom microphones would not allow them to put a ceiling scene in a set. Welles made his technicians on Citizen Kane develop scenes with sets that actually had ceilings and people laughed at Welles and thought he was a fool. Welles laughed and said I can place a microphone anywhere and I know how I can make it work. Welles planted microphones in desks or in the sleeve of an actor or in a coat or in a newspaper or any place on this stage where it might not be seen, and he placed enough microphones in every scene where every aspect of every scene could be brilliantly recorded. In one of the most famous scenes at the end of Citizen Kane the 70 year old Kane begs his wife Susan Alexander not to leave him, and she defies him and decides to leave him, and he is left alone in her room. In a rage he begins to destroy everything in the room making a lot of noise in the process, tearing apart wooden cabinets smashing bottles, throwing things against the wall, tripping over things tearing up wires, throwing books, and throwing her clothing. The scene is a real mess but one of the really wonderful things about the scene is the way Welles records the sound so that you hear the man puffing all the way through as he destroys the room and you hear the actual torment of tearing a cabinets out of walls and throwing furniture and destroying property all the way through the scene. It's fun to watch because of its marvelous sound design in which you simply watch a man go berserk in a room. Here sound defines character. Sound also played a role in the enjoyment of animation, and one of the reasons why the Disney Studios became the principal studio for animation in the 1920s and later became the most important animation studio in in the world. Today Walt Disney Enterprises is responsible for about 70% of the films made in the United states because they own Marvel, Fox Miramax and many other production companies. Disney became successful despite the problems of animation (it took more time and manpower to make animated films). Disney would take three years to make a film like Snow White while MGM could make a movie a week because they had four soundstages constantly at work. However one of the drawbacks for the other studios was recording sound and 65 recording it well. For once Disney had a distinct advantage. The animation could be done by the animators and the sound could be done slowly and parts could be integrated in postproduction. You didn't have to have good sound at the time you were making the pictures; you could add good sound after the pictures were made, which gave Disney a rare advantage. So in the process of a film like Snow White you have three years to find songs, vocalists and clever dialogue. Disney had access to the best singers, the best composers, and facilities to record and rerecord the sound slowly to make it mix in well with the film. In 1927 Disney Studios were the first studio to deliver a sound cartoon in their debut cartoon with Steamboat Willie which featured Mickey Mouse in a comedy on a steamboat with animals, an angry boat captian, and lots of goofy examples of sound, The film was extremely successful and from 1927 until 1937 when they produced Snow White, Disney was on a mission to bring a fully animated sound film to the market. This would literally entail 90 minutes of sound and that was a real struggle for Disney or for any studio during that time simply because of the complexities of making a sound film. Consider besides problems with sound, Disney animators had to draw 129,600 drawings per film. All of these had to be planned scripted, arranged, with foreground and background images, and vocal parts and songs written in and timed. But when Disney delivered Snow White in 1937 it was a massive hit because the voices and the music were beautiful, the animals had wonderful character voices, and the sound blended perfectly with the animated images. Disney didn't have to worry about the actors having good voices which is a problem for regular sound films because he could pick whatever actor he wanted, he found wonderful voice actors and talented singers. The struggle to create great sound in film was very complicated and it didn't end there. Technology moved sound film forward. In the 1940s the federal government in World War Two realized that records (containing secrets and sensitive information) being transmitted across the Atlantic into France and England were very fragile and could break. They needed a new technology for moving secret messages to the allies in Europe fighting the Germans. They developed a new technology called audio recording tape so instead of recording on a plastic shellac record, they made audio tapes that were more flexible.One could plunge an audio tape into water and dry it out. You could twist an audio tape or distort it and still have it play unlike records. it was far more flexible and again it could run alongside celluloid film. Tape made things easier, so in the 1940s the film companies began to realize that if they could run an audio tape through a projector with a pick up at the same time they were running celluloid film they could do away with vitaphone records altogether, and they wouldn't have to play a record with a film anymore. They could integrate the two systems together. So recording with a tape recorder during filming simplified the process of tracking sound with the making of the visual film. By running the film at 24 frames per second they could get achieve higher quality sound. Early silent film ran in the silent film era at 18 frames per second. The slower film left very poor sound quality, but when you boosted the speed of the film to 24 frames per second FPS or frames per second you received a better quality sound signal. If anything World war two advanced sound technology. Terms amplification: the ability of the amplitude waves of sound to be increased. This was accomplished when Lee de Forest invented the vacuum tube. 66 Synchronizaton: In early days of film production there was a great physical challenge making the picture and sound synchronize so that picture and sound were well coordinated. This problem was solved by Warner Brothers Vitaphone system which linked a record to the showing of a film frame. The system was later replaced by Western Electric’s system of attaching electronic magnetic recording medium alongside film frames so that the sound could be picked up simultaneously with the film’s viewing. Fps: Frames per second. The standard for sound film was established at 24 frames per second and silent films ran at 18 frames per second. The reason why silent films have jerky motion when translated to television is that early television projector transfer systems only ran sound film and only could translate film at that speed, thus early transfers of silent film to television tapes were recorded at THE WRONG SPEED thus making all silent films look like they are going to fast. This was a mechanical error because tv stations in the 1940s and 1950s did not possess the right projectors for dubbing silent films on to television recordings and monitors. Films: Mamaleon, Rueben. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” (1932) Crosland, Alan. “The Jazz Singer.” (1927) Welles, Orson. “Citizen Kane.” (1941) Readings: Kushins, Jordan. “A Brief History of Sound in Cinema.” https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a19566/a-brief-history-of-sound-in- cinema/ Filmsfatale. “Sound History in Film: Early Recording.” https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/5/26/sound-history-in-film-early-recording Cinema 12 Hollywood studio system The Hollywood studio system developed as a business model in the 1930s and 40s to control the production of films and to control markets in the U S Between 1930 and 1952. Most of the major studios were combined and the larger studios devoured the smaller companies to create complete control and dominance of the industry. By 1930 most of the principle players in Hollywood were assembled and smaller studios had been gobbled up. 67 The Big Five and the Minors By 1930 the major studios were 20th Century Fox (A combination of the older 20th century pictures and Fox studios) MGM (A combination of Metro pictures the Golden theatre chain and the film company of Louis B. Meyer), RKO (A combination of a few radio companies and film companies), Warner Bros, a studio owned by the three Warner brothers. Two of the brothers retired and left the running of the studio to Jack Warner. Paramount was the most European of the big five. Adolph Zukor ran Paramount and brought in foreign directors, actors and technicians to give Paramount films an arty and glossy look. There were a few minor studios that specialized in one form of entertainment. Republic made cheap westerns and Saturday morning serials for children. Disney made mostly cartoons but later switched to a blend of cartoons and live action films because the live action films helped to underwrite the cartoon productions which took longer and cost more. Universal run by Carl Lamelle made mostly low budget horror films. By 1930 all of these studios competed in a very tight low margin market during the depression. Companies had to have constant hits or face bankruptcy. One film’s profits paid for the next film. Two or three disastrous releases could cause layoffs and sell offs of property, stars, equipment or real estate. Maintaining the rising costs of production was a day and night business. Studio Methods The studio system was often referred to as a star factory, because Hollywood realized after Chaplin that people liked to view films featuring familiar and dependable stars. Studios virtually owned stars. They paid for their plastic surgery, theor cosmetic enhancements, their hair, their clothes, their agents, their publicity, sometimes their residence and they even programmed star’s personal time and choice of lifestyle right down to charities and personal appearances. A star’s life was controlled in much the same way Korean boy bands are selected and governed today in Korea. They are a human industry bordering on bondage. Further in the time of the studio system there was no human rights. If you were gay, you could not exist as a gay person. If you were a child there were no child labor laws or the studios disregarded them. If you were a woman, except for a few big stars, you had no control over your properties or the films that the studio chose for you. Your life, your career your residence, your appearance were all managed, and most people had to appear grateful to work 18 hour days, sometimes 6am to midnight to appear in movies. Wages were doled out by contracts that often abrogated basic worker rights. Studios were famous for reprisals against non-complying actors. Humphrey Bogart once angered Warner Brothers studio head Jack Warner and was sentenced to play a lead in a horror movie, one of the lowest jobs in the business. Horror movies were not the venerable terror films of the modern period with lavish special effects, animation, cgi ,and clever jump scares. Mostly horror was a discount industry where the cheapest talent and the poorest production values prevailed. Rarities like Dracula and Frankenstein were unusual high budget versions of stage shows (Dracula) or classic novels (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel). Factory Production Many of the studios in Hollywood produced in a style of factory production like the factory methods of Henry Ford. The studio system decided they could create 68 products like cars or airplanes or furniture or household products. They had a tightly controlled conventional way of making movies by factory methods. Films like Little Caesar in 1930 or Public Enemy and Scarface in 1932 started a sequence of gangster films. Other genres generated many sequences of films in that genre. The sixties had sequences comedies, gangsters, horror features, musicals, dance spectacles, screwball comedies, farces and historical epics. Vertical Integration: Owning it All Studio system films weren’t always wildly creative. Studios simply created a series of films that utilized contracted players, contracted directors, and followed very precise formats of filmmaking. The business model was known as vertical integration. Studios sought to control all aspects of production and eliminate, competition from companies outside the Hollywood area. Vertical Integration meant controlling production, distribution and exhibition. This meant that all films were built, directed and printed In Hollywood. The five studios ran all aspects of the films they filmed on their own studio lots. There were hierarchical orders in the studios. The lowest of the low at Warner brothers were the animators that made the looney tunes cartoons They were banished to the outskirts of the studio on the area near. The studio fence, a series of frame huts where animators had to draw in unaircionditioned bungalows. This space was known as cockroach terrace. The studios made a lot of money from looney tunes but did not respect or appreciate animators like Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Fritz Freling. The animators at Warner’s responded by constantly producing cartoons that ridiculed or parodies warner brothers own films and stars. The animatords knew they were wild and often times annoying so they were happy to be away from the main offices. Closer to the main buildings were the secondary studios where grade b minor films were filmed with minor actors. At the center of the Warner’s lot were the big A studios where major stars like Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis created their classic films. These stars had a choice of some co-cast members and some say in the direction, but the studio heads made all final decisions. In the main buildings there were corporate offices for studio heads. Usually these offices were opulent and lush to show the power of the giants of the industry. A major part of the studio complex was accounting. Hollywood accountants were described as magic accountants because outward appearances would illustrate that given films were hits, but the Hollywood accountants could describe the costs of production as producing a loss. The accounting process took into account the use of facilities, technicians, artists fees, acting talent, directors, studio production costs, writers, extras, and misc costs which could often turn a successful film into a loss, at least for tax purposes. Apart from the studio facilities, the majors owned all the major distribution of ll films throughout the country. Big reels of physical films had to be transported by big trucks across the country to every small town that had a movie theatre. Even small towns of 10,000 people or less would have a theatre. Remember, apart from radio and live theatre, film was the only form of evening entertainment for most Americans. Most major studios released new films every week and audiences would go see the week’s big hit and return to the theatre weekly to see new hits as they arrived. In large cities, the Warners, Fox, Parmount trucks would roll into town weekly with new films. Later reels could be mailed to cities for pick up by downtown theatres. As films circulated 69 across the country, prints would be traded from theatre to theatre. For super popular films, the studios would have to make extra prints of those feature films. The cost of prints in technicolor was expensive (the number of prints weighed against a film’s profits). A ragged print with burn marks, or scratches, or sound drop outs could annoy audiences and diminish admissions and depress revenue so keeping theatres stocked with quality prints was part of the business of the distribution chain. However in the end, each studio had mail rooms, trucking lines, print facilities, distribution points, and employees and full divisions devoted to distribution tasks. The final aspect of vertical integration was the theatres for exhibition. The studios built beautiful theatres often referred to as movie palaces. They were large beautiful buildings with plush velour seats, red carpets, colorful and attractive concession stands and full cuisines. In the height of the depression when disposable cash was at a premium, studios equipped movie theatres with facilities to serve full meals for lunch, dinner and evening snacks. Stages were equipped with strong sound systems to host touring celebrities appearing in major markets to support their new film release. For example a popular thirties and forties act like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby would host radio shows that would promote their films. They would tour behind major releases touring through towns in the east coast. Films might open in the East in New York, travel to Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Ohio, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Madison, Wisconsin and wind up in Minneapolis. Movie stars were treated like today’s rock stars, staying the best hotels, doing continual interviews and publicizing the film and promoting its qualities. The theatres were a place to commune on the weekends. People could go and stay all day and many did just that. The economics of the depression were precarious. Many people lost their homes and had to live with families, in trailers, or camps. If people could find a job (at one point 25% of the workforce was unemployed) people saved their slim wages for a date or a solo venture to the movie theatre. Food was cheap and these theatres were wide ranging entertainment centers. Big bathrooms for big families, arcades where people could play pinball and other novelties. Music was playing through speakers everywhere in the theatre. Sound was resonant and warm. The theatres were built to contain crowds for 18 hours on a weekend. Kids occupied Saturday morning with cartoons, short subjects, travelogues, weekly newsreels photographing and filming national events. These shows might extend from 8am until noon. Custodians would clean up cokes and popcorn and there would be a transition to afternoons which might be teens or pre-teens, families and older patrons. Sometimes theatres would host cheap bingo, scrabble, Pictionary style games with projectors and good sound systems. Audience members might be called on stage to help call bingo numbers. Winners might win depression glassware, pots and pans, silverware, and plate sets. People too poor for household items might win them at bingo for a nickel investment in a set of bingo cards. Big swing bands appeared on stage in some venues and audiences would dance the foxtrot in the aisles. Everyone saw almost everyone from the community at the theatre. It was a place for social gathering and social binding. More newsreels, news programming, serials, horror movies, crime thrillers and otherB features would be programmed in the afternoons. Evening features came after a dinner menu of stacks and more substantial foods, including hotdogs, chips, peanuts, cotton candy, popcorn, and sometimes pizza and 70 soup and other more exotic items. Again bands and games might fill in the intermission hours. People might come to the theatre early to win a set of glasses or there might be a free raffle of items, a collection for the needy, or possibly a USO collection for troops fighting during World War two. Many people pitched in to help at theatres as during the depression and war years, many men either were overseas or at world camps and details could not be home. They were living and dormitories and sending money home to their families. Women pitched in serving food, running projectors, tearing tickets and managing theatres. At around seven pm an evening double feature would begin with hit movies introduced by touring stars. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby appeared, performed a stage show, sang songs with a big band, sometimes broadcast a live radio show and entertained fellow actors and other touring stars. There was a lot of cross over between radio and film and plugs and ads for products that supported the film actors and radio shows would be inserted. Samples of popular products would be distributed to people. At special holidays like Christmas and Halloween masks or tinsel or other free items might be distributed. After the first feature there might be another stage show and then the main feature would premiere at 8 or 9pm. Afterwards most people finally went home exhausted but young people might listen to a small swing combo or a jazz band, eat more food and devour more soft drinks. Dancing and games might end the evening and often the theatres cleaned and closed after midnight. Theatres generated a culture that satisfied American needs for entertainment for nearly two decades. They were uncontested capitals of film pleasure. The studios owned every facet of production including the development and creation of the film itself, the writers, and the cameras so that they could actually control what had been shot and produced that day. All was contained in house. They had built in development facilities so that film could be seen at night the same day it was shot. Productions moved forward daily and studio chiefs watched with actors technicians and directors. If the studio didn’t like a film they could end it in an evening. Mostly they pushed ahead with all productions. A production started and not finished lost money for the studio. Money was a big concern but so was prestige and good publicity. Studios like MGM became extremely proficient, constantly developing scripts hiring writers, hiring actors, hiring directors, and producing films on a regular basis. MGM bragged that it could produce literally a film a week or 52 films a year, and it called itself the film production factory. People often jokingly called it the dream factory. Hollywood films could be distributed to every city in the nation to every movie theater in the nation. This strong distribution network throttled product and studios only distributed films that they either created or had created with an independent producer. This vertical integration model existed from 1930 until 1946. In,1946 following the end of the depression and the end of World War Two, the Supreme Court and the federal government took action against the studios to break them up. Government determined that studios such as Paramount and Warner Brothers had too much control, and strangled emerging new independent cinema and foreign films from being shown. This was the beginning of the end of the studio system. By the early 1950s almost all the major studios had been divested of their of their theaters and their distribution networks. They had to fight with foreign producers to be able to create a space where their films could be shown. 71 Today Hollywood production mirrors the past but is also very different. Rather than five studios, today there are about twelve domestic studios producing American films. We have studios that make films for distribution to theaters but we also have studios that make distribution directly to television such as Netflix and Amazon. Instead of the studios controlling actors and directors and production facilities themselves, today studios strike deals with major directors, actors, and writers, and they create a package that creates a production that is eventually funded. When a film is funded, it means that that film is greenlit or greenlighted and that means that the film has a potential to go forward because the funding is there, the actors have been paid, the studio has the money to finance the facilities, and they have the production ability to complete the film, perform post production tasks so the film can be released and shown to audiences. It is notable that over seventy percent of American film production is controlled by the Walt disneyt company who have mergered and bought other film companies (Miramax, Fox, and Marvel) so they have a strong control over what Americans see. While there are many independent films made in the world today, still in the studio system and Hollywood. Much production is governed by demands dictated by money and business. The studios are hungry for blockbuster films that will make a lot of money. For example in the early part of the Millennium superhero movies were popular, but revenue declined by 2020, and it took a new spiderman film in 2021 to revive the genre. Money underlies the production of films. While A list directors generally can make the films they wish to produce, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, a remake of the 1961 classic sputtered in 2021 because few people patronized the film. A film genre dies if audiences do not watch it. Today, many studios insure audience response by dual releasing to theatres and streaming services. The 2021 release of Matrix revolution was promoted in theatres and on the streaming HBO max service. Studios fear losibng films to streaming services and pirating. The new distribution of films is a complex business. Many films partner with streaming services such as Netflix to maximize audience and revenue. Nexflix spends well over 10 billion a year to produce its own massive slate of productions to compete against older and more established studios. In Recent years, Amazon and Netflix have muscled into the complex business of maki ng films and their efforts have opened up the production market somewhat. Hits that no one predicted as successful films are called sleeper hits. Often times sleeper hits surprise audiences and Hollywood and develop new genres. When Robert Downey jr. joined the Iron Man series he spurred the big super hero craze of the millennium era. Terms Vertical Integration: Controlling all aspects of film production. Producin g, distributing and exhibiting films. Sleeper hit: Films not deemed hits by the studio but surprised analysts and became popular with audiences. The Big Five: a group of large studios that dominated Hollywood production in the thirties and forties. Paramount, MGM, RKO, Warners, 20th Century Fox Films: Ford, John. “Stagecoach.” (1939) Van Dyke, S. S. “A Night at the Opera.” (1935) Werks, U. B. “Snow White.” (1937) 72 McCarey, Leo. “Love Affair.” (1939) Curtez, Michael. “Casablanca.” (1942) Welles, Orson. “Citizen Kane.” (1941) Readings: Kushins, Jordan. “A Brief History of Sound in Cinema.” https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a19566/a-brief-history-of-sound-in- cinema/ Filmsfatale. “Sound History in Film: Early Recording.” https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/5/26/sound-history-in-film-early-recording Cinema 13 film noir Film noir was a style of film that erupted after the chaos of World War Two. Noir was characterized as (1) a group of films about criminal, mystery, police, crime and larceny oriented entertainments. (2) Qualities of these films were dark and mysterious settings, dark lighting, shadow, shades and blinds, night time scenes, the use of weather and atmosphere to characterize events. (3) These films are characterized by a cynical view of human nature. (4) Women are particularly problematic with many women not considerd trustworthy or dangerous. The term femme fatale was conied to describe women in this genre. (5) Noirs often portray fate as capricious or working against the protagonists of the film. (6) The worldview of film noir is not only cynical but dark. People will lie, betray and disappoint us. Women are untrustworthy. Friends are not friendly. It is a world in which community or friendship does not matter and fate or other forces can intervene and bring the characters to ruin. (7) Noir is often fatalistic and the end result is death, crime, murder, betrayal, unhappiness, and disappointment. Noir as a term arrived from French critics who saw American films after World War Two. France had been captured by the Germans in the early days of World War Two and was occupied from 1940 until 1945. When they were freed from German rule and captivity by the allies and the Germans were driven out of Paris and out of Northern France, French film critics that had watched American films through 1939 and had seen the studio system in 1939 at its zenith in films like Gone with the wind of mice and men Stagecoach Wizard of Oz son of Frankenstein hound the Baskervilles dark victory, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith goes to Washington love affair and a host of other brilliant and wonderfully realized films from the American studio system. But once Germany occupied the country in 1940, the Germans cut off the French critics from all American films for five years as part of their propaganda efforts to promote German society and criticize the allies and the other Western powers. When the allies returned and freed France in 1945 French critics saw American films for the first time in five years. What they witnessed was a complete change in the style of American film from 1939 to 1945. American films had changed had become darker grittier and more cynical because of the horrors of war, the horrors of the depression, the deprivation of the American people, and the poverty that had swept the United States and the world. The 73 darkness of the depression years followed by the sacrifices of a world war transformed film makers in Hollywood. They moved towards a darker cynical more grim style of film that reflected the feelings of the American people. Americans had seen corruption in their own country, had learned to sometimes fear authority figures such as the clergy and the police, and were very concerned about the shape of the world following the war. and the incursion of communism into Eastern Europe. These films were dark gritty films therefore the French critics referred to these new films as film noir or black film because they were very dark in tone and they were very cynical and disturbing in their content. Most of the films of the noir era were crime films or mystery films or suspense films in which criminal elements or criminals were the focus of the film the police were no longer in charge, the clergy were no longer trustworthy, specifically women were no longer to be trusted, and the world was a darker and more corrupt place. Film makers that had made bright and happy films prior to the war started making much darker films. Alfred Hitchcock who had moved to the United States in 1939 when the bombing of London and worked for David O Selznick. When Hitchcock arrived Selznick was embroiled in gone with the wind. Hitch specialized in this new style of suspense film or noir films during the film noir era. Hitchcock had great influence over world filmmaking including the French new wave, but became a major auteur who was smart and able to make clever and dark films within the shelter of the studio system. Hitchcock was able to wrest such control from the studios because he was clever, literate, budget conscious and made mostly popular films that pleased audiences. He also knew how to harness the media. He started several mystery magazines that spread the Hitchcock names and brand, and he quickly grasped the power of television and produced his own television program for ten years, making him the most well known film director in the United States. Hitchcock started his United States tenure with a strong hit film. Rebecca was a popular novel by mystery writer Daphne DuMaurier, starring two young attractive actors, Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine that won the Academy Award for best picture in 1940. Shadow of Doubt in 1942, co-written by Thorton Wilder who had written the stage hit, Our Town. In 1946, Hitchcock paired with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman for a spy thriller, Notorious. Hitchcock was a dominant force in the fifties creating a string of crime thrillers starting with stage fright in 1950 strangers in a train in 51 rear window in 1952, dial M for murder, the man who knew too much in 1955 the trouble with Harry 1956 Vertigo 1957 the wrong man 1958 North by northwest in 1959, In that ten year era, Hitchcock became America's most subversive filmmaker making films about dark corners of American Society. He toyed with films where corruption might dwell without anyone actually knowing it existed. The high point of Hitchcock's cynical view of America was Psycho, a dark fairy tale of sex, perversion, cross dressing, serial murder, and psychosis. The film takes a simple plot of a thief who is killed by a maniac running a motel and transforms that into a telescoped view of American culture. people for the rest of the film. What exactly is film noir? It's a French term that means simply dark film or black film. It is marked by a very pessimistic view of the human race. It is a series of mystery and criminal films that were extremely popular in the era when Hollywood was in decline and television was in its ascendancy. 74 The first film noir was 1945’s detour by Delmer Davies. The film is fatalistic, pessimistic has a femme fatale, sems almost like a surreal waking nightmare and is cheaply shot in black and white. It has many of the qualities of noir. The hero of the film, Al, is a vet from World War Two playing piano in a seedy bar with his girlfriend who wants to move west. When she decides to go to Los Angeles to become successful he follows her to Los Angeles. He hitchhikes and is a picked up by a guy named Haskell. But Al is waylaid by a series of events that destroy his happiness. He takes over driving for Haskell who falls asleep. At a stop, Al finds out Haskell has died. He meets a woman that needs a ride at a truck stop. Her name is Vera. She recognizes the car and tells Al , she knows he stole the car because she caught a ride with Haskell in that same car the day before. She coaxes Al to take her to LA and to help her with criminal acts. Al, trapped takes her to Los Angeles. She immediately gets drunk and threatens to call the police on Al. He tries to grab the phone cord from her. Sher runs to another room. Al tries to pull the phone cord from her. In her drunken state she wraps the cord around her neck. Unknown to Al, his pulling on the cord strangles Vera. At a truck stop Al is picked up by the police, assuming fate wants him dead. Fate, bad women and bad luck conspire to make this a classic noirish story. Some qulaities of noir? There is the antihero protagonist who has either done something wrong or is a victim of fate. He can’t win no matter what. This kind of hero would be Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra where he is a criminal in a cabin up in the woods surrounded by the police with no way to escape. He wants to bring money to his girl so that she can have money to live. In many film noirs there is an evil lying woman. In 1964’s remake of Earnest Hemingway’s The Killers there is Angie Dickenson who pretends to be in love with John Cassavettes to trick him into helping her and her boyfriend (Ronald Reagan) steal money. In the end, the killer (Lee Marvin) tracks the money to the girl. She proclaims, “I had nothing to do with it, it was all his (the boyfriend’s) idea. Marvin, who has been shot by Reagan and is dying and doesn’t believe her says, “lady I don’t have the time,” and shoots her. This is a common fate for a film noir heroine. These are usually women of low morality who are only interested in using men to get what they want and eventually these women destroy men. Another aspect of film noir is schematic plotting that provides a template to the crimes and themes. Because many noirs were shot on the cheap a hallmark became dark simple and atmospheric lighting where low key dark scenes are infused with high contrast darks and lights. Shadows, fog, mist and rain made up for extensive sets. film makers didn't have enough money for complex sets so elements might be shrouded in black and white to keep people from seeing poor sets. Noir featured the war and war characters and often a theme was post war disillusionment. Many of the characters in film noir had fought in the war and believed they would come home to glory and good jobs, and what they found after the war was 4Fs (disqualified for fighting because of a disability) had found the best jobs and vets were left with minimal employment. Noirs also are peppered with characters with psychological angst and fear, much of it promoted by years in the military. In their world things were not fair and their psyches were damaged by the abuses of war and seeing the excessive violence. There is little sense that anyone will be successful in such films. 75 For example in dial M for Murder, the husband is in deep financial trouble and wants to murder his wealthy wife. He hires a man to it. The killer attempts to kill her, but bungles the job and dies in the process. Hitchcock can’t avoid a joke When the husband calls and to his surprise has his wife answer. She cries, “someone tried to kill me.” The husband’s response is, “did he get away?” The darkly comical aspects of noir make the films amusing even if the subject matter is dark. Film noirs were sociological dealing issues of social justice. In the Third Man, Harry Lime is a black marketeer giving people what they want. His dilemma is that criminality is what society needs to get products they want. Is he really a criminal? In Detour Al is just trying to get to his girlfriend and fate seems out to derail him. In th Asphalt Jungle the robbers don’t mean to hurt anyone and planned well but a security guard gets in their way, and his inconvenient death ruins their plans. In Crossfire, a group of servicemen are implicated in killing a Jewish man. Is it rage or anti-semitcism driving the men to murder? Probably one of the earliest examples of noir was John Houston’s The Maltese Falcon in 1941. This film based on a Dashiell Hammett novel tells the story of detective Sam Spade who meets a woman and a series of criminals all trying to get Spade to help them locate a fabled valuable Maltese Falcon. The Falcon is supposedly a black bird covering a priceless gold statue. They killed Spade’s partner Archer to get the bird. The complicated plot indicates that virtually everyone is lying to Spade, and even Spade indulges in a little play acting with the criminals. By the end of the film Spade wants the object gone, so that the murder and larceny surrounding the object stops. In the end we discover that the Falcon is just a cheap statue covered in black paint. When all are arrested and all is revealed, the police famously ask Spade, ‘what is it?’ Bogart famously responds, ‘it's the stuff that dreams are made of.’ Though pre-noir in time period, Falcon has the Noir viewpoint of fatalism, deception and a pessimisitic view of human nature. Another noir from 1944 was Laura where a detective investigates the murder of a beautiful but evil femme fatale named Laura. There’s a series of men who think she loved them, but we learn she was willful calculating and used everyone. This film focuses on the massive mistrust of women, probably a response to world war two and the growing power of women in the marketplace. Many men returned from the war to find women taking their jobs. This fueled resentment of women. The film in a way is about misogyny, but the lying and deception suggest a culture of criminal intent and suspicion. In The blue dahlia from 1946 starring Alan Ladd and Veronica lake, and a sailor comes back from the war and discovers that his wife has been unfaithful and that his child has died due to his wife's alcoholism. Again the film critiques relationships, faith and American institutions like marriage. Again many men returned from the war to find their wives remarried. Orson Welles enjoyed the genre as an actor and director and appeared in Carol Reed’s disturbing tale of black markets and smugglers in post war Germany, The Third Man. The character of Harry Lime was a bad black marketeer in the era of shortages and starvation in post war Germany. Someone has killed him and a reporter played by Joseph Cotton and the forces of interpol are investigating the death and black markets in late forties Berlin. Suddenly out of nowhere Lime appears, alive but haunted and 76 hunted by various forces from the western authorities, the organized post war European mob and the communist authorities. It seems Lime has crossed everyone and now he is wanted and on the run. The film suggests the world is infested with criminal conspiracies, shady characters, and corrupt officials. There is no way to hide or to prevail in this seedy and dangerous time period. Film noirs continued and in 1958 one of the last of the film noirs was Orson Welles famous film touch of evil in which a corrupt policeman Hank Quinlan is utilizing his corrupt police force to make money from people at the border of Mexico and the United States. The film depends on the idea that this interstitial world between two clear places with clear laws is the most dangerous borderland on earth. There is also the idea that borders are liminal places where new systems can be viewed and new ways of the seeing world can be visited. Unfortunately Quinlin’s little dictatorship of his piece of the world is a dangerous place. But film noir's don't really end in 1960. The last noir may have been Touch of Evil or Hitchcock’s Psycho but many film noirs existed into the later decades of the twentieth century. Revamped noir of the late century was dubbed neo-noir incorporating younger players, more tech, and corruption of bad government and bad corporations added to the mix of noir topics. Perhaps starting with films like body heat (1980) with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner about a woman that hires a man to kill her husband. Lust and money make a bad mix. David Lynch’s Blue velvet in 1987 starring Kyle McLaughlin, Isabella Rossellini and Laura Dern dealt with criminal conspiracies in small town America. Quentin Tarantino’s films including Pulp Fiction reservoir dogs, true romance, and kill bill all feature rotten underbellies of society and a strong and thriving criminal element. Noir is still thriving in feature films, television melodramas and popular police dramas. Terms Film Noir: noir was a style of film produced from 1945-60 that focused on criminal activity, fatalism, femme fatales, and interacted with mystery and suspense films. Femme Fatale: A French term describing women of low moral character who bring noir heroes to ruin. Films: Houston, John. “The Maltese Falcon.” (1941) Hitchcock, Alfred. “Psycho.” (1960) Welles, Orson. “Touch of Evil (1958) Readings: Kushins, Jordan. “A Brief History of Sound in Cinema.” https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a19566/a-brief-history-of-sound-in- cinema/ Filmsfatale. “Sound History in Film: Early Recording.” https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/5/26/sound-history-in-film-early-recording 77 Cinema 14 Italian neo realism Italian neorealism was a style connected to the working classes of Italy. It was characterized by realistic storylines in sharp contrast to contrived American melodrama. The lighting was harsh and the filming was mostly in black and white. Italy was a poor country after the war and these films reflected the country’s lack of resources. The acting style was vibrant and denoted reactions taken in a single take. These were films that clearly described post war life in style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class. These films were made largely outdoors Many described conditions in Italy immediately after the war. Italy was in very difficult position following the war. The country spent half the war as an ally of the axis powers until dictator Mussolini. When things went bad in the war, a mob dragged Mussolini out and killed him, and the new government embraced the allies and the war against Hitler. The allies didn’t know what to do with Italy following the war, and the country had trouble establishing a stable government, law and order and a civil code of behavior. Neorealism has certain tendencies. (1) Harsh lighting and intense black and white filming. (2) Naturalistic stories relayed the plight of real people, mostly working class types. (3) The films dealt with the tragedy and aftermath of the world war. (4) Strong women dominated these films. (5) The films embraced a harsh and naturalistic realism with Italy’s national pain and character featured prominently. (6) The film were usually filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors. (7) Italians in this period were emotionally scarred by the war and psychologically the films show desperate and depressed people. Prior to neorealism, there was a period of glossy conventional melodramas that were not very political or related to real life conditions of Italians. This was Mussolini’s answer to the world situation. Turn it off and treat reality as if it does not exist. Mussolini did not want films that questioned reality or social or political ideas. The war and economic hardship in Italy set the stage for social realism in films following the war. Italian Epics: Rome Open City, The Bicycle Thiefs, LaStrada Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City is a harsh tragedy of Rome’s occupation by German troops at the end of the war when the Germans were being driven out of Western European strongholds. The film depicts a freedom fighter working with the underground to undermine the German occupation. Pina, a widow raising a son and 78 seeking a new relationship with Francisco, a young idealist committed to the freedom fighters and the underground. The priest who supports the underground freedom fighters but must pretend neutrality to keep the church from being crushed and to be a guide to the young boys who need moral guidance. Rossellini tests each character in the crucible of German rule. The Germans are near the end of their reign in Europe and are desperate and merciless in trying to put down the people and their rebellion. They buy off weak coutesians with whiskey and nylons. Most scenes are shot on the actual streets of Rome and many parts of the city were still occupied by German troops when the film was shot. Rossellini was greeted as a patriot and hero for his filming. Rossellini films most scenes in intense and disturbing closeups bringing the audience into the action. When pina (Anna Magnana) learns her boyfriend Francseco has been picked up by the German police she tries to rescue him and is shot dead by the Germans. When the Germans find the freedom fighter they torture him for hours. Rossellini lingers over the details and shows the torture scenes in detail and focuses on. A blow torch and the face of the dying man. Finally when the priest sees his dead body he cracks and berates the germans. They take him to a field to shoot him but the Italian troops are afraid to kill a priest and shoot at the ground. The film brutally describes German repression and its intense graphic black and white cinematography evokes the reality of the desperate Italian people, The film was judged a landmark example of a new Italian cinema Ladri di biciclette (1948) Victorio De Sica’s 1948 realist work The Bicycle Thieves portrays a young boy and his indigent father who are reduced to stealing bicycles for a living. De Sica uses on the street realism shooting in the dank and burned out ruins of war torn Italy. The actors are mostly real people and non professional actors. The story is a mythic quest where a father and son hunt for a bicycle. It is a rough parody of the grail quest because for the duo the bicycle means everything. The father needs the bicycle to go to work everyday to hang posters on the walls. Without it he cannot work, he cannot earn money and he cannot provide for his son. The son is faithful and wants his father to succeed. The father hunt fruitlessly through the decimated streets of rome in vain for his stolen bicycle. Not only do they want the bicycle back they want to stop the thieves who are ruining people’s lives. The fruitless search adds to the desperation of the search and the ravaged city landscape makes the film look like some sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy only this time the apocalypse is real. De Sica obtains beautiful blended performances from the non-professional actors playing boy and father. To add to the metaphor of a journey or a quest the bike company is called Fides (faith in English). The boy and man are in some way on a sacred quest. While there is a theme of social isolation and loneliness amongst the suffering Romans, the film is larger than a simple social tract. These characters are waging war against divine forces. By the film’s end the father is reduced to stealing a bicycle, but again his transgression is almost like a Greek fable and his fall has the sense of a tragic descent through loss of faith. The Bicycle Thieves is a tragic ride through the depths of post war depression and portrays a descent of common people into a mythic underworld. La Strada (1954) 79 Fellini practiced a form of realism that was offset by his interest in surrealism and fantasy. Fellini was a screenwriter for Roberto Rossellini and began directing in the early fifties often from his own scripts. In 1954 he developed a script about the circus and characters existing in that world. He cast his wife, Giuletta Masina and cast her as a young orphaned silent comedian. She meets a new recruit, a circus strong man, Zampano, played by Anthony Quinn. The pair strike up a partnership and the exotic world of the circus and its freaks and eccentric personalities counter the hard life of the performers living on the road. Unlike De Sica and Rossellini’s neo realism, Fellini’s scenario is tinged with a tenderness of youth and remembrance. Fellin worked hard and long on the film arriving at a nervous breakdown. Many attacked the film but it has arrived as one of the greatest films of the century, and Masina’s performance as the winsome Gelsimona. Her adventures with ampano become more depressing as Zampano proves to be a soulness and cruel partner. Eventually, Zampano kills a man and abandons Gelsimona. He later learns the sad clown girl died. The film reflects Italian society on the run and disoriented searching for a direction. The film also has an atmospheric character that is a mixture of realistic characters in a raw and joyless life, but it is also a mythic film about two characters that are like Narcissus and Echo. Zampano only is out for himself and wants to be the star. He is a Narcissus character. Gelsimona is his echo and reflection. Her departure and death becomes the destruction of Zampano. Terms Neo-realism: Neo realism erupted after World War two as an Italian style that wanted to proclaim the truth about the world. The cinematography was glaring black and white and the actors practiced a serious form of direct confrontational acting and strong realistic storylines with actors often improving dialogue. Surrealism; A form of film derived from surrealist theories that posts the strange and unusual particularly as various dream or psychological states. Films: Rossellini, Roberto. “Rome, Open City.” (1945) De Sica. “The Bicycle Thieves.” (1948) Felini, Federico. “La Strada.” (1954) Readings: Kushins, Jordan. “A Brief History of Sound in Cinema.” https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a19566/a-brief-history-of-sound-in- cinema/ Filmsfatale. “Sound History in Film: Early Recording.” https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/5/26/sound-history-in-film-early-recording 80 15 cinema Bergman and Swedish film Ingmar Bergman was one of the great directors of the twentieth century. He could be dark and morbid but was often simply stark and revealing. Bergman did not suffer from the Italian need for grim neorealism and often peppered his films with lonings for the infinite and the cosmic. His films were known for slow editing, long takes and slow moving narratives. Much of the understanding of Bergman may be wrong because Bergman liked comedy, humor irony and had a mixed view of people. He did not think that people always behaved well, but he also did not succumb to a pessimism, that the species of mankind was doomed due to our many flaws. Mostly, bergman appears as a philosopher looking out at the universe and seeking evidence of god and dinvine inspiration but finding little evidence of that. His films were widely seen in his own country, in Europe and had a strong following in the United States. Many American and world directors were strongly influenced by his technique and style and though his slow evolving narratives might run counter to Americans’ need for pace and action, there is something of his contemplative spirit lurking the best moments of Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrance Malick, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch’s work. More importantly, Bwrgman was a diverse and complicated director with vast and major periods of film work and intelligent progressions in his work and view of the world. Bergman, Scandal and Summer with Monika (1952) Bergman was considered an ultra serious and ultra cerebral filmmaker but his career started with skin flicks and attacks on his immoral filmmaking. At the end of World War two the big studios started a long decline and American having tasted war and violence and poverty during the thirties and the forties wanted more graphic entertainment. New theatres opene,d the studios were divested of their theatres and art theatres began to proliferate across the country. Many showed foreign films and this broke the American studios strangle hold on film production. German, French, Japanese, Italian and the films of foreign nations began to flood the market. Low brow exhibitors and distributors were looking for the next big wave in entertainment and they would buy and distribute films they through might appeal to diverse audiences with diverse tastes. Distributors bought films for driveins for the youth market. Motorcycle films, horror films and science fiction were popular with that crowd. The art houses liked more cerebral brainy thoughtful European and Asian films. But there was also a big demand for skin flicks, early films from the mid century that had more nude scenes and more fleshy sex scenes, long prohibited in American cinema by The Hollywood 81 Production code. Enter struggling young Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. He had finished a romance film entitled Summer with monika starring two handsome young Swedish actors, Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg.The story was.a simple tale of a young couple, Harry and Monika who meet and fall in love. They take a relative’s boat up to Stockholm and spend a romantic summer on the water romancing, dancing, making love and idling away the time. The film showed fleeting scenes of nudity and depicted a socialized society where hard work and labor intensive life was uncommon. The socialist images and the notion of free loving youth upset conservative groups and the nude scenes were horrifying to church and the conservative community. By the end of the film the couple’ relationship fractures, headstrong Monika is having affairs, her husband, Harry, slaps her and she departs for greener pastures. Harry takes the child to have it christen and soldiers on as a single father still remembering the vivacious Monika. The story was simple and the characters mostly naïve and tender. However, when American distributors realized the film had sex and nudity they immediately booked the film into art houses in the US in 1955 and Bergman became an overnight sensation. Monika was an examination of youth, morality, failed marriages and more of critique of Swedish life than a validation of free love, but Monika generated a strong buzz about Bergman and his work. Bergman’s technique was (1) crystal clear shots in stark black and white film. (2) His use of editing was long shots with a stationary camera in which the characters acted out and emoted within the frame largely still and immobile but generating emotions in a small field. (3) Scenarios were simple and (4) the characters usually underplayed and portrayed subtle emotions. This style befitted the natural demeanor of Swedish people who are generally warm and generous but not terribly demonstrative. Swedish people do not touch profusely, they don’t hug and embrace, and they don’t show outward fury or extreme emotion. It is a matter of their nation al character. Bergman’s films resepcted that tradition and shot people in that manner. (5) the films focused on thoughts and ideas that may be best reflected in contemplative expressions on the characters’ faces. (6) Action, when it arises, and it does arise infrequently but powerfully is often swift and decisive. In Bergman films aren’t normally brutally physical but when they are the effort is powerful. (7) Bergman’s films often arrive at some fundamental philosophical point or issue that the film is trying to suggest or interrogate. Seventh Seal While Bergman was accused of pornography with his Monika his following films revealed a far more introspective persona. In Smiles of a Summer night in 1956, Bergman created a comedy loosely based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream where four couple try to work out their romantic woes. In Sweden people to often stay awake during rhe Summer solstice, the shortest night of the year and it is often a time for retreats and re-evalution of life. The film was the source material for Sondheim’s 1973 A Little Night Music and Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982). However it was his next film that would establish Bergman’s reputation of as stoic, philosophical and deep. In The Seventh Seal, Bergman discusses bands of people traveling during the middle ages during the time of the Black Death, a horrible disease spread by rats, the Bubonic Plague. Max Von Sydow, an actor that would be bergman’s favorite performer for a decade plays a knight returning to Europe from the crusades. He is stalked by a black figure along the coast of Sweden who calls himself 82 death and is the incarnation of mortality. With some humor the knight offers to paly chess with death to avoid going with him. Here starts a titanic debate about life and death and Bergman delves into where death stands in our lives. Is death a constant presence or simply a one time visitor. Can death be avoided or must pain and anxiety exist side by side with death. In contrast to the dark debate Bergman introduces to a young travelling family of players including an actor father and mother who carry their children in a cart across the land. While many of the characters worry and bemoan their fate and live in fear of death, the players act to live and for the most part give a joyous and loving sense to their life and existence. The knight is impressed by their philosophy and attitude and considering his life mostly over, he toys with death just long enough to make sure the family of players departs and evades death’s clutches. Seventh Seal was hailed as a European breakthrough about life, human dignity and existential dilemmas. From 1957 on Bergman’s films were enshrined in a glowing reverence that has never diminished and grown only stronger over time. He sought other complex and thorny issues. He tackled psychoanalysis and psychiatric issues. He dealt with gult and contrition over a life time. He described the use of artifice and illusion in the theatrical art. He explored duty and obligation in marriage. He played with ideas about memory and family. He explored marriages and long term relationships and obligtions of people to their family and society. Virgin Spring Even Bergman was emboldened by his reception abroad and sought to tackle more varied and complex issues in his films. Many of his films held complex metaphors and one of the best was 1960’s Oscar winner for best foreign language film, The Virgin spring. In this short (90 minute) and powerful exploration of crime, guilt, expiation, revenge,religion, and forgiveness Bergman provides a lens for society. In the film set again in the middle ages, a prosperous famer sends his daughter, Karin, to deliver candles to the church,. Parents Tore and Maretta the girl alone may come to harm but they send their pregnant and unwed servant girl, Ingeri along to protect Karin. Alonfg the way the young teenager Karin encounters three seedy travelers. The three men ask her to stop and lunch with them. Karin innocently sits with them and even shres her food. Suddenly she realizes their lusty intent and become frightened and tries to flee. Ingeri, who has lagged behind watches all from a distance but does not become involved to help or harm. The men surround Karin rap her and one hits her over the head killing the girl. Three rapist/thieves leaveher body by a stream and the youngest, merely a little boy along for the travel tries vainly to bury the girl. The three arrive by accident at tore maretta house and beg for shelter. One of the murderers not realizing he is in the house of the girl he has killed offers to sell Karin’s cloak to the mother. The mother prophetically says, “I will speak to the master and see what reward should be paid for such a precious garment.’ She runs to her husband fearing the men have harmed her daughter. Tore undergoes a long night ritual of clensing and scourging his body to take revenge. He bathes in hot water, questions the returned servant girl Ingire and beats his flesh with a birch branch. At first light he withdraws his sword from the crusades and enters the chamber where the three men sleep and murders them all by hand, with sword to the heart, crushing one in wresting in the fire and breaking the little boy b throwing him into a wall and killing him. It is a brutal and powerful act of vengeance. At last Tore and Maretta find the body of Karin and at the stream where she 83 died. Tore not understanding how god could have allowed such an act of violence, he cries to the heavens saying, ‘god I don’t understand you. They life Karin’s head to g=begin the burial process. A stream of fresh water flows where her head laid and the parents take it as a sign from heaven. Tore promises to build a church where his daughter has tied and in some strange way the family achieves some peace with god over the tragedy of their daughter’s death. Bergman’s films often deal with mythic issues and here the girl Karin’s grail quest ends tragically. Her death invokes rights of revenge and more canage but he result is a deeper understanding of god and a new covenant borne from the conviction that god does not sanction the actions of the wicked but that human action is needed to restore the balance of life. Some have seen Virgin Spring as a metaphor for the senseless carnage of the second world war and the harsh justice of the allies to clean the slate and start Europe anew. In many regards the stark scenes of Virgin spring are some of Bergman’s finest images. When tor learns the men have killed his daughter he goes to a windy plain and wrestles a lone birth tree to the ground causing it to bend and break. Hen he takes his sword to hack its limbs. It is a grand visual statement of Tore’s emotion wrestling with god and divine will. It stands as one of the great symbols of modern European film. Bergman produced over 50 films and television productions during his 35 year career as a film director. After 1985 he retired from film and spent the next ten years as the national director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm, the Swedish national theatre creating classic productions of new and classic dramas. During his life, Bergman was one of the most revered directors in the world both in theatre and film. Terms Swedish style: The form of Swedish film is nearly impossible to separate from Bergman’s style. Bergman’s sharp camera work first fro m Gunnar Fischer and later by Sven Nyquest was praised and imitated by nearly all directors across the globe. Bergman’s long takes, complicated philosophical positions and serious approach to subjects were a part of the Swedish tradition. Similarly there is great tenderness and humor in all of Bergman’s works. Films: Bergman, Ingar. “Summer with monika” (1952) Bergman, Ingar. “Seventh Seal” (1957) Bergman, Ingar. “Virgin Spring.” (1960) Readings: Wexler Center for the arts. “Bergman at 100.” https://wexarts.org/film-video/ingmar-bergman- 100?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3bmMkOuO9QIVi8mGCh35CQHDEAAYASAAEgIxo_D_BwE The Bergman Center in Sweden. https://www.bergmancenter.se/in-english- 2/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3bmMkOuO9QIVi8mGCh35CQHDEAAYAyAAEgJ4nfD_BwE Love, Anthony. “The immortal World of Ingmar Bergman.” New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-immortal-world-of-ingmar-bergman 84 15 cinema Bergman and Swedish film Ingmar Bergman was one of the great directors of the twentieth century. He could be dark and morbid but was often simply stark and revealing. Bergman did not suffer from the Italian need for grim neorealism and often peppered his films with lonings for the infinite and the cosmic. His films were known for slow editing, long takes and slow moving narratives. Much of the understanding of Bergman may be wrong because Bergman liked comedy, humor irony and had a mixed view of people. He did not think that people always behaved well, but he also did not succumb to a pessimism, that the species of mankind was doomed due to our many flaws. Mostly, bergman appears as a philosopher looking out at the universe and seeking evidence of god and dinvine inspiration but finding little evidence of that. His films were widely seen in his own country, in Europe and had a strong following in the United States. Many American and world directors were strongly influenced by his technique and style and though his slow evolving narratives might run counter to Americans’ need for pace and action, there is something of his contemplative spirit lurking the best moments of Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrance Malick, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch’s work. More importantly, Bwrgman was a diverse and complicated director with vast and major periods of film work and intelligent progressions in his work and view of the world. Bergman, Scandal and Summer with Monika (1952) Bergman was considered an ultra serious and ultra cerebral filmmaker but his career started with skin flicks and attacks on his immoral filmmaking. At the end of World War two the big studios started a long decline and American having tasted war and violence and poverty during the thirties and the forties wanted more graphic entertainment. New theatres opene,d the studios were divested of their theatres and art theatres began to proliferate across the country. Many showed foreign films and this broke the American studios strangle hold on film production. German, French, Japanese, Italian and the films of foreign nations began to flood the market. Low brow exhibitors and distributors were looking for the next big wave in entertainment and they would buy and distribute films they through might appeal to diverse audiences with diverse tastes. Distributors bought films for driveins for the youth market. Motorcycle films, horror films and science fiction were popular with that crowd. The art houses liked more cerebral brainy thoughtful European and Asian films. But there was also a big demand for skin flicks, early films from the mid century that had more nude scenes and more fleshy sex scenes, long prohibited in American cinema by The Hollywood Production code. Enter struggling young Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. He had 85 finished a romance film entitled Summer with monika starring two handsome young Swedish actors, Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg.The story was.a simple tale of a young couple, Harry and Monika who meet and fall in love. They take a relative’s boat up to Stockholm and spend a romantic summer on the water romancing, dancing, making love and idling away the time. The film showed fleeting scenes of nudity and depicted a socialized society where hard work and labor intensive life was uncommon. The socialist images and the notion of free loving youth upset conservative groups and the nude scenes were horrifying to church and the conservative community. By the end of the film the couple’ relationship fractures, headstrong Monika is having affairs, her husband, Harry, slaps her and she departs for greener pastures. Harry takes the child to have it christen and soldiers on as a single father still remembering the vivacious Monika. The story was simple and the characters mostly naïve and tender. However, when American distributors realized the film had sex and nudity they immediately booked the film into art houses in the US in 1955 and Bergman became an overnight sensation. Monika was an examination of youth, morality, failed marriages and more of critique of Swedish life than a validation of free love, but Monika generated a strong buzz about Bergman and his work. Bergman’s technique was (1) crystal clear shots in stark black and white film. (2) His use of editing was long shots with a stationary camera in which the characters acted out and emoted within the frame largely still and immobile but generating emotions in a small field. (3) Scenarios were simple and (4) the characters usually underplayed and portrayed subtle emotions. This style befitted the natural demeanor of Swedish people who are generally warm and generous but not terribly demonstrative. Swedish people do not touch profusely, they don’t hug and embrace, and they don’t show outward fury or extreme emotion. It is a matter of their nation al character. Bergman’s films resepcted that tradition and shot people in that manner. (5) the films focused on thoughts and ideas that may be best reflected in contemplative expressions on the characters’ faces. (6) Action, when it arises, and it does arise infrequently but powerfully is often swift and decisive. In Bergman films aren’t normally brutally physical but when they are the effort is powerful. (7) Bergman’s films often arrive at some fundamental philosophical point or issue that the film is trying to suggest or interrogate. Seventh Seal While Bergman was accused of pornography with his Monika his following films revealed a far more introspective persona. In Smiles of a Summer night in 1956, Bergman created a comedy loosely based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream where four couple try to work out their romantic woes. In Sweden people to often stay awake during rhe Summer solstice, the shortest night of the year and it is often a time for retreats and re-evalution of life. The film was the source material for Sondheim’s 1973 A Little Night Music and Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982). However it was his next film that would establish Bergman’s reputation of as stoic, philosophical and deep. In The Seventh Seal, Bergman discusses bands of people traveling during the middle ages during the time of the Black Death, a horrible disease spread by rats, the Bubonic Plague. Max Von Sydow, an actor that would be bergman’s favorite performer for a decade plays a knight returning to Europe from the crusades. He is stalked by a black figure along the coast of Sweden who calls himself death and is the incarnation of mortality. With some humor the knight offers to paly 86 chess with death to avoid going with him. Here starts a titanic debate about life and death and Bergman delves into where death stands in our lives. Is death a constant presence or simply a one time visitor. Can death be avoided or must pain and anxiety exist side by side with death. In contrast to the dark debate Bergman introduces to a young travelling family of players including an actor father and mother who carry their children in a cart across the land. While many of the characters worry and bemoan their fate and live in fear of death, the players act to live and for the most part give a joyous and loving sense to their life and existence. The knight is impressed by their philosophy and attitude and considering his life mostly over, he toys with death just long enough to make sure the family of players departs and evades death’s clutches. Seventh Seal was hailed as a European breakthrough about life, human dignity and existential dilemmas. From 1957 on Bergman’s films were enshrined in a glowing reverence that has never diminished and grown only stronger over time. He sought other complex and thorny issues. He tackled psychoanalysis and psychiatric issues. He dealt with gult and contrition over a life time. He described the use of artifice and illusion in the theatrical art. He explored duty and obligation in marriage. He played with ideas about memory and family. He explored marriages and long term relationships and obligtions of people to their family and society. Virgin Spring Even Bergman was emboldened by his reception abroad and sought to tackle more varied and complex issues in his films. Many of his films held complex metaphors and one of the best was 1960’s Oscar winner for best foreign language film, The Virgin spring. In this short (90 minute) and powerful exploration of crime, guilt, expiation, revenge,religion, and forgiveness Bergman provides a lens for society. In the film set again in the middle ages, a prosperous famer sends his daughter, Karin, to deliver candles to the church,. Parents Tore and Maretta the girl alone may come to harm but they send their pregnant and unwed servant girl, Ingeri along to protect Karin. Alonfg the way the young teenager Karin encounters three seedy travelers. The three men ask her to stop and lunch with them. Karin innocently sits with them and even shres her food. Suddenly she realizes their lusty intent and become frightened and tries to flee. Ingeri, who has lagged behind watches all from a distance but does not become involved to help or harm. The men surround Karin rap her and one hits her over the head killing the girl. Three rapist/thieves leaveher body by a stream and the youngest, merely a little boy along for the travel tries vainly to bury the girl. The three arrive by accident at tore maretta house and beg for shelter. One of the murderers not realizing he is in the house of the girl he has killed offers to sell Karin’s cloak to the mother. The mother prophetically says, “I will speak to the master and see what reward should be paid for such a precious garment.’ She runs to her husband fearing the men have harmed her daughter. Tore undergoes a long night ritual of clensing and scourging his body to take revenge. He bathes in hot water, questions the returned servant girl Ingire and beats his flesh with a birch branch. At first light he withdraws his sword from the crusades and enters the chamber where the three men sleep and murders them all by hand, with sword to the heart, crushing one in wresting in the fire and breaking the little boy b throwing him into a wall and killing him. It is a brutal and powerful act of vengeance. At last Tore and Maretta find the body of Karin and at the stream where she died. Tore not understanding how god could have allowed such an act of violence, he 87 cries to the heavens saying, ‘god I don’t understand you. They life Karin’s head to g=begin the burial process. A stream of fresh water flows where her head laid and the parents take it as a sign from heaven. Tore promises to build a church where his daughter has tied and in some strange way the family achieves some peace with god over the tragedy of their daughter’s death. Bergman’s films often deal with mythic issues and here the girl Karin’s grail quest ends tragically. Her death invokes rights of revenge and more canage but he result is a deeper understanding of god and a new covenant borne from the conviction that god does not sanction the actions of the wicked but that human action is needed to restore the balance of life. Some have seen Virgin Spring as a metaphor for the senseless carnage of the second world war and the harsh justice of the allies to clean the slate and start Europe anew. In many regards the stark scenes of Virgin spring are some of Bergman’s finest images. When tor learns the men have killed his daughter he goes to a windy plain and wrestles a lone birth tree to the ground causing it to bend and break. Hen he takes his sword to hack its limbs. It is a grand visual statement of Tore’s emotion wrestling with god and divine will. It stands as one of the great symbols of modern European film. Bergman produced over 50 films and television productions during his 35 year career as a film director. After 1985 he retired from film and spent the next ten years as the national director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm, the Swedish national theatre creating classic productions of new and classic dramas. During his life, Bergman was one of the most revered directors in the world both in theatre and film. Terms Swedish style: The form of Swedish film is nearly impossible to separate from Bergman’s style. Bergman’s sharp camera work first fro m Gunnar Fischer and later by Sven Nyquest was praised and imitated by nearly all directors across the globe. Bergman’s long takes, complicated philosophical positions and serious approach to subjects were a part of the Swedish tradition. Similarly there is great tenderness and humor in all of Bergman’s works. Films: Bergman, Ingar. “Summer with monika” (1952) Bergman, Ingar. “Seventh Seal” (1957) Bergman, Ingar. “Virgin Spring.” (1960) Readings: Wexler Center for the arts. “Bergman at 100.” https://wexarts.org/film-video/ingmar-bergman- 100?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3bmMkOuO9QIVi8mGCh35CQHDEAAYASAAEgIxo_D_BwE The Bergman Center in Sweden. https://www.bergmancenter.se/in-english- 2/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3bmMkOuO9QIVi8mGCh35CQHDEAAYAyAAEgJ4nfD_BwE Love, Anthony. “The immortal World of Ingmar Bergman.” New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-immortal-world-of-ingmar-bergman 88 Cinema 18 Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock was one of the leading film makers of the twentieth century. Born in 1899 and active until 1980, Hitchcock was responsible mostly for suspense mystery films with a Modern sense of humor and a dark pessimistic view of mankind. He was born in England in 1899 and lived the first 40 years of his life in England and then in 1940 when offered an opportunity to direct for David O Selznick at the Selznick studios, moved to the United states in 1940 and continued to work and live in the United States until his death in 1980. He occasionally returned to England and Europe and produced hit films there (Stage Fright, Frenzy), but he became most famous in the United States for a series of mystery and suspense films that he made from 1940 until his death. His earlier British films are also considered classic films, but weren't as widely known in the United States. He attended Saint Ignatius College in of London School of engineering and navigation and worked mostly as an illustrator and attended the University of London briefly studying art. Hitchcock was interested in in the growing field of filmmaking and initially in the 1920s actually made title cards and was an art director for a number of films. He worked with the Paramount famous Lasky players in London, with German film companies in London, and finally produced films of his own starting with an Anglo German production called The Pleasure Garden in 1925. He learned about many advanced qualities of film technique from UFA (German) studios. As an assistant director, he gained international insight from the combination of German and British methods of film creation. In 1926 he made his one of his earliest thriller films The Lodger, a story concerning Jack the Ripper that was a breakthrough film, and a good example of Hitchcock’s ability to place the audience in the mind of a villain. Hitchcock’s plot of an innocent protagonist who's falsely accused of a crime and becomes involved in a web of intrigue was a key story line of many Hitchcock films. He also constructed many non-verbal scenes, clever gimmicks, elaborate chases, and concepts that tricked an audience’s perceptions. Hitchcock made the jump to sound film in 1929 with Blackmail the story of a woman who stabs an artist to death, after he attempts to seduce her. Hitchcock emphasizes the moment by really focusing on the knife. In 1930 he makes a film entitled Murder which makes an explicit link between sex and violence which is a theme of many of Hitchcock's films. Hitchcock is often the most Freudian and psychological of directors. In many of his films sex and violence or Eros and thantos are mixed together. In Dial M for Murder the husband rouses his wife from bed to attend her own murder, an act that goes horribly wrong for him. In strangers in a train this occurs when two seemingly conventional men meet and discuss swapping 89 murders. In rear window this occurs when James Stewart sends girl friend Grace Kelly into mortal danger in an apartment across the street. in Psycho Hitchcock is always interested in the combination of sex and death and how those ideas come together, particularly when Norman Bates meets Marion Crane and begins to feel attracted to her. In 1934 Hitchcock scored a big British success with his film the man who knew too much a film that he remade in 1955 with American actors. he makes it a suspense film in which there is also an investigation into family matters and family relationships. At the same time, many of Hitchcock's films are based on chases and usually the chases involved an innocent man who was accused of a crime by some criminal organization or by the police themselves. Hitchcock always had a perverse sense of humor injecting terrors into the lives of ordinary people. Perhaps Hitchcock's most popular film of this early period and the first film that showed complete mastery of the genre is his 1935 film The 39 steps starring Robert Donat and Madeline Carroll. In this film an innocent man is accused of a crime, a woman has been stabbed, and then a man is shot in a Music Hall. The protagonist, Richard Haney must find out why he's been accused of the crime, and why people are chasing him. It turns out that there is a criminal conspiracy, an underworld crime and spy ring, called The 39 steps and as he wanders around England being chased by the police and by the spies, he has to figure out where the spies are located, who the spies are, what kind of spying information they're trying to get out of England, and finally how to outwit them. Of course, this film takes place five years before World War Two erupted and suggested that these spies were German agents who were in England at the time. in 1936 he created secret agent and also sabotage. he worked on suspense films in which the audience knows something and was led to believe something, but the audience has gaps in knowledge about the characters and the situation. In the lady vanishes in 1938 Hitchcock sleekly dealt with the idea of a fast paced witty film that kept the audience guessing about a missing person from the beginning to the end. The plot revolves around a woman on a train that suddenly disappears, and her niece tries to find her and determine her fate. Many Hitchcock films developed around Hitchcock’s concept of the McGuffin, an object, secret or person that the hero and villains desperately need. In 1939 Hitchcock makes Jamaica inn and then moved to the United states working for selznick producing Rebecca in 1940 both of which were novels by Daphne du marier and both were handsomely produced melodramas, but probably not really much too to Hitchcock's liking. In 1940, he set a new pattern in films directing foreign correspondent. Another spy film this film develops the mature Hitchcock style. In 1941 he tackles Suspicion in which a wife is afraid that her husband is trying to kill her. He is and the film starred big actors Joan Fontaine and a young Cary Grant. Grant’s charm and humor and Hitchcock’s droll plots dovetail nicely and their collaboration is warm and their films successful. In 1943 Hitchcock produces one of his masterworks shadow of doubt which he made with the writer Thornton Wilder who had written the classic American drama, our town. This stage writer crafted a story about Middletown America during the war, but Hitchcock used it as an examination of the corruption below the surface in American culture. The story takes place in a small town in the middle of the war in the middle of the country where the people of a tight knit little community are visited by a big city resident, the character of Uncle Charlie. Charlie’s name sake his niece a young girl idealizes her Uncle Charlie. When they find he is coming to visit they 90 are thrilled. But the female Charlie begins to realize that her uncle is not the pleasant older man that she thought he was, but is actually a serial killer who's been killing old women and taking their money, a character known in the press as the Merry Widower, killer. There's a very famous scene in the film in which he talks about older women and describes these fat older women that sit around going to lunch and having beautiful dinners on the money that their husbands made, but they themselves have accomplished nothing and all they do is live in their disgusting houses because they have money. Charlie’s sister smiles and says “well they're alive aren't they?” and Charlie looks at her and grimaces sardonically,”are they?” It's a funny dark film about a murderer and his niece who somehow still cares for her wicked uncle. Hitchcock is really interested in matters of female identity and in notorious in 1946 starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant it's a woman who has been asked to help a federal agent track spies living and working in the United states. She was invited because her family has been accused of being spies themselves. After World War Two Hitchcock did a variety of films that were interesting and experimental including Rope. In Rope, Hitchcock decided that he would make a film in which the length of reels of film would dictate the length of the scenes. A large 35 millimeter panavision camera could carry a reel of film that would last 12 minutes, so Hitchcock composed the entire film out of 12 minute segments in which the actors moved around the stage and conducted their business in 12-minute segments. Rope was also famous because it was the first filming of the Leopold and Loeb case, a very famous criminal case about two young men who murdered another young man because they felt they were superior and they thought they could get away with murder. Hitchcock was really always interested in some debauched idea that he thought would delight an audience. He played with many ideas from psychoanalysis including in his 1945 film Spellbound starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. It was the story of a psychiatrist treating a man with memory loss. Hitchcock incorporated dream sequences designed by Surrealist artist, Salvador Dali. In the 1950s, Hitchcock became even more famous for crime movies as audiences sought pure entertainment following 20 years of war and depression. The period of film noir was enormously popular with audiences ,and in films like strangers on a train in 1951 Hitchcock used humor to get very perverse ideas past censors. The notion of two men swapping murders was disturbing but Hitchcock handled the crazed idea with humor and amusement. Hitchcock’s brand of macabre humor and the strength of the actors and plots made Hitchcock’s lewd and disturbing films popular with audiences. In strangers on a train a tennis player who wants to divorce his wife bumps into a guy on a train and strangers discuss a strange idea for a murderer. Bruno, the stranger, and the man he bumps into, Guy, a professional tennis player discuss the reason why people get caught in murders. Bruno suggests the problem is motive. He suggests that what if two people who didn't know each other meet on the train, and they decided to do each other's murder, then no one could tie them to the murder. The murder goes crisscross. They would perform a murder for each other. Hitchcock makes the unsavory idea fun with animated performances, clever twists, and a great chase sequence. It is still a disturbing film, but a very funny film because one person is talking about the murder and the other person doesn't take the idea of murder very seriously. 91 Hitchcock continued during the 1950s to do a series of films about murder. In 1954 he did dial M for murder in which a man tries to kill his wife, unfortunately for him, unsuccessfully. In 1955, in To catch a thief he deals with a thief who has gone out of practice, but is called back into the game, so that he can catch a thief that is using his his style of thievery to steal things. he is being accused of crimes he didn’t commit, so he has to get involved to protect himself. He did a remake in 1955 of The man too Knew too much and the black comedy also in 1955 the trouble with Harry about a dead body that keeps popping up throughout a town. During this period he had several masterpieces including rear window in 1954 which deals with the idea of voyeurism, or people who gain pleasure from watching things. The story features a photographer who broke a leg and is stuck in a wheel chair. Bored, he is looking out his apartment window and sees a murder and must prove his neighbor is a murderer. He gets his girlfriend to go over and investigate for him and this brings her into jeopardy with the murderer. In 1958 Hitchcock takes on the creepy idea of the myth of of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the myth Orpheus’ wife Eurydice is bit by a snake and dies. He must go to Hades to retrieve her. Hitchcock’s film regarding reviving the dead was entitled, Vertigo, ostensibly the film is about a guy who's afraid of falling. The psychological implications of loss are discussed and the film is clever but audiences stayed away. It was too cerebral for them. Later it became one of Hitchcock's masterpieces of the era dealing with superficial concerns and deeper psychological themes again exploring death and love or thantos or eros. Then in the late 50s he turned his attention to a more wild melodramas including North by Northwest in which he repeats a lot of the ideas that he used in the film Saboteur from the 1940s. In 1960 he arrives at Psycho, a creepy little horror movie that became the largest grossing film of Hitchcock's career, and he incorporated the beautiful music of Bernard Herrmann making the film more creepy, darker. It tells the strange story of Marion Crane and Norman Bates and the Bates Motel. Next he embarked on a horror film, the birds in 1963, based on an apocalyptic idea of the world’s end. In 1964 he created a film filled with psychological nuisance and compulsion, concerning a psychotic thief entitled Marnie. Hitchcock finished the sixties with two lesser films, Torn Curtain and Topaz, both of which were created when audiences were not interested in suspense but in music in Swinging London and the Beatles. He returned to England and to form in his last films. Frenzy in 1972 and family plot in 1976 were both entertaining little films using a variety of character actors. Throughout he dealt with personal themes with specific themes that haunted him. One disturbing theme was that the people more obsessed by love, also sought death. In Vertigo for example as the hero gets closer to the girl, the girl gets closer to committing suicide. In psycho as the girl is trying to get away from all of her troubles she gets mildly interested in Anthony Perkins/Norman Bates at the hotel and this results in her death. in Marnie Sean Connery falls in love with Marnie but he also wants to control her and capture her, to capture her wickedness. In frenzy the villain of the piece likes to strangle women with his necktie. For him seduction and murder are the same. Finally in family plot there is a theme of dopplegangers of two groups that seem to mirror each other. There is a couple of thieves who were involved in thievery, and there is a couple who are criminal investigators who are both mildly dysfunctional but both are 92 determined to find the stolen jewels and win the contest of wills. The film is sort of a couple’s dual. Many of Hitchcock films feature the theme of the wrong man wanted for a crime. North By Northwest, The Man Who Knew too Much, The 39 Steps, and Frenzy are all wrong man themed films. For example in vertigo, James Stewart is accused of letting a woman die although that didn’t happened. In North by Northwest Cary Grant is accused of being a spy. He is not. In to catch a thief Cary Grant is accused of a crime he hasn't committed. He must find the actual criminal to acquit himself. In notorious Ingrid Bergman is accused of being a spy or from a family of spies and she has to spy to save her reputation and the reputation of her family. Certain themes reoccur to Hitchcock throughout his career. Sometimes Hitchcock goes into a very dark place sometimes for humor and sometimes, philosophically just to make a statement. In psycho, killing a major character early in the film makes one question his values about the sanctity of human life. By the end of the film we're not really sure that Hitchcock cares much about who gets killed so long as there's a thrill involved. With family plot he seems to have returned to a normalcy after a period of kind of chaotic and violent films. Today Hitchcock is seen as a great technician, using his ability to focus on pivotal incidents and pivotal objects in a film. One of the techniques that Hitchcock used is the mcguffin. The mcguffin was basically a term made up by Hitchcock which meant an object that the characters in the film needed. A mcguffin by itself has no meaning. it didn’t matter what the mcguffin was. It could be a nuclear bomb it could be a secret formula it could be an object it could be a weapon it could be money it could be any number of things, but it was really simply a mechanism for gaining audience attention through the movie. It helped audiences to know what the characters wanted and why they needed that item. Usually if the mcguffin was strong, for example the woman in the Lady Vanishes. Everyone wants to know what happened to the woman. This usually makes the film strong. If the Mcguffin is weak then usually the film is also weakened. Hitchcock was a trickster playing with audience perceptions. During Psycho, he refused to allow audience members to enter the theater after the film is started to surprise them with the death of the protagonist of the film unveiling the mystery of the murderer. Hitchcock was always interested in technical challenges in his films. He would have long passages in films like Vertigo where there was no dialogue because he wanted the audience to follow the film with their eye. When he used dialogue he liked clever dialogue and witty dialogue so people would have an interest in the characters because they were funny and unusual. He also was wedded to strong leading men whom he enjoyed working with and he would simply cast certain leading men over and over again. He worked with Ray Milland who was in Dial M for murder and appeared in his television show. He liked Joseph Cotton and worked with in a couple of films shadow of doubt and under Capricorn and he also worked with him in The Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. His favorite actors were Cary Grant and James Stewart and he worked with both of them on four films. Towards the end of his career most of the actors he admired had retired and he was constantly in search of new talent. Hitchcock had certain people that were attractive and delivered good performances. He had a stable cast of female leads, beautiful blonde women in the 1940s through the 1960s. He had cast and worked with Ingrid Bergman repeatedly, and 93 in the 1950s he worked with Grace Kelly repeatedly and in the 60s he worked several times with Tippi Hedren. Actually by 1960s it seems that Hitchcock had moved from female actors to working with male actors more. in 1960 he gets a grand performance from Anthony Perkins in psycho, he gets a brilliant performance from Rod Taylor and the birds, he gets a marvelous performance from Sean Connery in Marnie, he gets a so-so performance in 1966 from Paul Newman in in torn curtain, he gets a memorable performance from from John Forsythe in Topaz in 1969, and he gets a amusing performance from Jon Finch in frenzy in 1972 and a series of splendid performances from the cast of his last film family plot in which he's working with William Devane Karen black Bruce Dern and and Barbara Harris. Terms Pure cinema: The notion of pure cinema is the combination of image, music and idea that Hitchcock carefully wove together in films to gain the focus of a scene. The shower scene of psycho or the opening scene from strangers on a train or the climactic scene in Rear Window where Stewart watches Grace Kelly in the house in his view all qualify as moments of pure cinema. McGuffin: A device Hitchcock used. A device in films that kept the audience interest. Usually the object the criminal or the hero is after in a film (a formula, a person, a valuable object, money, a hostage) Films: Hitchcock, Alfred: Strangers on a Train (1951) Hitchcock, Alfred: Dial M For Murder (1954) Hitchcock, Alfred: Psycho(1960) Readings: Ursell, Joe. “The Phenomenal influence of Alfred Hitchcock.” https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/hitchcock-feature Wilson, Bee. “Alfred Hitchcock,from silent film director to inventor of modern horror.” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/15/alfred-hitchcock-inventor-modern-horror Chapter 19 Post war British Cinema British society was not interested in fighting in world war two, until Hitler’s aggression made the war inevitable. Prime Minister Chamberlain claimed that England would have peace with Hitler and that the dictator’s demands were reasonable. Like much of Europe, England felt that Germany had been overly penalized after World War one with massive payments and reparations bankrupting the German economy. In essence these drastic tendencies to punish Germany led to the rise of ultra-nationalistic parties like the Nazis who claimed they would restore German national pride. What people did not foresee was this nationalistic trend would lead to the rise of the war mongering genocidal Nazi regime. 94 Post War British film was devastated by the war. Throughout the war from 1940-1945 London was mercilessly bombed and thousands of British people died. Many children and young people were exported out of the city to be safe from the bombing. During air raids people hid in churches, and many badly manufactured bombs (made by slave laborer jews and middle Europeans who hated the Nazis) did not explode on impact and London had the bigger problem of unexploded bombs found throughout the city. Many of these devices have been found buried in buildings to this day. War effort films Strong British actors like Lawrence Olivier returned to Britain during the war to make hyper patriotic films like Olivier’s stellar version of Henry V the Shakespeare play of the brave British king who fought the French in the hundred years war between England and France. Such films with color and pageantry showed the brave face of the British people during war time. David Lean One of the most astounding directors who trumpeted the British way of life was David Lean who produced films from the forties through the eighties and produced epic entertainment that championed British values and a British world view. His Brief Encounter in 1945 was a story of love between two people during war time. His Great Expectations from 1946 and Oliver Twist from 1948 valorized the history of British people fighting diversity and poverty. Poverty was a big theme in post war British culture. The farms in England were destroyed and crops and fishing were disrupted, food was scarce and was rationed. In the films Great Expectations and Oliver Twist a poor young man must deal with corruption and adversity in an England where corrupt business interests prevailed. The triumph of pip in GE and Twist in OT was a metaphor for the struggles of the British people in the post war era. In 1957 Lean scored perhaps his biggest successes with the Oscar winning Bridge on the River Kwai showing the bravery of british soldiers against Japanese oppression in the horrific Japanese work camps (death camps) of the WWII conflict. Lean’s tragic war movie illustrates the values of cooperation and hard work even during war time and the film is an aggressive statement against the futility of war. Another Oscar went to loon time favorite Alex Guinness for his brilliant performance as a British commander, twenty years before he played in star wars. Another notable triumph was the four-hour epic of the great military hero from Britain, T.E. Lawrence, the English cultural attache who organized the Arab tribes into a unified body to fight the Turks for the British. Lean’s epic dealt with ideas of British racism and how Lawrence overcame both British and Arab prejudices to create a fighting force to help win the first world war. Peter O’Toole became a world famous actor, the 70 millimeter cinematography was lavish, and established a world love of desert scenes and middle eastern peoples and their struggles. Maurice Jarre’s notable score reflected the epic scope of its doomed and magnetic hero, perhaps the greatest English hero of the century. In 1965, Lean journeyed to the cold reaches of Russia for an epic story set in the Russian revolution, Doctor Zhivago. The film was a love story with a backdrop of war and revolution and the idealistic Doctor Zhivago pitted against a pitiless Communist force. 95 Lean’s last film, E.M. Forester’s a A Passage to india was about a woman’s journey to India and her engagement with a people that were held captive by the British for over a century. It is a film that suggests the barriers of prejudice and limits of Englishness in a diverse world. Lean was probably the most powerful of the post war mainstream popular filmmakers. Post war Comedy The British Ealing Studio made a variety of funny and significant comedies in the post war period. These films gave rise to a zany form of British comedy. The first British comedy to arrive after the war and become a large popular success was Robert Hammers’ film kind hearts and coronets. This film dealt with a maniacal killer who needed to kill everybody in the family line in order to inherit money. The 1949 film featured an enjoyable lead performance from Alec Guinness who played six different characters in the film including several men and several women. British comedy became an international success. In 1951 Charles Creighton produced the Lavender Hill Mob about a doubty bank teller who plans the perfect robbery. Things go horribly awry a chase ensues and most of the money is lost. Comedy arises from the bungling of the thieves. In the same year, 1951 Alexander McKendrick produced the man in the white suit a social comedy about a tailor that produces a suit that never gets dirty. All the other Tailor’s want to kill him because his suit never needs cleaning. Another entry was 1955’s Alexander MacKendrick film, The Lady Killers where a group of thugs are undone by a smart landlady who realizes they are criminals, and reports them. All of these comedies deal with everyday people navigating absurd situations. Alec Guinness moved from comedy to drama with Lean’s Bridge on the River Kwai and Star Wars became the central figure in Lady Killers, White Suit and Lavender Hill. Another popular figure was Peter Sellers who excelled at multiple roles. In1960’s The Mouse that Roared the Dutchy of Grand Fenwick is a small impoverished country that decides to wage war against the US to obtain war reparations since the US is famous for helping countries it defeats in war. The US of course refuses to fight a poor defenseless country and surrenders which makes things more complicated. It is an absurd farce and Sellars plays multiple male and female characters. It is a cold war comedy with a subtext in world politics and seeks to top Guiness’ achievement playing multiple characters a decade earlier. British Horror In the 1950s the small Hammer studios began a series of horror films that were based on the same mythology that has launched universal studios in the twenties and thirties. None of the characters in Universals court were copyrighted because they were taken from books and articles pre-twentieth century in the public domain. They reinvented the universal monsters in gory technicolor with less campy direction, improved special effects and atmospheric noirish settings. The cycle began with 1957’s Horror of Dracula and 1955’s Curse of Frankenstein. These films were immediately massive hits domestically and in the States. Though they took the same characters from the Universal films and they added Technicolor more blood and beautiful women. The characters were more contemporary and England lacked the American production code so the relationship to Eros and Thantos could be more explicit. Characterization was more sexual and licentious and villains were more contemporary anti-heroes. 96 Recognizing the power of the label Hammer assigned a sequel to Horror of Dracul in 1960 to talented Hammer director Terrance Fisher. This 1960 feature entitled Brides of Dracula featured a follower of Dracula, Baron Meister decides that attracts young women to him, seduces them and creates his own vampire cult of followers. Fisher’s hammer films featured a deeply Freudian Dracula who is handsome, attractive young and summons girls like a rock star. There is no work involved in seducing women, they willingly succumb. Further Van Helsing played by the indomitable Peter Cushing (who also played Dr. Frankenstein in the Frankenstein films) immediately established himself as an important adversary as the resourceful doctor and vampire exterminator. More importantly, when Dracula tangles with Van Helsing he perversely bites the strong male on the neck. This suggests homosexuality in the relationship that Dracula has with his community. In another scene Dracula has been chained by his mother to his bed room. When freed Dracula possesses his mother and bite her on the neck it suggests not only vampirism but a carnal lusting relation incestuous relationship to his mother. The Freudian bond is further complicated by Van Helsing’s later relationship with mother now a vampire. Dracula is also served by human female servants who nurture his dead victims and help them emerge from their graves. Finally Dracula is physically able to marshall several helpers to assist him against Van Helsing and Van Helsing saves himself from Dracula’s curse by quick thinking, holy water and a cross shaped windmill. Hammer quickly found ways to revive werewolves in Curse of the Werewolf starring a very young Oliver Reed and a version of the mummy based on the 1932 version starring Boris Karloff. In this version of the mummy is portrayed by Christopher Lee who along with Cushing becomes a mainstay of the hammer horror films for three decades. By the eighties Hammer had moved to television production. A British post war new wave cinema There was a new wave in French cinema and a corresponding new wave in British cinema. After years of deprivation with food rationing antiquated appliances, poor housing and few jobs, the film industry responded with a crop of dark brooding realist works showing the hardships of life in post war England. One of the first new wave cinema works was Jack Clayton’s cynical 1959 classic Room at the top. Lawrence Harvey plays a British heel who wants to move up in society and is willing to sleep with any woman who can provide benefits for him. He finds an unhappily married middle aged /French woman, Simone Signoret, and she is attracted to him. However over time he realizes that there is more money to be made by wooing the boss’ daughter so he leaves the girlfriend that has befriended him for a younger woman who can provide more advancement. In the end of this moral fable, his destitute girlfriend Simone Signoret is tragically killed and he goes off to a marriage to a woman he does not love for money status and an escape from poverty. These films all face the reality that working class people could never rise to the stature of wealthy British people. Class systems in the UK, bound people to a class for life. In 1960 Karel Reisz created a monumental study of working class discontent entitled Saturday night and Sunday morning. This film featured a very young Albert Finney as a young factory worker who sleeps with his best friend’s wife, eventually is found out and beaten by his friend’s military thug friends. The film portrays the hardships of life for working class people. The only thing the work poor had were weekend drunks and bouts of infidelity, little 97 agency for a life of hardship and backbreaking work. Finney was often effective as the heel and by the mid-sixties graduated to the costume epic tom Jones in which he plays a libindinous English adventurer. In 1974 he was Oscar nominated as Hercule Peirrot in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. In A taste of Honey in 1961 Rita Tushingham plays a young lonely girl who had an affair with a Black American solider and her subsequent pregnancy ostracizes her from society. Her only friend, a gay youth helps and supports her through the ordeal, the American father long gone. She faces the prospect of finding no love and no support for a mixed-race child and mother in sixties England. Tony Richardson directed this 1961 essay on prejudice and loneliness for the working class. His following film dug deeper into class values. This film entitled The loneliness of the long distance runner dealt with a Bristol boy who also happened to be an expert runner. The film’s hero, colin was from a family of pick pockets and thieves. They learned to run quickly because the whole family were chased by police throughout their careers. Colin is a Borstel boy because he has been sent the famous boy’s reformatory, Borstal. In the film a young Tom Courtney portrays the boy who is a student at Borstal and still maintains a connection to gangs, theft and larceny and is only surrounded by cheap girls and seedy friends who continually push him to more acts of larceny. The cops have it out for him but for some reason the headmaster played by Michael Redgrave takes a liking to colin and nurtures him, not because he likes the boy or really wants to help him but because he hopes the boy can win the cross country race for the school against an interschool play off between reformatory track teams. Colin is an excellent runner and he is flattered and confused by the attention his non-criminal activity gains for him. The master promises him an apprenticeship and a tickey out of Borstal for his help and Colin is swayed by the offer. He realizes early on in the pivotal race at the film’s climax that he can beat the opposing runners but he has to consider will he sell out his class and criminal dna for a chance to move o=up into the middle class and a position as an apprentice. Colin’s decision is the mirror of British society in the sixties when change and opportunity were in the air. He chooses the last seconds of the race to make his stand and determine where he will be in the future. Will he be a pawn of big wig or his own rebellious self? The film is a great study of social realism in England in the sixties. In 1963 this sporting life by Lindsey Anderson cast Richard Harris as a young soccer player who realizes that his only way out of poverty is by being a sports hero and it changes him into a callous person who cares nothing for his mates, nothing for his teammates, and nothing for his girlfriend. He becomes a more callous person who is successful with the sport but he’s sold his soul for money and pretty society. British film revealed holes in society in the early 1960s. However these films developed their own vocabulary of tricks and ideas. They showed a new style of quick camera work, black-and-white gritty filming, jump cuts, interesting editing choices, partial dialogue, improvisation, acted scenes from British life including new style musicals created by British directors that featured emerging pop groups of the sixties. Amongst the notable and influential hits was Richard Lester’s very famous breakthrough new wave movie A Hard days Night featuring the Beatles 1964. The film was a breakthrough for various reasons. First, the Beatles wrote great music and were naturals as young comedians in the film. Second the scenario was grand and dialogue by Alun Jones featured a day in the life of a group of British musicians from the 98 emerging British new wave music of the 1960s. Thirdly Richard Lester who had previously directed commercials realized that he could use the same qualities that he brought to commercial filming to make a fiction film. he determined that he could create an entire new style of musical. It is difficult to imagine that Lester and the Beatles created literally the new style of musicals that would later become MTV (1981) marketing a whole new bright style of pop music. In 1964,the Beatles in a hard days night transformed the British musical into a new style of performance in which natural acting, music and playing music became a natural part of life for young British people. British spectacle emerged from Lester and the Beatles vision of swinging London, in the mid to late 1960s Guy Hamilton emerged with the epic sweep of Goldfinger which propelled Sean Connery and the James Bond series to a worldwide phenomenon. This style continues until the present day. Spy films and swinging London dominated the sixties. Despite the hipster epics, the vein of British social realist films continued. In 1966, Lewis Gilbert delivered Alfie starring Michael Caine as a sour London heel who only supports his massive ego at the expense of the women around him. The prior year Caine became the second major British spy character in a series of spy films based on Len Deighton’s hard knocks spy films about a working class spy, Harry Palmer. The Ipress File and Funeral in Berlin were major hits for a world market hungry for violent spy stories during the cold war. Unlike the James Bond films, these were filled with grim scenes of a still suffering post world war two Europe in which the rebuilding of institutions had stalled and poverty and corruption ravaged many corners of the new Europe. Here, there was no sense that spies were heroes but rather government workers given the dirty job of cleaning society’s messes. In the films Caine’s Palmer is a cold-blooded killer who serves the state to enforce the laws of Britain and to avoid the collapse of a British culture with the influenced by the Soviets and Russian culture. By the middle of the decade many British films are sex farces (What’s New Pussycat ) and social dramas. One of the new breed of socially conscious kitchen sink dramas was Georgy Girl in 1966.. The kitchen sink dramas were so called because they revolved around average people with average jobs and many of the main conversations and debates of the films were carried on in the doubty kitchens and unattractive apartments of middle class people living humdrum dull lives with dull working class jobs in factories or shops. In Georgy Girl, a young woman is pursued by two men, Joe the husband of her best friend and flatmate, Meredith and an older man, leamington, an older married man who employer to her family. He even proposes a contract to make Georgy his mistress, a less than romantic proposal. In the end, Joe rejects his responsibilities and runs, and Leamington’s wife dies and he proposes to Georgy. She takes up Leamington’s stable offer of marriage, and secures a future for Meredith’s child whom she has adopted. It is a film of the average girl, chubby and largely unloved, finding a measure of happiness in a miserable society. English films begin a trend towards historical films that glorify English history and literature, a spectacular veneration of a nation’s past glories. These films pave the way for the institutionalization of British historical drama in the television series Masterpiece theatre that begins in the seventies. Films like Lean’s Dr. Zhivago (1965), Zinneman’s A Man for all Seasons (1966)(the biography of British intellectual and politician, Sir Thomas More) and John Schlesinger’s Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) from a 99 Victorian epic novel set in the 1870s rural England set the stage for British historical films of the next fifty years. In Schelesinger’s Crowd, Bethsheba inherits land and decides to manage herself but makes a series of romantic missteps including rejecting the love of shepherd Gabriel, marrying a troubled a neighbor who winds up working for her, marrying a troubled cavalry officer who was engaged to another woman and flirting with a rich local landowner. Most of her romantic plans go awry and she winds up with Gabriel where she hammers out a tough but workable relationship. Late sixties faire including a musical adaptation of Oliver Twist by noted filmmaker Carol Reed, and Cy Enfield’s Zulu that copes with the issue of British colonization of Africa and the response of subject people that rise up against the British forces. For the British this is a contest between British military authority and unruly indigenous people, not a story of brave subject people fighting for their freedom. Finally D H Lawrence’s Women in Love by Ken Russell tells the story of rising feminism amongst women in the nineteenth century and the response of their suitors. In the seventies British film turns to crime with films including the caper film, the Italian job (Michael Caine) Get Carter (again with Michael Caine) and important social films like Sunday bloody Sunday that discuss characters who are well adjusted successful and either gay or bi-sexual. In Sunday bloody Sunday, an artist has an affair with a woman and a gay man and has to decide who or what he is and desires. England’s economy crashes in the seventies, and in 1971 Stanley Kubrick directed one of his most interesting films about British culture A Clockwork Orange based on the Anthony Burgess novel about a future society where juvenile delinquents use drugs and violence to relieve their boredom. Criminal dialogue is based on Russian slang words suggesting the growing influence of Russian culture in the west. Alex, the film’s protagonist is the subject of the society’s draconian experiments at reforming wayward youth and is ultimately cured of his anti-social tendencies, sort of. In the mid-seventies Fred Zinneman delivers the dark crime novel Day of the Jackyl which expertly follows a contract killer through the steps of a big syndicate deal to murder French President Charles DeGaul. It is a spectacular form of suspenseful crime drama. Edward Fox stars as a hired contract killer who is paid a fortune to murder the top leader. Terms Kitchen sink drama:a style of drama popular in England in the fifties and sixties reflecting the lives of middle class people in which many debates occur around the kitchen, the center of domestic life Social realism: A form of drama framed around prosaic everyday experiences of common people. A drama concerned with the struggles of working class people Films: Schlesinger, John. “Sunday, bloody Sunday.” (1971) Schlesinger, John. “Far From the Madding Crowd.” (1967) Richardson, Tony. “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.” (1962) Readings: Bedford, tom. “The history of British cinema.” https://www.filminquiry.com/history-british- cinema-1-rise-studio-film/ Calhoun, David. “the 100 best British movies.” https://www.timeout.com/london/film/100- best-british-films 100 Cinema 21 French new wave French new wave cinema began in the 1950s and was a modern form of movie making that was popularized by journals from France. French new wave cinema has been deeply influential in American film in the last 50 years strongly influencing the work of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Alejandro Gonzalez in Innuratu. The French new wave originated in the 1950s due to the influence of the magazine cashiers de cinema . This magazine illustrated the interest in a new style of film based on the work of classic film makers that young film critics in France in the post war years found to be valuable but were largely underrated by the cinema establishment. Amongst the film makers they lauded were Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Jean Renoir. This style of new film was referred to in French as the Nouvelle Vague. (the new style). Characteristics of this new form of filmmaking included (1) avoiding conventional narrative that had been practiced in film since the beginning of the 20th century and (2) reducing the importance of narrative. These mostly young film makers used (3) improvisation, (4) existential storytelling technique and (5) new techniques of editing and cutting films together to (6) create a lively sensation of real life. The work of these young critics and film makers transformed the industry of film and led the way to the years of (7) auteurs and young independent film makers that arose in the 1960s and 70s and are still felt today. Most of the French film makers felt that the studio system of Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s was very contrived filmmaking and they wanted freedom not allowed to film makers by the studios to create films to a different model. The French felt that the old Hollywood films with easy to follow narratives we're too unconscious and did not demand enough of the audience. Their plan was to create a style of film that would demand more of an audience and engage the audience more fully. 101 The French new wave also began with film critic Andre Bazin who created cashier's du cinema, and made it a popular and influential publication. This magazine employed young film makers and critics including Jean Luc Goddard, Francois Truffaut Eric Rohmer, and others that wanted to make films through a more creative process. The members of this group of cinema aesthetes believed they had the skills to create a new style of cinema, and they wanted to exert full control over a new style of films. One of the theories that controlled their filmmaking was the auteur theory, or the author theory. It claimed that there was one universal controlling mind behind the creation of all films and that whoever that person was became the author or auteur of the film. They did not agree that film production was a joint group enterprise but believed in the theory that one individual controlled the making and shaping a film. Despite the auteur theory many films made by the new wave directors did have a group communal creation format. Rohmer was especially fond of getting a group together and working on the scenario as a group. The French critics saw from their experience of covering classic films the influence of an auteur or a guiding intellect. Usually this person was the director or the writer. They identified the work of individual film makers and the individual styles they promoted as being distinctively different than the work of the studios that could be very routine and deprive the work of any nuance or individuality. For example today the Disney Studios exhibit tight control over their products. Disney animations depend on princesses, Pixar family-friendly works, or Marvel superhero movies the fall under very tightly controlled templates. This was exactly the limitations the new wave producers wished to avoid. They wanted to use the auteur theory to break free of that tight autocratic style that they had seen in American films. The members of the auteur theory group at cashier's do cinema firmly believed that auteurs controlled every part of the film and that people like Renoir, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Ford were clever individual artists separate from the studio system. After publishing their ideas in the magazine and writing about these theories the young writers cinemaphiles, and aesthetes took action pushing their ideas into the real world using very small budgets and unknown actors. They determined to enact their theories by creating small films that utilized ideas of auteurism. Because they had small budgets they used outdoor lighting, simple sets, unknown actors, and a very raw style This natural lighting and sound became mainstays of the new French new wave style and influenced American films like Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Late sixties experimental American film owes a large debt to the innovations suggested by French filmmakers. The French new wave style was a complex style. Reverberations of this style are still being felt in the way new young film makers construct films. The new wave still contrasts with studio style. three characteristics define that that French new wave style. (1) First these film makers rejected the ideas of the style of the studio. They rejected the control imposed by studios over their work. They did not use the large money of the studio system. They did not like the tight control of autocratic producers in the studio system, and they did not have the complicated distribution system that made the large studios incredibly profitable and depended upon mass audiences. This group of film makers made their films for a small select audience of people like themselves, cinema philes, aesthetes, professors, and people that concentrated on the aesthetics and art of 102 film, rather than purely the entertainment value of film. Thus the films of the French new wave looked incredibly different from the kind of films that Hollywood had been producing. The directors of the French new wave would use cheap handheld cameras. They would record sound on location. They would use natural lighting and natural locations. There would be very little extreme cutting done. At the time the film was produced takes would be long. Actors would improvise in a scene. The films would have a very natural look unlike the controlled contrived films made by the studio era. (2)A second characteristic was that new wave films tended to depart from strong narrative traditions. Where Hollywood films followed very strong narratives with very strong scripts, often times the scripts for French new wave films might just be an outline, and actors would be free to improvise around the script to create dialogue on the fly. People in Hollywood films might become complacent while watching them, because they would know where the film started and where the film was going. But in the French new wave films there was always the sense of danger that the film could depart from a strong narrative into some structure that the filmmaker thought was important. They rejected the well thought out scenario of Hollywood and strongly embraced the audience’s ability to be involved with the film and the actors and the concept of improvisation. A way of doing this was to use jump cuts, and actors directly addressing the audience to remind viewers they were watching a film. They rejected the idea of the strongly scripted films created in Hollywood. (3) A third aspect of French new wave film was the idea of expressing extremely complex ideas to an audience where in films of the Hollywood studio era ideas would be compressed and simplified so that audiences would have a simpler time of watching the film. In the French new wave films ideas about existentialism, ideas about philosophy, ideals about ideas, ideas about consumerism, socialism, politics, life, or religion might be expressed in a very direct way expecting the audience to confront complicated difficult ideas in life. Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s tended to compress ideas, to simplify ideas, and not to make audiences face ideas that might be difficult or painful for the audience to embrace or accept. There are many good examples of the new wave cinema. Some of them directly from the French with some of them influenced by films made by the French that arrived at a later time. Some of the most important films that came out of this style were the 400 blows in 1959 directed by the young Francois Truffaut. This is a film about childhood and coming of age. In 1960 there was Jean-Luc Godard famous film breathless in which jean-paul belmondo plays a minor criminal in France who is channeling the ideas and the lifestyle of a modern day Humphrey Bogart character. One of the popular French films of the sixties, Un homme et una femme (a man and a woman) (1966) was a simple love story of two people meeting and falling in love. However many aspects of this popular film were influenced by new wave style. There are jump cuts that are jarring. There is common and outdoor filming in natural locations. There is a cinema verité feel to many of the scenes of race car driving that seem to mirror a documentary style. The love scenes are warm and tender and largely improvised. Dialogue is spare and some of it is made up on the spot. Director Claude LeLouche allowed his actors the freedom to improvise and be successful as common everyday people. 103 French new wave movies become more and more eccentric and individual, like 1974’s weird little film, Celine and Julie go boating. This is a film about two women that meet in a park Celine drops a magic book in front of Julie who is sitting on a park bench reading a book. The women chase each other around the city for a while and end up living together in the same apartment. Then they begin to dream an adventure in which they are thrust into a house where there is a little girl who is alternately murdered and reanimated. Every time the girls entered the house they are occasionally ejected from the house. The story begins again. Finally the women realize they are not just members of the cast of the story, but that they themselves can become authors of the story and change the outcome of the story. The film is a meta-film questioning the value and power of narrative. At one point they actually rescued the girl from the house and bring her into their modern world in 1974, and they have realized that they have the power to re-author the story the way they want to do so. At the end of the film, they are in the park and they are traveling on a boat. they see other people from the story of the murdered girl flying by them in another boat, and they realize that these are simply symbols from the story that they have retold. At the end of the film Julia sitting on a park bench and Celine comes by and drops her magic book again. French new wave films can be challenging, but highly rewarding. In many French new wave films there is an opportunity for the audience to become involved in the narrative. These films are more open and less planned than traditional studio films from the United states where conventional formats guide and lull audiences into a state of stupor. French new wave films of the fifties, sixties, and seventies encouraged audiences to engage with the material, allow for a more open format, provided the author or authors of the film with license to make the film novel and new, and did not provide convenient conventional formats for audiences. People watching such films have to keep thinking their way through the film. The French new wave style has influenced contemporary filmmakers For example Richard Lester in 1964 created a hard day's night with a very controlling powerful script like a Hollywood film of the studio era but the filming style including a lot of jump cuts and varieties of improvisation borrowed heavily from the French new wave style. Films of the nineties onwards from Quentin Tarantino in American films also have strong scripts and strong directorial control. But there are also elements of improvisation in Quentin Tarantino's films that mirror the efforts and ideas of the French new wave film makers of the mid-century. Terms Jump cuts: Jump cuts are jumps in editing that expect audiences to leap mentally from one scene to the next. Auteur theory: auteur theory argues there is one strong controlli ng mind behind every film. This theory was promoted by the magazine Cahier du cinema and the American critic Andrew Sarris in the American magazine, The Village Voice. Films: Goddard, Jean Luc. “Breathless” (1959) Truffaut, Francoise. “Jules and Jim” (1961) Rohmer, Eric. “The Green Ray.” (1986) Readings: 104 Hitchman, Simon. “French New Wave. Where to Start/” http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to- start.shtml Maio, Alyssa. “French New Wave films.” https://www.filminquiry.com/history-british- cinema-1-rise-studio-film/ 22 Cinema Kurosawa and Japanese cinema Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) Kurosawa was possibly the most important Japanese director of the twentieth century. His films exploited both Japanese and Western values and he pioneered a strong style of Japanese samurai films and a sort of east meets west Japanese western or action film. Rashomon (1950) Kurosawa’s first big international hit was based on two folk tales, In a grove and the story, Rashomon. It is a philosophical murder mystery told and reflected by a buddhist monk, a wood cutter and a common peasant. They sit in a burned out Buddhist temple during a rain storm recounting a murder trial they witnessed earlier in the day. They are puzzled. The witnesses describe the events in flashback. What was known was that a tough thief was nabbed for a murder of a samurai and attempted rape of his wife. Those are the only facts we know. The story is first recounted by the thief that has 105 been caught. He is a tough customer and he is played by Toshiro Mufune who becomes a popular and influential Japanese actor. He tells the tale as a conquest and reassertion of his manhood. He likes the girl, kills her husband she runs away. The second version is by the widowed wife. She claims she is a victim of male power. The thief and the husband were both mean to her. She tried to kill herself but failed. The third tale is told by the ghost of the dead samurai channeled by a local witch. He claims he committed suicide out of disgust with everyone’s behavior. The fourth tale is by the woodsman who saw it all as a an eyewitness from the woods. He claims both men were cowards, were afraid to fight and the wife was worthless. No one in the end knows the whole truth and everyone makes up stories to justify themselves. The film was so popular there was a term coined the Rashomon effect that described a situation where the truth was relative to person telling the story. The film ends with the finding of an orphaned baby which the woodsman promises to raise and to be a better person, news that reassures the monk there are still good people in the world. Rashomon is still the thinking man’s mystery many all-time classics." Seven Samurai (1953) Here seven powerful samurai without masters agree to band together to protect a village from bandits. Along the way most of them die but their honorable sacrifice makes them noble and justified warriors loved by the children of the town. Remade in the United States as the Magnificent Seven the film is a great example of the group aesthetic and the need for powerful indomitable heroes. Ikuru (1954) Ikuru is a different sort of film and a brilliant social drama. Ikuru tells the story of an accountant and civil servant who pushed paper all day and does no good. He learns he is dying of cancer and fights to build a children’s park in the city before he dies. He walks to the park after it is completed sits in a child’s wing and swings. He is found dead in the cold snow the next morning. The men he worked with all become emotional and cry during a ceremony in his honor. It is a warm and charming story of Japanese people and the sense of community. Hidden fortress (1958) Hidden fortress tells the story of a tough Japnese princess held captive by an evil warlord. Two lowly servants try to rescue her to no avail but they align themselves wit ha rogue samurai, (Toshiro mufune) and with his help they are ableto brak into the castle where she is held captive and rescue her. The princess doesn’t need much help and arrives as a fully developed female hero in her own right. This folk tale was translated into George Lucas’ Star Wars twenty years later. Terms East meets West: Curiously, Kurosawa films blend eastern and western aesthetics and many of hi samurai films resemble American westerns. Music: In Kurosawa’s films a blend of western music and Japanese traditional music was used. This created an interesting blend of western and eastern aesthetics. Action sequences: Kurosawa pioneered action sequences in which frantic movement was paralleled with stillness and calm control. Films: Kurosawa, Akira. Rashomon (1950) Kurosawa, Akira. Seven Samuai (1953) 106 Kurosawa, Akira. Hidden Fortress (1958) Readings: Audie Bock, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Directors (St. James Press, 1994) pp 550-51 Fred Shimizu, Directory of World Cinema: Japan (Intellect Books, 2010) pp 31-33 Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (McGraw-Hill, 2003) pp 255-56, 422-24 Cinema 23 Seventies; The Myths of American Life on Film Genres and myths of American life become popular again in the sixties and seventies. There were major changes in three areas: o Film Industry o Technology o Content Changes in Film Industry included the blockbuster mentality. Films could not simply break even or make a little money. Studios wanted continual massive hits. It was not sufficient for films to make back the investment of money and time, films had to provide big revenue to companies and their investors. This created more pressure on the industry. Many techniques emerged to increase revenue. Some ideas were marketing ideas like sequels. If you make films similar they should be successful. Another aspect of growing revnue was to use new tevhnology like dolby sound to attract people to 107 theatres and to make the home market enjoy the entertainment on home screens. Some of the techniques used to increase revenue included: The sequel The Dolby soundtrack The videocassette, laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray The direct-to-video release The camcorder The computer and The “all-powerful talent agent” (585). They all meshed together to encourage a milieu that started developing a new film product. There Were science fiction spectacles by George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and others. There were creepy ironic directors like David Lynch, political fables by Spike Lee, and these kinds of film persist unto the present day. The Seventies changes film marketing and style: Star Wars made science fiction popular for kids and these became Disneyesque space operas. Disney even bought Lucas’ Star Wars franchise to capitalize. New films began to resemble morning serials of the 1940s. Sequels were used to enhance revenue, in other words, the same product was resold. The terms for films that keep returning are franchises. In 2021 we had the return of spiderman with the eight spiderman movie, this time copying the ideas from animated Spiderverse cartoon film several years ago. Films like Hunger Games, Transformers, Twilight, Harry Potter, Jaws and others depend on franchises to provide revenue for studios. This began when Universal released Jaws in 1975 in the summer scaring people out of the water and into the theatre. This film ushered in an era of blockbuster thrillersChanges in Technology changed how films were viewed and heard. Dolby noise reduction improved the quality of sound. Dolby SVA soundtracks gave the audiences more intense listening experiences both in the theatre and later on home stereo systems. You might have forgotten the film, but the soundtrack could still be played to remind audiences of every moment in the film.Steadicams were used to improve picture quality.Enhanced images contributed to the magic of Forrest Gump and the special effects of merging different time periods in the film. This same trick of merging footage from different eras was successful in putting actor Woody Allen into different eras in the comedy science fiction pseudo-documentary, Zelig. Into the nineties the pace of technological change increased. In The Matrix there was the use of stop motion photography and the new digital images referred to as bullet time because faster shooting timing of 60 to 100 to 1000 frames per second could give the effect of stopping g time or stopping bulllets in motion. By the millennium theatres had mastered digital projection and could show films with a digital copy on a hard drive and no longer needed to rely on mechanical film projectors where moving parts or film could break and delay a show. Many changes erupted in the Hollywood business climate including a drive for technological films because technology based films like Jurassic Park’s photo realistic dinosaurs were thrilling and novel to audiences. They had never seen anything that big and real appearing before. Also with the dolby sound systems the thunderous sound of the dinosaurs feet were astoundingly real, like listening to thunder from a movie theatre.But apart from technological films there were changes in Hollywood deals. 108 Business films were greenlit after a few meetings. If producers could secure bankable stars, directors and successful idea or attach a team to a franchise marketers believed such films were immune to failure. These predictions were not always foolproof. George Lucas’ much lauded return to directing Star Wars in 1998’s The Phantom Menace was universally panned as a poor movie in the series, but audiences hungry for star wars came to see it despite the negative press. Atill sometimes audiences negate fer shure projects. For example in the period between 2015-2020 many Marvel films that previous were part of a successful franchise series floundered despite positive reviews. Audiences simply were immune to the same thrills repeatedly. Howeer many films have succeeded despite negative press because famous names were attached to the property. Also several film connected to formerly popular television programs became successful as film projects simply because audiences already knew the shows and went out of loyalty or nostalgia appeal. A peanuts movie, a simpsons movie and a South Park movie all benefited from name recognition and loyal audiences who had seen the properties on television. Changes in Content Seventies-Eighties Archetypes arrived that helped to transform film. For example films featuring Supermen: Big strong invulnerable guys that reminded men of how men used to be revered were popular in the era of the seventies and eighties. Films such as Superman, Rambo, Dirty Harry, Terminator were all successful in that time period. After the chaos and damage from the poor economy in the seventies, slasher films featuring unstoppable demonic killers that nothing can destroy were fashionable with anti hero murderers like Jason, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers. Cop Films like Heat, Serpico, French Connection made cops movie heroes for a generation. This was ironic given that sixties hippies denied cops, called them pigs and feared authority figures with badges and guns. Some of the popular movie heroes came from films like Lethal Weapon, Dirty Harry, and actors like AlPacino (Serpico, Godfather, Scarface, Dog Day Afternoon0 and Robert , DeNiro (Casino, goodfellas, The Irishmen, the godfather, Taxi Driver). Genres were revived and revered and audiences flocked to new genres. Monster films like Jaws, Alien, Jurassic Park were box office success and audiences thrilled to see people chased by big scary monsters. There was a vogue for Teen Movies, and many were produced yt producer director John Hughes including Sixteen Candles,Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Risky Business, and Home Alone.Heroes though young seemed more grown up and cynical. Pop heroes were filled with irony including Forrest Gump, Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and Hans Solo), and anti-hero losers like Ed Wood. Some of the biggest franchises that arrived fron seventies through the nineties included Lucas and Spielberg’s Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park films. There have been four Indiana Jones films with a fifth on the way for 2022, nine Star Wars movies and spin offs and cartoons, and five Jurassic Park movies with cartoons and spin offs arriving yearly. Spielberg and Lucas birthed a new generation of clever young directors. Some of the New offbeat directors included John Carpenter, David Lynch, Tim Burton, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch John Badham who directed Dracula, Saturday Night Fever, Blue Thunder, and War Games with young stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. War Games was an 109 important film for being one of the First big computer game movies, for bringing Paranoia about nuclear war, and for providing Action-adventure for the eighties generation and for being a film that aped the Spielbergian style of production and editing. New Comedy New forms of comedy emerged from cynicism and ironic perspectives. The Coen brothers produced bloody crime movies and more winsome comedies in the eighties onward with films like Blood Simple; O, Brother, Where Art Thou? The Big Lewbowski and Fargo, Spielberg’s protégé and an arch conservative filmmaker Robert Zemekis produced Back to the Future with a white Marty McFly teaching Chuck erry hot play guitar and duck walk, Forrest Gump with Gump never criticizing he Vietnam war, and Flight with a pilot that saves a plane full of people going to jail. Ivan Reitman produced Ghostbusters, Dave, Stripes, and Evolution. Another new genre was intensely violent films reflecting the outbreak of mass violence in the U. s. including assassination, daily mass shootings, violence at schools and even insurrections at our capital. Ironically, despite wild high profile acts of violence in film, the rate of real violence declined in society from the seventies to the millennium, but on film it wildly escalated. There were films by Oliver Stone (JFK, Doors, Natural Born Killers), Michael Cimino (Deerhunter, Year of the Dragon) Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastards, The Hateful Eight)John Sayles (Roan Inish, Secaucus Seven,Lone Star, Matewan) James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Abyss, Titanic). There were also fillmakers who became known for their versatility and skill in action and drama including Hong Kong’s John Woo (Broken Arrow, MI2, Face Off, The Killers), Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, Ice Storm, The Hulk), the team of Merchant and Ivory (Remains of the Day, Room with a View, Howard’s End) and the versatile Ridley Scott (Alien, The Guccis, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick men, GI Jane, the Martian). From the seventies forward, Hollywood was streaming content at a furious pace. Important things to know about the United States in the 1970s and beyond In the 1970s, there were three commercial television channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC; there was also PBS, the public broadcasting system. This situation allowed a great deal of unity among the citizens. Why? They were all watching the same things on television, the sitcoms, the dramas, but most of all, the news. Recent disunity is caused to a great extent by the fact that now we do not all hear or read the same story; therefore, we don’t all tell the same story. Now we get our news from media that target a certain demographic, leaving everyone else to find their own story from a different source, which is also targeting a certain demographic. But disunity was also happening in the 1970s: violent protests against the war in Vietnam, women’s struggle for equal rights, and corruption and the disgrace it caused led a president to resign rather than be impeached.In the 1970s, three major events happened in or to the United States: awar a struggle for equality a national scandal The War 110 Our young men were being sent to the other side of the world to kill or be killed.Protests against the war in Vietnam were mounting, and continuing through the 1970s; veterans returning from Vietnam organized as Vietnam Veterans Against the War and agitated for an end to the conflict. American citizens were bitterly divided over the war, and much of the division was based on the fact that most of the young soldiers sent there were from poor families and families of color; they had no political power, wealth, or influence to keep them safe. Those who did enjoy those assets included George W. Bush, who, as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, and was assigned to run a political campaign as his military duty; William Jefferson Clinton, who was studying overseas as a Rhodes scholar; and Donald J. Trump, whose doctor got him a deferment from the military draft because he had bone spurs on his heels. Ironically two of the only politicians who served valiantly, John Kerry who was wounded decorated and saved men’s lives in Vietnam, and John McCain who flew bomber missions in Vietnam, was captured and tortured for years during the war, were both soundly defeated by men who either never served or never fought in the war. Such ironies illustrate America’s complicated vision of such wars which greatly impacted our films and memory of such wars. Students whose grade point average fell below a certain level lost their draft deferments and were shipped to Vietnam. The average age of these soldiers was nineteen. The Vietnamese War was also unpopular because the United States was not fighting to protect itself, but to keep the communist Soviet Union from taking over the country of South Vietnam. Fifty-eight thousand, two hundred, and twenty (58,220) young Americans died there for this cause, and those who returned are still feeling effects of the war; for example, the use of Agent Orange to defoliate the forests of Vietnam poisoned many Americans slowly, and some are still dying from its effects. Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell to the communist North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975, and Americans fled Vietnam, taking as many Vietnamese allies as they could fit into their planes and helicopters. Those Vietnamese nationals who had aided the American effort would be killed or “re-educated” under the communist leader Ho Chi Minh, and they tried to get at least their children on the planes and helicopters. The U. S. embassy in Saigon was the last point of departure: U. S. military helicopters landed on the roof of the building, crowded in as many bodies as they could, and flew them out to waiting U. S. aircraft carriers. When the carriers’ decks became too crowded with human bodies for the helicopters to land, empty helicopters which were out of fuel were pushed into the ocean to make way for the incoming helicopters. The passion, discord, and insanity of these events are captured in a poem by David Wojahn: “It's Only Rock and Roll, but I Like It”: The Fall of Saigon The guttural stammer of the chopper blades Raising arabesques of dust, tearing leaves From the orange trees lining the Embassy compound; 111 One chopper left, and a CBS cameraman leans From inside its door, exploiting the artful Mayhem. Somewhere a radio blares the Stones, "I like it, like it, yes indeed..." Carts full Of files blaze in the yard. Flak-jacketed marines Gunpoint the crowd away. The overloaded chopper strains And blunders from the roof. An ice-cream-suited Saigonese drops his briefcase; both hands Now cling to the airborne skis. The camera gets It all: the marine leaning out the copter bay, His fists beating time. Then the hands giving way." The passion, discord, and insanity of these events are also depicted in Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The Struggle for Equality Women were struggling for equal treatment at home and in the workplace. The Women’s Lib movement (as it was called) of the late 1960s and 1970s was the second feminist movement, and it succeeded in raising the awareness of many Americans that women had not gained full citizenship. Even though the women activists in the 1970s pushed through an Equal Rights Amendment that had been first introduced in 1923, it was not ratified by enough states and so failed. Its failure “reflected a history of both female participation in politics and exclusion from power” (De Hart 217). Enthusiasm for women’s rights soon led to several strong female political candidates for national office: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm made a bid for the Presidency in 1972, and in 1984 Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was nominated by a major political party as its candidate for Vice President of the United States. Beginning in July 2009, the Equal Rights Amendment has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives every year, until now it needs ratification by only one more state to become law. Women’s struggles for equal rights are shown in a couple of films as examples: Nine to Five (1980), directed by Colin Higgins, and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), directed by Martin Scorsese. The National Scandal A national scandal at the highest levels: an impeachment proceeding resulted in the resignation of a president before he could be tried by the Senate. His resignation itself resulted in the installation of a man in the office of President of the United States who was never elected, but chosen by the disgraced president, Richard M. Nixon. Thus Gerald R. Ford, handpicked by Nixon to replace Nixon’s Vice-President, Spiro Agnew (who had resigned in disgrace over his own illicit deeds), moved up to the Presidency. And immediately issued a blanket pardon of Nixon. All the President’s Men (1976), directed by Alan J. Pakula, depicts the events leading up to Nixon’s resignation. Important things to know about films and filmmakers in the 1970s Because the studio system disintegrated in the 1960s, there came the first generation of filmmakers who hadn’t come through the system or via theatre, novels, or television; instead they had learned film as film. Raised on watching movies on TV from an early age, they had learned their craft at film school. 112 Coppola went to UCLA, Lucas and Milius to USC, Scorsese to NYU and De Palma to Columbia. Spielberg created his own movie curriculum by making his own films, which were both technically proficient and steeped in film lore. These directors’ movies are full of allusions to other films, Hitchcock (De Palma), Kurosawa (Milius) and Walt Disney (Spielberg). Big movies came back, and the ideas of the way we live were presented as myths Jaws (1975, directed by Steven Spielberg) The Godfather (1972, directed by Francis Ford Coppola) American Graffiti (1973, directed by George Lucas) Science fiction movies were popular, as evidenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, directed by Stanley Kubrick) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, directed by Stanley Spielberg) Star Wars (1977+, directed by George Lucas) Star Wars became a franchise, with nine separate but connected films in the sequence. T erms Disunity: American society begins to fragment in the seventies reaching a zenith of divided thinking at the insurrection in Washington in 2020.Sadly Americans can no longer agree on basic facts so making films for multiple voices becomes more complicated. Films: Stone, Oliver. JFK. (1991) Zemeckis, Robert. Back to the Future (1985) Eastwood, Clint. Sudden Impact (1984) Readings: Apocalypse Now. Film clip. Dir. Francis Ford Coppolla. Paramount Pictures,1979. Youtube. youtube.com/ watch?v=Bs9X6NkJDBY. Glatzer, Robert. Beyond Popcorn: A Critic’s Guide to Looking at Films. Spokane:Eastern Washington UP, 2001. Green, Willow. “Movie Movements That Defined Cinema: The Movie Brats.” Empire onLine. https://www.empireonline.com/movies/ features/movie-brats-movie-era/ Lewis, Jon. American Film: A History. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008. Mast, Gerald, and Bruce F. Kawin. A Short History of the Movies. 11th edition. Boston:Longman, 2011. Steinberg, Randy. "Theatrical Films." Encyclopedia of International Media andCommunications, Donald Johnston, Elsevier Science & Technology, 1st edition, 2003. Credo Reference. Trailers Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), dir. Martin Scorsese. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf08x-Sk59Y (2:30) Ellen Burstyn. Nine to Five (1980), dir. Colin Higgins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= PVKTZ4CEM90 (2:16) Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin. All the President’s Men (1976), dir. Alan J. Pakula. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DC3YFyah_Yg (2:51) Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman. in these films, including 113 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), dir. Stanley Kubrick. https://www.youtube.com/ watch? v=oR e9y-bka0 (2:30) Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter. Apocalypse Now (1979), dir. Francis Ford Coppola. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IkrhkUeDCdQ (3:48) Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford. Star Wars (1976), dir. George Lucas. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XHk5kCIiGoM (2:01) Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness. Cinema 26 The 60s The 60 something important time of transition in American film many Americans it stops going to the movies and started watching the new medium of television they’ve been around 10 years but has begun to rival film with his complex camera shots good Scripps young actors and really bring out new ways of telling a story much like cereal TV in the millennial. Has taken all three stations like AMC and Netflix to create long cereal longer films in the 1960s the 1960s challenge the output of Hollywood Hollywood not respond well to television in fact most of the major studios refuse to make a films for television and only reluctantly in the 1960s did film studios begin to partner with television stations to create a film that could be shown in both mediums many of the experiments crossing over from television to film created interesting hybrids in the two forms and some of the most interesting films in the 1960s use the television form to grade a fact and some of the of the 1960s use the television form to great effect many of these films in the 1960s again illustrate that society has changed that Madison Avenue in advertising has change the way we think and that we will be quickly becoming a consumer culture so of the films that took off in the 1960s here are some of the most popular ones that really had an impact. The apartment (1960) 114 The apartment from 1960 directed by Billy Wilder in written by Wilder and his his writer AL diamond created a really scathing portrait of American culture in the early 60s in the same way British films in the era had illustrated the problems in British society in the 1950s and the 1960s with his class conscious conscious style and society in the film generally a well-known and nice guy in films Frederick Murray plays a classic he’ll in the film there are three pathetic characters there is Jack Lemmon who is functioning as it is as minor role in a large company his corporate boss played by Fred Meyer brewery and Shirley McClain who is a rising actress the time who plays a lowly office girl who is a pine for the men’s affections in the film Jack Lemmon to court favor with his boss offered to loan his apartment to his boss on certain days of the week his boss played by his boss played by McMurray is a married man who is having an affair with Shirley McClain who is an office girl who falls madly in love with the older Fred McMurray Jack women at first feels no compulsion about loaning his apartment for his boss to use during the week to have a rendezvous with his lady love but overtime lemon character falls in love with the girl himself which creates complications for all the film deals the film deals with the issues of corporatism in America and how large businesses and large corporate raiders can have authority and power over peoples lives the individuals don’t have. The film is a lovely description of all the working class people in the hands of a very nasty old are more entitled people who are farther up on the food chain of American society the apartment is a great indictment of American culture and the disparity between the working class and the corporate leaders society it also illustrates that the corporate leaders of society are not better people just people with more entitlement and more money. Psycho (1960) Perhaps not seen as revolutionary at the time Alfred Hitchcock psycho from 1960 is probably one of the most revolutionary films of all time and certainly one of the most revolutionary films of the 1960s Hitchcock wanted to make a cheap horror film to cash in on the trend towards cheap horror films that were being shown in drive-ins and making millions of dollars for cheap exploited directors his studio Paramont did not want him to make a cheap horror film because he was a classic Director of classic Hollywood and he knew how to make really beautiful films Hitchcock did not see himself as part of the value system of upper class society and wanted to make films that were entertaining to all segments of society and that’s why he wanted to make a cheap horror film like psycho he chose the story of Ed Gein who was a important serial killer of the 1950s and his keys in Kansas and made headlines across the country distracted horror writer Robert block to write a novel about the egg in case entitled psycho about the the corrupted Norman Bates and his weird relationship with his mother Paramount objected to Hitchcock wishing to make a horror movie on such a lonely scale and simply refuse to back such a film. Hitchcock was insistent that he could make a great horror film and whatever budget he was given and he had already been directing a television show the Alford Hitchcock presents show for the last five years since 1955 a show that was a massive head and only can only ended after 10 years because he grew tired of doing hedge was not detoured from doing the film of his choice he had always been able to do really what he wanted in Hollywood he just had to find a means to do it so he prompted paramount his company to allow him to make the film if he would put up all of the money for the film Hitchcock actually mortgage his home in Beverly Hills to afford to be 115 able to make the film he agreed to a very limited budget of $500,000 he agreed to ship the film in six weeks and he agreed to shoot the film he agreed to shoot the film using his television crew from his television show and he shot the entire film in black-and- white in six weeks using fairly unknown actors the largest actors in the cast were Janet Leigh who played the lead in the film and and a young up-and-coming actor Anthony Perkins who played the young and creepy Norman Bates. The film was shrouded in secrecy Hitchcock was worried that he was going to lose everything if the film was not successful Heist Hitchcock shrouded the film in secrecy and made sure that nobody told anything about the film while they were making it he used a special publicity campaign that said the film would be stronger than secrecy and that no one would be admitted to the film after the film began so that no one could give away the ending so this became a real cause célèbre for a lot of people watching the film that wanted to go see with the special secret film that Hitchcock it made was going to be like in the film Hitchcock also had the surprise of having the star of the film Janet Lee kill killed off in the first half of the film nobody knew the surprises that Hitchcock intended and nobody expected the graphic violence that Hitchcock provided in the film including a frightening shower see sequence and a frightening sequence inside the bathroom open till psycho there had never been a bathroom sequence really filmed in American film before so Hitchcock was striding into new territory with every sequence for psycho when the film arrived Hitchcock demanded that nobody allowed to be allowed in the film after the film after the film had begun the film was a smashing success and audiences around the world thrilled to Hitchcock psycho Hitchcock also made a deal with you Wasserman who was his age as a time and was also getting involved with universal studios a small studio that was in a growth phase Hitchcock it generally received a specific payment for a film but he made a new deal for the distribution of of psycho he agreed to pay all the cost for the film himself upfront and all Paramont had to deal with Hitchcock and Paramount like the arrangement because the studio didn’t have to pay any cost for the film Hitchcock paid all costs and then made all revenue off the film and then his agent Lew Wasserman a secured a deal with Hitchcock where he could obtain money for the film in stock in Universal and the Stock in Universal was growing at a rapid rate and Hitchcock became a very wealthy man immediately after he took stock instead of payment for a psycho universal by the mid-60s had become a major corporate after the success of Hitchcock of psycho Hitchcock never had to work again and basically psycho paid for all of the rest of the films that he would make during the decade and Hitchcock became so wealthy from the stockade purchase three universal they split many times that he didn’t really feel I need to work much after 1970 and only made a couple of films because he felt like making the films but frankly because he become so wealthy through the start of the universal it really change the way films were made in in the late 60s. West Side Story (1961) Another influential head of the 1960s was west side story directed by by Robert wise who had been the engineer for a citizen Kane in 1941 W. side story was in the style of musical that included people in the downtown area of New York with warren gangs of Puerto Rican and white street gangs fighting for territory in the town. The film was based on Leonard Bernstein’s story that played on Broadway which was a music which was a musical retelling of Romeo and Juliet only featuring street gangs in the New York environment during the early 1960s when social unrest was brewing because more 116 immigrants were moving into United States especially from Caribbean countries from Europe from Asia from South America and this social realism of the film really struck a chord with a lot of Americans who realize that a lot of Americans today were coming from different parts of the world than previously been seen before West side story was especially a big hit for young audiences who saw themselves and their diversity reflected in the film and the music was new and novel and featured a new style of American music that was much cheaper and was derived from jazz and Pop sounds unlike musicals in the 1940s and 50s that were conventional pop music. Dr. no (1962) In 1962 Terrence young directed one of the major hits in the 1960s the start of the big spike race it was a film entitled doctor know and was based on a novel by by Ian Fleming that starred a young Sean Connery an up-and-coming Scottish actor who had really not been in any major films before but it had the parts in a series of smaller movies that had debuted in the late 50s and early 60s immediately Sean Connery became the embodiment of influence the embodiment of Ian Fleming’s James Bond with his smooth ways with spies and his indomitable ways with women and his unflappable Waze with dangerous criminals the James Bond films might become bigger and better and better attended but Doctor No really set the template for all the James Bond films that were to follow they were action Epix about diabolical villains powerful superhero kind of characters and a strong strong melodrama 8 and 1⁄2 (1963) International cinema was really becoming popular with American audiences and one of the big hits that was a worldwide hit from Italy and there are a lot of them Italian films that were becoming popular films in the 1950s and 60s was it filmed by Federico Fellini about the movie business itself and a movie Director play it played by Marcello Mastrianni the film was entitled 8 1⁄2 and it dealt with the idea of how film directors and Italians in Rome lead their lives during the profitable 60s when the film community in 8 1⁄2 Fellini shows a society in which everybody is in love with filmmaking and filmmakers and the filmmakers are living in a decadent society in which love sex bones drugs are common place in every day life. What the film wants to show is this horrible wife is an important part of Italian society but it’s not the only thing to live for that society must have deeper values and really wanted to make the point that filmmaking is a lot of fantasy and that yeah people get very involved in their fantasy life when they really should be involved in their day-to-day life with the people they love and the people that are interested in their life and being real people as opposed to movie stars making false artificial films Dr. Strangelove (1964) Stanley Kubrick’s 19 64 fours comedy Dr. Strangelove deals with the idea of nuclear annihilation through a mistaken command that a American plane go to Moscow and blowing up Kubrick this did not believe in the idea of nuclear war and did not think it was something to be worried about and made the film a comedy there had been a number of films about the dangers of nuclear war. In the 1950s Roger Corman and other directors and made a variety of films about about the dangers of nuclear radiation specifically in Rodger Corbins world without end which is a cheap and low budget science-fiction film which talks about life after the nuclear apocalypse in which people have been turned into zombies and in mutants by the nuclear radiation although 117 Coremans films were laughing at the time a lot of people took the idea of nuclear annihilation seriously in 1959 Stanley Kramer produced one of his political Epix film called on the beach based on a popular novel by Neville shoot at the time on the beach deals with the story of the apocalypse of of the world coming to an end because there has already been a nuclear war and when nuclear sub basically reaches harbor in Australia and all the people they are just waiting for the tradewinds to carry nuclear radiation to Australian kill everyone who’s left on earth it’s a very dark and sobering film. In 1960 for sitting with me made a very serious film about nuclear war entitled failsafe in which buying electrical error a group of farmers in the strategic air command from the United States are given a mistake in mission to fly to Moscow in Bonn Moscow Laplatte avail safe is very dark in that the president must figure out how to deal with the political crisis of a plane that is mistakenly given the order to blow up Moscow what the president decides to do in the film is one of the most faithful moments in all films in the 1960s he tells the Russian ambassador if one plane gets ruined bombs I will send an American plane to blow up New York and of course that’s exactly what happens at the end of the film and it’s a very frightening film but Stanley Kubrick did not see the idea of nuclear war is frightening he saw this comical and then the film Dr. Strangelove he has the character played by Peter Sellers play the president ate a British lieutenant and even Dr. Strangelove in the film and then his multiple roles in the film Peter Sellers excels at making fun of the concept of nuclear war the film is a parity of what would happen if an American plane was sent to Russia to launch a nuclear attack and even at the end of the film slim Pickens who plays the commander of the American playing can’t get the bombs are dropped so in the end he has to jump on the bomb himself and write it down into Moscow himself to actually caused the nuclear Armageddon. Although it’s a funny film it’s also a very silly film but it also makes you think about the issue of nuclear war and how nuclear work affect the entire world A hard Day’s night (1964) What are the most impressive musicals in the 1960s is a hard days night featuring the Beatles it is a film that was created very quickly after the Beatles appeared on and celebrate in February 1964 the producers of the film wanted to cash in on the group quickly because nobody thought the Beatles would last so they wanted to film out quickly assuming the Beatles might have a six month lifespan well of course the film was put together in March and April and the script is written in the film began production in May and was released literally April and was literally released in June 1964 so the entire film from idea to filming to editing to actual released to theaters took Wesson six months and was a remarkable success for all involved the Beatles were natural comedians and were very very funny in the film the script was very good and gave the Beatles some very funny biting lines where they could make fun of their working class origins and talk about working class structure in England that the Beatles in Millie Lynn through and The Beatles literally the Beatles had the opportunity to play themselves a group of four working class musicians who were working in the British music industry at a time when British music was taking off in the world audience. The work of Richard last year the Director was exceptional in which he included in the film examples of his cinema style that he learned directing commercials in England he put the Beatles in jump cuts he used a rapid fire style editing he used a close-up shots he was black and 118 white film he use jump in musicals of the 1940s and 50s people with simply burn burst in the song inappropriately in the Beatles a hard days night the Beatles were literally sing like they were a rock group singing a song on TV or in rehearsal getting ready to perform in a live performance so everything in the film seems like a natural relationship to the actual environment the Beatles were in and the film still makes enormous sense the audiences that watch it and understand the Beatles are a group of working musicians playing songs they are working on for the film as they’re filming the film Good Bad and the Ugly (1966) The good the bad and the ugly from 1966 was the third of a trilogy of films created by Italian directors Surgi surgery Sergio Leone and the only light making Italian films that were modeled on American westerns but with of course some of the elements of the Italian cinema the 1960s longshots major vistas many of these films were shot in Spain Clint Eastwood who have been in American television star from Rawhide became an international hero in these films starting with a fist full starting with a fist full of dollars a few dollars more and finally the epic the good the bad and the ugly a three hour western epic from the 1966 era and featuring a lively performance from Clint Eastwood and beautiful camerawork and marvelous iconic directions from Sergio the only the Director of the film. The film was popular with young audiences who liked the ideas of the American western translated into in Italian and Internet idiom. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Bonnie and Clyde produced by Robert town the writer and author pan the Director and actor Warren Beatty in 1967 was a brand new style of film created from the ideas of the French new wave town and pan used our jump cuts in the film that didn’t really make sense the way old-fashioned American films used cutting but we’re completely essential to the rhythm and the methods of Bonnie and cried. Bonnie and Clyde in real life for two 1930s outlaws who were disturbingly our universe disturbing the wall is people who eventually were assassinated by the police who were afraid of them and were afraid that they were rallying the people to their cars because of the depression and because of of prohibition a lot of Americans did not like their government and rebelled against the government and sided with criminals in the 1920s and 30s. Al Kapone al Kapone was considered the fuck hero to a lot of Americans in Bonnie and Clyde with they’re wicked ways were also considered a heroic young people to a lot of Americans. But the film also doubt with criminal Association of beautiful people and Bonnie and Clyde played by Warren Beatty and fade Dunaway in the movie or two very young people who have a glamorous luck and many ways in the film we are told not to hate them but I love them because they are beautiful and they are rebuilding they are rebelling against a society that is old and decadent and what Bonnie and Clyde stand for is the ruthlessness and lawlessness of youth and in the film we get to see a lot of Bonnie and Clyde including their sexual dysfunction cry doesn’t seem to really be terribly sexually attracted to Bonnie and therefore they’re there romance is blunted in more ways than one Robert town writing the script influenced by influenced by the French new wave provides very very little dialogue to cover the deeper issues the film such as sexual dysfunction and such as lawlessness and how it plays a role in American society however the film has enormous Lee graphic visual effects including up to that time the longest on on stage shoot out using gunfire of any film either. Warren Beatty becomes an action star because of the film and they done away becomes a 119 overnight success the film also makes stars in Estelle Parsons who wins an Oscar for best supporting female actress and Gene Hackman who plays Clyde Barrow’s tomb older brother but borrow it is a riveting and disturbing film filled with violence film with gun play and film with a wicked sense of humor about the depression about how American society sees poverty and wealth. In the Heat of the night (1967) Norman Jewison since 1967 racial prejudice film in the heat of the night deals with a Philadelphia African-American policeman played by Sidney Poitier who confronts a southern racist sheriff played by Rod Steiger in a drama that deals with prejudice against people of color in the south while the two women are trying to solve a murder case it is one of the earliest films to feature an app it is really early films to feature an African-American as a leading performer Sydney Poitier had rocketed to fame in 1963 as the star boys in the field about an African-American laborer who helps a group of German nuns in the Arizona desert create a church he had continued his success with a series of films and this was the first film in which he directly dealt with the issue of racial prejudice in the south plane opposite a white character who is clearly a victim a victim of his own prejudices. The Producers (1967) Also in 1967 Mel Brooks has his first major success as a Director with a little film called the producers a comedy about a very warped subject and the producers a group of Broadway producers decide to make a film the day to make a play that they think will be a sure fire loser the goal is that they will have so much insurance on the play that the play will be sure to make money for them even even after the play falls the subject a pic to assure that the play will be a massive failure is a comedy about Adolf Hitler the play is entitled Springtime for Hitler in Germany and they’re even songs entitled Springtime for Hitler in Germany and the idea is that the play will be so offensive to audiences in New York many of whom of course would’ve either remembered World War II might be Jewish might have lost family members in the holocaust that everyone will find them that audiences will find a place so abominable that the play will close overnight despite their best efforts to craft a losing play the producers here played by Gene Wilder a great comedy actor of the 60s 70s and 80s and zero Mostel who has been a great comedy actor in the 50s 60s and 70s discover that despite their best efforts to make a loser play the play has become a massive six the play success creates all kinds of problems for the producers because of course they don’t want to glorify the reign of Hitler and the horrors that he perpetrated on the world and of course they don’t want to profit from a play about Hitler but their entire scheme was to craft a play that would lose money and now they are discovering they have crafted a play that will probably make the money the play is very funny and the film of the players very funny the producers is a very odd film in there as a the Prius is a very odd film is it is there is a film about a group of Broadway producers trying to produce a play and then later in the 1990s the film of the presence is remade into an actual play on Broadway and actually becomes a popular head play on Broadway in the 90s and then of course for things to go full circle the film of the play version of the producers is produced in the early millennium. So so literally the producers deals with the eye deals with the idea of a film about the making of a play that becomes a play about the making of a play there is then translated finally into a film about the making of a play again. 120 Planet of the Apes (1968) 1968 science-fiction films began to become popular again and planet of the apes based on a novel by pure boredom who had written also bridge in the River Kwai was produced by Anthony Schaeffer and the film illustrates a group of astronauts they have crash Landing on the planet that is run by a group of apes what they don’t realize is that their own society over the years has evolved into a structure in which eighths of the dominant species and humans are inferior species species the film portrays the problems of humans and apes getting along and is it in Leavelle reference two the political struggles of the civil rights movement in the mid 60s if you think about it in 1968 the United States was on fire with race riots across the nation Martin Luther King had been associated and Robert Kennedy was assassin is not long afterwards America was filled with violent acts and there was no way that Americans could live in peace and harmony in that environment. 2001 (1968) 1968 also gave us another science-fiction film that was revolutionary Stanley Kubrick’s 1968S a space opera lavishly produced in photographs of 2001 a space Odyssey based on a short story by RTC Cork who was a science fiction writer who is deeply invested in the realities of science. In the film the astronauts on board a mission to Jupiter realize realize that their computer how he’s not acting properly and he’s becoming a sentient being and wants to make decisions without the interference of humans in the film the idea of the singularity is is discussed and the concept of perhaps an alien species helping humans or helping the the human race on earth to become sentient thinking beans is explored in complex and thrilling ways there a long passages of beautiful movements in wow large parts of 2001 a space Odyssey are simply a space opera or a journey or a travel log through space the film is also an interesting investigation of man’s destiny in the future and how men will utilize space travel as a way to evolve the human species and the film is long but very beautiful to watch. Night of the Living Dead (1968) The other major film about prejudice in 1968 is George Romero’s low budget $150,000 film production of the living dead shot in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Romero wanted to talk about the racial divide in Pittsburgh where the north side was all African- American people on the southside was all white people and he use the metaphor zombies to do a great job of describing the problem. The film as one of the very first films to have a black protagonist and certainly one of the first films they have a black protagonist in a horror film the hero of the film survives the night and protects the girl from the zombies and realizes that he save them from the fate of being eaten eaten by zombies in the morning sees farmers with shotguns finishing up the zombies he runs out to tell them that he save the girl and protected everybody and in the end they shoot him and kill him so the film is really a thinly veiled metaphor about racial disharmony in the 1960s Easy rider (1969) Easy Rider is one of the pivotal films of 1969 and jobs with a two motorcycle riding guys who want to avoid the structures of living in a town environment or living under the laws of provincial small people in small towns played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper the characters of easy Rider are simply freewheeling Americans who 121 want to be left alone to pursue their own course of action along the way they pick up a lawyer played by Jack played by jack Nicholson who also wants to be a free wheeling American and along the way they made violent police and violent other gangs who are hostile to their free loving free riding ways eventually Nicholson is killed the performances by finder Hopper and Nicholson or emblematic of the new style of youth oriented American film motorcycle films films about the American frontier and films about American lifestyles that is a color cultural film directed by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda Young people who identified with music and identified with the free wheeling lifestyle of people riding motorcycles as a way of life who is a part of the new style of film that was dealing with an alternative American lifestyles counter cultural lifestyles music youth culture bike riders and people that didn’t fit comfortably in the categories in American culture and signaled the birth of the counter culture is a real alternative lifestyle in American culture in the 1960s and 70s. Cinema 24 Technological cinema The end of the Millennium The years from 1988 until 2000 were years of relative calm in American society. President George H. W. Bush was a far more moderate republican than his predecessor Ronald Reagan and President Clinton had the largest surplus and reduction in American debt during the century. Unemployment was low and the economy strong and no foreign wars haunted the country. Progress seemed to be occurring in race relations and the Soviet union collapsed, the Berlin Wall was torn down, Berlin and Germany were reunited, Isrealis and Arabs looked ready to sign a peace accord over the Palestinian territories and Clinton sent George Mitchell to hammer out a deal to fix fighting in Northern Ireland. American foreign policy was successful, welfare had been replaced by workfare and poorer Americans had seen real wages rise for the first time in over a quarter of a century. By all accounts thins were looking up. Technological film. JFK Borrowing cues from the French new wave Oliver Stone produced a controversial film revisiting the Kennedy assassination nearly thirty years after it occurred. With a star 122 studded cast, Stone questioned the official record of the Kennedy assassination and suggested a barrage of theories of who really killed the president. The film used rapid MTV editing, a theis and anti thesis format to probe the results of the investigation and dynamic leads from Kevin Costner, Joe Pesci and Sissy Spacek. The film fueled renewed speculation about the honesty of the American government and was wildly entertaining. Silence of the Lambs Owing to tour de force performances by British veteran Anthony Hopkins, Scott glenn and Jodie Foster, Joanthan demme’s Silence of the lambs single handedly rebirthed slasher thriller films. A few years later Demme would do one of the first features about the AIDS crisis, Philadelphia, about a young victim of the AID crisis and his treatment by the legal system starring Tom Hanks. Terminator II James Cameron followed his action spectaculars Terminator and Aliens with Terminator two, a sequel that used many new technological improvements in computer generated film and ushered in tech heavy science fiction films. Cameron followed with the Abyss, True Lies and Titanic having a superb run of hits during the decade. Cameron was an early advocate of more tech and his films had a strong visual sheen, if progressively empty acting and plots. Jurassic Park Based on Michael Chrichton’s science fiction novel Spielberg’s Jurassic park wedded chaos theory, genetic manipulation, dinosaurs, paleontology with econlogical messages about the value of all life including animal life to the planet’s survival. The film also featured impressive improved sound with thunderous Tyrannosaurus that surpassed anything previously committed to the screen. Spielberg delivered a knockout set of action sequences with intelligent dinosaurs, plotting acting in tandem and opening doors. Now cgi characters had sentience. The films pace, lively script, charming performers, and clever conclusion mesmerized audiences. Forrest Gump Despite director Robert Zemekis’ determinedly conservative view of 50 years of American history (Gump never criticizes Vietnam, Gump serves loyally and quietly, penny and the black panthers and or anyone who criticizes American foreign policy either dies as a rebel or dies of aids or is a drug user, Gump’s only political pronouncement is that’ stuff happens’ or ‘life is like a box of chocolates.’ American achievements are seen only as progressive and good. There is no criticism of prejudice or other aspects of society), the fable and fairy tale of Forrest gump is a pleasant departure for American film towards magical realism. Gump magically loses his leg braces and learns to walk. Despite his limited IQ he becomes a hero a leader and an avatar. The film provides a winsome if vastly untrue portrait of mid 20th century culture. It also uses technology successfully 9like woody allen’s Zelig to merge characters from the past and present into a common place. Toy Story Part of Disney’s efforts to dominate and monopolize the film industry and implant the Disneyfication of American culture into the minds of all, working with Steve Jobs, Pixar, and animator John Lassiter, Disney produces the first feature length cartoon film using fully computer capability to make clever, sophisticated and joyful characters in 123 woody and Buzz lightyear. Toy Story was the first film fully created digitally and it spelled the eventual demise of physical mechanical film culture. At a time when most computers might not even possess a gig of full memory, Lassiter and his crew linked together hundreds of computers to create the power needed to process 90 minutes of digital animation. The film was a massive success, Disney bought Pixar from Jobs, and secured him so much positive press that his old company, apple hired him back and he created the revamped company that still is one of the most successful firms in America’s technological history. Toy Story lauched toy story two that was an early example of digital distribution of film and birthed an era of Disney Pixar production that stretch to this day. Run lola run 1998 was an eventful year for tech in film. Tom Twyker’s run Lola run was 90 minutes of watching Fram Potenke run scream and emote her way through a blazing philosophical action film utilizing the Hegalian dialectic. Lola works by threes. Fist she attempts, then she revises her plan and then she synthesizes various ideas to arrive at a successful solution. Lola is fun to watch with animated segments and a simple plot. Lola has 20 minutes to find 100,000 marc for his boyfriend Manni who owes money to the mob and must pay up or die. Lola is on the run to help and Tywker poses many philosophical quandries for our red headed hero. Phantom Menace Marred by some racist ideas of a flippant Jar Jar Binks, evil Arab looking aliens and Asian sounding conspirators, and featuring only white anglo heroes in the boy, Ewen Macgregor’s Obi wan and Liam Neeson’s Jedi warrior, still the much maligned film brought back star wars and now converted the action to a virtual synthesized playing field with digital robots and powerful effects. The Matrix Dealing again with notions of false consciousness and the notion that the people have been fooled regarding the real nature of reality, the Matrix challenged people who believed in conspiracy theories to get out and fight the power. The concept of the red pill and blue pill became themes in hundreds of stories and Neo’s awakening and mergence in the real world was a revealing look at a culture of consumption and no deeper values. The real miracle of Matric was the use of stop motion high speed cameras hat allowed filmmakers to manipulate anything in time and space and to suspend motion and battles anywhere.This corresponded to action films like Chinese martial arts movies where strings and lifts could suspend fighters in the air for minutes. The film also deals with ideas of surrealism. Terms CGI: CGI was a process of animation conducted inside a computer in which a computer produced animated tweened shots in between drawn animated moments in a film. This greatly reduced the amount of drawing needed and freed animators to work on key scenes, set ups and character design. Bullet time: bullet time was a speeded up use of camera speeds so that many effect seemed to suspend time character could hang in the air while fighting in compsotied shots where one image progressed and another brackground or foreground image lingered. Films: 124 Demme, Jonathan. “Silence of the Lambs.” (1991) Spielberg, Steven. “Jurassic Park.’ (1993) Wachokski Sisters. “The Matrix.’ (1998) Readings: Filmsite. Films of the nineties. https://www.filmsite.org/90sintro.html Roberts, Kayleigh. “Film of the Nineties.” Marie Claire. https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/g22520389/best-90s-movies/ 28 cinema foreign film recently The Four aspects of modern world style: Magical Realism It is nearly impossible to describe modern foreign film because of its incredible diversity and wild swings in style and theories several things come to mind immediately first many of the films that are existing today in the international cinema participate in the style known as magical realism magical realism is a style that merges our reality with aspects of magic or the unreal. Among such films are Guillermo Del Toro’s pans labyrinth or the shape of water or Lars Von Trier’s melancholia but magical realism isn’t just a style or a way of mixing fantasy with reality it’s a way of interrogating the reality we live in and determining whether the reality we believe to be true is as true as the reality that we find in dreams fairytales and alternative planets. Postmodern Methodology A second quality we find in modern European and Asian film and South American film and a Australian film and film from across the globe is a tendency to embrace post modern concerns. Search films are involved with meta-referentiality. That is these are 125 films that comment on filmmaking itself and often comment within the film on themselves. Direct Address A third quality that distinguishes these films is the ability of many of these films to to address the audience directly and to make the film a statement about the actual Director or a tourist view of what’s going on. This sense of self directed a tour author direct address to the audience is nothing new but it seems more pronounced in modern films where the fourth wall is it just broken often times it doesn’t seem to exist. Idiosyncratic Films for a Constrained World A fourth and final quality of these modern European world films is the sense of decorum or the sense of standards of any kind whether it be violence or social morays or religion or standards of conduct or beliefs systems seem to be totally and completely often times abandon. The world becomes a personal place where a person makes their own decisions against a very corrupt and unusual and unyielding world that tries to contain the individual in all of these films the individual tends to be up against powerful infrastructure’s that tend to restrain and confine people but throughout almost all of these films individuals seem to find a way to succeed and thrive in a world order in which individuality is often Hamden forgotten or sacrificed. Neo-classics Frankly it’s too early to tell if some of the films from Europe in the last 20 years are actually classics or just notable experiments. However many of the films coming from Europe and Asia are extremely experimental and extremely fun to watch because they offer different takes on reality than things we have found in American films. These are some of the notable foreign films from the last 20 years that I’ve had an impact on international cinema and have been widely enjoyed not only for their stories and entertainment value but for their sense of experimentation. Amelie (2001) First is Jean Pierre Jeunet first is Jean Pierre Jhené’s 2001 film family. Emily is a romantic comedy about a eccentric young woman who desires to make everyone’s life around her as attractive and beautiful as she imagines her life to be. All the way is a do- gooder who wants the word rest of the world to be as quirky and as fun-loving as she is weird. Happy Go Lucky (2008) A second feature in this style of film is the 2008 film happy go lucky a British film featuring the plucky sally Hawkins who is a joy in every film she is in. In the film Hawkins is an attractive young kindergarten teacher who lives a carefree life hobnobbing in the clubs at night and working hard by day. She doesn’t take life too seriously and doesn’t expect too much from life but she attends to have a good time while doing good for others. She transports herself around town using mass transit but she decides that she should learn to drive and obtain a car. She finds herself in the hands of the world grumpiest driving instructor and she finds herself constantly being rated for her bad driving and lackadaisical attitude. Hopkins takes this provocation as an opportunity to enlighten her instructor and to transform his life and make him a happier person it’s part of a charming group of movies that are about people that are normally better than people normally are. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2001) 126 Ang Lee’s provocative 2001 film crouching Tiger hidden Dragon is a delightful surprise. Posing as your typical martial arts film providing great starring vehicles for Cholla in fat and Michelle Yeoh the film develops into something more. I love story about honor and redemption through the art in and attractiveness of martial arts fighting. People have often criticized Chinese martial arts films for their lack of sensibility but here the very talented Lee and his cast pull off a minor miracle by making a martial arts film a deeply philosophical film of action in the act of doing good for a cause that is worth more than life itself. Amour (2009) Amor (2009) is another striking film by Michael hen key it is a film about a husband who is taking care of his wife who has had a stroke. It is a reaffirmation of the idea of love and hanky actually makes the idea of caring for someone who is disabled very endearing and charming and it’s gentle and loving subject is attractive to all audiences City of God (2002) Fernando morales Catia ones 2002 film city of God is excruciating in watching children navigating through the city of Rio de Janeiro where crime and corruption is rampant. There are more action sequences watching children run through the streets of this city in danger from all sides than there are in all of the fast and furious films put together. An absolute miracle of action sequences set with children in an area where we don’t think children should be and we don’t think of the world as being a hostile place but in the city of God everything is dangerous and everything is exciting. Spirited Away (2001) Hayao Miyazaki’s spirited away from 2001 is certainly one of the most provocative and entertaining anime films ever made my sake makes a fable about a family on vacation in which the parents are translated into animals and the daughter must do service and servitude to save them and redeem them back to this world. The term spirited away means literally that ghosts and demons coexist with us and some of the demons inside ourselves must be dealt with to bring people back to the world and to bring the world back from the brink. The Lives of Others (2006) In 2006 the lives of others directed by foreign Henkel made a deeply powerful impact on the world by describing the horrific practices of surveillance by the east German secret police during the era of the east German communist takeover of east Germany. In the film a conscientious east German policeman survey Survey is the wife and ongoing daily struggles of a couple that are suspected of being spies or insurgence by the police what the policeman discovers is that the most corrupt thing in east Germany is the east German government in the east German secret police something that even he can’t live with by the end of the film a powerful film and a powerful indictment of surveillance culture in any culture as in Porten today as it was as it was when it was first released a powerful film. When are the academy award for best foreign film in 2006. Oldboy (2003) Some films just benefit from old fashion violent action and that’s what happens in old boy by part-time walks in 2003 film with a lot of swagger and some knockdown drag out parts that just make you want to cheer for the wonderful violence in action that is portrayed not just a film for guys who like action and martial arts movies but I film about tolerance and intolerance of life and what one is willing to do to stay free free in a 127 society that wishes to a press and hold you down. A tonic for all people who enjoy strong good violent action films. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Pans labyrinth is one of the most horrific fables of recent years. Released in 2006 Guillermo Del Toro’s startling film about a little girls fantasy life in a labyrinth of magical creatures focused during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s illustrates the horrific barbarity and cruelty of the Spanish Civil War and how Spanish people were horrifically violent and cruel to each other and how even children weren’t safe or protected from the violence of life in such a culture enormously important film about history in the 20th century about man’s cruelty to man about faith and believe in spirits about the interaction of the supernatural and the magical in every day life and certainly one of the great vindication of the style of magical realism in modern day film. Del Toro has read has remained one of the principal filmmakers of Central and South America and one of the best filmmakers working in worlds Cinema today. In the Mood for Love (2000) Wong car weighs 2000 love story in the mood for love was a remarkable romance between two people who are neighbors who realize that their spouses have been having an affair. What makes the film memorable is that every action every new ones every glance every touch every eye-movement is catalog in the film as important and you have to watch every nuance of every character to understand what is truly going on a remarkable film. Terms Magical Realism: Films and media where elements of the real are merged with the unreal, fantasy or ghostly elements. The mixture is often uneven Postmodern media: Media that arrives after 1960 which accelerates the themes of modernism: experimentation, collaging the past and present, provoking originality or eschewing originality for a parody of pastiche of contemporary or past media. Films: Lars Von Trier: Melancholia (2011) Joe Wright: Pride and Prejudice (2005) Boon Jung Ho: The Host (2006) Guillermo Del Toro: Blade II (2002) Readings: Canet, Fernando. “The New Realistic Trend in Contemporary World Cinema: Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop as a Case Study.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279280988_The_New_Realistic_Trend_i n_Contemporary_World_Cinema_Ramin_Bahrani%27s_Chop_Shop_as_a_Case_ Study Stone, Rob. “World Cinema between the rock of the unknowable and the hard place of the as yet unknown.” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25785273.2021.1873572 128 Cinema 30 Horror There are many genres in films that are really popular with audiences and have been since the beginning of film and one of the most popular genres was the horror film. The genre began with the beginnings of film in the early 20th century and has remained a popular idiom for film for the last 120 years. The first horror films were based on literary genres such as F W Murnau’s Nosferatu from 1922 which was based on Dracula but Bram Stoker’s widow refused to sell the rights to Murnau. Bram Stoker have been a literary agent working in England in the 1890s. His widow was reluctant to sell his famous masterpiece to a German Director because the British had just been through a very brutal World War with the Germans. Early horror The early literary forms of horror where they were based on many bad things that happened in Victorian times. Dracula was the image of all the bad things visited upon British society at the time. One of the great fears in British society was not just the scourge of vampirism, but economic vampirism by large companies. Some people in England were getting very rich at the expense of a lot of other people who were getting progressively poor over the time. Dracula also discussed new woman who had freedom of movement, had more power to navigate society alone. Women were changing things and making men uncomfortable and uncertain. Dracula himself had a certain feminized quality in that he was very mysterious. We rarely see him clearly. He continually changes as he becomes more beautiful obtaining nutrition from drinking more blood and nourishing himself. Then we see the growth of the feminist literary aspect of society. There is a growth in special effects. Actors like lon Chaney develop complex makeups to play bizarre characters like the Phantom of the Opera or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Films like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis are reliant on special effects to impact audiences. Then in the twenties and thirties universal horror in the United States makes all these literary characters film characters including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1931) Dracula (1932) the werewolf of London (1936 ) the wolf man (1940 ). These filmsevolve into more scientific horrors including King Kong (1935) the invisible man (1935) and characters born of scientific mistakes. Atomic Monsters Following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 the film community began to envision more monsters from the sky and more monsters born of nuclear energy. At the same time war made the world more fearful of adversaries from the stars. The fifties began with a series of monsters from the stars. John W. Campbell, a science fiction editor from the thirties had written a story entitled, “Who goes there?” about an alien who attacks an arctic base. Howard Hawks bought the property and produced an early gruesome horror tale of men isolated from society and fighting a creature that was hard to kill. The story was even more frightening but Hawks crew had to eliminate nearly thirty minutes of footage because it was deemed too disturbing. The fifties brought lots of monsters created by nuclear energy. There was Them which brought giant ants to ravage los Angeles. The Incredible Shrinking man had a man shrunk to mouse size by 129 an atomic cloud. More horrors came from space. In War of the worlds, H. G. Welles nineteenth century classic was modernized as a martian invasion in contemporary times. Science and Poe In the late fifties paranoia about science and invasions increased. In the fly the scientist is trying to transmute matter and ends up merging his atoms with a fly. Separating the fly parts from his DNA is no simple matter. Just as frightening was Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which pods from space transformed people into pod people. In the US, Roger Corman embarked on a series of films inspired by Edgar allen Poe. First, there was the Fall of the House of Usher, then The Premature Burial, the Pit and Pendulum, Ligeia and Tales of Terror. Corman focused on classic horror actors such as Vinent Price, boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre. Corman’s films were part camp, part thrills and part Poe’s romanticism. In England, a small struggling studio, Hammer films determined to revive the classic monsters of Universal’s catalogue. By the forties the universal catalogue became comedies with Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein. The thrill had gone. To revive the universal catalogue the Hammer studios wishedto reinvent classic horror and reinvigorate the characters that had lost their edge. Using a younger generation of British character actors they began with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in a revised Curse of Franenstein with many new additions. The films were in technicolor, attractive women, and gore were more apparent. England did not suffer from the Production code and English films were able to show more violence more blood and more nudity. These graphic films were popular with youthful audiences in England in America at drive-in features. Hammer followed the film with Horror of Dracula. Hammer’s vampires were smooth, attractive and seductive. Women did not mind being biten by a count that was sexy and alluring. In 1960’s Dracula sequel, Brides of Dracula, Hammer went further evoking deeper psychological and Freudian interpretations of the vampire. Baron Meister, the anti-hero at the center of Brides is a nobleman influenced by Dracula who not only carnally recruits a series of female brides but he even transforms his mother via the carnal embrace of vampirism. This beckoned comparisons to Freud’s Oedipus complex. Later in the film he seeks to recruit Van Helsing by biting him which suggests a homosexual subtext. In the sixties, Robert Wise delivered one of the most psychologically frightening films of the era, The Haunting based on Shirley Jackson’s the Haunting of Hill House. In Wise’s version the character played by Julie Harris is lonely and wants to be loved and finds love from the ghosts in a haunted house. In the seventies the supernatural turned religious in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist based on exorcisms performed in the early twentieth century. Swedish actor Max Von Sydow became an international sensation as Father Merrin fighting Evil demons. The late seventies brough slashers to the screen with Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the thirteenth, Nightmare on elm Street, and the Halloween films. Though aimed at teen audiences these films pointed to underlying anxieties in United State culture. People feared dreaming, people feared loneliness, and people feared their own families in these films. Anxieties undergirded lots of films marketed in the United States. At the end of the millennium, Japansee horror such as Ringu, Shutter, and Hju- on (the Grudge) debuted and frightened world audiences. The characters in the 130 Japanes e horror films were often women , they often had long hair, many of the protagonists were dead or related to dead characters. These characters had been traumatized. Their characters had been victimized and many times the dead characters were not so much evil as much as troubled. Today many horror films such as It Follows explores the metaphor of horror as a disease. In it follows a girl has sex and the act of sex curses her with a a spirit that follows her and inhabits all who she has some sexual contact. Scarlett Johannson’s Under the Skin explores an alien that can only understand humans be intercourse and this ritual kills her human partner/victims. Birdbox and Don’t Breathe deal with sensory killers. I Birdbox seeing attract monsters that can kill. In don’t Breathe making any noise can attract killing mysterious alien creatures. Some horrors have become deeply biological. In John Carpenter’s clever and gory rmake on the Thing the monsters emulate people and become them. It is not even clear if the people realize they have been replaced by an alien presence, In Jennifer’s Body the attractive body of a girl is a lure to destroy those lured by physical beauty. Horror has also taken on a cyber identity. In William Gibson’s Johnny Mnenomic the character plugs his brain in like a massive hard drive. In Ex Machina, a scientist wants to know if the robot he has created can think or is she simply imitating human behavior. In Replicas, Keanu reeves is rebirthing his family as clones because he killed the genuine items in a car crash. In the lawnmower man by Stephen king a intellectually deficit young man is given expanded intellectual power by a computer which transforms him into a menace. Hunchback of Notre Dame Perhaps some of the best horror films celebrate humanity. Charles Laughton’s 1939 performance in the Hunchback of Notre Dame is a portrayal of a character that Is disgusted and ashamed of himself. In the end he loses the girl Esmeralda to a handsome young man and he is left all alone in the church, one of the saddest ending scenes in all film, to be ugly distorted and alone is perhaps the worst fate of all. The Curse of the Cat People The cat people films deal with people who are aware they might transform but are haunted bt the knowledge and they don’t want to be strange, different or some exotic creature. These films are disturbing because they deal with the characters fear and uncertainty about their origins and purpose in the universe. Alien A character only bent on murder and exterminating anything in its path is frightening. The alien in alien is bent on survival by murdering everone in his path. Terms Freudian horror: Freudian horrors are drawn from repressed fears in the mind. . Used in cinema as photographic film stock. Films: Neumma, Kurt: the Fly (1958) Hitchcock, Alfred: Psycho(1960) Readings: Gelder, Ken. The horror reader. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ubnEyBh3tegC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=a 131 rticles+on+horror+films&ots=5SUcwufgkF&sig=OA0Kxkd- _JwyCusoWqiZ_9bYQQs#v=onepage&q=articles%20on%20horror%20films&f=false Cinema 31 lars von trier One of the gloomiest Danish directors of all time is a character named Lars von Trier TRIER. Mars volunteer has created a group of very shocking and defiant films that started back in the 1980s and continue to the present day this year he just turned 65 and his films have been provocative from the beginning until the present day some of his films deal with extremely shocking subject matter are you in a lot of audiences might consider his subject matter shocking or perhaps almost pornographic but Lars von tour is an important artist who has been nominated for Oscars has won the Cannes film festival has had a variety of films filmed in this country with American actors like Nicole Kidman with European actors like Björk the singer with actors like John heard from England Stellan Skarsgård Lauren Bacall he’s active with such a wide range of people doing a wide range of people doing such interesting films that he’s very hard to ignore and his films have taken place over a 30 year. And whenever there’s one arriving it’s always a major event to come and take a look at large mentors work. Anti-christ Mini films by Larsmont tour are very disturbing and difficult to watch one of his most important films is a film entitled anti-Christ and he deals with ideas religion and transgression and horrible events in at a husband and wife while making love disregard their child climbs out a window and falls out of window and dies the wife of courses stricken with grief about this event because she feels she wasn’t vigilant and then we began to go through a series of psychotherapy and the woman becomes more 132 deranged and violent events take place in sexual encounters take place and attempted murders take place and eventually there is a resolution that is extremely violent of the film a lot of people simply cannot watch the Mars one tours films because of the excessive amounts of gruesome violence and irrational behavior in them but in the end it antichrist there are lots of symbols that perhaps the woman or the man or some other creature represent the antichrist in the film and all the terrible things he just shows this all of these events and asked us to think for ourselves about such a Vance. Dancer in the dark Another disturbing and symbolic laws run tour film is dancer in the dark star in the the Icelandic singer of Björk and your plays a check immigrant living in the United States who is losing her eyesight and she works at a very modest factory and she has a son whom she is afraid will also lose her eyesight find me one of the people working in the factory accuses her of stealing things and there is a confrontation in a fight and of course murder and death so a suggestion in the film of how people act and get along together and sometimes how they don’t act and get along together and how society suffers from the fact that people can’t learn to get along together and have decent lives as a unit as a society so dance in the dark is very important but there are some very beautiful moments when your character is is dancing by herself in the darkness because she can’t see anymore and there are some very tragic moments that are illustrated by Larsmont tour in that very a gross and graphic moment in the film when these things occur Dogville All of Larsmont Tours films are very weird one of the weirdest of them all is 2003 Starkville starring Nicole Kidman in a wide ranging cast of players John heard Stellan Skarsgård Lauren Bacall James Caan all players playing on a stage the plot concerns grace a character who is hiding out from the mob because she has seen a murder and the Marlboro looking for her so she comes to Dogtown and everyone she encounters in the town has some sort of mean they are mean to Grace and over and over again she tries to assert herself and have a wife but the people of God will make that very difficult eventually a group of mobsters actually come to the town and when Grace meets them we discovered that Grace is not wanted by the mall because she had seen witnessed a murder she was wanted by the mall because she is the daughter of one of the mobsters so she argues with her father for a moment and realizes that the only thing is the town will understand Power in violence so she everybody else in the town very weird film very weirdly staged on a stage but in a strange film to watch an interesting example why respond tours strange aesthetics Breaking the waves Perhaps one of Larsmont Tours most popular films in one that was nominated for several Oscars in this country was 1996 is breaking the waves starring Emily Watson the British actress and Stellan Skarsgård as her husband in it her husband is an oil worker in an oil rig in the North Sea oil rig area in working for British Petroleum in an accident on the oil rig he is hit with a chain when they’re drilling into the water to find oil and heat and he is horribly hurt and damaged and crippled and unable to move and has lost all mobility because of the horrible damage and he tells his wife to leave him that he’s no good to her anymore and she can’t have a relationship of any kind with him and he just wants to be left alone to die. So his wife goes out into the town outside where 133 they live and she is not mentally very well. So in her mind she feels that somehow she has sinned and in some sort of fabulous way with some sort of allegorical manner if she feels the only way she can redeem herself and redeem her husband because a person is that she must go out and sacrifice herself and the way she decides to do that is to have sex with tons of men just to punish her self and punish your body it’s not out of enjoyment it’s not to obtain money it’s simply to vilify her body to scourge her body so that she so that you can show God she is penitent for the sin in her life by sacrificing her body to all of these horrible men and therefore hopefully God will take pity on her for all the bad things she’s done in her life and won’t take it on her husband and maybe store her husband well of course after time she just realizes that she sacrificed her body for no good reason and let her sacrifices in anyway helping her husband but it’s a very tragic story about a woman who believes in a mythology of suffering pain will enable somebody else and so she decide she will suffer to make her husband which of course has no impact and her husband is just horrified by her sacrifice so it’s a very dark and bleak movie probably more as mine tours most popular film ever was the 2011 film melancholia. And melancholia Kristen Dunst an American actress plays a woman who is about to get married and her sister is very unhappy and is going undergoing a psychiatric treatment her sister is unhappily divorced has a child from that marriage and has a very unhappy life both sisters are very puzzled by a recent news report that describes the fact that they have discovered a new planet that is going to pass very close to earth on the eve of her marriage Kristen Dunst goes out into the wilds takes off all of her clothes in communes with nature because she is sure that something is going wrong because of this planet coming close to the earth so what she does is she has indiscriminate sex with a man prior to her marriage simply because she is feeling uneasy guilty troubled about this planet coming into the atmosphere of the earth and as the planet grows nearer as the planet grows near her she becomes more upset and begins to think that perhaps the earth will be destroyed by the planet that’s the first hour and a half of the film and then in the second hour and a half of the film we see the other sister dealing with her emotional depression and we realize that both sisters suffer from a deep form of depression and that they act out the depression in different ways and eventually towards the end of the film the two sisters after suffering mightily for three hours come together with the sisters child and they build a TP in the they build a teepee in the property of their family as the planet comes close to earth and when it’s too late to do anything everyone begins to realize that the planet is going to strike the earth and the two planets are going to come together and everyone is going to be destroyed in the world will be destroyed and in the end of the film the two planets crash into each other and everyone dies Meaning in Von Trier’s films so where is Van der thirst films are very dark very depressing very scary but they’re also films to deal with a lot of philosophical issues that probably the probably Americans haven’t dealt with and probably don’t think about such as she is probably most Europeans and probably most people across the globe don’t think of the same issues that Lars von tour think so but he is a very interesting Director again many people criticize his films has been incomprehensible many people criticize his films has been anti-religious many films many people criticize his films have been anti-intellectual many 134 people criticize his films have been pornographic but his films have a slight audience his films are very adventurous his films are very films are very difficult to watch and they deal with very complex issues from a very complex philosophical standpoint and they do attract audiences to each separate film and each film is very different and deals with different subject matter in a different way using a lot of international actors working together as a team Larsmont Tours films are some of the most challenging films made in the world today very complicated and difficult for many audiences to watch but often times rewarding for people that want to think deeply about troubling philosophical issue such as is religion useful or valuable to people is Armageddon something that we’re ready for is religion useful or helpful are people suffering a state of depression do people suffer from false beliefs systems do we actually have an anti-Christ and will that person punish us or cause the end of the world can we trust people does sexuality have something to do with the value of our lives or is it completely nonsense do we believe in social beliefs or do we reject mankind as a hopeless entity that doesn’t do much the scooter valuable for anyone all of our sponsors films are interesting complicated films but again not for all audiences. 31 cinema post modernism and film Film is involved in a lot of political and theoretical ideas. One of the most important ideas in contemporary film is the notion of post modernism postmodernism is a style of filmmaking that follows the modern period. The modern period was an era in American art in which there is a wide range of experiment and a real dissection of the past many ideas and themes in modernism were derived from classical ideas. Some of the ideas of modernism for example included mythology history racism new forms of media new ways of presenting information and basically some of the ideas the drive from Ezra Pound who suggested that all modernist artist make something new. Graph paragraph paragraph Post modernism extends the themes of modernism and goes further than modernism in his experimentation first of all postmodernism is a socially Socio economic Socio cultural aesthetic format it includes new forms of theoretical isolation it is suspicious of unify theoretical frameworks it is philosophical it is sociocultural and it deals with a wide range of aesthetic debates postmodernism does not believe in the idea of universal or all embracing systems of thought postmodernist critics believe that thought changes over time some of the most important post modern critics including Jean François leotard in the post modern condition suggest that there is a growing incredulous incredulity Credit you would see towards what he calls grand schemes or metanarratives of western thought the modern system of thought associated with the enlightenment is no longer tenable to a lot of the post modern critics the project of 135 science fiction scientific explanation and mastery of the national and social world the natural and social world the idea of progress characteristic of the enlightenment is no longer acceptable some of the ideas that motivate postmodernism are one suspicion of totalizing theory is an explanation and attempt to offer a comprehensive and all embracing account of all phenomenon to an anti-foundationalism that rejects absolute or universal foundations of knowledge three a rejection of the false universalism or ethnocentric euros centric systems for an anti-essentialism rejects both deep epistemologies and over arching theories of knowledge postmodern theory then basically says the world is heterogeneous not homogeneous people are not all connected together but Herald heterogeneously different groups assert knowledge. For example in contemporary films like the power of the dog we see descriptions of groups there a heterogeneous such as in power of the dog there is an underlying element of homosexual culture in the old west of the Americas that has really been described in American restaurants new films tend to digitalize the world and talk about individuals as smaller groups not as massive homogeneous groups. Therefore it is impossible for a unified or comprehensive account of the world. So they are often sociological and cultural debates in post modern culture this is a post industrial society and although a lot of media is utilized and technology is utilized in such films such as Jurassic Park the matrix and other films terminator many times there is a suspicion of media and technology first there is a tradition and feudalism is represented as the advent of capitalism in the 15th and 16th century however many films that deal with postmodernism tend to go back to the future listing way of thinking not a a capitalist way of thinking second circuit Second economic and social changes characteristic of the 19th and 20th century especially ushered in by industrialization and urbanization in the emergence of mass social movements tend to be profoundly different in post modern films there is a transition from the old industrial order to a most new post industrialism a decline in manufacturing and replacement of old models of standardized or forest mass production with new models of things being very individualized therefore in modern films therefore in modern films a lot of things are individualized for example when you see examples of characters in West Anderson’s films such as the at the hotel grand Budapest you often see characters that are extremely individual and idiosyncratic the idea Wes Anderson films is that he’s not dealing with a holistic society anymore in which people are similar or common or average but he’s dealing with distinctly individual esoteric idiosyncratic individuals that have really wild generations in movement and way of seeing the world for example a film from the post modern era that gives you a good sense of the individualism of these films would be Lars and the real girl. Lars is suffering from mental delusions thinking that a blowup doll girl he has ordered online is actually a real live living girl that can be his girlfriend. This marks him as being a unusual character and part of a new breed of people that are very idiosyncratic characters in a post modern film post another aspect of post modern film is a decline in additional working class society that is that the number of people that are a part of that society no longer exist therefore there’s a domination of the significance of class identities and divisions because people don’t really belong to any specific class anymore at least that’s something films want us to believe the shift away from the politics of mass movements towards the politics a difference seems to really focus on issues of difference for example many modern films deal with feminism the roles and the roles and crises of 136 women dealing with society so you no longer have a class struggle but you have a family struggle putting women against everybody else. A second element of this is that we have films directly for specific audiences African-American films Asian American films gay films these are films that break people down by their specific social group and don’t break them down by a cultural group or a class group I would argue that such films actually do exactly the same thing they turn people into specific classes in groups and that and that unfortunately politically you no longer have the commonality of a group of people they’re fighting against organize system you have gay groups women’s groups Hispanic groups African-American groups Asian American groups which really if you think about it defeats the ability for a C lol requires a socially economically challenged class defines the power of the larger organized power groups so that the 10% of the United States for example that controls the majority wealth continues to control the wealth because now instead because now instead of people seeing themselves as part of a working class group they now see them selves is a much smaller group women or Hispanics or Asian Americans or African-Americans and when you think about it instead of being the class of the 90% there are oppressed by the 10% you now have African- American films about 10% of the audience who are really dealing with the rest of society and have a very small ability to fight back against the other 90% of society so Innoway postmodernism is actually weekend the traditional class structure of one thing that becomes clear from post modern films is that these films are extremely political in their content there is a shift away from the politics of mass movement towards the politics of difference there is a new computing in and communications technology is utilized in the sounds but often times it doesn’t seem to help people it seems to hurt them such as films like the matrix or Johnny pneumonic or Jurassic Park or or the terminator all these films basically focus on the way in which technology helps to a process and hold people down inside that’s in the new films of the new technological post modern era new technologies were seen as exhibit at the reshaping social experience in subjectivity two main themes can we determine first there is a speeding up at the circulation of information and images so that people know about a lot more stuff a lot more quickly secondly there is an increase in compression of time in space so the things happen more rapidly and we go through periods of time quicker there’s a DT realization of culture in the construction of forms of identity with your no longer strongly identify with the place so people so people acquire new identities but those new identities are very flexible and they don’t stay with us Geminis for very long how the media and media images and signs are increasingly identified by a key to reality in the modern citizens change the way we see media and signs. Transitions from the old industrial order based on labor and production of goods to a new social production order based upon communication and the circulation signs images and signs have become our private reality and we live we live now in a world of produced signs Jean Baudrillard the famous French philosopher of the late 20th century argued that there was three levels of simulation that are society was going through and these levels of simulation have had a strong impact on the way modern and postmodern films have arrived. For for Jean Badri are there were three levels of simulation won the first stimulus simulation level was at a very obvious level so you would have a puppet or an animation that look nothing like a puppet or a simulation that we look nothing like a real person at the second level the simulation the doppelgänger the the the copy of the person begins to look a lot more 137 like a real person but it’s still obviously a robot or not real and then finally you arrive at the third level simulation where the character becomes so much like a real character you actually can’t determine whether or not it’s real or it’s fake. For example in a post modern film like her starring Joaquin Phoenix and using the voice of a scarlet Johansson we have a love story we have a love story be between an AI artificial intelligence and a man who is lonely. In the film her Joaquin phoenix talks to this artificial intelligence woman that he meets online voice characterized by scroll Johansson and the further he gets to know her the more in love with her he becomes because he’s lonely because he can’t find a real woman that needs his high-level criteria for the perfect woman so he begins to start a relationship and Scarlett Johansson’s character in the film. But over time Joaquin Phoenix begins to realize there are problems in this relationship and that his computer AI girlfriend is not always around when he needs her that if she isn’t a constant companion available for his every need and win. When he finally discoveries of the end of the film is that although she is an artificial intelligence and although she can access his girlfriend she is already engaged in about 10,000 different relationships simultaneously because she’s just a computer processor who is talking to a lot of men simultaneously so the idea in this computer simulated representation as John Badri I would say is that we have reached the third level of simulation in her Joaquin Phoenix can no longer distinguish a real woman from the AI that he speaking to online and everybody are that is a very dangerous situation for mankind then because instead of trusting but what we see in front of us is real we have three layers of simulation that are presented to us we have things that are obviously simulated and don’t seem to be real we have things that we have things that seem to approach the real that are close to being realistic but aren’t real and then we finally have things that are so mirroring reality we can’t determine the difference between the the simulation and the actual real object so in films like like her we begin to see that the danger of simulation arising to that level and that’s a very postmodern concern in such films finally we start to see in this hyper reality we live we began to live not just in our primary reality with which would be in the real world beyond the primary reality we now have a secondary virtual reality or hyper reality that we live in an N even though you might find this will be kind of a silly thing to worry about now if you think about it we have many people in our society that would rather spend time in a video game environment then working and living with real people so the idea of a hyper reality or virtual reality universe that Baudrillard suggest might be the third stage simulation made for many peoples lives have already occurred we don’t really need to have a singularity a moment when computers become sentient for people to follow themselves into believing that a hyper reality is a better place to live in the reality they live in so we are the first problem that we deal with in post modern film is the idea of multiple levels simulation the first level of simulation is very very fake and obvious the second level simulation is harder to detect and the third stage of simulation where the simulation becomes so much like the real that we can’t tell the difference between the real and the simulation. Also another problem that we deal with in the bard reality and vision is the Omni presence in the temporary culture of media signs images that are increasingly detached from exterior realities. So what we’re seeing all the time is receiving a reality in which we see it altered reality that appears to be very much like the real for example in the films in the marvel studios with the constant referees representations of 138 superheroes that seem to crowd out the reality of life and if you think about the marvel films all you really see is the hawk and door and Iron Man and Spider-Man battling some obscure otherworldly character for the majority of the film Marvel films they were very little reality oriented problems like people don’t really worry about money or they don’t really worry about about love and they don’t really worry about things in the real world they worry about everything that’s in the simulated world of the Marvel universe in the whole concept and description of the Marvel universe it’s self is disturbing it means it’s a separate universe in the world universe or world we exist in every day which makes it a little bit more removed and threatening to the real world that we actually existing supposed modern concerns very real concerns when you’re dealing with film and film technoklogy. The start of postmodernism actually began in the 1970s and dealt with the idea of universal reason or the ideas of progress that were no longer excepted by a lot of people that believed in the post modern world there would not be universal progress and they were not be an idea of universal reason. If you think about the last four years of the Trump administration there have been contrasting ideas of truth and reality that have been presented by the president that often times do not agree with science or technology or the medical community particularly during the coronavirus this doesn’t mean necessarily there any group is wrong or at some other group is prickly right what it means is that we now exist in a world in which the contrasting views of reality there might be a Republican or a Democrat or a green party or socialist party or a communist party or a or a Chinese view or an Indian view or European view or South American deal the world and all of those different views in the world might actually be true for the people living in the societies or in those parts of the society but they may not be the total way we see the world and there’s a lot more belief in multiple realities in multiple versions of truth we can look at for example scientific reality and the idea of perhaps how people perceive religion as being very very different but think about the different ways in which people perceive truth in today’s world there isn’t one necessarily understanding of truth for example when postmodernism first began to arrive in a row arose in the 1970s because many architects in the 1970s were seen architecture quoting various forms of architecture from previous centuries and seeing the resurgence of different forms of architecture in different times. One of the most prominent architects of the 20th century Frank Lloyd Wright was a real fan of making things new and filling them into the contemporary environment and he was a real critic of things in the past. For example Frank Lloyd Wright often with jokingly say that we need to keep buildings like the capital building and the Lincoln Memorial that are based on Greek temples because they were mistakes from the past. Frank Lloyd Wright had no problem with Greek temples being quick Frank Lloyd Wright has no problem with Greek temples being created by Greeks but I did have a problem with Greek temples being created for contemporary society because contemporary society should be making new buildings the deal with the new structures the new building materials and the new environment that we live in. For Frank Loyd Wright the idea of building a building was to make something that was brand new and they’re sitting with the contemporary environment. To make something from the past like a Greek temple place in Washington DC or some other location would seem out of place for him therefore Frank Lloyd Wright thought of buildings from the past being inserted into the modern environment as being mistakes 139 but he joked about them and said well we need to keep borings like the capital and the White House and the Lincoln Memorial because even though they’re kind of silly examples of trying to re-create the past in the present day they really don’t they shouldn’t really exist in today’s world but their mistakes but we can overcome them by making better new buildings are new materials that deal with the environment that we live in today and this is from a man once again who died in the 1950s but had a really good idea but had a really good idea from the modernist period of what would make the modern world the proper world to live in and not to be obsessed with ideas from the past. But post modernist in the post modern era argue that the past and present and future coexist together and unlike unlike frankly rights dictum that the post modern. Or the modern is. Should be doing new things a lot of postmodernist believe that you have a collage of different styles of building constantly going on so you might have a tutor style Bill a tutor style building that looks like something from the tutor era of architecture in England during the tutor. And you might have next door with something that’s a very post modern looking building that was built in the late 20th or early 21st-century that looks very different for post modern architecture there’s nothing wrong with the co-ops and coercion different styles existing together but for a lot of modernist they really felt that if you were going to use the past you had to reinvent the past in some sort of meaningful way for example for architect architecture a pretty Charles Jenks post modern for example for a post modern architecture acrylic Charles Jenks post Martin architecture should be seen as a response to the failure of the modern’s. That is your bringing in different styles of architecture because the stuff that was created in the modernist. From about 1872 around 1950 or 1960 would be considered sometimes a failure if people didn’t like that form of architecture they might respond to it by using a scale from the past that’s for Jenks post modern architecture six to reconnect with its occupants by rejecting the functionalism of modernism and making use of decoration ornamentation and mixing styles of decoration and different periods in places including the vernacular to make a new style of architecture that’s very quiet oriented and very distinctly different and such a Jenks refer to modern architecture or post modern architecture is double coding it would use something modern if it needed to use something modern but the same time it might respond to some form of architecture from the past because that might be more appropriate for what people were thinking and in an era in which they can call upon all the different styles of architectural format because we exist in a time in which the media allows us to sample any architectural form from any architectural. That we are able to see a vision or an image of interestingly enough in post modern art there is often a failure or exhaustion of modernism that is the adolescence of shock or the corresponding loss of modernisms transgressive power ask us to look at art in a brand new way pop art in the 1960s basically took the images from advertising and transform them into a new style of art. People like Andy Warhol actually utilized power pop art or images from society like Marilyn Monroe pictures or Campbell Soup cans or pictures of chairman now because he figured these were the common images people were saying every day. They didn’t want to see great art they wanted to see images that were familiar to them from advertising in the media on a daily basis so far part of the 60s depended on that it was eclectic there was an erosion of aesthetic boundaries and declining of emphasis on originality like. Perhaps Andy Warhol in his art in his film and his prince was the first person to recognize that the idea 140 of originality that was so important modernist art and modernist film wasn’t that important to post Martin’s film so if you look at the work of Andy Warhol he actually steals ideas appropriate ideas from other artists and uses their ideas in his art for example he just cardboard copies the labels off of a Campbell Soup can because it’s simply easier for him to do so. If you look at the film of the 1960s you begin to see a new style film that irrupt Ing there is based on styles the past that isn’t totally original for example in a film like Bonnie and Clyde made by one of brothers studio in the 1960s Bonnie and Clyde is nothing more than a re-creation of the 1930s gangster movies that Warner Bros. was making in the 1930s only now they’re remaking the same movies into the 1960s just a little difference in style but the repeating the past and they’re not being original because audiences don’t necessarily want anything original do you Andy Warhol audiences just wanted more of the same so for example in the in the millennial. We seen a hyper reevaluation of this world whole idea of audience it’s just one of the more of the same you don’t just get one Iron Man movie you get Iron Man two and you get Iron Man three you get enough for one you get door to you get door three and soon to be Thor four or if you’re Spider-Man you get Spider-Man one Spider-Man two Spider- Man three and then you get the amazing Spider-Man and then you get the amazing Spider-Man two and then you get Spider-Man no way home can you get Spider-Man in the spider universe and all of this until you get such a confusing array of all the old objects that are really a part and parcel of the original that you realize there’s very very little new being created in this new style of creating art so acquaintances in and erosion aesthetic boundaries and declining of emphasis on originality is one aspect of it eclecticism is basically drawing on and mixing different style genres and artistic conventions including those of modernism as some people refer to it as a stylistic promiscuity that is just stealing styles from old all different kinds and styles of work and central component of this process has been a mixing of elements from both high and low culture that is that you can have some thing that is really high culture such as a film about Mozart like Amadeo’s but the same time you connect the character in Amadeus to be very very silly like it every day average guy now I have his time but of our time so therefore when you make a film like Amadeus you were mixing the low culture of a guy who is kind of a buffoon like Mozart really was in real life but at the same time he’s also high culture and he can also create a form of music is very beautiful and a work of genius or an interesting enough and a lot of post modern culture there’s a lot that is relative in very little is absolute so there isn’t an absolute answer to many problems but there’s just a relative answer that works for now there’s a declining premium on originality a lot of modern films are very original and don’t try to be they try to fit into a genre they might have the personal imprint of the author but it might not be a very personal film a lot of modern films for example with critics like the heritage the cabbage brings out the point they’re in a lot of modern culture there’s a lot of parity there’s a lot of simulation there’s a lot of pastiche and there’s a lot of allegory that’s going on in modern films for example a lot of modern horror films or a literally simulations or parities of other horror films for example the conjuring is nothing more than another haunted house movie even though it was made in the contemporary. They’ve been haunted house movies for 100 years so there’s nothing terribly original event like that it’s really more of a pastiche a former versions of the films and even more clearly we have a lot of earlier films another modern modern films were simply made as simply purely remix of other 141 films were made years ago psycho in 1960 is remade in the 1990s psycho they just don’t do anything but just out of reach shoot the film scene for scene for scene house on haunted Hill comes out in 1959 and again is reborn in the early millennial. Just called house on Horace Hill again there’s Texas chainsaw massacre in the 1970s and there’s another version of Texas chainsaw in recent years even in the millennial. There of been copies of films there is a Blair witch film made around the time of the millennium and there was a more recent Blair witch film made it simply copies the original film using the same style. So postmodernism and film came first of all talk about the destruction or the re-creation of the film industry itself has been to exemplify post modern features that is Hollywood has undergone a transition from being about Mastrent rent mass production to be in about forms of independent production that feature idiosyncratic very specific individualistic dress Second films have gone in various ways from two exemplify post modern things or the offer images of post modern society many of those themes are dystopian and character and finally films have been seeing the show is that it features such as a great decision and the collapse of a traditional artistic hierarchies that is a lot of films might merge different styles of films altogether. In 1993 Quinton Tarintino’s pop fiction literally merged together a group of pop fiction crime stories into it he’s into a single film it seems like a lot of filmmakers want to repeat and rebirth the past there is a reactionary postmodernism and a postmodernism of resistance that deals with a lot of different themes for example many modern day post modern films are very self- conscious they’re very aware that they’re quoting the past they’re enter textual films their films that rely on the audience having knowledge of earlier films there’s a lost horse Historia city that is films that are about history tend to deal with the way in which we see the loss of his story yesterday just means that we don’t understand historical times as well so we might make a historical film about somebody from a different era but they seem a lot like people in our contemporary era they don’t seem like they’re really historical figures from another time they seem to be widely aware of things that we might have in the modern era there are so many of the post modern films or conservative that is they operate in a blank slate of things they don’t know anything about the past they don’t know anything about other cultures they literally exist in a period where things are conservative because they don’t have any of what went before are often times many the modern post modern films are anti-modern they don’t believe in progress they don’t believe in technology they don’t believe in in government they don’t believe in institutions that we used to hold sacred in modern society in many times post modern films offer a mixing of conventions are they mixed together different conventions for example a TV show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is also a film rate depends on the idea that it’s a team TV show set in the high score but it’s also a vampire vampire show in a horror show said it the same time as being a teen show also a lot of modern films from the modern era or parody other films for example you might have a film like the grand Hotel but Budapest and in that film you see that there’s a very ironic point of view or a film like Raiders in the yard the last Org UC Indiana Jones is a character that’s very ironic he supposed to be a hero but sometimes he doesn’t act very heroic sometimes he’s afraid of snakes sometimes he’s even afraid of women so there’s a parity in an Ira another aspect of a post modern film is the on the oven guard is still showing or the unusual showing is the common place in the films of David Lynch for example you have a mixture of every day a common place themes with some very very 142 avant-garde uses a film and the tour put together side-by-side when you look at Twin Peaks the return for 18 hours you see some really avant-garde moments in the film that David Lynch is created and let you see some moments that are very conventional with very conventional actions Dre conventional figures So according to Jameson Inn many theories about post modern film you see an increase in stylistic self-consciousness uses and references to film history’s quotation from other styles and other films Jamison divines post modern culture in terms of depth of the snow is there is it doesn’t have any depth anymore there’s nothing deeper to represent a new culture of the image of the simulacrum a specialized temporary temporary Alan Aliti awakening of his story yesterday and creation of a new type of emotional ground tone that is people are very blank and they don’t have a whole and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of depth of emotions and a lot of the characters in contemporary films there’s a lot of pastiche and inner text your reference that his films are often quoting each other and there’s a post modern loss of historical gap search films he claims are unable to re-create a real pass but only a simulation of the past because nobody knows about the past and knows what the past was like so when you see a modern day version of World War II like saving Private Ryan it starts off with a lot of energy which is probably what was happening in World War II but frankly immediately turns into a fairly long slog Long slog of simply looking for one character who in the end isn’t all that really important to the story it’s more about the journey than it is about actually finding Private Ryan finally critics of recent Hollywood Cinema for both is emptiness and ideological conservativism are arguing that Hollywood has become more conservative and isn’t trying to push boundaries it’s just trying to push product on younger and younger audiences that they can capitalize on and make money from a more conventional and conservative Hollywood from the mid 70s on this simply means it from the 1970s on we just get more and more of the same we get more terminator we get more Star Wars we get more but more superhero films but we don’t get a whole lot of films that are truly an rationally different and when we break groups up into smaller heterogeneous groups African-American women you know white nails or gay man or whatever we get smaller and smaller groups that have less power to oppose the system and then the largest groups for example like Disney has colonized children those groups obtain the most because companies like Disney cynically exploit that youth market and simply produce more princess movies to accommodate that market without doing much this original or new the characters in modern Disney movies might be different skin tones but they basically share many of the same features that Snow White and Cinderella shared and 50 to 100 years ago so Disney hasn’t really move things forward they’ve just been a conservative company let’s continue to profit off of a very small demographic that they were able they’ve been able to enlarge by marketing the same by marketing the same films to generations of you or us over and over again when it’s done it is then it’s best to raise the traces of 60s and 70s experimentalism in the 60s and 70s there was an attempted real experimental film. People like Andy Warhol created films are eight hours long such as empire in which Andy Warhol simply set up a camera and record the Empire State building for eight hours without stopping that was a very experimental film and simply demanded that we choose to look at things in a brand new way. Whereas Disney films where is Disney films by repeating the princess theories they’ve used in the past seem to be creating new films but really all 143 they’re really doing is simply re-creating the same film over and over again so while we might think the Disney film is more entertaining because it presents a princess in a new story really the Disney films might very well be more repetitive than the post modern 60s 70s experimental films Vandy Warhol he just points a camera in the single building. Strongest the post modern films are really antimodernist and reactionary postmodernism that reject the present or the future and reach back in the past and try to create a product that is very self-conscious about film history film technique extensively use as references in quotation and mix is the high and low of our conventions together to create a new film front of Jamison’s distinction between purity in prestige may be helpful this regard. He involves a sense of criticism remark read the text or texted her being parody pasty simply pastiche is simply a blank parity in which is simply a neurotically a minute without parities of ulterior motive’s. For example I feel like the great dictator by Charlie Chaplin in 1940 is making fun of Adolf Hitler because he knows all the conventions of what Hitler a grand dictator is like a pastiche just simply insert images of Hitler into a movie without any reference to really knowing or understanding who Hitler was and why he was important and why mentioning his image would be import. I think in modern parity films like the last night in Soho we see a rendition of the 1960s being performed by actors in in the year 2021 because we want to reach back 60 years into the past to try to understand how films were seen and described and how people acted in there. Last night in Soho is a very knowing film because it represents our way of viewing the past and utilizing the past to try to understand the past and its relationship to the present era In post modern film ideological conservativism cannot be seen as the standard form for all post modern film post modern films or by their nature diverse and unique oppositional bank and contested Tori potential of postmodernism can be found in many films unlike Jamison holds out the possibility of Hollywood films making use of irony and parity both to address history as Woody Allen doesn’t selling and to subvert Hollywood conventions from but Hollywood films often are in a challenging mode and as a result of the reliance upon irony they may be ideologically ambivalent or contradictory what tends to be unusual in Hollywood films is it in films like blade runner these inconsistencies and dialogical problems may exist without being resolved by the end of the film. In a film like blade runner by Ridley Scott in 1982 the dilemma as to whether Decker or his girlfriend I really robots are actually real people is never resolved. Philip K Dick always holds a lot of ambivalence about the future and about authority figures and their ability to be truthful. And he also determines that the future may be a period of ambivalence in which the robot figures may be as helpful as the human figures in the story I see many of the post modern films are our bond guard in nature they deal with the surface play death list Ness but as part of a critical project to deconstruct and subvert old meanings as well as construct new ones through the repositioning of artistic and cultural discourse is there is a questioning in a lot of post modern films of earlier traditions for example in a film like the queen Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth the second as a monarch who is very aware of her past but many people treat her as this supreme leader of British society there’s a good scene in the queen in which Helen Mirren has her has her car breakdown and the British authorities that she calls offer to rescue her and she bluntly says no I was building transactions in cars back in World War II I know the car is far and I know there’s something wrong with it I can take care of myself so a lot of these films juxtapose the 144 way people are with the way people think the world is to challenge original ways in which particular social groups or others such as blacks or indigenous people or women or gays or Post modern films often represent these people in a different light the promise of postmodernism for feminism is it implies the tactics of pastiche irony quotation in juxtaposition it’s a verts the intent and the reappropriating of the meetings there is a counter practice and a lot of post modern films that contest and critiques the predominant forms and images of such films for example in Steven Spielberg’s 19 1993 Jurassic Park there’s always a lot of irony and play throughout the film in 1993 Jurassic Park the scientist jokingly say well thank goodness the dinosaurs aren’t able to open doors which will keep us safe inside and then there is a scene where one of the velociraptors walks up to a doorway looks at it and puts his hand in the doorway and learns how to open the door which provides a lot of irony for what the sciences suggest said. They have assumed that because they are thinking humans they will know more than the dinosaurs but actually the dinosaurs prove them wrong by their actions and their ability to think through a situation when and with the new media so often times we employ a post modern strategy of appropriation which through reworking your pre- existing documentary footage vines sound quotations the lake involves a disarticulation and a re-articulation I’ve given signifying elements of hegemonic racial discourse so basically many times in a film we say synchronism or hybridity in which characters that were assumed to be one thing end up being something very different. For example in Jurassic Park the dinosaurs are assumed to be that deal with a racially mixed England in historical periods and in the contemporary era we have we have a new understanding that produces a contextualized way we will see people of color in these English shows because of the way people of color have been presented in the past. For example inside Enfield’s 1964 Zulu we see African people as being tribal and showing a lot of hostility towards English people who are fighting them in in Africa during the times of the African rebellion but when we see people of color represented in modern modern television shows like Sanditon or Bridgerton or some of the other shows the deal with the mixture of racially mixed groups in England we see the way they are portrayed is much more benign often times superior to some of their white allies in photos and clearly on an intellectual par and in a social park with many of the people that exist in contemporary and classical or British errors so what we begin to say is in all cases filmmakers in the Third World or seem to make use of make use of make use of first world techniques and conventions but for politically subversive ends that is it is argued that it in the respect to the difference in plurality in their self consciousness about their status is a simulacra and has texted engage with a contemporary mass mediated sensibility without losing their sense of activism the jujitsu strategies such films as the aboriginal films and modern films about subject peoples deal with the debate on post colonialism in a very specific way of recontextualizing people of people of color in a new framework less easy to identify is a distinctive post modern film theory mini post modern films are just very distinctively different and each one represents a different technique of how to make that film different and how to suggest post modern philosophies of the future post modern polemicizing against universalizing until the totalizing theory have led to a certain refocusing of interest on the local in the specific which have been detected in the turn away from the screen. The 1970s and even feminist feminist theory recent years what we see is the convergence of feminism and cultural studies and we 145 appear to see micron errors in micro history is the say a fragmented female and other spectator rather than any totalizing meta-meta-psychology of the subject of the cinematic apparatus it must remain theoretical and hold onto some large narratives of the social social critical power of feminism is to be maintained. I think we can understand postmodernism better if we look at it as a continuum from modernism to postmodernism to high postmodernism to see how the styles irrupt and form over time for example in a film like Citizen Kane which is a high watermark of modernism we see that there is a real in interest in how the film is put together particularly Wells uses a lot of very clever an interesting transitions to make the film to make the film a clear void through certain forms of new film technology he also uses sound in camera work in a distance away one of the things the king does very well it’s transitions like he even uses Mr. Thatcher’s diary as a way of transmitting us from the present to the past so we can understand the origins of of Cain and what kind of man he was a second of all there are a lot of cuts that are obvious and interesting and it’s in the film that describe to us many aspects of the film. Wells uses a wide range of technical exaggerations including close-up a long shots deep focus shots and track tracking shots that move from different directions to give us a real sense of the moving of the camera and the fact that we are being placed on the stage watching events as their unfolding. One of the modest moment one of the modernist moments in the film is the way in which Orson Welles uses Bernard Herrmann score to create a music of extreme emotion the operatic score is six in Alexander’s opera and the music that highlights kings youth shows great nostalgia and great sadness and also there is a sense of the Gothic in her about the life of someone who is very powerful but has a very tragic end. Often times to dialogue reveals deeper emotions as when as when Cain speaks to his friend Jeff Leland and says to love on my own terms Jed the Another good line that symbolizes the power of dialogue in the film is when Cain is at the breakfast table talking to his wife and she looks at him and sees the paper and she says really Charles what will people think in Kane’s is back to her what I tell them to think which is a very funny line but also very dark line in the play people also the play the film of Citizen Kane also illustrates the people and their emotions cannot be controlled and that despite our goal of controlling people people are generally Jennifer generally well for an uncontrollable of figures the world is and another thing that comes through from Kane I think that shows the modernist sense is that the world is frustrating in the world cannot be controlled when I think of some of the elements of Citizen Kane Joaquin is frustrated with his wife I often think back of the car so screw Nager gonna go with paint in the car so dear to illustrate the horrors of war when the town of Grico’s with band during the Spanish Civil War and I think they can live through a similar. In his life where he can’t control some of thosePeople cannot be controlled where Kane can’t control some of the events in his life that frustrate him and despite all of the frustration in the modernist view of the world in citizen Kane I think there’s an underlying theme to the entire movie despite the frustration and the rebuffed we get from the world it is very important in the modern is film in the believe in modernism in the belief in progress in the belief and technology that we constantly continue to try to make the world a better place so even though Cain is frustrated in his own life and even though they attempt even the attempt to make the world a better place fails I think the cane symbolizes 146 somebody who underneath it all underneath his frustrations underneath his dictatorial Ness is really at heart a romantic and really firmly believes in the goodness of man and really firmly believes that he can transform the world I think this may have been a core belief of the modernist. Especially when you have the issue of Hitler and then you have in the United States the wonder of somebody like Franklin Delano Roosevelt who does believe in trying and don’t believe in progress and don’t believe in trying to make the world a better place. You know for all of his problems and his insistence on progress and technology modernism and his score is basically a fairly positive for varsity that even the bad things will occur in the future in an hour time by trying by working on the future we can make the world a better place. Psycho probably is a precursor to the post modern era but I think it shows the tensions involved in modernism and how they conflict directly with what’s arriving in the post modern era the first thing that we see the first thing we see in cycle I think is the conception that the world is not controllable or noble that even though Marion crane thinks she can get away with a robbery she doesn’t really know enough to actually be able to pull it off that the world is still a dangerous and very undesirable place secondly I think the second thing that occurs that distorts modernism and psycho is the idea that mysteries abound in confounds all the time and finally I think a third thing that really distorts and destroys modernism in the film is the idea that contain a third problem in psycho that distorts modernism is the idea that the vent the conventions of our we’re all the things we think to be true may not be true after all and that the world may be a more dangerous and more noble place and we believe it to be for example I think today and are still our perceptions about science in the world I don’t think we really necessarily know enough about the planet to be as confident as we are for example the problems we’ve had with climate change in recent years illustrates to us many things we thought to be true about the planet and the climate are things that we can alter in a very dangerous and negative way so things that begin to arrive in in psycho include the idea that there can be surprises that can be unexpected and disturbing and often deadly and that’s something that modernism doesn’t really take into account and I think it takes into account that the world is different and the things are going to occur in the world that are going to change things for us but the idea that surprises can be deeply unpleasant and might even kill us because of course Miriam not realizing that Norman is completely insane doesn’t realize that he is going to victimize her and murder her before she can respond Marion is very confident of her own abilities but she did she is not ready for the unreasonable chaotic aspects of the world that are presented by this post modern element of Norman Bates who is way beyond the rational and way beyond anything that we see in our lives so surprises can be unexpected and disturbing as an important aspect of this transition from modernism to postmodernism finally there is this idea that there is simply no larger order. That man stands alone in the universe and that man and that man can be taken out by the universe anytime the universe decides to do mankind mankind in. Another problem that manifested in cycle is the age of the chaos is rampant and dangerous and constantly unsettling when Marianne goes in to take her shower she has resolved to return the money and she’s going to go back and undo the wrong she is done but she doesn’t determine if there’s something even more chaotic than her own actions she is self obsessed in her own little universe and she doesn’t realize is that why are university is deeply in trouble and that she is going to pay the ultimate price so chaos is rampant and 147 dangerous and constantly unsettling our plans in this chaotic universe motorcycle in the world psycho . Perhaps even more unsettling is the idea that there is no ultimate understanding of all the underlying elements in the world that things simply happen in a random way without any sense or order finally I think we we fear that there is this fear and horror that look around every corner in the world this is the idea that I think we get from Hitchcock that there is no safe place but every place you go danger can lurk in Hitchcock’s 1942 film shadow of doubt he takes his camera into middle of May middle America there we meet the young Charlie who is named for her uncle Charlie and we discover through the course of the film the uncle Charlie is not a benign uncle who is coming to visit his family in middle America during World War II in a very safe place but that uncle Charlie is a horrible killer of older women who simply kills them for their money and this is something that simply Charlie had no understanding of Indian have any way of knowing that her uncle could be this horrific discordant element in society and there is a wonderful scene in shadow of doubt in which uncle Charlie talks about the women in New York he goes yes these fat old women that have these beautiful lunches to eat up all the money their husbands made and they don’t even deserve to live in one of the women at the table says whether they’re alive are they and uncle Charlie looks over the camera and says are they it’s a very devastating moment in the film but I think a lot of the moments and psycho reassure us that the violence and chaos of the and the violence and chaos of the universe is a universal factor that we have to deal with on many levels and we have to except at the very end of cycle that’s one of the most disturbing film moments in any film from any era and it’s Norman Bates still dressed as his mother whom they found in the basement as a skeleton and he looks directly at the camera and says I’m gonna tell them I’m such a sweet old lady that I won’t even swap this fly this and it’s on my hand I’m gonna show that I’m such a sweet old lady I won’t even sweat this fly. Moment the thing that makes the final moment in psycho so compelling is the fact that Norman Bates is completely lost his mind and it’s gone into a fantasy world and we realize that there has been no justice for marrying crane there will be no justice for this man he will not serve time in jail because he’s completely insane and he doesn’t even understand or realize what he is done and he’s completely dissociated with himself he’s gone completely insane so we’re living in a world in which the ultimate rules of reality and society and conventions in law and human diesel decency no longer exist and we’re living in a chaotic universe in which the most bizarre and weird events can happen and there’s no repayment for them there’s no way back from that horror that we see in front of us the void the darkness the the abstract terror in horrible world that makes absolutely no sense so I think that that film encapsulates the problem is that modernism runs into what happens when you get into this new world and there is no nothing but just chaos Fear and horror lurk around every corner Sense But then I think in high post modern art there tends to be a return to almost a Victorian broke sense of order and I think of a film like 19 $.95 and sensibility a Jane Austen novel directed by Asian Director angry and how that film illustrates the way in which the world is seen in this 19 century culture but how it also relates to how we see the world in the post modern culture first of all the film is narrated by and has a woman protagonist 148 the subtle change in cents and sensibility is that women are at the center of the story and women dictate the story and we don’t find anything usual unusual or wrong about that the world has changed. Next we discover and sensitive sense and sensibility that women have inside and women can see deeper into things that men have seen so we’ve actually seen a different version of the world presented to us by a woman woman’s gays and remember even though the Director angry is mail the writer of the film Emma Thompson also a famous actors in the film gives a very specific female sensibility to the film that just that derives from Jane Austen seal the World resort rides from a modern day women’s appointment seen by finally we have this idea from postmodernism that humor is kind of a salve to life that humor can actually make life a bit better even when things are at their most horrible and when we don’t really know what’s going on in the world you were can save us and perform a form of salvation in our world that was completely unexpected and provides us with a marvelous relief from the horrors of life and there’s a good scene in which the little girl is hiding under the table and Emma Thompson and you grantor having a conversation about the glow and they’re talking about how things are situated on the globe and they’re trying to explain where locations are in the globe and of course they’re getting everything wrong in a little girl hiding under the table says no it’s not there it’s here and she tries to communicate with them and explain things to them but eventually she stops hiding under the table because she finds their discourse so absurd and so wrong but the humor the same about getting the world wrong and getting the world right is what comes through clearly from the scene that humans do get the world wrong but there’s humor in that and it’s not always is there always a tragic event another thing that’s important I think in the film is that kindness is often more important than drama a lot of people and in the film seem to see their lives is it a dramatic a tragic event but that will come through in the film is that if someone is very kind of someone they can reduce the drama in a persons life and make life more livable secondly I think we have the element of duty and emotion are important for both must be answered well these are very individualistic ideas that come from Jane Austen but remember Jane Austen’s novel and the films in the 1990s are starting to become more individualistic because the reflecting the worldview of individualism there is an outgrowth of the post modern era so in this post modern insight into people the miss judging of emotions the use of humor as a self and the way of using kindness to interject meanness in society and interactions with people come through as very individual ways in which to conduct oneself in a world that sometimes appears chaotic and difficult difficult to understand another aspect of the film is this idea of duty and emotion and both are showing to have their place in society but both are important and bust my butt must be answered a person can’t live only for duty and a person can’t live only for emotion and this kind of contradicts some of the ideas the postmodernism presents that we have to live a life of duty or be robotic or we have to live a life of fully committed to our emotions what the film suggests is there is in postmodernism a middle path in which duty duty and emotions have to be answered in every persons life another aspect of the life in post modern society that comes up in this 19 century stories the idea that money is important to happiness but it’s not it’s self happiness people after the Reagan era the yuppies versus the hippies decided that they had to make it big and they had to make a lot of money but what this 1990s film which is a metaphor from the once again the the early 19 century. To the late 20th century. 149 Suggest suggest is that money by itself will not make people happy but without many people may not be happy so there’s a middle ground about happiness and wealth and how those things should be adjudicated in everybody’s life in the film. Finally the FilmRise at the idea that creative thinking and logic or good products of the mind and there’s a marvelous scene in the film in which Kate Winslet is complaining about her love life and her relationship with her boyfriend that is turned out badly and Emma Thompson who is put up with her sister and her emotional life for the entire film finally just is frustrated and runs away from her sister and goes to a corner of the room and says if anyone had a reason to be upset it’s me I’ve sacrificed everything in my life to be a good sister to you why did you whine and complain whine and complain about everything while I have had a lot of heartbreak in my life and I have not been able to reveal that to you or to anyone and what I like about it is is in the end after some very serious creative thinking and after the time of several engagements being broken or you grant comes to court Emma Thompson at the end of the film she burst into tears because the creative thinking that she has a ride that has eventually resulted in a successful release a successful relationship with the man that she has one and all along so hope which seems to have been out the window and probably wasn’t going to survive ends up helping the characters in the film to survive and do quite well with the films and so it’s nice to see that arrive in a very positive viewpoint of postmodernism using the vehicle of the metaphor of the 19th century novel to try to explain how those images and ideas can occur and help people live in a society that might seem crazy and chaotic Creative thinking and logic are good products. 150 Cinema 32 Diverse modern cinema It is difficult to say where film is going in the near future. Upsets like the worldwide corona virus epidemic curtailed some productions and fueled a rush to embrace streaming media. The murder of George Floyd galvanized activists who wished to see better representation by minorities in American and world film cultures. Better technology made streaming and at home viewing seamless putting pressure on cinemas and outside venues to compete with the comfort of home viewing. Consolidation of the film industry in the states had people wondering if there would be any films but disnety films left. The giant company had used its money and clout to buy up most other film producers acting out a Amazon scenario of devouring competition thus making the remaining player the winner. Foreign films continued to grow making the world cinema market an actual world cinema fueled by film productions across the globe. Countries that were not previously thought of as film capitals such as Brazil or Nigeria were developing their own robust film empires. Video games and reality shows continued to nibble away at the cinema market making these other entertainment ventures as lucrative and viable or more viable than the field of film. Below ar some emerging trends in the film business. Business and Mergers There is a disturbing trend in American and world cultures to breed larger corporations to own all the media and therefore have a lock on a market and audiences. Recently high profile figures like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan have cashed out their interests in their songwriting catalogs for millions, perhaps billions of dollars in cash payment revenue. Question remain if these mega-corporations have that much cash and if they may billions for Springsten song titles, are many people likely to record multiple versions of Born to Run in the future. While it hasn’t happened yet, could the same be far behind for movie and television catalogues. Would many people want a constant diet of old episodes of Laverne and Shirley the Golden Girls or Dukes of Hazard? Are we reaching a point where only one company will license and control all previous film products on the internet. Further if Disney continues to buy up film companies do we really want Disney to be making Warner Brother’s crime movies, paramount glossy epics of Universal monster films? There isn’t much evidence that Disney has helped the sputtering Star Wars franchise or the equally sputtering Marvel series which have had a mass of recent failures (XMen Dark Phoenix, Shang Chi, and The Eternals) to name but a few. While in some businesses economies of scale can be an advantage the only people that seem to get an advantage from owning all of a specific media is the company, not consumers, not the public, and posterity. Magical Realism Magical realism was a trend most specifically in South American and world literature in which elements of reality and fantasy blended into a seamless whole. Films by Central American directors like Guillermo del Toro, Alfonzo Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu have popularized the genre and these directors often blended reality and fantasy as in Cuaron’s Gravity, del Toro’s The Shape of Water or Inarritu’s Birdman.Such films suggest that audiences now live in a world in which the real, the fantasy and the surreal co-exist seamlessly. This might seem odd but consider that a large number of Republicans still think the 2020 election was stolen despite 151 considerable evidence to the contrary. We live in a world of contingent and relative truth in which people can convince themselves through selective social media to believe whatever they want. Even when such beliefs are counter productive or perhaps dangerous. Thus it is easy for magical realism ideas to penetrate the public consciousness and link reality and real ideas with fake ideas or at least merge the real with ideas that are questionable. What is certain is the elements of rational western thought are more liable to questioning than ever before. The notion of progress, by who and for who is also questionable. In a society in which wealth and power has been sliding towards the hyper wealthy for two or three generations it is easier for the wealthy who control the financial system and the media to manipulate the minds and opinions and the sense of reality characterized by the media. Further knowledge that government was largely unable to control or curtail the corona virus for several years, the government’s abysmal record on civil rights for indigenous people and foreign immigrants, the violence against people of color by local and federal law enforcement authorities and the government’s own admission that they misled the public for years about UFOs fuels an era of mistrust that is reflected in a film culture where dreams and reality overlap regularly and seem to have equal weight. Maybe Disney’s cartoon dream factory is the right place for American film to be centered? Decentering and Diversity The shape of the Academy Awards and other Awars in recent years has led to the notion that film production has been more diverse and global and recent decades. The 2021 Academy Award Winner Nomadland dealt with issues of homelessness where a woman has to live in a nomad camp outside of major cities because she cannot get work, pay rent or live in large metropolitan cities where such resources are often beyond the reach of single not well financed people. The film dealt with the dire problem of homelessness and how one group of people dealt with the issue. Over 65,000 people exist in Los Angels just in skid row. There are thousands more living in parked cars and going to work daily at Target, Walmart and Walgreens but hey do not make enough to pay rent. Further diversity has extended to foreign cultures and foreign films. The academy awards awarded the Best picture award for the first time to a foreign film, Bong Joon- ho’s Parasite, a film about scheming grifters who fight the aristocracy to gain the rights to a life and property. Films about wealth inequality and deeply held anger at unfair economic systems are growing in the media. Technology Many new technologies are impacting film. More and more people use streaming and portable media to watch film. The elegant experience of watching films in a big theatre seems to be fading fast. People struggle to pay for multiple phones for full internet access and for streaming devices that they can take and watch anywhere. People are more and more wedded to a digital device. Phones or really small personal computers seem to be central to continuing daily life. Streaming services such as HBO, paramount, Netflix, AMC, Apple TV, Peakcock, Amazon prime, Disney + and Hulu seem to be the standard for entertainment in our culture. There seem to be new services arriving daily. Further these services seem to be comfortable with being the producers, the distributors and the central destination for 152 all media. Netflix has taken a buy it all approach to providing media for television, reality programming, documentaries, feature films and is currently entering the game market. Along with the increase in tech seems to be an increase in product to feeda media frenzied population who still want to keep watching. Postmodern condition Several elements of postmodern culture are fueling changes in cinema. For one thing technological change is accelerating how film is viewed and regarded. In a lifestyle in which people are continually online and connected, the notion of a complete two-hour retreat to film may be reduced to mini series segments. Martin Scorsese’s epic film the Irishman at over three hours in length was not continually viewed by some film fans but watched as segments. Apple tv’s presentation of Peter Jackson’s edited film of the Beatles Get Back sessions was shown as an 8 hour plus mini-series in segments as opposed to a full length film. Length and editing styles may convince people that longer format films may be viewed as mini-series. Conventional longer films maybe segmented. The growing demand for interactive entertainment may transform film to something akin to the cutscenes in a video game where viewers with a joystick controller determine what segments they will watch and how they will interact with the content. DVD presentations of films were already heading towards multiple content choices within a package. Viewers in that format could choose trailers, deleted scenes, extended edits, alternative endings and multiple angle scenes. The future of video delivery may be akin to further interactive menu choices. Postmodern culture also has predicted that late stage capitalism may combine forces into super large companies. Without government intervention this trend has already been seen. Larger corporations may have more resources, exert tighter controls or liberalize the availability of media. Corporations are always looking for innovations that could provide more revenue and different offerings could make more subscribers and more media forms available. Collapse and exhaustion are also conditions of the postmodern condition. A new form like super heroes may be popular for a time and then that media collapses to be replaced by a new form or genre. This cycle of collapse and rebirth of different formats may be a symptom of the public’s restlessness at media usage. There is also a tendency for boundaries in media to dissipate. For example the division between drama and comedy may have been blurred by films such as Being the Ricardos and The Grand Budapest Hotel. People often receive media today as blends of different styles of entertainment. Terms Streaming: Streaming in the delivery of films via digital content across the globe. Diversity: Diversity means the film industry has input from a variety of sources. Films: Anderson, Wes. Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Cuaron, Alfonso. Children of Men. (2006) Melfi, Theodore. Hidden figures. (2016) Sorkin, Aaron. Being the Ricardos. (2021) Readings: Oliver, David. “The Pandemic Fueled Diversity in Film.” 153 https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/04/22/hollywood-diversity- report-pandemic-paved-way-inclusion-movies/7317279002/ Sharf, Zack. Alfonso Cuaron Didn’’t want to Direct Harry Potter.” https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/alfonso-cuaron-harry-potter-prisoner-azkaban- guillermo-del-toro-1202000189/ 33 cinema Writing About film Process The process of writing about film involves a series of steps. Students should have a good subject, a strong thesis, good sources, a logical development pattern, a substantial conclusion based on facts, text notes, a strong bibliography and excellent writing. Subjects In the field of film there are multiple subjects that people might consider. Obvious topics are actors and good performances or moments that are crescendos. Here are some popular topics that can provide good essays. The use of a group of actors to create an ensemble. Discuss how the scenes and sequences of a film are structured. How does the film deal with difference in gender, race, social background or diversity. How does structure increase or decrease a film’s impact. For example in Saving Private Ryan the film starts with action but has a fairly slow last two hours. A film like Blackhawk down starts slowly but has a last two hours filled with action. How does such structural choice effect a film’s reception. How does a film construct reality. In films like M. Night Shamelan’s The Sixth Sense, or the Wachoski sisters’ The Matrix, visions of reality are constructed only to be revealed as false later. How do films like Being the Ricardos question and discuss what we know about famous people like Lucille Ball. 154 How does a film like Star Wars deal with issues of family? How do films in a series like Star Wars establish repetitive patterns that are repeated again and again. How do films like Alien, Terminator, Halloween, Scream and others promote females as protagonists and heroes instead of male characters? How do films like hidden Figures or The Help explore issues of representation of people and diversity? These are only a few subjects that one could explore, but finding a subject that is less obvious and reveals a depth to a film can be useful. Thesis A thesis is usually a strongly prepared idea that has a strong subject, a strong defensible opinion and hopefully some preview of where the essay will go. For example there are many flawed thesis statements that do not make audiences want to read further but there are some thesis ideas that are intriguing and keep audiences interested. For example saying that Citizen Kane is a great film is nice but sort of boring. It doesn’t tell us much or intrigue us about the film. However, writing a thesis like this, might make audiences read the essay with interest. While people think Citizen Kane has great male characters (subject) it is really the female characters that make the film change (opinion) as when Kane’s mum makes him leave home to be wealthy, (preview one) or his first wife becomes disgruntled with his newspaper work, (preview two) or his last wife leaves him simply to spite him. (preview three). A thesis like that tells the audience exactly the subject, and has a very definite opinion and a very specific set of three examples (the mum, the first wife, the second wife) that can be fully developed in subsequent paragraphs. Here is another complex thesis that might start a good essay. Star Wars despite its major characters is really a political film about how totalitarianism impacts subject people particularly illustrated in the way people act in the bar scene, how the soldiers and lieutenants act serving Grand Moff Tarken and Darth Vader and how the sand people conduct their business on the desolate sand planets. Again this complex thesis has a weird topic that has little to do with the main elements of the Star Wars films. It is an idea about minor characters and how they are used in the film. It would require students to draw examples from little known or less famous scenes and it would require people to think about people and scenes that few critics discuss. Would the essay be interesting? It might particularly in the writer can show how politics is exhibited in each scene. So lets look at how film views marginalized characters. Consider this thesis. In films from Japanese/Thailand horror producers such as Shutter, The Ring, and The Grudge, the view of female ghostly characters is often negative, but perhaps it is a mistake to see these female ghostly characters as the villains and the antagonists of such films since it is Sadako who is the victim desiring justice in Ringu, Kayako, the murdered wife requiring justice in Ju-on (the Grudge), and Natre, the spurned girlfriend of Tun that desires retribution in Shutter. (Shutter) This thesis has a provocative thesis that maybe reading are reading these films all wrong and that such films really are about wrong females and not about male characters at all. These are films where female characters are victimized, abandoned or harmed by men. The examples from each film give writers a chance to focus on the female characters in these horror films. 155 Sources When writing about film it is good to have good sources that can help you. Sometimes you might seek good sources first and construct the thesis and subject around sources you can find. The first place to find good sources is NOT on google or in Wikipedia. Those are general non specific sources used by children and often uneducated laymen. They don’t provide specific evidence, they are not written by scholars, they are often unsigned and anonymous, they don’t use sources, they present unsubstantiated opinion, they were not edited or verified by anyone, and they might describe or contain information that is either false or untrue. Where possible it is vastly more helpful to look thing up using our specific and targeted databases. Ebsco e books. These sources are full books on film and social topics Wilson omni file. Millions of articles on topics related to a film topic. America one-file. Millions of articles related to topics on film. JSTOR: A collection of hundreds of thousands of articles related to film topics all written and edited by scholars in a wide range of publications. Many of the specific databases will give the writer the proper format for listing the source which can save writers time in writing and listing sources in the bibliography. The use of good sources promotes good writing. You don’t have to use the whole article and you don’t have to read the whole article. Skim the article and look for items that relate to your thesis. Cut and paste quotes and plug those quotes into your own writing where relevant. Whenever you use a quotation or a paraphrase from an article you must place a text note (the author’s name and a page number) and the source in the bibliography. Also paraphrases and quotes must be inserted so that they support your ideas. That is quotes serve and help your writing. If the quote doesn’t help than don’t use it. You use quotes to prove you are right and your ideas are supported by other learned people with similar ideas. Bibliography A good bibliography should have anywhere from five sources or more in even a short paper. Why? People reading your writing want to know that you searched and found information on the subject that gives you a comprehensive and full understanding of the subject. If you look at five different sources you may not know everything about a topic but you derive a deeper understanding of the subject and know more varied opinions about it. You could still be wrong about it, but the more research you perform, the deeper your understanding will grow. Most bibliographies in film can include books, articles, films, interviews and bibographies of people in the film business. Most sources are listed alphabetically in a bibliography by the authors last name, the title of the article, the place it was published, the publisher’s name and the date it was published. Llke this: Kael, Pauline. The Citizen Kane Book. NY: Harcourt, 1971. A film generally is the same data listed basically as the film title, the director, the production company and the date. It looks like this: Star Wars. Directed by George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 1977. Magazines are the author, the title of the article, the name of the magazine, the date it was published. It looks like this. Arthur, Bea. ‘The Bizarre world of Hitchcock.” Ladies Home Journal. 1965. Sterritt, David. “The Mysterious Mr. Hitchcock.” Christian Science Monitor. April 9, 1983. 156 Writing About film So remember if you have a good subject, a strong thesis, good sources, some good quotes and paraphrases, a strong bibliography and good writing style you will probably find readers and gain people Interested in your writing. 157	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.788988	02/16/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90102/overview", "title": "cinema scenes version two", "author": "stuart lenig" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95016/overview	Instructions step by step Overview Good Activity Instructions step by step Journey for learning is step by step, - Read each section highlight, underline or print off instructions or use noote book to write notes - Take time to study content - Be sure to check state and federal policies - Course work for all educators	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.848332	07/09/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95016/overview", "title": "Instructions step by step", "author": "Laura Baker" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/86865/overview	Social Justice Mathematics Project 1: "Demographic Changes in Congress" Overview This project will allow students to gather data on changes in congressional diversity in order to understand its relationship to population demographics. Students will: - Gather data on changes in congressional diversity over time (gender, ethnicity) - Display data in tables and graphs. - Compute percent change. - Use linear regression to model changes over time - Solve systems of linear equations to determine when two variables will be equal - Draw conclusions and make recommendations based on data Social Justice Mathematics Project 1: "Demographic Changes in Congress" Overview This project will allow students to gather data on changes in congressional diversity in order to understand its relationship to population demographics. Students will: - Gather data on changes in congressional diversity over time (gender, ethnicity) - Display data in tables and graphs. - Compute percent change. - Use linear regression to model changes over time - Solve systems of linear equations to determine when two variables will be equal - Draw conclusions and make recommendations based on data Social Justice Mathematics Project "Gathering data" The US is becoming more and more diverse, and while the 117th US Congress is the most diverse over time, the question remains whether we are making enough progress given the changes in demographics among the population. Viewpoints on important topics like immigration, criminal justice, the 2nd amendment, education, womens rights, etc. are all in flux, and it appears that the US population is more polarized than ever. It is important for educators and their students to consider how Congress is changing in order to understand whether perspectives held by the population will be represented in laws. This project will use mathematics to predict changes in congressional diversity in the future. Fill in the Blanks on the following data 95th congress - Senate (100 Members): ____Men__2_ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___ Native Americans, __Non-White, ____White - House of Represenativces (435 Members):____Men___ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, Native Americans, __Non-White, ____White - 105th Congress - Senate (100 Members): ____Men__9_ Women, _17__ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, __Non-White, ____White - House of Represenativces (435 Members):____Men___ Women, ___ African American,__Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, __Non-White, ____White - 111th Congress - Senate (100 Members): ____Men_17__ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, ___Non-White, ____White - House of Represenativces (435 Members):____Men___ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, ___Non-White, ____White - 116th Congress - Senate (100 Members): __74__Men_26__ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, __Non-White, ____White - House of Represenativces (435 Members):__334__Men_101__ Women, ___ African American, __Hispanics, ___Asian Americans,___Native Americans, ___Non-White, ____White Suggested Data Resources: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Chpt-1.pdf https://cawp.rutgers.edu/history-women-us-congress https://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/New_Member_Demographics_116_Congress.pdf https://www.statista.com/statistics/198423/senators-in-the-us-congress-by-gender-since-1975/ Social Justice Mathematics Project "Working with the data" 2. Determine the percent change of woman and of non-White members of Congress from the a) 95th Congress to the 105th Congress b) 105th Congress to the 111th Congress c) 111th Congress to the 116th Congress and d) 95th Congress to the 116th Congress 3. Fill out the following table using years as the input and percentage of total for the output House of Representatives \| Year/Category \| Men \| Women \| White \| Non-White \| \| 1977 \| \|\|\|\| \| 1997 \| \|\|\|\| \| 2009 \| \|\|\|\| \| 2019 \| Senate \| Year/Category \| Men \| Women \| White \| Non-White \| \| 1977 \| \|\|\|\| \| 1997 \| \|\|\|\| \| 2009 \| \|\|\|\| \| 2019 \| Social Justice Mathematics Project "Plotting the data" Plot each of the (year, number of group) points on a four graphs (one for gender Senate, one for gender/House, one for race (white vs. non-white)/Senate and another for (white vs. non-white)/House). Use different colors and/or shapes to identify the different groups. You may print this sheet out or take snapshots or scans of your TI-84 Screen. If you use the latter follow the steps below. House of Represenatives Time vs. Gender by percentage House of Represenatives Time vs. White/Non-White by percentage Senate Time vs. Gender by percentage Senate Time vs. White/Non-White by percentage TI Calculator Steps Step 1 Press STAT Step 2 Press EDIT Step 3 Enter Congress Number Designation (e.g. 117 for 117th Congress) in L1 Step 4 Enter Percentage for each successive group (Men, Woman, White, non-White) in L2, L3, L4, L5S Step 5 Press STATPLOT Step 6 Highlight ON for Plot 1 (Leave L1 and L2 as the columns) Step 7 Follow Steps 5 and 6 for Plot 2, except change second column to L3 Step 8 Press 2nd Quit Step 9 Press Graph Step 10 Press ZoomStat Step 11 Follow similar steps for each table Social Justice Mathematics Project "Finding a linear model" When data appear to be linear, the calculator can be used to determine a line of best fit by using linear regression. Calculator Set Up - Make sure that your calculator has the Plots Off, Y= functions cleared, the MODE and FORMAT are set at “stage left”, and the lists are cleared. - Turn the Diagnostics on by doing the following - Press 2nd the CATALOG (2nd of 0). Press the teal D button (ALPHA of x-1) This brings you to the items in the catalog that start with D. - Arrow down until you reach the command DiagnosticOn and press ENTER. - Press ENTER a second time. Later, when you perform a linear regression, you will see an “r” value. If that value is close to a ±1 there’s a strong correlation to the data, meaning the data points can be modeled by the line well. Performing a Linear Regression - To find an equation that matches the data you see, you need to perform a linear regression on the data. Press the STAT menu and arrow to the right to the CALC menu. Choose option 4:LinReg (ax+b). Type L1, a comma, L2, then the VARS button, arrow over to Y-VARS, choose 1:Function, the 1:Y1 option, then press ENTER. When you press the GRAPH button a line that matches your data points will also be in your viewing window. Pressing the Y= button will give you the equation of that line. Repeat the steps changing L2 to L3, L4, and L5 for each linear regression. Write down the Equations for each of the lines that models the percentage of each category. - House of Representatives: Male - House of Representatives: Female - House of Representatives: White - House of Representatives: Non-White - Senate: Male - Senate: Female - Senate: White - Senate: Non-White Social Justice Mathematics Project "Analyzing data and drawing conclusions" As noted in the introduction, the US is becoming increasingly diverse.(See table below). While Congress (both the House and the Senate have become more diverse) it could be argued that the change in Congress is not keeping up with demographic changes. These are also institutions that are dominated by men. Choose one of the following relationships to study (Gender changes, white vs. Non-white changes) to study. Answer the following questions. 1. Given the equations that model the relationships you are studying, when do the models predict that the number of individuals of the two groups you are comparing will be the same. (Solve the system of equations Algebraically or use the FIND INTERSECTION functions on the calculator-see below). How does this compare with the predicted proportion of individuals of each group among the US population. 2. What are things that schools can be doing to ensure that there is more representation from diverse viewpoints, beliefs, etc. in the future in Congress and in other positions of power? 3. What kinds of skills should be taught in school to help create a better society where individuals from diverse backgrounds can thrive? Find the intersection of the two lines: (source: https://education.ti.com/en/customer-support/knowledge-base/ti-83-84-plus-family/product-usage/11958) • Press [2nd] [CALC] [5] to select 5:interesect from the CALCULATE menu. • When First curve? is displayed, press the up and down directional keys, if necessary, to move the cursor to the first function, then press [ENTER]. • When Second curve? is displayed, press the up and down directional keys, if necessary, to move the cursor to the second function, then press [ENTER].. • When Guess? is displayed, use the left and right directional keys to move the cursor to the point that is your guess as to the location of the intersection, and then press [ENTER]. The cursor is on the solution and the coordinates are displayed.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.880744	Mychael Smith	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/86865/overview", "title": "Social Justice Mathematics Project 1: \"Demographic Changes in Congress\"", "author": "German Moreno" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87544/overview	GenderMag Twitter GenderMag YouTube Team Discussion: Cognitive Styles when Using Technology Overview What cognitive styles do you use to interact with technology? PRE-REQ: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87536 Pre-Requisites Team Discussion: Cognitive Styles Begin getting to know your team by contributing to the team discussion: 1. Describe your thoughts about the cognitive styles reading (1+ paragraph) 2. Respond to two different people. Include how your facet values are similar or different from your teammate's Learn More Additional resources below.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.902782	Psychology	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87544/overview", "title": "Team Discussion: Cognitive Styles when Using Technology", "author": "Information Science" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100072/overview	Early Childhood Curricculum Overview Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona participants are invited to remix this template to share their courses, textbooks, and other OER material on our Hub. ECE 202: Early Childhood Curriculum Course Description: Development of learning activities based on the needs of preschool age children. Selection and preparation of the environment as well as materials which are basic to diverse preschool programs. Emphasis on the process of lesson planning in response to developmental levels of children. Includes the compilation of a personal file of teaching ideas, activities and resources and the exploration and construction of materials to be used while working with children, and play-based teaching strategies. Course Content: - Trends in curriculum design - Developmentally appropriate materials and resources - Lesson planning in major content areas such as math, technology, art, science, movement, social studies and dramatic play - Play-based teaching strategies - Arizona Early Learning Standards - Transition tools and techniques - Classroom environment design Course Outcomes: - Evaluate various curriculum models and play-based teaching strategies used in current preschool settings. - Design developmentally appropriate lesson plans that can be used in an integrated theme or project. - Articulate the use of early learning standards in lesson planning and in the application of working with children. - Compile and maintain a professional file that includes web-based resources for lesson planning and transition strategies. - Create a plan for a well-designed environment that links curriculum design and play-based learning environments to a developmentally appropriate classroom. Material Description Context for sharing: I'm sharing this resource with early childhood and education instructors. Material Attachment https://lor.instructure.com/resources/bd3448f7c2074a85a6fb2465ba37681f?shared	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.925238	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100072/overview", "title": "Early Childhood Curricculum", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82998/overview	Syllabus S2021 - Ana Garcia-Garcia Chemistry 2: Fundamental Chemistry Overview This introductory course is designed to prepare the student for Chemistry 2. Students will develop problem-solving skills related to the nature of matter, chemical reactions, stoichiometry, energy transformations, as well as atomic and molecular structure. This 4-unit course is transferable to CSU and UCSC systems. Syllabus and Sample Assignment Chemistry 2: Fundamental Chemistry Section 0610 Monterey Peninsula College Late Spring 2021 Dr. Ana Garcia-Garcia	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:54.942755	Liz Yata	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/82998/overview", "title": "Chemistry 2: Fundamental Chemistry", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/75430/overview	Are Libraries Still Relevant? Assessing Digital Humanities Tools- Use of Scalar at a Research University Collaboration, Consultation, or Transaction COLLABORATION: Digital humanities project showcase Commentary on Digital Publishing in African American Studies- Continuing the Dialogue and Expanding the Collaborations Digital humanities in the library isn't a service Digital Humanities: New Roles for Libraries Digital Publishing Seen from the Digital Humanities Getting Started with Omeka - A Tutorial How to evaluate digital scholarship http://ceball.com/ Humanities Scholars and Library-Based Digital Publishing Open Access Publishing "Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy", Kathleen Fitzpatrick Promoting Diversity and Sustainability in the Scholarly Publishing Ecosystem_ The University of Michigan's MPublishing Redefines the Role of Libraries in Publishing Publishing Without Walls Race, memory, and the digital humanities conference W&M 2017 Scalar 2.0 — Trailer Scholarly Adventures in Digital Humanities - Making The Modernist Archives Publishing Project Supporting Digital Scholarship in Research Libraries Scalability and Sustainability Tenure, promotion and digital publication. The Historian's Craft, Popular Memory, and Wikipedia The humanities center: Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration The Necessity of Digital Publishing in Exploring the Black Experience Using DH tools to examine neglected indigenous texts Using social media to promote academic research- Identifying the benefits of twitter for sharing academic work What 'counts'? When does service become scholarship? WordPress Tutorial for Beginners 2020 - How to Create Your First WordPress Website Digital Publishing in the Humanities Overview Digital culture is changing. Social technologies are impacting how scholars work, learn and engage with one another both inside and outside of their institutions. In postsecondary education, it is becoming increasingly vital to share your work and practice online. Open and digital channels help colleagues solicit advice, seek out support/collaboration, offer free professional development, share information and resources, and learn in networked communities with common interests. Besides developing a digital presence, higher education staff, administrators and scholars are utilizing social media and digital technologies to support their work, add to their professional development, engage with peers, learn in the collective and publicly in digital spaces and places. Using openly licensed content, this OER helps fill the gap between the digital divide and familiarizes users with the digital publishing world. By using this OER, students and professional scholars alike will gain insight into how to use digital publishing tools to their advantage, have a better understanding of the challenges surrounding digital publishing, and learn how to create and engage in innovative and collaborative digital projects. Open Educational Resource Narrative Overview: We are currently living in a digital age in which access to the internet has connected us to an almost unlimited amount of information. As a result, the manner in which research is shared and communicated among scholars is changing rapidly. This Open Educational Resource was created with the intention to help college students understand how digital publishing is contributing to those changes. Need for Resource: Digital culture is changing. Social technologies are impacting how scholars work, learn and engage with one another both inside and outside of their institutions. In postsecondary education, it is becoming increasingly vital to share your work and practice online. Open and digital channels help colleagues solicit advice, seek out support/collaboration, offer free professional development, share information and resources, and learn in networked communities with common interests. Besides developing a digital presence, higher education staff, administrators and scholars are utilizing social media and digital technologies to support their work, add to their professional development, engage with peers, learn in the collective and publicly in digital spaces and places. Using openly licensed content, this OER helps fill the gap between the digital divide and familiarizes users with the digital publishing world. By using this OER, students and professional scholars alike will gain insight into how to use digital publishing tools to their advantage, have a better understanding of the challenges surrounding digital publishing, and learn how to create and engage in innovative and collaborative digital projects. Methodology: This OER uses a combination of guided readings, digital projects, discussion questions, and videos to help users understand issues related to digital publishing. Additionally, the instructor view of this OER contains summaries of the readings, answer prompts, and learning objectives to help teachers guide students as they work. By presenting this information through a range of resources, it will showcase how diverse digital publishing activities can be, and it will give students an opportunity to explore different styles of learning (logical, physical, social, etc.). Although these questions and activities were designed to facilitate conversations among students, the majority of the work in this OER can be completed individually or in a classroom setting. Learning Objectives: Because this OER is an introductory tool that encourages exploration and working at one's own pace, a formal assessment of students' knowledge, such as taking a summative exam, seems counterproductive. Instead, learning objectives for these materials should be measured through student self-assessment. Student self-assessment are methods that allow students to rate their own confidence in their work and their understanding of course content. Throughout each section of this OER, there are prompts for students to reflect on their learning and think about remaining questions they have about a given topic. Instructors should these reflection posts to gauge the effectiveness of this resource and the growth in knowledge of their students. What is Digital Publishing in the Humanities? Readings: I chose these readings because all of the articles focus on introducing the concept of digital publishing and current trends within the digital humanities and digital publishing fields. The first two readings discuss the transition from print to digital within scholarly communication and how that shift impacts humanities scholars. The last two readings are more narrowly focused, discussing the effect of open access in digital publishing and offering recommendations for how library publishers can help humanities scholars reach broader audiences through interdisciplinary and open access publishing. After reading these articles, students should have working definitions of key digital publishing terms, have a better understanding of the gap between print and digital scholarly approaches, and have an introductory-level understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with digital publishing. Activities: I developed these activities for students because they facilitate the exploration of digital publishing topics and resources. The first activity is intended to help students become familiar with examples of digital publishers and issues and controversies surrounding digital publishing. The second activity is intended to give students the opportunity to analyze and critique an online humanities journal. The third activity allows students to explore digital publishing using their own interests as a catalyst, and, hopefully, the range of projects students choose to research will show have diverse and varied digital publishing is. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: - What can you do with Digital Publishing? - Advantages - Develop a personal research or project website - Create a private course blog - Write an interactive, "Choose Your Own Adventure"-like story - Incorporate media and text to develop a narrative - Generate tutorials or reusable resources for your classroom - Disadvantage - Link Rot - Advantages - Do you consider social media a digital publishing medium for academic works? Why or why not? - Yes - Social media provide academics with one of the most direct routes for sharing their work. - social media can overcome resource gaps and mitigate social inequalities across a variety of domains - No - Too informal - No established system of peer review - social media replicates pre-existing structural inequalities and simply rewards those who have more resources and status - Yes - What digital projects are you interested in exploring? - If students are not responsive to this question or are slow to participate, explore digital projects on the Library of Congress website. Giving students examples of well researched and reviewed projects might help spark an interest in them. Additional Resources: These resources are meant to help introduce students to resources that analyze issues related to digital humanities and digital publishing more in-depth. Both the Fitzpatrick video and the Batterhshill et al. article address the gap between print and digital scholarly approaches. They also are both provocation tools that will, hopefully, help students think more broadly about digital publishing and it will affect the future of academia. Ultimately, I put these works in the "Additional Resources" section because they are full length videos and books, so I wanted to give students the option to look through them on their own time. Overview: When we talk about the value chain of scholarly communication, one important aspect to consider is that of the publisher of academic work. Due to the impact of digital publishing, people who are not traditional publishers are increasingly able to fulfill that function. For instance, scholars are becoming publishers, as they publish their work on their personal websites or blogs. Libraries are becoming publishers when they use the content in their repositories to create online journals. Depending on how one interprets the word "publisher," Google, Amazon, and Wikipedia can even be considered digital publishers. Beyond democratizing the publication process, digital publishing has presented a plethora of opportunities for modern researchers. For example, emergent technologies are providing academics with new ways to present scholarship without the constraints of print formats, such as online monographs, journals, exhibits, webpages, and audio or visual projects. Additionally, digital publishing has made it easier for scholars to communicate with their peers and collaborate on projects, and it has given a platform for marginalized and underrepresented scholars to promote their work. However, digital publishing has also presented new challenges within the academic world. While both journal and monograph publishing have established ecosystems of peer review and accreditation, currently there are no formal channels for publication or consistent peer review standards for digital projects. Furthermore, digital publications tend to be less stable than print materials, causing some digital scholars to worry whether their work will still be available and shareable in perpetuity. Using the resources and activities below, begin your investigation into the world of digital publishing. Readings: SODP Staff. (2019, July 25). Digital trends: The future of scholarly communications. State of Digital Publishing. https://www.stateofdigitalpublishing.com/opinion/the-future-of-scholarly-communication/. Borgman, C. (2009). The digital future is now: A call to action for the humanities. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 3(4). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/4/000077/000077.html. Fitzpatrick, K. (2013). Open access publishing. In D. Cohen & T. Scheinfeldt (Eds.), Hacking the Academy: New Approaches to Scholarship and Teaching from Digital Humanities. University of Michigan, 35-38. Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv65swj3.11. Fenlon, K., Senseney, M., Bonn, M., & Swatscheno, J. (2019). "Humanities scholars and library-based digital publishing: New forms of publication, new audiences, new publishing roles." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 50(1), 159-182. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.50.3.01. Activities: - Google digital publishing projects. What projects, books, and journals appear? What do these resources have in common? What is different about them? - Explore the Digital Humanities Quarterly website. What are its strengths as a digital journal? What are its weaknesses? - Search your university's digital publishing resources. Where would you go to learn more about digital publishing at your university? Who would you direct your questions to? How could these resources be further developed? Discussion Questions: - What is the value of an online humanities resource as opposed to print resources? What are the disadvantages - Do you consider social media a digital publishing medium for academic works? Why or why not? - What digital projects are you interested in exploring? Reflection: What aspect of digital publishing mosts interests you? What initial questions do you have about digital publishing? Additional Resources: Claire Battershill, Helen Southworth, Alice Staveley, Michael Widner, Elizabeth Willson Gordon, & Nicola Wilson. (2017). Scholarly Adventures in Digital Humanities: Making The Modernist Archives Publishing Project. Palgrave Macmillan. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1520214. Fitzpatrick, K. [Hall Center]. (2017, April 14). Planned obsolescence: Publishing, technology, and the future of the academy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH-n9wyBi14&ab_channel=HallCenter. Digital Publishing Tools Overview Readings: I chose these readings because they both revolve around how the digital revolution has transformed the writing of history. Wolff's article focuses more on the digital shift from print materials to online tools, Tracy's article focuses more on how universities can incorporate digital publishing technology into their libraries, and the "Using Social Media..." article conveys the idea that social media can be used as an academic publishing platform. Instructors can use both of these articles to introduce their students to the concept of digital publishing and the tools researchers might use to publish their work. After reading these articles, students should have a greater understanding of why humanities scholarship has largely transitioned from print publishing to digital publishing, and they know how academic libraries promote the use of digital publishing. Ideally, knowing how libraries use digital publishing tools will encourage students to learn more about specific digital publishing programs/tools/etc. within their own universities. Activities: These activities are meant to help students gain hands-on experience with different digital publishing platforms. Additionally, by analyzing examples of different digital publishing projects, it should help broaden students' understanding of what digital publishing in the humanities can be. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: How do digital publishing tools give more agency to scholars over the creation and dissemination of their research? How do digital publishing tools create obstacles for scholars? More Agency Cost-Effective Publishing Provides an Interactive Reading Experience to Users Wider Reach Obstacles Many digital projects rely on the effort and expertise of more than one individual (IT, copyright issues, programmers, etc.) - What is the process of deciding which tool is best for your project? What types of questions should you ask yourself to determine which digital publishing tool is right for you? - Questions to ask yourself - What type of data am I working with? - How do I want visitors to interact with my data? - How will my work be evaluated? - Will I be collaborating on this project with other researchers? Does this publishing tool have a seamless sharing process? - Questions to ask yourself Additional Resources: These resources are meant to help students gain a deeper understanding of different digital publishing tools. For example, the article Specifically, the video tutorials are meant to guide students as they start using the digital publishing platform of their choice. I decided to include the videos in the additional resources section because rather than having students watch all the videos, I thought it would be better to allow to focus on watching tutorials for the tools they are most interested in. Overview: Digital humanities publishing tools are changing what it means to create and share scholarly objects and publications. Digital publishing platforms allow users to share artifacts and research to wider audiences, collaborate in new ways, and rethink how libraries, museums, and exhibits should be structured. One benefit of digital publishing tools is that they are shifting the dissemination of humanities research from a “pull” model to a “push” model. A pull model requires people who are interested in ongoing humanities research to search through publications to obtain the information. In the pull model, the audience must have the initiative to find specific research. On the other hand, a push model allows scholars to transmit the information more directly to potentially interested parties. In the push model, it is the researcher who initiates communication with the audience. That level of agency and the potential for scholars to draw wide attention to their research are attractive to scholars and suggests that digital publishing tools can help promote research across disciplines. However, one potential challenge to using digital publishing tools is, depending on which tool you use, it might require some prior publishing knowledge. For example, to use the e-book file format EPUB, users will need to be quite familiar with the syntax of XML and XHTML. While not all digital publishing tools demand a strong background in coding, some users may find learning how to use different publishing platforms difficult. Because different digital publishing tools have different purposes, experience levels, interactivity, and engagement, it is important to let your digital project dictate which tool you use. Regardless of which tool you use, some important items to consider include: - Data exportability – can visitors easily download, share, and cite your research? - Self-expression – how can you personalize your project to make it stand out from other articles, websites, videos, etc.? - Resources and training – can you easily find resource guides, videos, tutorials, and other useful information to help with sharing your project online? Using the resources and activities below, explore different digital publishing tools and determine which ones might fit best with your interests. Readings: Tracy, D. (2016). Assessing Digital Humanities Tools: Use of Scalar at a Research University. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 16(1), 165-191. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88908. Wolff, R. (2013). The Historian’s Craft, Popular Memory, and Wikipedia. In J. Dougherty & K. Nawrotzki (Eds.), Writing History in the Digital Age. (pp. 64-74). University of Michigan Press. http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctv65sx57.10. Klar S., Krupnikov Y., Ryan J.B., Searles K., Shmargad Y. (2020). "Using social media to promote academic research: Identifying the benefits of twitter for sharing academic work." PLOS ONE, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229446. Activities: Explore these different digital publishing tools. Which one most interests you? What types of projects might be each tool be best suited for? - Omeka - Omeka is an open source platform commonly used by librarians, archivists, and museum professionals to create dynamic online exhibits that showcase collections of digital images, text, and other multi-media formats in one seamless site. There is a basic version of the software that can be hosted through the web and a more advanced version that requires web-hosting from an institution. - Example project using Omeka: Digital Jane Austen - Scalar - Scalar is an online platform designed for humanities scholars to create “books” that re-imagine publishing, visual presentations, and linked information. It allows users to design media-rich, non-linear publications that utilize extensive tagging. - Example project using Scalar: Making the Perfect Record - WordPress - WordPress is a popular, open source blogging platform that has digital humanities plugins such as Comment Press and Future of the Book. - Example project using WordPress: The Uses of Scale in Literary Study Discussion Questions: How do digital publishing tools give more agency to scholars over the creation and dissemination of their research? How do digital publishing tools create obstacles for scholars? What is the process of deciding which tool is best for your project? What types of questions should you ask yourself to determine which digital publishing tool is right for you? Reflection: Which digital publishing tool is your favorite? Would you want to publish any current projects you are working on using any of these tools? Additional Resources: Surfside PPC. (2019, November 11). WordPress Tutorial for Beginners 2020 - How to Create Your First WordPress Website [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwiEcmbPjo0&ab_channel=SurfsidePPC. Kimberly Arleth. (2016, March 6). Getting Started with Omeka - A Tutorial [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FncO08PeK9o&ab_channel=KimberlyArleth. VectorsJournal. (2016, October 16). Scalar 2.0 — Trailer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6k4IpSOgHY&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=vectorsjournal. Collaboration Readings: I chose these readings because they all analyze different aspects of collaboration within digital publishing. McGrath's article is more introspective and tracks her progression from a humanities student who did not value collaboration to a journalist who views collaboration as a major asset. This type of article is targeted at humanities students who are either unfamiliar with collaboration or are hesitant to commit themselves to collaborative projects. Once they have been introduced to humanities collaboration, Tzoc's article is intended to provide students with examples of digital projects and spark curiosity. Finally, Blanke, Pierazzo, and Stokes' article is more technical and will teach students how to think about digital publishing and collaboration in new ways (e.g., as a range of ongoing activities). After reading these articles, students should have a better understanding of why collaboration in the humanities field is important. They should also know how digital publishing has enhanced collaboration efforts in the humanities. Activities: In order to be effective collaborators, students will need to learn how to have strong communication and organization skills. These activities are meant to help students become familiar with different project management tools and strengthen their interpersonal skills. After gaining some hands-on experience with these tools, students have a better idea of how to develop a collaboration plan that is sustainable, organized, and well thought-out. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: - Besides sharing skills and experiences, how else might humanities scholars benefit from collaboration? - One major benefit of collaboration is that it reveals your processes and assumptions about research and writing - Collaborative writing groups can function like a regular peer-review process - Collaboration will teach you who you are as a colleague and partner - What challenges to collaboration have you faced in your academic career so far? What are some techniques to teach collaboration skills in an educational environment? - Potential Challenges: - Ineffective Meetings: Meetings without structure can cause people to have conversations that spin without purpose - Little Transparency or Inadequate Information Sharing: When you have team members whose work depends on that of other team members, they need to share their progress, concerns, and barriers - Conflicting Styles of Decision Making: People process information differently. Some people process information quickly and are able to respond with an answer right away. Some people need to process away from the group and think slowly through all the options. Styles of decision making can differ significantly and cause eruptions of frustration - Potential Techniques to Teach Collaboration Skills: - Institute a “We All Answer” Policy: Make your policy that everyone in a group should offer a suggestion while brainstorming. This helps groups avoid having one person dominate conversation - Institute a “No Bad Ideas” Policy: Write everything your group comes up with - regardless of how outlandish - down on paper and give it a chance without judgment. This encourages team members to think creatively without rejection, which gives them confidence. - Potential Challenges: - What are some ways you might approach a person to initiate collaboration with them? How do digital approaches for collaboration differ from in-person approaches? - Build a good online resume and update it frequently - Join social networks such as ResearchGate - Share ideas, files and publications and be active in asking and responding questions - Contact appropriate people and share your topics with them Additional Resources: These resources are meant to showcase collaborative digital humanities projects and resources. The UBC video is intended to allow students to hear digital humanists discuss the collaborative process in their own words. The University of Rochester video is meant to introduce students to an example of a digital humanities collaborative space. After watching these videos, students will hopefully have a deeper understanding of how to initiate, plan, and create interdisciplinary humanities projects. Overview: Collaboration is on the upswing in the humanities. The rise of digital publishing has heralded a new frontier in scholarship and research communications, as digital publishing platforms offer innovative ways for researchers to collaborate, communicate, and share their research discoveries with peers. However, because of the stereotypically isolating nature of research, collaboration can be a tough sell to graduate students in the humanities. They are not taught how to collaborate effectively, and it can be hard to see what stands to be gained when monographs and journal articles are widely viewed as the standards for success. Thus, digital publishing is helping to break down those barriers to collaboration in two major ways. First, digital publishing in the humanities questions the assumption about what humanities publishing should look like. Traditionally, humanities publishing is focused around creating scholarly monographs, articles, or faithful visual representations of media. However, as advancements technology allow for allow dynamic flexibility in data visualization, humanities researchers are now starting to view publishing as a range of modelling activities that aim to develop and communicate interpretations. Instead of generating scholarship with the limitation that it must conform to the expectations of either a book or a journal article, digital publishing enables scholars to create digital projects that communicate their work in whatever way works best for them. Second, digital publishing is creating opportunities for collaboration among multidisciplinary groups including researchers, scholars, students, technologists, and librarians. For example, some academic libraries have created digital publishing centers to help students and faculty become more familiar with the process of publishing an e-book. Projects like these lay the groundwork for continued collaborations and connections among the library, classroom learning, and academic scholarship and require knowledge and experience that extends through disciplinary boundaries and across academic units. Thus, through collaboration, scholars are able to to fill skills gaps and develop expertise and community around a given topic. Using the resources and activities below, explore various forms of collaboration within digital publishing and think about digital projects you would like to develop that might require interdisciplinary collaboration. Readings: McGrath, L. (2013, September 3). Collaboration in the Humanities. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/collaboration-humanities. Tzoc, E. (2016). Libraries and faculty collaboration: Four digital scholarship examples. Journal of Web Librarianship, 10(2), 124–136. 10.1080/19322909.2016.1150229. Blanke, T., Pierazzo, E., & Stokes, P. (2014). Digital publishing seen from the digital humanities. Logos, 25(2), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.1163/1878-4712-11112041. Activities: As previously discussed, digital publishing has created new opportunities for collaboration among multidisciplinary groups. But what if you're not sure how to start planning collaborative projects? Below are three examples of potential resources you might use to initiate digital collaboration. Click on the links to learn more about each resource. Think of different scenarios/projects where it might be beneficial to use each resource. Choose your favorite resource of these three and write how you might use it to help manage an upcoming project of yours. - DevDH.org - Development for the Digital Humanities - Developed by Jennifer Guiliano and Simon Appleford, with contributions from many others, this site provides a series of lectures that cover different stages of a project, including translating research questions into digital projects, teams and partners, publicity, budgets, and more - The Socio-Technical Sustainability Roadmap - The STSR is housed in the Visual Media Workshop at University of Pittsburgh and is a "structured group exercise that guides participants through the process of creating effective sustainability plans" for digital projects. It is designed as a series of modules that help project teams plan and create social and technical infrastructure that will ensure the sustainability and preservation of digital work - PM4DH: Project Management for the Digital Humanities - The PM4DH is a guide to project management developed by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. It is organized into five phases: proposal, initiation, planning, execution, and closing. The "Create a Workplan" section under the Execution phase includes a variety of templates that can be used to document project risks, issues, communication plans, meeting summaries, and more Discussion Questions: - Besides sharing skills and experiences, how else might humanities scholars benefit from collaboration? - What challenges to collaboration have you faced in your academic career so far? What are some techniques to teach collaboration skills in an educational environment? - What are some ways you might approach a person to initiate collaboration with them? Reflection: What aspects of digital collaboration do you enjoy the most? What ideas for digital projects do you have after reading these articles? Additional Resources: UBC-V Public Humanities Hub. (2020, November 3). COLLABORATION: Digital humanities project showcase [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oNTDR6AOs4&ab_channel=UBC-VPublicHumanitiesHub. University of Rochester. (2017, March 7). The humanities center: Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvLE042R9FU&ab_channel=UniversityofRochester. Libraries + Digital Publishing Services Readings: I chose these readings because they all have different perspectives on how libraries should support digital publishing, and they explore different aspects of digital publishing in libraries. For example, both Muñoz's and Vinopal & McCormick's articles focus on developing sustainable digital publishing programs in libraries. However, Vinopal & McCormick's article argues that libraries should build their digital publishing programs around patrons' projects while Muñoz argues that libraries should focus on helping librarians lead by example and create their own DH initiatives and projects. Additionally, Green's focuses on how libraries can build infrastructure to support innovative scholarly publishing, and Hawkins' article examines how the shift from physical to virtual publishing has impacted libraries from a financial standpoint. After reading these articles, students should have a better understanding of how libraries create and support digital publishing initiatives. These readings should also give students greater insight into how digital publishing works from the librarian's perspective. Ideally, this knowledge will help students in planning their own publications and working with digital librarians. Activities: These activities are meant to help students understand how libraries are translating traditional library services into digital ones. By investigating different library publishing programs, students will be able to see first-hand how libraries, on their own or in collaboration with their university presses, are publishing open access journals, developing subscription-based journal publishing programs, publishing monographs and conference proceedings, and digitizing and publishing parts of their physical collections. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: - Why do you think libraries are increasingly involved in scholarly publishing? - For-profit models of publishing are becoming more costly for users and institutions - The rise of digital technologies has catalyzed new modes of dissemination - Shrinking funding for university presses and scholarly publishers constrains their ability to meet needs for promotion and tenure demands and scholarly publication - Why types of digital publishing issues can librarians help scholars with? - Content Creation: Librarians can assist scholars develop their ideas and gather content for their research and digital publication - Content Management: Librarians have the expertise to help scholars plan the organization and curation of their digital content - Dissemination: With digital publications, there’s a multitude of ways that people can discover, access, and cite research. Libraries are engaged in the technical structures and workflows around research impacts, alternative metrics for tracking publications, and presentations in new venues, such as social media - What publishing resources exist within your library? What publishing resources would you like to see your library implement? - Answers may vary Additional Resources: These resources are meant to give students an in-depth look at how libraries are responding to the rise in digital scholarship. After reviewing these resources, students should understand how libraries are using digital publishing services to keep up with the changing demands of their patrons. Overview: Digital publishing is redefining role of libraries in facilitating new modes of scholarly communications and publication among researchers. Openly accessible forms of scholarly publication can enable scholars to reach new audiences, foster understandings, and find ways for their research to impact society and people in broader ways beyond what scholars normally anticipate. While this trend has made sharing information easier, it has also presented new challenges for academic libraries in terms of how they provide services for digital scholarship and publishing. One benefit of the rise of digital publishing is it has allowed librarians to provide a broad clientele with relatively easy-to-use solutions for many digital research needs. Furthermore, it has enabled librarians to take a more holistic and innovative approach to their work. For example, in today’s scholarly landscape, there is an exponentially increasing number of open access publications and data repositories that provide cost-effective and more democratic ways for scholars to engage in publishing and disseminating scholarship to public audiences. As a result, modern librarians are engaging more fully in scholarly research workflows. By connecting to new points in the research life cycle librarians can bring a host of expertise and resources to help faculty realize their scholarship and publication in new ways. Despite this breadth of services and expertise, librarians find themselves challenged to respond effectively to an ever-growing number of requests for web-based spaces and tools to collaborate on scholarly research. For example, although scholars often underestimate the complexity of their publishing requests by describing their needs using the catch-all term "website," such requests actually represent a diverse set of activities which may be achieved in a variety of ways: with a wiki or basic blog, with more complex tools like a custom-designed database with public or private web access, integration with platforms elsewhere, or some combination of all of these. Support for these projects can be equally varied and may require anything from a single consultation about available enterprise-level tools, to semester-long training and advice for a course's student projects, or an open ended commitment to implement a new tool or manage a scholarly digital collection. Using the resources and activities below, explore how librarians are responding to different aspects of publishing in the digital age. As you read through these case studies, think about why innovative digital initiatives and services successfully develop at some institutions and how librarians support the development of those initatives. Readings: Muñoz, T. (2012). Digital Humanities in the Library Isn’t a Service. Trevor Muñoz: Writing. http://trevormunoz.com/notebook/2012/08/19/doing-dh-in-the-library.html. Vinopal, J., & McCormick, M. (2013). Supporting Digital Scholarship in Research Libraries: Scalability and Sustainability. Journal of Library Administration, 53(1), 27–42. 10.1080/01930826.2013.756689. Green, H. (2017). Publishing without walls: Building a collaboration to support digital publishing at the university of illinois. Fire!!!, 3(2), 21-36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.3.2.0021. Hawkins, K. (2012). Promoting diversity and sustainability in the scholarly publishing ecosystem: The university of michigan's mpublishing redefines the role of libraries in publishing. Educational Technology, 52(6), 8-10. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430191. Activities: Explore these digital library publishing programs. How do these programs engage with their patrons? How do they take a holistic approach to librarianship? - Library Publishing Directory - This annual directory, complied and published by the Library Publishing Coalition, documents the publishing activities of academic and research libraries, including information about the number and types of publications they produce, the services they offer authors, how they are staffed and funded, and their future plans. - Library Publishing Toolkit - The Library Publishing Toolkit looks at the broad and varied landscape of library publishing through discussions, case studies, and shared resources. From supporting writers and authors in the public library setting to hosting open access journals and books, this collection examines opportunities for libraries to leverage their position and resources to create and provide access to content. - Professional Development Opportunities - Developed and maintained by the Library Publishing Coalition, this guide provides links to courses, webinars, and videos relevant to library publishing. - SPARC Guide to Campus-Based Publishing Partnerships - This comprehensive guide from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) helps libraries, presses, and academic units to define effective partnerships capable of supporting innovative approaches to campus-based publishing. Discussion question: - Why do you think libraries are increasingly involved in scholarly publishing? - Why types of digital publishing issues can librarians help scholars with? - What publishing resources exist within your library? What publishing resources would you like to see your library implement? Reflection: What programs do you think libraries should implement to promote the use of digital publishing tools? What questions do you still have about the role libraries play in publishing digital scholarship? Additional Resources: Rutgers CommInfo. (2014, March 20). Digital Humanities: New Roles for Libraries [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNWODM9SK9M&ab_channel=RutgersCommInfo. Bartlett, L. [TEDXTalk]. (2020, January 8). Are Libraries Still Relevant? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG7zYoUq_bs&ab_channel=TEDxTalks. Evaluating Digital Scholarship Readings: I chose these readings because they all center around the ideas of what counts as digital scholarship, why tenure is important for scholars, and how to evaluate the academic merits of a piece of digital scholarship. Sample's article argues that digital scholarship is simply a creative or intellectual act that it is public and circulates in a community of peers that evaluates and builds upon it. Stark's article builds on that idea by considering how departments are evaluating digital scholarship and informing young scholars of what the review process. Raben's article delves more deeply into why obtaining tenure matters and why electronic media is not as highly regarded by the gatekeepers of tenure. Finally, Presner's article discusses possible guidelines for the evaluation of digital scholarship in the humanities. After reading these articles, students should have a better understanding of how universities' reluctance to fully embrace digital scholarship as profound scholarship limits scholars in the projects they choose to pursue. Furthermore, students should become more familiar with publishers, scholars, and other institutions that are leading the way in helping the academic establishment recognize the value of online publication. Activities: These activities are meant to help students see what guidelines currently exist for evaluating digital scholarship. Although there are no universal standards for digital evaluation, students are encouraged to investigate the similarities and differences between these organizations' standards and determine what a strong, standardized set of guidelines might look like. Ideally, analyzing these guidelines, students will be prompted to develop their own standards for evaluation. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: - What guidelines do you think review committees should follow when evaluating digital scholarship? - Nature of Digital Projects - How does the digital component contribute something that couldn’t otherwise be communicated? - Collaboration - Did the project consult outside experts to assess the project’s content and technical structure? - How does the project relate with other digital scholarship projects? - Usability - Does the project use accepted standards for web design, metadata, and encoding? - Sustainability - How does the project address issues of digital preservation? - Is there documentation or is the site code made available? - Other Considerations - Was the project grant funded? - Did the project result in any conference presentations or print publications? - Nature of Digital Projects - Research your institutions guidelines promotion and tenure review process. Is the process inclusive of digital scholarship? What guidelines do you agree with, and which guidelines might you want to change? - Write up your own guidelines for evaluating digital scholarship. Discuss how you wrote your guidelines with a partner. - Answers may vary Additional Resources: These resources are intended to provide students with some examples of what a digital portfolio might look like for a scholar and what an online review committee might look like for a university. After engaging with these resources, students should have greater insight into how to share and submit their digital work for review and how a review committee undergoes the process of acquiring, evaluating, editing, producing, publishing, delivering, marketing, and preserving interactive scholarly works. Overview: To receive tenure college and university professors have long been required to write scholarly monographs or articles, engage in serious research, and teach effectively. In recent years, however, the emergence of digital scholarship has revolutionized, and complicated, the publishing and tenure processes in unexpected ways. For example, the question of what “counts” as scholarship has become critical in higher education. As new electronic media have enabled academics to communicate scholarly material in innovative formats, scholars have attempted to determine what when a piece of work—service, teaching, editing, mentoring, coding, etc.—become scholarship. While some academics have a more liberal definition of what counts as scholarship than others, the rise in digital publishing has helped lend credibility to more untraditional forms of research. Despite this transformation led by digital technology, many universities and institutions have not integrated new forms of scholarship into hiring, tenure and promotion guidelines. Furthermore, of the institutions that do have evaluation practices for digital scholarship, they tend to vary widely from department to department and university to university. Since the evaluation standards for digital humanities work is so varied and most reviewers familiar with evaluating traditional, document-based forms of publishing, many faculty in the humanities are disincentivized from publishing digital humanities work. As a result, most digital-born and collaborative work tends to be done by faculty who have already received tenure. Thus, for faculty with little experience with digital humanities work, the task of creating, defending, and evaluating said work can be daunting. Using the resources below, learn about different institutions' standards for evaluating digital scholarship. As you read through these articles, reflect on why it might be important for libraries and universities develop guidelines for evaluating digital-born scholarship. Readings: Sample, M. (2013). When does service become scholarship?. WordPress. https://www.samplereality.com/2013/02/08/when-does-service-become-scholarship/. Starkman, R. (2013). What 'counts'?. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/02/20/essay-issues-related-what-digital-scholarship-counts-tenure-and-promotion. Raben, J. (2007). Tenure, promotion and digital publication. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 1(1). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/001/1/000006/000006.html. Presner, T. (2012). How to evaluate digital scholarship. Journal of Digital Humanities, 1(4). http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-4/how-to-evaluate-digital-scholarship-by-todd-presner/. Activities: While there currently are no universal standards for evaluating digital humanities work, there are a couple of central figures leading conversations about the need for such baseline ideas. Several of these organizations and their guidelines for tenure review committees on evaluating digital humanities scholarship and collaborative projects are below. Look through these organizations' standards. Think about which recommendations you like or dislike and why. - Modern Language Association - Principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA has developed guidelines designed to help departments and faculty members implement effective evaluation procedures for hiring, reappointment, tenure, and promotion. They apply to scholars working with digital media as their subject matter and to those who use digital methods or whose work takes digital form - American Historical Association - Oldest professional association of historians in the United States. The AHA has created guidelines for the professional evaluation of digital scholarship by historians to help clarify the policies associated with the evaluation of scholarly work in digital forms - George Mason University - Public research university that has extended some of the tenure review principles to evaluating graduate-level work Discussion Questions: - What guidelines do you think review committees should follow when evaluating digital scholarship? - Research your institutions guidelines promotion and tenure review process. Is the process inclusive of digital scholarship? What guidelines do you agree with, and which guidelines might you want to change? - Write up your own guidelines for evaluating digital scholarship. Discuss how you wrote your guidelines with a partner. Reflect: What do you think about these conversations related what should "count" as scholarly work? What questions do you still have about tenure and digital publishing? Additional Resources: Ball, Cheryl. Tenure portfolio, done digitally with primarily digital scholarship. http://ceball.com/. Harvey, A. (2019). A Digital Publishing Initiative. Stanford University. https://blog.supdigital.org/press-release/. Marginalized Communities + Digital Publishing Readings: These readings all center around the necessity of digital publishing for scholars who explore issues related to marginalized communities. Fenton's article discusses the work of five digital humanities scholars whose research is pioneering new approaches to the digital humanities scholarship. Harris's article argues for accessible and credible platforms for publishing media-rich scholarship centering Blackness. McClaurin's article provides commentary on her experiences as a black woman scholar within the Afro-American Studies and Women's Studies disciplines have compelled her to move towards digital publishing tool. Finally, Wernimont's introduction to a Feminisms and Digital Humanities special issue challenges readers to use digital publishing to redefine the humanities disciplines. After reading these articles, students should gain deeper insights into why diversity in humanities research is important and how digital publishing is making research more accessible. Furthermore, students should begin to see how digital publishing has the potential to facilitate the creation and dissemination of transformative work in the humanities fields. Activities: These activities are meant to expose students to digital projects that are created by marginalized people and focus on telling the histories of underrepresented groups. After gaining hands-on experience with these projects and analyzing how these scholars take advantage of the digital space to preserve and communicate history, students should have a better understanding of how digital publishing helps give marginalized and underrepresented scholars a platform to promote their work. Discussion Question with Answer Prompts: - Why do you think digital publishing might give more options for scholars with marginalized identities to share their work as opposed to publishing in a more traditional medium, like a journal article? - Academic journals rely upon gaining acceptance from others who may have vested interests in the status quo, so it may be useful to seek other outlets. - Beyond giving scholars more opportunities for publishing, how else can the digital humanities discipline amplify marginalized voices? - Making a concerted effort to include underrepresented people in review committees, editor boards, etc. Additional Resources: These resources are intended to give students the opportunity to hear how scholars discuss diversity and inclusion in a conference setting. After listening to scholars discuss how they used digital publishing tools to analyze research related to marginalized communities, students should have a better idea of how to lead and facilitate conversations about race, gender, sexuality, etc. in the humanities fields with their peers. Overview: The digital humanities have supported a remarkable diversity of teaching, scholarship and service. In addition to introducing scholars to innovative ways to conduct research, publish work, and communicate with other scholars, digital humanities asks scholars to think about the construction of race, gender, class, sexuality and nation through representations and absences in the cultural archive, examining that archive both in close detail and at massive scale, and using new forms of scholarly production and collaboration to draw others into the project as well. Some of the most impactful ways the digital humanities is promoting such work is through providing new, virtual space for marginalized communities to interact with one another and publish their work to wider audiences. The opportunity for interaction is especially prevalent among younger scholars and scholars who are active on social media. For instance, a 2016 study conducted by the Nielsen Company found that African American Millennials are driving social change and leading digital advancement, raising awareness about issues ranging from social activism to diversifying television programming and more. In traditional print scholarship, communicating the full context of these online posts would be a challenge for humanities scholars. The nature of social media environments requires more than an analysis of an image: the entire post, conversation thread, and hashtag stream that a user accesses must be considered. However, through digital publishing, these valid forms of expression are able to be captured in full and the potential of scholars who interrogate these types of sources are not limited. Additionally, the accessibility of digital publishing makes it easier for scholars to create articles, special issues, and other projects that critique the humanities disciplines and push the field to be more inclusive. The transformative digital humanities will not be found only among the members of marginalized communities. Nor will it be found only where the funding is and where the easily recognized and intensively supported digital humanities projects are. Rather, the humanities have the potential to be transformed into a more diverse and inclusive discipline through the intersection of these two areas; an intersection that is made possible through digital publishing. Using the resources below, examine how humanities scholars from marginalized communities are using digital publishing tools to share their work. Readings: Fenton, W. (2017). The new wave in digital humanities. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/02/rising-stars-digital-humanities. Harris, F. (2017). The necessity of digital publishing in exploring the black experience. Fire!!!, 3(3), 66-79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.3.2.0066. McClaurin, I. (2017). Commentary on Digital Publishing in African American Studies: Continuing the Dialogue and Expanding the Collaborations. Fire!!!, 3(2), 80-103. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/fire.3.2.0080. Wernimont, J. (2015). Introduction to Feminisms and DH special issue. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 9(2). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/2/000217/000217.html. Using the resources below, investigate how digital publishing effects scholars from marginalized communities. Activities: Below are several digital projects created to showcase the history of people from maginalized communities. As you look through them, think about how these scholars analyze the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. How does the use of technology enhance these projects? - Colored Conventions Project - The Colored Conventions Project is a scholarly and community research project dedicated to bringing the seven decades-long history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to digital life. Mirroring the collective nature of the nineteenth-century Colored Conventions, CCP uses innovative, inclusive models and partnerships to locate, transcribe, and archive the documentary record related to this nearly forgotten history and to curate digital exhibits that highlight its stories, events and themes. - Mapping the Gay Guides - Mapping the Gay Guides aims to understand often ignored queer geographies using the Damron Address Books, an early but longstanding travel guide aimed at gay men since the early 1960s. Similar in function to the green books used by African Americans during the Jim Crow era to help identify businesses that catered to black clients in the South, the Damron Guides aided a generation of queer people to identity sites of community, pleasure, and politics. By associating geographical coordinates with each location mentioned within the Damron Guides, MGG provides an interface for visualizing the growth of queer spaces between 1965 and 1980. Discussion Questions: - Why do you think digital publishing might give more options for scholars with marginalized identities to share their work as opposed to publishing in a more traditional medium, like a journal article? - Beyond giving scholars more opportunities for publishing, how else can the digital humanities discipline amplify marginalized voices? Reflect: Which reading interested you the most? What topics related to digital publishing and diversity, equity, and inclusion do you want to further explore? Additional Resources: UBC-V Public Humanities Hub. (2020, November 4). Using DH tools to examine neglected indigenous texts: Edward ahenakew’s old keyam by deanna reder [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Tk4_x1YcU&list=PLD4qpgyh1kvL9jqLBJAlIgzfO3ikearSZ&index=4&ab_channel=UBC-VPublicHumanitiesHub. Live from William & Mary. (2017, October 26). Race, memory, and the digital humanities conference w&m 2017. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTSk1QPx-U&ab_channel=LivefromWilliam%26Mary. Reflection Now that you have completed the various readings, activities, and discussion questions throughout this resource, reflect on the work you have done. On a word document, write a short reflection (approx. 300 words) summarizing key ideas about digital publishing and positing any remaining questions you might have. Think about what digital projects you would like to work on in the future.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.040969	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/75430/overview", "title": "Digital Publishing in the Humanities", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76671/overview	Food Choice Worksheet Overview Worksheet for food choices. It allows students to see what they are eating and how it affects them on a daily basis. Food Choice Worksheet Part I. Using Food Labels Choose three food items to evaluate. You might want to select three similar items, such as regular, low-fat, and fat-free salad dressing, or three very different items. Record the information from their food labels in the table below. Including a table is optional Food Items \| \|\|\| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| Serving size \| \| \| \| Total calories \| cal \| cal \| cal \| Total fat—grams \| g \| g \| g \| —% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Saturated fat—grams \| g \| g \| g \| —% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Trans fat—grams \| g \| g \| g \| Sodium—milligrams \| mg \| mg \| mg \| —% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Carbohydrates (total)—grams \| g \| g \| g \| —% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Dietary fiber—grams \| g \| g \| g \| —% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Sugars—grams \| g \| g \| g \| Protein—grams \| g \| g \| g \| Vitamin A—% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Vitamin C—% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Calcium—% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| Iron—% Daily Value \| % \| % \| % \| How do the items you chose compare? You can do a quick nutrient check by totaling the Daily Value percentages for nutrients you should limit (total fat, sodium) and the nutrients you should favor (dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron) for each food. Which food has the largest percent Daily Value sum for nutrients to limit? For nutrients to favor? Food Items \| \| \| \| Calories \| cal \| cal \| cal \| % Daily Value total nutrients to limit (total fat, sodium) \| % \| % \| % \| % Daily Value total nutrients to favor (fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron) \| % \| % \| % \| Part II. Evaluating Fast Food Complete the chart below for the last fast-food meal you or someone you know ate. Add up your totals for the meal. Compare the values for fat, protein, carbohydrate, and sodium content for each food item and for the meal as a whole with the levels suggested by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Calculate and compare the percentage of total calories derived from fat, saturated fat, protein, and carbohydrate using the formulas given. You can obtain nutritional information by asking for a nutritional information brochure when you visit a restaurant or by visiting the restaurant’s Web site: Arby’s (http://www.arbys.com), Burger King (http:// www.burgerking.com), Jack in the Box (http://www.jackinthebox.com), KFC (http://www.kfc.com), McDonald’s (http://www.mcdonalds.com), Subway (http://www.subway.com), Taco Bell (http://www.tacobell. com), Wendy’s (http://www.wendys.com). Food Items \| Dietary Guidelines \| \| \| \| \| \| \| Totalb \| Serving size (g) \| \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| Calories \| cal \| cal \| cal \| cal \| cal \| cal \| cal \| \| Total fat—grams \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| \| —% caloriesa \| 20–35% \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| Saturated fat—grams \| \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| —% caloriesa \| <10% \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| Protein—grams \| \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| —% caloriesa \| 10–35% \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| Carbohydrate—grams \| \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| g \| —% caloriesa \| 45–65% \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| % \| Sodium \| 800 mg \| mg \| mg \| mg \| mg \| mg \| mg \| mg \| a To calculate the percentage of total calories from each food energy source (fat, carbohydrate, protein), use the following formula: (number of grams of energy source) × (number of calories per gram of energy source) (total calories in serving of food item) (Note: Fat and saturated fat provide 9 calories per gram; protein and carbohydrate provide 4 calories per gram). For example, the percentage of total calories from protein in a 150-calorie dish containing 10 grams of protein is (10 grams of protein) × (4 calories per gram) = 40 = 0.27, or 27% of total calories from protein (150 calories) 150 b For the Total column, add up the total grams of fat, carbohydrate, and protein contained in your sample meal and calculate the percentages based on the total calories in the meal. (Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.) For sodium values, add up the total number of milligrams.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.083103	01/26/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76671/overview", "title": "Food Choice Worksheet", "author": "Amanda Foss" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/117525/overview	Assignment 1 - Individual Practice Observing Animal Behavior Assignment 2 - Behavioral Project Experimental Design Assignment 3 - Group Project Observations Assignment 4 - Behavioral Project Data Analysis Assignment 5 - Behavioral Project Presentations Introduction to the Animal Behavior Project Introductory Biology Animal Behavior Project Overview Engaging introductory biology students in course-based undergraduate research (CURE), especially when they are not intending to major in the discipline, can feel challenging and at times, laborious for them. Studying animal behavior is highly accessible for this population because it allows opportunity to engage with animals within their lives, such as pets, or within the community, including native fauna. Designing experiments around animal behavior allows students to employ the scientific method while avoiding the complexity of techniques and skills more commonly found in molecular labs and also fosters connectivity to the world around them, with which they regularly interact, driving a degree of intrinsic motivation. In addition, creating this opportunity for students early on in their undergraduate career can build critical thinking, teamwork, and analytical skills applicable to other coursework. This CURE, highly adaptable and able to be completed in as little as six weeks, is readily implemented to courses at any level. Citation Hoffman, S., Najera, D., Studdach, L. (2023, October). A Non-Major Biology CURE Studying Animal Behavioral Patterns. OER Commons. Retrieved August 20, 2024 from https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/117525/ Introduction Course-based undergraduate research has rich roots within the biology department at Green River College, found within the upper level majors series. However, until this point, there was no opportunity for non-major students to engage in authentic learning experiences. In order to receive the Associate in Arts Degree for direct transfer, students need at least 15 credits of natural sciences, five of which need to have a lab component. Of the eligible courses, BIOL&100, Survey of Biology, a foundational course for non-majors, has the largest enrollment (Green River College Data Dashboards, 2021-2023). As a result, implementation of a course-based undergraduate research experience, a high-impact practice, within this course will engage a large population of students at our college. Using animal behavior as a basis for group research projects is accessible, as all students have some degree of familiarity with the subject. Students need not learn specialized techniques to engage in the project and interpretation of results can sometimes be more intuitive when placed into a lens of behavioral rationale. In addition, they can engage in this study using multiple modalities, observing wildlife in the community, pets at home, or zoo cameras. Students will first be introduced to the concept of animal behavior and why it is useful to study. They will learn the methods via which behavioralists monitor their subjects, via the use of ethograms and creating behavioral sequences. Students will practice as a class and then individually, preparing them for the group project. As a group, they will design an experiment in which they seek to study how different conditions impact the behavioral patterns of animal subjects. After conducting observations, they will graph and interpret their data, ultimately presenting it in some form, giving them a whole picture of how the scientific method is applied. Scientific Teaching Context Learning Objectives - Design a controlled, scientific study that involves data collection and analysis (Assignment 2,3) - Work effectively in a team environment (Assignment 2) - Learn how biologists utilize ethograms for behavioral analysis studies (Assignment 1) - Draw meaningful conclusions and share them with a broader audience (Assignment 5) Research Objectives - Determine how animal behaviors alter in response to different external stimuli (Assignment 4) Intended Audience This material is designed to be accessible to non-major biology students at a community college, but can be adapted for introductory or upper-level biology students with modifications to details and expectations. Required Learning Time This material can be completed during a 10-week course term in as little as four-five weeks depending on how much class-time you would like to dedicate to learning activities and how much time you would like to give students to complete observations, process the data, and put together their final assessment. Prerequisite Student Knowledge Students should be familiar with components of the scientific method, including independent and dependent variables, forming hypotheses, designing a controlled experiment, data collection and analysis. Familiarity with Excel and graphing is desirable, but not necessary. Lesson Plan Overview \| Activity \| Description \| Estimated Time \| Notes \| \| Project Introduction \| \|\|\| \| In-Class: Introduction to Animal Behavior & Ethograms \| Discussion of why we study animal behavior and class practice creating ethograms and calculating behavioral practice \| 60 minutes \| File: Animal Behavior Introduction PowerpointFile: Animal Behavior Project OverviewSome of the slides will need to be updated by the instructor in real-time as they elicit student participation \| \| Out-of-Class: Create and Analyze Behavioral Sequences for Different Species \| Students independently practice the skills they learned in the in-class activity to solidify understanding of creating ethograms and behavioral sequences. \| 60 minutes \| File: Assignment 1This activity is conducted independently by students outside of class. \| \| Behavioral Project Experimental Design - Done during two-hour in-class lab session \| \|\|\| \| In-Class: Group Contracts \| Provides a structure for groups to self-determine decision-making, meeting, and communication plans for the duration of the project \| 30 minutes \| File: Assignment 2 \| \| In-Class: Experimental Design \| Students are guided through developing a research question, a hypothesis, and the variables they will be manipulating or controlling. They will create a plan for observations. \| 90 minutes \| File: Assignment 2Students may need to finish this outside of class, but setting a deadline for the supply list is critical for instructional support staff.Dialog with students at this point is important to get them to think deeply and design experiments that will yield interesting results. \| \| Behavioral Project Observations \| \|\|\| \| Out-of-Class: \| Students spend time outside of class conducting their experiments. \| 1-2 weeks \| File: Assignment 3 \| \| Data Analysis \| \|\|\| \| Out-of-Class: \| Students use the data from their observations to create two figures. This assignment serves as a scaffolding assignment for feedback before the poster creation. \| 1 week \| File: Assignment 4While students complete this assignment in their groups, the instructor may choose to do an in-class presentation portion on using Excel and creating graphs as well as determining what graph type to use. \| \| Poster Creation \| \|\|\| \| In or Out-of-Class \| The final stage of the scientific method is communicating the findings. This assignment asks students to use the information they put together in Assignments 2 & 4 to share and interpret their experimental design & results. \| 1-2 weeks \| File: Assignment 5You might reserve an open lab time for students to work on these with the support of the instructor. Or, you can ask them to find time to do the work outside of class. \| Project Introduction - Animal Behavior See file: "Animal Behavior Introduction Powerpoint" See file: "Introduction to Animal Behavior Project" In this interactive lecture (Animal Behavior Introduction Powerpoint), students learn about animal behavior and why we study it. Some context related to the biological impulses that lead to behavior is also introduced. As a hook, students watch a 15-minute clip from the docuseries 60-minutes and learn about the work of an animal behaviorist studying African forest elephants, in particular how intense study can inform us as to how individuals and families interact and utilize distinct vocal cues during socialization. The instructor introduces what ethograms are and how they are used to create behavioral sequences. These sequences can further be analyzed to determine the frequency of given behaviors and behavioral patterns, helping scientists better learn about a species. As a class, the instructor will play a one-minute video clip of capuchin monkeys. Students will write down the behaviors they observe during the clip and the instructor will solicit responses to build an ethogram together. Using the class-created ethogram, the instructor will play an additional 30-seconds of the clip, asking students to create a behavioral sequence from that clip. Using an example offered up by a student, the instructor will guide the class through how to calculate behavioral frequencies from that sequence. *This can be a good place to discuss the importance of repetition/iteration in scientific experimentation. It is likely that different students generated different behavioral sequences. This variation becomes neutralized with more repetition. Student Assignment Students will individually practice the skills learned in class related to creating ethograms and monitoring behaviors. They have the option of observing animals proximal to them or using Zoo Cam footage, but will record 25 behavioral sequences and calculate the behavioral frequencies. Behavior Project Experimental Design Students will form groups of 3-5 to develop a question related to animal behavior that they would like to answer. Before beginning, they will complete a group contract (Assignment 2, pages 2-5) in which they will identify how they will communicate with one another, role delegation, expectations related to work quality, participation, and accountability, and how the group will self-manage infractions to the contract. It’s best if the instructor keeps a copy of this contract while a second copy belongs to the group. Students will next work on designing an experiment that will answer the question they have created related to animal behavior. This could be a good time to review the components of the scientific method with students as well as controls and variables. In part I, while brainstorming, they are prompted to think about the variables to their experiment, their research question and hypothesis, and generally how they will conduct their experiment. The instructor will be talking with groups at this point, providing suggestions or insights that might strengthen their design, or ask questions to prompt students to reconsider the feasibility of their strategy. Once deemed satisfactory, the instructor will sign-off on the initial project proposal and students will develop a more comprehensive materials and methods section. The procedure is designed for them to plan out exactly who is doing what and when and to make sure the experiment is replicable. The materials list is especially crucial so that lab support staff can purchase needed equipment in a timely manner. Behavior Project Observations See file “Assignment 3 - Group Project Observations”. Students will, as a group, set up their experiment and create ethograms for the species they are observing. A key difference from their individual ethogram creations is that they will need to capture photos of the behaviors, so that interpretation between group members can be as consistent as possible. Students will be asked to put together 75-100 behavioral sequences from their observations (encourage 25 observations per person) and calculate behavioral frequencies. Data Analysis See file “Assignment 4 - Group Data Analysis” This aspect of the assignment is designed to scaffold student work on the project before they get to the final assessment. It can be removed if there isn’t sufficient time. As attached, it is an asynchronous assignment, wherein students view tutorials on how to use Excel and how to create and use different graph types. Alternatively, the instructor can prepare a lesson on this for in-class use. Students use their behavioral data to create two charts or graphs to display interesting information. Challenge them to really dig into interesting questions and examine their data from all angles. Some suggestions are provided, but feel free to add more. Let them know that their data need not support their hypothesis. This is part of science! This will also be a chance for them to receive feedback on their charts before adding them to their final poster or presentation, particularly with labels, correct chart selection, and whether or not the data they are displaying actually conveys meaning or something of interest. Final Assessment Choice for final assessment is flexible depending on the timing, resources, and instructor preference. Suggestions include a written report of their findings, creating a presentation for the class, or posters for campus symposiums. In this instance, an assessment containing parameters for poster creation is used. Students can work on their final assessment during a time when there is instructor supervision and support, such as an empty lab period, or they can be asked to do it exclusively outside of class. A rubric is included that explicitly indicates to students what information should be included, as are templates and previous examples. You might take time to go through these elements with students, have them critique example posters of different qualities, or do a peer review of each others’ posters before final submission. Teaching Discussion & Notes Instructor Notes IRB Approval None needed. Students should not be using human subjects. Materials Needed This will depend on the lists created by the students. Feel free to prompt modifications to their experimental design if the cost for materials exceeds the departmental budget for the project. Game Cameras, if available, are preferable for students so that they don’t have to constantly monitor a site. If used, you will need to make time for students to learn how to use them while also briefing them about the necessity to change the batteries and clear the memory card often. They will also need to be versed on how to observe the recordings made by the game camera. For Instructional Support Staff Coordinate with instructional support staff well in advance to find out how much time they will need to get supplies DEI Connections The formulaic approach to sharing out the results can be challenged. By allowing students the opportunity to decide how they will communicate their findings embraces concepts of Universal Design of Learning (UDL). Extensions and Modifications Modifications for an Online Format The same assignments can readily be done in an online environment, utilizing Zoo and Aquarium cameras. Students will have less agency in experimental design and will need to familiarize themselves with the schedule of animals in the environment before deciding upon a research question or hypothesis. Files Attached are the files referenced in the resource.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.128170	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/117525/overview", "title": "Introductory Biology Animal Behavior Project", "author": "Lesson Plan" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93395/overview	Micrograph Neisseria sicca Gram stain 1000x p000030 Overview This micrograph was taken at 1000X total magnifcation on a brightfield microscope. The subject is Neisseria sicca cells grown on nutrient agar at 37 degrees Celsius. The cells were heat-fixed to a slide and Gram stained prior to visualization. Image credit: Emily Fox micrograph Dozens of pink, round cells on a light background.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.146327	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93395/overview", "title": "Micrograph Neisseria sicca Gram stain 1000x p000030", "author": "Health, Medicine and Nursing" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120359/overview	Exploring Gamification in English Language Teaching: A Research Perspective Overview Overview of Gamification in ELT Gamification integrates game-like elements, such as points, badges, and competition, into English Language Teaching (ELT) to boost learner engagement and motivation. By turning learning activities into games, students become more active participants in their language acquisition, making the process enjoyable and interactive. Popular tools like Duolingo, Kahoot!, and Classcraft use rewards and challenges to encourage continuous learning and help reinforce vocabulary, grammar, and fluency. While gamification offers clear benefits—such as increased motivation and personalized learning—it also presents challenges, including the risk of over-relying on game mechanics, which can undermine deeper learning, and technology access issues in certain regions. Despite these obstacles, gamification remains a powerful tool in modern ELT, offering innovative ways to enhance language teaching. ELT Gamification Exploring Gamification in English Language Teaching: A Research Perspective In recent years, gamification has emerged as a transformative trend in education, offering dynamic approaches to engage learners and improve learning outcomes. The incorporation of game elements into non-gaming contexts, particularly in English Language Teaching (ELT), has demonstrated potential in enhancing motivation, retention, and participation. As educational paradigms shift from traditional methods to more interactive and learner-centered approaches, gamification offers educators innovative ways to make language learning more effective and enjoyable. This essay explores the role of gamification in ELT, examines its benefits, challenges, and provides examples of tools and apps that have revolutionized language learning. Gamification: Concept and Relevance to ELT Gamification involves integrating game mechanics such as point scoring, competition, badges, and rewards into learning activities. In the context of ELT, gamification aligns with learner-centered teaching strategies, as it places the student at the core of the learning process, encouraging active participation. A notable example is the use of progression systems where learners gain points or badges as they complete tasks, providing a sense of achievement and motivating them to continue learning. Research suggests that gamified learning environments help increase intrinsic motivation by fostering a sense of autonomy, mastery, and purpose (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This is particularly effective in language acquisition, where maintaining learner engagement is key. Gamification also supports task-based learning (TBL), where learners use language in meaningful, practical contexts, and communicative tasks are turned into interactive games. Benefits of Gamification in ELT 1. Increased Engagement and Motivation: One of the main advantages of gamification is its ability to captivate learners. For example, the use of leaderboards and reward systems in apps like Duolingo or Kahoot! creates a sense of friendly competition. Learners are driven to improve their language skills, as each completed task leads to immediate feedback and progress tracking. 2. Enhanced Learning through Repetition: Language acquisition often involves repetitive practice, which can be mundane in traditional settings. Gamified learning platforms like Quizlet allow learners to repeatedly practice vocabulary through fun, game-like formats such as flashcards and timed quizzes. This interactive repetition aids retention and recall without the monotony of conventional drills. 3. Personalized Learning: Gamification facilitates adaptive learning paths where learners can proceed at their own pace. Apps like Memrise utilize spaced repetition systems (SRS) that adapt to the learner’s progress, ensuring that new vocabulary or grammatical structures are reviewed at optimal intervals to boost long-term retention. This creates a tailored learning experience that suits individual needs. Challenges of Gamification in ELT Despite its numerous benefits, there are challenges associated with gamification in language teaching. Over-reliance on game mechanics can detract from deep learning. When students become overly focused on rewards, badges, or competition, the quality of learning may be compromised. Teachers need to strike a balance between motivating learners through games and ensuring they develop a genuine understanding of language structures. Another challenge is the digital divide, particularly in contexts where access to technology is limited. In countries like Pakistan, where technological infrastructure varies significantly across regions, educators may face difficulty implementing gamified language learning tools uniformly. Practical Applications of Gamification in ELT Several tools and platforms provide practical examples of gamification in ELT: 1. Duolingo: This app offers language learners a series of bite-sized lessons structured as levels in a game. Learners earn points and unlock new levels by completing tasks. The app's competitive elements, such as streaks and leaderboards, keep learners motivated. For ELT, Duolingo helps reinforce grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure through engaging tasks. 2. Classcraft: This gamified learning management system allows teachers to turn classroom activities into a role-playing game. Students work together as teams, completing tasks and challenges to earn rewards. In the ELT context, teachers can design language-based quests where students must use target language structures to solve problems or advance to the next level. 3. Kahoot!: A popular tool in language classrooms, Kahoot! allows teachers to create quizzes and surveys in a game-show format. The competitive and timed nature of the platform encourages students to think quickly and use the target language under pressure, helping improve fluency. 4. Wordwall: This interactive tool enables teachers to create custom games for language learning, such as word searches, match-ups, and quizzes. It adds variety to classroom activities while allowing students to review vocabulary and grammar in a fun and engaging way. Conclusion Gamification offers a promising avenue for enhancing English language teaching by increasing student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. Through platforms such as Duolingo, Kahoot!, and Classcraft, educators can incorporate game-like elements that create a fun, competitive, and immersive learning environment. However, challenges such as over-reliance on game mechanics and the digital divide must be addressed to maximize the benefits of gamification in ELT. As technology continues to evolve, the future of gamification in language teaching promises to be dynamic and innovative, with the potential to reshape how we approach language acquisition in diverse educational settings.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.161790	Anam Ikhtiar	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/120359/overview", "title": "Exploring Gamification in English Language Teaching: A Research Perspective", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85399/overview	Math 150: Myth and Measurement--African Americans and Statistics Overview Welcome to Statistics! In this statistics course, we learn about the ethical use and the basic practice of statistics. As we learn, we will also explore how statistics have been used unethically to create enduring and false myths about African Americans. We will also see how statistics can be used to illuminate injustice and offer clear information upon which we can act to become anti-racist agents in our communities. Math 150: Myth and Measurment--African Americans and Statistics Welcome to Statistics! In this statistics course, we learn about the ethical use and the basic practice of statistics. As we learn, we will also explore how statistics have been used unethically to create enduring and false myths about African Americans. We will also see how statistics can be used to illuminate injustice and offer clear information upon which we can act to become anti-racist agents in our communities.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.178604	Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/85399/overview", "title": "Math 150: Myth and Measurement--African Americans and Statistics", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/119822/overview	Gate Asset 2 Gate Asset 3 Gate Asset 4 Tunnel Asset Building your First Game: An Infinite Runner Overview Course Overview: Building an Endless Runner Game in Unreal Engine This course is designed for aspiring game developers and educators looking to learn Unreal Engine through a hands-on project: building an endless runner game. The course introduces essential game development concepts, focusing on visual scripting using Blueprints, and provides a step-by-step guide to creating an engaging and functional game. Students will build a game where a ball character navigates through a procedurally generated tunnel, avoiding obstacles and passing through gates to score points. By the end of the course, learners will have developed a fully functional endless runner and gained foundational skills to expand their game development knowledge. Course Overview The course is designed to help those without a ton of video game experience to be able to not only get started making video games, but also help the instructors with suggestions for how to teach this. You as the instructor should not have to do a lot of trouble shooting or bug fixing, this game is extremely simple and can be replicated by anyone. I will attach resources that students can use without making their own, such as the tunnel or obstacles, but you can choose to provide those or not if you are also teaching 3D modelling. This beginner-friendly course teaches students to create a fully functional endless runner game in Unreal Engine, no prior experience needed. Starting with basic familiarity with computers, students will learn to build, program, and export a game from scratch using Unreal’s visual scripting system, Blueprints. Course Highlights: - Software Setup: Get familiar with Unreal Engine by setting up the project and learning the essentials of navigation and scene setup. - Creating Gameplay Elements: Use Unreal Engine’s pre-made shapes to represent the player character and obstacles, eliminating the need for external modeling software. - Programming with Blueprints: Dive into Unreal’s Blueprints to set up player movement, controls, and infinite spawning for the tunnel, creating an endless runner effect. - Dynamic Obstacle System: Add randomly changing gates to increase difficulty and create excitement. - Implementing Scoring and Final UI: Set up a scoring system and display it on the screen to track player progress. - Final Export: Package the game into a playable format, allowing students to enjoy and share their game. By course completion, students will have a working endless runner game, gaining practical experience with game mechanics, programming logic, and Unreal Engine’s powerful toolkit. Content Sections If you would like to include a 3D modelling component to this, you could either have the students create objects for the game at the start of the course, or you can introduce it when you reach chapter 4 and begin designing obstacles. Either way should flow naturally. Chapter 1: Setting Up Unreal Engine and Your Project - Learning Objectives: Download, install, and configure Unreal Engine; understand basic navigation and project setup. - Content: Guide to setting up a new project in Unreal Engine, and configuring the environment for an endless runner. Chapter 2: Building Basic Gameplay Elements Using Blueprints - Learning Objectives: Introduction to Unreal’s Blueprints visual scripting system; creating a player character and basic controls. - Content: Setup of a simple player character using Unreal’s built-in shapes and adding controls. Chapter 3: Creating the Infinite Tunnel System - Learning Objectives: Understand procedural generation and use Blueprints to spawn level segments continuously. - Content: Set up Blueprint logic to create an infinitely spawning tunnel effect, enabling the player to progress endlessly. - Hands-On: Adjust movement speed to experiment with gameplay pace. Chapter 4: Adding Obstacles for Dynamic Gameplay - Learning Objectives: Introduce randomly changing gates to add challenge and excitement. - Content: Design Blueprint scripts to spawn gates, configure collision detection, and test obstacle interactions. Chapter 5: Implementing a Scoring System and Final UI - Learning Objectives: Set up a scoring mechanism that rewards player progress or actions. - Content: Build scoring logic in Blueprints, display score on the UI, and add feedback to encourage players. - Try It Out: Adjust scoring to test different ways to incentivize gameplay (e.g., number of points for obstacles avoided). Chapter 6: Packaging and Exporting the Finished Game - Learning Objectives: Export the project as a playable file, allowing students to play and share their game. - Content: Overview of packaging options, adjusting final project settings, and exporting for PC or other platforms. - Wrap-Up: Review the complete game and discuss ways students could expand it on their own. Chapter 1: Setting Up Unreal Engine and Your Project Thankfully when Epic made the switch to Unreal Engine 5, they kept much of how Unreal Engine 4 worked. If you understand Unreal Engine 5, you'll understand 4, and vice versa. Unreal Engine 5 has some new tools, but we won't be using them and they do not interfere with the core concepts. Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, students will: - Install Unreal Engine (version 5 or an alternative version if needed). - Create a new project with starter content. - Familiarize themselves with navigating Unreal Engine’s interface. 1.1 Installing Unreal Engine Step 1: Download and Install the Epic Games Launcher - Go to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine page. - Click on Download and install the Epic Games Launcher. Step 2: Install Unreal Engine 5 or an Alternative - Once installed, open the Epic Games Launcher. - Go to the Unreal Engine tab in the left sidebar. - Under Engine Versions, click Install next to the latest version, which should be Unreal Engine 5. - If your computer can’t run UE5, choose Add Versions in the Engine Versions dropdown and select Unreal Engine 4.27 as an alternative. Step 3: Launch Unreal Engine - After installation, click Launch next to your chosen engine version. 1.2 Creating a New Project in Unreal Engine Step 1: Open the New Project Window - When Unreal Engine launches, you’ll see a Project Browser window. This is where you’ll start new projects or open saved ones. - In the Project Browser, go to the Games category, then select Blank to create an empty game project. Step 2: Configure Project Settings - Select Blueprint as the project type, since this course will focus on Unreal’s visual scripting system. - Ensure Starter Content is enabled to have access to basic assets, which will be helpful for beginners. - Leave Ray Tracing disabled for performance, unless you have a high-end PC. - Under Target Platforms, select Desktop/Console and Maximum Quality for graphics settings. Step 3: Name and Save the Project - At the bottom of the window, type in a project name like “EndlessRunner.” - Choose a file location where the project will be saved, and then click Create. 1.3 Navigating the Unreal Engine Interface Once the project opens, you’ll see the Unreal Editor interface. Here’s a quick overview of key sections: Main Interface Areas - Viewport: The large central area where you’ll see the game world. You can rotate, move, and zoom to view your scene from any angle. - Outliner: Located on the right, this lists all objects in your current scene. Think of it as a directory for managing everything in your level. - Content Browser: At the bottom, this is your asset library, where you’ll find textures, models, sounds, and more. - Details Panel: To the right, showing detailed properties of any object you select in the viewport. Basic Navigation Controls - Moving the Camera: - Use the right mouse button to look around. - W, A, S, D keys allow movement like in a first-person game, while holding the right mouse button. - Zooming In and Out: - Use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. - Adjusting Speed: - You can change the camera speed in the top-right corner of the viewport if movements feel too slow or too fast. 1.4 Saving Your Project - To save, go to File > Save All. Make a habit of saving often as you work! Summary In this chapter, you learned how to install and launch Unreal Engine, create a new game project, and navigate the interface. With these steps complete, you’re ready to start building your endless runner game. Chapter 2: Building Basic Gameplay Elements Using Blueprints Students may comment about how dark their scenes may be, encourage them to play around with the settings within the player character's Point Light. Even without changing object materials or setting up emissive textures, students can achieve fun lighting effects off of this one light. Students can also experiment with changing the size of the player, but this can have additional unintended effects when not scaled with the other objects. 1. Create a New Player Character Blueprint - Open Unreal Engine and navigate to the Content Browser. - Right-click in the Content Browser, select Blueprint Class, and choose Pawn as the base class. - Name this Blueprint BallPlayer. 2. Set Up the Ball Shape for the Player Character - Open the BallPlayer Blueprint. - In the Components panel, click Add Component and select Sphere. - Rename it to BallMesh (or any descriptive name). - Adjust the sphere’s size if needed using the Transform panel on the right. - In the Components panel, click Add Component and select Point Light. - Set the Point Light's Intensity to 50,000, and the Attenuation Radius to 20,000. This can be adjusted to get the area lit up as needed. 3. Add a Camera Component - To give players a view of the ball, add a Camera component: - Click Add Component and select Camera. - Position the Camera Directly Behind the Ball: In the Details panel, set the X-axis to a moderate distance (like -20 – -30) to keep it close behind the ball. - Set the Rotation of the Camera: - Set Pitch to 0 (this keeps the camera level). - Set Yaw to 0 to align it directly behind the ball. - Roll should also be 0. Update the Ball Movement to Move Forward Automatically: - Go back to the Event Graph in the Ball Character Blueprint. - Add a new Tick Event: - Right-click and type Event Tick to place it in the Event Graph. - Connect this to two Branches checking two boolean values that you need to create, Is Started and Is Dead. - Multiply your Delta Seconds from your Event Tick by a float variable you should name Move Speed. - Run the false Branch into a Add Actor World Offset. Run the multiplication result into the Delta Location X. - This will cause the ball to constantly move forward, and the camera will follow right behind, creating the classic endless runner feel. For now, click on the Move Speed variable and set its value to 900. - Click Add Component and select Camera. 4. Set Up Basic Controls for Mouse-Based Movement - We’ll use input from the mouse to control the ball’s movement on the screen. - Unreal Engine allows for input mappings through Project Settings. Set Up Input Mappings: - Go to Edit > Project Settings > Input. - Under Axis Mappings, add two new axes: - Name the first MoveRight. Assign Mouse X to it with a Scale of 1.0. - Name the second MoveUp. Assign Mouse Y to it with a Scale of 1.0. Implement Mouse Controls in Blueprints: - Return to the BallPlayer Blueprint. - In the Event Graph, create two nodes for movement: - InputAxis MoveRight and InputAxis MoveUp. - Connect these to add lateral movement to the ball: - From InputAxis MoveRight, drag out and connect to an Add Movement Input node. - For the Direction vector, get it from a Get Actor Right Vector node. - For the Scale, use the Axis Value from InputAxis MoveRight multiplied by Move Speed. - Repeat this for InputAxis MoveUp, setting the Direction from a Get Actor Up Vector node. - Both of these node can then be ran into Consume Movement Input Vector. This is being done so that player sensitivity can be set. - From that return node, multiply it by a new float variable called Sensitivity. This should be set to 0.05 to start but can be changed for what feels best. - The result from that multiplication and the executable from Consume Movement Input Vector into Add Actor Local Offset. 5. Test and Adjust - Click Compile and Save in the Blueprint Editor. - Place the BallPlayer Blueprint into your level from the Content Browser. - Play the level and test the mouse controls. - Adjust the input sensitivity or camera position if needed to get the movement feel you want. If it gives you any issues, make sure your boolean variables are set to the right state for testing. Chapter 3: Creating the Infinite Tunnel System The measurements in this course are based upon the provided Tunnel Asset. Students are free to use whatever asset they would like for their tunnels, but ensure they understand that numbers will need to be changed for the game to work properly. If students have issues with collision, please make sure they know to remove their Simple Collision and set their objects to Use Complex Collision as Simple. If they continue to have problems, they can delete the Simple Collision. 1. Setting Up the Blueprint for Spawning Segments Blueprint Setup: Create a Blueprint Actor specifically for your tunnel segment: - Name this Actor BP_TunnelSegment . Adding Components: For each BP_TunnelSegment , include: - Tunnel Mesh – A visible tunnel mesh or shape to represent the segment. - Box Collision – Positioned at X = 2532 to detect when the player reaches the end of the segment. This triggers the next tunnel segment to spawn. - Spawn Point (Scene Component) – Position this component at X = 2500 on the X axis at the end of the segment. This will serve as the location from which new tunnel segments will spawn. 2. Building the Infinite Spawning System We’ll now set up Blueprint logic in BP_TunnelSpawn to spawn tunnel segments endlessly as the player progresses. Step 1: Set Up the BP_TunnelSpawn Blueprint Create a Blueprint Class: - Go to the Content Browser, select Blueprint Class, and choose Actor. Name this Blueprint BP_TunnelSpawn . - Go to the Content Browser, select Blueprint Class, and choose Actor. Name this Blueprint Set Up the Initial Spawn Function: Within BP_TunnelSpawn , create a function called Spawn Initial Tunnels.Add a Sequence node at the start to run two processes: - First Sequence Pin: Plug this into Get All Actors of Class and select BP_TunnelSegment . This should flow into a For Each Loop with its loop body connected to a Destroy Actor node, clearing any lingering tunnel segments from previous sessions. - Second Sequence Pin: Connect this to a For Loop with a first index of 0 and last index of 2, ensuring there are always two segments in front of the player to prevent them from seeing the end of the tunnel. - First Sequence Pin: Plug this into Get All Actors of Class and select Create Validity Check and Spawn Function: - Within the For Loop, add an Is Valid node. - Create a variable called NewestTunnel of the actor type BP_TunnelSegment and plug this into the Is Valid node to check if there is an existing tunnel. Step 2: Building Your First Spawn Function - Create the SpawnTunnel Function: - If the Is Valid node is False, create a new function called SpawnTunnel with a vector input named Spawn Location. - Within this function, add Spawn Actor From Class and connect the Spawn Location vector to Spawn Transform Location. Set this to spawn the BP_TunnelSegment class. - Promote the return value of the spawned actor to a variable called NewestTunnel. - In BP_TunnelSegment , create a variable named Tunnel Spawner of actor typeBP_TunnelSpawn . - Return to BP_TunnelSpawn and use NewestTunnel to set Tunnel Spawner to a reference of self. - If the Is Valid node is False, create a new function called SpawnTunnel with a vector input named Spawn Location. Step 3. Spawning Continuous Tunnels - Add Spawn Tunnel at Spawn Point Function: - After checking Is Valid, create another function called Spawn Tunnel at Spawn Point. - Connect this function’s executable to the SpawnTunnel function created earlier. - Use NewestTunnel to get the Spawn Point Scene Component created in BP_TunnelSegment , and use Get World Location to feed into Spawn Location in theSpawnTunnel function. - After checking Is Valid, create another function called Spawn Tunnel at Spawn Point. Step 4. Spawning Tunnels on Overlap On Component Begin Overlap Event: - In BP_TunnelSegment , add an On Component Begin Overlap event to the Box Collision component. - Use Cast To BallPlayer to ensure that it’s the player overlapping with the Box Collision. - If the overlap is valid, use Tunnel Spawner to call Spawn Tunnel at Spawn Point. - After spawning a new segment, connect this executable to a Destroy Actor node to delete the old tunnel segments behind the player. - In Add BP_TunnelSpawn to the Map: - Finally, place the BP_TunnelSpawn Blueprint into the map at the player spawn location. It will now know to spawn the initial tunnels at the start of gameplay. - Finally, place the Chapter 4: Adding Obstacles for Dynamic Gameplay Feel free to add more static meshes as gates, these objects are just a starting point. This would be a great point to pivot into 3D modelling, as they gates can be any kind of an object. Our studio had a lot of success with using abstract objects as the gates, those offer a lot of freedom in creative design. If students have issues with collision, please make sure they know to remove their Simple Collision and set their objects to Use Complex Collision as Simple. If they continue to have problems, they can delete the Simple Collision. Chapter 4: Building and Configuring Gates for Scoring In this chapter, we’ll set up gates within each tunnel segment for players to pass through. These gates will play a central role in the game’s scoring system, as they’ll be used to track player progress and calculate points. We’ll also cover collision detection to handle game-over events and create a simple restart interface for a seamless gameplay experience. 1. Building Obstacle Gates Setting up the Gate Mesh - In the BP_TunnelSegment blueprint, add a newStatic Mesh component and name it “Gate.” Set the default mesh to one of the provided gate meshes. - Position the gate within the segment by setting its X location to 2470 to align it correctly within the tunnel. Randomizing the Gate Appearance - Create a new function within BP_TunnelSegment calledRandomize Wall . - Within this function, reference the Gate static mesh component and add aSet Static Mesh node to it. - Next, add a Random Integer in Range node, setting its minimum to0 and maximum to the total number of gate meshes minus one. - Connect the integer output to a Select node. - Right click one of the Option pins on the Select node and select Change Pin Type. - Select a Static Mesh Object Reference type to change the Option pins to Static Mesh selectors. - Assign each option to one of the different gate meshes available. This will allow the gate to randomly select from multiple designs. - Connect the output of the Select node to theNew Mesh input of theSet Static Mesh node to finalize the randomization. - After the gate mesh is set, add an Add Local Rotation node to apply a random rotation to the gate:- Create a Random Float in Range node with values between0.0 and360.0 . - Use this float output to set the Delta Rotation X in the Add Local Rotation node, giving each gate a unique rotation within the tunnel. - Create a Integrating Randomization with the Spawner - In BP_TunnelSpawner , within theSpawnTunnel function, call theRandomize Wall function from theNewest Tunnel variable reference. This will ensure each spawned tunnel has a unique gate. Adding Continuous Rotation - Return to BP_TunnelSegment and locate or add theEvent Tick node. - Multiply the Delta Seconds value fromEvent Tick by a new float variable calledRotateSpeed , with a default value of30 . This can be modified and randomized later. - Use the result to control the X-axis rotation in an Add Local Rotation node. Connect both the tunnel and gate static mesh references to this node, allowing them to rotate continuously throughout gameplay. 2. Configuring Collision Detection Setting up Collision for Gates - In BP_TunnelSegment , select the static mesh component used for the gate and add anOn Component Begin Overlap event. - To ensure collision only triggers when the player hits the gate, use a Branch node with a condition to check that the overlapping actor is the player character. - When the condition is met, set the player variable Is Dead totrue to stop movement. - Then, use a Set Hidden In Game node to hide the player character model, marking the end of the game-over sequence. 3. Creating the Restart UI Designing the Game-Over Menu - In the Content Browser, create a new Widget Blueprint (e.g., BP_RestartMenu ). - Within the widget, add a Canvas Panel from the Palette in the top right. Then, add a Text component and aButton . - Click on the Text Component and drag the white Anchor to the center of the Canvas Panel. Do this again with the Button. - Drag the Text and Button where you would like them on the Canvas Panel. - Select the Text Component and using the Text option in the Details panel on the right, add a message like "Game Over" to your Text Component. You can use the Font options and the handles around the Text to change the size of the component. - Drag a Text Component from the Palette on top of the Button to nest a new Text Component inside the Button. Change the text of that Text Component to "Restart". - Select the Button and check the box for "Size to Content" to resize the Button to fit around your Restart text. Adding Restart Functionality - Select the button and create an On Clicked event. Within this event, use anOpen Level (by name) node and type in the exact name of your level to reload the current level, resetting the game to its starting state. 4. Displaying the UI on Collision - At the end of the game-over sequence in BP_TunnelSegment , add a Create Widget node and select theBP_RestartMenu widget. - Connect the widget’s return value to an Add to Viewport node, ensuring the game-over screen displays when the player collides with a gate. - At the end of the Add to Viewport node, add a Cast to PlayerController node and add a GetPlayerController node to the Object pin. Drag off As Player Controller and create a node called Set Show Mouse Cursor. Set this to True. NOTE: If your static meshes for the gates are giving you collision problems, be sure to open up the static mesh and ensure it is using Complex Collision and not Simple Collision. Chapter 5: Implementing a Scoring System and Final UI Encourage students to look beyond what they set up in this chapter. This establishes a great framework with the scoring system as well as an easy to use UI that can be expanded upon. See if students can think of ways to track streaks, or multipliers, this can help form more complex math equations to produce more interesting feedback. 1. Setting Up the Gate-Based Scoring System Add a Score Variable - In the player character Blueprint, create an Integer Variable called Score to track the player’s current score. 2. Displaying the Score on the UI Create a Score Widget - In the Content Browser, create a new Widget Blueprint called BP_ScoreUI. - Inside the Widget, add a Canvas Panel and a Horizontal Box for organizing score information. - Add a Text component to the Horizontal Box and set its text to say "Score:". - Add a Spacer immediately after the text component, setting the X size to 10. - Add another Text component after the spacer for displaying the score. - In the Event Graph, create an Event Construct node. - From this node, cast to BallPlayer using Get Player Pawn as the object reference. - Promote the return variable to a variable named PlayerRef. - In the Widget Designer, select the second text component (the one for the score data), scroll to the Text input, and create a binding. - In the binding, use PlayerRef to access the Score variable. Connect the Score variable directly to the Return Node. This automatically converts the integer to text and updates it whenever the score changes. - In the binding, use PlayerRef to access the Score variable. Connect the Score variable directly to the Return Node. This automatically converts the integer to text and updates it whenever the score changes. - Move the Horizontal Box to the top-left corner and set its anchor to the top-left. If needed, enable Size to Content for the Horizontal Box. Add the UI to the Viewport - In the Level Blueprint, create an EventBeginPlay to display BP_ScoreUI at the game start. - Use a Create Widget node to create an instance of BP_ScoreUI, then an Add to Viewport node to show it on screen. 3. Adding Score Functionality for Passing Through Gates - In BP_TunnelSegment, add a Box Collision component named TriggerZone. - Set its Location on the X-axis to 2532 and Box Extent to 32, 500, 500. - In the Event Graph, create an On Component Begin Overlap node for TriggerZone. - Connect the executable and other actor nodes to a Cast to Player Character node. - Use the Score variable to increment the player’s score by 1, then set it using the Set Score node. - At the end, add a reference to the Tunnel Spawner and call the Spawn Tunnel at Spawn Point function. - Run the executable into a Destroy Actor node. 4. Setting Up a Start UI Create the Start Widget - Create a new Widget called Start. - Add a Canvas Panel and a Button in the center of the Widget, setting its anchor to center as well. - Attach a Text component to the Button, and set the text to say "Start". - Resize the Button to fit the "Start" text. Configure Start Button Actions - In the Event Graph, add a Event Construct node. - Cast to the Player Controller and use it to create a Set Show Mouse Cursor node, setting it to True. - Back in the Designer, select the Button component, go to Events, and create an On Clicked event. - From this event, cast to BallPlayer using a GetPlayerPawn node. - From the BallPlayer cast, set the Is Started variable to True. - Reference the Player Controller to create a Set Show Mouse Cursor node, setting it to False. - Finally, add a Remove from Parent node to remove the Start widget from the screen. Display the Start Widget - In the Level Blueprint, add a Create Widget node to display the Start Widget at game start, followed by an Add to Viewport node. - Place this code immediately after the Score Widget creation. Try It Out: Testing Scoring and Feedback Your game should now be fully functional and playable. If you encounter any issues with starting the game, check the BallPlayer Blueprint: - Ensure Is Started is set to False by default. - Ensure Is Dead is set to False by default. Chapter 6: Packaging and Exporting the Finished Game This should be one of the shortest lessons and should give a lot of time for reflection and feedback, here is a sample guideline of how to have students evaluate what they have created: Wrap-Up: Reviewing and Expanding the Game Game Review: - Encourage students to review their game and consider what they’ve built. Let them play through it to observe any areas for refinement, such as scoring, UI, or obstacles. Discussion on Expanding the Game: - Suggest ways to expand the project, such as: - Adding new tunnel designs or backgrounds. - Implementing power-ups or new scoring mechanics. - Experimenting with more complex obstacles or an evolving difficulty level. - Suggest ways to expand the project, such as: 1. Preparing the Project for Export Check Project Settings: - Open Project Settings from the Edit menu. Here, you’ll set the target platform and optimize settings. - Maps & Modes: Ensure the correct Game Mode is selected and set the appropriate Default Map for the game’s opening level. Under Maps & Modes, set both the Editor Startup Map and Game Default Map to the starting level of the game. - Open Project Settings from the Edit menu. Here, you’ll set the target platform and optimize settings. 2. Configuring Packaging Options - In Project Settings > Packaging: - Build Configuration: Set to Shipping for a final build, which removes debug information and optimizes performance. - Full Rebuild: Enable this option to ensure a clean build, free of temporary or old data. - Use Pak File: Enabling this option packages all game content into a single file, which makes distribution cleaner and can improve load times. - Include Prerequisites: Enable this if you want the installer to include necessary components like DirectX for Windows or Metal for Mac. 3. Packaging the Game for Windows Select Build Configuration: - In the Main Editor, go to Platforms > Windows and choose Package Project. - Choose a target directory where the packaged game will be saved. Initiate Packaging: - Click on the chosen Windows option, and Unreal Engine will begin the packaging process. This may take a few minutes depending on the complexity of your game. Testing the Packaged Game: - Once the packaging completes, go to the saved directory and test the executable file ( .exe ) to ensure the game runs as expected. - Verify that all gameplay elements, graphics, and sound work correctly outside the Unreal editor. - Once the packaging completes, go to the saved directory and test the executable file ( 5. Creating a Final Build for Sharing - Folder Structure: - For both Windows and Mac, package all the files within the build folder into a single zip file to simplify sharing. Include any ReadMe files or controls guides if necessary. 6. Testing and Troubleshooting Common Issues - Test on different machines if possible to identify any platform-specific issues. - If you encounter errors, return to Project Settings and verify that your settings match the target platform requirements. Conclusion A few years ago, I stumbled upon a Twitter thread that easily explained how to build an entire game from scratch in just six posts. Unfortunately, that thread has since disappeared, as well as any trace of it on the internet. Inspired by that simple resource, I wanted to recreate it to the best of my ability. My goal is to provide a tool for aspiring game developers—one that enables anyone, regardless of prior experience, to create a great first project. Massive thanks to Dogwood Gaming for making this all possible! Created by: Samuel Martino Tyler Ulsch	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.256288	Teaching/Learning Strategy	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/119822/overview", "title": "Building your First Game: An Infinite Runner", "author": "Lesson Plan" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96656/overview	Nassella pulchra p000072 Overview Nassella seeds germinated in water. Image credit: Fernando Agudelo-Silva Micrograph Light background with long, yellow and tan rods covered with tiny white, hairlike projections.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.275750	Forestry and Agriculture	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96656/overview", "title": "Nassella pulchra p000072", "author": "Botany" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114419/overview	Library Research for Academic Writing Overview This resource will provide college students with the skills necessary to find academic articles in support of a research writing assignment. This resource is written for a college level reader. The exercises are intended to be accomplished by using your college or university library website and the research resources on it. While this resource can be accomplished independently, it has been written to serve as instruction within a research methods course and assumes that students have an actual research project to which they can apply these strategies. Introduction Instructor Notes: The reading and exercises in this resource can be adapted to several different disciplines. It has been written in generalized language so that instructors can easily make changes to customize the resource to their course. Because of the general nature of the exercises, instructors may need to clarify some aspects of the tasks or specify what tools should be used based on the student's home institution. Welcome to Library Research for Academic Writing. This resource is written for a college level reader and the exercises are intended to be accomplished by using your college or university library website and the research resources on it. While this resource can be accomplished independently, it has been written to serve as instruction within a research methods course and assumes that you have an actual research project to which you can apply these strategies. Let’s look at a common college writing scenario: you are assigned to write a research paper, an annotated bibliography or a literature review. Maybe your project involves each of these steps. Where do you begin, and how can you find the best and most reliable writing from all the information available to you, whether it is in print or in an online format? If you understand this reading and perform the practice exercises recommended here, you can develop the skills you need to be a sophisticated online searcher who can independently explore any topic you are assigned in school; any project you are given in your future career; or any interest you have in your personal life. Not only will you be able to find and access the information, but you will also have the knowledge to make decisions about the quality and credibility of any information. If this sounds like a valuable academic skill, it is! It is also a valuable job skill and a valuable life skill. So read on and join me in becoming a better student and entering the world of scholarly research! Annotated Bibliography, Literature Review, or Both?* The annotated bibliography comes in various forms and serves a variety of purposes. Thus, authors might include an annotated bibliography at the end of their text to offer further reading. Advanced students might be required to produce an extended annotated bibliography before they begin their dissertation. Students might create an annotated bibliography at the preliminary stage of their research. Writing an annotated bibliography helps researchers organize their sources and gain perspective on the larger conversation about their topic. It is a list of sources (or a bibliography) divided into two parts: The first part, the citation, contains basic information about the source, such as the author’s name, the title of the work, and the date of publication. The second part contains individual paragraphs that describe, evaluate, or summarize each source. The annotated bibliography serves as a foundation for a larger project, like a college-level research paper. An academic literature review serves a similar purpose to an annotated bibliography, summarizing existing research, but it takes a different form and is more evaluative. Literature reviews are an indispensable tool for researchers. Instead of having to read dozens of articles on a topic, a researcher could instead read a literature review that synthesizes what is known and puts each piece of scholarship into conversation with the others. This could be not only quicker, but also more valuable. The job of a literature review is to examine a collection of research or scholarship on a given topic and show how that scholarship fits together. Literature reviews summarize, describe, evaluate, and synthesize the work of other authors and researchers while looking for common trends/patterns, themes, inconsistencies, and gaps in this previous research. As the author of the literature review, it is your job to join the pieces together, giving your reader a complete picture of what researchers know about your topic. Literature reviews occur in two general forms—as a background section in a scholarly work or as a stand-alone genre in and of itself. In both situations, the basic purpose and structure of the literature review is similar: it is the length and the scope that varies. In undergraduate study the Traditional or Narrative Review as a background section is most common. Narrative reviews are somewhat exploratory in their content—in a narrative review you are synthesizing the results of specific texts selected for their connection to your topic. Other types of literature reviews, those which are stand-alone publications include a Systematic Review and a Scoping Review. Narrative Reviews can also serve as stand-alone pieces of writing. Systematic reviews provide comprehensive coverage of the research on a specific line of inquiry. In a systematic review, the methodology section is a primary component so readers can verify that all relevant research has been included. These are frequently used in Medicine and Social Sciences. In a scoping review, the purpose is to identify the types of research on a topic and gaps in current research being performed. The focus is often on new and developing, possibly incomplete, research. Want to learn more? Visit these resources Costello, V. (2023). Annotated Bibliography. In Writing for Inquiry and Research. Windsor & Downs Press. https://doi.org/10.21900/wd.19 Williams, C. (2023). Literature Review. In Writing for Inquiry and Research. Windsor & Downs Press. https://doi.org/10.21900/wd.19 This section reuses and revises text from the OER: Costello, V. (2023). Annotated Bibliography. In Writing for Inquiry and Research. Windsor & Downs Press. https://doi.org/10.21900/wd.19 Exploring Your Field Instructor Notes: Students may find that there are multiple entries in general encyclopedias relevant to their search. They may also be able to identify entire encyclopedias specific to their area of interest. This exercise is intended to encourage their exploration of encyclpoedia entries (2000-5000 words) rather than book length works. A good response to this exercise will include a thoughtful answer to item four, "Record any salient terms, theories, research or events that will help you in your literature search." What will you study? If you are reading this you are probably a college student in a class with a research project component. Whether it is a Natural Science, Social Science, Professional Studies, or Arts and Humanities, academic scholarship is categorized into a discipline. What makes scholarship part of a discipline is the subject matter, the approach taken by the author toward that subject matter, and the methods of inquiry and analysis that the author or authors employ. In addition, whatever that discipline might be, it will be divided into several subfields or subdisciplines. Before we dive into the strategy of online searching, we need to make some decisions about the scope of the topic we are investigating so we can rule out irrelevant information and make informed decisions about where we will look for the academic literature on your topic. Ask yourself these questions: In what area or subdiscipline do your interests lie? What are the major questions or ideas in this subdiscipline? What do you already know about the subject matter? Depending on your assignment, you may already have the scope of your subject decided for you, which makes the next decision that much easier. However, if you have a lot of latitude for subjects to study, it might be useful to do a few short readings to help you narrow down your choices. Appropriate, credible, high quality readings on commonly studied ideas, events, or people within a subject area can be found in general encyclopedias, subject encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, historical dictionaries, handbooks and manuals and research guides. All of these types of reference works, whether print or online (and sometimes both) are available at an academic library. For problem-free and fast access to these tools, ask the librarians at your university or college library for help finding and using these information resources. Wait a second. You are really busy. You have other classes and a job and maybe you didn’t start on this assignment right away. You might be asking yourself, “why do I have to do this pre-work before I can choose a topic?” Learning a bit about the topic will help you decide if you are really interested in the subject. Your interest will help you sustain effort in the project, thereby producing better work. It is a lot easier to research and write about something you are genuinely interested in than something you don’t care about. It will save you time in the long run One of the things you are doing by reading short, factual pieces about a topic is that you are learning the subject terminology, names of theories and theoretical concepts, names of important scholars, and research in the topic, and perhaps key people and events. You are learning the language of your discipline. This knowledge will serve you well as you continue researching the literature. Keep notes and lists on what you read and collect citations and permalinks to materials so you can get back to them easily when you need to. When you have identified and read a few encyclopedia entries and selected a topic of inquiry, you are ready to start developing a research question. Exercise I Perform the following tasks - Using your library resources or your favorite free search engine, identify two or more encyclopedia entries in a subfield of your discipline. If you are using a search engine, Wikipedia is acceptable. If you discover there are entire encyclopedias dedicated to your field or subfield, dig a little deeper and identify specific entries in the encyclopedias. - Read these entries and summarize them in two or three sentences in a document. - Cite the entries in the style required by your assignment. - Record any salient terms, theories, research or events that will help you in your literature search. Ask the librarians at your school for guidance in finding the encyclopedias either online, or as print or electronic books. Developing a Good Research Question Your particular research question and the methods by which you will conduct research, such as data selection, and/or collection, and data analysis, are subject to your assignment and your instructor’s approval. We are interested in knowing how and where to find relevant, credible scholarship on a topic. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are adequately covered in textbooks, and there are many handbooks on research methods in the Social Sciences. However, we can make some general observations about common aspects of good research questions. Your research project has clear time and resource constraints. Do you have a few weeks for the project or an entire semester? When developing a good research question, you need to know if it can be accomplished in the time allowed and with the resources at your disposal. Another important consideration is the relevance to the field. How much has already been studied in the area? Will there be a sufficient body of literature interrogating the subject that you will be able to draw upon to help you state your ideas? Alternatively, is your question a matter of debate? Has the question you wish to ask already been answered to the satisfaction of most scholars in the field? If the topic is dependent on recent events or phenomena, has it been so little studied that you can’t find adequate research to provide you with a context for your work? Remember that it takes time for scholars to think and write and respond to each other. A useful metaphor for scholarly research findings is the idea of a conversation. As a researcher—even at an undergraduate level—you will be situating your ideas within the context of what other scholars have written about a topic. If the topic is recent, can you draw connections to your question and to research published in the literature? Want to learn more? Visit these resources Reisner, A. (2023). Reading Social Science Methods. Windsor & Downs Press. https://doi.org/10.21900/wd.18 Sheppard, V. (2020). Research Methods for the Social Sciences: An Introduction. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/jibcresearchmethods/ Finding Academic Literature 1: What is it? Instructor Notes: 1. The intention for exercise two is for students to find journals relevant to their research interest. That means they may find journals outside the context of the course in which they are enrolled. 2. If students use an open web search engine to find journals, they may find titles that are not subscribed to by their home institution. This is acceptable and teaches the student the distinction between subscribed journals to which their access is seamless, and journals behind a "paywall". Librarians at your institution can help draw these distinctions and make clarifications. Now that you have learned a bit more about your general topic area, for example, to which subdiscipline or subfield it belongs, and you have developed a research question, your next goal is to find academic literature that addresses your topic. If you aren’t very experienced in writing academic research papers you might be wondering a few things. What is academic literature? Where can you find it? What are some effective ways to search for it? The academic literature, also referred to as scholarly literature, or journal literature is a modality of communication that scholars use to share research with each other. Primarily, this communication takes the form of articles published in periodicals called journals. A journal is a publication that comes out several times a year, often quarterly, but sometimes as many as twelve or more times each year. Each issue includes several articles written by one or more expert researchers, like your professors. Academic journals have a few differences from other periodical publications that make them distinct. Academic journal articles are written at a very high level of expertise, making them difficult to understand by readers who are not experts themselves. Remember, these are experts communicating with other experts in a specialized subject area. This is good to keep in mind when you begin reading academic research. You may need some extra time reading to fully comprehend the ideas. In contrast, articles published in magazines, newspapers or on websites are usually written in language that can be understood by the average person. Academic journal articles also tend to be longer than articles for the general readership. Forty to sixty page articles are common. In addition to being lengthy, journal articles follow a formal structure that includes a literature review, a description of the methods used to conduct the research, research findings, and a bibliography or list of works cited. These article sections will be present in some form in most academic articles, in addition to other sections, depending on the discipline. These sections should seem familiar to you, since you are being asked to provide a literature review and/or an annotated bibliography and a list of works cited for your research paper. Another distinction to be made about academic journal articles is the form of review or editing that article manuscripts must undergo prior to being published. Most journal articles go through a peer-review process of editing, before being approved for publication in a scholarly journal. Peer review means that the author, for example Professor Jones, Ph.D., submits her article to a journal, where it is then sent anonymously to three or more professors in the same field at different institutions. These other Ph.D. s review the article for accuracy and quality, and make a recommendation about whether it should be published or not. It is common for an article to be returned to an author for revision before it is published. Sometimes articles are rejected from a journal. In this way, a journal strives to only publish the most appropriate and best research in that specialized area. Peer review is a form of quality control. Exercise 2: Journal Examples Using resources such as the library catalog or research guide at your school, or your favorite search engine, identify five journals and answer the following questions about each one. - How long has the journal been publishing (i.e. did it begin in 1940, 1890, or 2010?) - Who publishes it? - How much does a subscription cost? - Does your college or institution subscribe to this journal? Journals are often published by scholarly associations, and also by university presses. They are also published by for-profit corporate academic publishers. The answers to the questions can usually be found on the journal’s home page. If you are reviewing a print issue, you might find the information in the first few pages of the issue prior to the table of contents. Ask the librarians at your school for guidance in identifying journals to explore. Finding Academic Literature 2: Where can you find it? Instructor Notes: Each of the exercises assumes the student will be provided with or will create their own documents in which to record their answers and progress. Guided exploration is the overarching aim of the exercises rather than "correct" answers. If a student is far afield from the intention of the exercise, the instructor and or a partner librarian can provide suitable redirection in order to help the student understand the goal. It should be clear by now that when you hear the terms academic literature, scholarly literature, or peer reviewed articles, that these terms are synonymous with each other. It should also be clear that journals are highly selective and publish highly specific subject areas. A journal in Sociology won’t be publishing any Biology research. But even within Sociology there will be several different journals publishing research within the subdisciplines. Thousands of scholarly journals exist to publish research in many different areas of scholarly inquiry. It can be a little intimidating to think about the number of possible publications where you can find research relevant to your topic. How can you possibly search across all of those journals and also be able to ignore all the extraneous “noise” information you get when searching Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or other search engines? Lucky for you, librarians have been working on this problem for a long time. You have online tools called article databases available through your institution’s library. These tools allow you to search across thousands of journal publications from many years ago up to the most current issues. Every journal indexed in a database will have published thousands of articles, and each one of those articles is described in a unique database record. College and university libraries make dozens and sometimes hundreds of article databases available to use. The libraries pay annual access fees so that faculty, staff and students at that institution can search the databases, and access the full articles when available. Choosing to search these tools for information rather than searching the open Web will save you time and effort. You also sidestep questions of credibility, currency, relevance, accuracy, and purpose by using article databases (search the CRAAP test for more information). Unlike search engines, in which your results are influenced by commercial interests and algorithms that increase confirmation bias, library databases only include information already published and vetted by an editorial process. This does not mean that all the information contained in library databases is objectively true and factual. But knowing that the information you find in a database has already undergone a review process will help you decide whether you want to trust and use the information. You always need to think critically when evaluating information. Another resource to consider is a subset of Google that is limited to academic research. Google Scholar allows you to find scholarly articles on any scholarly topic. Be aware, unlike your library’s licensed databases, Google Scholar will not provide you with links to the full articles. Google Scholar will provide a link to the journal publisher’s page. The journal publisher will gladly sell you the article, even if your college already pays for it. This is unnecessary. You never have to pay for access to articles, so don’t fall into that trap. Your librarians can help you get the article quickly and free of charge. Exercise 3: Types of article databases Using the library website at your institution, explore the variety of databases available to you and answer the following questions. - Can you tell how many databases your school licenses for your access? (50? 100? 300? More?) - You can probably find an alphabetical list of databases on your library website, but they may also be listed by subject. How many databases are focused on your major area of study? (For example, if you are a History Major, are there 25 databases valuable for History research?) If there are no databases specific to your major, How many are available at the next hierarchical grouping of your discipline, i.e. Social Sciences? List three of the article databases recommended for research in your area. - Do the databases focus on the academic literature? What about other publications that are not academic in nature, like magazines and newspapers? Are there databases that allow you to search for newspaper and magazine articles? List three databases that include publications aimed at general readers. Ask the librarians at your school for help navigating the library website. Finding Academic Literature 3: What are some effective ways to search for scholarly literature? Instructor Notes: This may be the most challenging exercise in that the potential for disparities in functionality across the library databases can be great. That in itself is a good lesson, but if the student cannot accomplish the exercise exactly, the instructor or partner librarian may be able to point out any parallels between the tools. In some cases, the difference in content or the way the content is organized may be so at odds that the selected databases can't be compared effectively. Some redirection may be necessary to select tools more closely aligned. The search interfaces for most article databases are sophisticated and powerful, and they can be challenging to understand for the beginning researcher. Luckily, if you understand some basic principles about database record structure and how databases operate, you can usually transfer your search skills and strategy from one interface to another, even when the databases are produced by different companies and differ greatly in the way they look. When you perform a keyword search in a library catalog, article database or a discovery system, the first page you are presented with is a list of your search results in an abbreviated form. The information presented in the abbreviated (short) record will often be simply the citation, such as the article title, author(s), publication name, and issue information. To help illustrate this difference let’s compare them to search engine results. if you click on a result in a search engine result list, you will be sent to a new web page. However, if you follow the link of a short record from your search results you don’t leave the database. Instead you are taken to the full record, or full bibliographic record of an article. This full record provides you with much more information about that article, and allows you to make a better judgment about whether it will help you in your research. A full bibliographic record in an article database is a description of a journal article containing several short elements about that article. This information about the article is called metadata. Your search terms (keywords) are matched with these elements, or metadata, and ranked as more or less relevant to your search based on where and how frequently they appear in the record, such as in the title. The article database is not matching your keywords within the full text of the article. Only specialized databases like JSTOR or Google Books will search within the entire text of publications. Each of these elements of metadata are fields within the database, and all the individual fields of an article together comprise the full record. Having cited articles before, you are already familiar with several metadata fields such as title and author(s), source (or journal title), year, etc. Additional metadata fields which are important to be familiar with are the abstract, ISSN or the International Standard Serial Number, author-supplied keywords, and subject headings. As a researcher, you can specify where you want your keywords to be matched. An example of this strategy would be requiring your keywords to be identified within the title of articles, thus ensuring that any result would contain your terms in a very prominent position. Other useful fields might be the article abstract (a summary of the article) or subject headings, which are sometimes called descriptors. The subject headings assigned to an article are a special type of metadata called controlled vocabulary. Think of an assignment when you have been asked to identify keywords for your research topic. You can often think of more than one term to describe each of the important ideas. A subject heading is a term used by catalogers and indexers (librarians who create article records) to serve as the official word or phrase to represent an idea. When you first perform your keyword search, you should notice the subject headings that best represent your research topic. Subject Headings are a very powerful way to identify relevant articles. Like hashtags, which are a social media user’s strategy to link together conceptually similar posts, subject headings link together conceptually similar articles. A final strategy to consider in searching article databases is to employ limiters or filters to control the scope of your search. Some common filters include limiting to peer reviewed articles, or limiting to full-text articles. You may also limit by the year or a range of years, or by subject area(s). Keep in mind that filters narrow your results which can potentially eliminate relevant results from your search. Exercise 4: Employing search strategies Using the databases you listed in exercise three, choose two of them to explore. Complete the following tasks in both databases. 1. Search the databases with your keywords. Do not place any limitations on the search. Do not focus your terms to any fields. Review the first 20 search results. How many of these would you consider relevant to your topic? 2. Go to the advanced search in the database and repeat your keyword search. This time, select a date range to limit your search. This might be the most recent 10 years, but it might also be a different period of time depending on your topic. For example, are you interested in the research published about your topic from a specific historical period, like 1990-2000? Does this date limiter change the relevance of your search results? 3. Perform the advanced search again, this time selecting “peer reviewed journal articles” as a limiter. The databases you chose may have different terms to express the peer-reviewed limitation. Are your results better or worse? 4. Select two or more articles that you consider relevant to your topic. From the full bibliographic record of these articles, review the subject headings assigned to the articles (they might be labeled descriptors). Select two or more subject headings and explore the articles you retrieve when you search by those subject headings. How much more (or less) relevant are the records returned by the subject heading searches? Ask the librarians at your school for help accessing or navigating the databases. Credibility and Authority: Who are the experts? Instructor Notes: This section is intended to illustrate the idea that "Authority is Constructed and Contextual," part of the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Up to this point we have been assuming that reliable, credible literature is research published by credentialed professionals in a scholarly discipline. In most cases this is true. You want to get scientific research from people who know how to do science and whose work is reviewed by knowledgeable experts. But it is not only professors, Ph.Ds. and people in positions of power and leadership who can speak authoritatively on a topic. A person’s life experiences provide the knowledge to give credible testimony just as much as any established expert. If you are writing about a significant event or social phenomenon and you wish to provide evidence of the lived experience of it, you would seek out first-person commentary, or you might perform interviews, surveys or focus groups to collect qualitative data. These answers and stories have as much authority, credibility and validity as any social-scientific analysis. Indeed, your own commentary on questions related to aspects of your experience or knowledge deem you the authority for that domain of information. Do not discount an information source purely on the grounds that it is not authored by someone in a position of power or traditionally recognized authority. Make informed choices about the context of expertise in the area of your research. Who Gets Access to Research? Instructor Notes: In this exercise, the student will identify specific Open Access journal titles without regard to discipline. They may also identify resources that list Open Access journals like the DOAJ, or, the Directory of Open Access Journals, or search tools that aggregate Open Access scholarly literature in much the same way library databases aggregate scholarly journal articles. The comparison between results from the major commercial search engines and the privacy conscious search engines is intended to help underscore the nuances of algorithmic bias that affect searches using identical terms. In exercise item number two, students will ideally identify discipline or subject specific repositories of Open Access scholarly literature, effectively assisting the student in focussing their research scope to journals within a discipline. At this point in your literature research, you may be a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of articles there are in your discipline. Each one of the article databases you have explored contain articles from thousands of journals published over several decades. Perhaps you feel as if you have only explored a fraction of the research tools at your disposal. If so, you are not alone. Most students feel this way, and even professional researchers, like your professors, find it difficult to keep up with current research and understand how to use the tools to access it. Academic publishing is a large industry and it has only grown in the past 25 years. Think about how many higher education institutions there are in the United States. Then think of the number of faculty at these organizations. Understand that most of these faculty are publishing research. Even if you are researching a very narrow topic, there is a lot of ground to cover in the research literature. Not only is academic publishing an enormous endeavor, it is also an enormous commercial industry. And as with any commercial industry, academic publishing companies are in business to make a profit. Academic journal subscriptions cost a lot. Unlike a personal subscription to a magazine, or even an individual subscription to a journal, libraries must pay an institutional subscription fee so they can make the research available to faculty and students. Sometimes it can cost several thousand dollars for one journal title! As a university student, the cost of academic publishing is largely hidden from view because your tuition and fees are not paid directly to the library to fund journal subscriptions. However, your institution allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions each year to pay for the privilege to access research you need for your education. But not all privileges to information are the same. Recall a question from exercise three: Types of databases. You were asked to explore how many databases were licensed by your college or university library. That number will range widely based on the size of the institution, and on the level of financial resources available to the library. If you are a student at a large research institution, it is likely that you will have access to many research resources going beyond article databases to resources like datasets, archives, electronic book collections, advanced computation, etc. If you are a student at a smaller or medium sized university with fewer financial resources, the scope of your access will likely be narrower simply because your institution can’t afford as many resources. Is the size of the university’s library budget a legitimate reason to deny students access to knowledge? Should a student at a private university with a large endowment have greater access to research than a low-income rural student at a small state college? This question becomes increasingly problematic when you understand that the researchers creating this knowledge and publishing the research (often your professors) receive no pay or royalties from their publications, and, in the case of much U.S. STEM research, their research labs and projects are frequently funded by public grants from the state or federal government, that is to say, tax-payer funds. These researchers hand over their author’s rights to publish their research, which your university library then must pay the commercial publisher high subscription rates so you can read it! If we expand our view from the United States to the globe, access to research limited to only those who can pay the premium denies knowledge, opportunity, and innovation to students and researchers in developing nations. Equity of access to research output, especially access to publicly funded research, is a contentious problem, but not one without some innovative solutions. Over the last 25 years, a growing number of researchers have chosen to communicate their work by using a publishing model that removes this equity gap. Open Access (OA) Publishing replicates the peer review process and the model of scholarly journal publishing except that the articles are freely available on the internet without subscriptions, paywalls or article purchasing fees. OA publishing levels the playing field, allowing students, regardless of status, wealth, or institutional affiliation, to identify and access important research in their field. Your university library makes many subscription-based journals available to you without cost. But you also have at your disposal OA books and journals, many of which are included in the article databases. Much of the OA literature can be found within Open Access subject repositories. It is also possible to explore OA literature in your discipline with a tool like Google Scholar. Any time you perform a Google Scholar search and you are able to retrieve access to articles without going through a paywall, you are accessing an OA article. As an author (yes, the work you are doing is a contribution to knowledge in the field) you may have opportunities to publish your work in a journal or at a conference. Ask your professor, is the journal Open Access? Are the conference proceedings Open Access? If you aren’t publishing, your work can still be made available in an open format. As you consider whether you want your work to be available to future students and researchers, you can elect to make your work available by using any of several different free publishing tools on the web. Ask your librarians if there are any opportunities to add your work to your university’s institutional repository (IR). An IR is an online database containing the Open Access research and creative output of the faculty of a university. Faculty from the institution voluntarily deposit their work in the repository which is then made freely available. IRs often contain other kinds of creative output in addition to faculty research such as student research, and Open Educational Resources (OER). Open Access subject repositories are websites where researchers in a field deposit their work so that it can be accessed free of charge by anyone. OA Subject repositories contain journal articles and working papers as well as other research products such as datasets. The authors submit the work and provide descriptive metadata about it to the repository. The repository platform serves a similar function to a library article database in that they are both searchable databases. The difference being that all the material contained within the subject repository is freely available. The OpenDOAR or, Directory of Open Access Repositories is an excellent place to identify a subject repository in your field. Want to learn more? Visit these resources Suber, P. (2012). Open access. MIT Press. https://openresearchlibrary.org/content/897269fe-ab6a-48ca-bde8-90d741a200a4 Harrington, C., & Scott, R. E. (2023). Intersections of Open Access and Information Privilege in Higher Education and Beyond. NASIG Proceedings, 37(0), Article 0. https://doi.org/10.3998/nasig.4302 Exercise 5: OA resources - Perform a search for Open Access journals in a regular search engine like Google or Bing. Then perform the same search in a privacy conscious search engine (DuckDuckGo, for example). Compare the two search results, and make a list of the top 5 sites you would like to remember for doing additional research. - Perform a search (in your preferred search engine) for Open Access resources in your discipline, (Sociology or Psychology for example). Make a list of your 3-5 top choices of sites that you think will help you identify high quality Open Access research. Keep in mind whether the sites you select are independent or if they are associated with a single publisher. Reading Academic Literature Once you have identified some articles related to your topic, you have to actually read them! Reading more than 20 articles, each of which are 20-50 pages can be an overwhelming prospect. You need to approach this work intelligently. It would be difficult indeed to read every word of every article start to finish. So you won’t do that. Your reading should focus on finding out if a source is useful to you. In this stage of the research process, you will read the abstract first, and maybe the introduction, and then determine whether it is worth reading the rest. Note the structure of the article and see if there are sections that are more relevant to your work than others. You might flip to a relevant section first, rather than reading the entire thing from beginning to end. This is especially useful for longer sources like books or lengthy reports where you may only need to read the beginning, and then go directly to the relevant section, like the results and conclusions. Finally, skim the rest of the article and review the list of references. Here you will find additional research that could be important to your work. Your librarians may have a guide to reading peer reviewed articles that contains additional reading strategies. The Research Process is a Cycle Instructor Notes: Evaluation of this exercise should help instructors understand students' comprehension of the research process. If time affords it, a one on one check-in with the students about their progress and comfort level with the process might be warranted. At this point, engaged students will have collected several potential studies from their exploration. A lack of any relevant articles might indicate a struggling student. Intervention from a partner librarian for support may be effective. Many students think that research is a straight line: choose a topic, research the topic, write the research paper. But it is helpful and productive to think of research as a cyclical process. The research process is not a linear set of tasks. It is a cyclical set of practices, each of which builds upon the earlier ones. Everything you have done to this point is part of the research process. It would be unusual for you to have a complete literature review after searching for articles in library databases just one time. If you find a few articles on your first attempt, the knowledge you gain from reading those articles will surely send you back into the databases to identify additional work. You repeat searches with alternate keywords and in the ways you combine those keywords. You search different databases for additional material. The bibliographies of the articles you find will also help you discover relevant literature. As you read more sources and allow your ideas to change, your focus narrows. You will find yourself eliminating sources that are too broad, too specific, or tangential. Your search for relevant sources should continue throughout the writing process. Exercise 6: Recording your process By performing these exercises you have been learning about research strategies. It can be very useful to think about your own research process and the steps you take to find information. Write a 50-100 word narrative describing your research process. Include how you might be more efficient or thorough in researching your next project. Citing Sources (Credit where credit is due) Throughout your literature review you will be making references to research and to authors you have identified. Depending on the style you are required to use (APSA, APA, ASA, MLA, etc.), the form for these in-text citations will differ. Make sure you are using a style guide for accuracy. The most important point is that giving accurate attribution to other people’s ideas in your work is essential. Not only is it safeguarding you against accusations of academic dishonesty (plagiarism), but correct and appropriate citation is an important part of sharing knowledge and showing respect to your fellow authors. While it is sometimes difficult to visualize, it is important to remember that your work is in conversation with the work of other scholars. Often these scholars are active researchers for whom citation is a valued part of the scholarly conversation. Keeping track of it all Instructor Notes: More than any other, this exercise will require a review of available support from your institution. Because Zotero is Open Source software, there are many freely available web pages and tutorials to support its use. Bibliographic Management Software is not a required skill or tool, but it is an extremely useful and time saving resource once the initial learning curve is overcome. Doing research in academic literature is a complex process. It generates a lot of information from several different sources. It can quickly become difficult to manage all of the different threads of inquiry generated by asking a research question. So how do you keep track of so many articles, chapters, search terms, pdfs, etc.? Some people keep index cards, others keep downloaded articles in a folder. Zotero is a free bibliographic management tool that will help you organize all the research you discover. It has add-ins for word processing applications (including google docs) which allow you to insert in-text citations in a paper, and it will generate your bibliography for you using a citation style chosen from dozens of different options. Zotero also creates a searchable database of the articles you discover, allows you to organize them into projects or themed collections, create tags, make annotations, and access them from the web, and synched to your computer. The Zotero browser add-on allows you to create citations from articles, books or webpages and you can import citations from article databases or library catalogs. Zotero is also a powerful way to share research. It allows you to create and follow groups of other Zotero users so you and your fellow researchers can share the literature you discover. Your librarians may have created guides or offer workshops in how to use Zotero or other commercial bibliographic management software. Two major commercial offerings similar to Zotero are Refworks and Mendeley. Libraries with enough resources will license these tools (buy access) for student use. A major benefit to using bibliographic management software is that you can return to your personalized database of citations for project after project throughout your college career and beyond if you continue into graduate school. Because it is free to use, your access to Zotero will not cease after you graduate. Exercise 7: Bibliographic Management Software Answer the following questions and complete the tasks. - List the tools available at your institution to help you manage references and articles. - Does your library offer support for one or more of these tools? - Create an account in one of these tools and create 5 references to articles, books, chapters, or websites. You can create these reference manually (step by step, adding the title, author, publisher, etc.) or you can import one or more references from a library database. Ideally you could use any or all the references you have identified in this assignment. - Explore the tool’s functionality by creating a list of works cited from the references you entered. *Ask a librarian for support in accomplishing this task if you have questions. Conclusion If you have read to this point and completed the exercises you will be much more familiar with how to successfully find scholarly research for use in your own writing. Let’s review the main points of the resource. - No matter what you have chosen to research, it is important to understand the context of the topic within the scholarly discipline or subdiscipline. There are many excellent reference resources like encyclopedias and handbooks that can help you learn basic information about your area of interest, and taking the time to read background information will support your ability to find relevant academic articles and ultimately save you time. - In crafting your research question, it is important to understand the parameters of the project. How much time to do have to complete the work? Is it a question that is actively debated in the field (or have previous researchers come to conclusive answers)? - What form of a literature review will you need to complete? How exhaustive will your exploration be? Can you be satisfied with a finite number of relevant articles to summarize or synthesize? - What is your plan for searching the scholarly literature in your discipline? How many library article databases do you have at your disposal and/or how many Open Access repositories will you search before you have adequately covered the research in your discipline/subdiscipline? - Are there credible or authoritative voices relevant to your research topic that fall outside the accepted academic boundaries? How might you find and incorporate the knowledge of underrepresented points of view in your work? - Recall that research is a cyclical process. How has the information you find in one round of searching informed your additional inquiries? How will the work you do on this project inform your future research practice? - Accurate and complete attribution (citation) of other authors’ ideas is essential for your work if it is to be honest and taken seriously. - Bibliographic management software tools such as Zotero (free and Open Source), or Refworks and Mendeley (commercial, subscription-based) are powerful database tools that save you work and allow you to build a robust personal database of research articles. Lastly, remember that the librarians at your college or university are highly trained professionals and researchers themselves. It is their job to support you in successfully accomplishing your academic goals, so do yourself a favor and use their expertise! References This Open Educational Resource reuses information from the following works. Each is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0. Conlin, K., & Jennings-Roche, A. (2021). Strategic information literacy: Targeted knowledge with broad application. Pressbooks. https://ubalt.pressbooks.pub/strategicil/ Hand, L., Ryan, E., & Sichler, K. (2019). Introduction to Communication Research: Becoming a Scholar (2022 ed.). Galileo Open Learning Materials. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/communication-textbooks/3 Kessler, J., Williams, C., Costello, V., & Armstrong, A. R. (2023). Writing for Inquiry and Research. Windsor & Downs Press. https://doi.org/10.21900/wd.19	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.342689	Reading	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114419/overview", "title": "Library Research for Academic Writing", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111869/overview	Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 01 -- Order of Operations Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 02 -- Signed Numbers Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 02 -- Signed Numbers Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 03 -- Decimals and Rounding Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 03 -- Decimals and Rounding Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 04 -- Fractions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 04 -- Fractions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 05 -- Formulas Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 05 -- Formulas Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 06 -- Ratios_Rates_Proportions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 06 -- Ratios_Rates_Proportions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 07 -- Percents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 07 -- Percents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 08 -- Significant Figures__Accuracy__Precision Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 08 -- Significant Figures__Accuracy__Precision Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 09 -- Exponents Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 13 -- Unit Conversions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 13 -- Unit Conversions Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 15 __ Graphs Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 15 __ Graphs Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 16 __ Plane Geometry Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 16 __ Plane Geometry Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 17 __ Triangles Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 17 __ Triangles Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 18 __ Trigonometry Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 18 __ Trigonometry Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 20 __ Perimeter_Area_Volume Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 20 __ Perimeter_Area_Volume Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 21 -- Measuring instruments Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 21 -- Measuring instruments Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 22 __ Slope Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 22 __ Slope Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 23 -- Finance_Interest Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 23 -- Finance_Interest Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 25 __ Resistors Applied Technical Mathematics -- Chapter 25 __ Resistors Applied Technical Mathematics -- Copyright Extra Credit Ch 22-- Trigonometry review Extra Credit Ch 22-- Trigonometry review Glossary Glossary printout -- 03-06-2024 HW 24 -- clean copy of budget sheet -- details only HW 24 -- clean copy of budget sheet -- details only HW 24 -- clean copy of budget sheet -- overall HW 24 -- clean copy of budget sheet -- overall HW Chapter 01 -- Order of Operations HW Chapter 01 -- Order of Operations HW Chapter 02 -- Signed Numbers HW Chapter 02 -- Signed Numbers HW Chapter 03 -- Decimals and Rounding HW Chapter 03 -- Decimals and Rounding HW Chapter 04 -- Fractions HW Chapter 04 -- Fractions HW Chapter 05 -- Formulas HW Chapter 05 -- Formulas HW Chapter 06 -- Ratios_Rates_Proportions HW Chapter 06 -- Ratios_Rates_Proportions HW Chapter 07 -- Percents HW Chapter 08 -- Significant figures_Accuracy_Precison HW Chapter 08 -- Significant figures_Accuracy_Precison HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 09 -- Exponents HW Chapter 13 -- Unit Conversions HW Chapter 13 -- Unit Conversions HW Chapter 15 -- Graphs HW Chapter 15 -- Graphs HW Chapter 16 -- Geometry HW Chapter 16 -- Geometry HW Chapter 17 -- Triangles HW Chapter 17 -- Triangles HW Chapter 18-- Trigonometry HW Chapter 18-- Trigonometry HW Chapter 20 -- Perimeter_Area_Volume HW Chapter 20 -- Perimeter_Area_Volume HW Chapter 21 -- Measuring instruments HW Chapter 21 -- Measuring instruments HW Chapter 22 -- Slope HW Chapter 22 -- Slope HW Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans HW Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans HW Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans HW Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans HW Chapter 25 -- Resistors HW Chapter 25 -- Resistors Index -- Excel -- use this copy Index printout -- 03-06-2024 Introduction Introduction Percent explanations -- OER version Preface Preface Table of Contents Table of Contents Applied Technical Mathematics For Diesel Mechanics and Horticulture Students Overview Applied Technical Mathematics for Horticulture and Diesel Mechanics is intended for a one-semester class with students who enter the semester with a good working-level of math skills. High school algebra and geometry are the only prerequisites, The technical math course at Kishwaukee College is unique in that the class combines students in horticulture with those from diesel mechanics. The course materials apply to both areas, as much as possible. The intent is to provide a solid foundation for solving job-related math problems for all students in the class. For this reason, the focus is on "how to solve" more than "why does this work?" Feedback, comments, etc. would be greatly appreciated! Robert E. Brown rbrown3@kish.edu Title Page Cover page photo credits: Left: Download this free HD photo of engine, race car, classic, and racing by Mike Newbry (@mikenewbry) Unsplash.com Free to use under the Unsplash license Right: Download this free HD photo of greenhouse, agriculture, au potager de kervoigen, and france in Lannion, France by Erwan Hesry (@erwanhesry) Unsplash.com Free to use under the Unsplash license Copyright Applied Technical Mathematics © 2023 by Robert E. Brown is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Preface Preface Technical Mathematics for Diesel Mechanics and Horticulture is designed for a 3-credit hour class for students majoring in diesel mechanics or majoring in horticulture. The two fields, diesel mechanics and horticulture, each require an ability to perform on-the-job math. The math skills needed for the two fields have much in common, as well as some things that are different. This text includes material from both fields in sufficient depth to develop competence. Comments, questions, comments, and corrections are welcomed. Robert E. Brown Kishwaukee College 21193 Malta Road Malta, IL 60150 rbrown3@kish.edu Introduction Introduction Applied Technical Mathematics for Horticulture and Diesel Mechanics is intended for a one-semester community college class with students who enter the semester with a good working-level of math skills. High school algebra and geometry are the only prerequisites. The textbook was created for use within Open Illinois in OER Commons and is available for by other OER organizations. The textbook is specifically designed for classes containing students in both horticulture and diesel mechanics. The technical math course at Kishwaukee College is unique in that the class combines students in horticulture with those from diesel mechanics. The course materials apply to both areas, as much as possible. The intent is to provide a solid foundation for solving job-related math problems for all students in the class. For this reason, the focus is on "how to solve" more than "why does this work?" Inspiration for this work came from many semesters of teaching technical mathematics. Students in these classes were from the fields of diesel repair and from horticulture; their interests were strictly toward on-the-job applications. To meet this need, this text is focused on various job situations, and emphasizes: - How to recognize what is needed: Exactly what is the problem asking? How does it apply to a job situation? What sort of answer do you need? (I.e., Do you want the answer to several decimal places, or is a good estimate enough?) - What to do while setting up the issue in terms of a mathematical problem - How to solve it - Recognizing that there often will be more than one solution method - Ways to see if the last answer makes any sense. - When to take a hard stand if challenged on an answer. - Think things through before you do anything. - If you are being pressed for an answer, demand enough space so you can figure it out. - Check your work before showing it to anyone! - Do not ever release an answer unless you are absolutely certain and can explain why. - But do not be so stubborn that you get a reputation for being hard to work with. A highly stressed approach is to get a sense of what you are looking for: Before doing the math. For example, if a student is asked to calculate the volume of a semitruck gravel trailer, then estimate the loaded weight, what would be a reasonable answer? Maybe it is 5 tons, or maybe 35. It probably is not a quarter of a ton, or 500 tons. I.e., do not rely on a calculator too much. Consider your answers with the “does this make any sense?” test. A chapter is included on MS Excel, which few students knew before entering the class. Excel is so ubiquitous in the working world that nearly all tech math students need to have at least a basic knowledge of this software. The textbook starts with fractions, which almost nobody likes but everybody needs. It is the author’s belief that the foundation for technical math is an ability to work well with fractions. Further course work is intended to teach students how to frame a problem, how to understand what the problem means in terms of why somebody is asking, and how to solve it in any one of several possible ways. The order of chapters is based on past schedules in my tech math classes. The order can, and does, vary amongst instructors. The order I have chosen is what has worked in my experience. It is my great hope that this OER textbook will be beneficial to students. My intentions are for anyone who uses this to become thoroughly knowledgeable about the subject materials. Any comments, corrections, questions, complaints? Please send me an email. All feedback is greatly appreciated. Robert E. Brown Adjunct Professor, Mathematics Math & Science Division Kishwaukee College Malta, IL 60150 rbrown3@kish.edu Table of Contents Chapter 1 :: Order of Operations § 1.0 Purpose of Order of Operations § 1.1 Sequence of Order of Operations § 1.2 Example of Order of Operations § 1.3 Caution about Order of Operations Chapter 2 :: Signed Numbers § 2.0 Signed numbers § 2.1 The Use of Signed numbers § 2.2 The Number Line § 2.2.1 Comparing signed numbers: Greater vs. Smaller § 2.2.2 Inequality symbols: Greater than & Lesser than § 2.3 Operations on Signed Numbers § 2.3.1 Adding numbers with the same sign § 2.3.2 Adding numbers with the opposite sign § 2.3.3 Multiplying & Dividing numbers with the same sign § 2.3.4 Multiplying & Dividing numbers with the opposite sign § 2.4 Absolute Value § 2.5 Opposite of a Number § 2.6 Signed Number Operations § 2.6.1 Addition can be changed into Subtraction § 2.6.2 Multiplication and Division of signed numbers § 2.6.3 Add, subtract, multiply, and divide signed numbers Chapter 3 :: Decimals & Rounding § 3.0 Introduction § 3.1 Parts of a decimal number § 3.2 Place values of a decimal number § 3.2.1 Building a decimal number from place values § 3.3 Operations on decimal numbers § 3.3.1 Addition & Subtraction of decimal numbers § 3.3.2 Multiplication of decimal numbers § 3.3.3 Division of decimal numbers § 3.4 Rounding a decimal number Chapter 4 :: Fractions § 4.0 Introduction § 4.1 Terms for Fractions § 4.1.1 Parts of a fraction § 4.1.2 Proper fraction § 4.1.3 Improper fraction § 4.1.4 Mixed number § 4.2 Improper fractions & Mixed numbers § 4.2.1 Changing Improper fractions & Mixed numbers § 4.3 Changing the form of a fraction § 4.4 Equivalent fractions § 4.4.1 Cross multiplication § 4.5 Reducing fractions § 4.5.1 How to reduce a fraction § 4.6 Common denominators § 4.7 Add & Subtract fractions § 4.8 Multiplication of fractions § 4.9 Division of fractions § 4.10 Mixed numbers: Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide § 4.10.1 Adding mixed numbers § 4.10.2 Subtracting mixed numbers § 4.10.3 Multiplying mixed numbers § 4.10.4 Dividing mixed numbers § 4.11 Arrange fractions in size order Chapter 5 :: Formulas § 5.0 Formulas § 5.1 Construction of formulas § 5.1.1 Variables § 5.1.2 Constants § 5.1.3 Units § 5.2 Rearrangement of formulas § 5.2.1 Equivalent equations § 5.2.2 Balancing equations § 5.2.3 Example – Rearrange the HP formula § 5.2.4 Example – Rearrange the Ag Sprayer formula § 5.2.5 Some example formulas Chapter 6 :: Ratios; Rates; Proportions § 6.0 Objectives § 6.1 Fractions → Ratios, Rates and Proportions § 6.1.1 Fractions § 6.1.2 Ratios § 6.1.3 Rates § 6.1.4 Proportions § 6.2 Ratios, Rates and Proportions in Applications § 6.2.1 Find a ratio § 6.2.2 Find a rate § 6.2.3 Find a proportion § 6.3 Combined use of fractions, ratios, rates, and proportions Chapter 7 :: Percents § 7.0 Definition of a Percent § 7.1 Write a percent as a fraction or a decimal § 7.2 Write fraction or a decimal as a percent § 7.3 Translate and solve percent sentences § 7.4 Percent Equations § 7.5 Use of Percent Equations § 7.6 Applying the Percent Equations § 7.7 Examples of Percent problems § 7.7.1 Semi-Truck § 7.7.2 Soil Texture § 7.8 Percent Increase and Percent Decrease Chapter 8 :: Significant Figures; Accuracy; Precision § 8.0 Significant Figures; Accuracy; Precision § 8.1 Accuracy and Precision § 8.2 Numbers § 8.2.1 Exact numbers § 8.2.2 Approximate numbers § 8.3 Significant Figures § 8.3.1 Notes on use of significant figures § 8.4 Greatest Possible Error (GPE) § 8.5 Working with data and Accuracy/Precision Chapter 9 :: Exponents § 9.0 Definition of an Exponent § 9.1 Examples of Exponents § 9.2 Forms of an equation with Exponents § 9.3 Graph of an equation with Exponents § 9.4 Exponential properties § 9.5 Exponential equations: How they are constructed § 9.6 How do Exponential and Linear equations compare? § 9.5 Exponents on a TI-30 Chapter 10 :: Roots § 10.0 Roots § 10.1 The square root of a number § 10.1.1 Finding roots § 10.2 Cube roots Chapter 11 :: Scientific Notation § 11.0 Scientific Notation § 11.1 Powers of 10 § 11.1.1 Multiplying powers of 10 § 11.1.2 Dividing powers of 10 § 11.1.3 Raising powers of 10 § 11.1.4 Zero power of 10 § 11.1.5 Negative power of 10 § 11.1.6 Combined operations on power of 10 § 11.1.7 Zero to a power § 11.2 Scientific notation § 11.2.1 The Form of Scientific notation § 11.2.2 Scientific notation turned into Decimal form § 11.3 Multiply & Divide numbers in Scientific notation Examples § 11.4 Engineering notation § 11.4.1 Applying engineering notation § 11.4.2 Common engineering symbols Chapter 12 :: Units – US and Metric § 12.0 Units of Measurement § 12.0.1 ISO: Worldwide Authority § 12.0.2 International System of Units (SI) § 12.1 SI System vs. Imperial & US Customary § 12.2 Putting the SI Measurement System to Work § 12.3 SI Base Units § 12.4 SI Prefixes § 12.5 SI Derived Units § 12.6 Temperature § 12.7 Applied SI (metric) Units of Measurement § 12.7.1 Length § 12.7.2 Mass (Weight) § 12.7.3 Electric Current § 12.7.4 Area § 12.7.5 Volume § 12.7.6 Force and Pressure § 12.8 Applied US Customary Units § 12.8.1 Length § 12.8.2 Electric Current § 12.8.3 Mass (Weight) § 12.8.4 Area § 12.8.5 Dry Volume § 12.8.6 Liquid Volume § 12.8.7 Grain Measures § 12.9 Where Did the Foot and the Meter Originate? § 12.9.1 The English Foot § 12.9.2 The Meter Chapter 13 :: Unit Conversions § 13.0 Converting between systems of units § 13.1 Conversion factors § 13.2 Unit fractions § 13.3 How to convert between systems of units § 13.4 Compound conversions Chapter 14 :: Mixtures §14.0 Types of Mixtures §14.0.1 Heterogeneous Matter §14.0.2 Homogenous Matter §14.1 Types of Liquid Mixtures §14.2 Math for Mixtures §14.3 PPM Calculations §14.3.1 Where did we get the “basic ratio” for ppm? §14.4 Using a Fertilizer Applicator Chapter 15 :: Graphs § 15.0 Purpose of Graphs § 15.1 Data: Two kinds § 15.2 Some types of graphs § 15.2.1 Pie graphs § 15.2.2 Bar graphs § 15.2.3 Bar graphs § 15.2.4 Line graphs Chapter 16 :: Plane Geometry § 16.0 Introduction § 16.1 Angles § 16.1.1 Types of Angles § 16.2 Lines § 16.3 Angles in a Triangle § 16.4 Angle Measurement § 16.4.1 Angles – Measured in decimal degrees § 16.4.2 Angles – Measured in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds § 16.5 Converting: Degrees-Minutes-Seconds (DMS) to Decimal degrees, and Decimal degrees to DMS § 16.5.1 DMS to Decimal degrees § 16.5.2 Decimal degrees to DMS Chapter 17 :: Triangles § 17.0 Introduction § 17.1 Triangles § 17.1.1 Scalene Triangles § 17.1.2 Equilateral Triangles § 17.1.3 Isosceles Triangles § 17.1.4 Right Triangles § 17.2 Properties of a Triangle § 17.2.1 Side Characteristics of a Triangle § 17.2.1 Sum of Angles in a Triangle § 17.3 Working with triangles § 17.4 Pythagorean Theorem § 17.5 Similar figures § 17.5.1 Similar triangles Chapter 18 :: Trigonometry § 18.0 Introduction § 18.1 Trigonometry of Right Triangles § 18.1.1 Names of Parts of right triangles § 18.1.2 Ratios of Sides in right triangles § 18.1.3 Trigonometry Formulas for right triangles § 18.2 Sine, Cosine, and Tangent ↔ Angles § 18.2.1 Finding the Cosine, Sine, and Tangent from an Angle: Angle => Sin, Cos, Tan § 18.2.2 Finding the angle from the Cosine, Sine, and Tangent: Sin, Cos, Tan => Angle § 18.3 Trigonometry Formulas for Right Triangles § 18.3.1 Trig formulas § 18.3.2 Trig formulas § 18.4 Trigonometry of Scalene Triangles § 18.4.1 Law of Sines § 18.4.2 Law of Cosines Chapter 19 :: Landscape Drawings and Scale § 19.1 Scale § 19.1.1 How scale is specified § 19.2 Landscape drawing scales & application § 19.3 Putting a detailed drawing onto paper § 19.3.1 Standard paper sizes § 19.3.2 Choosing drawing scales Chapter 20 :: Perimeter; Circumference; Area; Volume § 20.0 Objectives § 20.1 Perimeter; Circumference; Area; Volume § 20.1.1 Perimeter § 20.1.2 Circumference § 20.1.3 Area § 20.1.4 Volume § 20.2 Perimeter § 20.3 Circumference § 20.4 Area § 20.5 Volume § 20.5.1 Volume formulas Chapter 21 :: Measuring Instruments § 21.0 Introduction § 21.1 Rulers § 21.2 Squares § 21.3 Slide Calipers § 21.3.1 Dial calipers § 21.3.2 Digital calipers § 21.3.3 Vernier calipers § 21.4 Micrometers § 21.4.1 Outside Mechanical Micrometer – inch § 21.4.2 Outside Mechanical Micrometer – metric § 21.4.3 Digital outside micrometers § 21.4.4 Depth micrometers § 21.4.5 How to read micrometers § 21.4.6 Comments on precision of inch vs. metric micrometers § 21.5 Dial Indicators Chapter 22 :: Slope § 22.0 Introduction § 22.1 Defining Slope § 22.2 Conventions for Describing Slope § 22.2.1 Positive Slope vs. Negative Slope § 22.2.2 Horizontal Line => Zero Slope § 22.1.3 Vertical Line => Undefined Slope § 22.3 Calculating Slope § 22.3.1 Algebraic equation for slope § 22.4 Putting a Numerical Value on Slope § 22.4.1 Slope as a Ratio § 22.4.2 Slope as a Decimal § 22.4.3 Slope as a Percent Grade § 22.4.4 Trigonometry method § 22.5 Slopes for Applications § 22.5.1 Slopes for Sidewalks and Roads § 22.5.2 Slopes for Roofs § 22.5.3 Slopes for Landscaping § 22.6 Slope from Contour Lines § 22.7 Measurement of Slope § 22.7.1 Measurement of Slope – Level and Square § 22.7.2 Measurement of Slope – Post and String § 22.8 Slope Comparison Chart Chapter 23 :: Finance § 26.1 Basic Financial: Paycheck § 26.1.1 Gross Income and Deductions § 26.2 Sales and Property Taxes § 26.2.1 Sales Tax § 26.2.2 Property Tax § 26.3 Interest § 26.4 Simple Interest § 26.4.1 Future Value with Simple Interest § 26.5 Compound Interest § 26.5.1 Annual Compounding § 26.5.2 Interest Compounded More Often Than Annually § 26.6 Sinking Funds § 26.6.1 Future Value of a Sinking Fund: § 26.6.2 Periodic Payments into a Sinking Fund Chapter 24 :: Budgets & Project Plans § 24.0 Introduction § 24.1 Estimates § 24.1.1 Who are the Parties in the Estimation Process? § 24.1.2 Communication for the Estimation Process § 24.1 Budgets §24.1.1 Budget Types §24.1.2 Budget Components §24.1.3 Budget Software §24.1.4 Example Project Budget § 24.2 Project Plans § 24.2.1 Writing Project Plans § 24.2.2 Project Plan Ownership and Buy-in § 24.2.3 Project Phases § 24.2.4 Project Planning Software § 24.2.5 Project Planning for Large Projects Chapter 25 :: Resistors § 20.5 Introduction § 25.1 Ohm’s Law § 25.2 Basic DC Electric Circuits § 25.2.1 Gauges for DC Electric Circuits § 25.3 Complex DC Electric Circuits § 25.3.1 Complex DC Electric Circuits -- Three Types § 25.3.3 Resistors in Series § 25.3.3 Current and Voltage Drop for Resistors in Series § 25.3.4 Resistors in Parallel § 25.3.5 Series—Parallel Resistor Circuits § 25.4 Power Chapter 26 :: Illinois General Standards Exam (GSE) § 26.0 Introduction § 26.1 Safety § 26.2 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) § 26.2.1 Soil Degradation § 26.3 Pesticides § 26.3.1 Insecticides § 26.3.2 Herbicides § 26.3.3 Fungicides § 26.3.4 Rodenticides § 26.3.5 Nematicides § 26.3.6 Other pesticides § 26.4 Math for the IL GSE Exam § 26.4.1 GSE problem 57 § 26.4.2 GSE problem 58 § 26.4.3 GSE problem 59 § 26.4.4 GSE problem 60 § 26.4.5 GSE problem 61 Chapter 01 -- Order of Operations Chapter 02 -- Signed Numbers Chapter 03 -- Decimals and Rounding Chapter 04 -- Fractions Chapter 05 -- Formulas Chapter 06 -- Ratios, Rates, and Proportions Chapter 07 -- Percents Chapter 08 -- Significant Figures; Accuracy; Precision Chapter 09 -- Exponents Chapter 10 -- Roots Chapter 11 -- Scientific Notation Chapter 12 -- Units Chapter 13 -- Unit Conversions Chapter 14 -- Mixtures Chapter 15 -- Graphs Chapter 16 -- Geometry Chapter 17 -- Triangles Chapter 18 __ Trigonometry Chapter 19 -- Landscape drawings and Scale Chapter 20 -- Perimeter__Area__Volume Chapter 21 -- Measuring instruments Chapter 22 -- Slope Chapter 23 -- Finance_Interest Chapter 24 -- Budgets_Project Plans Chapter 25 -- Resistors Chapter 26 -- Illinois General Standards Exam Glossary Index Exams Exams are in the Instructor Notes section below.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.672506	ROBERT BROWN	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/111869/overview", "title": "Applied Technical Mathematics For Diesel Mechanics and Horticulture Students", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96658/overview	Nassella pulchra p000074 Overview Nassella seeds germinated in water. Image credit: Fernando Agudelo-Silva Micrograph Light background with tan seed and long green and white projections.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.691098	Forestry and Agriculture	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96658/overview", "title": "Nassella pulchra p000074", "author": "Botany" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90265/overview	10 early innovationsb 10 early innovations c early world cinema innovations presentation ten Overview early cinema innovations tech presentation ten early world cinema innovations presentation ten early innovations world cinema ten	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.708899	02/21/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/90265/overview", "title": "early world cinema innovations presentation ten", "author": "stuart lenig" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103967/overview	Analyzing and Arguing A Supplement to Relaying and Responding Analyzing & Arguing: A Supplement to the OER Textbook Relaying & Responding Overview This OER textbook has been developed to support English Composition and Rhetoric courses at rural Arizona community colleges. Title Page About This Book This book, which can be accessed by downloading the attached Microsoft Word document or PDF, is an addendum to the OER textbook Relaying and Responding: A Guide to College Reading & Writing. The book has been developed to provide content on textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, and argumentation. Authors This book has been assembled by Erik Wilbur at Mohave Community College. Most of the content in this book has been sourced from creative commons licensed materials. Attributions for this borrowed and/or adapted and remixed content can be found at the end of each chapter. Any text, graphic, or video without an attribution should be attributed to Mohave Community College by using the license below. License Analyzing and Arguing: A Supplement to the OER Textbook Relaying and Responding by Mohave Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license except where otherwise noted.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.728235	Erik Wilbur	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103967/overview", "title": "Analyzing & Arguing: A Supplement to the OER Textbook Relaying & Responding", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105635/overview	GTC's IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide from the Series Overview In this section, you and your team will engage in a Landscape Analysis to uncover key structures and supports that can guide your work to support Accessibility in OER. You may or may not answer all of these questions, but this is an offering. May 11 - Section One: Landscape Analysis for Accessibility in OER in Local Context (Work on during May 11th implementation) In this section, you and your team will engage in a Landscape Analysis to uncover key structures and supports that can guide your work to support Accessibility in OER. We exnourage to explore some of the questions from each category. You may or may not answer all of these questions, but this is an offering. We ask that you complete Parts One, Two and Six. Part One: Initial Thoughts What is your team's initial goal for this series? To learn more about accessiblity and OER and find ways that we can support faculty on our campus to adopt OER and ultimately create and use more accessible course content. Part Two: Introductory probing questions: What does accessibility look like in our organization? How do we measure accessibility? What does OER look like in our organization? How do we measure access to OER? Part Three: Clarifying questions for accessibility: What is the organizational structure that supports accessibility? Who generates most of the accessibility structures/conversation in our organization? Where do most educators get support with accessibility? What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to accessibility? Part Four: Clarifying questions for OER: What is our organizational structure that supports curricular resources? What is our organizational structure that supports OER? Who generates most of the curricular resources in our organization? Where do most educators get support with curricular resources? What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to curricular resources/OER? Part Five: Clarifying questions for Faculty learning and engagement: What Professional Learning (PL) structures have the best participation rates for our educators? What PL structures have the best "production" rates for our educators? What incentive do we have to offer people for participating in learning and engagement? Who are the educators that would be most creative with accessibility and OER? Who are the educators that would benefit the most from accessibility and OER? Part Six: Final Probing questions: What is our current goal for Accessibility in OER and why is that our goal? Who have we not yet included while thinking about this work? What barriers remain when considering this work? What would genuine change look like for our organization for this work? Section Two: Team Focus (Finish before May 25th to share during Implementation Session Two) Identifying and Describing a Problem of Practice The following questions should help your team ensure that you are focusing your collaboration. What is your Team’s specific goal for this series? You may consider using AEM Quality Indicators for Creating Accessible Materials to help add to or narrow your work. To start the conversation on campus about OER and Accessibility. Thinking about ways that we can encourage the use of OER within our courses and to encourage faculty to make their courses more accessible.What other partners might support this work? Disability Services, CISC, Library, Faculty LeadershipWhat is your desired timeframe for this work? Hoping to start the conversation through this series and then over the summer to get something going during the next academic year.How will you include diverse voices and experiences in this work? Please create a Focus Question that explains your goal and provides specific topics that you would like feedback on. This is what you will share in your breakout groups for feedback. (Save for during May 25th's session.) What feedback did you receive from another team during the May 25th Implementation Session? Section Three: Team Work Time and Next Steps (Complete by the end of Implementation Session Three) Sharing and Next Steps What was your redefined goal for this series? What does your team want to celebrate? Getting the conversation started by this series.What did your team accomplish? If you have links to resources, please include them here. What are your team’s next steps? Continue building the library's OER libguide, CISC's libguide on accessibility, and start forming partnerships with faculty across the campuses to find who is already doing great work with OER and accessibility to recognize their efforts and maybe lean on them as mentors.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.749077	06/20/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105635/overview", "title": "GTC's IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide from the Series", "author": "April Akins" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95445/overview	Extrema: Calculus 1 project by Chukwudumebi Okonkwo Overview This Project has been completed as part of a standard 10 weeks Calculus 1 face to face course during Summer 2022 semester at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA. Summary Author: Chukwudumebi Okonkwo Instructor: Igor V Baryakhtar Subject: Calculus 1 Course number: MA 200-007 Course type: Face-to-face Semester: Summer 2022, 10 weeks College: MassBay Comminity College, MA Tags: Calculus, Project, Active Learning Language: English Media Format: Microsoft Word License: CC-BY 4.0 All project content created by Chukwudumebi Okonkwo Content added to OER Commons by Igor V Baryakhtar Project description We have a critical point of a function when its derivative is equal to zero, because the line tangent at that point is horizontal. When the graph of the derivative is negative the function is decreasing because the rate of change of the function would be negative; the opposite is true if the graph of the derivative is positive. In my video I wanted to show how we can use the first derivative of a function to find any local extrema of the given function because of what the graph of the derivative can tell us. I created this animated video using a python based program called Manim. The video gives a visual representation of how this works. It’s one thing to be told that it works, it is another to see how it really works. I hope it was interesting and helped deepen your understanding of calculus. Sources Manim Community \| Documentation. 2022. Quickstart. [online] Available at: <https://docs.manim.community/en/stable/tutorials/quickstart.html> [Accessed 18 July 2022]. Video	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.764400	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95445/overview", "title": "Extrema: Calculus 1 project by Chukwudumebi Okonkwo", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103731/overview	IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide - CCC Overview CCC's plan for improving accessibility at our institution is discussed in our implementation guide. Our primary goal is to develop accessibility guidelines to support designers and faculty in our LMS and we are making strides to accomplish our goal. May 11 - Section One: Landscape Analysis for Accessibility in OER in Local Context (Work on during May 11th implementation) In this section, you and your team will engage in a Landscape Analysis to uncover key structures and supports that can guide your work to support Accessibility in OER. We exnourage to explore some of the questions from each category. You may or may not answer all of these questions, but this is an offering. We ask that you complete Parts One, Two and Six. Part One: Initial Thoughts What is your team's initial goal for this series? - Ensure all institution content is accessible to all users (internal and external) - Integrate and connect College committees and workgroups that are involved in accessibility and DEI to work towards overlapping goals and work in a unified manner - Use what is learned in the OER Accessibility Series and the Learning Group to implement College-wide training Part Two: Introductory probing questions: What does accessibility look like in our organization? How do we measure accessibility? Accessibility is not a topic known by all, nor is implementation of UDL and accessibility principles and practices CCC Essential Design Standards - we use it to develop and evaluate Shared Courses and OER courses ADA-informed webmaster in the IT Department What does OER look like in our organization? How do we measure access to OER? There is a grant to produce various types of OER content at CCC CCC participates in an OER consortium This broad knowledge is not well known and more information is needed about the OER program and how access to OER is measured. How can we tell if students are using the OER materials to measure the effectiveness of the materials? How do we measure and review validity of links from OER to other resources? Part Three: Clarifying questions for accessibility: What is the organizational structure that supports accessibility? There is not a structure in place for consistent and regular review of accessibility in courses. There is some oversight in the Shared Course and OER creation process via the Teaching and Learning Center. There is an ADA-informed webmaster for our institution's website. Who generates most of the accessibility structures/conversation in our organization? The Teaching and Learning Center Deans of A&S and CTE should have more of a role in regular discussion of accessibility Disability Resources Where do most educators get support with accessibility? Disability Resources Teaching and Learning Center What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to accessibility? Hard to say without doing an in-depth course review of all courses Might be language courses Part Four: Clarifying questions for OER: What is our organizational structure that supports curricular resources? Curriculum Committee AOC? (textbooks) Deans Lab coordinators in sciences Disability Resources for some student format adjustments What is our organizational structure that supports OER? Learning Services Teaching and Learning Center Who generates most of the curricular resources in our organization? Curriculum Committee Faculty Publisher tools inside and outside of Canvas Where do most educators get support with curricular resources? same as above What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to curricular resources/OER? Unknown - perhaps CTE areas Part Five: Clarifying questions for Faculty learning and engagement: What Professional Learning (PL) structures have the best participation rates for our educators? Content-specific conferences or webinars What PL structures have the best "production" rates for our educators? Faculty-led Inter-departmental meetings and workshops Structured and targeted cross-departmental work What incentive do we have to offer people for participating in learning and engagement? Internal/instrinsic motivation to continue learning Compensation for participation Who are the educators that would be most creative with accessibility and OER? Any interested faculty Who are the educators that would benefit the most from accessibility and OER? All Part Six: Final Probing questions: What is our current goal for Accessibility in OER and why is that our goal? Provide accessibility to all students Accessibility improves student success rates and limits barriers to work and participation Who have we not yet included while thinking about this work? College-wide implementation What barriers remain when considering this work? Time Limited awareness of regulations by the federal government Limited awareness of UDL and accessibility guidelines Money Training resources Buy-in What would genuine change look like for our organization for this work? Online courses use UDL and accessibility principles A clear and useful course review process that is supported by leadership Section Two: Team Focus (Finish before May 25th to share during Implementation Session Two) Identifying and Describing a Problem of Practice The following questions should help your team ensure that you are focusing your collaboration. What is your Team’s specific goal for this series? You may consider using AEM Quality Indicators for Creating Accessible Materials to help add to or narrow your work. It may be benficial to students and the institution to explore the creation of accessibility guidelines (not a pol/pro) for instructors and other groups that use Canvas as a hub for student interaction. What other partners might support this work? Those who would likely support this work for the sake of principle and service to users would be the Teaching and Learning Center, e-Learning Committee, Diversity Committee, Accessibility Learning Group, Disability Resources, Provost, Deans & Assoc. Dean, IT. Those who would support this work an carry out the work would likely be the Teaching and Learning Center, e-Learning Committee, and the Accessibility Learning Group. What is your desired timeframe for this work? Seven months or end of Fall 2023 semester Give time to explore possible content, accessibility training for developers, creation of guidelines, vetting and review, dissemination and debrief of guidelines to stakeholders and primary audience of faculty. How will you include diverse voices and experiences in this work? Invite people with various roles to bring thier perspective and student persepctives to the table. Student workers may be available and have feedback about challenges of accessiblity. Please create a Focus Question that explains your goal and provides specific topics that you would like feedback on. This is what you will share in your breakout groups for feedback. How might we ensure courses are accessible in alignment with our College Mission and Diversity Statement? How can we develop training that emphasizes each employees' continuous improvement of design with UDL and accessibility principles? What does success look like in the process of improving accessibility in CCC coures? (Save for during May 25th's session.) What feedback did you receive from another team during the May 25th Implementation Session? Section Three: Team Work Time and Next Steps (Complete by the end of Implementation Session Three) Sharing and Next Steps What was your redefined goal for this series? Our goal became more specific over the course of the webinar series. Training was a key goal, but now we have a goal to create accessibility guidelines for faculty and staff that use Canvas. Address the "Why" of accessiblity. What does your team want to celebrate? Deeper understanding of best practices for accessibility and how to implement them in design. What did your team accomplish? If you have links to resources, please include them here. We developed a draft of accessiblity guidelines for our institution. They include specific guidance on principles as well as how-tos for using our insituttion's accessiblity checker called UDOIT. UDOIT is a Canvas add-on that identifies accessiblity issues and helps coach users through repairs in a convenient location. What are your team’s next steps? Finish our draft guidelines and vet them to stakeholders in our Learning Services area and the Accessibility Learning Group.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.799524	Sandra Dihlmann	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103731/overview", "title": "IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide - CCC", "author": "Giovanna Macry" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/21910/overview	Sign in to see your Hubs Sign in to see your Groups Create a standalone learning module, lesson, assignment, assessment or activity Submit OER from the web for review by our librarians Please log in to save materials. Log in This is some kind of example or	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.819023	03/19/2018	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/21910/overview", "title": "My First Module", "author": "Peter Howell" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92789/overview	ASTR 1020 - Lab 13: The Nature of Galaxies Overview Growing up at a time when the Hubble Space Telescope orbits above our heads and giant telescopes are springing up on the great mountaintops of the world, you may be surprised to learn that we were not sure about the existence of other galaxies for a very long time. The very idea that other galaxies exist used to be controversial. Even into the 1920s, many astronomers thought the Milky Way encompassed all that exists in the universe. The evidence found in 1924 that meant our Galaxy is not alone was one of the great scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. --------------------------------------- Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike". ASTR 1020 - Lab 13: The Nature of Galaxies Download the attached zip file and install the website on a server or in your LMS course section. To place HTML website content in Brightspace: - Create an appropriate folder structure in Manage Files. This location is where files will be uploaded and unzipped. Each resource (website) should have a descriptively named independent folder. - Navigate to the appropriate folder and Upload the zip file. - Unzip the folder by clicking the pull-down arrow, and clicking Unzip on the submenu. A content folder will appear. It contains two folders and two HTML files. - Associate the index.html file to your Course Content topic. Perform this task in the Course Content area by clicking New and then clicking Add from Manage Files on the submenu. Next, navigate to the index.html file and Add the file. - Click the pull-down arrow by the new web page topic (currently named index). Next, click Edit Properties In-place on the submenu and rename the link to be descriptive. - Delete the extraneous zip file from the Manage Files folder.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.837136	05/17/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92789/overview", "title": "ASTR 1020 - Lab 13: The Nature of Galaxies", "author": "Hollyanna White" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104452/overview	BIO 5 Human Anatomy : Open For Antiracism (OFAR) Overview The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Program – co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons – emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve. The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of OER and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in the co-creation of an anti-racist classroom. The capstone project involves developing an action plan for incorporating OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught in the spring semester. OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Action Plan To transform my Spring 2023 Human Anatomy course into an anti-racist course To make students recognize who they represent and you they are in the course. To be able to teach the students about race, racism and anti-racism with emphasis that to be anti-racist is more than just being a non-racist individual. To be able to recognize the existence of medical racism. To be able to use a combination of reliable resources such as CDC.gov, medical journals and others. To encourage student collaboration with different backgrounds and encourage sharing experiences. To facilitate student participation in open pedagogy by sharing what they have uncovered from their research. To perform a self-reflection of the anti-racism project including how to become an anti-racist individual and an anti-racist medical professional in particular To hopefully initiate a long and sustainable influx of anti-racist healthcare professionals into the field and contribute to a better healthcare system Course Description BIO 5 Section 1041 Human Anatomy deals with the study of different structures in the human body which range from microscopic structure to organs and organ systems. When Human Anatomy deals with structures that can only be visualized with a microscope it is called microscopic anatomy or also called histology. When we talk about structures that can be seen by the naked eye, this is referred to as gross anatomy. Whenever these structures get damaged and do not work right, this leads to disease or pathology. This leads to patients seeking medical attention to get these structures fixed and working correctly. Antiracist Assignment / Module LESSON - RACE What is RACE? According to American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the "Western concept of race must be understood as a classification system that emerged from, and in support of, European colonialism, oppression, and discrimination. It thus does not have its roots in biological reality, but in policies of discrimination." It is important to note that, biologically, race doesn't exist. There is only one race, the human race. Race centers whiteness as the norm. Despite its biological insignificance, the cultural and social significance of race is very real (Guess, 2006). A society's understanding of race is centered on whiteness and "others" non-white, people of color. "Whiteness, therefore, is the standard by which systems and policies are designed which reaffirms the significance and impact of race on society (OFAR, 2022). What is RACISM? What is Systemic Racism in America? What is RACISM in MEDICINE? Let's go back to history --- Nowadays --- How American Health Care Is Defined By Systemic Racism Combating Racism and Place-ism in Medicine How to become an ANTI-RACIST? What does it mean to be anti-racist? Attributions - Guess, T. J. (2006). The social construction of whiteness: Racism by intent, racism by consequenceLinks to an external site.. Critical Sociology, 32(4), 649–673. - For more readings about race, whiteness, and talking race, visit the OFAR Bibliography. RESEARCH about MEDICAL RACISM / RACISM IN MEDICINE on the ASSIGNED TOPIC for your TEAM. Team 1 - Medical Racism / Racism in Medicine + Management of Acute Appendicitis Team 2 - Medical Racism / Racism in Medicine + Management of Fractures COLLABORATE with your TEAM MATES and share REFLECTIONS	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:55.867041	06/01/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104452/overview", "title": "BIO 5 Human Anatomy : Open For Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Rosser Panggat" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104440/overview	Career Planning and Personal Exploration Overview This course introduces students to the career-decision making process and job search strategies that will increase their job readiness, employability, and success in their career. The following four major areas will be covered: (1) Self-Understanding; (2) Creating an attitude of success; (3) Researching jobs and careers; (4) and Job search skills. Goals and Motivations Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. –Henry David Thoreau LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain how time management plays a factor in goal setting, leading to short-term, medium-term, and long-term objectives. - Identify your specific short, medium, and long-term goals. - Identify and apply motivational strategies to support goal achievement. - Explore the social aspects of achieving goals (networking, social media, etc.). - Brainstorm factors that might hinder goal achievement and possible ways to address these issues. Time Management and Goal Setting There is no doubt that doing well in college is a sizable challenge. Every semester you have to adjust to new class schedules, instructors, classmates as well as learning objectives and requirements for each course. Along with that, you may be juggling school with work, family responsibilities, and social events. Do you feel confident that you can attend to all of them in a balanced, committed way? What will be your secret of success? SUCCESS BEGINS WITH GOALS A goal is a desired result that you envision and then plan and commit to achieve. Goals can relate to family, education, career, wellness, spirituality, and many other areas of your life. Generally, goals are associated with finite time expectations, even deadlines. As a college student, many of your goals are defined for you. For example, you must take certain courses, you must comply with certain terms and schedules, and you must turn in assignments at specified times. These goals are mostly set for you by someone else. But there are plenty of goals for you to define yourself. For example, you decide what you would like to major in. You decide how long you are going to be in college or what terms you want to enroll in. You largely plan how you would like your studies to relate to employment and your career. Goals can also be sidetracked. Consider the following scenario in which a student makes a discovery that challenges her to reexamine her goals, priorities, and timetables: Janine had thought she would be an accountant, even though she knew little about what an accounting job might entail. Her math and organizational skills were strong, and she enjoyed taking economics courses as well as other courses in her accounting program. But when one of her courses required her to spend time in an accounting office working with taxes, she decided that accounting was not the right fit for her, due to the higher-stress environment and the late hours. At first she was concerned that she invested time and money in a career path that was not a good fit. She feared that changing her major would add to her graduation time. Nevertheless, she did decide to change her major and her career focus. Janine is now a statistician with a regional healthcare system. She is very happy with her work. Changing her major from accounting to statistics was the right decision for her. This scenario represents some of the many opportunities we have, on an ongoing basis, to assess our relationship to our goals, reevaluate priorities, and adjust. Opportunities exist every day—every moment, really! Below is a set of questions we can ask ourselves at any turn to help focus on personal goals: - What are my top-priority goals? - Which of my skills and interests make my goals realistic for me? - What makes my goals believable and possible? - Are my goals measurable? How long will it take me to reach them? How will I know if I have achieved them? - Are my goals flexible? What will I do if I experience a setback? - Are my goal controllable? Can I achieve them on my own? - Are my goals in sync with my values? As you move through your college career, make a point to ask these questions regularly. Aids to Successful Goal Setting Watch the following overview of SMART goals – a memory aid in setting and evaluating goals to ensure that they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. After watching the video, complete Activity 2.1. ACTIVITY 2.1: IDENTIFYING YOUR GOALS In order to achieve long-term goals (from college on), you will need to first achieve a series of shorter goals. Medium-term goals (this year and while in college) and short-term goals (today, this week, and this month) may take several days, weeks, months, or even a few years to complete, depending on your ultimate long-term goals. Complete the following Goals Activity to identify short and medium-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goal. Objectives - Identify 1 long-term academic or career goal. - Identify two related medium-term and two related short-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goal. - Identify specific, measurable, achievable, relevant activities to achieve your identified goals by a certain timeframe. Instructions - Review the worksheet below, and fill in the blank sections to the best of your ability. Guidelines - Phrase goals as positive statements: Affirm your excitement and enthusiasm about attaining a goal by using positive language and expectations. - Be exact: Set a precise goal that includes dates, times, and amounts, so that you have a basis for measuring your progress. - Prioritize: Select your top goals, and put them in order of importance. This helps you understand the degree to which you value each of them. It will also help you better manage related tasks and not feel overwhelmed. - Take the lead: Identify goals that are linked to your own performance, not dependent on the actions of other people or situations beyond your control. - Be realistic but optimistic and ambitious: The goals you set should be achievable, but sometimes it pays to reach a little higher than what you may think is possible. Certainly don’t set your goals too low. - Be hopeful, excited, and committed: Your enthusiasm and perseverance can open many doors! GOAL PRIORITIES \| MY PRECISE GOALS \| WHAT I AM DOING NOW TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS \| Example: Long-term goal \| I will graduate with an Associate of Arts degree in Automotive Technology by May 2023. \| I am attending the college of my choice and getting good grades in my major. \| Example: Related medium-term goal \| I will find either an internship or start a part-time job at an auto repair business within the next year. \| I have created an account in ACC Career Link. I visited with Career Services to start working on my resume. When I meet with my automotive tech instructor, I will ask for recommendations for an internship. \| Example: Related short-term goal \| I will earn a 3.0 GPA this semester. \| I attend every class. I reviewed the syllabi and put due dates in my calendar with reminders. This week I have a meeting with one of my instructors to ask about my progress. I have blocked regular study time in my weekly schedule. Last week I started visiting with a Learning Lab tutor. \| Identify your Long-term goal \| \|\| Identify a related medium-term goal #1 \| \|\| Identify a related medium-term goal #2 \| \|\| Identify a related short-term goal #1 \| \|\| Identify a related short-term goal #2 \| Motivational Strategies to Support You Every day we make choices. Some are as simple as what clothes we decide to wear, what to eat for lunch, or how long to study for a test. But what about life-altering choices—the ones that leave us at a crossroads? How much thought do you give to taking Path A versus Path B? Do you like to plan and schedule your choices, by making a list of pros and cons, for instance? Or do you prefer to make decisions spontaneously and just play the cards that life deals you as they come? How do you view challenges? Have you been coming from a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? How can believing that we can learn and improve through effort contribute to our success and our ability to achieve goals? The power of “yet” by Carol Dweck Carol Dweck is a professor at Stanford and the author of Mindset, a classic work on motivation and “growth mindset.” Her work is influential among educators and increasingly among business leaders as well. She researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve Passion and Perseverance or “Grit” by Angela Duckworth Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success. https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance After watching the videos, reflect on how you can improve the ways you currently set goals to allow you the opportunity to apply “grit” and use your “growth mindset” in order to successfully accomplish your goals. Social Aspects of Achieving Your Goals Setting goals can be a challenge, but working toward them, once you’ve set them, can be an even greater challenge—often because it implies that you will be making changes in your life. You might be creating new directions of thought or establishing new patterns of behavior, discarding old habits or starting new ones. Change will always be the essence of achieving your goals. You may find that as you navigate this path of change, one of your best resources is your social network. Your family, friends, roommates, coworkers, and others can help you maintain a steady focus on your goals. They can encourage and cheer you on, offer guidance when needed, share knowledge and wisdom they’ve gained, and possibly partner with you in working toward shared goals and ambitions. Your social network is a gold mine of support. Here are some easy ways you can tap into goal-supporting “people power”: - Make new friends - Study with friends - Actively engage with the college community - Volunteer to help others - Join student organizations - Get an internship - Work for a company related to your curriculum - Stay connected via social media (but use it judiciously)* - Keep a positive attitude - Congratulate yourself on all you’ve done to get where you are A note about social media: More than 98 percent of college-age students use social media, says Experian Simmons. Twenty-seven percent of those students spent more than six hours a week on social media (UCLA, 2014). The University of Missouri, though, indicates in a 2015 study that this level of use may be problematic. It can lead to symptoms of envy, anxiety, and depression. Still, disconnecting from social media may have a negative impact, too, and further affect a student’s anxiety level. Is there a healthy balance? If you feel overly attached to social media, you may find immediate and tangible benefit in cutting back. By tapering your use, your can devote more time to achieving your goals. You can also gain a sense of freedom and more excitement about working toward your goals. Dealing with Setbacks and Obstacles At times, unexpected events and challenges can get in the way of best-laid plans. For example, you might get sick or injured or need to deal with a family issue or a financial crisis. Earlier in this section we considered a scenario in which a student realized she needed to change her major and her career plans. Such upsets, whether minor or major, may trigger a need to take some time off from school—perhaps a term or a year. Your priorities may shift. You may need to reevaluate your goals. Problem-Solving Strategies Below is a simple list of four problem-solving strategies. They can be applied to any aspect of your life. - What is the problem? Define it in detail. How is it affecting me and other people? - How are other people dealing with this problem? Are they adjusting their time management skills? Can they still complete responsibilities, and on time? - What is my range of possible solutions? Are solutions realistic? How might these solutions help me reach my goal/s? - What do I need to do to implement solutions? You may wish to also review the earlier set of questions about focusing with intention on goals. Be confident that you can return to your intended path in time. Acknowledge the ways in which you need to regroup. Read inspiring words from people who have faced adversity and gained. Line up your resources, be resolved, and proceed with certainty toward your goals. KEY TAKEAWAYS Success with goals (any goals—education, family, career, finances, etc.) is essentially a three-part process: - Identify your goals (specifically long-term, medium-term and short-term goals). - Set priorities to accomplish these goals. - Manage your time according to the priorities you have set. By following these three straightforward steps, you can more readily achieve goals because you clearly organize the process and follow through with commitment. Focus your sights on what you want to acquire, attain, or achieve. Prioritize the steps you need to take to get there. And organize your tasks into manageable chunks and blocks of time. These are the roadways to accomplishment and fulfillment. In the following passage from Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom, former political-science student Patricia Munsch—now a college counselor—reflects on how a structured, conscientious approach to decision-making and goal setting in college can lead to fulfillment and achievement. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY STUDYING? There is a tremendous amount of stress placed on college students regarding their choice of major. Everyday, I meet with students regarding their concern about choosing right major; the path that will lead to a fantastic, high-paying position in a growth industry. There is a hope that one decision, your college major, will have a huge impact on the rest of your life. Students shy away from subject areas they enjoy due to fear that such coursework will not lead to a job. I am disappointed in this approach. As a counselor I always ask—what do you enjoy studying? Based on this answer it is generally easy to choose a major or a family of majors. I recognize the incredible pressure to secure employment after graduation, but forcing yourself to choose a major that you may not have any actual interest in because a book or website mentioned the area of growth may not lead to the happiness you predict. Working in a college setting I have the opportunity to work with students through all walks of life, and I do believe based on my experience, that choosing a major because it is listed as a growth area alone is not a good idea. Use your time in college to explore all areas of interest and utilize your campus resources to help you make connections between your joy in a subject matter and the potential career paths. Realize that for most people, in most careers, the undergraduate major does not lead to a linear career path. As an undergraduate student I majored in Political Science, an area that I had an interest in, but I added minors in Sociology and Women’s Studies as my educational pursuits broadened. Today, as a counselor, I look back on my coursework with happy memories of exploring new ideas, critically analyzing my own assumptions, and developing an appreciation of social and behavioral sciences. So to impart my wisdom in regards to a student’s college major, I will always ask, what do you enjoy studying? Once you have determined what you enjoy studying, the real work begins. Students need to seek out academic advisement. Academic advisement means many different things; it can include course selection, course completion for graduation, mapping coursework to graduation, developing opportunities within your major and mentorship. As a student I utilized a faculty member in my department for semester course selection, and I also went to the department chairperson to organize two different internships to explore different career paths. In addition, I sought mentorship from club advisors as I questioned my career path and future goals. In my mind I had a team of people providing me support and guidance, and as a result I had a great college experience and an easy transition from school to work. I recommend to all students that I meet with to create their own team. As a counselor I can certainly be a part of their team, but I should not be the only resource. Connect with faculty in your department or in your favorite subject. Seek out internships as you think about the transition from college to workplace. Find mentors through faculty, club advisors, or college staff. We all want to see you succeed and are happy to be a part of your journey. As a counselor I am always shocked when students do not understand what courses they need to take, what grade point average they need to maintain, and what requirements they must fulfill in order to reach their goal—graduation! Understand that as a college student it is your responsibility to read your college catalog and meet all of the requirements for graduation from your college. I always suggest that students, starting in their first semester, outline or map out all of the courses they need to take in order to graduate. Of course you may change your mind along the way, but by setting out your plan to graduation you are forcing yourself to learn what is required of you. I do this exercise in my classes and it is by far the most frustrating for students. They want to live in the now and they don’t want to worry about next semester or next year. However, for many students that I see, the consequence of this decision is a second semester senior year filled with courses that the student avoided during all the previous semesters. If you purposefully outline each semester and the coursework for each, you can balance your schedule, understand your curriculum and feel confident that you will reach your goal. —Dr. Patricia Munsch, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: An Introduction. Authored By: PERT and Rita Kitchen. Provided by: TED-Ed. Located at: https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/qrZmOV7R. License: CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Carol Dweck: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - Defining Goals. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Image: Children Splash Asia Sunset. Created by: Sasin Tipcha.Provided by: Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/children-splash-asia-sunset-1822688/ License: Standard Pixabay License - SMART Goals - Quick Overview . Located at: https://youtu.be/1-SvuFIQjK8. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License RETURN TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Personality, Skills, and Interests Image by Andre Mouton for Pixabay Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. – Aristotle Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand personality preferences based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). - Explore the qualities of personality types that you most identify with. - Research job titles that matches your preferred work styles. - List specific skills that will be necessary for your career path - List transferable skills that will be valuable for any career path - Identify your skills and interests according to Dr. John Holland’s Occupational Themes - Determine career paths that align with your occupational code - Explain how to acquire necessary skills, both in and out of class, for your career goals Now that you have reviewed the concepts of goal setting and identified values most important to you, the next part of the career development process will help you to reflect on personal preferences. By doing this, you will understand the work environment that you will naturally find a greater fit in. The career development process is all about you. You are a unique individual with a distinct combination of personality traits, skills, and interests, skills. Self -knowledge can help you in your career decision-making process to discover careers that are the best match for you. Personality Type Taking the time to ensure that your personality is compatible with your career choice is extremely important. If you do not invest the time now to figure out what makes you happy and keeps you motivated every day, you could be very unhappy in the future. Why is personality so important? Learning about your personality allows you to think about your emotions, behaviors, and ways of thinking on a day-to-day basis. For example, do you prefer to work alone or do you prefer to work with others? Would you be content in a career that requires you to be extremely organized and have a set schedule? Or are you the type of person that likes to have an open, flexible schedule that allows you to be spontaneous? This information will assist you in deciding which career(s) match with your personality preferences. To review personality preferences, one of the most common tools used to understand personality preferences is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). Some organizations (such as law enforcement) use it to find out more about the personalities of their potential employees, some universities use the MBTI to learn more about the personalities of potential graduate students considering psychology, counseling, and social work fields, and it is commonly used in relationship therapy to help individuals understand each other and their behaviors better. Watch the following video to get an introduction to the MBTI. Personality Theory: The 4 Facets - Extroversion-Introversion (EI): how you get your energy and where you prefer to focus your attention - Sensing-Intuition (SN): how you take in information about the world around you - Thinking-Feeling (TF): how you like to make decisions - Judging-Perceiving (JP): how you prefer to organize your life Complete the following activity to identify your personality type based on your own self- reflection. Then compare the results with the personality assessment at the website later in the chapter to see how your results are similar and different. Activity 4.1: What’s Your Type? Read descriptions for the four facets. Pick which is more like you. - E (Extraversion) or I (Introversion)? - S (Sensing) or N (Intuition)? - T (Thinking) or F (Feeling)? - J (Judging) or P (Perceiving)? Could be described as: Then you prefer (E) Extraversion \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (I) Introversion \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (S) Sensing \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (N) Intuition \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (T) Thinking \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (F) Feeling \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (J) Judging \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (P)Perceiving \| What is your 4-letter personality type? __ __ __ __ The following are brief descriptions of the 16 personality types from Humanmetrics. Click on your personality type or a similar type to see which describes you best. The 16 personality types \| \|\|\| Work Styles ONET OnLine provides an online tool that helps you to review your personal characteristics and how they can affect how well one performs a job. This tool is available via the Work Styles search function on ONET OnLine. You can browse ONet data by clicking on the quality that you think best represents you including achievement, innovation, and leadership to explore the different jobs that will require the specific characteristic. Skills In addition to personality, skills are also important to consider in the career development process. If you lived and worked in colonial times in the United States, what skills would you need to be gainfully employed? What kind of person would your employer want you to be? And how different would your skills and aptitudes be then, compared to today? Many industries that developed during the 1600s–1700s, such as health care, publishing, manufacturing, construction, finance, and farming, are still with us today. And the professional abilities, aptitudes, and values required in those industries are many of the same ones employers seek today. For example, in the health care field then, just like today, employers looked for professionals with scientific insight, active listening skills, a service orientation, oral comprehension abilities, and teamwork skills. And in the financial field then, just like today, employers looked for economics and accounting skills, mathematical reasoning skills, clerical and administrative skills, and deductive reasoning. Why is it that with the passage of time and all the changes in the work world, some skills remain unchanged (or little changed)? The answer might lie in the fact there are are two main types of skills that employers look for: hard skills and soft skills. Hard Skills & Soft Skills - Hard skills are concrete or objective abilities that you learn and perhaps have mastered. They are skills you can easily quantify, like using a computer, speaking a foreign language, or operating a machine. You might earn a certificate, a college degree, or other credentials that attest to your hard-skill competencies. Obviously, because of changes in technology, the hard skills required by industries today are vastly different from those required centuries ago. - Soft skills, on the other hand, are subjective skills that have changed very little over time. Such skills might pertain to the way you relate to people, or the way you think, or the ways in which you behave—for example, listening attentively, working well in groups, and speaking clearly. Soft skills are sometimes also called “transferable skills” because you can easily transfer them from job to job or profession to profession without much training. What Employers Want in an Employee Employers want individuals who have the necessary hard and soft skills to do the job well and adapt to changes in the workplace. Soft skills may be especially in demand today because employers are generally equipped to train new employees in a hard skill—by training them to use new computer software, for instance—but it’s much more difficult to teach an employee a soft skill such as developing rapport with coworkers or knowing how to manage conflict. An employer might rather hire an inexperienced worker who can pay close attention to details than an experienced worker who might cause problems on a work team. In this section, you will look at ways of identifying and building particular hard and soft skills that will be necessary for your career path. You will also learn how to use your time and resources wisely to acquire critical skills for your career goals. Transferable Skills for Any Career Path Transferable (soft) skills may be used in multiple professions. They include, but are by no means limited to, skills listed below: - Dependable and punctual (showing up on time, ready to work, not being a liability) - Self-motivated - Enthusiastic - Committed - Willing to learn (lifelong learner) - Able to accept constructive criticism - A good problem solver - Strong in customer service skills - Adaptable (willing to change and take on new challenges) - A team player - Positive attitude - Strong communication skills - Good in essential work skills (following instructions, possessing critical thinking skills, knowing limits) - Ethical - Safety conscious - Honest - Strong in time management Career Readiness The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines career readiness as a foundation from which to demonstrate the core competencies that broadly prepare college educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. These are the key skills and abilities that employers have identified as being highly valuable across all job functions. Career and Self-Development: Proactively develop oneself and one's career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one's organization. Communication: Clearly and efffectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization. Critical Thinking: Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information. Equity and Inclusion: Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism. Leadership: Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals. Professionalism: Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace. Teamwork: Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities. Technology: Understand and leverage technolgies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals. Do these career readiness skills look familiar? Of course! They are another way to describe the soft and transferable skills which can be more difficult to define than hard skills, but they are often more important to employers. Imagine that you are the hiring authority at your company. What would you look for in a new hire? These skills are transferable because they are positive attributes that are invaluable in practically any kind of work. They also do not require much training from an employer—you have them already and take them with you wherever you go. Soft skills are a big part of your “total me” package. So, identify the soft skills that show you off the best, and identify the ones that prospective employers are looking for. By comparing both sets, you can more directly gear your job search to your strongest professional qualities. ACTIVITY 4.2: IDENTIFYING YOUR SKILLS Objective: - To self identify your Top 5 transferable (soft) skills, skills you are good at, and those skills you wish to learn or develop further. Instructions: - Review the list of transferable skills list and additional checklist of transferable skills above to complete the chart below. Top 5 Skills I Enjoy Using \| Top 5 Skills That Come Naturally \| Top 5 Skills I Want to Learn \| \| 1 \| \|\|\| 2 \| \|\|\| 3 \| \|\|\| 4 \| \|\|\| 5 \| 10 Top Skills You Need to Get a Job When You Graduate The following video summarizes the ten top skills that the Target corporation believes will get you a job when you graduate. You can read a transcript of the video here. Assessing Your Skills and Interests In this section you will continue to assess your skills and your interests in more depth. Most career assessment tests created to measure skills and interests are based on the career theory developed by Dr. John Holland. The following video from Weber University provides you with an introduction to the Holland codes and occupation themes: As mentioned in the video, Holland defined six categories of people based on personality, interests, and skills: - Realistic: These people describe themselves as honest, loyal, and practical. They are doers more than thinkers. They have strong mechanical, motor, and athletic abilities; like the outdoors; and prefer working with machines, tools, plants, and animals. - Investigative: These people love problem solving and analytical skills. They are intellectually stimulated and often mathematically or scientifically inclined; like to observe, learn, and evaluate; prefer working alone; and are reserved. - Artistic: These people are the “free spirits.” They are creative, emotional, intuitive, and idealistic; have a flair for communicating ideas; dislike structure and prefer working independently; and like to sing, write, act, paint, and think creatively. They are similar to the investigative type but are interested in the artistic and aesthetic aspects of things more than the scientific. - Social: These are “people” people. They are friendly and outgoing; love to help others, make a difference, or both; have strong verbal and personal skills and teaching abilities; and are less likely to engage in intellectual or physical activity. - Enterprising: These people are confident, assertive risk takers. They are sociable; enjoy speaking and leadership; like to persuade rather than guide; like to use their influence; have strong interpersonal skills; and are status conscious. - Conventional: These people are dependable, detail oriented, disciplined, precise, persistent, and practical; value order; and are good at clerical and numerical tasks. They work well with people and data, so they are good organizers, schedulers, and project managers. ACTIVITY 4.3: What’s Your Occupational Type? Objective: - To determine your occupational types and code Instructions: - Using the descriptions above, choose the three types that most closely describe you and list them in order in the following table. Most people are combinations of two or sometimes three types. - Then list the specific words or attributes that you feel describe you best. - After determining your primary, secondary, and tertiary occupational types, take the first initial for each type, in order, to establish your occupational code. Occupational Type \| Words and Attributes That Closely Describe Me \| Primary type (the one I identify with most closely) \| \| Secondary type \| \| Tertiary type \| Note: Your occupational code is made up of the initials of the three personality types you selected, in order. My occupational code: ___ ___ ___ (For example: if Social, Enterprising, and Conventional are your top three occupational types, your occupational code would be: S E C) Exploring Careers and Your Occupational Type Now that you have determined your top three occupational types, you can begin to explore the types of careers that may be best suited for you. Holland studied people who were successful and happy in many occupations and matched their occupations to their occupational type, creating a description of the types of occupations that are best suited to each personality type. Just as many individuals are more than one personality type, many jobs show a strong correlation to more than one occupational type. Use the top thee occupation types you defined in Exercise 4.2 “What’s Your Occupational Type?” to help identify careers you may want to consider from the table below. Table 4.1 Occupational Options by Type Ideal Environments \| Sample Occupations \| \| Realistic \| \| \| Investigative \| \| \| Artistic \| \| \| Social \| \| \| Enterprising \| \| \| Conventional \| \| \| ACC’s Career Coach also has an interest assessment. You have a choice between a quick start 6 question version similar to the self-reflection exercise above or a detailed 60 question version based on the ONET Interest Profiler. After answering the questions, you will be given your top three interest themes and suggested career matches with career information and local job market information. You can also check out the Department of Labor’s ONet (http://online.onetcenter.org/find) to get a deeper understanding of your occupation. For each occupation, ONet lists the type of work, the work environment, the skills and education required, and the job outlook for that occupation. This is a truly rich resource that you should get to know. Identify Which Factors Might Affect Your Choice You may now have a list of careers you want to explore. But there are other factors you will need to take into consideration as well. It is important to use your creative thinking skills to come up with alternative “right” answers to factors that may present an obstacle to pursuing the right career. - Timing. How much time must I invest before I actually start making money in this career? Will I need to spend additional time in school? Is there a certification process that requires a specific amount of experience? If so, can I afford to wait? - Finances. Will this career provide me with the kind of income I need in the short term and the security I’ll want in the longer term? What investment will I need to make to be successful in this field (education, tools, franchise fees, etc.)? - Location. Does this career require me to relocate? Is the ideal location for this career somewhere I would like to live? Is it somewhere my family would like to live? - Family/personal. How will this career affect my personal and family life? Do friends and family members who know me well feel strongly (for or against) about this career choice? How important is their input? Your Next Steps It may seem odd to be thinking about life after school, especially if you are just getting started. But you will soon be making decisions about your future, and regardless of the direction you may choose, there is a lot you can do while still in college. You will need to focus your studies by choosing a major. You should find opportunities to explore the careers that interest you. You can ensure that you are building the right kind of experience on which to base a successful career. These steps will make your dreams come to life and make them achievable. Start by developing a relationship with your AoS Advisor for guidance on the academic requirements for your career goals. Will you need to prepare to transfer to a university? If you are in a workforce development program, start building relationships with your instructors as many still work in your field of interest and can give you great tips on how to get started. Another great resource is ACC’s Career Services. They can provide information on internships and strategies to help you connect with employers. And, if you are still undecided, start meeting with a career counselor. It is never too early to start thinking of your plans after college! All too often students engage these counselors only near the end of their college days, when the pressure is just on getting a job—any job—after having completed their certificate or degree. But these counselors can be of great help in matching your interests to a career and in ensuring you are gathering the right kind of experience to put you at the top of the recruiting heap. Keep in mind that deciding on and pursuing a career is an ongoing process. The more you learn about yourself and the career options that best suit you, the more you will need to fine-tune your career plan. Don’t be afraid to consider new ideas, but don’t make changes without careful consideration. Career planning is exciting: learning about yourself and about career opportunities, and considering the factors that can affect your decision, should be a core part of your thoughts while in college. Learn Specific Skills Necessary for Your Career Path The table below lists three resources to help you determine which concrete skills are needed for all kinds of professions. You can even discover where you might gain some of the skills and which courses you might take. Spend some time reviewing each resource. You will find many interesting and exciting options. When you are finished, you may decide that there are so many interesting professions in the world that it’s difficult to choose just one. This is a good problem to have! Table 4.2 Online Skills Identification Resources RESOURCE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| 1 \| Career Aptitude Test (Rasmussen College) \| This test helps you match your skills to a particular career that’s right for you. Use a sliding scale to indicate your level of skill in the following skill areas: artistic, interpersonal, communication, managerial, mathematics, mechanical, and science. Press the Update Results button and receive a customized list customized of career suggestions tailored to you, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can filter by salary, expected growth, and education. \| 2 \| Skills Matcher (Career OneStop from the U.S. Department of Labor) \| Use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills, and match your skills to job types that use those skills. Plan to spend about 20 minutes completing your profile. You can start with a job type to find skills you need for a current or future job. Or if you are not sure what kind of job is right for you, start by rating your own skills to find a job type match. When your skills profile is complete, you can print it or save it. \| 3 \| This U.S. government website helps job seekers answer two of their toughest questions: “What jobs can I get with my skills and training?” and “What skills and training do I need to get this job?” Browse groups of similar occupations to explore careers. Choose from industry, field of work, science area, and more. Focus on occupations that use a specific tool or software. Explore occupations that need your skills. Connect to a wealth of ONET data. Enter a code or title from another classification to find the related ONET-SOC occupation. \| Acquiring Necessary Skills (both in and out of class) for Your Career Goals “Lifelong learning” is a buzz phrase in the twentieth-first century because we are inundated with new technology and information all the time, and those who know how to learn, continuously, are in the best position to keep up and take advantage of these changes. Think of all the information resources around you: colleges and universities, libraries, the Internet, videos, games, books, films—the list goes on. With these resources at your disposal, how can you best position yourself for lifelong learning and a strong, viable career? Which hard and soft skills are most important? What are employers really looking for? The following list was inspired by the remarks of Mark Atwood, director of open-source engagement at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. It contains excellent practical advice. - Learn how to write clearly. After you’ve written something, have people edit it. Then rewrite it, taking into account the feedback you received. Write all the time. - Learn how to speak. Speak clearly on the phone and at a table. For public speaking, try Toastmasters. “Meet and speak. Speak and write.” - Be reachable. Publish your email so that people can contact you. Don’t worry about spam. - Learn about computers and computing, even if you aren’t gearing for a career in information technology. Learn something entirely new every six to twelve months. - Build relationships within your community. Use tools like Meetup.com and search for clubs at local schools, libraries, and centers. Then, seek out remote people around the country and world. Learn about them and their projects first by searching the Internet. - Attend conferences and events. This is a great way to network with people and meet them face-to-face. - Find a project and get involved. Start reading questions and answers, then start answering questions. - Collaborate with people all over the world. - Keep your LinkedIn profile and social media profiles up-to-date. Be findable. - Keep learning. Skills will often beat smarts. Be sure to schedule time for learning and having fun! Just Get Involved Even as a new college student, there are actions that you can take now to help you create the experiences and build the skils that employers want. What seems like an unrelated part-time job or fun extracurricular activity can help you develop valuable skills, create a network, and connect you with job openings that may be a good fit for your skills. The video, below, gives tips from students at Monash University in Australia that are relevant to all students: - Get involved in part-time work - Get involved in extracurricular activities - Get involved with the employment and career services offered at your school “Just Get involved. There are so many opportunities and open doors for you.” Key Takeaways - The right career for you depends on your interests, your personality, and your skills. - Learning about your personality helps you to think about your emotions, behaviors, and ways of thinking on a day to day basis. An awareness of these things will help you to find a career that compliments your personality. - Employers look for both hard and soft (transferable) skills in future employees; however transferable skills may be in more demand because they help people adapt to a variety of different jobs and professions without much training. - Defining your occupational type may confirm career choices you have already made and open entirely new options for you. - Connect with a college counselor early in your career development process to help you match your skills, personality and interests with potential jobs and eventually a career that best suits you. - Career planning is an ongoing process involving knowing yourself, knowing about career options, and understanding the context in which your decisions will be made. Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Image by Andre Mouton. Provided by: Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/monkey-mirror-thinking-reflection-4788334/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 CC licensed content, Shared previously - Professional Skill Building. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Line B: Employability Skills Competency . Provided by: Camosun College. Located at: http://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=c9bcd8df-17a3-4cf8-8400-426f395b3a62&contributor=&keyword=&subject=Common+Core. License: CC BY: Attribution - 7 skills to land your open source dream job. Authored by: Jason Hibbets. Located at: https://opensource.com/business/14/4/open-source-job-skills. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - What's Your Personality Type?. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MyersBriggsTypes.png. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Career Exploration. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/freshmanexperience/chapter/12-2-career-exploration/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike All rights reserved content - Career Readiness: Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce. Provided by: NACE, Revised March 2021. Located at: www.naceweb.org/career-readiness-competencies - Myers Briggs (MBTI) Explained - Personality Quiz. Created by: Practical Psychology. Provided by: YouTube. Located at: https://youtu.be/2ZF4OM6mrrI. License: All Rights Reserved - Preworkshop Video - Holland Codes. Authored by: Weber State University Career Services. Provided by: Weber State University. Located at: https://youtu.be/fNGa-_u7nQU. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - 10 top skills that will get you a job when you graduate. Authored by: TARGETjobs. Located at: https://youtu.be/jKtbaUzHLvw. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - How to find a new jobu2014Transferable Job Skills. Authored by: Learn English with Rebecca. Located at: https://youtu.be/7Kt4nz8KT_Y. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Tips to improve your career from Monash Graduates. Authored by: Monash University. Located at: https://youtu.be/7EBDrTdccAY. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Discover Your Personality Type \| Myers Briggs . Provided by: YouTube. Located at: https://youtu.be/WQoOqQiVzwQ. License: All Rights Reserved - Work Styles. Provided by: ONET OnLine. Located at: https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Work_Styles/. License: All Rights Reserved Values and Decision Making When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. -- Roy Disney LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: - Define your work values. - Learn steps to a rational decision-making model. - Understand how making decisions based on values can lead to career satisfaction. Values An essential part in your self discovery journey of your career exploration process is identifying what is most important to you–your values–and learn how they influence and motivate your goals. Values drive our actions and they motivate your goals. Your goals help you establish your priorities in life, guide your decision-making, and affect your evaluation of your success and happiness in life. Take time to reflect what being successful means to you. It will be different for you than for other people. Think of your values as you are thinking about becoming successful. Here's a video of a spoken word performance by Rashad Hedgepeth at a TEDx event titled, “Values”. VALUES As defined at CareerOneStop, a source for employment information sponsored by the US Department of Labor: - Values are your beliefs about what is important or desirable. - When your values line up with how you live and work, you tend to feel more satisfied and confident. - Living or working in ways that contradict your values can lead to dissatisfaction, confusion, and discouragement. So there is good reason to clarify your values, and seek to match your work to them. Identify Your Work Values The best career choices are ones that match your values. So do you know what your values are? Complete the following activity to review the work values that are most important to you. ACTIVITY 3.1: IDENTIFY YOUR WORK VALUES Complete the following activities offered by CareerOneStop to review your work values: - Visit the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher and complete the card sort exercise. - Review your results and read about all six of the universal work values developed by the U.S. Department of Labor’s ONET program. Click on the ones that best describe you to see careers that highlight that value. What do you notice when reading about the careers that express your top values? Making Decisions Based on Values Decision making refers to making choices among alternative courses of action—which may also include inaction. Not all decisions in life have major consequences or even require a lot of thought. For example, before you come to class, you make simple and habitual decisions such as what to wear, what to eat, and which route to take as you go to and from home and school. You probably do not spend much time on these mundane decisions. However, decisions that are unique and important require conscious thinking, information gathering, and careful consideration of alternatives. In this case, making a decision about your future career is an important one that requires a thoughtful review of what you consider most important in life, your values. Increasing effectiveness in decision making is an important part of maximizing your effectiveness at work. How do you normally make important decisions? Toss a coin? Take advice from trusted role-models? Or let fate decide for you? It is important to be self-aware, especially when it comes to making difficult and important life decisions. We will examine here a decision making model which includes a series of steps to help decision makers make the best choice. Decision Making Model Let’s imagine that your old, clunky car has broken down, and you have enough money saved for a substantial down payment on a new car. It will be the first major purchase of your life, and you want to make the right choice. The first step, therefore, has already been completed—the problem is that you need a new vehicle and need to choose one to buy. In Step 2, you will decide which factors you value most in a vehicle. How many passengers do you want to accommodate? How important is fuel economy to you? Is safety a major concern? You only have a certain amount of money saved, and you don’t want to take on too much debt, so price range is probably an important factor as well. Perhaps you have identified the following as being important to you: room for at least five adults, minimum gas mileage of twenty MPG, a strong safety rating, and no more than $20,000 in price. These are the decision criteria which you have identified. Now, for Step 3, you should allocate weight or determine how important each factor is to your decision. If each is equally important, then there is no need to weigh them, but if you know that price and mpg are key factors, you might weigh them more and weigh the other criteria as being less important. In step 4, you will narrow your choices and develop alternatives. Perhaps, after speaking with others and researching vehicles in unbiased journals and online resources, you are trying to decide between a small SUV, a sports car and a fairly new, but used sedan. For step 5 you can now analyze the alternatives. Using the criteria you established in step 2, analyze each vehicle. Usually it is easier to create a spreadsheet or pros and cons list. Start with the factors that you identified as most important to you. Does the SUV cost less than $20,000? How about the sports car? Or the sedan? Continue to evaluate each vehicle based on your remaining criteria. After weighing the evidence for each, for step 6, choose the best alternative. Remember to give greater weight to the factors that you identified as most important. That means that a vehicle that doesn’t meet your MPG and price needs should not be highest on your list, despite how good you look driving it! For step 7, you take action and purchase your car with confidence knowing that you have made an informed decision. Of course, reviewing the outcome of this decision will influence the next decision made. That is where step 8 comes in. For example, if you purchase a car and have nothing but problems with it, you will be less likely to consider the same make and model when purchasing a car the next time. Perhaps a new important factor will be the maintenance expectations. The decision-making process has important lessons for decision makers. - First, when making a decision, you may want to make sure that you establish your decision criteria before you search for alternatives. This would prevent you from liking one option too much and setting your criteria accordingly. For example, let’s say you started browsing cars online before you generated your decision criteria. You may come across a car that you feel reflects your sense of style and you develop an emotional bond with the car. Then, because of your love for the particular car, you may say to yourself that the fuel economy of the car and the innovative braking system are the most important criteria. After purchasing it, you may realize that the car is too small for your friends to ride in the back seat, which was something you should have thought about. Setting criteria before you search for alternatives may prevent you from making such mistakes. Another advantage of the rational model is that it urges decision makers to generate all alternatives instead of only a few. By generating a large number of alternatives that cover a wide range of possibilities, you are unlikely to make a more effective decision that does not require sacrificing one criterion for the sake of another. - Second, despite all its benefits, you may have noticed that this decision-making model involves a number of unrealistic assumptions as well. It assumes that people completely understand the decision to be made, that they know all their available choices, that they have no perceptual biases, and that they want to make optimal decisions. - Additionally, while decision makers can get off track during any of these steps, research shows that searching for alternatives in the fourth step can be the most challenging. Think about how you make important decisions in your life. It is likely that you rarely sit down and complete all eight of the steps in the rational decision-making model. For example, this model proposed that we should search for all possible alternatives before making a decision, but that process is time consuming, and individuals are often under time pressure to make decisions. Moreover, even if we had access to all the information that was available, it could be challenging to compare the pros and cons of each alternative and rank them according to our preferences. Learning from these important lessons, you can use the work values you identified from Acitivity 3.1 as your criteria in your career exploration. This will help you focus on what is most important to you so that you can choose a career that will help you feel fulfilled and satisfied. Once you decide on a career, your decision will help guide the goals you set for yourself from your college education to your future career. For help to stay on track in this journey, you can seek assistance from the information and resources you learn in this class as well as counselors and career staff at the college to guide your search. KEY TAKEAWAYS Having a clear understanding of your life and career values will help make your decisions in school and work easier. - First, identify your values, what you find most important and essential in life. - Second, use your values to guide your decision making in your education and career options. - Finally, practice a decision-making process that provides you the opportunity to discover all of your choices so that you can make the best decisions based on all the options you have. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Values: spoken word performance. Created by: Rashad Hedgepeth. Provided by TEDx. Located at: https://youtu.be/eI1yo-a3QBs License: CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Understanding Decision Making. Located at: https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/11-3-understanding-decision-making/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Image: Compass Direction. Created by: PDPics Provided by: Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/compass-direction-magnetic-compass-390907/ . License: Standard Pixabay License - ONET Online. Located at: https://www.onetonline.org/. License: All Rights Reserved PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT - Provided by: Career OneStop. Located at: https://www.careeronestop.org/. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright College and Exploring Careers Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Stay focused, go after your dreams, and keep moving toward your goals. —L L Cool J, musician Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify your motivations for attending college as it relates to your future career goals - Review your individual career profile - Explore activities to gain knowledge and experience about your future career College and Career Knowing what you truly want to gain from your college experience is the first step toward achieving it. But reaching your goals doesn’t necessarily mean you are college and career ready. Ultimately, college and career readiness demands students know more than just content, but demonstrate that they know how to learn and build upon that content to solve problems. They must develop versatile communication skills, work collaboratively and work competitively in a school or work environment. Ensuring that you possess both the academic and technical know-how necessary for a career beyond the classroom is a great step toward succeeding on whatever path you choose. —Washington, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education What does it mean to be ready for college and a career? In general, you are a college- and career-ready student if you have gained the necessary knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors to achieve at least one of the following: - Earn a certificate or degree in college - Participate in career training - Enter the workplace and succeed For instance, if you are studying for a skilled trade license in college, or perhaps pursuing a bachelor of arts degree, you are college-ready if you have the reading, writing, mathematics, social, and thinking skills to qualify for and succeed in the academic program of your choice. Similarly, you are a career-ready student if you have the necessary knowledge and technical skills needed to be employed in your desired field. For example, if you are a community college student ready to be a nurse, you possess the knowledge and skill needed to secure an entry-level nursing position, and you also possess required licensing. For a long time, my plan had always been to be a kindergarten teacher. But when I began my undergraduate degree I fell into that ever-growing pool of college students who changed their major three times before graduation. I was swayed by family members, my peers, and the economy, but I eventually realized that I was investing my education in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons. It shouldn’t just be about salaries and job security. I needed to find that personal attachment. At eighteen, it’s hard to see your entire life spread out before you. College may feel like a free-for-all at times, but the reality is that it’s one of the most defining times of our lives. It should never be squandered. I started to imagine my life beyond college—what I found important and the type of lifestyle I wanted in the end. I started thinking about the classes that I was actually interested in—the ones that I looked forward to each week and arrived early to just so I could get a seat up front. A turning point for me was when I took the advice of a campus mentor and enrolled in a career exploration course. I learned more about myself in that class than I had in my entire three years at college prior to taking it. It showed me that my passion was something I had always thought about but never thought about as a career. . . . Through this realization and my participation in my career exploration class, I saw a viable future in the Higher Education Administration field. —Jamie Edwards, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom The Marriage of College and Career The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States is widely acknowledged to be Harvard University. It was established in 1636 with the aim of providing instruction in arts and sciences to qualify students for employment. In the 1779 Constitution of Massachusetts submitted by Samuel Adams, John Adams, and James Bowdoin to the full Massachusetts Convention, the following language was used: Art. I.—Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State . . . Is “public employment” preparation still the goal of higher education institutions today? Indeed, it is certainly one of the many goals! College is also an opportunity for students to grow personally and intellectually. In fact, in a 2018 report titled, “Why Higher Ed?” from a Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Report Survey, students reported their motivations for pursuing a college education: - 58% related to job and career outcomes. - 23 % a general motivation to learn more and gain knowledge without linking it to work or career aspirations. - 12 percent because of family or social expectations. These statistics are understandable in light of the great reach and scope of higher education institutions. Today, there are some 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, offering every manner of education and training to students. What do employers think about the value of a college education? What skills do employers seek in their workforce? Those that are developed through college coursework across disciplines as well as the personal skills needed to succeed in college. In 2016, a survey by the Society for Human Resource Managers found that these were the most important skills for entry-level positions across industries: - Dependability & Reliability - Integrity - Teamwork - Custom Focus - Initiative - Professionalism - Adaptability - Respect - Critical Thinking - Oral Communication - Planning & Organization - Written Communication In 2018, Hart Research Associates conducted a survey on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The survey revealed that the majority of employers believe that a college education is valuable and important. The best preparation for long-term career success is broad learning and skills found across all majors. The learning outcomes they rate as most important include oral and written communication, critical thinking, ethical decision-making, teamwork, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.[1] Employment Rates and Salaries Consider, too, the following statistics on employment rates and salaries for college graduates. College does make a big difference! - Over the course of a 50-year working life, a male with a bachelor’s degree will earn $900,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates. (SSA)[2] - In 2019, young adults ages 25 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher had the highest employment rate (87%). (NCES)[3] - In 2019, the employment rate for those some college, including an associate’s degree (80%) was higher than the rate for those who just completed high school (74%) and those who had not finished high school (57%). (NCES)[3] - Employment rates were generally higher for males than females at each level of educational attainment in 2019. (NCES)[3] - There is a wider earnings gap between college-educated and less educated Millennials compared with previous generations. (PEW, 2014)[4] Perhaps most important, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—82% —say that college has been a good investment for them personally (PEW, 2016)[5]. And, on all measurements of career attainment and economic well-being in a 2014 survey, college graduates out performed peers with less education (PEW, 2014)[4]. Differences in Earnings You may wish to use this interactive tool to compare wages within and across demographic groups in the United States, including education level, on the Washington Center for Equitable Growth website. As you can see, education level is just one factor of earning potential. All in all, college imparts a wide and deep range of benefits. The short video Is College Worth It? shows that with a college degree you are more likely to: - Have a higher salary - Have better job prospects - Be healthier - Vote - Be involved in their community Success in College Success in college can be measured in many ways: through your own sense of what is important to you; through your family’s sense of what is important to your collective group; through your institution’s standards of excellence; through the standards established by your state and country; through your employer’s perceptions about what is needed in the workplace; and in many respects through your own unfolding goals, dreams, and ambitions. How are you striving to achieve your goals? And how will you measure your success along the way? Career Journey Continued As you make a commitment to your college career, let’s review your career journey so far. As we learned in Chapter 1, the first stop on the journey requires an inventory of your unique attributes - your goals, values, personality, skills and interests – before you can proceed to the next stop and research specific careers. Activity 5.1: Your Personal Profile Goals - Reflecting on your career exploration and using the SMART format from Chapter 2, identify one long-term career goal. - Then, identify 2-3 short-term goals for this semester to achieve your long-term goal from #1. Values - From Chapter 3 and the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher, what are your top work values? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to express your values. Interests - From Chapter 4 and the Career Coach Interest Assessment or ONet Interest Profiler, what are your top interests (Holland Code)? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to express your interests. Personality - From Chapter 4 and the personality test from the Humanmetrics website, what is your 4-letter personality type? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and are often associated with your personality type. Skills - From Chapter 4, what are your top skills? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to utilize your skills. Research activity: - Of all the career titles you have explored, which 2 or 3 careers would you be most interested in researching in-depth? Below is the second part of Jamie Edwards’s essay (former student at State University of New York). Her advice is to make connections between the “now” of college experience and future career possibilities. She thinks that the more informed you are about your career options through real-life conversations and experiences, the better prepared you will be for your future—and the more confident you will be in your career decisions. From where I sit now—my former personal and professional struggles in tow—I offer up some pieces of advice that were crucial to getting me where I am today. Whether you’re an undecided major who is looking for guidance or a student with a clearly defined career path, I suggest the following: - Find a mentor—For me, everything began there. Without my mentor, I wouldn’t have done any of the other items I’m about to suggest. Finding the right mentor is crucial. Look for someone who can complement your personality (typically someone who’s the opposite of you). My advice would be to look beyond your direct supervisor for mentorship. It’s important to create an open forum with your mentor, because there may be a conflict of interest as you discuss work issues and other job opportunities. Potential mentors to consider are an instructor on campus, your academic advisor, a professional currently working in your prospective field, someone you admire in your community, or anyone in your network of friends or family that you feel comfortable discussing your future goals with. - Enroll in a Career Exploration/Planning course, or something similar—Even if you do not see the effects of this course immediately (such as dramatically changing your major), you will notice the impact down the road. Making educated career choices and learning job readiness skills will always pay off in the end. Through my career exploration class, I learned how to relate my personality and values to potential career fields. These self-assessments changed my entire thought process, and I see that influence daily. Beyond changing the way you think, the knowledge you gain about effective job search strategies is invaluable. Learning how to write purposeful résumés and cover letters, finding the right approach to the interview process, and recognizing your strengths and weaknesses are just a few of the benefits you can gain from these type of courses. - Complete a Job Shadow and/or Informational Interview—No amount of online research is going to give you the same experience as seeing a job at the front line. In a job shadow or an informational interview, you’re able to explore options with no commitment and see how your in-class experience can carry over to a real world setting. Additionally, you’re expanding your professional network by having that personal involvement. You never know how the connections you make might benefit you in the future. My only regret about job shadowing in college is that I didn’t do it sooner. - Do an Internship—A main source of frustration for recent grads is the inability to secure an entry-level position without experience. “How do I get a job to gain experience when I can’t get a job without experience?” This is how: do an internship or two! Most colleges even have a course where you can obtain credit for doing it! Not only will you earn credits towards graduation, but you’ll gain the necessary experience to put on your résumé and discuss in future interviews. Having completed four internships throughout my college career, I can’t say they were all great. However, I don’t regret a single one. The first one showed me the type of field I didn’t want to work in. The second confirmed that I was heading in the right direction with my career. My third and fourth internships introduced me to completely different areas of higher education which broadened my knowledge and narrowed my search simultaneously. My takeaway is that sometimes you have to learn what you don’t want in order to find out what you do want. The more informed you are about career options through real-life conversations and experiences, the better prepared you will be for your future and the more confident you will be in your career decisions. Always explore your options because even if you learn you hate it, at least you’re one step close to finding what you love. —Jamie Edwards, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Activity 5.2: Informational Interview As recommended in Part 2, #3 above, reach out to someone working in your area of interest and ask for an opportunity to talk to them for 20 or 30 minutes about their career path and profession. Your friends, family, professors, co-workers, and alumni network are potential connections. Just ask if they know someone with whom you can meet. The goal is not to land a job, but to learn, however, that person can be a part of your network in the future. Be sure to respect their time, be prepared with questions, and present yourself professionally. \| Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Activity 5.3: resources for career research After you have identified career titles you are most interested and have conducted informational interviews, check out the following resources to help research careers more in-depth: - Occupational Outlook Handbook from US Department of Labor - The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations. Includes career videos. - O*Net Online - Detailed descriptions of careers with many different ways to search. - Career Coach - Learn about the connection between academic programs and careers as well as local labor market information and current job postings. - Texas Career Check - Detailed career information with video - For more help with your search, visit Austin Community College’s Career Services Key Takeaways Labor research indicates that as educational attainment increases in individuals the unemployment rate decreases. A college degree affects other personal factors you may have not considered such as retirement plan, health care insurance, and higher lifetime salary. College is an ideal place to explore careers. Selecting the right career involves thorough research such as, informational interviews, online research, and utilizing the Career Center located in your college. - “Employers Express Confidence in Colleges and Universities; See College as Worth the Investment, New Research Finds.” Hart Research Associates, Web. 29 Aug. 2019 ↵ - “Education and Lifetime Earnings”. Social Security Administration: Research, Statistics & Policy Analysis. Web. Nov. 2015. ↵ - "Fast Facts: Employment Rates of College Graduates." Fast Facts. National Center For Education Statistics. Web. ↵ - "The Rising Cost of Not Going to College." Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. ↵ - “The State of American Jobs: The Value of a College Education.” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. ↵ Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/board-school-training-career-3683740/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/exchange-of-ideas-debate-discussion-222787/ . License: Standard Pixabay License CC licensed content, Shared previously - The Big Picture. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - Student Voices: What Does it Mean to be College and Career Ready?. Authored by: Achieve. Located at: https://youtu.be/9pYqsShxqD4. License: CC BY: Attribution - First University in the United States. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_university_in_the_United_States. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike All rights reserved content - Why Higher Ed?: Strada and Gallup Examine Consumers' Top Motives for Choosing Their Educational Pathways. Authored by: Strada Education Network and Gallup. Located at: https://news.gallup.com/reports/226457/why-higher-ed.aspx. License: All Rights Reserved - Entry-Level Applicant Job Skills Survey. Authored by: Society for Human Resource Management. Located at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/PublishingImages/Pages/Entry-Level-Applicant-Job-Skills-Survey-/Entry- Level%20Applicant%20Job%20Skills%20Survey.pdf. License: All Rights Reserved - Comparing Wages Within and Across Demographic Groups in the US. Authored by: Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Located at: https://equitablegrowth.org/demographic-group-wages-interactive/ License: All Rights Reserved - Is College Worth It? Authored by: Third Way. Provided by: You Tube. Located at: https://youtu.be/CWms2LMQmhU . License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Public domain content - What Does College and Career Readiness Mean?. Provided by: Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Located at: http://osse.dc.gov/service/what-does-college-and-career-readiness-mean. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright - Chart of Unemployment Rates and Earnings By Educational Attainment (4 Sept. 2019) Provided by: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Located at: https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Networking Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay You should be accumulating really great relationships throughout your career. -- Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define network and identify strategies for networking - Identify sources for developing professional networks In the context of career development, networking is the process by which people build relationships with one another for the purpose of helping one another achieve professional goals. When you “network,” you exchange information. - You may share business cards, résumés, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about a specific field. - You might also share information about meet-up groups, conferences, special events, technology tools, and social media. - You might also solicit job “headhunters,” career counselors, career centers, career coaches, an alumni association, family members, friends, acquaintances, and vendors. Networking can occur anywhere and at any time. In fact, your network expands with each new relationship you establish. And the networking strategies you can employ are nearly limitless. With imagination and ingenuity, your networking can be highly successful. Strategies for Networking We live in a social world. Almost everywhere you go and anything you do professionally involves connecting with people. It stands to reason that finding a new job and advancing your career entails building relationships with these people. Truly, the most effective way to find a new job is to network, network, and network some more. Once you acknowledge the value of networking, the challenge is figuring out how to do it. What is your first step? Whom do you contact? What do you say? How long will it take? Where do you concentrate efforts? How do you know if your investments will pay off? For every question you may ask, a range of strategies can be used. Begin exploring your possibilities by viewing the following energizing video, Networking Tips for College Students and Young People, by Hank Blank. He recommends the following modern and no-nonsense strategies: - Hope is not a plan. You need a plan of action to achieve your networking goals. - Keenly focus your activities on getting a job. Use all tools available to you. - You need business cards. No ifs, ands, or buts. - Register your own domain name. Find your favorite geek to build you a landing page. Keep building your site for the rest of your life. - Attend networking events. Most of them offer student rates. - Master Linkedin because that is what human resource departments use. Post updates. - Think of your parents’ friends as databases. Leverage their knowledge and their willingness to help you. - Create the world you want to live in in the future by creating it today through your networking activity. These are the times to live in a world of “this is how I can help.” See the LinkedIn for Students Web site. Finding Work Using Your Networks This video was created for international students, but it has helpful tips for all students. It focuses on the importance of networking when looking for jobs and keeping an open mind. Simply talking to people can help you move from casual work to full-time employment. . . . And More Strategies Strategies at College - Get to know your professors: Communicating with instructors is a valuable way to learn about a career and also get letters of reference if and when needed for a job. Professors can also give you leads on job openings, internships, and research possibilities. Most instructors will readily share information and insights with you. Get to know your instructors. They are a valuable part of your network. - Check with your college’s alumni office: You may find that some alumni are affiliated with your field of interest and can give you the “inside scoop.” - Check with classmates: Classmates may or may not share your major, but any of them may have leads that could help you. You could be just one conversation away from a good lead. Strategies at Work - Join professional organizations: You can meet many influential people at local and national meetings and events of professional and volunteer organizations. Learn about these organizations. See if they have membership discounts for students, or student chapters. Once you are a member, you may have access to membership lists, which can give you prospective access to many new people with whom to network. Check out the Professional Association Finder on CareerOneStop . - Volunteer: Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people who can help you develop your career, even if the organization you are volunteering with is not in your field. Just by working alongside others and working toward common goals, you build relationships that may later serve you in unforeseen and helpful ways. VolunteerMatch matches you with volunteer opportunities based on the causes and populations in which you want to make a difference. - Get an internship: Many organizations offer internship positions to college students. Some of these positions are paid, but often they are not. Paid or not, you gain experience relevant to your career, and you potentially make many new contacts. Check out Texas Internship Challenge for information on paid or class credit opportunities in Texas while still in school. - Get a part-time job: Working full-time may be your ultimate goal, but you may want to fill in some cracks or crevices by working in a part-time job. Invariably you will meet people who can feasibly help with your networking goals. And you can gain good experience along the way, which can also be noted on your résumé. See what is posted by local employers on ACC Career Link. - Join a job club: Your career interests may be shared by many others who have organized a club, which can be online or in person. If you don’t find an existing club, consider starting one. See if there is a student organization for your major registered with the Office of Student Life that you can join or start one. If you want to meet other community members searching for career opportunities in Austin, consider the networking program available through Launchpad. - Attend networking events: There are innumerable professional networking events taking place around the world and also online. Find them listed in magazines, community calendars, newspapers, journals, and at the Web sites of companies, organizations, and associations. - Conduct informational interviews: You may initiate contact with people in your chosen field who can tell you about their experiences of entering the field and thriving in it. Many Web sites have guidance on how to plan and conduct these interviews. Strategies at Home and Beyond - Participate in online social media: An explosion of career opportunity awaits you with social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. Keep your communication ultra-professional at these sites. Peruse magazine articles, and if you find one that’s relevant to your field and it contains names of professionals, you can reach out to them to learn more and get job leads. Find more information about using social and career networking sites at CareerOneStop - Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and acquaintances for referrals: Do they know others who might help you? You can start with the question “Who else should I be talking to?” - Use business cards or networking cards: A printed business card can be an essential tool to help your contacts remember you. Creativity can help in this regard, too. Students often design cards themselves and either hand print them or print them on a home printer. ACTIVITY: NETWORKING FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT Objectives - Examine five strategies for obtaining and engaging with networking contacts - Develop relationships with new contacts to enhance your career Instructions - Find information about five companies or people in your field of interest, and follow them on Twitter or Instagram. - Get an account at four social media sites that you’ve not yet been active with that may enhance your career. - Find names of three people who interest you (peruse magazine articles, online sites, or other resources), and write an email to them explaining your interests and any requests you may have for information. - Sign up for newsletters from two professional organizations in a field you want to know more about. - Find and attend one in-person or online event within a month. - Now write about this experience at one of your social media sites. Sources for Developing Professional Networks The bottom line with developing professional networks is to cull information from as many sources as possible and use that information in creative ways to advance your career opportunities. The strategies listed in the section above provide you with a comprehensive set of suggestions. Below is a summary of sources you can use to network your way to career success: - Meet-up groups - Conferences - Special events - Technology tools - Social media - Career centers - Alumni association - Professional organizations - Volunteer organizations - Internships - Part-time job - Job club - Networking events - Magazine articles - Web sites - Career coaches - Headhunters - Career counselors - Family members - Friends - Coworkers - Vendors - College professors - Advisers - Classmates - Administrators - Coaches - Guest speakers Don’t Wait to Develop Your Network For inspiration, listen to Isaac Serwanga’s Tedx Talk on his 3 Bones of Networking for Student Success: the Wishbone (State what you want!), the Jawbone (Ask with competency and humility!), and the Backbone (Persist, persist, persist!). KEY TAKEAWAYS Networking is the process by which people form professional relationships to create, act upon opportunities, share information and help one another achieve professional goals. - When you “network” with a person, you may: - Share business cards, resumes, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about specific fields. - Share information about networking groups, conferences, events, technology tools, and social media - Research career counselors, career centers, career coaches and alumni, relatives, and acquaintances - Networking can occur anywhere and anytime, and expands as you form and nurture new relationships - According to Hank Blank, producer of the video Networking Tops for College Students and Young People, as a college student, you should have specific modern and no-nonsense strategies when developing your network. - If you are an international student you may want to focus on keeping an open mind when it comes to networking - When networking at college: - Get to know your professors - Check with your college alumni office - Check with classmates - Some strategies that you can develop at work include: - Joining professional organizations - Volunteering - Internships - Clubs - Attend networking events - Conduct informational interviews - Some strategies that you can develop at home include: - Be active on social media - Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and relatives for referrals - Utilize business cards for networking LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/play-stone-network-networked-1237457/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Isaac Serwanga: The 3 Bones of Networking for Student Success. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://youtu.be/4OTPJZnBP8s License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Networking. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Image of 3D Social Networking. Provided by: ccPixs.com Authored by: Chris Potter. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/d9K1Bc. License: CC BY: Attribution - Networking. Authored by: Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by: Chadron State College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CC BY: Attribution ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Hank Blank - Networking Tips for College Students and Young People. Authored by: Hank Blank. Located at: https://youtu.be/TDVstonPPP8. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - International Student Series: Finding work using your networks. Authored by: The University of Sydney. Located at: https://youtu.be/1yQ5AKqpeiI. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Résumés and Cover Letters Image by: Flazingo.com The most important tool you have on a résumé is language. —Jay Samit, digital media innovator LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define the purpose and contents of a résumé - Identify characteristics of an effective cover letter and résumé A résumé is a “selfie” for business purposes. It is a written picture of who you are—it’s a marketing tool, a selling tool, and a promotion of you as an ideal candidate for any job you may be interested in. The word résumé comes from the French word résumé, which means “a summary.” Leonardo da Vinci is credited with writing one of the first known résumés, although it was more of a letter that outlined his credentials for a potential employer, Ludovico Sforza. The résumé got da Vinci the job, though, and Sforza became a longtime patron of da Vinci and later commissioned him to paint The Last Supper. You can see the letter and read the translation Ladders Career Advice. Résumés and cover letters work together to represent you in the brightest light to prospective employers. With a well-composed résumé and cover letter, you stand out—which may get you an interview and then a good shot at landing a job. In this section we discuss résumés and cover letters as key components of your career development tool kit. We explore some of the many ways you can design and develop them for the greatest impact in your job search. Your Résumé: Purpose and Contents Your résumé is an inventory of your education, work experience, job-related skills, accomplishments, volunteer history, internships, residencies, and/or more. It’s a professional autobiography in outline form to give the person who reads it a quick, general idea of who you are. With a better idea of who your are, prospective employers can see how well you might contribute to their workplace. As a college student or recent graduate, though, you may be unsure about what to put in your résumé, especially if you don’t have much employment history. Still, employers don’t expect recent grads to have significant work experience. And even with little work experience, you may still have a host of worthy accomplishments to include. It’s all in how you present yourself. The following quick video from the Career Development Center at West Chester University describes the purpose of a resume. Elements of Your Successful Résumé Perhaps the hardest part of writing a résumé is figuring out what format to use to organize and present your information in the most effective way. There is no correct format, per se, but most résumés follow one of the four formats below. Which format appeals to you the most? - Reverse chronological résumé: A reverse chronological résumé (sometimes also simply called a chronological résumé) lists your job experiences in reverse chronological order—that is, starting with the most recent job and working backward toward your first job. It includes starting and ending dates. Also included is a brief description of the work duties you performed for each job, and highlights of your formal education. The reverse chronological résumé may be the most common and perhaps the most conservative résumé format. It is most suitable for demonstrating a solid work history, and growth and development in your skills. It may not suit you if you are light on skills in the area you are applying to, or if you’ve changed employers frequently, or if you are looking for your first job. Reverse Chronological Résumé Examples - Functional résumé: A functional résumé is organized around your talents, skills, and abilities (more so than work duties and job titles, as with the reverse chronological résumé). It emphasizes specific professional capabilities, like what you have done or what you can do. Specific dates may be included but are not as important. So if you are a new graduate entering your field with little or no actual work experience, the functional résumé may be a good format for you. It can also be useful when you are seeking work in a field that differs from what you have done in the past. It’s also well suited for people in unconventional careers. Functional Résumé Examples - Hybrid résumé: The hybrid résumé is a format reflecting both the functional and chronological approaches. It’s also called a combination résumé. It highlights relevant skills, but it still provides information about your work experience. With a hybrid résumé, you may list your job skills as most prominent and then follow with a chronological (or reverse chronological) list of employers. This résumé format is most effective when your specific skills and job experience need to be emphasized. Hybrid Résumé Examples - Video, infographic, and Web-site résumé: Other formats you may wish to consider are the video résumé, the infographic résumé, or even a Web-site résumé. These formats may be most suitable for people in multimedia and creative careers. Certainly with the expansive use of technology today, a job seeker might at least try to create a media-enhanced résumé. But the paper-based, traditional résumé is by far the most commonly used—in fact, some human resource departments may not permit submission of any format other than paper based. Video Resume Examples; Infographic Résumé Examples; Web-Site Résumé Examples An important note about formatting is that, initially, employers may spend only a few seconds reviewing each résumé—especially if there is a big stack of them or they seem tedious to read. That’s why it’s important to choose your format carefully so it will stand out and make the first cut. According to the Indeed video below, there are 5 Resume Tips That Will Get You Noticed: - Use key words from the job posting - List your hard skills - List your soft skills - List your achievements and be specific - Edit Résumé Contents and Structure For many people, the process of writing a résumé is daunting. After all, you are taking a lot of information and condensing it into a very concise form that needs to be both eye-catching and easy to read. Don’t be scared off, though! Developing a good résumé can be fun, rewarding, and easier than you think if you follow a few basic guidelines. In the following video, a résumé-writing expert describes some keys to success. Contents and Components To Include - Your contact information: name, address, phone number, professional email address - A summary of your skills: 5–10 skills you have gained in your field; you can list hard skills as well as soft skills (refer to the Professional Skill Building topic in this course) - Work experience: depending on the résumé format you choose, you may list your most recent job first; include the title of the position, employer’s name, location, employment dates (beginning, ending) - Volunteer experience - Education and training: formal and informal experiences matter; include academic degrees, professional development, certificates, internships, etc. - References statement (optional): “References available upon request” is a standard phrase used on résumés, although it is often implied - Other sections: may include a job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, a summary statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences Caution Résumés resemble snowflakes in as much as no two are alike. Although you can benefit from giving yours a stamp of individuality, you will do well to steer clear of personal details that might elicit a negative response. It is advisable to omit any confidential information or details that could make you vulnerable to discrimination, for instance. Your résumé will likely be viewed by a number of employees in an organization, including human resource personnel, managers, administrative staff, etc. By aiming to please all reviewers, you gain maximum advantage. - Do not mention your age, gender, height or weight. - Do not include your social security number. - Do not mention religious beliefs or political affiliations, unless they are relevant to the position. - Do not include a photograph of yourself or a physical description. - Do not mention health issues. - Do not use first-person references. (I, me). - Do not include wage/salary expectations. - Do not use abbreviations. - Proofread carefully—absolutely no spelling mistakes are acceptable. Top Ten Tips for a Successful Résumé - Aim to make a résumé that’s 1–2 pages long on letter-size paper. - Make it visually appealing. - Use action verbs and phrases. See Action Words and Phrases for Résumé Development. - Proofread carefully to eliminate any spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typographical errors. - Include highlights of your qualifications or skills to attract an employer’s attention. - Craft your letter as a pitch to people in the profession you plan to work in. - Stand out as different, courageous. - Be positive and reflect only the truth. - Be excited and optimistic about your job prospects! - Keep refining and reworking your résumé; it’s an ongoing project. Remember that your résumé is your professional profile. It will hold you in the most professional and positive light, and it’s designed to be a quick and easy way for a prospective employer to evaluate what you might bring to a job. When written and formatted attractively, creatively, and legibly, your résumé is what will get your foot in the door. You can be proud of your accomplishments, even if they don’t seem numerous. Let your résumé reflect your personal pride and professionalism. More Resume Tip Videos from Indeed Don't forget to include the hard and soft (or transferable) skills that you can offer. And here are some examples of words to use and words to avoid when describing your strengths and qualifications. Résumé Writing Resources WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| Everything you need to know about resumes: what they are for, the types, the parts, action words, samples, etc. \| \| Helps you create the foundation of a resume so you can individualize it using suggested tasks and skills from your work experience. \| \| ACC Library Services – Research Guide for Resumes and Cover Letters \| Resources to help with writing a resume and cover letter. \| What to put on your resume when you are a new graduate or just starting your career with little to no relevant work experience. \| \| An example of a terrible resume for a recent college graduate and details of what NOT to do. \| \| \| \| Indeed – How to Write a College Student Resume Indeed – Including Relevant Coursework on a Resume \| Resume formats, tips, and examples for college students. Articles and how-tos \| Your Résumé: It’s Like Online Dating The following essay by Jackie Vetrano is excerpted from Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom. It’s a true-to-life story comparing job hunting to online dating. The writer’s “lessons learned” are meant to enlarge your awareness of your career goals as you attend college. IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING Searching for a job, especially your first job, is a lot like online dating. It begins as a time commitment, gets nerve-wracking towards the middle, but ends in success and happiness if you follow the right process. Like many single people with access to current technology, I ventured into the world of online dating. I went for coffee with potential mates who were instant no ways, some who left me scratching my head, and a few who I found a connection with. But hang on. We are here to talk about professional development, not my love life. Being on the job hunt is not easy. Many spend hours preparing résumés, looking at open positions, and thinking about what career path to travel. Occasionally, it is overwhelming and intimidating, but when taken one step at a time, it can be a manageable and an exciting process. The first step of online dating is the most important: create your dating profile. Your profile is where you put your best foot forward and show off all of your attractive qualities through visuals and text. Online daters find their most flattering photos and then season the “about me” section of their profile with captivating and descriptive words to better display who they are and why other online daters should give them a shot. Résumés follow this same logic. Your résumé should be clean, polished, and present you in your best light for future employers. Like dating profiles, they are detailed and should paint a picture for other prospective dates (or future employers) supporting why you deserve a chance at their love—an interview. The unspoken rules of online dating profiles are very similar to the rules for writing a résumé. Whether you like it or not, your online dating profile and résumé both serve as a first impression. Profiles and résumés that are short, filled with spelling errors, or vague are usually passed over. Unless you are a supermodel and all you need is an enticing photo, your written description is very important to display who you are. Your résumé should capture who you are, your skill set, education, past experiences, and anything else that is relevant to the job you hope to obtain. Knowing your audience is a key factor in crafting the perfect resume. Logically, if my online dating profile presented studious and quiet personality traits, I would likely start receiving messages from potential mates who are looking for someone who is seeking those traits. By taking a similar approach while writing a résumé, you can easily determine the tone, language, and highlighted skills and experiences you should feature. The tone of your résumé is dictated by the nature of the position you hope to obtain in the future. For example, hospitality jobs or positions that require you to interact with many people on a daily basis should be warm and welcoming while analytical jobs, such as accounting or research positions, should reflect an astute attention to detail. Your choice in language follows similar logic—use appropriate terms for the position you are seeking. Unlike online dating profiles, your résumé should include your important contact information, including email address, telephone number, and mailing address. Some advise refraining from listing a mailing address, as this could create a bias due to some organizations that are looking for a new employee who is already in the area. Unfortunately, this bias cannot be foreseen, which means you should use your best judgment when listing your contact information. If you include this contact information on your dating profile, you may have some very interesting text messages in the morning. —Jackie Ventrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Vetrano’s essay is continued ahead in the “Cover Letters” section of this page. ACTIVITY: CREATE YOUR RÉSUMÉ Objectives: - Compile data reflecting your professional and educational skills and accomplishments. - Assess the main résumé formats and select one that meets your needs. - Create a first draft of your professional résumé. Directions: - Compile all needed information for your résumé, including your contact information, a summary of your skills, your work experience and volunteer experience, education and training (including your intended degree, professional development activities, certificates, internships, etc.). Optionally you may wish to include job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences. - Select one of the résumé builder tools listed above in the Résumé Writing Resources table. - Create your résumé, following instructions at your selected site. - Save your document as a PDF file. - Follow instructions from your instructor on how to submit your work. Your Cover Letter Image by Andrea Polini from Pixabay Cover letters matter. When you have to go through a pile of them, they are probably more important than the résumé itself. —woodleywonderworks What Is a Cover Letter? A cover letter is a letter of introduction, usually 3–4 paragraphs in length, that you attach to your résumé. It’s a way of introducing yourself to a potential employer and explaining why you are suited for a position. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters as an initial method of screening out applicants who may who lack necessary basic skills, or who may not be sufficiently interested in the position. Indeed Cover Letter basics https://youtu.be/hrZSfMly_Ck Often an employer will request or require that a cover letter be included in the materials an applicant submits. There are also occasions when you might submit a cover letter uninvited: for example, if you are initiating an inquiry about possible work or asking someone to send you information or provide other assistance. With each résumé you send out, always include a cover letter specifically addressing your purposes. Characteristics of an Effective Cover Letter Cover letters should accomplish the following: - Get the attention of the prospective employer - Set you apart from any possible competition - Identify the position you are interested in - Specify how you learned about the position or company - Present highlights of your skills and accomplishments - Reflect your genuine interest - Please the eye and ear The following video features Aimee Bateman, founder of Careercake.com, who explains how you can create an incredible cover letter. You can download a transcript of the video here. Cover Letter Resources WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| Everything you need to know about resumes: what they are for, the types, the parts, action words, samples, etc. \| \| Helps you create the foundation of a resume so you can individualize it using suggested tasks and skills from your work experience. \| \| How to write a college student cover letter with templates and examples (including email version) \| \| Resources about the reality of cover letters, using a cover letter, the worst use of the cover letter, the testimonial cover letter technique, and a cover letter checklist \| \| Brief video on the basics of writing a strong cover letter. \| Your Cover Letter: It’s Like Online Dating The following is another excerpt from the “It’s Like Online Dating” essay by Jackie Vetrano. Writing a cover letter may feel like a chore, but the payoff will be well worth it if you land the job you want! IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING Sending a Message—The Cover Letter After searching through dozens of profiles, online daters generally find a handful of people they can picture themselves with. There’s only one way to find out more about the person, and that’s by sending the first message. The challenging part of the first message I send through online dating sites is determining what to say. I’ve never met these people before, but I do have access to their dating profiles filled with their hobbies, hometowns, and more. This is a perfect starting point for my message, especially if we both root for the same football team or if the other person likes to run as much as I do. Your cover letter serves as an introduction to your future employer and should complement your résumé to create a shining first impression. It is incredibly challenging to sit in front of a blank screen trying to find a good starting point, which means you should look at the job posting and organization’s Web site for ideas about what to include. Generally, these job postings provide a set of hard skills (such as proficiency with certain technology) and soft skills (such as public speaking, teamwork, or working in a flexible environment) required and desired for the posted position. This information provides you a list of what should be explained in your cover letter. Demonstrating your hard skills is a simple enough task by using examples or stating certifications, but describing your soft skills may require a little more thought. These soft skills can be exhibited by discussing specific examples of past experiences in previous jobs you’ve held, volunteer work, or work you’ve done in college classes. After you have crafted your cover letter, you should send it to a few people you trust for their opinion and overall proofreading along with the job posting for their reference. It’s obvious that your cover letter should be free of spelling and grammar errors, but these trustworthy individuals will also be able to provide helpful insight about the examples you’ve used to display your soft skills. —Jackie Vetrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom KEY TAKEAWAYS The purpose of the resume is to get your foot in the door and be offered an interview. The resume is your one chance to catch your employer’s attention and stand out from the other applicants. A cover letter is a letter of introduction that you submit with your resume and it explains why you are suited for the position. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image of "Scrabble - Application" by flazingo_photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 - Image of typewriter with CV by Andrea Polini Provided by: Pixabay Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/cv-curriculum-vitae-job-application-5082903/ License: Standard Pixabay License CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Ru00e9sumu00e9s and Cover Letters. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Resume Writing: Purpose of a Resume. By: Career Development Center: West Chester University. Located at: https://youtu.be/cNAoMp_Ni5I. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - 5 Resume Tips That’ll Get You Noticed By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/w82xo-CfwqU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Top Resume Skills By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/_bZi-34IFxs License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Resume Words to Include and Avoid By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/BxPy_-cl4mY License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Steps to an Incredible Cover Letter. Authored by: Aimee Bateman. Located at: https://youtu.be/mxOli8laZos. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Resume Tutorial. Authored by: Cameron Cassidy. Located at: https://youtu.be/O5eVMaPZWmM. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License RETURN TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Interviewing Image by by souvenirsofcanada One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. —Arthur Ashe, champion tennis player LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe effective strategies to prepare for an interview - Differentiate between different types of interview situations and identify appropriate interview techniques for each - Analyze different question types common in interviews If your résumé and cover letter have served their purposes well, you will be invited to participate in an interview with the company or organization in which you are interested. Congratulations! It’s an exciting time, and your prospects for employment are very strong if you put in the time to be well prepared. In this section we look at how to get ready for an interview, what types of interviews you might need to engage in, and what kinds of questions you might be asked. Preparing Effectively for a Job Interview Review the Job Description When you prepare for an interview, your first step will be to carefully read and reread the job posting or job description. This will help you develop a clearer idea of how you meet the skills and attributes the company seeks. Research the Company or Organization Researching the company will give you a wider view of what the company is looking for and how well you might fit in. Your prospective employer may ask you what you know about the company. Being prepared to answer this question shows that you took time and effort to prepare for the interview and that you have a genuine interest in the organization. It shows good care and good planning—soft skills you will surely need on the job. Practice Answering Common Questions Most interviewees find that practicing the interview in advance with a family member, a friend, or a colleague eases possible nerves during the actual interview. It also creates greater confidence when you walk through the interview door. In the “Interview Questions” section below, you’ll learn more about specific questions you will likely be asked and corresponding strategies for answering them. Plan to Dress Appropriately Interviewees are generally most properly dressed for an interview in business attire, with the goal of looking highly professional in the eyes of the interviewer. The following short video from UC Davis Internship and Career Center describes “How to Dress For Success for Interviews and the Workplace.” And the even shorter video, “What to Wear to an Interview: Business Casual and Business Formal Examples” from Indeed. Come Prepared Plan to bring your résumé, cover letter, and a list of references to the interview. You may also want to bring a portfolio of representative work. Leave behind coffee, chewing gum, and any other items that could be distractions. Be Confident Above all, interviewees should be confident and “courageous.” By doing so you make a strong first impression. As the saying goes, “There is never a second chance to make a first impression.” Job Interview Types and Techniques Every interview you participate in will be unique: The people you meet with, the interview setting, and the questions you’ll be asked will all be different from interview to interview. The various factors that characterize any given interview can contribute to the sense of adventure and excitement you feel. But it’s also can normal to feel a little nervous about what lies ahead. With so many unknowns, how can you plan to “nail the interview” no matter what comes up? A good strategy for planning is to anticipate the type of interview you may find yourself in. There are common formats for job interviews, described in detail, below. By knowing a bit more about each type and being aware of techniques that work for each, you can plan to be on your game no matter what form your interview takes. Screening Interviews Screening interviews might best be characterized as “weeding-out” interviews. They ordinarily take place over the phone or in another low-stakes environment in which the interviewer has maximum control over the amount of time the interview takes. Screening interviews are generally short because they glean only basic information about you. If you are scheduled to participate in a screening interview, you might safely assume that you have some competition for the job and that the company is using this strategy to whittle down the applicant pool. With this kind of interview, your goal is to win a face-to-face interview. For this first shot, though, prepare well and challenge yourself to shine. Try to stand out from the competition and be sure to follow up with a thank-you note. Phone or Web Conference Interviews If you are geographically separated from your prospective employer, you may be invited to participate in a phone interview or online interview, instead of meeting face-to-face. Technology, of course, is a good way to bridge distances. The fact that you’re not there in person doesn’t make it any less important to be fully prepared, though. In fact, you may wish to be all the more “on your toes” to compensate for the distance barrier. Make sure your equipment (phone, computer, Internet connection, etc.) is fully charged and works. If you’re at home for the interview, make sure the environment is quiet and distraction-free. If the meeting is online, make sure your video background is pleasing and neutral, like a wall hanging or even a white wall. One-on-One Interviews The majority of job interviews are conducted in this format—just you and a single interviewer—likely with the manager you would report to and work with. The one-on-one format gives you both a chance to see how well you connect and how well your talents, skills, and personalities mesh. You can expect to be asked questions like “Why would you be good for this job?” and “Tell me about yourself.” Many interviewees prefer the one-on-one format because it allows them to spend in-depth time with the interviewer. Rapport can be built. As always, be very courteous and professional. Have handy a portfolio of your best work. Panel Interviews An efficient format for meeting a candidate is a panel interview, in which perhaps four to five coworkers meet at the same time with a single interviewee. The coworkers comprise the “search committee” or “search panel,” which may consist of different company representatives such as human resources, management, and staff. One advantage of this format for the committee is that meeting together gives them a common experience to reflect on afterward. In a panel interview, listen carefully to questions from each panelist, and try to connect fully with each questioner. Be sure to write down names and titles, so you can send individual thank-you notes after the interview. Serial Interviews Serial interviews are a combination of one-on-one meetings with a group of interviewers, typically conducted as a series of meetings staggered throughout the day. Ordinarily this type of interview is for higher-level jobs, when it’s important to meet at length with major stakeholders. If your interview process is designed this way, you will need to be ultraprepared, as you will be answering many in-depth questions. Stay alert. Lunch Interviews In some higher-level positions, candidates are taken to lunch or dinner, especially if this is a second interview (a “call back” interview). If this is you, count yourself lucky and be on your best behavior, because even if the lunch meeting is unstructured and informal, it’s still an official interview. Do not order an alcoholic beverage, and use your best table manners. You are not expected to pay or even to offer to pay. But, as always, you must send a thank-you note. Group Interviews Group interviews are comprised of several interviewees and perhaps only one or two interviewers who may make a presentation to the assembled group. This format allows an organization to quickly prescreen candidates. It also gives candidates a chance to quickly learn about the company. As with all interview formats, you are being observed. How do you behave with your group? Do you assume a leadership role? Are you quiet but attentive? What kind of personality is the company looking for? A group interview may reveal this. For a summary of the most common interview formats, take a look at the following video from the Career Center at Texas A&M University, Types of Interviews. ACTIVITY: WHAT MAKES YOU A GREAT FIT? Objectives: - Define your ideal job. - Identify the top three reasons why you are a great fit for this ideal job. Directions: - Write a paragraph describing your ideal job. Imagine that you are already in this job. What is your job title and what are you responsible for executing? What is the name of the company or organization? What is its function? - Now identify the top three reasons why you are a great fit for this ideal job. What sets you apart from the competition? List the qualities, skills and values you have that match the job requirements. Provide examples to support your answers. Connect your values to the company’s values. - Summarize your answer. - Submit this assignment according to directions provided by your instructor. Interview Questions For most job candidates, the burning question is “What will I be asked?” There’s no way to anticipate every single question that may arise during an interview. It’s possible that, no matter how well prepared you are, you may get a question you just didn’t expect. But that’s okay. Do as much preparation as you can—which will build your confidence—and trust that the answers will come. To help you reach that point of sureness and confidence, take time to review common interview questions. Think about your answers. Make notes, if that helps. And then conduct a practice interview with a friend, a family member, or a colleague. Speak your answers out loud. Below is a list of resources that contain common interview questions and good explanations/answers you might want to adopt. WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| 1 \| 100 top job interview questions—be prepared for the interview (from Monster.com) \| This site provides a comprehensive set of interview questions you might expect to be asked, categorized as basic interview questions, behavioral questions, salary questions, career development questions, and other kinds. Some of the listed questions provide comprehensive answers, too. \| 2 \| Interview Questions and Answers (from BigInterview) \| This site provides text and video answers to the following questions: Tell me about yourself, describe your current position, why are you looking for a new job, what are your strengths, what is your greatest weakness, why do you want to work here, where do you see yourself in five years, why should we hire you, and do you have any questions for me? \| 3 \| Ten Tough Interview Questions and Ten Great Answers (from CollegeGrad) \| This site explores some of the most difficult questions you will face in job interviews. The more open-ended the question, the greater the variation among answers. Once you have become practiced in your interviewing skills, you will find that you can use almost any question as a launching pad for a particular topic or compelling story. \| 4. \| Illegal Interview Questions (from Better Team) \| Illegal questions that should not be asked in an interview. \| Why Should We Hire You From the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Career Management Office, here is a video featuring representatives from recruiting companies offering advice for answering the question “Why should we hire you?” As you watch, make mental notes about how you would answer the question in an interview for a job you really want. In closing, below is the final excerpt from the essay “It’s Like Online Dating,” by Jackie Vetrano. You’ll recall that the writer compares job hunting—including résumé creation and cover-letter writing—to online dating. In this last section, she concludes with a look at the job interview and compares it to a first date. IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING The First Date—The Job Interview After what may feel like forever, you hear back from the love of your life. Congratulations! In the online dating world, you may chat about common interests (because you wrote a stunning first message), but in the world of work, you’ll be asked to visit the organization for an interview. I have been on many first dates, and whether it’s in a coffee shop or over dinner, the first face-to-face meeting is tremendously important. If someone I am meeting for the first time looks like they just came from the gym or rolled out of bed, my impression instantly changes. This same theory can be directly applied to your first date with your future employer. You have worked hard on your cover letter and résumé, and you should not taint the sparkling first impression you have created with the wrong choice in dress. What you wear to a job interview may change based on the position you have applied for, but there are a set of basic rules that everyone should follow. Similar to meeting someone on a first date for coffee, you want to be comfortable. Some interviews may take place with multiple people in an organization, meaning you will be walking to different locations, sitting down, and potentially sweating from a broken air conditioning unit. Consider these factors when choosing your outfit for your interview, and if you’re concerned about being underdressed, remember to always dress a bit nicer than how you’d dress for the job itself. There is nothing worse than sitting alone at a coffee shop waiting for a mystery date to show up. It’s uncomfortable and affects my overall first impression of whom I’m about to meet. Avoid making your mystery employer annoyed and waiting for you by leaving at least ten minutes earlier than you need to, just in case you get stuck in traffic. Arrive at least ten minutes early. The interview will start out much better if you are early rather than nervous and running late. Arriving early also gives you the time to have some coffee and review materials you may need for the interview. Coming on time to an interview or a first date shows you respect the time of the person you plan to meet. On a first date, it is all about communication. Sometimes, there may be silences that cannot be filled or the person I have just met discloses their entire life story to me in less than an hour. If we cannot achieve a proper balance, there will not be a second date. Communicating effectively in a job interview is equally as important, especially if you want a job offer! All of the rules of dating apply to how you should behave in a job interview. The interviewer will ask you questions, which means that you should look at them and focus on what is being asked. Your phone should be on silent (not even on vibrate), and hidden, to show that you are fully attentive and engaged in the conversation you are having. Much like having a conversation on a date, the answers to your questions should be clear and concise and stay on topic. The stories I tell on my first dates are more personal than what would be disclosed in a job interview, but the mindset is the same. You are building the impression that the organization has of you, so put your best foot forward through the comments you make. To make that great impression, it is really important to heavily prepare and practice, even before you have an interview scheduled. By brainstorming answers to typical interview questions in a typed document or out loud, later during the interview you will easily remember the examples of your past experiences that demonstrate why you are best for the job. You can continue to update this list as you move through different jobs, finding better examples to each question to accurately describe your hard and soft skills. This interview is as much a date for your future employer as it is for you. Come prepared with questions that you have about the company, the position, and anything else you are curious about. This is an opportunity for you to show off the research you’ve done on the organization and establish a better understanding of company culture, values, and work ethic. Without knowing these basics of the company or organization, what you thought was a match might only end in a tense breakup. After your interview is over, you continue to have an opportunity to build on the positive impression that you’ve worked hard to form. Sending a follow up thank you note to each person you interviewed with will show your respect for the time the organization spent with you. These notes can be written and sent by mail or emailed, but either way should have a personal touch, commenting on a topic that was discussed in the interview. While sending a thank you note after a first date may sound a little strange, you might not get asked to a second interview without one! It’s Official—The Job Offer In the online dating world, it takes a few dates to determine if two people are a match. In the corporate world, you may have a one or two interviews to build a relationship. If your impression was positive and the organization believes you’re a match for the open position, you’ll be offered a job. With a job offer also comes the salary for the position. It is important to know what a reasonable salary is for the position and location, which can be answered with a bit of research. One good place to look is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site. At this point, it is not uncommon to discuss your salary with your future employer, but be sure to do so in a polite way. Online dating sites provide the means for millions of people to meet future partners, and the number of people who use online dating is so large that there are sure to be disappointments along the way. I have met people who I thought were compatible with me, but they did not feel the same, and vice versa. This happens frequently while searching for a job, which can be discouraging, but should not hinder you from continuing to search! There are a great number of opportunities, and sometimes all it takes is adjusting your filters or revising your résumé and cover letter. The cliché “there’s plenty of fish in the sea” may be true, but there is definitely a way for each person to start their career off. —Jackie Vetrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom KEY TAKEAWAYS - Prepare for the interview by carefully reviewing the job description and researching the company in advance. This will help you tailor your interview responses to illustrate how your skills and abilities match the needs of the organization. - Practice common interview questions with a family member or friend to help you respond to questions more naturally, make a good impression, and build confidence in your interviewing skills. - Come prepared for the interview by dressing professionally for the position and bringing copies of your résumé, cover letter, letters of reference, and samples of your work if relevant to the position. - Become familiar with common formats for job interviews, such as screening interviews, one-on-one interviews, phone or web conference interviews, and panel interviews. Each will require different interview techniques from you, and by learning about each type, you will be prepared to demonstrate how you are the best person for the job. - Always send a personalized thank you note to each person who interviewed you immediately following the interview. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning License: CC BY: Attribution Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT How to Dress for Success for Interviews and the Workplace. Authored by: UC Davis Internship and Career Center Located at https://youtu.be/taDdxF0T5B8 License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License What to Wear to an Interview: Business Causal and Business Formal Examples Authored by: Indeed. Located at: https://youtu.be/muwkauOZjEI License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Types of Interviews Authored by: Texas A&M University Career Center Located at: https://youtu.be/S49RQc_OtfU License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Why Should We Hire You? How to Answer this Interview Question. Authored by: Fisher OSU. Located at: https://youtu.be/Ut-fKJNbqmc. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.490383	05/31/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104440/overview", "title": "Career Planning and Personal Exploration", "author": "Donna Dutcher" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103561/overview	Your Course Title: Open For Antiracism (OFAR) Overview Sample! Action Plan Describe how OER and open pedagogy help your class to be antiracist here. Course Description Add your course description here including the course name and number, and learning outcomes. Attach your syllabus here clicking the Attach Section paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your syllabus, and save. Antiracist Assignment / Module Describe your antiracist assignment or module. Attach your assignment or module here clicking the Attach Section paperclip image below, then choose the correct file from your computer, name your assignment or module, and save. Paste any relevant links that others would find helpful.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.515026	05/05/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/103561/overview", "title": "Your Course Title: Open For Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Alex Gavilan" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100552/overview	Unit 8.1-8.3 Vocabulary List 2 American Sign Language Level 2 (Remix w/ TrueWayASL) Material) Overview Unit 8.1 People amoing us This unit focus on idenitfying people from all walk of life. Unit 8.1 - People among us I do not take full credit of Written material. It is under TrueWayASL copyright. American Sign Language (Level 2) This unit covers topics of Family and Life Cycle (Birth to Death) Vocabulary and powerpoint is attached. TWA_Unit_8.2_Lecture_Slides_with_less_text_Note___There_is_no__with_text__version.pptx	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.533028	02/04/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100552/overview", "title": "American Sign Language Level 2 (Remix w/ TrueWayASL) Material)", "author": "Susana Flores" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112216/overview	Organizational Patterns - Informative Speaking Overview Powerpoint lecture of informative speaking organizational patterns. Discusses four patterns (chronological, topical, spatial, and compare and contrast). Public Speaking Informative speaking organizational patterns.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.549160	02/04/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/112216/overview", "title": "Organizational Patterns - Informative Speaking", "author": "Diana Mendeszuniga" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105053/overview	ESL 100 Spring 23 Syllabus-CNguyen ESL 100: ESL College Composition-Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Overview The Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Program – co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons – emerged as a response to the growing awareness of structural racism in our educational systems and the realization that adoption of open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy could be transformative at institutions seeking to improve. The program is designed to give participants a workshop experience where they can better understand anti-racist teaching and how the use of OER and open pedagogy can empower them to involve students in the co-creation of an anti-racist classroom. The capstone project involves developing an action plan for incorporating OER and open pedagogy into a course being taught in the spring semester. OFAR participants are invited to remix this template to design and share their projects and plans for moving this work forward. Action Plan Describe how OER and open pedagogy help your class to be antiracist here. Previously, I required students to purchase a textbook called Rereading America. A new edition of this textbook would cost them anywhere from $60-$90. This was inaccessible for many students. This was a financial barrier that prevented my students from succeeding in my classroom, and OFAR helped me realize that. This semester, I've removed this financial barrier and have provided students with access to free readings. I provided PDF's and web links to articles. I also printed out physical copies of the readings. Another change I made was the essay prompts I assigned. Before, my class focused on unpacking and analyzing ideas surrounding race, class, gender, and education. I received negative feedback from my students that my assignments felt "heavy" and "sad and depressing." Instead of empowering them, as I had hoped, I was reminding them of the struggles they have faced and continue to face in their everyday lives. My students are second language learners--and so they are members of a marginalized group that struggle to thrive in a society that was not built for their success. This semester, I decided to focus on mental health. We began the semester by talking about procrastination, which is something anyone can relate to. People procrastinate largely because they are struggling with regulating negative emotions. The second essay was focused on the importance of having access to natural spaces. A large benefit of having access to natural spaces is improved mental health. The final essay prompt required students to research a self-care strategy, have them practice it, and record their experiences in their essay. During the last few weeks of class, I taught my students different mindfulness practices which I practiced with them. Students responded positively. Course Description ESL 100: ESL College Composition Course Description This course is for second-language learners and is equivalent to English 100. The emphasis is on in-class essay writing (thesis, body, and concluding paragraph development), applying analytical and critical thinking into research-based papers, as well as using annotated college-level readings as supporting evidence. An additional focus is on second-language grammar, syntactical structure, and academic vocabulary. Student Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of ESL 100, the student should be able to: - Articulate clear, logical and adequately supported ideas in an in-class essay that is effectively organized and satisfactorily edited, using correct sentence structure - Demonstrate comprehension of college-level readings by annotating and using them in essays and research-based papers. Antiracist Assignment Describe your antiracist assignment or module. The following essay prompt asks students to reflect on why it is important for everyone to have access to natural spaces. Leading up to the due date, students were asked to complete lower-stakes assignments and discussions that helped them build and complete their essays. We discussed how marginalized groups and low-income communities have less access to nature, and how that affects their mental, emotional, and physical health. Here is the prompt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using cited ideas from at least 3 reputable sources, write a thesis-driven essay that responds to the following question: Why is it important for humans to have access to natural spaces? - For this essay, we will all be using "Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health" by Jim Robbins as our main source and it should be used in at least one of your body paragraphs. You must also use at least two other sources, and one must be from the databases. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This essay prompt was written by Stefani Okonyan, an English professor at Fullerton College, who has given me permission to share this prompt. You may contact her: sokonyan@fullcoll.edu	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.573134	06/10/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/105053/overview", "title": "ESL 100: ESL College Composition-Open for Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Cindy Nguyen" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83722/overview	Food Reflection Overview An activity to practice reflective writing on the topic of food. STEP 1: To practice reflection, try this activity writing about something very important—food. First, spend five minutes making a list of every food or drink you remember from childhood. It might look like this: - Plain cheese quesadillas, made by my mom in the miniscule kitchenette of our one-bedroom apartment - "Chicken"-flavored ramen noodles, at home alone after school - Cayenne pepper cherry Jell-O at my grandparents' house - Wheat toast slathered in peanut butter before school - Lime and orange freeze-pops - My stepdad's meatloaf—ironically, the only meatloaf I've ever liked - Cookie Crisp cereal ("It's cookies—for breakfast!") - Macintosh apples and creamy Skippy peanut butter - Tostitos Hint of Lime chips and salsa - Love Apple Stew that only my grandma can make right - Caramel brownies, by my grandma who can't bake anymore STEP 2: Then, identify one of those foods that holds a special place in your memory. Spend another ten minutes free-writing about the memories you have surrounding that food. What makes it so special? What relationships are represented by that food? What life circumstances? What does it represent about you? This response doesn’t need to be formatted in any particular way—just write about what memories and feelings come to mind. It should be at least 200 words. Sample Response Here's one sample response below. Note that he starts by writing about the first item on the food list, but then goes on to write about his mom and his relationship with his dad. There is no right way to write your about your food item—you too should feel free to let your reflective writing guide you. My mom became a gourmet chef in my eyes with only the most basic ingredients. We lived bare bones in a one-bedroom apartment in the outskirts of Denver; for whatever selfless reason, she gave four-year-old the bedroom and she took a futon in the living room. She would cook for me after caring for other mothers' four-year-olds all day long: usually plain cheese quesadillas (never any sort of add-ons, meats, or veggies—besides my abundant use of store-brand ketchup) or scrambled eggs (again, with puddles of ketchup). We would eat them together on the futon in the living room, sometimes watching the evening news, and on rare occasions, watching re-runs of my favorite shows. When I was 6, my dad eventually used ketchup as a rationale for my second stepmom: "Shane, look! Judy likes ketchup on her eggs too!" But it was my mom I remembered cooking for me every night—not Judy, and certainly not my father. So I even surprised myself when I said, "I don't like that anymore. I like barbecue sauce on my eggs." That’s what Judy served me nearly every weekend until I was ten years old. I never touched the barbecue sauce. STEP 3: Write a paragraph reflecting on this activity (at least 75 words). Was it easy to write about one of the foods on your list? Were you surprised in any way by your own response? What did you enjoy or dislike about this activity? Why? What lessons can you learn about yourself as a writer from participating in this activity? Rubric \| Criteria \| Proficient \| Developing \| Not Evident \| Points \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Childhood foods \| Response includes a freewrite list with at least ten childhood foods or drinks \| Response includes a partial list of childhood foods and drinks \| Incomplete list \| __/3 \| \| Memory freewrite \| Writes at least 200 words about the context or memory associated with a childhood food or drink. The paragraph is easy to read and follow. \| Response is too short, hard to follow, or off-topic. \| Missing or incomplete freewrite \| __/8 \| \| Reflection \| Includes a reflection paragraph about the writing assignment that examines what was good or bad about the freewrite activity, and why. At least 75 words. \| Reflection is too short or does not dive into enough detail about the assignment. \| Incomplete or missing reflection \| __/4 \| \| Total: \| __/15 \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.588579	07/20/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83722/overview", "title": "Food Reflection", "author": "Quincy Rhoads" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95074/overview	simple squamous epi_lung alveoli_400x, p000120 Overview simple squamous epi_lung alveoli_400x, p000120 \| one layer surface cells top layer is flat \| simple squamous epi_lung alveoli_400x, p000120 simple squamous epi_lung alveoli_400x, p000120 \| epithelia \| Anatomy p000120 \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.602367	Diagram/Illustration	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/95074/overview", "title": "simple squamous epi_lung alveoli_400x, p000120", "author": "Health, Medicine and Nursing" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96547/overview	Political Ideologies Dialogue Overview CH 3: Political Ideology All Sections No unread replies.No replies. Read CH 3 (Links to an external site.)-- Political Ideology and then answer the following question: Create a short dialogue (play) between imaginary members of any two of the political ideologies in chapter three. Create a setting, time period, and give the imaginary members of the ideologies names. Then have them discuss what the government should and should not do. Be as specific as you can, and then respond to three other students' posts. Discussions CH 3: Political Ideology Read CH 3 (Links to an external site.)-- Political Ideology and then answer the following question: Create a short dialogue (play) between imaginary members of any two of the political ideologies in chapter three. Create a setting, time period, and give the imaginary members of the ideologies names. Then have them discuss what the government should and should not do. Be as specific as you can, and then respond to three other students' posts. Discussions CH 3: Political Ideology All Sections No unread replies.No replies. Read CH 3 (Links to an external site.)-- Political Ideology and then answer the following question: Create a short dialogue (play) between imaginary members of any two of the political ideologies in chapter three. Create a setting, time period, and give the imaginary members of the ideologies names. Then have them discuss what the government should and should not do. Be as specific as you can, and then respond to three other students' posts.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.615865	08/20/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96547/overview", "title": "Political Ideologies Dialogue", "author": "Robert Porter" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28796/overview	Introduction to the Macroeconomic Perspective Overview This module covers: - Measuring the Size of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product - Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values - Tracking Real GDP over Time - Comparing GDP among Countries - How Well GDP Measures the Well-Being of Society Introduction to the Macroeconomic Perspective How is the Economy Doing? How Does One Tell? The 1990s were boom years for the U.S. economy. Beginning in the late 2000s, from 2007 to 2014 economic performance in in the U.S. was poor. What causes the economy to expand or contract? Why do businesses fail when they are making all the right decisions? Why do workers lose their jobs when they are hardworking and productive? Are bad economic times a failure of the market system? Are they a failure of the government? These are all questions of macroeconomics, which we will begin to address in this chapter. We will not be able to answer all of these questions here, but we will start with the basics: How is the economy doing? How can we tell? The macro economy includes all buying and selling, all production and consumption; everything that goes on in every market in the economy. How can we get a handle on that? The answer begins more than 80 years ago, during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his economic advisers knew things were bad—but how could they express and measure just how bad it was? An economist named Simon Kuznets, who later won the Nobel Prize for his work, came up with a way to track what the entire economy is producing. In this chapter, you will learn how the government constructs GDP, how we use it, and why it is so important. Introduction to the Macroeconomic Perspective In this chapter, you will learn about: - Measuring the Size of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product - Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values - Tracking Real GDP over Time - Comparing GDP among Countries - How Well GDP Measures the Well-Being of Society Macroeconomics focuses on the economy as a whole (or on whole economies as they interact). What causes recessions? What makes unemployment stay high when recessions are supposed to be over? Why do some countries grow faster than others? Why do some countries have higher standards of living than others? These are all questions that macroeconomics addresses. Macroeconomics involves adding up the economic activity of all households and all businesses in all markets to obtain the overall demand and supply in the economy. However, when we do that, something curious happens. It is not unusual that what results at the macro level is different from the sum of the microeconomic parts. What seems sensible from a microeconomic point of view can have unexpected or counterproductive results at the macroeconomic level. Imagine that you are sitting at an event with a large audience, like a live concert or a basketball game. A few people decide that they want a better view, and so they stand up. However, when these people stand up, they block the view for other people, and the others need to stand up as well if they wish to see. Eventually, nearly everyone is standing up, and as a result, no one can see much better than before. The rational decision of some individuals at the micro level—to stand up for a better view—ended up as self-defeating at the macro level. This is not macroeconomics, but it is an apt analogy. Macroeconomics is a rather massive subject. How are we going to tackle it? Figure illustrates the structure we will use. We will study macroeconomics from three different perspectives: - What are the macroeconomic goals? (Macroeconomics as a discipline does not have goals, but we do have goals for the macro economy.) - What are the frameworks economists can use to analyze the macroeconomy? - Finally, what are the policy tools governments can use to manage the macroeconomy? Goals In thinking about the macroeconomy's overall health, it is useful to consider three primary goals: economic growth, low unemployment, and low inflation. - Economic growth ultimately determines the prevailing standard of living in a country. Economists measure growth by the percentage change in real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product. A growth rate of more than 3% is considered good. - Unemployment, as measured by the unemployment rate, is the percentage of people in the labor force who do not have a job. When people lack jobs, the economy is wasting a precious resource-labor, and the result is lower goods and services produced. Unemployment, however, is more than a statistic—it represents people’s livelihoods. While measured unemployment is unlikely to ever be zero, economists consider a measured unemployment rate of 5% or less low (good). - Inflation is a sustained increase in the overall level of prices, and is measured by the consumer price index. If many people face a situation where the prices that they pay for food, shelter, and healthcare are rising much faster than the wages they receive for their labor, there will be widespread unhappiness as their standard of living declines. For that reason, low inflation—an inflation rate of 1–2%—is a major goal. Frameworks As you learn in the micro part of this book, principal tools that economists use are theories and models (see Welcome to Economics! for more on this). In microeconomics, we used the theories of supply and demand. In macroeconomics, we use the theories of aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS). This book presents two perspectives on macroeconomics: the Neoclassical perspective and the Keynesian perspective, each of which has its own version of AD and AS. Between the two perspectives, you will obtain a good understanding of what drives the macroeconomy. Policy Tools National governments have two tools for influencing the macroeconomy. The first is monetary policy, which involves managing the money supply and interest rates. The second is fiscal policy, which involves changes in government spending/purchases and taxes. We will explain each of the items in Figure in detail in one or more other chapters. As you learn these things, you will discover that the goals and the policy tools are in the news almost every day.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.636126	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28796/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28797/overview	Measuring the Size of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the components of GDP on the demand side and on the supply side - Evaluate how economists measure gross domestic product (GDP) - Contrast and calculate GDP, net exports, and net national product Macroeconomics is an empirical subject, so the first step toward understanding it is to measure the economy. How large is the U.S. economy? Economists typically measure the size of a nation’s overall economy by its gross domestic product (GDP), which is the value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given year. Measuring GDP involves counting the production of millions of different goods and services—smart phones, cars, music downloads, computers, steel, bananas, college educations, and all other new goods and services that a country produced in the current year—and summing them into a total dollar value. This task is straightforward: take the quantity of everything produced, multiply it by the price at which each product sold, and add up the total. In 2016, the U.S. GDP totaled $18.6 trillion, the largest GDP in the world. Each of the market transactions that enter into GDP must involve both a buyer and a seller. We can measure an economy's GDP either by the total dollar value of what consumers purchase in the economy, or by the total dollar value of what is the country produces. There is even a third way, as we will explain later. GDP Measured by Components of Demand Who buys all of this production? We can divide this demand into four main parts: consumer spending (consumption), business spending (investment), government spending on goods and services, and spending on net exports. (See the following Clear It Up feature to understand what we mean by investment.) Table shows how these four components added up to the GDP in 2016. Figure (a) shows the levels of consumption, investment, and government purchases over time, expressed as a percentage of GDP, while Figure (b) shows the levels of exports and imports as a percentage of GDP over time. A few patterns about each of these components are worth noticing. Table shows the components of GDP from the demand side. \| Components of GDP on the Demand Side (in trillions of dollars) \| Percentage of Total \| \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Consumption \| $12.8 \| 68.8% \| \| Investment \| $3.0 \| 16.1% \| \| Government \| $3.3 \| 17.7% \| \| Exports \| $2.2 \| 11.8% \| \| Imports \| –$2.7 \| –14.5% \| \| Total GDP \| $18.6 \| 100% \| What does the word “investment” mean? What do economists mean by investment, or business spending? In calculating GDP, investment does not refer to purchasing stocks and bonds or trading financial assets. It refers to purchasing new capital goods, that is, new commercial real estate (such as buildings, factories, and stores) and equipment, residential housing construction, and inventories. Inventories that manufacturers produce this year are included in this year’s GDP—even if they are not yet sold. From the accountant’s perspective, it is as if the firm invested in its own inventories. Business investment in 2016 was $3 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Consumption expenditure by households is the largest component of GDP, accounting for about two-thirds of the GDP in any year. This tells us that consumers’ spending decisions are a major driver of the economy. However, consumer spending is a gentle elephant: when viewed over time, it does not jump around too much, and has increased modestly from about 60% of GDP in the 1960s and 1970s. Investment expenditure refers to purchases of physical plant and equipment, primarily by businesses. If Starbucks builds a new store, or Amazon buys robots, they count these expenditures under business investment. Investment demand is far smaller than consumption demand, typically accounting for only about 15–18% of GDP, but it is very important for the economy because this is where jobs are created. However, it fluctuates more noticeably than consumption. Business investment is volatile. New technology or a new product can spur business investment, but then confidence can drop and business investment can pull back sharply. If you have noticed any of the infrastructure projects (new bridges, highways, airports) launched during the 2009 recession, you have seen how important government spending can be for the economy. Government expenditure in the United States is close to 20% of GDP, and includes spending by all three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The only part of government spending counted in demand is government purchases of goods or services produced in the economy. Examples include the government buying a new fighter jet for the Air Force (federal government spending), building a new highway (state government spending), or a new school (local government spending). A significant portion of government budgets consists of transfer payments, like unemployment benefits, veteran’s benefits, and Social Security payments to retirees. The government excludes these payments from GDP because it does not receive a new good or service in return or exchange. Instead they are transfers of income from taxpayers to others. If you are curious about the awesome undertaking of adding up GDP, read the following Clear It Up feature. How do statisticians measure GDP? Government economists at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), within the U.S. Department of Commerce, piece together estimates of GDP from a variety of sources. Once every five years, in the second and seventh year of each decade, the Bureau of the Census carries out a detailed census of businesses throughout the United States. In between, the Census Bureau carries out a monthly survey of retail sales. The government adjusts these figures with foreign trade data to account for exports that are produced in the United States and sold abroad and for imports that are produced abroad and sold here. Once every ten years, the Census Bureau conducts a comprehensive survey of housing and residential finance. Together, these sources provide the main basis for figuring out what is produced for consumers. For investment, the Census Bureau carries out a monthly survey of construction and an annual survey of expenditures on physical capital equipment. For what the federal government purchases, the statisticians rely on the U.S. Department of the Treasury. An annual Census of Governments gathers information on state and local governments. Because the government spends a considerable amount at all levels hiring people to provide services, it also tracks a large portion of spending through payroll records that state governments and the Social Security Administration collect. With regard to foreign trade, the Census Bureau compiles a monthly record of all import and export documents. Additional surveys cover transportation and travel, and make adjustments for financial services that are produced in the United States for foreign customers. Many other sources contribute to GDP estimates. Information on energy comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Department of Energy. The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality collects information on healthcare. Surveys of landlords find out about rental income. The Department of Agriculture collects statistics on farming. All these bits and pieces of information arrive in different forms, at different time intervals. The BEA melds them together to produce GDP estimates on a quarterly basis (every three months). The BEA then "annualizes" these numbers by multiplying by four. As more information comes in, the BEA updates and revises these estimates. BEA releases the GDP “advance” estimate for a certain quarter one month after a quarter. The “preliminary” estimate comes out one month after that. The BEA publishes the “final” estimate one month later, but it is not actually final. In July, the BEA releases roughly updated estimates for the previous calendar year. Then, once every five years, after it has processed all the results of the latest detailed five-year business census, the BEA revises all of the past GDP estimates according to the newest methods and data, going all the way back to 1929. Visit this website to read FAQs on the BEA site. You can even email your own questions! When thinking about the demand for domestically produced goods in a global economy, it is important to count spending on exports—domestically produced goods that a country sells abroad. Similarly, we must also subtract spending on imports—goods that a country produces in other countries that residents of this country purchase. The GDP net export component is equal to the dollar value of exports (X) minus the dollar value of imports (M), (X – M). We call the gap between exports and imports the trade balance. If a country’s exports are larger than its imports, then a country has a trade surplus. In the United States, exports typically exceeded imports in the 1960s and 1970s, as Figure(b) shows. Since the early 1980s, imports have typically exceeded exports, and so the United States has experienced a trade deficit in most years. The trade deficit grew quite large in the late 1990s and in the mid-2000s. Figure (b) also shows that imports and exports have both risen substantially in recent decades, even after the declines during the Great Recession between 2008 and 2009. As we noted before, if exports and imports are equal, foreign trade has no effect on total GDP. However, even if exports and imports are balanced overall, foreign trade might still have powerful effects on particular industries and workers by causing nations to shift workers and physical capital investment toward one industry rather than another. Based on these four components of demand, we can measure GDP as: Understanding how to measure GDP is important for analyzing connections in the macro economy and for thinking about macroeconomic policy tools. GDP Measured by What is Produced Everything that we purchase somebody must first produce. Table breaks down what a country produces into five categories: durable goods, nondurable goods, services, structures, and the change in inventories. Before going into detail about these categories, notice that total GDP measured according to what is produced is exactly the same as the GDP measured by looking at the five components of demand. Figure provides a visual representation of this information. \| Components of GDP on the Supply Side (in trillions of dollars) \| Percentage of Total \| \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Goods \| \|\| \| Durable goods \| $3.0 \| 16.1% \| \| Nondurable goods \| $2.5 \| 13.4% \| \| Services \| $11.6 \| 62.4% \| \| Structures \| $1.5 \| 8.1% \| \| Change in inventories \| $0.0 \| 0.0% \| \| Total GDP \| $18.6 \| 100% \| Since every market transaction must have both a buyer and a seller, GDP must be the same whether measured by what is demanded or by what is produced. Figure shows these components of what is produced, expressed as a percentage of GDP, since 1960. In thinking about what is produced in the economy, many non-economists immediately focus on solid, long-lasting goods, like cars and computers. By far the largest part of GDP, however, is services. Moreover, services have been a growing share of GDP over time. A detailed breakdown of the leading service industries would include healthcare, education, and legal and financial services. It has been decades since most of the U.S. economy involved making solid objects. Instead, the most common jobs in a modern economy involve a worker looking at pieces of paper or a computer screen; meeting with co-workers, customers, or suppliers; or making phone calls. Even within the overall category of goods, long-lasting durable goods like cars and refrigerators are about the same share of the economy as short-lived nondurable goods like food and clothing. The category of structures includes everything from homes, to office buildings, shopping malls, and factories. Inventories is a small category that refers to the goods that one business has produced but has not yet sold to consumers, and are still sitting in warehouses and on shelves. The amount of inventories sitting on shelves tends to decline if business is better than expected, or to rise if business is worse than expected. Another Way to Measure GDP: The National Income Approach GDP is a measure of what is produced in a nation. The primary way GDP is estimated is with the Expenditure Approach we discussed above, but there is another way. Everything a firm produces, when sold, becomes revenues to the firm. Businesses use revenues to pay their bills: Wages and salaries for labor, interest and dividends for capital, rent for land, profit to the entrepreneur, etc. So adding up all the income produced in a year provides a second way of measuring GDP. This is why the terms GDP and national income are sometimes used interchangeably. The total value of a nation’s output is equal to the total value of a nation’s income. The Problem of Double Counting We define GDP as the current value of all final goods and services produced in a nation in a year. What are final goods? They are goods at the furthest stage of production at the end of a year. Statisticians who calculate GDP must avoid the mistake of double counting, in which they count output more than once as it travels through the production stages. For example, imagine what would happen if government statisticians first counted the value of tires that a tire manufacturer produces, and then counted the value of a new truck that an automaker sold that contains those tires. In this example, the statisticians would have counted the value of the tires twice-because the truck's price includes the value of the tires. To avoid this problem, which would overstate the size of the economy considerably, government statisticians count just the value of final goods and services in the chain of production that are sold for consumption, investment, government, and trade purposes. Statisticians exclude intermediate intermediate goods, which are goods that go into producing other goods, from GDP calculations. From the example above, they will only count the Ford truck's value. The value of what businesses provide to other businesses is captured in the final products at the end of the production chain. The concept of GDP is fairly straightforward: it is just the dollar value of all final goods and services produced in the economy in a year. In our decentralized, market-oriented economy, actually calculating the more than $18 trillion-dollar U.S. GDP—along with how it is changing every few months—is a full-time job for a brigade of government statisticians. \| What is Counted in GDP \| What is not included in GDP \| \|---\|---\| \| Consumption \| Intermediate goods \| \| Business investment \| Transfer payments and non-market activities \| \| Government spending on goods and services \| Used goods \| \| Net exports \| Illegal goods \| Notice the items that are not counted into GDP, as Table outlines. The sales of used goods are not included because they were produced in a previous year and are part of that year’s GDP. The entire underground economy of services paid “under the table” and illegal sales should be counted, but is not, because it is impossible to track these sales. In Friedrich Schneider's recent study of shadow economies, he estimated the underground economy in the United States to be 6.6% of GDP, or close to $2 trillion dollars in 2013 alone. Transfer payments, such as payment by the government to individuals, are not included, because they do not represent production. Also, production of some goods—such as home production as when you make your breakfast—is not counted because these goods are not sold in the marketplace. Visit this website to read about the “New Underground Economy.” Other Ways to Measure the Economy Besides GDP, there are several different but closely related ways of measuring the size of the economy. We mentioned above that we can think of GDP as total production and as total purchases. We can also think of it as total income since anything one produces and sells yields income. One of the closest cousins of GDP is the gross national product (GNP). GDP includes only what country produces within its borders. GNP adds what domestic businesses and labor abroad produces, and subtracts any payments that foreign labor and businesses located in the United States send home to other countries. In other words, GNP is based more on what a country's citizens and firms produce, wherever they are located, and GDP is based on what happens within a certain county's geographic boundaries. For the United States, the gap between GDP and GNP is relatively small; in recent years, only about 0.2%. For small nations, which may have a substantial share of their population working abroad and sending money back home, the difference can be substantial. We calculate net national product (NNP) by taking GNP and then subtracting the value of how much physical capital is worn out, or reduced in value because of aging, over the course of a year. The process by which capital ages and loses value is called depreciation. We can further subdivide NNP into national income, which includes all income to businesses and individuals, and personal income, which includes only income to people. For practical purposes, it is not vital to memorize these definitions. However, it is important to be aware that these differences exist and to know what statistic you are examining, so that you do not accidentally compare, say, GDP in one year or for one country with GNP or NNP in another year or another country. To get an idea of how these calculations work, follow the steps in the following Work It Out feature. Calculating GDP, Net Exports, and NNP Based on the information in Table: - What is the value of GDP? - What is the value of net exports? - What is the value of NNP? \| Government purchases \| $120 billion \| \| Depreciation \| $40 billion \| \| Consumption \| $400 billion \| \| Business Investment \| $60 billion \| \| Exports \| $100 billion \| \| Imports \| $120 billion \| \| Income receipts from rest of the world \| $10 billion \| \| Income payments to rest of the world \| $8 billion \| Step 1. To calculate GDP use the following formula: Step 2. To calculate net exports, subtract imports from exports. Step 3. To calculate NNP, use the following formula: Key Concepts and Summary Economists generally express the size of a nation’s economy as its gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of the output of all goods and services produced within the country in a year. Economists measure GDP by taking the quantities of all goods and services produced, multiplying them by their prices, and summing the total. Since GDP measures what is bought and sold in the economy, we can measure it either by the sum of what is purchased in the economy or what is produced. We can divide demand into consumption, investment, government, exports, and imports. We can divide what is produced in the economy into durable goods, nondurable goods, services, structures, and inventories. To avoid double counting, GDP counts only final output of goods and services, not the production of intermediate goods or the value of labor in the chain of production. Self-Check Questions Country A has export sales of $20 billion, government purchases of $1,000 billion, business investment is $50 billion, imports are $40 billion, and consumption spending is $2,000 billion. What is the dollar value of GDP? Hint: GDP is C + I + G + (X – M). GDP = $2,000 billion + $50 billion + $1,000 billion + ($20 billion – $40 billion) = $3,030 Which of the following are included in GDP, and which are not? - The cost of hospital stays - The rise in life expectancy over time - Child care provided by a licensed day care center - Child care provided by a grandmother - A used car sale - A new car sale - The greater variety of cheese available in supermarkets - The iron that goes into the steel that goes into a refrigerator bought by a consumer. Hint: - Hospital stays are part of GDP. - Changes in life expectancy are not market transactions and not part of GDP. - Child care that is paid for is part of GDP. - If Grandma gets paid and reports this as income, it is part of GDP, otherwise not. - A used car is not produced this year, so it is not part of GDP. - A new car is part of GDP. - Variety does not count in GDP, where the cheese could all be cheddar. - The iron is not counted because it is an intermediate good. Review Questions What are the main components of measuring GDP with what is demanded? What are the main components of measuring GDP with what is produced? Would you usually expect GDP as measured by what is demanded to be greater than GDP measured by what is supplied, or the reverse? Why must you avoid double counting when measuring GDP? Critical Thinking Question U.S. macroeconomic data are among the best in the world. Given what you learned in the Clear It Up "How do statisticians measure GDP?", does this surprise you, or does this simply reflect the complexity of a modern economy? What does GDP not tell us about the economy? Problem Last year, a small nation with abundant forests cut down $200 worth of trees. It then turned $100 worth of trees into $150 worth of lumber. It used $100 worth of that lumber to produce $250 worth of bookshelves. Assuming the country produces no other outputs, and there are no other inputs used in producing trees, lumber, and bookshelves, what is this nation's GDP? In other words, what is the value of the final goods the nation produced including trees, lumber and bookshelves? References U.S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis. “National data: National Income and Product Accounts Tables.” http://bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=9&step=1. U.S. Department of Commerce: United States Census Bureau. “Census of Governments: 2012 Census of Governments.” http://www.census.gov/govs/cog/. United States Department of Transportation. “About DOT.” Last modified March 2, 2012. http://www.dot.gov/about. U.S. Department of Energy. “Energy.gov.” http://energy.gov/. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. “Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.” http://www.ahrq.gov/. United States Department of Agriculture. “USDA.” http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome. Schneider, Friedrich. Department of Economics. “Size and Development of the Shadow Economy of 31 European and 5 other OECD Countries from 2003 to 2013: A Further Decline.” Johannes Kepler University. Last modified April 5, 2013. http://www.econ.jku.at/members/Schneider/files/publications/2013/ShadEcEurope31_Jan2013.pdf.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.678191	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28797/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28798/overview	Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Contrast nominal GDP and real GDP - Explain GDP deflator - Calculate real GDP based on nominal GDP values When examining economic statistics, there is a crucial distinction worth emphasizing. The distinction is between nominal and real measurements, which refer to whether or not inflation has distorted a given statistic. Looking at economic statistics without considering inflation is like looking through a pair of binoculars and trying to guess how close something is: unless you know how strong the lenses are, you cannot guess the distance very accurately. Similarly, if you do not know the inflation rate, it is difficult to figure out if a rise in GDP is due mainly to a rise in the overall level of prices or to a rise in quantities of goods produced. The nominal value of any economic statistic means that we measure the statistic in terms of actual prices that exist at the time. The real value refers to the same statistic after it has been adjusted for inflation. Generally, it is the real value that is more important. Converting Nominal to Real GDP Table shows U.S. GDP at five-year intervals since 1960 in nominal dollars; that is, GDP measured using the actual market prices prevailing in each stated year. Figure also reflects this data in a graph. \| Year \| Nominal GDP (billions of dollars) \| GDP Deflator (2005 = 100) \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| 1960 \| 543.3 \| 19.0 \| \| 1965 \| 743.7 \| 20.3 \| \| 1970 \| 1,075.9 \| 24.8 \| \| 1975 \| 1,688.9 \| 34.1 \| \| 1980 \| 2,862.5 \| 48.3 \| \| 1985 \| 4,346.7 \| 62.3 \| \| 1990 \| 5,979.6 \| 72.7 \| \| 1995 \| 7,664.0 \| 81.7 \| \| 2000 \| 10,289.7 \| 89.0 \| \| 2005 \| 13,095.4 \| 100.0 \| \| 2010 \| 14,958.3 \| 110.0 \| If an unwary analyst compared nominal GDP in 1960 to nominal GDP in 2010, it might appear that national output had risen by a factor of more than twenty-seven over this time (that is, GDP of $14,958 billion in 2010 divided by GDP of $543 billion in 1960 = 27.5). This conclusion would be highly misleading. Recall that we define nominal GDP as the quantity of every good or service produced multiplied by the price at which it was sold, summed up for all goods and services. In order to see how much production has actually increased, we need to extract the effects of higher prices on nominal GDP. We can easily accomplish this using the GDP deflator. The GDP deflator is a price index measuring the average prices of all goods and services included in the economy. We explore price indices in detail and how we compute them in Inflation, but this definition will do in the context of this chapter. Table provides the GDP deflator data and Figure shows it graphically. Figure shows that the price level has risen dramatically since 1960. The price level in 2010 was almost six times higher than in 1960 (the deflator for 2010 was 110 versus a level of 19 in 1960). Clearly, much of the growth in nominal GDP was due to inflation, not an actual change in the quantity of goods and services produced, in other words, not in real GDP. Recall that nominal GDP can rise for two reasons: an increase in output, and/or an increase in prices. What is needed is to extract the increase in prices from nominal GDP so as to measure only changes in output. After all, the dollars used to measure nominal GDP in 1960 are worth more than the inflated dollars of 1990—and the price index tells exactly how much more. This adjustment is easy to do if you understand that nominal measurements are in value terms, where Let’s look at an example at the micro level. Suppose the t-shirt company, Coolshirts, sells 10 t-shirts at a price of $9 each. Then, In other words, when we compute “real” measurements we are trying to obtain actual quantities, in this case, 10 t-shirts. With GDP, it is just a tiny bit more complicated. We start with the same formula as above: For reasons that we will explain in more detail below, mathematically, a price index is a two-digit decimal number like 1.00 or 0.85 or 1.25. Because some people have trouble working with decimals, when the price index is published, it has traditionally been multiplied by 100 to get integer numbers like 100, 85, or 125. What this means is that when we “deflate” nominal figures to get real figures (by dividing the nominal by the price index). We also need to remember to divide the published price index by 100 to make the math work. Thus, the formula becomes: Now read the following Work It Out feature for more practice calculating real GDP. Computing GDP It is possible to use the data in Table to compute real GDP. Step 1. Look at Table, to see that, in 1960, nominal GDP was $543.3 billion and the price index (GDP deflator) was 19.0. Step 2. To calculate the real GDP in 1960, use the formula: We’ll do this in two parts to make it clear. First adjust the price index: 19 divided by 100 = 0.19. Then divide into nominal GDP: $543.3 billion / 0.19 = $2,859.5 billion. Step 3. Use the same formula to calculate the real GDP in 1965. Step 4. Continue using this formula to calculate all of the real GDP values from 1960 through 2010. The calculations and the results are in Table. \| Year \| Nominal GDP (billions of dollars) \| GDP Deflator (2005 = 100) \| Calculations \| Real GDP (billions of 2005 dollars) \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| 1960 \| 543.3 \| 19.0 \| 543.3 / (19.0/100) \| 2859.5 \| \| 1965 \| 743.7 \| 20.3 \| 743.7 / (20.3/100) \| 3663.5 \| \| 1970 \| 1075.9 \| 24.8 \| 1,075.9 / (24.8/100) \| 4338.3 \| \| 1975 \| 1688.9 \| 34.1 \| 1,688.9 / (34.1/100) \| 4952.8 \| \| 1980 \| 2862.5 \| 48.3 \| 2,862.5 / (48.3/100) \| 5926.5 \| \| 1985 \| 4346.7 \| 62.3 \| 4,346.7 / (62.3/100) \| 6977.0 \| \| 1990 \| 5979.6 \| 72.7 \| 5,979.6 / (72.7/100) \| 8225.0 \| \| 1995 \| 7664.0 \| 82.0 \| 7,664 / (82.0/100) \| 9346.3 \| \| 2000 \| 10289.7 \| 89.0 \| 10,289.7 / (89.0/100) \| 11561.5 \| \| 2005 \| 13095.4 \| 100.0 \| 13,095.4 / (100.0/100) \| 13095.4 \| \| 2010 \| 14958.3 \| 110.0 \| 14,958.3 / (110.0/100) \| 13598.5 \| There are a couple things to notice here. Whenever you compute a real statistic, one year (or period) plays a special role. It is called the base year (or base period). The base year is the year whose prices we use to compute the real statistic. When we calculate real GDP, for example, we take the quantities of goods and services produced in each year (for example, 1960 or 1973) and multiply them by their prices in the base year (in this case, 2005), so we get a measure of GDP that uses prices that do not change from year to year. That is why real GDP is labeled “Constant Dollars” or, in this example, “2005 Dollars,” which means that real GDP is constructed using prices that existed in 2005. While the example here uses 2005 as the base year, more generally, you can use any year as the base year. The formula is: Rearranging the formula and using the data from 2005: Comparing real GDP and nominal GDP for 2005, you see they are the same. This is no accident. It is because we have chosen 2005 as the “base year” in this example. Since the price index in the base year always has a value of 100 (by definition), nominal and real GDP are always the same in the base year. Look at the data for 2010. Use this data to make another observation: As long as inflation is positive, meaning prices increase on average from year to year, real GDP should be less than nominal GDP in any year after the base year. The reason for this should be clear: The value of nominal GDP is “inflated” by inflation. Similarly, as long as inflation is positive, real GDP should be greater than nominal GDP in any year before the base year. Figure shows the U.S. nominal and real GDP since 1960. Because 2005 is the base year, the nominal and real values are exactly the same in that year. However, over time, the rise in nominal GDP looks much larger than the rise in real GDP (that is, the nominal GDP line rises more steeply than the real GDP line), because the presence of inflation, especially in the 1970s exaggerates the rise in nominal GDP. Let’s return to the question that we posed originally: How much did GDP increase in real terms? What was the real GDP growth rate from 1960 to 2010? To find the real growth rate, we apply the formula for percentage change: In other words, the U.S. economy has increased real production of goods and services by nearly a factor of four since 1960. Of course, that understates the material improvement since it fails to capture improvements in the quality of products and the invention of new products. There is a quicker way to answer this question approximately, using another math trick. Because: Therefore, real GDP growth rate (% change in quantity) equals the growth rate in nominal GDP (% change in value) minus the inflation rate (% change in price). Note that using this equation provides an approximation for small changes in the levels. For more accurate measures, one should use the first formula. Key Concepts and Summary The nominal value of an economic statistic is the commonly announced value. The real value is the value after adjusting for changes in inflation. To convert nominal economic data from several different years into real, inflation-adjusted data, the starting point is to choose a base year arbitrarily and then use a price index to convert the measurements so that economists measure them in the money prevailing in the base year. Self-Check Question Using data from Table how much of the nominal GDP growth from 1980 to 1990 was real GDP and how much was inflation? Hint: From 1980 to 1990, real GDP grew by (8,225.0 – 5,926.5) / (5,926.5) = 39%. Over the same period, prices increased by (72.7 – 48.3) / (48.3/100) = 51%. So about 57% of the growth 51 / (51 + 39) was inflation, and the remainder: 39 / (51 + 39) = 43% was growth in real GDP. Review Questions What is the difference between a series of economic data over time measured in nominal terms versus the same data series over time measured in real terms? How do you convert a series of nominal economic data over time to real terms? Critical Thinking Question Should people typically pay more attention to their real income or their nominal income? If you choose the latter, why would that make sense in today’s world? Would your answer be the same for the 1970s? Problems The “prime” interest rate is the rate that banks charge their best customers. Based on the nominal interest rates and inflation rates in Table, in which of the years would it have been best to be a lender? Based on the nominal interest rates and inflation rates in Table, in which of the years given would it have been best to be a borrower? \| Year \| Prime Interest Rate \| Inflation Rate \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| 1970 \| 7.9% \| 5.7% \| \| 1974 \| 10.8% \| 11.0% \| \| 1978 \| 9.1% \| 7.6% \| \| 1981 \| 18.9% \| 10.3% \| A mortgage loan is a loan that a person makes to purchase a house. Table provides a list of the mortgage interest rate for several different years and the rate of inflation for each of those years. In which years would it have been better to be a person borrowing money from a bank to buy a home? In which years would it have been better to be a bank lending money? \| Year \| Mortgage Interest Rate \| Inflation Rate \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| 1984 \| 12.4% \| 4.3% \| \| 1990 \| 10% \| 5.4% \| \| 2001 \| 7.0% \| 2.8% \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.713424	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28798/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28799/overview	Tracking Real GDP over Time Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain recessions, depressions, peaks, and troughs - Evaluate the importance of tracking real GDP over time Economic Business Cycle When news reports indicate that “the economy grew 1.2% in the first quarter,” the reports are referring to the percentage change in real GDP. By convention, governments report GDP growth is at an annualized rate: Whatever the calculated growth in real GDP was for the quarter, we multiply it by four when it is reported as if the economy were growing at that rate for a full year. Figure shows the pattern of U.S. real GDP since 1900. Short term declines have regularly interrupted the generally upward long-term path of GDP. We call a significant decline in real GDP a recession. We call an especially lengthy and deep recession a depression. The severe drop in GDP that occurred during the 1930s Great Depression is clearly visible in the figure, as is the 2008–2009 Great Recession. Real GDP is important because it is highly correlated with other measures of economic activity, like employment and unemployment. When real GDP rises, so does employment. The most significant human problem associated with recessions (and their larger, uglier cousins, depressions) is that a slowdown in production means that firms need to lay off or fire some of their workers. Losing a job imposes painful financial and personal costs on workers, and often on their extended families as well. In addition, even those who keep their jobs are likely to find that wage raises are scanty at best—or their employers may ask them to take pay cuts. Table lists the pattern of recessions and expansions in the U.S. economy since 1900. We call the highest point of the economy, before the recession begins, the peak. Conversely, the lowest point of a recession, before a recovery begins, is the trough. Thus, a recession lasts from peak to trough, and an economic upswing runs from trough to peak. We call the economy's movement from peak to trough and trough to peak the business cycle. It is intriguing to notice that the three longest trough-to-peak expansions of the twentieth century have happened since 1960. The most recent recession started in December 2007 and ended formally in June 2009. This was the most severe recession since the 1930s Great Depression. The ongoing expansion since the June 2009 trough will also be quite long, comparatively, having already reached 90 months at the end of 2016. \| Trough \| Peak \| Months of Contraction \| Months of Expansion \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| December 1900 \| September 1902 \| 18 \| 21 \| \| August 1904 \| May 1907 \| 23 \| 33 \| \| June 1908 \| January 1910 \| 13 \| 19 \| \| January 1912 \| January 1913 \| 24 \| 12 \| \| December 1914 \| August 1918 \| 23 \| 44 \| \| March 1919 \| January 1920 \| 7 \| 10 \| \| July 1921 \| May 1923 \| 18 \| 22 \| \| July 1924 \| October 1926 \| 14 \| 27 \| \| November 1927 \| August 1929 \| 23 \| 21 \| \| March 1933 \| May 1937 \| 43 \| 50 \| \| June 1938 \| February 1945 \| 13 \| 80 \| \| October 1945 \| November 1948 \| 8 \| 37 \| \| October 1949 \| July 1953 \| 11 \| 45 \| \| May 1954 \| August 1957 \| 10 \| 39 \| \| April 1958 \| April 1960 \| 8 \| 24 \| \| February 1961 \| December 1969 \| 10 \| 106 \| \| November 1970 \| November 1973 \| 11 \| 36 \| \| March 1975 \| January 1980 \| 16 \| 58 \| \| July 1980 \| July 1981 \| 6 \| 12 \| \| November 1982 \| July 1990 \| 16 \| 92 \| \| March 1991 \| March 2001 \| 8 \| 120 \| \| November 2001 \| December 2007 \| 8 \| 73 \| A private think tank, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), tracks business cycles for the U.S. economy. However, the effects of a severe recession often linger after the official ending date assigned by the NBER. Key Concepts and Summary Over the long term, U.S. real GDP have increased dramatically. At the same time, GDP has not increased the same amount each year. The speeding up and slowing down of GDP growth represents the business cycle. When GDP declines significantly, a recession occurs. A longer and deeper decline is a depression. Recessions begin at the business cycle's peak and end at the trough. Self-Check Questions Without looking at Table, return to Figure. If we define a recession as a significant decline in national output, can you identify any post-1960 recessions in addition to the 2008-2009 recession? (This requires a judgment call.) Hint: Two other major recessions are visible in the figure as slight dips: those of 1973–1975, and 1981–1982. Two other recessions appear in the figure as a flattening of the path of real GDP. These were in 1990–1991 and 2001. According to Table, how often have recessions occurred since the end of World War II (1945)? Hint: 11 recessions in approximately 70 years averages about one recession every six years. According to Table, how long has the average recession lasted since the end of World War II? Hint: The table lists the “Months of Contraction” for each recession. Averaging these figures for the post-WWII recessions gives an average duration of 11 months, or slightly less than a year. According to Table, how long has the average expansion lasted since the end of World War II? Hint: The table lists the “Months of Expansion.” Averaging these figures for the post-WWII expansions gives an average expansion of 60.5 months, or more than five years. Review Question What are typical GDP patterns for a high-income economy like the United States in the long run and the short run? Critical Thinking Questions Why do you suppose that U.S. GDP is so much higher today than 50 or 100 years ago? Why do you think that GDP does not grow at a steady rate, but rather speeds up and slows down? References The National Bureau of Economic Research. “Information on Recessions and Recoveries, the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee, and related topics.” http://www.nber.org/cycles/main.html.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.742512	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28799/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28800/overview	Comparing GDP among Countries Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain how we can use GDP to compare the economic welfare of different nations - Calculate the conversion of GDP to a common currency by using exchange rates - Calculate GDP per capita using population data Comparing GDPs It is common to use GDP as a measure of economic welfare or standard of living in a nation. When comparing the GDP of different nations for this purpose, two issues immediately arise. First, we measure a country's GDP in its own currency: the United States uses the U.S. dollar; Canada, the Canadian dollar; most countries of Western Europe, the euro; Japan, the yen; Mexico, the peso; and so on. Thus, comparing GDP between two countries requires converting to a common currency. A second issue is that countries have very different numbers of people. For instance, the United States has a much larger economy than Mexico or Canada, but it also has almost three times as many people as Mexico and nine times as many people as Canada. Thus, if we are trying to compare standards of living across countries, we need to divide GDP by population. Converting Currencies with Exchange Rates To compare the GDP of countries with different currencies, it is necessary to convert to a “common denominator” using an exchange rate, which is the value of one currency in terms of another currency. We express exchange rates either as the units of country A’s currency that need to be traded for a single unit of country B’s currency (for example, Japanese yen per British pound), or as the inverse (for example, British pounds per Japanese yen). We can use two types of exchange rates for this purpose, market exchange rates and purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalent exchange rates. Market exchange rates vary on a day-to-day basis depending on supply and demand in foreign exchange markets. PPP-equivalent exchange rates provide a longer run measure of the exchange rate. For this reason, economists typically use PPP-equivalent exchange rates for GDP cross country comparisons. We will discuss exchange rates in more detail in Exchange Rates and International Capital Flows. The following Work It Out feature explains how to convert GDP to a common currency. Converting GDP to a Common Currency Using the exchange rate to convert GDP from one currency to another is straightforward. Say that the task is to compare Brazil’s GDP in 2013 of 4.8 trillion reals with the U.S. GDP of $16.6 trillion for the same year. Step 1. Determine the exchange rate for the specified year. In 2013, the exchange rate was 2.230 reals = $1. (These numbers are realistic, but rounded off to simplify the calculations.) Step 2. Convert Brazil’s GDP into U.S. dollars: Step 3. Compare this value to the GDP in the United States in the same year. The U.S. GDP was $16.6 trillion in 2013, which is nearly eight times that of GDP in Brazil in 2012. Step 4. View Table which shows the size of and variety of GDPs of different countries in 2013, all expressed in U.S. dollars. We calculate each using the process that we explained above. \| Country \| GDP in Billions of Domestic Currency \| Domestic Currency/U.S. Dollars (PPP Equivalent) \| GDP (in billions of U.S. dollars) \| \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Brazil \| 4,844.80 \| reals \| 2.157 \| 2,246.00 \| \| Canada \| 1,881.20 \| dollars \| 1.030 \| 1,826.80 \| \| China \| 58,667.30 \| yuan \| 6.196 \| 9,469.10 \| \| Egypt \| 1,753.30 \| pounds \| 6.460 \| 271.40 \| \| Germany \| 2,737.60 \| euros \| 0.753 \| 3,636.00 \| \| India \| 113,550.70 \| rupees \| 60.502 \| 1,876.80 \| \| Japan \| 478,075.30 \| yen \| 97.596 \| 4,898.50 \| \| Mexico \| 16,104.40 \| pesos \| 12.772 \| 1,260.90 \| \| South Korea \| 1,428,294.70 \| won \| 1,094.925 \| 1,304.467 \| \| United Kingdom \| 1,612.80 \| pounds \| 0.639 \| 2,523.20 \| \| United States \| 16,768.10 \| dollars \| 1.000 \| 16,768.10 \| GDP Per Capita The U.S. economy has the largest GDP in the world, by a considerable amount. The United States is also a populous country; in fact, it is the third largest country by population in the world, although well behind China and India. Is the U.S. economy larger than other countries just because the United States has more people than most other countries, or because the U.S. economy is actually larger on a per-person basis? We can answer this question by calculating a country’s GDP per capita; that is, the GDP divided by the population. The second column of Table lists the GDP of the same selection of countries that appeared in the previous Tracking Real GDP over Time and Table, showing their GDP as converted into U.S. dollars (which is the same as the last column of the previous table). The third column gives the population for each country. The fourth column lists the GDP per capita. We obtain GDP per capita in two steps: First, by multiplying column two (GDP, in billions of dollars) by 1000 so it has the same units as column three (Population, in millions). Then divide the result (GDP in millions of dollars) by column three (Population, in millions). \| Country \| GDP (in billions of U.S. dollars) \| Population (in millions) \| Per Capita GDP (in U.S. dollars) \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Brazil \| 2,246.00 \| 199.20 \| 11,275.10 \| \| Canada \| 1,826.80 \| 35.10 \| 52,045.58 \| \| China \| 9,469.10 \| 1,360.80 \| 6,958.48 \| \| Egypt \| 271.40 \| 83.70 \| 3,242.90 \| \| Germany \| 3,636.00 \| 80.80 \| 44,999.50 \| \| India \| 1,876.80 \| 1,243.30 \| 1,509.50 \| \| Japan \| 4,898.50 \| 127.3 \| 38,479.97 \| \| Mexico \| 1,260.90 \| 118.40 \| 10,649.90 \| \| South Korea \| 1,304.47 \| 50.20 \| 25,985.46 \| \| United Kingdom \| 2,523.20 \| 64.10 \| 39,363.50 \| \| United States \| 16,768.10 \| 316.30 \| 53,013.28 \| Notice that the ranking by GDP is different from the ranking by GDP per capita. India has a somewhat larger GDP than Germany, but on a per capita basis, Germany has more than 10 times India’s standard of living. Will China soon have a better standard of living than the U.S.? Read the following Clear It Up feature to find out. Is China going to surpass the United States in terms of standard of living? As Table shows, China has the second largest GDP of the countries: $9.5 trillion compared to the United States’ $16.8 trillion. Perhaps it will surpass the United States, but probably not any time soon. China has a much larger population so that in per capita terms, its GDP is less than one fifth that of the United States ($6,958.48 compared to $53,013). The Chinese people are still quite poor relative to the United States and other developed countries. One caveat: For reasons we will discuss shortly, GDP per capita can give us only a rough idea of the differences in living standards across countries. The world's high-income nations—including the United States, Canada, the Western European countries, and Japan—typically have GDP per capita in the range of $20,000 to $50,000. Middle-income countries, which include much of Latin America, Eastern Europe, and some countries in East Asia, have GDP per capita in the range of $6,000 to $12,000. The world's low-income countries, many of them located in Africa and Asia, often have GDP per capita of less than $2,000 per year. Key Concepts and Summary Since we measure GDP in a country’s currency, in order to compare different countries’ GDPs, we need to convert them to a common currency. One way to do that is with the exchange rate, which is the price of one country’s currency in terms of another. Once we express GDPs in a common currency, we can compare each country’s GDP per capita by dividing GDP by population. Countries with large populations often have large GDPs, but GDP alone can be a misleading indicator of a nation's wealth. A better measure is GDP per capita. Self-Check Question Is it possible for GDP to rise while at the same time per capita GDP is falling? Is it possible for GDP to fall while per capita GDP is rising? Hint: Yes. The answer to both questions depends on whether GDP is growing faster or slower than population. If population grows faster than GDP, GDP increases, while GDP per capita decreases. If GDP falls, but population falls faster, then GDP decreases, while GDP per capita increases. The Central African Republic has a GDP of 1,107,689 million CFA francs and a population of 4.862 million. The exchange rate is 284.681CFA francs per dollar. Calculate the GDP per capita of Central African Republic. Hint: Start with Central African Republic’s GDP measured in francs. Divide it by the exchange rate to convert to U.S. dollars, and then divide by population to obtain the per capita figure. That is, 1,107,689 million francs / 284.681 francs per dollar / 4.862 million people = $800.28 GDP per capita. Review Question What are the two main difficulties that arise in comparing different countries's GDP? Critical Thinking Question Cross country comparisons of GDP per capita typically use purchasing power parity equivalent exchange rates, which are a measure of the long run equilibrium value of an exchange rate. In fact, we used PPP equivalent exchange rates in this module. Why could using market exchange rates, which sometimes change dramatically in a short period of time, be misleading? Why might per capita GDP be only an imperfect measure of a country’s standard of living? Problems Ethiopia has a GDP of $8 billion (measured in U.S. dollars) and a population of 55 million. Costa Rica has a GDP of $9 billion (measured in U.S. dollars) and a population of 4 million. Calculate the per capita GDP for each country and identify which one is higher. In 1980, Denmark had a GDP of $70 billion (measured in U.S. dollars) and a population of 5.1 million. In 2000, Denmark had a GDP of $160 billion (measured in U.S. dollars) and a population of 5.3 million. By what percentage did Denmark’s GDP per capita rise between 1980 and 2000? The Czech Republic has a GDP of 1,800 billion koruny. The exchange rate is 25 koruny/U.S. dollar. The Czech population is 20 million. What is the GDP per capita of the Czech Republic expressed in U.S. dollars?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.772829	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28800/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28801/overview	How Well GDP Measures the Well-Being of Society Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss how productivity influences the standard of living - Explain the limitations of GDP as a measure of the standard of living - Analyze the relationship between GDP data and fluctuations in the standard of living "Standards of Living" The level of GDP per capita clearly captures some of what we mean by the phrase “standard of living.” Most of the migration in the world, for example, involves people who are moving from countries with relatively low GDP per capita to countries with relatively high GDP per capita. “Standard of living” is a broader term than GDP. While GDP focuses on production that is bought and sold in markets, standard of living includes all elements that affect people’s well-being, whether they are bought and sold in the market or not. To illuminate the difference between GDP and standard of living, it is useful to spell out some things that GDP does not cover that are clearly relevant to standard of living. Limitations of GDP as a Measure of the Standard of Living While GDP includes spending on recreation and travel, it does not cover leisure time. Clearly, however, there is a substantial difference between an economy that is large because people work long hours, and an economy that is just as large because people are more productive with their time so they do not have to work as many hours. The GDP per capita of the U.S. economy is larger than the GDP per capita of Germany, as showed, but does that prove that the standard of living in the United States is higher? Not necessarily, since it is also true that the average U.S. worker works several hundred hours more per year more than the average German worker. Calculating GDP does not account for the German worker’s extra vacation weeks. While GDP includes what a country spends on environmental protection, healthcare, and education, it does not include actual levels of environmental cleanliness, health, and learning. GDP includes the cost of buying pollution-control equipment, but it does not address whether the air and water are actually cleaner or dirtier. GDP includes spending on medical care, but does not address whether life expectancy or infant mortality have risen or fallen. Similarly, it counts spending on education, but does not address directly how much of the population can read, write, or do basic mathematics. GDP includes production that is exchanged in the market, but it does not cover production that is not exchanged in the market. For example, hiring someone to mow your lawn or clean your house is part of GDP, but doing these tasks yourself is not part of GDP. One remarkable change in the U.S. economy in recent decades is the growth in women’s participation in the labor force. As of 1970, only about 42% of women participated in the paid labor force. By the second decade of the 2000s, nearly 60% of women participated in the paid labor force according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As women are now in the labor force, many of the services they used to produce in the non-market economy like food preparation and child care have shifted to some extent into the market economy, which makes the GDP appear larger even if people actually are not consuming more services. GDP has nothing to say about the level of inequality in society. GDP per capita is only an average. When GDP per capita rises by 5%, it could mean that GDP for everyone in the society has risen by 5%, or that GDP of some groups has risen by more while that of others has risen by less—or even declined. GDP also has nothing in particular to say about the amount of variety available. If a family buys 100 loaves of bread in a year, GDP does not care whether they are all white bread, or whether the family can choose from wheat, rye, pumpernickel, and many others—it just looks at the total amount the family spends on bread. Likewise, GDP has nothing much to say about what technology and products are available. The standard of living in, for example, 1950 or 1900 was not affected only by how much money people had—it was also affected by what they could buy. No matter how much money you had in 1950, you could not buy an iPhone or a personal computer. In certain cases, it is not clear that a rise in GDP is even a good thing. If a city is wrecked by a hurricane, and then experiences a surge of rebuilding construction activity, it would be peculiar to claim that the hurricane was therefore economically beneficial. If people are led by a rising fear of crime, to pay for installing bars and burglar alarms on all their windows, it is hard to believe that this increase in GDP has made them better off. Similarly, some people would argue that sales of certain goods, like pornography or extremely violent movies, do not represent a gain to society’s standard of living. Does a Rise in GDP Overstate or Understate the Rise in the Standard of Living? The fact that GDP per capita does not fully capture the broader idea of standard of living has led to a concern that the increases in GDP over time are illusory. It is theoretically possible that while GDP is rising, the standard of living could be falling if human health, environmental cleanliness, and other factors that are not included in GDP are worsening. Fortunately, this fear appears to be overstated. In some ways, the rise in GDP understates the actual rise in the standard of living. For example, the typical workweek for a U.S. worker has fallen over the last century from about 60 hours per week to less than 40 hours per week. Life expectancy and health have risen dramatically, and so has the average level of education. Since 1970, the air and water in the United States have generally been getting cleaner. Companies have developed new technologies for entertainment, travel, information, and health. A much wider variety of basic products like food and clothing is available today than several decades ago. Because GDP does not capture leisure, health, a cleaner environment, the possibilities that new technology creates, or an increase in variety, the actual rise in the standard of living for Americans in recent decades has exceeded the rise in GDP. On the other side, crime rates, traffic congestion levels, and income inequality are higher in the United States now than they were in the 1960s. Moreover, a substantial number of services that women primarily provided in the non-market economy are now part of the market economy that GDP counts. By ignoring these factors, GDP would tend to overstate the true rise in the standard of living. Visit this website to read about the American Dream and standards of living. GDP is Rough, but Useful A high level of GDP should not be the only goal of macroeconomic policy, or government policy more broadly. Even though GDP does not measure the broader standard of living with any precision, it does measure production well and it does indicate when a country is materially better or worse off in terms of jobs and incomes. In most countries, a significantly higher GDP per capita occurs hand in hand with other improvements in everyday life along many dimensions, like education, health, and environmental protection. No single number can capture all the elements of a term as broad as “standard of living.” Nonetheless, GDP per capita is a reasonable, rough-and-ready measure of the standard of living. How is the Economy Doing? How Does One Tell? To determine the state of the economy, one needs to examine economic indicators, such as GDP. To calculate GDP is quite an undertaking. It is the broadest measure of a nation’s economic activity and we owe a debt to Simon Kuznets, the creator of the measurement, for that. The sheer size of the U.S. economy as measured by GDP is huge—as of the fourth quarter of 2016, $18.9 trillion worth of goods and services were produced annually. Real GDP informed us that the 2008–2009 recession was severe and that the recovery from that recession has been slow, but the economy is improving. GDP per capita gives a rough estimate of a nation’s standard of living. This chapter is the building block for other chapters that explore more economic indicators such as unemployment, inflation, or interest rates, and perhaps more importantly, will explain how they are related and what causes them to rise or fall. Key Concepts and Summary GDP is an indicator of a society’s standard of living, but it is only a rough indicator. GDP does not directly take account of leisure, environmental quality, levels of health and education, activities conducted outside the market, changes in inequality of income, increases in variety, increases in technology, or the (positive or negative) value that society may place on certain types of output. Self-Check Question Explain briefly whether each of the following would cause GDP to overstate or understate the degree of change in the broad standard of living. - The environment becomes dirtier - The crime rate declines - A greater variety of goods become available to consumers - Infant mortality declines Hint: - A dirtier environment would reduce the broad standard of living, but not be counted in GDP, so a rise in GDP would overstate the standard of living. - A lower crime rate would raise the broad standard of living, but not be counted directly in GDP, and so a rise in GDP would understate the standard of living. - A greater variety of goods would raise the broad standard of living, but not be counted directly in GDP, and so a rise in GDP would understate the rise in the standard of living. - A decline in infant mortality would raise the broad standard of living, but not be counted directly in GDP, and so a rise in GDP would understate the rise in the standard of living. Review Question List some of the reasons why economists should not consider GDP an effective measure of the standard of living in a country. Critical Thinking Questions How might you measure a “green” GDP?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.797290	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28801/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, The Macroeconomic Perspective", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28772/overview	Introduction Introduction Decisions ... Decisions in the Social Media Age To post or not to post? Every day we are faced with a myriad of decisions, from what to have for breakfast, to which route to take to class, to the more complex—“Should I double major and add possibly another semester of study to my education?” Our response to these choices depends on the information we have available at any given moment. Economists call this “imperfect” because we rarely have all the data we need to make perfect decisions. Despite the lack of perfect information, we still make hundreds of decisions a day. Now we have another avenue in which to gather information—social media. Outlets like Facebook and Twitter are altering the process by which we make choices, how we spend our time, which movies we see, which products we buy, and more. How many of you chose a university without checking out its Facebook page or Twitter stream first for information and feedback? As you will see in this course, what happens in economics is affected by how well and how fast information disseminates through a society, such as how quickly information travels through Facebook. “Economists love nothing better than when deep and liquid markets operate under conditions of perfect information,” says Jessica Irvine, National Economics Editor for News Corp Australia. This leads us to the topic of this chapter, an introduction to the world of making decisions, processing information, and understanding behavior in markets —the world of economics. Each chapter in this book will start with a discussion about current (or sometimes past) events and revisit it at chapter’s end—to “bring home” the concepts in play. Introduction In this chapter, you will learn about: - What Is Economics, and Why Is It Important? - Microeconomics and Macroeconomics - How Economists Use Theories and Models to Understand Economic Issues - How Economies Can Be Organized: An Overview of Economic Systems What is economics and why should you spend your time learning it? After all, there are other disciplines you could be studying, and other ways you could be spending your time. As the Bring it Home feature just mentioned, making choices is at the heart of what economists study, and your decision to take this course is as much as economic decision as anything else. Economics is probably not what you think. It is not primarily about money or finance. It is not primarily about business. It is not mathematics. What is it then? It is both a subject area and a way of viewing the world.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.814215	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28772/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Welcome to Economics!", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28773/overview	What Is Economics, and Why Is It Important? Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the importance of studying economics - Explain the relationship between production and division of labor - Evaluate the significance of scarcity What is Economics? Economics is the study of how humans make decisions in the face of scarcity. These can be individual decisions, family decisions, business decisions or societal decisions. If you look around carefully, you will see that scarcity is a fact of life. Scarcity means that human wants for goods, services and resources exceed what is available. Resources, such as labor, tools, land, and raw materials are necessary to produce the goods and services we want but they exist in limited supply. Of course, the ultimate scarce resource is time- everyone, rich or poor, has just 24 expendable hours in the day to earn income to acquire goods and services, for leisure time, or for sleep. At any point in time, there is only a finite amount of resources available. Think about it this way: In 2015 the labor force in the United States contained over 158 million workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total land area was 3,794,101 square miles. While these are certainly large numbers, they are not infinite. Because these resources are limited, so are the numbers of goods and services we produce with them. Combine this with the fact that human wants seem to be virtually infinite, and you can see why scarcity is a problem. Introduction to FRED Data is very important in economics because it describes and measures the issues and problems that economics seek to understand. A variety of government agencies publish economic and social data. For this course, we will generally use data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's FRED database. FRED is very user friendly. It allows you to display data in tables or charges, and you can easily download it into spreadsheet form if you want to use the data for other purposes. The FRED website includes data on nearly 400,000 domestic and international variables over time, in the following broad categories: - Money, Banking & Finance - Population, Employment, & Labor Markets (including Income Distribution) - National Accounts (Gross Domestic Product & its components), Flow of Funds, and International Accounts - Production & Business Activity (including Business Cycles) - Prices & Inflation (including the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, and the Employment Cost Index) - International Data from other nations - U.S. Regional Data - Academic Data (including Penn World Tables & NBER Macrohistory database) For more information about how to use FRED, see the variety of videos on YouTube starting with this introduction. If you still do not believe that scarcity is a problem, consider the following: Does everyone require food to eat? Does everyone need a decent place to live? Does everyone have access to healthcare? In every country in the world, there are people who are hungry, homeless (for example, those who call park benches their beds, as Figure shows), and in need of healthcare, just to focus on a few critical goods and services. Why is this the case? It is because of scarcity. Let’s delve into the concept of scarcity a little deeper, because it is crucial to understanding economics. The Problem of Scarcity Think about all the things you consume: food, shelter, clothing, transportation, healthcare, and entertainment. How do you acquire those items? You do not produce them yourself. You buy them. How do you afford the things you buy? You work for pay. If you do not, someone else does on your behalf. Yet most of us never have enough income to buy all the things we want. This is because of scarcity. So how do we solve it? Visit this website to read about how the United States is dealing with scarcity in resources. Every society, at every level, must make choices about how to use its resources. Families must decide whether to spend their money on a new car or a fancy vacation. Towns must choose whether to put more of the budget into police and fire protection or into the school system. Nations must decide whether to devote more funds to national defense or to protecting the environment. In most cases, there just isn’t enough money in the budget to do everything. How do we use our limited resources the best way possible, that is, to obtain the most goods and services we can? There are a couple of options. First, we could each produce everything we each consume. Alternatively, we could each produce some of what we want to consume, and “trade” for the rest of what we want. Let’s explore these options. Why do we not each just produce all of the things we consume? Think back to pioneer days, when individuals knew how to do so much more than we do today, from building their homes, to growing their crops, to hunting for food, to repairing their equipment. Most of us do not know how to do all—or any—of those things, but it is not because we could not learn. Rather, we do not have to. The reason why is something called the division and specialization of labor, a production innovation first put forth by Adam Smith (Figure) in his book, The Wealth of Nations. The Division of and Specialization of Labor The formal study of economics began when Adam Smith (1723–1790) published his famous book The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Many authors had written on economics in the centuries before Smith, but he was the first to address the subject in a comprehensive way. In the first chapter, Smith introduces the concept of division of labor, which means that the way one produces a good or service is divided into a number of tasks that different workers perform, instead of all the tasks being done by the same person. To illustrate division of labor, Smith counted how many tasks went into making a pin: drawing out a piece of wire, cutting it to the right length, straightening it, putting a head on one end and a point on the other, and packaging pins for sale, to name just a few. Smith counted 18 distinct tasks that different people performed—all for a pin, believe it or not! Modern businesses divide tasks as well. Even a relatively simple business like a restaurant divides the task of serving meals into a range of jobs like top chef, sous chefs, less-skilled kitchen help, servers to wait on the tables, a greeter at the door, janitors to clean up, and a business manager to handle paychecks and bills—not to mention the economic connections a restaurant has with suppliers of food, furniture, kitchen equipment, and the building where it is located. A complex business like a large manufacturing factory, such as the shoe factory (Figure), or a hospital can have hundreds of job classifications. Why the Division of Labor Increases Production When we divide and subdivide the tasks involved with producing a good or service, workers and businesses can produce a greater quantity of output. In his observations of pin factories, Smith noticed that one worker alone might make 20 pins in a day, but that a small business of 10 workers (some of whom would need to complete two or three of the 18 tasks involved with pin-making), could make 48,000 pins in a day. How can a group of workers, each specializing in certain tasks, produce so much more than the same number of workers who try to produce the entire good or service by themselves? Smith offered three reasons. First, specialization in a particular small job allows workers to focus on the parts of the production process where they have an advantage. (In later chapters, we will develop this idea by discussing comparative advantage.) People have different skills, talents, and interests, so they will be better at some jobs than at others. The particular advantages may be based on educational choices, which are in turn shaped by interests and talents. Only those with medical degrees qualify to become doctors, for instance. For some goods, geography affects specialization. For example, it is easier to be a wheat farmer in North Dakota than in Florida, but easier to run a tourist hotel in Florida than in North Dakota. If you live in or near a big city, it is easier to attract enough customers to operate a successful dry cleaning business or movie theater than if you live in a sparsely populated rural area. Whatever the reason, if people specialize in the production of what they do best, they will be more effective than if they produce a combination of things, some of which they are good at and some of which they are not. Second, workers who specialize in certain tasks often learn to produce more quickly and with higher quality. This pattern holds true for many workers, including assembly line laborers who build cars, stylists who cut hair, and doctors who perform heart surgery. In fact, specialized workers often know their jobs well enough to suggest innovative ways to do their work faster and better. A similar pattern often operates within businesses. In many cases, a business that focuses on one or a few products (sometimes called its “core competency”) is more successful than firms that try to make a wide range of products. Third, specialization allows businesses to take advantage of economies of scale, which means that for many goods, as the level of production increases, the average cost of producing each individual unit declines. For example, if a factory produces only 100 cars per year, each car will be quite expensive to make on average. However, if a factory produces 50,000 cars each year, then it can set up an assembly line with huge machines and workers performing specialized tasks, and the average cost of production per car will be lower. The ultimate result of workers who can focus on their preferences and talents, learn to do their specialized jobs better, and work in larger organizations is that society as a whole can produce and consume far more than if each person tried to produce all of his or her own goods and services. The division and specialization of labor has been a force against the problem of scarcity. Trade and Markets Specialization only makes sense, though, if workers can use the pay they receive for doing their jobs to purchase the other goods and services that they need. In short, specialization requires trade. You do not have to know anything about electronics or sound systems to play music—you just buy an iPod or MP3 player, download the music, and listen. You do not have to know anything about artificial fibers or the construction of sewing machines if you need a jacket—you just buy the jacket and wear it. You do not need to know anything about internal combustion engines to operate a car—you just get in and drive. Instead of trying to acquire all the knowledge and skills involved in producing all of the goods and services that you wish to consume, the market allows you to learn a specialized set of skills and then use the pay you receive to buy the goods and services you need or want. This is how our modern society has evolved into a strong economy. Why Study Economics? Now that you have an overview on what economics studies, let’s quickly discuss why you are right to study it. Economics is not primarily a collection of facts to memorize, although there are plenty of important concepts to learn. Instead, think of economics as a collection of questions to answer or puzzles to work. Most importantly, economics provides the tools to solve those puzzles. If the economics “bug” has not bitten you yet, there are other reasons why you should study economics. - Virtually every major problem facing the world today, from global warming, to world poverty, to the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, has an economic dimension. If you are going to be part of solving those problems, you need to be able to understand them. Economics is crucial. - It is hard to overstate the importance of economics to good citizenship. You need to be able to vote intelligently on budgets, regulations, and laws in general. When the U.S. government came close to a standstill at the end of 2012 due to the “fiscal cliff,” what were the issues? Did you know? - A basic understanding of economics makes you a well-rounded thinker. When you read articles about economic issues, you will understand and be able to evaluate the writer’s argument. When you hear classmates, co-workers, or political candidates talking about economics, you will be able to distinguish between common sense and nonsense. You will find new ways of thinking about current events and about personal and business decisions, as well as current events and politics. The study of economics does not dictate the answers, but it can illuminate the different choices. Key Concepts and Summary Economics seeks to solve the problem of scarcity, which is when human wants for goods and services exceed the available supply. A modern economy displays a division of labor, in which people earn income by specializing in what they produce and then use that income to purchase the products they need or want. The division of labor allows individuals and firms to specialize and to produce more for several reasons: a) It allows the agents to focus on areas of advantage due to natural factors and skill levels; b) It encourages the agents to learn and invent; c) It allows agents to take advantage of economies of scale. Division and specialization of labor only work when individuals can purchase what they do not produce in markets. Learning about economics helps you understand the major problems facing the world today, prepares you to be a good citizen, and helps you become a well-rounded thinker. Self-Check Questions What is scarcity? Can you think of two causes of scarcity? Hint: Scarcity means human wants for goods and services exceed the available supply. Supply is limited because resources are limited. Demand, however, is virtually unlimited. Whatever the supply, it seems human nature to want more. Residents of the town of Smithfield like to consume hams, but each ham requires 10 people to produce it and takes a month. If the town has a total of 100 people, what is the maximum amount of ham the residents can consume in a month? Hint: 100 people / 10 people per ham = a maximum of 10 hams per month if all residents produce ham. Since consumption is limited by production, the maximum number of hams residents could consume per month is 10. A consultant works for $200 per hour. She likes to eat vegetables, but is not very good at growing them. Why does it make more economic sense for her to spend her time at the consulting job and shop for her vegetables? Hint: She is very productive at her consulting job, but not very productive growing vegetables. Time spent consulting would produce far more income than it what she could save growing her vegetables using the same amount of time. So on purely economic grounds, it makes more sense for her to maximize her income by applying her labor to what she does best (i.e. specialization of labor). A computer systems engineer could paint his house, but it makes more sense for him to hire a painter to do it. Explain why. Hint: The engineer is better at computer science than at painting. Thus, his time is better spent working for pay at his job and paying a painter to paint his house. Of course, this assumes he does not paint his house for fun! Review Questions Give the three reasons that explain why the division of labor increases an economy’s level of production. What are three reasons to study economics? Critical Thinking Questions Suppose you have a team of two workers: one is a baker and one is a chef. Explain why the kitchen can produce more meals in a given period of time if each worker specializes in what they do best than if each worker tries to do everything from appetizer to dessert. Why would division of labor without trade not work? Can you think of any examples of free goods, that is, goods or services that are not scarce? References Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 2015. "The Employment Situation—February 2015." Accessed March 27, 2015. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf. Williamson, Lisa. “US Labor Market in 2012.” Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed December 1, 2013. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/03/art1full.pdf.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.847963	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28773/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Welcome to Economics!", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28774/overview	Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe microeconomics - Describe macroeconomics - Contrast monetary policy and fiscal policy Economic Perspectives Economics is concerned with the well-being of all people, including those with jobs and those without jobs, as well as those with high incomes and those with low incomes. Economics acknowledges that production of useful goods and services can create problems of environmental pollution. It explores the question of how investing in education helps to develop workers’ skills. It probes questions like how to tell when big businesses or big labor unions are operating in a way that benefits society as a whole and when they are operating in a way that benefits their owners or members at the expense of others. It looks at how government spending, taxes, and regulations affect decisions about production and consumption. It should be clear by now that economics covers considerable ground. We can divide that ground into two parts: Microeconomics focuses on the actions of individual agents within the economy, like households, workers, and businesses. Macroeconomics looks at the economy as a whole. It focuses on broad issues such as growth of production, the number of unemployed people, the inflationary increase in prices, government deficits, and levels of exports and imports. Microeconomics and macroeconomics are not separate subjects, but rather complementary perspectives on the overall subject of the economy. To understand why both microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives are useful, consider the problem of studying a biological ecosystem like a lake. One person who sets out to study the lake might focus on specific topics: certain kinds of algae or plant life; the characteristics of particular fish or snails; or the trees surrounding the lake. Another person might take an overall view and instead consider the lake's ecosystem from top to bottom; what eats what, how the system stays in a rough balance, and what environmental stresses affect this balance. Both approaches are useful, and both examine the same lake, but the viewpoints are different. In a similar way, both microeconomics and macroeconomics study the same economy, but each has a different viewpoint. Whether you are scrutinizing lakes or economics, the micro and the macro insights should blend with each other. In studying a lake, the micro insights about particular plants and animals help to understand the overall food chain, while the macro insights about the overall food chain help to explain the environment in which individual plants and animals live. In economics, the micro decisions of individual businesses are influenced by whether the macroeconomy is healthy. For example, firms will be more likely to hire workers if the overall economy is growing. In turn, macroeconomy's performance ultimately depends on the microeconomic decisions that individual households and businesses make. Microeconomics What determines how households and individuals spend their budgets? What combination of goods and services will best fit their needs and wants, given the budget they have to spend? How do people decide whether to work, and if so, whether to work full time or part time? How do people decide how much to save for the future, or whether they should borrow to spend beyond their current means? What determines the products, and how many of each, a firm will produce and sell? What determines the prices a firm will charge? What determines how a firm will produce its products? What determines how many workers it will hire? How will a firm finance its business? When will a firm decide to expand, downsize, or even close? In the microeconomics part of this book, we will learn about the theory of consumer behavior, the theory of the firm, how markets for labor and other resources work, and how markets sometimes fail to work properly. Macroeconomics What determines the level of economic activity in a society? In other words, what determines how many goods and services a nation actually produces? What determines how many jobs are available in an economy? What determines a nation’s standard of living? What causes the economy to speed up or slow down? What causes firms to hire more workers or to lay them off? Finally, what causes the economy to grow over the long term? We can determine an economy's macroeconomic health by examining a number of goals: growth in the standard of living, low unemployment, and low inflation, to name the most important. How can we use government macroeconomic policy to pursue these goals? A nation's central bank conducts monetary policy, which involves policies that affect bank lending, interest rates, and financial capital markets. For the United States, this is the Federal Reserve. A nation's legislative body determines fiscal policy, which involves government spending and taxes. For the United States, this is the Congress and the executive branch, which originates the federal budget. These are the government's main tools. Americans tend to expect that government can fix whatever economic problems we encounter, but to what extent is that expectation realistic? These are just some of the issues that we will explore in the macroeconomic chapters of this book. Key Concepts and Summary Microeconomics and macroeconomics are two different perspectives on the economy. The microeconomic perspective focuses on parts of the economy: individuals, firms, and industries. The macroeconomic perspective looks at the economy as a whole, focusing on goals like growth in the standard of living, unemployment, and inflation. Macroeconomics has two types of policies for pursuing these goals: monetary policy and fiscal policy. Self-Check Questions What would be another example of a “system” in the real world that could serve as a metaphor for micro and macroeconomics? Hint: There are many physical systems that would work, for example, the study of planets (micro) in the solar system (macro), or solar systems (micro) in the galaxy (macro). Review Questions What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics? What are examples of individual economic agents? What are the three main goals of macroeconomics? Critical Thinking Questions A balanced federal budget and a balance of trade are secondary goals of macroeconomics, while growth in the standard of living (for example) is a primary goal. Why do you think that is so? Macroeconomics is an aggregate of what happens at the microeconomic level. Would it be possible for what happens at the macro level to differ from how economic agents would react to some stimulus at the micro level? Hint: Think about the behavior of crowds.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.874102	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28774/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Welcome to Economics!", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28775/overview	How Economists Use Theories and Models to Understand Economic Issues Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Interpret a circular flow diagram - Explain the importance of economic theories and models - Describe goods and services markets and labor markets John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), one of the greatest economists of the twentieth century, pointed out that economics is not just a subject area but also a way of thinking. Keynes (Figure) famously wrote in the introduction to a fellow economist’s book: “[Economics] is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking, which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions.” In other words, economics teaches you how to think, not what to think. Watch this video about John Maynard Keynes and his influence on economics. Economists see the world through a different lens than anthropologists, biologists, classicists, or practitioners of any other discipline. They analyze issues and problems using economic theories that are based on particular assumptions about human behavior. These assumptions tend to be different than the assumptions an anthropologist or psychologist might use. A theory is a simplified representation of how two or more variables interact with each other. The purpose of a theory is to take a complex, real-world issue and simplify it down to its essentials. If done well, this enables the analyst to understand the issue and any problems around it. A good theory is simple enough to understand, while complex enough to capture the key features of the object or situation you are studying. Sometimes economists use the term model instead of theory. Strictly speaking, a theory is a more abstract representation, while a model is a more applied or empirical representation. We use models to test theories, but for this course we will use the terms interchangeably. For example, an architect who is planning a major office building will often build a physical model that sits on a tabletop to show how the entire city block will look after the new building is constructed. Companies often build models of their new products, which are more rough and unfinished than the final product, but can still demonstrate how the new product will work. A good model to start with in economics is the circular flow diagram (Figure). It pictures the economy as consisting of two groups—households and firms—that interact in two markets: the goods and services market in which firms sell and households buy and the labor market in which households sell labor to business firms or other employees. Firms produce and sell goods and services to households in the market for goods and services (or product market). Arrow “A” indicates this. Households pay for goods and services, which becomes the revenues to firms. Arrow “B” indicates this. Arrows A and B represent the two sides of the product market. Where do households obtain the income to buy goods and services? They provide the labor and other resources (e.g. land, capital, raw materials) firms need to produce goods and services in the market for inputs (or factors of production). Arrow “C” indicates this. In return, firms pay for the inputs (or resources) they use in the form of wages and other factor payments. Arrow “D” indicates this. Arrows “C” and “D” represent the two sides of the factor market. Of course, in the real world, there are many different markets for goods and services and markets for many different types of labor. The circular flow diagram simplifies this to make the picture easier to grasp. In the diagram, firms produce goods and services, which they sell to households in return for revenues. The outer circle shows this, and represents the two sides of the product market (for example, the market for goods and services) in which households demand and firms supply. Households sell their labor as workers to firms in return for wages, salaries, and benefits. The inner circle shows this and represents the two sides of the labor market in which households supply and firms demand. This version of the circular flow model is stripped down to the essentials, but it has enough features to explain how the product and labor markets work in the economy. We could easily add details to this basic model if we wanted to introduce more real-world elements, like financial markets, governments, and interactions with the rest of the globe (imports and exports). Economists carry a set of theories in their heads like a carpenter carries around a toolkit. When they see an economic issue or problem, they go through the theories they know to see if they can find one that fits. Then they use the theory to derive insights about the issue or problem. Economists express theories as diagrams, graphs, or even as mathematical equations. (Do not worry. In this course, we will mostly use graphs.) Economists do not figure out the answer to the problem first and then draw the graph to illustrate. Rather, they use the graph of the theory to help them figure out the answer. Although at the introductory level, you can sometimes figure out the right answer without applying a model, if you keep studying economics, before too long you will run into issues and problems that you will need to graph to solve. We explain both micro and macroeconomics in terms of theories and models. The most well-known theories are probably those of supply and demand, but you will learn a number of others. Key Concepts and Summary Economists analyze problems differently than do other disciplinary experts. The main tools economists use are economic theories or models. A theory is not an illustration of the answer to a problem. Rather, a theory is a tool for determining the answer. Self-Check Questions Suppose we extend the circular flow model to add imports and exports. Copy the circular flow diagram onto a sheet of paper and then add a foreign country as a third agent. Draw a rough sketch of the flows of imports, exports, and the payments for each on your diagram. Hint: Draw a box outside the original circular flow to represent the foreign country. Draw an arrow from the foreign country to firms, to represents imports. Draw an arrow in the reverse direction representing payments for imports. Draw an arrow from firms to the foreign country to represent exports. Draw an arrow in the reverse direction to represent payments for imports. What is an example of a problem in the world today, not mentioned in the chapter, that has an economic dimension? Hint: There are many such problems. Consider the AIDS epidemic. Why are so few AIDS patients in Africa and Southeast Asia treated with the same drugs that are effective in the United States and Europe? It is because neither those patients nor the countries in which they live have the resources to purchase the same drugs. Review Questions How did John Maynard Keynes define economics? Are households primarily buyers or sellers in the goods and services market? In the labor market? Are firms primarily buyers or sellers in the goods and services market? In the labor market? Critical Thinking Questions Why is it unfair or meaningless to criticize a theory as “unrealistic?” Suppose, as an economist, you are asked to analyze an issue unlike anything you have ever done before. Also, suppose you do not have a specific model for analyzing that issue. What should you do? Hint: What would a carpenter do in a similar situation?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.897169	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28775/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Welcome to Economics!", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28776/overview	How To Organize Economies: An Overview of Economic Systems Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Contrast traditional economies, command economies, and market economies - Explain gross domestic product (GDP) - Assess the importance and effects of globalization Traditional Economies Think about what a complex system a modern economy is. It includes all production of goods and services, all buying and selling, all employment. The economic life of every individual is interrelated, at least to a small extent, with the economic lives of thousands or even millions of other individuals. Who organizes and coordinates this system? Who insures that, for example, the number of televisions a society provides is the same as the amount it needs and wants? Who insures that the right number of employees work in the electronics industry? Who insures that televisions are produced in the best way possible? How does it all get done? There are at least three ways that societies organize an economy. The first is the traditional economy, which is the oldest economic system and is used in parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. Traditional economies organize their economic affairs the way they have always done (i.e., tradition). Occupations stay in the family. Most families are farmers who grow the crops using traditional methods. What you produce is what you consume. Because tradition drives the way of life, there is little economic progress or development. Command economies are very different. In a command economy, economic effort is devoted to goals passed down from a ruler or ruling class. Ancient Egypt was a good example: a large part of economic life was devoted to building pyramids, like those in Figure, for the pharaohs. Medieval manor life is another example: the lord provided the land for growing crops and protection in the event of war. In return, vassals provided labor and soldiers to do the lord’s bidding. In the last century, communism emphasized command economies. In a command economy, the government decides what goods and services will be produced and what prices it will charge for them. The government decides what methods of production to use and sets wages for workers. The government provides many necessities like healthcare and education for free. Currently, Cuba and North Korea have command economies. Although command economies have a very centralized structure for economic decisions, market economies have a very decentralized structure. A market is an institution that brings together buyers and sellers of goods or services, who may be either individuals or businesses. The New York Stock Exchange (Figure) is a prime example of a market which brings buyers and sellers together. In a market economy, decision-making is decentralized. Market economies are based on private enterprise: the private individuals or groups of private individuals own and operate the means of production (resources and businesses). Businesses supply goods and services based on demand. (In a command economy, by contrast, the government owns resources and businesses.) Supply of goods and services depends on what the demands. A person’s income is based on his or her ability to convert resources (especially labor) into something that society values. The more society values the person’s output, the higher the income (think Lady Gaga or LeBron James). In this scenario, market forces, not governments, determine economic decisions. Most economies in the real world are mixed. They combine elements of command and market (and even traditional) systems. The U.S. economy is positioned toward the market-oriented end of the spectrum. Many countries in Europe and Latin America, while primarily market-oriented, have a greater degree of government involvement in economic decisions than the U.S. economy. China and Russia, while over the past several decades have moved more in the direction of having a market-oriented system, remain closer to the command economy end of the spectrum. The Heritage Foundation provides information about how free and thus market-oriented different countries' are, as the following Clear It Up feature discusses. For a similar ranking, but one that defines freedom more broadly, see the Cato Foundation's Human Freedom Index. What countries are considered economically free? Who is in control of economic decisions? Are people free to do what they want and to work where they want? Are businesses free to produce when they want and what they choose, and to hire and fire as they wish? Are banks free to choose who will receive loans, or does the government control these kinds of choices? Each year, researchers at the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal look at 50 different categories of economic freedom for countries around the world. They give each nation a score based on the extent of economic freedom in each category. The 2016 Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom report ranked 178 countries around the world: Table lists some examples of the most free and the least free countries. Several additional countries were not ranked because of extreme instability that made judgments about economic freedom impossible. These countries include Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. The assigned rankings are inevitably based on estimates, yet even these rough measures can be useful for discerning trends. In 2015, 101 of the 178 included countries shifted toward greater economic freedom, although 77 of the countries shifted toward less economic freedom. In recent decades, the overall trend has been a higher level of economic freedom around the world. \| Most Economic Freedom \| Least Economic Freedom \| \|---\|---\| \| 1. Hong Kong \| 167. Timor-Leste \| \| 2. Singapore \| 168. Democratic Republic of Congo \| \| 3. New Zealand \| 169. Argentina \| \| 4. Switzerland \| 170. Equatorial Guinea \| \| 5. Australia \| 171. Iran \| \| 6. Canada \| 172. Republic of Congo \| \| 7. Chile \| 173. Eritrea \| \| 8. Ireland \| 174. Turkmenistan \| \| 9. Estonia \| 175. Zimbabwe \| \| 10. United Kingdom \| 176. Venezuela \| \| 11. United States \| 177. Cuba \| \| 12. Denmark \| 178. North Korea \| Regulations: The Rules of the Game Markets and government regulations are always entangled. There is no such thing as an absolutely free market. Regulations always define the “rules of the game” in the economy. Economies that are primarily market-oriented have fewer regulations—ideally just enough to maintain an even playing field for participants. At a minimum, these laws govern matters like safeguarding private property against theft, protecting people from violence, enforcing legal contracts, preventing fraud, and collecting taxes. Conversely, even the most command-oriented economies operate using markets. How else would buying and selling occur? The government heavily regulates decisions of what to produce and prices to charge. Heavily regulated economies often have underground economies (or black markets), which are markets where the buyers and sellers make transactions without the government’s approval. The question of how to organize economic institutions is typically not a black-or-white choice between all market or all government, but instead involves a balancing act over the appropriate combination of market freedom and government rules. The Rise of Globalization Recent decades have seen a trend toward globalization, which is the expanding cultural, political, and economic connections between people around the world. One measure of this is the increased buying and selling of goods, services, and assets across national borders—in other words, international trade and financial capital flows. Globalization has occurred for a number of reasons. Improvements in shipping, as illustrated by the container ship in Figure, and air cargo have driven down transportation costs. Innovations in computing and telecommunications have made it easier and cheaper to manage long-distance economic connections of production and sales. Many valuable products and services in the modern economy can take the form of information—for example: computer software; financial advice; travel planning; music, books and movies; and blueprints for designing a building. These products and many others can be transported over telephones and computer networks at ever-lower costs. Finally, international agreements and treaties between countries have encouraged greater trade. Table presents one measure of globalization. It shows the percentage of domestic economic production that was exported for a selection of countries from 2010 to 2015, according to an entity known as The World Bank. Exports are the goods and services that one produces domestically and sells abroad. Imports are the goods and services that one produces abroad and then sells domestically. Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the size of total production in an economy. Thus, the ratio of exports divided by GDP measures what share of a country’s total economic production is sold in other countries. \| Country \| 2010 \| 2011 \| 2012 \| 2013 \| 2014 \| 2015 \| \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Higher Income Countries \| \|\|\|\|\|\|\| \| United States \| 12.4 \| 13.6 \| 13.6 \| 13.5 \| 13.5 \| 12.6 \| \| \| Belgium \| 76.2 \| 81.4 \| 82.2 \| 82.8 \| 84.0 \| 84.4 \| \| \| Canada \| 29.1 \| 30.7 \| 30.0 \| 30.1 \| 31.7 \| 31.5 \| \| \| France \| 26.0 \| 27.8 \| 28.1 \| 28.3 \| 29.0 \| 30.0 \| \| \| Middle Income Countries \| \|\|\|\|\|\|\| \| Brazil \| 10.9 \| 11.9 \| 12.6 \| 12.6 \| 11.2 \| 13.0 \| \| \| Mexico \| 29.9 \| 31.2 \| 32.6 \| 31.7 \| 32.3 \| 35.3 \| \| \| South Korea \| 49.4 \| 55.7 \| 56.3 \| 53.9 \| 50.3 \| 45.9 \| \| \| Lower Income Countries \| \|\|\|\|\|\|\| \| Chad \| 36.8 \| 38.9 \| 36.9 \| 32.2 \| 34.2 \| 29.8 \| \| \| China \| 29.4 \| 28.5 \| 27.3 \| 26.4 \| 23.9 \| 22.4 \| \| \| India \| 22.0 \| 23.9 \| 24.0 \| 24.8 \| 22.9 \| - \| \| \| Nigeria \| 25.3 \| 31.3 \| 31.4 \| 18.0 \| 18.4 \| - \| In recent decades, the export/GDP ratio has generally risen, both worldwide and for the U.S. economy. Interestingly, the share of U.S. exports in proportion to the U.S. economy is well below the global average, in part because large economies like the United States can contain more of the division of labor inside their national borders. However, smaller economies like Belgium, Korea, and Canada need to trade across their borders with other countries to take full advantage of division of labor, specialization, and economies of scale. In this sense, the enormous U.S. economy is less affected by globalization than most other countries. Table indicates that many medium and low income countries around the world, like Mexico and China, have also experienced a surge of globalization in recent decades. If an astronaut in orbit could put on special glasses that make all economic transactions visible as brightly colored lines and look down at Earth, the astronaut would see the planet covered with connections. Despite the rise in globalization over the last few decades, in recent years we've seen significant pushback against globalization from people across the world concerned about loss of jobs, loss of political sovereignty, and increased economic inequality. Prominent examples of this pushback include the 2016 vote in Great Britain to exit the European Union (i.e. Brexit), and the election of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States. Hopefully, you now have an idea about economics. Before you move to any other chapter of study, be sure to read the very important appendix to this chapter called The Use of Mathematics in Principles of Economics. It is essential that you learn more about how to read and use models in economics. Decisions ... Decisions in the Social Media Age The world we live in today provides nearly instant access to a wealth of information. Consider that as recently as the late 1970s, the Farmer’s Almanac, along with the Weather Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were the primary sources American farmers used to determine when to plant and harvest their crops. Today, farmers are more likely to access, online, weather forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or watch the Weather Channel. After all, knowing the upcoming forecast could drive when to harvest crops. Consequently, knowing the upcoming weather could change the amount of crop harvested. Some relatively new information forums, such as Facebook, are rapidly changing how information is distributed; hence, influencing decision making. In 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that 71% of online adults use Facebook. This social media forum posts topics ranging from the National Basketball Association, to celebrity singers and performers, to farmers. Information helps us make decisions as simple as what to wear today to how many reporters the media should send to cover a crash. Each of these decisions is an economic decision. After all, resources are scarce. If the media send ten reporters to cover an accident, they are not available to cover other stories or complete other tasks. Information provides the necessary knowledge to make the best possible decisions on how to utilize scarce resources. Welcome to the world of economics! Key Concepts and Summary We can organize societies as traditional, command, or market-oriented economies. Most societies are a mix. The last few decades have seen globalization evolve as a result of growth in commercial and financial networks that cross national borders, making businesses and workers from different economies increasingly interdependent. Self-Check Questions The chapter defines private enterprise as a characteristic of market-oriented economies. What would public enterprise be? Hint: It is a characteristic of command economies. Hint: Public enterprise means the factors of production (resources and businesses) are owned and operated by the government. Why might Belgium, France, Italy, and Sweden have a higher export to GDP ratio than the United States? Hint: The United States is a large country economically speaking, so it has less need to trade internationally than the other countries mentioned. (This is the same reason that France and Italy have lower ratios than Belgium or Sweden.) One additional reason is that each of the other countries is a member of the European Union, where trade between members occurs without barriers to trade, like tariffs and quotas. Review Questions What are the three ways that societies can organize themselves economically? What is globalization? How do you think it might have affected the economy over the past decade? Critical Thinking Questions Why do you think that most modern countries’ economies are a mix of command and market types? Can you think of ways that globalization has helped you economically? Can you think of ways that it has not? References The Heritage Foundation. 2015. "2015 Index of Economic Freedom." Accessed March 11, 2015. http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking. Garling, Caleb. “S.F. plane crash: Reporting, emotions on social media,” The San Francisco Chronicle. July 7, 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/S-F-plane-crash-Reporting-emotions-on-social-4651639.php. Irvine, Jessica. “Social Networking Sites are Factories of Modern Ideas.” The Sydney Morning Herald. November 25, 2011.http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/social-networking-sites-are-factories-of-modern-ideas-20111124-1nwy3.html#ixzz2YZhPYeME. Pew Research Center. 2015. "Social Networking Fact Sheet." Accessed March 11, 2015. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/. The World Bank Group. 2015. "World Data Bank." Accessed March 30, 2014. http://databank.worldbank.org/data/.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.931356	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28776/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Welcome to Economics!", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28777/overview	Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity Overview In this Unit, you will learn about: - How Individuals Make Choices Based on Their Budget Constraint - The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices - Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach Choices ... to What Degree? In 2015, the median income for workers who hold master's degrees varies from males to females. The average of the two is $2,951 weekly. Multiply this average by 52 weeks, and you get an average salary of $153,452. Compare that to the median weekly earnings for a full-time worker over 25 with no higher than a bachelor’s degree: $1,224 weekly and $63,648 a year. What about those with no higher than a high school diploma in 2015? They earn just $664 weekly and $34,528 over 12 months. In other words, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), earning a bachelor’s degree boosted salaries 54% over what you would have earned if you had stopped your education after high school. A master’s degree yields a salary almost double that of a high school diploma. Given these statistics, we might expect many people to choose to go to college and at least earn a bachelor’s degree. Assuming that people want to improve their material well-being, it seems like they would make those choices that provide them with the greatest opportunity to consume goods and services. As it turns out, the analysis is not nearly as simple as this. In fact, in 2014, the BLS reported that while almost 88% of the population in the United States had a high school diploma, only 33.6% of 25–65 year olds had bachelor’s degrees, and only 7.4% of 25–65 year olds in 2014 had earned a master’s. This brings us to the subject of this chapter: why people make the choices they make and how economists explain those choices. Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity In this chapter, you will learn about: - How Individuals Make Choices Based on Their Budget Constraint - The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices - Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach You will learn quickly when you examine the relationship between economics and scarcity that choices involve tradeoffs. Every choice has a cost. In 1968, the Rolling Stones recorded “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Economists chuckled, because they had been singing a similar tune for decades. English economist Lionel Robbins (1898–1984), in his Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science in 1932, described not always getting what you want in this way: The time at our disposal is limited. There are only twenty-four hours in the day. We have to choose between the different uses to which they may be put. ... Everywhere we turn, if we choose one thing we must relinquish others which, in different circumstances, we would wish not to have relinquished. Scarcity of means to satisfy given ends is an almost ubiquitous condition of human nature. Because people live in a world of scarcity, they cannot have all the time, money, possessions, and experiences they wish. Neither can society. This chapter will continue our discussion of scarcity and the economic way of thinking by first introducing three critical concepts: opportunity cost, marginal decision making, and diminishing returns. Later, it will consider whether the economic way of thinking accurately describes either how we make choices and how we should make them.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.949856	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28777/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Choice in a World of Scarcity", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28778/overview	How Individuals Make Choices Based on Their Budget Constraint Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Calculate and graph budget constraints - Explain opportunity sets and opportunity costs - Evaluate the law of diminishing marginal utility - Explain how marginal analysis and utility influence choices The Budget Constraint Consider the typical consumer’s budget problem. Consumers have a limited amount of income to spend on the things they need and want. Suppose Alphonso has $10 in spending money each week that he can allocate between bus tickets for getting to work and the burgers that he eats for lunch. Burgers cost $2 each, and bus tickets are 50 cents each. We can see Alphonso's budget problem in Figure. The vertical axis in the figure shows burger purchases and the horizontal axis shows bus ticket purchases. If Alphonso spends all his money on burgers, he can afford five per week. ($10 per week/$2 per burger = 5 burgers per week.) However, if he does this, he will not be able to afford any bus tickets. Point A in the figure shows the choice (zero bus tickets and five burgers). Alternatively, if Alphonso spends all his money on bus tickets, he can afford 20 per week. ($10 per week/$0.50 per bus ticket = 20 bus tickets per week.) Then, however, he will not be able to afford any burgers. Point F shows this alternative choice (20 bus tickets and zero burgers). If we connect all the points between A and F, we get Alphonso's budget constraint. This indicates all the combination of burgers and bus tickets Alphonso can afford, given the price of the two goods and his budget amount. If Alphonso is like most people, he will choose some combination that includes both bus tickets and burgers. That is, he will choose some combination on the budget constraint that is between points A and F. Every point on (or inside) the constraint shows a combination of burgers and bus tickets that Alphonso can afford. Any point outside the constraint is not affordable, because it would cost more money than Alphonso has in his budget. The budget constraint clearly shows the tradeoff Alphonso faces in choosing between burgers and bus tickets. Suppose he is currently at point D, where he can afford 12 bus tickets and two burgers. What would it cost Alphonso for one more burger? It would be natural to answer $2, but that’s not the way economists think. Instead they ask, how many bus tickets would Alphonso have to give up to get one more burger, while staying within his budget? Since bus tickets cost 50 cents, Alphonso would have to give up four to afford one more burger. That is the true cost to Alphonso. The Concept of Opportunity Cost Economists use the term opportunity cost to indicate what one must give up to obtain what he or she desires. The idea behind opportunity cost is that the cost of one item is the lost opportunity to do or consume something else. In short, opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative. For Alphonso, the opportunity cost of a burger is the four bus tickets he would have to give up. He would decide whether or not to choose the burger depending on whether the value of the burger exceeds the value of the forgone alternative—in this case, bus tickets. Since people must choose, they inevitably face tradeoffs in which they have to give up things they desire to obtain other things they desire more. View this website for an example of opportunity cost—paying someone else to wait in line for you. A fundamental principle of economics is that every choice has an opportunity cost. If you sleep through your economics class, the opportunity cost is the learning you miss from not attending class. If you spend your income on video games, you cannot spend it on movies. If you choose to marry one person, you give up the opportunity to marry anyone else. In short, opportunity cost is all around us and part of human existence. The following Work It Out feature shows a step-by-step analysis of a budget constraint calculation. Read through it to understand another important concept—slope—that we further explain in the appendix The Use of Mathematics in Principles of Economics. Understanding Budget Constraints Budget constraints are easy to understand if you apply a little math. The appendix The Use of Mathematics in Principles of Economics explains all the math you are likely to need in this book. Therefore, if math is not your strength, you might want to take a look at the appendix. Step 1: The equation for any budget constraint is: where P and Q are the price and quantity of items purchased (which we assume here to be two items) and Budget is the amount of income one has to spend. Step 2. Apply the budget constraint equation to the scenario. In Alphonso’s case, this works out to be: Step 3. Using a little algebra, we can turn this into the familiar equation of a line: For Alphonso, this is: Step 4. Simplify the equation. Begin by multiplying both sides of the equation by 2: Step 5. Subtract one bus ticket from both sides: Divide each side by 4 to yield the answer: Step 6. Notice that this equation fits the budget constraint in Figure. The vertical intercept is 5 and the slope is –0.25, just as the equation says. If you plug 20 bus tickets into the equation, you get 0 burgers. If you plug other numbers of bus tickets into the equation, you get the results (see Table), which are the points on Alphonso’s budget constraint. \| Point \| Quantity of Burgers (at $2) \| Quantity of Bus Tickets (at 50 cents) \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| A \| 5 \| 0 \| \| B \| 4 \| 4 \| \| C \| 3 \| 8 \| \| D \| 2 \| 12 \| \| E \| 1 \| 16 \| \| F \| 0 \| 20 \| Step 7. Notice that the slope of a budget constraint always shows the opportunity cost of the good which is on the horizontal axis. For Alphonso, the slope is −0.25, indicating that for every bus ticket he buys, he must give up 1/4 burger. To phrase it differently, for every four tickets he buys, Alphonso must give up 1 burger. There are two important observations here. First, the algebraic sign of the slope is negative, which means that the only way to get more of one good is to give up some of the other. Second, we define the slope as the price of bus tickets (whatever is on the horizontal axis in the graph) divided by the price of burgers (whatever is on the vertical axis), in this case $0.50/$2 = 0.25. If you want to determine the opportunity cost quickly, just divide the two prices. Identifying Opportunity Cost In many cases, it is reasonable to refer to the opportunity cost as the price. If your cousin buys a new bicycle for $300, then $300 measures the amount of “other consumption” that he has forsaken. For practical purposes, there may be no special need to identify the specific alternative product or products that he could have bought with that $300, but sometimes the price as measured in dollars may not accurately capture the true opportunity cost. This problem can loom especially large when costs of time are involved. For example, consider a boss who decides that all employees will attend a two-day retreat to “build team spirit.” The out-of-pocket monetary cost of the event may involve hiring an outside consulting firm to run the retreat, as well as room and board for all participants. However, an opportunity cost exists as well: during the two days of the retreat, none of the employees are doing any other work. Attending college is another case where the opportunity cost exceeds the monetary cost. The out-of-pocket costs of attending college include tuition, books, room and board, and other expenses. However, in addition, during the hours that you are attending class and studying, it is impossible to work at a paying job. Thus, college imposes both an out-of-pocket cost and an opportunity cost of lost earnings. What is the opportunity cost associated with increased airport security measures? After the terrorist plane hijackings on September 11, 2001, many steps were proposed to improve air travel safety. For example, the federal government could provide armed “sky marshals” who would travel inconspicuously with the rest of the passengers. The cost of having a sky marshal on every flight would be roughly $3 billion per year. Retrofitting all U.S. planes with reinforced cockpit doors to make it harder for terrorists to take over the plane would have a price tag of $450 million. Buying more sophisticated security equipment for airports, like three-dimensional baggage scanners and cameras linked to face recognition software, could cost another $2 billion. However, the single biggest cost of greater airline security does not involve spending money. It is the opportunity cost of additional waiting time at the airport. According to the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), there were 895.5 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in 2015. Since the 9/11 hijackings, security screening has become more intensive, and consequently, the procedure takes longer than in the past. Say that, on average, each air passenger spends an extra 30 minutes in the airport per trip. Economists commonly place a value on time to convert an opportunity cost in time into a monetary figure. Because many air travelers are relatively high-paid business people, conservative estimates set the average price of time for air travelers at $20 per hour. By these back-of-the-envelope calculations, the opportunity cost of delays in airports could be as much as 800 million × 0.5 hours × $20/hour, or $8 billion per year. Clearly, the opportunity costs of waiting time can be just as important as costs that involve direct spending. In some cases, realizing the opportunity cost can alter behavior. Imagine, for example, that you spend $8 on lunch every day at work. You may know perfectly well that bringing a lunch from home would cost only $3 a day, so the opportunity cost of buying lunch at the restaurant is $5 each day (that is, the $8 buying lunch costs minus the $3 your lunch from home would cost). Five dollars each day does not seem to be that much. However, if you project what that adds up to in a year—250 days a year × $5 per day equals $1,250, the cost, perhaps, of a decent vacation. If you describe the opportunity cost as “a nice vacation” instead of “$5 a day,” you might make different choices. Marginal Decision-Making and Diminishing Marginal Utility The budget constraint framework helps to emphasize that most choices in the real world are not about getting all of one thing or all of another; that is, they are not about choosing either the point at one end of the budget constraint or else the point all the way at the other end. Instead, most choices involve marginal analysis, which means examining the benefits and costs of choosing a little more or a little less of a good. People naturally compare costs and benefits, but often we look at total costs and total benefits, when the optimal choice necessitates comparing how costs and benefits change from one option to another. You might think of marginal analysis as “change analysis.” Marginal analysis is used throughout economics. We now turn to the notion of utility. People desire goods and services for the satisfaction or utility those goods and services provide. Utility, as we will see in the chapter on Consumer Choices, is subjective but that does not make it less real. Economists typically assume that the more of some good one consumes (for example, slices of pizza), the more utility one obtains. At the same time, the utility a person receives from consuming the first unit of a good is typically more than the utility received from consuming the fifth or the tenth unit of that same good. When Alphonso chooses between burgers and bus tickets, for example, the first few bus rides that he chooses might provide him with a great deal of utility—perhaps they help him get to a job interview or a doctor’s appointment. However, later bus rides might provide much less utility—they may only serve to kill time on a rainy day. Similarly, the first burger that Alphonso chooses to buy may be on a day when he missed breakfast and is ravenously hungry. However, if Alphonso has a burger every single day, the last few burgers may taste pretty boring. The general pattern that consumption of the first few units of any good tends to bring a higher level of utility to a person than consumption of later units is a common pattern. Economists refer to this pattern as the law of diminishing marginal utility, which means that as a person receives more of a good, the additional (or marginal) utility from each additional unit of the good declines. In other words, the first slice of pizza brings more satisfaction than the sixth. The law of diminishing marginal utility explains why people and societies rarely make all-or-nothing choices. You would not say, “My favorite food is ice cream, so I will eat nothing but ice cream from now on.” Instead, even if you get a very high level of utility from your favorite food, if you ate it exclusively, the additional or marginal utility from those last few servings would not be very high. Similarly, most workers do not say: “I enjoy leisure, so I’ll never work.” Instead, workers recognize that even though some leisure is very nice, a combination of all leisure and no income is not so attractive. The budget constraint framework suggests that when people make choices in a world of scarcity, they will use marginal analysis and think about whether they would prefer a little more or a little less. A rational consumer would only purchase additional units of some product as long as the marginal utility exceeds the opportunity cost. Suppose Alphonso moves down his budget constraint from Point A to Point B to Point C and further. As he consumes more bus tickets, the marginal utility of bus tickets will diminish, while the opportunity cost, that is, the marginal utility of foregone burgers, will increase. Eventually, the opportunity cost will exceed the marginal utility of an additional bus ticket. If Alphonso is rational, he won’t purchase more bus tickets once the marginal utility just equals the opportunity cost. While we can’t (yet) say exactly how many bus tickets Alphonso will buy, that number is unlikely to be the most he can afford, 20. Sunk Costs In the budget constraint framework, all decisions involve what will happen next: that is, what quantities of goods will you consume, how many hours will you work, or how much will you save. These decisions do not look back to past choices. Thus, the budget constraint framework assumes that sunk costs, which are costs that were incurred in the past and cannot be recovered, should not affect the current decision. Consider the case of Selena, who pays $8 to see a movie, but after watching the film for 30 minutes, she knows that it is truly terrible. Should she stay and watch the rest of the movie because she paid for the ticket, or should she leave? The money she spent is a sunk cost, and unless the theater manager is sympathetic, Selena will not get a refund. However, staying in the movie still means paying an opportunity cost in time. Her choice is whether to spend the next 90 minutes suffering through a cinematic disaster or to do something—anything—else. The lesson of sunk costs is to forget about the money and time that is irretrievably gone and instead to focus on the marginal costs and benefits of current and future options. For people and firms alike, dealing with sunk costs can be frustrating. It often means admitting an earlier error in judgment. Many firms, for example, find it hard to give up on a new product that is doing poorly because they spent so much money in creating and launching the product. However, the lesson of sunk costs is to ignore them and make decisions based on what will happen in the future. From a Model with Two Goods to One of Many Goods The budget constraint diagram containing just two goods, like most models used in this book, is not realistic. After all, in a modern economy people choose from thousands of goods. However, thinking about a model with many goods is a straightforward extension of what we discussed here. Instead of drawing just one budget constraint, showing the tradeoff between two goods, you can draw multiple budget constraints, showing the possible tradeoffs between many different pairs of goods. In more advanced classes in economics, you would use mathematical equations that include many possible goods and services that can be purchased, together with their quantities and prices, and show how the total spending on all goods and services is limited to the overall budget available. The graph with two goods that we presented here clearly illustrates that every choice has an opportunity cost, which is the point that does carry over to the real world. Key Concepts and Summary Economists see the real world as one of scarcity: that is, a world in which people’s desires exceed what is possible. As a result, economic behavior involves tradeoffs in which individuals, firms, and society must forgo something that they desire to obtain things that they desire more. Individuals face the tradeoff of what quantities of goods and services to consume. The budget constraint, which is the frontier of the opportunity set, illustrates the range of available choices. The relative price of the choices determines the slope of the budget constraint. Choices beyond the budget constraint are not affordable. Opportunity cost measures cost by what we forgo in exchange. Sometimes we can measure opportunity cost in money, but it is often useful to consider time as well, or to measure it in terms of the actual resources that we must forfeit. Most economic decisions and tradeoffs are not all-or-nothing. Instead, they involve marginal analysis, which means they are about decisions on the margin, involving a little more or a little less. The law of diminishing marginal utility points out that as a person receives more of something—whether it is a specific good or another resource—the additional marginal gains tend to become smaller. Because sunk costs occurred in the past and cannot be recovered, they should be disregarded in making current decisions. Self-Check Questions Suppose Alphonso’s town raised the price of bus tickets to $1 per trip (while the price of burgers stayed at $2 and his budget remained $10 per week.) Draw Alphonso’s new budget constraint. What happens to the opportunity cost of bus tickets? Hint: The opportunity cost of bus tickets is the number of burgers that must be given up to obtain one more bus ticket. Originally, when the price of bus tickets was 50 cents per trip, this opportunity cost was 0.50/2 = .25 burgers. The reason for this is that at the original prices, one burger ($2) costs the same as four bus tickets ($0.50), so the opportunity cost of a burger is four bus tickets, and the opportunity cost of a bus ticket is .25 (the inverse of the opportunity cost of a burger). With the new, higher price of bus tickets, the opportunity cost rises to $1/$2 or 0.50. You can see this graphically since the slope of the new budget constraint is steeper than the original one. If Alphonso spends all of his budget on burgers, the higher price of bus tickets has no impact so the vertical intercept of the budget constraint is the same. If he spends all of his budget on bus tickets, he can now afford only half as many, so the horizontal intercept is half as much. In short, the budget constraint rotates clockwise around the vertical intercept, steepening as it goes and the opportunity cost of bus tickets increases. Review Questions Explain why scarcity leads to tradeoffs. Explain why individuals make choices that are directly on the budget constraint, rather than inside the budget constraint or outside it. Critical Thinking Question Suppose Alphonso’s town raises the price of bus tickets from $0.50 to $1 and the price of burgers rises from $2 to $4. Why is the opportunity cost of bus tickets unchanged? Suppose Alphonso’s weekly spending money increases from $10 to $20. How is his budget constraint affected from all three changes? Explain. Problems If the price of a magazine is $4 each, what is the maximum number of magazines she could buy in a week? If the price of a pie is $12, what is the maximum number of pies she could buy in a week? Draw Marie’s budget constraint with pies on the horizontal axis and magazines on the vertical axis. What is the slope of the budget constraint? What is Marie’s opportunity cost of purchasing a pie? References Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 2015. “Median Weekly Earnings by Educational Attainment in 2014.” Accessed March 27, 2015. http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/median-weekly-earnings-by-education-gender-race-and-ethnicity-in-2014.htm. Robbins, Lionel. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan. 1932. United States Department of Transportation. “Total Passengers on U.S Airlines and Foreign Airlines U.S. Flights Increased 1.3% in 2012 from 2011.” Accessed October 2013. http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts016_13	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:56.984558	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28778/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Choice in a World of Scarcity", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28779/overview	The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Interpret production possibilities frontier graphs - Contrast a budget constraint and a production possibilities frontier - Explain the relationship between a production possibilities frontier and the law of diminishing returns - Contrast productive efficiency and allocative efficiency - Define comparative advantage Just as individuals cannot have everything they want and must instead make choices, society as a whole cannot have everything it might want, either. This section of the chapter will explain the constraints society faces, using a model called the production possibilities frontier (PPF). There are more similarities than differences between individual choice and social choice. As you read this section, focus on the similarities. Because society has limited resources (e.g., labor, land, capital, raw materials) at any point in time, there is a limit to the quantities of goods and services it can produce. Suppose a society desires two products, healthcare and education. The production possibilities frontier in Figure illustrates this situation. Figure shows healthcare on the vertical axis and education on the horizontal axis. If the society were to allocate all of its resources to healthcare, it could produce at point A. However, it would not have any resources to produce education. If it were to allocate all of its resources to education, it could produce at point F. Alternatively, the society could choose to produce any combination of healthcare and education on the production possibilities frontier. In effect, the production possibilities frontier plays the same role for society as the budget constraint plays for Alphonso. Society can choose any combination of the two goods on or inside the PPF. However, it does not have enough resources to produce outside the PPF. Most importantly, the production possibilities frontier clearly shows the tradeoff between healthcare and education. Suppose society has chosen to operate at point B, and it is considering producing more education. Because the PPF is downward sloping from left to right, the only way society can obtain more education is by giving up some healthcare. That is the tradeoff society faces. Suppose it considers moving from point B to point C. What would the opportunity cost be for the additional education? The opportunity cost would be the healthcare society has to forgo. Just as with Alphonso’s budget constraint, the slope of the production possibilities frontier shows the opportunity cost. By now you might be saying, “Hey, this PPF is sounding like the budget constraint.” If so, read the following Clear It Up feature. What’s the difference between a budget constraint and a PPF? There are two major differences between a budget constraint and a production possibilities frontier. The first is the fact that the budget constraint is a straight line. This is because its slope is given by the relative prices of the two goods, which from the point of view of an individual consumer, are fixed, so the slope doesn't change. In contrast, the PPF has a curved shape because of the law of the diminishing returns. Thus, the slope is different at various points on the PPF. The second major difference is the absence of specific numbers on the axes of the PPF. There are no specific numbers because we do not know the exact amount of resources this imaginary economy has, nor do we know how many resources it takes to produce healthcare and how many resources it takes to produce education. If this were a real world example, that data would be available. Whether or not we have specific numbers, conceptually we can measure the opportunity cost of additional education as society moves from point B to point C on the PPF. We measure the additional education by the horizontal distance between B and C. The foregone healthcare is given by the vertical distance between B and C. The slope of the PPF between B and C is (approximately) the vertical distance (the “rise”) over the horizontal distance (the “run”). This is the opportunity cost of the additional education. The Shape of the PPF and the Law of Diminishing Returns The budget constraints that we presented earlier in this chapter, showing individual choices about what quantities of goods to consume, were all straight lines. The reason for these straight lines was that the relative prices of the two goods in the consumption budget constraint determined the slope of the budget constraint. However, we drew the production possibilities frontier for healthcare and education as a curved line. Why does the PPF have a different shape? To understand why the PPF is curved, start by considering point A at the top left-hand side of the PPF. At point A, all available resources are devoted to healthcare and none are left for education. This situation would be extreme and even ridiculous. For example, children are seeing a doctor every day, whether they are sick or not, but not attending school. People are having cosmetic surgery on every part of their bodies, but no high school or college education exists. Now imagine that some of these resources are diverted from healthcare to education, so that the economy is at point B instead of point A. Diverting some resources away from A to B causes relatively little reduction in health because the last few marginal dollars going into healthcare services are not producing much additional gain in health. However, putting those marginal dollars into education, which is completely without resources at point A, can produce relatively large gains. For this reason, the shape of the PPF from A to B is relatively flat, representing a relatively small drop-off in health and a relatively large gain in education. Now consider the other end, at the lower right, of the production possibilities frontier. Imagine that society starts at choice D, which is devoting nearly all resources to education and very few to healthcare, and moves to point F, which is devoting all spending to education and none to healthcare. For the sake of concreteness, you can imagine that in the movement from D to F, the last few doctors must become high school science teachers, the last few nurses must become school librarians rather than dispensers of vaccinations, and the last few emergency rooms are turned into kindergartens. The gains to education from adding these last few resources to education are very small. However, the opportunity cost lost to health will be fairly large, and thus the slope of the PPF between D and F is steep, showing a large drop in health for only a small gain in education. The lesson is not that society is likely to make an extreme choice like devoting no resources to education at point A or no resources to health at point F. Instead, the lesson is that the gains from committing additional marginal resources to education depend on how much is already being spent. If on the one hand, very few resources are currently committed to education, then an increase in resources used can bring relatively large gains. On the other hand, if a large number of resources are already committed to education, then committing additional resources will bring relatively smaller gains. This pattern is common enough that economists have given it a name: the law of diminishing returns, which holds that as additional increments of resources are added to a certain purpose, the marginal benefit from those additional increments will decline. (The law of diminishing marginal utility that we introduced in the last section is a more specific case of the law of diminishing returns.) When government spends a certain amount more on reducing crime, for example, the original gains in reducing crime could be relatively large. However, additional increases typically cause relatively smaller reductions in crime, and paying for enough police and security to reduce crime to nothing at all would be tremendously expensive. The curvature of the production possibilities frontier shows that as we add more resources to education, moving from left to right along the horizontal axis, the original gains are fairly large, but gradually diminish. Thus, the slope of the PPF is relatively flat. By contrast, as we add more resources to healthcare, moving from bottom to top on the vertical axis, the original gains are fairly large, but again gradually diminish. Thus, the slope of the PPF is relatively steep. In this way, the law of diminishing returns produces the outward-bending shape of the production possibilities frontier. Productive Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency The study of economics does not presume to tell a society what choice it should make along its production possibilities frontier. In a market-oriented economy with a democratic government, the choice will involve a mixture of decisions by individuals, firms, and government. However, economics can point out that some choices are unambiguously better than others. This observation is based on the concept of efficiency. In everyday usage, efficiency refers to lack of waste. An inefficient machine operates at high cost, while an efficient machine operates at lower cost, because it is not wasting energy or materials. An inefficient organization operates with long delays and high costs, while an efficient organization meets schedules, is focused, and performs within budget. The production possibilities frontier can illustrate two kinds of efficiency: productive efficiency and allocative efficiency. Figure illustrates these ideas using a production possibilities frontier between healthcare and education. Productive efficiency means that, given the available inputs and technology, it is impossible to produce more of one good without decreasing the quantity that is produced of another good. All choices on the PPF in Figure, including A, B, C, D, and F, display productive efficiency. As a firm moves from any one of these choices to any other, either healthcare increases and education decreases or vice versa. However, any choice inside the production possibilities frontier is productively inefficient and wasteful because it is possible to produce more of one good, the other good, or some combination of both goods. For example, point R is productively inefficient because it is possible at choice C to have more of both goods: education on the horizontal axis is higher at point C than point R (E2 is greater than E1), and healthcare on the vertical axis is also higher at point C than point R (H2 is great than H1). We can show the particular mix of goods and services produced—that is, the specific combination of selected healthcare and education along the production possibilities frontier—as a ray (line) from the origin to a specific point on the PPF. Output mixes that had more healthcare (and less education) would have a steeper ray, while those with more education (and less healthcare) would have a flatter ray. Allocative efficiency means that the particular combination of goods and services on the production possibility curve that a society produces represents the combination that society most desires. How to determine what a society desires can be a controversial question, and is usually a discussion in political science, sociology, and philosophy classes as well as in economics. At its most basic, allocative efficiency means producers supply the quantity of each product that consumers demand. Only one of the productively efficient choices will be the allocatively efficient choice for society as a whole. Why Society Must Choose In Welcome to Economics! we learned that every society faces the problem of scarcity, where limited resources conflict with unlimited needs and wants. The production possibilities curve illustrates the choices involved in this dilemma. Every economy faces two situations in which it may be able to expand consumption of all goods. In the first case, a society may discover that it has been using its resources inefficiently, in which case by improving efficiency and producing on the production possibilities frontier, it can have more of all goods (or at least more of some and less of none). In the second case, as resources grow over a period of years (e.g., more labor and more capital), the economy grows. As it does, the production possibilities frontier for a society will tend to shift outward and society will be able to afford more of all goods. However, improvements in productive efficiency take time to discover and implement, and economic growth happens only gradually. Thus, a society must choose between tradeoffs in the present. For government, this process often involves trying to identify where additional spending could do the most good and where reductions in spending would do the least harm. At the individual and firm level, the market economy coordinates a process in which firms seek to produce goods and services in the quantity, quality, and price that people want. However, for both the government and the market economy in the short term, increases in production of one good typically mean offsetting decreases somewhere else in the economy. The PPF and Comparative Advantage While every society must choose how much of each good or service it should produce, it does not need to produce every single good it consumes. Often how much of a good a country decides to produce depends on how expensive it is to produce it versus buying it from a different country. As we saw earlier, the curvature of a country’s PPF gives us information about the tradeoff between devoting resources to producing one good versus another. In particular, its slope gives the opportunity cost of producing one more unit of the good in the x-axis in terms of the other good (in the y-axis). Countries tend to have different opportunity costs of producing a specific good, either because of different climates, geography, technology, or skills. Suppose two countries, the US and Brazil, need to decide how much they will produce of two crops: sugar cane and wheat. Due to its climatic conditions, Brazil can produce quite a bit of sugar cane per acre but not much wheat. Conversely, the U.S. can produce large amounts of wheat per acre, but not much sugar cane. Clearly, Brazil has a lower opportunity cost of producing sugar cane (in terms of wheat) than the U.S. The reverse is also true: the U.S. has a lower opportunity cost of producing wheat than Brazil. We illustrate this by the PPFs of the two countries in Figure. When a country can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another country, we say that this country has a comparative advantage in that good. Comparative advantage is not the same as absolute advantage, which is when a country can produce more of a good. In our example, Brazil has an absolute advantage in sugar cane and the U.S. has an absolute advantage in wheat. One can easily see this with a simple observation of the extreme production points in the PPFs of the two countries. If Brazil devoted all of its resources to producing wheat, it would be producing at point A. If however it had devoted all of its resources to producing sugar cane instead, it would be producing a much larger amount than the U.S., at point B. The slope of the PPF gives the opportunity cost of producing an additional unit of wheat. While the slope is not constant throughout the PPFs, it is quite apparent that the PPF in Brazil is much steeper than in the U.S., and therefore the opportunity cost of wheat generally higher in Brazil. In the chapter on International Trade you will learn that countries’ differences in comparative advantage determine which goods they will choose to produce and trade. When countries engage in trade, they specialize in the production of the goods in which they have comparative advantage, and trade part of that production for goods in which they do not have comparative advantage. With trade, manufacturers produce goods where the opportunity cost is lowest, so total production increases, benefiting both trading parties. Key Concepts and Summary A production possibilities frontier defines the set of choices society faces for the combinations of goods and services it can produce given the resources available. The shape of the PPF is typically curved outward, rather than straight. Choices outside the PPF are unattainable and choices inside the PPF are wasteful. Over time, a growing economy will tend to shift the PPF outwards. The law of diminishing returns holds that as increments of additional resources are devoted to producing something, the marginal increase in output will become increasingly smaller. All choices along a production possibilities frontier display productive efficiency; that is, it is impossible to use society’s resources to produce more of one good without decreasing production of the other good. The specific choice along a production possibilities frontier that reflects the mix of goods society prefers is the choice with allocative efficiency. The curvature of the PPF is likely to differ by country, which results in different countries having comparative advantage in different goods. Total production can increase if countries specialize in the goods in which they have comparative advantage and trade some of their production for the remaining goods. Self-Check Questions Return to the example in Figure. Suppose there is an improvement in medical technology that enables more healthcare with the same amount of resources. How would this affect the production possibilities curve and, in particular, how would it affect the opportunity cost of education? Hint: Because of the improvement in technology, the vertical intercept of the PPF would be at a higher level of healthcare. In other words, the PPF would rotate clockwise around the horizontal intercept. This would make the PPF steeper, corresponding to an increase in the opportunity cost of education, since resources devoted to education would now mean forgoing a greater quantity of healthcare. Could a nation be producing in a way that is allocatively efficient, but productively inefficient? Hint: No. Allocative efficiency requires productive efficiency, because it pertains to choices along the production possibilities frontier. What are the similarities between a consumer’s budget constraint and society’s production possibilities frontier, not just graphically but analytically? Hint: Both the budget constraint and the PPF show the constraint that each operates under. Both show a tradeoff between having more of one good but less of the other. Both show the opportunity cost graphically as the slope of the constraint (budget or PPF). Review Questions What is comparative advantage? What does a production possibilities frontier illustrate? Why is a production possibilities frontier typically drawn as a curve, rather than a straight line? Explain why societies cannot make a choice above their production possibilities frontier and should not make a choice below it. What are diminishing marginal returns? What is productive efficiency? Allocative efficiency? Critical Thinking Questions During the Second World War, Germany’s factories were decimated. It also suffered many human casualties, both soldiers and civilians. How did the war affect Germany’s production possibilities curve? It is clear that productive inefficiency is a waste since resources are used in a way that produces less goods and services than a nation is capable of. Why is allocative inefficiency also wasteful?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.017025	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28779/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Choice in a World of Scarcity", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28780/overview	Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Analyze arguments against economic approaches to decision-making - Interpret a tradeoff diagram - Contrast normative statements and positive statements It is one thing to understand the economic approach to decision-making and another thing to feel comfortable applying it. The sources of discomfort typically fall into two categories: that people do not act in the way that fits the economic way of thinking, and that even if people did act that way, they should try not to. Let’s consider these arguments in turn. First Objection: People, Firms, and Society Do Not Act Like This The economic approach to decision-making seems to require more information than most individuals possess and more careful decision-making than most individuals actually display. After all, do you or any of your friends draw a budget constraint and mutter to yourself about maximizing utility before you head to the shopping mall? Do members of the U.S. Congress contemplate production possibilities frontiers before they vote on the annual budget? The messy ways in which people and societies operate somehow doesn’t look much like neat budget constraints or smoothly curving production possibilities frontiers. However, the economics approach can be a useful way to analyze and understand the tradeoffs of economic decisions. To appreciate this point, imagine for a moment that you are playing basketball, dribbling to the right, and throwing a bounce-pass to the left to a teammate who is running toward the basket. A physicist or engineer could work out the correct speed and trajectory for the pass, given the different movements involved and the weight and bounciness of the ball. However, when you are playing basketball, you do not perform any of these calculations. You just pass the ball, and if you are a good player, you will do so with high accuracy. Someone might argue: “The scientist’s formula of the bounce-pass requires a far greater knowledge of physics and far more specific information about speeds of movement and weights than the basketball player actually has, so it must be an unrealistic description of how basketball passes actually occur.” This reaction would be wrongheaded. The fact that a good player can throw the ball accurately because of practice and skill, without making a physics calculation, does not mean that the physics calculation is wrong. Similarly, from an economic point of view, someone who shops for groceries every week has a great deal of practice with how to purchase the combination of goods that will provide that person with utility, even if the shopper does not phrase decisions in terms of a budget constraint. Government institutions may work imperfectly and slowly, but in general, a democratic form of government feels pressure from voters and social institutions to make the choices that are most widely preferred by people in that society. Thus, when thinking about the economic actions of groups of people, firms, and society, it is reasonable, as a first approximation, to analyze them with the tools of economic analysis. For more on this, read about behavioral economics in the chapter on Consumer Choices. Second Objection: People, Firms, and Society Should Not Act This Way The economics approach portrays people as self-interested. For some critics of this approach, even if self-interest is an accurate description of how people behave, these behaviors are not moral. Instead, the critics argue that people should be taught to care more deeply about others. Economists offer several answers to these concerns. First, economics is not a form of moral instruction. Rather, it seeks to describe economic behavior as it actually exists. Philosophers draw a distinction between positive statements, which describe the world as it is, and normative statements, which describe how the world should be. Positive statements are factual. They may be true or false, but we can test them, at least in principle. Normative statements are subjective questions of opinion. We cannot test them since we cannot prove opinions to be true or false. They just are opinions based on one's values. For example, an economist could analyze a proposed subway system in a certain city. If the expected benefits exceed the costs, he concludes that the project is worthy—an example of positive analysis. Another economist argues for extended unemployment compensation during the Great Depression because a rich country like the United States should take care of its less fortunate citizens—an example of normative analysis. Even if the line between positive and normative statements is not always crystal clear, economic analysis does try to remain rooted in the study of the actual people who inhabit the actual economy. Fortunately however, the assumption that individuals are purely self-interested is a simplification about human nature. In fact, we need to look no further than to Adam Smith, the very father of modern economics to find evidence of this. The opening sentence of his book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, puts it very clearly: “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.” Clearly, individuals are both self-interested and altruistic. Second, we can label self-interested behavior and profit-seeking with other names, such as personal choice and freedom. The ability to make personal choices about buying, working, and saving is an important personal freedom. Some people may choose high-pressure, high-paying jobs so that they can earn and spend considerable amounts of money on themselves. Others may allocate large portions of their earnings to charity or spend it on their friends and family. Others may devote themselves to a career that can require much time, energy, and expertise but does not offer high financial rewards, like being an elementary school teacher or a social worker. Still others may choose a job that does consume much of their time or provide a high level of income, but still leaves time for family, friends, and contemplation. Some people may prefer to work for a large company; others might want to start their own business. People’s freedom to make their own economic choices has a moral value worth respecting. Is a diagram by any other name the same? When you study economics, you may feel buried under an avalanche of diagrams. Your goal should be to recognize the common underlying logic and pattern of the diagrams, not to memorize each one. This chapter uses only one basic diagram, although we present it with different sets of labels. The consumption budget constraint and the production possibilities frontier for society, as a whole, are the same basic diagram. Figure shows an individual budget constraint and a production possibilities frontier for two goods, Good 1 and Good 2. The tradeoff diagram always illustrates three basic themes: scarcity, tradeoffs, and economic efficiency. The first theme is scarcity. It is not feasible to have unlimited amounts of both goods. Even if the budget constraint or a PPF shifts, scarcity remains—just at a different level. The second theme is tradeoffs. As depicted in the budget constraint or the production possibilities frontier, it is necessary to forgo some of one good to gain more of the other good. The details of this tradeoff vary. In a budget constraint we determine, the tradeoff is determined by the relative prices of the goods: that is, the relative price of two goods in the consumption choice budget constraint. These tradeoffs appear as a straight line. However, a curved line represents the tradeoffs in many production possibilities frontiers because the law of diminishing returns holds that as we add resources to an area, the marginal gains tend to diminish. Regardless of the specific shape, tradeoffs remain. The third theme is economic efficiency, or getting the most benefit from scarce resources. All choices on the production possibilities frontier show productive efficiency because in such cases, there is no way to increase the quantity of one good without decreasing the quantity of the other. Similarly, when an individual makes a choice along a budget constraint, there is no way to increase the quantity of one good without decreasing the quantity of the other. The choice on a production possibilities set that is socially preferred, or the choice on an individual’s budget constraint that is personally preferred, will display allocative efficiency. The basic budget constraint/production possibilities frontier diagram will recur throughout this book. Some examples include using these tradeoff diagrams to analyze trade, environmental protection and economic output, equality of incomes and economic output, and the macroeconomic tradeoff between consumption and investment. Do not allow the different labels to confuse you. The budget constraint/production possibilities frontier diagram is always just a tool for thinking carefully about scarcity, tradeoffs, and efficiency in a particular situation. Third, self-interested behavior can lead to positive social results. For example, when people work hard to make a living, they create economic output. Consumers who are looking for the best deals will encourage businesses to offer goods and services that meet their needs. Adam Smith, writing in The Wealth of Nations, named this property the invisible hand. In describing how consumers and producers interact in a market economy, Smith wrote: Every individual…generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain. And he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention…By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. The metaphor of the invisible hand suggests the remarkable possibility that broader social good can emerge from selfish individual actions. Fourth, even people who focus on their own self-interest in the economic part of their life often set aside their own narrow self-interest in other parts of life. For example, you might focus on your own self-interest when asking your employer for a raise or negotiating to buy a car. Then you might turn around and focus on other people when you volunteer to read stories at the local library, help a friend move to a new apartment, or donate money to a charity. Self-interest is a reasonable starting point for analyzing many economic decisions, without needing to imply that people never do anything that is not in their own immediate self-interest. Choices ... to What Degree? What have we learned? We know that scarcity impacts all the choices we make. An economist might argue that people do not obtain a bachelor’s or master’s degree because they do not have the resources to make those choices or because their incomes are too low and/or the price of these degrees is too high. A bachelor’s or a master’s degree may not be available in their opportunity set. The price of these degrees may be too high not only because the actual price, college tuition (and perhaps room and board), is too high. An economist might also say that for many people, the full opportunity cost of a bachelor’s or a master’s degree is too high. For these people, they are unwilling or unable to make the tradeoff of forfeiting years of working, and earning an income, to earn a degree. Finally, the statistics we introduced at the start of the chapter reveal information about intertemporal choices. An economist might say that people choose not to obtain a college degree because they may have to borrow money to attend college, and the interest they have to pay on that loan in the future will affect their decisions today. Also, it could be that some people have a preference for current consumption over future consumption, so they choose to work now at a lower salary and consume now, rather than postponing that consumption until after they graduate college. Key Concepts and Summary The economic way of thinking provides a useful approach to understanding human behavior. Economists make the careful distinction between positive statements, which describe the world as it is, and normative statements, which describe how the world should be. Even when economics analyzes the gains and losses from various events or policies, and thus draws normative conclusions about how the world should be, the analysis of economics is rooted in a positive analysis of how people, firms, and governments actually behave, not how they should behave. Self-Check Questions Individuals may not act in the rational, calculating way described by the economic model of decision making, measuring utility and costs at the margin, but can you make a case that they behave approximately that way? Hint: When individuals compare cost per unit in the grocery store, or characteristics of one product versus another, they are behaving approximately like the model describes. Would an op-ed piece in a newspaper urging the adoption of a particular economic policy be a positive or normative statement? Hint: Since an op-ed makes a case for what should be, it is considered normative. Would a research study on the effects of soft drink consumption on children’s cognitive development be a positive or normative statement? Hint: Assuming that the study is not taking an explicit position about whether soft drink consumption is good or bad, but just reporting the science, it would be considered positive. Review Questions What is the difference between a positive and a normative statement? Is the economic model of decision-making intended as a literal description of how individuals, firms, and the governments actually make decisions? What are four responses to the claim that people should not behave in the way described in this chapter? Critical Thinking Questions What assumptions about the economy must be true for the invisible hand to work? To what extent are those assumptions valid in the real world? Do economists have any particular expertise at making normative arguments? In other words, they have expertise at making positive statements (i.e., what will happen) about some economic policy, for example, but do they have special expertise to judge whether or not the policy should be undertaken? References Smith, Adam. “Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries.” In The Wealth of Nations. London: Methuen & Co., 1904, first pub 1776), I.V. 2.9. Smith, Adam. “Of the Propriety of Action.” In The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: A. Millar, 1759, 1.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.045936	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/28780/overview", "title": "Principles of Macroeconomics 2e, Choice in a World of Scarcity", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25872/overview	Chapter 15: Planning for Your Career Overview Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success Chapter 15: Planning for Your Career Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Differentiate between “job” and “career” - Describe the stages of career development and identify the stage you’re currently in - Explain the five-step process for choosing a career - List key strategies for selecting a college major - Identify the relationship between college majors and career paths (both why they matter and why they don’t) - Identify specific skills and transferable skills that will be valuable for your career path and how to acquire them Planning for Your Career Planning for Your Career The Department of Labor defines 840 occupations in its Standard Occupation Classification system—and new occupations are being created at an ever-faster rate. Just ten years ago, would anyone have imagined the job of a social media marketing specialist? How about the concept of a competitive chef? As new careers develop and old careers morph into almost unrecognizable versions of their original, it’s okay if you aren’t able to pinpoint exactly what occupation or career will be your life passion. However, it is important to define as best you can what field you will want to develop your career in because that will help dictate your major and your course selections. The process of career exploration can be a lot of fun, as it allows you to discover a world of possibilities. Even those students who have a pretty clear idea of what they want to do should go through this process because they will discover new options as backups and occasionally a new direction even more attractive than their original choice. In this section, we explore strategies that can help you chart your professional path and also attain ample reward. We begin by comparing and contrasting jobs and careers. We then look at how to match up your personal characteristics with a specific field or fields. We conclude by detailing a process for actually choosing your career. Throughout, you will find resources for learning more about this vast topic of planning for employment. Job vs. Career What is the difference between a job and a career? Do you plan to use college to help you seek one or the other? A job: yes, it’s something you would like to have, especially if you want to pay your bills. A job lets you enjoy a minimal level of financial security. A job requires you to show up and do what is required of you; in exchange, you get paid. A career involves holding a series of jobs, but it is more a means of achieving personal fulfillment. In a career, your jobs follow a sequence that leads to increasing mastery, professional development, and personal and financial satisfaction. A career requires planning, knowledge, and skills. If it is to be a fulfilling career, it requires that you bring into play your full set of analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills to make informed decisions that will affect your life in both the short term and the long term. There is no right or wrong answer because motivations for being in college are so varied and different for each student. But you can take maximum advantage of your time in college if you develop a clear plan for what you want to accomplish. The table below shows some differences between a job and a career. \| JOB \| CAREER \| \| \| Definitions \| A job refers to the work a person performs for a living. It can also refer to a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation. A person can begin a job by becoming an employee, by volunteering, by starting a business, or becoming a parent. \| A career is an occupation (or series of jobs) that you undertake for a significant period of time in your life—perhaps five or ten years, or more. A career typically provides you with opportunities to advance your skills and positions. \| \| Requirements \| A job you accept with an employer does not necessarily require special education or training. Sometimes you can get needed learning “on the job.” \| A career usually requires special learning—perhaps a certification or a specific degree. \| \| Risk-Taking \| A job may be considered a safe and stable means to get income. But jobs can also quickly change; security can come and go. \| A career can also have risks. In today’s world, employees need to continually learn new skills and adapt to changes in order to stay employed. Starting your own business can have risks. Many people thrive on risk-taking, though, and may achieve higher gains. It all depends on your definition of success. \| \| Duration \| The duration of a job may range from an hour (in the case of odd jobs, for example,) to a lifetime. Generally, a “job” is shorter-term. \| A career is typically a long-term pursuit. \| \| Income \| Jobs that are not career-oriented may not pay as well as career-oriented positions. Jobs often pay an hourly wage. \| Career-oriented jobs generally offer an annual salary versus a wage. Career-oriented jobs may also offer appealing benefits, like health insurance and retirement. \| \| Satisfaction and contributing to society \| Many jobs are important to society, but some may not bring high levels of personal satisfaction. \| Careers allow you to invest time and energy in honing your crafts and experiencing personal satisfaction. Career pursuits may include making contributions to society. \| In the following video, author, speaker, and entrepreneur Shinjini Das discusses the distinction between a job and a career and explains her advice for planning for your career. Whether you pursue individual jobs or an extended career or both, your time with your employers will always comprise your individual journey. May your journey be as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible! Stages of Career Development See if you can remember a time in your childhood when you noticed somebody doing professional work. Maybe a nurse or doctor, dressed in a lab coat, was listening to your heartbeat. Maybe a worker at a construction site, decked in a hard hat, was operating noisy machinery. Maybe a cashier at the checkout line in a grocery store was busily scanning barcodes. Each day in your young life you could have seen a hundred people doing various jobs. Surely some of the experiences drew your interest and appealed to your imagination. If you can recall any such times, those are moments from the beginning stage of your career development. What exactly is career development? It’s a lifelong process in which we become aware of, interested in, knowledgeable about, and skilled in a career. It’s a key part of human development as our identity forms and our life unfolds. There are five main stages of career development. Each stage correlates with attitudes, behaviors, and relationships we all tend to have at that point and age. As we progress through each stage and reach the milestones identified, we prepare to move on to the next one. Which stage of career development do you feel you are in currently? Think about each stage. What challenges are you facing now? Where are you headed? \| # \| STAGE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| 1 \| GROWING \| This is a time in the early years (4–13 years old) when you begin to have a sense of the future. You begin to realize that your participation in the world is related to being able to do certain tasks and accomplish certain goals. \| \| 2 \| EXPLORING \| This period begins when you are a teenager, and it extends into your mid-twenties. In this stage, you find that you have specific interests and aptitudes. You are aware of your inclinations to perform and learn about some subjects more than others. You may try out jobs in your community or at your school. You may begin to explore a specific career. At this stage, you have some detailed “data points” about careers, which will guide you in certain directions. \| \| 3 \| ESTABLISHING \| This period covers your mid-twenties through mid-forties. By now you are selecting or entering a field you consider suitable, and you are exploring job opportunities that will be stable. You are also looking for upward growth, so you may be thinking about an advanced degree. \| \| 4 \| MAINTAINING \| This stage is typical for people in their mid-forties to mid-sixties. You may be in an upward pattern of learning new skills and staying engaged. But you might also be merely “coasting and cruising” or even feeling stagnant. You may be taking stock of what you’ve accomplished and where you still want to go. \| \| 5 \| REINVENTING \| In your mid-sixties, you are likely transitioning into retirement. But retirement in our technologically advanced world can be just the beginning of a new career or pursuit—a time when you can reinvent yourself. There are many new interests to pursue, including teaching others what you’ve learned, volunteering, starting online businesses, consulting, etc. \| Keep in mind that your career-development path is personal to you, and you may not fit neatly into the categories described above. Perhaps your socioeconomic background changes how you fit into the schema. Perhaps your physical and mental abilities affect how you define the idea of a “career.” And for everyone, too, there are factors of chance that can’t be predicted or anticipated. You are unique, and your career path can only be developed by you. The Five-Step Process for Choosing Your Career As your thoughts about your career expand, keep in mind that over the course of your life, you will probably spend a lot of time at work—thousands of hours, in fact. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average workday is about 8.7 hours long, and this means that if you work 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, for 35 years, you will spend a total of 76,125 hours of your life at work. These numbers should convince you that it’s pretty important to enjoy your career! If you do pursue a career, you’ll find yourself making many decisions about it: Is this the right job for me? Am I feeling fulfilled and challenged? Does this job enable me to have the lifestyle I desire? It’s important to consider these questions now, whether you’re just graduating from high school or college, or you’re returning to school after working for a while. Choosing a career—any career—is a unique process for everyone, and for many people the task is daunting. There are so many different occupations to choose from. How do you navigate this complex world of work? The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has identified a five-step decision process that will make your career path a little easier to find. Below are the steps: - Get to know yourself - Get to know your field - Prioritize your “deal makers” and rule out your “deal breakers” - Make a preliminary career decision and create a plan of action - Go out and achieve your career goal Step 1: Get to Know Yourself Get to know yourself and the things you’re truly passionate about. - Gather information about your career-related interests and values - Think about what skills and abilities come naturally to you and which ones you want to develop - Consider your personality type and how you want it to play out in your role at work While you are encouraged to explore your personality, interests, and passions, you may still feel overwhelmed by the possibilities. The following video discusses how “finding your passion” can be much more complicated than it sounds, and it introduces ways to explore related opportunities and gradually focus your interests and efforts. You may wish to review the assessments and inventories from Chapter 3 on values and Chapter 8 on multiple intelligences. These can help you align career interests with personal qualities, traits, life values, skills, activities, and ambitions. Ultimately, your knowledge of yourself is the root of all good decision-making and will guide you in productive directions. The RIASEC Model You can also take assessments specifically designed to help you find your best career matches. A popular assessment is based on the work by John L. Holland and is referred to as the Holland Code or Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC). In this model, there are six personality types, using the abbreviation RIASEC: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. You can take an assessment to determine your primary personality types at the ONet Interest Profiler by the U.S. the Department of Labor. You can also take FOCUS-2, ACC’s online career and education planning system for helping you choose a major, build your career goals, and learn job information. According to Manish Hatwalne at MyZenPath, Career Interests Inventory shows six major classifications based on occupational interests, which form the acronym RIASEC. They are explained below. - Realistic (R) – They are doers, hands-on people who prefer to work with objects, machines, tools, plants, or animals, or to be outdoors. They are concrete, practical, and realistic. - Investigative (I) – They are thinkers, they observe, analyze, learn, assess, and find solutions. They are abstract thinkers, who explore different ideas. - Artistic (A) – They are creators, they innovate, imagine, express, and prefer to work in an environment that nurtures their creative abilities. - Social (S) – They are helpers, they often work with other people to inform, teach, inspire, or cure them. They are interactive individuals who manage, lead, or help people. - Enterprising (E) – They are persuaders, they also work with other people to lead, influence, or manage them. - Conventional (C) – They are organizers, they like to work with data, structure, and details. They are conformists who carry out tasks methodically. The diagram below shows the six RIASEC types pictorially. These six types broadly categorize occupational interests based on who you are, your abilities, and what you like to do. In real life, however, one is often a combination of 2 or 3 of these basic six types called primary interests. The remaining interests are called secondary interests. A career around one’s primary interests is more fulfilling. The initial letters of the primary interests, such as RA, IAR, SAE are called Holland Code and indicate your dominant interests. For example, a person with Holland Code SAI would be Social, Artistic, and Investigative and might enjoy helping professions such as counselor/psychologist or they could be teachers of arts or some kind of therapist. It is not about pigeonholing people but more about finding patterns in interests and figuring out a good match for their combinations. Holland codes are indicative and NOT predictive. If you answer its questionnaire earnestly, the results are immensely insightful and can be used for college admissions, choosing a major/branch, and career counseling at any stage of your career. The National Career Development Association (NCDA) provides a variety of links to Career Self-Assessments if you are interested in exploring them. ACC also offers a variety of Career Services, for help with all stages of the career process. Follow the link for an overview of the services available, as well as a list of upcoming workshops, career fairs, and a link to the ACC Job Board. Step 2: Get to Know Your Field You’ll want to investigate the career paths available to you. One of the handiest starting points and “filters” is to decide the level of education you want to attain before starting your first or your next job. Do you want to earn an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, or a doctorate or professional degree? This is a key factor in narrowing down your search to career paths that will be a good fit for your goals and expectations. Holland studied people who were successful and happy in many occupations and matched their occupations to their occupational type, creating a description of the types of occupations that are best suited to each personality type. Just as many individuals are more than one personality type, many jobs show a strong correlation to more than one occupational type. \| Ideal Environments \| Sample Occupations \| \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Realistic \| \| \| \| Investigative \| \| \| \| Artistic \| \| \| \| Social \| \| \| \| Enterprising \| \| \| \| Conventional \| \| \| You can use ACC's FOCUS2 to research careers that are interesting to you. FOCUS2 provides a plethora of useful information about specific careers including the required and desired skills, educational requirements, common majors, projected growth of the occupation, and average starting and lifetime salary. You can also use the Department of Labor’s ONet to get a deeper understanding of specific occupations. For each occupation, ONet lists the type of work, the work environment, the skills and education required, and the job outlook for that occupation. This is a truly rich resource that you should get to know. The National Career Development Association (NCDA) also provides several options to research general occupations and specific fields and industries, including The Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They also provide information on employment trends and information for specific populations. Step 3: Prioritize Your Deal Makers You may now have a list of careers you want to explore. But, there are other factors you will need to take into consideration as well. It is important to use your creative thinking skills to identify your personal "deal-makers" and "deal-breakers." Educational requirements and job responsibilities aren’t the only criteria that you will want to consider. Consider some of the following factors as you explore your career options: - Do you want to work outside or in an office? - Do you want to be physically active or do you prefer a desk job? - Do you want to live in a city or have access to a city? - How long of a commute is too long? - Does this career require you to relocate? Travel often? - Is the location of this career somewhere you would like to live long-term? Is it somewhere your (future) family would like to live? - What is the cost of living in the area? - Does this career provide you with the level of social interaction you desire? - Does this career allow you for the level of decision-making or independence you desire? - How much time must you invest before you actually start making money in this career? - Does this career provide financial incentives such as bonuses or performance-based increases? - Does the career require ongoing education and professional certifications? What time and cost is required? - Will this career provide you with the kind of income you need in the short term and the security you'll want in the longer term? - Does this career provide stable and affordable benefits such as health insurance for your family? - How will this career affect your personal and family life? - What are the opportunities for growth? - Does this career align with your personal values (Chapter 3)? - Will this career still be challenging and engaging in 5 years, 10 years, etc? Step 4: Make a Preliminary Career Decision It may seem odd to be thinking about life after school if you are just getting started. But you will soon be making decisions about your future, and regardless of the direction you may choose, there is a lot you can do while still in college. You will need to focus your studies by choosing a major, covered in the next section. You should find opportunities to explore the careers that interest you. You can ensure that you are building the right kind of experience on which to base a successful career. These steps will make your dreams come to life and make them achievable. Keep in mind that deciding on and pursuing a career is an ongoing process. The more you learn about yourself and the career options that best suit you, the more you will need to fine-tune your career plan. Don’t be afraid to consider new ideas, but don’t make changes without careful consideration. Career planning is exciting: learning about yourself and about career opportunities, and considering the factors that can affect your decision, should be a core part of your thoughts while in college. Now that you have an idea of who you are and where you might find a satisfying career, how do you start taking action to get there? Some people talk to family, friends, or instructors in their chosen disciplines. Others have mentors in their lives with whom to discuss this decision. ACC has career services, academic advising, and transfer services that can help you with both career decision-making and the educational planning process. But be advised: you’ll get the most from these sessions if you have done some work on your own. Step 5: Go out and Achieve Your Career Goal Now it’s time to take concrete steps toward achieving your educational and career goals. You can start by working with your Area of Study Advisor to create a comprehensive educational plan that maps out the degree you are currently working toward. There are detailed Program Maps for all ACC degrees and certificates that outline all required coursework and a suggested timeline. Your desired career may require you to transfer to a four-year university. Consult with Transfer Services or meet with a Transfer Specialist to ensure you are on the right track to transfer and understand the deadlines and requirements. You may also want to look for volunteer opportunities, internships, or part-time employment that help you test and confirm your preliminary career choice. Relevant experience is not only important as a job qualification; it can also provide you with a means to explore or test out occupational options and build a contact list that will be valuable when networking for your career. Volunteering is especially good for students looking to work in social and artistic occupations, but students looking for work in other occupation types should not shy away from this option. You can master many transferable skills through volunteering! Certainly, it is easy to understand that if you want to be in an artistic field, volunteering at a museum or performance center can provide you with relevant experience. But what if you want to work in an engineering field? Volunteering for an organization promoting green energy would be helpful. Looking for a career in homeland security? Do volunteer work with the Red Cross or the Coast Guard Auxiliary. With a little brainstorming and an understanding of your career field, you should be able to come up with relevant volunteer experiences for just about any career. Internships focus on gaining practical experience related to a course or program of study. Interns work for an organization or company for a reduced wage or stipend or volunteer in exchange for practical experience. A successful internship program should create a win-win situation: the intern should add value to the company’s efforts, and the company should provide a structured program in which the student can learn or practice work-related skills. Internships are typically held during summers or school vacation periods, though on occasion they can be scheduled for a set block of time each week during the course of a regular school term. Once you secure an internship (usually through a normal job application process aided by a faculty member or the career guidance or placement office), it is important to have a written agreement with the employer in which the following is stated: - The learning objective for the internship - The time commitment you will invest (including work hours) - The work the company expects you to do - The work your supervisor will do for the college and for the student (internship progress reports, evaluations, etc.) This written agreement may seem like overkill, but it is critical to ensure that the internship experience doesn’t degrade into unsatisfying tasks such as photocopying and filing. Remember that a key objective of your internship is to develop relationships you can use for mentoring and networking during your career. Befriend people, ask questions, go the extra mile in terms of what is expected of you, and generally participate in the enterprise. The extra effort will pay dividends in the future. Part-time employment may be an option if your study schedule provides enough free time. If so, be sure to investigate opportunities in your field of study. Ask your instructors and the career guidance or placement office to help you generate job leads, even if they are not specifically in the area you want to be working in. It is valuable and relevant to hold a job designing Web sites for an advertising agency, for example, if your specific job objective is to produce event marketing. The understanding of how an advertising agency works and the contacts you make will make the experience worthwhile. If you are lucky enough to have a job in your field of study already and are using your college experience to enhance your career opportunities, be sure to link what you are learning to what you do on the job—and what you do on the job to what you are learning. Ask your supervisor and employer about ideas you have picked up in class, and ask your instructors about the practices you apply at work. This cross-linking will make you a much stronger candidate for future opportunities and a much better student in the short term. Your work experiences and life circumstances will undoubtedly change throughout the course of your professional life, so you may need to go back and reassess where you are on this path in the future. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the average worker currently holds ten different jobs before age forty. This number is projected to grow. A prediction from Forrester Research is that today’s youngest workers will hold twelve to fifteen jobs in their lifetime. But no matter if you feel like you were born knowing what you want to do professionally, or you feel totally unsure about what the future holds for you, remember that with careful consideration, resolve, and strategic thought, you can find a career that feels rewarding. ACC Career Services offers ACC CareerLink as a resource to connect students with internships and employment. They also offer a variety of Career Events during the year, such as job fairs and opportunities for networking. College Major Exploration Your major is the discipline you commit to as an undergraduate student. It’s an area you specialize in, such as accounting, chemistry, nursing, digital arts, welding, or dance. Within each major is a host of core courses and electives. When you successfully complete the required courses in your major, you qualify for a degree. Your major is important because it’s a defining and organizing feature of your college journey. Ultimately, your major should provide you with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or behaviors you need to fulfill your college and career goals. In this section, we look at how to select your major and how your college major may correlate with a career. Does your major matter to your career? What happens if you change your major? Does changing your major mean you must change your career? Read on to find out! How to Select Your College Major Selecting your major is one of the most exciting tasks (and, to some students, perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking tasks) you are asked to perform in college. So many decisions are tied to it. But if you have good guidance, patience, and enthusiasm, the process is easier. ACC's Career Services offers a variety of support and resources as you plan your major and career path. Here are some ideas as you explore different majors. - Seek inspiration - Consider everything - Identify talents and interests - Explore available resources - In-depth career exploration It’s also important to talk about financial considerations in choosing a major. Any major you choose will likely benefit you because college graduates earn roughly $1 million more than high school graduates, on average, over an entire career. - STEM jobs, though—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—can lead to the thirty highest paying jobs. So if you major in any of these areas, you may be more likely to earn a higher salary. - Even though humanities and social sciences students may earn less money right after college, they may earn more by the time they reach their peak salary than students who had STEM majors. - Students who major in the humanities and social science are also more likely to get advanced degrees, which increases annual salary by nearly $20,000 at peak salary. The best guidance on choosing a major and connecting it with a career may be to get good academic and career advice and select a major that reflects your greatest interests. If you don’t like law or medicine but you major in it because of a certain salary expectation, you may later find yourself in an unrelated job that brings you greater satisfaction—even if the salary is lower. If this is the case, will it make more sense, looking back, to spend your time and tuition dollars studying a subject you especially enjoy? Resources Success doesn’t come to you . . . you go to it. —Dr. Marva Collins, civil rights activist and educator This quote really sets the stage for the journey you’re on. Your journey may be a straight line that connects the dots between today and your future, or it may resemble a twisted road with curves, bumps, hurdles, and alternate routes. To help you navigate your pathway to career success, take advantage of all the resources available to you. Your college, your community, and the wider body of higher education institutions and organizations have many tools to help you with career development. Be sure to take advantage of the following resources: - College course catalog: Course catalogs are typically rich with information that can spark ideas and inspiration for your major and your career. - Faculty and academic advisors at your college: Many college professors are also practitioners in their fields and can share insights with you about related professions. - Fellow students: Many of your classmates, especially those who share your major, may have had experiences that can inform and enlighten you—for instance, an internship with an employer or a job interview with someone who could be contacted for more information. - Students who have graduated: Most colleges and universities have active alumni programs with networking resources that can help you make important decisions. - Your family and social communities: Contact friends and family members who can weigh in with their thoughts and experience. - Career Services: Professionals in career centers have a wealth of information to share with you—they’re also very good at listening and can act as a sounding board for you to try out your ideas. They offer career and job fairs, resume reviews, interview help, and a variety of career workshops. - Transfer Services: Career and Transfer Specialists are available to help you determine the best path to complete your associate degree, transfer successfully and meet your career goals. They can help you select the right courses that transfer and satisfy your ACC and university degree requirements. They can also help with your university transfer application or researching transfer destinations. Many organizations have free materials that can provide guidance in selecting a college major, such as the ones in the table, below: \| WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| 1 \| List of College Majors (MyMajors) \| A list of more than 1,800 college majors—major pages include descriptions, courses, careers, salary, related majors, and colleges offering majors. \| 2 \| Take the College Major Profile Quiz (ThoughtCo,) \| This quiz is designed to help you think about college majors, personality traits, and how they may fit within different areas of study. \| 3 \| Choosing a College Major Worksheet (LiveCareer) \| A six-step process to finding a college major. \| 4 \| CareerFinder (RoadTripNation/The College Board) \| You may already have a CollegeBoard account from high school if you took the PSAT, SAT, APs, or SAT Subject Tests. Use your account or create one to use the extensive Career Finder resource. \| Preparing For Your Career If you lived and worked in colonial times in the United States, what skills would you need to be gainfully employed? And how different would your skills and aptitudes be then, compared to today? Many industries that developed during the 1600–1700s, such as healthcare, publishing, manufacturing, construction, finance, and farming, are still with us today. And the original professional abilities, aptitudes, and values required in those industries are often some of the same ones employers seek today. For example, in the healthcare field then, just like today, employers looked for professionals with scientific acumen, active listening skills, a service orientation, oral comprehension abilities, and teamwork skills. Why is it that with the passage of time and all the changes in the work world, some skills remain unchanged (or little changed)? The answer might lie in the fact there are two main types of skills that employers look for: hard skills and soft skills. - Hard skills are concrete or objective abilities that you learn and perhaps have mastered. They are skills you can easily quantify, like using a computer, speaking a foreign language, or operating a machine. You might earn a certificate, a college degree, or other credentials that attest to your hard-skill competencies. Obviously, because of changes in technology, the hard skills required by industries today are vastly different from those required centuries ago. - Soft skills, on the other hand, are subjective skills that have changed very little over time. Such skills might pertain to the way you relate to people, or the way you think, or the ways in which you behave—for example, listening attentively, working well in groups, and speaking clearly. Soft skills are sometimes also called transferable skills because you can easily transfer them from job to job or profession to profession without much training. Indeed, if you had a time machine, you could probably transfer your soft skills from one time period to another! What Employers Want in an Employee Employers want individuals who have the necessary hard and soft skills to do the job well and adapt to changes in the workplace. Soft skills may be especially in demand today because employers are generally equipped to train new employees in a hard skill—by training them to use new computer software, for instance—but it’s much more difficult to teach an employee a soft skill such as developing rapport with coworkers or knowing how to manage conflict. An employer may prefer to hire an inexperienced worker who can pay close attention to details than an experienced worker who may cause problems on a work team. In this section, we look at ways of identifying and building particular hard and soft skills that will be necessary for your career path. We also explain how to use your time and resources wisely to acquire critical skills for your career goals. Specific Skills Necessary for Your Career Path A skill is something you can do, say, or think. It’s what an employer expects you to bring to the workplace to improve the overall operations of the organization. The table below lists some resources to help you determine which concrete skills are needed for all kinds of professions. You can even discover where you might gain some of the skills and which courses you might take. Spend some time reviewing each resource. You will find many interesting and exciting options. When you’re finished, you may decide that there are so many interesting professions in the world that it’s difficult to choose just one. This is a good problem to have! \| RESOURCE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| \| 1 \| Career Aptitude Test (Rasmussen College) \| This test helps you match your skills to a particular career that’s right for you. Use a sliding scale to indicate your level of skill in the following skill areas: artistic, interpersonal, communication, managerial, mathematics, mechanical, and science. Press the Update Results button and receive a customized list customized of career suggestions tailored to you, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can filter by salary, expected growth, and education. \| \| 2 \| Skills Profiler (Career OneStop from the U.S. Department of Labor) \| Use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills and match your skills to job types that use those skills. Plan to spend about 20 minutes completing your profile. You can start with a job type to find the skills you need for a current or future job. Or if you are not sure what kind of job is right for you, start by rating your own skills to find a job type match. When your skills profile is complete, you can print it or save it. \| \| 3 \| ONet OnLine \| This U.S. government website helps job seekers answer two of their toughest questions: “What jobs can I get with my skills and training?” and “What skills and training do I need to get this job?” Browse groups of similar occupations to explore careers. Choose from industry, the field of work, science area, and more. Focus on occupations that use a specific tool or software. Explore occupations that need your skills. Connect to a wealth of ONET data. Enter a code or title from another classification to find the related ONET-SOC occupation. \| Transferable Skills for Any Career Path Transferable (soft) skills may be used in multiple professions. They include, but are by no means limited to, skills listed below: \| Dependable and punctual (showing up on time, ready to work, not being a liability) \| Self-motivated \| Enthusiastic \| Committed \| \| Adaptable (willing to change and take on new challenges) \| Problem-solving \| A team player \| Positive attitude \| \| Essential work skills (following instructions, possessing critical thinking skills, knowing limits) \| Communication skills \| Customer service \| Willing to learn (lifelong learner) \| \| Able to accept constructive criticism \| Honest and ethical \| Safety-conscious \| Strong in time management \| Complete Section #2: ACTIVITY: Transferable Skills Inventory These skills are transferable because they are positive attributes that are invaluable in practically any kind of work. They also do not require much training from an employer—you have them already and take them with you wherever you go. Soft skills are a big part of your “total me” package. Take the time to identify the soft skills that show you off the best, and identify the ones that prospective employers are looking for. By comparing both sets, you can more directly gear your job search to your strongest professional qualities. The following video further explores what soft skills are and why they are essential to the modern workplace, regardless of your specific career: Acquiring Necessary Skills for Your Career Goals “Lifelong learning” is a buzz phrase in the twentieth-first century because we are awash in new technology and information all the time, and those who know how to learn continuously are in the best position to keep up and take advantage of these changes. Think of all the information resources around you: colleges and universities, libraries, the Internet, videos, games, books, films, etc. With these resources at your disposal, how can you best position yourself for lifelong learning and a strong, viable career? Which hard and soft skills are most important? What are employers really looking for? The following list was inspired by the remarks of Mark Atwood, director of open-source engagement at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. It contains excellent practical advice. - Learn how to write clearly. After you’ve written something, have people edit it. Then rewrite it, taking into account the feedback you received. Write all the time. - Learn how to speak. Speak clearly on the phone and at a table. For public speaking, try Toastmasters. “Meet and speak. Speak and write.” - Be reachable. Publish your email so that people can contact you. Don’t worry about spam. - Learn about computers and computing, even if you aren’t gearing for a career in information technology. - Learn something entirely new every six to twelve months. - Build relationships within your community. Use tools like Meetup.com and search for clubs at local schools, libraries, and centers. Then, seek out remote people around the country and world. Learn about them and their projects first by searching the Internet. - Attend conferences and events. This is a great way to network with people and meet them face-to-face. - Find a project and get involved. Start reading questions and answers, then start answering questions. - Collaborate with people all over the world. - Keep your LinkedIn profile and social media profiles up-to-date. Be findable. - Keep learning. Skills will often beat smarts. Be sure to schedule time for learning and having fun! Get Involved After you’ve networked with enough people and built up your reputation, your peers can connect you with job openings that may be a good fit for your skills. The video below, from Stephen F. Austin State University, provides great insight into how being involved while in college can help you develop these critical skills and into determining what level of involvement may be right for you. As you can see, being deeply involved with at least one organization while in college creates the perfect opportunity to hone some soft skills. KEY TAKEAWAYS - A job is the work you do for a living, while a career is an occupation that requires specialized professional knowledge and skills and typically provides an opportunity for advancement. - Follow a systematic process of career development to assess your progress toward your goals, but know that you may need to reevaluate and change course along the way. - Use a systematic approach to narrow down your career interests and to select a major. - For your career path, you will need both career-specific hard skills and soft skills that are transferable because they are desirable in any field. Use your college career to help develop both. - Take advantage of available resources and get involved in college organizations or activities to acquire the necessary skills, both in and out of class, for your career goals. At the end of this chapter, you will find Supplemental Material in Sections 3-6. These sections contain additional material on Networking, Creating a Resume, Writing a Cover Letter, and Interviewing. Supplemental Material: Networking In the context of career development, networking is the process by which people build relationships with one another for the purpose of helping one another achieve professional goals. When you “network,” you exchange information. You may share: - business cards, résumés, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about a specific field. - information about meet-up groups, conferences, special events, technology tools, and social media. - information on job “headhunters,” career counselors, career centers, career coaches, an alumni association, family members, friends, acquaintances, and vendors. Networking can occur anywhere and at any time. In fact, your network expands with each new relationship you establish. And the networking strategies you can employ are nearly limitless. With imagination and ingenuity, your networking can be highly successful. Strategies for Networking We live in a social world, so it stands to reason that finding a new job and advancing your career entails building relationships with people in your field. Truly, the most effective way to find a new job is to network, network, and network some more. Once you acknowledge the value of networking, the challenge is figuring out how to do it. What is your first step? Whom do you contact? What do you say? How long will it take? Where do you concentrate efforts? How do you know if your investments will pay off? For every question you may ask, a range of strategies can be used. Begin exploring your possibilities by viewing the following energizing video, Networking Tips for College Students and Young People, by Hank Blank. He recommends the following modern and no-nonsense strategies: - Hope is not a plan. You need a plan of action to achieve your networking goals. - Keenly focus your activities on getting a job. Use all tools available to you. - You need business cards. No ifs, ands, or buts. - Register your own domain name. Find your favorite geek to build you a landing page. Keep building your site for the rest of your life. - Attend networking events. Most of them offer student rates. - Master Linkedin because that is what human resource departments use. See the LinkedIn for Students Web site to get started. - Think of your colleagues and family friends as databases. Leverage their knowledge and their willingness to help you. - Create the world you want to live in in the future by forming it today through your networking activity. These are the times to live in a world of “this is how I can help.” International Student Series: Finding Work Using Your Networks If you are an international student, or perhaps if English is not your native language, this video may especially appeal to you. It focuses on the importance of networking when looking for jobs and keeping an open mind. Simply talking to people can help you move from casual work to full-time employment. . . . And More Strategies Strategies at College - Get to know your professors: Communicating with instructors is a valuable way to learn about a career and also get letters of reference if and when needed for a job. Professors can also give you leads on job openings, internships, and research possibilities. Most instructors will readily share information and insights with you. - Check with your college’s alumni office: You may find that some alumni are affiliated with your field of interest and can give you the “inside scoop.” - Check with classmates: Classmates may or may not share your major, but any of them may have leads that could help you. You could be just one conversation away from a good lead. Strategies at Work Join professional organizations: You can meet many influential people at local and national meetings and events of professional and volunteer organizations. Learn about these organizations. See if they have membership discounts for students or student chapters. Once you are a member, you may have access to membership lists, which can give you prospective access to many new people to network with. - Volunteer: Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people who can help you develop your career, even if the organization you are volunteering with is not in your field. Just by working alongside others and working toward common goals, you build relationships that may later serve you in unforeseen and helpful ways. - Get an internship: Many organizations offer internship positions to college students. Some of these positions are paid, but often they are not. Paid or not, you gain experience relevant to your career, and you potentially make many new contacts. Check CollegeRecruiter.com for key resources. - Get a part-time job: Working full-time may be your ultimate goal, but you may want to fill in some cracks by working part-time. Invariably you will meet people who can feasibly help with your networking goals. And you can gain good experience, which can be noted on your résumé. - Join a job club: Your career interests may be shared by many others who have organized a club, which can be online or in person. If you don’t find an existing club, consider starting one. - Attend networking events: There are innumerable professional networking events taking place around the world and also online. Find them listed in magazines, community calendars, newspapers, journals, and at the Web sites of companies, organizations, and associations. - Conduct informational interviews: You may initiate contact with people in your chosen field who can tell you about their experiences of entering the field and thriving in it. Many Web sites have guidance on how to plan and conduct these interviews. - Participate in online social media: An explosion of career opportunities awaits you with social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. You will find an extensive list of suggested sites at CareerOneStop. Keep your communication ultra-professional at these sites. Peruse magazine articles, and if you find one that’s relevant to your field and it contains names of professionals, you can reach out to them to learn more and get job leads. - Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and acquaintances for referrals: Do they know others who might help you? You can start with the question “Who else should I be talking to?” The bottom line with developing professional networks is to cull information from as many sources as possible and use that information in creative ways to advance your career opportunities. Supplemental Material: Creating Your Resume Creating Your Résumé A résumé is a “selfie” for business purposes. It is a written picture of who you are—it’s a marketing tool, a selling tool, and a promotion of you as an ideal candidate for any job you may be interested in. The word résumé comes from the French word résumé, which means “a summary.” Leonardo da Vinci is credited with writing one of the first known résumés, although it was more of a letter that outlined his credentials for a potential employer, Ludovico Sforza. The résumé got da Vinci the job, though, and Sforza became a longtime patron of da Vinci and later commissioned him to paint The Last Supper. Résumés and cover letters work together to represent you in the brightest light to prospective employers. With a well-composed résumé and cover letter, you stand out—which may get you an interview and then a good shot at landing a job. In this section, we discuss résumés and cover letters as key components of your career development toolkit. We explore some of the many ways you can design and develop them for the greatest impact in your job search. Your Résumé: Purpose and Contents Your résumé is an inventory of your education, work experience, job-related skills, accomplishments, volunteer history, internships, residencies, and more. It’s a professional autobiography in outline form to give the person who reads it a quick, general idea of who you are and how well you might contribute to their workplace. As a college student or recent graduate, though, you may be unsure about what to put in your résumé, especially if you don’t have much employment history. Still, employers don’t expect recent grads to have significant work experience. It’s all in how you present yourself. Elements of Your Successful Résumé Perhaps the hardest part of writing a résumé is figuring out what format to use to organize and present your information in the most effective way. There is no one correct format, but most follow one of the four formats below. Which format appeals to you the most? - Reverse chronological: A reverse chronological résumé (sometimes also simply called a chronological résumé) lists your job experiences in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent job and working backward toward your first job. It includes start/end dates and a brief description of the duties you performed for each job, as well as details of your formal education. This may be the most common and perhaps the most conservative format. It is most suitable for demonstrating a solid work history and growth and development in your skills. It may not suit you if you are light on skills in the area you are applying to, if you’ve changed employers frequently, or if you are looking for your first job. Reverse Chronological Résumé Examples - Functional: A functional résumé is organized around your talents, skills, and abilities (more so than work duties and job titles, as with the reverse chronological résumé). It emphasizes specific professional capabilities, like what you have done or what you can do. Specific dates may be included but are not as important. So if you are a new graduate entering your field with little or no actual work experience, the functional résumé may be a good format for you. It can also be useful when you are seeking work in a field that differs from what you have done in the past, or if you have had an unconventional career path. Functional Résumé Examples - Hybrid: The hybrid, or combination, résumé is a format reflecting both the functional and chronological approaches. It highlights relevant skills, but it still provides information about your work experience. You may list your job skills as most prominent and then follow with a chronological (or reverse chronological) list of employers. This format is most effective when your specific skills and job experience need to be emphasized. Hybrid Résumé Examples - Video, infographic, or Website: These formats may be most suitable for people in multimedia and creative careers. Certainly, with the expansive use of technology today, a job seeker might at least try to create a media-enhanced résumé. But the paper-based, traditional résumé is by far the most commonly used—in fact, some human resource departments may not permit submission of any format other than paper-based. Video Resume Examples; Infographic Résumé Examples; Website Résumé Examples Contents and Structure For many people, the process of writing a résumé is daunting. After all, you are taking a lot of information and condensing it into a very concise form that needs to be both eye-catching and easy to read. Don’t be scared off, though! Developing a good résumé can be fun, rewarding, and easier than you think if you follow a few basic guidelines. Watch this video for tips for writing a resume and making your resume stand out: Contents and Components To Include - Your contact information: name, address, phone number, professional email address - A summary of your skills: 5–10 skills you have gained in your field; you can list hard skills as well as soft skills - Work experience: include the title of the position, employer’s name, location, employment dates (beginning, ending) - Volunteer experience - Education and training: formal and informal experiences matter; include academic degrees, professional development, certificates, internships, etc. - References statement (optional): “References available upon request” is a standard phrase used on résumés, although it is often implied - Other sections: may include a job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, a summary statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences Caution Although you can benefit from giving yours a stamp of individuality, you will do well to steer clear of personal details that might elicit a negative response. It is advisable to omit any confidential information or details that could make you vulnerable to discrimination. Here are some tips on what not to include: - Do not mention your age, gender, height, or weight. - Do not include your social security number. - Do not mention religious beliefs or political affiliations, unless they are relevant to the position. - Do not include a photograph of yourself or a physical description. - Do not mention health issues. - Do not use first-person references. (I, me). - Do not include wage/salary expectations. - Do not use abbreviations. Top Ten Tips for a Successful Résumé - Limit it to 1–2 pages long on letter-size paper. - Make it visually appealing. - Use action verbs and phrases. - Proofread carefully to eliminate any spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typographical errors. - Be positive and reflect only the truth. - Keep refining and reworking your résumé; it’s an ongoing project. Remember that your résumé is your professional profile. It will hold you in the most professional and positive light, and it’s designed to be a quick and easy way for a prospective employer to evaluate what you might bring to a job. When written and formatted attractively, creatively, and legibly, your résumé is what will get your foot in the door. You can be proud of your accomplishments, even if they don’t seem numerous. Résumé Writing Resources \| WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| The Online Resume Builder (from My Perfect resume) \| An easy to use online résumé builder: choose your résumé design from the library of professional designs, insert pre-written examples, then download and print your new résumé. \| \| Résumé Builder (from Live Career) \| This site offers examples, templates, tips, videos, and services for résumés, cover letters, interviews, and jobs. \| \| Résumé Samples for College Students and Graduates (from About Careers) \| This site offers a plethora of sample résumés and templates for college students and graduates. Listings are by type of student and by type of job. \| \| JobSearch Minute Videos (from College Grad) \| This site offers multiple to-the-point one-minute videos on topics such as print résumés, video résumés, cover letters, interviewing, tough interview questions, references, job fairs, and Internet job searching. \| \| 42 Résumé Dos and Don’ts Every Job Seeker Should Know (from the muse) \| A comprehensive list of résumé dos and don’ts, which includes traditional rules as well as new rules to polish your résumé. \| \| How to Write a Resume: A Step-By-Step Guide [+30 Examples] (from Uptowork) \| This site describes common résumé tips and offers advice for landing a job. \| Supplemental Material: Writing Your Cover Letter Writing Your Cover Letter Cover letters matter. When you have to go through a pile of them, they are probably more important than the résumé itself. —woodleywonderworks A cover letter is a letter of introduction, usually 3–4 paragraphs in length, that you attach to your résumé. It’s a way of introducing yourself to a potential employer and explaining why you are interested in and suited for a position. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters as an initial method of screening out applicants who may lack necessary basic skills, or who may not be sufficiently interested in the position. With each résumé you send out, always include a cover letter specifically addressing your purposes. Characteristics of an Effective Cover Letter Cover letters should accomplish the following: - Get the attention of the prospective employer - Set you apart from any possible competition - Identify the position you are interested in - Specify how you learned about the position or company - Present highlights of your skills and accomplishments - Reflect your genuine interest - Please the eye and ear The following video features Aimee Bateman, founder of Careercake.com, who explains how you can create an incredible cover letter. You can download a transcript of the video here. Cover Letter Resources \| WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| Student Cover Letter Samples (from About Careers) \| This site contains sample student/recent graduate cover letters as well as templates, writing tips, formats, and examples by type of applicant. \| \| How to Write Cover Letters (from CollegeGrad) \| This site contains resources about the reality of cover letters, using a cover letter, the worst use of the cover letter, the testimonial technique, and a cover letter checklist. \| \| Cover Letters (from the Yale Office of Career Strategy) \| This site includes specifications for the cover letter framework (introductory paragraph, middle paragraph, concluding paragraph), as well as format and style. \| Supplemental Material: Interviewing Interviewing If your résumé and cover letter have served their purposes well, you will be invited to participate in an interview with the company or organization you’re interested in. Congratulations! It’s an exciting time, and your prospects for employment are very strong if you put in the time to be well prepared. In this section, we look at how to get ready for an interview, what types of interviews you might need to engage in, and what kinds of questions you might be asked. Preparing Effectively for a Job Interview - Review the Job Description: When you prepare for an interview, your first step will be to carefully read and reread the job posting or job description. This will help you develop a clearer idea of how you meet the skills and attributes the company seeks. - Research the Company or Organization: Researching the company will give you a wider view of what the company is looking for and how well you might fit in. Your prospective employer may ask you what you know about the company. Being prepared to answer this question shows that you took time and effort to prepare for the interview and that you have a genuine interest in the organization. It shows good care and good planning—soft skills you will surely need on the job. - Practice Answering Common Questions: Most interviewees find that practicing the interview in advance with a family member, friend, or colleague eases possible nerves during the actual interview. It also creates greater confidence when you walk through the interview door. In the “Interview Questions” section below, you’ll learn more about specific questions you will likely be asked and corresponding strategies for answering them. - Plan to Dress Appropriately: Interviewees are generally most properly dressed for an interview in business attire, with the goal of looking highly professional in the eyes of the interviewer. - Come Prepared: Plan to bring your résumé, cover letter, and a list of references to the interview. You may also want to bring a portfolio of representative work. Leave behind coffee, chewing gum, and any other items that could be distractions. - Be Confident: Above all, interviewees should be confident and “courageous.” By doing so you make a strong first impression. As the saying goes, “There is never a second chance to make a first impression.” Job Interview Types and Techniques Every interview you participate in will be unique: The people you meet with, the interview setting, and the questions you’ll be asked will all be different from interview to interview. So how can you plan to “nail the interview” no matter what comes up? A good strategy for planning is to anticipate the type of interview you may find yourself in. There are common formats for job interviews, described in detail below. By knowing a bit more about each type and being aware of techniques that work for each, you can plan to be on your game no matter what form your interview takes. Screening Interviews Screening interviews might best be characterized as “weeding-out” interviews. They ordinarily take place over the phone or in another low-stakes environment in which the interviewer has maximum control over the amount of time the interview takes. Screening interviews are generally short because they glean only basic information about you. If you are scheduled to participate in a screening interview, you might safely assume that you have some competition for the job and that the company is using this strategy to whittle down the applicant pool. With this kind of interview, your goal is to win a face-to-face interview. For this first shot, prepare well and challenge yourself to shine. Try to stand out from the competition and be sure to follow up with a thank-you note. Phone or Web Conference Interviews If you are geographically separated from your prospective employer, you may be invited to participate in a phone or online interview instead of meeting face-to-face. Technology, of course, is a good way to bridge distances. The fact that you’re not there in person doesn’t make it any less important to be fully prepared. In fact, you may wish to be all the more “on your toes” to compensate for the distance barrier. Make sure your equipment (phone, computer, Internet connection, etc.) is fully charged and works. If you’re at home for the interview, make sure the environment is quiet and distraction-free. If the meeting is online, make sure your video background is pleasing and neutral, like a wall hanging or even a white wall. One-on-One Interviews The majority of job interviews are conducted in this format—just you and a single interviewer, likely the manager you would report to and work with. The one-on-one format gives you both a chance to see how well you connect and how well your talents, skills, and personalities mesh. You can expect to be asked questions like “Why would you be good for this job?” and “Tell me about yourself.” Many interviewees prefer the one-on-one format because it allows them to spend in-depth time with the interviewer. Rapport can be built. As always, be very courteous and professional. Bring a portfolio of your best work. Panel Interviews An efficient format for meeting a candidate is a panel interview, in which perhaps four to five coworkers meet at the same time with a single interviewee. The coworkers comprise the “search committee” or “search panel,” which may consist of different company representatives such as human resources, management, and staff. One advantage of this format for the committee is that meeting together gives them a common experience to reflect on afterward. In a panel interview, listen carefully to questions from each panelist, and try to connect fully with each questioner. Be sure to write down names and titles, so you can send individual thank-you notes after the interview. Serial Interviews Serial interviews are a combination of one-on-one meetings with a group of interviewers, typically conducted as a series of meetings staggered throughout the day. Ordinarily, this type of interview is for higher-level jobs, when it’s important to meet at length with major stakeholders. If your interview process is designed this way, you will need to be ultra-prepared, as you will be answering many in-depth questions. Stay alert. Lunch Interviews In some higher-level positions, candidates are taken to lunch or dinner, especially if this is a second, or “call back” interview. If this is you, count yourself lucky and be on your best behavior, because even if the lunch meeting is unstructured and informal, it’s still an official interview. Do not order an alcoholic beverage, and use your best table manners. You are not expected to pay or even to offer to pay. But, as always, you must send a thank-you note. Group Interviews Group interviews are comprised of several interviewees and perhaps only one or two interviewers who may make a presentation to the assembled group. This format allows an organization to quickly prescreen candidates. It also gives candidates a chance to quickly learn about the company. As with all interview formats, you are being observed. How do you behave with your group? Do you assume a leadership role? Are you quiet but attentive? What kind of personality is the company looking for? A group interview may reveal this. For a summary of the interview formats we’ve just covered (and a few additional ones), take a look at the following video, Job Interview Guide—10 Different Types of Interviews in Today’s Modern World. Interview Questions For most job candidates, the burning question is “What will I be asked?” There’s no way to anticipate every single question that may arise during an interview. It’s possible that, no matter how well prepared you are, you may get a question you just didn’t expect. But that’s okay. Do as much preparation as you can—which will build your confidence—and trust that the answers will come. To help you reach that point of sureness and confidence, take time to review common interview questions. Think about your answers. Make notes, if that helps. And then conduct a practice interview with a friend, family member, or colleague. Speak your answers out loud. Below is a list of resources that contain common interview questions and good explanations/answers you might want to adopt. \| WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| \| 1 \| 100 top job interview questions—be prepared for the interview (from Monster.com) \| This site provides a comprehensive set of interview questions you might expect to be asked, categorized as basic interview questions, behavioral questions, salary questions, career development questions, and other kinds. Some of the listed questions provide comprehensive answers, too. \| \| 2 \| Interview Questions and Answers (from BigInterview) \| This site provides text and video answers to the following questions: Tell me about yourself, describe your current position, why are you looking for a new job, what are your strengths, what is your greatest weakness, why do you want to work here, where do you see yourself in five years, why should we hire you, and do you have any questions for me? \| \| 3 \| Ten Tough Interview Questions and Ten Great Answers (from CollegeGrad) \| This site explores some of the most difficult questions you will face in job interviews. The more open-ended the question, the greater the variation among answers. Once you have become practiced in your interviewing skills, you will find that you can use almost any question as a launching pad for a particular topic or compelling story. \| Why Should We Hire You From the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Career Management Office, here is a video featuring representatives from recruiting companies offering advice for answering the question “Why should we hire you?” As you watch, make mental notes about how you would answer the question in an interview for a job you really want. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Planning for Your Career. Authored by: Laura Lucas and Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Career Interests Inventory. Provided by: MyZenPath. Located at: https://myzenpath.com/self-discovery/career-interests-inventory/ License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 - Career Paths in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/career-paths-2/. License: CC BY 4.0 - College Majors in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/college-majors-2/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Cover image. Authored by: Samuel Zeller. Provided by: Unsplash. Located at: https://unsplash.com/photos/_es6l-aPDA0. License: CC0: No Rights Reserved - Holland Codes. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Codes. License: CC BY-SA 3.0 - Interviewing in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/interviewing-2/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Networking in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/networking-2/. License: CC BY 4.0 - O*Net Interest Profiler. Provided by: U.S. Department of Labor. Located at: https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip. License: CC BY 4.0 - Professional Skill Building in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/professional-skill-building-2/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Resumes and Cover Letters in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/resumes-and-cover-letters/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Chapter 12: Taking Control of Your Future in College Success. Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - General Assembly Workshop: Job vs. Career: Align your Vision and Define your Goals. Authored by: Shinjini Das. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7NNHXJspU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Stop Trying to Find Your Passion - College Info Geek. Authored by: Thomas Frank. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlosFuyuPpk. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - What Are Soft Skills?. Authored by: John Whitehead. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiy2LONr050. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Why Involvement in College Matters. Provided by: Stephen F. Austin State University. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR7U2lsChgw. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Resume Hacks - How to Make a Resume Stand Out. Authored by: Linda Raynier. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueXJC5Myow. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.137924	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25872/overview", "title": "Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success, Beyond Academics", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25873/overview	Chapter 16: Managing Your Mental (and Physical) Health Overview Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success Chapter 16: Managing your Mental (and Physical) Health Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: - Understand the three key indicators of mental health - Explore practices for achieving and maintaining mental health in your life - Differentiate between good stress and bad stress - Identify sources and symptoms of stress - Understand the impacts of chronic stress on physical and mental health - Recognize and explore strategies for managing stress Managing Your Mental Health Managing Your Mental Health DISCLAIMER: This chapter addresses mental health concerns and is intended for educational purposes. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any mental illness. ACC students in need of mental health services can request an appointment with a Mental Health Counselor. If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling with suicidal thoughts, call 988 (National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), chat 988lifeline.org, or text "HELLO" to the Crisis Text Line (741741). Managing Your Mental Health Knowing how to take care of your mental health when you’re in college is just as important as maintaining your physical health. In fact, there’s a strong link between the two: doctors are finding that positive mental health can actually improve your physical health. Mental health can be defined as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Having good mental health doesn’t necessarily mean being happy or successful all the time. Most people feel depressed, lonely, or anxious now and then. When such feelings or moods persist and interfere with a person’s ability to function normally, though, it may be a sign of a more serious mental health problem, and time to seek help. Mental Health Indicators There are several mental health indicators. Three categories that are useful to frame our mental health include: - Emotional well-being: life satisfaction, happiness, cheerfulness, peacefulness. - Psychological well-being: self-acceptance, personal growth including openness to new experiences, optimism, hopefulness, purpose in life, control of one’s environment, spirituality, self-direction, and positive relationships. - Social well-being: social acceptance, belief in the potential of people and society as a whole, personal self-worth and usefulness to society, and a sense of community. There are also some common-sense strategies that you can adopt to support and improve your emotional, psychological, and social health: - Eat a balanced diet (see supplemental material) - Get enough sleep (see supplemental material) - Get regular physical activity (see supplemental material) - Stay socially connected with friends and family - Make healthy choices about alcohol and drugs - Get help with persistent feelings of depression, loneliness, or anxiety. Identifying and Managing Stress As a student, you’re probably familiar with the experience of stress—a condition characterized by symptoms of physical or emotional tension. It may even feel like stress is a persistent fact of life. What you may not know is that it’s a natural response of the mind and body to a situation in which a person feels challenged, threatened, or anxious. Stress can be positive (the anticipation of preparing for a wedding) or negative (dealing with a natural disaster). While everyone experiences stress at times, a prolonged bout of it can affect your health and ability to cope with life. Your ability to manage stress, maintain healthy relationships, and rise to the demands of school and work all impact your health. Good Stress? Bad Stress? Although stress carries a negative connotation, at times it may be of benefit. Stress can motivate us to do things in our best interests, such as study for exams, visit the doctor regularly, exercise, and perform to the best of our ability at work. Indeed, Hans Selye (1974) pointed out that not all stress is harmful. He argued that stress can sometimes be a positive, motivating force that can improve the quality of our lives. This kind of stress, which Selye called eustress (from the Greek eu = “good”), is a good kind of stress associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and performance. A moderate amount of stress can be beneficial in challenging situations. For example, athletes may be motivated and energized by pregame stress, and students may experience similar beneficial stress before a major exam. Indeed, research shows that moderate stress can enhance both immediate and delayed recall of educational material (Hupbach & Fieman, 2012). Increasing one’s level of stress will cause performance to change predictably. As shown in the Figure below, as stress increases, so do performance and general well-being (eustress); when stress levels reach an optimal level (the highest point of the curve), performance reaches its peak. A person at this stress level is colloquially at the top of their game, meaning they feel fully energized, focused, and can work with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. But when stress exceeds this optimal level, it is no longer a positive force – it becomes excessive and debilitating, or what Selye termed distress (from the Latin dis = “bad”). People who reach this level of stress feel burned out; they are fatigued, exhausted, and their performance begins to decline. If the stress remains excessive, health may begin to erode as well (Everly & Lating, 2002). Good stress is stress in amounts small enough to help you meet daily challenges. It’s also a warning system that produces the fight-or-flight response, which increases blood pressure and heart rate so you can avoid a potentially life-threatening situation. Feeling stressed can be perfectly normal, especially during busy times. It can motivate you to focus on your work, but it can also become so overwhelming you can’t concentrate. It’s when stress is chronic (meaning you always feel stressed) that it starts to damage your body. What Chronic Stress Does to Your Body? Do you find it difficult to concentrate or complete your work? Are you frequently sick? Do you have regular headaches? Are you more anxious, angry, or irritable than usual? Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying awake? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you may be holding on to too much stress. Stress that hangs around for weeks or months affects your ability to concentrate, makes you more accident-prone, increases your risk for heart disease, can weaken your immune system, disrupts your sleep, and can cause fatigue, depression, and anxiety (University of Maryland Medical Center.) You will have stress. Stress is inevitable. How you manage it can make all the difference. Want to learn more about what stress does to your body? Read Stress Effects on the Body by the American Psychological Association. Managing Stress There are many ways to manage stress. Take a look at some of the ideas in the Stress Toolkit figure below. Which ones have you tried? Which ones do you want to try? It’s helpful to have different tools for different situations. For example, a calming yoga pose in your bedroom and deep breathing in the classroom. The most effective strategies for managing stress include taking care of yourself in the following ways: - Maintain perspective. How do you view stressful situations and events (challenge or threat?) and what do you see as your options for coping (effective or ineffective?) impact your stress levels? - Practice mindfulness, deep breathing, meditation, and gratitude. These are some of the most effective ways to manage stress and take care of your emotional health. - Connect socially. When you feel stressed, it’s easy to isolate yourself. Try to resist this impulse and stay connected with others. - Manage social media. Take a break from your phone, email, and social media. - Find support. Seek help from a friend, family member, partner, counselor, doctor, or clergyperson. Having a sympathetic listening ear and talking about your problems and stress really can lighten the burden. - Manage your time. Work on prioritizing and scheduling your commitments. This will help you feel in better control of your life which, in turn, will mean less stress. See Chapter 4 for more on time management. - Take care of your health. Eat well, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep. See the Supplemental Material: Managing Your Physical Health section of this chapter for more information on this. - Avoid drugs and alcohol. They may seem to be a temporary fix to feel better, but in the long run, they can create more problems and add to your stress instead of taking it away. Maintain Perspective One of the most important things you can do is to keep perspective on your stressors. When feeling stressed, ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 100, how stressful a situation is this? Will you even remember this three years from now? When facing potential stressors, the way you view what you're experiencing can intensify your stress or minimize it. A useful way to think about stress is to view it as a process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events that they appraise as overwhelming or threatening to their well-being (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). A critical element of this definition is that it emphasizes the importance of how we appraise—that is, judge—demanding or threatening events (often referred to as stressors); these appraisals, in turn, influence our reactions to such events. Two kinds of appraisals of a stressor are especially important in this regard: primary and secondary appraisals. Primary appraisal involves judgment about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail. A stressor would likely be appraised as a threat if one anticipates that it could lead to some kind of harm, loss, or other negative consequence; conversely, a stressor would likely be appraised as a challenge if one believes that it carries the potential for gain or personal growth. For example, a college student on the cusp of graduation may face the change as a threat or a challenge. The perception of a threat triggers a secondary appraisal: judgment of the options available to cope with a stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be (Lyon, 2012). As you may recall from what you learned about self-efficacy in Chapter 2, an individual’s belief in their ability to complete a task is important (Bandura, 1994). A threat tends to be viewed as less catastrophic if one believes something can be done about it (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Review the figure below to help you understand Primary and Secondary Appraisal. If a person appraises an event as harmful and believes that the demands imposed by the event exceed the available resources to manage or adapt to it, the person will subjectively experience a state of stress. In contrast, if one does not appraise the same event as harmful or threatening, they are unlikely to experience stress. According to this definition, environmental events trigger stress reactions by the way they are interpreted and the meanings they are assigned. In short, stress is largely in the eye of the beholder: it’s not so much what happens to you as it is how you respond (Selye, 1976). Learn more about developing a healthier perspective on stress, by watching this supplemental video from TED Talk: How to Make Stress Your Friend. Mindfulness “We can’t change the world, at least not quickly, but we can change our brains. By practicing mindfulness all of us have the capacity to develop a deeper sense of calm.” - Rick Hanson, author of Resilient When people hear mindfulness, they often think of meditation. While meditation is one method of mindfulness, there are others that may be simpler and easier for you to practice. Deep breathing helps lower stress and reduce anxiety, and it is simple yet very powerful. A daily mindful breathing practice has been shown to reduce test anxiety in college students (Levitin, 2018.) A 2-4-6-8 breathing pattern is a very useful tool that can be used to help bring a sense of calm and to help mild to moderate anxiety. It takes almost no time, requires no equipment, and can be done anywhere: - Start by quickly exhaling any air in your lungs (to the count of 2). - Breathing through your nose, inhale to the count of 4. - Hold your breath for a count of 6. - Slowly exhale through your mouth to the count of 8. - Start round two at Step 2, with an inhale through your nose to the count of 4, hold for 6, and exhale to 8. - Repeat for three more rounds to relax your body and mind. Meditation Dan Harris, a news reporter at ABC, fell into drug use and suffered a major panic attack on national television. Following this embarrassing period in his life, he learned to meditate and found that it made him calmer and more resilient. He’s now on a mission to make meditation approachable to everyone. Dan used to be a skeptic about meditation but now says that if he learned to meditate, anyone can learn to meditate! Dan reminds us that we ARE going to get lost, and our mind IS going to stray, and that’s ok. Simply notice when you’re lost and start over. Every time your mind strays and you start over, it is like a bicep curl for your brain. Start with 3 minutes and slowly work your way up to 15 or 20. Watch the video Dan Harris' Panic Attack (and Discovery of Meditation) to learn more about his experience. To help you get started with a meditation practice, visit the Mindfulness Meditations from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center for some helpful guides. There are also meditation apps including Insight Timer, CALM, and Headspace. Gratitude People often think that external factors bring us joy and happiness when it’s all related to internal work. According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, “Having an attitude of gratitude changes the molecular structure of the brain, and makes us healthier and happier. When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant” (Lundstand, Smith, and Layton, 2010). Numerous studies show that people who count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. In a UC Berkeley study, researchers recruited 300 people who were experiencing emotional or mental health challenges and randomly divided them into three groups. All three groups received counseling services. The first group also wrote a letter of gratitude every week for three weeks. The second group wrote about their thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group received only counseling. The people in the group who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health for up to 12 weeks after the writing exercise ended. This suggests that a healthy emotional self-care practice is to take note of good experiences or when you see something that makes you smile. Think about why the experience feels so good. According to Rick Hanson, author of Resilient, “Each day is strewn with little jewels. The idea is to see them and pick them up. When you notice something positive, stay with the feeling for 30 seconds. Feel the emotions in your whole body. Maybe your heart feels lighter or you’re smiling. The more you can deepen and lengthen positive experiences the longer those positivity neurons in your brain are firing—and the longer they fire the stronger the underlying neural networks become. Repeat that process a half dozen times a day and you’ll feel stronger, more stable and calmer within a few weeks.” Connect Socially Relationships are key to happy and healthy lives. According to Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, people with the best health outcomes were people who “leaned into relationships, with family, with friends, with community.” Research has shown that friends provide a sense of meaning or purpose in our lives and that having a healthy social life is important to staying physically and mentally healthy. In a meta-analysis of the research results from 148 studies of over 300,000 participants, researchers found that social relationships are important in improving our lifespan. Social support has been linked to lower blood pressure and better immune system functioning. The meta-analysis also showed that social support operates on a continuum: the greater the extent of the relationships, the lower the health risks” (Lundstand, Smith, and Layton, 2010). The quality of relationships is important. What makes a relationship healthy? Relationships come in many forms: romantic partners, family, friends, coworkers, team members, and neighbors. Think of a relationship where you have mutual respect and trust, support each other in tough times, celebrate the good times, and communicate with ease and honesty. This is a healthy relationship. Do you have someone in mind? On the other hand, if communication is often tense or strained, confidences are broken, or you don’t feel listened to, appreciated, or valued, these are signs of an unhealthy relationship. Unhealthy relationships can have both immediate and longer-term health impacts. If you are unhappy in a relationship, try to improve the relationship, or end it. Take a moment to assess the health of your relationships. Who are the people who make you smile, who boost your confidence, who truly listen when you need to talk, and who want only the best for you? Investing in these relationships is likely to make you happier and healthier. Self-Care helps you bring your best self to relationships. Healthy relationships start with healthy individuals. Self-care includes taking good care of yourself and prioritizing your own needs. It involves activities that nurture and refuel you, such as taking a walk in the woods, reading a good book, going to a yoga class, attending a sporting event, or spending time with friends. Effective time management can also be a form of self-care as it reduces stress. When you take care of yourself, you will be able to bring your best self to your relationships. An important dynamic you bring to any relationship is how you feel about yourself. Self-esteem refers to how much you like or “esteem” yourself—to what extent you believe you are a good and worthwhile person. Healthy self-esteem can significantly improve your relationships. While low self-esteem may not keep us from being in relationships, it can act as a barrier to healthy relationships. Community belonging is important for connection. What communities do you belong to? A group of classmates? A sports team? A spiritual community? A club or people you volunteer with? When you start seeing the social circles you connect to as communities and prioritize your time to develop more closeness with those communities, you will experience many physical, mental, and emotional health benefits. According to a 2018 report from the American College Health Association, in a 12-month period, 63 percent of college students have felt very lonely. If you are feeling lonely or having a hard time making friends, know that the majority of people around you have also felt this way. Joining a group or a club of people who share your interests and passions is one of the best ways to make great friends and stay connected. Manage Social Media Psychological or behavioral dependence on social media platforms can result in significant impairment in an individual's function in various life domains over a prolonged period. This and other relationships between digital media use and mental health have been considerably researched, debated, and discussed among experts in several disciplines, and have generated controversy in medical, scientific, and technological communities. Research suggests that it affects women and girls more than boys and men and that it varies according to the social media platform used. Such disorders can be diagnosed when an individual engages in online activities at the cost of fulfilling daily responsibilities or pursuing other interests, and without regard for the negative consequences. Problematic social media use can result in preoccupation and compulsion to excessively engage in social media platforms despite negative consequences. Problematic social media use is associated with mental health symptoms, such as anxiety and depression in children and young people. Social media allows users to openly share their feelings, values, relationships, and thoughts. With the platform social media provides, users can freely express their emotions. However, not all is great with social media. It can also be used as a platform for discrimination and cyberbullying. Discrimination and cyberbullying are more prevalent online because people have more courage to write something bold rather than to say it in person. There is also a strong positive correlation between social anxiety and social media usage. The defining feature of social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation. The pros and cons of social media are heavily debated; although using social media can satisfy personal communication needs, those who use them at higher rates are shown to have higher levels of psychological distress. Watch this supplemental video by Thomas Frank on How to Break Your Social Media Addiction. Complete Section #2: ACTIVITY: Stress Management Plan Mental Health Support DISCLAIMER: This section briefly covers anxiety, depression, and suicidal behaviors. It concludes with information about readily available mental health supports and resources. It is intended for educational purposes. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any mental illness. ACC students in need of mental health services can request an appointment with a Mental Health Counselor. If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling with suicidal thoughts, call 988 (National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), chat 988lifeline.org, or text "HELLO" to the Crisis Text Line (741741). Not surprisingly, many of the stress management approaches above are also recommended for supporting good mental health. If the approaches listed above are not enough and stress or other challenges are interfering with your mental health, reach out to college mental health counselors, therapists in the community, or national resources that are available 24/7. According to a 2018 report from the American College Health Association, in a 12-month period, 63 percent of college students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety and 42 percent reported that they felt so depressed it was difficult to function. Anxiety People with anxiety disorders respond to certain objects or situations with fear and dread. They have physical reactions to those objects, such as rapid heartbeat and sweating. An anxiety disorder is diagnosed if a person has an inappropriate response to a situation, cannot control the response, and/or has an altered way of life due to anxiety. Depression Depression is a common but serious mood disorder that’s more than just a feeling of “being down in the dumps” or “blue” for a few days. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working. Here are some potential signs of depression: - Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood - Feelings of hopelessness, or pessimism - Irritability - Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness - Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities - Decreased energy or fatigue - Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping - Appetite and/or weight changes Suicidal Behaviors People who contemplate suicide often experience a deep feeling of hopelessness. They often don’t feel they can cope with challenging life events. In the moment, they often cannot identify or access solutions to problems. Most survivors of suicide attempts go on to live wonderful, full lives. Warning Signs These are some of the warning signs to help you determine if a friend or loved one is at risk for suicide, if someone you know is showing one or more of the following behaviors get help immediately. If you think someone is in immediate danger, do not leave them alone — stay there and call 988 or 911. - Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves - Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun - Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live - Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain - Talking about being a burden to others - Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs - Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly - Sleeping too little or too much - Withdrawing or isolating themselves - Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge - Extreme mood swings 24/7 Support Help is available all day, every day, for anyone who might be in crisis. Crisis centers provide invaluable support at the most critical times. If you or someone you know has warning signs of suicide, get help as soon as possible. Family and friends are often the first to recognize any warning signs and can help take the first step in finding treatment. - Call 988 (National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) - Chat 988lifeline.org - Text "HELLO" to the Crisis Text Line (741741) - OK2TALK is a community for young adults struggling with mental health conditions that offers a safe place to talk - ACC students in need of mental health services can request an appointment with a Mental Health Counselor KEY TAKEAWAYS - Emotional well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being are indicators of mental health. - Stress can be a positive, motivating force that can improve the quality of our lives. This type of good stress is known as eustress and is associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and performance. - Distress occurs when stress is excessive and debilitating. People experiencing distress feel burned out; they are fatigued, exhausted, and their performance begins to decline. - Chronic stress affects your ability to concentrate and manage your emotions, makes you more accident-prone, increases your risk for heart disease, can weaken your immune system, disrupt your sleep, and can cause fatigue, depression, and anxiety. - It’s important to learn and use a variety of healthy stress management strategies to stay mentally and physically healthy. - Most people feel depressed, lonely, or anxious now and then. If these symptoms persist, engage in practices to restore mental health and emotional balance in your life and seek help if necessary. Supplemental Material: Managing Your Physical Health Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the six components of the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate - Differentiate between the health effects of consuming whole foods versus processed and fast foods - Understand the benefits of staying well hydrated and the signs of dehydration - Recognize the benefits to physical and mental health from staying physically active - Distinguish the three main types of exercise and understand how much of each type we need per week for optimal health benefits - Identify the benefits of getting sufficient quantity and quality of sleep each night and how insufficient sleep can negatively affect our physical and mental health - Discover steps one can take to improve sleep quality and quantity Managing Your Physical Health Healthy Eating “Healthy eating is a way of life, so it’s important to establish routines that are simple, realistic, and ultimately livable.” – Horace While it’s not the only thing that contributes to great health, what you eat makes a huge difference. We have 37 trillion cells in our bodies. The only way they function optimally is with good nutrition. As a college student, you may be tempted to stop for fast food on your way to school or work. The downside of fast food is that it is often loaded with sugar, salt, or both. In addition, it is often low in essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Here at Austin Community College, you and your family can receive groceries at no cost through ACC's partnerships with Central Texas Food Bank's (CTFB) mobile food distributions and other community partner food access opportunities. ACC-hosted food access events will be updated on this schedule. Apply for ongoing federal benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Women, Infants & Children (WIC) with the help of ACC's trained Student Advocacy Center specialists or schedule an appointment with CTFB. (Spanish language link: Apoyo con SNAP aplicación por CTFB.) Check ACC’s Food Access Calendar for help finding food when you need it, and where you need it. Healthy Eating Plate Nutritionists at Harvard University created The Healthy Eating Plate, which is based on what they consider to be the best available science. Half the plate is vegetables and fruit. Aim for eight servings of veggies or fruits a day, more veggies than fruits. The plate also includes whole grains, healthy protein, healthy plant oils, and water. Healthy eating also includes choosing organic fruits and vegetables when possible. By choosing organic, you help lower the number of toxins your body encounters (since conventional fruits and vegetables are often sprayed with pesticides). When shopping for groceries, the Dirty Dozen List provided by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a good guide on which produce is most important to eat organic, as these are the fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residue. The EWG also compiles a Clean 15 list of the vegetables and fruits with the least amount of pesticides. Watch this supplemental video by Foodie on What is a Healthy Eating Plate. Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods The average American eats 62 percent of their daily calories from processed foods. (Adams, n.d.) For your body to be as healthy as possible, it’s important to include a lot of whole foods in your diet. Whole foods supply the needed vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber that are essential to good health. Commercially prepared and fast foods are often lacking nutrients and often contain inordinate amounts of sugar, salt, and saturated and trans fats, all of which are associated with the development of diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, and other illnesses (Klees, 2022). Examples of whole foods include the following: - Vegetables: Carrots, broccoli, kale, avocados, cauliflower, spinach, peppers - Fruits: Apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, melons, peaches - Grains: Brown rice, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, millet - Beans: Black, pinto, kidney, black-eyed peas, chickpeas Minimize non-whole foods. These are foods that have been processed, such as cookies, hot dogs, chips, pasta, deli meat, and ice cream. Even seemingly healthy foods like yogurt, granola, and protein bars may be highly processed and should be checked for added sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. What You Drink What is your go-to drink when you are thirsty? Soda? Juice? Coffee? How about water? Most of your blood and every cell in your body is composed of water. In fact, water makes up 60 to 80 percent of our entire body mass, so when we don’t consume enough water, all kinds of complications can occur. Proper hydration is key to overall health and well-being. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Dehydration is when your body does not have as much water and fluids as it needs. Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic discovered that mild dehydration (as little as losing 1 to 2 percent of body water) can impair cognitive performance (Riebl, 2013). Water increases energy and relieves fatigue, promotes weight loss, flushes toxins, improves skin complexion, improves digestion, and is a natural headache remedy (your brain is 76 percent water). Headaches, migraines, and back pains are commonly caused by dehydration. Your body will also let you know it needs water by messaging through muscle cramps, achy joints, constipation, dry skin, and of course a dry mouth. One of the best habits you can develop is to drink a large glass of water first thing in the morning. Your body becomes a little dehydrated as you sleep. Drinking water first thing in the morning allows your body to rehydrate, which helps with digestion. It also helps to eliminate the toxins your liver processed while you slept. Watch this supplemental video by ActiveBeat on 8 Benefits of Staying Hydrated. Staying hydrated is important to keep your body healthy, energized, and running properly. As a general guideline, aim to drink eight glasses of water a day, although a more helpful guide is to drink half your body weight in ounces (for example, if you weigh 150 lb, try to drink 75 oz of water a day). One of the best ways to remind yourself to drink throughout the day is to buy a reusable bottle and bring it everywhere you go. There are two reasons to use a refillable water bottle instead of a plastic bottle: - Your own health. Most plastic water bottles have a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is added to plastics to make them more durable and pliable. BPA is known to disrupt hormones. - The health of the planet. Do you know that every time you drink from a plastic water bottle and casually toss it in the trash, it can stay on the planet for approximately 450 years? (Wright et al, 2018) Even when you recycle, the complex nature of recycling doesn’t guarantee your plastic bottle will make it through the process. Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, averaging 13 bottles a month for each of us. By using a reusable water bottle, you can save an average of 156 plastic bottles annually (Earth Day, 2022). “But I don’t like the taste of water!” It may take time, but eventually, you will. Add a little more each day, and eventually your body will feel so fantastic fully hydrated that you will have water cravings. In the meantime, you can add lemon, lime, berries, watermelon, cucumbers, or whatever taste you enjoy that will add a little healthy flavor to the water. While water is undeniably the healthiest beverage you can drink, it is unrealistic to assume that is all you will drink. Be careful to minimize your soda intake, as most sodas are loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners (which can be even worse than sugar). And unless you are squeezing your own fruit juice, you are also likely drinking a lot of sugar. Many fruit juices sold in supermarkets contain only a small percentage of real fruit juice and have added sugar and other unhealthy sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup. A 12-oz glass of orange juice can contain up to 9 teaspoons of sugar, about the same as a 12-oz can of Coke! Hot or cold herbal teas are a wonderful addition to your diet. Exercise and Physical Fitness Exercise is good for both body and mind. Indeed, physical activity is almost essential for good health and student success. The physical benefits of regular exercise include the following: - Improved fitness for the whole body, not just the muscles - Greater cardiovascular fitness and reduced disease risk - Increased physical endurance - Stronger immune system, providing more resistance to disease - Lower cholesterol levels, reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease - Lowered risk of developing diabetes - Weight maintenance or loss - Lowering the risk of premature death - Slowing or reversing the decline of muscle mass, bone density, and strength with aging - Reducing the stiffness and loss of balance that can accompany aging - Lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes - Increasing sensitivity to insulin for individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes Perhaps more important to students are the mental and psychological benefits: - Stress reduction - Improved mood, with less anxiety and depression - Improved cognitive functioning and ability to focus mentally - Better sleep - Feeling better about oneself For all of these reasons, it’s important for college students to regularly exercise or engage in physical activity. Like good nutrition and getting enough sleep, exercise is a key habit that contributes to overall wellness that promotes college success. The following supplemental video, Exercise and the Brain by WellCast, explains why and challenges you to give it a try. As a busy college student, you may be thinking, I know this, but I don’t have time! I have classes and work and a full life! What you may not know is that—precisely because you have such a demanding, possibly stressful schedule—now is the perfect time to make exercise a regular part of your life. Getting into an effective exercise routine now will not only make it easier to build healthy habits that you can take with you into your life after college, but it can help you be a more successful student, too. As you’ll see in the section on brain health, below, exercise is a powerful tool for improving one’s mental health and memory—both of which are especially important when you’re in school. The good news is that most people can improve their health and quality of life through a modest increase in daily activity. You don’t have to join a gym, spend a lot of money, or even do the same activity every time—just going for a walk or choosing to take the stairs can make a difference. What Type and How Much Exercise to Do Physical fitness is a state of well-being that gives you sufficient energy to perform daily physical activities without getting overly tired or winded. It also means being in good enough shape to handle unexpected emergencies involving physical demands—that is, if someone said, “Run for your life!” or you had to rush over and prevent a child from falling, you’d be able to do it. There are many forms of exercise—dancing, rock climbing, walking, jogging, yoga, bike riding, you name it—that can help you become physically fit. The major types are described below. Aerobic exercise increases your heart rate, works your muscles, and raises your breathing rate. For most people, it’s best to aim for at least 150 minutes per week of low-intensity activities such as walking, or at least 75 minutes per week of high-intensity activities such as running, spread out throughout the week (Office of Disease Prevention, 2021). If you haven’t been very active recently, you can start with five or ten minutes a day and work up to more time each week. Or, split up your activity for the day: try a brisk ten-minute walk after each meal. Strength training helps build strong bones and muscles and makes everyday chores like carrying heavy backpacks or grocery bags easier. Do muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week. (Office of Disease Prevention, 2021) When you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories, even at rest. You could join a strength training class or lift weights at home. Flexibility exercises, also called stretching, help keep your joints flexible and reduce your risk of injury during other activities. A good time for flexibility exercise is after cardio or strength exercise when your muscles are warm. Do stretching at least 2-3 times a week. You’ll get even more benefits by stretching daily. Hold each stretch for 10-30 seconds, and repeat for a total of 60 seconds for each major muscle group. Check to see if your college offers yoga, stretching, and/or Pilates classes, and give one a try (Garber, et al, 2011). In addition to formal exercise, there are many opportunities to be active throughout the day. Being active helps burn calories. The more you move around, the more energy you will have. You can increase your activity level by walking or bicycling instead of driving when possible, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, doing some house or yard work every day, or by parking a little farther from your destination. Watch this supplemental video from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion for some tips on how to get motivated to exercise. If you still aren’t persuaded, check out this slightly longer but excellent TEDx Talk, which describes how aerobic exercise can improve your cognitive functioning, memory, and creativity: Sleep A great night’s sleep begins the minute you wake up. The choices you make throughout the day impact how quickly you fall asleep, whether you sleep soundly, and whether your body can complete the cycle of critical functions that only happen while you sleep. With sufficient sleep, it is easier to learn, remember what you learned, and have the necessary energy to make the most of your college experience. Without sufficient sleep, it is harder to learn, remember what you learned, and have the energy to make the most of your college experience. It’s that simple. What Happens When We Sleep? Sleep is a time when our bodies are quite busy repairing and detoxifying. While we sleep, we fix damaged tissue, toxins are processed and eliminated, hormones essential for growth and appetite control are released and restocked, and energy is restored. Sleep is essential for a healthy immune system. How many colds do you catch a year? How often do you get the flu? If you are often sick, you do not have a healthy immune system, and sleep deprivation may be a key culprit. A review of hundreds of sleep studies concluded that most adults need around eight hours of sleep to maintain good health. Some people may be able to function quite well on seven, and others may need closer to nine, but as a general rule, most people need a solid eight hours of sleep each night. And when it comes to sleep, both quantity and quality are important. A healthy amount of sleep has the following benefits: - Improves your mood during the day - Improves your memory and learning abilities - Gives you more energy - Strengthens your immune system - Promotes wellness of body, mind, and spirit Sleep helps you think more clearly, have quicker reflexes, and focus better. “The fact is, when we look at well-rested people, they’re operating at a different level than people trying to get by on one or two hours less nightly sleep,” says Dr. Merrill Mitler, a sleep expert and neuroscientist at NIH. In contrast, not getting enough sleep over time can lead to a wide range of health issues and student problems. Sleep deprivation can have the following consequences: - Affects mental health and contributes to stress and feelings of anxiety, depression, and general unhappiness - Causes sleepiness, difficulty paying attention in class, and ineffective studying - Weakens the immune system, making it more likely to catch colds and other infections - Increases risk of heart attack and stroke - Impairs cognitive function. Even one night of sleeping less than six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day. - Increases risk of accidents. Sleep deprivation slows your reaction time, which increases your risk of accidents. You are three times more likely to be in a car crash if you are tired. According to the American Sleep Foundation, - Increases risk for weight gain and obesity. Sleep helps balance your appetite by regulating hormones that play a role in helping you feel full after a meal. - Increases risk of cancer. - Increases emotional intensity. The part of the brain responsible for emotional reactions, your amygdala, can be 60 percent more reactive when you've slept poorly, resulting in increased emotional intensity. “Loss of sleep impairs your higher levels of reasoning, problem-solving, and attention to detail,” Mitler explains. Tired people tend to be less productive at work and school. They’re at a much higher risk for traffic accidents. Lack of sleep also influences your mood, which can affect how you interact with others. A sleep deficit over time can even put you at greater risk of developing depression. For more information on the advantages and health risks of sleep watch this supplemental video, a TED Talk called Sleep is Your Superpower by Matt Walker, Ph.D., Director of the Sleep Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep Set a schedule Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. “Sleeping in” on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it resets your sleep cycles for a later awakening. If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body’s internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep. Sleep in a cool, quiet, dark room. Create a sleeping environment that is comfortable and conducive to sleep. If you can control the temperature in your room, keep it cool in the evening. Exposure to bright light suppresses our body’s ability to make melatonin, so keep the room as dark as possible. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room (like from a clock radio LCD screen) can disrupt your internal clock and your production of melatonin, which will interfere with your sleep. A sleep mask may help eliminate light, and earplugs can help reduce noise. Avoid blue light at night, such as from cell phones and computer screens and bluish LED bulbs. There is growing evidence that short-wavelength (blue spectrum) light affects hormonal secretion, thermoregulation, sleep, and alertness. A recent study found that short-wavelength light before bedtime affects circadian rhythm and evening sleepiness, and has further effects on sleep physiology and alertness in the morning. Using a blue light filter on your electronic devices in the evening partially reduces these negative effects (Hohn et al, 2021). Avoid eating late, using nicotine, and drinking alcohol or caffeine close to bedtime. It is best to finish eating at least two hours before bedtime and avoid caffeine after lunch. It’s important to finish eating hours before bedtime so your body can heal and detoxify and it is not spending the first few hours of sleep digesting a heavy meal. While not everyone is affected in the same way, caffeine hangs around for a long time in most bodies. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short-lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back to sleep. Alcohol can also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of the repair and healing. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Start to wind down an hour before bed. There are great apps to help with relaxation, stress release, and falling asleep. Or you can simply practice the 2-4-6-8 breathing pattern explained in the first part of the chapter. Consider the Insight Timer app or any of the free apps listed by the American Sleep Association. Don’t lie in bed awake. If you can’t get to sleep, don’t just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading or listening to music, until you feel tired. Avoid screens, though: watching TV, and being on the computer or a smartphone are too stimulating and will make you more wakeful. Exercise. One of the biggest benefits of exercise is its effect on sleep. A study from Stanford University found that 16 weeks in a moderate-intensity exercise program allowed people to fall asleep about 15 minutes faster and sleep about 45 minutes longer. Walking, yoga, swimming, strength training, jumping rope—whatever it is, find an exercise you like and make sure to move your body every day. Improve your diet. Low fiber and high saturated fat and sugar intake are associated with lighter, less restorative sleep with more wake time during the night. Processed food full of chemicals will make your body work extra hard during the night to remove the toxins and leave less time for healing and repair. KEY TAKEAWAYS - The Harvard Healthy Eating Plate describes how much we should consume each day of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy proteins, healthy oils, and water. - Consuming whole foods versus processed and fast foods provides many benefits for our physical health. - Staying well hydrated is essential for our overall health and well-being. - Regular physical activity provides many benefits for our physical and mental health. - Getting adequate sleep provides many benefits for our mental and physical health and there are a variety of steps we can take to improve our sleep quality and quantity. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Managing Your Mental and Physical Health. Authored by: Pamela Askew, Amber Sarker, Paul Smith, Heather Syrett, and Eva Thomsen. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Anxiety 101 Flyer. Authored by: Taylor Weston. Provided by: OERCommons. Located at: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92428/overview License: CC BY 4.0 - Chapter cover image. Photo by Gabin Vallet. Provided by: Unsplash. Located at: https://unsplash.com/photos/J154nEkpzlQ License: CC0: No Rights Reserved - Exercise in College Success. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/exercise/. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Hydrate Flyer. Authored by: Airman 1st Class Alexi Myrick. Provided by: 442d Fighter Wing Located at: https://www.442fw.afrc.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2002167005/. License: Public Domain. - Mental Health in College Success. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/mental-health/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Provided by: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Located at: https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines. License: Public Domain - Problematic Social Media Use. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problematic_social_media_use. License: CC BY 3.0 - What is Nutritional Balance and Moderation? in Nutrition 100: Nutritional Applications for a Healthy Lifestyle. Authored by: Lynn Klees. Provided by: Penn State. Located at: https://psu.pb.unizin.org/nutr100/. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 - Sleep in College Success. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/sleep/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Stress in College Success. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/stress/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Successful Students Take Control of their Health in A Guide for Successful Students. Authored by: Irene Stewart and Aaron Maisonville. Provided by: Open Library. Located at: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/studyprocaff/chapter/successful-students-take-control-of-their-health/#chapter-37-section-3. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 - Taking Care of Your Emotional Health in College Success. Authored by: Amy Baldwin, et al. Provided by: OpenStax. Located at: https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/11-3-taking-care-of-your-emotional-health. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Stressors in Psychology. Authored by: Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins, Marilyn D. Lovett. Provided by: OpenStax. Located at: https://openstax.org/books/psychology/pages/14-2-stressors License: CC BY-SA 4.0 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - 8 benefits of staying hydrated. Provided by: ActiveBeat. Located at: https://youtu.be/XGeygVl3ReY. License: All Rights .Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Exercise and the brain. Provided by: WellCast Located at: https://youtu.be/mJW7dYXPZ2o. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube. - How to make stress your friend. Authored by: Kelly McGonigal. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://youtu.be/RcGyVTAoXEU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License. - How to break your social media addiction. Authored by: Thomas Frank. Located at: https://youtu.be/QGe_cG3g6kw. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License. - Move your way: Tips for getting motivated. Provided by: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Located at: https://youtu.be/0i1lCNHaxhs. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License. - Healthy Sleep-Healthy Life Series - Video 1: Healthy Sleep. Provided by: AASM Sleep Education. Located at: https://youtu.be/P1mVmRxMMak. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License. - Healthy Sleep - Healthy Life Series-Video 2: Improving your Sleep Provided by: AASM Sleep Education. Located at: https://youtu.be/uckGbixdXgs. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License. REFERENCES - Adams, M. (n.d.). Joel Fuhrham: The Doctor is out There. Men’s Journal. https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/joel-fuhrman-the-doctor-is-out-there-20121107/ - Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 71–81). New York, NY: Academic Press. - Earth Day. (2022). Fact Sheet: Single Use Plastics. https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/#_ftn5 - Everly, G. S., & Lating, J. M. (2002). A clinical guide to the treatment of the human stress response (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing. - Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239. - Garber, C.E., Bilssmer, B., Deschenes, M.R., Franklin, B.A., Lamonte, M.J. Lee, I., Nieman, D.C., & Swain, D.P. (2011). Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Cardiorespiratory, Musculoskeletal, and Neuromotor Fitness in Apparently Healthy Adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: July 2011 - Volume 43 - Issue 7 - p 1334-1359. https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2011/07000/Quantity_and_Quality_of_Exercise_for_Developing.26.aspx - Greater Good Science Center (n.d.). Noticing Nature. https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/noticing_nature - Hupbach, A., & Fieman, R. (2012). Moderate stress enhances immediate and delayed retrieval of educationally relevant material in healthy young men. Behavioral Neuroscience, 126, 819–825. - Höhn, C., Schmid, S. R., Plamberger, C. P., Bothe, K., Angerer, M., Gruber, G., Pletzer, B., & Hoedlmoser, K. (2021). Preliminary Results: The Impact of Smartphone Use and Short-Wavelength Light during the Evening on Circadian Rhythm, Sleep and Alertness. Clocks & Sleep, 3(1), 66–86. https://www.mdpi.com/2624-5175/3/1/5 - Hold-Lunstand, J., Smith, T., & Layton, B. (2010.) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316 - Klees, L.. (2022). Nutrition: 100 Nutritional Applications for a Healthy Lifestyle. Penn State University. - Lyon, B. L. (2012). Stress, coping, and health. In V. H. Rice (Ed.), Handbook of stress, coping, and health: Implications for nursing research, theory, and practice (2nd ed., pp. 2–20). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. - Moran, J. (2013). Pause, reflect and give thanks: the power of gratitude during the holiday. The University of California at Los Angeles. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/gratitude-249167 - Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2021). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines - Riebl S..K., & Davy, B.M. (2017) . The Hydration Equation: Update on Water Balance and Cognitive Performance. ACSMs Health Fit J. 2013 Nov; 17(6):21-28. - Selye, H. (1974). Stress without distress. Philadelphia, PA: Lippencott. - Selye, H. (1976). The stress of life (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.246341	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25873/overview", "title": "Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success, Beyond Academics", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25874/overview	Chapter 17: Diversity and Cultural Competency Overview Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success Chapter 17: Diversity and Cultural Competency Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define diversity and identify many aspects of diversity - Differentiate between surface diversity and deep diversity, and explain the relationship between the two - Define and apply principles of cultural competency - Explore the positive effects of diversity in an educational setting - Define accessibility and identify implications of accessibility on campus and in communities - Identify strategies for responding to instances of prejudice and hate Diversity and Cultural Competency Diversity and Cultural Competency Introduction Ours is a very diverse society—and increasingly so. In this chapter, we’ll look first at some of the ways that people differ and explore the benefits of diversity for our society generally and for the college experience. While we should all celebrate diversity, at the same time we need to acknowledge past issues that grew from misunderstandings of such differences and work together to bring change where needed. What Is Diversity? There are few words in the English language that have more diverse interpretations than diversity. What does diversity mean? Better yet—what does diversity mean to you? And what does it mean to your best friend, your teacher, your parents, your religious leader, or the person standing behind you in a grocery store? As we’ll use the term here, diversity refers to the great variety of human characteristics—ways that we are different even though we are all human and share more similarities than differences. These differences are an essential part of what enriches humanity. Aspects of diversity may be cultural, biological, or personal in nature. Diversity generally involves things that may significantly affect some people’s perceptions of others—not just any way people happen to be different. For example, having different tastes in music, movies, or books is not what we usually refer to as diversity. When discussing diversity, it is often difficult to avoid seeming to generalize about different types of people, and such generalizations can seem similar to dangerous stereotypes. The following descriptions are meant only to suggest that individuals are different from other individuals in many possible ways and that we can all learn things from people whose ideas, beliefs, attitudes, values, backgrounds, experiences, and behaviors are different from our own. This is a primary reason college admissions departments frequently seek diversity in the student body. The following are various aspects of diversity: - Race: Race refers to what we generally think of as biological differences and is often defined by what some think of as skin color. Such perceptions are often at least as social as they are biological. - Ethnicity: Ethnicity is a cultural distinction that is different from race. Ethnic groups share a common identity and a perceived cultural heritage that often involves shared ways of speaking and behaving, religion, traditions, and other traits. The term “ethnic” also refers to such a group that is a minority within the larger society. Race and ethnicity are sometimes interrelated but not automatically so. - Cultural background: Culture, like ethnicity, refers to shared characteristics, language, beliefs, behaviors, and identity. We are all influenced by our culture to some extent. While ethnic groups are typically smaller groups within a larger society, the larger society itself is often called the “dominant culture.” The term is often used rather loosely to refer to any group with identifiable shared characteristics. - Educational background: Colleges do not use a cookie-cutter approach to admit only students with identical academic skills. A diversity of educational backgrounds helps ensure a free flow of ideas and challenges those who might become set in their ways. - Geography: People from different places within the United States or the world often have a range of differences in ideas, attitudes, and behaviors. - Socioeconomic background: People’s identities are influenced by how they grow up, and part of that background involves socioeconomic factors. Socioeconomic diversity can contribute to a wide variety of ideas and attitudes. - Gender roles: Women hold virtually all professional and social roles, including those once dominated by men, and men have taken on many roles, such as raising a child, that were formerly occupied mostly by women. These changing roles have brought diverse new ideas and attitudes to college campuses. - Gender identity: Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex.(Ontario Human Rights Commission.) - Age: While younger students attending college immediately after high school are generally within the same age range, older students returning to school bring a diversity of ages. Because they often have broader life experiences, many older students bring different ideas and attitudes to the campus. - Sexual orientation: Sexual orientation is a personal characteristic that forms part of who you are. It covers the range of human sexuality from lesbian and gay, to bisexual and heterosexual. Exposure to this diversity helps others overcome stereotypes and become more accepting of human differences. - Religion: For many people, religion is not just a Sunday morning practice but a larger spiritual force that infuses their lives. Religion helps shape different ways of thinking and behaving. - Political views: A diversity of political views helps broaden the level of discourse on campuses concerning current events and the roles of government and leadership at all levels. - Physical ability: Some students have athletic talents. Some students have physical disabilities. Physical differences among students bring yet another kind of diversity to colleges—a diversity that both widens opportunities for a college education and also helps all students better understand how people relate to the world in physical as well as intellectual ways. - Neurodiversity: Neurodiversity is a term coined in the 1990s to fight stigma against people with autism, ADHD, and learning differences like dyslexia. It is used to describe the differences in the way people’s brains work. The idea is that there’s no “correct” way for the brain to work. Instead, there is a wide range of ways that people perceive and respond to the world (Child Mind Institute.) These are just some of the types of diversity you are likely to encounter on college campuses and in our society generally. In the following video, students from Juniata College describe what diversity means to them and explain why it’s an important aspect of their college experience. Surface Diversity and Deep Diversity Surface diversity and deep diversity are categories of personal attributes—or differences in attributes—that people perceive to exist between people or groups of people. Surface-level diversity refers to differences you can generally observe in others, like ethnicity, race, age, culture, language, etc. You can quickly and easily observe these features in a person. And people often do just that, making subtle judgments at the same time, which can lead to bias or discrimination. For example, if a teacher believes that older students perform better than younger students, they may give slightly higher grades to older students than younger students. This bias is based on a perception of the attribute of age, which is surface-level diversity. Deep-level diversity, on the other hand, reflects differences that are less visible, like personality, attitude, beliefs, and values. These attributes are generally communicated verbally and non-verbally, so they are not easily noticeable or measurable. You may not detect deep-level diversity in a classmate, for example, until you get to know them, at which point you may find that you are either comfortable with these deeper character levels, or perhaps not. But once you gain this deeper level of awareness, you may focus less on surface diversity. For example, at the beginning of a term, a classmate belonging to a minority ethnic group whose native language is not English (surface diversity) may be treated differently by fellow classmates in another ethnic group. But as the term gets underway, classmates begin discovering the person’s values and beliefs (deep-level diversity), which they find they are comfortable with. The surface-level attributes of language and perhaps skin color become more “transparent” (less noticeable) as comfort is gained with deep-level attributes. Cultural Competency As a college student, you are likely to find yourself in diverse classrooms, organizations, and – eventually – workplaces. It is important to prepare yourself to be able to adapt to diverse environments. Cultural competency can be defined as the ability to recognize and adapt to cultural differences and similarities. It involves “(a) the cultivation of deep cultural self-awareness and understanding (i.e., how one’s own beliefs, values, perceptions, interpretations, judgments, and behaviors are influenced by one’s cultural community or communities) and (b) increased cultural other-understanding (i.e., comprehension of the different ways people from other cultural groups make sense of and respond to the presence of cultural differences).”1 In other words, cultural competency requires you to be aware of your own cultural practices, values, and experiences, and to be able to read, interpret, and respond to those of others. Such awareness will help you successfully navigate the cultural differences you will encounter in diverse environments. Cultural competency is critical to working and building relationships with people from different cultures; it is so critical, in fact, that it is now one of the most highly desired skills in the modern workforce.2 In the following video, representatives from Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care elaborate on the concept of cultural competency: We don’t automatically understand differences among people and celebrate the value of those differences. Cultural competency is a skill that you can learn and improve upon over time and with practice. What actions can you take to build your cultural competency skills? - Acknowledge your own uniqueness, for you are diverse, too. Diversity doesn’t involve just other people. Consider that you may be just as different from other people as they are from you. Don’t think of the other person as being the one who is different, that you are somehow the “norm.” Your religion may seem just as different to them as theirs does to you, and your clothing may seem just as strange-looking to them as theirs is to you—until you accept there is no one “normal” or right way to be. Look at yourself in a mirror and consider why you look as you do. Why do you use the slang you do with your friends? Why did you just have that type of food for breakfast? How is it that you prefer certain types of music? Read certain books? Talk about certain things? Much of this has to do with your cultural background—so it makes sense that someone from another cultural or ethnic background is different in some ways. But both of you are also individuals with your own tastes, preferences, ideas, and attitudes—making you unique. It’s only when you realize your own uniqueness that you can begin to understand and respect the uniqueness of others, too. - Consider your own (possibly unconscious) stereotypes. A stereotype is a fixed, simplistic view of what people in a certain group are like. It is often the basis for prejudice and discrimination: behaving differently toward someone because you stereotype them in some way. Stereotypes are generally learned and emerge in the dominant culture’s attitudes toward those from outside that dominant group. A stereotype may be explicitly racist and destructive, and it may also be a simplistic generalization applied to any group of people, even if intended to be flattering rather than negative. As you have read this chapter so far, did you find yourself thinking about any group of people, based on any kind of difference, and perhaps thinking in terms of stereotypes? If you walked into a party and saw many different kinds of people standing about, would you naturally avoid some and move toward others? Remember, we learn stereotypes from our cultural background—so it’s not a terrible thing to admit you have inherited some stereotypes. Thinking about them is the first step in breaking out of these irrational thought patterns. - Do not try to ignore differences among people. Some people try so hard to avoid stereotyping that they go to the other extreme and try to avoid seeing any differences at all among people. But as we have seen throughout this chapter, people are different in many ways, and we should acknowledge that if we are to experience the benefits of diversity. - Don’t apply any group generalizations to individuals. As an extension of not stereotyping any group, also don’t think of any individual person in terms of group characteristics. People are individuals first, and members of a group second, and any given generalization simply may not apply to an individual. Be open-minded and treat everyone with respect as an individual with their own ideas, attitudes, and preferences. - Develop cultural sensitivity for communication. Realize that your words may not mean quite the same thing in different cultural contexts or to individuals from different backgrounds. This is particularly true of slang words, which you should generally avoid until you are sure the other person will know what you mean. Never try to use slang or expressions you think are common in the cultural group of the person you are speaking with. Similarly, since body language often varies among different cultures, avoid strong gestures and expressions until the responses of the other person signify they will not misinterpret the messages sent by your body language. - Take advantage of campus opportunities to increase your cultural awareness. Your college likely has multiculturalism courses or workshops you can sign up for. Special events, cultural fairs and celebrations, concerts, and other programs are held frequently on most campuses. There may also be opportunities to participate in group travel to other countries or regions of cultural diversity. - Take the initiative in social interactions. Many students naturally hang out with other students they are most like—that almost seems to be part of human nature. Even when we’re open-minded and want to learn about others different from ourselves, it often seems easier and more comfortable to interact with others of the same age, cultural group, and so on. If we don’t make a small effort to meet others, however, we miss a great opportunity to learn and broaden our horizons. Next time you’re looking around the classroom for someone to ask about a class you missed or to study together for a test or group project, choose someone different from you in some way. Making friends with others of different backgrounds is often one of the most fulfilling experiences for college students. - Work through conflicts as in any other interaction. Conflicts simply occur among people, whether of the same or different backgrounds. If you are afraid of making a mistake when interacting with someone from a different background, you might avoid interaction altogether—and thus miss the benefits of diversity. Nothing risked, nothing gained. If you are sincere and respect the other, there is less risk of a misunderstanding occurring. If a conflict does occur, work to resolve it as you would any other tension with another person. Developing your cultural competency will help you be more in tune with the cultural nuances and differences present in any situation. It is also the first step in being able to appreciate the benefits diversity can bring to a situation. Positive Effects of Diversity in an Educational Setting Why does diversity matter in college? It matters because when you are exposed to new ideas, viewpoints, customs, and perspectives—which invariably happens when you come in contact with diverse groups of people—you expand your frame of reference for understanding the world. If you approach diverse settings with cultural competency, you are able to learn about the experiences of others and your thinking becomes more open and global. More than half of all U.S. babies today are people of color, and by 2050 the U.S. will have no clear racial or ethnic majority. By 2050, half the workforce will be a person of color.3 These statistics underscore the importance of cultural competency in an increasingly diverse American society and workforce. When approached with an open mind and a willingness to learn, diverse environments can produce the following benefits: - Experiencing diversity at college prepares students for the diversity they will encounter for the rest of their lives. Learning to understand and accept people different from ourselves is very important in our world. While many high school students may not have met or gotten to know well many people with different backgrounds, this often changes in college. Success in your career and future social life also requires understanding people in new ways and interacting with new skills. Experiencing diversity in college assists in this process. - Students learn better in a diverse educational setting. Encountering new concepts, values, and behaviors leads to thinking in deeper, more complex, and more creative ways, rather than furthering past ideas and attitudes. Students who experience the most racial and ethnic diversity in their classes are more engaged in active thinking processes and develop more intellectual and academic skills (and have higher grade point averages) than others with limited experience of diversity. - Attention to diversity leads to a broader range of teaching methods, which benefits the learning process for all students. Just as people are different in diverse ways, people from different backgrounds and experiences learn in different ways. College teaching has expanded to include many new teaching techniques. All students gain when instructors make the effort to address the diverse learning needs of all students. - Experiencing diversity on campus is beneficial for both minority and majority students. Students have more fulfilling social relationships and report more satisfaction and involvement with their college experience. Studies show all students on campus gain from diversity programs. All the social and intellectual benefits of diversity cited in this list hold true for all students. - Diversity experiences help break the patterns of segregation and prejudice that have characterized American history. Discrimination against others—whether by race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or anything else—is rooted in ignorance and sometimes fear of people who are different. Getting to know people who are different is the first step to accepting those differences, furthering the goal of a society free of all forms of prejudice and the unfair treatment of people. - Experiencing diversity makes us all better citizens in our democracy. When people can better understand and consider the ideas and perspectives of others, they are better equipped to participate meaningfully in our society. Democratic government depends on shared values of equality and the public good. An attitude of “us versus them,” in contrast, does not further the public good or advance democratic government. Studies have shown that college graduates with a good experience of diversity generally maintain patterns of openness and inclusivity in their future lives. - Diversity enhances self-awareness. We gain insights into our own thought processes, life experiences, and values as we learn from people whose backgrounds and experiences are different from our own. Experiencing Diversity on Campus The following essay about experiences of diversity in college is by Fatima Rodriguez Johnson (State University of New York). Even though at first the writer felt like an ethnic outsider in college, she grew in understanding of the importance of diversity on campus and of speaking openly and honestly about connecting with diverse cultures. WHY SO MANY QUESTIONS? I chose to attend a small liberal arts college. The campus was predominately white and was nestled in a wealthy suburb among beautiful trees and landscaped lawns. My stepfather and I pulled into the parking lot and followed the path to my residence hall. The looks we received from most of the families made me feel like everyone knew we didn’t belong. But, he and I greeted all we encountered, smiling and saying, “Hello.” Once I was unpacked and settled into my residence hall, he gave me a hug and said, “Good luck.” I wasn’t sure if he meant good luck with classes or good luck with meeting new friends, but I heard a weight in his voice. He was worried. Had he and my mother prepared me for what was ahead? With excitement, I greeted my roommate who I had already met through the summer Higher Educational Opportunity Program (HEOP). She and I were very happy to see each other. After decorating and organizing our room, we set out to meet new people. We went to every room introducing ourselves. We were pretty sure no one would forget us; it would be hard to miss the only Black and Latina girls whose room was next to the pay phone (yes, in my day each floor shared one pay phone). Everyone on our floor was nice and we often hung out in each other’s rooms. And like some of you, we answered some of those annoying questions: - Why does your perm make your hair straight when ours makes our hair curly? - How did your hair grow so long (whenever we had weave braids)? - Why don’t you wash your hair everyday (the most intriguing question of all)? We were also asked questions that made us angry: - Did you grow up with your father? - Aren’t you scared to take public transportation? - Have you ever seen anyone get shot (because we both lived in the inner city)? It was those questions that, depending on the day and what kind of mood we were in, made a fellow student either walk away with a better understanding of who we were as Black and Latina women or made a fellow student walk away red and confused. I guess that’s why my stepfather said, “Good luck.” He knew that I was living in a community where I would stand out—where I would have to explain who I was. Some days I was really good at answering those questions and some days I was not. I learned the questions were not the problem; it was not asking that was troubling. My roommate and I put forth a lot of effort to fit in with the community—we spent time hanging out with our peers, we ate together almost every evening in the dining hall, and we participated in student organizations. We were invited to join the German Club, and were the only students of color there. In doing all these things we made ourselves approachable. Our peers became comfortable around us and trusted us. Although my peers and I all had similar college stresses (tests, papers, projects, etc.) my roommate and I also had become a student resource for diversity. Not because we wanted to, but because we had too. There were very few students of color on campus, and I think students really wanted to learn about people different from themselves. It was a responsibility that we had accepted. The director of HEOP would often remind us that for many students, college was the first opportunity they had to ask these types of questions. He said we would learn to discern when people were really interested in learning about our differences or insulting us. If someone was interested in insulting us, there was no need to respond at all. Although I transferred to another college at the end of my sophomore year, during those two years I learned a great deal about having honest conversations. Taking part in honest conversations challenged my notions of the world and how I viewed people from all walks of life (race, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc.). Those late nights studying or walks to the student center were when many of us listened to each other’s stories. My advice is to take time to examine your attitudes and perceptions of people different from yourself, put yourself in situations that will challenge your assumptions, and lastly, when you make a mistake do not get discouraged. Keep trying. It’s easy to stay where we are comfortable. College is such a wonderful experience. Take it all in, and I am sure you will enjoy it! —Fatima Rodriguez Johnson, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Accessibility and Diversity on Campus Accessibility is about making education accessible to all, and it’s particularly focused on providing educational support to a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, you can be considered disabled if you meet one of the following criteria: - You have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as seeing, hearing, walking, learning, and others. - You must have a history of such impairment. - Others perceive that you have such impairment. If you meet one of these criteria, you have legal rights to certain accommodations on your campus. At Austin Community College, you can request accommodations from Student Accessibility Services. These accommodations may include, but are not limited to, the following: - Academic accommodations, like alternate format for print materials, classroom captioning, arranging for priority registration, reducing a course load, substituting one course for another, providing note-takers, recording devices, sign language interpreters, access to a TTY (text telephone), and equipping school computers with screen-reading, voice recognition, or other adaptive software or hardware - Exam accommodations, like extended time on exams - Financial support and assistance - Priority access to housing - Transportation and access, like Wheelchair-accessible community shuttles Assistive technologies and Web-accessibility accommodations are critical in today’s technology-driven economy and society. The following are some examples of assistive technologies are the following: - Software like Dragon Naturally Speaking, Kurzweil, Zoom Text, CCTV Magnifier, or Inspiration - Computer input devices, like keyboards, electronic pointing devices, sip-and-puff systems, wands, and sticks, joysticks, trackballs, and touch screens - Other Web-accessibility aids, like screen readers, screen enlargers and magnifiers, speech recognition or voice recognition programs, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) or speech synthesizers The following video from PBS News Hour shares the history of the ADA and explores some of the challenges experienced by people with disabilities. Take a Stand Against Prejudice and Hate Unfortunately, prejudice and hate still exist in America, including on college campuses. Prejudice exists against racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, older adults, and LBGTQ —virtually all groups that can be characterized as “different.” All campuses have policies against all forms of prejudice and discriminatory behaviors. But it is not enough for only college administrators to fight prejudice and hate—this is a responsibility for all good citizens who take seriously the shared American value of equality for all people. So what can you as a college student do? - Decide that it does matter. Prejudice threatens us all, not just the particular group being discriminated against in a specific incident. Don’t stand on the sidelines or think it’s up to the people who may be victimized by prejudice or hate to do something about it. We can all do something. - Talk with others. Communication has great value on campuses. Let others know how you feel about any acts of prejudice or hatred that you witness. The more everyone openly condemns such behavior, the less likely it is to reappear in the future. This applies even if you hear another student telling a racist joke or putting down the opposite sex—speak up and tell the person you find such statements offensive. You don’t want that person to think you agree with them. Speaking up can be difficult to do, but it can be done tactfully. People can and do learn what is acceptable in a diverse environment. - Report incidents you observe. If you happen to see someone spray-painting a hateful slogan, for example, be a good citizen and report it to the appropriate campus office or the police. - Support student groups working for change. Show your support for groups and activities that celebrate diversity and condemn prejudice. Once you become aware of such student activities on campus, you’ll find many ways you can help take a stand. - Celebrate diversity. In many ways, you can learn more about diversity through campus programs and activities. The more all students participate, the closer the campus will come to being free of prejudice and hate. Be a role model in how you act and what you say in relation to diversity, and you may have more effect on others than you realize. Dealing with Prejudice If you yourself experience prejudice or discrimination related to your race or ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or any other aspect of diversity, don’t ignore it or accept it as something that cannot be changed. As discussed earlier, college students can do much to minimize intolerance on campus. Many overt forms of discrimination are illegal and against college policies. You owe it to yourself, first and foremost, to report it to the appropriate college authority. You can also attack prejudice in other ways. Join a campus organization that works to reduce prejudice or start a new group and discuss ways you can confront the problem and work for a solution. Seek solidarity with other groups. Organize positive celebrations and events to promote understanding. Write an article for a campus publication explaining the values of diversity and condemning intolerance. What if you are directly confronted by an individual or group making racist or other discriminatory remarks? In an emotionally charged situation, rational dialogue may be difficult or impossible, and a shouting match or name-calling seldom is productive. If the person may have made an offensive remark inadvertently or because of a misunderstanding, then you may be able to calmly explain the problem with what they said or did. Hopefully, the person will apologize and learn from the experience. But if the person made the remark or acted that way intentionally, confronting this negative person directly may be difficult and not have a positive outcome. Most importantly, take care that the situation does not escalate in the direction of violence. Reporting the incident instead to college authorities may better serve the larger purpose of working toward harmony and tolerance. KEY TAKEAWAYS - Diversity refers to a great variety of human characteristics and ways in which people differ. - Surface-level diversity refers to characteristics you can easily observe, while deep-level diversity refers to attributes that are not visible and must be communicated in order to understand. - Cultural competency is the ability to recognize and adapt to cultural differences and similarities. - Diverse environments expose you to new perspectives and can help deepen your learning. - Accessibility is about making the necessary accommodations so that education is accessible to all students. - Although we would hope that all college campuses would be free of hate and discrimination, it can become necessary to take a stand against prejudice. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Diversity and Cultural Competency. Authored by: Laura Lucas and Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Chapter cover image. Authored by: maxlkt. Provided by: Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/en/hand-united-hands-united-together-1917895/. License: CC0: No Rights Reserved - Diversity and Accessibility in College Success. Authored by: Unknown. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/diversity-and-accessibility/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Gender Identity. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Chapter 9.2: Living with Diversity in College Success. Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Cultural Competency at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. Provided by: UBHC Production Studio. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-h1ZuRXBpg. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License REFERENCES - Bennett, J. M. (2015). "Intercultural Competence Development." The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. - Bennett, J. M. (2015). "Intercultural Competence Development." The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. - "10 Reasons Why We Need Diversity on College Campuses." Center for American Progress. 2016. Web. 2 Feb 2016.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.288240	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25874/overview", "title": "Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success, Beyond Academics", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25875/overview	Chapter 18: Managing Your Money Overview Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success Chapter 18: Managing Your Money Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Establish financial goals - Identify strategies for creating and maintaining a budget - Describe available options for paying for college - Describe the benefits and risks of credit - Develop financial literacy skills to prepare for your financial future Managing Your Money Managing Your Money Introduction What is a chapter on personal finances doing in a book on student success? If you’re a new college student you may not yet have money problems or issues—but most college students soon do. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a “traditional” college student enrolled in college just after high school or a “nontraditional” student returning to school. If you are living away from home for the first time, you may have less experience setting and sticking to a budget and handling money in general. If you have been working and/or have started a family, you will likely face the challenges of new expenses and additional demands on your time. Almost everyone eventually has money issues in college, and they can impact your academic success. Money problems are stressful and can keep you from concentrating on your studies. Unfortunately, money problems cause many students to drop out of college entirely. But it doesn’t have to be this hard. Like other skills, financial skills can be learned, and they have lifelong value. Austin Community College is fortunate to have the Student Money Management Office available as a resource for students. They offer workshops, Peer Money Mentors, a helpful website with online budgeting tools, and even one-on-one financial coaching. Throughout this chapter, there will be links to resources from the Student Money Management Office. Financial Goals Whatever it is you plan to do in your future, whether work or other activities, your financial goals in the present should be realistic to enable you to fulfill your plan. Consider these scenarios: Destiny entered college planning to major in business. Her family was not able to give her much financial support, but she chose to attend an expensive private college because she thought it would help her get into a good graduate business school. She had to take large loans to pay her tuition, but she wasn’t concerned about a budget because she assumed she’d make a lot later on and be able to easily pay off the loans. Yet when she graduated and had to begin making payments on her private bank loans, she discovered she couldn’t afford to go straight to business school after all. She put her dream on hold for a few years and took a job she didn’t much like. Jorge had worked a few years after high school but finally decided that he needed a college degree to get the kind of job he wanted. He was happy with his life otherwise and kept his nice apartment and car and enrolled in a couple of night classes while continuing to work full-time during the day. He was surprised at how much he had to study, however, and after a couple of months, he felt he was struggling. He just didn’t have enough time to do it all—so he dropped first one class and then, a couple of weeks later, the other. He told himself that he’d try it again in a year or two, but part of him wondered how anyone could ever get through college while working. What Destiny and Jorge have in common is a conflict between their financial goals and realities. Both were motivated to succeed in college, and both had a vision for their future. But both were unsuccessful in finding ways to make their dreams come true—because of money issues. Could they have done things differently? Maybe Destiny could have gone to a less expensive school and still reached her goal, or maybe she could have avoided such heavy student loans by working summers and part-time during the school year. Maybe Jorge could have reduced his living expenses and cut back his work hours to ensure he could balance school and work better. Maybe both were spending thousands of dollars a year on things they could have done without if only they’d thought through their goals and learned to live within a budget. Taking control of your personal finances begins with thinking about your goals and deciding what really matters to you. Here are some things to think about: - Is it important for you to graduate from college without debt? Is it acceptable to you, or necessary, to take some student loans? - What are your priorities for summers and other “free time”? Working to earn money? Taking nonpaying internships or volunteering to gain experience in your field? Enjoying social activities and time with friends? - How important is it to take a full load of classes so that your college education does not take longer than necessary? - How important is it to you to live in a nice place, drive a nice car, wear nice clothes, or eat in nice restaurants? How important in comparison to your educational goals? There are no easy answers to such questions. Since you will have to make choices, it’s important first to think about what really matters to you—and what you’re willing to sacrifice for a while in order to reach your goals. The following strategies can help you set financial goals for yourself: - Create SMART goals: SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. These kinds of goals are more manageable and can help you reach your final target more easily. For example, instead of setting a broad, vague goal of “paying for college,” you might set a goal of paying off your two college loans five years after you graduate. This more specific, measurable goal can help you keep track of your progress and whether you need to make changes to reach it. - Monitor your spending: Try keeping track of what you spend money on during a one-month period. This can help you see where your money goes and where you may be able to save. - Create a budget: Based on what you discovered after monitoring your spending, create a monthly budget you can stick to. While some expenses, such as food and transportation, are necessary, you may find that you can save money on both by riding a bike (instead of driving) to school and eating out in restaurants less. - Consider working: Some students have full-time jobs while attending college, whereas others may not have a lot of time to work if they’re taking a full academic load. You will find information later in this chapter on how to decide if working while in school is right for you. - Choose loans wisely: Many college students need some sort of financial support through loans. While loans are a good way to pay for tuition upfront if you don’t have the money, remember that they accrue interest until you pay them off. That means that you will end up paying back more—in some cases, thousands of dollars more—than you initially borrowed. Make sure you investigate and apply for as many scholarships and grants as you can since they won’t need to be repaid, and shop around for the loans with the lowest interest rates and best repayment plans. Check with the financial aid office on your college campus—they can provide additional help. Budgeting A budget is simply the best way to balance the money that comes in with the money that goes out. In this section, we will review common expenses and sources of income for college students and discuss ways to balance these in a budget that works for you. Expenses There are certain financial obligations most college students have to pay for. Common examples include: - Tuition: This includes the price of attending an institution. Students pay relatively more or less for this based on where they are going to school and how many credits they are taking. - Room and board: These are essential “food and shelter” costs. Many college students live in a dorm and eat their meals on campus. Students who live off-campus will have to pay for comparable things, like renting an apartment and buying their own groceries. - Books and supplies: These include books for classes and supplies like notebooks, writing utensils, and calculators. Textbooks are often very expensive, so you may try to find used textbooks for sale. - Transportation: Students typically have some transportation costs, whether it be car insurance, maintenance, gas, or public transportation expenses. - Personal needs: Regardless of where you live, you will need money for things like laundry, cell phone, computer, and going out with friends. This expense can vary a lot depending on personal preferences. Needs Vs. Wants Before you can make an effective budget, you examine your expenses and consider what’s essential and what’s optional. Essential costs are the big things you need to get by: - Room and board or rent/mortgage, utilities, and groceries - College tuition, fees, textbooks, supplies - Transportation - Insurance (health insurance, car insurance, etc.) - Dependent care if needed - Essential personal items (some clothing, hygiene items, etc.) In contrast, “optional” expenses are things you want but could easily get by without. You don’t have to spend money on them, and you can spend more or less on them as you choose. Most people spend by habit, not really thinking about where their money goes or how quickly their spending adds up. If you knew you were spending more than a thousand dollars a year on coffee you buy every day between classes, would that make you think twice? Or another thousand on fast food lunches rather than taking a couple of minutes in the morning to make your lunch? When people actually start paying attention to where their money goes, most are shocked to see how the totals grow. If you can save a few thousand dollars a year by cutting back on just the little things, how far would that go to making you feel much better about your finances? The Price of College Given what you have read so far, what types of expenses do you think you might face as a college student? The following video will help you review the types of college expenses and examine particular costs that are common for both four-year and two-year institutions. Sources of Income Paying for college can be a big challenge. When deciding how to cover the expense, two important sources of income include: - Jobs: Many students work while taking classes to cover their expenses. - Financial Aid: This can come in the form of loans, grants, work-study, or scholarships. Both options can help you finance your education, but both also come with both benefits and potential pitfalls. The next sections look at each of these options in more detail and will help you determine what strategies will be best for you. Working During College: Pros and Cons Finding a job as a college student can help you stay on track financially, but it can also be difficult to balance with your other responsibilities, and it’s not for everyone. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of working during college: Pros - Earning extra money: The money you earn can help cover college expenses. - Enhanced budgeting skills: If you are working, you may learn to budget your money better since you have to earn it yourself. - Enhanced time-management skills: Juggling classes, work, and possibly other activities such as clubs or sports, may actually help you excel in your classes because you learn how to effectively manage your time. - Networking: In addition to work experience in a field related to your interests, you may also meet people who can help you later when you’re ready for a career. Cons - Lack of time-management skills: Though working during college can help build time-management skills, you may struggle if you aren’t used to balancing activities. For example, a student who heads to college straight from high school without any prior job experience (or with few extracurricular activities during high school) may have trouble meeting multiple academic and job obligations and commitments. - Lack of free time: If you take on a lot of work hours while in college, you may not have time for other activities or opportunities, such as joining clubs related to your interests or finding volunteer work or internships that might help you discover career opportunities and connections. These “extras” are actually significant résumé items that can make you more employable after college. Deciding whether or not to work while you’re in college is obviously a personal decision that involves your own comfort level and situation. Some students may prefer to put off looking for a job until after the first semester of college, so they can better gauge their workload and schedule, while others may prefer to avoid working altogether. For some, the question isn’t “Should I or shouldn’t I get a job?” but “How much should I work?” In other words, the challenge is to strike the right balance between schoolwork, social activities, and earning money. The following video shares one student’s experience with the pros and cons of working her way through college. Financial Aid You may already be receiving financial aid or understand what types of financial aid are available. Even if you are not receiving financial aid, however, you should understand the basics because your financial situation may change and you may need help paying for college. You owe it to yourself to learn about potential types of aid you might receive. There are three main categories of financial aid: - Scholarships and grants (money or tuition waivers that do not need to be repaid) - Student loans (money that does need to be repaid, usually starting after graduation) - Work-study programs (money that is earned for tuition or other expenses) Scholarships and Grants Scholarships and grants are “free” money—you do not have to pay them back, unlike student loans. A scholarship is generally based on merit as demonstrated by past grades, test scores, achievements, or experiences, including personal qualifications such as athletic ability, skills in the arts, community or volunteer experiences, and so on. Don’t make the mistake of thinking scholarships go only to students with high grades. Many scholarships, for example, honor those with past leadership or community experience or the promise of future activities. Even the grades and test scores needed for academic scholarships are relative: a grade point average (GPA) that does not qualify for a scholarship from one organization may earn a scholarship from another. Never assume that you’re not qualified for any kind of scholarship or grant. A grant also does not need to be paid back. Most grants are based on demonstrated financial need. A grant may be offered by the college, a federal or state program, or a private organization or civic group. The largest grant program for college students is the federal government’s Pell Grants program. Learn more about Pell Grants and other scholarship and grant programs from your college’s financial aid office or the online resources listed later. Student Loans Many different student loan programs are available for college students. Ideally, one would like to graduate without having loan balances to repay after college. However, almost two-thirds of full-time college students do need student loans to pay for college. With smart choices about the type of loan and a structured repayment program for your working years after graduation, there’s no reason to fear a loan. Just remember that the money eventually has to be repaid—it’s not “free” money even though it may feel that way while you’re in school. All student loans are not the same. Interest terms vary widely, and with most private loans the interest starts building up immediately. The best loan generally is a subsidized federal Stafford loan. “Subsidized” in this case means the interest does not begin on the loan until after graduation. With unsubsidized loans, by contrast, you are responsible for paying interest on the loan even while you are in school, meaning the terms of an unsubsidized loan are less favorable to you as a student. Many colleges and universities have also created additional programs – such as textbooks or childcare assistance or an emergency fund – to support their students facing financial needs. Check with your school’s financial aid office to find out if you qualify for any additional assistance. Work-Study Programs Work-study programs are the third type of financial aid. They are administered by colleges and are a common part of the financial aid package for students with financial needs. You work for what you earn, but work-study programs often have advantages over outside jobs. The college runs the program, so you don’t have to spend valuable time looking for a job. Work-study students usually work on or near campus, and work hours are controlled to avoid interfering with classes and study time. Work-study students are more engaged with the academic community than students working off-campus. Remember the section above that discussed working while in college and be sure to carefully weigh the pros and cons before deciding about a work-study program. As the following video shows, regardless of your background, which college you’re attending, or your time commitment, there are numerous financial aid opportunities for you to consider: Tips for Success: Applying for Financial Aid - Talk to your college’s financial aid office early and get the appropriate forms. - Start your applications early to ensure you make the deadline. If you are eligible, be sure to submit the Free Application for Financial Student Aid (FAFSA)(or TAFSA) to see if you qualify for federal or state student aid. - Do online research to learn about additional private scholarships you may be qualified for. - Evaluate student loans carefully and do not borrow more than you need or can repay without hardship after graduation. Budgeting Strategies Now that we have looked at common college expenses and forms of income, it is time to talk about budgeting. Without a personal budget, most people have a hard time gauging how much money they spend and where their money goes. If you have ever gone to an ATM to withdraw money and been surprised to discover how little you had left in your account, this section is for you. Even if you’re very conscientious about paying your bills on time and generally have frugal spending habits, creating and following a budget can put so much further ahead. In essence, a budget is a plan for how you want to spend money. It details how much money comes in each month and how much you’ve allocated for spending on each thing. The virtue of a budget is that it puts you in control of financial decisions—so you can avoid surprises at the ATM or at the end of the month. Let’s look at some strategies for creating a budget: - Be realistic: People are often intimidated by budgets because they’re afraid the plans will be too strict or force them to cut back too much. Though a budget may reveal that you indeed spend a lot of money on clothes, that’s okay—it may just also need to show that you spend very little on restaurants and eating out to make up for it. Again, it’s about making choices and being realistic. - Choose a timeline: Creating a budget for a fixed period of time will help you monitor whether you’re meeting your financial goals. The timeline you choose is up to you and your goals. For example, you might create a monthly budget to monitor how you spend your paycheck every month. - Add financial padding: Even if you feel like your list of financial obligations is already long, try to set aside a certain amount each month for a “rainy day” fund to pay for unforeseen expenses and emergencies, like car repair, lost textbooks, etc. - Make adjustments as needed: While sticking to your budget is important, there’s nothing wrong with revisiting and adjusting your original targets. For example, if you find that you are actually spending $50 more per month on groceries than you intended (even after shopping for sale items), you may decide to save that money elsewhere in your budget next month—on entertainment, for example. Tracking one’s income and spending is a good exercise for anyone, and if you follow the basic steps, below, it’s easier than you might think: - Calculate regular expenses: Using your bills, receipts, checkbook, and any other financial records you have, make a list of your regular expenses and record how much you typically pay each month or year. Since some expenses like grocery bills may vary from month to month, you’ll want to examine several months’ worth of receipts to come up with an average. - Record your income: Identify all income sources and add up how much you receive during a given period of time. This amount should include all sources of money—from regular full- or part-time work and from intermittent sources, such as freelance jobs, babysitting, etc. - Adjust your expense percentages, and set goals: After you outline your financial obligations and income, you can start by deciding how much money you’d like to allocate for each expense. Start with fixed expenses such as rent, car payments, etc. Next, decide how much you want to devote to each of the remaining categories, such as food and entertainment. At this point, you can also set specific financial goals. For example, you may decide to lower the amount you spend on clothes in order to pay off outstanding credit card debt or save for a trip. - Identify a method for tracking your budget: Develop a plan for monitoring your budget. You might decide to use an Excel or Google spreadsheet, a budgeting app, or a budget tracking tool provided by your bank. You can also write things down in a notebook. The method doesn’t matter, so long as it’s easy for you to access, use, and interpret. Still not convinced that making and following a budget is doable? The following video describes a budgeting technique that’s very easy and straightforward to follow: the “Envelope Budget.” Simply placing cash in labeled envelopes (one for each category or purpose) each month can be a very effective means of building healthy spending habits. PLEASE COMPLETE SECTION #2 BELOW: ACTIVITY: FINANCIAL WELLNESS Credit For many college students, who may not have a lot of money or a job, owning a credit card may seem out of reach. Without money in an account and assurance that you can pay your monthly credit bill, the average student may not seem very “credit-worthy.” Still, it can be important to build a credit history for certain opportunities down the road, such as getting a loan to buy a house. You may be surprised to learn that there are plenty of companies that offer special options for younger customers, especially students. Some good offers to look for include error forgiveness (such as waiving penalties the first time you miss a payment), no extra fees, rewards for good grades, and effective customer service.1 Risks and Rewards of Credit Credit cards can give students new opportunities, but owning them is also a big responsibility. Students should consider the advantages and disadvantages of credit before choosing the best plan. Pros - Saving money: Credit cards can be connected to checking accounts so that companies know where their customers’ money is coming from and they have an account to charge interest rates to. The account can help you practice saving money rather than needing to have a lot of cash on hand. This can make it easier for you to make large payments for things like tuition and unexpected expenses like vehicle maintenance or medical bills. - Receiving benefits: In addition to cashback for good grades, credit card companies may offer other benefits such as store discounts, gas rewards, and points toward air travel. - Building credit: If you pay off your credit card every month on time, you will start building credit and have a good credit score early on. Your credit score can be an important factor later on if you decide to open another account or take out a loan. Some potential employers may even want to see your credit history. Cons - Overspending: If something is out of sight, it may be out of mind, and the same can be true of money. Sometimes people overspend with credit cards because it’s easy to think that you have more money than you really do. - Interest: Credit card companies with student deals still typically include some level of APR or interest rate. If you don’t pay off the entire balance every month, using a credit card can be expensive. Suppose you decide to use your credit card to pay for $1,000 in school supplies and books. Credit card A has an APR of 10 percent, and credit card B has an APR of 24 percent. If it takes you a year to pay off the $1,000, you’d actually pay a total of $1,055.04 with credit card A and $1,134.72 with credit card B—that’s $55 or $135 on top of the original $1,000 you charged! This example highlights the importance of paying off the balance as soon as possible AND of choosing a credit card with a lower interest rate. - Debt: Unlike debit cards, credit cards allow users to borrow money that they can pay back at a later date. While this can be useful in emergency situations, you may end up charging more than you can afford to pay back right away, and you may find yourself saddled with debt. Carrying a lot of debt can damage your credit history and score. Avoiding Debt As we just learned, the temptation to overspend with a credit card and the interest you are charged on your balance can combine to leave you owing more money than you have. Following are tips that will help you avoid slipping into credit card debt: - Pay with cash when you can. Use your budget as a guide for how much cash to carry with you – refer back to the video in this chapter on the envelope budget strategy. - When possible, use a debit card instead of a credit card. A debit card is taken just like a credit card in most places, so you can use it instead of cash, but remember that a purchase is subtracted immediately from your account. Don’t risk overdraft fees by using a debit card when you don’t have the balance to back it up. Record a debit card purchase in your checkbook register as soon as possible. - Make it a priority to pay your balance in full every month. If you can’t pay it all, pay as much as you can—and then remember that balance will still be there, so try not to use the card at all during the next month. - Don’t get cash advances on your credit card. With most cards, you begin paying interest from that moment forward—so there will still be an interest charge even if you pay the bill in full at the end of the month. Cash advance interest rates are often considerably higher than purchase rates. - Don’t use more than one credit card. Multiple cards make it too easy to misuse them and lose track of your total debt. - Get and keep receipts for all credit card purchases. Don’t throw them away because you’ll see the charges on your monthly statement. Write the amounts down in your spending budget. You also need the receipts in case your monthly statement has an error. - Stop carrying your credit card. If you don’t have enough willpower to avoid spontaneous purchases, be honest with yourself. Don’t carry the card at all—after all, the chances of having an emergency need for it are likely to be very small. Having to go home to get the card also gives you a chance to consider whether you really need whatever it is that you were about to buy. Credit History and Credit Reports You begin to establish a credit history as soon as you get your first credit card or get a loan. Everyone needs to understand what a credit history is and how your monetary habits now can affect your future financial well-being and your future options. Credit bureaus collect financial data on everyone. The credit report they issue is a detailed history of many years of your financial habits. It includes the following: - Current and past credit accounts (credit cards and store charge cards) - History of balances and credit payments - History of late or missed payments - Inquiries into your credit status (e.g., if you’ve applied for a number of credit cards, this is recorded even if you did not receive the cards) - Bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure proceedings All this information remains in your credit report for up to seven to ten years. For example, frequent overdrafts on a debit card can prevent you from being approved for a credit card, or late credit card payments can prevent you in the future from obtaining a car loan. What you do today can really come back to haunt you! By law, you’re entitled to one free credit report each year from Annual Credit Report. Although you have to pay extra for your credit score to be included with your credit report, a lot of people use this as a quick reference to gauge how good or bad someone’s credit is. Different companies use slightly different ratings, but 300 or so is considered to be a low credit score, and 700–850 is considered to be high. The following video shows how your credit score is determined and some rules of the road for improving your current credit rating. Resources for Credit Issues Maintaining credit is a big responsibility, and sometimes it can be challenging. Repairing bad credit can take a long time—up to seven years—so it’s important to take action as soon as you’re having trouble paying bills or overspending. Different resources and options are available to help you deal with credit issues, including the following: - Loan consolidation: Students may consider having multiple loans consolidated with the federal government so they have to make only one loan payment per month. While this may give you more time to pay off student loan debt, it may not be the best option, since the one monthly payment can cost more and accrue a higher interest rate. Students should talk to loan company representatives and financial aid resources at their institution to discuss other payment options, such as income-based payments in which the amount you pay each month is based on your income level. - Credit counselors: Credit counselors are trained to help people develop personal budgets and to provide classes on savings and debt solutions. They may also offer debt management plans in which they work with your credit card and loan companies to arrange a deal and ask you for monthly deposits so that they can help you pay off your debts. If you are interested in a consultation from a credit counselor, do your research to find a reputable one who does not charge customers too much for their services to avoid additional debt. - Debt settlement plans: Debt collection companies will offer services to their clients that involve talking to credit card and loan companies and coming up with a plan to pay a lump sum instead of the total debt owed. Similar to finding credit counselors, you should contact local government offices to find reputable debt collection companies so you can avoid overpayments and scams. - Bankruptcy: Bankruptcy is an official status that is obtained through court procedures, and it means you are unable to pay off your debts. Bankruptcy damages your credit score, and the fees for filing paperwork and hiring an attorney can be costly, so it is important to consider other financial solutions first. KEY TAKEAWAYS - Now is the time to identify and begin working toward your financial goals. - Budgeting involves assessing your spending habits to ensure your income will cover your expenses. - Many students work while they are in college; weigh the pros and cons to determine if this is the right decision for you and how you can strike the best balance between working and taking classes. - Financial aid – in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, and/or work study – is available to help you pay for college. - Owning a credit card comes with significant benefits and risks. While it is good practice to begin establishing your credit history, be careful to avoid falling into debt. - Your credit history is tracked by financial institutions and can be used in future determinations about other credit cards, loans, or even in getting a job. Review your credit report regularly to know where you stand and check for errors. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Managing Your Money. Authored by: Laura Lucas. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Budgeting in College Success. Authored by: Jolene Carr. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/budgeting/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Chapter 11: Taking Control of Your Finances in College Success Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0 - Chapter cover image. Authored by: Jay Castor. Provided by: Unsplash. Located at: https://unsplash.com/photos/jZnvn5x08BE. License: CC0: No Rights Reserved - Credit in College Success. Authored by: Jolene Carr. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/credit/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Financial Aid in College Success. Authored by: Jolene Carr. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/financial-aid/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Personal Finance in College Success. Authored by: Jolene Carr. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/personal-finance-needs-alt-text/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Working in College Success. Authored by: Jolene Carr. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/working/. License: CC BY 4.0 REFERENCES 1. Gardon, Michael. "Best Credit Cards for Students in 2016." The Simple Dollar. 10 Feb 2016. Web 12 Feb 2016.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.332254	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/25875/overview", "title": "Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success, Beyond Academics", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66272/overview	Qualifications for Service in the Texas Legislature Overview Qualifications for Service in the Texas Legislature Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the qualifications for service in the Texas State Legislature Introduction This section describes the qualifications for service and terms of office for Texas State Legislators. Qualifications for Service in the Legislature The following are the legal requirements in order for someone to meet the qualifications to become a member of the Texas Legislature. Texas Representative (House) U.S. Citizen 2 years as a resident of Texas 12 months as a resident of their District At least 21 years old 2 year terms with unlimited terms, no term limit Texas Senator - U.S. Citizen - 5 years as a resident of Texas - 12 months as a resident of their District - At least 26 years old - 4-year terms with unlimited terms, no term limit Licenses and Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution Revision and Adaptation: Membership in the Texas Legislature. Authored by: John Osterman. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.354889	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66272/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, The Texas Legislature, Qualifications for Service in the Texas Legislature", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66270/overview	Introduction: The Texas Legislature Overview Introduction: The Texas Legislature Chapter Learning Objective By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: - Outline the function, structure, and responsibilities of the Texas legislature Introduction This chapter examines the Texas State Legislature--the lawmaking branch of Texas government. Licenses and Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution Revision and Adaptation: Introduction to the Texas Legislature. Authored by: John Osterman. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.370727	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66270/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, The Texas Legislature, Introduction: The Texas Legislature", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11833/overview	Work in the United States Overview - Describe the current U.S. workforce and the trend of polarization - Explain how women and immigrants have changed the modern U.S. workforce - Understand the basic elements of poverty in the United States today The American Dream has always been based on opportunity. There is a great deal of mythologizing about the energetic upstart who can climb to success based on hard work alone. Common wisdom states that if you study hard, develop good work habits, and graduate high school or, even better, college, then you'll have the opportunity to land a good job. That has long been seen as the key to a successful life. And although the reality has always been more complex than suggested by the myth, the worldwide recession that began in 2008 took its toll on the American Dream. During the recession, more than 8 million U.S. workers lost their jobs, and unemployment rates surpassed 10 percent on a national level. Today, while the recovery is still incomplete, many sectors of the economy are hiring, and unemployment rates have receded. Real Money, Virtual Worlds If you are not one of the tens of millions gamers who enjoy World of Warcraft or other online virtual world games, you might not even know what MMORPG stands for. But if you made a living playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as a growing number of enterprising gamers do, then massive multiplayer online role-playing games might matter a bit more. According to an article in Forbes magazine, the online world of gaming has been yielding very real profits for entrepreneurs who are able to buy, sell, and manage online real estate, currency, and more for cash (Holland and Ewalt 2006). If it seems strange that people would pay real money for imaginary goods, consider that for serious gamers the online world is of equal importance to the real one. These entrepreneurs can sell items because the gaming sites have introduced scarcity into the virtual worlds. The game makers have realized that MMORPGs lack tension without a level of scarcity for needed resources or highly desired items. In other words, if anyone can have a palace or a vault full of wealth, then what’s the fun? So how does it work? One of the easiest ways to make such a living is called gold farming, which involves hours of repetitive and boring play, hunting, and shooting animals like dragons that carry a lot of wealth. This virtual wealth can be sold on eBay for real money: a timesaver for players who don’t want to waste their playing time on boring pursuits. Players in parts of Asia engage in gold farming and play eight hours a day or more to sell their gold to players in Western Europe or North America. From virtual prostitutes to power levelers (people who play the game logged in as you so your characters get the wealth and power), to architects, merchants, and even beggars, online players can offer to sell any service or product that others want to buy. Whether buying a magic carpet in World of Warcraft or a stainless-steel kitchen appliance in Second Life, gamers have the same desire to acquire as the rest of us—never mind that their items are virtual. Once a gamer creates the code for an item, she can sell it again and again for real money. And finally, you can sell yourself. According to Forbes, a University of Virginia computer science student sold his World of Warcraft character on eBay for $1,200, due to the high levels of powers and skills it had gained (Holland and Ewalt 2006). So should you quit your day job to make a killing in online games? Probably not. Those who work hard might eke out a decent living, but for most people, grabbing up land that doesn’t really exist or selling your body in animated action scenes is probably not the best opportunity. Still, for some, it offers the ultimate in work-from-home flexibility, even if that home is a mountain cave in a virtual world. Polarization in the Workforce The mix of jobs available in the United States began changing many years before the recession struck, and, as mentioned above, the American Dream has not always been easy to achieve. Geography, race, gender, and other factors have always played a role in the reality of success. More recently, the increased outsourcing—or contracting a job or set of jobs to an outside source—of manufacturing jobs to developing nations has greatly diminished the number of high-paying, often unionized, blue-collar positions available. A similar problem has arisen in the white-collar sector, with many low-level clerical and support positions also being outsourced, as evidenced by the international technical-support call centers in Mumbai, India, and Newfoundland, Canada. The number of supervisory and managerial positions has been reduced as companies streamline their command structures and industries continue to consolidate through mergers. Even highly educated skilled workers such as computer programmers have seen their jobs vanish overseas. The automation of the workplace, which replaces workers with technology, is another cause of the changes in the job market. Computers can be programmed to do many routine tasks faster and less expensively than people who used to do such tasks. Jobs like bookkeeping, clerical work, and repetitive tasks on production assembly lines all lend themselves to automation. Envision your local supermarket’s self-scan checkout aisles. The automated cashiers affixed to the units take the place of paid employees. Now one cashier can oversee transactions at six or more self-scan aisles, which was a job that used to require one cashier per aisle. Despite the ongoing economic recovery, the job market is actually growing in some areas, but in a very polarized fashion. Polarization means that a gap has developed in the job market, with most employment opportunities at the lowest and highest levels and few jobs for those with midlevel skills and education. At one end, there has been strong demand for low-skilled, low-paying jobs in industries like food service and retail. On the other end, some research shows that in certain fields there has been a steadily increasing demand for highly skilled and educated professionals, technologists, and managers. These high-skilled positions also tend to be highly paid (Autor 2010). The fact that some positions are highly paid while others are not is an example of the class system, an economic hierarchy in which movement (both upward and downward) between various rungs of the socioeconomic ladder is possible. Theoretically, at least, the class system as it is organized in the United States is an example of a meritocracy, an economic system that rewards merit––typically in the form of skill and hard work––with upward mobility. A theorist working in the functionalist perspective might point out that this system is designed to reward hard work, which encourages people to strive for excellence in pursuit of reward. A theorist working in the conflict perspective might counter with the thought that hard work does not guarantee success even in a meritocracy, because social capital––the accumulation of a network of social relationships and knowledge that will provide a platform from which to achieve financial success––in the form of connections or higher education are often required to access the high-paying jobs. Increasingly, we are realizing intelligence and hard work aren’t enough. If you lack knowledge of how to leverage the right names, connections, and players, you are unlikely to experience upward mobility. With so many jobs being outsourced or eliminated by automation, what kind of jobs are there a demand for in the United States? While fishing and forestry jobs are in decline, in several markets jobs are increasing. These include community and social service, personal care and service, finance, computer and information services, and healthcare. The chart below, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, illustrates areas of projected growth. The professional and related jobs, which include any number of positions, typically require significant education and training and tend to be lucrative career choices. Service jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, can include everything from jobs with the fire department to jobs scooping ice cream (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010). There is a wide variety of training needed, and therefore an equally large wage potential discrepancy. One of the largest areas of growth by industry, rather than by occupational group (as seen above), is in the health field. This growth is across occupations, from associate-level nurse’s aides to management-level assisted-living staff. As baby boomers age, they are living longer than any generation before, and the growth of this population segment requires an increase in capacity throughout our country’s elder care system, from home healthcare nursing to geriatric nutrition. Notably, jobs in farming are in decline. This is an area where those with less education traditionally could be assured of finding steady, if low-wage, work. With these jobs disappearing, more and more workers will find themselves untrained for the types of employment that are available. Another projected trend in employment relates to the level of education and training required to gain and keep a job. As the chart below shows us, growth rates are higher for those with more education. Those with a professional degree or a master’s degree may expect job growth of 20 and 22 percent respectively, and jobs that require a bachelor’s degree are projected to grow 17 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, jobs that require a high school diploma or equivalent are projected to grow at only 12 percent, while jobs that require less than a high school diploma will grow 14 percent. Quite simply, without a degree, it will be more difficult to find a job. It is worth noting that these projections are based on overall growth across all occupation categories, so obviously there will be variations within different occupational areas. However, once again, those who are the least educated will be the ones least able to fulfill the American Dream. In the past, rising education levels in the United States had been able to keep pace with the rise in the number of education-dependent jobs. However, since the late 1970s, men have been enrolling in college at a lower rate than women, and graduating at a rate of almost 10 percent less. The lack of male candidates reaching the education levels needed for skilled positions has opened opportunities for women, minorities, and immigrants (Wang 2011). Women in the Workforce Women have been entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers for several decades. They have also been finishing college and going on to earn higher degrees at higher rate than men do. This has resulted in many women being better positioned to obtain high-paying, high-skill jobs (Autor 2010). While women are getting more and better jobs and their wages are rising more quickly than men's wages are, U.S. Census statistics show that they are still earning only 77 percent of what men are for the same positions (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). Immigration and the Workforce Simply put, people will move from where there are few or no jobs to places where there are jobs, unless something prevents them from doing so. The process of moving to a country is called immigration. Due to its reputation as the land of opportunity, the United States has long been the destination of all skill levels of workers. While the rate decreased somewhat during the economic slowdown of 2008, immigrants, both legal and illegal, continue to be a major part of the U.S. workforce. In 2005, before the recession arrived, immigrants made up a historic high of 14.7 percent of the workforce (Lowell et al. 2006). During the 1970s through 2000s, the United States experienced both an increase in college-educated immigrants and in immigrants who lacked a high school diploma. With this range across the spectrum, immigrants are well positioned for both the higher-paid jobs and the low-wage low-skill jobs that are predicted to grow in the next decade (Lowell et al. 2006). In the early 2000s, it certainly seemed that the United States was continuing to live up to its reputation of opportunity. But what about during the recession of 2008, when so many jobs were lost and unemployment hovered close to 10 percent? How did immigrant workers fare then? The answer is that as of June 2009, when the National Bureau of Economic Research (NEBR) declared the recession officially over, “foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs” (Kochhar 2010). As these numbers suggest, the unemployment rate that year decreased for immigrant workers and increased for native workers. The reasons for this trend are not entirely clear. Some Pew research suggests immigrants tend to have greater flexibility to move from job to job and that the immigrant population may have been early victims of the recession, and thus were quicker to rebound (Kochhar 2010). Regardless of the reasons, the 2009 job gains are far from enough to keep them inured from the country’s economic woes. Immigrant earnings are in decline, even as the number of jobs increases, and some theorize that increase in employment may come from a willingness to accept significantly lower wages and benefits. While the political debate is often fueled by conversations about low-wage-earning immigrants, there are actually as many highly skilled––and high-earning––immigrant workers as well. Many immigrants are sponsored by their employers who claim they possess talents, education, and training that are in short supply in the U.S. These sponsored immigrants account for 15 percent of all legal immigrants (Batalova and Terrazas 2010). Interestingly, the U.S. population generally supports these high-level workers, believing they will help lead to economic growth and not be a drain on government services (Hainmueller and Hiscox 2010). On the other hand, illegal immigrants tend to be trapped in extremely low-paying jobs in agriculture, service, and construction with few ways to improve their situation without risking exposure and deportation. Poverty in the United States When people lose their jobs during a recession or in a changing job market, it takes longer to find a new one, if they can find one at all. If they do, it is often at a much lower wage or not full time. This can force people into poverty. In the United States, we tend to have what is called relative poverty, defined as being unable to live the lifestyle of the average person in your country. This must be contrasted with the absolute poverty that is frequently found in underdeveloped countries and defined as the inability, or near-inability, to afford basic necessities such as food (Byrns 2011). We cannot even rely on unemployment statistics to provide a clear picture of total unemployment in the United States. First, unemployment statistics do not take into account underemployment, a state in which a person accepts a lower paying, lower status job than their education and experience qualifies them to perform. Second, unemployment statistics only count those: - who are actively looking for work - who have not earned income from a job in the past four weeks - who are ready, willing, and able to work The unemployment statistics provided by the U.S. government are rarely accurate, because many of the unemployed become discouraged and stop looking for work. Not only that, but these statistics undercount the youngest and oldest workers, the chronically unemployed (e.g., homeless), and seasonal and migrant workers. A certain amount of unemployment is a direct result of the relative inflexibility of the labor market, considered structural unemployment, which describes when there is a societal level of disjuncture between people seeking jobs and the available jobs. This mismatch can be geographic (they are hiring in California, but most unemployed live in Alabama), technological (skilled workers are replaced by machines, as in the auto industry), or can result from any sudden change in the types of jobs people are seeking versus the types of companies that are hiring. Because of the high standard of living in the United States, many people are working at full-time jobs but are still poor by the standards of relative poverty. They are the working poor. The United States has a higher percentage of working poor than many other developed countries (Brady, Fullerton and Cross 2010). In terms of employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the working poor as those who have spent at least 27 weeks working or looking for work, and yet remain below the poverty line. Many of the facts about the working poor are as expected: Those who work only part time are more likely to be classified as working poor than those with full-time employment; higher levels of education lead to less likelihood of being among the working poor; and those with children under 18 are four times more likely than those without children to fall into this category. In 2009, the working poor included 10.4 million Americans, up almost 17 percent from 2008 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011). Most developed countries such as the United States protect their citizens from absolute poverty by providing different levels of social services such as unemployment insurance, welfare, food assistance, and so on. They may also provide job training and retraining so that people can reenter the job market. In the past, the elderly were particularly vulnerable to falling into poverty after they stopped working; however, pensions, retirement plans, and Social Security were designed to help prevent this. A major concern in the United States is the rising number of young people growing up in poverty. Growing up poor can cut off access to the education and services people need to move out of poverty and into stable employment. As we saw, more education was often a key to stability, and those raised in poverty are the ones least able to find well-paying work, perpetuating a cycle. There is great debate about how much support local, state, and federal governments should give to help the unemployed and underemployed. The decisions made on these issues will have a profound effect on working in the United States. Summary The job market in the United States is meant to be a meritocracy that creates social stratifications based on individual achievement. Economic forces, such as outsourcing and automation, are polarizing the workforce, with most job opportunities being either low-level, low-paying manual jobs or high-level, high-paying jobs based on abstract skills. Women's role in the workforce has increased, although women have not yet achieved full equality. Immigrants play an important role in the U.S. labor market. The changing economy has forced more people into poverty even if they are working. Welfare, Social Security, and other social programs exist to protect people from the worst effects of poverty. Section Quiz Which is evidence that the United States workforce is largely a meritocracy? - Job opportunities are increasing for highly skilled jobs. - Job opportunities are decreasing for midlevel jobs. - Highly skilled jobs pay better than low-skill jobs. - Women tend to make less than men do for the same job. Hint: C If someone does not earn enough money to pay for the essentials of life he or she is said to be _____ poor. - absolutely - essentially - really - working Hint: A About what percentage of the workforce in the United States are legal immigrants? - Less than 1% - 1% - 16% - 66% Hint: C Short Answer As polarization occurs in the U.S. job market, this will affect other social institutions. For example, if midlevel education won’t lead to employment, we could see polarization in educational levels as well. Use the sociological imagination to consider what social institutions may be impacted, and how. Do you believe we have a true meritocracy in the United States? Why, or why not? Further Research The role of women in the workplace is constantly changing. To learn more, check out http://openstaxcollege.org/l/women_workplace The Employment Projections Program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics looks at a ten-year projection for jobs and employment. To see some trends for the next decade, check out http://openstaxcollege.org/l/BLS References Autor, David. 2010. “The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market Implications for Employment and Earnings.” MIT Department of Economics and National Bureau of Economic Research, April. Retrieved February 15, 2012 (http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/5554). Batalova, Jeanne, and Aaron Terrazas. 2010. “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.” Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved February 6, 2012 (http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=818). Brady, David, Andrew Fullerton, and Jennifer Moren Cross. 2010. “More Than Just Nickels and Dimes: A Cross-National Analysis of Working Poverty in Affluent Democracies.” Social Problems 57:559–585. Retrieved February 15, 2012 (http://www.soc.duke.edu/~brady/web/Bradyetal2010.pdf). DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, and Bernadette D. Proctor. 2013. "Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved December 15, 2014. (https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2014/demographics/p60-249.pdf). Hainmueller, Jens, and Michael J. Hiscox. 2010. “Attitudes Toward Highly Skilled and Low-Skilled Immigration: Evidence from a Survey Experiment.” American Political Science Review 104:61–84. Holland, Laurence H.M. and David M. Ewalt. 2006. “Making Real Money in Virtual Worlds,” Forbes, August 7. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/07/virtual-world-jobs_cx_de_0807virtualjobs.html). Kochhar, Rokesh. 2010. “After the Great Recession: Foreign Born Gain Jobs; Native Born Lose Jobs.” Pew Hispanic Center, October 29. Retrieved January 29, 2012 (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1784/great-recession-foreign-born-gain-jobs-native-born-lose-jobs). Lowell, Lindsay B., Julia Gelatt, and Jeanne Batalova. 2006. “Immigrants and Labor Force Trends: the Future, Past, and Present.” Migration Policy Institute Insight No. 17. Retrieved February 6, 2012 (http://www.migrationpolicy.org/ITFIAF/TF17_Lowell.pdf). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006–2007 ed. Retrieved from February 15, 2012 (www.bls.gov/oco). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010. “Overview of the 2008-2018 Projections.” Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010–2011 ed. Retrieved February 15, 2012 (http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm#industry). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2011. “A Profile of the Working Poor, 2009.” Retrieved January 25, 2012 (www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2009.pdf). U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2012. "Employment Projections–2010–20." U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved December 15, 2014. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecopro_02012012.pdf). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2013. "Occupational Employment Projections to 2022." Deoartment of Labor. Retrieved December 15, 2014. (http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/article/pdf/occupational-employment-projections-to-2022.pdf). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2013. "Table 7: Employment by Summary Education and Training Assignment, 2012 and Projected 2022." United States Department of Labor. Retrieved December 15, 2014. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.t07.htm). U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States.” Retrieved February 15, 2012 (http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf). Wang, Wendy and Kim Parker. 2011. “Women See Value and Benefit of College; Men Lag Behind on Both Fronts.” Pew Social and Demographic Trends, August 17. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/08/17/women-see-value-and-benefits-of-college-men-lag-on-both-fronts-survey-finds/5/#iv-by-the-numbers-gender-race-and-education). Wheaton, Sarah. 2011. “Perry Repeats Socialist Charge Against Obama Policies.” New York Times, September 15. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/perry-repeats-socialist-charge-against-obama-policies).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.403943	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11833/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Work and the Economy, Work in the United States", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100139/overview	Chapter 2: Set Yourself Up for Success Overview LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: - Define what success means to you. - Describe the qualities of a successful college student. - Compare and contrast a Growth Mindset vs. a Fixed Mindset. - Understand the concept of Self-Efficacy and how to apply it to your college success. - Identify campus resources to support your success. - Understand the principles of academic integrity. Task #1: DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION OF SUCCESS For this activity, create your own definition of success. Dictionary.com defines success as “the favorable outcome of something attempted.” For many students in college, success means passing a class, earning an A, or learning something new. Beyond college, some people define success in terms of financial wealth; others measure it by the quality of their relationships with family and friends. Here is an example of a brief, philosophical definition of success: To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. –Ralph Waldo Emerson Ultimately, before we can know if we are successful, we must first define what success means for ourselves. Directions - Write a journal entry defining what success means to you in college and beyond. To help you develop this essay, you might want to consider the following: - Find a quote (or make one up) that best summarizes your definition of success (be sure to cite the author and the source, such as the URL). - Why does this quote best represent your personal definition success? - What people do you consider to be successful and why? - What is your definition of success? - What will you do to achieve success? - What is the biggest change you need to make in order to be successful in college? - How will you know you’ve achieved success? Set Yourself Up for Success Set Yourself Up for Success: Other Factors that can influence Growth Mindset and Self Eficacy: - Stereotype Threat: "Stereotype Threat: A Conversation with Claude Steele https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=failylROnrY&t=3sSelf esteem: ) - Locus of control - Show Khan Academy video: Self esteem, Self efficacy, and Locus of control http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcLKlPTG97k What Is Success? Personal Responsibility for Success A college education is aligned with greater success in many areas of life. While enrolled in college, most students are closely focused on making it through the next class or passing the next test. It can be easy to lose sight of the overall role that education plays in life. But sometimes it helps to recall what a truly great step forward you are taking! It’s also important to recognize, though, that some students do not succeed in college and drop out within the first year. Sometimes this is due to financial problems or a personal or family crisis. But most of the time students drop out because they’re having trouble passing their courses. In this section, we examine the elements of college success. Are there patterns of success you strive for but aren’t yet reaching? Where might you shore up your support? What strategies can you use to achieve success in your college endeavors? Defining Success in College How do you define college success? The definition really depends on you. You might think that “success” is earning an associate’s degree or attending classes in a four-year college. Maybe success is a bachelor’s or master’s degree or a Ph.D. Maybe success means receiving a certificate of completion or finishing skill-based training. You might be thinking of other measures of college success, too, like grades. For instance, you might be unhappy with anything less than an A in a course, although maybe this depends on the difficulty of the subject. As long as you pass with a C, you might be perfectly content. But no matter how you define success personally, you probably wouldn’t think it means earning a D or lower grade in a class. If most students believe that passing a class is the minimum requirement for “success,” and if most students want to be successful in their courses, why aren’t more college students consistently successful in the classroom? Perhaps some common misconceptions are at play. For example, we often hear students say, “I just can’t do it!” or “I’m not good at math,” or “I guess college isn’t for me.” But, these explanations for success or failure aren’t necessarily accurate. Considerable research into college success reveals that having difficulty in or failing in college courses usually has nothing to do with intellect. More often success depends on how fully a student embraces and masters the following seven strategies: - Learn how to listen actively in class and take effective notes (Chapters 10 and 11). - Review the text and your reading notes prior to class (Chapter 12). - Participate in class discussion and maybe even join a study group (Chapter 10.) - Go to office hours and ask your instructor questions. - Give yourself enough time to research, write, and edit your essays in manageable stages (Chapter 14). - Take advantage of online or on-campus academic support resources (Chapter 2). - Spend sufficient time studying (Chapter 5). So if you feel you are not smart enough for college, ask yourself if you can implement some of these skills. Overall, students struggle in college, not because of natural intellect or smarts, but because of time management, organization, and lack of quality study time. The good news is that there are ways to combat this, and this course and textbook will help you do just that. Words of Wisdom It is important to know that college success is a responsibility shared with your institution. Above all, your college must provide you with stimulating classroom experiences that encourage you to devote more time and effort to your learning. Additional institutional factors in your success include the following: - High standards and expectations for your performance - Assessment and timely feedback - Peer support - Encouragement and support for you to explore human differences - Emphasis on your first college year - Respect for diverse ways of knowing - Integrating prior learning and experience - Academic support programs tailored to your needs - Ongoing application of learned skills - Active learning - Out-of-class contact with faculty[1] Ideally, you and your college collaborate to create success in every way possible. The cooperative nature of college life is echoed in the following practical advice from a college graduate, recounted in Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom: Professors do care about how you are doing in their class; they genuinely want you to succeed, but they will give you the grade you earn. There are people and resources on campus for you to utilize so you can earn the grade you want. Your professors are one of those resources, and are perhaps the most important. Go see them during office hours, ask them questions about the material and get extra help if you need it . . . Another resource to utilize can be found in the campus learning center . . . The first time I took a paper there, I recall standing outside the door for about ten minutes thinking of an excuse not to go in. Thankfully I saw a classmate walk in and I followed suit . . . Thanks to that first visit, I received an A- on the paper! Characteristics Of Successful Students Please take this quiz about successful students As you can see from the above quiz, it takes several qualities and habits to be successful in college. When we think about going to college, we think about learning a subject deeply, getting prepared for a profession. We tend to associate colleges and universities with knowledge, and we’re not wrong in that regard. But going to college, and doing well once we’re there, also relies heavily on our behaviors while we’re there. Professors and college administrators will expect you to behave in certain ways, without any explicit instructions on their part. For instance, professors will expect you to spend several hours a week working on class concepts (homework, writing, preparing for exams) on your own time. They will not tell you WHEN to spend those hours, but leave it up to you to recognize the need to put in the effort and schedule the time accordingly. Consider this short video from Richard St. John, who spent years interviewing people who reached the top of their fields, across a wide range of careers. He traces the core behaviors that were common to all of these successful people and distill them down into 8 key traits. To recap, those eight traits are: Passion, Work, Good Focus, Push, Serve, Ideas, and Persist All eight traits are things that you can put into practice immediately. With them, you’ll see improvement in your school successes, as well as what lies beyond. Keys to Success According to Tobin Quereau, a long-time professor of student success courses at Austin Community College, there are Seven Keys to College Success. You can build a strong foundation for college success by implementing the following seven behaviors: 1. Show Up - Be present mentally and physically for EVERY class. - Pay attention to your attention so that you stay focused during class and while studying rather than becoming distracted or daydreaming. - Establish a consistent, regular study schedule that takes priority over other activities. 2. Be Prepared - Develop an accurate, realistic picture of your academic strengths, weaknesses, skills and behaviors so that you know where to put your attention and how to do your best work. - Make a personal commitment to have ALL of your reading and studying done prior to each class and turn ALL of your assignments in ON TIME. - Look ahead prior to each class to see what will be covered and skim relevant chapters of the textbook so that you can take more effective notes during class. 3. Manage Your Time, Your Life, and Your Stress Levels Effectively - Make school a priority and keep a good balance between school, work, friends, and family. - Don’t let immediate pleasures get in the way of important long-term tasks. - Have back-up plans in place in case the unexpected happens. 4. Put in the Effort - Learning, like life, is not easy or automatic, you will need to work hard to get ahead. Plan on several hours of reading and study for each class each week to do well. - Be an active learner by studying regularly and learning as you go instead of putting it off until right before the exam. - Use effective strategies for deeper, more lasting learning rather than just memorization. 5. Stay Motivated - Be clear about the reasons you are here and what you can gain from continuing your education now and throughout your life. - Set some realistic academic goals for each day and week and monitor your progress on them. - Make a personal commitment to stay on course even when the going gets tough. 6. Seek Assistance Whenever Needed - You are here to learn, but you don’t need to do it alone. Make use of all the available resources: your instructors, the Learning Lab tutors, study groups, advising, etc. - When crisis strikes and life feels overwhelming, stay in touch with your instructor and get support from the free counseling services rather than just giving up and disappearing. 7. Finally, Learn from Everything! - When you succeed in learning and getting good grades, pay attention to what helped and keep doing those things. - And when things don’t turn out as you would like, figure out what went wrong or got in the way and make appropriate changes. - You are responsible for your successes in life and you can improve your performance with committed effort and persistence, so give it your best and keep on learning! Growth Mindset Vs. Fixed Mindset What is the difference between a student with a growth mindset versus a student with a fixed mindset? Students with a growth mindset believe that intelligence can be developed. These students focus on learning over just looking smart, see effort as the key to success, and thrive in the face of a challenge. On the other side, students with a fixed mindset believe that people are born with a certain amount of intelligence, and they can’t do much to change that. These students focus on looking smart over learning, see effort as a sign of low ability, and wilt in the face of a challenge. Carol Dweck, author of the 2006 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, defined both fixed and growth mindsets: “In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.” Which student do you think has more success in college? Think about this statement: You can learn new things, but you can’t really change your basic intelligence. People who really agree with this statement have a fixed mindset. People who really disagree with this statement have a growth mindset, and, of course, people might be somewhere in the middle. It turns out that the more students disagree with statements like these, the more they have a growth mindset, the better they do in school. This is because students with a growth mindset approach school differently than students with a fixed mindset. They have different goals in school. The main goal for students with a fixed mindset is to show how smart they are or to hide how unintelligent they are. This makes sense if you think that intelligence is something you either have or you don’t have. Students with a fixed mindset will avoid asking questions when they don’t understand something because they want to preserve the image that they are smart or hide that they’re not smart. But the main goal for students with a growth mindset is to learn. This also makes a lot of sense. If you think that intelligence is something that you can develop, the way you develop your intelligence is by learning new things. So students with a growth mindset will ask questions when they don’t understand something because that’s how they’ll learn. Similarly, students with a fixed mindset view effort negatively. They think, if I have to try, I must not be very smart at this. While students with a growth mindset view effort as the way that you learn, the way that you get smarter. Where you’ll really see a difference in students with fixed and growth mindsets is when they are faced with a challenge or setback. Students with a fixed mindset will give up because they think their setback means they’re not smart, but students with a growth mindset actually like challenges. If they already knew how to do something, it wouldn’t be an opportunity to learn, to develop their intelligence. Given that students with a growth mindset try harder in school, especially in the face of a challenge, it’s no surprise that they do better in school. Students with a growth mindset view mistakes as a challenge rather than a wall. Many students shy away from challenging schoolwork and get discouraged quickly when they make mistakes. These students are at a significant disadvantage in school—and in life more generally—because they end up avoiding the most difficult work. Making mistakes is one of the most useful ways to learn. Our brains develop when we make a mistake and think about the mistake. This brain activity doesn’t happen when we get the answers correct on the first try. What’s wrong with easy? According to Dweck, “it means you’re not learning as much as you could. If it was easy, well, you probably already knew how to do it.” Watch this supplemental video, Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck, to understand more about how you can develop your own Growth Mindset. And, remember, You Can Learn Anything! Supplemental Activity – Check Your Growth Mindset Take this quick assessment to learn about your own mindset. Self-Efficacy A concept that was first introduced by Albert Bandura in 1977, Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of carrying out a specific task or of reaching a specific goal (Bandura, 1977). Note that the belief and the action or goal are specific. Self-efficacy is a belief that you can write an acceptable term paper, for example, or repair an automobile, or make friends with the new student in the class. These are relatively specific beliefs and tasks. Self-efficacy is not about whether you believe that you are intelligent in general, whether you always like working with mechanical things, or think that you are generally a likable person. Self-efficacy is not a trait—there are not certain types of people with high self-efficacies and others with low self-efficacies (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998). Rather, people have self-efficacy beliefs about specific goals and life domains. For example, if you believe that you have the skills necessary to do well in school and believe you can use those skills to excel, then you have high academic self-efficacy. Self-efficacy may sound similar to a concept you may be familiar with already—self-esteem—but these are very different notions. Self-esteem refers to how much you like or “esteem” yourself—to what extent you believe you are a good and worthwhile person. Self-efficacy, however, refers to your self-confidence to perform well and to achieve in specific areas of life such as school, work, and relationships. Self-efficacy does influence self-esteem because how you feel about yourself overall is greatly influenced by your confidence in your ability to perform well in areas that are important to you and to achieve valued goals. For example, if performing well in athletics is very important to you, then your self-efficacy for athletics will greatly influence your self-esteem; however, if performing well in athletics is not at all important to you, then your self-efficacy for athletics will probably have little impact on your self-esteem. Self-efficacy beliefs are not the same as “true” or documented skill or ability. They are self-constructed, meaning that they are personally developed perceptions. There can sometimes be discrepancies between a person’s self-efficacy beliefs and the person’s abilities. You can believe that you can write a good term paper, for example, without actually being able to do so, and vice versa: you can believe yourself incapable of writing a paper, but discover that you are in fact able to do so. In this way, self-efficacy is like the everyday idea of confidence, except that it is defined more precisely. And as with confidence, it is possible to have either too much or too little self-efficacy. The optimum level seems to be either at or slightly above true capacity (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy beliefs are influenced in five different ways (Bandura, 1997), which are summarized below. Influence \| Definition \| Performance Experiences \| When you do well and succeed at a particular task to attain a valued goal, you usually believe that you will succeed again at this task. When you fail, you often expect that you will fail again in the future if you try that task. \| Vicarious Performances \| If someone who seems similar to you succeeds, then you may believe that you will succeed as well. \| Verbal Persuasion \| This involves people telling you what they believe you are and are not capable of doing. Not all people will be equally persuasive. \| Imaginal Performances \| What you imagine yourself doing and how well or poorly you imagine yourself doing it. \| Affective States and Physical Sensations \| When you associate negative moods and negative physical sensations with failure, and positive moods and sensations with success. \| These five primary influencers of self-efficacy take many real-world forms that almost everyone has experienced. You may have had previous performance experiences affect your academic self-efficacy when you did well on a test and believed that you would do well on the next test. A vicarious performance may have affected your athletic self-efficacy when you saw your best friend skateboard for the first time and thought that you could skateboard well, too. Verbal persuasion could have affected your academic self-efficacy when a professor that you respect told you that you could get into the college of your choice if you worked hard at community college. It’s important to know that not all people are equally likely to influence your self-efficacy through verbal persuasion. People who you trust and respect are more likely to influence your self-efficacy than those you do not. Imaginal performances are an effective way to increase your self-efficacy. For example, imagine yourself doing well on a job interview may actually lead to more effective interviewing. Affective states and physical sensations abound when you think about the times you have given presentations in class. For example, you may have felt your heart racing while giving a presentation. If you believe your heart was racing because you had just had a lot of caffeine, it likely would not affect your performance. If you believe your heart was racing because you were doing a poor job, you might believe that you cannot give the presentation well. This is because you associate the feeling of anxiety with failure and expect to fail when you are feeling anxious. Consider academic self-efficacy in your own life. Do you think your own self-efficacy has ever affected your academic ability? Do you think you have ever studied more or less intensely because you did or did not believe in your abilities to do well? Did you skip math homework or not turn in a paper because you thought you weren't going to do well on it? Students who believe in their ability to do well academically tend to be more motivated in school (Schunk, 1991). When students attain their goals, they continue to set even more challenging goals, which can lead to better performance in school in terms of higher grades and taking more challenging classes. For example, students with high academic self-efficacies might study harder because they believe that they are able to use their abilities to study effectively. Because they studied hard, they receive an A on their next test. One question you might have about self-efficacy and academic performance is how a student’s actual academic ability interacts with self-efficacy to influence academic performance. The answer is that a student’s actual ability does play a role, but it is also influenced by self-efficacy. Students with greater ability perform better than those with lesser ability. But, among a group of students with the same exact level of academic ability, those with stronger academic self-efficacies outperform those with weaker self-efficacies. Campus Resources For Success There are many resources available at SUNY Oneonta committed to helping you succeed during your time here and beyond. Being familiar with these resources, and be committed to using them when needed, is essential to your success. You may not need them right away; some you may not need at all. But you will at least find several to be vital. Be familiar with your options. Know where to find the services. Have contact information. Be prepared to visit for help. Use the following links to learn more about the services available to support your success. Support and Services Using Campus Resources to support your Learning and Success There are many resources available on campus, but are you taking advantage of them? Along with the normal day-to-day student support services that offices such as the Career Development Center, Academic Advisement, the Counseling Center, and the Student Learning Center provide, there are special programs and workshops offered by these offices, and by many other offices on campus, that students may not know about or be taking advantage of. This assignment is designed to help you do just that! I hope you will use this assignment to connect with the particular services, supports, and learning opportunities that best meet YOUR needs. Some of our many campus resources: o Academic Advisement, This office provides general assistance with planning your educational goals and courses. \| o Accessibility Resources, 133 Milne, 607-436-2137 This office assists students who are eligible for accommodations under federal law. \| o Career Development, 110 Netzer, 607-436-2534 This office assists students in planning for careers and preparing for the hiring process. \| o Counseling Center, Health and Wellness Building 607-436-3368 Staff of caring, dedicated professionals who provide support and help you develop skills to manage your personal concerns. Information shared at the Counseling Center is kept confidential. \| o Financial Aid, Aids students in accessing loans, grants, and work-study programs. Also ensures that students’ academic plans meet the federal rules for Degree Applicable Credit. \| o Health Center, The Health Center offers a variety of services, including assessment and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries. Information shared at the Health Center is kept confidential. \| o Office of Student Life & Leadership, 220 Hunt Union 607-436-3213 Find out about LEAD credit! \| o New Student Services, 101 Wilsbach Hall 607-436-2255 \| o Residential Community Life, 106 Wilsbach Hall 607-436-2514 \| o Student Development, 119 Netzer Administration \| o University Police, 2 Alumni Hall \| o Violence Intervention Program, 24/7 Hotline \| o Reference Librarians, Milne Library 1st Floor Make an appointment with a librarian for assistance in locating resources for your work! \| o Center for Social Responsibility & Community, 101C Alumni Hall Contact CSRC for getting involved in volunteerism on campus and in the community. \| o Office of International Education, 103 Alumni Hall OIE can help you take advantage of study-abroad opportunities. \| o Gender & Sexuality Resource Ctr., 5A Hunt Union 607-436-2190 \| o Sustainability, Milne Library 310A 607-436-3312 \| o Equity & Inclusion, 135 Netzer 607-436-2830 \| Practicing Academic Integrity I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. —Sophocles At most educational institutions, “academic honesty” means demonstrating and upholding the highest integrity and honesty in all the academic work that you do. In short, it means doing your own work and not cheating, and not presenting the work of others as your own. The following are some common forms of academic dishonesty prohibited by most academic institutions: Cheating Cheating can take the form of cheat sheets, looking over someone’s shoulder during an exam, or any forbidden sharing of information between students regarding an exam or exercise. Many elaborate methods of cheating have been developed over the years—storing information in graphing calculators, checking cell phones during bathroom breaks, using apps like Chegg to complete your homework or a take-home exam, using online solutions, etc. Cheating differs from most other forms of academic dishonesty, in that people can engage in it without benefiting themselves academically at all. For example, a student who illicitly telegraphed answers to a friend during a test would be cheating, even though the student’s own work is in no way affected. Deception Deception is providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic assignment. Examples of this include taking more time on a take-home test that is allowed, giving a dishonest excuse when asking for a deadline extension, or falsely claiming to have submitted work. Fabrication Fabrication is the falsification of data, information, or citations in an academic assignment. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations. Fabrication is most common in the natural sciences, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments “work” or false claims are made about the research performed. Plagiarism Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.”[1] In an academic setting, it is seen as the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, pieces of information or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether an individual, group, or organization) without proper acknowledgment. This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without citing it. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting online material without crediting the source. Common Forms of Plagiarism According to “The Reality and Solution of College Plagiarism” created by the Health Informatics department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit: - Submitting someone else’s work as their own. - Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations (submitting a paper you previously wrote for another class or another assignment.) - Rewriting someone’s work without properly citing sources. - Using quotations, but not citing the source. - Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing. - Citing some, but not all passages that should be cited. - Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece. - Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough. - Inaccurately citing the source. - Relying too heavily on other people’s work. Failing to bring original thought into the text. As a college student, you are now a member of a scholarly community that values other people’s ideas. In fact, you will routinely be asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writing in the course of producing your own work. That’s why it’s so important to understand what plagiarism is and the steps you can take to avoid it. Avoiding Plagiarism Below are some useful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic honesty in your work: - Quotes: If you quote another work directly in your work, cite your source. - Paraphrase: If put someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author. - Visual Materials: If you cite statistics, graphs, or charts from a study, cite the source. Keep in mind that if you didn’t do the original research, then you need to credit the person(s) or institution, etc. that did. The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is by taking careful notes as you research. If you are doing research on the Web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so can keep track of the sites you’re visiting. Be sure to list all the sources you consult. There are many handy online tools to help you create and track references as you go. For example, you can try using Son of Citation Machine. Keeping careful notes will not only help you avoid inadvertent plagiarism; it will also help you if you need to return to a source later (to check or get more information). If you use citation tools like Son of Citation, be sure to check the accuracy of the citations before you submit your assignment. Lastly, if you’re in doubt about whether something constitutes plagiarism, cite the source or leave the material out. Better still, ask for help. Most colleges have a writing center, a tutoring center, and a library where students can get help with their writing. Taking the time to seek advice is better than getting in trouble for not attributing your sources. Be honest about your ideas, and give credit where it’s due. Consequences of Plagiarism In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on a particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution. Individual instructors and courses may have their own policies regarding academic honesty and plagiarism; statements of these can usually be found in the course syllabus or online course description. SUNY Oneonta's Code of Student Conduct includes a section that discussed acedemic integrity and prohibited behaviors. Students are expected to have read and to understand the Student Code of Coduct and be aware of their rights and responsiblitiles when they become a part of the camput community. KEY TAKEAWAYS - You determine your success and everyone’s definition of success is personal. - Successful students have certain traits, characteristics, and habits, all of which can be learned and developed. - Having a Growth Mindset, believing that intelligence and skills are gained, is a key to success. - Self-efficacy, the belief that one is capable of reaching a goal, is another predictor of success. - There are several campus resources available to support your success. - Understanding and practicing Academic Integrity is a crucial component of college success. - SUNY Oneonta's Code of Student Conduct includes a section that discussed acedemic integrity and prohibited behaviors: https://suny.oneonta.edu/policy-library/policies-z/code-student-conduct LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Set Yourself Up for Success. Authored by: Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Seven Keys to College Success. Authored by: Tobin Quereau. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Academic Honesty in EDUC 1300. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sanjacinto-learningframework/chapter/academic-honesty/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Carol Dweck. Provided by: Wikipedia Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Dweck. License: CC BY 3.0 - Defining Success in EDUC 1300. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sanjacinto-learningframework/chapter/defining-success/ License: CC BY 4.0 - Fixed or Growth Mindset: Which are you? Which are your students?. Provided by: ESU 8 Wednesday Webinars Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2YWh10_pzo. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Grade Point Average. Provided by: The Glossary of Education Reform. Located at: https://www.edglossary.org/grade-point-average/ License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Introduction to Success Skills in Basic Reading and Writing. Provided by: Lumen Learning. at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/basicreadingandwriting/chapter/why-it-matters-college-success/. License: CC BY 4.0 - Motivation as self-efficacy in Educational Psychology. Authored by: By Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton. Provided by: Lumen Learning Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/educationalpsychology/chapter/motivation-as-self-efficacy/ License: CC BY 4.0 - Self-Efficacy. Authored by: By James E Maddux and Evan Kleiman at George Mason University. Provided by: Noba. Located at: https://nobaproject.com/modules/self-efficacy License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Provided by: Columbus State University. Located at: https://educationtrendsandissues.wikispaces.com/Self-Fulfilling+Prophecy. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Types of Students in College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sanjacinto-learningframework/chapter/types-of-students/. License: CC BY 4.0 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - ACC Students. Provided by: Austin Community College. Located at: https://www.austincc.edu/students License: All Rights Reserved. - Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck. Provided by: Standford Alumni. Located at: https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - You Can Learn Anything. Provided by: Khan Academy Located at: https://youtu.be/JC82Il2cjqA. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License REFERENCES - Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191 - Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Worth Publishers. - Dweck, Carol S (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House. - Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26(3–4), 207–231. doi:10.1080/00461520.1991.9653133	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.459085	Elizabeth Huntington	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100139/overview", "title": "Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success, Introduction to College Success, Chapter 2: Set Yourself Up for Success", "author": "Module" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66263/overview	The Texas Constitution of 1876 Overview The Texas Constitution of 1876 Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand the Constitution of 1876’s role in Texas Introduction This section discusses the Constitution of 1876’s role in Texas. The Texas Constitution of 1876 Texas Democrats gained control of Congress in 1873 and decided it was time to draft a new constitution for Texas. The Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875 met in Austin with the purpose of replacing the Constitution of 1869; it was believed that the new constitution should restrict the state government and hand the power back to the people. Some examples of how the government was restricted were: - Legislative sessions moved from annual to biennial sessions - Creation of a plural executive - Mandated a balanced budget - State Judges would be elected by the people - The people would vote on the ratification of amendments The structure of the current constitution of Texas (Constitution of 1876) is a Preamble, 17 Articles, and 491 Amendments (Since 2015)3. The Texas Constitution does not contain a “necessary and proper clause” like the U.S. Constitution, therefore making it the second-longest state constitution in America (2nd only to Alabama’s). You Might Be Wondering... Why is the Texas Constitution So Dang Long? Find out from TexPlainer at the Texas Tribune. \| Table 2.2 Articles of the Texas Constitution of 1876 Articles \| Description \| Article 1: Bill of Rights \| The Texas Constitution's Bill of Rights Similar civil liberties and civil rights as in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights \| Article 2: The Powers of the Government \| Establishes three branches of government with separation of powers \| Article 3: Legislative Department \| Specifics about the Texas Legislature \| Article 4: Executive Department \| Specifics about the plural executive \| Article 5: Judicial Department \| Specifics about the Texas Judicial system \| Article 6: Suffrage \| Forbids the following from voting: -any non-US citizen, -any non-registered Texas voter, -any convicted felon who has not completed their sentence, or -any person deemed mentally incompetent by the courts. \| Article 7: Education \| Mandates an "efficient" free public school system. Established the Permanent School Fund \| Article 8: Taxation and Revenue \| Places limits on the raising and spending of public funds \| Article 9: Counties \| Authorizes the Texas Legislature to create county governments \| Article 10: Railroads \| Regulates the railroad system \| Article 11: Municipal Corporations \| Specifics regarding local governments, including empowering them to tax, and how to charter cities \| Article 12: Private Corporations \| Specifics regarding public businesses, including how they would be regulated \| Article 13: Spanish and Mexican Land Titles \| Specifics on which land with previous claims would become state property \| Article 14: Public Lands and Land Office \| Established the Land Office which regulated land titles \| Article 15: Impeachment \| Specifics on how to remove a public official from office \| Article 16: General Provisions \| Miscellaneous regulations, ie., forbidding the legislature from printing money, forbidding U.S. public officials from holding a state office \| Article 17: Mode of Amending the Constitution of this State \| 2/3rds proposal from the legislature Registered voters vote on approval. With a majority vote, the amendment is ratified. \| Link to Learning More information on the Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) may be found at the Texas Constitutions 1824-1876 project of the Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Texas at Austin. The project includes digitized images and searchable text versions of the constitutions. References and Further Reading Texans to decide whether to update their aging constitution. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Anna M. Tinsley. October 8, 2018. Texas State Library and Archives Commission.The 1870s: The Constitutional Convention of 1875 Licensing and Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.497537	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66263/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, The Texas State Constitution and the American Federal System, The Texas Constitution of 1876", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66251/overview	Texas’ Demographics Overview Texas’ Demographics Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss how the demographic changes Texas is undergoing influences its government, public policy, and the challenges it faces today Introduction Texas is the second most populous U.S. state, second only to California. In recent decades, it has experienced strong population growth. Texas has many major cities and metropolitan areas, along with many towns and rural areas. Much of the population is in the major cities of Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and El Paso. Three Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio) are among the nation's top 10 in population, and Austin is just outside the top 10 at number 11. Population The United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Texas was 28,995,881 on July 1, 2019, a 15.31 percent increase since the 2010 United States Census. The 2010 US Census recorded Texas as having a population of 25.1 million—an increase of 4.3 million since the year 2000, involving an increase in population in all three subcategories of population growth: natural increase (births minus deaths), net immigration, and net migration. The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population, after California. Texas’ population growth between 2000 and 2010 represents the highest population increase, by number of people, for any U.S. state during this time period. The state has a bigger population than that of Australia. As of 2015, Texas had 4.7 million foreign-born residents, about 17% of the population and 21.6% of the state workforce. The major countries of origin for Texan immigrants were Mexico (55.1% of immigrants), India (5%), El Salvador (4.3%), Vietnam (3.7%), and China (2.3%). Of immigrant residents, some 35.8 percent were naturalized U.S. citizens. In 2014, there were an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants in Texas, making up 35% of the total Texas immigrant population and 6.1% of the total state population.[209] In addition to the state's foreign-born population, an additional 4.1 million Texans (15% of the stats's population) were born in the United States and had at least one immigrant parent. U.S. Census data from 2010 indicate that 7.7% of Texas’ population is under 5 years old, 27.3% is under 18, and 10.3% is aged 65 and older. Females make up 50.4% of the population. Texas expects to record another decade of population growth in the 2020 Census. You Might Be Wondering... \| Texas is growing at a rate of 1,000 people per day, and for the second year in a row, most of the people who moved to the state came from other countries in 2018. And the biggest growth in international migration isn't from Latin America. Find out more from Texplainer at the Texas Tribune. \| Ethnicity As of the 2010 US Census, the racial distribution in Texas was as follows: 70.4% of the population of Texas was White American; 11.8% African American; 3.8%, Asian American; 0.7%, American Indian; 0.1%, native Hawaiian or Pacific islander only; 10.5% of the population were of some other race only; and 2.7% were of two or more races. Hispanics (of any race) were 37.6% of the population of the state, while Non-Hispanic Whites composed 45.3%. English Americans predominate in eastern, central, and northern Texas; German Americans, in central and western Texas. African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in parts of northern, eastern and east central Texas as well as in the Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston metropolitan areas. As in other Southern states settled largely in the 19th century, the vast majority have European ancestry: Irish, English and German. Texas includes a diverse set of European ancestries, due both to historical patterns of settlement as well as contemporary dynamics. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. Many Romanians, Dutch, Germans from Switzerland and Austria, Poles, Russians, Swedes, Norwegians, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, and French immigrated at least in part because of the European revolutions of 1848. This immigration continued until World War I and the 1920s. The influence of these diverse European immigrants survives in the town names, architectural styles, music, and cuisine in Texas. Hispanic Texans As of 2010, 37% of Texas residents had Hispanic ancestry; these include recent immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America, as well as Tejanos, whose ancestors have lived in Texas as early as the 1700s. Tejanos are the largest ancestry group in southern Duval County and amongst the largest in and around Bexar County, including San Antonio, where over one million Hispanics live. The state has the second largest Hispanic population in the United States, behind California. Hispanics dominate southern, south-central, and western Texas and form a significant portion of the residents in the cities of Dallas, Houston, and Austin. The Hispanic population contributes to Texas having a younger population than the American average, because Hispanic births have outnumbered non-Hispanic white births since the early 1990s. In 2007, for the first time since the early nineteenth century, Hispanics accounted for more than half of all births (50.2%), while non-Hispanic whites accounted for just 34%. In 2016 the state had 59,115 persons of Cuban origin. 6,157 of them lived in Travis County. African-American Texans Texas has one of the largest African-American populations in the country. African Americans are concentrated in northern, eastern and east-central Texas as well as the Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan areas. African Americans form 24% of both the cities of Dallas and Houston, 19% of Fort Worth, 8.1% of Austin, and 6.9% of San Antonio. They form a majority in sections of eastern San Antonio, southern Dallas, eastern Fort Worth, and southern Houston. A strong labor market between 1995 and 2000 contributed to Texas being one of three states in the South receiving the highest numbers of black college graduates in a New Great Migration. Asian-American Texans In recent years, the Asian American population in Texas has grown, especially in west Houston, Fort Bend County southwest of Houston, the western and northern suburbs of Dallas, and Arlington near Fort Worth. Vietnamese Americans, South Asian Americans, Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Korean Americans, and Japanese Americans make up the largest Asian American groups in Texas. The Gulf Coast also has large numbers of Asian Americans, because the shrimp fishing industry attracted tens of thousands of Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Chinese from the coast of the South China Sea in the late 1970s and 1980s References and Resources Texas Population 2017 Archived 2017-01-21 at the Wayback Machine. World Population Review "United State Census Bureau". 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Archived from the original on 2014-08-15. Retrieved Feb 28, 2014. "Pew Research Center". Archived from the original on 2014- 02-21. Retrieved Feb 28, 2014. Bagden, Samantha. "Cubans in Texas see some hope in new relations" (Archive) Austin American-Statesman. Monday, January 18, 2016. Retrieved on January 19, 2016. William H. Frey, "The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965-2000", May 2004, The Brookings Institution, p.1 Archived April 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Licenses And Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution Texas Demographics: Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: John Osterman. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.522880	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66251/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, Introduction to Texas History and Politics, Texas’ Demographics", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66260/overview	Constitution of 1861 Overview Constitution of 1861 Learning Objective By the end of this section, you will be able to: Understand the Constitution of 1861’s role in Texas history Introduction This sections dicusses the Constitution of 1861’s role in Texas history Constitution of 1861 After the Texas voters ratified secession from the Union on February 23, 1861, the Secession Convention reconvened. Convention delegates believed it their duty to direct the transition of Texas from a state in the United States to one of the Confederate States of America. As part of that duty, they amended the Constitution of 1845. In most instances, the wording of the older constitution was kept intact, but some changes were required to meet new circumstances. The words United States of America were replaced with Confederate States of America. Slavery and states’ rights were more directly defended. A clause providing for emancipation of slaves was eliminated, and the freeing of slaves was declared illegal. All current state officials were required to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, and all existing laws not in conflict with the constitutions of Texas or the Confederate States were declared valid. Amending the constitution was also made easier. This constitution was as remarkable for what it did not do as for what it did. It did not legalize the resumption of the African slave trade, a move advocated by some leaders of the secession movement. It did not take an extreme position on the issue of states’ rights. It did not substantially change any important law. It was a conservative document partly designed to allay fears of the radical nature of the secessionists and to ease the transition of Texas into the Confederacy. . Link to Learning More information on the More information on the Constitution of the State of Texas (1861) may be found at the Texas Constitutions 1824-1876 project of the Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research (http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/) at the University of Texas School of Law (http://www.utexas.edu/law/), The University of Texas at Austin (http://www.utexas.edu/). The project includes digitized images and searchable text versions of the constitutions. References and Further Reading Walter L. Buenger, Secession and the Union in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984). Handbook of Texas Online, Walter L. Buenger, "CONSTITUTION OF 1861" accessed August 23, 2019. License and Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Kris S. Seago. License: CC BY: Attribution	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.543742	05/05/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/66260/overview", "title": "Texas Government 2.0, The Texas State Constitution and the American Federal System, Constitution of 1861", "author": "Kris Seago" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87863/overview	The Historical Background of the Reformation Overview The Historical Background of the Reformation Europe by 1500 was ripe for sweeping religious reforms at the close of the Medieval period and the dawn of the modern era. Learning Objectives - Identify the primary factors from the late medieval period that led to the Reformation. Key Terms / Key Concepts Black Plague: an epidemic disease carried by fleas that killed millions across Europe beginning in the 14th century Little Ice Age: a period of cold and long winters that impacted the world from the mid-13th century through mid-15th century Humanists: Renaissance artists and writers who collected and modeled their works on the artwork and writings of ancient Greek and Roman artists and writers Europe in 1500: General Overview The Reformation developed as a religious movement in a period of intense social anxiety in Europe due to rapid social and economic change. In this time of stress and worry, people often turned to their faith for comfort and support. One cause of anxiety was the fear of a horrific death from disease. The Black Plague or Bubonic Plague first struck Europe in 1348, but this disease continued to strike down the population periodically in the centuries that followed. Infestations of fleas on rats and livestock carried this disease from Central Asia and across Europe. By 1500 and over the next century, another source of anxiety was economic and social insecurity. Beginning around 1450, Europe began experiencing a warming climate, which lasted until the end of the 16th century. This period of rising temperatures brought temporary relief to Europeans, who had been living in a Little Ice Age prior to 1450. The rising temperatures of the period 1450 to 1600 resulted in longer growing seasons for crops—such as wheat and larger harvests, which resulted in population growth. People with access to a plentiful supply of food were well nourished and less likely to die from hunger or epidemic diseases, which is more likely to affect people who are malnourished. As the population grew, demand for goods also expanded with the corresponding growth of markets. The introduction of vast amounts of precious metals (silver and gold) into Europe in the later 16th century, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires in the Western Hemisphere, accelerated the growth of the market economy. People with coins of silver and gold in hand were ready and eager to purchase goods on the market. This economic expansion allowed inventive entrepreneurs the opportunity to amass large fortunes. The acquisition of such fortunes, however, stirred up social unrest and economic fears when those possessing this newfound wealth were non-noble commoners. Less successful commoners and the elite nobility viewed these entrepreneurs as greedy, pretentious men, who had forgotten their proper place in the hierarchical social order, which traditionally drew a sharp distinction between the aristocratic landowning elite and the mass of common people. Society did not expect commoners to serve in positions of leadership or to engage in elite activities such as wearing fine clothes or riding in a horse drawn carriage or entertaining guests with a feast of meat and wine. These were positions and activities reserved for the elite nobility. Non-nobles with money who engaged in such activities were a dire threat to the social order. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the leading Protestant reformers, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin were commoners. Luther’s father was a miner, Zwingli’s was a peasant, and Calvin’s was an account clerk. The parents of all these reformers sacrificed and saved to send their children to a university, where they could receive an education and afterwards raise their social status through service in the church or government. In contrast, one of the leading Catholic reformers, Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, was a Spanish nobleman who was a soldier and knight prior to entering the ministry. The Roman Catholic Church in 1500 As people across Europe turned to their faith in this period of anxiety, they were often disappointed with the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. During the preceding Medieval period and especially after 1000 CE, the Catholic Church in Western and Central Europe had developed into a centralized, hierarchical organization under the leadership of the Popes based in Rome. The Pope was Christ's representative or vicar on earth, and the Pope's power in the church was unchecked. According to the doctrines of the church, the Pope also possessed authority over all the Christian rulers of Christendom, the body of all Christians. In the 15th century, the Pope was not merely a spiritual leader, but he also ruled directly over a large section of Central Italy known as the Papal States. These Popes, therefore, often obtained their position because of their administrative and political skills, and not necessarily due to their spiritual gifts and piety. The Popes of this period were often very worldly men and far from model Christians. For example, Rodrigo Borgia or Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492 – 1503) was infamous for his elaborate, wild parties and for his beautiful mistress. He also used his power as Pope to advance the interests of his family through his efforts to carve out a principality for his illegitimate son, the ruthless and violent Cesare Borgia. The conduct and worldly reputation of such Popes shocked and disgusted Christians across Europe, who wanted to reform the church and end its corruption. The Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance provided reform-minded Christians with the tools to demand church reform. The Renaissance was a "rebirth" of the art and literature of Classical Greece and Rome, which arose originally in the Italian city-states of North Italy in the 14th and 15th century. Renaissance artists and writers modeled their works on the artwork and writings of ancient Greek and Roman artists and writers. Renaissance Humanists collected ancient works of art and manuscripts as sources of inspiration. Around 1350, the Italian poet, Petrarch first began to search out and assemble ancient texts and became the "Father of the Humanists." The conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks resulted in the migration of Byzantine scholars to Italy, who brought ancient Greek manuscripts with them. 1453 was also the year in which the first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible was published in Germany. The invention of the printing press allowed for the mass publication and circulation of the ancient works that Humanists had collected. Humanists not only collected ancient manuscripts; they also maintained that the study of ancient Greek and Roman mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric, and poetry would promote human excellence and virtue. The advancement of literacy and education that resulted from the Renaissance provided Europeans who wanted to reform the church with the intellectual skills to question the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. Moreover, due to the work of the Humanists the works of early Christian writers who wrote in ancient Latin and Greek were now in circulation. As more educated Christians read the works of these early Christian writers, such as Saint Augustine (c. 400 CE), they contrasted the corrupt church of their own day with the ancient Christian Church, which provided a model for church reform. The Reformation and Society The historical study of the Reformation often focuses on the leading thinkers of this era and the ideas that they espoused, but in this period millions of Europeans, both men and women, either enthusiastically embraced the church reforms advocated by Protestants or passionately defended the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. The spread of reform would not have been possible without the work of many women, who have remained largely anonymous. For example, Katharina von Bora, was a former nun, who married the Protestant German reformer, Martin Luther. She operated a farm and a brewery to support her husband’s work as a teacher and author, while also running a hospital. On the other hand, Teresa of Avila was a Spanish nun and noblewomen of the 16th century who inspired Roman Catholics with her writings on prayer and mystical faith during the Catholic Reformation. The ideas of Protestant reformers and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church also appealed to large segments of the population across different parts of Europe who were experiencing economic hardship. For example, Martin Luther’s stress on the equality of all Christians before God caused peasant farmers across Germany to wonder why their aristocratic landlords controlled their local churches and imposed heavy rents and fees on them. In 1524, peasants across Germany revolted against their landlords in the Peasant's Rebellion. By 1525, the rebellion was over after aristocratic armies massacred over 30,000 men, women, and children. Luther condemned the rebels; equality among Christians, according to Luther, was a spiritual state only and impossible in a sinful, material world. John of Leiden in the Netherlands was a tailor, who became an Anabaptist travelling preacher. In 1532, he began preaching in the German city of Munster. He convinced the city's poor residents to expel the Roman Catholic Bishop from the city. John became the new leader of the city and demanded that the city residents all share their wealth with one another equally. He also rejected the idea of traditional marriage and insisted that all residents were all married to one another in common. Eventually John declared that he himself was Jesus Christ. He had a special gold crown made for himself and he demanded the people worship him as God. In 1534, the exiled Bishop raised an army and overthrew John's regime in Munster. The appeal of Roman Catholicism and the Protestant churches varied from region to region, often depending on the culture of a region. In the Netherlands, for example, the Dutch speaking, rural areas embraced the Protestant faith; whereas, the more city-based Flemish and Walloon speaking areas remained faithful to the Roman Catholic Church. Northern Germany with its large trading cities converted to the Protestant faith; whereas, rural, Southern Germany remained Roman Catholic. Paris, the royal French capital, was a Roman Catholic stronghold, while large areas in the south of France converted to Protestantism. In Poland, the German-speaking residents of the cities were Protestants, but the ethnic Poles in the countryside were Roman Catholic. While the British Isles became mostly a Protestant region, pockets remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church: northern England, the Scottish Highlands, and most of Ireland. Attributions Title Image "Dance of Death" Schedel, Hartmann, 1493 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.565119	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87863/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 5: Europe, The Historical Background of the Reformation", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87858/overview	Early European Exploration of Africa Overview Early European Exploration of Africa In the mid-15th century the Portuguese opened up sub-Saharan Africa to European trade. Learning Objectives - Assess how Trans-Atlantic trade affected the social and political development in Africa and the Americas. Key Terms / Key Concepts São Tomé: island off the coast of West Africa colonized by the Portuguese in 1486, which became the center of the early African slave trade Elmina: a fortified trading settlement founded by the Portuguese along the West African coast (modern Ghana) in 1482 Early European Exploration and Expansion into Africa With the arrival of Portuguese explorers and merchants along the African coasts, beginning in the 15th century, trade from Sub-Saharan Africa largely shifted away from the Muslim Arab states of North Africa and the trans-Saharan trade to the coasts of West and East Africa, where European merchants established trading posts. European merchants were at first interested in the ivory and gold trade, but in the 17th century, African slaves became the primary export from Sub-Saharan Africa as the volume of trade along the Atlantic coast exceeded the trans-Saharan trade. The demand for labor in the European controlled territories in the Western Hemisphere fueled the expansion of this notorious transatlantic slave trade through the 19th century. The Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was established from the 15th century and eventually stretched from the Americas to Japan. These were often a string of coastal trading centers with defensive fortifications, but there were also larger territorial colonies like Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique. White Europeans dominated trade, politics, and society, but there was also a significant mixing of races, and in many places, people of mixed ancestry rose to positions of wealth and power in the colonies. The Portuguese began their empire as a search for access to the gold of West Africa and then the eastern spice trade. In addition, it was hoped that there might well be Christian states in Asia that could become useful allies in Christianity’s ongoing battles with the Islamic caliphates. New lands for agriculture, riches and glory for colonial adventurers, and the ambitions of missionary work were other motivations in the building of an empire. Carrack ships created a maritime network that connected Lisbon with all of its colonies in the west and the Estado da India (‘State of India’), as the empire was known east of the Cape of Good Hope. Goods like gold, ivory, silk, Ming porcelain, and spices were carried and traded around the world. Another major trade was in slaves, taken from West and southern Africa and used as labor on plantations in the North Atlantic islands and the Americas. The North Atlantic Islands The Portuguese were intrepid mariners and so it is entirely appropriate that their first colonies should be relatively remote islands. Searching for new resources and land which might solve Portugal’s deficit in wheat requirements, mariners sailed towards the unknown mid-Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese navigators were able to mount these expeditions thanks to such rich and powerful backers as Prince Henry the Navigator (aka Infante Dom Henrique, 1394 – 1460). Another immeasurable advantage was innovative ship design and the use of the lateen triangular sail. The first group of islands to be colonized was the volcanic and uninhabited Madeira archipelago. With rich volcanic soil, mild climate, and sufficient rainfall, the islands were used to grow wheat, vines, and sugar cane. In many ways, the Portuguese colonization of Madeira would set the template that all other colonies copied. The Portuguese Crown partitioned the islands and gave out ‘captaincies’ (donatarias) as part of a feudal system designed to encourage nobles to fund agricultural and trade development. The Crown retained overall ownership. However, each captain (donatario) was given certain financial and judicial privileges, and they, in turn, gave out smaller parcels of their land (semarias) for development by their tenants who had to clear and begin cultivation within a certain number of years. These captaincies became hereditary offices in many cases. Settlers were attracted by the hope of a better life, but there were, as there would be in all future colonies, less desirable immigrants, as well. These were the undesirables (degregados); people unwanted by the authorities in Portugal who were forcibly transported to colonies, such as convicts, beggars, reformed prostitutes, orphans, Jews, and religious dissidents. Another way in which Madeira became a colonial model was sugar cane plantations, which were created as early as 1455. The success of this crop and its large labor requirement led to slaves being imported from West Africa. The slave-worked plantation system became an important part of the economy in the New World that led to the terrible traffic in humanity that was the Atlantic slave trade. After Madeira, and following the same pattern, there followed the Portuguese colonization of the Azores and the Cape Verde group. These colonies all became invaluable ports of call for ships sailing from India and the Americas. The Portuguese were not without rivals for these colonies. Portugal and Spain squabbled over possession of the Canary Islands, but the 1479-80 Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo and the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas set out two spheres of influence, which audaciously encompassed the globe. The vagueness of these agreements caused trouble later, such as Portugal’s right to future discoveries in Africa and Spain’s to islands beyond the Canaries, interests which were eventually identified as the Caribbean and even the Americas. The North Atlantic islands permitted the Portuguese Crown to gain direct access to the gold of West Africa, avoiding the Islamic states in North Africa. A significant obstacle had been Cape Bojador which seemed to block sailing ships from going south and then returning home to Europe. A solution to this issue was provided by the Atlantic islands and setting a bold course out away from the African coastline to best use winds, currents, and high-pressure areas. Portuguese mariners could then sail south with confidence, and the ultimate result was the opening up of Asia to European ships. West Africa & Slavery The Portuguese, keen to access the West African gold and salt trade, set up several fortified trading settlements along the southern coast (modern Ghana), such as at Elmina in 1482. However, tropical diseases, a lack of manpower, and a reluctance by local rulers to allow male slaves to be exported meant that, at least initially, the profits were limited along the southern coast. African chiefs were keen to trade for firearms, but the Portuguese were not interested in giving them such power. A more successful strategy focused on the uninhabited islands of Sao Tome and Principe, located off the southern coast of West Africa, which were colonized beginning in 1486. The two islands became heavily involved in the slave trade, and, as in the North Atlantic, the captaincy model for development was used. Settlers on the islands were permitted to trade with communities in West Africa, and those trades proved more successful than the attempts made a few decades before. Portuguese trade settlements were established on the continent as far south as Luanda (in modern Angola) to take advantage of the well-organized African trade that saw goods travel from the interior along the major rivers (e.g. Gambia and Senegal) to the coast. Goods acquired included gold, ivory, pepper, beeswax, gum, and dyewoods. Slaves (men and women) were acquired from the Kingdom of Kongo and Kingdom of Benin, the rulers of which were eager for European trade goods like cotton cloth, mirrors, knives, and glass beads. The islands acted as a gathering point for slaves and as a place to take onboard provisions for the ships that would carry the human cargo. One in five slaves died on these ships, but as many as one in two slaves died between initial capture and arrival at their final destination. There was little attempt at territorial conquest in West Africa as trade was thriving and the Europeans did not possess the military resources for such a policy. Some settlements were fortified, but this was usually done with permission from the local African tribal chief. Europeans and resettled Africans had intermarried on islands— such as the Cape Verde group—creating an Afro-Portuguese culture, which had a strong African religious and artistic influence. It was very often these free mixed-race Cape Verdeans (mulattoes) who settled in the trading posts on the coast of Africa. There were moves to cut out African chiefs and directly acquire slaves from the interior, but this policy soured relations with Kongo. The situation further deteriorated following a reaction against Christian missionaries as traditional cultural activities and tribal loyalties broke down. The Europeans were obliged to move further down the coast to the Ndongo region, where their interference led to a series of wars in a region that soon after became Portuguese Angola. East Africa In 1498 the explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1469 – 1524) sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean, and the Portuguese suddenly gained access to a whole new trade network involving Africans, Indians, and Arabs. The trade network had existed for centuries, but when the Portuguese arrived commerce became violent. Using superior ships and cannons, the Portuguese blasted rival ships out of the water. Their crews were arrested or killed and their cargoes confiscated. The fact that most traders were Muslim was an added motivation for the Europeans who were still beset with a crusader mentality. Portuguese attacks on the independent trading cities of the Swahili Coast and on the inland Kingdom of Mutapa in the south (Zimbabwe/Zambia) did not bring any tangible benefits as traders simply moved to the north or avoided them. When the Portuguese had taken over and fortified the likes of Malindi, Mombasa, Pemba, Sofala, and Kilwa, they found they had already lost the trading partners of these city-states. Then the Omani Arabs of the Persian Gulf arrived. Keen to keep hold of their Red Sea trade routes and re-establish the age-old trade networks, the Omani moved in on the Swahili Coast and captured many cities, including Portuguese Mombasa in 1698. The lack of success in East Africa eventually drove the Portuguese south to Mozambique, but they were already wholly distracted by the potential of a newly discovered area of the world: India. By the mid-17th century, however, the Portuguese no longer possessed a monopoly on African trade, which they had previously enjoyed at the beginning of the 16th century. English, French, Dutch, Swede, and Danish merchants were all competing with one another for access to this market and its most valuable export: slaves. Attributions Title Image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghana,_het_fort_Sint_George_d%27Elmina_(3381211949).jpg Elmina, Ghana - Nationaal Archief, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Adapted from: Cartwright, Mark. "Portuguese Empire." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 19, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/Portuguese_Empire/. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.589272	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87858/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 3: Africa, Early European Exploration of Africa", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91152/overview	How Organizations Use Marketing Overview How Organizations Use Marketing Outcome: How Organizations Use Marketing What you’ll learn to do: describe how different types of organizations, such as nonprofits, consumer product (B2C) firms, and business-to-business (B2B) organizations, use marketing Although marketing activities come in many different forms, the fundamental principles of marketing apply, regardless of what you’re trying to sell, advocate, or promote. Grounding your marketing efforts in a customer-oriented mindset and staying focused on the relationships you build with those customers will always steer you in the right direction. At the same time, different organizations use marketing in different ways to achieve their goals. The next reading will give you more insight into how marketing supports the success of several common types of organizations. The specific things you’ll learn in this section include: - Explain the difference between a customer and a consumer - Define different types of organizations including B2C, B2B, and nonprofit organizations - Provide examples of how each type of organization uses marketing Learning Activities The learning activities for this section include the following: - Reading: How Organizations Use Marketing LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Outcome: How Organizations Use Marketing. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution Reading: How Organizations Use Marketing Although we often think of marketing in the context of for-profit businesses and product sales, a wide variety of organizations use marketing to achieve their goals. For-Profit Marketing Versus Nonprofit Marketing For-profit organizations are typically privately owned or publicly traded companies with a primary purpose of earning money for their owners. Nonprofit organizations also earn money, but their primary purpose is to use these funds for a specific charitable purpose. Types of nonprofit organizations that may engage in marketing include schools and colleges, hospitals, museums, charitable organizations, and churches, among others. As the terms denote, the difference between for-profit and nonprofit marketing is in the organization’s primary objective. For-profit marketers measure success in terms of profitability and their ability to pay dividends or pay back loans. Continued existence depends on the level of profits they can generate. The primary focus of marketing is usually to sell products, services, experiences or ideas to target customers and to make these customer relationships as profitable as possible. Nonprofit institutions exist to benefit a stated mission or purpose, regardless of whether profits are achieved. Owing to their socially beneficial purpose, nonprofit organizations are subject to an entirely different set of laws—notably tax laws. While they are allowed to generate profits, they must use these funds in specific, philanthropic ways in order to maintain their nonprofit status. Marketing efforts focus on activities that promote the organization’s mission. A school, college, or university might use marketing to attract students, improve academic reputation, and solicit donations from alumni. A museum or nonprofit theater company uses marketing to attract visitors, ticket sales, event sponsors, and philanthropic donations. Marketing for nonprofit hospitals usually focuses on attracting patients and strengthening reputation as a high quality health care provider. Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business Marketing An important distinction in how organizations use marketing is whether their efforts target business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions or business-to-business (B2B) transactions. In business and marketing, the consumer is the individual who actually uses the product. The customer is the individual who buys the product from a business. In some transactions, these are the same person, but in other transactions they are different entities. Suppose you take a break from studying and walk to a corner store to buy a snack bar that’s made by a local health-food company. From the perspective of the corner store owner, you are both the customer and the consumer in this transaction. However, from the perspective of the health-food company that made the bar, you are only the consumer, because although you consumed the product, you didn’t buy it from them. The health-food company’s customer is the corner store owner who decides whether or not to stock their snack bars in her store. In marketing, this distinction is important because it helps marketers better understand where to focus their attention. Business-to-business (B2B) marketers sell to other businesses or institutions that consume the product as part of operating the business, or use the product in the assembly of the final product they sell to consumers. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers focus their efforts on consumers, the individuals who consume a finished product. A B2B Emphasis The tools of marketing are available to both B2B and B2C organizations, but some tactics tend to be more effective than others in each type of marketing. Business-to-business marketers use more personal selling, in which a sales force builds personal relationships with individuals in decision-making roles to facilitate sales within the organizations they target. Professional conferences and trade shows provide opportunities for meeting and networking with a B2B marketer’s target customers. Company Web sites are a primary way for B2B organizations to share information and promote their offerings. Since they usually target a narrow, specialized sliver of the population, B2B marketers have little need for mass advertising. Because B2B sales tend to be higher-priced, larger-ticket items, marketing tactics often include extensive adjustments in factors such as the selling price, product features, terms of delivery, and so forth. A B2C Emphasis For B2C marketers, such as consumer goods manufacturers, there is a dual focus. B2C marketers typically invest a lot in generating demand for their products among the general population. Mass marketing tactics designed to reach a large audience nearly always have a B2C focus: think Superbowl ads, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and anything hailing the return of McRib at McDonalds. At the same time, B2C marketers face a constant battle getting their products into retail outlets anywhere they don’t sell directly to consumers. A Dual Emphasis: B2B and B2C Organizations may conduct both B2B and B2C marketing, targeting different types of customers. The Swedish home-furnishing company IKEA, for example, markets its ready-to-assemble, eco-friendly furniture and furnishings all over the world. IKEA’s B2C marketing targets families, young professionals, and penny-pinching college students. Meanwhile, its B2B marketing focuses on small-business owners and start-up companies. Whether to have a B2B or a B2C focus depends on whose perceptions you want shape, what behaviors you want to influence, and where the most promising opportunities are for making the impact your organization wants to achieve. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Revision and Adaptation. Authored by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Chapter 1: Introducing Marketing, from Introducing Marketing . Authored by: John Burnett. Provided by: Global Text. Located at: http://solr.bccampus.ca:8001/bcc/file/ddbe3343-9796-4801-a0cb-7af7b02e3191/1/Core%20Concepts%20of%20Marketing.pdf. License: CC BY: Attribution - Chimpanzee Natural Energy Bar. Authored by: Health Gauge. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/healthgauge/13898724851/. License: CC BY: Attribution - IKEA, Bejing. Authored by: Peter Morgan. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmorgan/5517848/. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - Global Race for the Cure. Authored by: Elvert Barnes. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/perspective/13987275038/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Flugtag (22). Authored by: Helen Crook. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lalalen/2565923132/. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.617322	03/22/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91152/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Principles of Marketing, What is Marketing?, How Organizations Use Marketing", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87982/overview	Challenges of Interwar Latin America Overview United States Good Neighbor Policy Latin America experienced a significant turn in the middle to early 20th century. The majority of this turn was because of economic policies such as the Bracero Program and Import Substitution Industrialization. In many parts of the Latin American culture saw also a cultural and political programs. Learning Objectives - Evaluate the role of World War II on Latin America. - Analyze the responses of Latin American leaders to the United States in the interwar period. - Evaluate the Good Neighbor Policy on Latin America. Key Terms / Key Concepts Bracero Program: a series of laws and diplomatic agreements initiated on August 4, 1942, that guaranteed basic human rights and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour to temporary contract laborers traveling from Mexico to the United States The Good Neighbor Policy Manifest Destiny from the 19th century put forward a unique relationship that the United States was centrally interested in Latin America as a site of expansion and growth. Throughout the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Latin America was seen by the United States as part of a broader cultural and economic sphere. Latin American countries were to adhere to US policies and ideas. This is best illustrated with Cuba: the relationship established with the United States in the Cuban Constitution allows the United States to go to Cuba at any time they feel is necessary. The interwar period changed this relationship between Latin America and the United States. Following World War I, the United States followed a policy of isolationism. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration changed this, when they started pushing for a policy known as the Good Neighbor Policy. The premise behind the policy was that a good neighbor does not go into someone’s house and try to fix problems; instead, a good neighbor will stand at a point and tell you that there are problems in your home. This resulted in a unique relationship between the United States and Latin American states. The Good Neighbor Policy meant that Latin American states began to find a rhythm and rhyme that worked better for their own people and governments, as there was far less external pressure to deal with. The freedom to explore what made policy sense in Argentina or Cuba, without United States or other foreign interference, meant the development of unique policy goals in each of these states. At this juncture, many Latin American states experienced the opportunity to grow their own ideas and agendas. The Good Neighbor Policy came about because of the economic downturn of the Great Depression, a depression that also affected Latin American nations. Many of the Latin American states suffered economically. Mexico, for example, struggled to find ways to find money and resources throughout this period. Chile and Peruvian goods did not find markets in this 1930s. While there was a bit of openness in culture and economics that happened in the 1930s, this was limited in scope and scale due to the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Though, out of that catastrophe came a unique economic model that many Latin American countries began to move towards. In the colonial and 19th century period, Latin America was the site of production of raw materials to sell directly to Europe. This meant that Brazil grew massive amounts of coffee and sugar to sell to European markets. Bananas from Central America were sold directly to consumers in North America and Europe. While Europeans often were selling higher end finished products in return. The industrialized worker of Germany, for example, would sell machine guns to Chile. The problem is that these raw products were relatively cheap in comparison to the finished product’s price. This imbalance of trade caused a problem, because as more finished goods became a part of the market, Latin American states were struggling to keep up with purchasing them. The problem is how expensive cars would be while bananas are very inexpensive, this would mean that there was many bananas that it would take to purchase a car. The limits of interference of US government meant that Latin America could start to explore how to make and manufacture their own materials. Many Latin America economists started to critically think about how to change this system of trade imbalance during the interwar period. Economist Raúl Prebisch began exploring the idea of Latin American governments pushing consumers to change their trade behaviors. The policy that Prebisch began to call for is known as Import Substitution Industrialization, or more commonly ISI. Prebisch argued that instead of buying finished goods, Latin American governments should start buying the machines to make their own finished goods. This would mean that, instead of buying cars from Italy or Germany, Argentines would buy the machines to make their own cars. This shift was an important one because this became the model of Latin American governments throughout the 1920s and 30s. Mexico Key Terms / Key Concepts Democratic Current: a movement within the PRI founded in 1986 that criticized the federal government for reducing spending on social programs to increase payments on foreign debt (PRI members who participated in the Democratic Current were expelled from the party and formed the National Democratic Front (FDN).) habeas corpus: a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention import substitution industrialization: a trade and economic policy that advocates replacing foreign imports with domestic production National Revolutionary Party: the Mexican political party founded in 1929 that held executive power within the country for an uninterrupted 71 years (It underwent two name changes during its time in power: once in 1938, to Partido de la Revolucion Mexican (PRM), and again in 1946, to Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Corruption and Opposing Political Parties As in previous regimes, the PRM retained its hold over the electorate due to massive electoral fraud. Toward the end of every president’s term, consultations with party leaders would take place and the PRM’s next candidate would be selected. In other words, the incumbent president would pick his successor. To support the party’s dominance in the executive branch of government, the PRM sought dominance at other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as every seat in the Senate and every state governorship. As a result, the PRM became a symbol over time of corruption, including voter suppression and violence. In 1986, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas—the former Governor of Michoacan and son of the former president Lazaro Cardenas—formed the Democratic Current, which criticized the federal government for reducing spending on social programs to increase payments on foreign debt. Members of the Democratic Current were expelled from the party, and in 1987, they formed the National Democratic Front, or Frente Democratico Nacional (FDN). In 1989, the left wing of the PRM, now called Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI, went on to form its own party called the Party of the Democratic Revolution. The conservative National Action Party, likewise, grew after 1976 when it obtained support from the business sector in light of recurring economic crises. The growth of both these opposition parties resulted in the PRI losing the presidency in 2000. The Mexican Economic Miracle The Mexican Economic Miracle refers to the country’s inward-focused development strategy, which produced sustained economic growth of 3-4 percent with modest 3 percent inflation annually from the 1940s until the 1970s. Creating the Conditions for Growth The reduction of political turmoil that accompanied national elections during and immediately after the Mexican Revolution was an important factor in laying the groundwork for economic growth. This was achieved by the establishment of a single, dominant political party that subsumed clashes between various interest groups within the framework of a unified party machine. During the presidency of Lazaro Cardenas, significant policies were enacted in the social and political spheres that had major impacts on the economic policies of the country. For instance, Cardenas nationalized oil concerns in 1938. He also nationalized Mexico’s railways and initiated far-reaching land reform. Some of these policies were carried on, albeit more moderately, by Manuel Avila Camacho, who succeeded him to the presidency. Camacho initiated a program of industrialization in early 1941 with the Law of Manufacturing Industries, famous for beginning the process of import-substitution within Mexico. Then in 1946, President Miguel Aleman Valdes passed the Law for Development of New and Necessary Industries, continuing the trend of inward-focused development strategies. Growth was sustained by Mexico’s increasing commitment to primary education for its general population. The primary school enrollment rate increased threefold from the late 1920s through to the 1940s, making economic output more productive by the 1940s. Mexico also made investments in higher education during this period, which encouraged a generation of scientists and engineers to enable new levels of industrial innovation. For instance, in 1936 the Instituto Politecnico Nacional was founded in the northern part of Mexico City. Also in northern Mexico, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and High Education was founded in 1942. World War II Mexico benefited substantially from World War II by supplying labor and materials to the Allies. For instance, in the U.S. the Bracero Program was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements initiated on August 4, 1942, that guaranteed basic human rights and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour to temporary contract laborers who came to the United States from Mexico. Braceros—meaning manual laborer, literally “one who works using his arms”—were intended to fill the U.S. labor shortage in agriculture that was occurring because farmers were drafted into service. The program outlasted the war and offered employment contracts to 5 million braceros in 24 U.S. states, making it the largest foreign worker program in U.S. history. Mexico also received cash payments for its contributions of materials useful to the war effort, which infused its treasury with reserves. There was a large economic resources that helped to build up after the war, Mexico was able to embark on large infrastructure projects. Camacho used part of the accumulated savings from the war to pay off foreign debts, which improved Mexico’s credit substantially and increased investors’ confidence in the government. The government was also in a better position to more widely distribute material benefits from the Revolution, given the robust revenues from the war effort. Camacho used funds to subsidize food imports that affected urban workers. Mexican workers also received high salaries during the war, but due to the lack of consumer goods, spending did not increase substantially. The national development bank, Nacional Financiera, was founded under Camacho’s administration and funded the expansion of the industrial sector. Import-Substitution and Infrastructure Projects The economic stability of the country, high credit rating, increasingly educated work force, and savings from the war provided excellent conditions under which to begin a program of import substitution industrialization. In the years following World War II, President Miguel Aleman Valdes (1946 – 52) instituted a full-scale import-substitution program that stimulated output by boosting internal demand. The government raised import controls on consumer goods but relaxed them on capital goods such as machinery. Capital goods were then purchased using international reserves accumulated during the war and used to produce consumer goods domestically. One industry that was particularly successful was textile production. Mexico became a desirable location for foreign transnational companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Sears to establish manufacturing branches during this period. The share of imports subject to licensing requirements rose from 28 percent in 1956 to more than 60 percent on average during the 1960s and approximately 70 percent during the 1970s. Industry accounted for 22 percent of total output in 1950, 24 percent in 1960, and 29 percent in 1970.Meanwhile, the share of total output arising from agriculture and other primary activities declined during the same period. The Mexican government promoted industrial expansion through public investment in agricultural, energy, and transportation infrastructure. Cities grew rapidly after 1940, reflecting the shift of employment towards industrial and service centers rather than agriculture. To sustain these population changes, the government invested in major dam projects to produce hydroelectric power, supply drinking water to cities and irrigation water to agriculture, and control flooding. By 1950, Mexico’s road network had also expanded to 21,000 kilometers, some 13,600 of which were paved. Mexico’s strong economic performance continued into the 1960s when GDP growth averaged around seven percent overall and approximately three percent per capita. Consumer price inflation also only averaged about three percent annually. Manufacturing remained the country’s dominant growth sector, expanding seven percent annually and attracting considerable foreign investment. By 1970, Mexico diversified its export base and became largely self-sufficient in food crops, steel, and most consumer goods. Although imports remained high, most were capital goods used to expand domestic production. Brazil Key Terms / Key Concepts Brazilian Miracle: a period of exceptional economic growth in Brazil during the rule of the Brazilian military government, which reached its peak during the tenure of President Emilio Garrastazu Medici from 1969 to 1973 (During this time, average annual GDP growth was close to 10%.) coronelismo: the Brazilian political machine during the Old Republic that was responsible for the centralization of political power in the hands of locally dominant oligarchs, known as coronels, who would dispense favors in return for loyalty latifúndios: an extensive parcel of privately owned land, particularly landed estates that specialized in agriculture for export The Old Republic Governance in Brazil’s Old Republic wavered between state autonomy and centralization. The First Brazilian Republic, or Old Republic, covers a period of Brazilian history from 1889 to 1930 during which it was governed a constitutional democracy. Democracy, however, was nominal in the republic. In reality, elections were rigged and voters in rural areas were pressured to vote for their bosses’ chosen candidates. If that method did not work, the election results could still be changed by one-sided decisions of Congress’s verification of powers commission (election authorities in the República Velha were not independent from the executive and the Legislature, but dominated by the ruling oligarchs). As a result, the presidency of Brazil during this period alternated between the oligarchies of the dominant states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. The regime is often referred to as “café com leite,” or “coffee with milk,” after the respective agricultural products of the two states. Brazil’s Old Republic was not an ideological offspring of the republics of the French or American Revolutions, although the regime would attempt to associate itself with both. The republic did not have enough popular support to risk open elections and was born of a coup d’etat that maintained itself by force. The republicans made Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca president (1889 – 91) and after a financial crisis, appointed Field Marshal Floriano Vieira Peixoto the Minister of War to ensure the allegiance of the military. Rule of the Landed Oligarchies The history of the Old Republic is dominated by a quest to find a viable form of government to replace the preceding monarchy. This quest swung Brazil back and forth between state autonomy and centralization. The constitution of 1891 established the United States of Brazil and granted extensive autonomy to the provinces, now called states. The federal system was adopted, and all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government in the constitution were delegated to the states. Over time, extending as far as the 1920s, the federal government in Rio de Janeiro was dominated and managed by a combination of the more powerful Brazilian states: Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, and to a lesser extent Pernambuco and Bahia. The sudden elimination of the monarchy left the military as Brazil’s only viable, dominant institution. As a result, the military developed as a national regulatory and interventionist institution within the republic. Although the Roman Catholic Church maintained a presence, it remained primarily international in its personnel, doctrine, liturgy, and purposes. The Army began to eclipse other military institutions, such as the Navy and the National Guard. However, the armed forces, were divided over their status, relationship to the political regime, and institutional goals. Therefore, the lack of military unity and disagreement among civilian elites regarding the military’s role in society prevented the establishment of a long-term military dictatorship within the country. The Constituent Assembly that drew up the constitution of 1891 was a battleground between those seeking to limit executive power, which was dictatorial in scope under President Deodoro da Fonseca, and the Jacobins—radical authoritarians who opposed the coffee oligarchy and wanted to preserve and intensify presidential authority. The constitution established a federation governed supposedly by a president, a bicameral National Congress, and a judiciary. However, real power rested in the hands of regional patrias and local potentates, called “colonels”. There was a constitutional system as well as the real system of unwritten agreements (coronelismo) among the colonels. Under coronelism, local oligarchies chose state governors, who selected the president. This informal but real distribution of power emerged as a result of armed struggles and bargaining. The system consolidated the state oligarchies around families that were members of the old monarchical elite, and to provide a check to the Army, the state oligarchies strengthened the navy and state police. In larger states, state police evolved into small armies. In the final decades of the 19th century, the United States, much of Europe, and neighboring Argentina expanded the right to vote. Brazil, however, moved to restrict access to the polls under the monarchy and did not correct the situation under the republic. By 1910, only 627,000 eligible voters could be counted among a total population of 22 million. Throughout the 1920s, only between 2.3% and 3.4% of the total population could vote. The middle class was far from active in political life. High illiteracy rates went hand in hand with the absence of universal suffrage or a free press. In regions far from major urban centers, news could take four to six weeks to arrive. In this context, a free press created by European immigrant anarchists started to develop during the 1890s and 1900s and spread widely, particularly in large cities. Latifundio Economies Around the start of the 20th century, the vast majority of Brazil’s population lived on plantation communities. Because of the legacy of Ibero-American slavery, abolished as late as 1888 in Brazil, there was an extreme concentration of landownership reminiscent of feudal aristocracies: 464 great landowners held more than 270,000 km² of land (latifúndios), while 464,000 small and medium-sized farms occupied only 157,000 km². Large estate owners used their land to grow export products like coffee, sugar, and cotton, and the communities who resided on his land would participate in the production of these cash crops. For instance, most typical estates included the owner’s chaplain and overseers, indigent peasants, sharecroppers, and indentured servants. As a result, Brazilian producers tended to neglect the needs of domestic consumption, and four-fifths of the country’s grain needs were imported. Brazil’s dependence on factory-made goods and loans from technologically, economically, and politically advanced North Atlantic countries retarded its domestic industrial base. Farm equipment was primitive and largely non-mechanized. Peasants tilled the land with hoes and cleared the soil through the inefficient slash-and-burn method. Meanwhile, living standards were generally squalid. Malnutrition, parasitic diseases, and lack of medical facilities limited the average life span in 1920 to 28 years. Without an open market, Brazilian industry could not compete against the technologically advanced Anglo-American economies. In this context, the Encilhamento (a “boom and bust” process that first intensified, and then crashed, in the years between 1889 and 1891) occurred, the consequences of which were felt in all areas of the Brazilian economy for many decades following. During this period, Brazil did not have a significantly integrated national economy. The absence of a big internal market with overland transportation, except for mule trains, impeded internal economic integration, political cohesion, and military efficiency. Instead, Brazil had a grouping of regional economies that exported their own specialty products to European and North American markets. The Northeast exported its surplus cheap labor but saw its political influence decline in the face of competition from Caribbean sugar producers. The wild rubber boom in Amazônia declined due to the rise of efficient Southeast Asian colonial plantations following 1912. The national-oriented market economies of the South were not dramatic, but their growth was steady, and by the 1920s, that growth allowed Rio Grande do Sul to exercise considerable political leverage. Real power resided in the coffee-growing states of the Southeast—São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro—that produced the most export revenue. Those three and Rio Grande do Sul harvested 60% of Brazil’s crops, turned out 75% of its industrial and meat products, and held 80% of its banking resources. Struggles for Reform Support for industrial protectionism increased during the 1920s. Under considerable pressure from the growing middle class, a more activist, centralized state adapted to represent the new bourgeoisie’s interests. A policy of state intervention, consisting of tax breaks, lowered duties, and import quotas, expanded the domestic capital base. During this time, São Paulo was at the forefront of Brazil’s economic, political, and cultural life. Known colloquially as a “locomotive pulling the 20 empty boxcars” (a reference to the 20 other Brazilian states) and Brazil’s industrial and commercial center to this day, São Paulo led the trend toward industrialization with foreign revenues from the coffee industry. With manufacturing on the rise and the coffee oligarchs imperiled by the growth of trade associated with World War I, the old order of café com leite and coronelismo eventually gave way to the political aspirations of the new urban groups: professionals, government and white-collar workers, merchants, bankers, and industrialists. Prosperity also contributed to a rapid rise in the population of working class Southern and Eastern European immigrants—a population that contributed to the growth of trade unionism, anarchism, and socialism. In the post-World War I period, Brazil was hit by its first wave of general strikes and the establishment of the Communist Party in 1922. However, the overwhelming majority of the Brazilian population was composed of peasants with few if any ties to the growing labor movement. As a result, social reform movements would crop up in the 1920s, ultimately culminating in the Revolution of 1930. Years Under the Military Regime Brazilian society experienced extreme oppression under the military regime despite general economic growth during the Brazilian Miracle. The Brazilian military government was an authoritarian military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from April 1, 1964 to March 15, 1985. It began with the 1964 coup d’etat led by armed forces against the administration of the President Joao Goulart, who had previously served as Vice President and assumed the office of the presidency following the resignation of democratically-elected Janio Quadros. The military revolt was fomented by the governors of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo, and Guanabara. The coup was supported by the Embassy and State Department of the United States. The fall of President Goulart worried many citizens. Many students, Catholics, Marxists, and workers formed groups that opposed military rule. A minority even engaged in direct armed struggle, although the vast majority of the resistance supported political solutions to the mass suspension of human rights. In the first few months after the coup, thousands of people were detained, and thousands of others were removed from their civil service or university positions. The military dictatorship lasted for almost 21 years despite initial pledges to the contrary. In 1967, it enacted a new, restrictive constitution that stifled freedom of speech and political opposition. The regime adopted nationalism, economic development, and anti-communism as its guidelines. Establishing the Regime Within the Army, agreement could not be reached as to a civilian politician who could lead the government after the ouster of President Joao Goulart. On April 9, 1964, the coup leaders published the First Institutional Act, which greatly limited the freedoms of the 1946 constitution. Under the act, the President was granted authority to remove elected officials from office, dismiss civil servants, and revoke political rights of those found guilty of subversion or misuse of public funds for up to 10 years. Three days after the publication of the act, Congress elected Army Chief of Staff, Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco to serve as president for the remainder of Goulart’s term. Castelo Branco had intentions of overseeing radical reforms to the political-economic system, but he refused to remain in power beyond the remainder of Goulart’s term or to institutionalize the military as a governing body. Although he intended to return power to elected officials at the end of Goulart’s term, competing demands radicalized the situation. Military hardliners wanted to completely purge the left-wing and populist influences for the duration of Castelo Branco’s reforms. Civilians with leftist leanings criticized Castelo Branco for the extreme actions he took to implement reforms, whereas the military hardliners felt Castelo Branco was acting too lenient. On October 27, 1965, after two opposition candidates won in two provincial elections, Castelo Branco signed the Second Institutional Act, which set the stage for a purge of Congress, removing objecting state governors and expanding the President’s arbitrary powers at the expense of the legislative and judiciary branches. This not only provided Castelo Branco with the ability to repress the left, but also provided a legal framework for the hard-line authoritarian rules of Artur da Costa e Silva (1967 – 69) and Emilio Garrastazu Medici (1969 – 74). Rule of the Hardliners Castelo Branco was succeeded to the presidency by General Artur da Costa e Silva, a hardliner within the regime. Experimental artists and musicians formed the Tropicalia movement during this time, and some major popular musicians such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Velsos were either arrested, imprisoned, or exiled. The military government had already been using various forms of torture as early as 1964 in order to gain information as well as intimidate and silence potential opponents. This radically increased after 1968. Widespread student protests also abounded during this period. In response, on December 13, 1968, Costa e Silva signed the Fifth Institutional Act, which gave the president dictatorial powers, dissolved Congress and the state legislatures, suspended the constitution, ended democratic government, suspended habeas corpus, and imposed censorship. On August 31, 1969, Costa e Silva suffered a stroke. Instead of his vice president assuming the office of the presidency, all state power was assumed by the military, which then chose General Emilio Garrastazu Medici, another hardliner, as president. During his presidency, Medici sponsored the greatest human rights abuses of the time period. Persecution and torture of dissidents, harassment against journalists, and press censorship became ubiquitous. A succession of kidnappings of foreign ambassadors in Brazil embarrassed the military government. Reactions, such as anti-government manifestations and guerrilla movements, generated increasing repressive measures in turn. By the end of 1970, the official minimum wage went down to US $40 a month, and as a result, the more than one-third of the Brazilian workforce that made minimum wage lost approximately half their purchasing power in relation to 1960 levels. Nevertheless, Medici was popular because his term was met with the largest economic growth of any Brazilian President, a period of time popularly known as the Brazilian Miracle. The military entrusted economic policy to a group of technocrats led by Minister of Finance Delfim Netto. During these years, Brazil became an urban society with 67% of people living in cities. The government became directly involved in the economy, investing heavily in new highways, bridges, and railroads. Steel mills, petrochemical factories, hydroelectric power plants, and nuclear reactors were also built by large state-owned companies like Eletrobras and Petrobras. To reduce reliance on imported oil, the ethanol industry was heavily promoted. By 1980, 57% of Brazil’s exports were industrial goods compared to 20% in 1968. Additionally, average annual GDP growth was close to 10%. Comparatively, during President Goulart’s rule, the economy had been nearing a crisis, with annual inflation reaching 100%. Additionally, Medici presented the First National Development Plan in 1971, which aimed at increasing the rate of economic growth, particularly in the Northeast and Amazonia. Brazil also won the 1970 Football World Cup, promoting national pride and Brazil’s international profile. Attributions Attributions Title Image Wikimedia Commons. Getuilo Vargas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get%C3%BAlio_Vargas#/media/File:Getuliovargas1930.jpg Adapted from: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/mexico/ https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/brazil/	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.652830	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87982/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 13: Post WWI, Challenges of Interwar Latin America", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87981/overview	Middle East Between the World Wars Overview Overview In the aftermath of the First World War the Middle East experienced nationalism, decolonization, and religious strife. These peoples challenged the priorities and values of the Allied Powers in their crafting of peace treaties. Those treaties instead of stabilizing the Middle East left uncertainty and continued instability. During the interwar period new nations emerged, each trying to find its place in the diverse complex of ethnic groups and religions. As part of this process of nation building the principle imperial powers, Britain and France, had to negotiate a new path for their imperial interests in a period of accelerating decolonization. Ataturk and Turkish Independence The occupation of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish national movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal. This led to the Turkish War of Independence, which resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Learning Objectives Explain how the social, political, and military costs of World War I fostered geographic and demographic shifts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Key Terms / Key Concepts Mustafa Kemal: a Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and founder of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938; instituted a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes that were designed to convert the new Republic of Turkey into a secular, modern nation-state; eventually came to be known as Ataturk Background: Allied Occupation of Ottoman Empire For the Ottoman Empire the fighting of World War I ended on October 30, 1918, with the Armistice of Mudros signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies; this brought hostilities in the Middle Eastern theater to a close. This armistice granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, as well as the right to occupy any territory in case of a threat to security. On November 13, 1918, a French brigade entered the city to begin the Occupation of Constantinople and its immediate dependencies, followed by a fleet consisting of British, French, Italian, and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day. A wave of seizures by the Allies took place in the following months. Turkish National Movement The occupation of parts of the old Ottoman empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish National Movement. The Movement was united around the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the authority of the Grand National Assembly set up in Ankara, which pursued the Turkish War of Independence. The Movement supported a progressively defined political ideology generally termed “Kemalism.” Kemalism called for the creation of a republic to represent the electorate, secular administration (laïcité) of that government, Turkish nationalism, a mixed economy with state participation in many sectors (as opposed to state socialism), and other forms of economic, political, social, and technological modernization. Turkish War of Independence Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, a military commander who distinguished himself during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. The war began after some parts of Turkey were occupied and partitioned following the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I. The War (May 19, 1919 – July 24, 1923) was fought between the Turkish nationalists and the proxies of the Allies—namely Greece on the Western front, Armenia on the Eastern, and France on the Southern, along with the United Kingdom and Italy in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Few of the present British, French, and Italian troops were deployed or engaged in combat. After a series of battles during the Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (GNA). On August 5, 1921, Mustafa Kemal was promoted to commander in chief of the forces by the GNA. The ensuing Battle of Sakarya was fought from August 23 to September 13, 1921, and it ended with the defeat of the Greeks. After this victory, on September 19, 1921, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was given the rank of Mareşal and the title of Gazi by the Grand National Assembly. The Allies, ignoring the extent of Kemal’s successes, hoped to impose a modified version of the Treaty of Sèvres as a peace settlement on Ankara, but the proposal was rejected. In August 1922, Kemal launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyonkarahisar in the Battle of Dumlupınar, and Turkish forces regained control of Smyrna on September 9, 1922. The next day, Mustafa Kemal sent a telegram to the League of Nations saying that the Turkish population was so worked up that the Ankara Government would not be responsible for massacres. By September 18, 1922, the occupying armies had been expelled, and the Ankara-based Turkish government, which had declared itself the legitimate government of the country on April 23, 1920, proceeded with the process of building the new Turkish nation. On November 1, 1922, the Turkish Parliament in Ankara formally abolished the Sultanate, ending 623 years of monarchical Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed “Republic of Turkey” as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in Ankara, the country’s new capital. The Lausanne treaty stipulated a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in which 1.1 million Greeks left Turkey for Greece in exchange for 380,000 Muslims transferred from Greece to Turkey. On March 3, 1924, the Ottoman Caliphate was officially abolished and the last Caliph was exiled. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Presidency As president Kemal introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of the Ottoman empire. For the first 10 years of the new regime, the country saw a steady process of secular Westernization through Atatürk’s reforms, which included education; the discontinuation of religious and other titles; the closure of Islamic courts; the replacement of Islamic canon law with a secular civil code modeled after Switzerland’s and a penal code modeled after Italy’s; recognition of gender equality, including the grant of full political rights for women on December 5, 1934; language reform initiated by the newly founded Turkish Language Association, including replacement of the Ottoman Turkish alphabet with the new Turkish alphabet derived from the Latin alphabet; the law outlawing the fez; and the law on family names, which required that surnames be exclusively hereditary and familial, with no reference to military rank, civilian office, tribal affiliation, race, and/or ethnicity. The British Empire in the Middle East During the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the British promised the international Zionist movement their support in recreating the historic Jewish homeland in Palestine via the Balfour Declaration, a move that created much political conflict, which is still present today. Learning Objectives Explain how the social, political, and military costs of World War I fostered geographic and demographic shifts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Key Terms / Key Concepts Zionism: Jewish national revival movement in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe; emerging during the late nineteenth century, its goal was the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine Balfour Declaration: a letter dated November 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, pledging British support for a Jewish state British Mandate for Palestine: a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I (British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948.) During World War I, continued Arab disquiet over Allied intentions led in 1918 to the British “Declaration to the Seven” and the “Anglo-French Declaration,” the latter promising “the complete and final liberation of the peoples who have for so long been oppressed by the Turks, and the setting up of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the free exercise of the initiative and choice of the indigenous populations.” The British were awarded three mandated territories by the League of Nations after WWI: Palestine, Mesopotamia (later Iraq), and control of the coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. Faisal was installed as King of Iraq; he was a son of Sharif Hussein (who helped lead the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire). Transjordan provided a throne for another of Hussein’s sons, : Abdullah. Mandatory Palestine was placed under direct British administration, and the Jewish population was allowed to increase, initially under British protection. Most of the Arabian Peninsula fell to another British ally, Ibn Saud, who created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The British Empire and Palestine British support for an increased Jewish presence in Palestine was primarily geopolitical, though idealistically embedded in 19th-century evangelical Christian feelings that the country should play a role in Christ’s Second Coming. Early British political support was precipitated in the 1830s and 1840s, as a result of the Eastern Crisis after Muhammad Ali occupied Syria and Palestine. Though these calculations had lapsed as the attempts of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, to obtain international support for his project failed, WWI led to renewed strategic assessments and political bargaining regarding the Middle and Far East. Zionism is Jewish national revival movement that emerged during the late nineteenth century in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe at that time. Its goal was the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel, roughly corresponding to Palestine, Canaan, or the Holy Land. Soon after this, most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the desired state in Palestine, then controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Zionism was first discussed at the British Cabinet level on November 9, 1914, four days after Britain’s declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire. David Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, discussed the future of Palestine. After the meeting Lloyd George assured Herbert Samuel—fellow Zionist and President of the Local Government Board—that “he was very keen to see a Jewish state established in Palestine.” George spoke of Zionist aspirations for a Jewish state in Palestine and of Palestine’s geographical importance to the British Empire. Samuel wrote in his memoirs: “I mentioned that two things would be essential—that the state should be neutralized, since it could not be large enough to defend itself, and that the free access of Christian pilgrims should be guaranteed…. I also said it would be a great advantage if the remainder of Syria were annexed by France, as it would be far better for the state to have a European power as neighbour than the Turk.” James Balfour of the Balfour Declaration, explaining the historic significance and context of Zionism, declared that: “The four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.” Through British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence (aka: Lawrence of Arabia), Britain supported the establishment of a united Arab state covering a large area of the Arab Middle East in exchange for Arab support of the British during the war. Thus, the United Kingdom agreed in the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence that it would honor Arab independence if they revolted against the Ottomans, but the two sides had different interpretations of this agreement. In the end the UK and France divided up the area under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, an act of betrayal in the eyes of the Arabs. Further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising British support for a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. At the war’s end the British and French set up a joint “Occupied Enemy Territory Administration” in what had been Ottoman Syria. The British achieved legitimacy for their continued control by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. The formal objective of the League of Nations Mandate system was to administer parts of the defunct Ottoman Empire, which had been in control of the Middle East since the 16th century, “until such time as they are able to stand alone.” The civil Mandate administration was formalized with the League of Nations’ consent in 1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine, which covered two administrative areas. As the Second World War approached, the British empire was invested in the separate and, at points, agendas of nation building in the Middle East among the various peoples therein. The French Empire in the Middle East After World War I, Syria and Lebanon became a French protectorate under the League of Nations Mandate System, a move that was met immediately with armed resistance from Arab nationalists. The French government, like the British government, was trying to use the mandate system to maintain an imperial presence in the Middle East. The French government encountered the same kinds of challenges from proponents of decolonization and nationalism as the British government. These forces for decolonization and nationalism were part of the larger stream of these movements across Africa, Asia, and in different ways, the Americas. Learning Objectives Explain how the social, political, and military costs of World War I fostered geographic and demographic shifts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Key Terms / Key Concepts League of Nations: an intergovernmental organization founded on January 10, 1920, as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War; the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals as stated in its Covenant included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon Officially, the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (1923 − 1946), was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War, which was meant to partition the Ottoman Empire, especially Syria and Lebanon. The Mandate system was considered the antithesis to colonialism, with the governing country acting as a trustee until the inhabitants were able to stand on their own, at which point the Mandate would terminate and an independent state would be born. When first arriving in Lebanon, the French were received as liberators by the Christian community, but as they entered Syria, they were faced with a strong resistance. In response, the mandate region was subdivided into six states: Damascus (1920), Aleppo (1920), Alawites (1920), Jabal Druze (1921), the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta (1921, modern-day Hatay), and the State of Greater Lebanon (1920), which became later the modern country of Lebanon. The drawing of those states was based in part on the sectarian makeup of Syria. However, nearly all the Syrian sects were hostile to the French mandate and the division it created, and there were numerous revolts in all of the Syrian states. Maronite Christians of Mount Lebanon, on the other hand, were a community with a dream of independence that was realized under the French. Greater Lebanon was the exception among the other newly formed states, in that its Christian citizens were not hostile to the French Mandate. Although there were uprisings in the respective states, the French purposefully gave different ethnic and religious groups in the Levant their own lands in the hopes of prolonging their rule. During this time of world decolonization, the French hoped to focus on fragmenting the various groups in the region, so the local population would not focus on a larger nationalist movement to dispose of colonial rule. In addition, administration of colonial governments was heavily dominated by the French. Local authorities were given very little power and did not have the authority to independently decide policy. The small amount of power that local leaders had could easily be overruled by French officials. The French did everything possible to prevent people in the Levant from developing self-sufficient governing bodies. For instance, in 1930 France extended its constitution on to Syria. Rise in Conflict With the defeat of Ottomans in Syria, British troops under General Sir Edmund Allenby entered Damascus in 1918 accompanied by troops of the Arab Revolt led by Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca. The new Arab administration formed local governments in the major Syrian cities, and the pan-Arab flag was raised all over Syria. The Arabs hoped, with faith in earlier British promises, that the new state would include all the Arab lands stretching from Aleppo in northern Syria to Aden in southern Yemen. However, in accordance with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, General Allenby assigned the Arab administration only the interior regions of Syria (the eastern zone). On October 8, French troops disembarked in Beirut and occupied the Lebanese coastal region south to Naqoura (the western zone), replacing British troops there. The French immediately dissolved the local Arab governments in the region. France demanded full implementation of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, with Syria under its control. On November 26, 1919, British forces withdrew from Damascus to avoid confrontation, leaving the Arab government to face France. Unrest erupted in Syria when Faisal accepted a compromise with French Prime Minister Clemenceau and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann over Jewish immigration to Palestine. Anti-Hashemite manifestations broke out and Muslim inhabitants in and around Mount Lebanon revolted with fear of being incorporated into a new, mainly Christian state of Greater Lebanon, as part of France’s claim to these territories in the Levant was that France was a protector of the minority Christian communities. On April 25, 1920, the supreme inter-Allied council, that was formulating the Treaty of Sèvres, granted France the mandate of Syria (including Lebanon), and granted Britain the Mandate of Palestine (including Jordan) and Iraq. Syrians reacted with violent demonstrations, and a new government headed by Ali Rida al-Rikabi was formed on May 9, 1920. The new government decided to organize general conscription and began forming an army. On July 14, 1920, General Gouraud issued an ultimatum to Faisal, giving him the choice between submission or abdication. Realizing that the power balance was not in his favor, Faisal chose to cooperate. However, the young minister of war, Youssef al-Azmeh, refused to comply. In the resulting Franco-Syrian War, Syrian troops under al-Azmeh met French forces under General Mariano Goybet at the Battle of Maysaloun. The French won the battle in less than a day. Azmeh died on the battlefield along with many of the Syrian troops. Goybet entered Damascus on July 24, 1920. End of the Mandate With the fall of France in 1940 during World War II, Syria came under the control of the Vichy Government until the British and Free French invaded and occupied the country in July 1941. Syria proclaimed its independence again in 1941, but it wasn’t until January 1, 1944, that it was recognized as an independent republic. On September 27, 1941, France proclaimed, by virtue of and within the framework of the Mandate, the independence and sovereignty of the Syrian State. The proclamation said “the independence and sovereignty of Syria and Lebanon will not affect the juridical situation as it results from the Mandate Act.” There were protests in 1945 over the slow French withdrawal; the French responded to these protests with artillery. In an effort to stop the movement toward independence, French troops occupied the Syrian parliament in May 1945 and cut off Damascus’s electricity. Training their guns on Damascus’s old city, the French killed 400 Syrians and destroyed hundreds of homes. Continuing pressure from Syrian nationalist groups and the British forced the French to evacuate the last of its troops in April 1946, leaving the country in the hands of a republican government that was formed during the mandate. Although rapid economic development followed the declaration of independence, Syrian politics from independence through the late 1960s were marked by upheaval. The early years of independence were marked by political instability. The Partitioning of Palestine The UN Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations that recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish States. It was rejected by the Palestinians, leading to a civil war and the end of the British Mandate. Learning Objectives Explain how the social, political, and military costs of World War I fostered geographic and demographic shifts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Key Terms / Key Concepts League of Nations: an intergovernmental organization founded on January 10, 1920, as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War; the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals as stated in its Covenant included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. British Mandate for Palestine: a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I (British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948.) Background and Early Proposals for Partition The League of Nations formalized British administration of Palestine as the Palestine Mandate in 1923. This mandate was part of the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. The British Mandate in Palestine reaffirmed the 1917 British commitment to the Balfour Declaration for the establishment in Palestine of a “National Home” for the Jewish people, with the prerogative to carry it out. A 1918 British census estimated that 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews lived in Palestine. During the Interwar period it became clear that the different groups in Palestine would not live in harmony. In 1937, following a six-month Arab General Strike and armed insurrection that aimed to pursue national independence, the British established the Peel Commission. The Jewish population had been attacked throughout the region during the Arab revolt, leading to the idea that the two populations could not be reconciled. The Commission concluded that the British Palestine Mandate had become unworkable, and recommended Partition into an Arab state linked to Transjordan, a small Jewish state, and a mandatory zone. To address problems arising from the presence of national minorities in each area, the Commission suggested a partition—a land and population transfer involving the transfer of some 225,000 Arabs living in the envisaged Jewish state and 1,250 Jews living in a future Arab state, a measure deemed compulsory “in the last resort.” The Palestinian Arab leadership rejected partition as unacceptable, given the inequality in the proposed population exchange and the transfer of one-third of Palestine, including most of its best agricultural land, to recent immigrants. However, the Jewish leaders—Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion—persuaded the Zionist Congress to lend provisional approval to the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiations. In a letter to his son in October 1937, Ben-Gurion explained that partition would be a first step to “possession of the land as a whole.” The British Woodhead Commission was set up to examine the practicality of partition. The Peel plan was rejected, and two possible alternatives were considered. In 1938 the British government issued a policy statement declaring that “the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable.” Representatives of Arabs and Jews were invited to London for the St. James Conference, which proved unsuccessful. MacDonald White Paper of May 1939 declared that it was “not part of [the British government’s] policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State,” and sought to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine and restricted Arab land sales to Jews. However, the League of Nations commission held that the White Paper was in conflict with the terms of the Mandate as put forth in the past. The outbreak of the Second World War suspended any further deliberations. The Jewish Agency hoped to persuade the British to restore Jewish immigration rights and cooperated with the British in the war against fascism. Aliyah Bet was organized to spirit Jews out of Nazi-controlled Europe despite British prohibitions. The White Paper also led to the formation of Lehi, a small Jewish organization that opposed the British. After World War II, in August 1945 President Truman asked for the admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine, but the British maintained limits on Jewish immigration in line with the 1939 White Paper. The Jewish community rejected the restriction on immigration and organized an armed resistance. These actions and United States pressure to end the anti-immigration policy led to the establishment of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. In April 1946, the Committee reached a unanimous decision for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine, a repeal of the White Paper restrictions of land sale to Jews, that the country be neither Arab nor Jewish, and the extension of U.N. Trusteeship. U.S. endorsed the Commission findings concerning Jewish immigration and land purchase restrictions, while the U.K. conditioned its implementation on U.S. assistance in case of another Arab revolt. In effect, the British continued to carry out White Paper policy. And the recommendations triggered violent demonstrations in the Arab states and calls for a Jihad and an annihilation of all European Jews in Palestine. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is an Arab state in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa), and Southern Arabia (‘Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been an absolute monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called “the predominant feature of Saudi culture,” with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called “the Land of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca) and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. Learning Objectives Explain how the social, political, and military costs of World War I fostered geographic and demographic shifts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The new kingdom was one of the poorest countries in the world, reliant on limited agriculture and pilgrimage revenues. In 1938, vast reserves of oil were discovered in the Al-Ahsa region along the coast of the Persian Gulf, and full-scale development of the oil fields began in 1941 under the U.S.-controlled Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company). Oil provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and substantial political leverage internationally. Saudi Arabia has since become the world’s largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the world’s second largest oil reserves and the sixth largest gas reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index, and it is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, lacking any significant service or production sector (apart from the extraction of resources). The country has attracted criticism for its restrictions on women’s rights and usage of capital punishment. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by Britain and France. The Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state officially known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the name of the state was changed to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949. Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a constitutional monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. The roots of the instability and violence in the Middle East go back to the settlements after the First World War. Conflicting agendas produced compromises unacceptable to many in the interested parties. Attributions Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Title Image - photo of Turkish troops entering Istanbul 6 October 1923 Attribution: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Provided by: Wikipedia Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberation_of_Istanbul_on_October_6,_1923.jpg License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Boundless World History "Partition of the Ottoman Empire" Adapted from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/partition-of-the-ottoman-empire/ CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY Curation and Revision. Provided by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - History of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_and_modernization_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defeat_and_dissolution_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Sultanvahideddin.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire#/media/File:Sultanvahideddin.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Ottoman Empire. 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Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Republic_of_Turkey. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Sultanvahideddin.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire#/media/File:Sultanvahideddin.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Satirical_map_of_Europe,_1877.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Satirical_map_of_Europe%2C_1877.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Tu00fcrk_Kurtuluu015f_Savau015fu0131_-_kolaj.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_War_of_Independence#/media/File:Turk_Kurtulus_Savasi_-_kolaj.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike History of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Sultanvahideddin.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire#/media/File:Sultanvahideddin.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Tu00fcrk_Kurtuluu015f_Savau015fu0131_-_kolaj.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_War_of_Independence#/media/File:Turk_Kurtulus_Savasi_-_kolaj.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Morgenthau336.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide#/media/File:Morgenthau336.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_foreign_relations_of_the_United_Kingdom. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitioning_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Mandatory Palestine. Provided by: Wikipedia. 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Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike History of Syria. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Syria. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitioning_of_the_Ottoman_Empire. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike A_world_in_perplexity_(1918)_(14780310121).jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine#/media/File:A_world_in_perplexity_(1918)_(14780310121).jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike 440px-French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon_map_en.svg.png. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon#/media/File:French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon_map_en.svg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Persian_Oil_Company. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Red Line Agreement. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Line_Agreement. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Resource curse. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike A_world_in_perplexity_(1918)_(14780310121).jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine#/media/File:A_world_in_perplexity_(1918)_(14780310121).jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike 440px-French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon_map_en.svg.png. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon#/media/File:French_Mandate_for_Syria_and_the_Lebanon_map_en.svg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Mandatory Palestine. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:35:57.701620	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87981/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 13: Post WWI, Middle East Between the World Wars", "author": "Anna McCollum" }

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